To the editor:

I am one of the many active parishioners at St. Mary’s in Bristol.
Let me first add my gratitude to the heart warming coverage in the last edition of the Phoenix regarding Father Barry’s service of the last 26 years.

This past weekend, the Bristol Police and it’s Honor Guard, and members of the Town Council (and recently the Bristol Fire Department) joined our parish in celebrating Father Barry Ganache’s retirement, a retirement he deserves after building our thriving parish over his 26+ years as our priest.

He built our parish to be one of the most inviting parishes to belong to. And why? Because Father Barry allowed St. Mary’s to be a welcoming, all inclusive, and nonjudgemental parish.

This is his legacy, and it’s now ours to continue to grow and build upon and not allow it to change.

It’s not a secret that St. Mary’s strongly believes it should have its own dedicated priest so we can continue our path forward…but that has not happened.

The Bishop has placed Father Henry Zinno as priest of St. Mary’s effective July 1, 2023.

Father Zinno has successfully built a strong, conservative parish at OLMC, but this is not who St. Mary’s is. The two parishes are each very different, thriving parishes. Also both of these parishes have benefitted by EACH being served by a dedicated, full time, hard working, capable priest.
No one priest can physically or spiritually serve both these parishes and meet the needs of each parish.

OLMC parishioners, please don’t feel the need to defend Father Zinno. What has been stated here are facts and in no way reflect poorly on OLMC or Father Zinno. Both parishes have coexisted, grown and respected each other but each with their own dedicated priest.

Father Barry said many wonderful things at his last weekend masses, but one of his most important messages to the congregation was that he didn’t build this parish, but instead he allowed us to do what we felt needed done and he acted just as a facilitator.

He said that each and every one of us IS St. Mary’s, and to remember this.
We are active parishioners that love our parish and I believe we got here because we are activists whose spiritual goals mimic God’s welcoming, inclusive and nonjudgemental teachings.

We are St. Mary Strong and must continue building and growing on our legacy. We believe that this should be with a dedicated priest that is aligned with who we are and where we want to go.

We need our new Bishop to learn about who we are and hopefully agree that St. Mary’s parish deserves a full time priest that can help our parish build on what has made us a strong, spiritual community.

Mary Ann Allen
Burton Street