This past winter, Matilde passed away on a trip to Peru, the family’s native country. The children had her body brought back to White Plains, N.Y., where they live, for the funeral. One day, while praying with the family, their cousin-in-law Manuel Mendoza felt the Holy Spirit nudge him to invite the siblings who had been married civilly back to the faith.
Luis Alvarez learned the importance of being compassionate and serving others during his four years at Msgr. McClancy Memorial H.S., East Elmhurst. Those were values Alvarez put into practice when he served in the Marine Corps, responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and testified on Capitol Hill in June.
St. Finbar Catholic Church, Bath Beach — long a parish known for welcoming immigrants — honored the many Guatemalans in its community with a vigil Mass, procession and fiesta on Sept. 28 to celebrate the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel.
Mairen Upton, an eighth-grader at Holy Trinity Catholic Academy in Whitestone, is an example of a trend: Local Catholic schools are outpacing public schools in New York state standardized test scores.
Irish culture reigned as the 38th annual Great Irish Fair took over the Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island. Following the Mass and awards ceremony, a full day of Irish music filled the venue as thousands in attendance danced and sang along.
Seventh-grader Ashley Cela was enrolled in public school until last year, when St. Bartholomew Catholic Academy provided her family with a scholarship.
Victoria Javier hasn’t had a conversation with her husband, Santiago, in 10 years. The reason: Santiago Javier, 81, is nonverbal, one of the consequences of his Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder that affects 5.8 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
At the Sowing Seeds of Justice Celebration Sept. 19 in Manhattan, Jose Chapa and Rev. Richard Witt of the Rural & Migrant Ministry, present an award to state Senator Jessica Ramos, sponsor of the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act.
The apostolic oblates and Pro-Sanctity Movement came to the Diocese of Brooklyn in the 1960s, when they established roots serving in different parishes.
The danger of vaping is real. According to a Sept. 19 weekly report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people with a deadly vaping-related lung disease rose to 530 from 380 the week before (38 states and one U.S. territory report numbers). Officials have said half of those patients are under 25 years old and 16 percent are younger than 18. Nine deaths have been reported.
