Bishop meets with Pope Francis on Thanksgiving Day

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This will be a Thanksgiving Day I won't soon forget. On Thanksgiving morning, the bishops of Pennsylvania and New Jersey will be meeting with Pope Francis. Certainly, being your bishop is one of the things I am most grateful for, so it will be an appropriate way to spend Thanksgiving Day and I can thank the person who sent me here to you, Pope Francis. It is a blessing to serve in our four beautiful counties and live in Metuchen. I see so many blessings around us, even amidst the challenges we face in our day striving to persevere in and pass on the faith.

The Thanksgiving Day visit with the Holy Father is part of what is called our ad limina visit. Every five years, each bishop in the world is to go to Rome on pilgrimage and to give a report on the status of his diocese. Preparing the report for the Holy Father and his collaborators in the Vatican was a helpful exercise as we reviewed almost every aspect of life and ministry in our diocese and all the ways the Kingdom of God is built up here. We looked at our successes and, also our failures, realizing that the Lord is with us through it all, holding us in the palm of His hand, as we strive to labor on behalf of His Gospel ever more faithfully and zealously.

Gratefully, the ad limina visit requires us to offer the greatest act of thanksgiving we can, the Holy Mass, at each of the Papal Basilicas: St. Peter's, St. Paul's Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major. Having lived in Rome, I have been to these churches many, many times, but this time will be different. Not only will I join in prayer with my brother bishops from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but I am taking all of you with me, and will be praying for our diocese in a particular way as we prepare to consecrate the Metuchen Diocese to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 12.

On my travels around the diocese to parishes, schools and other institutions, I continue to be blessed to meet so many of you. Often, I will hear from you through the mail, or you will ask me during my visits, to pray for particular intentions you have. I am always happy to do so. Please know that I will take your petitions with me to the tombs of St. Peter, St. Paul, and so many other holy men and women buried in Rome. Visiting these holy sites always reminds me about the depth of our faith, our 2,000 years of people striving to live as disciples of the Lord.

Throughout the Eternal City we can see vestiges of the days where the faith was thriving in so many of the beautiful churches and monuments. We also learn anew about the times, during the periods of fierce persecutions against believers, when being a faithful disciple of the Lord had grave consequences, even martyrdom. Likewise, in Rome you see and pray with pilgrims from all around the world, coming to be strengthened in their faith.

It always reminds me that the world and the faith is a lot bigger than me and my environs. Even though in some parts of the world, the faith might seem to be struggling, in others it is thriving. So, we continue, forward in faith always striving to draw closer to our Lord.

Yes, the ad limina visit is a chance to be renewed and deepened in faith. It is a pilgrimage, a special time of prayer. It is an opportunity for renewal for all the dioceses as we evaluate what we are doing, and plan for the future. I will take your prayer petitions with me, and I will pass on your prayers for our Holy Father, as so many of you have asked me to do.

As we prepare to welcome Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Holy Father's representative here in the United States, who will offer the Mass for us before the consecration of our Diocese, I ask you all to join me in fervent prayer during these last two weeks before the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe when we seek her intercession for us. Let us make more room in our hearts for the Blessed Mother to bring her Son more fully into our lives. Our Year of Spiritual Awakening is coming to a close, and has hopefully prepared us like St. Juan Diego, to be spiritually ready to hear our Lady and what she asks of us and wants to provide for us.

I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving. I know mine will be special. Besides my visit with the Holy Father, I will also have Mass at the Pontifical North American College in the evening, then enjoy a traditional American meal, along with our three seminarians, Timothy Eck, Gregory Zannetti and Jose Lim and Father Roy Quesea, all studying in Rome at this time, as well as our Vicar General, Father Timothy Christy and our Vocations Director, Father Mauricio Tabera.

This Thanksgiving let us all thank God for the blessings in our life and in our country. Know of my love and prayers for you, and please pray for me too!

The Most Reverend James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA
Bishop of Metuchen