Maronite parish sees financial and spiritual turnaround

Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent
 
WORCESTER – When Father Peter Frangie became parish administrator at Our Lady of Mercy Maronite Catholic Church on Aug. 1, the parish had $30,000 in outstanding bills and $13,000 in monthly expenses with only $600 in its savings account. In addition, attendance at Mass had slipped.

“This parish was in bad shape,” Father Frangie said, “financially and spiritually.”

After just a few months, the parish has a $5,000 surplus, attendance is up and the rectory has been renovated. Father Frangie credits the generosity of his parishioners, but he and his wife of 21 years, Marise, have also had a lot to do with the turnaround.

“We prayed for so long to have somebody to build this church,” said parishioner Karloss Kozal, one of the generous contributors to Our Lady of Mercy. “So when they came in, it was perfect timing.”

Mr. Kozal said the parishioners are thrilled that Father Frangie never says no to their ideas of how to improve the parish.

“Whenever they come to me, I listen to them,” Father Frangie said, “and I go along with them. I discovered so many people who have so many talents.”

“It’s been unbelievable,” Mr. Kozal said. “How many people you see each Sunday, the activities, the kids. It actually brought the people back together more and more. He’s doing a great job. They’re active, both of them, very active. She is on top of everything and we love that.”

Father Frangie, 63, praised his parishioners for working with him to improve the parish. When he told them about the need to raise money, one parishioner donated $3,000, another $500. Many more gave what they could.

“If I tell my brother priests about them, they get jealous,” he said.

The church hosts monthly events to bring the community together and to raise money. About $2,600 was raised when 160 people attended a get together in September. Roughly $18,000 was netted when more than 200 turned out for a dinner-dance in the church hall with a singer and raffle prizes in October.

After the 8:30 p.m. Mass on New Year’s Eve, Our Lady of Mercy will hold a party with dinner and music in the church hall.  

Others donated their time and the materials to renovate the rectory, including painting and carpeting every room and upgrading the kitchen, which hadn’t been updated since the rectory was built in 1956, with a new floor, cabinets, sink and appliances. The Frangies brought furniture which had been donated to them at their previous parish in Virginia.

“All that has been happening to us,” Mrs. Frangie said, “is just a confirmation of how God always provides for His children when we trust Him.”

“Please put the emphasis on the work that the parishioners did,” Father Frangie said. “Without them, we couldn’t have done anything.”

Our Lady of Mercy is a small parish. Mrs. Frangie said only about 30 families attended Mass when she and her husband arrived, but that number now approaches 70. Fortunately, many of the families are young with young children. So the future appears bright.

In January, the church plans to begin Arabic classes that are open to everyone, not just parishioners, to continue the heritage.

Father Frangie said Our Lady of Mercy began to experience financial difficulties once benefactor David Massad died in 2018. Mr. Massad, owner of Duddie Ford, Diamond Chevrolet and Commerce Bank, had often come to the church’s financial rescue. Father Frangie planned to hold a Mass in Mr. Massad’s memory on Dec. 28, the sixth anniversary of his death.

When Father Frangie arrived, there was a six-person parish council in place, which he doubled to 12 people, but he had no staff at all, including no secretary, deacon, ushers, altar servers, or women’s or youth organizations. Mrs. Frangie is helping her husband rebuild everything. The youth program has already been revived and Father Frangie is currently working on creating a young adult program. Father Frangie was thrilled to see four altar servers at a recent Sunday Mass. Usually there were none or only one.

“I am so hopeful,” Father Frangie said. “I’m looking to make this parish a model for other parishes because people are looking to work.”

“There’s a lot of potential in this parish,” Mrs. Frangie said. “What they needed, and they say that themselves, they needed a leader to guide them and to be open to listen to them.”

Maronites on the East Coast of the U.S. have their own bishop, Bishop Gregory John Mansour of Brooklyn, N.Y. Nevertheless, Father Frangie has reached out to the Roman Catholic Worcester Diocese. In October, Father Frangie visited Bishop Robert McManus at the chancery and he attended the fundraiser that the Bishop hosted at St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School for retired priests. More recently, he also attended a recent retreat with the Bishop and priests at St. Joseph Abbey in Spencer. In November, the Frangies hosted lunch for priests from the Worcester Diocese.

“I felt like they were my own brothers,” Father Frangie said.

Mr. Kozal, a 51-year-old native of Lebanon, lives in the Our Lady of Mercy neighborhood and he has belonged to the parish since before it moved from Mulberry Street to its current location on June Street in 2010. Our Lady of Mercy purchased the Sweden Lutheran Church on Mulberry Street in 1923 and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield dedicated the opening of Our Lady of Mercy Maronite Catholic Church on the site. Mass was celebrated there until the Maronites purchased St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church, which had closed earlier in 2010.

There are about 3 or 4 million Maronite Catholics worldwide, most of whom live in the Middle East, principally Lebanon and Syria. There are roughly 75,000 Maronites in the U.S. Our Lady of Mercy is the only Maronite Catholic Church in Worcester County so it draws parishioners from as far away as Douglas and Leominster.

Most parishioners are Lebanese or Syrian, but not all of them are. One parishioner has attended Mass at the church since it was St. Charles Borromeo.

The Maronite Catholic Church is named after St. Maron, a Syrian whose life in the fourth century of poverty, fasting, holiness and prayer, and his ability to heal illnesses inspired many followers. In 451 AD, some Middle Eastern churches broke away from Rome, but others did not and went on to become known as Maronites. They continue to recognize the Pope as the head of the church, partake of the same Eucharist and receive the same seven Sacraments. However, Maronites have their own liturgy, spiritual heritage, and ecclesiastical structure.

Father Frangie says his Masses in English, Arabic and Syriac, but preaches only in English.
Maronite priests cannot marry, but men who are already married are allowed to become Maron-ite priests. In 2021, Father Frangie became only the second married man to be ordained a priest in the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Both of the Frangies were born and raised in Lebanon. Father Frangie came to the U.S. to study electrical engineering and computer sciences at Manhattan College in the Bronx, N.Y. He went on to teach math at Manhattan and the University of Mount Saint Vincent in New York City and then at Archbishop Stepinac High School, a boys Roman Catholic school in White Plains, N.Y. While teaching in high school, he answered the Lord’s call to become a subdeacon and then a deacon. In 2014, Pope Francis allowed married men to become Maronite Catholic priests in the U.S. because nearly half of the Maronite Catholic priests in Lebanon were married. So Father Frangie answered the call to become a priest. He served as parochial vicar at St. Anthony’s Maronite Catholic Church in Glen Allen, Va., for three years before being assigned to Our Lady of Mercy. After a year here, he will become eligible to be named pastor.

Father Frangie plans to remain at Our Lady of Mercy until he’s required to submit his resignation to his bishop at age 75.

“I hope and I pray,” he said, “that this will be the only assignment I have.”

His parishioners would like that as well.