Tabernacle, monstrance donated

MENDHAM  On Aug. 23, Bishop Serratelli received a letter from Bishop Julio Cesar Corniel of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, asking if he could donate a tabernacle for their yearlong celebration of the 525th anniversary of the first Mass offered in the New World, ending on Jan. 6, 2020.

The bishops and archbishops from the 12 dioceses of the Dominican Republic along with the Papal Nuncio and a delegate sent by Pope Francis will attend the Mass on Jan. 6.

On January 6, 1494 (two years after Columbus arrived in the New World), the first Mass in the Americas was officiated at Isabela, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. When Christopher Columbus made his second trip to America, he founded the first city of the New World, which was La Isabela, on Dec. 10, 1493. He named it in honor of Isabel, the Catholic Queen of Spain. In the city of Isabela, Father Bernardo Boil, accompanied by 12 priests, celebrated the first Mass in the New World on Jan. 6, 1494.

Bishop Serratelli asked the different religious organizations and parishes in the Diocese if any had an extra tabernacle that the Diocese could send to the Dominican Republic. The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia responded immediately, not only with a tabernacle, but also with a monstrance. Coincidentally, some of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia had served in years past in the Dominican Republic and some of their sisters served and are still serving in Ringwood in the Diocese of Paterson.

“We are grateful to Franciscan Sister Ann David, delegate for religious in the diocese of Wilmington, Del., and to Franciscan Sister Ellie Moore, serving as administrator of Our Lady of the Angels Convent, Aston, Pa., who initiated the process and presented it to Franciscan Sister Mary Kathryn Dougherty, congregational minister of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, who made it possible,” said Sister of Christian Charity Joan Daniel Healy, the Diocese’s Chancellor and Delegate for Religious. Flavio Beco, chancery receptionist, who is a native of a town in the Diocese of Puerto Plata, will prepare both gifts to be shipped to the Dominican Republic in time for the Jan. 6 celebration.