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Diocese of Brooklyn Students Help Food Pantry With Nonprofit Started to Overcome Anxiety

By Jessica Easthope

Angelina Aviles and Giuliana Astore are the shy girls in class. But when they’re out pounding the pavement, all that changes.

They’re bold for a good cause, raising money for the St. Athanasius food pantry with their nonprofit, Care 2 Create. 

“That food has to support their family which can be up to four people, maybe more so it’s very difficult for them,” Aviles said.

“Here at St. Athanasius people always say thank you and it feels really nice,” Astore said.

Every Monday this summer, the girls have gone door-to-door at private businesses in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn asking for donations. They feel pulled to help out and make a push for others to do the same, because food insecurity is rampant. 

St. Athanasius’ food pantry feeds 1,600 people a month, many are newly arrived migrants but funds are dwindling. Last year, they were given $36,000 to spend, this year it dropped to below $12,000. All while 66,000 more people are walking the streets of New York City.

Charlotte Montgomery, the director of the St. Athanasius’ food pantry says Aviles and Astore are making a difference.

“When they come they’re hands on with everything, it’s like what can we do and that’s really a blessing,” Montgomery said.

And for clients, seeing the next generation gives them hope.

“It’s hard for people to eat so it makes me very happy to see them helping,” Fredeline Osting, a client at the pantry, said .

The girls, who have been best friends for 10 years, now go to different Catholic academies in Brooklyn but still work together. They started Care 2 Create as a way to help with their social anxiety and make friends.

“I am definitely more outgoing,” Astore said.

“I’m able to start conversations, I’m able to hold conversations and use those skills to build friendships,” Aviles said.

Aviles’ mom Jessica tags along when the girls fundraise, but she lets them take the lead and doesn’t step in, even when they get pushback.

“They are going to face rejection throughout their entire lives and this is a way for them to learn how to face that rejection and in a respectful manner,” she said.

Some days it seems like hunger is unstoppable, but the girls are showing everyone and themselves what it means to never give up. 

Catholic News Headlines for Monday 08/21/2023

 

Two Catholic school students in Brooklyn, who say they have social anxiety, created a non profit called “Care to Create”.

Pope Francis has announced he’s writing a second part to his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si”.

Pope Francis called to comfort a grieving mother whose son passed away after attending World Youth Day.

President Joe Biden visited Hawaii today to survey the damage left behind from those deadly wildfires.

Currents News Special Edition: World Youth Day 2023

Young people across the Diocese of Brooklyn are still on a high after their pilgrimage to Portugal.

The young people were brought to tears as they caught a glimpse of Pope Francis for the first time during the welcome ceremony.

Father Kevin Abels of the Diocese of Brooklyn says World Youth Day 1993, in Denver, opened his eyes to a vocation.

Seoul will host World Youth Day 2027.

Don’t Throw It Away: How Catholics Can Reverently Dispose of Sacred Objects

by Katie Vasquez

A book of blessings and Roman missal pre-date Father Alonzo Cox’s time as pastor of St. Martin De Porres Parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

After over a decade of helping to preach the gospel, it’s beginning to fall apart, so Father Cox says it’s got to go.

The Director of Liturgy for the Diocese of Brooklyn explains with religious items, you can’t throw them in the trash.

“Usually when someone gives you a crucifix or someone gives you a rosary bead, the first thing that someone would ask is father can you bless it,” Father Cox said. “That blessing is actually imparting you know God’s blessing upon this particular religious item so it’s important that when it breaks or when it gets some wear and tear that we treat it in the way that we brought it.”

Father Cox demonstrated how to reverently dispose of the two books, lighting a fire in a barrel in the courtyard.

“With liturgical books, they ask you to burn them but with other items you can bury them. like with the oils, rosary beads, other items you can sort of bury into the ground,” Cox said.

While it seems like a process that anyone can do at home, he advises against it, stating that the items should be treated with the same sentimentality of a family heirloom.

“They’re sentimental to us but they’re also sacred, so it’s important that we understand the sentimentality of these beautiful religious items,” he said. “But when it’s time to discard that, we do it in a reverent way, that reflects how sacred they are.”

Instead Father Cox suggests contacting your local parish, so they can reverently dispose of any religious item that can no longer be used for Christ.

Advocates for Mother Mary Lange Hail ‘Movement’ in Her Sainthood Cause

by Bill Miller

African American Catholics plan to visit the Vatican in November to promote the cause for Mother Mary Lange, one of six African American Catholics who are candidates for sainthood.

The cause for Mother Lange (1795-1882) began in 1991. She founded the first Catholic order of African American nuns. Nearly two months ago, Pope Francis signed a decree declaring her “Venerable” Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange.

Ralph Moore is a leader of Mother Lange’s cause for sainthood. He is also a member of the Social Justice Committee at St. Ann Parish in Baltimore.

He recently told Currents News that he was excited to see the 32-year effort “moved up to the next level,” adding: “We’re happy to see movement. The process seems to go somewhat gradually.”

