News - February 2015 RSS Feed

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Joseph Church here Feb. 14. During his visit, he celebrated the vigil Mass for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time and administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of the parish.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Christopher Parish here Feb. 22 to celebrate Mass for the First Sunday of Lent.

Bishop marks Ash Wednesday with Masses at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Paterson and Sacred Heart Parish in Clifton.

This Lent, a group of faithful at St. Clement Pope & Martyr Parish here are getting better acquainted with Mary by taking an emotional and insightful spiritual journey with the mother of God — not only as she experiences the deep sorrow of Jesus’ suffering and death, but also many of the happy times, starting at the beginning of her story with the Annunciation.

Grace Campbell, a junior at Whippany Park High School here, believes just a single good deed can change the world. So much so, she is collecting an anthology of good deeds or acts of kindness in hopes people are inspired to make the world a better place.

A cradle Catholic, Tom Healey of Christ the King Parish, New Vernon, certainly looks to the Word of God to help guide him through his considerable success as a distinguished leader in various fields, including finance, education, government, the Church and philanthropy.

On the First Sunday of Lent in dioceses around the world, the Rite of Election was held as catechumens took a step closer to receiving the Sacraments of Initiation — Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist — at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, April 4. The Rite of Election was celebrated by bishops worldwide who, in the presence of the community, declared the Church’s approval of the catechumens for the celebration of the three Sacraments of Initiation.

World History is a course most of us have taken. Among the topics covered in that course were the Crusades and the reasons for it: to protect pilgrims visiting the Holy Land against Muslim conquerors.

With its white marble glistening in the hot sun, the ruins of Athens’ acropolis towers over the city below. From ancient times, the Parthenon has crowned the acropolis. It was the greatest sanctuary of the most important city of classical Greece. This magnificent temple housed the 40-foot statue of Athena, the virgin goddess of reason and the city’s patroness. Art historians consider this statue of Athena as one of the greatest achievements of sculpture. Covered with more than 1,500 pounds of solid gold, this statue was the single greatest financial asset of ancient Athens. However, the Parthenon is much more than the repository of this precious cult image.

The Catholic Academy of Passaic County is looking for qualified individuals to serve on their Board of Trustees, who have a commitment to the mission of Catholic school education, have a willingness to serve and whose values and behavior are consistent with those of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church here Feb. 15. During his visit, he celebrated a Spanish-language Mass for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time for the parishioners.

We began the holy season of Lent yesterday, on Ash Wednesday. It is a time frame of 40 days set aside to prepare for Holy Week and the great feast of Easter through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and solidarity with the poor — all foundational building blocks for our Lenten journey.

As Lent begins, Cath­­olics around the world will make Lenten promises, often fasting and making sacrifices to help the poor for the next 40 days to grow closer to Christ.

Priests, brothers and sisters from many of the 45 religious institutes that serve the Paterson Diocese gathered together Feb. 15 in St. Philip the Apostle Church here to mark the diocesan celebration of World Day for Conse­crated Life.

Every religious sister has a story and throughout the diocese, neighbors, friends and the faithful were invited to witness firsthand where these religious write some of their life stories at the places they live in — their motherhouses.

Grant funding for the historic preservation of churches in Morris County will continue to be available, thanks to a campaign in which several parishes in Morris County took part in.

The holy season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, and on the following Monday, Feb. 23, the Diocese of Paterson will begin its annual “Welcome Home to Healing” program.

Many Catholics think that they need to be at the ready with all the answers when evangelizing — about the nature of God, Christ’s promise of everlasting life or the teachings of the Church. Still others avoid opportunities to spread the “Good News” because they fear that they don’t understand the faith well enough to do so.

Pope Francis will do something no pope has ever done before: he will address a joint session of Congress during his visit to the East Coast in late September.