By Currents News
For the last 125 years the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn has been giving back to the community, and the evening of Feb. 6 was no different as the Catholic lay organization held its 125th anniversary dinner at El Caribe in Mill Basin, Brooklyn.
The night’s celebrations marked the highlight of the Cathedral Club’s social calendar: nearly 400 people gathered for the club’s annual dinner to raise money for a scholarship program benefitting high school students in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Bishop Robert Brennan, the spiritual director of the club, said this year’s event is even more special because the club is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
“On a day like this I think back to those days at the threshold into the 20th century when a growing population of immigrants in Brooklyn banded together and came together as Catholics and said, ‘How do we support one another in the living out of our faith in the rough and rugged land of Brooklyn at those times?’ And, you know something? They pulled it off,” he told Currents News.
Bishop Brennan had the anniversary in mind when he chose the dinner’s principal speaker, Father Michael Bruno. As dean of seminarians at St. Joseph Seminary and College he teaches church history, which means that attendees were fortunate to get a history lesson during dinner.
Father Bruno said that while other Catholic organizations already existed at the turn of the century, the Cathedral Club filled a particular need.
“The recently ordained chancellor of the diocese and secretary to Bishop Charles McDonnell, Fr. George Mundelein, recognized a particular need to engage Catholic young adults, these now children of those Civil War veterans,” he told attendees during his speech. “They were entering society and public life in a century now fraught with political and social controversy and often finding their doors closed to opportunities in their professions of choice.”
The New York City Police Department’s chief of department John Chell and attorney Joseph Rosato were the night’s honorees.
All in all, the night raised $150,000, making for great news: starting in June the scholarships the club provides will increase from $4,000 to $7,000 per student.