\n\t\t\t\t\t\tParishioners filled the pews at Madonna del Castello Church for one final mass on Monday as church consolidation begins within St. Joseph the Worker Parish. The priest opened the service by honoring the prayers, joys, tears, and memories held inside the building, calling the packed church a reunion. \u201cI\u2019ve been coming to church here all my life, 77 years,\u201d said parishioner Denny Capezzuto.\u201cBeen baptized here. Got married here. My daughter became Catholic here. So, yeah, a lot of memories. My parents were married here,\u201d said parishioner Angie Nelson.\u201cWe got married out of this church in 1979. Our kids were baptized a couple of years later after that, two kids. And it\u2019s a beautiful church. You go inside. It\u2019s just the nicest thing you want to see,\u201d said parishioner John Ferriero.Madonna del Castello was established as an Italian parish in 1920. The current building was constructed in 1965.The final Mass brought back memories for longtime parishioners and for those who had not been back in years.\u201cWe did live up the hill on Hawthorne before. So I would come here when I was little with my grandmother. My aunt and my uncle helped a lot in the kitchens here, especially during the festivals and stuff,\u201d said parishioner Anna Tomko.\u201cA little sad to see it have to go. You know, we\u2019re no longer members here. But, you know, we came from Plum down to see the last Mass,\u201d said parishioner Diane Ferriero.Madonna del Castello is the first of seven churches within St. Joseph the Worker Parish set to close. The diocese has cited declining Mass attendance and financial strains in its decision.\u201cI don\u2019t know how to put it in words. It\u2019s a hard thing to say,\u201d Capezzuto said.\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see what\u2019s happening, but that\u2019s life now. It\u2019s just, you know, nothing\u2019s the same. It\u2019s really bad,\u201d John Ferriero said.Despite the sadness, many parishioners said they are choosing to focus on the happy times rather than worrying about where and when the Madonna del Castello community will gather again.\u201cThe community here, all is just so loving. And we got together with festivals and a lot of ethnic traditions and things like that,\u201d Nelson said.The rest of the closing schedule is as follows: Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m. – Sacred Heart ChurchWednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. – Good Shepherd ChurchThursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. – St. Jude the Apostle ChurchMonday, March 9 at 7 p.m. – St. John Fisher ChurchTuesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. – St. Anselm ChurchWednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m. – St. Colman ChurchThe new weekend schedule starts March 14, when all Masses will be celebrated at St. Maurice.Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Parishioners filled the pews at Madonna del Castello Church for one final mass on Monday as church consolidation begins within St. Joseph the Worker Parish. <\/p>\n
The priest opened the service by honoring the prayers, joys, tears, and memories held inside the building, calling the packed church a reunion. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been coming to church here all my life, 77 years,\u201d said parishioner Denny Capezzuto.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen baptized here. Got married here. My daughter became Catholic here. So, yeah, a lot of memories. My parents were married here,\u201d said parishioner Angie Nelson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got married out of this church in 1979. Our kids were baptized a couple of years later after that, two kids. And it\u2019s a beautiful church. You go inside. It\u2019s just the nicest thing you want to see,\u201d said parishioner John Ferriero.<\/p>\n
Madonna del Castello was established as an Italian parish in 1920. The current building was constructed in 1965.<\/p>\n
The final Mass brought back memories for longtime parishioners and for those who had not been back in years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did live up the hill on Hawthorne before. So I would come here when I was little with my grandmother. My aunt and my uncle helped a lot in the kitchens here, especially during the festivals and stuff,\u201d said parishioner Anna Tomko.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little sad to see it have to go. You know, we\u2019re no longer members here. But, you know, we came from Plum down to see the last Mass,\u201d said parishioner Diane Ferriero.<\/p>\n
Madonna del Castello is the first of seven churches within St. Joseph the Worker Parish set to close. The diocese has cited declining Mass attendance<\/a> and financial strains in its decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how to put it in words. It\u2019s a hard thing to say,\u201d Capezzuto said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see what\u2019s happening, but that\u2019s life now. It\u2019s just, you know, nothing\u2019s the same. It\u2019s really bad,\u201d John Ferriero said.<\/p>\n Despite the sadness, many parishioners said they are choosing to focus on the happy times rather than worrying about where and when the Madonna del Castello community will gather again.<\/p>\n \u201cThe community here, all is just so loving. And we got together with festivals and a lot of ethnic traditions and things like that,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n The rest of the closing schedule is as follows: <\/p>\n Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m. – Sacred Heart Church<\/p>\n Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. – Good Shepherd Church<\/p>\n Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. – St. Jude the Apostle Church<\/p>\n Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. – St. John Fisher Church<\/p>\n Tuesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. – St. Anselm Church<\/p>\n Wednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m. – St. Colman Church<\/p>\n The new weekend schedule starts March 14, when all Masses will be celebrated at St. Maurice.<\/p>\n Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parishioners filled the pews at Madonna del Castello Church for one final mass on Monday as church consolidation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,6110,894,1085,14312,37053,1137,37905,105,2922,52308,8372,41242,4800,59658,73,75,74,59657,8837,10939,52500,78],"class_list":{"0":"post-128047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-action-news","9":"tag-allegheny","10":"tag-allegheny-county","11":"tag-building","12":"tag-church","13":"tag-diocese-of-pittsburgh","14":"tag-festival","15":"tag-final-mass","16":"tag-life","17":"tag-lot","18":"tag-madonna-del-castello","19":"tag-march","20":"tag-memory","21":"tag-p-m","22":"tag-parishioner","23":"tag-pittsburgh","24":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","25":"tag-pittsburgh-news","26":"tag-saint-joseph-the-worker-parish","27":"tag-st-joseph","28":"tag-swissvale","29":"tag-worker-parish","30":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}