Columns 2023

On the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 21 and 22, I had the great privilege of celebrating four Masses. Three of those Masses (on Saturday evening at St. Stephen’s Church, in Paterson, on Sunday Morning at our Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and mid-day at St. Brendan’s Church in Clifton) were special celebrations for the Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia (Highest Grace), the patroness of the Dominican Republic, whose Feast Day is celebrated on Jan. 21.

Each year, usually in late January or early Febru­ary, we celebrate National Catholic Schools Week, which, this year, will be from Sunday, Jan. 29 through Saturday, Feb 4. For me, this will be my third National Catholic Schools Week as bishop, and I am grateful for every opportunity we have to promote, celebrate and give thanks for the gift of Catholic Schools, in general, and for the wonderful Catholic grammar and high schools that we have here in our Diocese of Paterson.

After reading the title of this column, you may have thought or questioned, “Wasn’t the Feast of the Holy Family two or three weeks ago?” You may have also recalled that because Dec. 25 fell on a Sunday in 2022, the Feast of the Holy Family was on Friday, Dec. 30 — instead of the Sunday after Christmas, as it is most (6 out of 7) years. You may also be aware that another result (on our liturgical calendar) of Dec. 25 falling on a Sunday is that the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on a Monday instead of the Sunday after the Epiphany — as occurred this year when we celebrated the Epiphany on Sunday, Jan. 8 and the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 9.

When I heard the news on Saturday morning that Pope Benedict had died, even though we had known his health was failing, it was still a shock, and it was sad to hear this news. After hearing the news, I was in contact with a number of our diocesan leaders to prepare a statement and discuss communication with our priests and parishes to discuss our common response and, especially, the ways in which we would invite the faithful of our diocese to join together in prayer for the deceased Pope Emeritus.