By Currents News
Students from across Brooklyn and Queens were honored for their creativity at The Tablet’s annual Easter Art Contest. With more than 250 submissions from 20 Catholic schools, the winning artwork brought the story of Christ’s Resurrection to life.
A small glass structure in Lower Manhattan is being transformed into something much bigger — a first-of-its-kind support hub for New York City delivery workers.
Pope Leo XIV marked the last day of his apostolic journey to Africa with Mass in Equatorial Guinea.
A new restoration project in Prospect Park has some nature lovers worried about what will happen to the hundreds of birds that call the Brooklyn green space home.
Students from Catholic schools throughout Brooklyn and Queens were celebrated for their award-winning artwork during The Tablet’s 2026 “Christ Is Risen” Easter Art Contest Awards Ceremony.
By Jessica Easthope and Alexandra Moyen
Guided by a belief rooted in Catholic values of human dignity and care for workers, District 18 City Council Member Amanda Farías views the city’s latest investment for delivery workers as a moral responsibility.
“How are we showing up for those people, and how are they able to work in environments with dignity, safety, and protection?” Farías asked. “That always comes back to the truth that I was raised by as a Catholic and how we’re going to safeguard people.”
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On April 7, delivery workers and city leaders gathered near City Hall Park to open what they said is the nation’s first Deliverista Hub — a place that allows delivery workers 24-hour access to charge their e-bikes and phones, repair their bikes, and take shelter from any inclement weather.
The idea for the hub came from delivery worker Gustavo Ajche, who, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when drivers were working in hazardous conditions, saw potential in an abandoned newsstand outside City Hall.
“We’re so proud that finally we have a place where we can keep organizing delivery workers in New York City,” said Ajche, a delivery worker and co-founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, an organization that advocates for app-based delivery workers.
Located at 249 Broadway, the hub was developed and built through the organizing of delivery workers alongside the Workers’ Justice Project, which will staff it.
Founded in 2010, the Worker’s Justice Project advocates for better working conditions and social justice in the workplace for New Yorkers. Although a secular organization, its fight for delivery workers aligns with the Church’s teachings on social justice. It organized Los Deliveristas Unidos with Ajche in 2020 to demand better labor conditions.
“It’s a huge community,” Ajche said. “When we talk about safety, this is going to be one of the main tools for us as Los Deliveristas Unidos to show the city how we are organizing and how we support our city.”
In October 2022, plans for the hub moved forward when then-Mayor Eric Adams and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer pledged to turn several unused, city-owned newsstands into rest stops for the city’s estimated 80,000 delivery workers. To fund the effort, Schumer secured $1 million in federal funding, but the project was delayed for more than 3 years due to bureaucratic obstacles and community resistance. However, Schumer noted that the situation positively shifted when Mamdani became mayor.
Farías applauded the project, knowing how much the city depends on delivery workers.
“This is critical infrastructure to have this hub,” Farías said. “It just shows how much we’re giving that direct investment and that thanks back to this group of people.”
Delivery work is turning into one of the city’s most dangerous jobs, with one in five workers injured on the job, and a fatality rate five times higher than construction, and the city is looking to create more hubs across the five boroughs to protect them.
“Our fight is for dignity, and this hub is one of the examples,” Ajche said. “If you [fight] for something and you persist, everything can be possible.”
By Jessica Easthope
For students and faculty at Xaverian High School, the biggest challenge has there’s not enough of it — until now.
This spring the school will break ground on its Exploration and Innovation Center — a $26 million new wing that will transform how students learn and grow at the Bay Ridge high school.
“Amazing teachers that are always looking to dream big, now this is an opportunity for them to really dream and to be able to have the space to support their dreams in building a curriculum,” said President Bob Alesi, a Xaverian Clipper from the class of 1978.
The center will feature a state-of-the-art science lab, a fabrication lab for hands-on creation, and a rooftop terrace. The existing St. Michael’s Chapel will also be moved into the new wing, keeping faith at the heart of the expansion.
“It’s so important for us to make sure that we have spaces for kids to be kids,” Alesi said. “They want to be with one another, and this will provide an opportunity for them to do it in a really dramatic and beautiful way.”
Right now the school has 1,700 students walking the halls. Alesi says the new wing will be used by all of them from sixth grade up to 12th grade.
“The purpose of the new wing is really not to increase our enrollment,” Alesi said. “But to be able to make use of the space in a much more efficient and appropriate way for teaching and learning.”
The Exploration and Innovation Center will support all of their strengths and interests.
“Our hope is that it will cover all disciplines and all curriculum, and allow for every student at some point during their time here at Xaverian to be able to benefit from this new space,” said Alesi.
Alesi says the project, which is being funded through a capital campaign, also allows alumni the chance to give back to the place that shaped them.
“This allows us to continue to grow our academic programs, our spiritual programs, our extracurricular programs, and really chart the path for the next generation of Clippers,” Alesi said.
The Exploration and Innovation Center will be fully operational for the 2027-2028 school year.
