Submitted by Tom Loughlin Jr.
“For the last 25 years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, we’ve never left Jesus alone for an hour!”
— Elizabeth “Betty” Frank, OFS
Utica’s St. Joseph-St. Patrick Church, home of the Syracuse Diocese Eastern Region Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, recently celebrated the chapel’s 25th anniversary with a Mass and a brunch at the nearby Polish Community Club.
Father Richard E. Dellos, the pastor, was joined by concelebrants Father Anthony P. LaFache, Father Richard O’Neill, Father John M. Quinn, and Deacon Michael Gudaitis.
At the brunch, Eucharistic Adoration Coordinator Rose Marie Roberts and other speakers Kathleen Sinnott, John Sullivan, Richard Roberts, Mary Cole, and Paul Dumas reviewed chapel history. Roberts presented Elizabeth “Betty” Frank, OFS, with a gift of an album full of spiritual bouquets offered by the “Adorers.”
Frank, a Secular Franciscan, is credited, along with then-Pastor Father Antone Kandrac, OFM Conv., with the inspiration to establish perpetual adoration at the church, and she was honored for her 25 years of ongoing day-to-day involvement and service.
Adorer hours at the chapel in 25 years, minus closed hours from Holy Thursday Mass until Saturday Easter Vigil (when adoration is not permitted), are estimated at more than 218,000. Several hours have more than one Adorer present, so the average on the roster is at least 300 Adorers, according to Roberts.
