by Marie Elena Giossi Failure is not an option for the biggest test ever to face the school community at Brooklyn Jesuit Prep in Crown Heights – staying open. Efforts are underway to secure $1 million to save this Catholic middle school, which has been serving low-income children for nearly a decade. New York Nativity, [...]

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by Deacon Don Zirkel Dorothy Day, whose cause for canonization is underway, has at least six important ties to the Brooklyn Diocese: her birth and earliest years; service as a nurse; significant retreat; volunteer co-workers; Catholic Worker house in Park Slope; and many references in the pages of the diocesan newspaper. The most influential woman [...]

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by Chaz Muth Patrick Jordan gazed down at the gravestone of a dear friend who died 32 years ago, a woman the Catholic Church may one day canonize. He squatted in front of the grave, made the sign of the cross and then offered a prayer for Dorothy Day, an American peace activist and co-founder [...]

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by Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The number of Catholics in the world and the number of bishops, priests, religious men and seminarians all increased in 2011, while the number of women in religious orders continued to decline, according to Vatican statistics. The number of permanent deacons is showing “strong expansion” globally, but especially [...]

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) – Confined to Strong Memorial Hospital as he waits for a heart transplant, Timothy Day of Kenmore, N.Y., wasn’t going to be able to attend his eight-year-old daughter Erin’s First Communion. So Erin decided the celebration of the Eucharist should come to him. “I gave her the choice if she wanted to [...]

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PHILADELPHIA (CNS) – Dr. Kermit Gosnell may have been convicted May 13 of murder at his Philadelphia abortion clinic, but “nothing can bring back the innocent children he killed, or make up for the vulnerable women he exploited,” said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. And, he added, “the repugnance of his clinic conditions” must be remembered. [...]

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by Antonina Zielinska The Diocese of Brooklyn welcomed two Polish seminarians, who left their former lives behind and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to answer the call of Jesus. Cezar Jastrzebski and Marcin Chilczuk were ordained May 12 as transitional deacons on the path to priesthood by Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez at Our Lady of the [...]

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WASHINGTON (CNS) – The annual audit of diocesan compliance with the U.S. Catholic Church’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” found a drop in the number of allegations, number of victims and number of offenders reported in 2012. Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which gathered data for the [...]

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by Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis warned against “gentrification of the heart” as a consequence of comfortable living, and called on the faithful to “touch the flesh of Christ” by caring for the needy. The pope’s words came in a homily during Mass in St. Peter’s Square May 12, when he [...]

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  by Jim Mancari Imagine being a young person from overseas being promised new opportunities and an improved way of life in a bustling city like New York. What could go wrong? America is the land of the free, where slavery has been abolished since the late 19th century. Many wide-eyed young men and women [...]

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