Bishop Hopes Closings Reinvigorate Parishes

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
08:36PM / Monday, August 11, 2008Print Story | Email Story

The new parish in Adams will be named for Pope John Paul II.

NORTH ADAMS — Diocesan officials are hoping for a renewed sense of purpose and vitality in local parishes after the latest round of church closings were announced this weekend.

"I really want to be building up a church, not a church building," said Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, adding it was important to build "critical mass at Mass."

McDonnell, speaking at a press conference in Springfield, said the consolidation will help in bringing congregants together, sparking what he hopes will be "a new dynamic, a new sense of possibility ... because we are going to be focusing on people."

Both Adams and North Adams each have three remaining churches that will merge into one parish, and into one building, for each community — St. Anthony of Padua in North Adams and Notre Dame des Sept Dolours in Adams. The consolidation reflects the drop in attendance and the difficulty in finding priests — both communities have had one priest for three churches for several years now.

Those attending Mass over the weekend were read a letter from McDonnell that laid out plans for closing and reorganizing parishes within their regions. The changes in four of the diocese's 10 regions are to go into effect Jan. 1, 2009.

St. Francis' Church, North Adams' oldest Catholic Parish, is scheduled for closure.

Among those facing closure are St. Francis of Assisi and and Our Lady of Mercy in North Adams; St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Thomas in Adams and the small North American Martyrs in Lanesborough. Also affected are parishes in Housatonic (All Saint's and Corpus Christi will merge into one building as Mother Teresa of Calcutta), St. Joseph's in Stockbridge may become a mission to St. Mary's in Lee, and Our Lady of the Valley in Sheffield could lose its assigned priest.

St. Stanislaus Kostka School in Adams will remain open.

Msgr. John J. Bonzagni, director of pastoral planning, said the diocese will maintain the closed buildings until they can be sold. The assets will remain with the parishes to help them meet their needs. The bishop said about 40 percent of the parishes are operating in the red.

The parish consolidation has been going on for some years as the diocese has been forced to deal with dwindling congregations and rising costs. Notre Dame Parish in North Adams was closed and the buildings sold within the last few years. Williamstown's Parish of Sts. Patrick's and Raphael's is selling St. Raphael's Church on Cole Avenue and six of Pittsfield's 10 churches will close.

A communicant of more than 30 years at St. Francis said there was only silence on Sunday as parishioners were told that the historic church would close for good by the end of the year.

McDonnell said a number of factors were taken into account in deciding which churches would close and which would stay open. Some of the recommendations came from the Mullin Report, a survey of the diocese performed by the University of Massachusetts' Center for Economic Development and released in early 2007. However, the bishop stressed that the overriding criteria were ecclesial, pastoral and ethereal.

The final recommendations were made by the Pastoral Planning Committee after discussions with clergy and parish representatives. This announcement pertained to four of the dioceses' 10 regions. The diocese is only halfway "through a very difficult process," said spokesman Mark E. DuPont.

The closures in North County will erase in large part the ethnic heritage that had imbued these parishes, which were as often referred to as the Polish church or the Italian church, for example, as by their proper names. That heritage was kept in mind, said McDonnell, when determining the names of the new parishes.

Church officials hope to salve sting of losing the 103-year-old St. Stanislaus Kostka Church by naming the new parish for Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pope immortalized in bronze outside St. Stan's doors. St. Anthony's will be renamed for St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a noble of the Middle Ages who was a follower and supporter of the Franciscan order. St. Anthony, of course, was a protege of St. Francis.

To see the annotations explaining this video, click on it to watch it from the YouTube site. Apologies for the inconvenience but this is a YouTube technical issue.

But St. Francis' Parish is the city's oldest, established in 1863, and the church's spire rises high above the entrance to the city along Route 2. McDonnell acknowledged its importance as a landmark but said it came down to which church was more economically feasible. St. Francis requires structural and other work in excess of $1 million while St. Anthony's, although smaller, was recently refurbished.

St. Anthony's also is situated on level ground (St. Francis' is on a hill) and includes the St. Anthony Parish Center with its gymnasium and classrooms used by a number of civic and community groups.

McDonnell called on church members to remember that their ancestors had come from far away to build communities and worship together, that they were pilgrims and pioneers. The buildings may be lost but the memories aren't, he said.

"We need to build new communities to take their place," said McDonnell.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Greylock Youth SummerFest

Come join in on the wealth building fun! August 3-8. Click for event details. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Your Comments

iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.

