6. Life in the Rectory
Our first rectory (a residence for priests) was built in 1853 on lot of land just east of our first church (now the Parish Hall). An addition was built in 1868 which doubled its size. In 1900 the rectory became a convent (residence for the nuns). Our present rectory was built in 1899. The rectory was intended to be built at the same time as the church but lack of financial resources became a problem. They could not build both a church tower and a rectory. They decided to build the tower. Then a very serious economic depression hit the nation in 1893. The building of the rectory was postponed indefinitely. Fr. Corley recounts that on a trip to the Holy Land he made a vow to build the rectory. When he came back he began to raise money for the building. Opened in 1899 it is basically the same as today. One difference was that part of the top floor was a residence for the cook and maids who had their own staircase, which was located where the elevator is today.
I asked Brenda Rodriquez, who worked as a part -time secretary for thirteen years and now lives in Florida, to write about life in the rectory as she remembers it. Her recollections are so good that I include here the entire letter she wrote to me.
Brenda Rodriguez
I worked part-time as a secretary in the rectory of St. Mary's Church from 1986 to 1999. I was 14 when I began to work in the rectory and 28 when I left, so I "grew up" in St. Mary's. From the very beginning, the rectory felt like a second home to me. I hold countless wonderful memories of my time spent within its beautiful Romanesque walls.
One of my first memories is being impressed with the uniqueness of the building and being curious about discovering all the rooms within it. Walking up the porch steps to the rectory, one is met with a glass door that leads to a small portico with an imposingly heavy wooden door. After ringing the doorbell and being allowed in, one is greeted by an ample receiving area with a traditional grandfather clock. This clock would sound at the top of every hour marking the hour with each lingering strike of the pendulum. I would come to know the clock better as it would be my job to wind it each day before I left work. To the left side of the entry way lay the main office, where I spent most of my time. To the right side lay two smaller offices where priests would meet with visitors. Past the entryway to the right, lay the long stairway leading up to the priests' private rooms, to the left lay a conference room. Beyond the entryway was the large dining room with its wooden paneled walls, large fireplace, and lengthy dining table. At the end of the dining room was a small kitchen which contained something I had never seen or heard of before, a dumbwaiter. It is an elevator for food which would be hoisted up with ropes by the cook from the main kitchen in the basement.
My duties at the rectory were varied but consisted mainly of answering the phones and receiving guests in the evenings and weekends, the times during which I worked. Calls included those seeking to speak with one of the priests, those seeking information about the church or a hospital employee calling with an emergency request for a priest. Visitors to the rectory were often those who needed a certificate of their baptism, communion or confirmation, those who wished to offer a Mass for someone, and those who were involved in the various ministries of the parish. One of the busiest times for guests was before and after each weekend Mass. The weekday evenings were quieter times.
Besides greeting guests and answering the phones, I also had some typing duties on an electrical typewriter; a computer would arrive years later, with the typewriter always remaining useful for smaller jobs. Each week I would type out the schedule for the Mass times each priest would have that week as well as the days each priest would be on duty. I would place a schedule in the mailbox of each priest. It was also in these mailboxes where I would place small notes containing messages from people who called each priest. On a weekly basis I would also type envelopes to mail bulletins to parishioners unable to attend Mass or former parishioners who wished to continue receiving the Church bulletin in order to remain informed about parish activities. One other duty which took up some time was entering the amount donated by each parishioner the previous Sunday. I would receive a large stack of empty envelopes with amounts written on them and handwrite these amounts into an individual parishioner card which contained the 52 weeks of the year. As technology advanced, this work would later be entered into a computer. I always enjoyed the peacefulness of my clerical duties in the office.
There was a radio in the office but I never turned it on. I liked the quietness which would only be broken when the grandfather clock struck to mark the next hour, when the doorbell or phone rang, or when the windows or building made creaking noises.
One other duty I recall vividly was setting the table and serving dinner to the priests during the three weekday nights I worked. The cook would prepare the meal and hoist it up on the dumbwaiter. I would remove each main dish from the dumbwaiter and place it on the dining room table. I would then return to the office and wait a few minutes before returning to remove dinner plates from the table as the priests finished their meal. I would remain there for while asking each priest if they would like something to drink or some dessert. They usually drank tea, coffee, or an after dinner liquor. Dessert was usually ice cream unless there was a cake for one of their birthdays or a parishioner had brought them some pastries.
