Remembering the Victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

by Katie Vasquez

A fire truck ladder was raised in memorial as a testament to one of the worst fires in New York City history.

“These girls were doomed,” Lou Miano, a relative of one of the victims, said.

Relatives of the victims gathered in Greenwich Village to remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy.

Hundreds of immigrant girls and women were toiling away at sewing machines for hours, when a fire broke out on the upper floors on Mar. 25, 1911.

“Her hair was on fire, her clothes were on fire. The panic, the smoke, the flames,” Miano said.

The Jewish and Italian immigrants tried to escape but the doors were locked.

Dozens leapt to their deaths.

“Every time I see those pictures of the bodies laying on the sidewalk, it really gets to me, it gets me upset,” Mary Ann Hacker, a relative of one of the victims, said.

Authorities counted 146 workers that died by the time it was all over. Their deaths marked the beginning of the labor movement’s fight for workplace safety protections.

“I’m glad that maybe this was a catalyst for all the unions and all of that but I want people to remember these women that died, they were just working to make a buck,” Hacker said.

Their sacrifice is now a memorial, 112 years later. Horizontal stainless steel plates run along the building. It has their names, ages, and their testimonies.   

Miano found his great aunt’s name, Santina Salemi, in the memorial. She was just 24 years old at the time of her death.

“Instead of fleeing, Santina stayed with her best friend and they both perished from smoke inhalation in the fire,” Miano said.

Santina’s sister, Francesca, survived the horror that day.

“She made a sacred vow to the Blessed Mother that if she could survive the fire, she would devote her life to God,” Miano said. “And next thing you know she was up on the roof being led to safety. ”

She stuck with her promise, taking her vows as Sister Mary Albertina two years later.

“She remained with the sisters until her death in 1941,” Miano said. 

She’s just one of the dozens of stories that are now part of New York City history, forever embroidered in the fabric of time.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 10/19/2023

Two Israeli artists in New York are taking action to raise awareness for the hundreds of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas when the war broke out.

Israel says it has evidence that it was a misfire by the palestinian militant group “Islamic jihad”.

Pope Francis has called for a day of fasting, penance and prayer for peace in the world.

A new memorial can be found in Greenwich village to remember the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.

Valentina’s Voice Raises Awareness: Couple Launches Nonprofit for Autopsies After Stillbirth

By Jessica Easthope

The moment a baby is born, everyone in the room waits for a sound, a cry that lets them know the baby is breathing.

Crystal Rivera-Velez and Cristian Ortiz are still waiting. 

“There was a lot of hoping that I would give birth, and the machines were wrong, and the doctors were wrong,” Rivera-Velez said. “But then giving birth, and not hearing her, I think that hurt just as much as when the doctor told me, there was no heartbeat.”

Crystal gave birth to their daughter Valentina on Dec. 8, 2021. The only cries she heard were her own. Valentina was dead.

“I thought I was going home with my baby and that is not happening now,” Rivera-Velez said. “It was pretty much the worst moment of my life.”

For nine months Rivera-Velez and Ortiz had been loud and proud expecting parents, telling their family and friends the best was yet to come. 

“They always told me that I was good, and that the baby was good and that I was like a textbook perfect pregnancy that’s what they were telling me,” Rivera-Velez said.

The cause of death was officially listed as cord compression, but Valentina, who was born full term, was just 3 pounds and 7 ounces. An autopsy showed Valentina’s growth was restricted and her death was preventable.

“That’s when we started the advocacy and started asking questions about how she really died,” Ortiz said. “It wasn’t from cord compression, she was too little. They never caught it.”

The couple planned to bring their baby girl back to a happy loving home. Instead, they brought the quiet from that hospital room back with them. 

“I took the car seat out of the car because I didn’t have the heart for her to get into the car with the car seat in there,” Ortiz said. “I cleaned up the baby’s room, threw everything in a closet. It’s too difficult to look at.”

