Worcester TV ministy marks 30 years of live Mass

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Frank S. P. Yacino used to serve at the diocesan television Mass. Now he’s served by it.
So is Olive L. Prunier, who, at 99-and-three-months, is “just about completely shut in.”
Also benefitting from Worcester’s TV Mass are people who aren’t shut in, but sometimes find it difficult to get out to Mass.
Some viewers shared their stories with The Catholic Free Press as the diocesan TV ministry marked its 30th anniversary of broadcasting Masses live. Msgr. John E. Doran, a retired priest, noted the Feb. 8 anniversary when celebrating the TV Mass that day. Weekdays, at 9 a.m., the Mass is live online and on TV.
Mrs. Prunier, a member of St. Roch Parish in Oxford, said she’s a daily viewer.
“For one thing, it’s a wonderful motivation to get up in the morning and watch the Mass,” she said. “It’s a wonderful start for the day.… I know that the Lord is watching over me.”
Mr. Yacino, 86, was a lector for the television Mass from March 2010 to March 2018, but had to give it up for health reasons. Over the years he kept track of all the celebrants at the Masses where he was lector; they include three bishops and 39 priests.
“I do watch the Mass every day, unless I get a doctor’s appointment,” he said. “I like watching all the priests, (and hearing) the homilies.”
Mr. Yacino said he became an altar server in 1940, served while in the military and on cruises, and still sometimes serves at his parish, St. Denis in Douglas. He’s been a lector there for 45 years and a eucharistic minister for 35.
“Knowing that I can get some religion by watching the Mass” is important, he said. “On occasion I will watch some of Father (James) Mazzone’s interviews with the priests,” interviews with Bishop McManus, and reruns featuring Bishop Reilly, all programs produced by the TV ministry. (Sometimes Mr. Yacino sees himself on reruns of the Mass.)
The Worcester Diocese began live daily telecasts on Feb. 8, 1989 (Ash Wednesday), according to a history provided by Raymond L. Delisle, chancellor and director of the diocesan communications ministry. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington celebrated that first Mass at 9 a.m. in the chapel at the Bishop Flanagan Center in the Catholic Charities building on Hammond Street.
Ten years later Sunday Masses were broadcast from St. Paul Cathedral. Weekday Mass broadcasts moved to the cathedral in 2002. The Masses were first aired on Worcester Greater Media Cable. Now they are found on Spectrum TV’s Channel 193.
Prior to broadcasting Masses live, the Worcester diocese aired taped Masses in a joint effort with the Archdiocese of Boston, Mr. Delisle said. Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan celebrated the first TV Mass on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1973, from the cardinal’s residence in Boston.
Angel Rojas, the TV ministry’s longest-serving volunteer, recalls when Masses were recorded in Worcester to be broadcast later.
More than 30 years ago he attended a Mass in Spanish when fellow members of St. Peter Parish were singing for it. He found that the priest, Father John W. Barrett, now deceased, didn’t have anyone to help him with the studio work. Father Barrett had to set up the cameras, then leave them stationary while celebrating Mass.
Mr. Rojas offered to help, as he enjoyed using his personal video camera. When Father Barrett asked if he knew how to operate a television camera, he simply asked to be shown how to zoom in and out.
“(Father) was so happy,” he said.
Mr. Rojas, who has volunteered in various capacities for three decades and is now floor director, is happy too.
“It’s not only because I like it,” he said; it’s very important to do it for people who can’t go to Mass and are grateful to see it on television. Now 74, he said he wants to volunteer with this ministry until the end of his life; he does it for his people.
Among beneficiaries is his wife, Elizabeth Rojas. She said she enjoyed attending the Masses, but the 2-year-old great-nephew she babysits “likes to talk.” So now she watches the Mass on television when babysitting. The toddler, seeing his great-uncle on TV, cries out, “Tio!”
Mrs. Rojas said her sister, who lives in Connecticut, likes to attend Mass with her when visiting. And, when she is home, she watches Worcester’s TV Mass online.
Martha S. Lepore watches online from her home in California.
“After surgery about nine years ago, I wasn’t able to go to Mass here in Coronado and discovered there were Masses online in Boston, where I had lived from 1975 to 1994,” she wrote in response to an email asking about her connection to the TV Mass. “As time went on I began ‘attending’ the daily Mass in Worcester.”
She said Worcester is special to her because her daughter graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1986, and Jesuit Father Joseph T. O’Callahan, who baptized her, once taught there.
“I’m ever grateful to access the Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul and receive Spiritual Communion at any time from the West Coast,” she said. “Further, I appreciate everything that Ray Delisle and Steve Kaufman, as well as all the celebrants, do to make it happen - whatever the weather!”
Mr. Kaufman, the TV ministry’s programming and production manager, said inclement weather gets the phones ringing. People call to say they appreciate the TV Mass when they can’t get out, he noted.
Among those is Sister Janet Ballentine, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas, now retired. She and other sisters who used to help with the Mass can now watch it on television in bad weather or when they’re sick, she said.
“It’s a wonderful ministry,” she said. “And now that we who were there at the beginning are getting older, we’re experiencing it as a ministry to us.… Many people appreciate having the Mass in their home, being able to worship with others.”

