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Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 09/20/2023
Meet the married couple who work together at the same Catholic high school their kids attend.
Some New York lawmakers are suing to keep migrants out of Floyd Bennett Field.
The recent influx of migrants is one of the reasons New Yorkers say the quality of life in the state is getting worse.
Pope Francis is set to address the issue of migration when he heads to Marseille on Friday.
Brand New Eyes: Blind Girl Claims She Received Miracle and Can Now See
MADRID — It was at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima that a teen from Madrid said she received a miracle.
Jimena claims she regained her sight during World Youth Day, after receiving Communion at Fatima and praying to Our Lady of the Snows.
Now, a month later, her family spokesperson says she is sharing her story.
“She tells her experience and is very conscious saying that the protagonist of this event is Our Lady,” said Pilar González, Jimena’s teacher and tutor. “In other words, she is simply an instrument that Our Lady has used to make her power and intercession known to many people.”
Jimena lost 95% of her sight two years ago during a bout with myopia.
After her experience at World Youth Day, she underwent medical tests that confirmed that she had been healed.
“She sees perfectly,” González said. “She has perfect 20/20 vision, both with and without glasses. Because it is true that after the summer, she went to the doctor again and she had the same prescription she had before she lost her sight, with normal myopia.”
Shortly after news of Jimena’s possible miracle, the president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, Cardinal Juan Omella, spoke to her.
“She was excited,” Cardinal Omella said. “And I said: ‘”Well, let’s thank God for this. As this does not lead to the beatification of anyone because the Virgin is already a saint, it is a grace from God. So let’s thank him and that’s it.”
Jimena’s family does not want her in the public eye, but said she will share her faith in her everyday life.
“Jimena said that since the moment she was healed, she has gone to Mass every day and that she will go to Mass every day for the rest of her life … as long as she can,” González said.
After Jimena’s cure on Aug. 5, she prayed a novena of thanksgiving to Mary for her healing.
Bringing Young People to Church: Queens College Catholic Club Trying to Recruit More Students
By Katie Vasquez
FLUSHING — On a recent Monday afternoon, the Catholic Newman Center at Queens College was filled to capacity.
“I want to really get closer to God and open up my faith towards him,” said Genesis Enriquez, a Queens College freshman. “I just think that’s a really good opportunity to have here.”
It’s an unusual sight for a college campus. According to Pew Research, 79% of former Catholics left the church before the age of 23.
That same study found that 90% of “nones” — people with no religion at all — left their religion before the age of 29.
“It’s really easy, really, really easy to just forget about God, to forget about what really matters,” said Madeline Liu, president of the Queens College Newman Club.
But Queens College is using new tactics to buck the trend.
Bishop Robert Brennan brought the FOCUS program to the school.
“Frankly the best way I think to invite people, is to nourish those who are coming and encourage them because they’re the best salespeople, you might say,” Bishop Brennan said.
The organization sends missionaries, like Katie Mossberger from Connecticut, to different campuses to engage with students.
“We go onto campus and we’re just tabling and we’re handing out things to say about the Newman Center and the things we’re going to be having here,” Mossberger said.
Father Jose Diaz, the chaplain at the college, said it’s those events that lead students back to their faith.
“They can come to the center, they can hang out with students, they can get to know one another and laugh together and talk about sports and culture but at the same time they can pray together,” Father Diaz said.
Just at the first Mass alone, Father Diaz said he saw some new faces.
But Omar Cortez, the campus minister, said they still have a long way to go.
“There’s probably a thousand Catholics on campus,” Cortez said. “How many are fully practicing, that’s a more scarier number for us.”
It’s a scary number they’re willing to tackle one student at a time.
Queens College’s Newman Center is open Monday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with daily Mass at 12:30 p.m.
For more information you can visit their website at QCCATHOLIC.ORG.
Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 09/19/2023
Bishop Robert Brennan started the focus program at Queens college.
President Joe Biden is in New York where he addressed the UN general assembly this morning.
Pope Francis gave the keynote speech to the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday.
A teen from Madrid says she received a miracle while on her pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2023 in Portugal.
Honoring Fallen NYPD Member: Intersection Renamed for Detective Jason Rivera
New Yorkers came together at a street corner once again to remember and honor a fallen member of the NYPD.
People gathered at 204th Street and Sherman Avenue, which was rechristened NYPD Detective Jason “Ta Ta” Rivera Way.
Rivera, and his partner, Wilbert Mora, were killed early last year while answering a 911 call in Harlem.
Police Commissioner Eddie Caban, Mayor Eric Adams, Rivera’s widow Dominique, and others were there for the occasion.
The intersection is where Rivera’s father dropped him off for school as a child and where he hung out with friends.
Father Felix Varela: Cause for Canonization Gains Momentum
By Jessica Easthope
Retired Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros is the first to admit he didn’t know much about Felix Varela as a young man growing up in Cuba.
But now he’s spearheading Varela’s cause for sainthood in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“He was a voice that spoke for the Church with kindness, with gentleness, but with forcefulness,” Bishop Cisneros said. Varela was a Cuban politician, scientist, musician, journalist, and priest.
He represented Cuba in the Spanish parliament, but was outspoken on issues like ending slavery and freeing the Spanish colonies. He was eventually sentenced to death and exiled.
He left his affluent upbringing and education behind and came to New York City in the 1820s to minister to mostly Irish immigrants who were living in poverty.
