A New Diocese - the 1950s

this article was first published in the weekly bulletin 

The Centennial Mass in October of 1948 would the last visit of Bishop Thomas O’Leary to Saint Mary’s Parish in Milford.  It would be exactly a year and a day later, on October 10, 1949, when this faithful servant was called home at the age of 74, 28 of them as the Bishop of Springfield.  Msgr. John Phelan, who began his priestly career as a curate with Fr. Canavan and was responsible for inviting the Sisters of Saint Joseph to come and staff the parish schools.  At the time, he was Vicar General in Springfield, was placed in charge until a new bishop was appointed.  While anticipating the news of a new bishop, diocesan officials recommended to the Holy Father that the diocese be divided, a new one created from the expansive area of the Diocese of Springfield to better serve the Catholics of the area who were settling in the area of Central Massachusetts in large numbers.

The Vatican seriously considered the request and on February 1, 1950, announced the creation of the Diocese of Worcester from the region of the Diocese of Springfield.  The territory of this new diocese would be identical to the civic boundaries of Worcester County, making Milford the furthermost south western corner of the new ecclesiastical jurisdiction.  At the same time, Pope Pius XII named the young auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, former secretary to William Cardinal O’Connell and his successor, Richard J. Cushing the youngest bishop in the United States who was a diocesan ordinary.  The consecration of Bishop John J. Wright took place at the newly established Cathedral, named for Saint Paul, in the see city of Worcester.  There, on March 7, 1950, at that time the liturgical feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, his former boss, the Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cushing, handed the newly consecrated bishop the crozier and he took hold of the pastoral care of nearly half a million Catholics in the Diocese of Worcester.  While the seminary choir from Saint John’s in Brighton provided the music for the ceremony, each priest of the diocese stepped forward to genuflect and kiss the ring of their new spiritual father, having pledged their respect and obedience as priests of the new diocese. 

The new bishop would find his way to Milford the following Memorial Day.  Arriving on May 30, 1950, he presided at the Confirmation ceremony for nearly two hundred children and thirty adults from the parish.  It was an impressive and festive moment to present the parish to its new spiritual leader.  The young men were robed in red, the young ladies in white with red berets, an impressive and joyful moment for the new diocese, its new bishop, and the young people of the parish. 

A month later, Bishop Wright was again in Milford.  On this occasion, he was the guest of the Saint Mary’s Alumni at their annual reunion and banquet which filled the Milford Town Hall.  The change of venue was required because there were so many reservations, so many of the Milford Catholics who wanted to meet and hear what their new leader would say.  With his established reputation from his debating skills at Boston Latin and later at Boston College with his participation in the Marquette and Fulton Debating Societies, he did not disappoint. 

Bishop Wright kept the attention of the alumni by highlighting the presence of the oldest of their number in attendance who had graduated several decades prior and identified the changes that person had seen within their lifetime.  The experience of two world wars, the thrill of the roaring 20s, the devastation and poverty of the Great Depression, the advance of communism and the beginning of a nuclear age.  He then projected to the future and drew comparisons to imagine what the current graduates might experience as changes in their world when they would look back in another fifty years at the dawn of a new millennium in the year 2000.  And for those who graduate now, all of it is history to be studied and learned.  It all happened before their birth: the attack on the twin towers, the fall of the Berlin Wall, explosion of the Challenger and the assassination of President Kennedy along with Neil Armstrong walking on the moon are as far from their experience as was the Civil War or World War I from those listening to Bishop Wright that day.

this article first appeared in the weekly bulletin of 

That following November, the first to be exact, found Bishop Wright again traveling to Saint Mary’s in Milford.  Again, the occasion was a joyful one.  This one was not simply for the parish, but for the entire Church.  This day the Bishop came to our parish specifically because of our patron, that the Church honors Saint Mary of the Assumption.  On this day, Pope Pius XII, invoking papal infallibility declared as a dogma of our Catholic faith the truth that the Mother of the Redeemer was assumed body and soul to the glory of heaven.  His apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, identified that Our Lady as a matter of our faith had been assumed into the glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  “We pronounce, declare and define it to be divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.”

