Westfield – After the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass on February 19, members of Holy Trinity Parish in Westfield gather for lunch to commemorate the transfer of parish property from the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette to the Diocese of Springfield.
Bishop William Byrne of Springfield was willing to accept the parish church and grounds as well as parishioners and several previous La Salette priests who had been assigned to Holy Trinity. The mind was both joyful and nostalgic.
The president of the Rosary Society in the parish, Sandra J. Kielbasa said the missionaries at La Salette have been running the parish for 116 years, but their aging demographics โ fewer priests and a lack of new priests joining the order โ prompted them to end it. His mission at Westfield. The church at 335 Elm St., Westfield, will now be a diocesan parish of the Diocese of Springfield, like most Roman Catholic parishes in western Massachusetts.
“Its congregants face an uncertain future, but the motherly love of Our Lady of La Salette will nourish and support anyone in need,” Kielbasa said in a statement. “The message of hope has resonated at Holy Trinity for more than a century, and as long as one keeps God at the center of one’s life, hope breathes, nourishes and sustains one’s faith.”
Kielbasa rev. Chosen Renรฉ Parent, La Salette priest, who served as Holy Trinity’s pastor for the past 16 years, for his “exemplary” leadership and “steadfast and unceasing” dedication to the message of Our Lady of La Salette.
Rev. Du Ley has been appointed by the Diocese as the new administrator of Holy Trinity Parish.
