I moved to Northampton from Denver in 1987. I had gone through the Catholic Biblical School program in Denver, where I met my first girlfriend. We then became very involved in a large gay Catholic community there called Dignity. It was the 1980s, and we lost several of our community to AIDS.
When I moved to Northampton, I was dismayed to find no Dignity chapter here. But Catholic I was, so I decided to go over to St. Mary of the Assumption Church to see if I could get involved in whatever they were doing to helping AIDS victims as that was what everyone was doing at the time.
I knocked on the door of the rectory (this was 1987), and a woman opened it. “May I help you?” she asked in a stern voice. “Yes,” I said, “I want to volunteer to help AIDS patients.” “We don’t have anything like that,” she said, flatly. I was shocked. “Do you know anywhere that does?” I asked.
She then went in the back, and a priest appeared. He said he did not know of anywhere I could volunteer, either. I left stunned. I wasn’t in Colorado any more.
I read in the Gazette another article about the downfall of St. Mary’s (“Bell removed from St. Mary’s,” May 24.) I am still a devout Catholic in my heart, but I have nowhere to practice here in the Valley. It brings tears to my eyes to even write this.
I am sad that St. Mary’s is closing, but St. Mary’s closed its doors long ago to many in our community. If they want to open their doors to gays, divorcees, “sinners,” and others, as Jesus did, I bet you they would have a very large congregation.
Liz Powers
Northampton