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People will occasionally ask me what the letters “CM” mean after my name. As a member of a religious community in the Church, I am identified as belonging to that religious community by its initials. “CM” designates membership in the Congregation of the Mission, more popularly known as “the Vincentians.” 

One of the greatest contributions of the Catholic Church in our country remains the establishment of Catholic schools. Millions of young Catholics (and numerous non-Catholics) have been educated in Catholic schools since the very foundation of the United States. In the face of unrelenting obstacles and widespread social opposition, colonial Franciscan missionaries, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her sisters, St. John Neumann and his co-workers, laid the foundation for the most extensive Catholic school system in the world. It is their legacy that we commemorate during Catholic Schools Week.

The Church’s annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place Jan. 18-25. This year, the theme is “Do good, seek justice,” which is from Isaiah 1:17. The week itself draws its ecumenical impetus from the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, “that they may be one” (John 17: 21). As the week unfolds, I would like to share a few thoughts that are the fruit of my reading and spiritual reflection.

BISHOP DAVID M. O’CONNELL, C.M., RELEASED AN ADVISORY ON DIOCESE OF TRENTON MEDIA that he had just received Jan. 17 regarding approval by the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See of a plenary indulgence (total remission of temporal punishment for sin) in connection with the 2023 March for Life in Washington and accompanying events Thursday, January 19 and Friday, January 20.

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 stereotyping 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.”

With the Christmas season behind us now, Catholics enter into a period referred to as “Ordinary Time” in the Church’s liturgy. In our vernacular usage, the word "ordinary" describes what is commonplace, "everyday" or without uniqueness or special distinction.

For much of contemporary secular society, Christmas is over for another year.  For Catholics and Christians, however, there is “still more to come.” This weekend, January 7-8, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States celebrated the Christmas feast of the “Epiphany of the Lord,” traditionally remembered throughout the Western Christian world on January 6.  Known by many other names in a number of different cultures – “Little Christmas,” “Three Kings’ Day,” the “Twelfth Day of Christmas,” “Twelfth Night,” etc. – this feast extends the Christmas season by commemorating the visit of the “magi” or “wise men” to the Christ Child.  What is the Feast of the Epiphany all about in the Church?

As the world learned of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., released a personal reflection about the pontiff who named him a bishop in 2010 and who had visited The Catholic University of America in Washington during then-Father O’Connell’s tenure as president. Bishop O’Connell also has announced that there will be a Memorial Mass for the late pope this Thursday, Jan. 5, at noon in St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral in Freehold. This will allow an opportunity for the clergy, consecrated religious and faithful in attendance to pray together as a diocesan family and still return home to watch the televised funeral Mass from St. Peter’s Basilica. For those who cannot attend the diocesan Mass, it will also be livestreamed at youtube.com/trentondiocese.

The year was 1859.  The place was 19th century Europe. The novelist was Charles Dickens (1812-1870).  The novel was “A Tale of Two Cities.” In what is widely regarded as one of his – if not his best-known quotes – Dickens began his reflections on the historical experience of the French Revolution (1789-1799) with a series of contradictions:

Things change.  Not always recognizably so but, often enough, change is noticeable.  I was struck by that fact last week, while looking at some pictures and home movies of Christmas celebrations taken many years ago.  Apart from the obvious changes in size and shape, clothing, hairstyles and ages of the celebrants, the decorations and ornaments heralding the season seemed different, simpler, unlike what we have today. 

BISHOP O'CONNELL HAS SHARED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE AS WE BEGIN THE LITURGICAL SEASON OF ADVENT. It is always a wonderful coincidence that our celebration of Thanksgiving occurs before the First Sunday of Advent as it has this year.  Although not technically a liturgical feast, it is appropriate on Thanksgiving that we bowed our heads in grateful prayer to God before beginning a new Church year.

Give thanks to God for all his gifts, especially faith, family, and friends. With grateful prayers and best wishes this Thanksgiving! Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M., J.C.D., Bishop of Trenton

A message from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., for National Vocation Awareness Week The word “vocation” means a “call” and it presumes someone calling and someone called. As Catholics, of course, we identify “the caller” as God himself. In our faith, we believe that God has a plan for each of us and that God calls us, invites us to consider that plan and, hopefully, accept it. Different from merely a job, a “vocation” is all-encompassing, requiring a free and willing response and total commitment to the One who calls and to what is asked of us in that call.

Marked with the sign of faith "On this solemn Feast of All Saints, the Church invites us to reflect on the great hope that is based on Christ’s Resurrection: Christ is risen and we will also be with him. The Saints and Blesseds are the most authoritative witnesses of Christian hope, because they lived it fully in their lives, amidst joys and sufferings, putting into practice the Beatitudes … that Jesus preached are the path to holiness" (Pope Francis, Angelus Message, Nov. 1, 2020). ​​​​​​​

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, On October 23, World Mission Sunday, we join Catholics worldwide in this annual Eucharistic celebration for the Missions of the Church.

A message from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Oct. 7 The Catholic Church has been blessed with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God through the Rosary since the early 13th century when, according to Catholic tradition, she appeared to St. Dominic (1170-1221) in 1214 offering him the idea of the Rosary. There are various legends and stories regarding how the Rosary initially came to be but its current form of 15 mysteries called “decades” – five joyful, five sorrowful, five glorious– was formally established by Pope Pius V (1504-72) in 1569.  Pope St. John Paul II added five “luminous” mysteries to the decades of the Rosary in 2002.

October 2, 2022, is Respect Life Sunday and begins Respect Life Month in the Catholic Church in the United States and here in the Diocese of Trenton. This year, the theme chosen for this annual observance by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is “Respect Life: Called to Serve Moms in Need.”

As we remember, in awesome silence, those who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York, Washington and Shanksville, those who gave their lives trying to save them, and their beloved families, co-workers and friends, let us together join in the prayer of Pope Benedict XVI when visiting Ground Zero in New York on April 20, 2008: 

Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), several terms have appeared with increasing frequency in our Catholic vocabulary, among them “catechesis” and “evangelization/new evangelization.”  Although they are not actually new to the Catholic lexicon, their meaning and application within contemporary Catholic life and experience have developed and taken on greater significance.

Bishop David M. O'Connell, C.M., has shared this message on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It has been twenty-five years since the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta died on September 5, 1997.  She was, without a doubt, one of the most well-known religious women of the 20th century.  Easily recognizable in her white and blue sari and veil, usually clutching a rosary in her wrinkled hands, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950 to serve “the poorest of the poor.”  At a time when numbers are diminishing in religious orders of women, Mother Teresa’s sisters now serve in 139 countries, numbering over 5,100 members.