Keeping Faith St. Stanislaus Kostka Fights Closing - / iBerkshires.com - The Berkshires online guide to events, news and Berkshire County community information.

Appeals Process

Parishes have some options to protest their closings.

Appeal to the bishop within

10 days of a decree of suppression or merger. He's got 30 days to get back to you - or not.

If the answer is still no, the parish then has 10 days to appeal to the Congregation of Clergy in Rome. They could take years to respond and usually back the bishop.

All is not lost. The next step is to

appeal to the Apostolic Signatory, the Vatican's "supreme court." It is headed by St. Louis' former Archbishop Raymond Burke, who leans conservative.

If the first appeal for a hearing fails, the last step is a plea to the full bench of the signatory. The process can cost thousands.

www.randytrabold.com

Youngsters in Polish costume enter St. Stanislaus Church in this file photo.

Time Magazine Records Parishioners' Fight

The battle to keep St. Stan's open received national attention in this week's issue of Time Magazine. The story, "Postcard: Adams," is featured in the magazine's print and online publications for Jan. 8

Reporter Stefanie Friedhoff interviewed several people leading the vigil at the Adams, Mass., church, including Fran Hajda and Hank Tomkowicz. She also speaks to Council of Parishes leader Peter Borre, who has been advising the church's members on conducting their vigil and appeal of the closure.

Likening the church's closing to a death in the family, Monsignor John Bonzagni, the Springfield Diocese's director of pastoral planning, told Friedhoff that "If the parishioners at St. Stan's need to mourn this way, we will do nothing to interfere."

For the Time photo slideshow, click here.

Posted 12:55, Jan. 9, 2009

Vigils End in New Orleans

Two churches in the Big Easy were back in the hands of the local archdiocese after a 10-week vigil ended with police ordering parishioners out.

The news was disconcerting to the protesters at St. Stanislaus Church who had pointed to the New Orleans vigils as examples. They and the two Southern parishes were being advised by Peter Borre of the Council of Parishes, a grassroots group formed to fight church closings in the Boston area.

For more on the story, click here.

Posted Jan. 6, 2009

Round-the-Clock Vigil

The day after Christmas a group called the Friends of St. Stan's entered the church vowing to not to leave until every last avenue to save the historic Polish church had been tried.

Last week, three days after the church's official closing by the Diocese of Springfield, nearly a dozen group members were working on a schedule that keep the building occupied by at least three people at all times.

"We've got a lot of support," said Francis Hajda, the group's spokesman. "People have been bringing us coffee and doughnuts."

He and Henry "Hank" Tomkowicz were pouring over large schedule board, trying to plug in empty time slots with volunteers. There were a lot of holes to plug, but the group was undaunted.

With good reason, it appears - more people are joining the effort.

Hajda, contacted on Monday, Jan. 5, said about 130 people had gathered at the church to sing carols on Sunday evening. "It was a really good showing," said Hajda. The event was so successful, the singing will resume next Sunday but at 2 p.m., an easier hour for the former parish's elderly to attend.

The church will also be in the national spotlight. A reporter from Time magazine spent the entire afternoon on Friday interviewing parishioners; a photographer showed up Sunday.

A strategy meeting last week was attended by close to 100 people, said Hajda. At least that many are expected for this week's meeting; meetings are held at 7 p.m. on Mondays.

The diocese, meanwhile, has said it won't interfere with the vigil unless safety issues arise. The Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, said, "We'll leave it to the will of God."

The appeals process in Rome could last more than a year; the diocese has said it is unlikely to overturn the local decision.

St. Stan's was one of six churches closed this fall as the diocese restructured parishes in light of declining attendance and a lack of priests. St. Thomas in Adams closed the week before St. Stan's; both parishes along with Notre Dame, were consolidated into the Parish of Pope John Paul the Great. Notre Dame was designated as the new parish church.

In North Adams, St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lady of Mercy were closed and consolidated at St. Anthony's Church, now known as St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

Those closings, while heartbreaking for many parishioners, were not met with the same level of bitterness as at St. Stan's. Parishioners there fear losing their church also means losing their heritage.

And so the Friends of St. Stan's are determined to go on. Hajda spent four night in the airy, but chilly, church last week.

"Church pews can be surprising comfortable," he said.

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