Bringing Young People to Church: Queens College Catholic Club Trying to Recruit More Students

By Katie Vasquez

FLUSHING — On a recent Monday afternoon, the Catholic Newman Center at Queens College was filled to capacity.

“I want to really get closer to God and open up my faith towards him,” said Genesis Enriquez, a Queens College freshman. “I just think that’s a really good opportunity to have here.”

It’s an unusual sight for a college campus. According to Pew Research, 79% of former Catholics left the church before the age of 23.

That same study found that 90% of “nones” — people with no religion at all — left their religion before the age of 29.

“It’s really easy, really, really easy to just forget about God, to forget about what really matters,” said Madeline Liu, president of the Queens College Newman Club.

But Queens College is using new tactics to buck the trend.

Bishop Robert Brennan brought the FOCUS program to the school.

“Frankly the best way I think to invite people, is to nourish those who are coming and encourage them because they’re the best salespeople, you might say,” Bishop Brennan said.

The organization sends missionaries, like Katie Mossberger from Connecticut, to different campuses to engage with students.

“We go onto campus and we’re just tabling and we’re handing out things to say about the Newman Center and the things we’re going to be having here,” Mossberger said.

Father Jose Diaz, the chaplain at the college, said it’s those events that lead students back to their faith.

“They can come to the center, they can hang out with students, they can get to know one another and laugh together and talk about sports and culture but at the same time they can pray together,” Father Diaz said.

Just at the first Mass alone, Father Diaz said he saw some new faces.

But Omar Cortez, the campus minister, said they still have a long way to go.

“There’s probably a thousand Catholics on campus,” Cortez said. “How many are fully practicing, that’s a more scarier number for us.”

It’s a scary number they’re willing to tackle one student at a time.

Queens College’s Newman Center is open Monday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with daily Mass at 12:30 p.m.

For more information you can visit their website at QCCATHOLIC.ORG.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 09/19/2023

Bishop Robert Brennan started the focus program at Queens college.

President Joe Biden is in New York where he addressed the UN general assembly this morning.

Pope Francis gave the keynote speech to the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday.

A teen from Madrid says she received a miracle while on her pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2023 in Portugal.

Honoring Fallen NYPD Member: Intersection Renamed for Detective Jason Rivera

New Yorkers came together at a street corner once again to remember and honor a fallen member of the NYPD.

People gathered at 204th Street and Sherman Avenue, which was rechristened NYPD Detective Jason “Ta Ta” Rivera Way.

Rivera, and his partner, Wilbert Mora, were killed early last year while answering a 911 call in Harlem.

Police Commissioner Eddie Caban, Mayor Eric Adams, Rivera’s widow Dominique, and others were there for the occasion.

The intersection is where Rivera’s father dropped him off for school as a child and where he hung out with friends.

Father Felix Varela: Cause for Canonization Gains Momentum

By Jessica Easthope

Retired Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros is the first to admit he didn’t know much about Felix Varela as a young man growing up in Cuba.

But now he’s spearheading Varela’s cause for sainthood in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

“He was a voice that spoke for the Church with kindness, with gentleness, but with forcefulness,” Bishop Cisneros said. Varela was a Cuban politician, scientist, musician, journalist, and priest.

He represented Cuba in the Spanish parliament, but was outspoken on issues like ending slavery and freeing the Spanish colonies. He was eventually sentenced to death and exiled.

He left his affluent upbringing and education behind and came to New York City in the 1820s to minister to mostly Irish immigrants who were living in poverty.

Bishop Cisneros and Father Christopher Heanue, the coordinator of the Irish Apostolate in the Diocese of Brooklyn, held a gala to raise awareness for varela’s cause for sainthood.

“He comes to New York and he faces the immigrant population, the poor, hungry, sick and he becomes the priest, the pastor, the shepherd to help the people of New York at that time,” Bishop Cisneros said. “He truly is an example for all of us in New York today.”

