New Jersey Church Builds Sensory Room for Parishioners With Disabilities

By Bill Miller and Jessica Easthope

In the Gospel, Jesus told his disciples to stop preventing children from approaching him. “Let the children come to me,” he said, and added, “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these(Mark 10:13-14).”

Father Jim Worth, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Maplewood, N.J., takes that scripture seriously. So did parishioners who joined him to ensure accessibility for all children, especially those with disabilities.

To that end, Father Worth and the parishioners converted a former confessional-turned-storage space in the back of the church into the Still Waters Sensory Room.

Here, children with neurodivergent disabilities, like autism or ADHD, can spend a few moments during Mass if they ever feel a sensory overload.

The room is painted a calming dark blue. Amenities include a beanbag chair, a rocker, religious-themed storybooks, and “stim” toys that occupy a child’s mind and fingers.

Its name comes from Psalm 23:1-3, in which King David wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures he makes me lie down; to still waters he leads me; he restores my soul.”

But it’s not just for little kids.

Percy Losardo, 14, has autism. He struggled to sit still in the pews, so he stayed home while the rest of his family went to Mass. That changed when the parish opened the Still Waters Sensory Room on Dec. 8.

Percy Losardo, 14, who has autism, struggled to sit still in the pews. But now he can get a brief respite in the sensory room before rejoining his family at Mass. (Photo: Courtesy of Sean Quinn, Archdiocese of Newark)

“I like that I can go to the room, and it’s quiet,” Percy said. “I can relax and take a break. I don’t have to leave church.”

Father Worth, now in his 10th year as pastor, has led the parish in other endeavors aimed at achieving inclusivity, including a basketball program for people with autism.

He recalled how last year, parishioner Kim Takacs, a speech-language pathologist, invited him to a community Zoom meeting to discuss how to improve accessibility for all.

Takacs is the founder and executive director of the Maplewood-based organization, Together We Bloom. During the Zoom call, Takacs described how sensory rooms were helping disabled communities.

Father Worth said he immediately thought of the packed storage space and offered it for a sensory room. Next, he met with Takacs and the Together We Bloom board to plan the renovation. The expense, he noted, was minimal.

“Some people volunteered,” he said. “It was very grassroots. I actually got dirty getting rid of all the stuff that had piled into this room.”

Together, We Bloom helps children with disabilities and their families achieve “equitable access through connection, community, and communication,” Takacs said.

“The way that we do that,” she said, “is by making the community more accessible, more accepting, and more appreciative of the diversity that disability and neurodivergence brings to our communities.”

Kim Takacs, a speech-language pathologist, advocated creating the Still Waters Sensory Room at her parish, St. Joseph in Maplewood, N.J. Takacs is also the founder and executive director of the Maplewood-based organization, Together We Bloom. (Photo: Bill Miller)

Neurodivergent refers to people whose brains process information differently than what is considered typical or “neurotypical.”

Takacs explained that her work with disabled people is “very much based on a call to social justice.” The nonprofit’s work is focused on “disability justice,” she said.

“It’s Catholic social teaching — this idea that we all belong,” Takacs said. “And all of our well-being, all of our sense of belonging, is very much tied to everybody feeling welcome and joining in solidarity and the common good.”

Takacs said the sensory room was expertly designed by Janelle Gera, the chair of the board for Together We Bloom, who has autism and ADHD. Takacs also praised the pastor.

Guidelines posted outside the Still Waters Sensory Room offer a structure that ensures safety, plus ways to receive maximum benefits from the facility. (Photo: Bill Miller)

“It takes work to actively dismantle barriers, to make a place truly welcoming, and to really foster belonging,” Takacs said. “That’s what Father Jim has done by creating this space and all of the other things.”

For example, just outside Still Waters Sensory Room is a play center — the kind that usually appears in the nursery or a Sunday school classroom. Father Worth said the play area for “neurotypical” children shows that all are indeed welcome on Sunday.

