Dennis J. Sullivan was one of 18 men ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New York on May 29, 1971.
A week earlier, on May 22, 1971, Bishop George Guilfoyle ordained 14 men in Saint Joseph Pro-Cathedral, and another Camden priest – Father Mark R. Cavagnaro – had recently been ordained in Rome. Some of them are currently sharing their 50th jubilees with the bishop: Father Dennis W. Bajkowski, Father James F. Betz, Father Cavagnaro, Father Bernard J. Gannon, Father Edward J. Lipinski, Msgr. Roger E. McGrath and Father William C. Pierce.
But ordination classes at dioceses throughout the country have been smaller for many years.
In 1971, according to the annual Official Catholic Directory, the Camden Diocese had 348 diocesan priests active in the diocese. Twenty-seven more were sick or retired.
In contrast, today the diocese has 100 active priests and 79 retired priests.
Three Camden Diocesan priests have died already this year. Since 2013, when Bishop Sullivan was installed, 76 Camden priests have died.
Bishop Sullivan ordained two priests, Father Steven Bertonazzi and Father Carlo Santa Teresa, on May 22, bringing to nine the total number of priests he has ordained as the bishop of Camden.
The world they are called to evangelize is drastically different in some ways and predictably — in some cases distressingly — similar to the era in which Bishop Sullivan was ordained.
The New York Times on May 29, 1971, carried a front page story about “elaborate and rather expensive” machines that can “automatically read such papers as public utility bills and payrolls for American industry.”
The edition also carried stories about racial tensions, Vice President Spiro Agnew’s views on federal aid to American cities, the Muslim faith of basketball great Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabba), Portuguese immigrants facing deportation but desperate to stay in the United States, and controversy over state aid to non-public schools, as well as an opinion piece advocating “no-fault” car insurance.
The paper also carried a short piece about one of the Smithsonian Institute’s items, a safe filled with historical items. It was donated in 1878 and to be opened on July 4, 1976, the nation’s 200th birthday.
“But,” the article states, “the combination and key to the safe cannot be found, and the Smithsonian says its records indicate it never had custody of them anyway.”
The main story in the first issue of the Catholic Star Herald after Bishop Sullivan’s ordination, dated June 4, 1971, was about a communications pastoral released by the Pontifical Commission on Social Communications, with the approval of Pope Paul VI. The pastoral argues “that building a healthy public opinion requires open and complete news reporting,” the article states.
An accompanying article carried the headline “Man now ‘shaped’ by media.”
The Star Herald front page also carried photos of a May crowning.
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