History of St. Joseph’s Church
By Stephen Antalics
On March 22, 2014, we are celebrating the 100th year anniversary of the founding of our beloved St. Joseph’s Church. This event is unique in the fact that our church is the only remaining ethnic church in Bethlehem’s Southside.
That once prosperous and vibrant Southside has suffered the wages of time but our church still exists. Why? That spirit, which was present in 1914, when the young immigrants wanted their place of worship, still exists today. For that Slovenian Shrine, our church, was kept alive by its ex-parishioners petitioning the Vatican to preserve the church and was granted a decree which accomplished that. Unfortunately, the Allentown Diocese interpreted the Vatican decree to allow a yearly Mass on the church’s name-day patron, St. Joseph, and funerals for those of the suppressed parish
Let us review the history of those young people who gave us what we cherish as our inheritance: St. Joseph’s Church. Who were they and where did they come from? Prior to World War I there was the Austrian-Hungarian Empire where all the citizens of Slovenian ethnicity existed. Again, our people were unique for only 65,000 lived in Hungary, while over a million lived in Austria. This difference shaped the customs and language of our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. About 7,000 of these Hungarian citizens of Slovenian ethnicity found their way to Bethlehem. Once here the majority of the Roman Catholics attended services at the St. John Capistrano Church, the Hungarian church. They soon discovered they were not welcomed since the pastor of the day was very critical of them over their Slovenian ethnicity and with his insults forced them to leave. They then joined St. Cyril and Methodius Church, the Slovak Church. Even though they were of a Slavic background, they soon found out that they could not communicate, since they could not speak the Slovak language. Some went to Holy Ghost Church, a German ethnic church and to Holy Infancy, which was predominantly Irish. It soon became quite clear to these young people that they must have their own church.
In 1913 they formed The Wendic Society to pursue the possibility of building their own church. They took on the name Wendic, since rogue priests were sent to America to encourage Hungarian citizens of Slovenian ethnicity to be more loyal to Hungary than to the newly formed country of Yugoslavia. It only worked in Bethlehem, since the majority of Slovenes in America came from Austria. The term “Wend” was a pejorative term created by the Germans in the 9th century to identify persons of Slavic ethnicity on German territory. The word deteriorated in Bethlehem to “Windish”.
The prime movers in this effort of a church building were Misters Frank Piff and Joseph Preletz. Both were very successful businessmen and, along with Charles Shamaneck, who, to a much lesser degree, made massive financial contributions toward this effort. In addition, Mr. Piff had made very generous contributions which financed other Slovenes to immigrate to America. The Wendic Society appealed to the Archbishop Prendergast of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for permission to build a church. This effort was strongly supported by the majority of clergy in the Lehigh Valley urging the archbishop to grant the permission to build. It was granted and the building of the church was soon under way.
The local newspaper on July 4, 1914, reported: “The Wendic Society Lays Cornerstone.” One side of the cornerstone said: “R.K. SLOV. CERKEV SV. JOZEFA-1914”, which translates to “Roman Catholic Slovenian Church-1914”. The other side said: “POSTAVILI VOGERSKI SLOVENCI”, which translates to “erected by the Hungarian Slovenes”. Vogerski was the way they said “Hungarian” in the Premurje dialect. The Prekmurje is the region from where the majority of Slovenes came to Bethlehem. Prek means “over” and Mura is the river which separated the Hungarian Slovenes from those in Austria.
Work on the church began and in a short time the church was completed and reflected a very distinct Slovenian theme. In addition to the cornerstone, the elaborate vigil light was in honor of the citizens of Dolenci. The colorful church windows were donated by citizens of the village The window named Fara Bogojina, “fara”, the term for “parish”, in English, reflects a picture of the Ascension of Christ into Heaven since the church in Bogojina is named “The Church of the Ascension”. Other windows represent villages of Grad, Stevanovci, Sobota, Beltinci, Nedela, and St Benedek. The majority of the parishioners came from these villages and the personage depicted in the window is the name of the church in that village. One touching window is called “Slovenska Deca”, translating to “Slovenian children”. It represented the brothers and sisters of the parishioners who were not able to come to Bethlehem. The window shows little children huddled around Jesus Christ. All these facts clearly indicate why the church is not only a Slovenian church, but a historic Slovenian Shrine.
