Other pages on this website: Home. Bad Faith, and Fiduciary Duty. Definite Problems, Possible Solutions. Links to Allied Websites. History of the Church. History of Vailsburg. Contact Us.
Sacred Heart of Vailsburg is the great church, of any denomination, in all of western Newark, New Jersey. It was dedicated in 1929 by the Reverend Fulton J. Sheen, who went on to become the best-known Bishop in the United States, an authentic television star of the 1950s and 60s. For 81 years, SHV has hosted weddings, christenings, and thousands of masses for the faithful. Suddenly, on March 21, 2010, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark announced that it will close Sacred Heart on July 1st. Never did the Archdiocese tell the congregation that the church was in trouble and needed parishioners' ideas and assistance if it were to remain open.
This website seeks to mobilize alarmed, hurt, and indignant members of the Sacred Heart of Vailsburg community, and the wider Vailsburg and Newark communities, to save this magnificent monument to the strength of Vailsburg, that it might continue to contribute to the resurgence of Newark far into the future.
[A member of the parish provided this information.]
On March 21st, 2010, the sad news that Sacred Heart Church is closing was announced.
On Facebook, a tribute page called Sacred Heart-Vailsburg was created.
There was no news story online.
I attended a meeting in the church on March 21 after the noon Mass. It was supposed to be a question and answer meeting regarding the proposed closing of the church. Instead its purpose was to deliver the blow that the church would be closing in 3 months [July 1st] and that the parish would be merging with St. Joseph's parish in EO which is smaller and less expensive to maintain.
Bishop Edgar Cunha was at the meeting with a group of cost savings consultants the archdiocese had hired.
Many of the parishioners, including the church counsel, were outraged and accused the church's leaders, including the bishop of lies, evasiveness, contradictions and mismanagement. The plans to close the church have been in the works over the past 7 years with very little communication to the parish members until recently. Although consultants were hired, the bishop admitted that the decision to close the church was made early in the process. The parishioners were outraged that they were not privy to the decision process and that if the financial concerns had been communicated 7 years ago, the parishioners would have been able to affect the situation. Both active parishioners and previous parishioners, including Joe Cryan, attended the Mass and meeting.
Sacred Heart School closed last year and the students were transitioned to the St. Joseph's parochial school. Until a few years ago the Sacred Heart School was profitable; however, it ran into the red due to mismanagement. The existing school building on Hazelwood Ave is now leased to a charter school; the revenue from tuition was promised to subsidize the church's operations budget. That is no longer the case as the revenue will now be channeled to St Joseph's Church. St. Joseph's church has structural problems, a faulty foundation and heating oil soil contamination which must be remediated.
The bishop assured the parishioners that SH church has not been sold, but it requires $700K of repairs which will be performed. Parishioners have heard rumors that the church may be razed or sold for commercial use.
Several parishioners asked that if the Catholic Church has the money to settle the numerous sex abuse law suits, why can't it allocate money to save Sacred Heart Church Vailsburg. The Bishop replied that those monies are allocated from separate fundings and that each parish church and the associated real estate properties of each parish are now incorporated to protect the properties from these lawsuits.
The parishioners petitioned the bishop to give them 2 years to turn the Church's financial situation around, but they were dismissed.
Other pages on this website: Home. Bad Faith, and Fiduciary Duty. Definite Problems, Possible Solutions. Links to Allied Websites. History of the Church. History of Vailsburg. Contact Us.