Diocesan News

Catholic Foundation Grants Assist Parishes and Schools

June 28, 2017

The Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens announced that it has re-launched its signature Grant Program, awarding 36 new grants totaling nearly $300,000. The 2017/2018 fiscal year grants were awarded to local entities including deaneries, parishes, schools and academies, as well as mission-based agencies and programs throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn.

“We are delighted to re-start our local grant program so that we can assist members of our Catholic community in carrying out the work of our Church this year,” said Joseph Geoghan, chairman of Catholic Foundation’s board of directors. “Our local grant program compliments our funding of the diocesan programmatic needs, and enables Catholic Foundation to respond directly to the immediate needs of our Church and our parishioners.”

The local grants awarded will support a variety of concerns such as the much needed upgrading of academy classrooms, launching of a youth theater program, homelessness outreach, Family Catechesis and teacher training, and providing for religious education programs and youth evangelization programs.

Supported by eight core endowments created as a result of the 1998 Alive in Hope campaign, Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens awards grants to parishes, academies and schools in need. Additionally, grants are made to diocesan organizations that support the ministries of the Church in Brooklyn and Queens and operate in mission-based areas such as senior citizen services, immigration, continuing education for clergy, lay leadership, vocations, evangelization and religious education, care for elderly priests and Catholic education.

The Catholic Foundation committed to $1.6 million in total grants for 2017/2018, which includes funding for key initiatives and agencies within the Diocese of Brooklyn such as Catholic Migration Services and Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens.

The largest grant on a parish or school level – $10,000 – was awarded to the following entities:

  • SS. Peter and Paul-Epiphany parish, Williamsburg, for its Pastoral Familiar program and religious education program.
  • Cathedral Prep and Seminary, Elmhurst, for its Father Troike Summer Leadership Program.
  • St. Sebastian Catholic Academy, Woodside, for its collaborative learning with SMART table technology project.
  • St. Francis de Sales Catholic Academy, Belle Harbor, for Google Chromebook plan (grades five to eight).
  • Ten parishes and two academies in eastern Queens for Deanery Month observance.
  • St. Edmund Elementary School, Sheepshead Bay, for its interdisciplinary project program.
  • St. Ephrem School, Dyker Heights, for a tech lab.
  • Sacred Heart Catholic Academy, Bayside, for Young Authors – Where Tradition Meets Technology.
  • Sacred Heart Catholic Academy, Glendale, for Chromebook as Technology Resource in the middle school.
  • St. Patrick Catholic Academy, Bay Ridge, renovation of the Msgr. Joseph K. Parks Library and Media Center.
  • Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy, Williamsburg, for installation of SMART Boards and SMART Board speakers in each classroom.
  • Immaculate Conception School, Astoria, for STEMS Flipped Classroom Implementation with iPad applications.
  • Holy Family Catholic Academy, Fresh Meadows, upgrade of technology.

Also a grant for $9,980 was presented to Sacred Hearts-St. Stephen Church, Carroll Gardens, to improve the catechetical environment. $9,514 was awarded to Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy, North Floral Park, for a program that would provide a balanced approach to literacy for grades one to four.

An $8,000 grant from the Bishop McDonnell Fund for Vocations was provided to St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, to help finance its Schola Cantorum’s musical pilgrimage and tour to France.

St. Camillus Catholic Academy, Rockaway Park, received $7,000 to create a drama/theater program. St. Benedict Joseph Labre was presented $7,000 for its Every Student, Every Year program.

Most of the grants mentioned were financed through the Bishop John Loughlin Fund for Evangelization and Religious Education and the Archbishop Bryan J. McEntegart Fund for Catholic education.