Pope John XXIII once said, “Mankind is a great, an immense family … This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” The Christmas spirit will still be alive — albeit in modified ways, due to the pandemic — thanks to how Catholic parishes and dioceses will continue their annual programming.
The Test for Admission into Catholic High Schools (TACHS), which was administered online last month due to the pandemic, seemed to go off without a hitch. More than 10,000 eighth-graders from Catholic, public, and private schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Archdiocese of New York, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, took the exam this year.
Advent is upon us, and parishes have placed their wreaths with four candles on the altar in keeping with the Catholic Church’s teachings. But there are many Catholics unaware of the significance of their deeper meaning.
As the COVID-19 rages on, pastors in the Diocese of Brooklyn are coming up with ways to keep their churches financially afloat during the pandemic when social distancing rules are sharply curtailing attendance at Masses and most revenue streams have been brought to a halt.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, joined by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, on Tuesday, Dec. 8, unveiled the sculpture, “Angels Unawares,” at the Soldiers and Sailors Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza. The annual lighting of the plaza’s Christmas tree followed the unveiling.
A duplicate rendering of “Angels Unawares” is touring the U.S., with a stop in Brooklyn to serve as the Nativity scene for the Diocese of Brooklyn in Grand Army Plaza of Prospect Park. Its unveiling is set for early Tuesday evening, Dec. 8, along with the annual Christmas tree lighting, also in the plaza.
Youngsters living on a Bay Ridge cul-de-sac have created a jewelry-making business and are selling hand-crafted bracelets to raise money for charity. They recently donated $146 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Wage theft has increased since March when the COVID-19 took hold of the U.S. economy, the Worker’s Justice Project reports. Before then, WJP saw about four instances of wage theft per week. In recent weeks, however, the weekly average has grown to 11.
Once a month, parishioners from Queen of Angels Church load up two minivans with hundreds of breakfast sandwiches, bagels, soups, coffee, and tea and drives out to several Queens neighborhoods to deliver food to immigrant day laborers.
In a moving tribute to four American women slain in El Salvador during the height of that country’s civil war in 1980, Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto led a memorial Mass marking the 40th anniversary of their deaths on Dec. 2.
