St. Matthew's Church 
4th & Monument Ave., National Park 08063

St. Matthew' Church, National Park.

St. Matthew's Church

St. Matthew's Parish, originally a mission of St. Patrick's in Woodbury, was incorporated September 18, 1915. Father Mathew Lavey of St. Lawrence, Laurel Springs, offered the first Mass in the Kelly home on Wesley Avenue. Father Michael Dolan of Woodbury was rector​

Ground was purchased for the proposed new church and a tent set up where Mass was celebrated weekly by Father Lavey during the summer months. By the winter of 1917, Mass was being offered in a house on Simpson Avenue and in Jennison's Broom Factory. During the winter of 1919 Mass was offered in the National Park Hotel. A new church was constructed and dedicated by Bishop Walsh of Trenton in September 1920. St. Matthew was erected as a parish on January 26, 1942. At the time, it was a mission of Westville.​

A school was opened in September 1955, staffed by the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, who took up residence at the time in the newly-constructed convent. New classrooms and an all-purpose hall were added in 1971-72. The church has been refurbished on a number of occasions.

The parish now comprises National Park, Verga, part of Thorofare and part of West Deptford Township.

​The  pastor at the time of this article was Fr. James P. Curran.


from: Building God's Kingdom: A History of the Diocese of Camden, edited by Rev. Msgr. charles J. Giglio, PH.D., 1987., p. 306

St. Patrick's Church

St. Patrick's, a mission of St. Mary's, Gloucester, from 1859, became a parish in 1877 with Father M.A. McManus as first pastor. The first record of services in Woodbury is of a baptism administered in 1793. The first church was built on Salem Avenue in 1865 and enlarged in 1877.​

When St. Patrick's was established as a parish, it included missions at Glassboro and Snow Hill(Lawnside). Records indicate baptisms and marriages of people from as far distant as Indian Mills.​

The first rectory was completed in 1879. The cornerstone of the new and present church was laid in 1909; the building was enlarged in 1923. The interior of the church was completed during the parish's Golden Jubilee. In 1944, the Green Estate was purchased for a school and convent and the school opened in 1944, staffed by the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh, N.Y. The Franciscan Sisters of the Infant Jesus followed in 1973 and left there in 1984.

Over the year the Woodbury parish also served missions in National Park, Westville and Blackwood Terrace. The  pastor at the time of this article was Father J. Gerald Gallagher.

from: Building God's Kingdom: A History of the Diocese of Camden, edited by Rev. Msgr. charles J. Giglio, PH.D., 1987., p. 302.

September 2002, St. Patrick's Parish Woodbury celebrated its 125th Anniversary. It officially began in 1877 but there was a mission church in Woodbury prior to that date. Records show a priest baptizing a baby in Woodbury in 1794. The present church was erected in 1909. In recent years there has been a tremendous growth in Parish membership, to its present registration of over 2200 families, and the building of a parish hall.​

​from: A Glorious Past, A Brilliant Future: The History of the Diocese of Camden, by Monsignor Charles J. Giglio, PH.D., edited by Monsignor Louis A. Marucci, D.Min., p.135

St. Patrick's, Woodbury.

Original Church 1865

Most Holy Redeemer, Westville.

St. Anne's Parish was founded in 1921 to meet the religious needs of the growing Catholic population in the Westville area.

Most Holy Redeemer Church

St. Anne's, Westville, initially served the present Most Holy Redeemer parish as a mission. Mass was celebrated first in a small stocking mill behind the Steinberger home in Westville Grove in 1932 by Father James Ryan, pastor of St. Anne's. Two First world War pre-fab classrooms were purchased and moved to Park Avenue, Westville Grove. Parishioners dug the basement and erected the church. In 1934 the cornerstone was laid and the building blessed​.

Father(later Monsignor) Martin J. Killeen, as pastor of St. Anne's, continued the encourage development in Westville Grove. In August 1954, Most Holy Redeemer mission purchased a sizable tract of land on Delsea Drive. In May 1956 Bishop Eustace broke ground for a new church on this tract. The new church was built under the direction of Father(later Bishop) James L. Schad, pastor of St. Anne's, and dedicated on April 7, 1957.​

​In June 1958, Father Schad moved from Westville to the newly-established parish in Westville Grove. The first rectory of the parish was purchased in January 1958; in July 1959 a house was purchased and moved to the main property to serve as a convent. In September 1959, Most Holy Redeemer opened a school with a first grade using the original church building. The Sisters of St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill, PA., arrived in August 1961. In May of that year, ground had been broken for a new school building including a gymnasium. The new school opened in September 1961.

​A new wing was added to the school in 1970. A new convent and a new rectory were constucted in 1970 under the direction of Father(later Monsignor) James J. Gaffney as pastor.
​
The  pastor at the time of this article was Monsignor Joseph A. vonHartleban, S.T.D., also Dean of Gloucester County and former Secretary for Education.

-from: Building God's Kingdom: A History of the Diocese of Camden, edited by Rev. Msgr. charles J. Giglio, PH.D., 1987., pp. 308-309.