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Dryden, New York |
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The first establishment of the Catholic faith in the Town of Dryden, New York, was in the Village of McLean, where Saint Patrick Church was dedicated in 1851 (at that time within the Diocese of Buffalo). Change of circumstances eventually caused this church to become a mission of Saint Anthony Church in Groton, New York. In mid-July of 1947, thirty Catholics of the Villages of Freeville and Dryden met with Fr. William Hayes of Groton to discuss the possibility of having Mass celebrated in the Town of Dryden. On July 27th, the first Mass was offered in Dryden, on the second floor in what was formerly the old Grange Hall. This Mass was celebrated by Father Hayes on an altar formerly used at the Cornell Catholic Oratory. Early in 1950, Father Thomas Cleary was appointed Catholic chaplain of The George Junior Republic in the Village of Freeville. The Catholics of the Dryden, McLean and Freeville areas sought out Father Cleary to be their priest. He found in them an energetic people who wanted to worship together and become a church community. Father Cleary then functioned as pastor of the Dryden Catholic Mission, as it was then known, offering Mass in Christ Chapel at the George Junior Republic. They found a shepherd and he found a flock. While they were worshipping in a chapel because they had no “church,” they became “church.” They were “gatherers,” putting themselves into a communion. They sponsored activities; they ate meals together; they argued and laughed and planned for the future. The geographical territory of the mission covered almost all of the Town of Dryden and included parts of the Towns of Groton and Ithaca. It was at this time that Saint Patrick Church in McLean, up to this time a mission of Saint Anthony Church in Groton, was incorporated into this Dryden Catholic Mission. The Dryden Catholic Mission became the Church of the Holy Cross of Dryden, New York, in 1962. As an ecclesiastical and civil entity, the new parish was free to begin planning permanent structures. In September of 1962, a parish center was built on Union Street in the Village of Dryden and dedicated for religious education classes and parish social activities. The growth of the parish during the 1960’s suggested a more central location for the proposed new church building. Property on George Road between Rte 13 and Rte 38 was purchased. Construction of the church and rectory/office building was completed in 1970. The Beginnings and growth of the parish occurred during the long pastorate of Father Thomas Cleary, who after 35 years at the helm, retired as pastor in 1985. During the 1970’s, a number of Jesuit priests studying at Cornell University offered assistance at Holy Cross: Fr. Edward Dowling from 1971 to 1973, Fr. Roger Downey from 1975 to 1978; Fr. Richard Doyle from September to December in 1978. From 1984 to 1985, Jesuits from LeMoyne College in Syracuse offered weekly assistance Father William M. Barrett was named pastor in 1985 and remained in that position until 1993. It was during the pastorate of Father Barrett that parishioners took another major step in the history of the parish, by consolidating the parish buildings in one location on George Road. The Parish Center on Union Street was sold and Cleary Hall was erected, along with classrooms and meeting rooms, all attached to the rear of the church. Greater privacy for the rectory was achieved and suitable workspace for the staff was developed. An adequate water supply was located, the septic system was improved and the facilities were made more energy efficient. Fr. Stephen Kraus assisted from July to December 1989 during the six-month sabbatical of Fr. Barrett. A series of priests followed after Father Barrett was named pastor of St. Michael Church in Lyons, New York. Fr. Joseph McCaffrey served as pastor from 1993 to 1994. Fr. Paul Freemesser served as priest administrator from 1994 to 1995 during which time Fr. Thomas Celso assisted from January to March 1995 and various others priests from March until June. In June 1995, Fr. John Hayes was appointed priest administrator. It was during his administration that in 1997, a 1906 E.M. Skinner Pipe organ was relocated and rebuilt at Holy Cross Church. When Fr. Hayes left the parish in 1999, Father Bernard Carges, already pastor of Saint Anthony Parish in Groton, NY was asked, in addition to his responsibilities at Saint Anthony, to assume the pastorate of Holy Cross Church. While being able to take on this burden for a while, it became apparent that, due to declining health, it was becoming too great a burden for Father Carges. It was then that the Parish Pastoral Council petitioned the diocese to name a pastoral administrator for Holy Cross Church, with Father Carges remaining the canonical pastor but only responsible for the Sacramental Celebrations. Sister Barbara Stinard, RSM was named pastoral administrator and served in this position from June 2000 to 2002. As Father Carges’ health deteriotaed, Fr. Peter Abue, a Nigerian priest studying at Cornell University, became a helpful assistant at both Saint Anthony Church and Holy Cross Church. It was also in June 2002 that Father Carges retired from the pastorate of Saint Anthony in Groton and ceased all responsibiliites at Holy Cross Church in Dryden. Towards the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the roof and heating system had been replaced, new energy efficient windows had been installed and a major exterior repainting project had been completed. All of these changes and improvements in the buildings resulted from parishioners’ generosity – not only through their offertory contributions but also through their willingness to donate many Saturday evenings to insure the success of the parish sponsored Bingo program. In June 2002, Father Frank E. Lioi was assigned to the pastorates of Saint Anthony Church in Groton and Holy Cross Church in Dryden. He was immediately immersed in the Diocesan Strategic Planning for the New millennium which involved the parishes of Tompkins County planning for the future in light of priest personnel and financial and material resources. Even in the first year of Father Lioi’s tenure, subtle changes were made in the interior of the church and in the daily Mass chapel. The parish’s beautiful wood-carved crucifix along with recently acquired wood-carved statues of Mary and John the Evangelist at the foot of the cross were placed on the wall behind the altar. Painted statues of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, both having been carved in Portugal in 1948, were obtained for use at Holy Cross Church. Votive candles were added at each of these shrines. Additional statues of St. Joseph, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Theresa of Lisieux, and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini