When Father Jorge Ortiz died March 27, it wasn’t the first time that death visited the Diocese of Brooklyn during a pandemic. A perusal of the headlines from the 1918 editions of The Tablet reveals that the Spanish Flu of that year hit the church here in unexpected and dramatic ways.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the Diocese of Brooklyn to come up with interesting and creative ways for church pastors and parishioners to stay in touch. With no public celebrations of the Eucharist taking place, parishes are employing a 21st Century solution to the sense of isolation brought about by social distancing.
Three weeks ago, Vincent LeVien’s day-to-day activities looked much different than they do right now. Taking a phone call from the streets of New York City with sirens blaring in the distance, on a Friday afternoon he is already in the thick of delivering personal protective equipment (PPE) to doctors, nurses, FDNY, EMS and police forces across the New York metropolitan area.
The Diocese of Brooklyn announced Friday that the Chrism Mass this year will be celebrated on June 19, 2020, at 7:30 PM, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, depending on circumstances at that time.
The Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn, has released the following video statement tonight, on the first day of the “Bells of Hope” initiative.
Beginning Friday, April 3, parishes in the Brooklyn Diocese with outdoor bells are being called to ring them every day at 3 p.m. as part of a new initiative known as “Bells of Hope.”
It was a scene of hope and humanity as dozens of boxes of medical equipment from St. John’s University were packed up and driven over to New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital.
Joe Lewinger, Assistant Principal of Student Life at The Mary Louis Academy in Queens, died late in the evening of March 28 from complications of the coronavirus. He was 42 years old.
Father Michael Louis Gelfant, the pastor of Blessed Trinity Parish in Rockaway Point, streamed the hoisting of an Italian flag in honor of St. Joseph’s Day. He joked that, “It is the first time in the history of the parish, the Italian flag flies.”
While priests are unable to celebrate Mass publicly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are finding creative ways to serve their Catholic communities.
