Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated a Mass for the opening of the school year at Villa Walsh Academy in Morristown on Sept. 16 and the Academy of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station on Sept. 13.

A first-class relic of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a patron of the pro-life movement, will be exposed during and after 8:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, Oct. 2, in Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Rockaway, to be celebrated by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney. The Mass is for everyone but especially for couples suffering from infertility or child loss.

Nearly 600 people attended a gathering organized by the General Assembly for Region 2 of the Hispanic Catholic Charismatic Renewal on Sept. 17 at the St. John Paul II Pastoral Center in Clifton. It was the first time the diocese hosted the event, and it was attended by members of the faith community from New Jersey and New York.

The Religious Teachers Filippini of the Province of St. Lucy celebrated the 350th birthday of their Foundress on Sept. 10 at Villa Walsh Academy in Morris­town with a Eucharistic Liturgy followed by a reception. Celebrations for St. Lucy Filippini are being held throughout this anniversary year worldwide. For this Inter­national community, observances were held at the Filippinis’ Generalate in Rome and in countries around the world where the Sisters minister in Catholic education, faith formation, and especially to the poor and those in need. In the Paterson Diocese, the Filippini Sisters operate Villa Walsh Academy, Morristown; St. Gerard Majella School,

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney consecrated the newly-completed chapel at St. Mary’s Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Passaic on Sept. 9. He also celebrated Mass in the new space with Father Jorge Rodriguez, the pastor of St. Mary’s, and other clergy members.

Yesenia Garcia was nervous the first time she served as an altar server during Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. But on that day four years ago, an experienced altar server helped Garcia navigate her new role. First-day nerves are something Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney said he could relate to. He told Garcia, now 18, and 134 other altar servers in parishes from around the Diocese about his first time altar serving on Sept. 17 at a diocesan Altar Servers Day at the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls here. Unlike Garcia, the future bishop served his first Mass by himself at age eight in St. Luke’s, his home parish in Whitestone, N.Y., when two experienced altar servers failed to show up, he said.

Krzysztof Tyszko, a diocesan seminarian in Rome, felt called to the priesthood from an early age. On Thursday, Sept. 29, he will move closer to ordination to the priesthood when he is ordained a transitional deacon in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Raised in Holy Rosary Church/Diocesan Shrine of St. John Paul II in Passaic, Tyszko, 25, anticipates being ordained a priest of the Diocese on June 24, 2023, by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney.

Two weeks ago, I shared some thoughts from Rome as I was participating in the (annual) “New Bishops’ Orientation Program.” I tried to describe the humbling and uplifting experience of being with 150 “new” bishops from so many parts of the world and, in particular, the powerful feeling of being united with the whole Church, the one Body of Christ, as we celebrated the Eucharist. That experience was most strongly felt when I had the privilege of concelebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square with Pope Francis on Sunday, Sept. 4, at the Mass for the Beatification of Pope John Paul I.