News - October 2023 RSS Feed

Warning against a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and ongoing conflicts elsewhere, Pope Francis has called for a day of fasting, penance and prayer for peace in the world Oct. 27. “War does not solve any problems, it only sows death and destruction. It increases hatred, multiplies revenge. War erases the future,” he said at the end of his general audience talk in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 18.

Lauren-Carmel Sirak, second-grade teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows School, Hamilton, was recognized Oct. 12 during the annual Catholic Schools Mass in St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral, Freehold, as the recipient of the New Jersey Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Award for 2023.

In response to the continued tensions and violence that erupted into warfare between Gaza and Israel on October 7, Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on International Justice and Peace, calls for prayers for peace in the Holy Land. Click to read the statement.

The Catholic Church recognizes October as Respect Life Month, when we consider more deeply why every human life is valuable and reflect on how to build a culture that protects life from conception to natural death. To help with the many emotions and challenges that are naturally a part of end-of-life, the NJCC has developed a two-part video series. The first video, which discusses the pastoral response to end-of-life issues, features Jennifer Ruggiero, secretary, Secretariat for Family and Pastoral Life for the Diocese of Metuchen. The second video, which features Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D., professor of medical humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine, focuses on physician-assisted suicide and the impact it has as it advances in our society. Click to watch the videos.