Province News
Capuchin Spirit Grows in Vermont
Mary Kay Wilczynski of Pittsford, Vermont remembers the fear she and other St. Alphonsus parishioners felt last year. The then-pastor of St. Alphonsus Church in Pittsford was retiring in June and the Catholic Diocese was having trouble finding his replacement.
"We didn’t know what was going to happen," Wilczynski remembers. "We wondered if the church was going to close or whether we were going to get a priest who just comes by for mass and doesn’t live in the town."
A parishioner of St. Alphonsus since the 1980s, Wilczynski, a mother of two, had become an active member of the close-knit St. Alphonsus parish, which is the only Catholic church in Pittsford, a small town in west central Vermont that is home to 2,991 people.
With the pastor soon retiring and no available replacement, the Catholic Diocese reached out to the Province of St. Mary, which had recently established a presence in Vermont by staffing two nearby churches in the last five years.
After review and consideration, the Province of St. Mary accepted taking over St. Alphonsus Church in July, with Father Richard Crawley becoming administrator of St. Alphonsus in August.
"There are just two of us friars in Vermont and we were afraid we couldn’t wing it," said Father Richard Crawley. "But it’s a great church with very active parishioners. They really take great care of St. Alphonsus."
During his initial meetings with the parish council, Father Richard learned that St. Alphonsus had marked its 150th anniversary last year, but there had been no festivities or celebration to commemorate the special milestone. Not wanting to ignore this important anniversary, Father Richard and the parish council began to plan a 151st anniversary celebration that included a special mass, a parish community breakfast, and a photo display that showed St. Alphonsus throughout its 151 years of existence.
The anniversary celebration helped uplift the spirits of parishioners who participated by creating special anniversary t-shirts and anniversary signs along the main road of town, notifying townspeople of their church’s celebration.
"It really energized the Church," said Father Richard about the celebration. "There’s a feeling of security that they now have that they didn’t have before."
In addition to being a tight-knit community, St. Alphonsus parishioners also work to help the Pittsford-wide community. This includes packaging toiletries for the local battered women’s shelter, and organizing a parish group, Crafters with a Cause, which knits prayer shawls for the sick, and hats and mittens for families who visit the local food pantry.
For parishioners like Wilczynski, the Capuchin Franciscan Order’s presence is a blessing for her church.
"It’s such a relief," Wilczynski said. "We don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen to our church."
Although still very new to the parish, Father Richard hopes that the Province of St. Mary will become a strong presence in Pittsford.
"This is the first time a religious order has been part of this church," said Father Richard. "The whole notion of an order is new to them, but they have embraced us very well. I would like to think that the Order will be here for a long time and that there will be more friars who will come after me."
-DVM
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Posted:
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