A final farewell today for an off-duty NYPD officer gunned down during an attempted robbery.
To deal with an influx of migrants New York City has been offering free bus tickets to Canada.
It’s Black History Month and Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn are celebrating in all different ways.
President Joe Biden faced a tough crowd during his second State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Images are continuing to flood in of people being found alive beneath the rubble in Turkey and Syria.
The 7th and 8th grade robotic teams from St Joseph The Worker Catholic Academy won big over the weekend.
Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated Mass at his alma mater this weekend.
Bishop Brennan spent time with students at Saint John’s University.
He told them that the school was a big part of his life.
While delivering his homily the bishop went out of his way to emphasize that he’s there to help the student body.
By Kate Scanlon
WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A Chinese surveillance balloon flying at high altitudes over the continental U.S. was shot down over the water off the South Carolina coast by U.S. military Feb. 4, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III confirmed in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The balloon, which was first spotted Feb. 2 over Montana, moved southeast across the United States, with sightings in the Midwest and Southeast. Television footage showed a white object falling from the sky just before 3 p.m. Eastern. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights at three airports along the Carolina coastline Saturday afternoon.
“On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” the statement said. “After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.
“In accordance with the president’s direction,” the statement continued, “the Department of Defense developed options to take down the balloon safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities.”
The balloon, Austin said, was “being used by the (People’s Republic of China) in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”
The incident created increasing tensions in already fraught U.S.-China relations, and prompted one Catholic lawmaker to call for a “frank and sober” discussion about China.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Feb. 3 at a press conference that the balloon “has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable.”
Ryder said the balloon is carrying surveillance gear and a payload. “Once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” he added.
The U.S. State Department said its Secretary Antony Blinken postponed a planned trip to Beijing over the incident.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s spy balloon flying over our country is a serious national security incursion that must have decisive consequences,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and a longtime Catholic lawmaker, said in a Feb. 3 statement.
Smith said, “It is long past time that we as a nation have a more frank and sober conversation about the challenges and the costs of a strategic competition with China.”
The Biden administration must “immediately take bold action to counter the great and growing threat posed by Xi Jinping’s Communist regime and safeguard our national security and the livelihoods of the American people,” Smith added.
“Communist dictatorship that brutally abuses, tortures and kills its own people cannot be trusted or appeased,” Smith said. “I will continue to work tirelessly to protect our great nation from those who seek to harm or destroy it and ensure that the U.S. always stands for freedom, justice, and the protection of human rights against the rising tide of authoritarianism.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Feb. 3 that “we are tracking closely and keeping all options on the table.”
China’s foreign ministry issued a statement Feb. 3 claiming the balloon is “civilian in nature, used for meteorological and other scientific research,” and blew off course due to “the influence of westerly winds and its limited control capability.”
“China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States by mistake due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the U.S. side to properly handle this accident,” the statement said.
Jean-Pierre said the administration noted the statement of regret, “but the presence of this balloon in our airspace, it is a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable this occurred.”
Following reports that the balloon was in U.S. airspace above Billings, Montana, near to locations of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile silos and strategic bomber bases, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a statement, “This provocation is completely unacceptable, and I am in close contact with Department of Defense and Intelligence officials.”
“We are still waiting for real answers on how this happened and what steps the administration took to protect our country, and I will hold everyone accountable until I get them,” Tester said.
Students are taking the migrant crisis into their own hands.
The man who threw a wrench at Cardinal Dolan’s front door at St Patrick’s Cathedral is under arrest again.
Turkey and Syria in a state of emergency after a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit before dawn Monday.
The Franciscans that take care of pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land made a statement denouncing the five attacks carried out against Christian sites in recent weeks. For example, on the walls of a monastery in the Armenian quarter, graffiti was written saying “death to Christians” and the Maronite community center of Ma’alot has been vandalized.
