#ccbq

“Faith In Action” Catholic Social Ministry Event

On May 16 Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ) held a social ministry event for the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens at Christ the King High School in Middle Villages Queens. The event invited social ministers and volunteers from the diocese to experience the following:

A formation session on the Good Shepherd parable and the recent social teachings of the church inviting all to share in the social mission of the Church.

An examination of three social concerns that connect with this mission: issues affecting the youth, the migrants, and the disenfranchised.

Discussions with a panel of social service and research experts who are responding to aspects of these three areas in the hopes of connecting with the larger diocesan community.

There are many takeaways that our participants walked away with. For myself personally I cannot forget the quote from St. John of the Cross offered by our keynote speaker Dr. Brian Corbin of Catholic Charities USA. Throughout his keynote talk (see above) Dr. Corbin repeated the insight from this famous Carmelite mystic:

“In the evening of our life, we will be judged on love alone.”

This quote permeated his approach to the Trinity and our baptismal vows, the Good Samaritan parable, and the recent social teachings of Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV. This presentation spoke on how the love of God moves us to respond to those in need. Serving one another, especially the “least of these,” flows from the Gospel message and the mission of the Church which we are all responsible for.

The three experts then invited us to consider how our Church’s mission allows us to critically reflect on our broken immigration system, the crisis of affordable housing, and the social anxieties and isolation affecting our youth.

The discussions (after lunch) added to these themes by engaging the parish and school participants to share their thoughts with our CCBQ staff working on these issues. As a community we explored what it meant to have us all collaborate on the Church's social mission in responding to these issues.

Our Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan and Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio joined our CEO Monsignor LoPinto and concluded the day with a prayer commissioning us all to be Witnesses of Mercy in our diocese. Witnesses of Mercy is a CCBQ Office of Mission program that integrates Parish social ministers by facilitating their collaborate with CCBQ and other agencies to address social issues that impact our urban communities. Our Bishop shared his own hope for us and reminded us of Pope Francis' vision for this as part of our commissioning process.

How greatly I desire that, as Christians, we can be more deeply united as witnesses of mercy for the human family so severely tested in these days. Let us ask the Spirit for the gift of unity, for only if we live as brothers and sisters can we spread the spirit of fraternity. We cannot ask others to be united if we ourselves take different paths. So let us pray for one another; let us each feel responsible for the other. (Pope Francis, 2023 Pentecost Sunday Prayer)

After we prayed together Bishop Brennan commissioned us with these words.

The foundation of Faith in Action is grounded in our conviction that we are all children of God, made in God’s own image. As Pope Leo IV has reminds us, “Love for the poor, whatever the form their poverty may take, is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God.”

As a community, we are called to uphold human dignity in all people, especially those who are living in difficult times. Members of our community, migrants, homeless neighbors, at-risk youth and underserved families should not face struggles alone. We, as the Body of Christ are called to minister and serve. May we pledge to put our faith in action by walking with our brothers and sisters. 

The Catholic Charities Brooklyn/Queens Experience

Our Brooklyn Bishop, Bishop Robert Brennen offers this podcast where he shares with the community the happenings and events around the diocese. In this episode he has a conversation with our CCBQ CEO, Msgr. LoPinto, and discusses what CCBQ has been doing to serve the community.

Our ability to adapt to the needs of the community we serve has been a great asset for us in our work of “changing lives and building communities.” Our CEO goes over some examples of how we do this but also the reason we are able to do this is through the vision of our Diocesan leadership. Through an interconnected leadership model we are able to measure the pulse of the community and observes the social changes that are taking place. Monsignor LoPinto suggests that this model was set from the very beginning of our diocese. It is fortunate for us that we have a Bishop and CEO that puts forward this vision and model for us.

The ability of Catholic Charities to adapt to the changing needs is one feature that both Monsignor and the Bishop recognize as a great gift of this agency in responding to the ever-changing situation in our urban community.

It has been, and continues to be, a great privilege to work under the leadership of Monsignor LoPinto. His vision and leadership has guided the mission of CCBQ that is consistent with the Gospel message and our Catholic social tradition.

