New Year's Day Mass

VERNON  VERNON Bishop Kevin Sweeney celebrated Mass on New Year’s Day marking the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God in St. Francis DeSales Church in the McAfee section of the township Jan. 1.

The history of St. Francis Parish began when St. Monica Parish in Sussex established a mission in McAfee in 1963, and a former school was purchased on Route 94 and renovated into a church. In 1965 St. Francis became a mission of the new parish, Our Lady of Fatima in Highland Lakes. Bishop Rodimer advanced the mission to parish status in 1979. A new church was built on Route 517 in 1986.