Thursday, September 28, 2006 FEATURE Southern Cross, Page 3 “There’s no place like home”: it’s a , whether in or Savannah n mid-July, 2006, my son, John, and I traveled to Boston, so that John Icould receive treatment at General Hospital. Once we were settled in Beacon House, a housing facility in historic Beacon Hill, our first priority was locating a Catholic church within walking distance. The area’s hilly streets and narrow brick sidewalks were new to us. So was the traffic we encountered on Cambridge Street at the foot of Beacon Hill. So was the activity that permeated every segment of the street. We found, after checking at Bea- was to become Saint Joseph’s had con House, that the nearest Catho- been housed in a rented hayloft lic church was probably Saint Jo- space. The congregation later as- seph’s, located on Cardinal William sembled at an organ factory at O’Connell Way. Cardinal O’Con- North Grove and Cambridge nell Way turned out to be a little Streets. During the post-Civil War street at the end of a tunnel-like period the Diocese of Boston alley between a CVS Pharmacy bought property on Allen Street and a Whole Foods Store, and enlarged the former Saint Joseph’s was a good- Unitarian church—now sized, red brick church Saint Joseph’s—to its pres-

Saint Joseph Church, Beacon Hill, Boston courtesy of the Diocesan Archives. Photo dwarfed by modern con- ent size. The church’s rec- struction and anchored by tory was built on yet O’Connell. O’Connell—as we priests from France and Ireland , a residence another piece of Allen learned—spoke on Boston’s were initial nurturers of the faith. for retired priests of the Street property. A“ Hook Catholic television weekly from his Coincidentally, a native of South Boston Archdiocese. It Hastings” organ, still used computer-generated studio, “Studio Boston, or “Southie,” James Bren- C.” His series, “We’ve Got to dan Connolly, resided for a time in looked unlike any church Rita H. DeLorme today, was installed in we had ever seen in the Saint Joseph’s Church in Talk,” is remarkable for being the the Diocese of Savannah. The Diocese of Savannah. 1884. Two years later, the future longest continuously running one young Bostonian attended the Originally Congregationalist Cardinal William H. O’Connell on Catholic TV and won a Pro- Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist The reason for this disparity became at the West End claim Award in 1997. Once again, in Savannah and was active in the turned out to be the architectural church and served there for seven in this year’s new series of talks, Catholic Library Association. Con- provenance of the church. De- years. Father O’Connell speaks of reli- nolly later returned to Boston signed by Boston architect Alexan- “Urban flight” gion and faith, tying them in with where he managed to round up der Parris, it was erected in 1834 In 1900, parishioners overflowed everyday life experiences. backing and funds enough to enter for the Twelfth Congregational the church, but by the 1950-1960 We should have known from the the Olympics of 1896. Following a Society, and was the first church decade “urban flight” had begun. start that Father Daniel O’Connell, jump of 44 feet, eleven and a half built after the Unitarian Schism. Cataclysmic events occurred: parts diminutive and dynamic, was a inches, James Connolly walked Costing $34,000, it was considered of the West End of Boston gave speaker of note. His sermons at the from the field wearing the first “the most elegant church in Bos- way to a viaduct, Cambridge Street 4:00 p.m. Saturday Mass we at- medal of the modern Olympics. ton” of its day. In the 1850s Bishop was widened, Massachusetts Ge- tended each week inspired us dur- Citing “the mental, physical and John Bernard Fitzpatrick purchased neral Hospital began expanding ing our long absence from home spiritual benefits” of the Boston the building (with its organ) for and the city of Boston launched a and family. The liturgy at Saint neighborhood he grew up in, $27,000. program of urban renewal. “In Joseph’s was comforting. So was Connolly later commented: “I According to a history of Saint 1960, Saint Joseph’s Church and the devotion of an elderly parish- would rather be born in South Joseph’s Church, the sale of the rectory stood alone amid the rubble ioner who relied on a cane as he Boston than any other place I building was contested by the Uni- of the decimated Old West End” moved to the podium each Sa- know.” tarian Church, but the courts subse- (Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church turday to enunciate the readings Like both Olympic champion quently upheld the transaction. In History). after their synopsis by another James Brendan Connolly and his- 1862, Archbishop John J. Williams Still, the old church remained in reader. From somewhere above us, toric Saint Joseph’s Church, the dedicated Saint Joseph’s Catholic operation and celebrated its centen- the grand old “Hook Hastings” Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has Church and named Father Patrick J. nial in 1962. In 1968, Father Ge- organ echoed throughout the persevered. From July till Septem- O’Reilly (later Bishop of Spring- rald Bucke arrived on the scene just church as a parishioner with a mag- ber, 2006, it provided two home- field, Massachusetts) its first pas- in time to rejuvenate Saint Joseph’s nificent voice led the singing of sick Georgians—one of whom was tor. and remained on the job for 31 hymns and responses. undergoing rather taxing medical Parish origins years. The church took another step Similarities treatment—with comfort and the Before the purchase of the church forward when the McCrossen fami- Like Catholics in the Diocese of awareness that the Catholic Church designed by Parris, the parish that ly decorated the upper church and Savannah, Boston Catholics have is the Catholic Church, whether it Humberto Cardinal Mederios was endured periodic bouts of anti- speaks with a northern accent, the TV Mass Schedule on hand to celebrate the reopening Catholic prejudice. Despite the honeyed tones of the deep south or of that part of the church. Once presence of a plaque indicating the the voice of another nation entirely. again, in 1987, the aging church site of the first public Mass in AUGUSTA Boston at 24 School Street and the Columnist RITA H. DELORME observed an anniversary—its is a volunteer in the Diocesan Sunday, 10:00 a.m. WAGT-TV 125th. In 1999, Father Gabriel Troy touching “Famine Immigrants Memorial” at School and Washing- Archives. She can be reached became pastor. at [email protected]. SAVANNAH By the time we walked in its ton Streets, neither Catholics nor Saturday, 6:00 p.m. Cable 7 doors this past July, Saint Joseph’s famine-era Irish were favorite Sunday, 5:30 a.m. WTOC-TV parishioners were welcoming inhabitants of the city early on. Just another pastor, Father Daniel as in the Diocese of Savannah,