For the second straight year, Brian Long has been inducted as the President of the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn, a lay organization of the Brooklyn Diocese that promotes the interests of the Church.
Normally the Club’s president serves a one-year term, but when the next in line could not fulfill the responsibilities, Long was asked to stay on.
In his acceptance speech, Long, a partner in the Brooklyn construction firm of Long & DeLosa, asked the Club’s members to defend Catholic values that are under attack in the public forum.
The induction ceremony was part of the Club’s regularly scheduled Speakers Night, which was held June 13 at the Catholic Club in Breezy Point.
New York State Judge of the Court of Claims Vincent Del Giudice swore in the new officers and members of the board and also doubled as the guest speaker.
A graduate of Our Lady of Grace School, Gravesend; Xaverian H.S., Bay Ridge; NYU and New York Law School, Del Giudice sits on the Supreme Court in Kings County and currently has 150 murder cases before him.
A former assistant district attorney, defense attorney and a judge for the past 17 years, he credits his
love for the law and the public good to his Catholic upbringing.
He particularly praised the nuns who taught him in elementary school and the brothers in high school.
Known as a law-and-order judge, Del Giudice pointed out that his decisions have been reversed only twice by an appellate court.
He explained that the American legal system protects individual rights because of the oppression the framers of the U.S. Constitution experienced at the hands of the British government from which the country rebelled.
As a judge, he said his duty is to remain neutral and to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected, according to the law.
He added that the worst “nightmare” for a judge is to put an innocent person in jail.
At the meeting, the Club presented scholarship checks to four of its five winners: Colleen Egan, Fontbonne Hall Academy, Bay Ridge; Carmeliza Marcellus, Cristo Rey H.S., East Flatbush; Kristen Giebler, Msgr. McClancy M.H.S., East Elmhurst; and Kylie Galvin, St. Saviour H.S., Park Slope. Denise Bermello, St. Agnes Academic, College Point, was unable to attend.