Our Lady of Mount Carmel still affecting people

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – As people await the expected demolition of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, some are still moved by the holy site.
“It’s hard to see an Italian heritage like this being demolished,”  John Gillio said Aug. 1 as he sat in his car facing Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. “I’ve been coming here to pray” in the parking lot since the building was closed “to make sure it would stay open.” Days earlier a judge had dashed hopes of those wishing to save the building
The 87-year-old Mr. Gillio said he was baptized and confirmed in that parish and was an altar boy and sang in the choir. After Our Lady of Loreto became a parish, he and his father were invited to transfer their membership there.
He said his father, Battista G. Gillio, agreed to “as long as they have a priest that can hear my confession in Italian.” The younger Gillio said he himself was a lector at Our Lady of Loreto for more than 30 years, and a eucharistic minister for 15.
In 2011, upon moving to a retirement community, he joined nearby Immaculate Conception Parish, where he’s now a member.
“Our Lady of Mount Carmel was such a blessing” to Italian people who lived in its neighborhood, Mr. Gillio said. Even after he moved on, he stopped in when visiting various churches during Holy Thursday pilgrimages.
He noted that some people took offense to the closing of Mount Carmel and refused to attend Mass at Our Lady of Loreto Church, and it was expected to cost a lot to fix Mount Carmel.
“Say the church was saved … would the people all come back to support the church?” he asked. “I imagine they would.
“Loreto’s very successful,” he added. “I enjoyed it very much.”
Bishop McManus closed Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Mulberry Street in May 2016, due to safety concerns from structural issues. Worship was moved to Our Lady of Loreto on Massasoit Road, which had once been a mission of Mount Carmel. In February 2017 Bishop McManus merged the two Italian parishes. The new parish name was Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the church building on Massasoit Road retained the name Our Lady of Loreto Church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel church building remained closed as a private group called the Mount Carmel Preservation Society tried to save it. But at the end of July  Superior Court Judge Dennis M. Wrenn ruled against the group’s latest attempt to block demolition.
By last Saturday all items being saved had to be out of the church and the small rectory beside it, said Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, pastor. Both buildings were slated for demolition since no one bought the rectory, which would cost more than $100,000 to move, and it could be damaged by the removal of the steeple, he said.
The pastor was looking forward to Bishop McManus celebrating the 10:30 a.m. Mass this Sunday at Our Lady of Loreto Church.
“We’re very happy and very proud to host the bishop,” Msgr. Pedone said. “He will be with us to help us celebrate the combined parish festival,” which will include a procession with statues of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Loreto to the festival tent.
Traditionally the parishes each had their own Italian festival.
Faith – and someone who introduced him to it – was on the mind of a workman at the Mulberry Street site last week.
“A silver lining on my part” (to Mount Carmel’s impending fate) is an intention to go back to church, Nelson Jost told The Catholic Free Press after helping Cole Contracting, Inc. of Worcester move items out of the church. It’s a shame the building is being demolished, but people moved away from the church, he said.
He spoke of his desire “to be able to put a little something in the (collection) plate, to make sure I’m doing something.”
If he had children he’d try to raise them as his grandmother raised him, bringing him to St. Paul Cathedral, he said.
“I probably haven’t been there since my grandmother passed” a couple decades ago, he said. “I can’t say I’ve fallen out of faith but … everybody’s busy.”
Speaking of Mount Carmel he said, “This has affected so many people – the closing of this church.” He said it was sad the community fought so hard to resist the closing instead of making sure things in it would be given a new life in another church. However, he said, he doesn’t know what it’s like to lose something that is as close to him as the church was to some people.
“I’m hip to Worcester,” he said. But, “if I hadn’t been brought in to help, I probably would have glossed over” Mount Carmel’s closing and demolition.
Mr. Gillio said he decided that even if the Mount Carmel church building was demolished, he would still come to pray somewhere nearby.
“How can I just forget about this whole place?” he asked. “This is where I received my faith.”