“If you come to a 9 o’clock Mass, you hear kids all the time,” Father Worth said. “And it makes me happy because Mark’s Gospel says, ‘Let the children come to me.’ I’d rather them be here than in a crying room.”

Meanwhile, Father Worth said that the sensory room “lets a parent feel good about bringing their children to Mass.”

“I’ve had mothers come up to me with tears in their eyes saying, ‘You know what? Now I can come back to Mass.’ ”

Among the grateful parents is Pavitra Makam. She and her husband, Antony, used to bring their young children — son Kai, 9, and daughter Rumi, 5 — in shifts to Mass.

Their son has anxiety and ADHD, while their daughter has a rare genetic disorder that makes sitting uncomfortable in the wooden pews, she said.

Makam said Kai tends to “mask” his anxieties to get through the day, so he faces them in silence. But the sensory room, she added, gives him an outlet to manage stress.

“He gets very stressed and antsy,” she said. “So now he can come into the room, use the fidget toys, calm himself, reset, and then go back to Mass.”

Makam said belonging to St. Joseph Parish has been an “amazing experience.”

“They are so inclusive here,” she said. “And it feels so nice to be able to come and worship together and not have to separate our family.”

Father Jim Worth, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Maplewood, N.J., champions for ways to boost inclusion of everyone in the Church, including children and adults with neurodivergent disabilities, like autism or ADHD. The new Still Waters Sensory Room is an example. (Photo: Bill Miller)

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 3/27/2025

A social media app designed by high schoolers on Long Island is making students become more mindful of how they spend their time online.

Hundreds of pro-life activists marched through New York City streets to fight for the unborn.

When the world plunged into the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago Pope Francis was there, calling for prayer at the Vatican.

Chaminade Students Create App to Battle Doom Scrolling

By Katie Vasquez

With almost everyone owning a cell phone, social media is everywhere and part of a daily routine for many adolescents – including Chaminade High School students on Long Island.

“I just wake up and immediately I go to my phone, just start scrolling, don’t even think about anything,” 9th grader Ty Miranda tells Currents News. “[I] just go straight to my phone.”

Miranda and fellow freshmen at the school decided to see if they could change that routine by creating an app called “Media Mindful.”

“Everyone knows how to use technology mostly now, it’s become part of everyone’s day,” 9th grader Luke Krinsky explains.

Students began the process by conducting a survey of 324 students at the Long Island school.

“It told us that many kids spend, like, shocking amounts of time on social media every day,” student Andrew Runje Dargento says of the survey results.

The results showed that 96% of them use apps for more than an hour every day, and 60% found that to negatively impact their lives.

The app students developed as as response to those results reminds users of screen time usage, offers rewards for cutting down on time, and has an artificial intelligence bot to help with negative feelings.

“The AI recognizes key words from your input and it makes a personalized response to you,” Mateo Solis, a student at the school, explains. “So for example, if I say, ‘Social media has given me anxiety,’ it recognizes the keyword ‘anxiety’ and it makes a response for that word.”

The team presented their idea to the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and career services annual STEM competition and beat out 32 other schools for the top prize which was $1,800. They hope to use part of it to complete their project.

“I would like to finish the app, make it working and available for everybody to help everyone,” Christopher Covelli, a 9th grader, tells Currents News.

The app developers say they have experienced the app’s effects firsthand.

“It’s really just been like eye opening for us because we’ve gotten to solve an issue that we’ve all felt really personally,” says Dargento.

“After cutting down these distractions, I was able to focus my time more on what I really wanted to do. So as a result, my relationships with my family improved. I could get closer to God because now I have all this extra time,” adds Solis.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 3/26/2025

As Pope Francis rests and recovers at home, the Vatican releases its first report on the status of his health since his return.

Students in Queens helped Bishop Robert Brennan welcome visitors to their church during the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage.

During tonight’s Pulse of the Parish, meet a Brooklyn parishioner who makes sure everything runs smoothly in his home church, the Shrine Church of St Bernadette.

