Local liturgical supplier readies for Pope’s visit
By John Bohuslaw
Features Editor

HARTFORD – The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States will be a memorable event for all Catholics, but it will be especially so for one busy Connecticut religious supplies and church goods firm.

Patrick Baker and Sons Inc., with retail showrooms in Southington and Fairfield, is supplying vestments, candles and other items and will refurbish chalices to be used in the celebration of papal Masses in New York.

Pope Benedict will visit New York April 18-20, following a visit to Washington, D.C., April 15-17. His schedule includes addressing the United Nations on April 18. He will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on April 19 with priests, deacons and members of religious orders. He will also meet with youth, seminarians and a small group of youngsters with disabilities at a rally and prayer service at St. Joseph Seminary at Dunwoodie, N.Y.

Sean Baker, a salesman for the company’s Fairfield store, has been coordinating efforts for the past several months with the Archdiocese of New York.

“We are humbled to be able to participate in the event. It is an exciting honor to provide support for this unforgettable occasion,” Mr. Baker said.

Although the Pope will have his own robes for the visit, thousands of priests and deacons, including those from the Archdiocese of Hartford, will need coordinated chasubles and stoles. The vestments are being designed by Baker and Sons and manufactured in the Netherlands, said Mr. Baker.

The company will also supply candles that will be embossed with the papal seal in color.

A new covering in white cloth will be provided for a papal kneeler at the cathedral.

The chalice, which Pope John Paul II used in the celebration of his outdoor Mass in Central Park on Oct. 7, 1995, will be repolished and used by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Mr. Baker said that that Mass will be the first-ever to be celebrated in a cathedral by a pope in the United States.

“We are excited to be a part of it. It’s an incredible honor to serve the Church,” he said.

Sean’s brother, Michael, a salesman for the Southington store, is a member of the board of St. Paul High School in Bristol. The parish and school have received permission to send 75 people on two buses for the Pope’s visit to the seminary.

“To attend and to provide items for the Pope’s Masses is the highlight of my life. It is such a great privilege,” Michael Baker said.

For many, Pope Benedict’s visit will offer a first opportunity to see the Pope live. It will not be a first for Baker and Sons, however.

“We supplied items for the visit of John Paul II in 1995 and I was able to see the Pope at that time,” Michael said.

The liturgical supply firm was founded by Sean’s and Michael’s parents in Hartford in 1965. A new warehouse, studio and catalog supply house were built on West Street in Southington in 1985. The branch in Fairfield was added two years later to better serve customers in Greater New York.

Michael Baker said the firm has renovated, served and supplied churches throughout Connecticut and beyond.

“We are very careful to comply with the liturgical reforms of Vatican II,” he said.

The Pope will celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium April 20 as the closing event of his visit. The Archdiocese of Hartford received 1,000 tickets for distribution among its parishes, schools, offices and ministries; all deadlines for tickets have passed.

The Pope will leave aboard a plane dubbed “Shepherd One” at 8 p.m. April 20 from John F. Kennedy Airport.

Baker and Sons isn’t the only place in the Archdiocese of Hartford that’s making a contribution to the Pontiff’s visit.

The Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven will provide a chair for Pope Benedict’s meeting with leaders of other faiths on April 17 at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.

The chair, which has a back rest that is 80 inches high, originally was commissioned for use by Pope John Paul II during the Mass he celebrated in 1995 at Aqueduct Race Track in New York.

It has been on display at the museum since then.