Licenciado Ernesto Hidalgo, Psicólogo y educador online Hoy más que nunca el tema de la salud mental es cada vez más aceptado y visto con buenos ojos, ¡y qué bueno! Después de haber pasado la pandemia, que ya va para casi tres años el mundo entero ha sufrido de una crisis de salud mental, y por eso nos pareció importante hablar de este tema con un experto en la materia y bajo la luz de la fe.
By Jessica Easthope
A group of students navigate their way through a sea of brown paper bags. They’re packed with snacks, water and juice and soon they’ll be in the hands of a newly arrived migrant child.
“The people coming in could be our neighbors, they could be our friends and it’s really important to welcome them with open arms,” said seventh grader Lily Chase.
The students are members of St. Saviour Catholic Academy’s Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice club. Bags filled with nonperishable food are their latest service initiative. They asked students and their families to donate the items to pack and give to CHiPS, a soup kitchen and food pantry in Park Slope.
“We want to show that we want to give back to the community but we don’t want it to be just us four students but the whole school putting in effort to make these people’s lives easier,” said seventh grader Monate Diaz.
More than 42,000 migrants have settled in New York City since August. The amount of people CHiPS feeds every day has doubled – it can’t keep up with the need. The students are putting themselves the migrants’ shoes.
“Catholicism is giving to those less fortunate and spreading God’s message and I think a lot of us don’t understand that sort of thing, those people have struggled with long journeys and it feels good to give back,” said seventh grader Clare Reynolds.
And now their service is getting the attention of city leadership. On Friday, chief of staff of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Miguel Santana came to speak with the students about the migrant crisis. They had burning questions about why migrants come, where they will live and how they can help.
“Especially at a young age to be so civically engaged, I’m floored, they have certain principles and values that they’re bringing to the table from what they’re learning at home and at school and it’s carrying over into the volunteer work they’re doing,” said Santana.
Principal, Susan Walsh says the initiative is their Catholic education at work.
“They come up with these initiatives themselves and they are really living out their Catholic faith, it’s good for them to make the connection as kids that there are people out there who don’t have as much as we do and they’re working to build a better community,” she said.
The 500 bags packed and decorated by students will be delivered to CHiPS on Tuesday.
The Holy Father arrived in South Sunday today after leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As Catholic Schools Week comes to an end, we’ll look at all of the amazing things happening in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Students at Michigan Technological University are currently building a chapel out of snow.
By Jessica Easthope
During the first half of the 20th century Judaism was the dominant religion in the Bronx. A yearbook filled with mostly Jewish last names is one of more than 100 pieces in Fordham University’s Bronx Judaica collection and part of a culture that’s fading.
“The idea was to show how Jews lived, not just the formal institution but where they went to a restaurant, what florist they used for a wedding, what meat they bought from a Kosher company,” said Magda Teter, a history and Jewish Studies professor at Fordham.
Teter’s been building the collection for three years and using it in her classes.
“I love for students to touch history, you can do all you want on PDFs, you can do all you want on PowerPoints but there’s nothing like touching the real thing,” she said.
Though the Jewish studies program is fairly new to Fordham, Jewish history isn’t. As the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in New York state, it was among the first to accept Jews.
Fordham’s president Tania Tetlow says the collection is an interfaith effort that reflects Fordham’s commitment to inclusivity during a new wave of antisemitism in the country.
“To understand the history of the Jewish people is to stop the demonization and stereotyping that has caused so much brutal evil in the world and our history,” she said.
Today, Jews represent a small percentage of undergraduate students at Fordham but Jewish studies students Maya Bentovim and Hannorah Ragusa say the program has broadened their perspectives in ways they never imagined.
“I’d grown up Jewish but was never really in touch with my Judaism until I got to Catholic school and to share that learning experience with both students from similar and totally different backgrounds has been incredible,” said Maya.
“I think it’s really important to see the intersection because it’s something I’ve never been exposed to but to have this open perspective to new things it provides one of the best opportunities you can get,” Hannorah said.
Members of the public can view the collection and interact with history at an open house or by appointment. The exhibit will be open through March.