Archive for the ‘Archdiocese News’ Category
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
April 17, 2013
Continuing the Catholic Church’s longstanding commitment to immigration and immigrants, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles and the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, released a statement of welcome for the immigration reform legislation introduced in the Senate today, and pledged that the bishops would carefully examine the bill and work with Congress to ensure that any final measure respects the dignity and basic human rights of migrants.
Here is an excerpt:
The introduction of U.S. Senate bipartisan legislation to reform the U.S. immigration system was welcomed by Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, April 17. Archbishop Gomez also pledged that the U.S. bishops would carefully examine the legislation and work with Congress to ensure that any final measure respects the basic human rights and dignity of migrants.
“I welcome the introduction of legislation today in the U.S. Senate,” Archbishop Gomez said. “The U.S. bishops look forward to carefully examining the legislation and working with Congress to fashion a final bill that respects the basic human rights and dignity of newcomers to our land—migrants, refugees, and other vulnerable populations.”
Click here to read the whole press release on the USCCB website.
Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, also released a statement to the press today.
Here is his statement:
“We are hopeful that the filing of a bipartisan Senate bill on immigration seems, after many years, to make comprehensive immigration reform a real possibility. We appreciate the hard work of the group of Senators and others that has made this possible. We note with special pride and recognition the work of so many Catholic organizations and the leadership of the Bishops on this issue. While we are hopeful and supportive, the bill is complex and requires careful analysis. There will be opposition. We look forward to making suggestions for improving the bill to even better reflect our longstanding concerns for family unification, a fair, legal immigration system, protections for temporary workers, effective, yet humane border security and due process in enforcement. We look forward to working in partnership with many to ensure that this reform happens for a straightforward reason—concern for the common good of the nation and the well-being of individual immigrants and their families.”
Click here to learn how Catholic Charities is helping immigrants and their families.
Tags: Committee on Migration, comprehensive immigration reform, Immigration Reform, reform legislation, US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Posted in Archdiocese News, Cardinal Dolan, Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, New York City, Parishes, Policy and Advocacy, Welcoming and Integrating Immigrants and Refugees, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »
Monday, April 15th, 2013
By Alice Kenny
Dutchess County CYO Art will hold an art contest at the St. Mary School – Wappingers Gymnasium on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, at 6 p.m. for students in grades 1 – 12. Contest winners will be eligible to compete in the Archdiocesan-wide – from Staten Island to the Catskill mountains- contest that will be held on May 17.
Got your artistic juices flowing?
- Drop off your artwork at St. Mary School, 11 Clinton Ave., Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 on April 23 between 2 – 5 p.m. for judging.
- Bring with you a $2 art-competition fee. Checks should be made payable to CYO.
What about writers? Have we got a contest for you!
The Dutchess County CYO Essay Contest is open to youth in grades 6 – 8. First, second and third-place winners will be judged at the Archdiocesan level on May 17.
Ready to write?
- Submit your essay to Catholic Charities Community Services, Catholic Youth Organization, 1011 First Ave., New York, NY 10022, att: Monge Codio Jr., Director of Operations – CYO by May 7, 2013 at 5 p.m.
For more information on how to participate in either event, contact
Tags: Archdiocesan-wide, art, Catholic Charities Catholic Youth Organization, Contest, dutchess county, St. Mary School
Posted in Archdiocese News, Hudson Valley, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »
Thursday, April 11th, 2013
By Alice Kenny
Thanks to a contest that pitted youth against youth and parish against parish, Catholic Charities in partnership with the Office of Youth Ministry pulled together an additional 7,000 meals for hungry New Yorkers at Catholic Youth Day on April 6 at the College of Mt. St. Vincent in Riverdale.
Holy Rosary Parish of Portchester won first place by bringing in cartons packed with 460 pounds of food. All told, the contest yielded close to 1300 pounds of food donations.
Holy Rosary’s win entitles them to a day with Fr. Joseph Espaillat, director of youth ministry for the Archdiocese of New York. He will personally visit their parish or youth group and preach, lead a retreat, celebrate Mass, play kickball, and, if they like, throw a pizza party for parish youth.
Catholic Charities provided staff and support for the Office of Youth Ministry contest to help feed our hungry neighbors. The Youth Day event featured music and performances by different ministries in the Archdiocese of New York including Full Armor Band, Fr. Stan Fortuna, CFR and many more.
The contest was part of the Feeding Our Neighbors campaign to help pantries feed those who would otherwise go hungry. Feeding Our Neighbors is an interfaith effort to fight hunger by replenishing dwindling supplies in emergency food programs that continue to be stretched thin.
