VOLUME XVI, No. 1
AUTUMN 1996
PARISH HISTORY PROGRAM COMING SEPTEMBER 28
The next in the Commission's series of public programs will be held at Seton Hall University on September 28, 1996. Entitled "Writing Parish History," it seeks to assist those who research and write the history of local communities and institutions to find the data, to assemble it into a coherent story, and to locate that story in the broader study of Church and nation.
Every year some parishes in the state celebrate a tenth or twenty-fifth or some other anniversary we customarily mark, but over the next few years an unusually large number of local churches will be celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. These were all established during the period of rapid suburbanization of New Jersey in the decade or so after World War II. The great Depression from 1929 onwards and then American participation in the Second World War from 1941 to 1945 had forced many people to postpone marriage and had practically stopped the building of new housing. When the war ended, then, the clamor for housing by newly-married couples, or couples finally able to set up housekeeping on their own led, to extensive building of suburban housing on tracts that only the year before had been onion farms or other agricultural land. The baby boom was upon the nation.
Church naturally had to follow its communicants in order to serve them, and so new churches, rectories, schools and convents also began to sprout in suburbia. Whatever else has happened to them over the past fifty years, they are now coming up on a golden jubilee.
To facilitate the writing of the community histories which frequently mark this anniversary, and to help their authors make them as useful and interesting as possible, the Commission is sponsoring "Writing Parish History," on September 28. The program seeks to introduce the inexperienced parish historian to the resources available and to some of the approaches possible, as well as to point out some of the pitfalls lurking in what sometimes seems a simple task.
The speakers are all experienced in dealing with local Catholic history. Father Raymond J. Kupke is the archivist of the Diocese of Paterson, teaches church history at Immaculate Conception Seminary, and is the author of Living Stones: A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Paterson. Father Michael G. Krull is pastor of St. Anthony's Church in Port Reading, is a member of the church history committee of the Diocese of Metuchen, and has practiced what he preaches by writing a number of local Catholic histories. Both Father Krull and Father Kupke are members of the Commission. Ruth Baci is the author of Down by the River and Under the Cliff, a history of Holy Rosary parish, Edgewater, New Jersey. This is one of the few parish histories to make it to Barnes and Noble's catalogue. Ms. Paci's partner on the panel, William Kowalski, is the author of Sacred Art and Ornamentation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Bayonne. The panel should be very interesting and useful, because both authors have emphasized elements of parish life which often do not appear in anniversary histories; their insights, therefore, should enable all of us to integrate these materials more effectively into new work. Father Armand Mantia is a careful student of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark and will provide some sharp insights into telling the story of a church.
At the conclusion of the talks Monsignor William N. Field, University Archivist and a member of the Commission, will offer a tour of the Archives and Special Collections. Serendipitously, the Archives is opening an exhibit that day (see elsewhere in this issue), so visitors will be able to see the exhibit and share in the reception.
The fee for registration and luncheon is $25.00. The Commission cordially invites you to come and share the day with us.
REGISTRATION FORM
Please register the undersigned for the conference on Sept. 28.
Name____________________________________________________________
Address_________________________________________________________
City________________________ State__________ Zip________________
I enclose check(s) in the amount of $________ for ____ person(s).
For multiple registrations, please attach names of all attendees.
Checks payable to: New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission.
Return by September 15 to: Prof. J.F. Mahoney, History Dept., Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ 07079-2696.
PROGRAM
9:30 A.M. Registration and Coffee
10:00 A.M. Welcome:
Most Reverend Dominic A. Marconi, D.D.,
Chairman, NJCHRC
10:05 A.M. Keynote Address:
Reverend Raymond J. Kupke
10:50 A.M. Discussion
11:10 A.M. Break
11:30 A.M. What Should the Parish Save?
Reverend Michael G. Krull
11:50 A.M. Panel:
Ruth Paci
William Kowalski
12:45 P.M. Exhibit of Parish Histories
1:00 P.M. Luncheon
Speaker: Reverend Armand Mantia
2:00 P.M. Concluding Remarks
Professor Joseph F. Mahoney
Director, NJCHRC
2:05 P.M. Tour of Walsh Library
Special Collections/Archives
Reverend Monsignor William N. Field
PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
WHEN? Saturday, September 28
9:30 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
WHERE? Bishop Dougherty Student Center
Seton Hall University
South Orange, N.J.
