History

By Jack Sweeney

"Time is the unfolding of truth that already is, the unveiling of beauty that is yet to be. Your Son has saved us in history by rising from the dead so that transcending time he might free us from death."

Opening Prayer, Seventh Sunday after Easter

For Catholics, history is not merely an account of events that have transpired at some moment in the remote past. It is not a tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. History is the ongoing unfolding of the truth of Salvation. God created in time and has intervened in time to save men and women from the results of sin. Although Christ died for our sins at one fixed historical moment, salvation is extended to us throughout history by the teaching of the church, the sacrifice of the mass and the grace of the sacraments. Catholics do not hold that they are saved by a one time acceptance of Jesus. Salvation is normally an ongoing process that occurs throughout the life of a person according to the injunction of Saint Paul to work out our salvation in fear and trembling of God. We are not alone in our struggle; we are assisted by the prayers, good works and the example of a community of salvation.

It is for these reasons that the history of a parish is so significant. It is not merely a chronology of an organization, it is an account of the Church in its own history, its theological growth, its liturgical and sacramental life continuing to apply to humankind the fruits of God's salvation in Christ to a particular group of people in a particular geographical place. The history of St. Joseph Parish in Somers Point is clearly an account of the presence of God and the workings of Christ's grace on this community of salvation.

The first evidence that Somers Point was emerging as a community of salvation was in 1908. At this time, the first mass was said in this community by Fr. Gregory Moran in a chapel at the home of Mr. & Mrs. John B. Fassio at 19 Somers Avenue. In 1910, the community of Somers Point was placed under the aegis of Fr. John Sweeney, the pastor of St. Augustine parish in Ocean City. Due to the growth of the congregation, Fr. Sweeney moved the liturgy from the original site to a dance hall in Charles J. Collins' Anchorage Hotel on Delaware and Bay Avenues. From 1914 until 1944, Fr. Thomas F. Blake, pastor of St. Augustine church, was the spiritual leader of the congregation in Somers Point. He mobilized the resources of the original families, the Steelmans, the Collins, the Stretches, the Roberts, the Woodburns, the Careys, the Fassios, the Cramers, the Devlins, the Harts, the DeFeos and many others to build a permanent house of worship. For this purpose, they purchased real estate at the corner of Shore Road and Harbor Lane. Bishop Walsh journeyed all the way from Trenton to lay the cornerstone of Saint Joseph Church in 1922. The first trustees of the church were Mr. Somers Steelman and Mr. James Devlin.

Under Fr. Blake, there was a succession of curates including Fathers Augustine Crine and William McKeever who provided the liturgy and spiritual guidance to the Catholic people in Somers Point. In 1944, however, both Fr. Blake and his successor at St. Augustine, Fr. Hugh Massey, died. The bishop thereupon appointed Msgr. Bartholomew Doyle pastor of St. Augustine Parish, Ocean City, and its mission church, St. Joseph, Somers Point. His assistant was Fr. Joseph Brennan.

On July 13, 1946, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Bartholomew J. Eustace, D.D., the Bishop of Camden, officially recognized St. Joseph as an independent Parish. The bishop appointed Fr. Paul Barry the first pastor. Fr. Barry faced a daunting task since the parish boundaries included Somers Point, Linwood, Scullville, Steelmanville, English Creek, Beesley's Point, Marmora and Palermo. Later in 1950, part of Northfield and Bargaintown were added. At that time, there were less than 500 Catholic families within the confines of the parish. Mr. John Gaffney and Mr. Frank Hart were the first trustees of the new parish.

Fr. Barry must have been a virtual whirlwind. While he was pastor, he leased 580 Shore Road for a rectory and he added a sacristy to the original church. Together with Arthur McArdle, Garrett Sullivan, Leo Garson, John Gaffney, William Shuman, Ray Mahoney, and Ralph McCarty, he literally dug the basement meeting hall under the church. He raised $41,000 for the construction of the present rectory by R. A. Prendegrast & Son and at the same time, he acquired the land next to the rectory for a new church to be built in the future. Suddenly, on February 20, 1951, St. Joseph's lost its first pastor in death.

For a short time, Fr. Denis Rigney served the parish as an administrator until Fr. Jeremiah Sullivan was appointed the second pastor in March 1951. During this time, the summer population of the parish increased to such an extent that Sunday masses were held in Mr. Winfield's Summer Theater until the completion of the new church. Fr. Sullivan himself died on February 20, 1954. Fr. Romeo Vernocchi and Fr. Henry Blaszcynski had served as assistant pastors.