For several years, under the painful siege and self-imposed exile in the Vatican during the Second World War, Pope Pius had been investigating Church history and consulting the bishops of the world in preparation for this dogma.  Witnessing first-hand the atrocities of the Nazis and Facists that had marched across Europe during the preceding war, and a new onslaught in the efforts of Soviet Communism, he was concerned to make a statement against its falsehood and self-serving belief that destroyed the sacredness of human life.  He wrote,

“It is to be hoped that from meditation on the glorious example of Mary men may come to realize and more the value of a human life entirely dedicated to fulfilling the will of the heavenly Father and to caring for the welfare of others.  We also hope that while materialistic theories (such as Communism) and the moral corruption arising from them are threatening to extinguish the light of virtue, and by stirring up strife, to destroy the loves of men, the exalted destiny of both our soul and body may in this striking manner be brought clearly to the notice of all men.”

While it being defined as dogma was new, the belief was not.  It had been part of the life and faith of the Church for centuries.  There are writings from the Church fathers in the sixth century that identify and promote faith and understanding in the Assumption of Our Lady.  Even the title of our parish and its church identify that back in 1848, when the parish was first founded and the first church then built, the Assumption was understood and believed in by Catholics as the parish was named in honor of this event in the life of Our Lady.  In 1870, when our current church opened, Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, but it would be another 70 years before the dogma of our parish patron, the Assumption would enter as a matter of faith to the teaching of the Church.

The year of 1951 was one of great celebration at Saint Mary’s Parish.  The parish church had passed its seventieth year of activity and Fr. Foran, her pastor was marking fifty years since his ordination as a priest in the Basilica of Saint John the Lateran in Rome.  The centerpiece of a week long of celebrations would be the anniversary Mass on Memorial Day, Wednesday, May 30, 1951.  Hundreds of parishioners and friends were expected.

On the appointed day, about fifty priests gathered in the convent on Winter Street for the procession to the church for a solemn high Mass at 10 am.  In attendance were the vicar general of the Diocese of Worcester, Msgr. John Phelan, (whose first assignment was at Saint Mary’s and who invited the Sisters of Saint Joseph to come here to teach nearly a half century earlier), Fr. Canisius Kiniery, a Franciscan priest at Graymoor, NY (who had been Fr. Foran’s altar boy in his assignment in Gardner before he was assigned to Milford).  Two alumni of Saint Mary’s High School were also in attendance, Fr. Francis Sweeny, SJ who was at Boston College and Fr. Francis Small, SJ or Faifield University.  Fr. T. Lawrence Foran, SJ, of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and Fr. William A. Foran, pastor of Saint Ann’s Church in Oxford, two nephew of the jubilarian served as deacon and sub-deacon respectively of the Mass at which Bishop John Wright presided and preached.  They were assisted by the thirty voices of the senior choir, under the direction of Mrs. Stephen Gaffney with Mrs. Leon Zocchi as the organist since the usual director, Ben Lancisi was directing the Milford High School band in the parade.  As the bishop entered, the choir greeted him with ‘Ecce Sacerdos Magnus,’ a traditional hymn on the entrance of a bishop. 

Chaplains to the bishop were Fr. Raymond Della Porta, the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Milford, and Fr. Howard McCullough, pastor of Sacred Heart in Hopedale.  Seated in the church were the Sister of Saint Joseph who taught at Saint Mary’s Schools and the Daughters of Mercy who taught at Sacred Heart School in Milford.  Members of the Valencia Councl # 80 of the Knights of Columbus were in attendance including the Supreme Knight, Judge John Swift.

Bishop Wright preached about the eternal priesthood of Christ and how it has survived through the ages.  He recognized that while the fifty years of priestly service of Fr. Foran had embraced the tenure of five popes (Leo XIII, St Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII), the “civil, social and temporary conditions throughout the world have been overturned and changed.”  ‘During his priesthood all the major empires of the world and the ruling castes have changed.’  The Austro-Hungarian empire, the Bishop empire, the House of Savoy, the Romanoffs of Russia and the ruling family of Germany are all but figures of history.”  The bishop went on to identify the tremendous growth of the Catholic Church in America during the priestly life of Fr. Foran, making particular note of the strides made here in New England.  The ushers for the Mass were Cyril and James Kellett, James O’Neil and Frank Cuddihy.  Following the Mass, the priests were guests at a dinner held in the Hunt Room of Chicken Pete’s Inn.

The next day, Fr. Foran was honored at an assembly in the high school where the students presented him with a Spiritual Bouquet.  The subsequent day, which was the actual anniversary of his ordination, on June 1^st, Fr. Foran celebrated the 7 am Mass for the children of the parish.  The following Monday, June 4, 1951, the Catholic Woman’s Club honored the priest with a dinner and reception in the high school hall. 

