Essays and Messages

I rarely enjoy traveling alone, whether for business or pleasure. When going somewhere, especially on a longer trip, I prefer the company of others for conversation, for the exchange of ideas, for sharing different experiences, and, quite simply, just for companionship. In many ways, I think that preference explains why I began my journey to the priesthood in a religious community where the emphasis is on life and ministry with a “band of brothers” joined together by the charism of a common founder, spirit and purpose. That is the point, really, of religious life and, perhaps a unique contribution I make to diocesan priests as their diocesan bishop. I enjoy “journeying together!”

During a recent hospital stay, I had an interesting experience.  The night nurse was taking my “vitals” before bedtime when she noticed my Rosary on the nightstand.  She told me she was a Hindu and never heard of the Rosary before.  

'I have come that you may have life and have it to the full’ (John 10:10) I am convinced, after 66 plus years on this earth, that all of the problems impacting us in this world of ours derive from a single root cause: the failure to “respect life in all its stages, from conception to natural death.” 

As Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, I write to share these reflections of the Bishops of the United States and the message of our Holy Father Pope Francis. For nearly a half a century, the Catholic Church in the United States has celebrated National Migration Week, which is an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking.

Catholics “pass on the faith” not only by what they say or teach but also by the way they live their lives. This responsibility belongs to all the baptized faithful, but especially to parents and those who serve as catechists.  

It was a beautiful Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C., on September 11, 20 years ago. I was scheduled to concelebrate Mass later that day so I had a bit more personal time that morning to read the paper, have another cup of coffee and watch the end of New York’s “Today” show before heading downstairs to my office to begin work.

Six years ago this past May 24, our Holy Father Pope Francis issued his second encyclical letter, “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.”  He focused our attention as Catholics, as inhabitants of this earth, on another type of disaster among those that confront our world, this one man-made and not natural.  Calling our planet “Sister Earth,” the Holy Father wrote — not about “what nature can do to us” but, rather, about what we do to nature, to our “common home” — to a planet that “cries out because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.” Pope Francis is sounding the alarm, the warning.  We cannot, we must not remain unprepared for this storm of our own making.

We all have been hoping and praying that the effects of the pandemic would be well behind us by the time we opened our Catholic school doors for the 2021-22 academic year.  Sad to say, that is not the case.  Although much progress has thankfully been made in so many areas of endeavor, the pandemic continues to make its presence felt through Delta and other emerging COVID variants causing spikes in the virus in many parts of the country, including here in our own state of New Jersey.

The Catholic Church in recent years, particularly during the pontificate of Pope Francis, has become accustomed to hearing the expression “synodality” used to describe the nature of the Church in our day.

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven falls on Sunday this year and remains a pre-eminent Marian feast day that should be honored and remembered.    In the Diocese of Trenton, Mary Queen of the Assumption is our diocesan patroness and the name of our Cathedral.