By Tim Harfmann
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill addressed hundreds at Brooklyn’s Cathedral Club Dinner about the important role of faith in the city. “If we’re going to continue to make New York City a safe place for all 8.6 million residents, we all have to work together; and I think the Church plays a big part in that. We have to recognize each other’s humanity. I think that’s how we make the city even safer,” said Commissioner O’Neill.
The Cathedral Club is the top, lay, Catholic organization in Brooklyn — hard at work for over a century. At it’s annual dinner, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio pointed to its contributions in strengthening Catholic unity; “We see people coming together, working together for a common cause, and at the same time respecting one another. This is what we need in our society!”
For the future of society, the Cathedral Club earmarks the proceeds from its dinner to a scholarship fund for Catholic high school students. “The Catholic faith is under attack from every direction these days. I think it’s important and our mission to keep the Catholic high school program going,” said Brian Long, president of the Cathedral Club. The club’s mission is strongly supported by Jorge Dominguez, editor-in-chief of The Tablet and Nuestra Voz, and Liz Faublas, anchor of Currents News. “(Students are) the ones that are going to carry on the traditions. They’re the ones that are going to carry on the faith. So if we can’t all come together for that, then we’re truly lost,” said Faublas. “You see people here from so many different backgrounds, different cultures. Everybody’s together. This is when you think, you remember, that Catholic means universal,” said Dominguez.
Part of that universal Church is the event’s honoree, Domenick Cama. He is the president and COO of Investors Bank. Cama remembered how a Catholic education made a difference for him. “It served as a foundation for me and my career, in my family, and it has really served as the backbone of everything that has been good in my life.”
New York’s top cop, Commissioner O’Neill, told a similar story. “The message that I received at home from my mom and dad was that this life is not just about you. It’s about other people. That was reinforced by that Catholic education.”