Chaminade Students Create App to Battle Doom Scrolling

By Katie Vasquez

With almost everyone owning a cell phone, social media is everywhere and part of a daily routine for many adolescents – including Chaminade High School students on Long Island.

“I just wake up and immediately I go to my phone, just start scrolling, don’t even think about anything,” 9th grader Ty Miranda tells Currents News. “[I] just go straight to my phone.”

Miranda and fellow freshmen at the school decided to see if they could change that routine by creating an app called “Media Mindful.”

“Everyone knows how to use technology mostly now, it’s become part of everyone’s day,” 9th grader Luke Krinsky explains.

Students began the process by conducting a survey of 324 students at the Long Island school.

“It told us that many kids spend, like, shocking amounts of time on social media every day,” student Andrew Runje Dargento says of the survey results.

The results showed that 96% of them use apps for more than an hour every day, and 60% found that to negatively impact their lives.

The app students developed as as response to those results reminds users of screen time usage, offers rewards for cutting down on time, and has an artificial intelligence bot to help with negative feelings.

“The AI recognizes key words from your input and it makes a personalized response to you,” Mateo Solis, a student at the school, explains. “So for example, if I say, ‘Social media has given me anxiety,’ it recognizes the keyword ‘anxiety’ and it makes a response for that word.”

The team presented their idea to the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and career services annual STEM competition and beat out 32 other schools for the top prize which was $1,800. They hope to use part of it to complete their project.

“I would like to finish the app, make it working and available for everybody to help everyone,” Christopher Covelli, a 9th grader, tells Currents News.

The app developers say they have experienced the app’s effects firsthand.

“It’s really just been like eye opening for us because we’ve gotten to solve an issue that we’ve all felt really personally,” says Dargento.

“After cutting down these distractions, I was able to focus my time more on what I really wanted to do. So as a result, my relationships with my family improved. I could get closer to God because now I have all this extra time,” adds Solis.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 3/26/2025

As Pope Francis rests and recovers at home, the Vatican releases its first report on the status of his health since his return.

Students in Queens helped Bishop Robert Brennan welcome visitors to their church during the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage.

During tonight’s Pulse of the Parish, meet a Brooklyn parishioner who makes sure everything runs smoothly in his home church, the Shrine Church of St Bernadette.

Pulse of the Parish: Michael Carestia, Shrine Church of St. Bernadette

By Christine Persichette

Michael Carestia has been walking the hallways at St. Bernadette Catholic Academy for decades.

“It’s like still walking through the halls and saying, ‘Oh God I’m 59 years old and I’m still here.’ But thank God I’m still here and like I said to help out in the church, anything I can do,” Carestia said.

But that wasn’t the case back in the day, when he wore a school uniform.

“I couldn’t wait to leave,” he said. “I was always in trouble. My older brother was an angel and every time when I got in here it was like, ‘You’re Chris’ brother? Can’t be.’ I was always in the principal’s office, the ruler, and so on.”

These days there are no more rulers, just tape measures and drills.

Carestia is the facilities manager at the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette and its school in Dyker Heights. He says he’s come full circle. Now when he gets called to the principal’s office, it’s not for detention.

“Most of the time it’s like being on the fire department. You never know when someone’s going to call like, ‘Oh Mike something broke upstairs, or Mike the toilet’s broken, a kid threw up, the chair broke, the desk broke.’’ Or Father Jeremy will call me, ‘Mike there’s something wrong with the sink in the church, the rectory, or the convent.’ Always something, there’s always something going on,” he said.

But whatever it is, the pastor, Fr. Jeremy Canna says he can always count on Carestia to check it out and fix it.

“He treats it, as far as our church is concerned, as if it’s his own house,” said Fr. Canna. “The way he would want his house to be in order, is the same way he wants this Shrine Church and our neighboring academy to be as best they can be.”

Carestia didn’t just go to school at St. Bernadette: he was baptized there, got married there and even walked his daughter down the aisle there.

“I don’t know if you want to call it a Brooklyn thing,” he told Currents News. “You’re here, your roots are here.”

And even though he jokes about being back at St. Bernadette, Carestie says he knows this is where God wants him to be and he plans to stay.

