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.

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. 

 

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.

By Jessica Easthope

It’s only the first full week of school, but for Harley Leo, walking into this building every day is not getting old.

Leo and her third grade classmates are marveling at a new mural in the front entrance of St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Flushing. 

“I was really shocked at how beautiful it was,” Leo said. “It’s so beautiful it almost made me cry.”

“I was shocked,” Isabella Aslani, a third grader at St. Mel’s Catholic Academy, said. “It was just so insane.”

“It’s a new year, so we gotta get new stuff,” Jacob Morgan, a third grader at St. Mel’s Catholic Academy, said.

In one corner, students look up at an outer-space scene, on another wall, a message of motivation, and on a third a backpack pops out of an adjacent door. On yet another wall there is a celestial creation that’s grounded in Catholic faith.

The artist is Efren Andaluz. This mural is the product of three and a half weeks of work and 100 cans of spray paint. 

Millions have seen other examples of his work all over New York City, but the students at St. Mel’s get to say this mural is all their own.

“When you think about God you think about a grand Creator,” Andaluz said. “I’m just a reflection of Christ, so I’m thinking about Genesis 1, the creation of the universe so we have the stars, the planets, the moon.”

“It reminds me of coloring and all the projects I used to make and what I make now,” Morgan said.

“When I look at the science stuff it looks so creative that I think I might as well decide to be an artist too,” Leo said.

Principal Amy Barron said the mural represents what St. Mel’s is all about. 

A few years ago the school was set to close. In an effort to save it, St. Mel’s became an early childhood center, but against all odds the school is now back up to sixth grade and still growing.

“It’s a source of inspiration for them when they enter the building,” Barron said. “We want this to be an exciting place for them to learn and look forward to coming every day.” 

Andaluz said incorporating faith into this mural was easy, because it’s something he does in all of them.

“When you think about STEM and now STEAM people think it’s either science or God, but God created science and everything in a mathematically balanced way.”

The goal was to get kids excited about coming to school.

“We’re in the middle of a regrowth process so we’re always revisioning and looking ahead toward the future while still maintaining our roots and where we come from,” Barron said.

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You can get more back-to-school content in this week’s issue of The Tablet. 

Ring in the new school year with the Diocese of Brooklyn students, like the kids from St. Michael’s who rang an old bell that has become a fixture at the school.

You can also see a breakdown of how Catholic schools are beating out public schools in student numbers.

Plus, get to know the 13 new principals in the Diocese of Brooklyn.