Catholic Schools Night Draws Huge Crowd To Honor Young Scholars and Watch Priests vs. Principals Game

By Bill Miller

CONEY ISLAND — It would have taken more than a little rain to wash out Catholic Schools Night — and the “Collars vs. Scholars” diamond tilt — at Maimonides Park on Tuesday evening, June 21.

The event honored an estimated 60 valedictorians and salutatorians from the Catholic academies and parish schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn. The “vals and sals” received commemorative medals for their academic achievements.

“They are a credit to their schools,” said Bishop Robert Brennan. “And I am glad they came out tonight so that we could show them appreciation.”

And yes, there was a minor league baseball game on tap, pitting the hometown Brooklyn Cyclones against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. That gave Bishop Brennan a chance to make his first visit to Maimonides Park to watch the Cyclones, a minor-league affiliate of the New York Mets — his favorite team since his youth.

Hundreds of kids and their families ignored the wet weather to turn out for the event, which featured the distribution of free bobbleheads of Msgr. David Cassato, vicar for Catholic schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn, who recently announced his retirement as pastor of St. Athanasius parish in Bensonhurst.

Msgr. Cassato was all over the park Tuesday evening.

He threw out one of the game’s first pitches and presided over the pre-game softball match between diocesan priests, the “Collars” wearing black jerseys, and the “Scholars” — Catholic school principals, teachers, and school administrators, in white.

Msgr. Cassato started out wearing the Collars jersey, but later switched to a white Cyclones’ jersey with red lettering. He’ll remain busy as vicar for Catholic schools, and in his role as Deputy Chief Chaplain of the New York Police Department.

Catholic Schools Night was sponsored by the diocese and DeSales Media Group.Tom Chadzutko, who recently announced his retirement as superintendent of schools for the diocese, attended the game. Also on hand was Chadzutko’s incoming successor — Deacon Kevin McCormack, currently the principal of Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge.

“Tonight is a terrific night because it gets everybody together for a good time,” said Deacon McCormack, who starts his new job on July 1. “We celebrate the scholars because they’re the top kids in our schools, but they represent so many other great kids.”

Joe Venticinque, principal at Our Lady of Snows Catholic Academy in Floral Park, said he had “a blast.” He scored two runs in the Scholars’ 9-6 victory over the Collars.

“It was just a good night to get together, celebrate Catholic education, and have fun doing it,” he said. “I got to see colleagues that I haven’t seen in a couple of years because of COVID. It really is one of our biggest events in the last couple of years.”

Students also celebrated Catholic Schools Night, which was sponsored by the diocese and DeSales Media Group.

“It felt good representing our school,” said Joseph Kearney, who enters the 7th grade this fall at St. Bernard Catholic Academy in Mill Basin.

His 4th-grade-bound sister, Mia, said she didn’t know much about baseball, but she was grateful for her school, saying, “We get to learn about Jesus and the Catholic rites.”

Said her brother: “I just like learning about God.”

Pope Asks Families to Take a Small Step Toward Greater Holiness

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church professes marriage and family life to be a path to holiness — a daunting concept — but one that can start with a tiny step, Pope Francis said.

“Start from where you are, and, from there, try to journey together: together as couples, together in your families, together with other families, together with the church,” the pope said June 22, opening the World Meeting of Families with an evening “Festival of Families” in the Vatican audience hall.

The in-presence portion of most of the event June 22-26 was limited to about 2,000 people — official delegates of bishops’ conferences, Catholic family associations and movements. But the entire event was being livestreamed, and parishes and dioceses around the world were holding their own events at the same time on the theme, “Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness.”

At the opening festival, with some 4,500 people in the Vatican audience hall, Pope Francis said he wanted the church to be a “good Samaritan that draws near to you and helps you to continue your journey and to take a step forward, however small.”

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, welcomed delegates to the gathering and told Pope Francis the five families — from Rome, Ukraine and Congo — that shared their stories “are not perfect families … because, as you always say, perfect don’t exist.”

“They are normal families who, like so many others, in every country and latitude, go through the difficulties and sufferings typical of our time,” the cardinal said, but they have discovered that when the problems are experienced with faith, they can open “incredible paths of family holiness.”

Serena Zangla and Luigi Franco, who have lived together for 10 years and have three children, spoke to the pope of the difficulty they had in finding a parish that would accept and support them, for which Pope Francis apologized. Zangla said they finally have found a community and are hoping to be married soon.

