By Jessica Easthope
There are about 50 people at the 8:30 AM Mass at Our Lady of Angels Church in Bay Ridge. Only two are there to preserve history.
“We’re not theologians, not artists, we’re not historians. We’re just two women who live in Brooklyn, and we go. And whatever we get from the Mass, that’s what we write about.”
Sitting beside Roseanne Seminara and Mary Whelehan are their notebooks and pens. As they participate in Mass, they write.
Their thoughts and observations will one day become a book.
“For me, it’s just a journey, which, you know, morphed into something more than that.”
The journey started in May of 2023 at Good Shepherd in Sheepshead Bay, Mary’s home parish. Since then, the two women have been on a mission to visit every church in Brooklyn—Our Lady of Angels is number 81.
The idea came from a conversation Roseanne had with her good friend Monsignor John Delendick, the fallen FDNY chaplain who died of 9/11-related cancer on Thanksgiving Day 2023.
“I was sitting having dinner with Monsignor, and he was telling me about the church in downtown Brooklyn that was under the wrecking ball. The next day, there was nothing left but green boards. Not a stone, and I felt more of an urgency to get moving, to document what we have.”
“I would joke with Monsignor Delendick and say, ‘Okay, can we condense the homily just a little bit more? You know, can you grab me in the first ten minutes?'”
The women were first brought together in 1983 by two of New York’s bravest—their husbands, who worked together at Ladder 111 in Bedford-Stuyvesant. A friendship formed, and the women went on to work together at Roseanne’s midwife practice.
Keeping their faith even on the darkest days—like when Mary’s husband Chris passed away in 2012.
“It keeps you going. Life happens. And if you don’t have a higher being, and for us, that’s God, I don’t think you could make it through your day.”
So they decided to have no regrets and instead put pen to paper, writing their book for not just Catholics, but anyone looking to appreciate what they have in the here and now.
“Whether it’s the church, whether it’s your family, whether it’s something good in your life, if you don’t take advantage of it when you have it, you may look back with regret.”
“Every church presented a lesson for me to learn, everybody was different, and everything was important for my journey.”
The lessons have been found in the old pews, or the faces of parishioners—a little piece of each place, kept alive with their words.
“I really felt I was called to do something—not successful financially, or prestigious, but to do something. And every time I accomplish another goal in my life, I always ask, ‘Was that the something?’ I think this is the something. I think this is it.”
Roseanne and Mary are hoping to make it to every church in Brooklyn by the end of this year and will work to nail down the pages of their book in 2025. We look forward to it.