People
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My favorite book is The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It’s about a girl, and she lives in a pretty tough neighborhood, and she wants to show the world that she can be better than what it is and show them that the neighborhood isn’t as bad as it seems. Sarah McCord – Parishioner
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I went to the church and I went to Father Paul and I say “I don’t want to live no more with this kind of sick. I want to kill my life.” Elvys Guzmán – Parishioner
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We had many, many conversations about her with people looking at me and saying, “Peggy, why do you keep trying?” Peggy Oliveto – Parishioner
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I never sang in an English choir before. It was the first time. I get so nervous when I’m going to sing. But then, for some reason, when the choir comes in humming, when I’m singing with them, it’s like it’s fine. I’m okay. Rosaura Vásquez – Parishioner
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When I came home from that day, I think I realized that my compassion was slipping a little. Frank Martin – Parishioner
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I am not going to be part, if I’m truly of Irish descent, of ever saying people who need food are not going to get food because that person has problems. Father Paul O’Brien – Parish Priest
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I’ve been on the streets since I was six, and I’ve just been living here, there and everywhere with my friends. I used to sleep in stolen cars. I used to sleep in restaurants, They wouldn’t rent me an apartment for almost four and a half years that I was living in hotels and shelters because of the way that I looked. Theresa Santell
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When we were walking by the water, he was indicating how many people actually tried to stay in this one little area and that there had been times when they fell into the water and nobody knows where they are.Dianne Jarvis – Religious Education Director
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I’ve been trying to get in touch with Roseaura, but she doesn’t answer phone calls, it concerns me—and it concerns Claire who’s one of my other cantors—and we both have spent a lot of time with her, especially when she was going through the very hard time with the abusive boyfriend that she had and we tried to—we did successfully talk her out of that relationship, and we worry that she would find herself in another bad situation. Pat Romeo – Music Director
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Joy and sorrow, happiness and loneliness, are universal and indiscriminate emotions. Intolerance and fear result when we forget this. In Scenes From a Parish James Rutenbeck reminds us of this in a most beautiful way. Seamus Egan – Composer
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I have always felt blessed being allowed to film in people’s homes to share their lives and intimate moments. Being welcomed into a house of faith, into community where people are expressing their faith as well as their doubt, their communication and their divisions is even more intimate. Angélica Allende Brisk – Co-Producer
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St. Pat’s represents both the fluidity and the steadfastness of religious faith’s role in sustaining immigrant populations in places like Lawrence and my own neighborhood in Boston. In the time since we started making this film there have been new Archbishops and a Pope installed. My own child has learned to walk, talk, read and write. And yet the work of Saint Patrick Parish continues. Stephen McCarthy – Cinematographer
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We had many more stories to tell than were presented in this film. The interviewing of all the actions of the characters either seeking or giving help to their fellows helped me to see the link between having faith in the goodwill of your neighbor and finding the ability to understand her or him. Robert Todd – Editor
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I came to Saint Patrick’s to make a film, but I was also looking for a community. James Rutenbeck – Producer/Director
