September 24, 2014 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 18
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
Relic is missing from church
It’s been a blessing for 75 years
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent HARRISON – A sacred relic has been purloined from Holy Cross Church in Harrison, according to police and church officials. The religious artifact is believed by the church faithful to be a piece of the original Cross of Christ from Jerusalem and has been in the church’s keeping at least since its founding in Harrison in 1886, said the Rev. Joseph Girone, pastor of Holy Cross. “We were told by [former pastor] Monsignor John Gilchrist that the relic was brought here when the church was built as a gift from Rome,” explained the Rev. Francisco Gonzalez, parochial vicar of Holy Cross and youth minister. A Harrison PD report issued last Monday, Sept. 15, gave this account of its disappearance: On the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 11, police were called to the church on a report of a burglary. Upon arrival, officers were told that the night before, at about 7:15 p.m., a church volunteer found a stranger in the sacristy carrying one of the church’s donation collection bags. When the volunteer asked the man what was inside the bag, he replied: “Trash.” At see RELIC page
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By Karen Zautyk Observer Correspondent KEARNY – n Sunday afternoon, at a Mass of Thanksgiving marking the 75th anniverary of the dedication of St. Stephen’s Church, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda stood in the sanctuary and gazed up at the breathtaking Gothic architecture and told the congregation that what he was viewing wasn’t a parish church. “This,” he said, “is a cathedral.” Observer readers who have been fortunate enough to visit St. Stephen’s would agree. The soaring vaulted
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Photo by Ed Civinskas
ceiling, the columned nave, the magnificent reredos behind the main altar, the light coming through the exquisite stained glass windows ... it all lends a particular sense of grandeur to this house of worship. Later, after the readings and the gospel -- and hymns that had echoed through the building -- Hebda took to the pulpit to deliver the homily, which he prefaced with the comment, “Not only does this church look like a cathedral, it sounds like a cathedral!” But bricks and mortar and glass and marble and wood are just part of the story of see CHURCH page
Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Deacon Hermes Diaz Vargas at St. Stephen’s
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Ruling due on high school vote By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent EAST NEWARK – East Newark wants to ask its residents, through a non-binding referendum, this question: “Should East Newark high school students be sent to
Kearny High School instead of Harrison High School?” The borough wants the question to go on the ballot for the Nov. 4 general election and the Hudson County Clerk’s Office has prepared such a ballot. Sample ballots were to be mailed out this past
Monday. But the Harrison Board of Education – which stands to lose a lot of money if the switch is done – has gone to court to block its neighbor from conducting the referendum, which – by itself – has no legal standing to change
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anything. Hudson County Superior Court Assignment Judge Peter Bariso reserved decision at a hearing held in Jersey City last Friday. He will likely rule on Harrison’s request on see REFERENDUM page
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