150 years and counting: Parishioners reflect on a lifetime at St. John’s

By Jeffrey Cattel

As St. John the Evangelist Church prepares to kick off its 150^th anniversary with an opening mass at 7 p.m. on Monday, December 27, some of the parish’s oldest parishioners are reminded of all the ways the church has affected their lives.

Pictured is the old St. John’s Church before it was demolished in 1962.

Charlie Stevenson moved to Canton in the third grade and enrolled at St. John’s Grammar School. Now 96, he attributes two of his major life trajectories — football and his job at the Division of Employment Security — to St. John’s.

Stevenson graduated from grammar school in 1928 and then moved on to St. John’s Commercial High School. (The high school closed in the early 1950s.) It was there that Father Long, a young priest at the time, got Stevenson interested in football. In fact, Long fielded the school’s only uniformed football team. Stevenson’s strength on the field caught the eye of CHS football coach Bill Donovan, and after talking with Father Long, Stevenson transferred to Canton High and went on to quarterback the Bulldogs for three seasons. The team finished 25-2 under his leadership. The story goes full circle, as Stevenson coached CHS football for many years as an adult.

More important than developing his passion for football, however, St. John’s helped Stevenson land a job in the middle of the Great Depression. Dr. Kelleher, the pastor at St. John’s from 1930 to 1945, started a class to train parishioners to take the civil service exam. Knowing he needed a perfect score to be guaranteed a government job, Stevenson completed the course, got that perfect score, and went on to a 37-year career for the state.

Virginia Hagerty, another longtime parishioner, knows Stevenson well. In fact, the two appeared as the lead roles in St. John’s production of “The Song of Bernadette” in the 1940s. At 90, Hagerty has been a parishioner of St. John’s her entire life.

She was baptized and married in the church, and when she had children she substituted at St. John’s School and taught Christian Doctrine, now referred to as Sunday School. But Hagerty’s connection runs deeper — her mother was the church’s organist for 45 years.

“It was just part of my life because my mother played all the weddings, funerals, First Communions, everything that happened,” Hagerty said. “I have to confess: There was a woman from Stoughton that played the day of my wedding because my mother was obviously busy with other things.”

While younger than Stevenson and Hagerty, Stephen Hagan remains one of the last generations to remember the old church, and the days when the church played a major role in the lives of all Catholic youth.

“As a youngster growing up in the late ’40s and ’50s, the church was almost like a second home,” Hagan, 70, said. “It played a large role. Priests played a large role in your life.”

For Hagan, that priest was Father Morgan.

“You’ve got to remember, that was the time period if a priest looked a scant at you, there was a sense of fear,” Hagan said. “He could do it, but he also had a very kind side.”

Morgan was also the driving force behind the dramatic modernization and construction of almost every building on St. John’s property in the 1950s and 1960s. In the course of a decade, Morgan oversaw the building of the new church, school building, and parish center.

St. John’s has seen many changes over the course of its 150-year history. The physical changes are obvious; what started as a congregation with no church in 1861 grew to a formal parish in 1867, complete with a traditional New England white clapboard church.

The church was replaced with the modern brick and mortar edifice that now stands at 700 Washington Street in 1963.

The parishioners have also changed. New members have joined, while others have passed along.

But the strong sense of community remains a constant. It’s why Hagan, Stevenson, and Hagerty still feel so connected after seven, eight, and even nine decades as parishioners.

“It’s difficult to explain,” Stevenson said. “But somehow the week wouldn’t feel right for me if I didn’t start it by going to church on Sunday.”

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