Parish campus to be used for CERT training

Dear Parishioners and School Families, 

As a parish and school community in Somerville, the county seat of Somerset, with an expansive campus that serves as an active focal point for many in our county, it has been requested that our parish campus serve as a training site for the Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) for the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, a request which I have obligingly granted.

Vital to the safety and well-being of those officers meant to mitigate major disturbances and also to safeguard those in their care, the Correctional Emergency Response Team is, at times, called upon to respond in situations when local officers or supervisors may not be able to safely intervene on their own.

Their first training session on our parish campus will be held this evening, July 17, from 4:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. This evening, if you are near the Church of the Immaculate Conception or its neighboring parochial grammar school, Immaculate Conception School, you may see a large emergency response presence. I want to assure you that, even with the added presence of emergency response vehicles or personnel, there is no cause for alarm, as this is, indeed, simply a scheduled training. Similarly, another CERT training will take place next month, before the school year begins, at Immaculata High School.

Please join me in praying for all our emergency responders and, more specifically, for those who will undergo emergency response training tonight and in the coming months. May God continue to bless them and may Mary, the Immaculate Conception, all-embracing refuge, continue to accompany them and intercede for their protection. 

Servus,

Rev. Msgr. Joseph G. Celano
Pastor and Director of Schools