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Bishop Kevin Sweeney was the main celebrant and homilist for the Diocese’s sixth annual Firefighters Red Mass on Oct. 13 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. The Mass honored a firefighter who died in the line of duty and five active duty firefighters who died in the past year. Concelebrating the Mass with the Bishop were Msgr. Geno Sylva, St. John’s rector and diocesan vicar of special projects, and Father Brendan Murray, a retired diocesan priest who has served as a fire chaplain.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Joseph’s Rest Home in Paterson run by the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood on Oct. 12. The facility is home for elderly women, who are surrounded with a warm and homelike atmosphere under the care of the sisters. During the visit, the Bishop celebrated Mass in the chapel that was attended by the Precious Blood Sisters and residents of the healthcare facility. Sister Alphonsa Kunnel marked her 50th jubilee in religious life at the Mass.

I have always found Dorothy Day to be a fascinating, complex individual (and it is not just because she is a fellow New Yorker born in Brooklyn!) She was a prolific writer with strong opinions. Her words were always inspiring and often challenging. Day’s road to Catholicism was not an easy one, but she could not turn away from the beauty of the faith that tugged at her heart. Her tireless work of behalf of the poor, the outcast, the marginalized, along with her steadfast commitment to the Catholic faith, are models for us all. In 2002, New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor initiated Day’s cause for sainthood. While those around her called her a saint, Dorothy Day, always feisty and in true New York fashion, replied, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”

The faith community of St. Catherine of Bologna Parish in Ringwood welcomed Bishop Sweeney on his pastoral visit on Oct. 10 where he was the main celebrant and homilist for the 5 p.m. vigil Mass for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Concelebrating the Mass with Bishop Sweeney were Father Pawel Szurek, St. Catherine’s pastor, and Father Stephen Prisk, the Bishop’s priest-secretary.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney led a rosary rally and procession Oct. 11 and along with hundreds of the faithful prayed for the nation during these unprecedented times. The procession, organized by the N.J. Area of the Order of Malta, began at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Evangelization Center in Madison, and continued along Madison Avenue to its endpoint at St. Thomas More Church in Convent Station.

Bishop Sweeney made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Pompei (OLP) Church in Paterson Oct. 3 where he celebrated the vigil Mass marking the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

A reception was held in the Rodimer Center adjacent to St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Paterson for Bishop-elect Kevin Sweeney and invited guests July 1 prior to his ordination/installation Mass in the cathedral. Msgr. Sylva, also diocesan vicar for special projects, participated in the planning of the Mass as well as a vesper service for the bishop-elect at the cathedral the night before.

When Bishop Sweeney was growing up, his family considered prayer time sacred at their home in the Whitestone section of Queens. If kids from the neighborhood came to the door to play with the Sweeney children before they were finished praying the rosary — usually after dinner, they either were asked to wait in the foyer or accepted an invitation to pray a decade or two with them. On July 1, family members sat proudly in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist to watch one their own, Kevin J. Sweeney, be ordained and installed as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Paterson.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney celebrated Masses at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson during the weekend of July 4-5. On July 4, the Bishop celebrated the 7 p.m. vigil Mass in Spanish (pictured in this spread), the first time Bishop Sweeney celebrated Mass for parishioners at the cathedral. On July 5, Bishop Sweeney celebrated the 11:30 a.m. Mass in English which marked the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Despite following the social distancing measures set by the state, which allowed only a minimum number of guests inside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson for the ordination/installation Mass of Bishop Kevin Sweeney on July 1, it was anything but a subdued affair. The joy and excitement at having a new bishop even bubbled over onto the streets of the city as family members of the Neocatechumenal Way from two Paterson parishes chanted “Alleluia” loudly and clapped in celebration with the sounds of tambourines, trumpets and drums resonating repeatedly throughout the Mass and after it when the new bishop came to greet them.

The personal coat of arms assumed by Bishop Sweeney combines symbols that are meaningful to him reflecting his spiritual life and priestly ministry.

