After almost three years of celebrating the Holy Mass in the Our Lady of Guadalupe gym building due to infrastructure damage in the main church, the parish of Saint Jerome opened their doors and the two Catholic communities joined together. The members of the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe were very happy about this new change and can’t wait for what the future holds. Saint Jerome was very accepting and eager to welcome the new addition to their community.

The main building of Our Lady of Guadalupe was forced to be shut down after some structural damage was found. Luckily, the parish had available space in their gym building to hold Mass in the meal-while. Although the members of the church were thankful for being able to celebrate their Mass, they felt like they needed to be in a church. For years the administrators and members of the church talked about the possibilities of building a new church in place of the old building.  

The parish Our Lady of Guadalupe began struggling on the financial side. They were responsible for paying for the utility bills of the gym building, parish house, and the church building they weren’t using. The church was struggling to pay for all of these costs. The members of the church donated as much as they could over the course of the years, but they still didn’t have enough. Even through all of this, they still kept their faith.

Fortunately, in a meeting with the parish priest from Our Lady of Guadalupe and the parish priest for Saint Jerome, it was decided that Our Lady of Guadalupe could use the Saint Jerome Church for their services. This brought two Catholic communities together in Holyoke which would make them stronger. The Parish of Saint Jerome formerly only celebrated Mass in English, but now with the new addition of Our Lady of Guadalupe they have a Spanish Mass every Sunday at 11:45.

The Parishes are still collecting their offerings of money separately for the time being. They are waiting for their new Bishop to be appointed so that they can finalize their unity as a single Parish. The two communities that have now become one are very excited for this new beginning and have accepted each other in open arms.