St. Eugene's Parish History

Thankfully God has spared us, along with Mr. D'Amato, to be together now, in 1999, to enjoy these days of celebration.

The Golden Jubilee of a parish can be seen from many perspectives.

Young parents bringing their new baby for baptism see the church their grandparents built that has been awaiting them all these years; senior parishioners still remember Cardinal Spellman leading the long procession across Massitoa Road the day the parish opened in 1949. Eighth graders point to jubilee photographs of the dedication day on the wall of the school corridor. Small children walking up the hill stare at the church and just think that it was always there. The whole neighborhood has almost forgotten whatever had been on the corner before Saint Eugene's was there. Fifty years have settled in comfortably on everyone, and now it has become time to celebrate.

During these middle years of the decade, Saint Eugene's took to buses, trains and planes as opportunity for travel was offered. Father Griffin had much experience in organizing parish tours, and parishioners found themselves not only in frequent attendance at New York theater, but also in long distance travel to Alaska, Canada, Ireland and Rome. The parish also participated in diocesan projects, as they occurred - the youth rally in Denver with Pope John Paul, in 1993 and the reception of the Holy Father in Yonkers and later at Central Park, in 1996, and Family Day at Dunwoodie.

A school annex opened in the lower level of the convent, making it possible to have all-day kindergarten. Adjustments were made in the church sanctuary and more pews became available. Nocturnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament became an opportunity for the parish to increase devotion to the Eucharist and especially to rally parish and diocesan Pro-Life Prayer.

In March 1996, parishioners received the sad news that Father Griffin had suffered a stroke while preparing for Mass in the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, in Ireland. A marathon of prayer began for his recovery and return. During the time of his recuperation, he received care in Staten Island and at his family's home in California. In 1999 he was able to return for the celebration of his Golden Jubilee of priesthood, celebrating mass both in Saint Eugene's and in Saint Margaret's. The whole parish and the children of the school have been in constant prayer for his improvement and recovery.

On the first Sunday of January 1997, Monsignor James Sullivan introduced himself to the people of the parish as the newly appointed Administrator of Saint Eugene's, effective on January 3rd. Monsignor Sullivan had most recently been Rector of the John Neumann Residence, the facility in Riverdale where young men prepared themselves academically and spiritually for entrance into the major seminary, while completing their college years. Previously to that, he had been Rector of Cathedral Preparatory Seminary in New York City, and had been special assistant to Cardinal O'Connor for Archdiocesan Vocations.

It is an especially reflective time for a pastor or a parish priest. For him the parish has as many names and faces as there are members in the parish families. As he turns the pages of the record books, he imagines himself at the first baptism administered in Saint Eugene's in 1949 when Virginia Lynch was first presented to the church; as he continues, he pauses at December 10, 1989 as Justin Caparelli became the 5000th child welcomed at the same baptismal font.

The bishop of a diocese is, in a sense, the principal celebrant of every parish jubilee, since every parish is an extension of his own mission. For that reason the Ordinary is usually present for a jubilee, as John Cardinal O'Connor will be at Saint Eugene's next month, on October 31st, when he will celebrate our closing liturgy. Presiding at that Mass, Cardinal O'Connor will be overseeing not just this joyous celebration, but the faithfulness of Saint Eugene's to the mission it accepted from his predecessor fifty years ago, and has carried out through these five decades.

The template for the mission of Saint Eugene's, as for any parish, is a clear one. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that a parish is a stable community entrusted by the bishop to it's own pastor as it's shepherd, where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist - a community that teaches Christ's saving doctrine and practices the charity of the Lord in good works and in brotherly love.

From the earliest days, when Monsignor Dougherty first gathered his people around him in the unlikely atmosphere of the Club House Inn until the moment when Cardinal O'Connor will renew the parish commission next month, those three "covenants" have been the work of the people of Saint Eugene's; the covenant of the sacred liturgy, the covenant of true doctrine and the covenant of the charity of Christ, exercised in love. Although the early decade demanded that great parish energy be spent on the building of the church, the school, and the rectory, these demands never distracted from the priority of the parish Eucharist, the holy hours, the parish missions, the caring for the poor nearby and afar, or from the teaching of the faith to children and adults.

No segment of Saint Eugene's mission was neglected. Just as the Sunday Eucharist found hundreds after hundreds of parishioners entering the church every hour and then leaving, renewed in Christ, so each Monday found the parish dividing into it's many activities. A parish child, now aged 10 in this jubilee year, will have many remembrances of his, or her first decade. To be a "kid from Saint Eugene's" was to have a world of opportunities ahead of him, or her: already half way through Saint Eugene's School, or it's School of Religious Education, he has already seen his parents participate in training programs for baptism, first confession, first communion and confirmation. He sees the opportunity to serve at the altar, to join in the parish scouting programs, to take part in the family communion breakfasts. The children of Saint Eugene's have looked with pride to see their classmates win honors and academic prizes at the annual Mount Saint Michael Academic Olympics. The annual Instructional Television Competitions found Saint Eugene's accepting trophies, and Academic Spelling Bees saw them taking home prizes. The youngsters put on plays and Radio Shows, sponsored the annual Ragamuffin Parade and had vacation fun at the Summer Camp Jamboree.

The original goal of the pastor and the people of Saint Eugene's fifty years ago has been made splendidly real in the parish school which continues to be a tribute to the Sisters of Saint Francis and to the laymen and laywomen who have made the school their apostolic project for a half-century.