One Year After Fire, Queens Church Is Planning to Rebuild (with slide show)

by Antonina Zielinska The one-year anniversary of the fire that destroyed the interior of St. Mary Magdalene church, Springfield Gardens, was bittersweet for parishioners who commemorated the day with a prayer service and a social get-together. Parishioners stood outside the church building, which they have not been able to use for the past year, to […]

Assisi Analysis

ASSISI, Italy (CNS) – A common thread ran through many of the speeches and invocations of this year’s “prayer for peace” encounter in Assisi: the uneasy sense that the world is facing not merely conflicts and wars, but a much broader crisis that affects social and cultural life in every country. Environmental damage, the rich-poor […]

Franciscan Jubilarians

At a liturgy in the chapel at the Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston, three Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn recently observed their jubilees of entrance into the order. From left, are: Brother William Boslet, Superior General; and Brothers Robert Schaefer, St. Francis College, 60th Anniversary; Alan Zodda, St. Francis Prep, 60th Anniversary; and Warren Prentiss, St. Francis Prep, […]

Pope Changes Format Of ‘Ad Limina’ Visits

by John Thavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a quiet modification of a traditional format, the Vatican has dropped most of the individual private meetings between Pope Benedict XVI and bishops making their “ad limina” visits to Rome.  (Bishop DiMarzio will lead the Brooklyn delegation on an “ad limina” visit during Thanksgiving week.) The unannounced […]

For All the Saints

Lori Turano’s first-grade class conducted its annual All Saints Day Parade at St. Pancras School in Glendale.

Judge Won’t Remove Church Occupiers

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) – Saying that he “cannot conclude that the condition of the steeple presents an emergency such that immediate court intervention is necessary,” a Massachusetts Superior Court judge has denied a motion that would have evicted protesters from a former Catholic church in the Diocese of Springfield. Ruling on an Oct. 4 motion […]

Ready and Willing

Seminarians Joseph Zwosta, left, and Giancarlo Pattugalan, both from the Diocese of Brooklyn, were ordained as deacons on Oct. 6, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  They are scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood for the diocese in the spring.

British Monarch May Now Marry a Catholic

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) – The law that bans a British monarch from marrying a Catholic is to be lifted after more than 300 years. The reforms were announced following the unanimous agreement of the 16 nations that have Queen Elizabeth II as their constitutional head of state. But they will not include the repeal of […]

Strategic Planning Process Helps Parishes Improve Finances

by Jay Akasie This is the fifth and last in a series on the reconfiguration process in the diocese. The chief financial officer for the Diocese of Brooklyn, John Borgia, is accustomed to dissecting complex fiscal statements and analyzing detailed spreadsheets. But sometimes he’ll dilute the many financial issues facing the diocese into an example […]