News - August 2022 RSS Feed

The Sisters of Christian Charity celebrated the 173rd anniversary of the founding of the congregation and the anniversaries of 15 sisters during a Mass on Aug. 21 celebrated by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney in the Chapel of Mary Immaculate at Mallinckrodt Convent in Mendham.

Sister Lucia Sanchez made her first profession of holy vows as a Sister of Christian Charity on Aug. 16, 2022, in Mendham at the Chapel of Mary Immaculate in Mallinckrodt Convent, the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Christian Charity. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated the Mass.

Assumption College for Sisters in Denville is inviting Catholics, especially lay young adults, to deepen their knowledge of the faith by joining “Spiritual Theology,” a new online course now in progress, which started on Aug. 24 and will continue on Dec. 16. Taught by Mark Tosso, who has served as youth minister of St. Joseph Parish in Mendham since 2012, the classes do not meet on any specific day.

The Salesian Sisters of St. Joseph Province were all smiles as Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney dedicated its new $13 million St. Joseph Chapel in North Haledon on Aug. 19 while presiding over the first Mass in the beautiful house of worship. The new 10,793-square-foot chapel has replaced the former St. Joseph Chapel, lovingly called “the heart” of the province, and of Mary Help of Christians Academy (MHCA), which was destroyed in 2018 by a four-alarm fire. The tragedy shocked and saddened the local Salesian community.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney and the Diocese of Paterson invite local clergy, religious, and laity to the Church of Paterson’s first-ever Eucharistic Congress in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, from Friday, Sept. 23 to Sunday, Sept. 25. This bilingual event will feature keynote speaker Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect for the Section of New Evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization in Rome, who seeks to inspire participants with several talks on its theme: “The Eucharist, the Source and Summit of the New Evangelization.”

It’s that time of year when the Major League baseball divisional races are winding to a conclusion that leads to the World Series and when the high school, college, and National Football League seasons begin. For most sports fans, there is no better time of the year.

Abortion is big business to N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy (D). He is not content with our home state already being the largest provider of abortions in Ameri­ca. He wants even more of them performed here because he sees abortion as providing an economic boon to the state. Being the No. 1 salesman for the culture of death in New Jersey, Murphy used his zealous pro-abortion message as a reason why businesses should relocate to New Jersey.

On Saturday, Aug. 13, Bishop Kevin Sweeney made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Fatima Parish in the Highland Lakes section of Vernon where he celebrated Mass to mark the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. The parish’s Rosary Society coordinated the event. Father Julio Barrios, pastor, concelebrated the Mass and Deacons Jerzy Chciuk and Bill Aquino assisted at the Mass.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated a Mass for the Feast of the Assumption on Aug. 13, two days early, in St. Michael Church in Netcong. At the end of Mass the Bishop blessed a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption which led a procession through the streets of Netcong — part of St. Michael’s celebration of Feast of the Assumption, which is observed on Aug. 15.

The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of North Haledon, also known at the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, received the perpetual vows of three religious sisters, during a Mass on Aug. 5 at St. Anthony Church in Hawthorne, presided at by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney. The Salesian Sisters are: Sister April Cabaccang, Sister Katie Flanagan, and Sister April Hoffman.

A helmet and vest can save a life, and Father Oleksii Holchuk is grateful for his community’s ongoing support that makes saving Ukrainian lives possible. Father Holchuk emigrated from his home country to the United States six years ago. Once he arrived, he began to serve at Ukrainian Orthodox Holy Ascension Cathedral here. The parish, he said, has collected donations to send overseas for years, but not in as significant a way as they do today.

Pat Convey of Our Lady of the Lake (OLL) Parish in Sparta puts the finishing touches on cooking one of her signature dishes, shrimp scampi, for her and her husband. This particular evening, she makes and packages up two extra helpings for dinner later — not for members of her large family but for the two priests, who serve the Sussex County parish.

The words from the 12th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews, which we heard at Mass on this past Sunday, lead me to reflect again on the gift of the “communion of the saints.” That beautiful phrase and image, “… Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses …” invites us to recall that from the very beginning of the church there has been an awareness that Christians are assisted in their earthly pilgrimage by those who have “gone before us in faith”. Christians have always believed that the saints are with us, to encourage and inspire us as we “run the race.”

Ben Weiss, 16, of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Flanders witnessed something while volunteering at the Mount Olive Food Pantry last week that touched his heart. A young boy, who was helping pick out food with his family, got so excited the pantry had his favorite cereal, that he hugged the box.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney joined newly ordained diocesan priests, seminarians, and young men, who are discerning their vocation, on Aug. 5 for a Mass and barbecue, sponsored by the diocesan Vocations Office and held at St. Lawrence the Martyr Church in Chester. The event included evening prayer and Mass, a barbecue cooked and served by members of the Paterson Federation of the Knights of Columbus, and a game of soccer. At the Mass, the Bishop preached about his devotion to St. John Vianney, whose feast day the Church celebrated the day before.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling on Aug. 7 to celebrate the 11:45 a.m. Mass in Spanish in its main chapel. St. Joseph Shrine is one of the many mission sites of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians — a Catholic order of priests and brothers, established by Father Thomas Judge.

Priests and brothers of the Society of Divine Voca­tions have been introducing the growing faith community at the Sanctuary of Mary, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit here to the spirituality of St. Justin M. Russolillo since the order reopened the sanctuary in 2019. St. Justin, founder of the order, also known as the Vocationists, said that everyone is called to be a saint.

Priests and brothers of the Society of Divine Voca­tions have been introducing the growing faith community at the Sanctuary of Mary, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Branchville, to the spirituality of St. Justin M. Russolillo since the order reopened the sanctuary in 2019. St. Justin, founder of the order, also known as the Vocationists, said that everyone is called to be a saint.

As a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, you will not hear many words of praise from me for the University of Michigan, our longtime archrival on the football field. However, news reports out of Michi­gan in the past few weeks have led me to stand up and applaud the actions of the university’s medical school and its head football coach for having the courage of their convictions.

“I say, ‘Father Justin,’ because that is what I always called him. He was my ‘Father Justin’ when I lived with him and got to know him. And now he is St. Justin.”
The above is not a direct quote, but those are the words I recall hearing on this past Tuesday, Aug. 2 at the (newly named) Sanctuary of Mary, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit and Shrine of St. Justin, when Father Louis Caputo recalled having known St. Justin Russolillo. St. Justin is the founder of the Society of Divine Vocations, commonly known as the Vocationists. He can be called a “new saint” because he was canonized less than three months ago by Pope Francis at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on May 15. There were nine other “new saints” canonized on that day.