On the evening of June 30 before Bishop Kevin Sweeney’s ordination/installation as the eighth Bishop of Paterson on July 1, a vesper service was held for the new bishop in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. The vesper service was a warm welcome for Bishop Sweeney, which was attended by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, who represented Pope Francis. That night, the Bishop-elect entered the cathedral following a procession of clergy members from around the Diocese as well as laywomen dressed in native garb from countries around the world, who represented the rich diversity of the people in the Diocese of Paterson’s three counties of Passaic, Morris and Sussex. The women read the general intercessions in eight different languages.

With the receiving of the Holy Spirit during the rite of the laying of hands, Bishop Sweeney, 50, former pastor of St. Michael Parish in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, officially became the new spiritual leader of the 82-year-old Paterson Diocese after he had been appointed to the position by Pope Francis on April 15.

As the doors to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist opened wide onto Main Street in Paterson and bishops and priests processed out of the mother church of the Diocese on July 1, the music and voices singing grew louder. Directly across the street from the cathedral were family members who belonged to the Neocatechumenal Way at two parishes. They were playing instruments and drums while singing “Alleluia” as they awaited their first official look at the new bishop of Paterson who had just been ordained to the episcopacy and installed as Paterson’s eighth bishop.

Father Thomas Fallone, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish here in Morris County, smiles as he fondly remembers hanging out with Father Kevin Sweeney of the Brooklyn Diocese — who was appointed as the eighth Bishop of Paterson on April 15 — at annual conventions, when they both served as vocations directors of their home dioceses. While serving as Paterson’s vocations director, Father Fallone even stayed at John Paul II House of Discernment for the Brooklyn Diocese, where Bishop-elect Sweeney served as vocations director — a facility that would become a model for what would become Domus Bartimaeus, the Diocese of Paterson’s house of discernment for men in Boonton in the former convent on the property of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish there.

For Bishop-elect Kevin Sweeney, his vocational call could be summed up by this choice — home runs or Holy Orders? As a child, the Bishop-elect recalled dreaming of being a Major League baseball player and playing for the New York Yankees. Eventually, he traded in his baseball cards for holy cards and answered his call to the priesthood. The first seed of his vocation to the priesthood was planted when he was in seventh grade at St. Luke School in the Whitestone neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

The news that Pope Francis has tapped Father Kevin Sweeney, pastor of St. Michael’s, to be the Bishop of the Diocese of Paterson, is still sinking in at the church, where parishioners are overjoyed that their pastor is moving up. “Oh wow! That’s great!” said Jackie Cardona, who operates a soup kitchen at the parish. “He will make a great bishop.”

When the Paterson Diocese was established in 1937, it was brimming with immigrants, many of them from Ireland. So much so, in addition to having St. John the Baptist as a patron saint, its other patron saint is St. Patrick. For years, many priests came from Ireland to serve the people of the Paterson Diocese. Today, the Paterson Diocese continues to be a melting pot with its largest immigrant community hailing from the countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. In addition, the Diocese has many members in its parishes coming from Poland, the Philippines and other nations.

It was a sign in these unprecedented times of “social distancing” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the morning of April 15 in the middle of the Easter Octave, there was Father Kevin Sweeney of the Brooklyn Diocese in a video message extending his warm greetings to the Paterson Diocese and expressing feeling “honored and humbled” to be named the eighth Bishop of the Church of Paterson by Pope Francis. Also following social guidelines, Bishop Serratelli led the Diocese, again by video, on that historic day in welcoming and congratulating the Bishop-elect, who promised to make a visit here once the restrictions in place for the pandemic have been eased by state authorities.

The period the Church celebrated last week from Easter Sunday on April 12 through Divine Mercy Sunday on April 19 is an especially joyful time for the Catholic Church. The Church refers to these eight days (counting both Easter Sunday and Divine Mercy Sunday) as the Octave of Easter. Every day in the Octave of Easter is so important that it is treated as a continuation of Easter Sunday itself when we celebrated with truth and certainty that Jesus Christ is Risen!