Sisters of Notre Dame convent chapel closed; not needed

By Maria LeDoux
Associate Editor, The Catholic Free Press

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur convent chapel, a legacy that spans more than seven decades and five bishops, is now closed.  
It all started with the first bishop of Worcester, Bishop John J. Wright, in the early 1950s. At the request of the Sisters, Bishop McManus, the fifth bishop of Worcester, celebrated the final Mass, Aug. 24, in the chapel located on the grounds of Notre Dame Academy, 425 Salisbury St., Worcester.
The chapel has been closed because sisters will no longer be living in the convent. Those who currently reside there will be moving to the caretaker’s house on the grounds of Notre Dame du Lac, 557 Pleasant St. in Worcester.
Bishop McManus issued an official decree, effective Sept. 1, stating that the chapel will be reduced from a sacred place to a place used for “profane but not sordid use,” or common but not immoral purposes. This means that the chapel can no longer be used for Mass or sacraments.
At the end of the Mass, Bishop McManus and all those present, including six Notre Dame women, recited the Te Deum prayer, which is the Church’s “great prayer of gratitude,” Bishop McManus said. He also read the decree which, he explained, changes the state of the once sacred space.
The Heritage Chapel in the main academic building is unaffected by the decree, said Sherri Pitcher, chief advancement officer at Notre Dame Academy.
According to Mrs. Pitcher, it has not yet been decided how the convent will be used. Notre Dame Sister Ann Morrison said she “hopes the chapel will be used as a center for leadership,” or something similar.
In the past 10 years, about eight sisters have lived in the convent, said Sister Ann, who began teaching at the academy in 1973 and was principal from 1976 until 2017. Currently, no Notre Dame sisters teach there, but two remain on the board: Sister Evelyn McKenna and Sister Elaine Bain.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII separated Worcester County from the Springfield Diocese and erected the Diocese of Worcester. A year later, Bishop Wright invited the Sisters of Notre Dame to staff a school in the new diocese which was to become Notre Dame Academy. The sisters had been in Worcester since 1872 staffing Ascension School on Vernon Street.
At the final Mass in the chapel, Sister Ann told how the Notre Dame de Namur Sisters came to teach in the city. She said that on Aug. 26, 1872, eight Sisters came to Worcester to open Ascension School, and the following day, Msgr. Thomas Griffin, the local pastor at the time, celebrated Mass.  
“Ascension School thrived. The Sisters of Notre Dame were recognized as outstanding teachers who loved their students and prepared them well,” she said. Ascension had both a grade school and a high school at the time of its opening. The grade school closed in 1963 and the high school closed seven years later in 1970.
Seventy-nine years after the first Sisters arrived, more Sisters of Notre Dame came to Worcester. At the end of August 1951, Bishop Wright celebrated the first Mass in the convent chapel, where classes were held until the academic building on the campus was completed, according to Sister Ann.
In the time since the opening of the convent chapel to its closing, “109 Notre Dame women have called this convent home,” said Sister Ann. “Most of them worked at the school, joining with their co-workers in encouraging students to serve and learn from the community and to aspire to follow the Gospel directives to be young women of conviction and compassion who protect life in all of its forms.”