By Katie Vasquez
Around the block from the world’s most famous arena you’ll find The church of St. Francis of Assisi. The Midtown Manhattan church is opening up its doors to officially host basketball fans, families, players, and coaches from every team competing in the Big East Conference.
By Katie Vasquez and Paula Katinas
ASTORIA — Helen McCann was left with three small children to raise on her own after her husband Edward died in 1941. The future seemed uncertain for the young widow, but there was one thing she was sure of — that her kids would get a Catholic education.
And so, she enrolled her daughter, Patricia, and her sons, Edward and Joseph, in Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Astoria, where Patricia graduated in 1947, followed by Edward in 1951 and Joseph in 1955. To pay for their tuition, Helen took any job she could get — working as a file clerk and wrapping presents in a department store.
While the family did not have much money, Helen instilled in her children a love of reading and made sure there were always newspapers and other reading materials around their house in Astoria, her son Joseph recalled.
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Helen’s dedication to Catholic education and her love of the written word, which she instilled in her children, led Immaculate Conception to dedicate its school library in her memory in 2021. The McCann family donated money to the school for the McCann Library, and a plaque dedicating the room to her was placed outside the entrance.
Joseph, 85, returned to Immaculate Conception on March 11 to help re-dedicate the McCann Library following an eight-month renovation and redecorating project.
Eager to make the library top-notch, Principal Keri-Ann Wade-Donohue enlisted parents and students to reorganize the library — throwing out old, outdated books, organizing the remaining books for display, rebuilding the shelves, installing new carpets, and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint.
For McCann, a retired senior vice president of public affairs for PepsiCo, his return took him down memory lane and gave him a chance to speak to the children.
Immaculate Conception had about 800 students when he went there, he told the students. He explained that at the time, there were 40 children in each class, and the school year was split in half, with some students starting in September and others in January, and nearly all the teachers were nuns, he recalled.
The school’s current students enjoyed hearing about the McCann family’s legacy.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” fourth grader Joseph Rodriguez said.
The kids also felt proud of their contributions to the library’s reorganizing project.
“The library looks pretty organized,” said eighth grader Evan Galang, who helped sort the books.
Looking back, McCann said his mother never wavered when it came to their schooling.
“She really believed in Catholic school for us,” he recalled, adding that she had two main reasons. “It was really a mix of religion on one side and discipline on the other.”
By Jessica Easthope
In a few days Joyce Peters Natter is going to be 83 — but that’s no excuse, she still kneels before the Stations of the Cross.
“We all have to do this journey,” Peters Natter said. “It’s nothing like Christ who carried the cross for us.”
Joyce and others on the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten pilgrimage made sacrifices to get to the halfway point at St. John Vianney Church in Flushing.
“Acess-A-Ride an hour and a half,” she pilgrim said.
“The B20, the Q24. You have to take the another bus and then, take the train to Archer Avenue and Sutphin and take the bus to get here,” another said.”
“It’s the number seven, but unfortunately it had some issues, so it was a little delayed,” said Lorraine Collazo.”But I made it here, and then I walked from Main Street here.”
But nothing could keep them away. Collazo says traveling is part of the commitment.
“I like figuring out how to get from place-to-place,” she said. “Should I walk?”
And these pilgrims say at a time when they’re supposed to be making sacrifices, the places they’ve seen have been a gift.
“I find the parishes are so diverse. They’re so interesting,” said Rebecca Armstrong. “Some of the music at the parishes is unbelievable. The customs and the cultures.”
“The architecture of the churches and the spiritual feeling. Once you are inside is is different,” said Aldemar Cagua.
“Experiencing the different communities, how they worship,” Collazo said. “The beauty of the churches, of course. They’re all so different.”
The Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten pilgrimage will eventually end — but the spiritual journey they’re on never really does.
“That understanding of that reminder of pilgrimage that we are people in pilgrimage is very important to me,” said Lorraine.
“Through meditation or just the readings, it’s just a deeper connection with your faith,” Armstrong said.
“It’s the medicine that we Christians we need to have every day,” said Cagua. “To follow Jesus.”
By Currents News
A Brooklyn priest and his mother shared a brief but joyful moment with Pope Leo XIV following the pontiff’s general audience on March 11.
Father Henry Torres of Mary of Nazareth parish in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, along with his mother, shook hands with the pope.
The encounter included shared laughter and the exchange of gifts. Father Torres presented Pope Leo XIV with a book highlighting how immigrants have shaped the Diocese of Brooklyn.
