From left, Joseph Witkowski Jr., Kasey Smith, Anna Witkowski, David Byrne Master of Ceremonies, Jean Beard, Rev. Mark S. Suslenko, Joseph Gomez, Deacon Domenic Stolfi, Jillian Plante, Joseph Bohuski, and Rita Plante celebrated the 75th anniversary of the first Catholic mass in Prospect at St. Anthony’s church July 17.

PROSPECT — One Sunday 75 years ago, Joeseph Gomez stood in front of St. Aedan’s Church in New Haven holding a sign to solicit donations for a new Catholic church in Prospect.

Gomez, who was four years old at the time, and his five older brothers raised $400 that day.

“They felt sorry for the scrubby little kid,” Gomez said.

On July 19, St. Anthony Church in Prospect marked the 75^th anniversary of its first mass.

Gomez remembers trailing after his mother, Louise, as she rode up Cook Road on a horse and buggy canvassing families to find out how many Catholics would join their new parish.

A small group of the devout held bake sales and turkey dinners to raise money to give the faithful a home in Prospect.

“Everybody chipped in and raised some funds,” Gomez said.

In early July of 1936, Prospect had no town hall, no large buildings, and the school was not yet completed, according to Gomez. The newly-formed parish had no place to worship. Then people from the Prospect Grange offered the use of their hall for the group’s first mass.

No one on the Grange board was Catholic, he said.

“We thought that was a very noble gesture on their part,” he said.

Father Richard Morrissey celebrated the first mass in the upstairs room at the Grange. Even though the hall was small, it seemed to be overflowing, Gomez recalled.

“My mother bragged about it for years,” he said.

The parish continued to hold masses at the Grange until moving to the newly-completed Community School and occasionally, the police barracks in Bethany.

Eventually, the parish raised enough money to begin construction of their church in 1939, but it wasn’t completed until 1943.

They chose the name St. Anthony because a local family donated the land for church on June 13, the feast of St. Anthony, according to Gomez.

The original church was eventually moved to a more central location at the junction of Route 68 and Route 69, where it is today.

As a lifelong resident of Prospect, Gomez said he saw a lot of changes come to the town.

“As new families came in, it became less of a farm town and more of a bedroom town,” he said.

St. Anthony's Church marked the 75th anniversary of its first mass recently.

New residents brought a supermarket to town, a dentist, doctor offices, and other conveniences, he said.

“St. Anthony’s Church grew with that influx of people,” Gomez said.

Soon, those people overtook the space available.

In 1962, then Pastor Father James O’Dea pushed to build the new and more modern church that exists today, according to Gomez.

“We have a very vibrant parish now,” Gomez said.

Throughout the years, Gomez said he remained active in the church community. He said some of his favorite memories of church life are the Christmas bazaars. His mother had white elephant table and would set a goal to raise $100.

“We used to celebrate every time she made $100 at that table,” Gomez said.

When he goes to church now, Gomez said he sits in his pew and thinks of the times when he was a young boy with his mother.

“I always felt very proud to be a member of a big family gong to a nice church, filling the whole pew out,” he said.

Gomez’s mother was not the only Louise to play an important role in the beginnings of the church. Her friend, Louise Schieffer was there with her every step of the way.

“She and my mother were dear friends and they worked together on so many projects up there and her daughter, Jean Beard, continues today to give that same kind of spirit to the church,” Gomez said.

Schieffer was one of the first religious youth teachers, according to Beard.

“I told them they named the church wrong. They should have named it St. Louise,” Beard said.

Beard grew up in the church as the second of nine siblings.

“We always turned to our church for prayers to be answered,” she said.

She is still active in the church, whether running bingo, the arts and crafts fair, as a member and sometimes officer of the Ladies Guild, baking for bake sales, feeding the poor, or helping others.

“I feel that’s what the lord put me here for, was to help people,” Beard said.

She said she tries to instill those Catholic values in her five children and nine grandchildren.

Growing up, Beard and her sister always helped prepare church dinners, and now her grandchildren are starting to follow in her footsteps, she said.

“We feel that we’ll get our reward one way or another,” Beard said.

