By Lurie Silberg
Correspondent
WEST ORANGE — Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church, a venerable institution with deep roots in downtown West Orange, turned 110 years old last month.
Mayor Susan McCartney proclaimed Nov. 10, 2024 as an official day of celebration, commemorated with a Sunday morning mass presided over by Archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin. The mass was followed by a social gathering in the church’s Connor Hall , and attended by parishioners.
The first Catholic Church in West Orange, Our Lady of Lourdes held its first official mass on Nov. 8, 1914.
Our Lady of Lourdes stands as more than just a building, said Township of West Orange Historian, Joseph Fagan.
“It bears witness as a testament to a sanctuary where generations of faith have shared many joys and sorrows for a century,” Fagan said. “It remains today as a cornerstone of the West Orange community that bridges the past to the future and has created a legacy to celebrate for generations to come.”
Fagan attended Our Lady of Lourdes grammar school from 1963 to 1971 and was married in the church in 1979.
“We are a fixture in downtown West Orange,” agreed the Rev. Jim Ferry, who has been with the church as pastor since 2014. “We are proud of our downtown roots.”
The church at 1 Eagle Rock Ave., one of three Roman Catholic churches in West Orange, is located in the heart of downtown, and has roughly 1,000 parishioners, or 750 families. Worshipers come mostly from West Orange and its surrounding towns. Families are diverse, and speak multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Korean. “It’s a very diverse parish, with a strong Irish Catholic heritage, and we have worshippers from Caribbean and African countries and the Philippines as well,” said Ferry, who also served as assistant pastor from 2006-2009.
The church was named to honor the town of Lourdes in France, where parishioners say an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858.
Links to a strong Irish Catholic heritage can be seen throughout the architecture of the building, brimming with history from the 1960s. The church has stained glass windows very different from the strictly religious ones, and features the history of the 1960s. One such window depicts the election, inauguration and death of President John F. Kennedy.
The church is an offshoot of the mother church of the Oranges, called St. Johns, which was 1.3 miles away, and is still standing today, Ferry said.
“We were established because people didn’t have horses to get to St. Johns,” in the early 20th century he explained. St Johns was built in the pre-Civil War era, and is older than the prominent Cathedral of Newark.
The first official mass on Nov. 8, 1914, was actually held at a temporary space while the permanent home at Chestnut and Oxford streets was under construction. In 1924, three acres were purchased at the corner of Eagle Rock and Harrison for a parish school, and opened on Sept. 8, 1925.
In 1928, the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes was built as a gift of the Loree family of West Orange. The Grotto, a catholic Shrine built into a rock formation, was built by the family as a Thanksgiving gift for prayers and petition answered by the Blessed Virgin Mary. While many Catholic churches have a Grotto, this one in particular is very picturesque, said Eileen Reilly, a trustee of the Parish and a life long member as well.
But in 1945 a fire destroyed the church building and on May 16, 1964 the first mass was celebrated in a newly built structure at 1 Eagle Rock Ave., where it still stands today.
In 2004, the grotto landscape was redesigned and restructured with a new walkway and trees, a gift from former West Orange and East Orange residents Donald and Lisa Shauger of the Shauger Group, specifically to celebrate the church’s 90th anniversary.
“We also have a strong musical heritage,” said Ferry. “Our first pastor was a prolific composer, who wrote for Broadway, and knew a lot of celebrities.”
TV icon Ed Sullivan married his wife Sylvia Weinstein at the church, on April 28, 1930, with a ceremony officiated by composer and priest the Rev. Joseph P. Connor.
Upcoming events at the church include a Dec. 7 Christmas concert featuring the children’s and adult choirs and the Feb.11, annual Our Lady of Lourdes Day.
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