Passaic parish welcomes Bishop

PASSAIC  St. Joseph Parish here welcomed Bishop Serratelli, who led Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at 4 p.m. in the church for Palm Sunday, March 25. It also included the Polish devotion, Gorzkie Zale, or “bitter lamentations.”

Participating with the faithful were many priests of Polish heritage, including Msgr. Stanley Lesniowksi, St. Joseph’s pastor, and Father Jakub Grzybowski, parochial vicar, along with Father Kevin Corcoran, diocesan vice chancellor and the Bishop’s priest-secretary. Many of the parishioners dressed in their native attire for the Bishop’s pastoral visit.

The mother church of the Polish parishes in the Diocese was organized in Passaic in 1892. A frame building was purchased on Quincy Street. So quickly did the parish grow that a new church was built on Monroe and Parker Streets in 1901. St. Joseph’s was instrumental in the founding of new Polish parishes in Passaic, Garfield and Clifton.