Bishop Cisneros and Father Christopher Heanue, the coordinator of the Irish Apostolate in the Diocese of Brooklyn, held a gala to raise awareness for varela’s cause for sainthood.
“He comes to New York and he faces the immigrant population, the poor, hungry, sick and he becomes the priest, the pastor, the shepherd to help the people of New York at that time,” Bishop Cisneros said. “He truly is an example for all of us in New York today.”
“Does a parishioner at St. Mel’s know him? Does someone at the co-cathedral know him? You can’t make someone a saint without people praying for his intercession,” Father Heanue said.
He was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI and now those with a devotion to Varela are waiting on a miracle to confirm his beatification.
They’re hopeful because Varela unites Cuba, Ireland, and New York City under one Catholic Church.
“What unites him to all of those locations is the one holy and apostolic faith, which is the Catholic Church,” Father Heanue said. “So the fact that you can feel at home anywhere in the world as long as you’re participating in something larger and more noble than any country, state president, or king.”
As New York City accommodates a surge of migrants, Bishop Cisneros and Father Heanue say Felix Varela’s legacy is a poignant reminder of what the newly arrived need most.
“We need someone who will advocate for these newly arrived immigrants who will fight for them and treat them with dignity and respect,” Father Heanue said. “There’s been a call to recognize people’s dignity and humanity and advocate for the poor and needy is a great lesson learned.”
This year marks 200 years since Varela arrived in New York City and Saturday, Sept. 23, is the 170th anniversary of his death.
A miracle that would confirm Varela’s beatification is currently being investigated by the Congregation of Saints.
Father Varela has forever made his mark in the Diocese of Brooklyn. A new center named after the Cuban priest was dedicated on Friday.
Bishop Cisneros blessed the food pantry and soup kitchen named after the possible future saint, as well as the workers who will be feeding the poor and the homeless every week at the soup kitchen and every month at the food pantry.
The center was part of the feast celebration of the patron of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona, Queens.
The parish processed with an image of the blessed mother ahead of the opening. Afterward they attended Mass and then came back out on the street for a party.
Catholic News Headlines for Monday 09/18/2023
Officials in the Diocese of Brooklyn continue to raise awareness for Father Felix Varela.
National Migration Week is underway.
Pope Francis is urging people to address the migrant crisis head on.
The intersection of 204th Street and Sherman Avenue is rechristened as: NYPD Detective Jason “Ta Ta” Rivera Way.
Recognizing Their Love: Faith Helps Brooklyn Couple for Over 40 Years
By Jessica Easthope
Millie and Fred Fulford said back in 1980 friends and family called them brave for entering into an interracial marriage.
It wasn’t easy all those years ago and still isn’t today.
“My mother got a lot of flack for that from the Spanish community of older women, you know, like ‘how could you let your daughter marry a black man,’ ” Millie said.
“When we go into the store and we’re standing in line my wife goes up to the cashier and I go up to the cashier with her,” Fred said. “They say, ‘Sir could you step back.’ I say, ‘I’m with her.’ I’ve been with her for 40-something years.”
It was something that never mattered to them, especially when their love story started nearly 50 years ago in the Gowanus housing projects. Early on in their relationship, instead of letting in hate, they let in Christ.
“Faith has been the foundation of our marriage and working through those really difficult times.”
Through decades together and raising a son, there were some difficult times.
As parishioners of St. Agnes Church, Millie and Fred have worked with the kids of the community for decades and eventually married couples, telling them, ‘Your marriage and your faith will be tested.’
“I call them the ebbs and flows of marriage.” Anyone that tells you it’s a straight line or everything’s been great that’s just not the reality.”
Millie and Fred want to be an example, not of a perfect marriage, but of an imperfect love, one that’s endured even the most tragic of circumstances.
“We were actually separated for like six months,” Millie said. “I had a miscarriage right at that time and that really blew the roof off of everything, that was the biggest test. But we managed to fight back and we have that Church system in us so we worked it out. With God in our life, it made it that much easier to deal with the situation.”
Looking back at it, the couple know now the real bravery wasn’t getting together, but rather staying together.
Blessing for Pastoral Year: Bishop Brennan Celebrates Mass for Diocesan Employees
By Katie Vasquez
A new school year also means a new pastoral year for those who work for the Diocese of Brooklyn, and inspires those who serve the faithful of Brooklyn and Queens.
Bishop Robert Brennan brought them all here to the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston to kick off the new pastoral year with the Lord.
Bishop Brennan celebrated the Mass, attended by representatives of the 27 diocesan offices.
The more than 100 employees, including both clergy and laypeople, are in charge of different aspects of the diocese, including vocations, evangelization, and interreligious dialogue.
While their work may be different, Bishop Brennan and Father Joseph Gibino, vicar for the secretariat for evangelization and catechesis, said this Mass and the luncheon that followed helped them start this new pastoral year united in Christ.
“What we try to do at the beginning of the year is to have Mass together,” Bishop Brennan said. “That’s who we are to pray together, and that reconnects us with our mission and people from all kinds of work, but we’re all involved in advancing the mission of the Church.”
“We gather together to be nourished on the Eucharist, then we gather to break bread together,” Father Gibino said. “It really unites us in heart and mind and the pastoral mission of the Church.”
During the Mass, Bishop Brennan looked to the future, asking everyone to pray for good weather for a huge upcoming diocesan event, the celebration of the Eucharistic Revival scheduled on Oct. 7 at Maimonides Park.
For more information, just go to the diocese’s website, dioceseofbrooklyn.org.