By: Dean Johnson, Follow South Jersey Editor-In-Chief
BRIDGETON, N.J. – On the retaining wall that borders St. Mary’s Cemetery in Bridgeton and Penn Street, instead of symbols of peace and hope, the wall was littered with symbols of gangs, violence, and death. But that was before.
In collaboration with the City of Bridgeton, the wall received a makeover fitting for the consecrated site and the community.
Esaul Martin, Southeast Gateway Neighborhood Revitalization Coordinator in Bridgeton, was noticing the build up of graffiti. Martin said that he saw graffiti in the Southeast Gateway neighborhood starting to expand throughout different neighborhoods in the city.
“As I was riding around, I saw this particular wall that was littered with graffiti,” Martin said. “So I figured to not only make it just the neighborhood project but a city-wide project.”
Father Matthew R. Weber, pastor of Holy Cross Parish, Bridgeton, was also noticing the graffiti this past October while driving down the street.
“I said, wow, it’s just full of graffiti, gang graffiti,” Fr. Weber said. “All this graffiti really means death, and that means hopelessness. It means anger, it means violence, it means everything that we’re working against. I’m thinking, it’s gonna have to be cleaned up, but then they’re going to paint graffiti over again, right?”
Then he came up with the idea to not just paint over the graffiti, but to put up a mural.
“Years ago we had graffiti on one of our garages behind the church,” Fr. Weber said. “And one day, Deacon Arnoldo Santos said, ‘well I’m going to put up a crucifix there and maybe they won’t do it anymore.’ That’s what happened. It just stopped. Well, I thought it’s not only about covering up the wall, but also we’re here at a cemetery. I wanted to bring out the aspect of going from death to life in our own Catholic faith, but also generally speaking from hopelessness to hope.”
Fr. Weber began thinking of mural ideas that would relay a positive message not only from a Christian point of view but from a general human point of view, a sense of community rising up.
Then Martin gave Fr. Weber a call about painting the wall.
“Wow, an answer to a prayer,” Fr. Weber said. “I said that I was thinking of doing that already, but I also wanted to put up a mural, and so they said well okay yeah let’s work on it together.”
Fr. Weber worked with local artist and muralist Angela Harris who helped him come up with the final design.
“What I had in mind was to put up the cross in the center with the sun in the background and the rays shining out,” Fr. Weber said. “And under there put ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’”
At the center of the mural there is the cross on a hillside with the rays of sunlight. The rest of the wall will be Bridgeton High School’s color maroon with the words peace, love, faith, kindness, hope and community in English and Spanish. On each end of the mural will be the heart shaped logo that represents Gateway Community Action Partnership.
“We want to see things like this stuff combated because it doesn’t shed the best light on this particular neighborhood, especially where this is,” Martin said. “This belongs to the church, so we won’t tolerate this type of behavior. God won’t and neither will any of my city colleagues.”
Funding for the project came from a portion of the Southeast Gateway Revitalization Grant, who contracted Brushmasters Painting Contractors of Vineland, and Shirwin Williams of Vineland donated approximately $7,000 worth of paint, according to Martin.
Fr. Weber said the mural will help Bridgeton residents “not look at everything so bleak and dark, but to look at it from the eyes of faith and community brotherhood and sisterhood.”
Editor’s note: The Catholic Star Herald contributed to this story.
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