were placed on pedestals near the supporting beams on either side of the nave. In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, also used as the daily Mass Chapel, the tabernacle was refinished and adorned on either side with two wood-carved angels. A wood-carved dove under golden rays, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, was affixed to the ceiling above the lectern, a large crucifix was installed on the side wall, and a statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was erected. New hymnals and missalettes were purchased allowing the congregation to experience a wider variety of liturgical music. New altar server robes were obtained and liturgical procedures were more carefully defined. Greater consistently between the liturgical practice at Saint Anthony Church in Groton and Holy Cross Church in Dryden was achieved, as parishioners from each parish go back and forth depending upon the time of a particular Mass In January 2003, the Diocese of Rochester inaugurated the Partners in Faith Campaign, designed to raise over fifty million dollars throughout the diocese. The goal for Holy Cross Church is $145,000. With half of the money raised at Holy Cross Church returning to the parish, the Facilities Planning Committee of the Parish Pastoral Council went “back to the future.” Looking to the future Back in 1992, the architect who designed Cleary Hall suggested additional upgrades and renovations for future consideration. The 2003 Partners in Faith Campaign, inaugurated by the Diocese of Rochester, offers our Holy Cross-parish community a marvelous opportunity to bring these suggestions into reality. Fifty percent of every dollar contributed to the campaign will be returned to Holy Cross Church to help accomplish the following:
The Parish Planning Committee, the Parish Finance Committee, the Parish Pastoral Council and the Pastor are all in agreement that this is a responsible use of our share of the Partners in Faith campaign proceeds. Our share of the funds raised in the Partners in Faith Campaign, along with the use of our Bingo funds, can go a long way in helping Holy Cross Church meet our needs as outlined above. Summary of Pastoral Leadership at Holy Cross Church
* John Paul Merton, the brother of Fr. Thomas Merton, had taken up flying with Fr. Donald Cleary, the chaplain at Cornell, when John Paul was matriculating at the University. Fr. Donald Cleary was the older brother of Fr. Thomas Cleary, the first pastor of Holy Cross Church in Dryden, New York. John Paul Merton, Thomas Merton’s only sibling, was born in Flushing, Queens, in the city of New York on November 2, 1918. John Paul was a month under three when his mothers died in he hospital. At the time of Ruth’s death, he and Tom and Owen were living with the Jenkinses in Douglaston. Both boys eventually were registered at Public School 98 in Douglaston. In 1925 Owen took Tom with him to France. John Paul was left with the Jenkinses. He attended the choir school at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Later he entered the military academy at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with the academy’s last class in 1935. By this time Tom had returned from England and was registered at Columbia. In October 1935 John Paul matriculated at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In Ithaca he got to know the Miscall family. Leonard and Rovere Miscall, who had a son and daughter more or less John Paul’s age, “adopted” him. and he came to consider the Miscalls rather than the Jenkinses as his family. He gave their address as his home address and made Rovere Miscall the executrix of his will. In June 1940, after classes were over, he drove to Mexico in his Buick with plans to live there. These plans were short-lived. After a brief stay he returned to Ithaca and once more lived with the Miscalls. That, too, was a short stay. In September 1940, the time that Tom took a teaching position at St. Bonaventure, John Paul went to Toronto and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He listed his occupation as “photographer.” In July 1942m on embarkation leave, John Paul visited his brother (now a monk at Gethsemani). They spoke about John Paul’s baptism into the Catholic Church. (John Paul became interested in Catholicism while at Cornell, where he had taken up flying together with the Catholic Chaplain, Fr. Donald Cleary, the brother of Fr. Thomas Cleary, the first pastor of Holy Cross Church in Dryden.) With only a week remaining before he had to return to Canada, he was given instructions by Tom and by Dom James Fox and was baptized on the Feast of St. Anne (July 26, 1942) at the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria in New Haven, Kentucky. Rocco Dawson, son of Senator Edwin Dawson, was godfather. He took his conversion seriously, much o the joy of his brother. Them it was back to Canada and off to England. In late August John Paul arrived in Liverpool at the bomber command in Buckinghamshire. From there he went off to Bournemouth for training. On his disembarkation leave he took the train to London, where he visited the American Eagle Club, set up for Americans in the RAF. While in London he met Margaret May Evans, a typist, who had enlisted in the British armed forces. They fell in love and were married, February 1943, at St. Laurence Church in Birkenhead (her hometown) by Canon William Griffin. They spent their honeymoon in the Lake District. On April 16 “Mert” (as john Paul was called) took off in a crew of five in a Wellington bomber. For a reason that has never been discovered, the plane began to lose altitude and finally crashed into the English Channel. Two members of the crew were able to get into the inflated dinghy. They managed to pull Merton on board. His back was broken in the fall. He was conscious for a while and spent much of his time praying. Finally he died in the early hours of Saturday, April 17, the Saturday of Passion Week. They watched over his body for two days, hoping for rescue. Eventually it came, but too late for Merton. His tow comrades had buried him at sea, in as Christian a manner as possible, according to Eric Hadingham, one of the two members of the crew who survived. They were rescued on Holy Thursday, April 22, 1943. On Easter Tuesday, Thomas Merton was called to the abbot’s office to be informed that his brother had been killed in action. Thomas Merton’s sorrowing response was his poem (the poem that originally closed The Seven Storey Mountain) “For My Brother Reported Missing in Action, 1943. Sweet brother, if I do not sleep Where, in what desolate and smokey
country, Come, in my labor find a resting place Where all the men of war are shot For in the wreckage of your April Christ
lies slain, (Taken from The Merton Encyclopedia edited by Shannon-Bochen-O’Connell, Orbis Books, 2002). |
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