As I observed my golden anniversary of ordination to the priesthood, May 29, 1971 – May 29, 2021, a number of people have asked me about these 50 years. The truth of the Latin phrase Tempus Fugit (Time Flies) is my experience. In response to these inquiries, I decided to write a reflection on the past 50 years of my priesthood. It will appear in THE CATHOLIC STAR HERALD in a few installments.
This is the third.
In September of 1976, I was transferred to the Parish of Saints Philip and James in the northeast Bronx. Although I was born, raised and schooled through high school in the Bronx, I was not familiar with the northeast Bronx.
The Bronx is the only borough of the five that make up the City of New York connected to the American mainland, and it is a very large landmass. The parish was established in 1949, the 10th anniversary of the installation of Cardinal Spellman as the Archbishop of New York. In his honor, 10 new parishes were created throughout the archdiocese.
The streets of the parish were populated with small homes, a large New York City public housing project and a scattering of apartment buildings. Though located in the city, it did not have an urban feeling. A car was needed to get around the parish.
Typical in those days when a new parish was constructed in the Archdiocese of New York, the first building erected was the grammar school, then the convent. Construction of the church and rectory followed when the parish secured the necessary revenues. At Saints Philip and James, a substantial school building and a new convent dominated the parish campus. The parish church was housed in what should have been the school gym. This was to be a temporary arrangement until the parish was able to build a church. There was no rectory. The priests lived in the school. We had our own entrance into the building.
Many of the homeowners worked for the City of New York; motormen, bus drivers and subway workers. There were lots of nurses and medical personnel. Pretty much middle-class families. The ethnic population of the parish was beginning to change from white to black English-speaking immigrants from the Eastern Caribbean – areas such as Jamaica, Saint Kitts, Trinidad and Tobago, etc.
At the same time, Puerto Ricans moving out of the south Bronx were buying homes in the parish. The pastor – who had been in the parish a number of years, first as an assistant – approached the Archdiocese with a request for a Spanish-speaking priest. Yours truly fit the bill!
The Sunday Spanish Mass was celebrated at 10 a.m. in the school cafeteria, with weekly attendance of about 50 faithful participating. The challenge I was given by the pastor was to grow that community until its numbers were larger than the 250 attending the 10 a.m. Mass in the church. It took about two years to meet that challenge, which I did not do alone.
The Cursillistas, women and men whose faith was enlivened by participating in a four-day intensive retreat experience, organized house visitations throughout the parish. They went in twos door to door looking for Latinos to invite them to the Spanish Sunday Mass.
I had made a Cursillo when I returned to New York from the Dominican Republic. Faithfully, I participated in the weekly Friday Ultreya (meeting) with the Cursillistas. Their spiritual energy combined with their love for and fidelity to the Church resulted in the growth of Spanish-speaking parishioners at the parish. Their dedication to the Lord paid off as the Spanish-speaking community grew. I learned some very valuable lessons about the apostolic role of the laity in the life of the parish.
The pastor knew the name and life story of every parishioner. He stood outside every Sunday Mass, greeting the faithful, and had something to say to each parishioner. In this way, he built up their connection to the parish. They knew he loved them and was concerned about them. Again, his example of presence to the parishioners made a deep impression on me. It is what each parish priest should do on a Sunday morning.
The parish school had an impressive student enrollment with two classes of each grade level, averaging about 800 pupils. It was staffed by the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt and very dedicated lay teachers. There were significant numbers of non-Catholic children in the school whose parents chose the school for its Christian and Gospel values.
Many of the West Indians were Episcopalian. They wanted the safety, discipline and Christian faith that were the hallmarks of our school. I got to know the Episcopal pastor of our non-Catholic students and invited him to certain events at the school. Ecumenical relationships among the clergy developed and were important stabilizing elements for the northeast Bronx. I learned a valuable lesson about interfaith connections among the clergy.
The parish sponsored an excellent Scouting program, which was blessed with committed lay leaders, dedicated women and men who provided a first-class program for the children and teenagers. Yearly, there was an Eagle Scout court of honor, a testimony to the excellence of the Scouting program.
There was a unique religious education program for the children in public schools. It was staffed by seniors at a local Catholic high school, who were doing a course on catechetics with a weekly practicum in the classroom at the parish with the children. Those teenagers were well-prepared and supervised for each weekly lesson. It was a witness activity for them, and it had excellent results for the religious formation and education of the children. I would meet weekly with the seniors at their school to discuss what was going on in their classes at the parish and to encourage their ministry. I experienced the potential of youth ministry that is professionally prepared and supervised.
During the latter years of the 70s, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) was introduced, and we began experimenting with it in the parish. There were significant numbers of both adult and children converts. Adapting the RCIA was a pastoral challenge due to our unfamiliarity with the ritual. Two religious women joined the staff and assumed responsibility for arranging this “new” way of converting to the Catholic faith. The RCIA team had excellent parishioner participation, and the numbers of converts were impressive.
Prior to the RCIA, a priest would meet regularly with the convert to teach the Catholic faith. The new pastoral program involved the whole parish in the conversion and reached its conclusion at the Easter Vigil with very public celebrations and welcoming the converts into the community of faith. A lot of pastoral effort was put into this, and its newness required frequent adaptation by the pastoral staff. The benefit of the excitement experienced by our parishioners as they received a new member into the Church was memorable for them and for the new Catholic. The process and stages of initiation into Christ and His Church are pastoral tools that I have used ever since.
The music program at the parish was excellent. The parishioners enjoyed singing at Mass – and did they ever sing! Their level of participation at Mass was high. There was also an expectation by the faithful of serious and prepared preaching, common to the Black Church tradition. The parishioners dressed for Sunday Mass and many of them tithed to the parish. Again, common to the Black Church. The English-speaking Eastern Caribbean parishioners came from a high Church tradition in their native countries, and to replicate that tradition in a Bronx Catholic parish was quite unique.
At Saints Philip and James, I made two lifelong friendships: one with a young priest who was assigned to the parish and the other with a teacher in our school and her husband. Those friendships have enriched my life and my priesthood.
There was a mix of the races in the various parish societies, programs and in the parish school. A truly Catholic parish. There was a well-attended charismatic prayer group, which grew in the sense of community.
The Catholic Church is composed of many peoples who form one parish. The respect for culture, race and ethnicity are essential for Church life. Yes, there are challenges, but a truly Catholic Church is a Church of many races, cultures and languages.
The parish was a stabilizing anchor in a changing area of the northeast Bronx. We even had a visit from New York’s famous Mayor Ed Koch, who as we walked the streets of the parish, remarked how essential the church is to the neighborhood.
The mid-1970s in the Bronx were the days of disco music, “Stayin’ Alive,” “Saturday Night Fever” and Son of Sam.
My five years at Saints Philip and James Parish prepared me even more for what was to come in future assignments as a parish priest.
Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan., D.D.
Bishop of Camden
(To be continued.)
Past installments of Bishop Sullivan’s reflections: