A Queens Catholic High School had an early Veterans Day celebration Thursday morning, holding a tribute to their alumni who have served our country.

St. Francis Prep invited eleven alumni who served in the navy, army, marines and air force.

The men spoke to students about their experiences overseas and how their time at St. Francis prepared them for their service.

They say their belief in God guided them during the difficult moments.

St. Francis has a history of helping veterans.

The Social Studies Department at the school raises money for America’s vet dogs.

One of those pups in training visited the students on Thursday.

St. Francis Prep is currently fundraising for their 4th therapy dog.

For more info on how to donate, just click here.

By Jessica Easthope

Marlin Medina has had a monitor on since September, and she says it feels tighter every day.

U.S. Border Patrol agents put it on when she crossed over from Mexico. She was told to head to New York City. The ankle monitor would make sure she got there and stayed.

“I feel like I’m a prisoner, like I’m being made out to be a criminal,” Medina said. “It’s humiliating and violating, I’m depressed.”

When Medina reached the United States she thought the worst of her journey was over. Along the way cartels robbed her but she gave up her belongings willingly, hoping they would spare her and not kidnap her son.

“It was terrible,” Medina said. “It was very scary. We didn’t know what they would do to us. They take kids away from you. My focus was just to do what they said and get to Mexico City where we could take the train.”

She left Venezuela to escape violence, but the Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle connecting Colombia and Panama, made her think about going back.

“It was an ugly experience,” Medina said. “We had to use ropes to cross the river and the muck. We had to climb peaks and go back down.”

More than 400,000 people have passed through that jungle this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Almost half are children. 

Wilfredo made that journey too, with a group of nearly 800 people. Only 30 made it out. The rest turned back or died. 

“Eventually you start to see people who have died,” Wilfredo said. “You see women and children and pregnant women in the jungle and there’s a feeling of helplessness because in the jungle you can only look out for yourself.”

Both Wilfredo and Medina ended up at St. Michael’s Church in Sunset Park, one of several sites run by Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens. 

“There are days when you feel like things are starting to settle [down] and then the numbers would increase,” said John Gonzalez, director of parish community relations at CCBQ. “Right now we’re going through one of those flows and in those moments you ask what is going on but we have to respond. Pope Francis asks us to be witnesses of mercy. It’s tiresome but we have no other choice.”

Wilfredo and Medina say they feel lucky to have made it this far.

“I feel so grateful for the assistance Catholic Charities has given me and I continue to have faith in God that I will persevere,”  Medina said. 

They know God will carry them even further.

The work of CCBQ is part of what Bishop Robert Brennan calls “the Catholic response” to the migrant crisis.

In a column in The Tablet, Bishop Brennan reminds his flock that Christ tells us to welcome the stranger.

That is exactly what CCBQ and various parishes in the diocese are doing for the migrants coming to New York. 

He also recognizes the need to reform the systems that have caused the migrant crisis, saying the policies are neither compassionate or sustainable.

To read the bishop’s full column just go to THETABLET.Org.

By Jessica Easthope

When you walk into this storefront on Surf Avenue in Coney Island, it takes some imagination to picture a bustling bagel store.

That’s what army veteran Eugene Cronin sees among the beams and blueprints. He never thought he’d be here on the nights he spent sleeping on a slab of concrete in a jail cell during the depths of his alcoholism.

“It’s turned around a lot because I didn’t need a hand out, I needed a hand up.” 

Eugene is one of 82 formerly homeless veterans living in Concern Housing’s surf vets building. Cyclone Bagels is set to be their new retail space. 

Director Junie Clauther says the grand opening is a new beginning for the building and the vets.

“This is a job for them,” Clauther said. “It will give them a new phase in life, and it would also give them purpose and benefit them. They have a place to go.”

Now 13 years sober, Cronin is a certified executive chef. He used his G.I. bill to enroll at Johnson and Wales University.

“Cheffing has been so much fun,” Cronin said. “I like making food where you can’t replace the cook to make these particular dishes. There’s a lot of love that goes into it.”

But before that, there were 4 years of Desert Storm. 

“We saw a lot of combat,” Cronin said. “We’re marching across the desert, there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in the desert. For the Bedouins to cross the desert safely if there’s a landmine, the girls would walk in front so they would get it. It definitely left an imprint.” 

Cronin’s service to his country left him with those memories and a military discipline he can’t shake. But that’s exactly what Beth George wants in the kitchen. Her business, Be Your Own Boss, or BYOB Bagels is partnering with concern housing to open Cyclone Bagels. 

“Veterans sacrifice a lot to be veterans,” George said. “And they often, if they’ve been in combat especially, come back with special needs, and just to see the impact on the individuals that moved me.”

Cronin knows how badly he and his fellow Surf Vets need this. 

“There are some that are just dying to get a job but they’re in their 50s and 60s and they are vital as an 18-year-old, you can’t count them out,” Cronin said. “We got a bunch of people upstairs just raring for this place to open. You got to serve people.”

“Cronin is such a positive person,” George said. “His attitude is such a light, working at Cyclone Bagels will not only benefit him, but he will help others. He loves helping other people.”

Concern Housing has given Cronin a new sense of stability and Cyclone Bagels has helped his faith come back around.

“I don’t have a shotgun to my chest, I don’t have a bottle of booze next to me,” Cronin said. “Wow, the future is amazing.”

Cronin doesn’t know what the future holds but for the first time in a while he can imagine it.

by Jessica Easthope

Bob Abate’s Yonkers home is the only place you’ll find a piece of history that’s been lost to time. 

