Media Release
New Jersey, Aug 24: It was a special day for the various multi-cultural Catholic communities of the Indian sub-continent which came together to celebrate Mass with the Bishop James Checchio, of the diocese of Metuchen. The mass was celebrated at Our Lady of Peace church, North Brunswick, NJ by the Bishop along with 15 other priests
and deacons.
The procession was led by the flag bearers with flags of the five countries involved followed by the recitation of the Rosary conducted by Anita Pinto and Merlin Mendonca. The Mass procession was led by the Knights of Columbus. The choir was conducted by Celsius Rebello. The prayer of The Faithful was very meaningful with prayers recited in 10 different languages spoken in the countries involved. The event was hosted by the Knights of Columbus, diocese of Metuchen and participated by the various association namely Bangladesh Catholic Community, Goan Association of NJ, Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA, Mangalorean Catholic Association of East Coast, Nepali Catholic community, Pakistani Catholic Community, St Thomas Syro-Malabar Community, SriLankan Catholic Community, Tamil Catholic association, and United Tamil Catholics.
The mass was followed by the blessing of the picture of Our Lady of Hope. Then was the reception in the church hall where there was a cultural programme, presenting of a gift from the community to the bishop and dinner. Babla Seeth, an artist who creates art out of recycled materials, made a 13 feet high cross with Jesus made of Barbed wire. This was presented by him as a gift from the community to the Bishop. There were 4 dances performed by members of Mangalorean Catholic Association and by Lymphia Miranda and her team of dancers representing folk culture as well as Bollywood. The food for the event was catered by Dou Oven, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. The young comperes, Rachel Rebello and Caroline D'Souza did a spectacular job with running the show. The sound system was perfectly managed in addition to some live singing and great music by Socrates Viegas and Neil Gomes. There was a beautiful palanquin prepared for Our Lady of Hope and apt floral table-piece prepared by Lorenzo Rojas.
It was a very eventful gathering where guests of various cultures and countries came together as one Catholic family. It is planned to host such events annually at different diocese so as to get all the communities together and bring about solidarity between all the involved associations.