Youth Summer of Service to C.S.J. Sisters

We always knew that attending a school that is part of the Sisters of St. Joseph Community was a special opportunity. This summer, the eight of us were given a chance to take the sisters’ mission, which we learned about in school and put into practice in real life. We spent a whole week tending […]

Youth Views August 17, 2013

What is something you are able to enjoy in the summer that you don’t usually get to enjoy in the winter?   Daniel McNally, sophomore Msgr. McClancy M.H.S. The summer weather allows me to play baseball. In the winter, it is too cold to play.               Rebecca A. Cora, […]

Reporter’s Notebook – WYD Youth Sacrifice for the Lord – (with slide show)

Tablet reporter Antonina Zielinska filed several dispatches from Rio de Janeiro. Here are her reports about spending a week with diocesan pilgrims to World Youth Day.   RIO DE JANEIRO – After a day of sightseeing and walking over two hours to the Copacabana beach for the official opening Mass of World Youth Day 2013, […]

Reporter’s Notebook – WYD – Overnight Vigil (with slide show)

The more than 200 pilgrims from Brooklyn and Queens walked over six miles with provisions and sleeping bags, alongside pilgrims from all around the world, for the overnight vigil on Copacabana beach. The site was moved to the beach because the original vigil site was flooded. Diocesan leaders were receiving conflicting reports of whether the […]

Reporter’s Notebook – WYD – Brooklyn Bishops Support Their Pilgrims

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Auxiliary Bishops Frank Caggiano and Octavio Cisneros all went to a show with the 224 Brooklyn delegates in Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day. Afterwards, Bishop DiMarzio took everyone out to a local steakhouse for dinner. The show was a praise and worship concert accompanied by testimony about vocations. There […]

Reporter’s Notebook – WYD – Brooklyn Laity Animate

Three lay leaders from the Brooklyn Diocese were asked to contribute to World Youth Day by taking on the role of animators at one of the English catechetical sites. Paul Morisi, Paula Migliore and Kenny Wodzanowski engaged youth from around the world in spiritual formation. They acted as masters of ceremonies, organized activities and worked […]

Reporter’s Notebook – WYD – A Queens Teen’s Testimony

MaryGrace Donohue, 18, of Holy Family parish, Flushing, shared her journey to faith with about a thousand English-speaking pilgrims. She told the pilgrims that at first she saw the opportunity to come to Brazil as a tourist adventure. “I was lacking faithful desire to be here,” she said. Growing up in an Irish Catholic family, […]

Reporter’s Notebook – WYD – Catholicism Brazilian Style

In order to enhance his pilgrims’ World Youth Day experience, Father Josephjude Gannon took his parish group from Queens on a Rio de Janeiro adventure to experience Catholicism Brazilian style. Father Gannon, the administrator of St. Gerard Majella parish, Hollis, referred to his World Youth Day iPhone app to see what events would best suit […]