Over 300 people attended the 10:30 Mass On Sunday, October 23, at the St. Peter Lithuanian Parish. Parishioners joined the choir in hymns of thanks that their church consecrated in 1904 lives on as a vibrant parish despite the once devastating news of May of 2004 when the Archdiocese of Boston had included them on a list of parish closures.  Fr. S. Zukas and Msgr A. Contons were concelebrants.

     Participants of this joyous celebration sat side by side; new immigrants happy to hear mass in their native tongue, first generation, and ones who were born and raised in the South Boston neighborhood, all breathing a sigh of relief of the June 16 notice from the Archdiocese not to schedule a closing date and not to close the doors of this sacred place of worship and the center of their ethnic community.   The notice from the Vatican received early fall was the final indication that the religious hierarchy agreed to keep the parish in tact with Fr. Steve Zukas as pastor.

     After mass letters of thanks were read, and distinguished members of the community were recognized including a representative from the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington Andrius Krivas representing Vytgaudas Uzsatckas, ambassador who had been called to a meeting with Donald Rumsfeld and could not attend personally.  A luncheon followed in the church hall.