As pastor of the new parish, The Archbishop of Philadelphia was attempting to bring a priest from Yugoslavia who could speak that special Slovenian dialect. Monsignor Masson, living in Allentown, PA, appealed to the bishop suggesting that a priest from the Slovenian Franciscan Custody in New York City be appointed. The custody was operated by The Order of Franciscans Minor, or O.F.M., or simply a Franciscan friar. A serious problem would arise since the Franciscan Custody in N.Y.C. was manned by priests ordained in Austrian seminaries. The problem being that these friars in New York spoke the Kranski Slovenci dialect (Germanic influence in grammar and vocabulary) which was very different than the Prekmurje dialect (Hungarian influence in the vocabulary and grammar).
This problem came to a head with the appointment of Rev. Anselm Murn as the first pastor of St. Joseph’s Church. The parishioners rebelled since they could not understand Rev. Murn because of the dialectical difference. Rev. Murn was forced out of the parish with the parishioners demanding someone from Prekmurje region of Yugoslavia who spoke their special dialect. Examples being that the grammar used in Bethlehem had a double dot (umlaut) over the letter “o”, common in the Hungarian vocabulary, but absent in the Austrian/Slovene vocabulary. Another example is the Prekmurje word for “bone” was “chunta”, borrowed from the Hungarian, while the Austrian/Slovene word was “kost”. There were many similar differences.
The problem was resolved by the arrival of Rev. Clement Veren from the Prekmurje region who fluently spoke their dialect. Rev. Veren, also a Franciscan Friar, was ordained in the Croatian Franciscan seminary in Zagreb, Croatia. He supported the Wend idea and recognized the church as a Windish Church, although the local papers announced in 1917: “Slovenian Church celebrates its First Mass.” No parishioners seem to notice or had any problem with this
Fr. Veren, well accepted in the parish, was very progressive and soon saw the need of a church school, which he founded in 1926. He had it staffed by nuns who were imported from Europe and spoke the Prekmurje dialect, which was much to the delight of the parents. The school thrived and soon had to bring in more teachers from the Franciscan provincial house in Lemont, Illinois.
In the same year Fr. Veren very secretly and, in a highly unusual manner, appealed to the Definitor General for all Franciscan custodies worldwide in the Vatican to establish a new custody in America. The request was granted and the Croatian Franciscan Custody of The Holy Family was established with the custody house being the parish house of St. Joseph’s Church in Bethlehem, PA., ignoring the fact it was truly a Slovenian Church. He then placed the church in that Croatian custody. There was no response from the parishioners since they were ignorant of the actions of Fr. Veren.
To understand this unusual behavior one needs to know the personal history of Fr. Veren. He was born out of wedlock in 1887 in Muraszombat, Hungary, today known as Murska Sobota, Slovenia. Illegitimate youths in those days, in order to avoid shame for the unwed parent, were sent to the Franciscan Seminary in Zagreb, Croatia. When of age, he studied and was ordained a Franciscan friar. Since the Hungarian government was promoting the term “Wend”, Fr. Veren came to Bethlehem, highly sympathetic to the idea. Although being ethnically Slovene, his strong Croatian sympathies probably caused his creating the Croatian custody in Bethlehem.
The parish thrived under Fr. Veren. He bought property in neighboring rural Seiderville and built church picnic grounds. It included a large dance pavilion and various smaller buildings. The pavilion was painted in the typical Hungarian colors of red, white and green and the music included a cimbalom, native Hungarian instrument similar to a dulcimer. The music was the czardas rather than the polka.
