The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-31
"REMINISCENCES
Rev. James ]. sheehan
Speaks Of Catholicity's
Early Struggles in
Hudson.
ORIGIN OF THE ST. PATRIcK's
Early Efforts TO Build Up the Con-
gregation = Late Father
Hennessy Eulogized
ORIGIN OF THE ST. PATRltK's

hall and Ocean avenues. last evening, an
excellent organ and choir concert was
given, after which Father james J..
Sheehan, the former popular curate OF
that church. who was recently given a
parish in Newark. spoke at length on
what he called "reminiscences. The
lecture was indeed very interesting and
the large audience which filled the hand
some edifice enjoyed it immensely. The
concert was also of a high order, the
numbers all being very fine. The pro-
gramme folows:-
Organ voluntary, Batiste, Mrs. John j.
Quinn; quartette, The Palms" j. Faure.
ST. Patrick's Church Choir; mezzo soprano
solo, Consider the Lilies" Topliff, Miss
Rose Keilt; trio, Ell Prego, o Madre Pia,'
f. Curschmann, Mrs. e. Prinn, Miss NJ.
Reilly. Mr.. w: Sanborn; basso solo.
eEternamente, A. Mascheroni, Mr.. Otto
Armbruster; alto solo, THE Hills of God"
\ George Nevin. Mrs. T. Cross; violin solo,
a. Andante from Mendelssohn Concerto, b,
I'll Cavatino," c. Bosh, Professor Adrian
Primrose; quartette, 1.-The Lost Chord" A..
Sullivan, st. Patrick's Church Choir; So
prano solo, "a Dream of Paradise" H.
Gray. Mrs. E. C. Prinn; quartette, a,
kathleen Mavourneen, ;. Crouch, b, loft
in the Silly Night" Moore, st. Patrick's
Church Choir; tenor solo, 20 Redeemer
Divine" Gounod, Mr.. William F. Sanborn;
eontralto solo, "Life's Offering" Schnec-
ker, Miss NJ. Reilly; trio, 20 Memory
Leslie. Miss R. Keilt, Mrs. T. Cross, Mr..
w Sanborn; quartette, Good night, Be
loved" Pinsuti, St. Patrick's Church
! Choir.
Father Sheehan then spoke. Among the
many things he said were:-
Let me ask you in the beginning not
to look upon his as a lecture although
it is so .enuneiated in the bond When L
was a member of his parish. I never could
acquire to myself any of the fire and the
energy that belong to the orator, and L
do not believe that the breezes that have
blown upon me from the Orange Noun
tains for the past ten months contain any
germs of poetry or eloquence. l have a
few things to say and ] shall say them
as we'll as I can, and now to my subject.
..As a rule. we Catholics do not waste
much time in b~oaSting of what we have
done. and what increase in our numbers
and influence the march of the years may
awe brought US. We cannot pause long
enough to look back over our past victor
les, for there is a greater necessity Tor
looking forward. for devising means to
our past victories and to ant1c-
! ipate new ones. But how and then some
occasion arises such as the jubilee OF d
priest, or an anniversary in the life OF
a parish, which gives us an excuse for
turning back over the leaves of the book
of the past, and then it is that with par
donable pride and with a heart throb of
gratitude we make comparison De-
tween what has been and what is.
s.Three-quarters of a century ago a
small band of men employed in the pot
terry at Paulus Hook. now Jersey city,
met after hours in their common work
room and in their simple way discussed
the subject of their spiritual poverty. Ihe
nearest church of their faith was IN New
York. old st. Peters, or Barclay street.
When they desired to assist at the holy
sacrifice, which is the life of their reiig-
ion. they were obliged to cross the rude
ferry that piled between Hoboken and
the budding metropolis. They brougft
their children to be baptized and later
on to be instructed: there they We're
obliged to go themselves when they Ielt
the need of -sacramental strength, Tor they
were as exiles in a strange land; and
there they sped in the darkness of the
night and the rudeness of wintry wealth.
err when some poor stricken soul called
preaching pangs of death.
Three of these simple men We're APP
pointed a committee to lay before their
| employers the want of a church to which
they might invite a priest to dwell
amongst them as their own. and their
petition was successful. Through the in
huence of these non-Catholic employers
a portion of ground was allotted to the
Catholics for a place of worship, and to-
preclude all chance of sectional jealousy
three of the Protestant determinations at
the same time were granted the same
concessions. On that ground was the old
st. Peters; it is now occupied by st.
Aloysius' Academy.
at was not until 1910 that old st. Peters
was. opened for divine worship, and mean
while-the band of t~wenty-four who had
met to welcome Father Conroy the day he
first offered mass in the mean back room
in Sussex street, had grown by natural
increase and outside addition into a con-
~gregation of respectable size, with it's own
permanent place of worship and its resi-
dent pastor. With the sixth pastor of st.
Peters (there were seven in all, Father
John Kelly, a new epoch in
the history of the church, not only be-
cause; of his own innate energy and worth
and zeal. but as well because his house
and his parish became the nursery of
future priests, some of whom are yet
alive to testify to the success of his work.
BY his announcement of young men
Father Kelly assisted many wavering
footsteps into the Lords sanctuary.
1.-THE first according to the records that
became a priest through his fatherly
counsel was Rev. Thomas Killeen, now in
honorable retirement, after years of sue
cessful ministry; the next whose choice he
guided was the Rev. John j. Boylan, the
! hardest working and most efficient priest
in the diocese Between these two appears
a long list of priestly names, either as at
tached to this diocese or Who nave left
their native city in obedience to their
] Masters will TO labor in other parts of
the vineyard of the Lord. In his house
were trained in the ministry such men as
DR.. Brann, now pastor of st. Agnes, New
York, whose family has been and is still
closely identified with the progress of
Catholicity in Jersey City, and the Rev.
years ago the diocese lost a noble priest
and the country one of its most eminent
citizens.
'sThe first of February, 1870, is a day
that will always be remembered in St.
Patrick's parish. Your own pastor was
to take up his residence among you; you
were no longer to be considered an adj
dition to another parish, even though you
enjoyed the ministrations of so jealous
an apostle as Father Venuta. You have
begun by worshipping In a stable-no dis
respect to Him above whose earthly adj
vent was in a stable-thence to the So
called wigwam in Lafayette and from
there to this grand ediice. No mar they
say is a hero to his valet, which. as Il
take it. means that a close acquaintance
makes US less admiring towards our
ideals, on the principle that familiarity
breeds contempt. But Father Hennessy
was always a hero, and the more closely
we were intimate with him the brighter
di his character appear. Who could so
well maintain the dignity of the priest
hood as he, and yet who was so honar-
q Ila md attractive to the SMALLEST chilli