I wanted to become a priest for as long as I can remember. I entered the seminary of a religious congregation rather than a diocesan seminary simply because the diocesan seminary closest to my home closed. There was no profound or noble attraction to the Vincentian Community at first. In my young mind I just figured “a priest was a priest,” the Vincentians accepted me, and off I went.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed a proclamation designating the week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2018, as Catholic Schools Week in New Jersey and acknowledging the contributions of Catholic schools to the public welfare of all New Jerseyans. The theme for this year’s Catholic Schools Week is “Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.”
Catholic Schools Week 2018 celebrates significant contributions of Catholic education. Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Trenton will join with others nationwide to celebrate National Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, with open houses, exhibits, prayer services, showcases, Mass, and a variety of other exciting activities for students, families, parishioners and community members.
Local Catholic schools showcased as part of national celebration Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Trenton will join with others nationwide to celebrate National Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, with open houses, exhibits, prayer services, showcases, Mass, and a variety of other exciting activities for students, families, parishioners and community members.
When a child is baptized in the Catholic Church, his/her parents make promises to help their child grow in the Church’s faith. Parents are their “first teachers,” their “first preachers” of the faith and, as a result, the family home becomes the “first Catholic school” and a “domestic Church.”
January 28 through February 3 marks a time of celebration nationwide. Each year during Catholic Schools Week, school doors open wide inviting the public to be a part of the Catholic school experience. Visitors can observe an environment centered in faith with intriguing programs and activities that engage the learner and promote discovery and adventure in learning. The atmosphere reflects the celebratory mood as a festive climate is created. The contributions that are realized because of Catholic education are accentuated and recognized.
The tragedy of abortion has continued to repeat itself millions of times in the last 45 years since the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision in its landmark case, “Roe v. Wade.” Today, the anniversary of that wrong-headed judicial pronouncement is a day tinged with sorrow and regret. It is an example of the fact that what is legal is not always moral. It is not opinion or emotion that makes it so. It is the cold and sobering reality that what is ethically and morally wrong does not always find support in what a judicial body claims to be right and true. The silent voices of over 53 million souls in the United States alone make the case.
Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., celebrated Mass Jan. 22 in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, to mark the 45th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, and the Church’s designation as the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children.
On Monday, Jan. 22, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., will celebrate the second of two diocesan Masses for Life to mark the tragic 45th anniversary of legal abortion in the United States. The Mass, which will be livestreamed here for those who cannot attend, will begin at 9:30 a.m. in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Trenton, and will be followed by the nearby Rally for Life in front of the Statehouse Annex beginning at 11 a.m.
Diocese to live stream Mass in Co-Cathedral on eve of March for Life; Bishop O’Connell urges Catholics to defend ‘most fundamental human right’. The diocesan family will gather Jan. 18 in St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral, Freehold, ...
A busy January Church calendar is the main focus in the January installment of “The Shepherd’s Voice,” Bishop David M. O’Connell’s hour-long, monthly radio program and video produced by Domestic Church Media.
In observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day on Jan. 15, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., issued a message calling to mind the 1960 novel “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
In Harper Lee’s 1960 novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch is appointed as defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a young white girl in Depression-Era Alabama. Toward the end of Chapter Three, Finch shares his uncompromisingly noble moral philosophy regarding racism and its attendant stereo-typing with his six-year old daughter, Scout. “You never really understand a person,” Atticus tells her, “Until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
In recent years, many moral concerns have been grouped together in the Church under the rubric Respect Life” and efforts to raise consciousness about them. These concerns --- among them abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia/“mercy” killing and physician-assisted suicide, war, care for the environment, poverty, immigration reform and so on --- without any doubt are all rightly considered “life issues” and warrant the active attention of every human being who holds human life sacred at every stage from conception to natural death.
A newly-released video by the Diocese of Trenton offers a sneak peek into the Diocesan Youth Conference 2018 and challenges Catholic teens to embrace the DYC challenge to “Be Fearless.” With the theme “Fearless 365” the conference will take place Feb. 10 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, for teens in eighth through 12th grades.
Due to the impending winter storm on Thursday, January 4, 2018, the chancery offices will be closed. Also, the diocesan department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries has decided to postpone the World Youth Day 2019 info session at Donovan Catholic High School that evening.
In a letter sent to all U.S. bishops Dec. 20, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington announced on behalf of the Holy See that a plenary indulgence can be obtained under certain conditions and with specific intentions by the Christian faithful who are taking part in the “sacred celebrations, along with the great assembly of people, throughout the whole course of the annual event that is called ‘March for Life’...”
In a letter sent to all U.S. bishops Dec. 20, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington announced on behalf of the Holy See that a plenary indulgence can be obtained under certain conditions and with specific intentions by the Christian faithful who are taking part in the “sacred celebrations, along with the great assembly of people, throughout the whole course of the annual event that is called ‘March for Life’...”