“Oh yeah, oh yeah I’m doing my penance, without a doubt,” he said jokingly of his experience. “I always make a joke: You’re wheeled in at baptism and you’re wheeled out at the end.’ Hopefully, I’ll come back at the end because it means so much to me the church and my family here.”,

And now you know Michael Carestia from St. Bernadette and how he makes up the pulse of the parish.

TONIGHT AT 7: Pulse of the Parish, Shrine Church of St. Bernadette

There’s a parishioner over at the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette who makes sure everything’s running smoothly. He’s at the Dyker Heights church and school day in and day out, just like he was in the good old days. But back then, he wasn’t exactly a teacher’s pet. Now, Michael Carestia is the Pulse of the Parish.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 3/25/2025

The Diocese of Brooklyn is about halfway through its Lenten Pilgrimage, and travelers are taking part in a special lesson.

He didn’t have a degree in architecture, but when Patrick Keely came to Brooklyn from Ireland, he followed in his father’s footsteps and got to work designing churches in the Diocese of Immigrants.

A church in Queens now has 13,000 rosaries, thanks to a generous donation from one parishioner.

Queens Students Lead Rosary at Lenten Pilgrimage Stop

By Katie Vasquez

Catholics of all ages are uniting together in prayer as these students from St Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Queens lead the packed parish in praying the rosary during a Lenten Pilgrimage stop.

Father Vincent Chirichella, the pastor of St Joseph Church in Astoria encouraged the young people to get involved in the journey.

“It was great to see them express their faith and on this special day, the feast of the Annunciation,” he tells Currents News. “It was really wonderful to see the children so in love with the Lord and Blessed Mother.”

“It was a blessing because I love to pray all the time,” 4th grader Olivia Buscio tells Currents News of the experience. “I pray before I go to bed, and I feel like it brings me closer to God.”

The event involved electing volunteers like 3rd grader Lillian Schultz to pray a decade.

“I was a little bit nervous, because I’m usually, like, I really don’t speak a lot,” she tells Currents News. “I’m a little bit shy and timid, but it was really fun at the same time.”

In times of stress, Schultz says she turns to Mary for guidance: “I really like praying because I feel safe and I feel like Mary is listening to me, and I feel like she can help me a lot.”

It’s a lesson the pilgrims of the Lenten journey know all too well, as they have spent the last four weeks at different churches across Brooklyn and Queens taking part in Masses, adorations, and rosaries.

Father Chirichella hopes more of the young people learn from them.

“I think the rosary is a great habit, spiritual habit,” he says. “You know, we all have habits, but a spiritual habit for the children to get into, bringing a great peace throughout their lives.”

It’s a prayer God may have already answered.

“It was really fun,” says Buscio. “And I like to see Father, and I like to be together in church.”

Prince of Church Architecture Builds Faith in Brooklyn and Beyond

By Christine Persichette and Jessica Easthope

Monsignor Guy Massie has immense pride in his parish. Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen in Carroll Gardens can be seen from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and beyond, thanks to one of Patrick’s Keely’s signature designs.

“The iconic sign of Keely is the tower,” Msgr. Massie said. “This cross lit up at night in the harbor and let’s look at what that means for so many people. This parish was built by Irish immigrants and they worked on the shore and it was a sign of great hope.”

Inside the red doors lies more of Keely’s handiwork still visible today and symbols of his culture and faith many will never notice, unless you know where to look.

“Keely was Irish, and his Irishness came through in all of his churches,” laughed Monsignor Edward Doran, the former pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights . “He snuck it in!”

Msgr. Doran has walked the pews of St. Charles Borromeo countless times, each time noticing and marveling at one of Keely’s design features – from the arches to the pillars made of wood.

Born in County Tipperary, Ireland in 1816, Keely’s father was a builder and the source of all his training. His Irish heritage was the first and seemingly only tool he needed to launch his illustrious career.

Keely revived a centuries-old style of architecture that welcomed new arrivals to the city.

“The immigrants were not always very well received,” said Msgr. Doran. “But in creating a beautiful piece of architecture, it represented the spirit of the Irish people, the faith of the Irish people, the positive attitude of the Irish people.”

