Archives

Meet the Priests: Transitional Deacon Credits Queens Church Community in Fulfilling His Vocation

By Katie Vasquez

After five years away Deacon Paulo Salazar is finally back on his home court, playing one of his favorite sports, basketball, near his childhood parish of  St. Joan of Arc Church in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Deacon Salazar said that since he first got the call to become a priest at around six or seven years old, he’s had a team of people to assist him in fulfilling his vocation.

“Being on the team, you were always working towards a championship and realizing that we’re all part of in a similar way.. part of God’s plan, and we have to work at this together,” Deacon Salazar told Currents News. “There’s so many people that have been supportive, that have been praying for a priest to come from this community, and I guess it’s just that God happened to tap me on the shoulder.” 

But what he never expected was for his studies to take him halfway across the world to Rome, and connect him to the universal church. 

“That’s what Rome teaches us, that as much as we are universal, as much as we are many members, we are one in Christ,” said Deacon Salazar. 

While in the Eternal City, Deacon Salazar also got an extraordinary coach from one Holy Father: the late Pope Francis.

“He always told us, remember to pray, to get a good night’s sleep and play sports,” the deacon recalled. “For all of us, we really took that to heart.”

Deacon Salazar saw the historic announcement of another pontiff. He was was one of the thousands in St. Peter’s Square when Pope Leo XIV was announced the next successor to St. Peter.

Already he has felt inspired by the first American pontiff, who recently spoke to those studying in Rome. 

“He spoke about the love of the priesthood and, the power of the priesthood and how it changes and is able to transform,” Deacon Salazar told Currents News. “[It] transforms other lives, but at the same time allow your priesthood to transform your own life.”

He hopes to carry these lessons with him into the priesthood where he’s focused on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

“The very fact that you are acting in the person of Christ, you’re able to bring the soul back to life imparting that grace to be healed,” is something Deacon Salazar has thought about many times.

And now that he’s back in the Diocese of Brooklyn, he’s hoping to make a slam dunk in the lives of the faithful.

Vandal Damages Virgin Mary Icon, Doors at Queens Church

By Currents News

In the Diocese of Brooklyn, a statue of the Holy Family was defaced over the weekend. 

The New York Police Department has charged 38-year-old Freddy Genao with a hate crime after he reportedly damaged an image of the Blessed Mother at Holy Family Church in Fresh Meadows, Queens.

Police say that on the evening of June 21 he used a crowbar to break the face of the statue and damage the parish’s two front doors.

The church’s pastor, Father Sean Suckiel, says officers were already in the area while the vandal was committing the crime and arrested him upon arrival.

This is the second time the three sculptures depicting Mary, Joseph, and the Child Jesus were defaced: around the same time last year, the statue of the Son of God was decapitated.

Celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi in the Diocese of Brooklyn

By Currents News

You may have seen them in your neighborhood: hundreds of Catholics processing through the streets of Brooklyn and Queens for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22.

Among some of the processions of faith that happened during the third weekend of June, 2025:

  • The faithful of St. Sebastian’s Church shut down the streets of Woodside as they walked with Christ in Queens.
  • About 1,000 people from three churches in Bay Ridge took part in a Brooklyn, beginning their prayers with the Blessed Sacrament at St. Anselm Church with a bilingual Mass before travelling to Our Lady of Angels for adoration, and ending with benediction at St. Andrew the Apostle.

Catholic News Headlines for Monday 6/23/2025

Catholic leaders, including Pope Leo XIV are pleading for peace after the U.S. launched airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

A man has been charged with a hate crime after defacing a statue of the Blessed Mother and damaging church property at Holy Family Church in Queens.

Hundreds of Catholics filled the streets of Brooklyn and Queens for the feast of Corpus Christi.

The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage concluded in Los Angeles, marking the end of a 3,000-mile journey across 10 states.

‘Stop the Tragedy of War,’ Pope Says After US Bombs Iran

By Currents News and Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Hours after the United States bombed the sites of three nuclear-enrichment facilities in Iran, Pope Leo XIV called the situation in the Middle East “alarming” and said diplomacy was the only responsible way forward.

