Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On October 22, as we observe World Mission Sunday, we stand in solidarity with the Missions of the Church in this annual worldwideEucharistic celebration.
Pope Francis reflected on this year’s theme: “Hearts on fire, feet on the move.” The Holy Father invites us to kindle the fire of Christ’s love in our hearts and to actively share this warmth with the world around us. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, we go forth and bring the Good News to all corners of the world.
Founded by French laywoman Blessed Pauline Jaricot in 1822, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is an essential source of aid for the Church’s missionary work. In the United States, we benefited from these donations: up
until 1908, we received close to 7 million dollars, the equivalent of over 250 million today. Those dioceses in our country, considered mission territories, continued to receive subsidies. Fairbanks, Alaska, was the last of those dioceses and received its final subsidy payment this year!
The World Mission Sunday collection assists the Holy Father in meeting his Petrine obligation to build up the Church in over 1,100 dioceses and territories that are too young and/or too poor to sustain themselves. Offerings support the formation of seminarians and religious men and women, assist in the construction of schools and orphanages and enables missionaries to build churches in remote and resource-limited areas, and to meet essential works to proclaim the Gospel and celebrate the Sacraments.
Embodying this year’s theme, I urge
A Message from BISHOP DAVID M. O’CONNELL, C.M.
you to keep your hearts aflame and your feet moving this World Mission Sunday. Your prayers are invaluable, and your financial support provides life-giving aid to our brothers and sisters in the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Gratefully in the Lord,
The Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M.
For additional resources about World Mission Sunday, please visit onefamilyinmission.org/resources.
October 2023 THE MONITOR MAGAZINE 41
World Mission Sunday
Dear Friends in our Mission Family,
Peace!
World Mission Sunday will be celebrated this year on the weekend of Oct. 21 and 22. Our Diocesan celebration will take place in St. Gregory the Great Church, Hamilton Square, on Oct. 22 at the 12 p.m. Mass.
Marleyna Kaufmann, a student from the Religious Education Program of St. Veronica’s Parish, was one of 24 young people from throughout the country to have her artwork selected as a winner in the National Christmas Art Contest of the Missionary Childhood Association. It will be an honor for me to present the award to Marleyna. We will also recognize Olivia Maleson, a fourth grade student in St. Gregory the Great Academy, for her generosity and innovative work to raise money for the Missions, along with her classmates.
As Bishop O’Connell has shared, “Hearts on fire, feet on the move” and World Mission Sunday gives us this important opportunity to reach out to the Mission Church, to speak about our faith and about missionaries who proclaim the Gospel as they serve the poor. We each can participate in this worldwide moment for prayerful and financial support for the Pope’s missions.
I humbly and sincerely ask for your own joyful participation in the Church’s worldwide moment for prayerful and financial support for the Church’s Missions, particularly our collection for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Through this collection, you provide for more than 1,100 mission dioceses in territories covering more than half the globe. Your prayers and sacrifices will support priests, religious, and lay pastoral leaders who are proclaiming the Gospel, building the Church, and serving the poor and most vulnerable. Their work and witness to Christ brings both practical help and God’s love, hope and peace.
May your help and love for the Church’s Mission, which is a passion for Jesus and a passion for His people, grow ever stronger. I thank you as well for all you do for the missionary work of the Church each October.
United with you in prayer and faith,
2023 OFFICE OF MISSIONS DONATION
Rev. Peter James Alindogan Diocesan Director of Missions
42 THE MONITOR MAGAZINE October 2023
