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‘All Things New’ Again After Hurricane’s Wrath Upon St. Mary’s of Winfield Parish

By Bill Miller

WOODSIDE — Three years ago, St. Mary’s of Winfield Parish had the entire church painted, including the arch above the altar inscribed with the verse, “Behold, I make all things new.”

For these parishioners, that verse from Revelation 21:5 now has greater meaning than a fresh coat of paint. Nearly a year ago, Hurricane Ida swamped the “lower church” with sewage-laced flood water.

But Father Christopher O’Connor, the pastor, recalled on Monday, Aug. 22 how the stench was awful that day, but that he felt a different sensation when he first saw the destruction to the new adoration chapel along with a classroom used for faith formation classes.

“It was more heartbreak than anything else,” he said.

Grief turned to joy Monday evening when Bishop Robert Brennan joined the parish in the rededication of the lower church, which has been remade into a conference center. The celebration capped a year-long struggle to reverse the damage wrought by 10 feet of floodwater.

Bishop Brennan blessed the conference space, classroom and adoration chapel. Then he led a procession into the main church for a Memorial Mass honoring the Queenship of Mary. As he did, the words above the altar grabbed his attention.

“It’s funny,” he said during the homily. “Those words — they’d been on my mind. I didn’t remember they were here. But I was thinking about this today as I was preparing. We shout out with Jesus, ‘Behold, I make all things new!’

“We’re not destroyed by a storm, by a flood. Oh, yeah, it can knock us off our feet a little while. But we make all things new in Christ Jesus. And tonight, we celebrate His presence among us.”

Hurricane Ida was a Category-4 hurricane that killed 107 people as it tore its way north skirting the East Coast of the United States. The storm arrived Sept. 1 in New York City, claiming 18 lives, including three in Woodside.

Word soon spread that the lower church had flooded. New York City firefighters used massive pumps to draw out the water within a few hours. Removing the muddy residue would take much longer. Angel Marengo, a parish trustee, spent the next few weeks assisting the clean-up efforts.

“The clothes that we wore we had to throw away; you couldn’t salvage them,” Marengo said.  “We bought some gloves to kind of protect us because, with sewage water, you could end up with hepatitis A. It’s toxic. So you have to be really careful.

“But, the Guy Upstairs — he always protects us. Because of Him, we have what we have now. A year later we are opening the chapel and the conference room. It is all due to Him,” Marengo said.

Father O’Connor described how all the walls were removed and replaced, along with all the electrical wiring, paint, and chapel furnishings. He added that the rest of the project was not without some more setbacks, but parishioners kept reminding each other about the scripture above the altar.

“It became a rallying cry,” Father O’Connor said.

At the end of the Mass, Bishop Brennan solemnly led the full congregation downstairs, where he returned the Holy Eucharist, carefully wrapped in a cloth, to the adoration chapel.

Marengo, an usher for the Mass, stood at the back as the procession passed, filling the air with clouds of fragrant incense.

He grinned and pointed to Rev. 21:5 above the altar.

“See,” Marengo said. “He makes all things new.”

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday, 08/23/22

Bishop Robert Brennan blessed the new chapel at St Mary’s of Winfield last night.

Buses filled with migrants continue to leave Texas, headed to Washington D.C. and New York city.

We’ll speak with actor Kirk Cameron, who you may remember from the sitcom “Growing Pains.”

Miami Archbishop Predicts Nicaragua Government Will Fail in Assault On Church

By Inés San Martín

ROME (Crux) — Miami’s archbishop celebrated Mass Monday for the freedom of a Nicaraguan bishop arbitrarily arrested last Friday, following two weeks of detention in the curia.

“Today we ask not for the release of the little shepherds, but for the release of a pastor, Msgr. Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski. “With courage, he stands firm in telling the truth of what he sees. He is not afraid, as the little shepherds were not afraid.”

Archbishop Wenski’s reference was to the story of Fatima and three young shepherds, according to tradition, chosen by the Mother of God to give her message as Our Lady of Peace. As Archbishop Wenski noted, on Aug. 13, the government of Nicaragua banned a procession that displayed a replica of the Fatima image.

According to the tradition, as the three shepherds were walking to a site where the Virgin reportedly appeared they were arrested by the mayor, who threatened them with punishments if they didn’t deny what they had seen, and called them liars.

Instead of being afraid of the mayor, Archbishop Wenski said in his homily, the seers remained steadfast in the truth, and, by the end of the day, they were freed and it was the mayor and those with him who were afraid. The same, he said, will happen in Nicaragua.

“The ones who will be afraid are the shepherd’s executioners. And as that mayor and his henchmen failed, they will fail too,” Archbishop Wenski said.

