To the Clergy, Religious and Faithful of the Diocese of Trenton:

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy once stated that, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future” (Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt (266),” June 25, 1963.

There is much wisdom in that simple statement and most of us, if we are honest, recognize its truth. Change is a constant in human life, from conception and birth to natural death. As change affects us as individual human beings so, too, it affects the human communities, organizations and institutions of which we are a part. Our Church, our diocese, our parishes are no exception to this reality. Throughout the changes we experience, however, some things do not change: Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8);” the Gospels; the truth of his teachings; the truths of our faith upon which he has built his Church.

The challenge for us as Catholics is to embrace the enduring, changeless truth of God’s revelation while it speaks to us in new and different ways in every generation. The past becomes the present and the present shapes the future in a living faith that St. Augustine calls a “beauty ever ancient, ever new (Confessions, X).”

That challenge has prompted me as Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton to launch two simultaneous initiatives for our Diocese intended to preserve our timeless Catholic faith as it informs, strengthens and guides our local Church well into the future.

The first of these initiatives is called Faith in Our Future. Corresponding to the beginning of a new year, Faith in Our Future is an effort to call upon the clergy, religious and faithful of the Diocese of Trenton to reflect upon the ways that we experience, live and express our Catholic faith together as the circumstances of the past and present give way to the new and changing realities that we face as a local Church. There is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all (Ephesians 4: 5-6)” and that fundamental and foundational source of our unity cannot be lost or compromised or sacrificed as we adapt to changing times and circumstances. We have Faith In Our Future and, as every generation of Catholics before us, our faith must endure even when its expression may change.

The second of these initiatives is called Faith to Move Mountains. Recalling the parable of the mustard seed in the Gospels, Faith to Move Mountains is an effort to ensure that we will have the resources necessary as a Diocese to look to the future of our Catholic faith with “confident assurance and conviction (Hebrews 11:1)” that it will “move mountains” that stand in its way. We cannot fool ourselves into believing that the road ahead of us will not require new and greater sacrifice, new and greater investment, new and greater effort on our part. The “mountains” loom large and the challenges our Catholic faith confronts grow more daunting every day. The Gospel costs little to believe in and preach. But if we are to continue to be the “light of the world” and to build that “city on a hill (Matthew 5:14)” that Christ asks of us, we must respond to the needs required to ”move mountains” to bring our faith to life in ways that our world can see and taste and touch and feel.

A bishop can dream dreams but without his people, that is all they will ever be. And, so, I invite every Catholic in the Diocese of Trenton to share the dream in ways that will make it a reality for our local Church. It will take time and the effort of the whole Diocese, like never before. It will take sacrifice and the commitment of the whole Diocese, like never before. It will take gratitude for what has been and is and the bold vision for what will be of the whole Diocese, like never before. And it will take prayer — every one and all together in the Diocese — like never before . And when we do this together as a Diocese, like never before, Faith in Our Future will become Faith to Move Mountains.

May God’s will be done and his blessings be ours.

Respectfully yours in the Lord,

Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M., J.C.D.

Bishop of Trenton