Parish in Gilbertville has been building community for 150 years

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

HARDWICK – Religious sisters and their teaching ministry featured prominently as St. Aloysius Parish celebrated the 150th anniversary of the church Sunday.
At the anniversary Mass, Bishop McManus drew a connection between himself and the parish – through the religious congregation that taught in the school there and taught him in Providence.
At the reception, present and former parishioners focused heavily on the nuns and the old parish school. Like the bishop, some also talked about the parish.
St. Aloysius was celebrating the 150th anniversary of its church building in the village of Gilbertville.
On April 8, 1872, work was begun on the building by Father G.L. Gagnier, a pastor in Ware, according to History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Springfield, by Father John J. McCoy. The cornerstone was laid on May 28, and the Very Rev. Patrick Healy dedicated the church on Nov. 17.
“It is related by the old people that Father Gagnier, stripped of his coat, delved with his people in the excavations,” the history says. “He was his own architect too, and the church, though plain and unpretentious, served the purpose of the people.”
St. Aloysius had a grade school before it became a parish on Feb. 25, 1894. In 1889 Father T.J. Sheehan, pastor in Ware, got Sisters of St. Anne to come teach in the school he opened even before classrooms were complete, a parish history says.
In September 1908 the Faithful Companions of Jesus took over the work at the school, continuing through June 1952, when they joined their larger community at St. Joseph’s Convent in Fitchburg.
In September 1952 the Sisters of Mercy took over the school, which closed in 1970.
Now there is a new private school there called St. Aloysius Catholic School.
Robert Messier said he graduated from the original school in 1954 and is a member of the parish, even though he now lives and attends church in Ware.
“My loyalty, my religious beliefs, who I am today” originated at St. Aloysius, he said. “You felt like you were one big family. … Who I am, I learned here with the Mothers.”
Teaching at St. Aloysius School “wasn’t a job” for the Faithful Companions of Jesus; they were your mother when you weren’t home with your blood mother, said Mr. Messier.
“Mother” was how students had to address the sisters, explained Jeanette Bessette, who graduated from the school in 1947.
At recess, the girls played on one side of the school, the boys on the other, she said, adding that the nuns were “probably trying to keep us from the boys” but “it only lasted so long!” But the sisters taught girls and boys together volleyball and the Virginia Reel, which was like square-dancing, she said.
“We always had a play up on the stage at Christmastime and graduation time,” she added.
Carmel Robichaud, a lifelong member of the parish, said the Sisters of Mercy taught her at the school. But her family visited the Faithful Companions of Jesus, with whom her father had worshipped in their convent, after they moved to Fitchburg and Providence.
Her family brought the sisters apples and scrap materials and the sisters served them tea and toast and visited with them in a big room at the convent, she said.
“There was a Mother Carmel and I was named after her,” she said. “My mother said, ‘It’s better visiting the mothers than visiting our own family.’ It was enjoyable.”
Bishop McManus expressed appreciation for the Faithful Companions of Jesus and St. Aloysius Parish in his homily.
He said he found two links between Gilbertville and his home Diocese of Providence. In 1908 Father William A. Hickey, St. Aloysius’ pastor, brought the Faithful Companions of Jesus to teach at St. Aloysius School. In 1921 Father Hickey became Bishop of Providence. He had the Faithful Companions of Jesus come teach at Blessed Sacrament School in Providence, which Bishop McManus attended.
“They taught in this parish and they were formative in my spiritual life,” he told the congregation. Despite being semi-cloistered, the sisters knew more about students and their families at Blessed Sacrament than the priests did, he said. He recalled Mother Ethna, his eighth-grade teacher, telling the boys that being a priest was the best thing they could do with their lives. He said he believed her then, and still does, and that he remained close to her until he buried her years later.
Speaking about the parish, the bishop said that, from generation to generation, Catholic parishes throughout the world offer Mass, at which people are fed Christ’s body and blood to give them grace that will help them reach heaven.
“That is what we are celebrating today,” thanking God that for 150 years he has chosen to live among the people of Gilbertville, he said.
He noted that, in the day’s Gospel, Jesus asked if the Son of Man would find any faith on earth. (Lk 18:8) He said he himself would answer, “Yes, Jesus, you have found faith here in this parish”; for 150 years the faith has been passed down at St. Aloysius. The bishop said he prays that that continues to happen.
“I come all the way here to church, and I could go to the Polish church and walk to it,” said Richard St. George, a 91-year-old member of St. Aloysius, speaking of St. Mary Parish in Ware. “Now my daughter picks me up and takes me to church.” He said he has always attended St. Aloysius and two of his aunts were Sisters of Mercy who taught there.
“The school brings back memories of my mother,” who died three years ago, said his daughter Lynne St. George. “She was the organist here for 30 years,” and made costumes for school plays. “She had the Faithful Companions of Jesus and we had the Sisters of Mercy.”
Ms. St. George, who works on parish finances, called St. Aloysius a family-oriented, welcoming parish.
“It’s a great little community,” said Father Richard A. Lembo, pastor. He said that in the past most of the Catholic community lived within walking distance and “it was really a small community around the church.” Most worked in the mills.
Now “we’re really an older community and a lot of the older children leave,” he said.  After college they move to “a more exciting life – they’re not into getting up in the morning to milk the cows. … But the Catholic community is very warm and caring, and very generous to maintain the church.”

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