“Does a parishioner at St. Mel’s know him? Does someone at the co-cathedral know him? You can’t make someone a saint without people praying for his intercession,” Father Heanue said.

He was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI and now those with a devotion to Varela are waiting on a miracle to confirm his beatification.

They’re hopeful because Varela unites Cuba, Ireland, and New York City under one Catholic Church.

“What unites him to all of those locations is the one holy and apostolic faith, which is the Catholic Church,” Father Heanue said. “So the fact that you can feel at home anywhere in the world as long as you’re participating in something larger and more noble than any country, state president, or king.”

As New York City accommodates a surge of migrants, Bishop Cisneros and Father Heanue say Felix Varela’s legacy is a poignant reminder of what the newly arrived need most.

“We need someone who will advocate for these newly arrived immigrants who will fight for them and treat them with dignity and respect,” Father Heanue said. “There’s been a call to recognize people’s dignity and humanity and advocate for the poor and needy is a great lesson learned.”

This year marks 200 years since Varela arrived in New York City and Saturday, Sept. 23, is the 170th anniversary of his death.

A miracle that would confirm Varela’s beatification is currently being investigated by the Congregation of Saints.

Father Varela has forever made his mark in the Diocese of Brooklyn. A new center named after the Cuban priest was dedicated on Friday.

Bishop Cisneros blessed the food pantry and soup kitchen named after the possible future saint, as well as the workers who will be feeding the poor and the homeless every week at the soup kitchen and every month at the food pantry.

The center was part of the feast celebration of the patron of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona, Queens.

The parish processed with an image of the blessed mother ahead of the opening. Afterward they attended Mass and then came back out on the street for a party.

Catholic News Headlines for Monday 09/18/2023

Officials in the Diocese of Brooklyn continue to raise awareness for Father Felix Varela.

National Migration Week is underway.

Pope Francis is urging people to address the migrant crisis head on.

The intersection of 204th Street and Sherman Avenue is rechristened as: NYPD Detective Jason “Ta Ta” Rivera Way.

Recognizing Their Love: Faith Helps Brooklyn Couple for Over 40 Years

By Jessica Easthope

Millie and Fred Fulford said back in 1980 friends and family called them brave for entering into an interracial marriage.

It wasn’t easy all those years ago and still isn’t today.

“My mother got a lot of flack for that from the Spanish community of older women, you know, like ‘how could you let your daughter marry a black man,’ ” Millie said.

“When we go into the store and we’re standing in line my wife goes up to the cashier and I go up to the cashier with her,” Fred said. “They say, ‘Sir could you step back.’ I say, ‘I’m with her.’ I’ve been with her for 40-something years.”

It was something that never mattered to them, especially when their love story started nearly 50 years ago in the Gowanus housing projects. Early on in their relationship, instead of letting in hate, they let in Christ.

“Faith has been the foundation of our marriage and working through those really difficult times.”

Through decades together and raising a son, there were some difficult times.

As parishioners of St. Agnes Church, Millie and Fred have worked with the kids of the community for decades and eventually married couples, telling them, ‘Your marriage and your faith will be tested.’

“I call them the ebbs and flows of marriage.” Anyone that tells you it’s a straight line or everything’s been great that’s just not the reality.”

Millie and Fred want to be an example, not of a perfect marriage, but of an imperfect love, one that’s endured even the most tragic of circumstances.

“We were actually separated for like six months,” Millie said. “I had a miscarriage right at that time and that really blew the roof off of everything, that was the biggest test. But we managed to fight back and we have that Church system in us so we worked it out. With God in our life, it made it that much easier to deal with the situation.”

Looking back at it, the couple know now the real bravery wasn’t getting together, but rather staying together.

Blessing for Pastoral Year: Bishop Brennan Celebrates Mass for Diocesan Employees

By Katie Vasquez

A new school year also means a new pastoral year for those who work for the Diocese of Brooklyn, and inspires those who serve the faithful of Brooklyn and Queens.

