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Seven Catholic academies in the Diocese of Brooklyn will close by the end of the school year due to declining enrollment.
The canonization cause of Sister Thea Bowman moves forward as the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi closes the diocesan phase of her sainthood process.
Pope Leo XIV could make a historic one-day visit to Monaco and travel to Australia for the 2028 International Eucharistic Congress.
Catholics are preparing for the return of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which this year features a cross-country journey honoring America’s 250th anniversary.
Classrooms at St. Joan of Arc School reflect the global makeup of the surrounding community, where more than a dozen languages are spoken by students and families.
“Jackson Heights is called the world in one neighborhood, so of course our school represents that diversity,” said Agnes Mosejczuk, principal of St Joan of Arc School. “We have so many cultures in our school.”
That diversity was on full display during the school’s annual Cultural Day, when students were allowed to skip their uniforms and proudly wear traditional clothing representing their ancestry.
Sixth grader Giovanni Salgado-Gordillo showcased attire from Guatemala, along with its customs and traditions.
“Traditional clothing the people wear in every way. Guatemala. Typical. And dances or traditional parties,” he said.
“This outfit that I am wearing is from Guayaquil, it’s a city in Ecuador,” said sixth grader, Kayla Novillo.
The day began with a Mass celebrated by retired Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros, during which students delivered readings in 12 different languages, including French, Gaelic, Spanish, and Albanian.
Seventh grader Leon Mitnot, whose parents are from France, participated in the multilingual readings.
“That was fun,” Mitnot said. “I don’t do it that much, but I’m happy to spread the language in church. I think it was really fun.”
Following Mass, students gathered in the school gym to share a variety of dishes representing their diverse cultural backgrounds.
Eighth grader Maleyah Millare said the celebration creates a welcoming environment for everyone.
“I think it’s beautiful that we get to bring our own traditions and we don’t have to hide them,” Millare said. “We gather people from all around the world to eat, to feast, and to pray together as one.”
For Kunga Paljor, also an eighth grader, the day was about sharing personal history.
“I felt really excited because I wanted to show where I’m from and my history,” Paljor said. “I want to spread awareness about my culture.”
Bishop Cisneros said the celebration served as a powerful reminder of unity.
“We are from different countries, with different colors and accents,” he said. “We are all different, yet we are all the same. We are all children of God.”
A Brooklyn priest reflects on how Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s groundbreaking television ministry inspired his vocation and continues to shape his faith.
The Cathedral Club of Brooklyn marked its 126th anniversary by celebrating its mission to promote the Catholic faith and expand scholarship support for students attending Catholic high schools.
Bishop Robert Brennan urged New Yorkers to advocate for the Education Freedom Tax Credit, a new federal program that could help families afford Catholic school tuition if the state opts in.
St. Joan of Arc Catholic Academy in Queens celebrated Cultural Day by honoring the many languages, traditions, and backgrounds of its students.
Young men in the Diocese of Brooklyn considering a vocation to the priesthood had the opportunity to discuss their calling with Bishop Robert Brennan.
At a “Project Andrew” event held at the San Damiano Mission in Williamsburg, Bishop Brennan shared his own journey to the priesthood.
The gathering began with Mass celebrated by the bishop, followed by brunch and open dialogue
During the conversations, participants spoke with Brennan, other priests and seminarians, asking questions to help discern what God may be calling them to do.
The Diocese of Brooklyn will hold another Project Andrew event Sunday, March 1, at 1 p.m. at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Jamaica, Queens.
Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio will be the special guest.
For more information, call 718-827-2454.Those interested in exploring a vocation or seeking additional details can visit dioceseofbrooklyn.org/offices/vocations.
Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn used his address at the Cathedral Club’s 126th anniversary dinner to call on New York families and leaders to support the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, a program that could expand access to Catholic schools.
As spiritual director of the Cathedral Club, Bishop Brennan encouraged attendees to advocate for New York’s participation in the initiative.
The program allows taxpayers to redirect up to $1,700 of their federal income taxes to nonprofit scholarship organizations that provide tuition assistance for students.
New York families risk missing out on the benefit unless Gov. Kathy Hochul opts the state in.
“It’s a federal program; it doesn’t cost the state anything, but the state needs to opt in,” Bishop Brennan said. “So what we really want to do, in a very friendly way, is encourage the governor to sign on to this and to do so soon.”
As of two weeks ago, 23 states had opted into the Education Freedom Tax Credit. The program is set to begin in 2027.
Bishop Brennan emphasized the urgency, noting that rising education costs make such scholarship support increasingly vital for families seeking Catholic schooling.
