Archives

Catholic News Headlines for Friday 1/31/2025

A midair collision over the Potomac killed 67 people, including elite figure skaters. Investigators recovered black boxes as questions arise over air traffic control and the crash’s cause.

Turning to Catholic Schools Week, we learn about a military wife’s journey that takes an inspiring turn in a Brooklyn Catholic school!

St. Michael’s in Flushing rocked out as the NYPD band brought the house down with a high-energy concert to rock Catholic Schools Week!

Future pilots, doctors, and police officers? Students at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy dressed for their dreams and brought them to life!

U.S. Air Force Family Finds a Home at Bay Ridge Catholic Academy

By Jessica Easthope

Wearing a pink bow in her hair and a colorful sweater, Rachel Runyan looks nothing like a drill sergeant. But step into her classroom and she’ll start to sound like one. Every second counts when you run a tight ship.

“I am very focused on, like, time and order. And I’m very organized, so being in this life for 15 years, it rubs off on you in ways that you can never expect and things like that,” Rachel said.

Rachel has been a military spouse for almost 16 years, her husband Mike is a technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. They’ve lived all over the country.

“Northern California, Maryland, Southern California, and then here,” she said.

These days they live on base at Fort Hamilton and somehow, in the busiest city in the world, this family of four from southern Maryland found a home.

“We enrolled 12 days before school started, and we were just really treated like family, it’s just been a great place for my kids to learn and for me to grow as an educator. I couldn’t be more thankful to be a part of this community,” said Rachel.

“It was a little bit overwhelming. And I think once we found Bay Ridge Catholic everything felt like it kind of fell in line,” Mike said.

Bay Ridge Catholic Principal Paul Morisi says having Rachel and her children at the school has been a positive learning experience for everyone.

“What’s so beautiful about what Rachel has brought here is this experience that she’s had of traveling the country, teaching in different states with different communities so she could reach people in a different way that maybe some of our other teachers, can learn from,” he said.

Within the next year or so Rachel, Mike and their children will be somewhere new, but their time at Bay Ridge Catholic will stay with them.

“So many times this school has been a bright spot. It just feels like. It feels like magic,” said Rachel. “This is the standard that I need to look for wherever I go next.”

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy Marks Catholic Schools Week With Career Day

By Currents News

Some children want to be police officers when they grow up, and those at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy in Queens got to live out that dream at their Catholic Schools Week celebration. 

Students at the Rockaway school were encouraged to dress up as their future careers, which included  police officers, pilots, doctors, and even marine biologists. 

Currents News asked some of those students about the motivation behind their career choices, while staff told us they hoped this dress-down day encourages the kids to dream big.

“I want to be a scientist because it’s fun to do experiments,” Maria Teixiera, a 1st grader at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy, told Currents News.

“My other grandpa in Ireland was playing airplanes and I want to be a pilot,” explained 2nd grader Cassius Flores. “That’s why” he decided to dress as a pilot. 

“I want to be a vet when I grow up because there’s very important animals in the world and I know some will probably go extinct soon or something,” 3rd grader Talia Torres said.

“Here especially at St. Rose and I think all Catholic schools, we really work on fostering that independence, fostering that God has a plan for us and we are able to do whatever we want to do as long as we work hard and just continue to practice, practice, practice,” Thomas Hirdt, a 2nd grade teacher at the school, told Currents News. 

Each classroom also had career day activities like making paper hats that proudly proclaimed their dream jobs.

 

NYPD Band Members Performs for Students at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy

By Currents News

Students at  St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Flushing, Queens, went to a Catholic school concert when over a dozen members of the New York City Police Department’s band visited the school. The group performed contemporary hits while the students and teachers danced and sang along. 

Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy Learns About History With Wax Museum

By Currents News

At the sound of a bell statues came alive at Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy in Astoria, Queens, during the school’s annual immersive wax museum exhibit. 

Students responded to the ring of the bell by presenting famous figure they researched and dressed up as, bringing household names to life with facts about each historical figure right before visitors’ very eyes.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 1/30/2025

A deadly plane collision in Washington D.C. is being investigated after an American Airlines jet getting ready to land at Reagan National Airport collided with an Army helicopter.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan is criticizing comments Vice President JD Vance made about the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Students at St. Bernard Catholic Academy in Brooklyn are celebrating Catholic Schools Week by giving back to their community.

Brooklyn Catholic Academy and Church Work Together to Help the Needy

by Katie Vasquez

Students at St Bernard Catholic Academy in Bergen Beach pack away dozens of coats, hats, and gloves. They know with the latest freezing temperatures they need them,but others need them more.

“I hate being cold. So I can’t even imagine being cold in this type of weather,” said 8th grader, Hali Bailey at St Bernard Catholic Academy.

The Brooklyn school organized a coat drive, giving back to the needy by collecting the basics like warm clothing and toiletries for Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens to distribute.

“We collect stuff like this, like lotions, soaps, stuff and like, hairbrushes, stuff that could help them, like toothpaste and stuff,” said 5th grader at St Bernard Catholic Academy, Emma Puleo. 

The drive is a collaboration between the academy and the parish, who also contributed items.

“It is a gift to have a parish school, an academy in the community. so, we work together, thank God, between the parish and the academy. We have a good working relationship, and that’s important. And it’s not just the parish that wants that,  the parents ask for that relationship with the larger parish community,” said Father John Maduri, St Bernard of Clairvaux Church pastor, Father John Maduri. 

And a part of their celebrations for Catholic Schools week, St Bernard’s understands the students have things to learn outside the classroom. 

“A big part of going to Catholic school and living out their faith and learning about their faith is giving back to the community,” said St Bernard Catholic Academy principal, Tracy Flanagan. 

The school believes Catholic education offers not only a lesson in religion but the spirit of charity. As the students look at the basic items that  some families live without, it makes them count their own blessings. 

“I’m definitely very fortunate to, like, have all that I have. and it’s very important to me to, like, know that other people are not as fortunate. and I’m very happy to give back to them and give back to my community,” said Bailey. 

“I feel a sense of joy. yeah, because it feels good helping others,” said 8th grader at St Bernard Catholic Academy, Patrick Finley.  

But giving back is a year round effort that the school will continue.

Bishop Robert Brennan Celebrates Catholic Schools Week With Good Shepherd Catholic Academy

By Currents News

Students at Good Shepherd Catholic Academy in Marine Park, Brooklyn, got the chance to spend time with Bishop Robert Brennan as he helped them add their own twist on a class experiment.

Bishop Brennan joined in on the activity, which was designed to help the students learn about data through passing hula hoops. 

It was one of many classroom lessons he took part in, including another involving string to measure the length of the large and small intestines. 

Bishop Brennan also joined the Knights of Columbus for a brief assembly where they presented certificates to the students in the school who won The Tablet’s “Keep Christ in Christmas” art contest. 

 

Data on Catholic Education Highlights Academic Success in the Diocese of Brooklyn

By Currents News 

It’s not all fun and games at Catholic schools – they also provide a quality education for students that outweighs that of public schools. 

Catholic school students in the Diocese of Brooklyn in particular outperformed both New York City and New York State schools in English, language arts, and math in three different grades: fourth, sixth and seventh. 

In some cases, Catholic school students scored almost 20% higher than city and state schools. 

When assessing Catholic school performance nationally, John Lavenburg, correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, is sourcing his data from the National Catholic Educational Association.

He joins Currents News in the studio to discuss what the numbers from 2023 and 2024 can mean for catholic education and student performance for 2025.