Adams Parish to Commemorate Relic of St. John Paul II
 A relic of St. John Paul II will be installed at Notre Dame Church in Adams on during Saturday's 4 p.m. Mass. |
ADAMS, Mass. — Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski will travel to St. John Paul II Parish this Saturday, Oct. 10, to celebrate the 4 p.m. Mass and commemorate the formal installation of a relic of St. John Paul II.
The liturgy and installation will take place at the parish's Notre Dame Church at McKinley Circle.
The relic is a fragment of the shirt that St. John Paul II was wearing when he was shot in an attempted assassination at St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. It was donated earlier this year to the Diocese of Springfield by the "Be Not Afraid" Center in Linden, N.J. The center and shrine, founded in 2013, gives Catholics in the United States an opportunity to support the building of the International Center of St. John Paul II Shrine in Krakow, Poland.
After being brought to a few diocesan Catholic parishes since January, Rozanski will permanently place the relic at St. John Paul II's namesake parish in Adams.
The parish also possesses two items related to St. Faustina Kowalska, who reported a series of visions during the 1930s in which Jesus appeared to her as the King of Divine Mercy encouraging her to spread the devotion to Divine Mercy. St. Faustina was canonized by the Catholic Church during the pontificate of St. John Paul II in 2000.
The parish also has an original image of the Divine Mercy which was painted at Sister Faustina’s direction, as well as a relic of St. Faustina. Both of these items are kept at the parish’s St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, on Hoosac Street in Adams.
The parish intends to make both the relic of St. John Paul II and the items associated with St. Faustina regularly available for public veneration.
Tags: Mass, saints, Springfield Diocese,
