Anniversary of the Last Day of Holy Rosary

This is an annual post, updated only slightly. Much of the language reflects my thoughts and feelings of the day, taken from my journaled notes. Over the past few years, my feelings have mellowed and matured somewhat. It is, however, good to recollect the day.

Depart from me, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me.
(Antiphon 1 of Monastic Lauds for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows)

On this day in 2020, Archbishop Paul Etienne celebrated the final Mass of Holy Rosary parish in Tacoma. Tomorrow is the Feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the following day is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. That’s no coincidence.

In his blog at the time, his excellency had this to say:

Despite poor air quality due to heavy smoke in the air from surrounding wildfires, nearly 200 parishioners gathered at Noon Sunday for an outdoor Mass of Thanksgiving at Holy Rosary in Tacoma.

Now that a decision has been made determining the parish is no longer viable on its own and will need to transition to a yet unknown union with another parish or group of parishes, we wanted to gather to celebrate the nearly 130 years of parish life, ministry and faith. 

At the end of Mass, parishioners came forward to retrieve the vases of roses from around the altar and all of us processed to the front of the church where we placed the flowers. We concluded our moment of prayer reciting the Hail Mary together, seeking the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Read the rest here.

For the final Mass, the archbishop was joined by several concelebrating priests who served at Holy Rosary during the past decade: Rev. Tuan Nguyen (pastor 2009–2011 and now pastor of the merged parishes), Rev. Jacob Maurer (priest administrator and then pastor 2011–2015), Rev. Martin Bourke (parish priest 2018–2019), and Rev. Michael Radermacher (priest moderator 2018–2020).

It is my privilege to have worked in some capacity with three of these priests. They are holy men of God and gentlemen all.

A crew of volunteers arrived at 7 AM to begin the setup for our Noon Mass. Before the smoke set in, we had arranged for canopies to cover the parking lot where the Mass was to be held. With area shrouded in smoke, we didn’t need the canopies to keep out the sunshine, but they did prove helpful in keeping ash off of the congregation. There wasn’t much of it – I presume it came from the fires in south Pierce County – but I definitely found some falling ash on my planning notebook.

Volunteers came from three Marian parishes: Holy Rosary, Visitation, and Our Lady Queen of Heaven. Many thanks to Father Martin Bourke at Visitation and Deacon Jim Fish at OLQH for the use of their canopies.

And special thanks must go to Jerry Bradshaw and his crew from OLQH and John Albers and the Visitation Knights of Columbus. You guys are heroes!

Our intrepid choir director, Amy Gallwas arrived about 8:30 to set up the sound system before jetting off to sing at another Mass.

Another wave of volunteers arrived about 10 AM to help set up the sanctuary area. There were really too many to name, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the amazing John Baker, our former Pastoral Council President and our Lead Safety Volunteer for the Mass. John is a gracious and inspiring leader, and he kept the volunteers moving.

And I think a solid third of those volunteers were from the Copeland family. Thanks to you all!

I’d also like to thank Leigh Stringfellow from the Chancery. She helped manage the organization of this Mass, ran interference where it was necessary, and showed up at 7:30 in the morning with her husband to help set up. She was great!

We were fortunate to have three altar servers at the Mass, made possible only because they were all siblings. Although all three of the Hygema siblings are knowledgeable and reverent servers, due to the COVID restrictions, their roles were limited primarily to the opening and closing processions. We weren’t allowed the use of incense, but I think there was enough smoke in the air.

Archbishop Etienne was gracious and kind to us, and in particular he had some words of wisdom and empathy for me that were a great consolation to me.

The music was magnificent thanks to Amy, who beautifully chanted all of the proper antiphons, and to accompanist Janice Bernsten, who might just be the best keyboard/piano/organist around. As a special surprise, our former choir director Maestra Victoria Solenberger chanted the Alleluia verse. It was heavenly.

Gary Rose proclaimed the readings. He was an instituted Lector, and he has since been ordained a Deacon. We have served together in the Holy Rosary altar server corps for many years.

Father Maurer proclaimed the Gospel. Francine later told me that she started choking up hearing his voice again at Holy Rosary.

Several folks at the time asked me about the petitions for the ill and the dead, so I will reproduce those as we prayed them:

For those not in the know, you can check out the footnote!¹

I did my very best to hold back my tears during the Archbishop’s homily. In fact, after the Mass I apologized to him. I was a sloppy altar server in the latter half of the Mass, just trying to keep it together.

When Amy sang “Father Michael’s Song” during Communion, I wept unashamedly.

After the final blessing and the Saint Michael prayer, the Archbishop rather unexpectedly called for one final procession. We processed from the parking lot where the Mass had been celebrated around to the front of the church. There, we laid flowers and the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in thanksgiving and prayer at the foot of Our Lady. The Archbishop led us in one final Hail Mary. It was a beautiful and fitting moment.

We had 200 people signed up for the Mass, plus clergy and volunteers. Due to the smoke, not everybody made it, but there were still about 150 people there.

For those who may be interested, here is the PDF of the worship aid distributed to all who came to the Mass. It includes the scriptural readings, which I think were entirely appropriate to the day.

After breakdown, we finally turned in our keys and left after 2 PM.

Over the previous year or so, I often joked that I would be the last person out of Holy Rosary when we were finally shut down. I wasn’t of course – there were assorted Chancery and transition folks in the school when we left – but I did serve as parish M.C. for two weeks after the date of the parish suppression, so that’s… odd.

The day was busy as you might imagine, so I had very little time to take in and process the sorrow of the event. It was only during the quiet, still moments where the sense of sorrow and profound grief threatened to overcome me. During the Archbishop’s homily, during the singing of “Father Michael’s Song”, and a brief moment when I was alone in the temporary sacristy after the Mass. I just sort of put my head down for a moment and let the waves of sadness wash over me.

There were also consolations on the day, and I’m sure that there will be more of those in the days and weeks to come.

In our sorrows, we unite ourselves with the Mother of Sorrows and in our sufferings to the Cross of Christ. Our parish community became scattered orphans, grief-stricken, anxious, and feeling abandoned. We must strive in those times, as Saint Benedict directs us, to dash those anxieties at the foot of the Cross.

The parish bounds of Holy Rosary were subsumed into those of Saint Ann, in preparation of the eventual merger of five parishes into the new parish of Pope Saint John XXIII. I don’t know what adventure the Lord has planned for us now, but it will be amazing.

O God, who willed that,
when Your Son was lifted high on the Cross,
His Mother should stand close by and share his suffering,
grant that your Church,
participating with the Virgin Mary in the Passion of Christ,
may merit a share in his Resurrection.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

(Photos courtesy Judy Rose and Leigh Stringfellow. A video of the final Mass may be viewed here.)

1. Rev. Mark Weichmann, O.S.B. was pastor of Holy Rosary from 1914 until 1935, and it was he who led the campaign to raise the money and build the current Holy Rosary church, which was dedicated in 1921.

   Sister Alphonsa O’Donnell led the first wave of Benedictine sisters that arrived in 1892, and she served as principal of the school from 1892 to 1901.

   I’ve spoken of Dom Matthew Britt before.

   Frank and Lena Schaupp were the first couple to be married at Holy Rosary, on October 29, 1891. In addition, Frank was a member of the Founders’ Committee that established the parish.

   John Stellbrink was our first choir director, serving from the very beginning of the parish in 1891 until sometime in the mid 1930s.

   Darrell Jesse was a longtime supporter and patron of Holy Rosary church and school, and Norm Daigneault was a volunteer who donated countless hours to Holy Rosary. Both died in the past few years.

   Father Michael Wagner was our pastor who died in 2018.