News - June 2022 RSS Feed

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Paul Church in Prospect Park June 19, where he was the principal celebrant of Mass marking the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. After the Mass, the Bishop led a procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Prospect Park.

On June 12, young people of the Diocesan Shrine of St. John Paul II/Holy Rosary Church in Passaic received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney administered the Sacrament and also celebrated Mass marking the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity at the Polish-community parish.

It is a rather unsettling question: what fate awaits the souls of the saved — and the condemned — at the final judgment? Many Scripture passages paint a stark picture: from God sentencing unbelievers to be burned in a lake of fire for all eternity to Jesus separating the saved and unsaved like a shepherd separates his sheep. But perhaps Catholics might think about the Final Judgment like a giant lively party that lasts for eternity, Father Steven Shadwell, pastor of Our Lady of the Magnificat (OLM) Parish in Kinnelon, suggested in the third and final talk in his recent Chapel Chats series on June 16.

As the Diocese marks the Year of the Eucharist, the annual Hispanic Summer Institute was centered on the theme of the Eucharist, “the Source and Summit of the Christian life.” The institute was held from June 13 to 17 at the Pope John Paul II Center in Clifton in partnership with the diocesan Hispanic Ministry Office at the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison and St. Elizabeth Univer­sity in Convent Station.

The long road to greater racial justice in our communities starts with a simple step: “Making friends with people, who don’t look like you — white, black, and brown — and then sharing God’s love with them.” That hopeful message came from an African-American man who experienced racism as a child in the South — retired Deacon Frank Owens of St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester who spoke at an interfaith prayer service in Chester three days before the June 20 observance of June­teenth, marking the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19, 1865. It officially became the 11th federal holiday on June 17, 2021.

In my more than three decades of work in the Catholic press, never have I used the term “domestic terrorism” with “the Catholic Church” in the same sentence. But the recent outbreak of targeted vandalism against Catholic churches, the fire-bombings of crisis pregnancy centers, Masses being interrupted, the illegal protests outside the homes of Catholic Supreme Court Justices, coupled with an assassination plot against one of them by pro-abortion fanatics upset by the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade are just that — acts of domestic terrorism.

It will depend on your perspective, whether you would say that 2003 is “recent history” or “a long time ago,” but, in 2003 St. Pope John Paul II (at that time affectionately known as “JP 2” or “the Holy Father”) wrote one of his many Encyclical Letters, entitled Ecclesia De Eucharistia. As we participate in a Diocesan Year of the Eucharist, I have tried to look back at some of Church’s teaching and the writings of the saints on the topic of the Eucharist. It was a wonderful experience to read (again?) St. John Paul’s Ecclesia De Eucharistia. While I remember its publication in 2003, I can’t remember if I read the complete document at that time. During the past week, I had the opportunity to read the letter slowly and prayerfully.

Msgr. Kenneth Lasch, a retired priest of the Paterson Diocese, marked the 60th anniversary of his priesthood ordination in St. Joseph Church in Mendham with the celebration of Mass June 12.

In his new book, Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli reveals an array of insights about the Eucharist found in Scripture about the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish by viewing it the way a movie director looks at a scene: from multiple camera angles.

Pauline Marie Jaricot, founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, was beatified last month in her birthplace, Lyon, France, following recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession. Attending the beatification was Mila Burdeos, diocesan mission director, who joined 120 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney installed 10 men of diverse backgrounds to the office of acolyte during a Mass on June 10 in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Parsippany. This is their last step before being ordained to the diocesan Permanent Diaconate in June 2023.

With a combined 1,145 years of service, the annual Dio­cesan Priest Jubilee Mass was celebrated honoring priests marking milestone anniversaries of their priesthood ordination. Priests, both diocesan and religious, marking 65, 60, 50, 40 and 25 years of service were recognized at the Mass held at St. Gerald Majella Church in Paterson June 9.

Catechists in parishes around the Diocese were encouraged to continue imparting the faith to their young people “with joy and enthusiasm” during a Eucharistic Retreat given in English on June 11 in the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls ion Madison.

El pasado sábado, en St. Pope John Paul II Center, Clifton, se llevó a cabo el retiro diocesano Eucarístico para líderes, catequistas, y ministros de la diócesis, organizado por la oficina de Ministerio Hispano, la oficina de Catequesis y el editorial Sadlier. El objetivo central de este evento era renovar nuestro amor, entendimiento por la Sagrada Eucaristía, y hacer de ella algo fundamental para nuestra vida. Tuvimos la participación de personas de la mayoría de nuestras parroquias donde hay presencia de Ministerio Hispano.

This Sunday, June 19, is an important date in the life of the Church in the United States. It is not only the date of the Feast of Corpus Christi, it is also the date when the National Eucharistic Revival will start. The Feast of Corpus Christi is the beginning of a three-year grassroots revival of devotion and faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, culminating in the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States since 1975. The congress will take place in Indianapolis in 2024.

La promesa que Jesús nos hizo de quedarse con nosotros hasta el final de los tiempos se hace realidad en la Eucaristía “donde se contiene todo el bien espiritual, es decir, Cristo mismo, nuestra Pascua y Pan vivo, que por su Carne vivificada por el Espíritu Santo, da vida a los hombres” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5).

Throughout this Year of the Eucharist, we are asked to consider the great gift of the Eucharist in the Church and reflect on the appropriate response to this great gift. Gift and Response: When someone receives a gift, we rightly have expectations for that person. As a college student who received a scholarship, I was expected to work hard in school and achieve success. When commissioned as an Army officer, I was expected to work hard and share the suffering of soldiers in my command. In his Eucharis­tic gift, God makes himself small for us, so that we can grasp him, and he can make his love a part of us. How are we expected to respond to this unearned gift of love? God calls us to acknowledge our sins and change.

At center stage in St. Anthony School in Hawthorne, Amelia Mallory, 13, portrays St. Mary Mazzarello as she faces a crisis, before establishing the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious order. Suffering from typhoid, she worries about beating the life-threatening illness. St. Mary Mazzarello also wonders how to answer the Blessed Mother’s call in a vision for her to teach the poor girls in her Italian village. Her response led her to found her religious community, also known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco.

Members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) celebrated the feast of Pentecost at a vigil Mass June in the St. John Paul II Center in Clifton. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was main celebrant of the Mass to mark Pentecost, often called the “Birthday of the Catholic Church.” Father Yasid Salas, pastor of St. Therese Parish in Paterson and director of the Hispanic Charismatic Renewal, coordinated the event with the Diocese’s team. Spanish-speaking Catholics from around the Diocese attended the celebration of Pentecost.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney served as main celebrant of the annual Serra Club Mass to honor seminarians, newly ordained priests and retiring priests, held in St. Gerard Majella Church in Paterson May 31. The evening liturgy was followed by a dinner at the Brownstone, also in Paterson.