In a contemporary society where dignity and rights are ever more discarded, the Archbishop of Miami said, “as we see happening in Nicaragua,” it is important to remember that “love is stronger than hatred.”

Archbishop Wenski’s words came during a Mass for peace in Nicaragua and the release of Bishop Alvarez on the feast of the Queenship of Mary in Miami’s Church of St. Michael the Archangel. The celebration was transmitted live on YouTube and social media and was concelebrated by Bishop Silvio Baez, an auxiliary of Managua forced into exile in 2019 following a series of death threats against himself and his family.

Despite a police ban, some 2,000 people gathered Aug. 13 on the grounds of the Cathedral of Managua to receive the venerated image of Our Lady of Fatima, Archbishop Wenski said.

“In reference to the crisis with the government, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, said in his homily: ‘We gather with great joy, but also with great sadness, due to the situation experienced in our parishes’,” Archbishop Wenski said. “But let us not tire of praying, even when we have the impression that God does not hear us.’ Quoting Pope Francis, Cardinal Brenes said, ‘Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.’”

“We remember the kidnapping of the little shepherds of Fatima, and that of a pastor, and the harassment of so many of the faithful, seminarians and priests,” said the Archbishop of Miami. “This reminds us that faith, which seems weak, is the true strength of the world. Love is stronger than hatred.”

Reflecting on the first reading of yesterday, from the Book of the Apocalypse, which tells the story of a woman who fights a dragon, Archbishop Wenski said it refers to more than the war waged by the Roman Empire against the first Christian communities.

“Next to the power of the Roman government, the early Church must have seemed like a helpless woman, with no chance of survival, let alone victory,” he said. “But this story refers to the epic battle between good and evil, which God’s people are waging as we traverse this valley of tears.”

He said that often throughout history, the power of evil and hatred seemed far stronger than the power of good and love and that this “was certainly the case during much of the 20th century: World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and serial holocausts: Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, and of course, the unborn murdered through abortion.”

Yet, Archbishop Wenski said, in Fatima the Virgin reminded the world that God has the last word in the “epic battle between good and evil. God will win, and we will share in that victory if we listen to Fatima’s message of peace, which is found in and through repentance.”

Quoting Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the prelate said, “the dragon exists in new and different forms … In the form of materialistic ideologies that tell us that it is absurd to think of God, it is absurd to observe God’s commandments. Also today it seems impossible to imagine a God who became man as the true sovereign of the world. And even if that dragon, in his new incarnations, seems to be invincible, it remains true today that God is stronger than the dragon, and that love conquers selfishness.”

However, Archbishop Wenski said, in Mary’s son, the dragon is defeated, and as the Virgin said in Fatima, the world has a weapon that can be used against the dragon of the apocalypse, “a simple but powerful weapon for spiritual warfare, part of our daily life in this valley of tears: the holy rosary. It is not a weapon of violence or elimination, but of peace and healing.”

 

St. Bartholomew Catholic Church Wraps Up Summer Soccer Tournament

Currents News Staff

St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Elmhurst held an award ceremony over the weekend to congratulate nearly 60 teens who participated in their summer soccer tournament.

The six-week-program gave young athletes the opportunity to spend their days on the field instead of being stuck indoors.

And with the World Cup right around the corner, they competed like the champs, reigning from Argentina, Portugal, Brazil and other countries.

Thankfully they won’t have to wait four years till they face off again. Plans are already in the works for another tournament next summer.

‘Reverend Andrew L Struzzieri Way’ Debuts in Rosedale

Currents News Staff

A priest in Queens is now part of New York City – Reverend Andrew L Struzzieri way was unveiled in Rosedale over the weekend.

A crowd stood at the corner of 137th Road and Brookville Boulevard, as the street was dedicated to the former pastor of St. Clare’s Church.

Father Andy spent nearly 50 years of his life living the gospel by reaching out to those in need.

Shortly after he passed, Catholics and community leaders alike banded together to honor him.

To continue Father Andy’s legacy of helping others, there is a memorial fund in his name.

How the Catholic Church is Bringing Hope and Healing to Kentucky Flood Victims

Kentucky’s governor said he doesn’t yet have numbers that show just how many people were denied by FEMA. The agency promised those numbers, but still hasn’t produced them.

John Lavenburg, National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, was on the ground with some of those people last week. He joins Currents News for a debrief on how the Catholic community is pitching in.

Catholic News Headlines for Monday, 08/22/22

The high-water may be gone but flood victims in Kentucky need a new life vest.

A Queens chapel is back tonight after a year of repairs.

New York City’s newest street is named for a priest of the people.