Charles A. Shriner

“ After five years of ceaseless toil, at night collecting from your generous flock the necessary funds, by day laboring even with your own hands in the quarry, measuring the stone, mounting the walls, and giving directions to the builders, with untiring zeal and unremitting effort, after an expenditure of $200,000, you at length beheld your church ready for dedication to God. The Archbishop of Philadelphia in the absence of your own ordinary, did you the honor to come from his archiepiscopal city to consecrate this magnificent edifice to the worship of the Most High. ”

“ When a congregation flocks to the church, blocks up the way to the confessional and crowds around the altar rail, all know that there is spiritual power in that mission; when homes are Christian, when father, mother and children kneel together in prayer, when the sanctuary of the house is sacredly guarded like the sanctuary of the church, a race of Christian people is preserved. From such Christian homes come forth Christian men and women—come forth priests for the altar, brothers and sisters for the schools. ”

“ It is the glory of this congregation that religious communities have been largely recruited here; it is the crowning glory of the pastor of this church, as it is unspeakable joy to his heart, that his labors bring forth such fruit, for his work will not end with his days on earth ”

“ The celebration to-day is one worthy of a Christian people, commemorating a work wrought in God's name and for His honor, and fruitful of untold religious blessings to a devout congregation. The Church in the United States can, with justice and without a blush, hold up to the gaze of the world the record of her first days, humble and insignificant though they be ”

“ I need not say that when the Church came up to worship God in the light of day she continued to erect noble edifices to the glory of God, hence those noble basilicas, churches and cathedrals we see in the old countries. Those noble structures have been stigmatized as creations of the Dark Ages. Some of you may have seen them. Those who have not can form no idea of their beauty and grandeur, which impress even those of other faiths who enter them. ”

“ One or more families drawn to a locality by the prospect of employment, clinging to the faith of their fathers in the land of their birth,—clinging to it all the more if the hand of oppression for conscience's sake weighed heavily on them at home, journeyed many miles, sometimes hundreds of miles, to New York City or to some other city equally fortunate in having a church and priest, to obtain the succors of religion. ”

“ In 1863 the church of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, was without a pastor. The Right Rev. Bishop, knowing the importance of this growing city, which has since become one of the most successful manufacturing centres of the country, and thoroughly appreciating its religious wants, cast his eyes over his clergy, to find one capable of holding the reins of its destiny with a vigorous hand. He knew that in large manufacturing cities, there were numerous dangers to souls, and none more to be dreaded than those arising from intemperance. ”

“ If you will visit Catholic cities you will find the most beautiful buildings erected, not to purposes of science and art, but to the glory of God, and for works of charity done in His name. The Catholic Church has always been a church builder. She began with the Catacombs, which you will find in many parts of Europe and particularly at Rome. To those places the faithful were wont to flee from the light of day to offer their rites and worship God in their own way. ”

“ Wherefore, assembled in this monumental mother church, looking at her daughters, near and far off, beholding around her the fruits of her maternity—the churches, the schools, the hospitals, the orphanages, that have sprung from her loins, we grieve that a fuller account of her incipient struggles and successes is not at hand, and that due honor cannot, therefore, be rendered to the memory of the pioneers, clerical and lay, whose prayers and sacrifices blessed and helped the founding of religion in this town and neighborhood. ”

“ This noble cathedral was built not by the rich and titled, but by the hands of poor men. There must have been thousands working on it night and day for those seventy years. Thousands of noble persons were busy in supplying provisions to the laborers. Delicate maidens might have been seen carrying stones for the church. The whole population labored, not merely the citizen, but the dweller in the province, to erect that building that should stand until the end of time. ”

“ Richard Bulger, the second priest ordained by Bishop Connolly, was sent to Paterson as its first resident pastor, or rather as a missionary to Northern New Jersey, with his headquarters at Paterson. God only knows the patient and uncomplaining services, the whole-souled zeal of this truly Apostolic priest, as he travelled through the counties of Passaic, Sussex and Morris. Of a cheerful and gay disposition he delighted in telling amusing incidents connected with his travels. Some have come down to us by tradition curtailed or adorned as the narrator's imagination was lively or dull. ”

“ The beginnings of religion were the humblest conceivable. The priest to whose care was entrusted a territory now covered by one or more dioceses, journeyed from hamlet to hamlet and from house to house, wherever a child of the Church might have his home, to administer the consolation and the helps of the sacraments, and preach the word of life. His altar was a rough board or a table; his vestments and all needed for the mass were carried in a sack on his back, when no conveyance could be had. The conveyance might be an ox cart, a farm wagon, or a stage. ”

