Welcome to the next chapter of The Beacon newspaper’s award-winning, faith-filled legacy: BeaconNJ.org. The Beacon is the official news and information source of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey.
The Beacon will continue providing readers with quality news coverage as it has since its first issue on Jan. 26, 1967. The newspaper has maintained a strong legacy of reporting the Good News of the diocese and beyond as a “reliable witness,” telling powerful stories of the Catholics putting their fervent faith into action inspired by the model of Christ.
The Beacon continues to help the faithful live Christ-centered lives in an ever-changing world upended by conflicts, societal changes, and technological advances with the powerful example of these stories. In addition, columnists who appear in the paper, including Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, give their Catholic perspectives on current trends and events, how to live out the Gospel, and Church teachings, traditions, and history.
The Beacon has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence.
The newspaper followed the footsteps of Bishop Lawrence B. Casey, the fifth bishop of Paterson and its founding bishop, who wrote “By the Way,” a weekly Beacon column.
“Bishop Casey wrote well, and reached people because he addressed topics that dealt with their own concerns that reached people because he addressed their concerns,” Gerald M. Costello, The Beacon’s founding editor, wrote for the paper’s 40th anniversary edition on Feb. 1, 2007. “I would learn that he was himself a frustrated editor…he told me more than once that if he hadn’t gone into the priesthood, he would have chosen the newspaper business, and that ideally he would have spent the final years of that career as a country editor.”
Accompanied by eye-catching photographs, The Beacon captures the Christian spirit of diocesan programs, parish outreaches, and especially individual priests, religious, and laity making a difference. The paper spotlights local Catholics, who are evangelizing, catechizing, performing acts of social justice in the diocese and around the world, worshipping the Lord, promoting the Right to Life, and discovering new ways to pray and “be Church.”
Part of that Beacon coverage includes stories on diocesan Catholic Charities, which cares for the needs of the local poor; St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison, which inspires people to be missionary disciples; and local Catholic schools, which are forming the next generation of faithful. The paper also puts its money where its heart is by promoting and administering its annual Christmas Sharing Fund, which has raised funds for gifts for Catholic Charities’ clients over several decades.
The Beacon devotes space to world and national events and trends important to the diocese. These have included the increasing participation of Hispanics and young adults in their faith, the deaths and elections of popes, armed conflicts, and local response to the universal Church’s Synod on Synodality. The newspaper also highlights local participants in major events, such as the annual National March for Life in Washington, D.C., and World Youth Day.
With Beaconnj.org, we can tell the compelling stories of the people, events, and places of the diocese in nearly “real-time.” Thank you for visiting our website and reading and sharing our content with others.