Benedictine Academy, Elizabeth, was tapped nationally as the highest ranking Jefferson Award Ambassador Gold Medal High School. Special note was made of student efforts to fight human trafficking. In June Benedictine Academy students will travel to Washington, DC to the Jefferson Awards National Ceremony.

ELIZABETH- Seventeen students and one recent graduate from Benedictine Academy, accompanied by Adina Medina, honors English teacher, took part in an educational tour of London and Paris during Easter break, March 30 through April 7.

WASHINGTON—In response to Feb. 1’s release of revised regulations for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, provided the following statement on behalf of the USCCB.

The 20th annual Archbishop’s Business and Labor Recognition Reception will be held Tuesday, March 12 at Mayfair Farms, 481 Eagle Rock Ave., West Orange.

Six students from Queen of Peace High School (QPHS), 191 Rutherford Pl., took part in an international service project last August, working with the organization “From Houses to Homes” to build housing for the rural poor in the Republic of Guatemala.

 MORRISTOWN—The Benedictine monks of Saint Mary’s Abbey, who for more than 100 years have been part of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in Linden, will return the parish to direct archdiocesan administration in February.

Over the years, and especially now on the milestone of its 50th anniversary, much has been said and written about the landmark Second Vatican Council, which began on Oct. 11, 1962 and closed on Dec. 8, 1965. However, by comparison, little is ever mentioned about Pope John XXIII, the pontiff who launched the council.

In the late 19th century, Italian immigrants settled here and the Church became a source of community and strength for the newcomers. A new book by Father Thomas D. Nicastro, associate pastor of Saint Mary Parish, Nutley— “The Feast of St. Gerard Maiella, C.Ss.R”—published by The History Press, captures the importance of this century-old Catholic and Italian-American devotion to Saint Gerard in the Archdiocese of Newark and beyond.

Since his arrival in the Archdiocese of Newark, Archbishop Myers has devoted himself to addressing the pastoral needs of the people committed to his care. While the area assigned to him is considerably smaller than he was accustomed to previously, the number of the faithful and their institutions are infinitely larger.

I grew up in the fly-speck farm town of Earlville, IL, population 1,406. There were only 25 kids in my school class. Lucky for me one of them was John Myers. John and I grew up, went to grade school, went to high school, went through life, sometimes right next to each other— sometimes at great distances from one another— but always connected, always together. John was then, and still is, my best friend.

For Matthew Orso, a June graduate of Paramus Catholic Regional High School, his love of baseball began as it does for countless youngsters across the nation—watching games with his grandfather. From that typical beginning, however, sprung a magnificent obsession with the game that resulted in his penning a recently published book “Bonded at the Seams…Baseball in Our Lives.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a worldwide “Year of Faith” celebration will begin on Oct. 11 and conclude on Nov. 24, 2013. Oct. 11 is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). Plans for the Year of Faith celebration were first spelled out in Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Letter of Oct. 11, 2011, Porta Fidei (“Door of Faith”).

Among his many accomplishments during his seven decades in the priesthood Archbishop Peter L. Gerety was a pioneer of outreach to the Latin-American and African-American Catholic communities, using the common ground of faith to span racial and ethnic border lines. He courageously pursued this ministry of faithful inclusion during the turbulent decades of the 1950s-1980s.

The International Pilgrim Statue of the Virgin of Our Lady of Fatima, on the second stop of a 21-day tour of the Archdiocese of Newark, was venerated with a Mass celebrated June 5 at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover by Rev. Msgr. Richard F. Groncki, rector emeritus of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

On June 30, two popular figureheads for youth and young adult ministries in the Archdiocese of Newark. Father Steve Ryan, S.D.B., will leave his assignment and head to the Sunshine State as the newly appointed director of Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa, FL. Sister Marilyn Minter, C.S.S.F., will be director of a Felician mission near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Bishop David Arias, O.A.R., marks his 60th year as a priest, a milestone to celebrate his many pioneering accomplishments. He was the first Hispanic auxiliary bishop in New Jersey and has served the Church as a pastor, author, teacher and community leader.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, along with a choir composed of over 100 singers from 37 churches within the Archdiocese of Newark, performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony May 11 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark.

The Hispanic/Latino Bishops of the United States, on Dec. 12, 2011, issued “Mañanitas,” a letter to immigrants. Three bishops from the Archdiocese of Newark—Most Rev. David Arias, O.A.R.; Most. Rev. Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V.; and Most Rev. Manuel A. Cruz) were among the 33 bishops who signed the letter. The text of the letter, provided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, appears below.

En los tiempos modernos la familia moderna, ha sufrido quizás como ninguna otra institución, la acometida de las transformaciones amplias, profundas y rápidas de la sociedad y de la cultura. muchas familias viven esta situación permaneciendo fieles a los valores que constituyen el fundamento de la institución familiar. Otras se sienten inciertas y desanimadas de cara a su cometido, e incluso en estado de duda o de ignorancia respecto al significado último y a la verdad de la vida conyugal y familiar. otras, en fin, a causa de diferentes situaciones de injusticia se ven impedidas para realizar sus derechos fundamentales.

WASHINGTON—Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, chairman of Baltimore based Catholic Relief Services (CRS), are urgently seeking contributions to support emergency relief efforts in the Horn of Africa. “Every day we are seeing more and more heartbreaking news about the drought and famine in Somalia and the eastern parts of Africa,” Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Kicanas wrote in a prepared statement.

