Fr. Dennis Felt Love and Support of Parish

By Mary Donovan

The biggest disappointment for Fr. Dennis, he said, is not staying at St. Mary's. Instead, he will become pastor of St. Teresa's Church in Harvard.

However, he understands the thinking of Bishop McManus.

"The Bishop gave careful thought to assignments," he said. "No one is being sent somewhere just to fill in a hole. He (the Bishop) listened, thought and assigned people with specific goals in mind. The assignments are connected with a specialty."

He feels the smaller parish of St. Teresa's will suit him very well.

"Small is more my style," he said.

He told about driving back to St. Mary's from a Deanery meeting. As he drove up Summer Street he honked and waved to a young neighborhood boy that he knew.

"To me that's what pastoral work is all about. - driving down the street being able to honk and wave," he said. "Where I’m going I’ll know everybody."

And if he doesn't know their names from meeting and chatting he'll teach himself their names. He said he made index cards for himself to overcome the difficulty of remembering as many names as he encountered at St. Mary's.

He said he believes it's very important that people feel they're called by name. He had his index cards with him all the time, he said. He would work at associating the name with the face.

"I would play games," he said. "One family's kids' initials formed the word ART. That's how I learned their names."

And here's something that should scare anyone.

"I'd practice in the car," he said.

He urged parishioners to do their part to get to know their priests.

"People should take the opportunity to make themselves known by the priests," he said. "They should introduce themselves if they see a priest in the post office or Dunkin' Donuts or wherever."

When he arrived at St. Mary's five years ago he had no expectations, he said. He was assigned to Shrewsbury shortly after coming out of the monastery. As a result, he said, everything was a surprise and everything was beyond what he would have imagined.

His five years at St. Mary's encompassed the tragedy of 9/11 and trauma of the church scandal. He said these five years were the most difficult in his 20 years of priesthood. However, the parish gave him the strength he needed.

"I couldn't think of a better place to be. The outpouring of support for the priesthood and for us as priests was so strong, I felt so loved and affirmed," he said.

He derived great satisfaction from the liturgical life here at St. Mary's, he said.

"The liturgies are beautiful," he said. "The music, the numerous people working in making liturgies happen. All of us working together to make the weekend moment significant for people who come."

The liturgies helped tie him to the people and his work, he said.

"Another thing abut liturgy, before I came here - doing school work, I never felt so connected and energized."