By Katie Vasquez
At least once a week, Lisa Curtiss heads to Prospect Park, hoping to spot one of the many bird species that pass through.
“I’ve seen, I don’t know, 170 species of birds within about a 10-mile radius of my apartment,” said Curtiss, a member of the Brooklyn Bird Club.
One area of the park, known as the Vale of Cashmere, has become a hotspot for bird activity due to its layered habitat.
“Some birds are then going to be in the mid canopy looking for other things, and some birds are going to be way high up. And those are not interchangeable,” Curtiss said. “The bird that eats a worm cannot eat something that’s up. So that real layered habitat is super important.”
But recent construction has concerned some birdwatchers like Curtiss, who worry about losing these birds permanently.
“Over the last 50 or 60 years, we’ve lost over 25% of migrating birds, and I find that sort of shocking and really upsetting,” she said.
Fellow enthusiast Mary Beth Artz shares those concerns, especially as thousands of birds use the park as a pit stop during the spring migration.
“If they don’t have a place to stop and fuel and rest before they travel on, it’s going to be a big issue for these animals,” Artz said.
The Prospect Park Alliance says the $37.5 million project is the largest capital allocation to the Brooklyn park. It will transform the historic Children’s Pool and former Rose Garden.
Artz said she understands the need for renovation but hopes it will consider all living creatures.
“To bring it back to life is incredible for everyone,” she said. “But we also have to include not only the humans, but we have to think of the other creatures, species.”
Artz added that her faith guides her advocacy.
“God placed these animals for us on this planet. We need to take care of them. We need to be stewards so that we can continue to have these creations until the end of time,” she said.
The restoration project is expected to be completed in 2027.
By Currents News and Junno Arocho Esteves
(OSV News) – On his last day in Equatorial Guinea, Pope Leo XIV reminded Catholics in the country to seek strength, justice and hope from the Gospel and the sacraments.
“If you are oppressed by injustice, he is justice; if you are in need of help, he is strength; if you fear death, he is life; if you desire Heaven, he is the way; if you are in darkness, he is light,” the pope said, quoting St. Ambrose April 23, at a Mass with an estimated 30,000 people at Malabo Stadium in Equatorial Guinea.
The Mass marked the final event of the pope’s 11-day visit to Africa. Arriving at the stadium in his popemobile, Pope Leo was greeted with cheers from the people attending the Mass, many of whom were dressed in the Vatican’s white and yellow colors.
Before beginning his homily, the pope expressed his condolences to the archdiocese, priests and family members for the death of Father Fortunato Nsue Esono, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Malabo.
According to a statement by the bishops’ conference of Equatorial Guinea, Father Esono died “unexpectedly” April 17 at his residence in Our Lady of Bisila Parish. No cause of death has been given.
The 39-year-old priest, who was named vicar general nine months ago, played a key role in preparations for the papal visit, the bishops’ conference said.
“I invite you to live this moment of pain with a spirit of faith, and I trust that, without being carried away by rumors or hasty conclusions, full clarity will be brought to the circumstances of his death,” Pope Leo said.
Speaking in Spanish, the pope reflected on the day’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which recounted the deacon Philip’s encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch reading the Scriptures as he was traveling from Jerusalem to Africa.
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In the reading, Philip asks the eunuch if he understood what he was reading, to which the eunuch replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?”
The “humble wisdom” in the Ethiopian’s response, Pope Leo said, was “not only a search for truth, but also an expression of openness and desire.”
However, while the man is wealthy, intelligent and cultured, he is a slave and “not fully free.”
“This painful reality is marked even on his body: he is, in fact, a eunuch. He cannot bring forth life; all his vitality is placed at the service of a power that controls and rules over him,” the pope said.
Nevertheless, the “proclamation of the Gospel sets him free,” and through his encounter with Philip, the man is “transformed from a mere reader, a spectator, of Scripture into a protagonist in the very story that captivates him,” the pope said.
The word of God, the pope continued, “becomes a lived reality” and through the sacrament of baptism, “he is no longer a stranger, but becomes a child of God, our brother in faith.”
“Though a slave and childless, he is reborn into a new and free life in the name of the Lord Jesus. And we speak of his salvation to this day, precisely as we read these Scriptures,” he said.
Pope Leo said that, like the eunuch, through baptism, Christians have received “the same faith” and the same word. Reading and reflecting on Scripture “is always both a personal and an ecclesial act; it is never something done in isolation or in a merely mechanical way.”
“Together we read Scripture as the shared heritage of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, who inspired its composition, and by Apostolic Tradition, which has preserved and transmitted it throughout the world,” the pope said. “Like the eunuch, we too can come to understand the Word of God with the help of a guide who accompanies us on our journey of faith.”
Turning his attention to the Gospel reading from St. John, in which Jesus says he “is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.”
Christ, the pope said, “is the Risen One” who “continues to give his life for all.”
“Do I trust that his love is stronger than my death? By deciding to believe in him, each of us chooses between inevitable despair and the hope that God offers. Our hunger for life and justice is then satisfied by Jesus’ words: ‘The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,’” he said.
