SOMERSET — Often seen lighting candles on the altar or distributing patens to extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, just as he did at the Vigil Mass at St. Matthias Church June 5, Tom Fullerton is a familiar face at St. Matthias Parish, having once served as the sacristan there.

The Pentecost Novena is a very powerful and popular form of Roman Catholic devotion. The prayers that are said on each of the nine days culminating with the great Solemnity of Pentecost took on a new level of meaning this year for St. Joseph Parish, Bound Brook. Those days also became a time of preparation for the installation of its new pastor, Msgr. Joseph J. Kerrigan, by Bishop James F. Checchio May 23.

Father Michael Fragoso entered St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church for the first time in 2013 on the evening before his ordination to the priesthood.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The Spirit is gratefully alive in our Diocese and not even a pandemic can stop Him! Even amidst the great sorrows we have experienced this past year, there have been blessings, too, as some of you have shared with me about your renewed and deepened faith and a renewed appreciation for the Eucharist that truly is a gift. A fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit certainly helps us to renew ourselves and our commitment as Christ’s disciples, and hence renews and enlivens our Church.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Father Michael T. Kottar, 53, passed away on the Vigil of Pentecost May 22, 2021, after a battle with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. He had served as a Catholic priest for 27 years.

The Fed Challenge team at Mount Saint Mary Academy, Watchung, recently had a paper entitled, “Leading Factors of Gender Inequality” accepted into the “Journal of Future Economists,” said Kathleen Brennan, chairperson of the all-girls school’s Department of Mathematics.