The Catholic community of Millville gathered last weekend to open up a link to the past while looking to the future.
The Parish of All Saints broke open a time capsule from April 27, 1969, the day Bishop George H. Guilfoyle dedicated Saint John Bosco Church.
In 2010, the church merged with nearby Saint Mary Magdalen to become All Saints Parish. Now, Saint John Bosco Church is in the process of being sold to Hendrix House, a rehabilitative residence for women recovering from drug addiction.
The bittersweet occasion provided an opportunity for the congregation to “look into where we came from,” said All Saints pastor, Father Peter Idler.
In front of seasoned faithful and youth from the parish religious education program, Father Idler unveiled the capsule’s contents, finding weathered documents and U.S. coins of different denominations: a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter and a half-dollar.
What could be made out on the decades-old papers was a decree from Bishop Guilfoyle and a list of parishioners’ signatures. The parish will attempt to unravel and decipher the rest of what was unearthed before preserving it on public display.
Father Idler’s reading of parishioners’ names on the pages “sparked memories” of friends passed on, says Mary Ann Serra, Director of Religious Education.
“We found a million memories in the cornerstone,” she added.
Father Idler says last Sunday’s proceedings were a unified moment for the parish. “Anytime we can look into the past of our Catholic community, it’s exciting.”
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