Our Lady of Mount Carmel treasured

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Grief at a loss of family and heritage – and a desire to hold on to a piece of it all – were sentiments expressed as Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church crashed down under the jaws of large equipment last week.
This week there was still a pile of rubble where the church once stood.
“It’s amazing – the arch is still beautiful,” Doreen Quatela marveled as she watched the demolition Sept. 13.
“When I was little you would sit up front with your parents,” she recalled. “Christmas Eve everybody would come to the midnight Mass.” In later years, she’d stop back, say a prayer and tell herself, “This is home; you’re untouchable; you’re safe with God,” she said.
Now she goes to St. John’s Church, she said.
“St. John’s is very much like Mount Carmel,” she mused. “It’s a real family, community church. Father (John) Madden (the pastor) … is incredible; he’s all about the people.”
She wanted “bricks” from Our Lady of Mount Carmel to put around the statue of the Blessed Mother in her yard.
Conor Malakie, from F & D Truck Company Inc., obliged and she embraced him. Seeing the church come down so easily showed “this is a matter of safety,” he said.
Among other people requesting a brick was Robin Sacco, who said her family was part of the parish and she attended until it closed.
“I’m bringing this and putting it on my father’s and grandfather’s grave” at St. John’s Cemetery, she said. “Their funerals were here” at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. “So I’ll bring a piece of Mount Carmel to them at St. John’s.”
She said she’d been stopping at Our Lady of Mount Carmel every day to say a prayer and think back on special times.
“I still can’t believe it though,” she said, looking sadly at the church being demolished. “It’s like a piece of the Italian heritage. It’s like a big void now. … Members of the cloth are supposed to be following the commandments. (She had earlier asked if church decision-makers had forgotten about commandments against “greed” and “thievery.”)
“Hypocrits!” she said. “It makes you want to turn away from the Catholic Church. There’s got to be better leaders than this. But at the end of the day we all have to meet with our Lord and be accountable. They will too.”
Bishop McManus closed Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 2016, due to safety concerns from structural issues, the estimated cost of rehabilitation and the parish’s inability to pay for it. Worship was moved to Our Lady of Loreto. In 2017 Bishop McManus merged the two parishes.
The pastor, Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, said he repeatedly presented the parish’s financial problems at Masses and in the parish bulletin but there was not enough money coming in each week to pay the bills.
“This should never have happened,” said Ann Marie Sarkisian, who’d also come to the demolition site. “All they (church leaders) want to do is get money – to pay off all their bills. To start this on 9-11! All that (the World Trade Center) came down and now our church is coming down. … This is my family; this is my heart. It’s not just a building. My grandmother actually gave her wedding band and all of her gold to build this church. … I taught CCD for 33 years.”
Now, she said, she’s at St. John’s Parish.
“I work at the soup kitchen, so it works out,” she said. “I’m helping other people.”
“My brother’s the pastor here,” said Michael Pedone. “Words don’t describe what we felt. We all grew up in this church. We loved this church. … I feel for the people of the parish and my brother. … He believed in this church.”
Dante Arroyo, 3 1/2, didn’t understand all the issues. He just seemed interested in watching as heavy equipment was used knock down walls.
“Try fix it and make a new one,” he said, when asked for his comments. “It was a castle.” But he also knew it was a church. His mother, Ruth Arroyo, said they drove by and she brought him to watch.
A young man who gave his name only as Jacob and said he’s Jewish said he’s been filming and videotaping demolition and construction, documenting changes in Worcester.
“I’m just collecting them … to put in skateboard videos … just because it’s a view of the city you don’t normally see,” he said.
He said old architecture is being destroyed for “cheaper, plastic-looking” buildings. “A lot of these churches” were the churches of immigrants, he said.
“Erasing the past doesn’t seem to value the many diverse cultures that exist here in Worcester,” he said.