The new pastor, Fr. John G. Flanagan was named by Bishop Eustace in June 1954. He immediately undertook the work of building a new and larger church. After two years of intense organizing and planning, Msgr. Augustine T. Mozier, Vicar General of the Diocese of Camden, assisted by Fr. Flanagan and the nearby pastors and other clergy, broke ground for a new colonial-style church on April 29, 1956. Mother Agnes Bernadette and the Sisters of St. Joseph from St. Augustine School participated in the ceremony along with Mr. Daniel W. Steelman and Mr. Joseph A. Gerety, the parish trustees. The anticipated cost of the building completely furnished was $250,000. To meet this exigency, Fr. Flanagan organized a Building Fund Campaign. The fund committee was chaired by John Gaffney, Joseph Gerety, Sr., and Daniel W. Steelman.

On Sunday, May 20, 1956, they sent forth forty pairs of men to canvass the entire parish. In less than three hours they had collected more than $73,000 in pledges. The captains of the Fund Campaign were Thomas J. Christensen, Jr., Frank DeFeo, Joseph DiOrio, George Hyatt, James A. McNelis, John G. O'Hara, Fred F. Smartley and Walter Weniger. Mary Temple, a native of Chester, Pennsylvania, served as parish secretary for 30 years, serving five pastors, and retired in 1988 at the age of 90.

In the ten years since the parish of St. Joseph began, the population grew from 500 people to over 2,000. Consequently, Bishop Eustace sent Fr. Joseph W. Devlin temporarily as the first assistant. He was soon replaced by Fr. James A. Scanlan. On February 3, 1957, Msgr. Augustine T. Mozier, Administrator of the Diocese of Camden, laid the cornerstone of the new church. He placed a sealed copper box containing memorabilia within the cornerstone which was then inserted in the sanctuary wall on the gospel side of the altar. Msgr. Mozier returned on Sunday morning, May 26, 1957 for the Solemn Blessing dedicating the new church.

Fr. Flanagan then turned his restless mind to providing a parochial school for the parishioners of St. Joseph's. He decided to convert the old church into a school. He divided it into three large classrooms, a visiting room, lavatories and storage space. The new bishop, Justin J. McCarty, solemnly blessed the building on September 2, 1958. When Mother John Ignatius of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chestnut Hill sounded the bell for the first class on September 2, there were 82 students in the first and second grade. She and Sister Helen Patrick were living in Blessed Sacrament Convent in Margate, but before Christmas they moved into the present convent. While everything else was going on, Fr. Flanagan had purchased this building the year before for $16,000. During the same period, Fr. Flanagan was on a buying spree. On May 28, 1958, he purchased the site of Our Lady of Sorrows Church and Hall in Linwood for the combined price of $17,500. On August 27, 1958, he acquired the present location of the Church of the Resurrection in Marmora for $3,000. He then went on to buy two separate pieces of property on Harbor Lane for a total of $32,500. After all this was accomplished in about seven years, Fr. Flanagan was appointed pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Cape May.

Msgr. Joseph Stoerlein succeeded Fr. Flanagan as the fourth pastor of St. Joseph Parish. At the time of his arrival in June 1961, the parish census contained the names of 900 families and within the next five years, the census increased to 1,340. The most pressing task facing the new pastor was the building of a new school. For the time being, classes were being held in the converted church, the old Acme building on Shore Road and the basement of the new church. The school enrollment in September of 1962 was 345 in six grades. Archbishop Celestine J. Damiano came to Somers Point on May 15, 1962 for the ground breaking ceremonies of the new school in Somers Point and of the social hall at Poplar and Wabash Avenues in Linwood.

He returned again in March of the following year for the dedication of the new school and the social hall. Both buildings were constructed by John J. Nugent of Northfield with Sabatino & Fishman of Hammonton as architects. The school cost $245,000 and the hall $135,000. The construction was completed in August 1963; school opened in September with an enrollment of 585 students and Mother Ethel deSales the Superior and Principal. To accommodate the increased number of Sisters of St. Joseph, Msgr. Stoerlein expanded the convent facilities and built the convent chapel. The first graduation occurred on Saturday, June 5, 1965.

