In a much-needed effort to assist with the coronavirus pandemic surge of patients in Paterson, Colorado-based Centura Health is sending caregivers to three New Jersey hospitals to relieve staff at the front lines. Arriving on April 21 on a commercial flight provided by United Airlines, the group of 34 joined teams at Catholic Healthcare Partnership of New Jersey (CHPNJ) hospitals, including St. Joseph’s Health, based in Paterson; Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth; and St. Peter’s Healthcare System in New Brunswick.

Bishop Serratelli will celebrate a live-streamed Mass at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocese’s Evangelization Center at 12:15 p.m. Friday, May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. The Mass will be celebrated for all who labor for others, but especially those who work for our health, safety, security, service and essential needs. At the end of the Mass Bishop Serratelli will renew the Diocese’s consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title as Mother of the Church.

Can there be a saint from the Garden State? EWTN, the television network dedicated to Catholic programming, is examining that question through the holy life of and miracle attributed to Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, a Sister of Charity of St. Elizabeth, born in Bayonne on March 26, 1901. Coinciding with the date of her death in 1927, EWTN will air its original series, “They Might Be Saints,” at 5:30 p.m., Friday, May 8, featuring Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich.

Dan Venezia did not think that he would survive his first night in the hospital — on Palm Sunday — as his body struggled to wage a ferocious battle against the coronavirus that had weakened him severely. It was providence that Venezia, 48, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, walked through the valley of death in his fight with COVID-19 during Holy Week — mirroring the Passion of Jesus.

Imagine being ordered to complete the herculean task of helping to build a Field Medical Station (FMS) on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic for recovering patients inside the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus — all in four days. The task did not worry N.J. Army National Guard Col. Stephen McKenzie, who felt confident in leading a team of 52 Guardsmen to help build the 250-bed facility which opened April 8 for patients who have contracted the virus.

As our nation continues to be gripped in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, the challenge to find a vaccine for COVID-19 for the general population is going on at breakneck speed by Ameri­can companies. However, what is most important as these firms work tirelessly to find a vaccine is that they develop an effective and safe one that avoids unethical links to aborted fetal cells.

Father Thomas Fallone, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish here in Morris County, smiles as he fondly remembers hanging out with Father Kevin Sweeney of the Brooklyn Diocese — who was appointed as the eighth Bishop of Paterson on April 15 — at annual conventions, when they both served as vocations directors of their home dioceses. While serving as Paterson’s vocations director, Father Fallone even stayed at John Paul II House of Discernment for the Brooklyn Diocese, where Bishop-elect Sweeney served as vocations director — a facility that would become a model for what would become Domus Bartimaeus, the Diocese of Paterson’s house of discernment for men in Boonton in the former convent on the property of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish there.

For Bishop-elect Kevin Sweeney, his vocational call could be summed up by this choice — home runs or Holy Orders? As a child, the Bishop-elect recalled dreaming of being a Major League baseball player and playing for the New York Yankees. Eventually, he traded in his baseball cards for holy cards and answered his call to the priesthood. The first seed of his vocation to the priesthood was planted when he was in seventh grade at St. Luke School in the Whitestone neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

The news that Pope Francis has tapped Father Kevin Sweeney, pastor of St. Michael’s, to be the Bishop of the Diocese of Paterson, is still sinking in at the church, where parishioners are overjoyed that their pastor is moving up. “Oh wow! That’s great!” said Jackie Cardona, who operates a soup kitchen at the parish. “He will make a great bishop.”

When the Paterson Diocese was established in 1937, it was brimming with immigrants, many of them from Ireland. So much so, in addition to having St. John the Baptist as a patron saint, its other patron saint is St. Patrick. For years, many priests came from Ireland to serve the people of the Paterson Diocese. Today, the Paterson Diocese continues to be a melting pot with its largest immigrant community hailing from the countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. In addition, the Diocese has many members in its parishes coming from Poland, the Philippines and other nations.

It was a sign in these unprecedented times of “social distancing” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the morning of April 15 in the middle of the Easter Octave, there was Father Kevin Sweeney of the Brooklyn Diocese in a video message extending his warm greetings to the Paterson Diocese and expressing feeling “honored and humbled” to be named the eighth Bishop of the Church of Paterson by Pope Francis. Also following social guidelines, Bishop Serratelli led the Diocese, again by video, on that historic day in welcoming and congratulating the Bishop-elect, who promised to make a visit here once the restrictions in place for the pandemic have been eased by state authorities.

The period the Church celebrated last week from Easter Sunday on April 12 through Divine Mercy Sunday on April 19 is an especially joyful time for the Catholic Church. The Church refers to these eight days (counting both Easter Sunday and Divine Mercy Sunday) as the Octave of Easter. Every day in the Octave of Easter is so important that it is treated as a continuation of Easter Sunday itself when we celebrated with truth and certainty that Jesus Christ is Risen!

Bishop Serratelli celebrated Mass on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord at St. Paul Inside the Walls: The Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard in Madison April 12. The Mass was live-streamed for all in the Diocese and beyond to see via Facebook. In his homily, the Bishop spoke about Jesus’ Resurrection saying, “This is the most important, the most significant, the most momentous event that has ever happened since the creation of the world. God has raised the crucified Jesus to glory.”

As the coronavirus continues to affect so many throughout the Diocese and the state, pets can easily be forgotten in this pandemic. Jan Fredericks, president of God’s Crea­tures Ministry, is greatly concerned about the pets whose owners may have been hospitalized or more sadly, passed away from coronavirus. “For some people who live alone, a cat or dog could be the only family member a person has and these pets are now at risk of being left behind,” she said.

Since mid-March private and public schools across the Paterson Diocese have been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, educators, students and families have been teaching and learning in the new norm of bringing the classroom into the home.

On a normal Sunday after Mass at St. Paul Inside the Walls, the Diocese’s Evangeli­zation Center in Madison, young adults gather for coffee and conversation. With the chapel at St. Paul’s closed to public Masses during the pandemic, the staff at St. Paul’s decided to try a virtual version with Bishop Serratelli after he celebrated Mass on Palm Sunday, April 5, from St. Paul’s chapel that was live-streamed on Facebook.

On Holy Thursday, April 9, Bishop Serratelli went to St. Joseph Medical Center in Paterson to give a blessing to the staff and patients there. The Bishop offered a reflection, prayed with them and then conducted a blessing holding a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament.

Travel restrictions and a widespread shut-down in Colombia to help slow the spread of COVID-19 have prevented the return of a diocesan priest, Father Javier Bareño, to the Diocese. Father Bareño, who is the parochial vicar of Our Lady of the Mountain (OLM) and St. Mark the Evangelist parishes, both in Long Valley, is waylaid safely with family members in his native country since early March.

Residents of nine Passaic and Morris county towns might have felt surprised by an unusual sight passing through their streets on Palm Sunday: a priest holding up high a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament, while sitting in the back seat of a blue Mustang convertible.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare workers on the front lines are treating more patients than they can possible handle at one time, forcing them in some cases to make life and death decisions. This is especially true at the epicenter of the pandemic in New Jersey and New York.