Pitchin’ in at the Parish: CCSU Student Live Streamed Mass, Helped People to Pray

Story by Shelley Wolf

Editor’s Note: Each year, the Archdiocese of Hartford awards the St. Joseph Archdiocesan Medal of Appreciation to parish volunteers for commendable service to their parish. Recipients are nominated within their parish for giving of their time and talent. In late 2021, individuals were also nominated for helping their parishes navigate pandemic-related requirements and for participating in the Archdiocese of Hartford Synod 2020. Each month in the year ahead, we’ll highlight medal recipients and share their contributions to their local Catholic community.

NEW BRITAIN – At the front of St. Francis of Assisi Church, on the right side near the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Julia Kudewicz did her small part with a video camera in the early days of the pandemic to help her parish priest, Father Michael Casey, and the people of her parish.

On Sundays during the 10 a.m. Mass, the student from Central Connecticut State University sat at a table with a laptop and placed a small camera on a tripod to get a clear view of the sanctuary. From her little spot, she live streamed the Mass to parishioners in the church hall below, enabling them to social distance yet still take part in the Mass. Parishioners who could not attend Mass in person due to underlying health conditions were also able to view the Mass on YouTube.

“I think people did appreciate it. People always told me I did a nice job. I tried to get the best angle,” says Kudewicz, who is now 21. “Even with the overflow crowd, it was a way for people to come together. People just wanted to pray, and this helped them to do it. That’s what I wanted.”

For her help in bringing the Mass to her fellow parishioners, Kudewicz received the 2021 St. Joseph Archdiocesan Medal of Appreciation.

Just Say ‘Yes’

Though she knew nothing about video and audio work, Kudewicz simply responded positively to Father Casey’s call in 2020 for assistance in live streaming the Mass.

“I was more than happy to help. I knew he had a lot on his hands to figure out all the safety precautions,” Kudewicz says. “I’m not a professional, so it’s kind of funny I got the position. I came in the week before to figure it out.”

Early on, the work involved a fair amount of troubleshooting. “I had to make sure everything was working. If the video crashed, I had to bring it up and problem-solve on the spot,” she recalls. That often meant unplugging and re-plugging wires, and checking with other volunteers in the parish hall downstairs to see if her fixes actually worked. On occasion, she brought in others to help. “We always figured it out somehow.”

A big part of the job was just keeping up with the action. “A lot of it was just moving the camera to where the lector was and zooming in and out,” she says. “I moved the camera to get different angles on the Mass, so everyone could see what was going on.” She followed Father Casey as he moved to the left side of the sanctuary, and strived for close-up shots during the consecration of the host.

In 2021, with the arrival of the vaccines and the return to full capacity at Mass, her help was no longer needed. But Kudewicz is content to have done her part.

Looking back, Father Casey says, her can-do spirit was “pretty amazing.” “Julia’s service to the parish during the COVID shutdown was exceptional,” he says.

Other Pandemic Pick-me-ups

Now a senior at CCSU majoring in chemistry, Kudewicz attended St. Stanislaus Church in Meriden, part of St. Faustina Parish, in her youth.

A churchgoer for most of her life, she fell away for a time but rediscovered her faith through the Catholic campus ministry at CCSU, which meets at the Catholic Center and at St. Francis Church. There she joined Crossroads 4 Christ young adult group, attended coffee hour after the 5 p.m. vigil Mass, and served as a lector at the daily Mass. “I think it was just God’s grace,” she now says of her growing devotion to her faith.

In addition to her video work for her new Catholic community, Kudewicz was nominated for other contributions during the pandemic. Recognizing the need for ongoing fellowship as the lockdown began in March 2020, she created an online group of six female students from CCSU, who called themselves the “Online Catholic Center.” The students gathered nightly through Zoom video conferencing for three months to simply connect, chatting about everything from TV shows to spiritual matters.

Each hour ended with an examination of conscience and the Act of Contrition. At some gatherings, the students chose to pray the rosary. “It made us become souls of prayer,” she says.

Responding to the isolation of the elderly during the pandemic, Kudewicz also persuaded members of the Newman Club, a Catholic association for students, to join her in writing letters to residents of a local nursing home, Autumn Lake Healthcare, in New Britain. In time, she was invited to call one resident with whom she struck up a friendship, telling him about her college activities and thereby giving him a window on another world. “It’s helpful that he’s Catholic, too,” she says. “I can ask him to pray for me, too.”

Last year, in a new media project aimed at college students and young adults, Kudewicz participated with Father Casey and Sheila Hurst in “SFC Chat Podcast.” Year two of the podcast series explores the many facets of Catholic friendship. In addition to conversing in some of the episodes, Kudewicz uploaded the audio files onto SoundCloud and other media platforms. “They were a lot of fun,” she recalls. “We talked about raising the spiritual temperature in your friend group.”

Kudewicz loves spiritual reading. She just finished Confessions by St. Augustine of Hippo and is currently reading Time for God by Jacques Philippe.

For more information on St. Francis of Assisi Parish, including new Mass times, the podcast, and activities for students and young adults, visit its website, St. Francis Catholic, at stfranciscatholic.org.