Allentown • St. John $1,500 $4,018 Asbury Park • Mother of Mercy $2,100 $3,160 Atlantic Highlands • Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes $2,076 $3,585 B arnegat • St. Mary $2,040 $13,086 $100 Bay Head • Sacred Heart $1,134 $6,016 B ayville • St. Barnabas $3, 374 $9,880 Belmar • St. Rose $4,832 $17,558 $315 Beverly • Jesus, the Good Shepherd $1,060 $2, 240 $604 Bordentown • Mary, Mother of the Church $1,189 $5,298 $409 Bradley Beach • St. Teresa of Calcutta $2,749 $11,047 Brick Town • Epiphany $479 $1,788 Brick Town • Visitation $2,039 $4,550 $284 Brick Town • St. Dominic $3,410 $9,810 $1,311 Browns Mills • St. Ann $813 $1,979 Burlington • St. Katharine Drexel $1,026 $2,585 $508 $399 Cinnaminson • St. Charles Borromeo $1,175 $10,275 $1,060 Colts Neck • St. Mary $250 $4, 306 $241 Delran • Resurrection $838 $2,137 Eatontown • Immaculate Conception $435 $500 Eatontown • St. Dorothea $1,313 $1,650 $160 Ewing • Incarnation-St. James $889 $2,167 $137 Fair Haven • Nativity $1,200 $12,566 Farmingdale • St. Catherine of Siena $995 $1,360 Forked River • St. Pius X $1,375 $3,800 $558 Freehold • Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine $2,936 $10,000 Freehold • St. Rose of Lima $2,058 $10,064 $558 Hainesport • Our Lady Queen of Peace $4,075 $1,042 $420 Hamilton • Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony $1,263 $5,000 $787 $605 Hamilton Square • St. Gregory the Great $4,625 $6,969 $343 Hamilton • St. Raphael-Holy Angels $1,223 $4,502 $175 Hightstown • St. Anthony of Padua $1,200 $1,575 Holmdel • St. Benedict $1,400 $1,180 Holmdel • St. Catharine $2,879 $16,448 Hopewell • St. Alphonsus $1,044 $1,321 Howell • St. Veronica $4, 296 $5,800 $562 Howell • St. William the Abbot $593 $2, 285 Jackson • St. Aloysius $3, 286 $7,065 $352 Jackson • St. Monica $294 $2, 375 Keansburg • St. Ann $1,030 $3,187 $173 Keyport • Holy Family $1,719 $2,439 $200 Keyport • Our Lady of Fatima $1,008 $0 Lakehurst • St. John $1,668 $3,721 $77 Lakewood • Our Lady of Guadalupe $7,189 $5,584 $999 Lavallette • St. Pio of Pietrelcina $1,076 $3,769 Lawrenceville • St. Ann/St. Michael $2, 289 $4,437 $464 Lincroft • St. Leo the Great $500 $4,000 Little Egg Harbor • St. Theresa $2,466 $5,544 Long Beach Twp. • St. Francis of Assisi $5,298 $0 Long Branch • Christ the King $1,840 $6,091 $580 CITY, PARISH MISSION Missionary SUNDAY Cooperation October 2022 Plan 2022* Schools Rel. Ed.
School Year 2022-2023
Fr. Peter James Alindogan
HEARTS ON FIRE, FEET ON THE MOVE (cf. Lk 24:13-35)
2023 AWARDS
School Year 2022-2023
Congratulations to the following parishes and schools who have the highest contributions to the missions this year. This is based on the amount they gave as reflected on the number of enrolled students. Thank you for your help and support.
Per Capita Contributions
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS:
First place: St. Jerome School, West Long Branch
Second Place: St. Joan of Arc School, Marlton
Honorable Mention: St. Joseph School, Toms River
Total Contributions
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAMS
First Place: St. Paul Parish Religious Education Program, Princeton
Second Place: St. Mary of the Lakes Parish Religious Education Program, Medford
Honorable Mention: St. Charles Borromeo Parish Religious Education Program, Cinnaminson
DIOCESAN WORLD MISSION SUNDAY MASS
The diocesan observance of World Mission Sunday will take place
Oct. 22 at the 12 p.m. Mass to be celebrated in St. Gregory the Great Church, Hamilton Square.
Father Peter James Alindogan, diocesan missions director and pastor of St. Veronica Parish, Howell, will be principal celebrant of the Mass.
Olivia Maleson and her classmates in St. Gregory the Great Academy will be recognized for their fundraising initiatives for Haiti, through the inspiration of Sister Lisa Valentini.
2023 ANNUAL REPORT Year ending 12/31/22
*Includes WMS collections from Oct. 2021
October 2023 THE MONITOR MAGAZINE 43 Manalapan • St. Thomas More $4, 345 $4,837 Manasquan • St. Denis $2,107 $4,449 $867 Maple Shade • Our Lady of Perpetual Help $821 $3,128 Marlboro • St. Gabriel $616 $10,820 Marlton • St. Isaac Jogues $1,713 $1,845 Marlton • St. Joan of Arc $6, 338 $5,000 $4,771 $646 Matawan • St. Clement $1,817 $3, 331 $615 Medford • St. Mary of the Lakes $4,844 $6, 286 $1,554 $1,489 Middletown • St. Catherine Laboure $1,844 $4, 346 Middletown • St. Mary $2,404 $4,029 $1,048 Millstone Township • St. Joseph $512 $2, 268 Monmouth Beach • Precious Blood $533 $2,845 $210 Moorestown • Our Lady of Good Counsel $1,510 $4, 203 Mount Holly • Sacred Heart $931 $3,912 $749 Mount Laurel • St. John Neumann $1,804 $2,760 Neptune • Holy Innocents $1,847 $5,937 $309 New Egypt • St. Isidore the Farmer $2, 216 $2,575 Pennington • St. James $2,630 $3,405 Point Pleasant Beach • St. Peter $1,588 $6,032 $605 Point Pleasant • St. Martha $4,506 $8,942 Princeton Junction • St. David the King $1,800 $13,116 Princeton • St. Paul $2,793 $6,950 $293 $4,028 Red Bank • St. Anthony of Padua $2,401 $5,485 Red Bank • St. James $3, 244 $6,897 Riverton • Sacred Heart $979 $2,543 $750 Rumson • Holy Cross $819 $4, 372 $795 Sea Girt • St. Mark $2,793 $7,714 Seaside Park • St. Junipero Serra $720 $6,615 $334 Spring Lake • St. Catharine $5,548 $26,871 Tabernacle • Holy Eucharist $780 $3,804 Titusville • St. George $1,070 $2,454 Toms River • St. Joseph $6,145 $16,225 $2,936 $902 Toms River • St. Justin $1,501 $9,652 $572 Toms River • St. Luke $5,541 $6, 348 Toms River • St. Maximilian Kolbe $3,162 $7,055 Trenton • Korean Martyrs $193 $1,188 Trenton • Our Lady of the Angels $631 $520 Trenton • Sacred Heart $1,778 $2,072 Trenton • St. Hedwig $659 $298 Trenton • St. Joseph $1,322 $5,291 Trenton • St. Mary of the Assumpstion Cathedral $1,500 $2,500 Wayside • St. Anselm $203 $3,683 West End • St. Michael $2,670 $9,737 West Long Branch • Our Lady of HopeSt. Jerome $2,700 $2, 311 $4,527 $973 West Trenton • Our Lady of Good Counsel $859 $1,834 Whiting • St. Elizabeth Ann Seton $2,045 $4,649 Willingboro • Corpus Christi $500 $2, 250 Yardville • St. Vincent de Paul $733 $639 Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy $120 CITY, PARISH MISSION Missionary SUNDAY Cooperation October 2022 Plan 2022* Schools Rel. Ed. REPORT
