The Tablet Newspaper wants to make sure every child in the Diocese of Brooklyn has a present under their tree.
One man who’s been helping from the very beginning is Matt Schiller.
U.S. bishops are calling on congress to open up its wallet.
In the Diocese of Brooklyn panettone can be found year-round at one Williamsburg bakery.
By Jessica Easthope
Growing up, Laura Arcuri always had happy Christmases, even if the feeling only lasted for a few hours.
It’s 1966, 13-year-old Arcuri’s first Christmas without her dad, and her mom is dying of cancer.
“I remember her trying to make a beautiful Christmas for us,” Arcuri said. “We had a tree, there were presents to open, she was still working. I don’t know how she did it, but she struggled to work. It was her and my brother and we had gifts to open and we made the best of it.”
Arcuri’s dad, Nicholas, grew up during the Depression and went on to serve in World War II. He died of an infection he contracted in a swimming pool at the age of 48.
“He had his life ahead of him,” Arcuri said. “He knew what Christmas could be like when times are very lean; the world lost him too early. I lost him too early.”
By Christmas 1968 Arcuri and her brother were orphans. They moved out of their home on Long Island to Bushwick with relatives. The painful memories have stayed with her all these years, but so have the good.
“It just becomes a harder time to celebrate but somehow also you remember those Christmases and you get some strength and comfort from knowing that you had a beautiful Christmas,” Arcuri said.
Every year when Arcuri, who attends daily Mass at St. Matthias Church in Ridgewood, donates to Bright Christmas, deep down she hopes her money goes to someone just like her.
“The Tablet always succeeds, having grown up in this diocese now you could see that there’s a lot of need and you know a lot of people that are hungry or children that are struggling, children whose childhood might even be cut short.”
Her own childhood was cut short, but come the Christmas holiday Arcuri remembers the gifts and decorations that allowed her to forget her heartbreak.
“Christmas is a time to help others,” Arcuri said. “It could be a boy, it could be a girl, it could be for the adults that needed it could even be for their pet, to make it a Bright Christmas, to make it a Christmas that some family is going to remember for a very long time.”
Arcuri knows those are the Christmas memories that last. Arcuri and dozens of other donors are already helping kids have a Bright Christmas this year.
So far the paper has raised more than $57,000, but they’re trying to raise $125,000.
So if you want to help them reach their goal, just go online to thetablet.org/brightchristmas.
You can also make a check out to: Bright Christmas and mail it to
Bright Christmas, LB #2118,
P.O. BOX 95000
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19195.
Your generous gift to Bright Christmas will help dozens of parishes around the diocese.
The Catholic visually impaired community gathered at a Manhattan church Wednesday, Dec. 13, to celebrate the feast day of their patroness, St. Lucy.
The annual Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church is organized by the Xavier Society for the Blind, a Catholic organization that provides biblical sources and faith materials in Braille for free to blind Catholics across the globe.
Father Jamie Dennis, a blind priest from the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky, used their materials to celebrate the liturgy for St. Lucy. He said the Mass helps the community grow together in faith.
After Mass the people in attendance were able to venerate the relics of St. Lucy and St. Angela Merici, another patroness of the blind.
The Catholic visually impaired community gathered at a Manhattan church Wednesday, Dec. 13, to celebrate the feast day of their patroness, St. Lucy.
The annual Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church is organized by the Xavier Society for the Blind, a Catholic organization that provides biblical sources and faith materials in Braille for free to blind Catholics across the globe.
Father Jamie Dennis, a blind priest from the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky, used their materials to celebrate the liturgy for St. Lucy. He said the Mass helps the community grow together in faith.
After Mass the people in attendance were able to venerate the relics of St. Lucy and St. Angela Merici, another patroness of the blind.
by Katie Vasquez
You can’t miss Terence Hughes on the field, with his red metallic helmet.
Every Tuesday and Thursday he’s at practice at the Red Hook soccer fields, playing lacrosse for Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, a sport and team that he loves.
“I’ve just felt really a part of this team because, you know, the coaches, all my teammates,” Hughes said.
For Huges, being on this field is a feat he’s grateful for, because one year ago he didn’t think he’d ever be here again.
“I was worried that I wasn’t ever going to play lacrosse again,” Hughes said.
The 14-year-old was born with a heart murmur but was told by his doctor that he wouldn’t need surgery until he became an adult.
That all changed in November of last year when Terence returned from gym class with crippling chest pain.
