Parishioners all over Brooklyn and Queens reveled in the chance to enter their local Catholic churches to say a prayer as churches opened their doors for the first time in more than two months. Churches were closed as a precaution against the coronavirus.
Catholic churches in Brooklyn and Queens are reopening today, not for Mass, but for private prayer with no more than 10 people at a time allowed inside.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn are making plans for Catholics to return to Mass and the sacraments in a way that cares for both the “souls and bodies of our people.”
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is working with retired NYPD chief of department Joseph Esposito to develop an action plan to reopen churches when New York’s stay-at-home order is lifted.
Senator Charles Schumer said he fought to get houses of worship, religious schools and non-profits to be included in the government’s massive COVID-19 stimulus bill.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio released a video on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, when the Church celebrates the Archangel Gabriel’s apparition to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she was to be the Mother of God.
At one Chinese parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the start of Lent came with a message of hope amid concerns about the coronavirus.
Bishop DiMarzio looks forward to the investigation of the allegation made against him and having his good name cleared and restored.
An estimated 25,000 New Yorkers took to the streets in a “Solidarity March” in protest of anti-Semitism on Jan. 5, among them Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who told the crowd “we are all brothers and sisters under the one God who made us.”
The Christmas tree, decked out in 17,000 red lights and 2,500 ribbons, was lit red, symbolizing the thousands of Christians who are persecuted worldwide every year.
