Conventual Franciscan Parish in Chicopee Understands the Idea of Helping our Needier Brothers and Sisters

St. Stanislaus Basilica in Chicopee, Massachusetts

We are all brothers and sisters and must therefore take care of one another. At the St. Stanislaus Basilica in Chicopee, Massachusetts everyone from the Conventual Franciscan friars who staff the parish to the basilica's parishioners understands this very important tenet of Franciscan spirituality.

Younger parishioners at St. Stanislaus  

It is no surprise then that when Chicopee’s Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen needed help it turned to St. Stanisalus. The bottom line for the soup kitchen was hunger. Chicopee has a poverty rate of 12.3%, which translates to about 2,440 school-aged children who do not get proper daily nutrition. The staff at Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen could not sit idly by with such a disconcerting statistic. However, to mobilize an effort against hunger, funds proved to be necessary. Here Lorraine’s appealed to the people at St. Stanislaus Basilica, knowing that they would not let their needier brothers and sisters down.

 Chicopee, Massachusetts

The St. Stanislaus Basilica has been serving the local community since 1891. Its religious staff not only includes the Conventual Franciscan friars but also the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi. The parish received its “minor basilica” designation in 1991 from Pope John Paul II during his visit to the United States.