The Beacon

The faith community of Holy Family Parish in Florham Park welcomed Bishop Serratelli on July 6 as he made a pastoral visit and served as main celebrant and homilist of the 5:30 p.m. vigil Mass for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Clare Parish in Clifton where he celebrated the vigil Mass marking the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 13. During the Mass, the Bishop consecrated the new altar during which the rites of anointing, incensing, covering and lighting the altar take place.

Bishop Serratelli served as main celebrant of the annual Serra Club Mass to honor seminarians, newly ordained priests and retiring priests, held at St. Gerard Majella Church in Paterson recently. The 6:30 p.m. liturgy was followed by a dinner at the Brownstone, also in Paterson.

Four people — two priests and two laypersons — all members of the Red Rose Rescue movement, were arrested and charged with trespassing at Garden State Gynecology in Morristown after entering and then refusing to leave the abortion clinic July 13. They had entered the facility to offer red roses to the pregnant women inside, who were scheduled to have abortions that day. They also encouraged and counseled the women to choose life instead.

With summer now in full swing and children enjoying playtime outside, families, who are served by Catholic Charities, have one less worry thanks to the generosity of parishioners across the Paterson Diocese. Last month, Catholic Charities hosted its diocesan-wide food drive on the Feast of Corpus Christi June 23 to fill its food pantry shelves for the summer months ensuring clients have the needed food items to feed their families. Parishes in Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties joined together to make this year’s collection the most successful to date.

A ruling late last month by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on new Title X rules is a boon to the pro-life movement in America. The new rules prohibit funds from going to clinics that perform abortions or provide abortion referrals, and with the court ruling, it means that they can now go into effect.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Anthony Parish in Passaic where he celebrated the vigil Mass for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time June 29 in the parish center. During the Mass, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of the parish, mostly high school sophomores, who had been preparing to receive the sacrament in the parish’s Confirmation program for the last two years.

Bishop Serratelli installed Father Edgar Rivera as pastor of St. Ann Parish in Parsippany during a Mass marking the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 7. Father Rivera previously served as diocesan Vocations Director and director of Domus Bartimaeus House of Discernment in Boonton before being named as pastor of St. Ann’s by the Bishop in June.