The time I spent in the dining room during dinner time was one of the most enjoyable times I spent in the rectory and one of my fondest memories of my work there. During three nights a week for many years I had the privilege to listen to conversations which were intellectual, entertaining, worldly, funny and never dull. I would often be included in these conversations, as the priests would ask for my opinion, or I would join in and comment on the
varied topics of their conversations, which could include anything from current affairs, politics, religion, movies, history, wine, travel or parish-related events. Often times there were visiting priests for dinner, which added more interesting topics as the priests could come from around the corner or around the world. one of the more frequent visiting priests was Fr. David Tracy who is a classmate and friend of Fr. Corrigan. A renowned theologian and professor at the University of Chicago, he was proud to have been born and raised in Yonkers.
I was surprised to learn very early on that most priests have a healthy sense of humor and those dinner times were laced with laughter and many ingenious comments. As I look back, this dinner time served as a school for me, it exposed me to a world of ideas, stories, perspectives, and humor. I was challenged to think about topics I had never considered before, and allowed a view to life and the world which was unique.
Whether in the routine daily work or in the holidays and celebrations, the rectory was always brimming with life and felt more like a home than a job. The priests and staff all contributed to its unique character. Fr. Hugh J. Corrigan, the pastor during all my years working there, infused the rectory with a joie de vivre. He had a keen interest in embellishing the rectory and church, always attentive to enhancing it, caring for it, and making it more beautiful with each passing year. This was evident in his many projects to improve the inside and outside of the building. It was also evident in his daily care and love for the garden outside the rectory. I recall one day when he came into the office and excitedly asked me what I thought of the tree he had had removed from the garden right outside the entry to the rectory. His excitement diminished when I asked if there had been a tree there.
Working for Fr. Corrigan as pastor, I came to admire his hard work, courageous nature, ethics, youthful energy, and striving to always do the right thing. I was also lucky to know him as a friend, and a father figure. I recall him cheering me up on days when I would come to work after a difficult day at school, helping me at times with assignments from my college English literature classes, and presenting his always practical and wise perspective on various situations.
There were many other priests who lived in St. Mary's during my years working there. Fr. Sami Totah was the priest for the Arabic community during my time there. He, along with various visiting priests from Palestine and Jordan, taught me to speak some Arabic. Through their presence and personal testimonies they brought the Holy Land close to us in our Yonkers parish. Fr. John Laracy was a priest for the Spanish community for a few of my years there. I remember him as a devoted and compassionate priest who always tried to help each person who came to see him. He also had an exceptional sense of humor. Fr. Virgilio Competente also served the Spanish community during my time there. He was always full of joy, eager to help anyone, and ready to share his holiness with all. Fr. Edward O'Donnell was a priest who also lived at St. Mary's but worked as chaplain at a Veterans Hospital. He had a nine to five job at the hospital and would arrive at the rectory right before dinner, briefcase in hand and always a smile on his face. All of these priests would congregate around the dinner table, enjoying each other's company after a long day, and always injecting humor and their unique perspectives into their topics of conversations.
In addition to the priests, there were various lay workers throughout my years in the rectory. Josephine Mastronardi was the full-time secretary during the day for all the years I worked there. Josephine was an energetic and vibrant lady who always excelled at her work and had a great love for the church. I learned many things from watching her skillfully handle work related tasks as well as social etiquette during the many gatherings and celebrations at the rectory. It is difficult to think of St. Mary's and not remember Rick Hess, the talented singer at all the Masses, weddings and funerals in St. Mary's. During weekend Masses, I would be working in the office and hear Rick's glorious tenor voice flowing from the adjoining church. His melodious, sweet voice could have graced the stage of any opera production in the world, but what better stage is there than the altar and what better audience than the faithful gathered around God's throne?
The memories of my time working at St. Mary's are treasures I hold dear. I entered the rectory as a teenager beginning high school, worked there through my college and graduate school years and left as a working professional in the field of speech-language pathology. Those 13 years spent in the rectory were invaluable and formative. The rectory in St. Mary's is adjacent to God's home and I was blessed to have had it be my "home."