We held the Catholic Charities symposium celebrating the 125th Anniversary alongside the Vincentian Poverty Conference. This happened at St. John’s University in Queens during the World Day of the Poor Weekend. We were blessed to have with us our Bishop, Robert Brennan, and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Papal Nuncio, who offered a keynote speech reminding us of Pope Francis’s social teaching. He reviewed the teaching during our Popes pontificate starting from 2013 right up to his most recent message and reflected on the nature of how we are called to relate with the poor. He also had us recognize that there was a convergence between his teaching on the poor and the synodal process that just recently ended. The synodal process was an opportunity for the church to engage in a new way of being church, to dialogue and respectfully listen to others who experience a different reality from us. One of his points was to take in the lesson of the synodal way. In other words, to recognize that we are not merely serving the poor, but allowing ourselves to be evangelized by them. You can read the entire keynote here on our CCBQ website. In the end the Cardinal set the stage between the morning analysis and the sharing that would happen in the afternoon.

In the morning we heard from Dr. Sabine Alkire who offered us her research on MPI (Multidimensional Poverty Index) and how economist and social scientist can better evaluate the dynamic of poverty and wealth with social indicators beyond GDP. Her analysis was very eye opening as ir clarified the global economic reality through numbers and narratives.

The data shows the complexity of the global economy when you consider the social indicators of health, education and living standards. The first slide shows these indicators and how the global community fares when examined from this perspective. As we were looking at the New York reality the speaker offered this data.

St. John’s then had a panel conversation where they examined the economic, behavioral, and moral implications of this analysis.

Afterwards Cardinal Pierre and Bishop Brennan shared their insight on how the social teaching of the Church invites us to consider the method for how we address the issue of poverty and those who fall under the MPI.

The teaching had us rethink our approach to the poor. As I mentioned above, the Cardinal emphasized the process of synodality for how we relate with those who suffer for the social challenges we face. Three departments of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ) reflected on their response based on the Cardinal’s insights. This began with our housing program, followed by food insecurity and then our behavioral health program.

The panal considered how the ever-changing reality forces us to examine the situation and adapt to the changing needs. The pandemic, economic recession, climate change, job loss, the mental health crisis and the migrant crisis were raised as recent situations that dramatically shifted the way we respond to the community. Stories were shared that testified to the way we interact and engage with those we serve. This is certainly always room to grow in this endeavor but it was recognized that having the pulse of the community is essential. Two lessons that came from these conversations was the need to be relational with those we serve, to know their story and appreciate their circumstances, and to apply creative adaptability in how we need to respond to the ever changing needs in our own community.

Catholic Charities 125 Anniversary Event:

Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens has an amazing mission and I consider it a privilege to be part of it. The Mission Statement reads:

The mission of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens is to translate the Gospel of Jesus Christ into action by affirming the dignity and value of every person, especially the most vulnerable members of our diverse society. Catholic Charities develops effective responses to human need and joins with all people of good will in advocating for a social order that promotes justice and embraces human development.

It has been interesting to learn about the history of our organization and the history or charitable ministries in the diocese. I wrote a post on how the ministry of charity began in Brooklyn and our relationship with the Vincentian community as we addressed some of the early social issues that impacted us.

This coming weekend is the Eighth World Day of the Poor with the theme being: The prayer of the poor rises up to God. In this message Pope Francis urges "everyone to become pilgrims of hope, setting tangible goals for a better future." During this time we will take the opportunity to celebrate our 125th Anniversary as we reflect on our Church's teaching with the following two events.

Event #1: Vincentian Center for Church and Society Biennial Poverty Conference and 125th Anniversary Symposium of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens.

"Poverty: Multidimensional Problem; Charity: Multidimensional Solution" - Speaker: Sabina Alkire, Professor of Poverty and Human Development at University of Oxford

"To Walk With the Poor is to Walk With God." - Keynote Speaker: His Eminence Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostoloc Nuncio to teh United States

Date: Saturday, November 16, 2024, 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM

Place: Saint John’s University, D’Angelo Center Ballroom (Room 416), 8000 Utopia Parkway, Queens

For more information, contact: [email protected]

RSVP at: https://www.stjohns.edu/about/faith-and-mission/vincentian-center-church-and-society/vincentian-center-church-and-societys-biennial-poverty-conference-and-125th-anniversary-symposium

Event #2: 125th Anniversary Celebration Mass of Thanksgiving. Please join Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens for a Mass of Thanksgiving with His Eminence Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, marking the closing of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens’ 125th Anniversary celebrations.

Date: Sunday, November 17, 2024, 11 AM

Place: Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, 856 Pacific Street, Brooklyn

For more information, contact: [email protected]

There was Catholic Charity in Brooklyn before it was a diocese, before it was a city, and long before the day that Father William J. White was named the first diocesan supervisor of Catholic Charities.

