St. Antoninus Church
337 South Orange Ave, Newark NJ 07103 (map) .
Phone : 973-623-0258. Email : [email protected]
337 South Orange Ave, Newark NJ 07103 (map) .
Phone : 973-623-0258. Email : [email protected]
Rev. Joseph A. Meagher
Pastor of St Antoninus Church
Pastor of St Antoninus Church
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Welcome Letter
from Father Joseph My Dear Brothers and Sisters, Welcome to St. Antoninus Church! It is our hope that having attended the sacrifice of the Mass (or some other event) at St. Antoninus, you have tasted the sweetness of heavenly worship in a manner that has deepened your faith and caused you to long for more. Our deepest desire is simply to proclaim that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Every ministry or event here is somehow beginning and ending with this. We are passionately Catholic, joyfully charismatic and ethnically rich in diversity. As the pastor of this wonderfully diverse and dynamically Catholic parish, it is my pleasure to extend this welcome. Read full letter : http://conta.cc/2Gdpzea |
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Father Joseph's pastoral letter (August 2018) THE REMEDY FOR A WOUNDED CHURCH Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, In this painfully revealing time in the Church, I am blessed to have such parishioners as you, who are continually praying for your priests. Thank you!!! Please keep up those prayers. They are very needed!!! |
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As a Catholic priest whose only desire (I pray) is to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to his Church, I am profoundly grieved over the abuses and cover-‐ups that have plagued the Church over the past 50 plus years.
Among such cover-‐ups is the error of simply calling this evil & perverse behavior “pedophilia” when the vast majority of what has been reported has been perpetrated on post-‐pubescent boys; hence such acts are in fact predatory homosexual behavior.
In any case, whether male or female, pre or post-‐pubescent children, with you I grieve deeply over these young people who have been sexually violated by anyone, but especially by some mentally and spiritually sick priests and bishops, and then in multiple cases only to be further victimized by a bishop who failed to protect his sheep.
I have heard the cries of some of the mothers of these children, and this reinforces my conviction that these offenses are against Jesus Himself who created and redeemed his little ones at so great a price and with such intimate love. “Even if your mother forgets you I will never forget you” (Isaiah 49:15). He warns us sternly, that it would be better to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea, than to cause scandal to one of his little ones (see Mtt 18:6).We pray for justice and for mercy, and for healing for the victims and their families and all who have been scandalized by this spiritual incest and diabolical abuse of power.
Although there are psychological and sociological factors in this sick behavior, and political and systemic or institutional issues in it not being addressed properly, the foundational issue is spiritual in nature -‐-‐ sin & evil – because these actions are diametrically opposed to nature itself and therefore to God Himself. As helpful and necessary (or unnecessary and unhelpful) as specific programs, policies or political or institutional changes may be, fundamentally they cannot solve this problem without the supernatural gift of faith in Jesus that brings about a profound repentance for sin and submission to the Holy Spirit. We need virtue. We need holiness. We need to cooperate with grace! Lasting change is a work of the Holy Spirit in Whom the Church was first born on Pentecost, not just the sum of human efforts.
The root of all this is demonic and we need to go to Jesus’ teaching about deliverance to find an important component and a necessary remedy for this evil. Some demons are only cast out by prayer & fasting (see Mk 9:29). And so I ask you to enter with me into this Novena of Nine Fridays of Prayer & Penance.
In this we participate in a mystery. We are all poor sinners, yet by our offering we seek to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary who have been gravely offended and wounded by these terrible sins against the innocent, which are also sins against the holiness of God, His Church and His priesthood. “What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me” (Matt 25:40). It is actually out of our love for Jesus & Mary that we can pray for all of the victims in the way that we should. We are also imploring the Lord for His Divine intervention in the Church, for purification and sanctification. And we are always pleading for His mercy.
Like every Christian, the Church always needs accountability and constant renewal to stay grounded in God’s will. When the Church refuses spiritual accountability and loses Her ability to undergo the painful but refreshing spiritual renewal of regular “internal audits” of the Holy Spirit, She becomes corrupt. This internal audit of the Holy Spirit comes by means of honest self evaluation and through listening to her prophets, including the poor & weak & wounded among us, who will expose the darkness and evil and bring Her back to godliness. When She refuses the more gentle rebuke of the Holy Spirit through her members, God needs to take the more radical and more painful approach of an “external audit” of the secular state (and the press). This is what we are now in.
