By Currents News
Roy Jensen lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn where he raised his children with a Catholic education in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Now he’s raising the bar for how to gather New Yorkers together this spring: he runs the “Holiday House,” which is currently displaying ornate Easter decorations.
One restaurant in Westchester County, New York is making it easier to observe the Lenten Friday practice of abstaining from meat when going out to eat.
As the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage comes to a close, the faithful are making their last few stops across Brooklyn and Queens leading up to the Easter Triduum.
A NYC Catholic school-led project is providing lab-grown greens to one of God’s creatures – Currents News has the update on La Salle Academy’s hydroponics lab.
By Christine Persichette
On an average Friday night at Odo in Westchester, standing over a sizzling stove you can find owner Nick Odoardi. Stirring, sautéing and dishing out mouthwatering meals for customers at the cozy Tuckahoe hotspot.
But on Fridays in Lent, the Catholic chef is cooking up something special an entirely meatless menu.
“The Lenten menu has some of our regular menu items on it, it’s just more geared towards, instead of, if you’re devout Catholic, you have to go through our regular menu and see what you can have, can’t have, rather than it just being very easy for you and just all being on one page,” Odoardi said.
Everything on the menu is meat-free and unique. Nick sprinkles his Italian Catholic roots into every dish he concocts.
“There was a missing niche for a restaurant with the food that I ate growing up. When I cook it’s more nostalgic, it’s more bringing back fond memories,” he said.
And since he doesn’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent, he figured many of his customers probably don’t either, like Stephen and Dina Grant. The Catholic couple says Odo is already a favorite eatery of theirs, but being handed the special menu on a Friday night makes it that much better.
“We were really just gratified that they had a menu that was appropriate for Lent,” said Stephen Grant. “I think with an Italian restaurant I think you can’t go wrong with a pasta dish or fish dish or something like that – but I felt especially welcomed.”
And with the number of options on the menu, their Lenten practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice.
“I ordered a pasta dish that had eggplant and tomato sauce,” Dina Grant said. “Don’t ask me the Italian name. Delicious!”
By Jessica Easthope
Preparations are already underway down under: Australia will host the next International Eucharistic Congress in 2028 in its capital city, Sydney.
Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher has been holding meetings with the Vatican to iron out the details of the event.
“You have a great opportunity to evangelize and catechize and excite people about the faith,” Archbishop Fisher said. “Then the celebration itself, and then the years afterwards of reaping the fruits of that.”
Archbishop Fisher says one of the greatest challenges for Catholics today is valuing the Eucharist.
“After the period of COVID, after a long period of secularization in Western countries, like my own, there are a lot of Catholics who are not very connected with the Eucharistic or as connected as they should be,” he said. “And I would hope to rejuvenize people’s love for the Eucharistic, for the celebration of Eucharist, for praying with the Eucharist, for the Eucharistic community that is in each parish church and group.”
The arrival of Catholics from the Philippines, Lebanon and Vietnam to the Archdiocese of Sydney has brought a new vitality and even some never-before-seen traditions to Australia.
“Our Corpus Christi procession is growing and growing and growing every year to such a scale that it is now is a very major operation, and it closes many streets to make it happen,” Archbishop Fisher said. “We also have processions for Our Lady, procession for St. Joseph. The processions are growing and growing in Sydney.”
It’s a popular piety that paves the way for the next International Eucharistic Congress.
By Currents News
In our second update, a student-led project provided lab-grown greens to one of God’s creatures.
Freddie and Quack Quack are two ducks currently being helped by Mary Beth Artz, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
For years, the Catholic has been on a mission to help birds in Prospect Park and recently, she received sweet greens from Currents News’ own Katie Vasquez.
They come from the hydroponics lab at La Salle Academy in Manhattan’s East Village .
The “green team” there has been using their crops to feed the hungry in their community. But thanks to Katie, they can now say they are helping all of God’s creations.
By Katie Vasquez
In week six of the Lenten Pilgrimage, the faithful continue their journey to churches across the Diocese of Brooklyn. It’s been a time to reflect on their own path to Christ as Holy Week gets near.
Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated Mass with people packed into the pews at Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Bayside. The Queens church is designated as a Jubilee shrine church meaning that if pilgrims in attendance meet certain conditions, they can receive plenary indulgences and be free from the temporal punishment due to sin. The mass included students from Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Academy, who even offered a song for the bishop after communion. Some said it was a moment of joy to be in the presence of the Brooklyn shepherd.
“I really enjoyed seeing the bishop. It was really nice seeing him, because I really have not seen the bishop a lot. I only saw him twice. so it was good. l loved it,” said 3rd grader at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy of Bayside, Gia Priolo.
“Yeah, I enjoyed it. The part where he talked about how God is always trying to enter our heart, because I feel like sometimes people always forget that no matter what’s happening in your life God is always with them,” said 6th grader at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy of Bayside, James Tempesta.
This stop is also special because the church houses a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis: seven strands of the young tech whiz’s hair. The church will soon become a diocesan shrine church for the soon-to-be first millennial saint. Bishop Brennan told the faithful that the Italian teen is a role model for Catholics of all ages.
“Blessed Carlo, soon to be Saint Carlo. He’s not only an inspiration to the young people, but reminds us of how much we have to learn from the young people as we experienced here at Sacred Heart today,” he told Currents News.
Blessed Carlo will be canonized later this month and the shrine at the church will be blessed by Bishop Brennan in the fall. If you didn’t make it to Sacred Heart of Jesus Church on April 9 and would like to receive plenary indulgence for the Jubilee, you have until the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 to visit a shrine church.
The Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage makes a stop at Queens church with a special connection to Blessed Carlo Acutis.
At the latest Jubilee celebration in Rome pilgrims from around the world learned how to save lives and do CPR.
Students in Brooklyn and Queens took part in a competition of the sharpest minds – Currents News introduces you to the young mathletes who are at the top of their arithmetic game.
By Currents News Staff
Kids across the Diocese of Brooklyn competed in a battle of sharp minds to find the top mathletes of Brooklyn and Queens!
Sixth to eighth grade students took the stage at Saint Helen Catholic Academy in Howard Beach for the Diocese’s Upper Class Math Bee.
With no pencil or paper allowed, these young math whizzes answered complex equations all in their heads, as family and teachers cheered them on.
By Currents News
At the latest Jubilee celebration in Rome, pilgrims from around the world learned how to save lives during an event for the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers.
The American Heart Association guided tourists, pilgrims and even religious sisters through CPR basics using the beat of the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” to keep time on the chest compressions.
Instructors say the lessons showed that saving a life only takes minutes to learn, and it’s not just for healthcare professionals.
By Currents News
Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan is joining students from Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Academy at their Queens parish during the Lenten Pilgrimage. The church will soon be the Diocese of Brooklyn’s official shrine church for Blessed Carlo Acutis, who is set to be canonized later this month.