BishopAccountability.org
	Church Closings Anger Parishioners By Stephanie Barry The Republican August 30, 2009 http://www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-22/125161662211580.xml&coll=1 Waves of shock, anger and resignation rippled across the region's Roman Catholic community Saturday, as announcements of widespread parish closings were delivered at afternoon Masses. Following a four-year analysis and a 108-page report issued by the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee, 14 churches will be shuttered by year's end, with cities like Chicopee and Northampton being hardest hit. Single-parish suburbs and those deemed "budding communities" such as Belchertown and Ware went unscathed. At Immaculate Conception in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield, some parishioners wept after the Rev. Dariusz Wudarski broke the news of that church's slated closure, more than a century after it was built. "We came here thinking everything was going to be fine," Phyllis Grondalski, a longtime parishioner said tearfully after a 4 p.m. service at the Parker Street parish. Members there were particularly angry because they just last year spent $400,000 on a renovation and installation of an elevator for the elderly - plus more on an upgrade to the rectory and church hall. Wudarski addressed his flock after a routine 30-minute Mass. Then, he neatly packed up his Holy Communion supplies and snapped open his briefcase to distribute copies of notification letters from the diocese. He contends the church ended up on the chopping block despite an explicit promise by the diocese that it would remain open. "This stinks. It stinks like 300 skunks," he said after the service. Wudarski was transferred to Immaculate Conception in 2008 after being displaced by two prior mergers.
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