In this I also hear the pleading of the Holy Spirit through St Paul who said: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may judge [rightly] what is God’s will” (Rom 12:1-‐2).
As St Paul says, we are with Jesus to be “a living sacrifice” and those who were violated need our offering of prayer and sacrifice. We your priests (& your bishops) also need your offering. The entire Church needs your offering of prayer and fasting.
I ask you to please offer Nine Fridays (August 31 – October 26) of prayer and fasting as an act of reparation and for conversion of sinners. As your parish priest and a fellow sinner in need of a Savior, I ask you to join me in penance and prayer of intercession with Jesus & Mary as we plead for true conversion, purification, sanctification and healing of the entire Bride of Christ.
Please also pray for the many imperfect but faithful bishops and priests who have been falsely accused, or judged or looked at with suspicion. Their offering along with that of all the innocent who suffer injustice of any kind, are joined to the offering of the totally Innocent One, the Victim Priest whose Sacred Heart is so deeply wounded by every sin against the innocent and to the Immaculate Heart of his most Blessed Mother, who remains with every wounded soul as she stayed at the foot of the cross with her Son, joined by John & Mary Magdalene.
Pray also that all believers, but especially those whose ordained task is to preach the Gospel, may see clearly in all this the diabolical intention to silence the gospel message and deem irrelevant the Church whose task it is to preach that gospel. Pray for courage!
In spite of all the human frailty and outright evil that her members are capable of, we believe that because the Catholic Church was founded by Christ She is therefore holy. She continues to be sustained by the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Food of the Eucharist. Jesus will never abandon His bride. Even if many of her leaders be unfaithful and abandon Him, He will always remain faithful, because He cannot deny Himself (see 2 Tim 2:13). In fact, we believe that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church (see Matt 16:18).
May Our Lord & Our Lady work all of this for true conversion and sanctification in the Church, and a new “springtime of evangelization” which has been promised by Our Lord and Our Lady, and is so desperately needed in preparing for the Lord’s final coming. Come Lord Jesus! May our prayer and penance be like burning incense before You Oh Lord.
Finally, at the heart of this Novena of prayer and penance is the Eucharist. There will be a Novena of Nine Friday Masses (Aug 31 – October 26) at 8pm in Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel here at St Antoninus. Please come to Adoration all day and to this Mass and bring a friend, family member or neighbor who is hurting and in need of hope and healing. Mass will be preceded by the Rosary at 7:30.
In Jesus thru Mary,
Fr Joseph
“If my people who are called by my Name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and I will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles” 7:14
Among such cover-‐ups is the error of simply calling this evil & perverse behavior “pedophilia” when the vast majority of what has been reported has been perpetrated on post-‐pubescent boys; hence such acts are in fact predatory homosexual behavior.
In any case, whether male or female, pre or post-‐pubescent children, with you I grieve deeply over these young people who have been sexually violated by anyone, but especially by some mentally and spiritually sick priests and bishops, and then in multiple cases only to be further victimized by a bishop who failed to protect his sheep.
I have heard the cries of some of the mothers of these children, and this reinforces my conviction that these offenses are against Jesus Himself who created and redeemed his little ones at so great a price and with such intimate love. “Even if your mother forgets you I will never forget you” (Isaiah 49:15). He warns us sternly, that it would be better to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea, than to cause scandal to one of his little ones (see Mtt 18:6).We pray for justice and for mercy, and for healing for the victims and their families and all who have been scandalized by this spiritual incest and diabolical abuse of power.
Although there are psychological and sociological factors in this sick behavior, and political and systemic or institutional issues in it not being addressed properly, the foundational issue is spiritual in nature -‐-‐ sin & evil – because these actions are diametrically opposed to nature itself and therefore to God Himself. As helpful and necessary (or unnecessary and unhelpful) as specific programs, policies or political or institutional changes may be, fundamentally they cannot solve this problem without the supernatural gift of faith in Jesus that brings about a profound repentance for sin and submission to the Holy Spirit. We need virtue. We need holiness. We need to cooperate with grace! Lasting change is a work of the Holy Spirit in Whom the Church was first born on Pentecost, not just the sum of human efforts.
