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November is a wonderful month, despite the arrival of winter, of which I am not a huge fan. The colder weather makes my morning walks tougher, especially when the winds pick up or snow comes. Sometimes I am forced to use the treadmill instead! I enjoy being outside and in our neighborhoods as the day’s activities start, but the treadmill gets me moving, too and I can still pray the Rosary and organize my day during that time. 

This year during the month of October we celebrate the 50th Respect Life Month! Here in our Diocese, we opened the month with seven life chains in different towns where many lined the streets giving witness to the sanctity of life. I was able to participate in the life chain in Somerville. There I met and gave witness to life with wonderful parishioners from Somerville, Raritan, Bridgewater, Hillsborough and other towns in the area. There were students from Immaculata High School, too. The dedication of all the good people in life chains was certainly inspiring.

When this edition of The Catholic Spirit is published, I will be with my mother and others in my family down the shore. Joining us will be friends who are flying in from the Midwest. For one couple, it will be their first visit to the Jersey shore!

It is hard to believe that this month marks the first anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe vs. Wade and returned the abortion issue back to the states. This goal had been in the works for so long that it seemed at times like the day would never come, but here we are a year later.

This edition of “The Catholic Spirit” highlights our permanent deacons celebrating anniversaries of their ordination. For my column, I thought I would share my homily from our ordination of transitional deacons, which was held at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, Metuchen, May 13. We certainly are blessed by the service of our deacons who are configured to Christ the Servant and serve our parishes and institutions in so many ways. I ask you to join me in petitioning our loving Lord to bless our new transitional deacons and all our permanent deacons, as well as those now in formation for ordination. It is always a joy to serve with them at the altar on my parish visits. It is only one aspect of the many ways they serve, but one I am happy to share with them. A bishop and priest is still a deacon and called to make Christ the Servant present, so may we all make Christ the Servant present through our ministries! May God bless you all, and may Mary our Mother, during this her special month, give us her maternal protection. Know of my love, prayers and gratitude for you all!

We will soon join our voices together again to witness that our Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Yes, with our brother and sister Christians around the world we joyfully proclaim Jesus Christ’s rising from the dead. We exult in the Resurrection because we know “His Death is our ransom from death, and in His rising the life of all has risen” (Preface II of Easter).  Alleluia!

Again, we keep this solemn fast / A gift of faith from ages past, / This Lent which bids us lovingly / To faith and hope and charity.

Growing up, I recall my mother teaching us to give others the benefit of the doubt in regard to what others say about someone, “Believe none of what you read and half of what you see!” She wanted us to build our own impressions of people. Relatedly, she also taught us “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then say nothing!”

Christmas is such an important feast day, that the Church says you cannot celebrate it on just one day, so we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord for a whole week. Our prayers at Mass especially reflect this as we say the prayers of Christmas day throughout the whole week.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, This edition of “The Catholic Spirit” is published a week before Thanksgiving and this year we indeed, have so many reasons to be thankful! We just recently finished our 40th anniversary celebration of the diocese, which was a time to remember the graces that have come to us throughout these 40 years. The diocese has grown so much over the years as the population increased and generations of faithful responded by building parishes, new churches, and parish centers to serve their spiritual and pastoral needs. Recently, I also participated in some parish celebrations for anniversaries, 175, 150 and 100 years, parishes that existed well before our diocese, and 40 years at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Skillman, the first parish established after our diocese was founded. They were wonderful, spirit-filled and crowded celebrations. Times to thank God!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, With a grateful heart, I am able to share with you today that we exceeded the 2022 Bishop’s Annual Appeal goal by over one million dollars! We raised almost 8.4 million dollars this year. This is a great tribute to you and act of thanksgiving as we celebrated our 40th anniversary as a diocese. As you know, the needs have become greater given the pandemic and the recent inflation issues we are suffering from. I am told that many more elderly brothers and sisters are coming for assistance these days and the number of people coming has tripled since the beginning of the pandemic. The extra funding available to respond to all these many needs is a great relief. Yes, we are able to respond to so many of these needs in the name of Christ, thanks to your overwhelming generosity. This is a blessing and something we cannot do alone or as an individual parish, so you came together to respond as a diocesan community in a beautiful way. Thank you!