This is the opening line to the "History of Catholic Charities: Diocese of Brooklyn." Monsignor William White would eventually be given the task to coordinate the various charitable activities of Brooklyn on April 1st, 1899 but records show that the earliest Catholic institution to promote charity in Brooklyn took place on October 1829. Responding to the needs of orphans The Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum Society was formed in Brooklyn and an instrumental partner in the housing of these "foundlings" was Elizabeth Ann Seton's Sisters of Charity, a religious community of women who adapted the Vincentian rule.

Of course it must be recognized that the care of orphans, besides being one of the oldest biblical works of mercy along with the care of widows and foreigners, was the earliest charitable program of St. Vincent DePaul's himself. in 1638 St. Vincent, alongside St. Louise de Marillac and her sisters, would organize safe lodging for the orphabed children of Paris. St. Vincent would establish a rule for the daughters of charity based on this charitable mission.

They will reflect that their ministry is to serve the Infant Jesus in the person of each baby they are raising, and in this they have the honor of doing what the Blessed Virgin did to her dear Son, since He affirms that the service rendered to the least of His people is rendered to Himself. In accordance with that, they will do their utmost to raise these poor children with as much attention and respect as if it were to the very person of Our Lord.” (Vincent DePaul, n.d., 13b: 209)

Eventually the diocese would take shape in 1853 when Bishop John Loughlin was installed. Loughlin established an enduring legacy for the role that charity would have in this diocese. In some ways he was a maverick who prioritized charitable programs over the development of its own Cathedral which remained fairly humble. It appears that he was a thorn of the side to Archbishop Michael Corrigan (who was portrayed having issues with another champion of charity, Mother Cabrini in the recent movie "Cabrini") for Loughlin's unwavering support of charity and social justice when Corrigan wanted to play nice with the powers that be. Throughout this entire time the Vincentians were a perfect partner in crime. In 1855 Loughlin supported the foundation of a St. Vincent DePaul conference. At that time the society had only existed for 20 years. Bishop Loughlin was no stranger to the spirituality and gifts of this community. As a young priest in New York he sponsored the first conference into the city. With charity as a central focus of the Brooklyn Catholic community (at that time engulfing all of Long Island) the the relationship between the developing diocese and the Vincentian community was an obvious one.

The tie that binds our two Catholic institutions is our commitment to institutional charity. The field of social work originates from this orientation. While charity is a core value for all Catholics, it was the works of Sts. Vincent and Louise and the community that followed which took seriously the institutionalization of our social ministries. The Vincentian charism challenges us to see Christ in the face of those in need and what this means for our social ministries. Bl. Frederic Ozanam, the founder of the St. Vincent DePaul Societies, continued developing the social ministry framework that is crucial for us today.

Almsgiving alone, alms that are not accompanied by words and love, is a humiliation for the one who receives it. Do we need to remember that man does not live by bread alone, that the Savior himself does not only ask to be clothed and fed in the person of the poor, but also visited and consoled? Will we have to expose everything that the masters of charity up to St. Vincent de Paul have taught us about the delicate behavior that takes into account the legitimate susceptibility of the poor?

St. Vincent DePaul and the diocese of Brooklyn may have started with addressing the needs of the orphans but it did not end there. Sts. Vincent and Louise organized centers of care and hospitality for refugees. They provided assistance to many who were displaced. They organized food distribution and soup kitchens. They also provided for education and job training. Today the Vincentian community is a worlwide phenomenon established in the service industries, of social work, health care, and education. They continue to be recognized for their ongoing prison and parish social ministries. They are now leaders in the field of promoting systemic change with creative microlending projects like St. John's G.L.O.B.E initiative.

As already mentioned, in 1899 Bishop McDonnell re-organized the charitable ministries in the Brooklyn Diocese and institutionalized our Catholic Charities agency. By 1913 when Brooklyn Catholic Charities had its second director, Fr. Francis O'Hara, Catholic Charities had nearly fifty charitable institutions. Today, under the leadership of the 8th Bishop of Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan and CCBQ's present CEO Monsignor Alfred LoPinto, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brooklyn runs 160 programs including food distributions, case management, migrant assistance, ESL, workforce development, behavioral health, early childhood programs, housing for seniors and the disabled.

But as we celebrate our 125th anniversary we dare not forget that all this effort began through an essential partnership with our Vincentian brothers and sisters. There is an amazing convergence between the mission of our two organizations. As we celebrate this milestone we do it stretching our hand to our dear friends in order to make sure that we continue to serve this legacy together.

I love working for Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens. It is a great organization that serves the community in need through programs and services based on the principles of Catholic social teaching.

