Hurricane Sandy

Finally, after about 10 days of frustration and difficulties for many people, it looks like New Jersey is finally getting back in motion. Power seems to be back in the schools and offices and the gas stations are pumping gas again, so the lines are not too long anymore.  This past week was a good opportunity to count our blessings and to recognize how the little things in life are often taken for granted.

A couple of days without heat or power or the luxuries that we are used to is nothing in comparison to the suffering that many, especially at the Jersey Shore, are going through.  The pictures show so many cars and homes literally washed away and the destruction the Hurricane caused is tough to view.

Thank God life is getting back to normal, at least a little bit and I pray that God will bless those who are still recovering and will continue to recover in the aftermath of the storm.  And hopefully, today's Nor'Easter won't be too bad, either!

15 years of Priesthood

The old cliche is "Where did all the time go?"   I think nothing is truer than when a priest looks back on his years of service.  I do not complain about how fast it goes; I am always simply bewildered  at how quickly time passes and I don't always have a chance to reflect on what had happened.

Fr. Matthew Pawlikowski, one of my closest friends and a priest/soldier who has spent time in Gaza, Egypt, Afghanistan and Germany and I will often recount the pivotal moments in our priestly lives in amazement at how much has happened and we have been witnesses to these beautiful priestly moments.  Moments like visiting the sick in the hospital and giving them the sacraments and blessings and seeing them get well.

Or hearing confessions for a person who never thought that, because of their sins, could never be forgiven.  Or simply spending time with the youth group or altar servers or parish choir and let them know how much they are appreciated.  These moments, so often, are the ones that we do not keep foremost in our memories, but we realize that they are important moments in the life of the parishioners.  we also agreed that these were sometimes seemingly simple act of involvement that we later found out that they had great effects.

Bishop Arthur Serratelli, who was a professor of mine at the seminary used to say to the class about pastoral ministry, "Being a priest is easy.  Just be nice to the people."  I always reflect on that advice and try to live it out.  It is probably the most sound pastoral advice I have had: be nice to people, in the name of Jesus and as a respesentative of his Church.  For 15 years, that has been by goal. 

Fifteen years ago, I was ordained with Frs. Jim Brown; Matthew Pawlikowski: Michael Ward; Patrick Flannery; Ray Rodrigue; Carlos Flor; Paulo Frade; Jim Teti: John Wassell; Steve D'Andrea; Robert Hoatson; Will Lusik and Don Gleason.   Fourteen of us.  Some of us are still parochial vicars; some have become pastors, while others have had other diocesan responsibilities  Of course, some have taken other paths and have left the active ministy.  I sincerely pray for all of my classmates all the time.  God only knows their situation and what they need and only He can help them.  I think that it is important for us to pray for all of us that God will work His goodness through us wherever we might me in our lives.

Fifteen years is both a short jaunt as well as an eternity.  I prayerfully believe that through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, we can continue to be effective tools of redemption for those whom we serve.  Please continue to pray for the class of 1997!


Father Marc A. Vicari

What's Going on at Ohio State?

 I must admit, that I am not a huge fan of watching the Ohio State style of football because they often put together teams that play the "grind-it-out" style of ball that I don't find entertaining. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that that it has been a storied college powerhouse for many years and unquestionably are one of the greatest programs in college football history.

This past weekend there was something curious that happened at Ohio State University, though. 

The story is that a prized football recruit Alex Anzalone, has decided to "uncommit" to the University because there is a convicted sex offender, Charles Waugh, who has been attending spring games and has been in communication with both players and football recruits, some of which are still young high school students.  There are photos of this offender with these young men and one photo in particular has Waugh and Anzalone in the same photo.   For this reason, Anzalone opted to not play in Columbus. He does not want to associated with a program that has let this happen.

At the same time, one gets the impression by Sal Anzalone, Alex's father, that there might be more to the story.  He said,

"You don't want your son to go to a place where there's a potential issue [like this]." "You expect the staff to have some sort of control on how things are handled with recruits when they visit. This is ridiculous."

