The Kingdom Began in Puerto Rico

OPTalksBookspodcast
Written By Open Plaza

Dr. Michael Lee talks to community organizer Angel García about his recent book on the priesthood of Fr. Neil Connolly in the South Bronx, 1958-1980s

Church on the streets: Father Neil Connolly with Seneca Chapel youth procession in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Hunts Point, Bronx, NY. Photo: Mili Bonilla

 
 

The late Msgr. Neil A. Connolly served as a parish priest for close to 60 years. After his ordination at age 24, he spent eight weeks in Ponce, Puerto Rico, taking part in a pioneering New York Archdiocesan language-immersion program in Spanish. The young Irish-American priest quickly adapted to an environment that was predominantly Latino. His priesthood would be defined by the South Bronx and Puerto Rican migration as he learned to both serve and be part of a community that struggled for a decent life. Passionate about issues of social justice, Fr. Connolly was a champion for lay leadership and community organization. While vicar for the South Bronx in the 1970s, he co-founded and was chairman of South Bronx People for Change, a Church-based, direct-action membership organization. Community organizer Angel García has served as its Executive Director.

 In this episode of OP Talks, Dr. Michael E. Lee, Director of Fordham University's Francis & Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, talks to García about his recent book The Kingdom Began In Puerto Rico: Neil Connolly’s Priesthood in the South Bronx (Fordham University Press, 2021). In this history of faith and community building, García chronicles the work of Rev. Connolly from 1958 to the 1980s.

Reflecting on Fr. Connolly’s ministry in the Bronx, García says, “When one thinks about it…you’ve been an altar boy, you’ve gone to these traditional churches [and] seminary preparation. And then you come here, and you’re looking for the church, and they say, ‘It’s right here. It’s a bodega. This is where the church is.’ And Fr. Connolly essentially surrendered himself to that.”

 

GALLERY

RESOURCE

Organize! : A Manual for Leaders (Paulist Press, 1990) by Rev. Dean Brackley and South Bronx People for Change, where he worked for nearly a decade before leaving to serve in war-torn El Salvador.

 
 

The Puerto Rican migration after the Second World War challenged the Catholic Church of New York. Through the efforts of priests like Fr. Neil Connolly, they and the other Latinos who followed became the heart of that Church in the South Bronx. Campaigns for human dignity and social justice played a large part in that process. Angel Garcia captures the spirit of the era, and the spirit of the man.

James Martin, SJ
Author, Jesus: A Pilgrimage and My Life with the Saints

 
Featured
Angel García

Angel García was the Executive Director of South Bronx People for Change, a Church-based, direct-action membership organization co-founded by Fr. Connolly. Born in Puerto Rico, García is a graduate of Princeton University and Pace University. As a long-term resident of the South Bronx and a lapsed Catholic, García has volunteered on worker cooperative projects, and social justice, environmental and political campaigns, and an affordable housing board, happily recruited by Fr. Connolly. Currently, García is a member of Sierra Club NYC and the Rainbow Garden of Life and Health, a South Bronx community garden. He has spoken about his book The Kingdom Began In Puerto Rico: Neil Connolly’s Priesthood in the South Bronx (Fordham University Press, 2021) at Fordham University’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, at the Artists and Authors Series of the Princeton University Class of 1979, and at the St. Frances de Sales Pop-up Theology Lecture Series, named after Fr. Connolly.

Featured
Michael Lee

Dr. Michael E. Lee is Professor of Theology with affiliation in Fordham’s Latin American and Latino Studies Institute. Born in Miami, FL of Puerto Rican parents, he holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago (MA) and the University of Notre Dame (BA, MA, PhD). His research interests include: Roman Catholic theology, liberation theologies, Christology, spirituality, religion & politics, ecological theology, Latin American and U.S. Latinx theologies. Dr. Lee teaches courses in Roman Catholic theology, liberation theologies, Latin American and Latinx theologies, Christology, and spirituality. He has served as President of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) and on the governing board of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA). His commentary has appeared in a wide variety of venues including The New York Times, Rolling Stone Magazine, CNN, ABC-NY, National Public Radio, The Tablet (UK), and El Faro Académico (El Salvador). He has lectured in universities across the U.S. and in Spain, Mexico, El Salvador, Belgium, and Austria.

His award-winning research includes: Revolutionary Saint: The Theological Legacy of Óscar Romero (Orbis, 2018), which was supported by a Sabbatical Grant for Researchers from the Louisville Institute and earned a Catholic Press Association Book Prize. He edited Ignacio Ellacuría: Essays on History, Liberation, and Salvation (Orbis, 2013), providing an English-speaking audience access to a collection of Ellacuría’s most substantial theological essays. Bearing the Weight of Salvation: The Soteriology of Ignacio Ellacuría (Herder & Herder, 2010) won the 2010 Hispanic Theological Initiative Book Prize, sponsored by Princeton Theological Seminary.

Dr. Lee’s scholarly activity has always been complemented by a commitment to practical community engagement. He has lived at André House, a Catholic Worker-inspired community, and engaged in liturgical music and bilingual pastoral ministry in parishes in Miami, FL, Phoenix, AZ, Chicago, IL, South Bend, IN, and New York City. He has served on the boards of international NGOs, such as CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El Salvador) and the Foundation for Sustainability and Peacemaking in Mesoamerica.

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