Back in church and back to the faith

BY BILL DOYLE | CFP CORRESPONDENT

As far as Dave Peterson is concerned, he’s back where he belongs – at Sunday Mass.
“I was not a good Catholic for 17 years,” he said. “Now I’d like to think I’m a good Catholic again.”
The general manager of the Worcester Bravehearts’ college summer league baseball team grew up as a practicing Catholic in Medway, but stopped attending Mass for 17 years after he moved to Worcester in 2003, a year after he graduated from Syracuse University.
As promotions director for WXLO Radio, he spent many of his weekends visiting apple orchards and festivals and attending grand openings of car dealerships.
“Every single bar in the city I’ve been to, handing out WXLO T-shirts and bumper stickers,” said the 43-year-old Worcester resident. “My weekends were so busy, I didn’t really have time to go to church.”
That changed in December of 2020 after Matt Majikas urged him to join St. Richard of Chichester Parish in Sterling and help him livestream the 10 a.m. Sunday Masses. They had worked together several years earlier for the Worcester Tornadoes, an independent professional baseball team, Mr. Peterson as on-field emcee and then as vice president of sales and marketing, and Mr. Majikas as public address announcer.
“I get a lot from my church in Sterling,” Mr. Majikas said, “and my Knights of Columbus Council. It’s something that is kind of my therapy in a way and I thought it might be helpful to him.”
Mr. Peterson’s 12-year marriage had recently ended so returning to church, livestreaming Masses and joining the Knights of Columbus Council 14940 at St. Richard of Chichester allowed him to meet new people and brighten his spirits.
“It was at a time in his life that he needed God,” Mr. Majikas said. “We’re blessed to have him as part of our parish. We need more high-quality men like him, for sure.”
“I didn’t want to be a person wandering around aimlessly,” Mr. Peterson said, “trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life after I had gotten divorced.”    
Mr. Majikas, 37, of Fitchburg, owns Central Mass. Productions and is very familiar with video. The pandemic slowed his business, so during his downtime he arranged a livestreaming system at St. Richard of Chichester in May of 2020.
“It was definitely my priority,” he said, “to bring Mass to the people, because people deserved it and it was during a time when prayer was vital in a lot of ways.”
Mr. Peterson began operating a high-definition camera from the choir loft later in the year.
Mr. Majikas ran a 150-foot ethernet cable through the ceiling of the church. Unfortunately, the wireless feed for the microphone used for the livestreaming kept cutting out, so Mr. Peterson donated a 200-foot audio cable.
In February of 2021, Mr. Peterson and Mr. Majikas crawled through the church attic to run the cable from the altar to the choir loft in order to livestream with uninterrupted sound.
“I have some ridiculous video and photos of us crawling through this attic space that probably hadn’t been touched in like 80 years,” Mr. Peterson said. “He roped me in and now I’m in it.”
He joked that he thinks he saw a few angels in the church attic.
“I’m so much closer to heaven right now,” he said.
During the height of the pandemic, people on more than 145 devices watched the streaming of Masses, Mr. Majikas said. About 35-40 people still watch. The streams aren’t just live, they’re posted on YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo so people can watch them during the week.
“Now I have a purpose,” Mr. Peterson said. “My purpose is I am the one who delivers the Mass to the people who are not fortunate enough to get to the Mass. So even if there’s only 10 people who are watching the Mass, I feel that I’m making a difference because these people are actively commenting, they’re thanking us for providing this service, they’re participating in the Mass on Facebook. So, to me, I needed that structure.”
While he livestreams Masses, he remains tuned in to the homilies. One last year about forgiving your enemies by Father James Steuterman, who has since retired as pastor, especially touched him. He even wrote Father Steuterman a note telling him that his homily had improved his outlook.
Mr. Peterson serves as the financial secretary for the Knights of Columbus and on a recent Sunday he spoke about the Knights at the 10 a.m. Mass, urging other parishioners to join.
Since the Bravehearts were founded in 2013, Mr. Peterson has been the team’s only general manager. He was named Futures Collegiate Baseball League Executive of the Year in 2014, 2019 and 2022, and the team won league titles in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019.
While growing up, Mr. Peterson usually attended the 4:30 p.m. Mass on Saturdays at St. Joseph Parish in Medway with his sister, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Throughout high school and college, he served as a sexton, cleaning the church, shoveling snow, and collecting donations.
“I heard the same sermon four times every week,” he said. “So I always knew where the jokes were.”
After the last Mass each Sunday, he took the collections to the rectory.
“They would put all the cash in a clear plastic bag,” he recalled. “They’d hand it to me and I’d walk right out the front door of the church, down Village Street with a giant bag of cash in my left hand to bring it to the rectory. And I never once got robbed.”
His salary of $125 a month and scholarships from his parish helped him afford to attend Syracuse.
Mr. Peterson would like to see younger people join the Knights of Columbus.
“The people in their 20s and in their 30s, I don’t see them,” he said. “They’re not going to church, they’re not actively getting involved.”
Some people return to the church when they have children, but Mr. Peterson does not have any. He came back for a different reason and he’s glad he did.

– Editor’s note: To view the streaming of the 10 a.m. Mass, visit strichardsterling.org and click on the Facebook link.