Fr. Veren became good friends with the Rev. Ernest Steigler, born in Sopron, Hungary, and the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Windish Church. Both were of the belief in the Hungarian theory that all Prekmurje Slovenes, including those in America, were truly Wends. This friendship ended in 1929 when Rev. Steigler mounted a campaign to attempt to have the Prekmurje returned to Hungary. Rev. Veren now saw through the original Wend plot, being disgraced and now feeling as a traitor, made a public confession and returned disgraced to Europe in 1929, and buried in Croatia.
The pastor succeeding Fr. Veren was Fr. Egidius Horvath, a fellow friar, Slovenian by birth, fluent in that special Prekmurje dialect, also ordained in the Franciscan seminary in Zagreb. A forceful and energetic pastor, he steered the parish through the very difficult times of the Great Depression. In this period the builder of the church, a Mr. Birkel, took the parish to court for nonpayment of the building debt. Fr. Horvath saved the parish by selling the church to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. who in turn set up a very small payment plan with essentially no interest. Unfortunately, although the parish was under the jurisdiction of the Croatian custody and not the archdiocese, it lost control of the physical building as a result of the sale. The negative impact of this transaction would not affect the parish until 2004, at which time the Croatian custody in Chicago, IL relinquished their staffing of St. Joseph’s Church, thereby putting it directly under diocesan control and staffing it with a diocesan priest.
Fr. Horvath, due to his dedication to the parish, was highly respected and loved by all; but, in 1937, due to a serious personal indiscretion, he was forced to leave the parish. This in reality became a double shock for the parish, not only would they lose a beloved pastor, they would suffer the loss of access to pastors who spoke their special dialect. Fourteen years of harmony were now at an end.
The Paris Peace Treaty of 1919, by forming Yugoslavia, created the republics of both Slovenia and Croatia. The net effect being, that since St. Joseph’s parish, being in the Croatian custody, was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bosnia-Hercegovina province in Mostar. This act now precluded the possibility of St. Joseph’s Church ever having a Slovenian pastor, let alone one who spoke the Prekmurje dialect.
A perfect example of this is the ordination of Richard Rogan, a son of a founding member of St. Joseph’s Church. Rev. Rogan was ordained in Slovenian Franciscan custody in Ljubljana, Slovenia, but could not serve in his parish, because his parish of birth, St. Joseph’s in Bethlehem, was in the Croatian custody
The new pastor, replacing Slovenian Fr. Horvath, was Rev. Irenaeus Petricak, a Croatian, who had no knowledge of the special Prekmurje dialect since he spoke the Serbian-Croatian dialect. This was disturbing to the parishioners of St. Joseph resulting in new protests. Fortunately, the nature of Rev. Petricak was that of a humble, religious, and sensitive temperament who soon recognized the indignation of the parishioners wanting one of their own. Rev. Petricak, realizing that the parish would never be happy without a Slovenian pastor speaking their dialect, appealed to his custody urging them to return the parish to the custody of their ethnicity, the Franciscan Slovene. The custody in Mostar refused and this resulted in a bitter behind-the-scenes battle between the two custodies. The parish of St. Joseph, with its parishioners being employed by the Bethlehem Steel Co., was a very great financial asset to any custody. The Croatian custody naturally retained the parish. Fr. Petricak resigned to the fact that the parish would stay in the Croatian custody, then embarked on a mission to alleviate the pain of his parish. Fortunately, for the parishioners, he was an extremely humble, religious and caring pastor, whose prime mission was the welfare of his people. An example of this care was that he learned the special dialect and began writing a dictionary translating Slovene to Croatian then to English. This dictionary exists today in the Croatian Franciscan Custody in Chicago, IL. One could argue that his 13-year tenure as pastor was the high point in the wellness of the parish. Many organizations like the Holy Name and the Women’s Guild were founded during his tenure.
As the years passed on many of the founding parishioners had died and the need of a pastor speaking that special Prekmurje dialect greatly diminished. Successive pastors maintained the status-quo and no major upheavals or incidents occurred. The pastors succeeding Rev. Petricak were ordained either in the seminary in Bosnia-Hercegovina or in the United States, with the former speaking reasonably good English. Of the St. Joseph parishioners who were born in America, most were not fluent in the old Prekmurje dialect; therefore, this presented no problem, since death solved the old serious language problem suffered by their parents. The parish thrived over the years and the pastors who served, regardless of the fact that some were born in America and others were foreign born, had no negative impact on the parish and were accepted without reservation by the parishioners.
