Bishop Gregory Studerus (Orange, New Jersey, 1948) visited Holy Family Parish in Union City and the Augustinian-Recollect community from which, in addition to this Parish, St. Augustine is also served in this city adjacent to New York.
Between March 15 and 17, the pastoral visit of the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, Gregory Studerus, to Holy Family Parish in Union City, New Jersey took place. The visit began on Friday at 1 p.m. with a meal with the Augustinian-Recollect religious community of Union City at the convent of San Nicholas of Tolentine.
In this community there currently reside six Augustinian Recollect religious who pastorally serve two parish communities, Holy Family – Sagrada Familia and San Agustín. One of them, Charles Huse, was celebrating his birthday that day, so the meal was doubly festive.
The pastoral visit serves the person in charge of a Diocese or his envoys to know the state of the parish community in all its aspects: the facilities and infrastructure, the quality of the pastoral services and attention to the people, the groups and ministries that are present actively, the situation of ministers (priests, deacons) and lay pastoral agents…
The Augustinian Recollect Eliseo González, administrator of Holy Family Parish, was the first to hold a meeting with the auxiliary bishop, largely to schedule the activities of the visit and to have a first general vision of the parish reality. Then, from five in the afternoon until eight, multiple meetings were held in the parish hall.
Thus, the bishop met with the Parish Staff, the Pastoral Council and the Finance Council. The bishop listened attentively, and took note of both the successes and strengths that the most active members of the Parish indicated to him and the challenges and opportunities for the future that were envisioned.
On Sunday, March 17, the bishop presided over the Eucharist at 10:30 in the morning. He encouraged the members of the parish community to encounter Christ “We have come to the temple because we feel the need to see Jesus, he himself moves us to be with Him. Jesus is with us, he always walks by our side to lift us up and help us.”
Once the celebration was over, the bishop spent a good amount of time personally greeting the faithful and held a final meeting at noon, open to all the faithful who wished, to evaluate the fruits of the pastoral visit and to collect the contributions of those present for the improvement of the parish community.
The official diocesan visit concluded with a fraternal gathering with all those who wished it in the parish hall. It was a festive meal and a moment of special outreach by one of the pastors of the Archdiocese of Newark to the People of God of Union City.
The bishop’s secretary, Landia Chia, took notes at all the meetings so that they could be recorded and work could continue to improve all pastoral services and attention to the People of God. For his part, Gregory Studerus expressed his gratitude for having shared these days with the Augustinian-Recollect community.
Gregory Studerus was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1948. He grew up in West Orange, studied at Our Lady of the Valley High School in Orange and, later, at Montclair State College, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education (1970).
For several years he worked as an artist and teacher and had an art gallery and a creative workshop until he entered the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York, where he graduated in 1980, the year he was ordained a priest at the Cathedral in Newark.
Studerus learned Spanish in various courses and brief stays in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. He was vicar of Saint Aloysius Parish in Jersey City and later pastor of Saint Bridget (1990), Resurrection Parish (1997) and St. Joseph of Palisades (2005).
In 2013 he was named dean of the North Hudson Deanery and in 2015 episcopal vicar for Hudson County, New Jersey. Finally, Pope Francis appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Newark in 2020.
