By the year of his death (1943), Rev. Nolan had paid off the $75,000 debt for the new school. When he died, after 34 years as pastor, the parish – although struggling in terms of membership – had no debt.

The first 63 years of Corpus Christi parish were led by only two pastors, an occurrence that would be unlikely today.

Rev. Nolan was succeeded by Rev. William Neligan, formerly pastor of St. Francis of Assisi. Fortunately for him, World War II was ending, and the baby boom was on. Hence, weddings and baptisms increased sharply. Yet, unfortunately for him, the number of parishioners declined overall to approximately 1200 by the end of the decade. That meant collections were usually down as well, although there were some fluctuations from year to year. Several church societies, however, continued to be quite active in their work – the Holy Name Society, the St. Vincent DePaul Society, the Blessed Virgin Mary Sodality, and the Propagation of Faith. Sadly, there were never more than 150 students in the parish school. The then Archbishop, Michael Joseph Curley, wrote to Rev. Neligan in 1945 that Corpus Christi was “on the downgrade.” “I realize, too, that your population is decreasing and that Corpus Christi has its growing difficulties for the future.”