Born of a Virgin and entrusted to the paternal care of a carpenter, God’s own Son will learn his father’s trade and fashion, from the things of this earth, works to serve others, but none so great as the wooden Cross on which he fashioned the world’s salvation. As one day, the beaten, bruised and bloody hands of Jesus will be fastened to the Cross in a gesture of love’s embrace, already now his tender and innocent hands reach out not just to Mary and to Joseph, but to each of us, to embrace us, sinners and saints, in the love of God this Christmas day.

Faced with the reality of violence against religion in the Middle East, one questions why the facts of the religious persecution and the slaughter of Christians receive such scant coverage in the media. What would the world look like without Christianity? One shudders to imagine.

he Christ child was a gift to Mary and Joseph and to the whole world. So is every other child! A child is not a right, but a gift to be received, cherished and loved by a mother and a father. To tar this truth with the deceptive branch of bigotry will ultimately destroy the roots of a healthy society.

During the Thanksgiving Holiday, as we gather with family and friends to thank God for his goodness, I ask God’s blessing on all of the faithful of this diocese and their loved ones. In his loving kindness, may the Father confirm your faith and draw you closer to himself through His Son. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, may your hearts overflow with praise and thanksgiving every day. Happy Thanksgiving!

As Pope Francis teaches, the devil is real. Evil is real. And, every individual needs to confront the power of evil and move away from the spiritual dominion of the devil. In extraordinary circumstances, the Church allows the Rite of Exorcism to be used to combat the devil. But, this does not exempt all the faithful from engaging each day in their own struggle and battle with evil.

Diminishing or obscuring Jesus’ teaching on the beauty of marriage and simply adjusting the Church’s pastoral practices to current trends will not help the common good. At a time when culture no longer supports or encourages family life, as church, we need to strengthen and promote good family life. We need to support Catholics who struggle and, with great personal sacrifice, succeed in living as Jesus teaches. Ultimately, a healthy society depends on stable, loving and generous families.

At a time when humankind is still capable of the noble, the loving and the compassionate and yet still responsible for the ugly, the brutal and the barbaric, at a time when we need to rediscover the wellsprings of all goodness, God is giving us a new Blessed who recalls us to the truth that, by baptism, the Most Holy Trinity dwells within our souls: a Blessed who reminds us that, when we live in such a way that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit remain within us, we find true joy in this world and the next.

For sure, “the times they are achangin’.” The economy and wars have a way of shifting our attention. Issues never remain the same in public discourse. But, the fundamental question does. Do we keep to the principles of truth and morality as given to us by Jesus or do we surrender to the shifting social fads of our day?

What an historic day for the United States, for New Jersey and most especially for the Diocese of Paterson and the Sisters of Charity. Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich. What a great gift to the Church! God is raising up from among us a reminder of our own call to holiness and an example that, by God’s grace, we can be holy by striving to do God’s will in our daily lives.

Let us pray to our most loving God to banish the evil that lurks within the human heart, to place within those who hate the light to see others as their brothers and sisters and to swiftly end the persecution of all good people.

...both the literary evidence of the New Testament and modern archaeology confirm that Christians have come together for the Eucharist from the very beginning of the Church. This is profoundly significant. Being a Christian has always meant more than just one’s own personal belief and devotion. To be Christian means to be part of the Church gathered together for the Eucharist.

The image of the Pope of the Poor, in his white cassock and pressing his palm in prayer against the graffiti-covered concrete Wall of Separation, is a new and much needed icon of the necessity of prayer for peace in the world.

Unfortunately, anyone today who dares to express a belief contrary to what is proclaimed as politically correct is quickly labelled a bigot and accused of hate speech. If we do not return to a proper understanding of tolerance and truth, we will lose our freedom of speech. Worse yet, we will fashion a society that is fundamentally intolerant of true diversity.

Our Christian faith tells us that we must love the truth because to love the truth is to love the one who told us: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). When we see the truth in terms of our personal relationship with Jesus, we are not hindered by a distorted sense of tolerance to speak the truth in charity.

In every Eucharist, Jesus fills us with the love of God and sends us back into the world to bring God’s love to the poor. Thus, in returning to the ancient tradition of washing the feet of the poor, Pope Francis has challenged us to translate our sharing in the Lord’s Supper into deeds of charity in our daily life. He is reminding us that, as Jesus gave himself for all, so must we.