June 18, 2003
Clarification needed
To the Editor:
I am writing with regard to the article written in the paper (May 7) pertaining to the closing of Bishop Francis Essex Catholic High School.

The article is one-sided, and clarification is needed regarding the building that was my alma mater.

Years before the boys’ school took over and — yes it was taken over — the school was called East Orange Catholic High School. It was a Catholic girls’ high school from 1962-81. The Sisters of Charity educated girls ages 14-18. Credit is to be given to the lay faculty as well. All of the students who chose East Orange Catholic High School (I was one of those students as well as my two sisters) received nothing less than an excellent education.

Bishop Francis, for whom the school was renamed, made a decision to put the educators and students out of the building. Parents, students and teachers actually pleaded with him to let us stay. He turned a deaf ear to us, not caring that we were going to lose our beloved school.

Essex Catholic High School was housed in the Mutual Benefit Life Building in Newark. The building could no longer be maintained, and enrollment was declining. The boys needed a school, and Bishop Francis decided that the girls’ school was an ideal spot.

There was a picture of a young man standing in front of the sign, Bishop Francis Essex Catholic High School. No one bothered to take a picture of the girls standing in front of the sign, East Orange Catholic High School. No one seemed to care about the sadness and injustice we felt when our school was taken away from us. Was it because we were girls, and it didn’t matter that we were uprooted and relocated? No one will ever know.

Bishop Francis Essex Catholic High School may be closing, but the young women who were educated there and the faculty who educated us will always remember it as East Orange Catholic High School.

Dianne Gerber (nee Cerbie)

50th noted
To the Editor,
It was so nice to see the article on Msgr. E. Hajduk in The Catholic Advocate. I remember him from Our Lady Help of Christians in East Orange. My oldest son Andrew made his First Communion there in 1972.

Msgr. Hajduk was the presider and homilist. I remember it well because the rain was very bad that day. Msgr. told the children that even though it was raining, the sun was shining in their hearts because they were going to receive Jesus.

Congratulations, Msgr. Hajduk, on your 50th Anniversary.

Kathie Williams

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