As Thanksgiving approaches, students from various Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of Newark are embodying the spirit of gratitude and giving back to their communities through a range of charitable initiatives.
Numerous students benefiting from the Archdiocese of Newark’s “We Are Living Stones” Catholic Tuition Assistance Program showed their gratitude recently by sending handmade Thanksgiving cards and well wishes to Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark.
Blanco, who is Catholic and attended Catholic schools for a large part of her school years, has delivered her message in public schools, but her message of compassion and forgiveness resonates especially in Catholic schools.
Embrace God’s unconditional love and live in a way that is based on and radiates hope, Pope Francis told Catholic young people. Christian hope “is the celebration of the love of the risen Christ, who is always at our side, even when he seems far from us,” the pope said in his annual message for local celebrations of World Youth Day.
Bishop Joseph Abel Francis (1923-1997), the first and only African American Auxiliary Bishop in Newark, advocated for the socioeconomic and spiritual health of his community and demanded the Catholic church take a public stance against racism.
The Archdiocese of Newark’s support for parish initiatives encourages ongoing faith formation not just for children but for adults as well. With the Parent Formation Biblical Studies Scholarship, St. Joseph of the Palisades in West New York created a valuable resource for fostering the faith development of parents and children within the Spanish-speaking community.
“FOCUS’ mission statement is simple: It’s to know Christ Jesus and fulfill the great commission,” said Curtis Martin, founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Based in Denver, FOCUS lives out that mission in that order: For its campus missionaries, “divine intimacy” and the pursuit of holiness come first, before their evangelization efforts, Martin said.