Like many of his fellow Irishmen, Keely came to the states in 1842 as an unskilled laborer.

“I’ve been in practice for 45 years, architectural practice is something that you get good at after 30 years,” explained Carlo Zaskorski, principal architect at Zaskorski and Associates. “He managed to be able to have the effort, the drive, the stamina, the capability to be able to achieve what he did. And his buildings were sensational!”

With nearly 200 years of advances in technology and education, Zaskorski is still learning from Patrick Keely.

“Our job is so minor in comparison to what Keely did, I’m almost embarrassed,” Zaskorski joked. “Our job is to protect the interiors of Keely churches, but just to be associated with the building is exciting. It’s thrilling!”

Having restored several of Keely’s churches and many more across the Diocese of Brooklyn, Zaskorski says Keely was a master at capturing each church’s spirit from the inside out, Like at the Oratory Church of St. Boniface on the historic Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

“Churches to Keely and to the Irish Catholics were fundamental in essentially preservation of their culture, their spirit and, and their world,” Zaskorski said.

Throughout Keely’s career, he had the newly formed Diocese of Brooklyn’s best interests at heart, building in money-saving features in his designs. But not every design worked in his favor. One is known as “the cathedral that never was.”

Diocese of Brooklyn archivist Joe Coen says the unfinished cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Clermont Avenue in Fort Greene was slated to be the Prince of Church Architecture’s crowning achievement.

“The bishop, took money that would have been wonderfully given to the cathedral and supported the needs of his people.” Coen said. Here’s a crying need for high schools by 1933, and this cathedral is never really going to happen.”

Immigrants laid a foundation of faith in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Patrick Keely built upon it, forging a future for generations of newly arrived to shape their own lives and for the Diocese of Immigrants to continue to be a safe haven for all.

TONIGHT AT 7: Patrick Keely – The Remarkable Unsung Legacy of a Church Architect

By Currents News

You may not know his name, but you know his look.

When Patrick Keely arrived in Brooklyn in 1842 he got to work on his first Neo-Gothic architectural design, following in the footsteps of his father who built churches in Ireland.

Over the years, one stunning sacred space led to another. As they came to know his work people weren’t only impressed by Keely’s artistry, but also his faith and work ethic.

Many of his churches have withstood the test of time – his talent and his influence can be seen in buildings throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn.

St. John’s Bread & Life, Food Bazaar Supermarkets Help Feed the Hungry at Brooklyn Food Pantry

By Katie Vasquez

Grocery bags aren’t just handy for holding all the necessary goods, they are helping people in need fill their stomachs with a good meal in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

That’s because Food Bazaar Supermarkets and St. John’s Bread & Life in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn are teaming up a campaign called “Together, We’re Feeding Hope.”

For every bag purchased for $5 at the dozens of Food Bazaar locations in the New York City area, 100 percent of the proceeds go to Bread & Life.

The fundraiser kicked off at the beginning of March, and it’s been doing well so far.

“It’s a way to say, ‘I’m doing something positive during Lent, and I’m taking that time to think about that,'” Sister Caroline Tweedy, the executive director of St John’s Bread & Life, tells Currents News. “$5 will feed somebody for a day.”

“We did some quick math, and, we sold thousands and thousands of bags, which equates to over $50,000,” executive vice president of Food Bazaar Supermarkets, Edward Suh, explains of how the sales have done thus far.

He also says his stores pair perfectly with the Bed-Stuy food pantry’s mission.

“They provide meals and food to the people that need it the most,” he tells Currents News. “A lot of our locations, in fact, most of our locations are in areas that are a bit distressed, and we feel it’s our responsibility as a member of that particular community to give back in our own way.”

It comes at a time when families are struggling, and Bread & Life is seeing more and more people asking for help.

“It’s mostly older folks who are struggling,” Sister Tweedy observes. “They tell you they have to make a decision between rent and medical expenses, and so food is always at the end.”

Guests like Dawn Brabham are proof that the donations will go far.

The Brooklyn resident has relied on Bread and Life for two decades. The organization helps “a great deal, especially with the high prices,” she says.

The limited-edition tote will be available in stores until April 21, 2025.