News - February 2019 RSS Feed

Bishop Serratelli will be the spiritual director of a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France and several cities in Spain this summer. The nine-day pilgrimage to be held on July 8 to 17, will begin in Lourdes, location of the Marian apparitions that occurred in 1858. Pilgrims will then journey to Zaragoza, Spain where, according to legend, the Blessed Mother appeared to St. James. The trip will also stop in Madrid, the capital of Spain.

As the time of Lent draws near with Ash Wednesday on March 6, Catholics in the Paterson Diocese are once again invited to experience God’s healing love and forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Catholic Churches in Morris, Sussex and Passaic counties will have their doors open for Confession every Monday night, from March 11 to April 8, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. as part of the Welcome Home to Healing program.

Bishop Serratelli presided over the annual combined Boy Scout and Girl Scout Sunday Mass Feb. 24 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. At the Mass, he presented Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts with religious awards and special Boy Scout and Girl Scout recognition for adult leaders.

Blessed John Henry Newman, a Roman Catholic cardinal, scholar, and founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England, will soon be a saint. Pope Francis approved his canonization on Feb. 13, after the Holy Father signed off on a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Newman, who was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

The Department of Persons with Disabilities (DPD) honored its “resident pastor,” Father Matthew Twiggs, pastor of St. John Vianney Parish, Stockholm, and St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Oak Ridge, as its Person of the Year, for his strong support of and close relationship with the diocesan Catholic Charities agency, at its 49th annual Murray House dinner-dance Feb. 17 at the Brownstone in Paterson.

The Pope John XXIII Regional High School zero robotics club can say with certainty that it is one of the best clubs in the world. That’s because the zero robotics club helped its alliance team place third in the world at the Zero Robotics High School Tournament International Space Station (ISS) finals Jan. 28 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

A viola fills the dining room of St. Joseph Infirmary here with the warm notes of a few Cello Suites by J.S. Bach. After, the room rang out with applause for the gifted player — Villa Walsh Academy student Kelly Kim. Her performance was part of a visit by the students to the retired Filippini sisters, who live here. During the visit, the sisters and students talk about anything — from the weather, to the students’ coursework at the Villa, to the sisters’ calling to serve God as teachers.

U.S. Navy veteran Jennifer Delgado hopes to one day write a book about her life and title it “The Little Blue Door.” The 32-year-old said it will be an ode to Catholic Charities, which helped her find hope and put her back on her feet. The title refers to the entrance to Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS) at 24 DeGrasse St., close to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson.

The liturgy, Pope Francis said Feb. 14, cannot be reduced to a matter of taste, becoming the subject of ideological polarization, because it is a primary way Catholics encounter the Lord. There is a risk with the liturgy of falling into a “past that no longer exists or of escaping into a presumed future,” the Pope told members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, including Bishop Serratelli who was among those in Rome attending the plenary session of the Congregation last week.

An investigative report, conducted by a private detective agency, into the interaction last month between Coving­ton Catholic high school students and a Native American man has exonerated the students, according to the Diocese of Covington, Ky. The report was released nearly a month after controversy first erupted following an edited video emerging on Twitter showing what appeared to be a confrontation between a Native American elderly man with a drum — later identified as activist Nathan Phillips — and a group of students from Covington Catholic.

What would you be willing to give up to follow Jesus? Last week, Bishop Serratelli posed that provocative question to a group of young men of the Diocese — teenagers, who have just begun to think about their vocation — on Feb. 5 at a “Pizza with the Bishop” vocations-awareness evening at Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Clare Parish in Clifton Feb. 9, where he was principal celebrant of the vigil Mass for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. During the Mass, the Bishop blessed red candles for parishioners to mark the upcoming feast of St. Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Lourdes (OLL) Parish in Paterson on Feb. 3, where he celebrated Mass for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. During the Mass, the Bishop named Father Raimundo Rivera, who has been serving as administrator at the parish, as pastor effective Feb. 11.

C.J. looks sharp in his suit and tie, as he “boogies down” to club hits and classics with friends on a darkened dance floor speckled with white and blue light. He and his pals seem busy soaking up the music, fun and friendship of this night of nights and, for a few hours, forgetting about mental or physical limitations that make their lives challenging.

When people visit a museum, they are able to see a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical or scientific importance. But through the “Treasures of the Church” exposition, the faithful have the opportunity to view more than 150 relics of saints, contained in reliquaries, which goes beyond simply seeing a museum exhibit. It is a moment of evangelization and a re-energizing of the faith life of all who view them.

What a contrast in emotions! In President Trump’s State of the Union address last week, he honored the important role women play in society, pointing to the fact that there are more women serving in Congress now than at any time in the nation’s history.

Bishop Serratelli visited St. Cecilia Parish here on Feb. 3 to serve as the main celebrant of the 3:30 p.m. Mass with the faith community’s Vietnamese Catholics to commemorate the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The celebration began with a procession, followed by the liturgy. The Mass marked the Vietnamese New Year — the Year of the Pig, which took place on Feb. 5 this year — and was celebrated in both English and Vietnamese in St. Cecilia’s Church by priests of the Rockaway parish and visiting Vietnamese priests. According to the Vietnamese calendar, the New Year marks the year 4717. The New Year celebrations, called Tet, are the most important celebration in the Vietnamese culture.

Students sit captivated as Bishop Serratelli explains how, in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus alters a story well known to the Jewish people of his time to make a point about both God’s judgment and his limitless mercy. It feels familiar for this former seminary professor to lead a class about the Parables of Jesus, as he tells his students that, in his version of the story, Jesus reverses the fates of the two men: the Rich Man, who fails to help Lazarus, a beggar, is carried to Hades, while Lazarus is carried to Heaven.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit Feb. 2 to St. Joseph Parish in Passaic where he served as main celebrant and homilist for the vigil Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord. During his visit to the mostly Polish faith community, the Bishop also administered the sacrament of Confirmation to 22 young people of the parish.

For the last few months, a pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians has been traveling to Roman Catholic and Eastern Rite Catholic parishes around the Diocese to bring home the reality of the depth of persecution of Christians around the world and the need to pray in solidarity with them. The Paterson Federation of the Knights of Columbus has been coordinating visits of the icon around the Diocese as part of a nationwide 2018-19 Marian Prayer Program sponsored by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus.