By Tanya Drobness
The Star-Ledger
June 14, 2009
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/parishioners_in_newark_protest.html
When the bells rang at St. Lucy's this morning, hundreds of people did not go inside. Instead they marched outside, hoping to persuade an archbishop to allow a priest to continue living at the church.
Reciting "Hail Marys" and carrying signs with the words "Don't take our father away from us," the multigenerational throng proceeded from the church to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, hoping to convince Archbishop John J. Myers not to require Monsignor Joseph Granato to move out of the church rectory when he retires this month.
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| Susanna DeMaio, of Morris County, joined other parishioners from St. Lucy's Roman Catholic Church as they marched around the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark in support of Monsignor Joseph Granato. Photo by Amanda Brown |
Although it would be customary for the priest to leave the rectory, parishioners say an exception should be made for Granato, 80, who served the church for an unprecedented term of 54 years.
"He doesn't know any other place but here. This is his home," said church usher and lifelong parishioner Nicholas Battista.
Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the Newark archdiocese, said Granato has signed up to live at the Monsignor Kelley Home for retired priests in Caldwell and will remain pastor emeritus at St. Lucy's.
As for Granato's loyal parishioners, Goodness said they should accept "obedience to the church," just as he said Granato has.
But protesters said Myers previously assured Granato he could remain in the rectory after retiring.
"The archbishop made a promise to me and to the parishioners that he could stay," said Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., whose wife, Donna, has been a lifelong parishioner.
DiVincenzo's political campaign paid for a full-page advertisement on the issue in the Sunday Star-Ledger. In the ad, written as an open letter, DiVincenzo urged Myers to allow Granato to stay.
The county executive, who is up for re-election next year, said he will continue to run full-page ads "as long as I have to, to get my message out there."
"I'm using campaign dollars to put out my issue. It's not to get me elected. It's dollars being used to support the community," DiVincenzo said today. "This is where I was born, this is where I was raised, in the North Ward. ... I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do."
The county executive estimated 600 people turned out to march yesterday. Goodness said security officials told him a few hundred were present. Neither Myers nor Granato attended. Granato has not spoken publicly about the matter.
Granato is the longest-serving priest at a single church in the archdiocese, Goodness said, noting the usual stay is six years.
The priest had been told an incoming pastor could decide whether he could continue to live at the rectory after his retirement, Goodness has said. But after reading a leaflet referring to "consequences" if he made changes in the parish, the unidentified priest withdrew from consideration and Myers changed his mind about allowing Granato to stay.
No permanent replacement for Granato has been selected, Goodness said.
Beginning July 1, Monsignor Francis Seymour, diocesan archivist and the archdiocese's vice chancellor, will serve as temporary administrator until a new pastor is assigned, Goodness said.
"(The parishioners) don't want a new pastor. They want Monsignor Granato to be the pastor of that parish until he takes his last breath," Goodness said.
Parishioners said their loyalty during the five decades in which Granato preserved cherished traditions while transforming their close-knit community from one serving mainly Italian immigrants to one that includes African-American and Hispanic parishioners.
"All this we stand on is because of the monsignor," said Battista, gesturing to the names of deceased parishioners etched in concrete on St. Gerard's Plaza floor at St. Lucy's. "He knows their names, their faces."
During the 1967 Newark riots, Granato encouraged parishioners to find refuge at the church but continue living in the city.
"These were our darkest times. But Monsignor Granato said these were our strongest times," said Gary Genvario, 66, whose family's roots in the church span five generations.
Parishioners said Granato helped settle the church as the site of a national shrine to Saint Gerard. And in 2003, he comforted his rattled congregation when several imported marble statues were damaged in a wave of bias crimes.
"He gave us the courage to continue on with our lives when times were tough," Dolores "Dee" Kirk, who heads Friends of St. Lucy, the group spearheading the effort for Granato to stay at the rectory. "He's a perpetual teacher."
A second rally will be held June 28 at 11 a.m., DiVincenzo said.
"St. Lucy's is a part of Newark's history," DiVincenzo said. "If he's not here, we are going to lose a part of history."
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