The Cathedral Club of Brooklyn celebrated 126 years of faith and service in the Diocese of Brooklyn Feb. 5 with its annual anniversary dinner at El Caribe restaurant in Mill Basin, Brooklyn.
The Catholic lay organization promotes the Catholic faith and raises funds to provide scholarships for students attending Catholic high schools in the diocese.
Club President Harry D’Onofrio, a parishioner at Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge, addressed attendees and emphasized the importance of faith in today’s world.
“I think a lot of the trouble in the world is because people are lacking something,” D’Onofrio said. “I don’t care, ‘Oh, I’m not going to church’ — you know what — you need to believe in something. You’ve got to have faith. You’ve got to be centered. Without some ground or something to root you somewhere, you’re going to go astray.”
WILLIAMSBURG — Father Frank Mann remembers being a seminarian during the late 1970s when someone approached and asked for his autograph.
The request baffled him. Why would anyone want the signature of an unaccomplished young man still studying at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York?
What puzzled him more was the person making the request — Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who, a decade earlier, earned the reputation of a charismatic Catholic preacher on prime-time television.
They met during a pro-life event at St. Patrick’s Parish, also in Huntington. Father Mann clarified that he asked the archbishop for an autograph first.
“I wanted to preach just like him,” he said, “and when I met him face-to-face, I said that to him.”
Father Mann said he grew up in Middle Village, Queens, watching Archbishop Sheen’s TV show, “Life Is Worth Living,” so he asked him to sign his program from the pro-life event.
“And [Archbishop Sheen replied], ‘You got to sign mine first,’ ” Father Mann recalled with a laugh. “I said, ‘But why? You’re Fulton Sheen. I’m just a seminary student. And he said, ‘But you’re going to be a priest. You want to preach like me, right? So, I need your autograph.’
“That interaction — I never forgot.”
Father Frank Mann shows strands of tassels that once adorned a sash worn by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, among other memorabilia he has collected over the past 25 years. The tassel threads would be considered second-class relics once Archbishop Sheen is canonized, Father Mann said. (Photos: Bill Miller)
Father Mann lamented that Archbishop Sheen’s autographed program did not survive a basement flood several years ago. Still, he has numerous other artifacts from the archbishop that he showed The Tablet on Feb. 10.
A day earlier, Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, announced that the Vatican had approved the beatification of Archbishop Sheen, although no date or location for the celebration has been announced.
Father Mann is a retired priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn who helps at St. Francis of Paola Church, a part of Divine Mercy Parish in Williamsburg.
“I am a voracious collector of autographs,” he said. “And, with Fulton Sheen, I knew without a doubt that he was going to be beatified or canonized one day. So, I started collecting things that are very hard to find related to Fulton Sheen.”
The trove includes inscribed portraits of the celebrity archbishop, autographed copies of his books, and letters he wrote.
It also holds two strands of purple thread from the tassels of one of his sashes, which will be considered second-class relics, Father Mann said.
“I’ve just been gathering them up,” he said of the memorabilia, “because I think he’s an incredible figure in the Church.”
Father Mann explained how Archbishop Sheen preached with eloquent sentences and dramatic hand gestures about God’s love and mercy.
And, Father Mann added, the archbishop could also deliver a joke, like his references to the “angels” (stagehands) who wiped clean his blackboard after he chalked expansive notes onto it.
“He was a charismatic, one-of-a-kind person who will never be duplicated,” Father Mann said. “He was a spiritual man who fought communism and fascism back in the 1950s. And I often wonder, what if Sheen were alive today, looking at socialism and certain things going on in society and culture?
“I think Fulton Sheen would have a field day.”
Among Father Mann’s collection of Archbishop Sheen memorabilia are autographed books and portraits.
Bishop Louis Tylka of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, which has led Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s cause for sainthood, joined Currents News from Minnesota to discuss the latest developments.
The bishop has worked closely with the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican to finalize arrangements for Archbishop Sheen’s upcoming beatification.
He described the process of reaching this milestone and reflected on the journey so far.The bishop spoke about how Sheen has personally inspired his own priesthood and ministry.
Archbishop Sheen’s message — delivered through television and radio decades before the rise of social media — resonated deeply with audiences then and continues to connect with people today, Bishop Tylka told Currents News.
When asked how Catholics can support the next steps in the canonization process, he offered practical guidance for the faithful.
Governor Kathy Hochul has signed New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act into law, prompting strong condemnation from Catholic bishops who say the measure violates the sanctity of human life.
The Vatican will soon beatify Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, advancing the sainthood cause of the influential New York bishop and TV icon.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks celebrated his first Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as he begins his mission as shepherd of the Archdiocese of New York.
A Long Island family reflects on faith, perseverance, and sacrifice as one of three skiing triplets qualifies for the Winter Olympics.