RELATED: US Bombs Iran Nuclear Sites as Pope Leo XIV, Bishops Plead for Peace

“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: Stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” the pope said June 22 after reciting the Angelus prayer with thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

In Washington late June 21, President Donald Trump announced that “the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.”

“Our objective,” Trump said, “was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”

“Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump said, adding that the facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.” The U.S. president also threatened that if Iran did not “make peace” then “future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.”

The U.S. bombings came 10 days after Israel began carrying out attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and its military infrastructure, leading Iran to retaliate by firing missiles at Israel. Officials have reported that the strikes have killed at least 400 people in Iran and 24 people in Israel.

Addressing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo said people all over the world were praying and crying for peace.

“It is a cry that calls for responsibility and reason and must not be drowned out by the din of weapons,” Pope Leo said. “There is no faraway conflict when human dignity is at stake.”

In addition, the pope said, with the “dramatic scenario” of the bombing of Iran, “the daily suffering of people, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks falling into oblivion” as the attention of the world turns elsewhere.

RELATED: Pope Urges Peace, Warns Against Escalation in Middle East Conflict

“War does not solve problems, but rather it amplifies them and produces deep wounds in the history of people that take generations to heal,” he said. “No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future.”

“Let diplomacy silence the weapons,” Pope Leo said. “Let nations chart their future with works of peace, not with violence and bloody conflicts!”

June 25 at 7 pm on Currents News: Pulse of the Parish, St. Stanislaus Kostka

By Currents News

If you need help at St. Stanislaus Kostka in Maspeth, Queens, everyone knows you call Marge Migliaccio.

On Saturdays you’ll find this parishioner of 30 years in the rectory, sifting through the donation envelopes collected during Mass.

It may be Migliaccio’s paid job, but it’s the unpaid jobs she performs for the parish that she says are most rewarding.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 6/18/2025

A deacon from France is preparing to become a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn, and he says New York City already feels like home to him.
The National Eucharistic Revival is almost done with its 2025 pilgrimage after celebrating Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday.

Pope Leo XIV will soon be going on a summer trip – we’ll tell you where.

Meet the Priests: Deacon Benoît Chavanne From France Prepares for Ordination in the Diocese of Brooklyn

By Katie Vasquez

In the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, Deacon Benoît Chavanne likes to enjoy green space when he can find it. 

Hiking, jogging and sports are just some of his hobbies. 

“I like being outdoors. Yeah, I just enjoy physical activity. I mean, I grew up, I think doing, three, four hours a sport or more every day,”  said Deacon Chavanne.

When he returns to the rectory at St Paul’s Church in Cobble Hill, he enjoys cooking, making dishes like sourdough bread or french apple tart, staples that remind him of his childhood in France. 

“We like having food around the table, to be able to sit around the table and just spend some time together,” said Deacon Chavanne.  

Another connection to France is Father Alex Morard who volunteered with deacon Benoit as part of the organization Con-Solatio.

The Brooklyn based non profit reaches out to people in some of the world’s most troubled areas. He connected with Father Morard while searching for a diocese to serve. 

“I think it’s a great, great place to be. And I don’t know, as a French person I’m very attracted by New York City, of course, and America,” said Deacon Chavanne. 

Volunteering with Con-Solatio in Chile in 2014 was a defining moment in his vocation. There he befriended a prison inmate named Pedro.

“To join people’s life, to put together people’s lives, and then only by putting them in the same spot, in the same room. I find myself ready to create this bond that last. And yeah, for me, it was really the miracle of the mission to to be able to, to have our life so intertwined,” said Deacon Chavanne. 

When he’s ordained, Deacon Benoît wants to continue that ministry of presence. 

“I think we need to be able to bring this presence of Christ in, in lives, visiting the people or saying with having banquets with the people. So to be able to to reach out to the people where they are today,” said Deacon Chavanne.