The history of parishes is often told through the buildings that have been used by the people of that parish and by the pastors who had them built.
So, the story of the Parish of St. Anne could be told in the following way:
1909: A house on what is today Thirteenth Avenue in Elwood Park belonging to Angelina and Juan Ramirez was donated by them to become the first building used for Mass by the Catholics of the Warren Point section of what is today Fair Lawn and Elmwood Park.
Fr. Peter Kramer, O. Carm, celebrated the first Mass in the Chapel of St. Anne.
1910: Bishop John O'Connor appointed Fr. Hyacinth Rueberg, O.F.M. the first pastor of the Mission of St. Anne.
1926: Fr. Justin Walsh, O.F.M. had a new church built on the present site of St. Anne Parish.
1930 - 1942: Fr. Camillus Lillis, O.F.M. purchased a house and used it as a rectory and friary. St. Anne's status changed from a "mission" to a parish.
1949: Fr. Anthony O'Driscoll, O.F.M. had a school built. The old rectory was renovated to become a convent for the sisters teaching in the school and another home was purchased to become a friary and rectory.
1952: Fr. Capistran Petrie, O.F.M. had a second addition built to the school with a gym doubling as a church.
1953: Fr. Petrie had a convent built on Broadway, between Summit and Lyncrest Avenues, for the sisters serving St. Anne School.
1957: Fr. Petrie began the campaign to have the present church built and it was completed in 1958, under the direction of the new pastor, Fr. Harold Blake, O.F.M.
1966: A new rectory, including an office complex, meeting rooms, and friary for the priests, was built.
1984: Fr. Bernardine had the convent and school annex sold to help pay the parish's indebtedness and a smaller house was purchased for the sisters on Morlot Avenue.
2002: Fr. Ron Pecci organized a group of parishioners to conduct a capital campaign for needed repairs on all parish buildings. A Master Plan was developed to give direction to these repairs.
2003: With the retirement of the last of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Fr. Ron sold the convent-house.
2004: Major repairs were begun on the church, school, and rectory.
2005: The Holy Name Province formerly ended its staffing of the Parish of St. Anne.
The Archdiocese of Newark assumed the responsibility of pastoring the parish with the appointments of Frs. Joseph Doyle, Fr. Fernando Costa, and Fr. Colin Kay to serve its people.
2006: An elevator was added to the church and renovations to the rectory were completed. The second phase of the Plan was completed with the repairs of the school parking lot and playground.
Of course, a parish is not simply made up of leaders and the buildings they had built.
A parish is about people and the faith they exhibited and handed down from one generation to the next.
The Parish of St. Anne is no different. Over a long history, a history that stretches back nearly 100 years to 1909, it's those people who tell a fuller story than dates and buildings do.
In that year, Angelina and Juan Ramirez gathered together a group of Catholics who wanted to have a church of their own in which to worship, so that they wouldn't have to travel to other areas. They pooled their resources and looked around for a place. Unfortunately, Angelina passed away before the end of that year but her husband donated the house described above in her memory. Because of his wife's devotion to St. Anne, Juan and his fellow Catholics called it the Chapel of St. Anne.
Late in 1910, John O'Connor, the Bishop of Newark, asked the Franciscans from Holy Name Province in New York to take on the responsibility for what was called the Mission of St. Anne. Fr. Rueberg became the first in a long line of brown-robed Franciscan Friars to serve as its pastor.
From this humble beginning, our community grew to become, at one time, the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Newark, with more than 5,000 families. Today, there are still more than 3,400 families, making St. Anne's still one of the larger Catholic communities in the four counties that comprise the Church of Newark.
For the next thirteen or fourteen years, from 1910 to 1924 or so, the main efforts of those first parishioners was the building of the community of St. Anne's, with parties for the children and social affairs for the adults.
A Rosary Society was founded and an effort was made to educate their children in the faith they cherished so much. As time went on, they realized that they needed a facility that would accommodate their needs.