During this time of great need, one in five New York State children grow up in poverty and more than one million New Yorkers do not have enough to eat. This campaign grows out of an awareness and concern that embraces New Yorkers of all religions who must turn to food pantries, soup kitchens and senior center meal programs, to sustain them and their families.
The food donations were delivered to St. Peter’s Parish food pantry in Yonkers, NY. Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, the donations represent an additional 1,040 meals for hungry children and families served by this pantry plus collections at masses that raised $1500 to support 6,000 more meals in the Archdiocese of New York.
Join us in feeding our neighbors.
Do your part to make sure no hungry neighbor is turned away.
Tags: Archdiocese of New York, Catholic Charities, feeding our neighbors, food pantries, Food Pantry, hunger, hungry
Posted in Archdiocese News, Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, New York City, Parishes, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
By Alice Kenny
After witnessing tens of thousands of starving children and families, Mother Teresa, a Catholic activist and saint, decided to keep her advice simple to fight these overwhelming odds.
“If you can’t feed a hundred people,” she told followers, “then just feed one.”
Inspired by this advice, St. Catherine’s Parish in Rockland County decided to make feeding the hungry their Lenten Challenge. Mobilized by the New York Archdiocesan Feeding Our Neighbors campaign to shore up food pantries’ dwindling supplies, the parish asked children that attend the church to donate shopping bags filled with food from February 13 through March 30 during Lent.
Students broke into teams that competed to bring in the most food donations. All told, the students brought in nearly two tons– 3,799 pounds – of food.
They donated this bounty to the food pantry run by Rockland Catholic Community Services.
“I was thrilled when I saw the amount of food the youth were able to collect,” said Catholic Community Services of Rockland Executive Director Martha Robles. “I told them – and I’m sure – that ‘Mother Teresa is so proud of you.’”
Tags: Catholic activist, feeding our neighbors, food donations, food pantries, Lenten Challenge, Mother Teresa, Rockland Catholic Community Services, Rockland County, St. Catherine’s Parish
Posted in Agencies, Archdiocese News, Events, Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, Parishes, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, What We Do at Catholic Charities | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Read below the full text of his statement released from the Vatican on February 11, 2013.
Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.”
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Tags: Bishop of Rome, Church, Pope Benedict XVI, Resignation, Statement, Successor of Saint Peter, Supreme Pontiff, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, Vatican
Posted in Archdiocese News, Events, Parishes | No Comments »
Friday, February 1st, 2013
By Alice Kenny
- Watch the Super Bowl and contribute to Feeding our Neighbors at the same time
- Bring a can of food or make a donation at the bar and receive a discount on a drink.
- Meet Us: at O’Casey’s Restaurant and Irish Pub*
- Starts at 5pm, so come early and help your New York neighbors.
Feeding Our Neighbors is an Archdiocesan-wide drive to provide one million meals for hungry New Yorkers, replenishing food pantries that support non-Catholics and Catholics alike.
- In New York City, approximately 400,000 children rely on soup kitchens and food pantries for food.
- In New York State, more than 3 million people rely on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, or Food Stamps) to meet their basic food needs.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan kicked off the campaign last Sunday, January 27, at Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Join us this Sunday, February 3, for the final SOUPer Bowl kickoff of a great campaign.
Help us meet our goal of providing 1 million meals through Feeding Our Neighbors
It’s Never Too Late to Help Feed Our Neighbors.
Tags: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, feeding our neighbors, New York neighbors, O'Casey's Restaurant and Irish Pub, SOUPer Bowl kickoff, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program
Posted in Archdiocese News, Events, Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, New York City, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Catholic Charities New York Executive Director shakes hands with John Ruskay, Executive Vice President and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York
Responding to already-strained food pantry shelves further depleted by Hurricane Sandy, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan launched the second annual Feeding Our Neighbors campaign aimed at collecting more than one million meals for those in need. Cardinal Dolan began this year’s campaign on Sunday, January 27, 2013, during Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities NY concelebrated the mass.
This year, the campaign, which runs through February 3, 2013, represents an interfaith initiative with the UJA-Federation of New York. The Wall Street Journal reported that officials said this was one of the largest interfaith efforts of its kind.
“So often today…we see signs of religion as a cause of hate and division,” Cardinal Dolan told a packed Sunday Mass. “But in New York we are so proud that religion brings people together and that it takes care of God’s most forgotten people.”
Following Mass, John S. Ruskay, executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, and William E. Rapfogel, executive director and CEO of Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council), a UJA-Federation of New York beneficiary agency, joined Cardinal Dolan and Msgr. Sullivan in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to load food donations onto Catholic Charities’ Mobile Food Pantry and Met Council trucks for delivery to food pantries, soup kitchens and meal programs that serve New Yorkers in need.
