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Church overflows for Spanish-language Mass

BY MARIA ARMENTAL
DAILY RECORD

DOVER -- The congregation at Our Lady of Holy Rosary on Richards Avenue has been growing so fast that the 200-seat church can no longer accommodate the growing Roman Catholic parish.

Worshipers fill all the pews on weekends and flood into the hallways. The number of registered families has grown from 125 to 478 in two years, and its religious education program has 150 students.

"Most certainly, we are going to move, considering how the parish congregation is growing as well as the religious education program,"said Rev. Jorge RodrĂ*guez, the parish's spiritual leader. "We can't have overcrowded classrooms."

The growth is such that the other Catholic church in town, Sacred Heart, is absorbing some of the Spanish-language Masses. It's one of the ways the Diocese of Paterson is responding to a growing Hispanic population in the region.

"Those parishes are pooling their venues in a way that can best serve the people," Marianna Thompson, spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, which serves Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties, said about the two Dover churches.

"We are one community, after all, one church," she added. "That's the one direction in which we should be moving. It's a kind of clustering."

Since September, at the order of Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Holy Rosary moved two of its Spanish-language services -- a Saturday evening mass and an early-afternoon Sunday Mass -- to Sacred Heart, which seats 600.

Sacred Heart will continue holding its regular services in English.

"The Hispanic population in Dover is growing, as has been the parish," Thompson said about Holy Rosary.

According to 2000 U.S. Census figures, 36,626 Morris County residents identified themselves as being of Hispanic descent. By 2004, that number was revised to 45,263, a 23.58 percent increase.

Diocese officials are exploring other ways to meet the growing demand in the area, Thompson said.

"The bishop says that it's the best problem the diocese faces,"RodrĂ*guez said.

At Sacred Heart, the move surprised some parishioners but others said they had expected such changes.

"It's the growth of the church," said Richard Newman, a town alderman and past mayor who has attended Sacred Heart for more than 60 years.

"The Mass is the Mass, to me," said Newman, who remembers when church services were celebrated in Latin, and sometimes attends masses in Spanish. "That's the beauty of the Catholic Mass, you can follow it no matter what language it's in."

When he first arrived at Holy Rosary, RodrĂ*guez said, the parish had 125 registered families. Today, there are 478, while Sacred Heart has 850 registered families and St. Mary's in neighboring Wharton has 1,105 families.

But those numbers do not fully reflect Holy Rosary's attendance, RodrĂ*guez said.

Afraid of authorities

He explained that traditionally, Hispanic families don't register in a parish. Moreover, many in the area are undocumented and fear that giving their personal information might eventually lead immigration authorities to them and result in deportation.

Therefore, the number of people who regularly attend services at Holy Rosary is much higher, he said.

"I estimate that in two or three years (Holy Rosary) will have 800 to 900 registered families," RodrĂ*guez said, noting the Hispanic community in Morris County is growing at a much faster rate than Census estimates.

That growth is more clearly seen during special celebrations, such as the one in honor of Mexico's patron saint, Our Lady of Guadalupe, celebrated in December, RodrĂ*guez said.

Years ago there weren't many Mexicans in the area and only a few parishioners attended the celebration, but now the crowd often spills into the backyard, where a stage is set and mariachis play while congregants dance and enjoy traditional foods from their countries of origin. Church officials now apply for town permits to hold the festivities outdoors.

Baptisms surge

While other local parishes average a baptism or two every three months, RodrĂ*guez said, Holy Rosary averages seven to ten every month.

"What happens is that the (non-Hispanic) community is losing members. It's growing older while (the Hispanic) community is growing younger,"he said.

Founded in 1959, Holy Rosary became a parish in 1984. Space limitations have been an issue for years, said RodrĂ*guez, who took over the reins of the congregation 2 1/2 years ago. Back then, relations between the diocese and parishioners, and parishioners and the previous priest, were severely strained because parishioners had raised more than $100,000 to expand the church building, but the expansion never happened.

More than five years later, the growing parish finds itself in the same dilemma: where to go.

Most of the money raised for the addition remains in a diocese bank account, although some Holy Rosary parishioners chose to withdraw their donations.

Meanwhile, the parish's growth has also translated into financial stability.

"Right now, (Holy Rosary) is one of the parishes that remains solvent," RodrĂ*guez said, noting it operates an approximately $100,000 annual budget and regularly posts a quarterly surplus in the $10,000 to $20,000 range.

RodrĂ*guez earns $774 every two weeks.

He said he presented an expansion plan to the Bishop with architect's drawings, but it was turned down due to a lack of parking in the area and cost projections.

"The diocese is interested in consolidation," RodrĂ*guez said. "We have to be honest, we are experiencing a vocational crisis.¨

Thompson said there are no plans to close any parishes as the diocese population in Morris County is growing, and no plans for a physical expansion of Holy Rosary.

"We are exploring many ways to serve the growing population of Holy Rosary Parish,"Thompson said.

"One of those ways is worshipping at Sacred Heart, but nothing has been set in stone,"she added. "The others are still in the plan and brainstorm phases."

Sacred Heart's pastor didn't return several phone calls.

RodrĂ*guez acknowledged that some Sacred Heart parishioners resisted the shared services. In December, some criticized their church's decision to join Holy Rosary in celebrating Mexico's patron saint, Our Lady of Guadalupe, with bilingual services. Church officials and parishioners later said the protests were simply a misunderstanding.

"This is a slow process,"RodrĂ*guez said. "We have to make the community aware of (Holy Rosary's expansion) needs."

"We'll welcome anything that is offered to us," he said.

RodrĂ*guez said part of Holy Rosary's outreach efforts will be to include the English-speaking parishioners in the Spanish-speaking celebrations. For example, he said, when a special service is organized such as the one to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe, copies of the readings in English should be made available to worshipers.

The Hispanic-led growth in worshipers goes far beyond Holy Rosary, Thompson said.

Diocese programs

To accommodate that growth, she said, the Diocese over the years has created a series of programs, such as the Office of Multi-Cultural Ministries, led by Rev. Antonio RodrĂ*guez of Holy Trinity in Passaic, and the Migrant Ministry, led by Rev. Odel Medina of the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling.

Whereas at first the diocese's outreach efforts were largely centered in Paterson, the trend now is to branch out to locations where the population is, she said.

For example, St. Anthony's church in Butler has become very involved in outreach efforts to the Hispanic population in the area, Thompson said.

In Dover, RodrĂ*guez said the new Spanish-language Masses added at Sacred Heart already are attracting some 800 worshipers.

"We already have people standing" he said.