The sacrament of marriage is the gift God gives to couples in love, the pope said. “It is a marvelous gift, which contains the power of God’s own love: strong, enduring, faithful, ready to start over after every failure or moment of weakness.”

“Family life is not ‘mission impossible,'” he told them. “By the grace of the sacrament, God makes it a wonderful journey, to be undertaken together with him and never alone.”

Roberto and Maria Anselma Corbella shared with the crowd the story of the illness and death of their daughter, Chiara, who eventually chose not to pursue cancer treatment so her unborn baby would live.

“To see how she experienced the trial of her illness helped you to lift up your gaze, not to remain imprisoned in grief, but to be open to something greater: the mysterious plans of God, to eternity, to heaven,” the pope said. “I thank you for this witness of faith!”

Paul and Germaine Balenza of Congo spoke of the crises in their marriage, including infidelity, and how members of the Christian Family Community helped them find the strength to forgive and begin again.

“No one wants a love that is short-term or is marked with an expiration date,” the pope said. “We suffer greatly whenever failings, negligence and human sins make a shipwreck of marriage. But even amid the tempest, God sees what is in our hearts.”

Listening to their story, the pope said he was reminded of the biblical story of the prodigal son, “only this time, the ones who went astray were the parents, not the child!”

Pope Francis congratulated the couple for celebrating a “feast of forgiveness” with their children and renewing their wedding vows at Mass, because it helped their children see “the humility needed to beg forgiveness and the God-given strength to pick yourselves up after the fall.”

Iryna Kozhushko and her daughter Sofia from Ukraine, and Pietro and Erika Chiriaco, the couple with six young children hosting them in Acilia, a suburb of Rome, also shared their stories.

The welcome offered by the Chiriaco family, Pope Francis said, shows the generosity that almost naturally comes from having a large family where people are “trained to make room for others.”

“In the end, this is what family is all about. In the family, we experience what it is to be welcomed. Husbands and wives are the first to ‘welcome’ and accept one another, as they said they would do on the day of their marriage,” he said. “Later, as they bring a child into the world, they welcome that new life.”

“Whereas in cold and anonymous situations, the weak are often rejected,” the pope said, “in families it is natural to welcome them: to accept a child with a disability, an elderly person in need of care, a family member in difficulty who has no one else — this gives hope.”

Zakia Seddiki, a Moroccan Muslim and widow of Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to Congo killed in an ambush in 2021 at the age of 43, also spoke at the event.

Seddiki had told the crowd, “We based our family on authentic love, with respect, solidarity and dialogue between our cultures.”

“None of that was lost, not even after the tragedy of Luca’s death,” the pope said. “Not only do the example and the spiritual legacy of Luca continue to live on and to speak to the consciences of many people, but also the organization that Zakia founded in some way carries on his mission. Indeed, we can say that Luca’s diplomatic mission has now become ‘a mission of peace’ on the part of your entire family.”

Pope Francis praised Seddiki and Attanasio for supporting and respecting each other’s religious identities and focusing on how both Islam and Christianity called them to work “to overcome divisions, prejudices and narrow-mindedness, and to build together something grand, something beautiful, on the basis of what we have in common.”

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, 06/22/22

After a two-year hiatus because of COVID, it was the long-anticipated rematch between diocesan clergy and school employees.

The investigation into the response by the Uvalde Police Department to the elementary school shooting is intensifying.

The 10th World Meeting of Families kicked off in Rome Wednesday.

Foundation Builds Ramps to Carry On FF Klein’s Legacy of Service

By Paula Katinas

BELLE HARBOR — Firefighter Timothy Klein’s FDNY buddies will readily tell you that he loved nothing more than helping people in need.

A talented carpenter, Klein was an active member of The Fight for Firefighters Foundation, a group specializing in constructing ramps at homes of first responders to give their wheelchair-bound relatives easier mobility.

Klein, 31, who was assigned to Ladder 170 in Canarsie, died while battling a fire in that community in April. His friends in the foundation, who are mostly FDNY members, are still grieving the loss of their colleague and pal.

But on June 21, they put their grief aside to get back to the task of building ramps — seeing it as a way of carrying on his legacy.

So, bright and early Tuesday morning, they were at a house on Beach 140th Street in Belle Harbor constructing a ramp for 79-year-old Paula Antonio, a stroke victim who was left paralyzed on her left side. She is still recovering in a nursing home and is expected to return home in early July.

“We’re doing this for Timmy. This is our first build since he died,” Foundation President John Vaeth said.

