Celebrating Adoption’s Joys:
Inaugural Mass unites adoptive families
By Carolyn Hughes
Correspondent
The unity and diversity of the family of God that is the Church of Metuchen was celebrated in a special way Nov. 21 when approximately 300 members of the diocese, nearly half of them children, filled the chapel in St. John Neumann Pastoral Center, Piscataway, to capacity for the first diocesan Mass to Celebrate Adoption.
Sponsored by the newly-formed diocesan Adoption Assistance Committee, the Mass brought together adoptive families to thank God by gathering around the Lord’s table as a family of faith.
November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and National Adoption Day is Nov. 19.
In anticipation of the national celebration of Thanksgiving Day, and coinciding with the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, it was in its own way the most joyous celebration of life that the nearly 25-year-young diocese has seen thus far, and easily the noisiest.
But it was a most welcome kind of “noise.” Looking out at the sea of young faces and their parents, principal celebrant Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski smiled as he spoke above the cacophony of babies’ and young children’s voices, welcoming all present and thanking parents “for being open to life, to the gift of children, to the choice of raising children.”
Homilist Father Thomas J. Walsh, parochial vicar, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Old Bridge, underscored the generosity of the adoptive parents of the “little ones” who have gifted their lives and the life of the Church.
“We come this night conscious that we are loved and precious children to God our Father,” Father Walsh said, “to remember the love of God which has called us from various places, distant countries and made of us a holy family, brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus,” ourselves adopted by God through the Sacrament of Baptism.
“Given to us this night is Mary our Mother, a model of what it means to be a disciple, to receive Christ first by faith and then to creation as long as children are being born into the world. And so we as the Church of Jesus . . . must love and cherish (life) and welcome it in one another,” Father Walsh said.
“It is important to remember that this is the design of the Creator — that we should come into the world and to be loved in the world and to walk together with family. The family here has been created significantly through prayer, through trust, through great faith. You have journeyed far, and I’m sure that you have plenty of stories to share with us,” he said.
Father Walsh told of friends in St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish, Kendall Park, who adopted a little girl from China after a family tragedy. The child was abandoned on a train, with a little note pinned to her jacket by her mother stating, “This is my precious one. This is my heart. Care for her.”
He also thanked the birth parents who gave life to the children. “They are anonymous, nameless to us, but yet they are here present in all of these little ones. And we give thanks tonight that you opened your hearts to bring them in, and you brought them into your families, into your household and then into the household of faith,” he said, where many Communion and Confirmation classes in the future will be blessed by the childrens’ presence and joy.
“We thank you on behalf of the Church of Metuchen that you have taken on this vocation and that you have decided to become parents, Christian men and women,” Father Walsh said. “Trust in the goodness of this God who has given us the gift of life and the gift of joy.”
The Eucharist included a blessing by Bishop Bootkoski of all families present and of the children’s birth families.
As children of all ages and ethnicities enjoyed a time of play with new friends at the social following the Eucharist, the bishop expressed his hope to the families that the Celebrating Adoption Mass becomes an annual event.
“Children from all over the world are part of us in the Metuchen Diocese, our family . . . and I thank you for that,” he said. “Isn’t it nice to see other couples who have adopted and to meet them?
“I just want to say thank you very much. I hope you start to connect, especially if your children come from one particular country . . . so we have a network now, another aspect of the Diocese of Metuchen – adoptive parents and their kids,” the bishop said.
Judith A. Psota, director, diocesan Family Life Office and chairman, Adoption Assistance Committee, pointed out that many lives have been touched by adoption.
“Adoption is a deliberate choice parents make to extend their family,” she said. “I believe that the families attending this Mass already share a ‘special’ bond (of) joy.”
That joy was clearly evident on the faces of both the children and parents, many of whose families include both birth and adopted children.
Krista Masucci, 9, could not stop hugging her baby sister Julia, 2, whom her parents Karen and Sal Masucci of Immaculate Conception, Spotswood, adopted through a private attorney when the couple learned that they could not have any more birth children.
“(Julia) just made our family complete,” Mrs. Masucci said.
John and Linda Stein of Our Lady of the Mount Parish, Warren, have seven children — three by birth and four by adoption, all of whom attended the Mass.
“I think (adoption) is wonderful . . . Our life has really been blessed by adoption,” Mrs. Stein said.
Elizabeth, 14, carried the family’s newest adopted member, 17-month-old Rebecca, as her proud brothers Mike, 10, and Tim, 6, stayed close to their baby sister.
John and Kathy Penevolpe, St. John Vianney Parish, Colonia, cannot imagine life without their adopted four-year-old twins from Vietnam. They advised couples considering adoption, “Don’t give up hope. It is long, it is tough, but it is worth it.”
Joanne Ward, director, diocesan Office of Communications and Public Relations, is also the adoptive mother.
“I consider myself blessed for having adopted a six-week-old baby boy who has grown into a sensitive, caring individual,” she told The Catholic Spirit. “Dan allowed my husband and I to share our love and start a family.”
Regina Kelly, correspondent, contributed to this article.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law