“My name is Arouna Kandé,” says the young man from Senegal. “I am a climate refugee.” This brief introduction appears near the start of “The Letter: A Message for our Earth.” This 2022 Vatican-produced documentary is about “Laudato Si’” — the encyclical from Pope Francis sounding the alarm about climate change.
Diocesan News
40 Years Ago, Brave Nuns Shielded a Maryknoll Msgr. From a Guatemalan Hit Squad
n the fall of 1984, Msgr. John Vesey was a Maryknoll missionary working with the indigenous people of southwestern Guatemala, but he became deathly ill with pneumonia. While bedridden, he slipped in and out of consciousness.
In moments of lucidity he saw, standing over him, Sister Alba Estela Orellana and her fellow Carmelite nuns. The Guatemalan sisters helped him minister to the Tz’utujil people of Santiago Atitlán. But Msgr.
Local Architectural Firm Gets Preservation Honors for Restoring Two Churches in the Diocese
After decades of renovating churches across the Diocese of Brooklyn, a New York City architectural firm with strong Catholic ties is getting commemorated by one of the premier preservation organizations in the state.
Double Life: Catholic Architect Renovates Old Churches and Inspires Young Faithful
By day, Queens native Jason Galindo is an architect at Zaskorski & Associates, working to renovate churches across the diocese. At night, he heads out to St. Brigid Catholic Church in Bushwick, where he works as a youth minister. In both roles, he has found a way to celebrate his faith, woven into every aspect of his life.
Bishop Robert Brennan to Lead Prayer for People of Strife-Torn Haiti
By The Tablet Staff Bishop Robert Brennan invites the faithful of the diocese to join him in prayer for Haiti at Mass on Monday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. at Holy Innocents Parish in Flatbush. The church is that day’s stop on the Diocesan Lenten Pilgrimage. Haiti stands on the brink of civil war, as […]
Children’s Book Authors Foster Love of Reading in ‘Great Diocesan Read Aloud’ Session
Everything that Lisa Hendey writes, she offers up to God. As the founder of CatholicMom.com and author of nine Catholic children’s books, she makes sure faith is woven into every story she creates.
Religious Sisters Offer Affordable Housing to Students
Rhema Khairnar isn’t a nun, but she does live in a convent. Khairnar, who is studying for her PhD in pharmacology at St. John’s University, is one of a handful of young people living in Immaculate Conception Convent in Jamaica Estates as part of a program sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood to provide affordable housing for students and young professionals.
NYPD Seeks Man Who Said He Was a Priest & Allegedly Stole $900 from Queens Pastor
Police request the public’s help to catch a man who reportedly bluffed his way into American Martyrs Parish Sunday, March 3, and took $900 in cash.
Catholic Church’s View on Cremation: ‘Treat With Dignity, in Life and Death’
Death, and burial, are lively topics of conversation in the Catholic Church these days. With increasing numbers of people opting for cremation over the more traditional full-body burial, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department within the Vatican responsible for defending Catholic teaching, recently clarified the Church’s position on cremation.
New Religious Community Aims to Be ‘Spiritual Mothers to Spiritual Orphans’
Jennifher Dircio and Basia Cdno are the first candidates for a new community of religious sisters under development — the Franciscan Sisters of the Pure Heart — in the Bronx.