"1957, we joined this church and it was just cellar church,” said Shirley Fitzgerald of Ludlow.
For over fifty years St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church in Ludlow is all Shirley and Ken Fitzgerald have known.
As the December 31st deadline to close the doors to quickly approaches, they along with other parishioners gathered to plead for a reprieve from Bishop Timothy McDonnell

Why is your church different than the others?
"No debt, good repair, built in 1981," said John Dryjowicz.

It also has a high attendance levels, strong parish programs like CCD, but still remains one of many churches facing imminent closure by the Springfield Catholic Diocese, so why the decision to close?
According the Diocese Spokesperson Mark DuPont, there's a good answer, there's just not enough priests to go around.

"If financial stability, and church attendance were of an if themselves the only criteria they would have a valid point, but we have said for the last few years before these announcements, when we laid out the process to people that they were being dictate in large part to a shortage of priests,” said Springfield Catholic Diocese Spokesperson Mark DuPont.

Those trying to save the St. Mary of the Assumption back up their fight with facts, they question the Mullen report, the explanation from the Catholic Diocese describing what churches were being closed and why.
They say in that there is no evidence to support closing their church in Ludlow, and if the Catholic Diocese is going to close the doors, they want someone to come down and tell them why in person.

"What I would like to have happen is for the Bishop to come and speak with our committee, and just justify it to us, you know,” said Dryjowicz.

Mark DuPont a visit from the Bishop won't change the decision, and as difficult as the situation is, Bishop McDonnell is just trying to deal with the situation he was dealt back when he was named head of the Springfield Diocese.

"I think no matter who their hear it from, I think they're not going to like the end result, and we understand that. Closing a pariah is not something Bishop McDonnell wants to do. No Bishop wants to close parishes, they don't come to close churches, they come to grow the community," said DuPont.