The Schad construction firm built St. Mary's. Yes, Schad as in "Bishop Schad." Bishop Schad said, "Because my father built it, St. Mary's has always been special to me," remembered Antoinette Cesare, a lifetime member of St.Mary's, in 1997. Antoinette Cesare remembers when St. Mary's was built back in 1922. She was nine years old at the time. Recently the Sacred Heart school, together with St. Francis and St. Isidore schools, was renamed "Bishop Schad Regional School." Sacred Heart Church in Vineland, the beautiful and historical church built by my own ancestors, is now being threatened with closure. Beside the doors to Sacred Heart hang the names of my grandparents, Jacob and Laura (Piccioni) DeMarchi, who contributed to the "new," larger church on Landis Avenue. And the little church built by Bishop Schad's own father is also being threatened with closure by our current bishop, Joseph Galante.
(Historical information thanks to William Sansalone's wonderful and thorough history of St. Mary's Malaga, 1997.)
(Historical information thanks to William Sansalone's wonderful and thorough history of St. Mary's Malaga, 1997.)
That is very ironic. St. Mary's meant a lot to Bishop Schad. Apparently, it also meant a lot to Bishop DiMarzio because he made it a Shrine for the Jubilee Year 2000. But to Bishop Galante, it is just a building to which we shouldn't be too attached.
My 4-year-old son, Theo, says, "I wish that we could go there [to St. Mary's] again, again, again on a lot of days!" (He especially likes that it is small, and he likes the neat angel wing seats in the Rosary Garden.)