September 11 is an emotional day for us all, as it always reminds us of the horrific terroristic attacks in our country that changed and took the lives of too many innocent people. We continue to pray for the victims and their families and all of us affected by that day’s tragic events. Gratefully, this year, we had a celebration that gives us a reason to offer thanks as our diocesan community gathered with Bishop Emeritus Paul G. Bootkoski at our beautiful Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi for a Mass of thanksgiving for his special milestone of 25 years of episcopal service. Indeed, we have much to be grateful for as 20 of those 25 years have been spent serving the faithful of this wonderful Church of Metuchen.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Amidst the slower pace and extra rest the summer provides, I had two beautiful experiences earlier this month that I want to share with you.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, On Sunday, June 5, we celebrated the beautiful Solemnity of Pentecost. As you might know, it is one of the most important celebrations on the Church’s liturgical calendar. After the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Solemnity of Easter) and the celebration of the Incarnation at Christmas, the Solemnity of Pentecost is the next most important celebration. To mark the occasion, our diocese hosted a vigil of prayer at the Cathedral beginning with the evening’s vigil Mass through midnight, hosted by our Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry along with St. Peter the Apostle University and Community Parish, the Catholic Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, as well as the Cathedral parish. How wonderful to see so many young people gather for this time of prayer with the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is such an important Solemnity because it is the Holy Spirit that continues the Divine Presence of God in our world, carrying on the work of Jesus in reconciling the world to the Father. With Jesus’ death, God’s work in the world does not come to an end. The Church, founded on Pentecost with the gift of the Holy Spirit, carries on Christ’s presence in the world. That means He can continue to act through you and me and every other Christian. This spring has spoiled me in that I have so readily seen the Spirit working to renew the face of the earth and our diocese. The work of the Spirit has been evident to me as throughout our diocese thousands of children and hundreds of adults received their first holy Communion. I have seen the Spirit at work in scores of confirmations celebrated over the past few months. The Spirit was shared as our new deacons and priest were ordained for service in our diocese. I also witnessed the Holy Spirit in our graduates at the four Catholic high school graduations I attended and heard such wonderful speeches given by our students about the faith imparted to them during their years at our schools. How grateful we should be to our administrators, teachers and staff, and their generous parents, too. No doubt, the Holy Spirit is moving the hearts of all our elementary, high school and college graduates as they prepare for the next phase of their lives.   

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, May is one of my favorite months of the year. Perhaps it is that May is one of the months specially dedicated to our Blessed Mother, to whom I and many others have a special devotion. This is a time, too, when the Easter season is in full swing, and the readings from the Acts of the Apostles about the early Church are so inspiring. The Holy Spirit is seen acting so clearly in these readings, even in the midst of such great challenges. We know the Holy Spirit has not left us in our day, and I often wonder how the Holy Spirit is working right now in our Church and world, even as we face challenges of our own. No doubt, He is here with us, but do we look for Him and expect Him to act in our lives, too?     

Prayers for a blessed Lent! On Ash Wednesday, we heard the Prophet Joel in the first reading for the day’s liturgy call us to “return to the Lord with your whole heart!” How we need to do that this year as we seek to rest in Our Lord’s merciful Sacred Heart as we watch on television the horrific situation in the Ukraine with more than two million women and children fleeing their homes and homeland to Poland and other neighboring countries. Our hearts are indeed broken as we call out in prayer to our loving Father for all Ukrainians even as we assist them financially and in so many other ways.  

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, As we begin a new calendar year, we always make time to recognize our Catholic schools. Unfortunately, again this year we are challenged to celebrate Catholic Schools Week (January 30 – February 5, 2022) in the midst of rising COVID numbers and the disruption that has resulted. But, as always, our schools will rise to the challenge. I was very proud that our schools were able to offer in-person education last year to those families that wanted to have their children in school. In addition, for those families that preferred to have their students remain at home, a very successful virtual learning opportunity existed in every school. It was a great blessing to be able to serve our families, and I am so grateful to the pastors, principals and teachers that made it happen. The students were most cooperative too. Without a doubt, being able to keep our schools open during that challenging time was certainly a blessing.

How we need a little Christmas right this very minute! Many people are saying this Christmas will again be a subdued one. The pandemic continues and rising inflation has come down full force upon our country and, in reality, the entire world. The fears that have stalked us with our military overseas, threats of attacks and terrorism, all contribute to make us a little more somber this year. It also contributes to the weakening of the value and dignity of all human life and hence to life giving celebrations, like Christmas.

Know that you are in my prayers as we begin this synod experience. God has been good to us, and I have no doubt, will continue to be. Thank you for your fidelity to Him and His Church. The process will be guided by our reliance on our friendship with Jesus and the constant teachings of our Church.

Along with the Labor Day holiday which reminds us of the dignity and purpose of work, September always brings a change in mindset as the summer break and vacations end, and we return to “normal” life.  This year, however, life has been anything but normal. There was a major earthquake in Haiti and tragedy reigned in Afghanistan. Hurricane Ida devastated parts of our state, and the ongoing pandemic is still claiming too many lives and even creating challenges for our schools.