She said the doors of the church were always open if she needed someone to talk to. “God always has the answer for you,” she said.

Gomez felt the same way.

“I find the church to be a great source of comfort in my life,” Gomez said.

On July 17, the church marked its 75^th anniversary by celebrating a solemn mass at 11:15 a.m., followed by a reception in the courtyard. Jean Beard and Gomez participated in the mass as gift bearers, bringing water and wine to the priest to be consecrated, according to Lisa White, administrative assistant to the pastor.

The solemn mass is a more traditional liturgy, according to David Byrne, who served as the master of ceremonies during the mass. The solemn mass uses incense as a symbol of purification, has more participants, more sacramentals, and longer prayers, he said.

Most parishes reserve solemn masses for feast days and special occasions, although they can be celebrated at any time, Byrne said.

“It increases the level of dignity to signify the importance of the occasion,” he said.

The mass was well-attended, according to Father Mark Suslenko, the current pastor to the parish’s 1,800 families.

“We have a strong community spirit. We have a strong mission to reach out and help one another, to help our community. There’s a warmth and a charm that speaks well of the members of this community,” Suslenko said.

Suslenko, who has served at St. Anthony since the fall of 2005, said he plans to continue developing ministries and assessing and responding to the parish’s needs as they arrive.

“Prospect is a community that is continually growing, and St. Anthony Parish intends to be here to meet the needs of this community well into the future,” Suslenko said.

Oasis, which holds services Sundays at 10:15 a.m., outgrew its previous facility.

The new space gives Oasis the chance to expand their quarterly “Church Outside the Walls” events. Current opportunities to serve include cooking breakfast for the St. Vincent De Paul Shelter in Waterbury, assisting with maintenance at The Children’s Home in Cromwell and collaborating with the Ronald McDonald House in New Haven.

The new space also allows the church to offer its church body a nursery and classrooms.

Oasis is a nondenominational church and welcomes all people. Children’s church and childcare are available for children from birth through fifth grade.

For more information visit www.celebratethejourney.org.

Father Michael Slusz, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church, poses with Bob Juliano, a parishioner who played Santa Claus for the Ecumenical toy collection Dec. 12. The toy sale was held at St. Michael’s Church.

They’re a bunch of teenagers out doing good—yes, good, not well. They’re taking on a variety of service projects with the aim of changing some notions about what church means.

“It’s about sharing the love of God,” explains youth group veteran Sara Behlman. “Even though we’re a small church, and we’re not rich, there’s a lot we can do.”

From left to right, Hannah Kim, Preston Bogan, Natalie Pugliese, Taline Agamy and youth group leader Ruth Urbina-Lilback discuss the teens' various service projects Monday at Naugatuck United Methodist Church.

Behlman and a partner are planning to educate the congregation about cancer and raise money for the Harold Leever Regional Cancer Center in Waterbury. She says her mother has battled cancer and that she chose the disease for her project because it affects almost everyone, either directly or vicariously.

In fact, personal connections to their topics are motivations for many youth group members. Taline Agamy is studying the relationship between Christianity and Islam in Egypt. There, she says, Christians are a persecuted minority; her cousin hoped to become a heart surgeon in Egypt but his ambition was thwarted because of his religion. He is now a doctor in the U.S., she says.

Megan Torrice is learning about animal cruelty and plans to sell ribbons and donate the proceeds to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Torrice, who owns a horse, says another horse at her barn was abused when it was young and still experiences aftereffects today.

“Now it’s scared of everything,” she said.

Other causes include environmentalism, racial equality and bullying prevention.

These local efforts are part of a broader initiative by the United Methodist Church to encourage parishioners to “rethink church,” according to its Web site, 10thousanddoors.org. There, online visitors can learn about global projects, like malaria prevention in Africa. The message is church is about more than attending services and dropping money on the offering plate.

“We’re putting faith in action,” said Ruth Urbina-Lilback, one of the borough church’s youth group leaders.

The first group member to present his project to the congregation will be Anthony Torrice, Jr., who will share his research about literacy later this month. He is collecting new and used books for Read to Grow, a Connecticut non-profit organization that encourages parents to read to their young children.