After months of grieving, Rivera-Velez and Ortiz decided to speak up. They created the nonprofit Valentina’s Voice, helping parents pay for neonatal autopsies and collect data to hopefully prevent another loss.

“It is not fair for a researcher to go grab research from this hospital to try and fix stillbirths, and they have unclean data,” Ortiz said. “So part of Valentina’s Voice is data hygiene.”

The couple never got to hear Valentina’s voice.

“This is all I have left of being a parent so I have to do this,” Ortiz said. “I have to as her father I have to and it’s keeping me alive. It keeps me alive.”

But somehow they’re using it to amplify their own.

If you want to show your support just visit valentinasvoice.org.

There you can donate to help pay for perinatal autopsies with the hope of lowering preventable stillbirths. 

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 10/18/2023

A New York couple is on a mission to prevent stillbirths.

President Joe Biden is in Israel again showing support for the United States’ strongest ally in the Middle East.

There’s political chaos in Washington as Republicans bicker over who should be the next Speaker of the House.

A Queens Catholic School is celebrating its 100th birthday.

Headed to the Front Lines: Long Island Man Joins the Fight in Israel

By Katie Vasquez

Jonathan and Alissa Nierenberg are very proud of their son Noah.

Noah Nierenberg, a 22-year-old Long Island native, has been to the Holy Land many times — and has helped to teach the Jewish faith to others.

But after his latest trip to the Holy Land, Noah didn’t come home and stay home like he always had. Instead he decided to join the fight.

“I couldn’t be outside of the land of Israel when we’re going through something like this,” Noah said.

Noah has previously served in the Israeli army and is now part of the Lone Soldier Program.

“Individuals who are outside of the land of Israel enlist in order to help their country,” Jonathan said of the program.

So far, Noah hasn’t been called to perform military duties, and while he couldn’t fully disclose everything he’s doing to help the war effort, his family did reveal Noah is trying to support his fellow soldiers.

“Teaching them Talmud and Bible studies in order to keep their spirits up,” Jonathan said. “He’s coordinating with us back here in terms of getting equipment out to the front.”

His parents are worried about their son fighting in a war.

“Of course we’re proud, we’re nervous, we’re frightened,” Alissa said.

They hope Noah’s service will lead to a brighter future.

“It’s a sensitive time in the world,” Noah said. “We need to believe in the brotherhood of man that we’re all under one God and everyone needs to keep each other in our hearts and our prayers.”

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 10/17/2023

 

As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, a Long Island man decided to join the fight.

The violence in the Middle East has sparked hatred in the U.S.

Catholics around the world are joining forces today taking part in a day of prayer and fasting for peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land.

The Synod on Synodality is in its second week and three of the main topics of discussion are communion, mission and participation.

Jornada Movement: Diocese of Brooklyn Ministry Reaches Hispanic Youth

by Jessica Easthope

Here’s a statistic that’s disturbing Church leaders: Half of young Latinos living in the United States don’t affiliate with any religion. 

Gilbert Perez-Moronta said hearing those results from a Pew Research survey tells him a lot of his peers aren’t as lucky as he is. 

“They haven’t experienced the same love that I’ve experienced,” Perez-Moronta said. “They are looking for something to fill up the emptiness they have in their heart, but maybe they’re not looking in the right place.”

Studies show American-born Latinos are leaving the Church, with about 1 out of 5, who were raised Catholic, no longer identify as such. 

But Perez-Moronta is a sacristan and altar server at Blessed Sacrament Church in Cypress Hills and one of 40 new members of Jornadas de Vida Cristiana. 

“I was able to open my heart to the Lord, open my heart to Jesus, and let him do what he does, fill it with love, fill it with mercy, fill it with compassion,” he said.

Jornada for short, is a Hispanic ministry in the Diocese of Brooklyn that brings teens and adults together for retreats and faith building reflections that go on to define their lives. 

