Local Koreans Concerned But Not Panicky Over War Threat at Home

by Marie Elena Giossi While North Korea marked the April 15 anniversary of its founder’s birth with flowers and remembrances, rather than more threatening rhetoric and missile tests, concerns about a nuclear attack on the U.S. continued to loom. This month, following weeks of war threats, North Korea marks two significant anniversaries – the April […]

Migration Day: Immigration Reform Is Topic at Diocesan Celebration of Diversity

by Marie Elena Giossi Arrayed in the attire of their native lands, representatives of 32 ethnic groups from Brooklyn and Queens led the entrance procession at the annual Migration Day Mass, celebrated by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio at St. James Cathedral-Basilica, Downtown Brooklyn, Sunday afternoon, April 14. This year’s focus was on immigration reform, and among […]

Parish Takes Artistic Look at Year of Faith

by Antonina Zielinska In an effort to make the most of the current Year of Faith, St. Rose of Lima parish, Parkville, hosted a concert and art exhibit to explore the Catholic faith. By combining an evening of music and art, Father Luke Trocha, pastor, said those gathered had a chance to gain a glimpse […]

Missioner in Brooklyn Shares Pope’s Ethnicity

by Antonina Zielinska As the world is learning about its new pope, one Brooklyn resident already loves him as a father. Natalia Fassano is a lay consecrated member of Heart’s Home, a Catholic missionary group that sponsors an outreach center in the Fort Greene housing projects. She has taken permanent promises of poverty, chastity and […]

NY Stands with Boston: Local Marathon Memorials

In light of the events at the Boston Marathon, local churches are hosting public memorials in the coming days. A Concert for Peace, dedicated to the heroes of the Boston Marathon, is set for Sunday, April 21, 7 p.m. at St. Stephen Church, 151 East 28th St., Manhattan. Organist and conductor Paul Murray, a Boston […]

The Faces of Migration Day 2013

Hundreds gathered at St. James Cathedral-Basilica, Downtown Brooklyn, to celebrate their unity in faith and diversity in language and culture at the Brooklyn Diocese’s annual Migration Day Mass, Sunday, April 14. Donning the garb of their homelands, Catholics representing 32 ethnic groups participated in the festivities, which included an afternoon Mass, celebrated by Bishop Nicholas […]

Korean War Chaplain Earned Medal of Honor

by Joseph Austin WASHINGTON (CNS) – President Barack Obama April 11 awarded the Medal of Honor to famed Korean War chaplain Father Emil Kapaun, presenting it to the priest’s nephew, Ray Kapaun, nearly 22,604 days after his uncle’s death in a prisoner of war camp. “He should have got it long time ago,” Joe Ramirez, […]

Cathedral Alumni Reunion

Cathedral Prep, Elmhurst, will honor its alumni at the 15th annual Immaculata Award Dinner, May 10 at the Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston. This year’s Immaculata Award recipients include Auxiliary Bishops Raymond Chappetto, ’65, and Paul Sanchez, ’66. Also to be honored is John Casey, ’57.

Pope’s Election Is a Sign of Church’s Shift from Europe

by Jonathan Luxmoore OXFORD, England (CNS) – The election of Pope Francis, an Argentine, to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics confirms what observers have long known: Vast demographic shifts in the Catholic population are reconfiguring the face of the Church and shifting the institution’s center from its historic European heartland. What that means for […]

Pope Picks Panel of Reformers

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Amid rising concerns about corruption and mismanagement in the central administration of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis named an international panel of cardinals to advise him on the latest reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatican Secretariat of State announced April 13 that the pope had established the group – which […]