Pastoral visit to Clifton church

CLIFTON  Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on Sunday, June 3 to the faith community of St. Brendan/St. George here, where he served as the main celebrant and homilist of the 11 a.m. Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The liturgy was held in St. Brendan Church.

Concelebrating the Mass were Father Junior Flores, St. Brendan/St. George’s pastor; Father Charles Waller, a retired priest of the Diocese, who assists on weekends; and Father Kevin Corcoran, diocesan vice chancellor and the Bishop’s priest-secretary.

On April 6, 2014, St. Brendan and St. George became one family with the merger of the two separate parishes.

St. George Parish had been founded in 1897 to serve the growing southern section of Paterson. The establishment of a new parish was a priority of Father George Corrigan, who was presiding rector of neighboring St. Agnes Parish, also in Paterson. The first church building was built in 1900. Its first pastor was Father Joseph Dolan, who started the parish school. A larger church was built in 1940. The parish was shuttered in 2014, and was merged with St. Brendan’s that year.

Bishop McLaughlin established St. Brendan Church in the Lakeview section of both Clifton and Paterson in 1945 and a year later, St. Brendan School was opened. The present church was built in 1961.

St. George was merged with St. Brendan’s in 2014.