Delbarton School opens academic year with Mass

The community of St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School, both in Morristown, joined together to mark the opening of the 2023–24 academic year on Sept. 12.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated a Mass at Delbarton, reminding students to be the best they can be in part by learning from the example of the heroes in the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The 22nd anniversary of the tragedy was celebrated the day before the liturgy.

“On that day, we started to see the first pictures of the firefighters, who ran into the buildings when everyone was running out. We saw co-workers and strangers helping each other. Courage, self-sacrifice, bravery, generosity, greatness were so evident on that day,” Bishop Sweeney said in his homily.

Delbarton is a Benedictine Catholic college preparatory school educating young men in grades 7–12 in mind, body, and spirit.

Concelebrants of the Mass included Benedictine Father Edward Seton Fittin, prior of St. Mary’s Abbey; Benedictine Abbot Jonathan Licari; and Benedictine Father Michael Tidd, headmaster of Delbarton. Father Jared Brogan, a priest of the Paterson Diocese and director of the diocese’s Office of Worship, served as master of ceremonies.

Delbarton’s student body also presented Bishop Sweeney with a donation to the Tri-County Scholarship Fund.