The reception sponsored by the Catholic Women’s Club took place in the Saint Mary’s high school hall.  Mrs. Rita Daigle, president of the Club presided, introducing each speaker and presenting flowers to Miss Margaret Foran, a niece of Fr. Foran that attended.  Fr. T. Lawrence Foran, his nephew spoke of the scholarly appreciation of his uncle’s life.  Fr. John P. Donahue, former associate and then pastor of Sacred Heart in Hopedale gave jovial reminiscences of vacations with the jubilarian.  He also paid tribute the Foran family and their life together that had gifted the Church with four priestly vocations.  Fr. Thomas Carberry, assistant in Milford, appraised his qualities as a pastor.  That program included a poem of Jubilee Greetings, presented by Alma Maher, a sketch on the life of Fr. Foran by Cyril Kellett, a presentation of a basket of flowers, a spiritual bouquet from the school children and a check for five hundred dollars ($500).  Fr. Foran explained that the money would be directed toward the purchase of a new marble altar for the upper church.  Mrs. Fred Luby, past president, was in charge of the reception that followed the speaking program.  The lavish decorations were the responsibility of Julia Carlson while Ben Lancisi’s orchestra played during the dinner and reception.

Bishop John Wright, named as the founding bishop for the Diocese of Worcester in 1950 instituted an ambitious agenda to attract new Catholics, inspire and strengthen of faith of the hundreds of thousands already identified as such, and construct those buildings, schools, parishes and other institutions that the Church needed and would depend upon for the next several decades.  One of the efforts he encouraged was a gathering of Catholic women throughout the diocese each year on the first weekend of May.  This had been held in Worcester for the first two years, but by the third, there was no auditorium large enough to accommodate the attendees.  So, in 1954, two regional ones were scheduled, one in Gardner for October and the other in Milford known as the Southern Regional Diocesan Congress.  It was scheduled for Saturday, April 3, 1954.  The purpose of the day’s activities as outlined by Bishop Wright was ‘to give Catholic women an opportunity to meet with one another for mutual edification; for worship, and for discussion.’
The organization of this event involved 12 committees from 39 different towns representing 45 parishes from Milford and Southbridge and their environs.  Fr. Farnon of Saint Mary’s in Milford was designated as chairperson with Miss Olive McMichael of Blackstone as the chair and Miss Angelina DeCesare of Sacred Heart and Mrs. Hector Gaudette of Saint Mary’s as the first vice-presidents to the chair.  Events would be staged in both Saint Mary and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parishes in Milford and the Town Hall auditorium.  Both the upper and lower churches of Saint Mary’s would be utilized.  More than 174 nuns, from the 10 different religious congregations that staffed the Catholic schools in the parishes would be present. They would be guests of the congress at a special luncheon for them in the Sacred Heart of Jesus cafeteria.  The other congress members would break for lunch which was provided in the armory on Peart Street.
The women’s program, with more than a thousand women in attendance opened with a Pontifical Mass in Saint Mary’s Church celebrated by Bishop Wright.  The sermon was on the theme of the Congress: “Our Land and Our Lady.”  It was given by Fr. Joseph Jurasko, OP, of Providence College in Rhode Island.  The setting for the Mass was “in Honor of Our Lady of Fatima,” arranged by Sr. M. Florentine.  A choir of 70 voices with membership from Saint Mary’s, Sacred Heart of Hopedale and Sacred Heart in Milford provided the music for the worship at the under the direction of Miss Ada DiGiannantonio who was assisted by Ben Lancisi as the organist.
Over 1,600 young teenage women also were in attendance.  Their day’s events began with a Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish celebrated by Fr. Daniel Egan of the Atonement Friars from Graymoor, NY who also presented two of the afternoon sessions to the young participants. These sessions were held in Saint Mary’s Church.  One of the points that Fr. Egan made was in trying to help the teens understand their parents so that they could get along better.  He reminded them that their parents were people like them before they met, fell in love, married and had children.  He tried to help them understand their parents as fellow human beings.  He explained, “They too get financially broke and discouraged and tired and fed up with monotony.  And when they do, they act as people do.  In other words, kids, it would be much easier to understand your parents if you could learn to treat them as people and to project in to their persons your own feelings and reactions to things.  Try it. Sometimes it works magic.”