Time for a new bishop...or to convert to a religion that doesn't close its places of worship on a regular basis. Also, I'd like to know who the "parishoners" were that apparently helped make these decisions...
from: Adams Churchgoer	on: 08-11-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

Thanks to the iBerkshires link I read the Mullin Report for this region. What happened to their suggestions? Oh that's right, the announcement of the changes was in Springfield (not the Berkshires where the changes were being made) were also based on ethereal, pastoral and ecclesial inputs....poppycock! Whatâ€™s in a name? Heritage and community pride are the basis for a successful name and of course they thought of that based on a large Hungarian presence in the Northern Berkshire area (oh by the way that was sarcasm). The Bishopâ€™s counsels are out of touch with the Berkshires but heck this place and its people are small potatoes in the overall business scheme of the Catholic religion.
from: Perplexed	on: 08-12-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

Unfortunately, the church is not subject to any form of public information rule. It's doubtful you will ever know who your "representatives" were. As much as the church wants you to believe this was a decision based on the communal well-being of Berkshire county, it's all about the diocesan financials...period! As I stated in other posts, prove to us otherwise buy offering to sell the church/parish grounds to each community or a community group for $1.00 as an act of "good faith" if the buildings aren't important and it's not about the money.
from: Adams Citizen	on: 08-13-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

To shutter the doors of St. Stanislaus in Adams, one of the most beautiful churches in the Berkshires and probably in the entire State of Massachusetts is an abomination -- to be blunt about it. The church was substantially renovated to celebrate it's 100 anniversary, and even with that investment, the Diocesan decision makers chose to close the facility -- but keep the school open. Why not close Notre Dame in Adams? No architectural gem there -- remember when they took all the statues out. How sad that those in Springfield cannot understand what this means to the considerable Polish population in Adams and to the community itself. Then, again, I always felt we were neglected by the Diocesan officials in Springfield. I guess this further proves the point. A sad day for Adams.
from: Former St. Stan's Parishioner and Resident	on: 09-04-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

the only thing the bishop has done is allienate the community from its polish heritage and catholic faith ...shame on him
from: micky	on: 12-29-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

New Eagle Street Shop Has the Perfect Toppers

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
11:14AM / Saturday, August 01, 2026

Tip Top Hats sells Patricia Welch's handmade designs and more commercial products at lower prices.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has a millinery for the first time in more than 40 years.

Patricia Welch, who has more than 60 years of hatmaking experience, recently opened Tip Top Hats at 16 Eagle St.

Welch said she has always been fascinated by hats and has seen many fashion trends. She's particularly interested in the mod movement.

"It's just something that I have a facility for and have been doing for so long, it's kind of second nature," she said. "It's over 60 years since I’ve been making hats, not all the time, but on and off for a long, long time. So I had a lot of life experience to draw from. I've seen many, many fashions come and go. Being a child of the '60s, I was heavily influenced by the mod movement, fashion movement, and it has stuck with me all these years."

Welch previously owned a shop in Gloucester before moving to New York in the late 1990s. Her work has been featured in juried shows and she's done design consulting.

While she worked in engineering and exhibiting designs, she always made her hats. It all started when she was 13 years old and had to solve a problem.

"I used to go riding on motorcycles with no hat on, no helmet, and your hair would get terribly knotted up," Welch said. "So the first time I made a hat, it was kind of a little bonnet of cotton that just tied under my chin, and it was just to keep my hair from getting tied in knots by the wind."

She came across the "for rent" sign on storefront in May and made a decision she would like to occupy it. She opened on July 1 during First Friday. She said it was a great way for her to get out of retirement.

"Kind of impulsive, but you know I'm not young, and tired of being retired, basically," Welch said. "So this is a wonderful, fun experience, and I think it'll bring more to Eagle Street."

Millinery shops were a mainstay of women's and men's fashion well into the 1960s. At one time, North Adams had three or four independent millinery shops plus departments in some of its stores, like Roberts Co. and the Boston Store.

They began closing down in the 1960s because of owners' retirements or deaths, dislocation because of urban renewal, and changing fashions. The last ones were the Style Shoppe and Hollywood Millinery (then Hollywood Fashions) in the early 1980s.

Welch has hats made from straw, fake fur, wool, leather, and more. Her designs can take hours to complete.

"I start by having an idea in mind for the style that I want to work on, and then I'll pull from my textiles and make a selection that would all work nicely together, so that I can I can make a particular style using various textiles from the same group, so it becomes a collection rather than just a random bunch of hats," she said.

She wants to have something for everyone, and since her one-of-a-kind hats can be pricey, she has commercially hats that are moderately priced.

"Typically in finishing a hat, there's handwork, which is why they become more expensive. Because some hats I spend well, literally hours on," she said.

View Full Story