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Bishop's Laudato Si and Back-to-School messages • CUA collection • Shrine dedication• Holiday hours
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August 31, 2023BISHOP DAVID M. O’CONNELL, C.M., HAS SHARED THIS MESSAGE for World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis has announced that he will publish an apostolic exhortation on the environment on Oct. 4 of this year, the memorial feast of St. Francis of Assisi, as a follow up to his landmark encyclical on care for creation, Laudato Si (May 24, 2015).
In the meantime, Pope Francis has invited the Church to participate in a Season of Creation throughout September, as part of a global ecumenical initiative to raise consciousness about our responsibility to care for the earth and its resources.
Sept. 1 is the date first set aside by the Holy Father in 2015 as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. In his yearly message for the occasion, Pope Francis has chosen the theme, “Let Justice and Peace Flow.”
While making this announcement in his weekly audience on Aug. 30, the Holy Father remarked:
“Let us join our Christian brothers and sisters in the commitment to care for creation as a sacred gift from the Creator. It is necessary to stand with the victims of environmental and climate injustice, striving to end the senseless war on our common home, which is a terrible world war. I urge all of you to work and pray for it to abound with life once again.”
Read the full message HERE.
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!
Three words loom large around this time every year: BACK TO SCHOOL! It seems like just yesterday the radio was blasting the 1972 classic “Schools Out for Summer” by Alice Cooper to the delight of kids (and teachers!) everywhere! That didn’t last long.
By mid-June, stores were already boasting “Back to School Savings” as they began stocking their shelves once again with fancy backpacks, notebooks, pens and pencils and all the equipment necessary to face a return to the classroom.
It is really hard for me to believe that it’s been over 50 years since my brothers and I boarded the yellow school bus to make our way to Our Lady of Grace Parish Grammar School in Penndel, Pa.
Our lives have taken us in so many different directions since then, but we all gratefully share a great foundation made possible by the readin’, (w)ritin’, ‘rithmetic and religion we learned “from the nuns” who taught us in Catholic school! I loved the IHM sisters!
Summer seems to go faster and faster each year, doesn’t it? Where does the time go? Trips to the shore or mountains, baseball games, summer camp, carnivals, picnics and just plain “hanging out” with friends fade all too quickly as Labor Day rolls around.
When you think of it, we are so blessed to live in a country that places a priority on good primary and secondary education, the building blocks of healthy communities and neighborhoods. Good schools make good citizens! And good Catholic schools help support the development of an active life of faith, in and outside the classroom! I see that firsthand when, as Bishop, I visit the Catholic schools of our Diocese.
Read the rest of Bishop O’Connell’s message HERE.
THE ANNUAL NATIONAL SECOND COLLECTION
for The Catholic University of America is
scheduled for Sept. 2-3,
Labor Day Weekend.
The question arises frequently, why contribute to CUA when many other Catholic colleges and universities do not have special collections? When CUA was founded by the bishops of the United States in 1887, it was designated as the national university of the Catholic Church in our country, more commonly known as “the bishops’ university.” Pope Leo XIII approved its establishment with a papal charter on the condition that the American hierarchy would support CUA. A national collection was later created to fulfill that commitment.
Although there are more than 200 Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S. established before and after CUA’s foundation, CUA has the distinction of being the only papally chartered American institution of higher learning. CUA includes three “pontifical” faculties: philosophy, theology and canon law among its 12 schools.
Additionally, CUA is the only Catholic university in the U.S. with a School of Canon Law. Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M.; Bishop John M. Smith, and Bishop John C. Reiss, along with several priests of the Diocese of Trenton are graduates of its program in Canon Law and a number of priests received their seminary theological preparation there.
The ties with the Diocese of Trenton are significant, with Bishop O’Connell having served as CUA’s 14th president (1998-2010) before becoming the 10th Bishop of Trenton. A central campus building, a university professorship in English and an undergraduate scholarship bear his name, as does the plaza across the street from the campus.
In recent years, CUA has noted that the Diocese of Trenton had the largest representation of undergraduate students in its 12 schools of any diocese in the U.S. The Trenton Diocese also has regularly contributed the largest annual collection.
Read more HERE.
ALL ARE INVITED TO ATTEND the 9 a.m. Mass Oct. 1 in St. Dominic Church, 250 Old Squan Rd., Brick, where the Diocese of Trenton will welcome Antonia Salzano, mother of Blessed Carlo Acutis.
On that occasion, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., will dedicate the Shrine to Blessed Carlo Acutis whom he named “Diocesan Patron of Youth, Especially Those in Catholic Schools and Religious Education Programs” in St. Dominic Church. Created by pastor Father Brian Woodrow and his team of supporters, the Shrine will hold the relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis obtained for the Diocese by Father Marian Kokorzycki during a pilgrimage to Italy in 2021.
Recognized the world over for his deeply spiritual life, Blessed Carlo developed a website catalogue of all Eucharistic miracles throughout history as a young teenager. Blessed Carlo died of leukemia at the age of 15 on Oct. 12, 2006, and he was beatified by Pope Francis on Oct. 10, 2020. His remains are displayed at the Church of Saint Mary Major in Assisi.
It is especially appropriate that the Shrine is being dedicated in the Diocese of Trenton during the final year of the United States’ “National Eucharistic Revival.” An exhibit featuring the Eucharistic miracles catalogued by Blessed Carlo Acutis is currently traveling throughout the parishes of the Diocese.
THE CHANCERY IN LAWRENCEVILLE WILL BE CLOSED,
Friday, September 1, through Monday, September 4 for
Labor Day. Normal business hours resume Tuesday, September 5. Happy Labor Day!
