Changes in Warren parishes: St. Paul Church now an oratory for Latin Mass

By Raymond L. Delisle
Director, Office of Communications
And Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Bishop McManus has decreed that St. Paul Church in Warren is now an oratory in which the extraordinary form of the Mass will be celebrated.
A religious community committed to the traditional Latin Mass, and new to the Diocese of Worcester, will serve the pastoral needs of parishioners, according to the decree dated Sept. 14. The announcement of the change was made in the parish bulletin last weekend.
“We’re all very excited and hopeful for the future,” said Steven Rust, a member of St. Paul’s parish council involved in the pastoral planning process that recommended changes to the Warren parishes.
The decree also changed the canonical status of St. Stanislaus Parish in West Warren to a territorial parish to serve the needs of the Catholic community of Warren.  
In 2021, Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes clarifying when and where the extraordinary form of the Mass could be celebrated. It directed bishops to designate a location “where the faithful adherents of these groups may gather for the eucharistic celebration … not however in the parochial churches.”  
Bishop McManus has decreed that St. Paul Church, 1060 Main St., Warren, will become St. Paul Oratory for the celebration of the sacraments in Latin using the liturgical books from 1962, commonly referred to as celebrating in the extraordinary form.
According to canon law, a church is a place of public worship for everyone while an oratory is a place of worship for a segment of the faithful.
“A college chapel is a good example of an oratory,” said Father Richard F. Reidy, vicar general, who has been serving as temporary administrator for the Warren parishes and led a pastoral planning process for the parishes of St. Paul and St. Stanislaus. “A college chapel exists to serve the faithful of the college community, even though they might be open to people from outside that community for the celebration of Mass,” he said.
He explained that St. Paul, as an oratory, will serve the sacramental needs of those faithful who desire the Latin Mass celebrated in the extraordinary form, while still reserving the right for those faithful who want to attend Mass in English.  
The decree published this week for the Catholic parishes in Warren and West Warren includes a number of elements. First, St. Paul becomes an oratory for celebrating the sacraments in Latin and will be served by a society of apostolic life new to the diocese which is committed to those traditions, and St. Paul will continue to have an English Mass (Novus Ordo, Mass in the ordinary form) to be celebrated by a priest provided by the diocese.
Secondly, Bishop McManus has invited the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to be responsible for the pastoral care and administration of St. Paul Oratory. With a seminary and provincial house in Italy, they are a pontifical rite society of apostolic life committed to the evangelizing mission of the Catholic Church using the traditional or extraordinary form of celebrating the sacraments. They are responsible for oratories in 12 other states in the United States – the nearest is St. Patrick Oratory in Waterbury, Connecticut – as well as oratories around the world. They will arrive in mid-October and reside in the rectory at St. Paul.
Canon Father Matthew Talarico, provincial superior for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in the United States, expressed his gratitude to Bishop McManus “for his confidence in entrusting our clergy with this new apostolate.”
“In the spirit of our holy patron, St. Francis de Sales, we will strive to serve God’s truth in charity and with joy in hopes that divine grace will attract people of all ages to the beauty of virtue in Catholic life for the edification and benefit of society. May St. Paul the Apostle, patron of the Diocese of Worcester as well as of the new oratory, intercede for us all in undertaking this extraordinary mission for the glory of God and the salvation of souls,” Father Talarico said in a statement.   
“Everyone was very grateful to hear that the Institute was coming and that this would give stability to the Latin Mass community and also to the Church [the Catholics] in Warren,” Mr. Rust said.
Thirdly, St. Stanislaus, which was a personal parish originally established for Polish Catholics, becomes the territorial parish for the town of Warren. The administrator of St. Stanislaus is a permanent deacon, Deacon Dominick F. DeMartino, who is the first deacon in the diocese to be assigned as a permanent administrator of a parish. The sacramental needs of the parish will continue to be taken care of by Father Edward M. Ryan, a retired diocesan priest who lives in Warren.  
Father Ryan celebrates Mass in English and administers sacraments – anything that requires a priest – for St. Stanislaus, said Deacon DeMartino.  
“He really loves what he’s doing,” Deacon DeMartino said. “He just likes being part of a community again.”
Father Reidy added his heartfelt appreciation and thanks to Father Ryan who as a retired priest has been saying Mass six days a week in Warren since January 2022. He added that Father Ryan and former pastor Father Daniel J. Becker have been “indispensable.”
Louise Mundell, 71, a lifelong St. Stanislaus parishioner said she and others are glad St. Stanislaus is staying open and continuing English Mass.  
“I prefer English [to Latin] because I can understand it and participate,” she said.
Since the members of the society of apostolic life are committed to celebrating Mass in the extraordinary form, Father Ryan will also celebrate a Sunday Vigil Mass in English at St. Paul.
Father Reidy explained that the functioning of St. Paul Oratory will be very similar to parishes in our diocese which were entrusted to religious orders or institutes, including the Augustinians of the Assumption, Assumptionists, at St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge and the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata, Stigmatines, who care for the parishioners of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford. “The only difference is that the worship space is designated as an oratory rather than a church,” he said.
“That means the oratory will follow all diocesan guidelines, including safe environment policies and procedural audits, as well as be responsible for supporting diocesan and national collections, including Partners in Charity and cathedraticum,” he added. The oratory will also offer religious education to young people and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
As with all parishes in the diocese, the properties and assets are still owned by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Corporation Sole.
The oratory is also responsible for the patrimony of the parish, according to Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, judicial vicar for the diocese. Given that St. Paul Parish was merged with St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in 2007, that patrimony includes sacramental registers as well as the care of all the goods and assets of both parishes including the churches, rectories, and a cemetery.
St. Thomas Aquinas Church building in West Warren is for sale.
“The process to get to this decree was a collaborative effort involving first the lay leadership of both St. Paul and St. Stanislaus parishes, then the parish communities as a whole,” according to Father Reidy. “We began more than a year ago with meetings that were preceded by adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Those meetings involved members of parish finance committees, pastoral councils and property committees. Over the last year on six occasions, parish-wide meetings were held after all weekend Masses to make it possible for everyone to learn more and ask questions.”
Mr. Rust said that Father Reidy kept parishioners updated through the combined Sunday bulletin and meetings after weekend Masses.
Bishop McManus then sought input from the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee regarding those recommendations and from the Presbyteral Council prior to making his final decision, according to Father Reidy.
If Latin Masses ceased, people who wanted such Masses would go elsewhere, leaving St. Paul’s and neighboring St. Stanislaus Parish hurting financially and in numbers, Mr. Rust noted.  
“That would have harmed the future prospects of the parish” he added, since the young families are in the Latin Mass community.  
He said that former St. Paul’s pastor, Father Becker, started celebrating Latin Masses there after Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, clarifying the use of the extraordinary form.
“We’re very grateful” to Bishop McManus, Fathers Reidy, Ryan and Becker, Deacon DeMartino, and the Institute who have made this possible, Mr. Rust said.