Pope Benedict XVI

Bishop O’Connell has announced that there will be a Memorial Mass for the late pope this Thursday, Jan. 5, at noon in St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral in Freehold. This will allow an opportunity for the clergy, consecrated religious and faithful in attendance to pray together as a diocesan family. For those who cannot attend the diocesan Mass, it will also be livestreamed at youtube.com/trentondiocese.

On Dec. 31, 2022, as the world learned of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., of the Diocese of Trenton released a personal reflection about the pontiff who named him a bishop in 2010 and who had visited The Catholic University of America in Washington during then-Father O’Connell’s tenure as president.

Benedict XVI, one of the world’s foremost theologians and the first pope to retire in almost 600 years, died on Dec. 31 at the age of 95.