The parish suffered a serious setback in 2004. The Croatian Custody, having a serious problem of the number of friars available to adequately serve the needs of the Croatian parishes in the United States, relinquished its jurisdiction over St. Joseph’s Church. This was probably prompted by the fact that St. Joseph’s was in fact a truly Slovenian parish, and over the years, its being in the Croatian Custody was an anomaly. This action then placed the church under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Allentown, which was now required to appoint a diocesan priest to serve as pastor. Rev. Raymond Slezak of Polish ethnicity was appointed as pastor but with the added responsibility of serving as pastor of St. Stanislaw Church, a Polish ethnic church. Rev. Slezak ruled the parish with an iron hand and being totally ignorant of the Slovenian language and possessing insensitivity to the church’s original ethnicity had a dramatic effect upon the parish in the quality and quantity of any Slovenian celebrations.
In 2006 the Allentown Diocese inaugurated “The Second Synod of Allentown” for the purpose of restructuring and consolidating the diocesan churches, calling it the Synod for Implementation. The plan was to reduce the number of active parishes, based upon the claim of the diocese that, it suffered from a shortage of priests, thereby demanding a reduction of active parishes in the diocese. The result of this study was that the pastor of St. Joseph’s Church received on May 29, 2008 a formal decree of suppression from Bishop Edward P. Cullen of the Diocese of Allentown that the parish, as such, would no longer exist. It, along with four other suppressed ethnic parishes, would be merged into a mega parish, known as the Church of the Incarnation of our Lord. Sadly, if the St. Joseph parish had been retained under Croatian Franciscan Custody jurisdiction, the parish would have been exempt from the Synod Implementation and still exist today. A small group of parish activists appealed to the diocese for a reversal of the closure since the parish had a reasonable number of parishioners, sufficient funds which included approximately $300,000.00 in savings accounts, a church and rectory in pristine condition, along with a commitment from a parish in Murska Sobota, Slovenia, to send a priest to serve as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church. The Bishop of the Allentown Diocese rejected the appeal claiming that the diocese would only accept priests who were ordained from within the diocesan area. The group then on July 24, 2008, appealed to Congregation for the Clergy in the Vatican for a reversal of the Order of Suppression. The petitioners received on January 5, 2011, a decree which stated that the church must remain open to allow the faithful a place for divine worship. The Bishop of the Allentown diocese responded by an appeal to reverse the decree of January 5, 2011 of the Congregation for the Clergy. The Allentown Diocese withdrew their appeal, possibly for fear of rejection, as was the case with another diocese, establishing operating conditions that the church could celebrate Mass on the day of its the patron saint of the church, St. Joseph, along with Mass of Burial for deceased members of the suppressed parish.
The Masses for the St. Joseph’s day have been very successful with a large attendance and by a large number of dignitaries such as the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia. Sell-out dinners have followed the Mass. The church now has an international reputation with support coming from many local and international groups. The Mass today, March 22, 2014, will be another landmark for this special parish, The Suppressed Parish of St. Joseph.
Life at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church
By Joseph P. Boligitz
Born in South Bethlehem I was baptized at St. Joseph’s in 1927. In my youth I went to St. Joseph’s School, served as an Altar boy, and sang in the school choir. In 1948 I was married to the former Irene Kercsmar and we had one son. My proudest time happened in the 1950’s when, along with Steve Kavas, Charles Duh, Paul Matus, and Steve Gerlecz, we started the Holy Name at St. Joseph’s. Subsequently, during two different periods, I proudly served as the president. Our membership had over 75 men and our committees served St. Joseph’s in many ways through work projects, maintaining St. Joseph’s Picnic grounds; cooking and serving meals for various dinners and dances; and we organized bingo on Saturday nights. I enjoyed calling bingo numbers for over seven and a half years. In later years I had sole responsibility for running the monthly lottery for over four years and ran several fund raisers at the church such as our Las Vegas nights. Both activities generated significant funds for the church. Our efforts were focused on helping to build a financial foundation to be used by the church to help our parishioners with things such as groceries, which we purchased and delivered to them, on behalf of the church.
Our Holy Name also worked together with the Women’s Guild to provide dinners and breakfasts. Together the members of both groups did the planning, bought the food, set up the basement, sold the tickets, and did all of the cooking and cleaning-up afterwards. It was a lot of work, but gave us a great sense of accomplishment that what we were doing provided an extension of family for the parishioners of St. Joseph’s.
Over the years starting back in the 1950’s, I had a lot of joy and success organizing various trips for the parish to professional football and baseball games. Several years later, when Atlantic City started building casinos, I organized monthly trips that generated funds for the church through various incentives provided to groups by the casinos through the local bus companies. In addition to St. Joseph’s members, members of St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church joined us to help insure that we always had full groups going and received the full incentives offered to us.
This association with St. John’s started a whole new relationship between the two churches. My love for music triggered an idea to try a combined men’s choir for a Memorial Day Mass. Together with Vince Koprevsick, St. Joseph’s director, and Jim Long, director at St. John’s, we created the first of what became a long tradition of combined music and worship. The original men’s choir sang each year for Memorial Day and for Father’s Day Masses, but in a very short time the complete choirs of both churches started combining for Easter, Advent, and on special occasions, alternating between both churches each year. Both churches were packed for every one of those services. Who would have thought that would ever happen.
Over the years I was pleased to serve on the Finance and Maintenance Committees. I was blessed to have the friendship and support of Joe Oravec, John and Geza Nemetz, and Steve Neimeister as fellow committee members. Together we took on some very large projects. One of our larger successful projects was to replace the furnace which required a lot of coordination including a trip to Harrisburg with Fr. Joe for special permits. We also added a restroom on the first floor of the sanctuary and installed a handicap ramp for access to the church. Additionally, Tom Donchecz and I had responsibility for maintaining the school, including projects such as getting the roof replacement done. Our goal was to keep our church in the way we felt God wanted us to.
Then, through a bad decision by our bishop, came the sad news of the closing of our church in 2008. This was very hard for me to accept and adjust to. The church was family. We had successfully worked to protect and preserve what had been handed down to us from our parents, but had to accept the fact that we had no control over the fate of our beloved church. Once it became evident that there would be no change in the decision to close, and the sad day arrived, we all had to find our own way to deal with the closure. A year later, as a way to keep our parish family connected, I approached Fr. Bob George of Sacred Heart Church about celebrating a reunion Mass for our parishioners at Saucon Valley Acres. He graciously agreed and in 2009 the first reunion Mass was held with 130 in attendance. Again in 2010 there were 145 who came out to celebrate with us. In 2012 I happily participated on a committee formed to plan for a St. Joseph’s Day Mass to be held, but this time in the sanctuary of the church. Seeing the church again that day brought back memories of those earlier times that held special meaning for me. On that day, once again, the members of St. John’s joined us in voice and in spirit to support us and help keep our combined feeling of family alive for all to see. We not only worshiped together, but they provided a full sit-down dinner for us afterwards as a fitting close to our special day Mass.
With the closing of St. Joseph’s I had to find my own way to handle my feelings and my faith. I looked to find another parish that had that same feeling of family I experienced at St. Joseph’s. I was fortunate to meet and talk with Fr. Bob George at Sacred Heart who understood what the people of St. Joseph’s went through and the sense of loss experienced by all. Through him and his parish I found peace with what had occurred in my life since the closing of St. Joseph’s and have kept my faith.
I’m writing this because I want to thank all the people who worked together with me all those years through the Holy Name, the Women’s Guild, the choir, the Finance & Maintenance committees and our brothers and sisters at St. John’s. Together, we have touched others in a way that is hard to express in words.
God Bless All Of You.
As sung by the choirs at the end of each of our reunion celebrations…..Till we meet again……