Vestment

This vestment was given to Father Charles H. McTague (1920-2007), a priest of the Archdiocese of Port Newark (NJ), who had been active in assisting immigrants to the United States. During McTague's visit to Mexico City, he visited a nearby Franciscan seminary in the city of Queretaro. For eighteen years, 1749-1767, that seminary had been the residence of Father Junipero Serra (1713-1784), the Spanish Franciscan missionary canonized by Pope Francis in 2015. A grateful priest from Mexico City purchased this vestment upon the conviction that Father Serra might very well have worn it during his long stay at that mission seminary. In 1991, Father McTague gave this vestment to Mr. John P. Deehan, the president of the Serra Club of the Oranges (Serra International is a Catholic lay association dedicated to praying for and fostering vocations to the priesthood). In 2015, this chasuble was given by John Deehan's widow, Rosemarie, to Monsignor Joseph Reilly, Rector of Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University.