CASH RECIEPTS Personal Donations $4,415 Legacies $0 Bination Stipends $83,086 Mass Stipends $11,445 Missionary Cooperation Plan $487,750 Interest $114 Mission Sunday Collection $242,049 $828,859 DISBURSEMENTS The Society of the Propagation of the Faith $239,159 Missionary Childhood Association $43,138 Mssionary Cooperation Plan $507,712 Mass Stipends $13,150 Society of St. Peter the Apostle $477 Catholic Near East Welfare Association $3,021 $806,657
*MCP 2022, Partial or total collection remitted after 12-31-2022
Father Alindogan reflects on mission experience in Chile
BY FATHER PETER JAMES R. ALINDOGAN Special Contributor
They called him Miguel from Guyana. After months of arduous hikes and hitchhiking rides through the Brazilian Amazon, Peruvian Amazon and the Andes mountain range, he found his way to Chile. It was in the city’s bus terminal, where he slept for days, begged for food and ate out of trash cans and garbage bins.
Miguel was in his early twenties when I met him in the Migrant Center, ministered by the Columban Fathers. With a stricter immigration law, he could not be legally employed. He is one of the thousands of undocumented immigrants in the country. He is also legally blind.
His blindness did not dampen his spirits in seeking a better life.
Miguel’s life story is not unusual for migrants. Father. Dan Harding, a Columban priest I met in Santiago, had dozens of other sad stories about desperate migrants from various parts of Latin America.
There was the couple, Ursula and Michel, who dreamt of a better life than what they had in Haiti. Ursula cleaned homes, while Michel worked as a day laborer. They lived with many other Haitian migrants in an overcrowded shed of a house, where people slept in double bunks and mattresses on the floor. Ursula became pregnant, gave birth to a baby girl, and suffered an infection. Since she did not speak Spanish, she was unable to explain her condition to the medics. She died eventually of septicemia.
Angel had a different and sad story. He was a lawyer and a public servant in Venezuela. But one day, he was attacked physically by a group of thugs in Caracas, robbed him and left him almost dead. It was his country’s high rate of crime and political decay that led him to join thousands of Venezuelans in migrating to Chile. His family was left behind, and he is sending the little money he earns back to them.
Father Dan related that at one point, he was buying some dry dog food in a supermarket when he ran into some of his parishioners. Several of them were migrants from Haiti. They told him, “Poor families in Haiti make meals of dried dog food, mixed with dried milk powder.”
Father Dan thought about this encounter and wrote the following in his journal, “Even though these parishioners make a
very modest living selling chocolates and ice creams to motorists at traffic lights, they always say to me in their broken Spanish, “Haiti, bad, very bad, bad. Chile, good, very good, a better life.”
I am also a migrant myself. I have migrated from the Philippines and am now a citizen of the United States. But my life story is far, far different from the migrants I met in Chile.
We, Christians, comprise half of the world’s migrants. If ever there is some positivity in the migrant crisis happening right now, and the plight of thousands of migrants in other parts of the world, it is the glimmer of hope present in the eyes and spirits of our fellow migrants, when we share our faith belief and values. If the ancestors of Jesus were migrants – notably Joseph, Moses and Ruth – then we could not but recall what Jesus once said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Migrants are homeless, just like all of us, in the wider scheme of things and of our faith. Our home is in heaven. We have a moral obligation to take care of each other, especially the needy, the poor and truly, the homeless.
Father Peter James R. Alindogan serves as diocesan missions director and pastor of St. Veronica Parish, Howell. He traveled to Chile in February.
World Mission Sunday 44 THE MONITOR MAGAZINE October 2023
Father Peter James Alindogan, right, diocesan missions director, is photographed with Columban Father Daniel Harding, left, and Miguel, during his visit to Chile earlier this year.
Columban Father Daniel Harding has dedicated his ministry to serving the needs of migrant workers in Chile.
For Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Day 2023, visit TrentonMonitor.com> From Pope Francis
Photos courtesy of Father Alindogan