He also gave the pontiff a candle, which the pope said he would light while praying for the Diocese of Brooklyn.
By Jessica Easthope
More faithful are joining the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten pilgrimage this year as the journey reaches its halfway point at St. John Vianney Church in Flushing. With a new route and updated ways to follow along, the annual tradition is drawing fresh energy and deep participation this Lent.
By Katie Vasquez
In the Diocese of Brooklyn, students at Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy are going on adventures without leaving their seats.
It’s thanks to a new library at the Queens school, which honors a woman who valued Catholic education for her children. Now her son is helping continue that legacy.
Small class sizes in the Diocese of Brooklyn are helping students succeed as New York City pushes for smaller public school classrooms.
Students at Bay Ridge Catholic Academy brought Greek mythology to life through costumes, artwork and presentations.
More than 9,000 nuns around the world joined in silent prayer for peace in the Middle East.
By Katie Vasquez
Legends came to life at Bay Ridge Catholic Academy.
Fifth graders at the Brooklyn Catholic school created elaborate drawings inspired by ancient Greece, and even got into character.
“I’m dressed up as Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. She likes plants and to harvest things, and you know I like nature,” said fifth grader Lia Cafiero.
“I’m dressed up as Atalanta, who is a huntress and is really fast,” explained fellow fifth grader Alessia Scheidler. “So she has these gold wristbands and this long dress because that’s what they wore in her age.”
The academy’s gym was set up like an exposition hall with the students’ projects on display. Students were able to demonstrate what they had learned in class over the past few months.
“We learned that Apollo was the god of the sun,” fifth grader Joseph Patrick Baez told Currents News. “And also we learned a funny thing that Phaethon, the son of Apollo, caused total catastrophe when he rode his father’s chariot throughout the sky.”
“I wrote the summary, and we just decided today that they would be acting it out,” explained fifth grader Miriam Dodds, “because we thought it would intrigue people who are coming.”
Other grades and parents, like Christina Cafiero, were invited to learn more about Greek mythology.
“I think it’s also great. Instead of just sitting at a desk all the time learning, they were up and doing things,” Cafiero told Currents News. “They were on the phone chatting about what they’re going to do, planning their costumes and planning their boards together.”
Fifth grade teacher Patrick Hunter said he hoped the project would help the lessons sink in by turning students into educators for the day.
“It gives them the opportunity to think deeply about a specific myth, use different ways of understanding, like drawing and looking at pictures,” Hunter said. “And that storytelling is a really important way of engaging the mind.”
The expo wrapped up the students’ lesson on mythology, and each student will be graded for their work.
By Jessica Easthope
Fourth-grader Soyela Morisseau walks taller through the halls of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy. She recently participated in a school-wide speech competition, where her piece on Rosa Parks earned her first place in her grade. It’s quite the accomplishment, considering a year ago Soyela spoke not a word of English.
“I didn’t know I was going to win,” Morisseau said. “I said, oh my God, I won and my teacher said, ‘you are acting so crazy right now.'”
Morisseau arrived from Haiti with her family in November 2024. A new country and a new school wasn’t exactly easy.
“I didn’t talk in class because I didn’t know the language,” she said. “And I was so confused what people are saying.”
But in a class of 12, Soyela caught up.
“My teacher doesn’t have a lot of people to deal with in the class,” Morisseau said. “So I can talk with her to learn English.”\\
Diocese of Brooklyn schools class sizes average just under 17 students, with most ranging from 12 to 24. While New York City public school averages continue to drop after a 2022 law mandates annual reductions, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration is looking to keep classes small in all corners of the country’s largest school system. To pull it off he needs ten thousand additional teachers, 700 million dollars in additional funding according to the city’s Independent Budget Office and years.
“I provided the teachers with materials, dictionaries that had Creole and English,” said Principal Lorraine Pierre. “And the teachers paired up with other kids who could speak Creole. So that’s more or less what we tried to do as much as possible to make sure that she understood what was going on.”
After 28 years as a public school teacher, Pierre says New York City can take a page out of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s book.
“A class more than 25,” Pierre said. “Then you’re losing kids by the buckets because it’s hard to identify those who need the additional help, or even those who are excelling and need to be pushed.”
And Morisseau is proof of what a small class can do for a student.
“Nobody didn’t leave me out of everything that they did,” she said.
“We need to not let any child slip through the cracks,” Pierre said. “We can’t afford to do that.”
New York City’s future goal of reducing class sizes is already a reality here—and it’s helping students like Morisseau dream big.