Little did Cristina D’Averso-Collins realize last October when she was one of the keynote speakers at the diocese’s Critical Life Issues conference that she would return on July 1 as director of the Office of Family Life. At the conference D’Averso-Collins spoke about the “Beauty and Wisdom of God’s Design for Marriage – A Millennial’s Perspective.” “Her presentation was thought-provoking and was very well received,” stated Jennifer Ruggiero who heads the diocese’s Secretariat for Family and Pastoral Life. She added that several months later, when the director position became vacant, Cristina came to mind immediately as a possible candidate and was ultimately chosen to lead the office.
In 1980, I made my first retreat at Loyola House in Morristown. This period of recollection was entitled a “silent directed retreat” because the entire experience was to take place in a setting of silence, with periodic conferences with a retreat director. I decided on Loyola House because discerning a vocation to the priesthood, in my mind, required silence. I needed to remove all the distractions of daily life that could prevent me from hearing God’s “voice,” such as radio, TV and phones.
On Thursday, August 1, a pall was cast over the state of New Jersey as Governor Phil Murphy signed “Death with dignity” legislation into law. This made physician-assisted suicide legal. Should one who is “terminal” get the okay from a psychologist, who will assure that the person is of sound mind and right judgment, he or she can then request from a physician, a prescription of a death-inducing drug. Advocates for the law believe that those who are suffering from a terminal illness or condition can then choose when they end their lives “with dignity.”
Statistically, it would seem that not many people who respond “I do” to the wedding vow “until death do us part” really mean what they say. Yet, a general survey among faithfully married couples or new widows or widowers would seem to confirm that the glue that kept their marriage together was their faith in Christ and the promise they made before God on their wedding day. This promise is summarized succinctly in the opening paragraph of this section of the Catechism.
ANNANDALE - As part of this year’s spiritual preparation for the consecration of the Diocese of Metuchen to Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, the faithful, especially families and young people, are invited to participate in “The Way of St. Juan Diego.” The nine-mile walking pilgrimage on September 21 will begin at 10 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Parish.
PISCATAWAY — “Our Catholic faith is more valuable than any pearl, and we should be very careful not to waste it,” Father John J. Barbella reminded the boy and girl Catholic Scouts seated before him in the chapel of the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center June 25. “Instead, we should make every effort we can to live our faith fully, to learn it more completely, as many of you have done by earning your religious medals.”