News - June 2018 RSS Feed

OLEAN — Of all the community members out enjoying the summer weather Saturday, and hundreds did so on the grounds of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. While this is the event’s first year as BasilicaFEST, it was the 47th year of the festival — and Olean has been celebrating with St. Mary’s even longer than that. “The church has been doing festivals since the 1870s or 1880s,” said Jennifer King, communications director for the Basilica. “We were running festivals back then. Sometimes at Christmas, one year was at Riverhurst Park … these festivals are important to community lives.” The Very Rev. Greg Dobson — celebrating his last festival before he retires as the basilica’s rector July 31 — agreed. “I am thrilled with the support of the community,” he smiled. “This will always have an important place in my heart, in my life.” It was the second year the church offered tours of the newly-named minor basilica and the crowd kept King busy as she hosted tours every half hour. “(The festival) is designed to be a fundraiser, which is important,” King said, “but what we like about it is it’s something for the parishioners to congregate to and it’s fun for the community — to invite them to our facility, to enjoy our hospitality. That’s what we do here.”

OLEAN — Speakers, singers and a puppet joined the chorus of well-wishers honoring Olean’s “simple country priest” as he heads away after more than two decades in the city. In a large tent dinner blocking the 100 block of West Henley Street, the Very Rev. Gregory Dobson, rector of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, was celebrated by parishioners and visiting guests Friday on the eve of BasilicaFEST. The dinner was meant to mark Dobson’s departure from Olean after 22 years and thank him for his service. “Shortly after I arrived, I knew this was a special place,” Dobson said after a series of speeches, adding he wrote to the bishop, “I don’t know who advised you to send me to Olean, but it was good advice — keep that adviser close.” Dobson announced in April he will leave Olean on July 31 for a temporary reassignment at St. Joseph’s Church in Gowanda before receiving a more permanent assignment, which St. Mary’s officials said coincides with the 70-year-old priest’s long-standing plans to serve the remainder of his ministry in the Buffalo area near his family.

OLEAN — The bells of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels will ring Friday for 15 minutes straight in honor of the Very Rev. Gregory J. Dobson, who is stepping down from his post after more than two decades. St. Mary’s famous bell in the west tower is the largest in the city and can be heard from a radius of more than 2 miles. It will ring starting around 6:45 p.m., church officials announced. It is anticipated the chimes located in the east tower — the last Deagan 25-chime set still operating in the United States — will play as well. Friday’s bell ringing in a slow toll will honor Dobson as the third-longest serving pastor in the 166-year history of the church — now a basilica. The pastor of the parish for almost 22 years, he recently announced his retirement effective Aug. 1. As the bell tolls, the church is set to host a community appreciation dinner in Dobson’s honor with 250 people, which is not open to the public. Although the parish’s BasilicaFEST starts Saturday, the appreciation dinner is not part of that event. The dinner will take place on the basilica grounds starting at 6 p.m. and will cause the first block of West Henley Street to be closed. The dinner will celebrate Dobson’s time with St. Mary’s as well as his 35th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Saint Mary of the Angels’ bell, which has been part of the Olean landscape since 1878, weighs 2,500 pounds. It was cast in 1915 from the two former bells that hung in the bell tower of the previous church building built in 1860 by the Franciscan Friars at St. Bonaventure College — as the university was known at the time. Those bells were donated in 1878.

“This festival could not be done without the benevolence and hours of time spent by our volunteers,” Tominez said. “Our volunteers are not only of the church, but they are from other parishes. They are also from out-of-state and come here to partake in this great community event.” He and Colarusso said proceeds from the event will benefit the basilica and parish activities, as well as charities in the community. Colarusso, who has chaired the event since 2006, said the festival has taken on special meaning under the auspices of the basilica.