From 1923 to 1926, the men and women of the mission worked together to raise the money for a new church/school complex, that was destined to be located across Broadway, on what is today the Summit Avenue site of St. Anne's School. Back then, however, the school part of the complex was never fully realized and instead, the building was used solely as a church. In the course of this transition, St. Anne's learned what every parish learns - that it is only in cooperating with each other that the spiritual, educational, and temporal needs of a community can be reached.
As the years went by, as the Great Depression deepened and as World War II began, St. Anne's became the center of life for the Catholics of Fair Lawn and northern East Paterson.
Under the direction of Frs. Camillus Lillus and Anthony Driscoll Scout troops were started for the boys and girls, a CYO for the young people of the parish began, a Third Order of St. Francis was founded.
A Holy Name Society and later, a Knights of Columbus were begun. Athletic groups also became very popular as baseball, softball, and basketball leagues took their places in the parish's life.
With the school still a dream, a Christian Doctrine School was begun to help the children of the parish's families learn about their parents' faith. With ending of the war, a Catholic War Veteran's post was also started.
In 1949 an important milestone for our parish was reached. St. Anne School formerly opened its doors, with 17 Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace taking on the roles as the educators of the parish's young people. Since its founding over 50 years ago, over 5,000 students have graduated! With the baby boom beginning, St. Anne School eased the overcrowding that was so obvious in the Fair Lawn public school system.
While a private institution, St. Anne School did much to help Fair Lawn and the surrounding communities to adjust to the tremendous influx of children that the population growth of that period saw. The years after the war also saw other organizations in the parish begin.
A drum and bugle corps was founded; a Nocturnal Adoration Society started to devote itself to the spiritual enrichment of the parish; a parish bulletin and booklet began, calling itself "St. Anne's Call"; and a Cana Conference, and later a Christian Family Movement were initiated.
The population of St. Anne's continued to grow, as did that of the surrounding communities. At one point, Fair Lawn was the fastest growing town in the entire country. It became necessary to create another parish in the area and so in 1953, St. Catherine's in Glen Rock began, with a number of parishioners from the northern part of Fair Lawn (all formerly part of St. Anne's) making up a sizable portion of the new parish.
The 1960's and 70's began a new era of change, both for St. Anne's, for the Church as a whole, and for the country at large.
The Second Vatican Council ended in 1965 and with that came a renewal of the liturgical, catechetical, educational, and pastoral life of parishes that continues to this day.
The point of the Council's call to renewal was to revitalize the life of the community and the lives of parishioners. The hope was that renewing the structures of parochial life would prompt a renewal in the inner faith lives of those individual Catholics. St. Anne's embraced the spirit of renewal with gusto.
Lay participation in the life of the parish, which was always so much a part of our community, took on a new dimension. Under the leadership of the pastors of that time, Fr. Harold Blake, Fr. Justin Eeles, Fr. Claude Lenihan, and Fr. Theodore Cavanaugh, the parish initiated the ministries of Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, and broadened the music ministry from a traditional choir to a children's choir and a contemporary ensemble
A liturgical committee was begun to plan special church celebrations and to decorate the worship space. In addition to these liturgical innovations, an effort was also made to broaden the responsibility of ordinary parishioners in the future of the parish.
A Parish Council was formed and the Parent-Teacher's Guild was established in St. Anne's School. New organizations were started:
The Leisure Club, for senior citizens; and an Athletic Council took over the organization of the various teams and their coaching staffs. One major development was the over hauling of the religious education of the parish. St. Anne School, like so many Catholic schools of our area, began to feel the effect of the decline in the number of sisters teaching our children.
With the addition of more and more lay faculty members, the tuition increased and with that, there was steady slide in the number of students. In its heyday, St. Anne School had more than 1600 students. By the 1980's this number had fallen to well under 300. At one point, it appeared that the school might have to close its doors.
But, with a determination that always marked our parish, parents, teachers, pastor, and parishioners worked hard to keep the school going. The result is that St. Anne's has once again become a vibrant educational institution, even seeking its second Middle States Accreditation.
The story of the school is reflected in the growth of the children's religious education program. The older format of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine has evolved into the Office of Religious Education, with a full time professional Director of Religious Education running the program.