The root of all this is demonic and we need to go to Jesus’ teaching about deliverance to find an important component and a necessary remedy for this evil. Some demons are only cast out by prayer & fasting (see Mk 9:29). And so I ask you to enter with me into this Novena of Nine Fridays of Prayer & Penance.
In this we participate in a mystery. We are all poor sinners, yet by our offering we seek to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary who have been gravely offended and wounded by these terrible sins against the innocent, which are also sins against the holiness of God, His Church and His priesthood. “What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me” (Matt 25:40). It is actually out of our love for Jesus & Mary that we can pray for all of the victims in the way that we should. We are also imploring the Lord for His Divine intervention in the Church, for purification and sanctification. And we are always pleading for His mercy.
Like every Christian, the Church always needs accountability and constant renewal to stay grounded in God’s will. When the Church refuses spiritual accountability and loses Her ability to undergo the painful but refreshing spiritual renewal of regular “internal audits” of the Holy Spirit, She becomes corrupt. This internal audit of the Holy Spirit comes by means of honest self evaluation and through listening to her prophets, including the poor & weak & wounded among us, who will expose the darkness and evil and bring Her back to godliness. When She refuses the more gentle rebuke of the Holy Spirit through her members, God needs to take the more radical and more painful approach of an “external audit” of the secular state (and the press). This is what we are now in.
In this I also hear the pleading of the Holy Spirit through St Paul who said: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may judge [rightly] what is God’s will” (Rom 12:1-‐2).
As St Paul says, we are with Jesus to be “a living sacrifice” and those who were violated need our offering of prayer and sacrifice. We your priests (& your bishops) also need your offering. The entire Church needs your offering of prayer and fasting.
I ask you to please offer Nine Fridays (August 31 – October 26) of prayer and fasting as an act of reparation and for conversion of sinners. As your parish priest and a fellow sinner in need of a Savior, I ask you to join me in penance and prayer of intercession with Jesus & Mary as we plead for true conversion, purification, sanctification and healing of the entire Bride of Christ.
Please also pray for the many imperfect but faithful bishops and priests who have been falsely accused, or judged or looked at with suspicion. Their offering along with that of all the innocent who suffer injustice of any kind, are joined to the offering of the totally Innocent One, the Victim Priest whose Sacred Heart is so deeply wounded by every sin against the innocent and to the Immaculate Heart of his most Blessed Mother, who remains with every wounded soul as she stayed at the foot of the cross with her Son, joined by John & Mary Magdalene.
Pray also that all believers, but especially those whose ordained task is to preach the Gospel, may see clearly in all this the diabolical intention to silence the gospel message and deem irrelevant the Church whose task it is to preach that gospel. Pray for courage!
In spite of all the human frailty and outright evil that her members are capable of, we believe that because the Catholic Church was founded by Christ She is therefore holy. She continues to be sustained by the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Food of the Eucharist. Jesus will never abandon His bride. Even if many of her leaders be unfaithful and abandon Him, He will always remain faithful, because He cannot deny Himself (see 2 Tim 2:13). In fact, we believe that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church (see Matt 16:18).
May Our Lord & Our Lady work all of this for true conversion and sanctification in the Church, and a new “springtime of evangelization” which has been promised by Our Lord and Our Lady, and is so desperately needed in preparing for the Lord’s final coming. Come Lord Jesus! May our prayer and penance be like burning incense before You Oh Lord.
Finally, at the heart of this Novena of prayer and penance is the Eucharist. There will be a Novena of Nine Friday Masses (Aug 31 – October 26) at 8pm in Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel here at St Antoninus. Please come to Adoration all day and to this Mass and bring a friend, family member or neighbor who is hurting and in need of hope and healing. Mass will be preceded by the Rosary at 7:30.
In Jesus thru Mary,
Fr Joseph
“If my people who are called by my Name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and I will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles” 7:14