PATERSON Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on Dec. 3 to St. Anthony of Padua Parish here where he served as the main celebrant and homilist of the 8 a.m. Mass for the First Sunday in Advent. He concelebrated the Mass with Father Eider Reyes, St. Anthony’s pastor.
St. Anthony’s serves the spiritual, social and material needs of many generations of newcomers, including immigrants from the Caribbean, Central and South America and Portugal as well as English speakers and older Italians. Salesian priests founded St. Anthony’s, located in the “Sandy Hill” section of Paterson, in 1909. A former Protestant church on Beech Street was purchased and renovated for use as St. Anthony’s Mission that same year. The mission was raised to parish status in 1911 and a new church was built in 1941. In 2008, the Salesians returned the parish to the administration of the Diocese.