The women’s program was held in the auditorium of the Town Hall.  The main speaker was Msgr. Francis Lally, the editor of the Boston Pilot, the catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston.  His topic was “Springs of Evil” and he identified how the disintegration of modern culture, the rise of secularism, and the lack of moral values coupled with the preponderance of violence on the television were leading young people astray, believing that this is what the world should be like.  “The springs of evil bubble at our feet.  All of us are threatened by these small forces of evil that become stronger unless controlled at the start.”
The afternoon session followed the lunch in the Armory and it was a panel discussion in the Town Hall.  The opening prayer was offered by Fr. John Farnon, curate at Saint Mary’s Parish.  Each of the three speakers spoke on how schools, homes and parishes contribute to the civilization and culture of democracy.  The first of the three speakers was Dr. Daniel H. O’Leary, president of the State Teachers’ College, Lowell (in 2021, Lowell State University).  With a perspective from history he offered how Catholic schools had helped to promote both piety and patriotism in the hearts of Catholic children. 
Next up was Mrs. Helene Dardis, a lawyer and lecturer from Georgetown University and a mother of two young daughters.  She outlined possibilities of what Catholic households could do to help promote both piety and patriotism drawing parallels from her life at home with her imagined experiences of the Holy Family at Nazareth.  “She emphasized the great virtues of home life: the love of parents for their children; the reciprocal love of those same children for their parents; and the great need for love, understanding, and tolerance.”  She encouraged parishes to make good use of the leisure time of young people to assure them that they had a place to belong at home, at school, and in their local parish.
The final speaker was the director of the Youth Guidance Center in Worcester.  Miss Elenora Sanders presented on “The Contribution of Our Parishes” identifying that in the 1950s, the first experience most children had outside of his or her nuclear family was not in Kindergarten, but at church, in the local parish.  (Sadly, nearly three-quarters of a century later, that is hardly true: most children’s first experience out of the family is a play date, community sports, or a reading session at the library).  She shared details of the work she was doing at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Worcester.  There she had organized after school programs and vacation projects to help young people grow “spiritually, morally, and civically conscious of their responsibilities to each other.”  She had started with fifty, the group was now around 150 and was expected to be at 300 before the year’s end. 
Following the three presentations, Miss McMichael opened a discussion period.  The speakers shared from their experience and help the delegates come to an awareness and new insights to many of the concerns that they presented.  Following this, the women returned to Saint Mary’s Church where Bishop Wright led them in a holy hour as the preacher.  He drew the attention of the participants to the beautiful windows of the church that dept the life of Our Lady.  “Do you really think things were like that? He asked “More likely, they were exceedingly drab.  The artist has clothed his subjects in costly garments and placed them in rich surroundings to bring to us the majesty of the spiritual values, not the physical realities.  What does it matter whether we have marble or mud?  The spiritual reality is what is permanent.”
Following this holy hour, Bishop Wright led another in Saint Mary’s Church for the teenage women who arrived next.  He addressed a topic at the time of lowering the voting age to 18.  He challenged them to be aware of the burden that this privilege would entail.  He identified that the very question of the topic identified the important role they played in their community and to be engaged at their young age in its activities whether they were allowed to vote or not. 

