Bishop Kevin Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Bernard Parish here on Sunday, Aug. 18 to mark the parish feast day. Father Ed Rama, parish administrator and diocesan vocations director, concelebrated the Mass.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a Doctor of the Church who lived during the Crusades, was an abbot, mystic and part of the Cistercian Order. His official feast day is Aug. 20
St. Bernard’s, part of Rockaway Township, has a long history. Although the mines at Mount Hope were a regular stop of the early missionary priest, Father Farmer, in the 18th century, Catholic activity in the community did not continue after the priest’s death. St. Mary’s in Dover began offering Mass in Mount Hope in the 1850s and a mission church was built on Mount Hope Avenue in 1861. A new church was built near the Teabo Mine in 1869. The mission was raised to parish status in 1875.
BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI
