Answering the call — four new priests are coming to the Diocese of Brooklyn. We have their stories. From the Dominican Republic to Vietnam and now ministering to the “diocese of immigrants.”
The moments leading up to ordination day, where their road to the priesthood ends and their new path with Christ begins.
A special report on The Tablet’s COVID fundraiser — the winners are making thousands for their schools.
By Emily Drooby
A big surprise and a big check for three Catholic school students in the Diocese of Brooklyn! The Tablet Newspaper’s COVID Relief Fundraiser top sellers earned a unique visit for their hard work.
The goal was to sell as many newspaper subscriptions as they could. With 48 subscriptions, fifth-grader Noelle Pianoforte of St. Athanasius Catholic Academy in Bensonhurst took home the grand prize: a $3,000 check.
“I can’t even explain how I’m feeling,” she said. “I’m just so happy about it.”
Her mom, Kristy, says a huge portion of the money is going to next year’s tuition.
“She worked hard, so it’s good that she got to see her hard work pay off,” Kristy said.
As for Noelle, the real prize was helping her school.
“Raising money for your school isn’t really that hard,” she said. “It’s just fun and it’s really exciting.”
For every subscription sold, the schools got five dollars. That made principals like Diane Competello of St. Athanasius both grateful and proud.
“It’s so nice to see that spirit in a child,” Diane said. “She wants to give back. She wanted something for the school. She wanted something for her family. She really, really stepped up to the plate.”
The big checks were dropped off personally by The Tablet’s Marketing and Circulation Manager, John Alexander, who spearheaded the fundraiser.
“So heartening, and it’s so rewarding,” John said. “Just to see their faces, their happy faces, to know they accomplished something, something that again not only benefits them, but benefits their school and their families.”
Second place went to eighth-grader Jias Jordan with 40 subscriptions.
“I’m kind of just astonished that I got 2,000 dollars,” Jias said.
On top of that, he also got a bonus from his school. St. Elizabeth Catholic Academy in Ozone Park also awarded him for being the top student and gave him one month of free tuition.
“I saw that you could get one month free of tuition,” Jias said. “So I just decided to do it to help financially my family.”
Third place went to third-grader Santiago Diniz of St. Sebastian Catholic Academy in Woodside.
“I was so happy,” Santiago said. “I actually won!”
His 22 subscriptions earned him a $1,000 bonus.
He had a unique selling strategy with his mom.
“We just made a video elevator pitch,” Santiago said. “My mom sent it as a text message to everyone we knew.”
In total, $20,000 dollars was given away to the students and $11,000 to the schools. However, Msgr. David Cassato, Vicar for Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn, said the help is priceless.
“Everybody today is struggling financially, I don’t care who you are,” Msgr. Cassato said. “Every church is struggling financially, every school is struggling financially, and you know what they say, every little bit helps. A little bit here, a little bit there. It pays tuition, it keeps the school electric bill paid.”
There were more winners. Two schools also won $3,000 bonuses for having the highest amount of sellers.
St. Francis De Sales Catholic Academy of Belle Harbor, Queens, won in the “large school” category and St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, won in the “small school” category.
The Tablet Newspaper has plans to relaunch the fundraiser next school year.
A historic deal could mean the beginning of the end for Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
New scrutiny on Dr. Anthony Fauci after thousands of his emails from the beginning of the pandemic were released.
A memorial for Vietnam veterans is vandalized.
We hear from the fourth and final deacon on his path to priesthood in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Currents News Staff
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, alongside his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, got on the phone with the Israeli president to tell him one thing: they’re uniting to oust the prime minister out of office.
“Mr. President, I am calling you to say that I have succeeded in forming a government,” said Yair, the leader of Yesh Atid. “With the factions of Yesh Atid, Yamina, Kachol Lavan, Ra’am, New Hope, Meretz, and the Labor Party, all of them together, they signed for me.”
The unlikely allies, political rivals of longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have announced a deal to form a unity government. That means Netanyahu would be ousted from office.
“Mr. President, we will do together whatever is good for Israel and will see you at the swearing in ceremony,” said Naftali Bennett, leader of the Yamina party. “Thank you very much.”
After four elections, and more than two years of political dysfunction, under the deal of this coalition, the right wing leader Bennett will serve as prime minister first. Then two years later, centrist leader Lapid would take over as part of a rotating leadership deal.
And for the first time in Israeli history, an Arab Israeli party will also be part of the coalition. Earlier in the week, Netanyahu spoke out, denouncing Naftali Bennett as a man who cared about nothing but becoming prime minister. That reminded Israelis that before the March election, Bennett said he would not sit in a government led by Lapid.
“I heard Mr. Bennett,” the prime minister said. “To my sorrow, he is misleading the public. The same lies, the same hate, as somebody who is assisting for division and hate.”
Currents News Staff
A key instrument to one parish’s success…
94-year-old Mary Anne Tupa has been playing the piano and organ at Holy Family Catholic Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota for nearly 60 years!
Mary Anne joined Currents News to share the secret to what keeps this mother of 11 going and why she decided to dedicate her time to sharing her faith with others.
By Jessica Easthope
Most people hate change, but Deacon Chin Nguyen’s life has been defined by it. He’s never resisted it or complained. He’s embraced it and always trusted in God’s plan.
“I believe in God’s call and my parents always prayed for us to become good Catholics,” he said.
Growing up in northern Vietnam, Deacon Chin is the second youngest of 10 children. His name means nine in Vietnamese. As a young kid, his uncle who is a priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, went back to Vietnam for a visit. Life as he knew it would never be the same.
“My uncle, who is a priest in Long Island, he said if we stayed in the north, there would be no education at all and he saw that, so he sent us to the south,” Deacon Chin said.
The four youngest children in his family left their parents to live with an aunt in southern Vietnam. It was a great opportunity that came with a harsh reality.
“From the north to the south, we don’t fly like over here, so we visited my parents every three years and there were no cell phones,” he said.
But his love of God blossomed out of hardship – faith soon became his family’s legacy. The four siblings who made that move as children grew to dedicate their lives to Christ.
“My brother was the first one to join the seminary in Ho Chi Minh city, in Saigon now, and my other brother joined another local order in Vietnam,” said Deacon Chin.
At Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Astoria, Queens, Deacon Chin has made a deep connection with parishioners. He learned how to speak their language – literally.
“I can do the Italian reading for the Mass, Spanish I can do the reading and share a homily, Chinese I can do some short conversation,” he said.
He’s trying to blend in with the community around him as he prepares for his life’s mission.
“In Brooklyn, it’s what we call a melting pot,” he said. “So I see the need to understand people more to really serve them effectively.”
Deacon Chin is still practicing, getting better every day, but no matter how fluent he becomes in Italian, Spanish or Chinese, God’s language is universal.
Currents News Staff
More than 200 pairs of shoes were laid on these Vancouver steps. Their souls were symbolically, now at rest.
Catholic leaders are responding after the remains of 215 children were found buried, for decades, on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian residential school in Canada. The former school was run by the Catholic church and later by the federal government.
Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver called the news ‘troubling,’ saying in a statement that “the pain that such news causes reminds us of our ongoing need to bring light to every tragic situation that occurred in residential schools run by the church. The passage of time does not erase the suffering that touches the Indigenous communities affected, and we pledge to do whatever we can to heal that suffering.”
The Indigenous community in British Columbia calls it an “unthinkable” discovery.
“It was devastating,” said Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s Chief Rosanne Casimir. “It was actually quite mind-boggling.”
Former student Harvey McLeod says he was subjected to abuse at the school.
“What I realized yesterday, how strong I was as a little boy…how strong I was as a little boy to be here today,” Harvey said. “Because I know that a lot of people didn’t come home.”
According to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Indigenous children were forced to attend the school. They were separated from families and many were neglected and abused. Some even disappeared and their families never knew what became of them.
“What they were told was that, when children were missing, that they were told that they ran away,” said Chief Rosanne.
Native leaders say it’s time the government steps up.
“There is obviously more to do,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The prime minister called the discovery ‘a painful reminder of a dark chapter in the country’s history,’ but he isn’t making any specific promises.
“This government is committed to reconciliation,” he said. “We are committed to the truth.”
Currents News Staff
Primary Day is less than three weeks away in the race for New York city mayor. Currents News asked all of the frontrunners, both Democrat and Republican, to tell our viewers why they should be the city’s next mayor.
Republican candidate Fernando Mateo joined Currents News to discuss his platform and what are his plans if he were to become mayor of New York.
Another possible hate crime against the Diocese of Brooklyn – police in Elmhurst are searching for the person who topped a sacred statue leaving it in pieces in the latest act of vandalism.
Catholic leaders in Canada expressing sorrow after children’s remains are found near a formerly church-run school for native kids.
A cyberattack on one of the largest meat producers in the country could result in rising prices at the supermarket.
A young boy flees Nigeria and finds a new passion in the U.S.
By Jessica Easthope
As attacks on faith across the city become increasingly common, for Queens Councilman Robert Holden: it’s personal.
“This is an attack not only on the Catholic church, the symbols, the Blessed Mother, but it’s an attack on my past, my foundation, the place where I got all my values,” Councilman Holden said.
Before Councilman Holden was married at St. Adalbert’s in 1973, he was a student and an altar boy. Now he’s offering up money in the hope of catching the person who toppled a statue of Mary.
“We have to find who did this and stop them because they may be doing it other places,” he said. “This kind of vandalism, we’re not going to tolerate this kind of behavior in New York City or anywhere else.”
Some time between the evening of May 27 and the morning of May 28, someone came through the gate in the back of St. Adalbert’s and threw this statue to the ground. The result? The statue of the Blessed Mother was broken into pieces.
Father Miroslaw Podymniak, pastor of the church, says the statue likely predates the church building itself, going back nearly 130 years.
“The pieces were on the ground and I knew someone would have had to push the statue pretty hard because it’s heavy weight and it was really upsetting to me because we had the statue for so many years,” Father Podymniak said.
The statue is admired by so many parishioners, but in the wake of the vandalism, members of the church community are turning the other cheek.
“I really feel so sad and I pray for him and I ask God that he or she may be enlightened, believe in God, whatever he did I can say ‘May God bless him even though he did this,’” said Lorna Desepeda, a parishioner at the church for more than 15 years.
Father Podymniak said what surprised him most wasn’t the act of vandalism, but an act of kindness and faith that came after it.
“One of the police officers, he offered help and he will bring a professional contractor to have a look and have this fixed free of charge, for which we are very grateful,” he said. “He came to me and he said ‘father, I will take care of this,’” he said.
Father Podymniak said that officer is expected to bring the contractor over in the next few days. As of now, no arrests have been made and the incident is under investigation by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.