She ‘Went Through Hell’: Israeli Hostage Released by Hamas Speaks

Two elderly hostages, now free from the grip of Hamas, recounted the moments they thought might never come.

One of the released hostages said she was kidnapped on a motorbike and taken to Gaza.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, is likening her time with the group to going “through hell.”

“She’s really the first person that has been with other people there and I think she’s very aware that she can pass on information,” said Sharone LIfshitz, the daughter of released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz.

“Their medical condition is OK, they’re talking,” said Deputy Director General Nursing and Head Nurse of Ichilov Hospital, Eti Uziel. “At first, we immediately brought them to their family members. It was a very, very emotional meeting.”

Her 83-year-old husband remains a hostage.

Meanwhile in Gaza, people frantically search for survivors in buildings that have been bombed to ruins.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported that more than 700 people have been killed in a bloody 24-hour period, and Gaza is without much-needed fuel, which is being withheld in humanitarian aid deliveries.

Gaza’s hospitals are facing the possibility of mass casualty situations.

“Without electricity, you know, this hospital will be just a mass grave,” said Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian doctor working at Shifa Hospital.

As attacks escalate, the Israeli military says it’s now waiting for a green light on a ground invasion.

“Hamas is responsible for civilian casualties but we will do every effort to avoid them and to fight this war as speedily and as rapidly as we can,” said Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “But it could be a long war.”

“To any state or non-state actor that is considering opening another front in this conflict against Israel, or who may target Israel’s partners, including the United States — don’t,” said U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. “Don’t throw fuel on the fire.”

Catholic Foundation Milestone: Celebrating The Past, Present And Future Of Diocesan Initiatives

The Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens, the non profit that supports several diocese initiatives, is celebrating a milestone anniversary.

It’s been 25 years since the foundation was started.

Since then an endowment of nearly $90 million has grown to back education, evangelization efforts, youth ministry, and the social needs of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

At a lunch on Tuesday Oct. 24, the foundation honored those who have been a driving force since the beginning, among them, Monsignor John Bracken, the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Vicar for Patrimony.

The foundation has given out $100 million in grants to date.

Vigil for Beloved Crossing Guard: Community Remembers Queens Woman Who Kept Kids Safe

by Katie Vasquez

Krystyna Naprawa was a mother, a grandmother, a parishioner at St. Helen Church in Howard Beach, and a beloved crossing guard for more than a decade.

At the same spot where she safely shepherded kids to school, her own life was lost, a life that was remembered by those who knew her best.

From police to parents to the people who loved her most, dozens came to light a candle and say goodbye to Naprawa.

Her daughter, son and other family are too grief-stricken to speak, except to say they will miss her, and she’s their angel.

Naprawa spent 13 years at the corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue, helping kids get to school.

It was while she was doing that job, helping five people cross the street, when the NYPD says a driver in a dump truck hit her.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver received a desk appearance ticket for failing to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care.

In the wake of her tragic passing, this community and the kids who knew her best are choosing to remember her warm smile and positive attitude.

“She would wave to me ‘hi’ and I always tell her at the end of the day when I usually come home, I would tell her ‘Oh, see you tomorrow,’ every single day,” said MS 210 student, April Aparicio. “I always see her replying to me, brightening up for a smile every single day. She was always positive to me.”

“Every day we would have a conversation, she would ask me how I am, what’s going on in the community, how’s the weather just said, simple interaction was important to me, you know that there was someone in the community that cares,” said former student, Daniel Hill.

Naprawa’s funeral is on Oct. 26 at her home parish of St. Helen’s. Elected officials have vowed to make this intersection safer for the community.

New York City’s Department of Transportation is reporting the number of pedestrian fatalities dropped in 2022 from the year before.

In 2022, the city registered 118 pedestrian deaths, down from 126 in 2021.

That number is an even further drop from the death toll in 2013, the year before the implementation of the city’s “Vision Zero” initiative.

That year there were 184 deaths reported.

Breaking down those deaths by borough, the DOT actually noted Brooklyn and Queens saw the highest percentage of pedestrian fatalities in the city between the years of 2017 and 2021.

Brooklyn registered at 34%, followed by Queens with 28%, Manhattan at 19%, the Bronx at 14%, and Staten Island at 5%.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 10/24/2023

A Queens community gathered for a candlelight vigil last night to remember an NYPD crossing guard killed while on duty.

The number of pedestrian deaths in NYC for 2022 dropped from the year before.

As the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, the terrorist group has released two more hostages.

The Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Students Help The Catholic Mission: Brooklyn Kids Raise Money For World Mission Sunday

This Sunday marked World Mission Sunday for Catholics around the globe and the youngest Catholics of the Diocese of Brooklyn have been doing their part to keep the mission alive.

Schools throughout Brooklyn and Queens have been raising money to help children in mission areas.

