Saint Patrick's Catholic Church nearing milestone

For those who drive up and down Cranston Street in the area of Meshanticut Lake, the residences, businesses, buildings and landscape probably very often blend together into the background, one maybe not standing out more than another as drivers go by. Many do not even notice the little white church on the side of the road not far from Cranston West and Western Hills schools.

However, Saint Patrick's Catholic Church has been a part of that landscape for nearly 20 years, although many may not even realize it, and the building itself has been a house of worship since 1900, housing a variety of different religious congregations over the past 117 years, including Baptist, Lutheran and Evangelical Christian.

"So often, I bump into people in Benny's or at the bank, or at McDonald's and they say, 'Oh, you're at that little white church on Cranston Street, what is that church,'" Father Roger Durand, the pastor of the church, said. "They say that they've been by the church a million times, and they never knew what it was. It made me realize that we haven't been doing a very good job of simply making the community around us aware of us, our story, our past and our future. So many who now worship with us tell me that they never even knew we existed, or always wondered what the church was like."

Durand has been pastor of the church since its inception as a Catholic Church in 2000, and has never been one to push membership at the church. Despite that, its numbers have increased since its opening.

"At our height, we had about 230 members," Durand said. "At present we have about 125 active members and about 400 inactive members, so we have grown a little bit in the past 17 years. My goal has always been to be a small shoe for a small foot, a church that might just be the right fit for some people. Generally, people who get over the fear of getting out of the car and coming in, will sit down, and about halfway through the mass they will smile and finally realize that this is what they've been looking for. I always ask them if I scared them, and they say no, and they say 'I'll see you next week.'"

Durand said the congregation has lost some members who have passed away over the years, and that he makes quite a few 'home visits,' delivering communion and blessings to those who are homebound, hospitalized or under hospice care.

The remaining members of the congregation however, those who come to worship on a regular basis, span many generations, including several multi-generational families who worship at St. Patrick's together, and the people of the parish are what he describes as an upbeat, welcoming, happy group of people who thrive on the fellowship that exists at the parish, in addition to the weekly mass schedule. It is that fellowship that he considers to be the cement that keeps it all together.

"We get together at least once a month," he said. "If you like social events, then you have come to the right place. We have a fundraising raffle, we had a St. Patrick's Day Dinner that had 85 people in attendance, and our bishop, Bishop Gregory Ortiz, was actually just here for the St. Patrick's Day weekend with us, celebrating mass with us."

The congregation also hosts a much-anticipated event called 'Paddy's Porridge,' one in which Durand says, "If it fits in a crock pot, it's eligible. We have soups, stews and chilis. Last year I won with the most votes for my clam chowder, but I think I might've had to buy a few votes by offering up clamcakes to go with it," Durand joked. Their next 'Paddy's Porridge' is going to be held on April 23.

Durand explained how Saint Patrick's Catholic Church works, something so many are curious about.

"Our church started off essentially as an independent Catholic church and it became apparent to us about five years ago that we needed to establish roots by joining a larger organization. We put a year into it and spoke to two National Catholic groups, the Polish National Catholic Group and the Charismatic Episcopal Church. Both have about 200 parishes within the country and we elected to go with the Charismatic Episcopal Church," he said. "Our sacraments are the same as the Roman Catholic Church and are celebrated without the approval of the Roman Catholic Church. As a church, our traditions are the same as Rome, but the man-made rules are more relaxed. People who are divorced and remarried are welcomed here. We can remarry people, and we welcome people who are only baptized, not practicing. Our door is always open, and people are always welcome. There are people out there who are looking, who are in need of the sacraments, and we ask very few questions for people to attend."

The historic church building seats about 85 people and has three masses a weekend as well as a mass on Wednesday evening at 6:45 p.m. The schedule is one that is typical of many churches: Saturdays at 5:00 p.m., and Sunday mornings at both 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. with a coffee hour following both the Sunday masses.

"The mass is about a 40-minute mass and we have parishioners from around the state, as well as from Connecticut and Massachusetts. We recently added Reverend Noel Sanchez, a permanent deacon to our church. He and his wife, Elizabeth, work heavily in our religious education program," Durand said. "We have a regular religious [education] program, we have children who make their First Communion and their Confirmation."

Saint Patrick's enjoys a warm relationship with other area churches, working together from time to time on marriage cases when people may not qualify to marry in their home parish, or are expecting a special dispensation in order to marry there, and then it falls through. Saint Patrick's will always marry them.

"It builds friendliness, which is good," he said.

If Durand had to pinpoint the church's greatest challenge, it would be a financial one.

"The regular, committed financial support from people in the state of Rhode Island can be difficult," he said. "We are a heavily taxed state from our cars on up. The church's dollars, by the scripture, are supposed to come first, but they just don't, and the financial challenge is the one we struggle with the most."

Durand has never taken a salary for his work at St. Patrick's, having held a secular job during the weekdays until his retirement, but he emphasizes the fact that going forward, when another pastor takes on the parish after his time there has concluded, the congregation will more than likely need to take a pastoral salary into account. Until then though, Durand doesn't have a plan to leave Saint Patrick's any time soon.

"I am the first person they meet at the door and I'm the last person they see when they leave. They smile on the way in and they smile on the way out, and if there are any problems, I want to know it," Durand said. "I've mellowed a lot over the years. I am never going to set the world on fire with this little church, I'm just trying to help the people you can help by bringing people together and a bringing them a little bit closer to God."

Have you ever wondered?

Saint Patrick's Catholic Church is located at 2068 Cranston St. Many drive by daily, and do not realize that the church is a welcoming parish, offering the traditional Roman Catholic mass and sacraments to those who are seeking a spiritual home. It's a small parish that thrives on its fellowship as well as its traditions. (Herald photo by Jen Cowart)