Since the early 1980's there has been a steady increase in the number of students till today there are over 1000 students enrolled in various programs - regular weekday and Sunday classes, sacramental classes, summer sessions, home schooling, and special education classes.
Adult religious education and spiritual enrichment programs have also developed over the years in response to the Council's call for renewal.
Bible study classes began, pre-baptismal and parent sacramental programs were initiated, the R.C.I.A. and retreat programs, like Men's and Women's Cornerstone, were also started. There have also been various efforts to update adults in their faith, most recently the Emmaus Parish Program, the Franciscan University, and the Renew Program. A vital Social Concerns group has been formed to sensitize parishioners to the gospel's call for greater involvement in the search for a more just society.
The ethnic face of St. Anne's has also changed since the 1960's. Where our community was made up of people whose families predominately came from Western Europe, today new groups have found a home in our midst: families from Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and Latin America are all taking their place in the life of our parish.
New parish organizations have also developed over the past twenty years: the Filipino Apostolate, the Filipino-American Association of Fair Lawn, a Clown Ministry, the St. Anne's Bowling Club, St. Anne Stages Theatre Group, A Widow Support Group, two AA Groups, and the Couples and Youth for Christ groups.
With so many different groups and organizations reflecting the life and vitality of our parish, it became inevitable that issues of coordination and unity would become more and more pressing. Various pastors tried to address this issue as the 1980's and 90's progressed: Fr. Vincent Licursi and Fr. James Nero instituted the Franciscan theory of "refounding", an effort to encourage a sense of community among the various groups by continually emphasizing their common foundation in the ministry of Christ.
Fr. Nero held a series of "town meetings" which resulted in the renovating of the church interior to reflect more accurately the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.
As the 20th century ended, Fr. Ron Pecci continued these efforts by celebrating the Feast of St. Anne in July with a parish-wide carnival, called the Street Faire, a parish concert, and a special Mass to which all the organizations and parishioners were invited.
He also reformed the parish council into a Pastoral Council in order to involve parishioners in the planning of the parish's goals and objectives thereby providing all groups and individuals with a parish-wide vision and direction.
A St. Anne's Activity Board was created to help involve the different groups in common activities.
The Pastoral Council's early significant goal was to refurbish the parish physical plant. Fr. Ron spearheaded a Capital Campaign, founded a Buildings and Ground Committee, and under the direction of the Campaign Committee and the parish's Finance Committee, raised nearly 2 million dollars to do much needed improvements on the church, the school, and rectory.
That effort also had the added benefit of involving so many parishioners in a common cause.
As the 21st century unfolded however, a dramatic change in the life of St. Anne's occurred: near the end of 2004, the Holy Name Province decided that it could no longer staff both St. Leo's in Elmwood Park and St. Anne's.
They reluctantly removed the beloved friars from both parishes in the summer of 2005. Since 1910, the long brown-robed men of the Franciscan Order have seen the families of the Family of St. Anne's through times of joy, difficulty, challenge, and sorrow: two World Wars, the great Depression, the Korean War, the on-going renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council, the cultural upheaval of the 1960's and 70's, the Vietnam War, the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in Europe, the Persian Gulf War, the horror of September 11th, 2001, and the Iraq War and its aftermath.
They have celebrated countless baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, marriages, and funerals. They have formed the life of this community in the spirit of St. Francis and thereby forever left their mark on literally thousands of people in this area. They will never be forgotten.
With the departure of the Franciscans, the Archdiocese of Newark sent three priests to minister to the people of St. Anne's: Fr. Joseph Doyle, as pastor, and two newly ordained priests, Fr. Fernando Costa and Fr. Colin Kay. With their usual warmth and generosity, the parishioners welcomed these black-shirted priests into their midst. As with any change, it will take time to adjust to a non-Franciscan way of doing things. But, with the faith in Christ and a love for each other that has always marked our community, this change too will be an opportunity for growth and a chance to deepen that sense that "here on earth, God's will must truly be our own."
