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June
30, 2004 The installation of Peter Leo Gerety as its third archbishop on June 28, 1974, launched the Church of Newark into another period of great internal change and new national prominence. With 2004 marking the 65 anniversary of Archbishop Emeritus Gerety’s priestly ordination, the Archdiocese can reflect on his substantial legacy, one that that will continue to enrich and influence the Church of Newark well into the future. Under his leadership, the Archdiocese approached its 125th anniversary firmly restructured according to the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican’s models of collegiality, co-responsibility and communication. The man who thus shaped the Church of Newark to which he came in 1974, combined a zest for getting things done and an optimism that said often, “we can do it, together.” Peter Leo Gerety was born on July 19, 1912, in Shelton, CT, the first of nine sons of Peter L. and Charlotte Daly Gerety. His parents were New Jersey natives. His father’s family lived first in the Greenville section of Jersey City, where they were parishioners of St. Paul’s. They moved to Shelton shortly after their wedding, and Leo—as the family addressed the first-born—attended public schools there, and at Shelton High School, he won scholastic honors and was captain of the football team, playing left end. “My mother and father had a tremendous religious faith, and a tremendously optimistic view of life,” he recalled years later. “They loved life very much. They taught us we could do almost anything.” Second to his parents as an influence in his vocation to the priesthood, Archbishop Gerety has credited the priests in his home parish, St. Joseph’s in Shelton. He praised the pastor, Father Andrew Plunkett, as “a great churchman and a strong character.” He entered St. Thomas Seminary in Boomfield, CT, and was chosen for study abroad at St. Sulpice Seminary in Issy, France, and was ordained at Notre Dame, Paris, in 1939. On March 4, 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed him Titular Bishop of Crepedula and co-adjutor with right of succession to Bishop Daniel J. Feeney of Portland, ME. He was ordained to the episcopacy on June 1, 1966, in St. Joseph Cathedral, Hartford. His formal accession to the Portland see occurred on Sept. 15, 1969, following the death of Bishop Feeney. Though Peter L. Gerety was not a member of the episcopacy during Vatican Council II, his style as a bishop was closely attuned to the council’s spirit. On April 2, 1974, came the announcement from the Aposotolic Delegation in Washington, DC, that Bishop Peter L. Gerety had been appointed by Pope Paul VI as Archbishop of Newark, to succeed Archbishop Thomas A. Boland. It was an appointment that drew comment in the national media. Bishop Gerety, known as a progressive, and an outspoken defender of the rights of minorities, was installed as Newark’s third archbishop on June 28, 1974, in Sacred Heart Cathedral. He evoked the “freeing of the spirit” on Sept. 17, 1977, at the Day of Dialogue, to which he invited 300 representatives of the clergy, Religious and laity, to give a kind of “State of the Archdiocese” report after three years in office. He reported that toward his goal of “mutually shared responsibility” and communication, the Archdiocese had been restructured into four vicariates and 25 deaneries, that parish councils—whose effective operation he had prioritized during his first year—were in the process of establishment, and that deanery councils would follow. He stated that steps were being taken to revive the archdiocesan pastoral council. Archbishop Gerety created the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal, and it was coupled with a program geared to stimulate increased giving in individual parishes. It came close to its $3 million goal in 1977. And in December 1977 Archbishop Gerety announced that after a decade of deficit financing, the Archdiocese had reduced its debt by $4.1 million. The restructuring of the Archdiocese to facilitate communication with the vast complex of 253 parishes, emerged early as a top priority on his episcopate. When he arrived, the Senate of Priests already had on its drawing board a vicariate plan. Gradually, in consultation with Archbishop Gerety, it was revised to a deanery setup similar to the one he had mounted in Portland in consultation with its Senate of Priests. Archbishop Gerety led Newark’s pilgrimage to Rome for the Sept. 14, 1975, canonization of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, at which he was a concelebrant of the liturgy with Pope John Paul II on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica. When asked what he has been up to most recently, Archbishop Emeritus Gerety commented, “I’ve been keeping busy with communions, confirmations and other events that Archbishop Myers has graciously invited me to,” adding that he likes to keep active. Reflecting on his 65 years of priesthood, Archbishop Gerety noted, “Vatican II made me very happy—some of the great lessons it gave to the Catholic Church, and imperatives that it left us, were collegiality among bishops and the Holy Father, the explosion of lay people in efforts to evangelize, and in general, enormous changes in the laity, and the establishment of a priest council.” When asked about his efforts to welcome all peoples to the Church of Newark, Archbishop Emeritus Gerety noted, “That is one of the commands that the Lord left us—no matter what race or ethnicity, all of humankind is called to be redeemed by Lord Jesus Christ—Newark is unique because there are so many different types of people that make up the body of Christ.” He concluded, “I thank God for my 65 years of priesthood. It’s the greatest brotherhood of men in the world, and I am so happy to be part of it. I also thank the Lord for my 92 years as well.”
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