by Ed Wilkinson When Father Charlie Keeney went on an African safari several years ago, he expected to be on vacation. Instead, he came back with a whole new ministry. “The last day I was there, I met a Polish-born priest who told me about a home he started for little children whose mothers were [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson The Chinese represent one of the largest groups of immigrants currently coming to our diocese. There are more than 380,000 Chinese immigrants living in Brooklyn and Queens. Among them are many Catholics, who bring with them their religious traditions and practices. Last weekend in Flushing, hundreds of Chinese Catholics gathered for the [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson The Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life have a lot of common. One similarity is that they have a great admiration for each other since they are both committed to the goal of preserving the dignity of human life, especially the unborn. To show how grateful the Knights are to [...]

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By Ed Eilkinson As the church bells rang at Holy Name, Windsor Terrace, and a light cool breeze blew, parishioners stood outside the church with lighted candles and remembered. This was last Monday evening, one week after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Father Jim Cunningham, pastor, organized an interfaith prayer service for all the [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson There are more questions than answers about the terror attack on the Boston Marathon this week. No one knows that better than people who were on the scene, like Father Brian Jordan, O.F.M., a chaplain at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, and Bridget Cunningham, the niece of Father Jim Cunningham, pastor of [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson Take twin brothers from Boston. Make one a politician and the other a priest. Throw in an assassination and a terrorist attack, an interfaith marriage, the horror of radical Islam, and you have the makings of “A Prayer for the Devil.” It’s the first published novel written by Dale Allan, a member [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson The Easter Vigil is the most dramatic event in the Church’s liturgical calendar. It uses sights, sounds and smells to announce the Good News that Jesus rose from the dead. Candles are lit. Incense rises from the thurible. Bells are rung. The cantor sings out, “Let us rejoice!” In recent years, the [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson What is happening in Rome amounts to nothing more than a seismic shift in how we view the papacy. Pope Francis wades into the crowds to shake hands with people. Pope Francis calls his dentist and his newspaper stand in Argentina to tell them that he will not be keeping appointments. Pope [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson The diocesan Mass of thanksgiving for the election of Pope Francis had a decidedly Hispanic tone. Celebrated at St. James Cathedral-Basilica in Downtown Brooklyn, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio was joined by Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros and about 25 concelebrants. Not only did Bishop DiMarzio preach the first part of his homily in Spanish [...]

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by Ed Wilkinson This column was supposed to be about the qualities we are looking for in the new pope. And then we received the news that Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius A. Catanello had died. When the news came, it was not unexpected. Bishop Catanello had retired early in 2010 because he was stricken with [...]

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