ADAMS (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

By Derek Gentile, Berkshire Eagle Staffberkshireeagle.com

Posted: 04/02/2012

ADAMS — For Sandra Mod erski, hearing the bells tolling at her church Sunday morning was the most beautiful sound in the world.

“It was so wonderful to hear them again,” she said.

After three years of silence, the bells summoned the faithful to celebrate Mass on Sunday, and Moderski and about 300 other parishioners gathered at the former St. Stanislaus Kostka Church for Palm Sunday services.

Sunday’s service was the first since the church was closed in 2009 following an announcement by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield that the parish would be consolidated at Notre Dame Church as part of a new Pope John Paul the Great parish. After a vigil by parishioners lasting 1,150 days and an appeal that went all the way to the Vatican, the church was reopened as a “chapel/mission” of…