Still, Moore said Mother Lange’s supporters want to make good use of the momentum. To that end, they’ve mailed 3,000 letters of support for the cause to the pope’s residence at the Vatican.

Moore said they also plan to hand deliver another 1,000 letters in person, either at an audience with the pope or an appointment with the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which oversees the causes for sainthood.

“We intend to be there on All Saints Day, Nov. 1, 2023, which is also the first day of Black Catholic History Month,” Moore said. “And we’re working with a bishop to get an appointment or an audience for that particular time.

“And at that time, we will put these additional letters in Pope Francis’ hands.”

A miracle attributed to Mother Lange’s intercession is still needed for her beatification, followed by a second miracle in order for her to become a saint.

Mother Lange was born in Cuba to Haitian parents. She came to the United States around 1813 and settled near Baltimore. Later, she took her vows and founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The community still exists, serving in the U.S. and Costa Rica.

Mother Lange also became a driving force in the education of immigrant children. She was undeterred by the disadvantage of her being a black woman in Maryland, which was a slave state long before the Emancipation Proclamation.

According to the official website of her sainthood cause, “She used her own money and home to educate children of color.”

Moore noted, however, that supporters of Mother Lange’s cause also promote the causes of the five other black candidates for sainthood from the U.S.

The others are: Julia Greeley, who after her emancipation from enslavement joined the Secular Franciscan Order and promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, who was a noted educator and evangelist; Father Augustus Tolton, the first publicly known Black Catholic priest in the United States; Sister Henriette Delille, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family; and Pierre Toussaint, a formerly enslaved philanthropist who supported many Catholic charitable works in Manhattan.

“There are no African American saints from the United States as recognized by the Catholic Church,” Moore stressed. “And yet, African Americans have been Catholic since the days of enslavement in this country.

“We have endured racial segregation, even within our churches, even during the enslavement itself. We have endured mass incarceration and mass poverty. And yet we’ve kept the faith; we’ve remained faithful to the Catholic Church. Recognition is important.”

To support the campaign for Mother Lange, email letters to Ralph Moore at VPCS@yahoo.com.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 08/17/2023

 

Have a beat-up rosary or bible? A Catholic priest shows you how you can dispose of them the right way.

There’s been another ruling on the abortion pill mifepristone. It’s good news and bad news for pro-lifers.

 

Currents News speaks with a man who’s behind a big push to get Mother Lange canonized. The black nun was recently declared venerable by the Pope. She could be the first African American saint.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 08/16/2023

 

A retired flight attendant is walking hundreds of miles with a beverage cart as a tribute to victims of 9/11.

President Joe Biden plans to visit Maui on Monday. This as the death toll for the Hawaii wildfires rises to 106 people and hundreds are still missing.

The Catholic Church is on the ground in Hawaii helping the victims. We spoke with the Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu about their recovery efforts.

Former Flight Crew Member Honors Co-Workers who died during 9/11 Attacks

by Katie Vasquez
Paulie Veneto may look like he’s traveling light, carrying with him nothing but a beverage cart. Veneto knows he has a crew of angels at his side. On September 10, 2001, Paulie was a crew member on United Flight 175 heading to Boston. He made his destination, but the crew who boarded the exact same aircraft the next day, didn’t. They lost their lives after the plane was hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers. Two decades later, Paulie has made it his mission to remember their bravery.
“I’m just making sure all of us remember that what they did was extraordinary,” said Veneto. “Their families should be proud and not live in sadness.”

He started “Paulie’s Push” in 2021, rolling a beverage cart from Boston Logan International Airport to Ground Zero in honor of his fallen crew. The following year he went from Washington to the Pentagon in honor of Flight 77.

This year, he will be making his longest trek yet.

For the next 30 days, Paulie will travel 300 miles from Newark Airport to Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

That was the ultimate route of United Flight 93, a San Francisco-bound plane that was hijacked by terrorists, but the crew and passengers onboard decided to crash it instead of letting the aircraft hit its target, the nation’s capitol building.

“I get emotional, can you imagine? They said let’s do something,” said Veneto. “Flight attendants brought boiling water in the galley to throw on the terrorists. Strangers that were never military trained. They thought of us on the ground as they are fighting terrorists up there.

The trek is back-breaking and emotional, but part of what keeps Paulie going is his faith, and that crew of angels he will never forget.

Veneto said,  “The whole thing is to help people and that’s what this is all about. Why were on earth right? Help your next neighbor, help your family and that was instilled in me as a kid from my parents, my Catholic faith obviously.”

One Step Closer to Sisterhood: Brooklyn Sister Takes First Vows With Salesians

A Brooklyn novice is one step closer to sisterhood after she took her first profession of vows at St. Joseph’s Chapel in New Jersey.

Sister Jessica Castillo, from East New York, Brooklyn took her first vows with the Salesian Sisterhood more than a week ago, along with two other novices.

These vows are only temporary as the sisters engage in their orders’ ministry and live in the community, before they eventually take their perpetual vows in a few years.

Sister Castillo spoke with Currents News about how she was first called to be a salesian sister.

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan congratulated her on her vows and said we will be sure to pray for her in her vocation on Facebook.