Dinners bring diverse communities together

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

St. Patrick, evangelizer of a whole nation, is still bringing people to God – or at least to church. Irish dinners in his name are drawing crowds to local parishes, bringing folks together, raising money and playing a part in a type of evangelization too. Visits to traditional dinners around the diocese showed that you don’t even have to be Irish to enjoy them.

Our Lady of Providence, Worcester

“People gather around food,” said Father Jonathan J. Slavinskas, pastor of Our Lady of Providence Parish at St. Bernard Church in Worcester. Gathered around a table “we’re able to be in the presence of one another … (and) bring more people to the ultimate table … the altar.”
Dinners are “a great opportunity for me to encounter individuals in a non-confrontational way,” paving the way for bringing them to – or back to – church, he said.
He said the dinners are, first, to bring the community together and, second, to raise money for the parish and its ministries. A fundraiser to reach people not attending church is being planned for a cigar bar in Worcester, he said.
The parish’s fundraisers include an Irish dinner, multicultural dinner, dinner-comedy and Lincoln Street reunion, said parishioner Christine Consolmagno, who spearheaded the corned beef and cabbage affair with her husband, Alan.
She said when she was growing up, St. Bernard’s neighborhood was Irish; now it’s diverse. Her brother Paul ran Riley’s on Lincoln, serving Irish food on St. Patrick’s Day, a tradition she and her husband continued when they took over the restaurant.
Her husband and fellow-parishioner Jack Vescera now cook the parish’s Irish dinner, and friends from outside the parish help her decorate, serve and run raffles, she said. They hold it the same day as the Worcester County St. Patrick’s Parade, and did so last Sunday even though the parade was rescheduled for March 24 because of the weather forecast.
The dinner and parish histories are intertwined.
In the mid-2000s, after Father José A. Rodríguez, St. Joan of Arc’s pastor, became pastor of St. Bernard’s too, both parishes were invited to events, Mrs. Consolmagno said. She thought St. Bernard’s should host something in its gym, and an Irish dinner was proposed.
It continued when the two parishes no longer shared a pastor. (St. Bernard’s was merged with Our Lady of Fatima and the new parish is called Our Lady of Providence.) Now former St. Bernard’s parishioners who’ve moved away love to return and share memories, Mrs. Consolmagno said. She said it’s special seeing everybody coming together.
“That’s part of being a part of your church,” she said. “Getting to know everybody doesn’t really happen at Mass. Having church activities … you get to know these people you’re looking at in the pew.”

Immaculate Conception, Worcester
Tomorrow’s Irish dinner at Immaculate Conception Parish in Worcester is sold out. But the dinner is an opportunity for people “to come together on church property and have a wonderful time,” said Father Walter J. Riley, the pastor, and Mrs. Consolmagno’s brother. “We give glory to God and to St. Patrick.”
It’s not a fundraiser, although the parish activities committee that proposed it about six years ago makes a little money on it, he said.
He said his brother John Riley plays Irish songs and gets people to sing with him, and Deacon Kevin J. Deignan and parishioner Christine Huffman cook the corned beef and vegetables, saving the parish money and doing as well as any caterer.
James Hester, president of the activities committee, said they have a 50-50 raffle and door prizes. They are expecting 150 people tomorrow, he said, the greatest number ever.

St. Joan of Arc, Worcester

St. Joan of Arc’s first day-long Irish festival, held Feb. 23, drew crowds, according to the pastor, Father Nelson J. Rivera (who went by the name Father O’Leary for the occasion).
“It’s a fundraiser but it’s more about social” interaction, he said. It was a Knights of Columbus activity for the parish, which has Anglo, Hispanic and Ghanaian communities.
“‘Parishioners’ means all of us,” of whatever nationality, he said. “When people come from other churches and see how the communities are blending, they love it.”
Kayt O’Rourke, originally from Ireland, helped with her husband, Michael, one of the Knights. She said she saw people she didn’t know and figured the festival drew people from beyond the parish.     
“I helped cook the corned beef,” said James E. Fay, one of the Knights. “I just like helping out.”
    
St. Edward the Confessor, Westminster

The cooks and servers at the St. Patrick’s dinner at St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Westminster ordered pizza for their supper March 2 – they’d sold out of the featured of corned beef and cabbage, and baked ziti!
They served 134 diners, said Wendy Provencial, who runs the dinners with her husband, David. She said they took over in 2014, after about five years of helping Raymond and Louise Rathier, organizers for 15 years. Now fellow parishioners help the Provencials.    
“We don’t do the Irish dinner every year,” Mr. Provencial said.
Regular parish dinners are first Saturdays from October until Lent. On Lenten Fridays “Eddy’s Chowder House,” nicknamed for the parish’s patron, serves fish, clam and corn chowder, vegetable soup and macaroni and cheese.
 “We cook everything from scratch,” said Mr. Provencial said.
On Irish night Marjorie McNeill said she and her husband, Laurence McNeill, bought seven take-home dinners.
“With the storm coming up, we’ll need it,” Mr. McNeill said.
“And I don’t have to cook,” added his wife. “There isn’t anything we don’t like.… Never found a fault.… It’s so reasonably priced and you’re supporting the church.”
That’s the big thing, said her husband, a member of St. Leo Parish in Leominster. (His wife said she’s Protestant.)
They will be back. They won that night’s free raffle –  $20 worth of Eddy’s Chowder House products.
Phoebe Goulkin, who said she attends synagogues in Clinton and Westborough, was with a group of family and friends that frequents church dinners at St. Edward’s and elsewhere – “10 of us tonight; normally we’re 12.”
Nancy Robbins said she and her husband, who are not church members, have gone to different dinners and “this is a great one.”
“They get such a crowd here,” said Elaine Rachupka, a St. Edward’s parishioner with her husband, Edmund. “We come just about every month. The dinners are very good.”

St. Mary of the Hills, Boylston

The St. Patrick’s Day dinner at St. Mary of the Hills Parish in Boylston is held the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day, said Robert Mecca, an organizer and member of the parish’s Knights of Columbus. That enables people to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day twice, he noted.
“We always sell out,” he said; they sold 139 tickets and about 145 people came to the dinner last Saturday.
The first year, about four years ago, a couple with a daughter in the youth group cooked with family members and raised money for the youth group, he said.
“Because it was so successful and it seemed like everybody had a good time, the Knights of Columbus and the youth group” took on the dinner together, now catered by Buffet Way of Marlborough, and split the proceeds, he said.
Keyboardist Ed McCarron plays Irish and other music. This year parish choir members sang some songs with him since the Irish step dancers who usually perform had another commitment, Mr. Mecca said.