Last Masses bring tears
Published: September 28, 2009
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Jason Farmer / Staff Photographer Helen Spinley, 95, of Jermyn, the oldest parishioner of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Mayfield, hands the Rev. John Kulavich the keys after locking the doors Sunday following the final Mass.
Jason Farmer / Staff Photographer The Most Rev. James C. Timlin, bishop emeritus of Scranton, delivers an emotional homily Sunday as the principal celebrant of the final Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church in South Scranton.
The Most Rev. James C. Timlin consolidated the feelings of hundreds Sunday as he served as principal celebrant at the closing Mass for St. John the Evangelist Church in South Scranton.
"I loved St. John's," the bishop emeritus said, tearing up during his homily. "We thank God for all the glorious memories we have of this parish."
Closing rites were also held Sunday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Mayfield as the diocese consolidates 209 parishes into 118.
An air of sorrow enveloped both ceremonies, and participants cried during the final Masses.
"It's a sad day," Christine Tocki-Mulvey of Mayfield said as she sat on the vestibule steps at Sacred Heart with her 5- and 3-year-old sons.
"I was married in this church. My kids were baptized here," she said.
Bishop Timlin was a member of St. John the Evangelist Church until age 10, when his family moved to North Scranton. He received his first Communion in the church and attended the parish school. He amused the congregation Sunday with his recollections.
"This is undoubtedly a sad occasion for all of us," he told about 300 parishioners who attended the final Mass. "It has to be - difficult as it is. ... The faith goes on and life goes on."
St. John the Evangelist is being consolidated into Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church, about four blocks away. The parish will be called St. Paul of the Cross.
Bill Walsh, 78, a lifelong member of St. John the Evangelist Church, was among the ushers taking up the final collection. He was baptized in the church.
"I don't want it to happen, but what are you going to do?" Mr. Walsh said as the Mass concluded. "It was a good parish. I have some very good friends here."
About 250 people packed Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Mayfield, which is consolidating with Sacred Heart of Mary Church in Jermyn to form Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish.
"When a church closes, it's very similar to a death," the Rev. Thomas Shoback, pastor of Sacred Heart in Jermyn, said during his homily at the closing of the Mayfield church. "We go through that grieving process, but we know in the end, that hurt begins to heal. ... We begin to form a new community of faith."
Contact the writer: jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com
28 posted comments
I don't believe I was created any more in God's image than my lovely wife - and she certainly feels the same way. There's an added complication. Maybe 51% of us are born female, 48.9% of us born male, but a small percentage of us are born with both sets of organs! Can they be priests? Nuns? Both? Neither? Why? Who gets to decide? Why did God do that? Finally, I have a fantasy - the Holy Spirit (maybe God the Mother???? Ever seen a picture????) get's really angry at the people who've been eliminating half the flock from the job. Again, take my advice - make the people happy. Include the statues from all of the closed ethnic churches in a grotto (people will volunteer time and materials to do this). Have all the ethnic foods at the picnic. Sing all the ethnic hymns. Occasionally have an ethnic priest over to celebrate a Polish, Italian, Irish, Russian, whatever Mass. Celebrate the diversity God created - including the fact that you are outnumbered, and ought to recruit from the MAJORITY for the priesthood. Remember, God the Mother could be watching! (The opinions expressed herein are my own, and not necessarily the opinion of my Church and/or my old religion teachers..... Sigh.)
Once you are inside the "club" of priests you hear how they put women down all the time... laugh at women who want to be priests.. call them "feminazies" and lezbos and other terms. I know because I personally heard it and it has not changed. This patriarchal church is corrupt and drunk with power hungry men who want to PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THEIR SOLE RIGHT TO PRIESTHOOD. Nowhere in the scriptures are women barred from priesthood. Nowhere in scriptures does it say you must have male genitals to be a priest. All male priesthood defames women and prevents the Gospel mandate to go and preach the word to all nations. Christ did not say only males could do it. He surrounded himself with women of Galilee all the time. Rememember the first to see and experience the Resurrection of Christ was Mary Magdala NOT a man. Watch all the male priests jump in and get defensive.. like they need to defend their machoness and their elite "club".
'if you say a lie enough