Pulse of the Parish: Michael Carestia, Shrine Church of St. Bernadette

By Christine Persichette

Michael Carestia has been walking the hallways at St. Bernadette Catholic Academy for decades.

“It’s like still walking through the halls and saying, ‘Oh God I’m 59 years old and I’m still here.’ But thank God I’m still here and like I said to help out in the church, anything I can do,” Carestia said.

But that wasn’t the case back in the day, when he wore a school uniform.

“I couldn’t wait to leave,” he said. “I was always in trouble. My older brother was an angel and every time when I got in here it was like, ‘You’re Chris’ brother? Can’t be.’ I was always in the principal’s office, the ruler, and so on.”

These days there are no more rulers, just tape measures and drills.

Carestia is the facilities manager at the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette and its school in Dyker Heights. He says he’s come full circle. Now when he gets called to the principal’s office, it’s not for detention.

“Most of the time it’s like being on the fire department. You never know when someone’s going to call like, ‘Oh Mike something broke upstairs, or Mike the toilet’s broken, a kid threw up, the chair broke, the desk broke.’’ Or Father Jeremy will call me, ‘Mike there’s something wrong with the sink in the church, the rectory, or the convent.’ Always something, there’s always something going on,” he said.

But whatever it is, the pastor, Fr. Jeremy Canna says he can always count on Carestia to check it out and fix it.

“He treats it, as far as our church is concerned, as if it’s his own house,” said Fr. Canna. “The way he would want his house to be in order, is the same way he wants this Shrine Church and our neighboring academy to be as best they can be.”

Carestia didn’t just go to school at St. Bernadette: he was baptized there, got married there and even walked his daughter down the aisle there.

“I don’t know if you want to call it a Brooklyn thing,” he told Currents News. “You’re here, your roots are here.”

And even though he jokes about being back at St. Bernadette, Carestie says he knows this is where God wants him to be and he plans to stay.

“Oh yeah, oh yeah I’m doing my penance, without a doubt,” he said jokingly of his experience. “I always make a joke: You’re wheeled in at baptism and you’re wheeled out at the end.’ Hopefully, I’ll come back at the end because it means so much to me the church and my family here.”,

And now you know Michael Carestia from St. Bernadette and how he makes up the pulse of the parish.

TONIGHT AT 7: Pulse of the Parish, Shrine Church of St. Bernadette

There’s a parishioner over at the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette who makes sure everything’s running smoothly. He’s at the Dyker Heights church and school day in and day out, just like he was in the good old days. But back then, he wasn’t exactly a teacher’s pet. Now, Michael Carestia is the Pulse of the Parish.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 3/25/2025

The Diocese of Brooklyn is about halfway through its Lenten Pilgrimage, and travelers are taking part in a special lesson.

He didn’t have a degree in architecture, but when Patrick Keely came to Brooklyn from Ireland, he followed in his father’s footsteps and got to work designing churches in the Diocese of Immigrants.

A church in Queens now has 13,000 rosaries, thanks to a generous donation from one parishioner.

Queens Students Lead Rosary at Lenten Pilgrimage Stop

By Katie Vasquez

Catholics of all ages are uniting together in prayer as these students from St Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Queens lead the packed parish in praying the rosary during a Lenten Pilgrimage stop.

Father Vincent Chirichella, the pastor of St Joseph Church in Astoria encouraged the young people to get involved in the journey.

“It was great to see them express their faith and on this special day, the feast of the Annunciation,” he tells Currents News. “It was really wonderful to see the children so in love with the Lord and Blessed Mother.”

“It was a blessing because I love to pray all the time,” 4th grader Olivia Buscio tells Currents News of the experience. “I pray before I go to bed, and I feel like it brings me closer to God.”

The event involved electing volunteers like 3rd grader Lillian Schultz to pray a decade.

