St. Susanna Church (Dedham, Massachusetts)

St. Susanna Church
42°16′05″N71°11′06″W / 42.268°N 71.185°W / 42.268; -71.185
Location	Dedham, Massachusetts
Address	262 Needham St
Country	United States
Denomination	Roman Catholicism
Website	www.saintsusanna.org
History
Founded	February 1960;64 years ago (1960-02)
Administration
Archdiocese	Archdiocese of Boston

St. Susanna Church is a Roman Catholic parish of the Archdiocese of Boston. It is located in Dedham, Massachusetts, at 262 Needham St. The pastor is Father Stephen S. Josoma, and Laurence J. Bloom is the deacon. ^{[1] [2]} It is known as "one of the most liberal parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston." ^[1]

History

20th century

The parish was founded in 1960 due to overcrowding at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Dedham. ^[3] By the 1930s St. Mary's was one of the biggest parishes in the Archdiocese with over 6,000 parishioners and 1,300 students in Sunday School. ^[4] During the middle of that decade there were four priests and six nuns ministering to the congregation. ^[4]

In the 1950s it became clear that a second parish was needed in Dedham, ^{[nb 1]} and so St. Susanna's was established in February 1960 to serve the needs of the Riverdale neighborhood. ^{[7] [8]} When St. Susanna's opened it had 300 families, while 2,500 stayed at St. Mary's. ^[9]

During construction, masses were held at Moseley's on the Charles. ^[8] The first pastor of St. Susana's, Father Michael Durant, lived at St. Mary's while his church was being constructed. ^[10] The first mass was said in the new church on February 11, 1962. ^[8] The church was named by Cardinal Richard Cushing after his titular church, Santa Susanna, in Rome. ^[8]

21st century

In 2000, average attendance at Sunday mass was 1,671, making it the 63rd most active parish out of the 357 parishes then in the archdiocese. ^[11] It performed the 314th most sacraments in 2001–2002. ^[11]

The parish garnered the attention of national media during Advent 2018 when the Nativity scene outside of the church showed the Baby Jesus in a cage and the three wise men separated from the others by a fence labeled "deportation." The scene was a statement on the Trump administration family separation policy and on the condition of refugees more generally. ^[12]

Notes

1. The population of the town as a whole more than doubled between 1930 ^[5] and 1970. ^[6]

References

1. "Catholics in the age of Francis". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 2015-09-01.
2. "Current Bulletin" (PDF).
3. "Boston Catholic Directory. Saint Susanna, Dedham". TheBostonPilot.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
4. Smith 1936, p. 102.
5. Guide Book To New England Travel. 1919. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
6. State Data Center/Mass. Inst. for Social & Economic Research. "Population of Massachusetts Cities and Towns, 1940-1990" (PDF). Boston Metropolitan Planning Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 6, 2004. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
7. "Saint Susanna". Archdiocese of Boston. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
8. Dedham Historical Society (2001). Images of America: Dedham. Arcadia Publishing. p. 34. ISBN   978-0-7385-0944-0 . Retrieved August 11, 2019.
9. Berry, Jason (2012). Render Unto Rome. Crown Publishers. p. 109.
10. St. Mary's Church, Dedham, Massachusetts, 1866-1966, Our Centennial Year. Hackensack, N.J.: Custombook, Inc. Ecclesiastical Color Publishers. 1966.
11. "How the achdiocese's parishes compare". The Boston Globe. December 10, 2003. p. 16. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
12. Heald, Jimmy (December 7, 2018). "St. Susanna's makes national news with its Nativity scene". The Dedham Times. Vol. 26, no. 49. p. 1.

Works cited

• Smith, Frank (1936). A History of Dedham, Massachusetts. Transcript Press. st mary dedham.

External links

• Official website