A Letter from the
Most Rev. James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

It seems providential that Pope Francis invited the global Catholic Church to participate in a Synod – to walk together and to listen to one another but above all to the Holy Spirit – the same year that our local Church of Metuchen is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of our Diocese.

During this important moment for both our local and universal Church, we are offered an opportunity to reflect on where we have been and, more importantly, to journey together in communion, participation, and mission, looking forward to where we are going and opening ourselves more fully to listen to the Spirit.

I am blessed and grateful to walk together on this journey with you and with the many who labor in this vineyard to build up the Kingdom of God in Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties, just as our beloved Diocese has done for the past 40 years.

This Annual Report is a great testament to the good work happening here. Gratefully, as you will see in this report, our work is bearing fruit, even though we have been faced with challenges in these last couple years.

Yes, my brothers and sisters, the work of carrying out the Mission entrusted to us is not always easy, but we do not do it alone. Indeed, God is working through us and with us, and we know our Blessed Mother is beside us.

Please know of my love and prayers for you, and certainly my continued gratitude for you. I ask that you please pray for me too. May this year, as we celebrate our 40th anniversary and engage in this process of listening and encounter, be for us a time of renewal, a time to recommit ourselves to the Lord in the Eucharist, and a time for us to reignite the light of Christ here in these beautiful four counties of the Diocese of Metuchen.

With renewed best wishes, I remain 

Yours in Christ, 

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