News - May 2021 RSS Feed

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney will be the principal celebrant of the annual Priests Jubilee Mass to honor diocesan and religious order priests who are celebrating milestone ordination anniversaries in 2021. The Mass will be held in Corpus Christi Church in Chatham Township at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 1. The priest jubilee Mass was postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic, so this year’s Mass will honor jubilarians from both 2020 and 2021.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was main celebrant of the vigil Mass to mark the Feast of Pentecost with the Neocate­chumenal Way community at St. Michael Church in Paterson May 22.

Suddenly, seemingly from out of nowhere, thousands of red rose petals rained down on a group of young worshippers on Pentecost Sunday in Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Church in Cedar Knolls. They were caught by surprise while leading the recessional down the main aisle at the end of the Family Mass on May 23.

As the Church worldwide celebrates the Blessed Mother throughout the month of May, the latest youth gathering with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was focused on Jesus’ mother, Mary. Appropriately held in Immacu­late Heart of Mary (IHM) Church in Wayne, high school and college-aged students came to meet with the Bishop for the diocese’s monthly youth Mass and Holy Hour in the evening on May 21.

Memorial Day, our nation’s most solemn holiday, will be marked next Monday, May 31. On that day, to honor all those men and women who, in service to our nation, have made the ultimate sacrifice, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney will celebrate the annual diocesan Memorial Day Mass in Calvary Cemetery, Paterson, at 10:30 a.m.

As I thought about writing a column for the weekend on which we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity, I asked a priest for some thoughts or suggestions. Here is his reply: I always think of the Holy Trinity as the feast of community. God teaches us how to love and live in relationships of marriage, family, community, and friendship, through complete self-giving. Signs of the Trinity are all around us. We see so many who are drawn into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — which is love — through their complete selfless giving.

The Catholic Bishops of New Jersey, are lifting the dispensation of the Sunday and Holy Days Mass obligation beginning on Saturday, June 5, 2021, and Sunday, June 6, 2021, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Patrick Parish in Chatham May 16, marking the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. During the Mass, he administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of the parish.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of the Mountain Parish in Long Valley where he celebrated the vigil Mass marking the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord on May 15. During the Mass, young people of the parish received the Sacrament of Confirmation administered by the Bishop.

Bishop Kevin J.Sweeney will be principal celebrant of the annual Priests Jubilee Mass to honor diocesan and religious order priests who celebrated milestone ordination anniversaries in 2020 and 2021. The Mass will be held in Corpus Christi Church in Chatham Township at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 1. The priest jubilee Mass was postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic, so this year’s Mass will honor jubilarians from 2020 and 2021.

There is no greater cause than giving back to those who have served in the military to defend the United States of America. To support the current needs of those brave men and women, the 11th annual Army Tank Pull Challenge will be held at 1100 Clifton Avenue in Clifton from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 13. For the past decade, this family-friendly event has raised $1.5 million to support combat-wounded warriors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was cancelled in 2020. The Knights of Columbus, diocesan Catholic Charities, and the N.J. SOS Stakeholders Group are collaborating to bring back the Tank Pull challenge. In the past, the event presented a unique and fun experience while helping those who have made sacrifices while serving in the U.S. military.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney will ordain two men as priests of the Diocese on Saturday, May 29 at 10:30 a.m. in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson during the Mass of the Rite of Ordination. Taking the final step to the priesthood that day will be two transitional deacons: Rev. Mr. Francis Hamilton Balfour Lennie IV of St. Pius X Parish in Montville and Rev. Mr. Joseph Anthony Mactal, originally of the Philippines and now a parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle in Oak Ridge/St. John Vianney in Stockholm.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney congratulated 127 religious sisters and priests marking milestone anniversaries in consecrated life — as if they were a new Hall of Fame class — thanking them for their service to the Diocese and Church at the annual diocesan Jubilee Mass for Religious and for World Day for Consecrated Life on May 15 in St. Ann Church in Parsippany.

When a nun, who is not only a skilled surgeon but also a retired U.S. Army colonel, tells Catholics they must be “battle ready” to defend the family and their faith in this age of growing secularism, we had better listen. Sister Deirdre Byrne, a member of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, used those words in her recent address at the 50th annual conference of the pro-life group, Heartbeat International, an association of pro-life pregnancy resource centers, medical clinics, maternity homes, and nonprofit adoption agencies.

I think that as long as I live, I will remember the Feast of Pentecost in the Year 2020. I don’t particularly remember Mass that day — it was another “livestreamed” Mass, celebrated in front of an iPhone in an empty Church. I believe it was the beginning of the 11th week of the lockdown and the 70th consecutive day of livestreamed Masses. What I do remember so vividly is that afternoon, sitting outside on the porch of the rectory of St. Michael Parish in Brooklyn with the two other priests I lived with (one retired, one recently arrived from the Dominican Republic), there was an iPad on the table and we were having our first ever Zoom parish council meeting.

St. Elizabeth University hosted its 119th commencement exercises last week, which included a Baccalaureate Mass with Bishop Kevin Sweeney as the main celebrant. The Mass was held on May 6 in Holy Family Chapel on the campus of the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station..

Bishop Kevin Sweeney made a pastoral visit to Sacred Heart/Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Dover where he celebrated the vigil Mass in Spanish with its Neocatechumenal Way community on May 8, the Sixth Sunday of Easter.

In 1939, God gave Merla Ricafranca the miracle of miracles: being brought back to life after being declared stillborn in her mother’s womb by doctors in her native Philippines. While still a child, Ricafranca, a longtime parishioner of Sacred Heart/Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Dover, decided to start living out a life of thanks to God for the gift of life through her own gift of tangible, faithful social action.

As the world begins to attempt to get back “to normal,” one industry that continues to be affected by the pandemic is travel. Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, the diocesan pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. has been postponed until Oct. 1, 2022. It had originally been scheduled for Nov. 14, 2020 and then was moved to Sept. 18, 2021 due to the pandemic.

Early last year a group of Franciscan Friars, including Father Emmet Murphy who now lives at St. Anthony Friary in Butler, would often travel across the border to Agua Prieta, or “Dirty Water” in Spanish, to extend God’s welcome to these migrants as they waited — and continue to wait — in legal limbo for the U.S. to act.