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The faith community of St. James of the Marches Parish in Totowa on May 20 welcomed Bishop Serratelli, who made a pastoral visit and served as main celebrant and homilist of the noon Mass for Pentecost. During the liturgy, he administered the sacrament of Confirmation on 19 10th-grade candidates and two candidates from the parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program.

It was about science and more at the STEM Symposium for elementary schools in the Diocese of Paterson. These were student projects with a purpose: a demonstration on how to shelter the displaced, a better way to engineer weather-resistant roofing tiles to withstand hurricanes and vertical gardens to feed the malnourished. A dozen elementary schools from the diocese participated in the symposium at Caldwell University May 15 showcasing projects that were created over the course of the academic year and included every grade.

Prayers from near and far have been pouring in for the Salesian Sisters of St. Jo­seph’s Province after an early morning blaze on May 18 destroyed the chapel at Mary Help of Chris­tians Academy in North Haledon — a tragedy which has torn at the spiritual heart of this dynamic religious community and the school it operates.

The Diocese honored 79 religious sisters and priests, who are celebrating significant anniversaries in religious life this year, for their faithful service to God and his people, during a Mass on May 19 at St. Mary’s Assumption Church in Passaic. The liturgy also commemorated World Day of Consecrated Life in the universal Church held on Feb. 2. Bishop Serratelli, main celebrant and homilist of the well-attended Mass, thanked the honored religious and praised them for showing the Church how to live, love and minister in the context of community.

Bishop Serratelli will ordain nine transitional deacons of the Diocese to the priesthood during a Mass at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 26 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. The ordination will be live streamed on the Diocesan website, www.rcdop.org.

The faith community of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in the Haskell section of Wanaque on Saturday, May 12 welcomed Bishop Serratelli, who served as main celebrant and homilist of the 5:30 p.m. vigil Mass for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. During the liturgy, the Bishop formally installed Father Greg Golba, as pastor of the Upper Passaic County parish.

Bishop Serratelli served as main celebrant and homilist of the 11:45 a.m. Mass on May 13 for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. During the liturgy, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to five young people.

Bishop Serratelli visited Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Rockaway on May 10 to serve as main celebrant and homilist at the noon Mass for Ascension Thursday on the 40th day of Easter. It commemorates Jesus’ ascension into heaven and is a Holy Day of Obligation for all Catholics.

What do theologians and historians really know about the wife of St. Peter — if anything? In his Gospel, Matthew tells the story of Jesus performing a miracle to heal Peter’s mother-in -law, giving evidence that the future first pope had a wife. In one in his letters, St. Paul calls Peter’s wife as a disciple of Jesus. Later, Clement of Alexandra wrote that Peter had comforted his wife, before she died as a martyr. The Church also honored their disabled daughter, Petronilla, as a saint. Still, these scraps of information could not even fill a short biographical pamphlet on the saint’s spouse.

Bishop Serratelli has asked Catholics of the Diocese to open their hearts to the poor and donate food to the fifth annual Corpus Christi Food Drive June 2-3 at weekend Masses. The donations will help local Catholic Charities agencies continue to serve as “one of the most important local sources of food for literally thousands of our brothers and sisters in genuine need, particularly children,” through the summer months, when the shelves of its food pantries become emptier.

The 49th annual Motorcycle Mass was celebrated on Main Street in Paterson May 6 by Msgr. Mark Giordani, rector of St. John’s Cathedral, and founder of the Christian Riders, a motorcycle club that meets in the St. John’s rectory. Msgr. Geno Sylva, diocesan vicar for special projects and the cathedral, was a concelebrant of the Mass and assisted in the blessing of hundreds of bikers after the Mass for a safe biking season.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of the Magnificat (OLM) Parish in Kinnelon to serve as main celebrant and homilist for the 5 p.m. vigil Mass on Saturday, May 5 for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Concelebrating priests included Msgr. John Carroll, OLM’s pastor; Father Lukasz Iwanczuk, parochial vicar; and Father Kevin Corcoran, diocesan vice chancellor and the Bishop’s priest-secretary.

Bishop Serratelli administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 21 young people of Our Lady Queen of Peace (OLQP) Parish in the Hewitt section of West Milford on Saturday, April 28, during the 5 p.m. vigil Mass for the Fifth Sunday of Easter.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Simon the Apostle Parish in Green Pond in the northern section of Rockaway Township on May 6 where he celebrated the 11:30 a.m. Mass for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. During his visit, the Bishop also administered the sacrament of Confirmation to five young people of the parish.

The faith community at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Pompton Plains welcomed Bishop Serratelli on Sunday, April 29, where he presided at the 8 a.m. Mass for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Also at that liturgy, he administered the sacrament of Confir­mation to 53 young people of the parish.

Bishop Serratelli ordained four diocesan seminarians, who hail from a rich diversity of backgrounds, to the transitional diaconate on May 4 during a Mass in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Parsippany. This rite brings the men a step closer to being called to ordination as priests of the Diocese next year.

Bishop Serratelli celebrated the 30-year history of St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Long Valley — one of the youngest parishes in the Diocese and a small rural faith community, blessed with a big sense of family and welcome. On his pastoral visit April 29, the Bishop not only gifted St. Mark’s with his presence, but also gave the parish another present that was well-received — the announcement that he had elevated Father Marcin Michalowski from its administrator to its pastor, and also from administrator of Our Lady of the Mountain (OLM) Parish, also Long Valley, to its pastor.

The faithful in the Diocese joined Bishop Serratelli in honoring the Blessed Mother during the annual diocesan May Crowning devotion, which took place this year on Sunday, May 6 at one of the Church of Paterson’s many Marian parishes, Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wayne.

Years ago, Cindy Costello, a married mother of five, found herself in prayer in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Sandyston, pouring out her life to Jesus — all her joys and disappointments, hopes and fears and blessings and shortcomings. At first, she described the experience as “being wrung out like a washcloth” but then reconsidered the enormity of the spiritual release that she felt and added, “It was more like a bath towel.”

Catholics in the Diocese of Paterson demonstrated their great stewardship of many of the outreaches and initiatives of the Church of Paterson by generously making more than $60 million in pledges to its Partners in Faith capital and endowment campaign. It supports individual parishes, Catholic Charities, Catholic school education, healthcare for retired priests and the Passaic Neighborhood Center for Women. The campaign also helped fund the major renovations to the Diocese’s mother church, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, which Bishop Serratelli rededicated last June.