When a baby is about to be baptized, a future godparent may gleam with excitement as they help choose the baptismal dress or suit and plan the celebration after the event. But with all the celebration that goes on around the Sacrament of Baptism, more spiritually and deeply, Father Cesar Jaramillo, parochial vicar of St. Peter the Apostle Parish here, reminds all perspective godparents or sponsors that it’s more than acting as a host but making a life-long commitment to the newly-baptized child.

Almost on a daily basis, Sister of Charity of St. Elizabeth Mary Canavan receives phone calls for a variety of requests from people around the world asking for prayers through the intercession of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich. “The calls can average about 10 to 15 a week, some weeks more than others depending on the moment,” said Sister Mary.

Families in and around the Diocese that homeschool their children using Catholic curricula are invited to join the Diocese of Paterson Homeschool Families. This new organization was formed to help these families raise their children as “saints” by enabling them to come together as the local Church to support each other through their joys and challenges, share teaching strategies and collaborate on larger joint education programs.

At a press briefing last week, the White House said that President Joe Biden “has a difference of opinion” with Catholics who are concerned that the Equality Act would trample conscience rights and religious liberty. Owen Jensen of EWTN News Nightly asked Jen Psaki, White House press secretary: “What does the President, who we know is Catholic, say to Catholic doctors, Catholic institutions, who are fearful that if the Equality Act passes, it has the potential to trample on their conscience rights?”

On the day after Easter Sunday I received an email from one of our priests, telling me that he had “preached a parish mission during the whole of holy week. … The place was packed every evening with confessions afterwards until 10:30 p.m. The sheep are hungry and some may be even starving. Maybe we are on the cusp of a revival ... I surely hope so.”

Solids? Polka dots? Stripes? It was up to the women at the Edward King House to choose the colors and styles of their nails for the manicures they had done by Julia DelMastro, volunteer at the senior center in Newport, R.I. and a sophomore nursing student at nearby Salve Regina University.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney presided at the Easter Vigil Mass in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson at 8 p.m. on Holy Saturday, April 3. This is the night that “shall be as bright as day” as proclaimed by the Exsultet, an ancient church hymn, as the Church joyfully anticipates Christ’s Resurrection.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney served as main celebrant for his first Easter Mass as Bishop at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson April 4. Easter, the chief feast of the Church’s ecclesiastical year, commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney presided at the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, April 2 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. The solemn service began with the Liturgy of the Word, including the account of the Passion and Death of Jesus. The Veneration of the Cross, an ancient practice, followed.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening, April 1 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. The Mass commemorates the institution of the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders by Jesus Christ.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson hosted its first Children’s Easter Mass for its special needs community at 11:30 a.m. April 4 on Easter. Msgr. Geno Sylva, the cathedral’s rector, was the main celebrant of the Mass and all children of the community were invited to celebrate Easter together.

In a series of revelations to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s, Our Lord called for a special feast day to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. Today, we know that feast as Divine Mercy Sunday, named by Pope St. John Paul II at the canonization of St. Faustina on April 30, 2000. Divine Mercy Sunday this year will be celebrated on April 11.

The freezing 30-degree temperatures and cloudy skies over St. Joseph Church in Lincoln Park on the morning of April 2, Good Friday, didn’t discourage a large crowd of parishioners from gathering — all socially distanced — at the edge of the parish’s “prayer park” for the dedication of a new outdoor Stations of the Cross. The sizable group of about 70 people attested to the great anticipation that the powerful new devotional has generated at St. Joseph’s Parish — three days before the glorious Resurrection of Our Savior. Alexander Weiss, 16, a new St. Joseph’s parishioner and member of Boy Scout Troop 74 in Montville, built the outdoor Stations for his Eagle Scout service project.

April 3 was a day for so many around the Diocese in which their lives were changed forever. In churches across the Diocese, 75 people — adults, teens and children — were initiated into full membership in the Church. During the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday, the elect received the three Sacra­ments of Initiation — Baptism, Confirma­tion, and Eucharist.

Silence is golden, and technology companies are making the phrase their mantra when it comes to religious groups on social media. Alarmingly, according to a white paper issued by the Napa Legal Institute, religious groups and figures have been silenced by tech companies at a rate of about one a week.

In a letter sent to pastors and all in leadership at Catholic schools in the Diocese last week, the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools announced the launch of a new advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about the Catholic education opportunities available within the Diocese of Paterson’s elementary and high schools.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney served as main celebrant and homilist of the vigil Mass marking Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion at St. Mary Assumption Church in Passaic March 27.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney served as the main celebrant and homilist at Mass on Palm Sunday March 28 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson marking his first Palm Sunday Mass as the Bishop of Paterson.

Although the pandemic has kept the retired Salesian sisters of the Provincial House in Haledon indoors and away from in-person ministry, it has been unable to limit their creativity and desire to help others. After seeing a news segment on the television about a young Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse, Alexandra Marcello, and the program she started to help families who lost a loved one to COVID-19, the sisters knew they wanted to get involved.

It was a warm afternoon on March 20 with clear skies over the town square in downtown Newton, where a small but spirited group of Catholics held up two long banners that helped make their faith-based message to the public loud and clear: “God’s Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman.” On that Saturday, these 21 faith-filled men and women drew a variety of reactions from passing motorists — from honks of approval to one disapproving gesture of “thumbs down.”