Metuchen & Trenton Dioceses Team-up for Cursillo Weekends

By Andrew Chabak & Pete DePrima

Cursillo teams of the Metuchen and Trenton dioceses partnered together for over three months to plan and facilitate the January 12th, 2006 Men's English speaking Cursillo three day weekend. That weekend was held at the Jeremiah House of St. Joseph's Church in Keyport, N.J.

The revitalization of the English speaking Cursillo Movement in the Metuchen Diocese was approved by Bishop Paul Bootkoski, in November of '05. The Cursillo Movement is a men's and woman's movement of the Catholic Church. Cursillo can assist you in developing a deeper understanding of what it means to be fully Catholic. Cursillo offers a method and a technique which provides us with the tools, mentality, strength and the support to make evangelization of our Catholic faith possible.

This was the 109th weekend for the Trenton Diocese. For Metuchen, it was the first weekend in many years where members of the diocese shared equally in the planning and facilitation of the weekend. A total of ten men, six from Metuchen and four from Trenton, made the weekend which began on a Thursday evening and concluded with mass on Sunday afternoon.

Below, team members and candidates are pictured outside the Jeremiah House.

Pictured from bottom left to right are; Deacon Tony Martucci - T , Fr. Will Dunlap - Spiritual Director, Rick Klarmann - T, Matt Oleynick - T, Deacon Chuck Perkins - T, Stephen Kijewski - C, Michael Gavagan - C, Christopher Bordiuk - C, Dr. Tony Tangorra - T, Andrew Chabak - T, Francis Wills - C, Harvey Homan - C, Michael Cuculo - C, Patrick Pascarella - C, Nazario Bernardo - C, John Yula - T, Frank Donlon - C, Nick Benedict - C, Frans Tholenaar - T, Dick Hemler - T, Joe Holler Jr. - C, Kevin Begley - T, Roger Webster - T, Joe Holler - T, Peter DePrima - T, John DeStefano - C Legend: C= Candidate T = Team Member

Metuchen and Trenton are planning to partner on future Cursillo weekends including the first Women's weekend scheduled for April 27th and a future Men's weekend during the Fall of 2006.

On Friday, February 10th from 7:30pm to 9pm at St. James Church in Basking Ridge, a Cursillo Ultreya will be held after being inactive for many years. Men and women, 21 years of age or older are invited to attend. The Ultreya is a community grouping that enables those who attend to experience how others are striving in their own spiritual and evangelistic growth. Directions to St. James in Basking Ridge can be found on their website, www.saintjamesbr.org. In the future, team members would like to bring the Cursillo Ultreya to parish community around the Metuchen Diocese. Please contact the person below if your parish would like to host an Ultreya.

For those who have already attended a Cursillo weekend and would like to help in this revitalization effort or become involved once again in Cursillo, this is your opportunity to bring Jesus' love to your community. In addition, if you would like to participate in the Metuchen Cursillo "School of Leaders", please contact the person below.

For information about Cursillo and the Metuchen revitalization efforts or if you would like to receive the Cursillo newsletter, please contact Tony Tangorra 908-766-1900 or drtangorra@yahoo.com