The following is an excerpt from East Bay Newspapers on the closing of St. Casimir’s Parish in Warren, Rhode Island.

St. Casimir’s Church closure still pains Warren parishioners

Tough void to fill

A small community is what brought former St. Casimir parishioner Barbara Godek to St. Thomas the Apostle Church. But it also took her time to find a new parish, and the warmth of the church she spent 45 years of her life at was one of the many things she lost when it closed its doors late last year.

“Finding a church, it’s like buying a pair of shoes. You try on a few but they just don’t seem to fit,” Ms. Godek said.

Another thing lost was the Divine Mercy Novena Sunday group that consisted of nearly a dozen Rosary women —” Ms. Godek’s fondest memory. But the group is inactive in other church’s and she finds no place puts as much emphasis on prayer as St. Casimir’s once did.

“We didn’t mind praying hours after hours for different things and different people. You don’t get that at other churches,” Ms. Godek said.

Members of the church’s Rosary Society were close. They met the Sunday after Easter for the Divine Mercy Novena, which celebrates a picture of Christ said to spawn miracles. People in Poland placed the photo in their homes during wars in hopes of sparing their family from bombings.

The Rosary Society, the feasts, the Polish music, the smiles, the prayers and the sermons remain simple memories.

“It’s sad and it was a very difficult thing,” Ms. Godek said. “We lost so much at one time that it was hard to cope with —” we’re like Moses in the desert.”

The simple faith of these people has been injured. Not only that, a community that practiced intercessory prayer is gone. It certainly won’t be reconstituted in the mega parishes with their focus on the bottom line. Yes, Ms. Godek, much has been lost. It’s just sad, discouraging…

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”