Boomers Generation is Coming of Age

Volunteering Keeps People Young at Heart   by Liz O’Connor (CNS) – Retirees form the core of volunteer programs across the U.S., offering important services especially to the elderly – some of whom are younger than the volunteers. In the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., for example, where Donna Nash coordinates Catholic Charities services for the […]

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man in Brooklyn

A three-story brick house stands at 1175 Shore Pkwy. in Bensonhurst. The house is slightly set back from the other homes on the block, and a brown awning encloses an elevated front porch. Everything about the house would make it seem like any other normal house in Brooklyn, including a two-story garage in the backyard. […]

Into the Deep with Ships of Holy See

by Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – One could say it all started with St. Peter’s fishing boat. One day, that humble vessel turned into a powerful pontifical fleet, particularly during the life of the Papal States. While St. Peter’s boat was clearly used for fishing and helping Jesus preach to the crowds on shore, […]

NY Benefit to be Held to Assist Aging Sisters

Support Our Aging Religious (SOAR!) celebrates its 27th anniversary at its annual gala on Oct. 2 at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan. Established in 1986, SOAR! is a national not-for-profit committed to financially supporting elderly and infirm members of Catholic religious congregations in our nation. Sister Patricia Codey, S.C., Esq., President of Catholic […]

Brooklyn Native Marks 25 Years as Franciscan

Brother William Herbst, O.F.M., a member of Holy Name Province, the largest community of Franciscan friars in the U.S., is celebrating 25 years as a friar this summer. Herbst is the province’s assistant director of postulancy, working out of offices at St. Paul Friary in Wilmington, Del. He was honored, along with other jubilarians celebrating […]

Pope Outlines Temptations In Latin American Church

RIO DE JANEIRO (CNS) – Reducing the faith to a worldly ideology, prizing administrative efficiency over missionary zeal and exalting the role of clergy to the detriment of the laity are some of the major “temptations” undermining evangelization in Latin America, Pope Francis told Church leaders from the region. “The decision for missionary discipleship will […]

Pope appoints Brooklyn auxiliary bishop to head Diocese of Bridgeport

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Francis has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Brooklyn, N.Y., as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn. The appointment was announced July 31 in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Bishop Caggiano, 54, succeeds then-Bishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who […]

On Flight Home, the Pope Reflects on Saints, Sinners

by Cindy Wooden ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM BRAZIL (CNS) – Pope Francis said he was responding to the clear wishes of the College of Cardinals when he set up commissions to study the Vatican bank, Vatican financial and administrative procedures and the reform of the Roman Curia. The pope also said he knows people […]

Prayer Coins from B’klyn Travel Around the World

 by Antonina Zielinska RIO DE JANEIRO – All through the week of World Youth Day, pilgrims from Brooklyn and Queens had Pray for the Pope coins at the ready. They gave them away as gifts and exchanged them for souvenirs. “The coins for me are all about seeing people’s excited faces when we explain them,” […]

Search in Syria for Jesuit Presumed Kidnapped

by Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The war in Syria is like a factory churning out nothing but death, destruction and suffering, said Archbishop Mario Zenari, Vatican nuncio to Syria. Even though the Vatican was unable to confirm July 30 news reports that a Jesuit priest had been kidnapped in Syria, the nuncio said […]