Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to the Diocesan Shrine of St. Pope John Paul II/Holy Rosary Parish in Passaic on Saturday, June 9 to serve as the main celebrant and homilist of the 5 p.m. Mass for the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. During the liturgy, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 62 young people of the parish.

On June 5, Bishop Serratelli gave thanks to God for his generous gift of priests to serve the Diocese and for the spiritual gifts that the Lord has given to them to help them perform their ministries during the annual Jubilee Mass for Priests, held this year at St. Peter the Apostle Church in Parsippany. The Mass honored 22 diocesan and religious order priests, who are serving or have served in the Church of Paterson and who are marking the 65-, 60-, 50-, 40-, and 25-year anniversaries of their ordination.

Last Sunday afternoon, they had so many things to see but a short amount of time in which to see them. A large group of teenagers from around the Diocese made the most of the 10 minutes they were allotted at the end of a tour of the newly renovated Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson on June 10 to take in as much of the rich architectural, historical and liturgical details of the Diocese’s majestic “mother church” as possible.

This Sunday, Father’s Day, will once again be a good day for many and a tough day for some. It’s a good day because it gives all fathers the opportunity to count their blessings, thanking God for the gift of their children, and the awesome honor it is to be their Dad. But it’s also a tough day for those of us who have had our Dad called home to the Lord.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on Sunday, June 3 to the faith community of St. Brendan/St. George in Clifton, where he served as the main celebrant and homilist of the 11 a.m. Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The liturgy was held in St. Brendan Church.

Bishop Serratelli has announced the following clergy appointments and clergy retirements, effective June 29, unless otherwise noted:

Pat W. wears a tattoo on his neck that bears the name of “Lori” — a memorial to his oldest daughter, who died of a heroin overdose in February. Sober for a year, the 59-year-old resident of the new Winter Wheat Sober Living Community in Paterson has had plenty of time to think about Lori and about the many losses in his life because of his decades of alcoholism and drug addiction. They include two failed marriages, difficulty in holding a steady job, difficult relationships with many of his nine children and almost 30 years of stays in and out of prison.

There was ceremony and solemn prayer, but also a spirited question-and-answer session as Bishop Serratelli held his annual catechesis with recent First Communicants from throughout the Paterson Diocese. More than 150 First Communicants and their families filled the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson for the celebration on June 3, the Feast of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).