It was a large crew, numbering about 20 foundation members. Wearing bright orange T-shirts with the group’s name, they worked in teams — some measuring and cutting wood for the foundation that would hold the ramp in place, while others carefully put together the sections of the metal ramp itself.

The ramp project was also dedicated to the memory of another deceased FDNY member — Firefighter Steven Pollard, 31, a fellow member of Ladder 170 who died in 2019 when he fell from the Mill Basin Bridge while responding to a two-car crash.

Klein delivered the eulogy at Pollard’s funeral, calling his friend “a kind, respectful and dedicated fireman” and “a quiet person who never uttered any ill words towards anyone.”

Once the ramp was completed Tuesday, the foundation planned to present a plaque bearing the names of Klein and Pollard to the Antonio Family.

Klein was totally dedicated to The Fight for Firefighters Foundation, as well as a board member, Vaeth said.

“If Timmy was here with us, he’d be getting right to work, sawing wood, drilling, lifting stuff,” he explained. “He helped a lot with the builds and he helped a real lot before the builds — talking to people and getting money for all this stuff. It was so much work. It was unbelievable.”

Klein’s father, retired FDNY Firefighter Patrick Klein, was there to lend a hand. “It carries on with what he really had a passion for — which was helping people,” he said. “This is something that he got into when he was early on the job and each year, he got more and more involved.

He didn’t even tell us (his family) half the things he was doing. We found out later all the things he was involved in,” Patrick Klein added.

The foundation found out about Paula Antonio through a friend in the neighborhood and offered to build the ramp for her. There is an FDNY connection: her grandson, Patrick Lonie, is an Emergency Medical Technician.

Her son E.J. Antonio watched as the work progressed. “These guys are wonderful, and pretty efficient. They showed up, I showed them where the power outlets were and they got right to work,” he said.

The ramp will mean a great deal, he added. “This is my mom’s house. Unfortunately, she’s had other complications with the stroke and she requires 24-hour care. So we’re going to bring her home to a very comfortable place that she lives in so she can sit on the porch and enjoy life.”

Now that the foundation is back to constructing ramps, the plan is to continue, Vaeth said. “We’re going to be doing at least one build each month,” he explained.

For information on how to donate to The Fight For Firefighters Foundation, vist the group’s website: https://www.fightforfirefightersfoundation.com/home and click the Donate button.

Bishop William Medley in Tornado-Torn Mayfield, Kentucky on Corpus Christi: ‘This is Sacred Ground’

MAYFIELD, KENTUCKY — For most of the afternoon on Sunday, June 19 the town center was all but abandoned except for two places: A CVS Pharmacy, where cars came and went, and St. Joseph Parish down the road, where 200-plus parishioners brought life and presence to a community still on the mend from December’s devastating tornadoes.

The parishioners gathered there for the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky, Corpus Christi procession that — as it did in dioceses throughout the U.S. — marked the start of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops National Eucharistic Revival.

The Diocese of Owensboro parishioners came from all over the area for the procession and filled St. Joseph’s to the extent that it was standing room only. Afterwards, Mayfield residents reflected on how impactful that support was.

“It was very meaningful,” said Oscar Tapia of Mayfield. “We look up to [Bishop William Medley] and for all of the churches to come together it was a wonderful feeling in my heart.”

Emma Hayden, a Mayfield resident and St. Joseph’s parishioner for almost 50 years, highlighted the hope that’s provided to the community when they see so many people come together.

“It was a blessing to see … that many people were willing to respond to something like this and see what can be done when a lot of people work together,” Hayden said. “When we can show the community that we can do things like that it’s good for the whole town because it shows our faith in God that we’re going to come back and that God’s going to help us.”

The Diocese of Owensboro Corpus Christi procession began inside St. Joseph’s. The church community in Mayfield is largely Hispanic, so the readings, hymns and litanies that were part of the procession were all done in English and Spanish.

When it was time to head outside the clergy led the way carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance, with the parishioners filing in behind. The procession route stayed on church property, but made stops at three different altars that represented different diocesan parishes.

Bishop Medley and the clergy led the faithful through an incensation of the Blessed Sacrament, hymn, reading and blessing at each one. Afterwards, Bishop Medley said it was important to have the procession in Mayfield because “it’s where the body of Christ needs us most.”

“It was important just to remind ourselves that even in tragedy this is holy ground, this is sacred ground, and it was a long time before we came because it was created by God, but it’s been made holy by the people that live here and the people that die here,” he said.

Bishop Medley also noted the timeliness of the Eucharistic revival not just in light of the tragedy in Mayfield, but with others around the country and world.

