Jubilee Mass

MADISON  Bishop Serratelli gave heartfelt congratulations to 19 priests who are marking milestone anniversaries of their ordinations this year during the annual “Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving Jubilee Celebration for Priests of the Paterson Diocese” June 6 in St. Vincent Martyr Church here. He praised the jubilarians, who are commemorating their 60, 50, 40 and 25 anniversaries, for their “willingness to bring others to Christ and the Church.”

The Mass, with the Bishop as the principal celebrant, recognized the following priests: 60 years: Msgr. Charles Cassidy, Father Joseph LoGatto and Father Eugene Romano; 50 years: Vocationist Father Louis Caputo, Franciscan Father Bernard Creighton, Father George Gothie, Franciscan Father Bonaventure Hayes, Franciscan Father Michael Joyce, Father George Kuzhippallil, Father Lancelot Reis, Franciscan Father William Scully and Franciscan Father Francis Soucy; 40 years: Father Nicholas Bozza and Father Kenneth Hewitt; 25 years: Conventual Franciscan Father Boguslaw Czerniakowski, Father Leonardo Jaramillo, Father Gerald Kanzic, Father Boguslaw Kobus and Father Marc Mancini.

“We rejoice in remembrance of that day [of your ordination], when you were configured to the image of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served, but to serve. We thank God for the gift of your faithful service and ask him to pour his continued blessings upon you,” the Bishop told the jubilarians during the Mass with Bishop Emeritus Rodimer as a concelebrant.

Other concelebrants of the Jubilee Mass on June 6, the Feast of St. Norbert, included Msgr. James Mahoney, diocesan vicar general and pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Chatham Township; Msgr. Mark Condon, diocesan director of worship and pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Angels Parish, Little Falls; Father Richard Bay, pastor of St. Simon the Apostle Parish, Green Pond; and numerous priests from around the Diocese in a show of support for the jubilarians. Father Lancelot Reis, pastor of St. Virgil Parish, Morris Plains, who is celebrating 50 years as a priest, delivered the homily.

In his homily, Father Reis shared some of his own vocations story. It started when a church sacristan gave him a booklet, “Lives of the Saints,” for his First Holy Communion — “a picturesque, exciting, inspirational and motivational description of ordinary boys who became extra-ordinary men.” The priest called reading it “my earliest recollection of God’s call.”

A native of Bombay, India, Father Reis was ordained for the Pallotine order in 1967 in Germany and ministered in his homeland. After arriving in U.S. in 1986, he served the Diocese at St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish, Chester; and as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in the Haskell section of Wanaque; and St. Virgil’s. He was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese in 1998.

“One of the common threads that brings us together is our Diocese of Paterson — our Bishop, our brother priests and deacons, our religious and our parishes, where the people of God remind us daily and always of our ordination: to preach, teach and sanctify,” said Father Reis, who acknowledged the support of family, friends, priests, teachers and benefactors.

Father Reis noted that during Mass, priests “recount the action and words of Christ — taking bread and the chalice filled with wine into our hands. By the power of the Holy Spirit, this bread becomes the Body of Christ; this chalice filled with wine becomes the Blood of Christ.”

“We hold in our very hands the very body and blood of Christ, soul and divinity — an amazing miracle. We are an extension of our Lord Jesus Christ himself,” Father Reis told his fellow priests. “Being the daily sacrifice is who we are; becoming a sacrifice is what is expected of us. My prayer and wish for all of us that we — using the words of St. Augustine — ‘Estote quod videtis’ — ‘Be and eat what we see’ — and ‘Et accipite quod estis’ — ‘And receive what we are and what we eat.’ ”

Then, Father Richard Bay, pastor of St. Simon the Apostle Parish, Green Pond, called out each jubilarians’ names before Bishop Serratelli led them in the renewal of their priestly vows.

“My brothers and sisters, let us now pray for our priests — for the whole use of the gifts that God has given them,” said Bishop Serratelli, who blessed the jubilarians and led the congregation in the Prayer for Vocations at the conclusion of Mass.

In his closing remarks, Bishop Serratelli acknowledged the presence of many other priests at the Mass, which he called “a reminder that we do not do our priesthood, our service, on our own, but we are part of a great presbyterate.” He thanked the priests for their “show of unity with the jubilarians” and the rest of the congregation, and “for the service that you [priests] give to the greatest Diocese in the State of New Jersey.”

“I would like to personally congratulate our jubilarians. When you look back on your many years of service from the time you were first ordained, the world has changed dramatically and radically, but what has remained the same is the need for Christ as Savior and your willingness to bring others to Christ and the Church,” Bishop Serratelli told the jubilarians before leading the congregation in applauding them at the end of the Mass.

One jubilarian who attended the anniversary Mass was Polish-born Father Kobus, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Franklin. Originally he served the Salesian order, having been ordained in his homeland in 1992. Father Kobus served in Africa in various posts with the Salesians, including as a missionary. He arrived in the U.S. in 2000 and then soon came to the Paterson Diocese, where he served St. Andrew Parish, Clifton, and was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese in 2002. He later served St. Paul Parish, Prospect Park.

“I always wanted to love God and to serve his people. I feel like a missionary here. Many Catholics are like sheep without a shepherd. I want to help guide them. I also love to talk about God and heaven and to pray. I have a great devotion to Mary,” Father Kobus said. “I have never regretted it [the priesthood]. I would do it again. I’m happy,” he said.