News - May 2016 RSS Feed

Last week, Pope Francis awarded medals to actors Richard Gere, George Clooney, and Salma Hayek for their work on behalf of Scholas Occurrentes, an Argentine organization that promotes educational projects to bring together young people from different cultures. The Pope was instrumental in establishing the organization when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. I

Quo Vadis Day Vocational Retreat for boys in grades 5-8 who are interested in the priesthood, Tuesday, June 28 from 9AM - 5PM at St. Joseph's Seminary, 201 Seminary Ave., Yonkers. Fee: $10/child & $5/parent lunch. RSVP to [email protected]

Concerning both Graduate and Undergraduate Degree programs is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8 from 5:30 - 7:30PM in the Hennessy Center, 470 Western Highway, Orangeburg, NY.

Franciscan friars Fr. Michael Sevigny, OFM Cap. and Fr. Julian Jagudilla, OFM will lead several upcoming pilgrimages to Holy sites around the world, including a special pilgrimage for the Canonization of Mother Theresa in Rome. Proceeds benefit the work of the Franciscans. For more information, or to arrange a private, custom pilgrimage, please contact Franciscan Spirit Tours toll free at 646-736-7964 (in New York City), at [email protected] or on the web at www.FranciscanSpiritTours.com. Mention you were referred by the bulletin and the parish will receive a contribution. Our upcoming pilgrimages include: CANONIZATION of Mother Theresa / “Franciscan Italy" /“Great Women of Faith” -- Paris/Lourdes/Lisieux/ “Holy Land–The Living Rosary”/“Footsteps of St. John Paul II – Poland/Prague” /“Our Lady in the New World”–Guadalupe/Mexico“/Catholic Spain”/“Fatima”/ “Journey to Peace”-- Medjugorje"/Catholic Ireland” /“Church of John and Paul” – Greece & Turkey

Msgr. Scanlan High School Board Chairman Christopher F. Gallagher '65 has been selected to receive the CYO Gold Medal Award from Timothy Cardinal Dolan on Thursday, June 9 at the Waldorf Astoria. Discounted tickets are available to attend the event. Contact the Alumni Office for more details.

Are You Interested in Learning More About Authentic Church miracles? Visit the website www.miraclehunter.com, which was featured in the cover story of the December 2015 issue of National Geographic. One of Pope Francis' Favorite Eucharistic Miracles occurred in Argentina while he was still archbishop there. It was August of 1996, and a priest in Buenos Aires, Fr. Alejandro Pezet, discovered a host in the back of his church, and so he took it and placed it in some water in the tabernacle to dissolve it. Over the next few days, days he kept an eye on it, and it grew increasingly red. The priest decided to present the case to Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, who ordered that the host be professionally photographed and eventually examined by a scientist in the U.S., who was not told the origin of the specimen he was testing. The tests showed the sample to be heart muscle with blood type AB, the same blood type found on the Shroud of Turin. The scientist was an atheist and he said, "why did you send me this heart muscle, what was the point of this?" He was told it was a consecrated host, and that atheist scientist converted to Catholicism as a result of that study.

Summary of Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is Pope Francis’ summary document on the two synods on the family.  It is a long document, running 60,000 words within 325 paragraphs, and it seeks emphatically to affirm not the “ideal family” but the very rich and complex reality of family life. Below is the Vatican-provided summary of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, as well as a link to the full document found on the Vatican website.

FIRST ANNUAL BRONX JOB FAIR at Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, 1930 Randall Avenue on Saturday, May 21 from 11AM - 3PM. Open to ALL job seekers. Dress is business attire and bring plenty of resumes. For more info, call 718-792-1140.

LOOKING FOR A MEANINGFUL VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY. The Ladies of Charity engage in ministries with flexible time commitments in parishes, nursing homes, child care agencies, and other institutions that care for the marginalized. They create and donate handmade items for those we serve, and they provide spiritual and social support for volunteers. For more information on becoming a Lady of Charity call 212-371-1000 X2542 or email: [email protected]

This is the first year St. Helena School has had a Universal Pre-Kindergarten program, and the program was recently evaluated by the New York City Public School’s Assessment Program using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale which evaluates six aspects of our program on a scale from 1-7. St. Helena’s program, which consists of four classes, received a 5.2 overall rating, which is well above the 3.9 New York City average. We are very proud that our program received a maximum 7.0 rating for the Language Reasoning of our students, again well above the 4.7 New York City average, and the students received a 6.4 score for Interaction, as compared to the 4.7 New York City average. Congratulations to the students and teachers of our now officially outstanding UPK Program.

The Rev. Daniel Berrigan, S.J., a Roman Catholic priest and peace activist who was imprisoned for burning draft files in a protest against the Vietnam War, died peacefully last Saturday at a Jesuit health care facility in the Bronx. He was 94. Berrigan and his younger brother, the Rev. Philip Berrigan, S.S.J., emerged as leaders of the radical anti-war movement in the 1960s. The Berrigan brothers entered a draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, on May 17, 1968, with eight other activists and removed records of young men about to be shipped off to Vietnam. The group took the files outside and burned them in garbage cans. The Catonsville Nine, as they came to be known, were convicted on federal charges accusing them of destroying U.S. property and interfering with the Selective Service Act of 1967. All were sentenced on Nov. 9, 1968 to prison terms ranging from two to 3½ years.