“The body of Christ rallies to help the body of Christ and whether that’s Uvalde, Texas, whether that’s the Ukrainian war, whether that’s the chaos in Myanmar, all of those are just us being brother and sister to brother and sister,” he said.

Sunday’s procession was the fourth time that Bishop Medley was in Mayfield since the December 10 tornadoes, and he acknowledged that “there’s still a long way to go” as the diocesan Catholic Charities is slowly making progress with hundreds of families.

Mayfield was the epicenter of the tornado outbreak that claimed more than 80 lives in western Kentucky. The town center was decimated. The Tablet was there days after the tornado struck and witnessed the flattened buildings and debris that filled the streets as the federal government and national guard tried to manage the situation.

Six months later, the chaos of the immediate aftermath is replaced by emptiness and quiet. The government and national guard have since left. Some debris has been taken away and the roads are clear. Other debris is stacked into neater piles on lots where buildings once stood. Partially destroyed buildings remain but serve no purpose. Not one walks the streets.

St. Joseph’s miraculously only had minor damage and reopened two weeks after the storm.

“I drive through it everyday, and everytime I see it I cry,” Ann Wilson, a Mayfield resident and lifelong St. Joseph’s parishioner said. “I’m always thankful that my church is still here.”

Tapia said faith will be key in the town moving forward.

“The church has been keeping everybody alive with their faith because everybody is down because there were some families that were affected,” Tapia said. “Give them some hope, bring them to church, show them that God cares and other people care. You can tell it means a lot to them and it means a lot to me as well.”

SCOTUS: Tuition Program Excluding Religious Schools is Unconstitutional

By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a 6-3 ruling June 21, the Supreme Court said a Maine tuition aid program that excluded religious schools violated the Constitution’s free exercise clause.

The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, said: “A state need not subsidize private education but once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”

He also said the court’s decision in Carson v. Makin stemmed from a principle in its two previous decisions, particularly the 2020 opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. In that case, the court said the state of Montana could not exclude religious schools from receiving tax credit-funded scholarships under its school choice program.

The Maine case went a step further by asking if the state can prevent students from using state funds to attend schools that provide religious instruction.

Roberts stressed that a neutral benefit program that gives public funds to religious organizations through the independent choices of the recipients of those benefits does not violate the Constitution’s establishment clause.

During oral arguments last December on this case, several of the justices found fault with the state’s decision process in determining just how religious a school was in order to decide if the school could participate or not in the program specifically for rural communities.

Schools deemed as ones that could potentially “infuse” religion in classes were excluded while other schools deemed by the state’s board of education to be the “rough equivalent” of public schools — or religiously neutral — could take part in the tuition program.

“That’s discrimination based on doctrine. That’s unconstitutional,” Roberts said at the time, which he essentially reiterated in his opinion.

Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissent, stressed that the court has “never previously held” what it is saying today, “namely, that a state must (not may) use state funds to pay for religious education as part of a tuition program designed to ensure the provision of free statewide public education.”

Breyer, joined by Justice Elena Kagan and in part by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said this decision pays more attention to the free exercise clause and not enough to the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Washington, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, said the high court “rightly ruled that the Constitution protects not just the right to be religious but also to act religious.”

“This commonsense result reflects the essence of Catholic education,” they said.

“The court has again affirmed that states cannot exclude religious schools from generally available public benefits based on their religious affiliation or exercise,” the USCCB chairmen added. “In our pluralistic society, it is vital that all people of faith be able to participate in publicly available programs and so to contribute to the common good.”

Nichole Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School, who focuses on education policy, called the decision “a victory both for religious liberty and for American schoolchildren.”

“The majority makes clear, once again, that, when the government makes a benefit available to private institutions, it must treat religious institutions — including faith-based schools — fairly and equitably,” she said in June 21 statement.

She also noted that the opinion cements the constitutional principle that “requires government neutrality — and prohibits hostility — toward religious believers and institutions.”

Garnett, signed an amicus brief in the Maine case submitted by the Religious Liberty Initiative of Notre Dame Law School on behalf of elementary and secondary schools from three faith traditions — Catholic (Partnership for Inner-City Education), Islamic (Council of Islamic Schools in North America) and Jewish (National Council of Young Israel).

Noting how this decision could impact school choice programs, she said it “clears away a major hurdle to the expansion of parental choice in the U.S. by clarifying that, when states adopt choice programs, they must permit parents to choose faith-based schools for their children.”