Encouraging the faithful to “joyfully proclaim” that “Christ is everything for us,” Pope Leo reminded Christians that in Jesus, “we find the fullness of life and meaning.”
“Our problems do not disappear in the Lord’s presence, but they are illuminated,” he said. “Just as every cross finds redemption in Jesus, so too the story of our lives finds its meaning in the Gospel.”
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“Through our witness,” he added, “the proclamation of salvation is made visible in action, service and forgiveness – in a word, it becomes the Church!”
Before the final blessing, Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang Mayé of Malabo expressed his gratitude on behalf of the people of Equatorial Guinea for the pope’s visit.
“Indeed, in these days we have experienced the evangelical solidarity of the Church, which has rekindled our faith and our commitment to contribute to the creation of a new homeland in Christ,” Archbishop May said.
Calling Pope Leo’s visit “a powerful call to reconciliation and peace,” the archbishop expressed the local Church’s commitment to “continue working for justice, equality, fraternity, and reconciliation among all the sons and daughters of our country.”
“May this visit be for us a powerful encouragement of faith and conversion for a local Church affectionately united to the Chair of Peter, more evangelizing and more committed to development that includes the poor and the marginalized,” Archbishop Mayé said.
Archbishop Mayé then invited a procession of people dressed in traditional clothing and presenting gifts “that are fruits of our mother Earth and the work of human hands.”
Bidding farewell to the people of Equatorial Guinea, Pope Leo said that he was leaving Africa “carrying with me an invaluable treasure of faith, hope, and charity.”
“It is a great treasure, made up of stories, faces, and joyful and suffering testimonies that greatly enrich my life and my ministry as the successor of Peter,” the pope said.
He also noted that just as in the early centuries of the Church, “today Africa is called to contribute significantly to the holiness and missionary character of the Christian people.”
“I entrust this intention to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, to whom I commend myself wholeheartedly, as well as your families, your communities, your nation, and all the peoples of Africa,” the pope said.
By Katie Vasquez
Prospect Park is a favorite destination for bird watchers, especially during spring migration season. But a major new restoration project has some nature lovers worried about what it could mean for the hundreds of birds that rely on the park as a resting place.
By Jessica Easthope
A small glass structure in Lower Manhattan is being transformed into something much bigger — a first-of-its-kind support hub for New York City delivery workers. Designed to offer resources, shelter, and services, the new space is sending a powerful message about dignity and belonging.
New York City has launched an interactive online map that lets users explore the stories behind nearly 2,500 co-named streets, parks, and public spaces across the five boroughs. For Holy Trinity Church in Queens, the map is a chance to spread the word about a former beloved pastor.
Pope Leo XIV prays with the faithful of Equatorial Guinea, the fourth and final country of his 11-day apostolic journey in Africa.
Catholic Charities of New York has joined forces with immigration advocates to offer support and services to the city’s newly arrived.
By Katie Vasquez
The corner of 14th Avenue and 143rd Street overlooks Holy Trinity Church in Whitestone, a place long tied to the legacy of Rev. Marcello Latona.
Since 2009, the intersection has also been known as Reverend Marcello Latona Street, honoring the pastor who led the parish from 1990 to 2005 before his death in 2008. Community members said the designation reflects his lasting impact.
“As a man of the community, they decided that he earned it,” one resident said.
Barbara Eivers, who served as a parish secretary alongside Latona for 12 years, said he was deeply committed to his parishioners.
“He was just a man of the people. If a parishioner wanted to see him privately, he always had time for me,” Eivers said. “And if there was a problem in the town and they needed people, he was there.”
For former Holy Trinity pastor Father Joseph Gibino, Latona’s legacy set a high bar.
“Beloved does not do enough justice to what he was at Holy Trinity,” Gibino said. “He was a legend in the parish and still is.”
After Latona’s death, parishioner Joseph Governale helped make the street co-naming a reality.
“He was a great guy. He wasn’t self-centered,” Governale said. “He wanted what was good for this parish and for this community.”
Now, New York City has made it easier to explore the stories behind such honors. The Department of Records and Information Services has upgraded its interactive online map, allowing users to access biographical information for nearly 2,500 co-named streets, parks and public spaces across the five boroughs.
Latona’s legacy has remained strong in Whitestone, and parishioners say the new tool will help others learn about his contributions.
“Maybe more people will know where it is now,” Eivers said. “But it’s where it should be.”
Governale added that the recognition can strengthen ties within the community.
“It can help the people in the area get closer to the church,” he said.
Gibino said the expanded access to these stories reflects a broader opportunity for connection.
“All of these priests who have touched the minds and hearts of the faithful now are touching people anywhere in the world,” he said. “Isn’t it extraordinary how evangelization can take place in many different ways, including the memory of those who were such beloved evangelizers for the church?”
In Whitestone, the memory of Rev. Marcello Latona continues to endure — now with the potential to reach far beyond the neighborhood he served.