Monsignor Michael Alliegro during his installation as rector of the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi in Metuchen on Dec. 2, 2007.
Photo courtesy the Catholic Spirit
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September 7, 2009
Monsignor Michael Alliegro was remembered by members of the Jewish community as a “mensch” who was devoted to furthering Jewish-Catholic relations.
Alliegro, who died Aug. 16 at St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick after a 10-year battle with leukemia, served at St. Bartholomew Church in East Brunswick from 1990 to 2007. He was 62.
“During the 17 years he was at St. Bart’s he and I developed a very close relationship,” said Rabbi Eric Milgrim of Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick. “He and I were not only colleagues, but close friends. He was a really nice guy who just exuded love and ecumenism — a real mensch.”
Over that period the two religious institutions held many interfaith programs, including one called Three Great Jewish Men Affecting the World: Moses, Freud, and Jesus, which drew hundreds of participants.
“I spoke on his pulpit several times, and he spoke here many times,” recalled Milgrim. “We had many exchanges in adult education.”
He added that Alliegro accompanied students from St. Bart’s and the synagogue on their first trip to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The trip was arranged by B’nai Shalom’s Daniel Pearl Education Center, which seeks to promote tolerance.
Alliegro “was a very valuable member of the Diocese of Metuchen and was loved and respected by all,” said Joseph Tabak of Highland Park, long active in the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County and the Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth, and board chair at St. Peter’s Hospital. “He was just a wonderful person and an integral part of our Catholic-Judaic interfaith community.”
A founder of the diocese in 1987, Alliegro became its vicar of pastoral life and a monsignor in 1993. He spent the last two years as rector at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi in Metuchen.
He was principal of St. Thomas Aquinas High School — now Bishop George Ahr High School — in Edison from 1976 to 1980. In addition to his interfaith work, he was praised for his roles as priest, pastor, educator, liturgist, and administrator.
“Monsignor Alliegro’s death is a great loss to the Diocese of Metuchen,” Bishop Paul Bootkoski said in a statement. “His contributions to the diocese have been invaluable and far-reaching since its inception.”
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