“Right as I was about to cross over, like, I get the door, I fell and almost hit the wall,” Hughes said. “And that’s when I started, like, just, you know, feeling and it was all hitting me right there. Like, I felt it all through my body and everything, and the pain was just unbearable.”
He had open heart surgery in February which took him off the lacrosse field for nine months. He cheered his team on from the sidelines.
“It was tough because he’s watching kids play the game he wants to play, and he kind of feels like the waterboy, right? it’s not the role that he wants to play,” said Nick Dilonardo, the head lacrosse coach at Bishop Loughlin.
But his teammates cheered him on during his recovery.
“A lot of the team went to the hospital he was staying at and we brought him books and stuff and we checked up on him, made sure he was good and let him know we were there with him,” said Josiah Celius, Hughes’ lacrosse teammate.
Now he’s back playing the sport he loves, and not taking any moment, on or off the field, for granted.
“A lot of people when they’re really committed to something, they lose sight of that and you know, put that off for later as if it doesn’t matter,” Hughes said. “But, you know, we can’t be out here, we can’t be here in this beautiful world without our health.”
And while he doesn’t know what this season holds, Huges will give it his all, for the game and the team that he loves.
The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Campaign is moving along but the paper still hasn’t reached its goal.
Laura Arcuri, from St. Matthias Church in Ridgewood, knows what it’s like to not have a picture perfect childhood.
A Special Mass was held today at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.
The lacrosse team at Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn is celebrating after Terence Hughes returned on the field from open heart surgery.
New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Brooklyn’s Bishop Robert Brennan met with survivors of the attack that prompted the terror in the Holy Land.
The “commission of religious leaders” held the meeting last week and heard the survivors’ story.
On Oct. 7, the grandmother and her two 15-year-old granddaughters hid in a safe room for more than 30 hours while terrorists tried to get inside.
The grandmother’s home was ultimately destroyed, leaving the family displaced.
At the end of the meeting, the faith leaders laid their hands on the survivors, thanking God for protecting the women during the attack.
by Katie Vasquez
The beats of dancers echo in the Co-Cathedral of S.t Joseph.
More than 3,000 parishioners of Latin American heritage displaying their faith and culture during a mass for a popular marian apparition.
“We Mexicans believe it,” said St. Athanasius Church parishioner, Erick Morales. “She has done very, very much miracles for us. and it is very special for us.”
“We grow with it. Since we were kids we hear from our Lady of Guadalupe and always we pray to her and we’re asking to intercede for us,” said St. Finbar parishioner, Lazaro Bulux.
It’s the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and even though the devotion dates back almost 500 years, it’s so strong in the Diocese of Brooklyn that this celebration had to be split into two masses, one for Brooklyn and one for Queens.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see so many people here,” said Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn. “And this is one mass. So these are the parishes in Brooklyn who gathered and we filled the cathedral.”
But these devotees aren’t just here to celebrate mass with Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan, they’re here to spread the word of Christ.
Bishop Brennan lights dozens of torches that the runners will bring back to their parishes.
The flame symbolizes the light of Christ, and their journey, a way to share their love of Jesus and the blessed mother.
“It’s a very powerful sign of evangelization. It’s a very visible sign of who we are and what we’re about. and our love for the blessed mother, our love for Jesus Christ, said Brennan.
“You know whatever light we can get, we’re going to share it. so that’s very, very important. and we are happy to be here. to be part. and we are blessed,” said Bulux.
And just as the torches light the streets of the Diocese of Brooklyn, the light of Christ enters into the homes and hearts of the faithful.
The faithful from all over the Diocese of Brooklyn are converging at the Co-Cathedral of St Joseph to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The origins of the feast come from 1531, when the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on a hill in Mexico to a peasant named Juan Diego.
The Tablet Newspaper is still raising money for its Bright Christmas campaign.
Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens has a similar goal.
Among the hostages released in early December from the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict are the daughter and wife of Moshe Leimberg, one of the family members of those kidnapped by Hamas who met with Pope Francis on Nov. 22.
In a meeting with the press, Leimberg said his life had changed radically since Oct. 7. He recounted how in the mornings he waited to hear the voice of his daughter and wife and, almost 50 days later, that moment hadn’t come.
“I’m sorry, I can’t have faith,” Leimberg said. “I’m hoping for the best but until I see them, until I hold them, I can’t.”
During the meeting, Leimberg shook Pope Francis’ hand but his pain was clear. Now, with his wife and daughter released, it is hoped that his life may return to normal.