News - September 2021 RSS Feed

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.

The New Jersey Catholic Bishops issued a provincial statement today recognizing September as “National Recovery Month.” In the statement, the bishops celebrate those who have achieved recovery and announce the release of new resources to help parishes and other Catholic organizations that seek to serve those who continue to suffer from various forms of addiction.

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.  

Returning once again to its annual commissioning of catechists for ministry to the community, the Church will celebrate Catechetical Sunday on Sept. 19 with the theme of “Say the Word and My Soul Shall Be Healed.”

Catholic Relief Services recently expressed gratitude to the Diocese for its generous support of the 2021 Rice Bowl Program in a Sept. 7 letter to Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M.

Remembrance of the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001, has drawn communities together in prayer throughout the Diocese of Trenton for nearly two decades. This year as the nation marks 20 years since 9/11, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., invites the faithful and all people of good will to join in an online prayer service on the diocesan YouTube channel.

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.