Our Lady of the Angels Parish ends celebration of 100 years with history lesson

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Local Catholics gleaned new things from the past on Sunday as Our Lady of the Angels Parish closed its 100th anniversary celebration.
History professor James M. O’Toole spoke about “A Church for ‘New Worcester’: Centennial Reflections of Our Lady of the Angels Parish.”
“I learned a lot of new information,” said Darleen Farland, religious education director and a member of the parish’s anniversary celebration committee.
She said Richard Keeley, another committee member and a dean at Boston College, recommended his colleague, Professor O’Toole, as a speaker. Professor O’Toole teaches the history of American religion and American Catholicism and holds the Charles I. Clough Millennium Chair in History at Boston College. He said he grew up at St. Leo Parish in Leominster and is now a member of St. Ignatius Parish in Chestnut Hill.
Other anniversary year events were a Mass last fall and a cabaret meal with parish cantors Steven Gagliastro and Annie Kerins, who are involved in theater, Mrs. Farland said.
“I’m filling in the blanks,” Anne Gemme said after Sunday’s talk. “I didn’t know the history of this place.” She said she joined Our Lady of the Angels 32 years ago.
Anniversaries are good occasions to connect our experiences with those whose experiences have shaped our own, Professor O’Toole said.
“The most remarkable thing about the Catholic Church in New England is that it exists at all,” he said.
As he put the parish’s beginning in historical context, one or more of the 20-plus listeners occasionally responded with a quiet “Wow” or some other expression of amazement or enlightenment. Some of them, including the pastor, Father Charles F. Monroe, shared information or asked questions.
The Pilgrims came to Plymouth in 1620 and the Puritans to Boston in 1630 and “Catholics are viewed in this part of the world with suspicion … hostility,” Professor O’Toole said.
A law said each Catholic priest was an enemy to the true Christian religion. They were to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony and would be hanged if they returned.
The support of Catholic France in the Revolutionary War helped change attitudes.
By 1790, when the first federal census was taken, perhaps one percent of the population in the United States was Catholic.
In 1820 Catholics came to Worcester to help build the Blackstone Canal.
The first Mass in Worcester was reportedly celebrated in 1826 in the States Arms Tavern on Main Street by Bishop Benedict J.  Fenwick of Boston, a Jesuit.
After that, Father James Fitton tirelessly served Catholics in Central Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont.
In 1833 Father Fitton recommended that a church be built in Worcester, where he knew of 20 Catholics, and maybe 100 in the surrounding area. Christ Church was built on Temple Street and opened in 1836, and Father Fitton lived there.
He was succeeded by Father Matthew Gibson, who built a different church – the present St. John’s – which opened in 1846.
By the the end of the 19th century there were 10 more parishes in Worcester.
The Catholic school system developed more slowly in New England than elsewhere. In Chicago, schools were established first, and Masses might be held in a gym.
In New England, “more effort went into putting up a proper church building, often big and impressive,” Professor O’Toole said. Given attitudes toward Catholics here, this could make the point: “We’re here and we’re not going anywhere.”
As Catholics prospered, they moved to the quieter “streetcar suburbs” like “New Worcester,” from which they could take the streetcar to go downtown.
This brought new parishes: Our Lady of the Rosary in 1911, Blessed Sacrament in 1912, and St. Bernard’s and Our Lady of the Angels in 1916.     
Our Lady of the Angels’ territory was originally part of St. Peter Parish. On Oct. 1, 1916 the decision to form a new parish was announced at Mass at St. Peter’s.      
St. Peter’s curate, Father Michael J. O’Connell, became the first pastor of Our Lady of the Angels. At age 37, he was the youngest pastor in what was then the Diocese of Springfield.
The first baptism was three days after the announcement, and the first wedding a few weeks later. Masses were held in the Gates Lane School building and later in a barn, three Masses a Sunday.
Land purchased on the corner of Main and Montague streets was later considered too small, so it was sold and a different  plot was bought at Main Street and Bishop Ave.
 The first Mass in the church was celebrated on Christmas in 1928.
In 1938 Father O’Connell died.
Very early a fund for a school was started. The Sisters of Notre Dame taught grade 1 in a room behind the altar. As with many other schools, a grade was added each year.
“I went to the school here before there was a school,” Thomas Boza told The Catholic Free Press afterwards, explaining that classes were held in the sacristy and the rectory. “When I left here after grade 4 they bused the boys to St. John’s and the girls to Ascension (schools).” Our Lady of the Angels School building was opened shortly after that, in the mid-1950s.
Two portable Quonset huts were used until the school was built, added Father Monroe.
In 1991 the parish celebrated its 75th anniversary, which is dangerously close to the present for historians to talk about, quipped Professor O’Toole.
Historians know changes will happen, he said. Some of what looks bad turns out good, and vice versa.
“Let me end by congratulating you on your 100th birthday,” he told listeners. “You don’t look it.”