For the past 25 years Abate has been pressing “record” over and over as the Greatest Generation tells the graphic details of their service.

Voices that have screamed out from muddy foxholes, eyes that have seen the horrors of war, faces that have braved the enemy of freedom. 

Some stories were violent, some were shameful to tell, but if you ask Abate, every story is heroic.

“It’s gruesome and people don’t realize what war is like,” Abate said. “To me, there’s no such thing as Memorial Day one day a year, Veterans Day, one day a year, we enjoy their sacrifices every single day.”

Abate’s interviews of 200 World War II combat veterans live here and are burned into his memory. 

“In one way it was almost like going to confession because they could get it out and they wouldn’t have to deal with me ever again,” Abate said. “They are the finest young men this country has ever produced, and so that’s why I feel the obligation to tell the stories. I owe it to them.”

Abate, a Navy veteran who never saw combat, started his interviews when he retired. 

He’s spoken with servicemen and women from every branch of the military. 

“They went through horrors,” Abate said. “The one thing they all kind of share is survivor’s guilt. It’s a kind of thing they could never shake. They all have varying degrees of PTSD. There’s no way you could not have it.”

There are 300 hours of tapes and Abate transcribed them all by hand. 

“This is more than a hobby,” Abate said. “It’s something that I really treasure and respect.”

All 200 of his interview subjects have died. For many of them, Abate is the only person to ever hear their story.

The youngest WWII veteran would be about 96 years old today. 

Not many are willing or able to share their stories, but if there’s one veteran who is, Abate and his tape recorder are ready to go.

by Katie Vasquez

A new day in a new country. A world away from the war in Ukraine. 

“My husband works hard and I do everything about the house with all my kids,” said Ksemiya Kaseeva, a Ukrainian refugee.

When the first shots were fired, Oleskandr Somin took his wife, Kaseeva, their two kids, and his mother out of their homeland. 

“I lost everything so we had to start from the very beginning,” Somin said.

It was a long journey, traveling thousands of miles through Europe and eventually crossing the Atlantic Ocean, but it didn’t stop there. 

“We crossed the border through Mexico to the United States,” Somin said.

Finally, the family ended up here with the Sisters of St. Joseph in Long Island, in a rent-free apartment. 

“This program allows them to stay for a minimum of a year,” said Sister Annelle Fitzpatrick, director of refugee resettlement. “Many programs for refugee resettlement, the time limit is three months. You can’t even get an established mailing address.”

The sisters aim to help new arrivals begin a new life.

“I have time to learn English and to find a good job because I don’t have to pay rent right now,” Somin said. “So I can look around and adjust a little bit.”

But lending a hand is no small feat for the sisters. They don’t receive government aid. 

Housing families like the Somins costs about $8,000 a month.

“These people show what kindness is and show us how people have to help people,” Somin said. “So when I leave this place, I want to help other people like the sisters helped us.”

The Sisters of St. Joseph are constantly getting requests to host even more families.

They are opening their arms to as many as they can, but they say the demand is overwhelming.  

Meanwhile, this family is getting ready to settle on their own, finding a car and apartment in the new year, which will open up space for a new family.

by Katie Vasquez

An artifact of faith is helping New Yorkers see a part of American history in a whole new light.

“When we talk about westward expansion we don’t often talk about religion or we talk about it in very limited terms,” said Lily Wong, associate curator at the New York Historical Society.

The New York Historical Society is focusing on that spirituality with a new exhibit titled, “Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West.”

Curators have gathered a vast collection of 60 objects, images, and documents, all designed to tell the story of how religion became a vital part of American life in the 1800s.

The exhibition shows the many faiths of the American melting pot and the experience of a vast number of ethnic communities.

One Catholic could enjoy looking to the Southwest. Mexico once controlled the area but after the Mexican-American war, many Franciscans left, leaving the people of faith in the area struggling for spiritual guidance.

“So there are priests that are still active and working but there aren’t as many as probably are needed but the villagers work among themselves, it’s really important to them to sustain their Catholicism,” said Wong.

The journey out West was grueling and some didn’t make it. The rosary belonged to one of the first Sisters of Loretto to settle in New Mexico. She was one of the lucky ones.” 

“Two of the sisters took ill, one of them actually died along the way, but I think it’s a testament to their commitment to the mission,” said Wong.

It’s just one of many stories outlined by the Historical Society that New Yorkers should know.

“I think all of these and many of the ones in our exhibit are ones that people aren’t familiar with,” said Wong. The exhibition runs through February of next year.

To see the exhibit “Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West” just go to nyhistory.org/visit.

Some sad news for Catholics on Staten Island: A statue outside the Sacred Heart Church has been desecrated. The statue of the Son of God was found on All Saints’ Day with its hands cut off.

Shortly after, a parishioner found a statue of St. Francis nearby had been decapitated.

The St. Francis statue has been repaired but the church is still trying to fix the more than 100-year-old Christ statue outside the Sacred Heart Church. 

The NYPD is investigating the incidents; however, surveillance cameras were not positioned near the statues. 

Police are still looking for the suspect who desecrated a statue of Mary in a similar way last week in Queens.

The more-than-a-century-old statue at St. Andrew Avellino Church in Flushing was found missing a right hand and a damaged left one.

Deacon James Cowan, of Sacred Heart Church, spoke to Currents News about his, and the church’s, reaction to the crime.