Immaculate Conception Church -- Golden Jubilee

Immaculate Conception Church
Holyoke, MA — Golden Jubilee

Our Sisters of the Presentation, Directress of the Mission
Immaculate Conception

S.M. Saint Elphege — 1907 to 1910
S.M. Saint Pierre Claver — 1910 to 1913
S.M. Sainte Gertrude — 1913 to 1919
S.M. Saint Jerome — 1919 to 1922
S.M. Saint Leonide — 1922 to 1928
S.M. Saint Flavien — 1928 to 1934
S.M. Saint Sebastien — 1934 to 1937
S.M. Saint Jerome — 1937 to 1938
S.M. Saint Theresa — 1938 to 1943
S.M. Sainte Adeline — 1943 to 1949
S. Marie Stella — 1949 to 1955
S.M. Sainte Adeline — 1955

      The convent was barely completed when it was necessary to begin the work of building a new church. A plan for a gothic church merited the praise and approval of the bishop, and on June 25, 1925 work began with the same contractor who built the convent.
      The blessing of the cornerstone took place on October 11, 1925. It was Msgr. Bernard S. Conaty, Grand Vicar of the Diocese, who presided over the ceremony, in the absence of His Greatness, Msgr. O'Leary, D.D., who was in Rome at the time.
      The opening and the blessing of the church were done on September 18, 1927. The Bishop sang the Solemn Papal Mass. At the end of the Mass, he warmly complimented the parishioners of the Immaculate Conception for their admirable spirit of cooperation with their Pastor for having built such a beautiful temple to the Almighty.

Maturity

      This program of construction had been the occasion of considerable loans. At the time of the parish Silver Jubilee, on October 18, 1930 at the most serious of economic crises, the interest due was beyond the means of the parish. This discouraging condition continued until 1935, the date of the formation of the Socials Committee. From 1935 to 1950 inclusively, this unparalleled parish committee, through its Friday night Socials, succeeded in paying off the debt, defraying the expenses of a complete repair of the rectory, the convent and the parish hall, as well as installing a Casavant organ in the church.
      These last improvements had been the work of Rev. Fr. Alphonse Hébert. Broken by worries and illness, Fr. Ginet celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination in the month of August 1947. Beyond the spiritual joys of such an occasion, his greatest consolation was to see the parish debt completely paid off.
      We have reproduced here under the guise of biographical notice the sermon of the Golden Jubilee of Fr. Ginet, preached by Fr. Arthur A. Brodeur, then Vicar of St. James of Danielson, Connecticut.



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