President Felix Perez said, in Jornada you don’t go to a retreat, you live it.

“We say we lived it, because that is a retreat that is now a part of us,” Perez said “I learned a whole bunch of tools about how to make my relationship with God better make my relationship with others better and truly serve and I learned that in the Jornada, it’s now a part of me, and I live like that, so I’ve lived that retreat.”

For members of the movement or Jornadistas, faith isn’t quiet, Sara Pena lives hers out loud.

“When you sing, you pray twice, and God gave me this gift to sing and I gotta give him all the credit, so in return I sing for him,” Pena said. 

At her Jornada retreat and at the bi-weekly meetings she’s found a community and a strong sense of purpose.

“The movement is a family and it is a movement,” Pena said. “We keep going, it’s been going on until night since 1967 and I hope it goes on forever.”

Though the church continues to explore new ways to bring young people to Christ at Jornada the focus isn’t on the future, but the present.

“The diocese has seen that the youth is not the future of the church, they are the present they’re here now, and they need to be able to find God on their own terms, our kids can thrive.” Perez said.

Some teens and young adults are worried about being cool or getting a text back but not them.

“Jesus is the coolest person I have ever known and my life without Jesus would be lacking and not cool,” Perez-Moronta said. “Praying is talking to God and I believe that God is our faithful friend that we could always turn to. He’s always there to pick up the phone and answer our prayers.” 

Jornada’s mission is ever expanding to meet youth where they are. Their message is delivered in a very personal way.

“To everyone watching, God loves you and he will never leave you alone,” Pena said.

They say Christ has always been there, your time is now.

Pilgrims Evacuated Due to Conflict: Parishioners from Florida Church Return Home

by Katie Vasquez

It’s a pilgrimage Sue Thompson, a parishioner at Church of Saint Patrick, has been waiting on for a year.

“It was just so amazing,” Thompson said. “Every day was something that you read about in scripture.”

She traveled for 9 days in the Holy Land, seeing the path of Jesus’ life from the very beginning.

“It was so beautiful, we went down to the spot where Mary lived, where the angel Gabriel spoke to her,” Thompson said.

Halfway through Sue’s trip, her journey to deepen her faith took a turn for the worse.

She along with more than 60 other parishioners from Church of Saint Patrick in Sarasota, Florida were preparing for Mass in Bethlehem, when Hamas launched its attack on Israel.

“I think everybody kind of realized something very different was happening,” Thompson said.

“It was obvious the sounds of bombing outside and the missiles,” Fabrizio Lomanto, a guide for Peter’s Way Tours, said.

It was at that point that Lomanto decided to cut the pilgrims’ trip short.

“We have no choice it’s choice A or choice A, leave the country and they left,” Lomanto said.

Peter’s Way Tours, which organized the pilgrimage, coordinated the safe evacuation of the pilgrims out of Israel.

“We knew that the Tel Aviv airport was closed, no flight coming in and out,” Peter Bahou, President of Peter’s Way Tours said. “So we knew we have to do something in order to get them through Jordan.”

As a precaution, Peter’s Way has cancelled all trips to the Holy Land, 14 in total, through the end of the year and could potentially cancel more.

“We need to give it another two or three weeks or even one month to make a decision,” Bahou said. “But yes, there is a concern right now to travel anywhere, anywhere right now.”

Peter’s Way says they have contacted all group leaders about their cancelled tours. Anyone with questions about their pilgrimage to the Holy Land should call their parish.

 

Catholic News Headlines for Monday 10/16/2023

 

As the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, pilgrims in the Holy Land are finding themselves looking for ways to get out.

U.S. bishops are calling for a day of fasting and prayer for Tuesday, October 17 to bring about peace in the Holy Land.

In the Diocese of Brooklyn, the NYPD is teaming up with a Queens parish to help moms in need.

While Latino and Hispanic youth were once considered the life of the church their numbers are falling off nationally.