“Faith-based schools have a long and proven track record of providing high-quality education, especially for our most disadvantaged children and policies that exclude them from private-school choice programs are both unconstitutional and unwise,” she added.

Becket, a religious liberty law firm, similarly filed an amicus brief in this case, emphasizing that states have had a long history of excluding religious institutions from public benefits, often in part from the Blaine Amendments passed during a time of anti-Catholic sentiment in the last 19th century.

The Blaine Amendment to prohibit direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation was first proposed in Congress in 1875 by Rep. James G. Blaine of Maine. (Blaine also served as a U.S. senator from 1876 to 1881.)

In their statement, Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Daly noted that Blaine’s “cynically anti-Catholic” proposal was narrowly defeated in Congress but Blaine Amendments “were ultimately adopted in some form by 37 states.”

“These laws have nothing to do with government neutrality toward religion,” the two prelates said. “Rather, they are expressions of hostility toward Catholics. We are grateful that the Supreme Court continues to rebuke this harmful legacy.”

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday, 06/21/22

Catholics took to the streets in the Diocese of Brooklyn, and around the country, for the feast of Corpus Christi.

There are still no arrests in the firebombing of an upstate pro-life pregnancy center, but now the center itself is under investigation.

A group of citizens jumped into action after a taxi cab lost control and ran over people on a Manhattan sidewalk.

Catholics Take to the Streets in the Diocese of Brooklyn for the Feast of Corpus Christi

By Paula Katinas

ASTORIA — The first Mass held at what was then the newly established Parish of Most Precious Blood took place on the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1922. One hundred years later, Bishop Robert Brennan came to the Astoria parish to celebrate the feast and to remind the faithful of the importance of recognizing Jesus Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.

The Feast of Corpus Christi 2022, which took place on Sunday, June 19, came at a time when large numbers of U.S. Catholics — nearly two-thirds, according to one national poll — do not believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist but instead, think the bread and wine distributed at Mass are only symbols and nothing more.

Bishop Brennan is seeking to correct that misunderstanding and to help wavering Catholics return to the faith. In his view, it starts with accepting the reality of the Eucharist.

“Encountering Jesus is what it is to be in this church,” he said. “The Eucharist is the heart and soul of it all.”

Earlier, Bishop Brennan told The Tablet that Jesus isn’t a figure from the distant past but is very much present in today’s world. “The Lord Jesus is alive and walks among us today,” he said. “Through the Eucharist, he accomplishes for us exactly what he did for the crowd in the Gospel. He teaches us about the Kingdom of God. He heals us and he feeds us.”

The Mass, which concluded with a procession through the streets of Astoria in which Bishop Brennan carried the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance, also celebrated the parish’s centennial. In a tribute to the multicultural community the parish serves, the hymns and readings were conducted in English, Spanish, Croatian and Tagalog.

Many people sitting in the pews on Sunday said they were proud of their vibrant parish.

Maria Bueso, who has been attending Mass at Most Precious Blood for 50 years, half the parish’s existence, described it as a “wonderful community of faith” where everyone is made to feel at home. She credited Father Vedran Kirincic, the parish administrator, with fostering a positive atmosphere.

“I’ve been coming to church here since 1968, when I came to America from Cuba. It is a privilege to come here,” said Victoria Ferrera.

Ferrera added that she is saddened by the lack of understanding on the part of many Catholics about the true nature of the Eucharist. “But I think little by little, if we teach people and we continue to do so, they will come around,” she said.

Catholic News Headlines for Friday, 06/17/22

Meet the lucky winner of this year’s Tablet COVID Relief Fundraiser.

Dozens of family members and police officers gathered at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Bensonhurst Wednesday as the NYPD held the 20th annual Brooklyn South Memorial Mass.

It’s being called the National Eucharistic Revival and it’s a three-year initiative launching on Corpus Christi Sunday.

Knee Pains Force Pope Francis to Sit Out Feast of Corpus Christi Celebrations

Currents News Staff

Hundreds of pilgrims gathered at St. Peter’s Basilica to participate in the procession and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Archpriest of the Basilica, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, was the main celebrant. In his homily, he said that faith and a change of attitude are necessary in order to accomplish what Jesus asks of us.

Unfortunately, Pope Francis was unable to preside at this year’s Corpus Christi Mass or take part in the procession. On Monday, the Holy Father informed the public that he will not be celebrating the Eucharist for this year’s holiday due to his ongoing knee pain.

For the past two years, the solemnity inside St. Peter’s Basilica has been met with limited attendance and no procession due to the pandemic.