From CBS3 Springfield: Roman Catholic Alternative

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield announced this summer that 19 Catholic Churches are closing leaving many fighting to keep their places of worship open or looking for another church. We found local Catholic churches that are not part of the Roman Catholic diocese but are Catholic and run their church democratically.

Laurie Costello, member of National Catholic Church, says, “We came from the Roman Catholic Church and we just weren’t happy with the way things ran.”

Laurie Costello and her family changed churches 5 years ago when the Springfield Diocese closed the Roman Catholic school she grew up in.

Costello says, “We did fight to keep it open and we came to find out that no matter what you were going to do it has been decided.”

But at St. Joseph’s National Catholic Church in Westfield parishioners claim that would never happen to their church because they don’t answer to the Springfield Diocese or the Vatican.

Costello says, “The parish won’t close unless we vote on it.”

Susan Teehan, a life-long member of St. Joseph’s says, “The church is a democratic church. We own the property, the buildings.”

Teehan’s grandparents helped found St. Joseph’s 80 years ago. She’s been going to mass here since she was a little girl.

Teehan says, “I think other people feel they come to Sunday Mass and they leave and they have no voice in the church whereas we feel as if we are an important part of the church.”

Father Sr. Joseph Soltysiak says, “The people of this church have very much a say in the affairs that go on.”

Father Sr. Joseph Soltysiak has been the priest at St. Joseph’s for more than 15 years. He says everyone gets one vote, including him. But it’s very much a Catholic church.

Father Sr. Soltysiak says, “We are a very high church. We are a Catholic Church. Our main method of worship is the Holy Mass Eucharist.”

The National Catholic Church was founded in Pennsylvania in the late 1800’s by Polish-Americans who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church partly because of disputes over who owned church property. Currently, there are 8 churches in Massachusetts and have 25-thousand members in the United States. It used to be called the Polish National Catholic Church until recently. They changed the name to welcome all people.

Father Sr. Soltysiak says, “The majority of people coming here and who become part of our family are people who left their Catholic faith and they can find it again here but not under the jurisdiction of Rome.”

That’s exactly what Laurie Costello and her family did and they found a new religious home.

There are differences between the National Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most obvious is the priests can marry. Father Joe has several kids. One of them is also priest.

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The National Catholic Churches in Western Mass are in Chicopee, Northampton, South Deerfield, Ware and Westfield.