Gothic Pride: The Story of Building a Great Cathedral in Newark

Preface and Acknowledgments

This book began with a question, prompted by unexpectedly seeing a great stone church. It had picturesque towers, transepts, and a soaring copper spire. I saw it—what appeared to be a medieval cathedral—while traveling by train, not in France or Germany or England but in New Jersey, when I chanced to gaze toward the horizon as the train approached Newark from the east. Before I could take in this unlikely spectacle, a pair of apartment buildings in the foreground blocked it. As the train headed farther west, the extraordinary structure was momentarily back in view. Lit by raking sunshine—shimmering, and utterly improbable—it looked for all the world like an architectural apparition. Its apparent isolation heightened the incongruity of time and place, as if this Gothic wonder had miraculously risen up, or mysteriously been set down, on a weary patch of New Jersey. (Millions of television viewers of The Sopranos may have later unwittingly shared the experience of these flashing views of the cathedral during the opening sequence of images that preceded each episode of the popular series.) I had seen the church before, as I often took the Morris & Essex Line of New Jersey Transit, and knew it as Sacred Heart Cathedral. Never had I considered it or connected it to other buildings I knew well and had long admired. For the rest of my train ride, one question persisted: What is that building doing there? This book aspires to answer that question. And I am pleased to acknowledge the many people who helped me do so. Bernard Flanagan indisputably deserves first mention. I met him soon after the sighting I described, joining one of his lively tours of Sacred Heart and inaugurating the first of countless exchanges of research and insights. preface and acknowledgments ix Chronicling Sacred Heart has vocational purpose for him, and anyone interested in the cathedral’s historical development, now or in the future, will be grateful for it. But no one could be more grateful than I. Flanagan’s extraordinary research enriches all of Gothic Pride. The Archdiocese of Newark Collection is preserved at the Monsignor William Noé Field Archives & Special Collections Center at Seton Hall University. Alan Delozier, director of the center, along with Kathleen Dodds, o¤ered extraordinarily informed, collegial, and unstinting assistance . Monsignor Francis Seymour, archdiocesan archivist, gave helpful information about the Newark see and its personalities. The late Monsignor William Noé Field provided liberal, cheerful access to the holdings now named for him. The Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center at the Newark Public Library is rich in primary materials, and I appreciated the help provided by Dr. George Hawley and his colleagues there. David Gauld answered questions about architecture and engineering with interest and limitless patience, providing understanding of the technical fields found in this history. As a practicing architect, he saw in this story timeless lessons about the excitement and challenges associated with working in the building arts. I am profoundly grateful for his generous, steady encouragement. I am thankful for a research document on Sacred Heart by Monsignor Michael Gubernat. It comprises a notated transcription of Monsignor Joseph Brady’s manuscript about Sacred Heart’s history through 1950, as well as Gubernat’s own study of the cathedral. The latter also provides a comprehensive mapping of the cathedral’s symbolic subject matter. Detailed treatment of this topic is outside Gothic Pride’s scope; those with a special interest in it will find the research document essential. Roy Horton introduced me to the buildings of A.W.N. Pugin, only one instance of his wide-ranging and lasting influence upon me and others. I honor the memory of this extraordinary person’s joyful approach to life and learning. I am grateful to Abbot Gerard Lair, O.S.B., for decades of commentary and exchange about virtually every aspect of the Western tradition and am also indebted to many of his confreres, past and present. Virginia Chie¤o Raguin, professor of art history at the College of the Holy Cross, provided both guidance and inspiration. Through brilliant research, writing, teaching, and exhibitions, Professor Raguin has done x Preface and Acknowledgments much to bring attention to the decorative arts found in American buildings, especially churches. Her close, astute readings of the manuscript yielded important commentary. I thank her warmly. Charles Scribner III, art historian, author, and former publisher, demonstrated over and over again his...