Mary and Jim Holleran did not know anyone in town when they moved to Rochester as newlyweds in the 1980s. At Blessed Sacrament Parish, however, they soon found a home away from home.
“Those people really became gifts in our lives,” Mary Holleran recalled.
In those early years, the Hollerans volunteered alongside their fellow parishioners at Blessed Sacrament’s overnight shelter for homeless men. Their family later volunteered at the Blessed Sacrament Supper Program, which still serves the hungry in Rochester.
Although the Hollerans moved from the city to Penfield 28 years ago, they remain loyal Blessed Sacrament parishioners.
“I think it’s a special place,” Holleran said. “The mission, as well as the people, is what has kept us here.”
Bishop: Parish’s 125th anniversary is opportunity to celebrate parishioners
Bishop John S. Bonnici praised Blessed Sacrament’s parishioners and their sense of mission when he visited the Rochester parish June 7 to celebrate a Mass to mark the parish’s 125th anniversary.
“What we are celebrating is the people of this parish, past, present and future. We are celebrating you, because you are the living, unified Body of Christ ready and willing to always make a difference,” Bishop Bonnici said.
Blessed Sacrament Parish was established in 1901, and its founding pastor, Father Thomas F. Connors, served the parish until 1963. The parish’s first structure, dedicated in 1902, was a two-story, red-brick building, with one floor serving as a church and the other as a school, according to a parish history published in 2001 to commemorate Blessed Sacrament’s centennial.
The cornerstone for the current church building was laid in 1911, while the original building continued to serve as a parochial school until 1930, according to the parish history. That year, the original building was demolished and a new school was built. This new building housed Blessed Sacrament School until 1990, and then was home to Corpus Christi School from the 1990s until the school’s closing in 2008.
In 2006, Blessed Sacrament came together with Rochester’s St. Mary and St. Boniface parishes to form the Southeast Rochester Catholic Community.
Supper program welcomes all
In 1992, the parish launched the Blessed Sacrament Supper Program, which provides free, hot meals five days a week from September through June and three days a week in July and August. This program is just one of the reasons the parish has gained a reputation for welcoming all, remarked longtime parishioner Rose Koonmen.
“No matter who you are, what you are, where you’ve been, you’re welcome there. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is treated with dignity. There’s no discrimination whatsoever,” Koonmen said.
Koonmen still recalls the way parishioners welcomed her and her husband 36 years ago. The Koonmens didn’t live in Blessed Sacrament’s neighborhood but began attending Mass there with their son, who was a rookie officer with the Rochester Police Department. The Koonmens felt so at home at Blessed Sacrament that they stayed at the parish even after their son moved out of Rochester.
“My husband and I come from Perinton. I know people who come from Irondequoit or the other side of the city,” Koonmen remarked.
Many of the volunteers who work at the Blessed Sacrament Supper Program come from other neighborhoods throughout Monroe County, as do the volunteers who help out at the parish’s annual next-to-new sale, said Koonmen, who coordinated the sale for more than a decade.
Parishioners say initiatives abound at ‘vibrant church’
The sale provides much of the funding for the parish’s initiatives, including the supper program, noted Holleran, who with her husband recently took over as the event’s coordinators. The sale, which spans two levels of the parish’s former school building as well as a garage building, also provides a convenient way for neighborhood residents to procure clothing or household items at affordable prices, added longtime parishioner John Lynd. Many of the items left over after the sale’s conclusion are donated to charities, he added.
“People are very generous to it because they know they’re doing a great service to this community,” said Lynd, who has belonged to the parish for all of his 86 years and served as gardener for 35 years.
The next-to-new sale and supper program are just two of the parish’s many initiatives, he said.
“They have a social-justice committee and young-adult groups. We have so many things going on. It’s a vibrant church,” he said.
No matter how busy things get, however, the parish never seems to lose its sense of welcoming, Lynd added.
“It just feels like home when you go there,” he said.
Tags: Churches, Monroe County East