Those who wish to donate can call (203) 723-6769 to arrange a dropoff or local pickup.

State Department security officer Kevin Braziel, a former Marine sergeant, presented to St. Francis of Assisi School an American flag that once flew over the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan.

NAUGATUCK — St. Francis of Assisi School, a small Catholic institution on Church Street, recently received an American flag with an uncommon distinction.

That flag had been flown over the American Embassy in Afghanistan during the wars which have all but defined this past decade.

Kevin Braziel, a former Marine sergeant and diplomatic security officer in the State Department, presented the flag to the school to recognize its recent donation of five boxes of personal items to troops in Afghanistan. His daughter, Jasmine, attends St. Francis.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry authorized the gift.

“We fear not what we do,” Braziel said to students at an assembly Thursday afternoon. “We know, in the end, all you little guys are worth it. One of you, if not more, will make a huge difference in this country someday. … You can do whatever your heart desires, and we will gladly give our lives for you.”

The soldiers who received items from the care packages were ecstatic, according to Braziel.

“We got those boxes, and [the men] came running out like a bunch of little kids,” he said. “Grown men, acting like it was Christmas and Santa just came. … It made the difference, and it made them so happy.”

Students recited a special rosary for military men and women before Braziel, with some help from Jasmine and his 2-year-old son Cross, presented the flag to Principal Tom Fuller.

“We have cried, we have bled, we’ve lost hundreds of thousands over these colors,” Braziel said. “[This flag] was flown in the face of the enemy, in defiance of tyranny and in defiance of terrorism.”

Braziel, Fuller, and Deputy Mayor Tamath Rossi tried to impart the gravity of war and soldiers’ personal sacrifices in terms pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students could understand.

“The rain never stops for the soldiers, and the wind never stops for the soldiers,” Rossi said. “[In Iraq and Afghanistan], it’s very hot, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s not uncomfortable for a few hours, like when you’re in school and you have to sit on that hard chair, and then you get to go home and relax. They don’t have that.”

While the school sang “God Bless America,” about a dozen students formed a circle around Braziel and his family and held flags and red, white and blue decorations.

Before dismissing the assembly, Fuller made a few closing remarks.

“The New England Patriots and the New York Jets are not heroes, even though we talk about them all the time,” he said. “This man is a hero.”

Joe Faulk was one of those visitors who came in “just to fill the pulpit” while he was still attending New England Baptist College in Southington. Now he’s degreed and incumbent as full-time pastor.

And as of Sunday, Nov. 1, Mt. Cavalry will be known as Abundant Life Baptist Church. That morning at 11, there will be a special service to promote and recognize the name change.

“We wanted a change,” Faulk said, “to let people know we’re here, on the corner, and that our doors are always open … it’s a way for us to promote and restart.”

Faulk and his wife, Susannah, said they are invested in the church for the long run.

“Since day one, we’ve been here to stay,” Faulk said. “We have a lot of vision, a lot of goals … we’re excited about the future and about raising and growing the church.”

Now the church has only about 10 regular attendees spread over 25 or 30 seats and exists in a rented property across from Rite-Aid and Advance Auto Parts. Faulk said he hopes for an expanded congregation and, eventually, an actual church building.

“A lot of people don’t realize there’s a Baptist church in Naugatuck,” he said.

Susannah Faulk, who Joe met at New England Baptist College, added, “A lot of time people don’t notice things until they change.”

The church offers traditional Sunday morning services based around hymnal music and Baptist sermons, as well as a Sunday school hour and normative social functions like dinners and luncheons.

The Baptist faith is distinguished by firm beliefs in biblical authority, the autonomy of the church, and the liberty of individuals’ souls, among many defining characteristics.

Sunday morning services at Abundant Life are about an hour long.

“We don’t want to make anyone not want to come to church,” Faulk said.

He hopes the upcoming name change will go a long way toward promoting the church and growing attendance.

“A lot of times with churches it’s hard to move on … we’re moving forward, we’re doing things—we’re keeping things exciting,” he said.