After that, Msgr. Sullivan, Mr. Ruskay and Mr. Rapfogel kicked off UJA-Federation’s “Super Sunday” phone-a-thon to solicit additional donations.
During this time of great need, one in five New York State children grow up in poverty and more than one million New Yorkers do not have enough to eat.
This campaign grows out of an awareness and concern that embraces New Yorkers of all religions who must turn to food pantries, soup kitchens and senior center meal programs, to sustain themselves and their families.
Listen to Msgr. Sullivan’s interview with Mr. Ruskay about the Feeding Our Neighbors campaign aired Saturday, January 26 on JustLove, The Catholic Channel 129 Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
Help feed our neighbors:
Tags: campaign, feeding our neighbors, food donations, food pantries, Food Pantry, hunger in new york, Hunger Project, interfaith initiative, John S. Ruskay, meals, Met Council, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, Mobile Food Pantry, phone-a-thon, senior center meal programs, soup kitchens, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Super Sunday, tele-a-thon, The Catholic Channel, The Wall Street Journal, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, UJA Federation of New York, William E. Rapfogel
Posted in Archdiocese News, Cardinal Dolan, Events, Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, Hudson Valley, Interfaith, Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, New York City, Parishes, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, Staten Island, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »
Friday, January 25th, 2013
Do your part to make sure no hungry neighbor is turned away. www.CatholicCharitiesNY.org/FeedingOurNeighbors
- $11.16 helps feed a child for one day.
- $45 helps feed a family of four for one day.
From January 27th-February 3rd, you can help answer the call to feed the hungry through Catholic Charities annual Feeding Our Neighbors campaign to replenish New York’s stretched food pantries and soup kitchens. Your contribution can do so much.
Tags: campaign, feed the hungry, feeding our neighbors, feeding the hungry, Food Donation, food insufficiency, food pantries, hunger, Hunger Project, Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, New York State, New York’s, soup kitchens, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan
Posted in Archdiocese News, Events, Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, Hudson Valley, New York City, Parishes, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, Staten Island, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, Uncategorized, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »
Friday, January 18th, 2013
- Read Catholic New York’s report about how, for the second year in a row, archdiocesan Catholic Charities will hold the week-long “Feeding Our Neighbors” campaign. Its goal is to raise enough food and money donations to provide 1 million meals.
- Click here and help us feed our neighbors.
Tags: Catholic Charities, Catholic New York, feed our neighbors, feeding our neighbors, hunger campaign, Hunger Project
Posted in Archdiocese News, Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, New York City, Parishes, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, January 7th, 2013
On Saturday, January 5th, Obreros Unidos de Yonkers held their annual Three Kings Party to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Timothy Cardinal Dolan joined over 300 members and their families for an Epiphany Vigil Mass at St. Peter’s Church and a celebration afterward.
The Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day, is widely celebrated in the Hispanic community with parties, gifts and a special pastry called rosca de reyes (kings’ ring). Catholic Charities staff and volunteers, including the Sisters of Charity, helped at Saturday’s party by serving dinner, distributing toys to children and giving gifts to the registered workers.
Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Janet Hernandez, the community organizer who staffs the Obreros Unidos program and Father Lino Otero, the pastor of St. Peter’s parish, all participated in the celebration, along with Yonkers Mayor Michael Spano.
“This is a great opportunity to celebrate the contribution that immigrants are making,” said Monsignor Kevin Sullivan. “Their faith, industriousness and commitment to family are values that inspire us all. Catholic Charities is both proud and privileged to be part of this community and provide needed help that creates a future of hope for these workers and their families.”
Obreros Unidos (Workers United) is a group of approximately 300 day laborers in the Yonkers area that works with Catholic Charities on projects throughout the year. For example, after Sandy hit, Obreros Unidos members volunteered to remove crumbling sheet rock and pull out ruined furniture from Staten Island houses destroyed by the storm. Catholic Charities also provides multiple services for the group, including educating workers on employment rights and responsibilities in order to prevent exploitation and abuse.
Tags: Epiphany Vigil Mass, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Father Lino Otero, Feast of the Epiphany, Hispanic community, Janet Hernandez, Mayor Michael Spano, Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Obreros Unidos De Yonkers, parish, rosca de reyes, Sisters of Charity, St. Peters Church, Three Kings, timothy cardinal dolan, volunteerism, Volunteers, Yonkers
Posted in Archdiocese News, Cardinal Dolan, Events, Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Parishes, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, Volunteering, Welcoming and Integrating Immigrants and Refugees | No Comments »
