'Great Deal of Love'

St. Mary's in Marlboro celebrates 100 years of worship, welcome and generosity

By JOHN BURGER

St. Mary's in Marlboro is a parish where people think not so much of themselves as of others. It was that way in 1887, when the Jova family, Cuban immigrants who were hurting financially, donated the bricks to build Our Lady of Mercy Chapel in Roseton, which became a mission of St. Mary's.

It was that way when the men of the parish volunteered to convert an old farmhouse and chicken coop on property next to the church into a convent and a parish meeting hall. The converted chicken coop, which also has religious education classrooms, is affectionately called "Perdue University."

And it was that way just a couple of years ago, when the beloved pastor, Msgr. Edward T. Dugan, was sent home from the hospital and given a few days to live. Many parishioners signed up to take an hour each to sit with him, talk to him, read to him or take care of his basic needs--24 hours a day, seven days a week. "The care was just so marvelous" that he lived another four months, said Barbara Roser, parish secretary.

"There was an outpouring of love from the parish," she said.

Generosity often has immediate rewards, as parishioners can attest. God seems to have rewarded the Jova family: Their business picked up soon after they donated the bricks. And those who visited Msgr. Dugan before he died in 1998 described it not as a burden but an honor.

"People would come out of the room and say, 'I got more out of that than I put in,' " explained Father Alfred R. Pizzuto, who became pastor in 1995 after being asked to apply for the position by Msgr. Dugan, his good friend. "Service is important to people."

Bernadette Polizzi summed it up: "There's a great deal of love in this parish."

St. Mary's turned 100 this year, and Bishop Edwin B. Broderick, retired bishop of Albany, celebrated a centennial Mass June 4. Father Thomas J. Lutz, whose first assignment was at St. Mary's, gave the homily.

"The people of the parish owe a great deal of thanks to their great-great grandparents, many of whom were poor immigrants," said Father Lutz, now parochial vicar of St. Augustine's parish in Highland. "The best way we can show our gratitude to them for their sacrifices is by living our Christianity faithfully at St. Mary's today."

Father Lutz said that when he was at St. Mary's he recognized a "tremendous sense of family life" among the people.

"They are very dedicated to their families," he told CNY. "There are many apple farmers in the area who struggle with the climate and the weather to support their families. And many have large families. But they showed a tremendous faith and dedication to the parish."

St. Mary's goes back even farther than the century it celebrates this year. It was established in Ulster County as a mission of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin parish in Port Ewen in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. Mass was offered in a local hotel until a Protestant meetinghouse was acquired two years later. In 1874, St. Mary's became a mission of St. James the Apostle in Milton. It was made a parish on Jan. 3, 1900. The present church was built in 1922, again with a donation of bricks from the Jovas.

Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, just over the border in Orange County, was founded for laborers in the local stone quarries. Most of them were from Ireland. Italians later came to the area and took advantage of the fertile land to raise apples, pears, peaches and grapes.

John Pizzo, who still raises grapes at age 89, remembers when his Italian-born parents moved to the area from Tampa, Fla., where they had hand-rolled cigars for a living. A former chairman of the parish Holy Name Society, Pizzo is a parish trustee and president of the Knights of Columbus Father Hanley Council, which meets in the parish hall and conducts two blood drives a year. It is named for Father James F. Hanley, who was pastor from 1913 to 1958. "He never took a vacation in 40 years," Pizzo recalled. "What a wonderful priest. He'd be shoveling show off the sidewalk in the winter, with his face all red."

Deborah Dimicco, parish council chairwoman, said St. Mary's has been blessed with good pastors. "They come and they stay," she said. "That says something for the community also."

Indeed, the long tenures of former pastors have meant a short list of pastors in St. Mary's history: Father Edward J.A. Kenny, 1900-1913; Father Hanley, and Father John Simmons, 1958-1975.

Msgr. Dugan was pastor from 1975 to 1995. Because he served at Resurrection and St. Charles Borromeo parishes in Harlem for 29 years before that, he initiated a sister-parish relationship in which Resurrection parishioners came to rural Marlboro overlooking the Hudson River for a barbecue in the summer, and St. Mary's parishioners visited the Harlem parish in the fall.

"They'd have a great time," recalled Father Michael P. Sepp, Resurrection's pastor for the past five years and now pastor of Sacred Heart in the Bronx. "They loved going up there. By and large, it was their love for Msgr. Dugan. They had a tremendous affection for him. The people there were really wonderful to him."

Today, Father Pizzuto is assisted in serving the 1,300 families of the parish by Father Joseph Xu, a native of China, and three permanent deacons: John T. Repke, Thomas Cornell and Vincent F. Porcelli, who was ordained this year. In addition to celebrating or assisting at four weekend Masses, including one at Our Lady of Mercy, the priests and deacons minister to the sick at four area hospitals including St. Francis in Beacon and Poughkeepsie.

Since the 1980s, the Presentation Sisters of Newburgh have lived in the convent, Maryhouse. Sister Joan Mary Gleason, P.B.V.M., is director of religious education. Sister Mary O'Neill, P.B.V.M., works for Catholic Charities, serving the poor, elderly and homebound in southern Ulster and northern Orange counties, and Sister Norma Carney, P.B.V.M., is a social worker. Recently, the parish welcomed Sister Maureen Hickey, P.B.V.M., a novice who is a nurse.

Sixty volunteers teach 550 students in grades one through eight in the religious education program. Teachers sometimes take their students to pray the outdoor Stations of the Cross. Sister Joan also coordinates the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which has three or four candidates entering the Church each year. Other adults attend the RCIA classes to update their knowledge of the faith.

Members of youth program, led by John and Carla Robinson, have helped build homes and distribute food and clothing to the poor in Appalachia, assisted at confirmation retreats, served at parish dinners and scheduled guest speakers. They also visit cancer patients and work in soup kitchens under the auspices of Capuchin Outreach Program based at the Capuchin Franciscan Friary in Garrison. They participate in the Capuchin youth program Day-by-Day Agape (DDA).

St. Mary's is a "very close-knit community," said Robinson, a special education teacher who plays guitar at Mass. "People are very welcoming."

Father Pizzuto is impressed with the local school district's attention to the spiritual needs of students. Four times a year, the public schools let students off for a full day for religious instruction. The superintendent of schools calls meetings with local religious leaders and school principals to discuss mutual concerns.

Although there is no children's Mass at St. Mary's, youngsters are "comfortable in church," said Doris Hennekens, who teaches the first Communion class. At the end of each Mass, the celebrant calls the children to the front of the church for "the Cookie Monster." He distributes cookies baked in a form that has something to do with that day's Scripture--tablets for the Ten Commandments, for example--and questions them about the reading.

Several volunteers provide music at Masses: Barbara Roser is an organist; Frank Biasini plays guitar and leads a group of singers; Laura Evangelisto is cantor, and Bill Taylor, a new parishioner, plays organ and guitar.

The centennial was celebrated with two dinners--one formal and one potluck. A Mass for Life is planned for Friday, Sept. 15, at 9 a.m. The parish has two fund-raisers a year, attended by more than 400 persons: a corned beef dinner in March and a roast beef dinner in October. Last year it started an annual Spring Fling dinner dance for younger parishioners.

It is a parish where families stay for generations, Father Pizzuto said. Deborah Dimicco, for one, has no plans to go anywhere. Although she could get a significant cut in tuition for her daughters at a nearby parochial school if she and her husband registered and supported that parish, it is "something I can't bring myself to do," she said.

"My ties to the church and the community are too strong in my heart," she said.