REGISTRATION & LUNCHEON: $25.00
DIRECTIONS
SETON HALL UNIVERSITY
South Orange Avenue South Orange, N.J.
1. From the Garden State Parkway, North or South:
Take the Garden State Parkway to Exit 145. Get on Interstate 280 West. Follow directions for 280 West.
2. From the New Jersey Turnpike, North or South:
Take the New Jersey Turnpike to Exit 15W. Get on Interstate 280 West. Follow directions for 280 West.
3. From 280 West:
Take Exit 10, West Orange/South Orange. Proceed to the first light and turn left onto Northfield Avenue. Go three lights and turn left onto Gregory Avenue. Continue straight to the end (Gregory Avenue becomes Wyoming Avenue). At the end of Wyoming Avenue, turn left onto South Orange Avenue. Drive through the Village of South Orange; the campus is approximately 1 1\2 miles on the right.
4. From 280 East:
Take Exit 9, Mt. Pleasant Avenue/West Orange/Montclair. Stay on Brennan Drive to the end. Make a right onto Northfield Avenue. Go two lights and turn left onto Gregory Avenue. Continue straight to the end (Gregory Avenue becomes Wyoming Avenue). At the end of Wyoming Avenue, turn left onto South Orange Avenue. Drive through the Village of South Orange; the campus is approximately 1 1/2 miles on the right.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
McGreevy, John T. Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North. This important book seeks to understand how and why urban Catholics in the northeastern quadrant of the country reacted to the open-housing crusades of the 1960s and how the tangle of issues confronted then has shaped American Catholicism since. Although references to New Jersey directly are infrequent, the work suggests insights into local happenings during the period.
Dolan, Jay P., "The Search for an American Catholicism," The Catholic Historical Review LXXXII:2 (April, 1996), pp. 169-186. A prominent historian of Catholicism in the United States tries to find a theme to clarify our understanding of American Catholic history. May be particularly useful to those who are planning a history of some aspect of local Catholic life.
SETON HALL ARCHIVES ANNOUNCES NEW EXHIBIT
A new exhibit, "Treasures from the Special Collections Center," will open in the gallery of Walsh Library on Saturday, September 28 and run through Friday, November 1, 1996. The Center holds the archives of Seton Hall University and the archives of the Archdiocese of Newark, as well as several other collections. Among these are the Meagher J. MacManus Irish Collection, the Gerald Murphy Civil War Collection and an extensive rare book collection.
The exhibition will feature memorabilia of early student life at Seton Hall during the mid- and late-nineteenth century, as well as items from the various episcopal administrations and also items illustrative of parish Catholic life over the past century and a half.
On September 28 an opening reception will be held from 2:00 to 5:00 P.M. The gallery is located on the first floor of Walsh Library.
GERETY LECTURE TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 13
The first in the series of Gerety Lectures in Church History for the academic year 1996-1997 will be held in the chapel of Immaculate Conception Seminary on the Seton Hall campus at 8:00 P.M. on November 13, 1996. Virgilio Elizondo will address the topic "Pope Paul VI and Latino Evangelization." Elizondo holds a doctorate in theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris and one in philosophy from the Sorbonne. He was the founder and first president of the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas and is the executive produced of Nuestra Santa Missa de Las Americas, the only internationally televised Mass in the American hemisphere. He has been a visiting professor at Boston College, the University of Seattle, Union Theological Seminary and the Methodist School of Theology at Claremont. Admission is free, and all are welcome.
Published by the New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey 07079-2696
| Most Reverend Dominic A. Marconi, D.D., Chairman; Reverend Monsignor Joseph C. Shenrock, Vice-Chairman; Bernard Bush; Reverend Robert E. Carbonneau, C.P.; JoAnn Cotz; Reverend Augustine Curley, O.S.B.; Reverend Monsignor William N. Field; Reverend Monsignor Charles J. Giglio; Sister Mary Ellen Gleason, S.C.; Reverend Michael G. Krull; Reverend Raymond J. Kupke; Joseph F. Mahoney; Sister Margherita Marchione, M.P.F.; Reverend Monsignor Robert Moneta; George L.A. Reilly; Sister Irene Marie Richards, O.P.; Sister Thomas Mary Salerno, S.C.; Bernhard W. Scholz; Reverend Monsignor Francis R. Seymour; Reverend Joseph D. Wallace. Joseph F. Mahoney, Newsletter editor. |
(mds-9/11/96)
Updated: 06/13/02