Category: Worcester

Bernard E. Gilgun: Worcester’s Catholic Worker Priest

Father Bernie Gilgun, at age 84, quietly breathed his earthly last in the company of family and friends at the Grenon ICU Center of the University of Massachusetts Hospital in Worcester in the early afternoon of Easter Monday, April 25, 2011. Father Gilgun was widely known for his holiness, his preaching, and his love of the poor. His loss is acutely felt by his followers who viewed him as wise priest, expert leader in prayer, and teacher.
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Father Bernard Gilgun, RIP

Just got word that Father Bernie Gilgun, Catholic Worker and priest, has died. He had suffered a stroke over the weekend.

Here’s a remembrance from Michael Boover. There are many older Pie and Coffee items about him.

Father Bernie Gilgun prepares for mass
Father Bernie prepares for mass, 2006

Update: The wake will be on Thursday, April 28, 2011 from 3:00-7:00 PM, and the Mass of Christian Burial on Friday, April 29, 2011 at 11:00 AM, both at Saint Anne’s Church in Shrewsbury.

Elsewhere:

Holy Week church-hopping and other items

The day before Holy Week began, I attended a wedding at St. Columba’s United Reformed Church in Oxford, UK. St. Columba’s is down an alley near some of the Oxford colleges. It’s a normal sort of church inside, with a vestibule and facade that make it look like an office building.

Most churches stand out. St. Columba’s is hidden. Attending church there was like going to a house mass—nobody walking past suspects you’re going to a sacred gathering.

(Best wishes to the bride and groom—your lovely wedding is an auspicious start to your lives together.)
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“Beloved Community” at St. Peter’s and other items

But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. The type of love that I stress here is not eros, a sort of esthetic or romantic love; not philia, a sort of reciprocal love between personal friends; but it is agape which is understanding goodwill for all men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. It is the love of God working in the lives of men. This is the love that may well be the salvation of our civilization.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Deborah Plummer, Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, will be speaking on “The Beloved Community” at St. Peter’s Church in Worcester, Monday, April 11, 6:30pm.

The church is at 929 Main Street in Worcester, across from Clark University.

Worth noting that not only does Dr. Plummer specialize in the issues surrounding “diversity,” she was a nun for 13 years.

Happiness Pony

Asa Needle, Sarah Assefa, and I have published the first issue of a new newspaper for Worcester, Happiness Pony. We’re still figuring out distribution stuff–if you have a suggestion of a place you want to be able to find it, please post a comment.

And yes, we’ve talked about this title before.

508 #150: Stone Soup, ctd.

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Clifford Reiss and Brendan Melican. NOTE: There is more profanity than usual near the end of this week’s show.

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Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

Video: Downloads and other formats

Contact info.

You can watch 508 Fridays at 7pm on WCCA TV13.

Continue reading “508 #150: Stone Soup, ctd.”

Mason Street Musings

Originally published in the April/May 2011 issue of The Catholic Radical.

Ding Dong! “Good Grief!” I grumbled as I dragged myself out of bed. “Who the heck could be at our door at 2 a.m.?” I went into our chilly hall to see a young couple on our front porch.

I asked them in and quickly learned that they are musicians from Illinois who were sleeping in their van in a Walmart parking lot until it got too cold.

“Our van died in front of your house,” the husband said gesturing toward a vehicle jutting out at an angle from Mason Court into Mason Street. “We know the Saint Louis Catholic Worker,” he concluded, as if that pretty much told all we needed to know. Continue reading “Mason Street Musings”