The school that raised the most in Brooklyn, was St. Bernadette Catholic Academy in Dyker Heights and in Queens, it was St. Sebastian Catholic Academy in Woodside.

The money went to the Missionary Childhood Association, which each year supports more than two-million children.

Celebrating The Body Of Christ: New York State Holds Eucharistic Congress

Thousands of catholics from all over New York state took part in a Eucharistic Congress over the weekend.

The first of its kind event happened at the national shrine of the North American martyrs in Auriesville, which is less than an hour outside of Albany.

Attendees from all eight dioceses in New York participated in worship, adoration, and a miles-long procession with the blessed sacrament.

The Body of Christ, along with the congress is at the center of a national campaign, designed by the U.S. bishops to bring Catholics closer to Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist.

The Diocese of Brooklyn is planning to hold their own revival in the Spring.

To stay up to date on that event and to read the full report on New York’s Eucharistic Congress, just go to thetablet.org.

18 People Killed After Airstrike Causes Church Collapse

One church in the Holy Land will especially need those prayers.

St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church collapsed after an Israeli airstrike, according to Caritas Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials said 18 were killed at the complex where hundreds were taking shelter, including a Caritas worker, who was killed, along with her husband and their infant daughter.

Queens Parishioners Form Living Rosary to Pray for World Peace

by Katie Vasquez

Parishioners at Our Lady of Mercy Church were praying out loud for a better world, starting with the Holy Land.

“We hope that peace will be restored to the very areas that Jesus himself preached in, walked in, taught in, so that was one of our intentions,” said Msgr. John McGuirl, temporary administrator of Our Lady of Mercy.

Dozens of children and adults formed a living rosary outside Our Lady of Mercy on Sunday, Oct. 22.

“When war broke out in the Holy Land, we said what a perfect tribute to Our Lady to pray for her sons and daughters in the Holy Land,” Fabienne Danies, a parishioner at the church, said.

The war is 5,000 miles away but it’s on the minds of many in Forest Hills.

“In a neighborhood where we have many Jewish brothers and sisters, [we want] to pray for peace in Israel that the hostages be returned unharmed,” Msgr. McGuirl said.

It’s a most important prayer for children, by children, that history doesn’t keep repeating.

“It’s really important because if you have more peace in the world, maybe the world would be a little bit better and more safe,”said Madeline Sands, a student at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy.

“It helps someone get to know each other more, for example say like someone is hurting someone and then they, like, make peace and then they become friends,” said Xavier Guanco, another student at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy.

The living rosary will continue until the fighting ends.

Final Resting Place: Murdered Activist’s Grave Gets Headstone

by Katie Vasquez

One by one, people left red carnations at the new headstone of Pietro “Pete” Panto at St. Charles-Resurrection Cemeteries on Long Island.

The grave, now piled high with carnations, was once unmarked until Joseph Sciorra of the Calandra Institute at Queens College stepped in.

“There was no tombstone and I was just sort of shocked,” Sciorra said.

Panto worked as a longshoreman in the late 1930’s, loading and unloading ships on the docks stretching from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Red Hook.

At the time, their labor union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, was controlled by organized crime. Panto denounced their corruption, rallying thousands of workers, but his activism came at a price.

“Here was a man who was murdered by the mob, here was a man who fought against a corrupt union that was not looking out for the workers,” Sciorra said.

The Italian American went missing in 1939. When his body was found two years later, Panto’s family couldn’t afford a funeral, so Scotto Funeral Home stepped in to cover those expenses.

Deacon John Heyer who runs the funeral home, now says he learned about that day that Panto’s body was found through family members.

“You would see the words “Dov’e Panto” or “Where is Panto,” and eventually when he was found, which was about two or three years after he initially went missing, it was kind of a sigh of relief,” said Deacon Heyer.

After discovering his grave almost eight decades later, Sciorra set out to honor the activist by raising money for a headstone through GoFundMe. Donations poured in from as far as Tacoma, Washington.

“People were saying, ‘You know, my grandfather, he was a Swedish immigrant but he worked on the docks, so this is for all the working people,’ ” Sciorra said.

Now with the new grave marker, his legacy can continue with the hope that future generations will remember him.

“Unfortunately, he paid with his life, for that truth just as we relate to Christ, you know, dying for the truth, and so Pete did that for that community. and these are the stories that I think as Italian Americans we need to continue to tell,” Deacon Heyer said.

Catholic News Headlines for Monday 10/23/2023

Parishioners from Our Lady of Mercy in Forest Hills formed a living rosary on Sunday.

Thousands of Catholics gathered in upstate New York over the weekend for their own Eucharistic Congress.

Catholics around the globe celebrated World Mission Sunday.

After being killed in the late 1930s for standing up to the MOB, Pete Panto has finally been given a headstone with his name on it.