An early 20th-century building boom in the northwestern corner of Queens led to an urgent need for a church and a school to serve a growing Catholic community of German, Irish and Italian immigrants. The parish of Immaculate Conception in the Ditmars section of Astoria was founded in January of 1924, and Bishop Thomas E. Molloy appointed Father Michael D. Lopez as the pastor.
Finding the best ways to accompany and strengthen local families on their journey of faith was the focus of a lay ministry conference in Flushing last Saturday.
One hundred and nine students from Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens were honored at the Tri-State Italian American Congress Scholarship Awards ceremony Feb. 27 at St. James Cathedral-Basilica, Downtown Brooklyn. Auxiliary Bishop James Massa presided as the awards were presented.
It was a night filled with powerful music, testimonials, performers and inspiring videos as Array of Hope brought its Awakening Hearts presentation Feb. 25 to SS. Simon and Jude Church, Gravesend.
A memorial Mass for Msgr. Austin P. Bennett, who died Jan. 31, will be celebrated at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Flatlands, Feb. 25 at 10:30 a.m.
Living a holy life is “the finest tribute we can give to our slave ancestors, to our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, who walked the gauntlet of segregation, discrimination and annihilation … in heroic Christian fashion,” Chicago Bishop Joseph N. Perry told attendees at a Black History Month Mass in Douglaston Feb. 19.
What was the clear-cut rationale behind why a group of friends would invite a total stranger to break bread with them? Surely enough it was self-evident: their love for God and neighbor.
In response to Pope Francis’ call to preach the Gospel at the peripheries of society, Father Frank Mann has started a ministry to street artists in Bushwick.
Lent begins with the celebration of Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on March 1. It is a season that urgently calls us to conversion and is a time for deepening our spiritual life, most especially through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The Fourth Annual Bishop Ignatius Catanello Memorial Dinner-Dance will be held at the Immaculate Conception Pastoral Center, Douglaston, on Saturday, March 11, beginning with 6 p.m. Mass.