Bishop Robert Brennan brought them all here to the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston to kick off the new pastoral year with the Lord.

Bishop Brennan celebrated the Mass, attended by representatives of the 27 diocesan offices.

The more than 100 employees, including both clergy and laypeople, are in charge of different aspects of the diocese, including vocations, evangelization, and interreligious dialogue.

While their work may be different, Bishop Brennan and Father Joseph Gibino, vicar for the secretariat for evangelization and catechesis, said this Mass and the luncheon that followed helped them start this new pastoral year united in Christ.

“What we try to do at the beginning of the year is to have Mass together,” Bishop Brennan said. “That’s who we are to pray together, and that reconnects us with our mission and people from all kinds of work, but we’re all involved in advancing the mission of the Church.”

“We gather together to be nourished on the Eucharist, then we gather to break bread together,” Father Gibino said. “It really unites us in heart and mind and the pastoral mission of the Church.”

During the Mass, Bishop Brennan looked to the future, asking everyone to pray for good weather for a huge upcoming diocesan event, the celebration of the Eucharistic Revival scheduled on Oct. 7 at Maimonides Park.

For more information, just go to the diocese’s website, dioceseofbrooklyn.org.

Catholic News Headlines for Friday 09/15/2023

Bishop Robert Brennan will celebrate the anniversary mass which honors married couples across Brooklyn and Queens and their commitment to each other.

A new school year also means a new pastoral year for those who work for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

In the Catholic Church, Hispanics are often considered the future of the faith.

Some young people in Alabama are looking to make a positive difference and pay it forward.

Synod Meeting Happening Soon: Prelates to Discuss How Church Can Grow Together

Cardinals and bishops from across the globe will soon be gathering at the Vatican, where they will have the first of two worldwide meetings for the synod.

The October undertaking is meant to figure out how Catholics can grow together as a universal Church.

However, the highlight of discussion is expected to be the perceived tensions between Pope Francis and a few American bishops.

The papal representative to the United States, Cardinal-elect Christophe Pierre, counters that the prelates are in communion with the pontiff.

According to some reports, the pope could impose pontifical secrecy on the synod meeting, keeping opinions, votes, and even the topics addressed, confidential.

National correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, John Lavenburg, joins Currents News to take a deeper dive into next month’s Synod on Synodality.

Green Thumbs for a Good Cause: Volunteers Learn to Garden and Give Back to Community

By Katie Vasquez

Tomatoes, yellow string beans, and basil are all grown organically thanks to some nuns in Hampton Bays.

The Sisters of St. Joseph said the Good Ground Heritage Garden is about caring for God’s creation and sowing the seeds of that in others.

“We have to draw from Pope Francis, seeing his belief in the earth, and the sacredness of it, and the sharing of it with one another,” said Sister Kerry Handal, of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Once a week volunteers go to St. Joseph Villa, where they learn to get their hands dirty by planting, cultivating, harvesting, and preserving produce in a cooperative learning environment.

“It’s a nice program to be able to kind of get the community involved, get some volunteers out, plant everything, watch it grow, see how it produces,” Devan Kuettner, a volunteer, said.

“I garden just for pleasure not production like trying to produce like poundage, but this is more focused on that and that’s interesting to learn about to me,” Grant Babis, a volunteer, said.

Even though the volunteers are gardening for fun, these crops are going to a good cause.

Just this season, more than 1,000 pounds of fresh produce from this garden was donated to the food pantry at nearby St. Rosalie Church. Up to 400 people a week rely on these vegetables to feed their families.

“It is the dignity of our client that we are most concerned with,” Catherine O’Leary Andrejack, the director of parish social ministry at St. Rosalie Church said. “So when you go shopping as a consumer, that fresh produce is the golden food that you’re gonna be bringing home.”

With more than five seasons of growing and giving, the volunteers have donated thousands of pounds of food, cultivating a sense of community, one string bean at a time.