It sounds like Mr. Anzalone might be implying that there is not much restriction at the University when young and/or underage recruits visit Columbus and there might be a history of unsupervision over the recruits.  Mr. Waugh is a registered sex offender who, a few years ago, was convicted of possessing illicit underage photos.  Yet, Mr. Waugh had access to young men visiting the campus and the proof, among other things, is the photos he has with them.  Waugh is in a photo with Alex Anzalone and at least that one photo is the reason why recruit Anzalone will not be attending OSU.  Hopefully, the worst of it is over, OSU will keep tighter watch over who interacts with the young men and the only thing that remains are the creepy photos of Waugh with the recruits.

While the university immediately issued emails to its student body cautioning them of Waugh's attempts to be in contact with some of the players and recruits, it came just last week, a bit late. God only knows how much contact Waugh had with players and recruits and it makes one curious about how long they allowed anyone, including registered sex offenders, to be in contact with their young recruits while on campus unsupervised and what they are going to do to keep it from happening again.

Hopefully, both recently-former coach Jim Tressel and new coach Urban Meyer have been and will be very protective of their underage recruits so that this breach never happens again and, at the same time, I pray that this the end of the story.



Father Marc A. Vicari

Bruce Concert

Last night I attended the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Prudential Center in Newark.  As always, Bruce put on a great show and while I have been labeled a "medium" fan, as opposed to a fanatic, I do enjoy his music and his shows greatly.  It is the third time I have seen him and it is always fun.

In his latest album, "Wrecking Ball," there is a real sense of the spiritual in some of his songs; some sound like they have a clear gospel-music influence.  While the sound might be a little different from the past, the theme of God, redemption, grace and forgiveness are fairly common themes for Bruce.  Last night he performed one of his classics, "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City" and it got me thinking of how on target that song and its title are: "it IS hard to be a saint in the city".  How true that is!  As Catholics and Christians, we understand it: sainthood is difficult, but we keep striving for it.  And that is where the other themes that Springsteen often mention come into the picture: it is with God and His grace and our prayerfulness and our willingness to keep fighting for goodness.

Yes, it is hard to be a saint, but we keep trying and trying and, hopefully will achieve it with God's grace.  And thanks for reminding us again, Bruce!

Easter Sunday

Sunday, April 24 was Easter Sunday and as we witnessed, it could not have been a more beautiful day to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection.



In reflection, as incredible a miracle as Jesus' rising from the dead was, it is only half the story for us Christians: we, too, believe that we will rise from the dead as Our Lord did. Like Jesus, we will rise to have a fleshly existence and will be rejoined with our souls. Scripture tells us that we will either rise again to take part in the resurrection of the just or the resurrection of the damned. This, of course, is the difference between heaven and hell. Of course, I any exclude mention of purgatory, as when the general resurrection takes place, there will be no more purgatory. Of course, our salvation or damnation will be based on our faith and coupled with living out that faith in Jesus Christ.


This is a common belief that Christians hold and explains why Easter Sunday is such a widely celebrated holiday. May this holiday and the Easter season be a time of renewed belief in Jesus Christ

--Fr. Marc A. Vicari

Roe v Wade: the 38th Anniversary

One of the most monumental United States Supreme Court cases was the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford case. In summary, the case was of a Missouri slave named Dred Scott who was considered the property of John Sandford. A few years prior to this, Scott tried to sue his slave master for his freedom, taking his case to the Federal court, but the federal court judge determined that he did not have jurisdiction to rule because Scott was black, therefore, he could not be a citizen of the United States. Thus Scott brought his case to the US Supreme Court to determine whether, because of his skin color, he could be a citizen and be entitled to all the rights of being a citizen, like the right of suing.

The nation at the time was quite divided and sometimes people became violent over the issue. Some states even threatened to succeed from the Union because of this issue. Perhaps this is what St. Paul spoke of when he wrote to the Corinthians, that there should be “no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” Yet, because the truth had been obscured, there was fighting over this basic human rights issue.