“ The rubric in the Pontifical which I hold in my hand imperfectly translated says that it is the duty of the Bishop before he lays the corner stone of a church to take care that means are provided for its completion, and for the support of its clergy, and the proper celebration of worship. But the times are not as they once were. Now we do not find it necessary to wait until all the means are provided. We depend now upon the wide-spread liberality of our people, many of whom, it is true, are poor. ”

“ A physician? No. A lawyer? No. Then, may I ask, what do you do for a living? Thus driven to the wall by the persistent questioner the priest was obliged to confess that he was a Roman Catholic priest. People in New Jersey had curious notions of what a priest might be: they attributed strange things to them, and had a holy horror of them. Our farmer was not exempt from the prevailing ignorant superstitions with regard to priests, and ordered Father Bulger to quit the sled. ”

“ The sentiment expressed by the Bishop in his "History of the Church on the Island of New York" was given effective play in his work as a Bishop. He wrote: "If we desire to keep the children in the faith of [Pg 65] their fathers, we must, above all things, take measures to imbue the minds of the rising generation of Catholics with sound religious principles. This can only be done by giving them a good Catholic education. In our present position, the school-house has become second in importance only to the House of God itself." ”

“ He is a barren pastor who brings forth none to take his place when he is gone, or who has never summoned to his aid one recruit of his own drilling.
For the work accomplished, for blessings received, for a growth and prosperity wondrous indeed, it is a duty for the children of the early Catholic settlers of Paterson not to forget their fathers who "were men of mercy, whose godly deeds have not failed;" it is a joy for them and their children, and for their pastors, and the church, "to show forth the wisdom and declare the praise" of those who builded that Church of St. John in 1833. ”

“ Often have you been seen after a hard day's work on the Lord's Sabbath parading the streets of Paterson as if with police authority, to see whether any of your people were staggering along the sidewalk, after filling themselves with drink, or gathered in the beershops indulging in the noise and riot for which such places are notorious. ”

“ To give a complete list of the Catholics who assisted in the propagation of the faith in Paterson and give each one his or her share of praise for the noble work done in the Lord's vineyard would be a difficult task. Most of the pioneers have passed away to reap in another world the reward for their faithfulness and energy; others removed their families to other States, where their descendants are still prominent in the affairs of the Church. Some of those who did the hardest work when the light of the Catholic Church first dawned in this country are more than dead ”

“ Hence you were not slow to organize temperance societies, not merely for the older men and women, but also for the young men, and even for boys, and from the very day on which you entered the City of Paterson, up to the present moment, you have never relaxed your energies in the promotion of the cause of temperance, and in checking the ravages of intemperance in your parish. ”

“ The performance of this sacred duty honors and helps the Bishops, the priests, the people, who toiled under adverse and trying circumstances to lay good foundations for future building; it gratifies the loving hearts of a grateful posterity to acknowledge the rich inheritance of religion that has come down to them, as it will be their earnest endeavor to transmit to their children the glowing faith, the warm piety and the noble spirit of self-sacrifice inherited from "men of renown, and our fathers in their generation." ”

“ The principal service on Sunday was at half-past ten in the morning, when a solemn high mass was celebrated. The edifice was crowded to its utmost capacity, and although benches in the aisles gave extra accommodation, hundreds stood patiently all through the long service. In the immense throng were many Protestants, attracted by the unusual preparations for elaborate music which had been made by Professor William Davis, the organist of the church, and by the announcement that the renowned Bishop McQuaid, of Rochester, was to preach a historical sermon. ”

“ The young women you gathered into pious sodalities under the direction of the saintly Sisters, and the patronage of the Immaculate Virgin, thus furnishing them with every safeguard against the numerous temptations to be found in populous manufacturing cities, and your labors for both classes have been crowned with success, as any one can see, on Sundays in St. John's Church, whose altar rails are crowded with those devout young men and women, coming forward to nourish themselves with Christ's life-giving bread. ”

“ The wild Arab ranging the desert as he sees and drinks of those living waters, blesses the names of those old patriarchs who made them flow. So it is with the Church of Christ. That Church is, indeed, a fountain of living waters in the desert, spreading fertility and blessings around it and refreshing and blessing the weary traveller on his journey through life. It is indeed a great and a good work we are engaged in. ”