Religious Notes December 25, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 17 Hebda to celebrate Christmas Eve at Nativity Newly-appointed Coadjutor Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda will celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) at the Church of the Nativity in Midland Park. Hebda will officiate at the 7 p.m. liturgy, which will be preceded by choir and congregation carol singing at 6:30 p.m. Appointed on Sept. 24, 2013 to the coadjutor arch- bishop position by Pope Francis, Hebda is next in line to succeed the present archbishop, John J. Meyers. Hebda comes to the Archdiocese of Newark from Gaylord, Michigan, where he had been bishop since 2009. Previously, he spent a decade in Rome attached to the Vatican’s Office of the Pontifical Council for Legis- lative Texts, which interprets canon law. Hebda was well prepared to deal with the work of interpreting the laws of the church. Before entering the priesthood, he was an undergraduate at Harvard, received his juris doctor degree from Columbia, and was admitted to the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1983. Hebda had also served as a priest in Pittsburgh. Raised in Pittsburgh, he is the oldest of the four chil- dren of Bernard and Helen Clark Hebda. Archbishop Hebda is first coadjutor in the Archdio- cese of Newark’s 160-year history. A coadjutor bishop enjoys all the responsibilities of an auxiliary bishop, but with one distinction: the right of succession when the present archbishop steps down. Hebda is next in line to be the sixth Archbishop of Newark. Archbishop Meyers served in Peoria, Illinois as a coadjutor bishop before stepping into the bishop’s role in that diocese. Christmas Eve Masses at Nativity will be held at 7 and 10 p.m. The Children’s Family Liturgy for families with small children will take place at 3:45 p.m. and a Mass for the differently-abled will be at 5:30 p.m. On Christmas Day, Dec. 25, Masses will be said at 10:30 a.m. and noon. Church of the Nativity is located at 315 Prospect Street in Midland Park. For more information, call (201) 444-6362. At right: Coadjutor Archbishop Bernard Hebda