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Date: 9/6/2023
BELCHERTOWN — On Sunday, Oct. 15, St Francis of Assisi Parish, 24 Jabish St., will celebrate its centennial anniversary.
Centennial Committee Chair Paula Moran said, “As a parish, we will recognize this anniversary with a 10:30 a.m. Mass, followed by a reception at the Castle of the Knights in Chicopee.”
The Centennial Mass will take place at St. Francis Church with the dinner reception taking place at 12:30 p.m. at the Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr.
Moran said, “We want to celebrate what we have taken and given to the community. We started off in an old church building that belonged to a different religion. We purchased it and turned it into a Catholic church because we had no Catholic churches in the area. The priests were coming from Bondsville and Chicopee.”
Invitations have been sent to all parishioners and tickets are $60 each.
Tickets must be purchased by Friday, Sept. 15.
You can contact the Centennial Committee at stfranciscentennial@gmail.com or call 413-323-6272 to purchase tickets.
The parish was originally purchased on Park Street in 1923.
“We grew and in 2005, relocated to a modern structure on Jabish St.,” Moran added.
Moran first moved to Belchertown in 1974 when the population was approximately 3,000 people.
The current population of Belchertown is approximately 15,000 people.
The Centennial Committee has been planning and celebrating this historic milestone for the past year with fundraisers and other small events.
There will also be a mission on Saturday, Oct. 7 and Sunday, Oct. 8 with Fr. Simeon from Colorado.
Moran added, “It was multifaceted process because it had a broad scope. We’ve tried to make things as affordable or free as possible. We had a good response to our fundraiser and lot of the local businesses have supported us in our endeavors.”
Since 1923, there have been 15 different St. Francis of Assisi parish pastors with David Darcy being the current pastor.
A descriptive history of the of the parish was produced by the St. Francis Communications Committee in February 2020.
From 1911 to 1918, Rev. Thomas Kennedy celebrated Mass in the Old Town Hall.
Through 1923, Rev. James McGrath celebrated Mass there as well.
The growing parish population warranted the purchase their own structure and on Oct. 19, 1922, McGrath purchased the property on Park St. for $6000.
This property is now known as the St. Francis Parish Center.
His task was to renovate the building to house a distinct Catholic church in Belchertown.
The growing church population forced the community to develop a building that began as the Brainard Meeting House in 1834, went on to host a Baptist Church from 1842 to 1900, developed into the Town Community Center and eventually turned into a vacant building once Lawrence Memorial Hall opened.
In 1996, through the guidance of Fr. Vern Decoteau, the church interior was refurbished and updated, but it was still too small for the rapidly growing parish.
A pledge program was created to recruit donations for new land and a new church was developed.
The newly established Building Committee selected and purchased land for the new church.
They managed the primary fundraising pledge program, worked to review and accept architectural plans, oversaw the new church building project and dedicated the new church on Jabish Street in September 2004.
The pastor went on to implement a church mortgage pledge campaign and to work with the parishioner team to fundraise, review and accept architectural plans to build a new rectory behind the new St. Francis Church.
The completed rectory located on the Jabish St. campus was dedicated in 2010.
Within this time frame, the Park Street building became the St. Francis Social Center, and the old rectory was converted into parish office space.
“We hope to have a good crowd celebrating and we are having it on a Sunday afternoon so that more people are able to come,” Moran said.