During this period a series of curates, including Fathers Gallerani, Hally, McCabe, Boyle and Salerno served St. Joseph Parish. The stage was now set for a kind of ecclesiastical mitosis by which Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Linwood and St. Bernadette Parish in Northfield came into existence. As a result, St. Joseph was reduced to 600 families. The fifth pastor, Msgr. Edward O'Connor replaced Fr. Stoerlein in 1967. The new pastor's tenure was characterized by wise spiritual and material administration of the reorganized parish. One of the chief projects that Msgr. O'Connor undertook was the creation of the Parish Council. A steering committee spent several months during 1969 to develop a constitution in accordance with the wishes of the Second Vatican Council. At the first meeting of the Parish Council on September 11, 1969, Mr. Joseph McBride became the President with Mr. Joseph Loefflad as Vice President and Mrs. Ann Loefflad as Secretary. The school also received Mother Margaret Aloysia as Superior and Principal; Sisters Joanne Fehrenbach and Anne Wambach also served as principals. The enrollment remained more or less constant but the faculty had now grown to eight sisters and five lay teachers.

Early in 1971, Msgr. Leon Winowicz replaced Msgr. O'Connor who had been transferred to St. James Parish in Ventnor. By now St. Joseph Parish had just about completely matured as a community of salvation. The challenges that faced the priests became increasingly spiritual. The diocese created a chaplaincy for Shore Memorial Hospital and assigned Fr. Thomas E. Kearney to that work while residing in the rectory. Later the chaplain's responsibilities were extended to Ocean Point Convalescent Home and the Atlantic County Home. Fr. Kearney was succeeded by Fr. William J. Eckert. Fr. Robert B. Matysik, was appointed June 13, 1989. A new Superior and Principal, Sr. Marie Alacoque, arrived at the parish in September 1972. The Diocesan Educational Office reorganized St. Joseph as a regional school in 1973-74. The three mainland parishes established a Board of Education for governance which included eight laymen from all the congregations.

All the parishes were now to share in subsidizing the school. Msgr. Winowicz also modernized the church's heating system by installing an air conditioning unit. Under Monsignor, a very popular novena in honor of St. Ann was established and the parish instituted an ecumenical outreach program with the local ministries to provide a more comprehensive charitable program. The trustees of the parish at that time were Raymond Borzelleca and Joseph McBride. Among the priests who served the parish then were Father James R. Ryan, Peter F. Finery and Thomas O. Osterman. Msgr. Winowicz served as pastor until his death in September 1978.

Msgr. John F. Cooke became the seventh pastor of St. Joseph Parish in December 1978. On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the building of the church, Msgr. Cooke undertook major repairs and a complete renovation of the church. Charles McLaughlin of Haddonfield and John Rappa & Sons from Hammonton completed the work for approximately $101,300. The most outstanding feature of the work was a series of panels in the sanctuary representing the Holy Trinity, St. Joseph, the Sacred Heart and the Creation account from Genesis. Sometime later, Msgr. Cooke had the church organ installed and expanded and refurbished the rectory and annex, providing meeting rooms for many parish groups. Msgr. Cooke's sensitivity to the needs of others heightened the awareness of the parishioners, as seen by the many projects sponsored by parish organizations. By 1982 the parish numbered 1,205 households. This represented a 22% increase. One of the most profound and dynamic events to take place in the parish was the institution of the Renew program which officially began in the fall of 1995. The basic concept of this program is the formation of cells of parishioners to discuss and then act upon their faith commitment. Several priests served St. Joseph Parish during Msgr. Cooke's pastorate, including Fathers Edward W. Garay, Carl Marucci, Joseph Reilly, James O. Dabrowski, Andrew Bolcar, and Vicente Moreno Martin. Two Permanent Deacons, Jerome I. Wilson and John L. Glasser, also assisted the pastor. Sr. Maria Goretti Pino served as the Parish Music Minister. Sr. Gloria Schaab was Principal of the School, having an enrollment of approximately 270 students. The Religious Education Program boasted an enrollment of 600 students in September 1996. Msgr. Cooke ended his 17 years of service to St. Joseph's on March 25, 1996, when he was assigned as Pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace, Pitman.

His successor, Fr. Josef A. Wagenhoffer, commenced his pastorate on the same day as Msgr. Cooke's departure. Fr. Wagenhoffer's background as a college chaplain and educator enabled an intense comraderie with the youth of the parish. During his early tenure, Fr. Wagenhoffer instituted a major change by offering the Eucharist under both species to the whole congregation. In memory of his parents, he restored the bells to the church tower.