The Last Mass at Šv. Juozapo
New England’s oldest Lithuanian church held its final Mass on August 2, and a monsignor formally closed the building. The 2023 Vatican appeal still has no published ruling.
Šv. Juozapo (St. Joseph’s), 46 Congress Avenue, Waterbury — “First Lithuanian Parish In New England, Est. 1894.” Photo: Consulate General of Lithuania in New York, used with permission.
The choir sang first. At half past nine on the morning of Sunday, August 2, in the brick church at 46 Congress Avenue in Waterbury, a short concert honored Aleksandras Aleksis, organist and choir director at Šv. Juozapo — St. Joseph’s — from 1924 to 1974 and the composer of the Knights of Lithuania anthem. The Mass followed at ten. The century-old organ played, the readings were in Lithuanian and English, and people wept. It was the last Mass in the church. Afterward, Monsignor Vittorio Guerrera performed the ceremony that formally closed the building.
Šv. Juozapo is the oldest Lithuanian parish in New England, in a city the brass industry had made one of the densest Lithuanian settlements in America. At its height the parish counted more than six thousand members, with a Lithuanian school beside the church and a choir known across the region. The Archdiocese of Hartford suppressed the parish on September 30, 2023, citing falling attendance and a shortage of priests. In its final weeks a parishioner, working with a canon lawyer, appealed the suppression to the Vatican. Almost three years later that appeal has no published ruling, and that was still true on the morning of the last Mass.
The Mass closed the 112th national convention of the Knights of Lithuania, the fraternal organization founded in 1913 whose members built and paid for Lithuanian churches, schools and clubs across America. Fr. Audrius Arštikaitis, rector of the Pontifical Lithuanian College of St. Casimir in Rome and the organization’s spiritual advisor, travelled from Rome to celebrate it. Dovydas Špokauskas, Lithuania’s consul general in New York, told those gathered that Lithuania is proud of the generations of Vyčiai who built the churches, schools and clubs the community still stands on.
What the ceremony did is narrow, and worth keeping straight. The parish was suppressed in 2023; August 2 closed the building as a place of worship. The church has not been sold and has not been demolished. When the City of Waterbury advertised the rest of the parish campus on John Street for sale in October 2025 — the school, the former convent, the garage, the club building — the listing excluded the church and its lot. The appeal is still pending.
The windows are the open question now. They were installed in 1931 under klebonas Juozas Valantiejus, the parish’s pastor, and they carry Lithuanian inscriptions naming the families and the mutual-aid societies that paid for them — the Šv. Kazimiero and Šv. Juozapo brolijos, the burial-and-benefit societies the immigrants founded before they had a parish. Valantiejus’s own name is on one of them. His niece, Dana Ringienė-Šarkienė, told Draugas that if the closing could not be stopped, she would at least like to save the panel that carries it. Aleksis’s papers are already secure: the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center in Chicago holds his archive.
What you can do
The canonical case is still running, and its costs are paid rather than pledged — attorney’s fees, a commercial appraisal, the scanning of the parish’s historical documents. The GoFundMe is here.
The full story of the closure and the appeal is told in Closed, Not Ended. Every active campaign is tracked at /under-threat.
Corrections welcome. The parish’s page is here; corrections go through saveourlithuanianparishes.org/report.
The church at 46 Congress Avenue is closed, still standing, and still in Catholic hands. The appeal is pending, with no ruling published.
Sources
The last Mass and the closing ceremony: “Lietuvos Vyčių suvažiavimas — atsisveikinant su šventove,” Draugas, August 8, 2026, pp. 8–9 · Final Mass to be Held at Oldest Lithuanian Church in New England August 2 — Town Times (Prime Publishers)
The closure and the appeal: Parishioners fight Waterbury church closure — WFSB, Aug. 28, 2023 · Parishioners appeal to Vatican after Waterbury Catholic church closure — FOX61
The campus sale: Purchase and Sale of Former St. Joseph Parish Corp. Properties, RFP 8610-Wtby — City of Waterbury, Oct. 2025The record: The parish’s case record · Documented US closure reversals
The record: The parish’s case record · Documented US closure reversals