Bishop visits St. Mary Help of Christians Parish to begin sesquicentennial celebration

PATERSON  When the current St. Mary Help of Christians Church here opened in 1891, one newspaper at the time called it “the grandest and most imposing edifice” in the Totowa section of Paterson. Since the 1970s, the friendly faith community that worships under this “imposing” roof has welcomed waves of Spanish-speaking immigrants. The parish is carrying on a long legacy of inviting in newcomers, which started when it came in to existence 150 years ago, before the current church.

On Sunday Dec. 12, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney visited St. Mary’s to preside over the 10:30 a.m. bilingual Mass in Spanish and English to open the parish’s yearlong celebration of its 150th anniversary of its Catholic presence in Paterson. Anniversary events will be announced at a later date. During that liturgy, the Bishop also celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the parish’s largely Hispanic community.

St. Mary’s began in the Totowa section of Paterson on June 16, 1872, when Dean McNulty, then pastor of St. John Parish — now the cathedral — purchased four lots on Sherman Avenue and four on Wayne Avenue for what became a church and school for a new parish. Before the Spanish speakers, St. Mary’s welcomed Irish and Italian immigrants, according to the parish history.

“The history of St. Mary’s, like the history of America, is opening the doors to immigrants. We say, ‘let’s care for God’s people and give them a place to worship and pray in their own language,’ ” said Father Brando Ibarra, St. Mary’s pastor since 2015 and a native of Colombia. He noted that today, most immigrants to St. Mary’s originate from the Dominican Republic, Peru, Colom­bia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras.

Today, St. Mary’s is home to a rich array of ministries and outreaches for English- and Spanish-speaking parishioners, including its Emmaus Group, which consists of lay people, who are working for the needs of the parish. They attend retreats to gain “a better awareness to be the hands of Christ for the Church.” They demonstrate a “Catholic presence” in the parish with their families. Members also perform repair work around the church and grounds, such as gardening and repairing the parking lot, Father Ibarra said.

St. Mary’s also has prayer groups and ministries for religious education, baptism and marriage prep, care of the sick, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, and the Rosary Society. The parish also celebrates a Padre Pio Holy Mass and healing on the third Saturday of every month.

“The St. Mary’s faith community is open to a wide range of sacramental celebrations. Even when the church was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parishioners continued to support the parish. They are very generous,” Father Ibarra said. “Parishioners are consecrated through the love of the Blessed Mother, as active Catholics,” he said.

The cornerstone of St. Mary’s first church — a two-story brick building, 40 feet wide and 100 feet long — was set on Oct. 12, 1873 and the first Mass there was offered on Aug. 9, 1875. The first resident pastor was Father James Curran, after the parish had been administered by priests from St. John’s. Later, a rectory was built on Wayne Avenue, according to St. Mary’s history.

In 1889, Father Isaac P. Whelan, St. Mary’s third pastor, bought property on the corner of Union and Albion avenues, the site of the current church. A new rectory was built and the old residence on Wayne Avenue became a convent. The new church — 106 feet long by 52 feet wide, and 100 feet high inside and designed in the style of a Roman basilica — opened in 1891. The former church was transformed into a grammar school, St. Mary’s history states.

A young men’s lyceum was built next to the school and then a new elementary school was built in 1915, an extension was placed on the rectory and convent in 1932, and St. Mary High School was erected and enlarged, along with the convent, in 1938. Later, Father Louis Gallo, pastor, renovated the church to conform to the liturgical norms of the Second Vatican Council. The Domini­can Sisters of Newburgh, N.Y., who staffed the high school, which closed in 1969, and the elementary school from the beginning, were replaced by the Felician Sisters of St. John Bosco. In 1983, the school was expanded, and in 1986, a $400,000 parish center was built in the parking lot behind the rectory on Union Avenue. In 2009, the school was closed due to declining enrollment, according to St. Mary’s history.

A new era at St. Mary’s started in 2015, when Father Ibarra arrived as pastor. He has overseen such projects as renovation of the church, which included repainting the interior and repairs to the leaky roof on the tower side of the building, which caused water damage inside. In 2010, the 135-foot-high steeple and bell tower of the church, one of the highest points in the city, was taken down because it had become unstable and unsafe, according to St. Mary’s history.

Filomena Mohr arrived at St. Mary’s in 1970. A married mother of three and grandmother of two, she has been involved in the Altar Society; religious education, even serving as director for a year; teaching in the grammar school; and the former visiting the sick outreach.

“I love the bilingual Masses, back and forth between English and Spanish. I like hearing Spanish songs, which are lively and cheerful, even if I don’t know what they mean,” said Mohr, who is of Italian heritage. “The atmosphere at St. Mary’s here is like family. The different groups, the Spanish and English speakers, all get along. We all want to make the parish a better community and want everyone together,” she said.