Keyport's St. Joseph Church and Jesus the Lord Church to Merge

Keyport, NJ - June 29, 2018 – St. Joseph Church and Jesus the Lord Church will officially merge under one Parish: Our Lady of Fatima, as decreed by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., of the Diocese of Trenton, on Sunday July 1st. The merger will be marked by a Mass at 11:30am, followed by a luncheon celebrating the occasion in the Parish Center at 376 Maple Place, Keyport, NJ.

Rev. Rene Pulgarin, who was installed as Pastor at St Joseph’s Church July 2016, will continue as Pastor of the newly created parish. Both churches will remain open for worship with their own campus names: St. Joseph and Jesus the Lord.

“This celebration is the culmination of an entire year of hard work to bring together these two Catholic communities. The merging of the parish was part of the ‘Faith in our Future’ pastoral planning initiative by the Diocese of Trenton that was launched in 2015. We are very much looking forward to integrating the communities and serving a larger group through shared services, ministries and resources.”

Fr. Pulgarin says approximately 100 new families have joined the parish in the last year, a sizable first step in the goal to build a vibrant, active, thriving parish that serves Keyport and its surrounding areas, including celebrating bilingual Masses and hearing confessions in both Spanish and English.

The Cohort teams from both St. Joseph’s and Jesus the Lord were informed of the merger by the Diocese last year, and since then both parishes have been working diligently to bring this moment to fruition. Town Hall meetings were held at St. Joseph’s and Jesus the Lord so that parishioners could be involved in the planning and updated on the merging process; all of this to help facilitate an amiable merging process. Parishioners from both communities were directly involved in presenting a final list of three suggested names for the new parish to the Bishop, chosen after several rounds of voting by secret ballot.

In his official decree on May 15th , Bishop O’Connell stated “What has been accomplished… truly reflects a labor of love with great faith in our future as a Diocese. We are not dismissing or forgetting our history; we are cherishing and honoring it by raising from its roots a new age for the people of God in our local Church.”

The year-long preparations by both churches have included everything from determining a new Mass schedule and creating a single, weekly and now bilingual, church bulletin to be distributed at both campuses. The Religious Education Program was combined between both churches, and just completed its very successful first year. A Fellowship Picnic brought out hundreds of families from both parishes in an effort for the two communities to get to know each other.

Following the merger, Our Lady of Fatima Parish will hold two Ministry Open House dates to offer a chance for the newly joined communities to discover the active ministries serving the church and neighbors of the Parish. The open houses will be held on Saturday July 21st, after the 4pm Mass and Sunday July 22nd after the 7:30am, 9:00am and 11:30am Masses. All are welcome to attend and share this time of fellowship.

For more information, please contact Diego Goez, Business Manager at 732-264-0322, Ext. 13.