WEST BABYLON — Long Island was still a winter wonderland in the final days of January, nearly a week after a major snowstorm blanketed much of the nation.
Helaina and Henniyah Rivers of West Babylon said they wished they had seen such snow in Argentina last July.
At the time, they were trying to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, as members of Jamaica’s Ski Team. And although July is winter in Argentina, there was only enough snow to compete in one qualifier.
The same problem existed in the U.S. for venues in Colorado and Montana out West, and Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire on the East Coast. None received suitable snow “until really late” in the season, Helaina said.
“That just set the tone for the year,” she explained. “So, it was really difficult not having enough snow to compete or even train.”
Consequently, the sisters didn’t log enough races to qualify for the Olympics. Still, they’re going with their parents to cheer for their brother, Henri IV, who qualified.
The three Rivers kids are 18-year-old triplets. For much of their lives, they were coached by their dad, lifelong skier Henri III from Jamaica, Queens.
Their mother, Karen, also a coach, is from Jamaica— hence, the triplets’ eligibility to compete on the Caribbean nation’s Olympic team.
The sisters visited with The Tablet on Jan. 30 at their home in West Babylon. Henri IV was absent because he was training in Colorado with his Jamaican teammates.
Helaina and Henniyah described a life of athletic commitments, including travel to compete in Alpine skiing events, training, and qualifying. When asked about the recent snowfall across the U.S., Helaina mused, “It’s about time,” knowing that it was still too late for the sisters to squeeze in a few more qualifying races.
“We’re always chasing snow,” Henniyah said. “I wish it was a little earlier, but you know, we just have to think, like, that’s how Mother Nature works.”
The sisters’ “long-game” mentality attests to their commitment to keep skiing competitively. Even though they won’t ski at this year’s Olympics, they and their brother have qualified for the 2026 International Ski and Snowboard Alpine Junior Ski Championships, scheduled for March 5-15 in Narvik, Norway.
They don’t plan to stop there.
“The next four years are just to prepare for the next Olympics,” Helaina said.
Karen said it is a wonderful feeling to see the triplets connect with her homeland as members of its ski team. She was born in Jamaica but spent her childhood in Brooklyn, where she attended Catholic schools.
The triplets have traveled to Jamaica since they were 8 months old.
“It’s always good to be able to have that connection, besides just saying, ‘Oh, my mother is from there,’ ” Karen said. “They know Jamaica. To be able to represent it and to allow other young children to see the possibilities, it’s awesome.”
Before moving to Long Island, the family lived in Brooklyn, where they belonged to Our Lady of Charity Parish in Brownsville, under the pastorship of Father James Goode, known as the “dean” of black Catholic preaching when he died in 2022.
The Catholic faith has always “grounded” the triplets, their mother said, during their educations in public and private boarding schools near ski areas, where they could develop their Olympic-caliber skills.
“They were raised with God in their lives,” Karen said, “and it made a difference in how they looked at others and how they perceived their successes.”
The sisters confirmed that faith helped them navigate adversity.
“Just having Mass can help you become a better person,” Henniyah said. “It definitely helped us in sports, too. It kept us calm. And no matter if you’re going through a hard time, you can always pray about it and get yourself back into your normal mindset.”
The sisters described how their love for the sport was nurtured by their parents, especially their dad, who took up skiing as a kid in the 1960s and 1970s on the snowy mountains of upstate New York.
“He didn’t have as much opportunity back then,” Henniyah explained. “But he had an idea: he wanted to share his passion with his children. He brought us onto the snow in upstate New York, and we fell in love with skiing.
“Then we started racing when we were 5, and we’ve just been racing ever since.”
Henri III said 1% of the population skiing today is people of color, so in the 1970s, it was maybe just a tenth of a percent.
Consequently, he noted that information about the sport wasn’t commonly shared in his community. Skiing for him thus became a self-taught skill.
“I would just follow behind the kids who skied well to try to become as proficient as they were,” Henri III said. “I did not know about ski academies. I found those out as I started my coaching career, and I made sure to open that pathway for my kids and other kids.”
Henri III estimated that he coached about 300 youthful skiers, and very few of them were black. Still, he thrives on sharing the sport with everyone.
“I don’t care if you’re a good skier or a bad skier,” he said. “It doesn’t matter because when you ski, it’s just enjoyment.”
Henri III proudly shared how the triplets have pledged to one day take their own children skiing.
“That’s just because skiing is such a great sport,” he said. “And it’s a family sport. It’s not like basketball, football, or anything that you just watch on TV. The whole family skis together.
“You’re out in the open, outdoors, and just enjoying nature.”
