The Shalom Cafe at the San Damiano Mission Catholic Church in Williamsburg is now open for business.
The Biden Administration is threatening to ban TikTok in the U.S. unless some changes are made.
Five young boys got stuck in the sewer system on Staten Island on Tuesday.
It is the hottest ticket in town.
Registration is now open for the National Eucharistic Congress.
The week-long event will be held in Indianapolis in July of 2024.
It’s a milestone moment of the USCCB’S Eucharistic Revival to reinforce the belief of Jesus’ Presence in The Eucharist.
Joel Stepanek, Chief Mission Officer for The National Eucharistic Congress, joins Currents News to discuss the event.
Thirteen people die every single day while waiting for a life-saving kidney donation, Fr. Jim Cunningham isn’t going to be one them.
He’s been cleared for a transplant and is waiting for surgery. The organ is coming from Mike Coughlin, his friend and parishioner at St. Francis de Sales in Belle Harbor. Mike has lived a life of service, inspired by members of his own family to make this kind of sacrifice, he was already planning to donate.
“I have the easy part, the surgeon’s doing the hard part I just have to fall asleep and wake up so I don’t know if it’s a service it’s just an easy way to save lives,” he said.
But this isn’t Father Jim’s first kidney transplant, and Mike isn’t the first friend to go under the knife for him. This is Fr. Jim’s second, second chance at life.
“For people to do this, to get a second chance at life once and then to get it twice, I don’t take this for granted,” said Fr. Jim.
Fr. Jim was first diagnosed with late stage kidney disease in 2015 and in 2016 his good friend, firefighter Pat Nash donated his kidney without hesitation.
This time around, when the new kidney started to fail after Fr. Jim got COVID twice and then MRSA, the parish council at St. Francis de Sales circulated this flier to try and find him a new donor.
“It was an overwhelming response, because of HIPAA laws they can’t tell me who has applied but I got a phone call from the hospital and the coordinator said who are you, we have gotten so many requests,” said Fr. Jim.
And now in about a month, Mike and Fr. Jim will make the swap.
“They mix our blood for a week, we’re both O+ and after a week they said it’s a perfect match and I said perfect, all the signs were there to donate to Fr. Jim,” Mike said.
Mike and Fr. Jim share much more than the same blood type.
“From what I’ve been taught from my father and my mother in law, you’re here to help people if it was a stranger I’d want to help but somebody like Fr Jim, we have to help him,” said Mike.
“I will do everything that I can to stay healthy, take care of myself and serve to the best of my ability,” said Fr. Jim.
The two men share their faith.
A Diocese of Brooklyn priest is learning just how much his community loves him after one of his own parishioners decided to donate a lifesaving organ to him.
A newborn baby boy was found abandoned outside in the cold for two days in Massachusetts.
Registration is now open for the National Eucharistic Congress.
The strong right arm of the Catholic Church honored aborted babies following the 10:30 am Mass at American Martyrs Church in Bayside this past Sunday.
The Knights of Columbus held a prayer service for the more than 63 million babies who have been aborted in the United States since 1973.
After praying a litany for life, parishioners planted 63 crosses out on the church’s front lawn for those babies who died.
The Diocese Of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage is more than half way through their journey.
Grabbing their passports, pilgrims headed to Our Lady Queen Of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills, Queens yesterday.
They celebrated Mass with Bishop Robert Brennan and retired Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez, who is the pastor there.
The day before they were at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church in Jamaica, Queens.
Students from the Parish’s Catholic academy joined Bishop Brennan for a morning filled with song, prayer and Eucharistic Adoration.
It was just one of many spiritually filled activities that happened at the church, which held services such as rosaries, vespers, holy hours and more for more than 12 hours.
Since Ash Wednesday, pilgrims have been visiting a different parish in Brooklyn and Queens almost every day.
PROSPECT HEIGHTS — St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn announced it will eliminate its Division I athletics program, effective at the end of the spring 2023 semester.
In a statement posted March 20 to the St. Francis College website, Denis J. Salamone, ’75, chair of the St. Francis College Board of Trustees, said the decision — part of the college’s “SFC Forward: Strategic Vision for 2023 & Beyond” plan — is a response to the challenges facing higher education institutions, particularly smaller liberal arts colleges in the Northeast, including increased operating expenses, flattening revenue streams, and plateauing enrollment due to the pandemic.
“We want to acknowledge that SFC has a rich legacy in competitive athletics, and are proud of our Terriers today and in all years past,” the statement reads. “This difficult decision was guided by a commitment to preserving the college’s 164-year Franciscan mission to provide a high quality and affordable education to working-class and first-generation students.”