More than just TV Mass

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
WORCESTER – Over the years, the diocesan TV ministry has expanded to do more than just TV Masses. It offers numerous programs accessible on cable television in parts of New England – and online around the world – according to Raymond L. Delisle, chancellor and director of the diocesan communications ministry.
Viewer comments have come from around the United States and abroad, including England, New Zealand and Abu Dhabi, Mr. Delisle said.
While Feb. 8 marked 30 years of broadcasting Masses live from Worcester, the TV ministry also makes videos for special events, such as “Celebrate Priesthood!” galas and Partners in Charity campaigns.
“The most recent advance has been the availability of our daily Mass and other programs on parish websites,” said Mr. Delisle, who came to the ministry as director on Oct. 1, 1995.
If a parish has its website on the eCatholic platform, which most parishes do, it can install a module that updates the Mass each time a new one is posted. TV ministry programs, including the daily Mass, Sunday Mass and featured programs, are posted on the ministry’s website, www.worcestercatholictv.org, and automatically update on parish websites that have the modules installed on one of their website pages.
“We couldn’t really do this without volunteers’ help,” said Stephen Kaufman, the TV ministry’s programming and production manager for 22 years. He and Mr. Delisle are the only full-time staff. Volunteers who help produce the Masses and programs include high school and college students who are paid a stipend and trained by the ministry. Some go on to find jobs in the broadcasting field.
In 1990, the year after the live Masses began, some Masses were recorded then delivered to local cable access stations for delayed broadcasting, according to a history from Mr. Delisle. The first station was in Shrewsbury. Later a public access station in Clinton also received the videotapes. Now Masses and other programs are uploaded directly to the stations via the internet.
In September 1991 the Family Rosary was added, Mr. Delisle said. People prayed the rosary in the chapel at the Catholic Charities building on Hammond Street before the Sunday Mass. The 1990s also saw the addition of live seasonal programs for Advent and Lent.
Mr. Delisle said that in February 1996 he launched “Faith in Action,” a monthly magazine show. It continues to highlight ministries and agencies supported by the annual diocesan appeal, now called Partners in Charity.  The communications ministry is one of the agencies and ministries that get financial support from Partners in Charity.
Beginning on Palm Sunday in 1999, the Sunday TV Mass went from a half-hour broadcast from the Catholic Charities’ chapel to a full hour from St. Paul Cathedral, Mr. Delisle said. The regular 10:15 a.m. Mass in St. Paul’s is streamed live online and broadcast at 6 p.m. Sundays on cable. Special liturgies at the cathedral, including ordinations, also began to be televised, a practice that continues today.
In March 2002, after the cathedral’s lower church was renovated, daily Masses began to be broadcast from there. They still are broadcast Monday through Friday at 9 a.m.
The TV ministry has also occasionally provided pool feeds through the internet to other broadcast media, for events of broader interest, including the installation of Bishop McManus in 2004, Mr. Delisle said.
By March 2005 the Sunday Mass was being digitally recorded for streaming live and for later viewing on the TV ministry’s website, worcestercatholictv.org, Mr. Delisle said. TV ministry programs can be seen on worcesterdiocese.org.
“Conversations with Bishop McManus,” a monthly interview program, began in May 2005. It provides a forum to address timely topics, including pastoral planning, the Church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis and the formation of conscience during election season.
This past year the ministry produced more than 350 Masses and devotional and informational specials for cable television, online streaming and DVD distribution, according to the diocese’s 2018 annual report. There were more than 84,000 online views of TV programming, the report says.
Mr. Delisle said programs can be seen on cable television channels in Worcester County, Middlesex County, southern New Hampshire, northeastern Connecticut and parts of Rhode Island, where more than 300,000 households have cable TV access.
The TV ministry has been streaming live on the internet for at least three years, Mr. Delisle said. He said one benefit has been that when men from foreign countries are ordained priests for the Worcester Diocese, family members and friends can watch the ordination live from their homelands.
All programs on television can also be viewed online. Only the daily and Sunday Masses and special Masses at the cathedral are streamed live, Mr. Delisle said.