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Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated a Mass for the opening of the school year at Villa Walsh Academy in Morristown on Sept. 16 and the Academy of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station on Sept. 13.

A first-class relic of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a patron of the pro-life movement, will be exposed during and after 8:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, Oct. 2, in Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Rockaway, to be celebrated by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney. The Mass is for everyone but especially for couples suffering from infertility or child loss.

Nearly 600 people attended a gathering organized by the General Assembly for Region 2 of the Hispanic Catholic Charismatic Renewal on Sept. 17 at the St. John Paul II Pastoral Center in Clifton. It was the first time the diocese hosted the event, and it was attended by members of the faith community from New Jersey and New York.

The Religious Teachers Filippini of the Province of St. Lucy celebrated the 350th birthday of their Foundress on Sept. 10 at Villa Walsh Academy in Morris­town with a Eucharistic Liturgy followed by a reception. Celebrations for St. Lucy Filippini are being held throughout this anniversary year worldwide. For this Inter­national community, observances were held at the Filippinis’ Generalate in Rome and in countries around the world where the Sisters minister in Catholic education, faith formation, and especially to the poor and those in need. In the Paterson Diocese, the Filippini Sisters operate Villa Walsh Academy, Morristown; St. Gerard Majella School,

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney consecrated the newly-completed chapel at St. Mary’s Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Passaic on Sept. 9. He also celebrated Mass in the new space with Father Jorge Rodriguez, the pastor of St. Mary’s, and other clergy members.

Yesenia Garcia was nervous the first time she served as an altar server during Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. But on that day four years ago, an experienced altar server helped Garcia navigate her new role. First-day nerves are something Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney said he could relate to. He told Garcia, now 18, and 134 other altar servers in parishes from around the Diocese about his first time altar serving on Sept. 17 at a diocesan Altar Servers Day at the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls here. Unlike Garcia, the future bishop served his first Mass by himself at age eight in St. Luke’s, his home parish in Whitestone, N.Y., when two experienced altar servers failed to show up, he said.

Krzysztof Tyszko, a diocesan seminarian in Rome, felt called to the priesthood from an early age. On Thursday, Sept. 29, he will move closer to ordination to the priesthood when he is ordained a transitional deacon in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Raised in Holy Rosary Church/Diocesan Shrine of St. John Paul II in Passaic, Tyszko, 25, anticipates being ordained a priest of the Diocese on June 24, 2023, by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney.

Two weeks ago, I shared some thoughts from Rome as I was participating in the (annual) “New Bishops’ Orientation Program.” I tried to describe the humbling and uplifting experience of being with 150 “new” bishops from so many parts of the world and, in particular, the powerful feeling of being united with the whole Church, the one Body of Christ, as we celebrated the Eucharist. That experience was most strongly felt when I had the privilege of concelebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square with Pope Francis on Sunday, Sept. 4, at the Mass for the Beatification of Pope John Paul I.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University in Baltimore in 1998, Joseph Murray took a year off with the intention of going to law school after. He worked in Oregon for a company that created carnivals and other events for children. “At the carnivals, I would observe the children, who were having fun and learning. I thought, ‘That’s what education should be: challenging and fun,’” said Murray, who came back to New Jersey and instead enrolled in a program to earn his certification to teach, particularly in low-come areas of the state.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney presided over a Mass on Sept. 11 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Sacred Heart Parish here, a small but vibrant and diverse faith community that “day after day and Sunday after Sunday, lives and passes on the faith from one generation to the next.” Sacred Heart has distinctions as the first Catholic parish in Clifton and as the first Italian national parish in the Diocese in 1897.

John Cammarata was recently appointed director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Paterson. Cammarata, awarded a master’s degree in Church management from Villanova University, has 22 years of service with the Church, most recently serving as the youth minister for St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany.

First responders from Paterson gathered at the grave site of Franciscan Father Mychal Judge at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery & Mausoleum in Totowa for a memorial prayer service Sunday on the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As we were making plans for our Diocesan Eucharistic Congress — which will take place on the weekend of Sept. 23 to 25 — one of our Diocesan leaders said, “many people have never heard of a Eucharistic Congress — and maybe we should tell them that it does not involve any voting?”

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated a Mass on Aug. 30 for the Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Totowa to commemorate the feast day of their founder, St. Jeanne Jugan. The Little Sisters operate the home and continue St. Jeanne Jugan’s mission: the care of the poor, sick, elderly, and dying, with compassion — more than 150 years since the founding of their order.

Alexis Hernandez, a special education teacher, learned a critical classroom tip last month, after being asked to help a special education teacher for disabled and mostly non-verbal children with cerebral palsy halfway around the world in Uganda. “Look into their eyes. See how their bodies move. They might lightly smile if they like the game that they are playing,” said Her­nan­­dez, 24. From Aug. 5 to 19, she and seven other young adults from the Diocese missioned in Uganda, volunteering with a local nonprofit there, Imprint Hope.

The Paterson Diocese recently hosted a gathering of the N.J. Province with the directors of catechetical offices in the Newark Archdiocese and the four Catholic dioceses in the Garden State, which was held at the diocesan Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison.

For most of his life, Rich Sokerka has been on a newspaper deadline every week. That changes next week. For the first time in a long time, Sokerka will not be dreaming of printing presses in his sleep. After 32 years with the Diocese, he is retiring as editor and general manager of The Beacon. He also steps down as Communications Director for the Diocese of Paterson.

This will be my last issue as Editor/General Manager of The Beacon and as the Diocese’s Director of Communications. That was a difficult sentence to type. You have seen my face and read my editorials on this page each week for the last 32 years, but the time has come for me to say farewell and begin my retirement and my next journey in life.

Greetings from Rome! This is the third opportunity I have had to visit the “Eternal City.” My first trip was in January 1989, as a seminarian during my first year in college. I then visited in October 2008 when I was serving as Vocation Director in the Diocese of Brooklyn and two of our seminarians were to be ordained Deacons in St. Peter’s Basilica. It is somewhat of a coincidence that, due to scheduling commitments, I will not be able to be here in three weeks, but, on Sept. 29, one of our seminarians, Krzysztof Tyszko, will be ordained a Deacon in St. Peter’s.

Holy Cross Father Walter E. Jenkins got a taste of his future, both as a priest and religious and as a prominent leader in Catholic education, while a biology and pre-med student at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. There, he got involved in campus ministry and got to know several priests of the Congregation of the Holy Cross — an encounter that influenced his life and vocation. Father Jenkins’ distinguished ministry as a leader in Catholic high school, college, and seminary education has led him to the Catholic Academy of Sussex County, where he was recently named its president by the Diocese.