The statement said the school would honor all current academic and athletic scholarships for student-athletes, even though they will no longer be participating in sports. Employment for athletics staff and coaches will end at the conclusion of the spring semester.
The spring sports include men’s and women’s tennis, men’s track and field, men’s volleyball, and women’s water polo.
“I am heartbroken that a decision has been made to eliminate the college’s athletics program,” said St. Francis Athletic Director Irma Garcia, ’80, in a statement posted to the Terriers’ athletics social media accounts. “I want to thank every student-athlete that has donned the Terrier blue and red over the many generations that have come in Brooklyn.”
Some of the current athletes were still trying to figure out what the next step will be in their collegiate careers.
“It’s very shocking. I didn’t expect myself to be coming into this situation,” said Josiah Harris, a junior on the men’s basketball team. “But I thank [St. Francis] for the opportunity they gave me, with open arms, to come play here.”
When asked what he will do next, Harris said he is weighing his options about where he might continue playing basketball in the future.
Abby Oliphant, a sophomore on the women’s swim and dive team, expressed shock over the announcement.
“I feel like we’re all still trying to process what’s going on,” Oliphant said. “I feel like it’s a mix of so many emotions.”
“I came here to swim and get my education, and one of those has been taken away from me,” she added, “but I feel like I’m fortunate enough to know I’m going to a school that I’m happy at even if I can’t compete in my sport.”
The Terriers athletic program is made up of nine men’s and 10 women’s teams, all competing in the NCAA’s Division I Northeast Conference. The men’s basketball program was founded in 1896 — making it the oldest collegiate program in New York City.
In December 2022, St. Francis closed the doors of its 180 Remsen St. campus, including the Daniel Lynch ’38 Gymnasium, which had been the home of Terriers’ basketball and volleyball programs for 50 years. The new main campus is located at 179 Livingston St. in Downtown Brooklyn. The men’s and women’s basketball teams finished out their seasons at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Clinton Hill. The women’s water polo team has been practicing at the College of Staten Island.
Dennis McDermott, ’74, known as “Mr. St. Francis” during his long career as the college’s alumni director, said he met the greatest people in the world through his involvement with athletics at St. Francis. McDermott left the school as the all-time high scorer in men’s basketball history, leading to his No. 22 jersey being retired.
“It is a very sad day,” McDermott told The Tablet on March 20 in the immediate aftermath of the news. “I’ve been on the phone all day with alumni and talking to different people, it’s hitting me really hard now. It’s sad to hear that it’s really happening.”
St. Francis served as a local option for student-athletes seeking to continue their sports careers at a competitive level in Division I.
“It gave people the opportunity,” McDermott said. “To see what the coaches did with the resources they had, it was unbelievable.”
Students are reacting a day after St. Francis College announced it is eliminating its entire division one athletics program at the end of the spring semester.
The Knights Of Columbus organized a prayer service for aborted babies on Sunday at American Martyrs Church in Bayside, Queens.
Bishop Robert Brennan joined the faithful at St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Jamaica on Monday for continuation of the Lenten Pilgrimage in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Pope Francis sent a statue of the sleeping St. Joseph to the Church where he received his First Communion, his Confirmation and celebrated his first Mass as a priest in Argentina. This gesture was in honor of the feast of St. Joseph.
The Pope has a special devotion to this saint. In his room, he keeps a statue of the sleeping St. Joseph, and under it, he leaves little pieces of paper with his prayer intentions. Pope Francis explained his fondness for the saint during a Mass in the Philippines.
“I have great love for Saint Joseph, because he is a man of silence and strength,” Pope Francis said on January 16, 2015 during a visit to the Philippines. “On my table I have an image of Saint Joseph sleeping. Even when he is asleep, he is taking care of the Church!”
With the statue, the Holy See sent a message signed by Pope Francis. In it, he asked his intentions to be left next to the statue. The parishioners welcomed his gift with a procession and honored his request.
The public can now attend an hour-long Eucharistic Adoration every second Tuesday of the month in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The first adoration, held on March 14, was led by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. Prayers were offered for Pope Francis in honor of the 10th anniversary of his pontificate.
The initiative is a new addition to the pastoral outreach of the Basilica. Last fall, the Basilica released Lectio Petri, a set of meetings to reflect on various aspects of St. Peter’s life.
This series came after a video about St. Peter was projected onto the facade of the Basilica for two weeks during the month of October.
The video used images of St. Peter from the Vatican Museums and its goal was to help pilgrims and tourists alike get to know the first Pope.