Pope Pius XII had a strong devotion to Our Lady throughout his life and especially during his pontificate. In the middle of World War II, in 1943, he declared a holy year in recognition of the silver anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima.  That led him to consult all the bishops of the world on the assumption of Our Lady and to promulgate it as dogma in 1950.  Four years later, on the centenary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception he declared a Marian Holy Year. 
In recognition of this Holy Year, many planned trips to the famous shrines of Lourdes and Fatima in Europe.  Knowing that for many the financial burden would be a difficulty; the Pope authorized each bishop in the USA to designate certain churches within his own diocese as the destination for a diocesan pilgrimage.  Bishop Wright looked to Saint Mary’s Parish Milford as the site of a special diocesan devotion.  The oldest parish in the diocese honoring Our Lady, it was the first to be selected for the pilgrimage which was scheduled for Sunday, September 6, 1954.  The response far exceeded expectations and the event was closed at 26 buses for a total of 1,100 pilgrims, with a hundred of them coming from Milford.  That also meant that 500 others were unable to participate since the organizers were concerned about managing the number on a single day traveling 150 miles together, a police escort from local towns along the journey would help to make it smooth and safe for everyone. 
A caravan of buses would transport Catholics from throughout the diocese to the six shrine churches.  On the buses, the pilgrims sang hymns to Our Lady and recited the rosary.  Boarding buses in front of Notre Dame Church in the heart of the city of Worcester.  They visited churches under the patronage of Our Lady in Gardner, Fitchburg, Southbridge, Milford and ended at the Cathedral church in Worcester. 
Bishop Wright in his talk mentioned how referring to Our Lady as Saint Mary is an ancient and honored practice in the English-speaking world brought to the States from England.  During the service here in Milford the bishop referenced the piety of the early Irish immigrants who quarried stone from local quarries to build the church.  He also commented on the later Italian immigrants who grew in number and built the local Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish and their devotion to the Madonna.  He called for prayers for an abiding friendship and rebirth of faith among English speaking people, noting, “noting unity among these may easily be the indispensable condition of peace in our generation.”  Fr. Foran encouraged the pilgrims with the wish that their prayers and faith to the Mother of God would be rewarded.
Pope Pius concluded the Marian Holy Year of 1954 on October 11^th by issuing an encyclical, Ad Caeli Reginam, that proclaimed Our Lady as Queen of Heaven.  This was consistent with much Catholic theology and piety, most notably that the final glorious mystery for the rosary is her being crowned as queen of heaven and earth.  This great attribute of Our Lady was the cause of a unique and unparalleled celebration in Milford, believed to be the first in the nation in recognition of Our Lady’s new title.  It took place on May 31, 1955 at Fino Field with representation from the twelve parishes of the southeastern deanery of the Diocese of Worcester.
The event was organized by John F. X Davoren who was the president of the Holy Name Society who was assisted by the past president Morgan Flaherty.  For two months they had planned this event, meeting at both parishes in Milford as well as in Whitinsville and Westboro.  It began with a solemn procession, led by Captain William Broderick as marshal from Pearl Street to Fino Field.  Marshal Broderick led an impressive lineup of the Milford Police, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars Color Guards, the National Guard from Massachusetts Company I, the Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree, visiting clergy from the parishes participating, members of the Milford civic organizations.  They were accompanied by the Milford High School marching band, the Rockdale Bugle and Drum Corps, the Millbury Drum Corps, and the Ashland Fife and Drum Corps. 
Stepping off at 8:45 pm from Pearl Street they marched to Main Street, turned and Sumner Street and the proceeded to Fino Field.  At Fino Field a statue of the Blessed Mother had been prepared in center field, banked by floral arrangements prepared by Julia Carlson, a parishioner of Saint Mary’s.  Arriving at Fino Field, the marchers were greeted by 8,000 of the faithful who had gathered from the parishes of the deanery:  Sacred Heart and Saint Mary’s of Milford, Sacred Heart of Hopedale, Our Lady of Lourdes in East Millbury (now located in Worcester) along with Saint Brigid’s, Saint Michael’s of Mendon, Holy Angels in Upton, Saint Mary’s in Uxbridge, St. Patrick’s in Whitinsville, St. Peter’s in Northbridge, Saint Rose’s in Southborough and Saint Luke’s Westboro. 
On the field, 1,250 men, dressed in white shirts and black slacks, formed the shape of the rosary, carrying flashlights to be illuminated in red, green, and gold.  Eighty members of the Edward McSweeney Assembly of the 4^th degree Knights of Columbus formed the medallion of the rosary.  Following a rendition of ‘Ave Maria’ by Anthony Allegrezza the field lights were extinguished so that in the darkness only the floodlights shining on the statue of Our Lady were lit.  The rosary was led by Fr. John Farnon, Assistant Pastor at Saint Mary’s Parish.  Each decade of the rosary was led by a layman:  Joseph Burns from Saint Mary’s, James Burke from Whitinsville, Forest Noe from Upton, Norman Gebo from Westboro and Louis LaPreste from Scared Heart in Milford.  A flashlight was illuminated by one of the men to indicate which prayer on the rosary was being prayed.  At the end, the field was ablaze with red, green, and gold lights.
Following the rosary, Bishop Wright addressed the vast gathering.  He reminded them that the earliest Europeans to arrive in this ‘New World’ placed it under the protection of Our Lady. Spanish and French explorers and the priests who accompanied them brought the gift of faith in Jesus Christ to this land and he prayed that “Mary, Queen of Mankind, give humanity the peace for which it craves.”  Benediction followed the bishop’s remarks, led by Fr. James Deery of Whitinsville, assisted by Fr. John Shannon of Upton and Fr. Arthur on Faron of Hopedale.  At the end, all present, over 10,000 voices sang “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.”  Then Marshal Broderick sang the national anthem and the day’s festivities were concluded.  The Milford Daily News reported that souvenir booklets were provided to each attendee, but none are known to have survived.