The Court first held that Scott was not a “citizen” within the meaning of the United States Constitution. According to the Court, the drafters of the Constitution had viewed all ancestors of Africa as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Therefore, according to Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott and all blacks (and their descendents) were not only inferior, but they could not be citizens of the United States.

Certainly we are all outraged by this thinking and certainly embarrassed that our nation would ever espouse such beliefs at the highest level of the judicial system within the populace. In very much the same way, the infamous Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 outraged and embarrassed many because, again, the nation’s highest court determined that a certain portion of our population, namely, the unborn, are not only inferior, but that they are not entitled to rights. Yesterday was the 38^th anniversary of this Supreme Court decision and for that long; this nation has had an embarrassing black eye for that long.

There are many parallels between the Dred Scott Case and the Roe v. Wade decision.

1) Some didn’t see blacks as persons with rights simply because they were black and now some don’t see the unborn as persons with rights because they are unborn.

2) Like the Dred Scott decision, Roe v. Wade was handed down in the name of an individual right: in Dred Scott’s case, he was the property that could not be taken away from someone without due process. Blacks were considered the property of their owners while unborn children are the property of their mothers and in both cases, stripped of their rights and at the mercy of their “owners.”

3) The reasoning in Dred Scott and R v. W is nearly identical. In both cases the Court stripped all rights from a class of human beings and reduced them to nothing more than the property of others. For the past 38 years, in the Court’s eyes, unborn children are now the same “beings of an inferior order” that the justices considered blacks to be over a century ago.

4) We are asked to maintain this logic: the anti-slavery movement was told that no one should give in to the imposition of their morality, while that same mentality is invoked when those who believe in the rights of the unborn are told not to impose their morality of those with a choice, as it a private matter and, in essence, their property. No doubt, there are many things that we as a nation should be proud of, and the list is innumerable, but no doubt, there are things that we should be ashamed of as well. These two court decisions, especially as we mark the anniversary of one, are events that tarnish our historical standing and at the same time, they prove that we was a nation sometimes, we sit in darkness and through God's grace, we will see the Great Light. Right now, we are in a land overshadowed by death, but hopefully, the Light will arise.

This will only happen when we do what Jesus’ words were when he first began to preach. He said, “Repent.” Hopefully, we will do this for our sins both as individuals and also as a nation.

Chi-Chi-Chi, Le-Le-Le!!!

Wow, what a wonderful and powerful victory it was last week for the Chilean miners, the Chilean people and all those who watched and cheered for their rescue! How can one not be happy for the country and their well-orchestrated effort to rescue these thirty-three men trapped for over two months. Much credit must be given to their government for the way that they aggressively tackled the situation, from having the men deal with psychologists, dividing up the responsibilities, keeping them from physical and mental ailments, right up to the drilling of the passages and raising of the miners. What a gripping story, and, finally, broadcast we watched unfold.

This seems like it was one of those stories where the good-guys won, and, hopefully, there will be no more situations such as these, although with mining, it really is inevitable.

At the same time, one of the great story lines all along was the issue of these men's faith. They recognized that it really was miraculous (and even CNN did, too) that they survived and were rescued. They stated that there were little miracles witnessed all along and it caused their belief in God to grow. It, is God, afterall, who preforms miracles! One miner stated that they, "Saw the devil and they saw God. And they chose God." Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all say that, all the time!!

Kudos to the worldwide community for the help they provided and the support and prayers they offered. While the technology and support that was provided was imperative, perhaps the miners survived and were rescued by the prayers of the world.

At Chilean soccer matches, the crowd often chants, "Chi-Chi-Chi, Le, Le, Le" in an effort to support their nation or to celebrate a particular victory. As the miners were brought forth from the depths of the world, the nation chanted this as a sign of victory for their nation. How appropriate! Hopefully, their faith in God and His great miracles will grow and stand firm and continue to be a witness for all the world to see!


--Fr. Marc A. Vicari