Thomas Fascianella, who is in charge of scheduling the altar servers at the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette in Dyker Heights, used to scramble to fill the spots to ensure that there was a server to cover each Mass. His task was challenging because the church had only five altar servers.
An arena typically filled with fans cheering on the Brooklyn Nets had a different kind of excitement in the air on Sunday, July 7. The Barclays Center was the center of the Neocatechumenal Way universe for the day as nearly 20,000 faithful gathered for a Mass in the famous basketball arena-concert venue to celebrate a significant milestone — the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Catholic movement in the United States.
In the wake of environmental tests detecting contaminants in the air in the rectory of St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, New York State is taking steps to address the problem.
Catholicism has been present in the United States since before its formation, due to French and Spanish colonization. In the British Colonies that would serve as the first 13 states, however, their presence was less prominent and welcomed.
Eileen LaRuffa was such an active and dedicated parishioner of St. Finbar Church in Bath Beach that it was not a bit surprising her funeral Mass took place there on Saturday, June 29.
In an act of desecration, a vandal decapitated a statue of Jesus Christ outside Holy Family Church in Fresh Meadows on Sunday, June 30, the pastor confirmed.
Since coming to the U.S. from Mexico in the early 2000s, Nelson Gerardo Tlatelpa developed a servant’s heart at his home parish, Our Lady of Refuge in Midwood. He helped whenever asked, and soon he regularly served as an usher and worked with the youth. Father Michael Perry, pastor, (now pastor emeritus) saw potential in the young man from Chinantla, a small town about 135 miles southeast of Mexico City.
Sister Mary Rose Chinn is too old to be an official “perpetual pilgrim,” traversing the country as one of four groups enroute to Indianapolis as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. At nearly 70 years old, the Handmaid of the Triune God sister is four decades older than the maximum age acceptable to be part of the pilgrimage, and is asthmatic.
A raucous crowd of more than 200 people filled the 8400 block of Third Avenue on June 24 to make sure local elected officials heard their voices, loud and clear, in strong opposition to an application to open a legally licensed cannabis dispensary there.
DeSales Media Group won 33 awards this year at the Catholic Media Conference on June 21 in Atlanta. The Catholic Media Association’s annual conference took place June 18-21 with more than 300 participants from around the country and Canada. The group represents more than 200 publications and 90 communications offices throughout the United States and Canada.
