Sister Margaret Conlon entered the Sisters of Charity on Sept. 6, 1965.  She is presently the program director at Emmaus House, Ocean Grove.

She also ministered at the Academy of St. Aloysius High School and St. Aloysius School, both in Jersey City, and the College of Saint Elizabeth (presently Saint Elizabeth University), Convent Station.

Franciscan Father Andrew Reitz

Father Andrew Reitz was born in Olean, N.Y., later moving to Allegany, where his family worshipped at St. Bonaventure Church.

During his sophomore year in the city’s St. Bonaventure University, he began considering religious life, joining the Order of Friars Minor soon after. He attended St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, N.Y., and was received into the Franciscan Order in 1964. He professed his first vows as a Franciscan friar July 15, 1965, the Feast of St. Bonaventure.

Father Andrew, a member of Holy Name Province, received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1967 from St. Bonaventure University before he professed final vows in 1969. He earned a master’s in theology in 1972 from Augustinian College. 

Following his ordination in 1971, he was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Brant Beach, and stayed 13 years. After several years of formation work, he returned to the parish as pastor in 1996 for another nine-year assignment.

In 2005, he was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in Tampa, Fla.; he was the first Franciscan pastor of this parish. Six years later, Father Reitz became pastor in St. Francis of Assisi in New York City. He returned to the Jersey Shore’s St. Francis of Assisi Parish as a parochial vicar in September.