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Newark – Vocationist Community For
years the Vocationist Father had been working in St. Michael’s Parish
It was at this point in time that the Most Reverend Peter Gerety, the new Archbishop of Newark, who had succeeded our beloved Archbishop Boland, requested the Vocationist Fathers to consider merging Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and Center with St. Michael’s Parish. The Fathers accepted the Archbishop’s request. Fr. Mario Muccitelli was installed as Pastor of both churches and Fr. Louis Caputo and Fr. Ugo Fraraccio were appointed Associate Pastors. They were joined later by Fr. Antonio Lisboa da Silva.
In
the next ten year of hard work, with God’s help,
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area and had established successfully a vigorous Spanish community at
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Center located at 170 Broad Street, Newark,
New Jersey. Meanwhile, however, drastic changes were occurring in the
North Ward of Newark. Within the area of St. Michael’s Church, a
migration was taking place, a problem that had started with the riots of
1967 and had continued unabated. The parishioners of St. Michael’s were
gradually moving out to the suburbs and were being replaced by the
Spanish speaking immigrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba and many other Latin-
American countries.
In the course of
a few years, St. Michael’s Church, once considered “The Parish” of the
Newark Archdiocese in its century of service, was faced with a new
reality that was threatening its very existence. The parish had a Church
and Convent to support, as well as a large school, and the servicing of
a rather large debt on the school building.
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