“I was a little bit nervous, because I’m usually, like, I really don’t speak a lot,” she tells Currents News. “I’m a little bit shy and timid, but it was really fun at the same time.”

In times of stress, Schultz says she turns to Mary for guidance: “I really like praying because I feel safe and I feel like Mary is listening to me, and I feel like she can help me a lot.”

It’s a lesson the pilgrims of the Lenten journey know all too well, as they have spent the last four weeks at different churches across Brooklyn and Queens taking part in Masses, adorations, and rosaries.

Father Chirichella hopes more of the young people learn from them.

“I think the rosary is a great habit, spiritual habit,” he says. “You know, we all have habits, but a spiritual habit for the children to get into, bringing a great peace throughout their lives.”

It’s a prayer God may have already answered.

“It was really fun,” says Buscio. “And I like to see Father, and I like to be together in church.”

Prince of Church Architecture Builds Faith in Brooklyn and Beyond

By Christine Persichette and Jessica Easthope

Monsignor Guy Massie has immense pride in his parish. Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen in Carroll Gardens can be seen from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and beyond, thanks to one of Patrick’s Keely’s signature designs.

“The iconic sign of Keely is the tower,” Msgr. Massie said. “This cross lit up at night in the harbor and let’s look at what that means for so many people. This parish was built by Irish immigrants and they worked on the shore and it was a sign of great hope.”

Inside the red doors lies more of Keely’s handiwork still visible today and symbols of his culture and faith many will never notice, unless you know where to look.

“Keely was Irish, and his Irishness came through in all of his churches,” laughed Monsignor Edward Doran, the former pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights . “He snuck it in!”

Msgr. Doran has walked the pews of St. Charles Borromeo countless times, each time noticing and marveling at one of Keely’s design features – from the arches to the pillars made of wood.

Born in County Tipperary, Ireland in 1816, Keely’s father was a builder and the source of all his training. His Irish heritage was the first and seemingly only tool he needed to launch his illustrious career.

Keely revived a centuries-old style of architecture that welcomed new arrivals to the city.

“The immigrants were not always very well received,” said Msgr. Doran. “But in creating a beautiful piece of architecture, it represented the spirit of the Irish people, the faith of the Irish people, the positive attitude of the Irish people.”

Like many of his fellow Irishmen, Keely came to the states in 1842 as an unskilled laborer.

“I’ve been in practice for 45 years, architectural practice is something that you get good at after 30 years,” explained Carlo Zaskorski, principal architect at Zaskorski and Associates. “He managed to be able to have the effort, the drive, the stamina, the capability to be able to achieve what he did. And his buildings were sensational!”

With nearly 200 years of advances in technology and education, Zaskorski is still learning from Patrick Keely.

“Our job is so minor in comparison to what Keely did, I’m almost embarrassed,” Zaskorski joked. “Our job is to protect the interiors of Keely churches, but just to be associated with the building is exciting. It’s thrilling!”

Having restored several of Keely’s churches and many more across the Diocese of Brooklyn, Zaskorski says Keely was a master at capturing each church’s spirit from the inside out, Like at the Oratory Church of St. Boniface on the historic Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

“Churches to Keely and to the Irish Catholics were fundamental in essentially preservation of their culture, their spirit and, and their world,” Zaskorski said.

Throughout Keely’s career, he had the newly formed Diocese of Brooklyn’s best interests at heart, building in money-saving features in his designs. But not every design worked in his favor. One is known as “the cathedral that never was.”

Diocese of Brooklyn archivist Joe Coen says the unfinished cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Clermont Avenue in Fort Greene was slated to be the Prince of Church Architecture’s crowning achievement.

“The bishop, took money that would have been wonderfully given to the cathedral and supported the needs of his people.” Coen said. Here’s a crying need for high schools by 1933, and this cathedral is never really going to happen.”

Immigrants laid a foundation of faith in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Patrick Keely built upon it, forging a future for generations of newly arrived to shape their own lives and for the Diocese of Immigrants to continue to be a safe haven for all.