WASHINGTON-The Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said the theme for this year's Catechetical Sunday celebration on Sept. 19 will be "Matrimony: Sacrament of Enduring Love."

Catechetical Sunday is celebrated annually on the third Sunday in September in parishes across the United States. Most Rev. Richard J. Malone, Th.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Portland, ME, is the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis.

Serving as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Newark for nearly six years, Most Rev. John W. Flesey frequently addresses culturally diverse groups and mingles with people in transit, moving to and from far-away lands. Earlier this month, Bishop Flesey called upon this experience when he addressed an "upwardly mobile" audience-a retreat for U.S. Air Force Catholic chaplains.

The annual retreat for Air Force chaplains was held May 10-14 at Bethany Center in Lutz, FL. The gathering drew 53 priests serving throughout the world, including some who recently had been stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trenton Urged to Embrace an Education 'Opportunity'
TRENTON-It was, quite literally, a day when the sun was shining on the state's legislative process.

In an unprecedented move by a state senator to stand up to representatives of the public school teachers' union who had attempted to exclude from the hearing room adults and children who had come to Trenton to speak in favor of school choice, the NJ Senate Economic Growth Committee, on May 13, unanimously approved the Opportunity Scholarship Act by a vote of 6-0.

The bill, known as S-1872, proposes a five-year pilot program in which students who reside in districts where chronically failing schools are located and whose families earn less than 2.5 times the national poverty level would be eligible for scholarship assistance to attend public or nonpublic schools.

Special to the Catholic Advocate

February 10, 2010

NEWARK - David Jones, president of the New Jersey State Troopers’ Fraternal Association, and Angelo J. Genova, partner and founder of Genova, Burns and Vernoia, have been selected as the honorees for the 17th annual Archbishop’s Business and Labor Recognition Reception, which will be held March 2 at Mayfair Farms, 481 Eagle Rock Ave., West Orange.

The event will begin at 5:30 p.m., when attendees can get individual pictures with Archbishop John J. Myers. Cocktails and food stations open at 6 p.m. and the program is slated to begin at 7:15 p.m.

NEWARK—A special Mass was celebrated Jan. 19 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart to launch the inauguration of Chris Christie as the 55th governor of New Jersey. The 8 a.m. Mass began four hours before Christie took the oath of office in Trenton. Archbishop John J. Myers served as the main celebrant and was joined by bishops from throughout the state as well as bishops from the archdiocese. Joining Christie at the Mass was Kim Guadagno, the state’s first lieutenant governor.

FULL STORY 

CALDWELL - Nancy H. Blattner, Ph.D. was inaugurated Nov. 7 as Caldwell College’s eighth president and the first lay president in the college’s 70-year history. Over 500 people attended the installation ceremony, which was themed "In Celebration of Community."

Dr. Alexander Giaquinto, chair of the Caldwell College board of trustees, presented the chain and the medallion to Dr. Blattner as a symbol of the office of the president and formally conferred the investiture. Most Rev. Thomas A. Donato, D.D., Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, gave the invocation.

Most Rev. John J. Myers, J.C.D., D.D., Archbishop of Newark, presided at a Mass Nov. 6, held at the college’s Newman Center, to celebrate the inauguration.

NEWARK-Most Rev. Michael A. Saltarelli, D.D., Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Wilmington, DE, who answered God's call to serve as a priest and a bishop in the Archdiocese of Newark and then went on to become a prominent national figure in the Church, died from cancer Oct. 8 at Christiana Hospital, Newark, DE. He was 77.

WASHINGTON (CNS) - Though they believe the Church is largely on the same page as Congress when it comes to other aspects of healthcare and immigration reform, a delegation of Hispanic bishops-including Most Reverend Edgar M. da Cunha, Auxiliary Bishop of Newark- came away from meetings with several groups of House and Senate leaders Sept. 17 concerned that immigrants might be left out of the ongoing reform conversation.

Ever since Harry Truman introduced comprehensive healthcare for all Americans almost 65 years ago, we have struggled to attain this ideal. While there have been successes, today's avalanche of ideological combat, misinformation, partisan positioning, public anger and confusion shows we have far to go to realize this dream.

Executive Summary of the Catholic Bishops of New Jersey’s Message on Marriage

Questions and Answers on Same Sex “Marriage”

A Message on Marriage from the Catholic Bishops of New Jersey

"Life is co-ed." Father Warren R. Hall, principal of Hudson Catholic Regional High School, said those three words originally were spoken by a parent in May 2008, after learning the all-boys school would welcome both genders this year. The understated observation is symbolic of the changes underway at Hudson Catholic. The De LaSalle Christian Brothers Order has operated the Jersey City school as an all-boys institution since 1964.

TRENTON-Most Rev. Thomas A. Donato, Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, led a diverse coalition of faith-based leaders who addressed lawmakers at the Statehouse on March 25, urging support for the long-stalled bill designed to aid low-income students in underperforming innercity school districts.

NUTLEY-The annual "Day of Reflection," sponsored and organized by the Women's Commission of the Archdiocese of Newark, will be held Saturday, April 4, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at Holy Family Parish, 28 Brookline Ave.

Johnnette S. Benkovic, the founder and president of Living His Life Abundantly International Inc.-a Catholic evangelization apostolate based in Oldsmar, FL, with outreaches in television, radio, print, and Internet/new media-will serve as the keynote speaker for the conference.

"Mary and the Holy Spirit" will be the theme of this year's reflection. Archbishop John J. Myers will celebrate Mass for the gathering at 10 a.m. to open the event.