I designed this prezi to let people know the good work that we do through Catholic Charities in Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ). I hope this presentation will be a helpful resource to parish and community members who want to go deeper in understanding what CCBQ is and what we do for the community.

No immigration 'fix' and Congress isn't really trying

Molloy High School organized an amazing toy drive for our Catholic Charities Toy Distribution in Queens. It was an amazing act of giving which will help many of the families we serve.

At that event the students had a prayer service before they made their donations. One of the readings from the Gospel of Luke was the famous passage where the Holy Family went to Bethlehem and could not find housing while they were there. I was struck by the famous response from many innkeepers who had to inform Joseph that there is no room at the Inn. As we know, the Holy Family ended staying in a manger, the place where Jesus would be born.

This reading struck me because the fact is that many of us, including us at Catholic Charities, are finding ourselves repeating this unfortunate phrase. With the massive number of asylee and refugees we are finding ourselves saying that there is simply no room in our city. The next day I met with a young man who traveled from Colombia with the promise from a distant relative that he could stay over with them as he gets himself settled. He left the economic instability of his country in order to afford medicine for his mother. He came over with the promise of sponsorship by this distant relative. After he crossed and traveled to NYC the relative informed him that they have no room but that he knew that there were shelters he could stay at. He is now in a shelter trying to find some stability in his life. Later that same day I also met a young Russian family who came to Brooklyn earlier this month and is staying with friends of the family. They have left as political refugees wanting to avoid the war. They are now feeling unwelcomed by their sponsors and came to Catholic Charities wondering what options they have.

The fact is that we are seeing many young families who are struggling to find some form of stability from the chaos of war, civil unrest or absolute poverty. But they are coming in droves to our city and we, quite honestly, are feeling overstretched and beyond capacity to adequately help them.

Normally, when I hear that Gospel reading and hear those words, "there is no room at the Inn," I judge the Innkeeper as a harsh and cold-hearted person. But at this prayer service I actually felt sympathy for the Inn-keeper. I felt that way because I am finding myself saying the same thing. Not because I do not want immigrants here, especially after I hear their tragic stories, but because there is quite literally no room at the Inn. For once, I pictured the inn-keeper feeling sad and guilty. They were not the Roman establishment organizing an oppresive system of taxation nor the Herodian monarchy that would persecute any challenge to their ruling authority. Perhaps the inn-keeper had no choice but to deliver the bad news to this pregnant couple. I have met my own pregnant couples these months who are in SRO's hotel, our own modern day urban manger. They hope for a stable life, but for now, this is where they have to stay. I am sorry to say that I now feel the same sense of guilt that I project on the inn-keeper in this Gospel passage.

The inn-keepers were not responsible for the systemic issues that forced the Holy Family to migrate to Bethlehem. Nor were they responsible for the political persecution that made them refugees in Egypt. Eventually the Holy Family was able to go back to Nazareth and enjoy some sense of stability. But perhaps these oppressive experiences may have helped develop the social message that was part of Jesus' Gospel. Quoting Isaiah Jesus would begin his public ministry by challenging oppressive structures and celebrate the rights and dignities we all have as children of God.

Catholic social teaching teaches us that among our celebrated rights we recognize the right to emigrate. St. John XXIII developed the following teaching back in 1963:

Again, every human being has the right to freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of his own State. When there are just reasons in favor of it, he must be permitted to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there. The fact that he is a citizen of a particular State does not deprive him of membership in the human family, nor of citizenship in that universal society, the common, world-wide fellowship of men. (PT #25)

Pope Francis, however, also reminds us of the right not to emigrate. One may think that this contradicts St. John XXIII's message but that is not the case. Pope Francis instead expands on this right by reminding us of the duty we have, through solidarity, to respond to regional crises so that people are not forced to leave their communities. Many of the people we serve do not want to leave their countries. A couple days after the Molloy HS prayer service I met a Nicaraguan man who, as far as he was concerned, only wants to be here just long enough to financially help the wife and kids he has back home. His hope is to be here 3 to 5 years, no more than that. For that reason he does not want to apply for political asylum even though he could. Pope Francis offered this teaching in his message to migrants in 2015 to address the cause of migration.

The Church stands at the side of all who work to defend each person’s right to live with dignity, first and foremost by exercising the right not to emigrate and to contribute to the development of one’s country of origin. This process should include, from the outset, the need to assist the countries which migrants and refugees leave. This will demonstrate that solidarity, cooperation, international interdependence and the equitable distribution of the earth’s goods are essential for more decisive efforts, especially in areas where migration movements begin, to eliminate those imbalances which lead people, individually or collectively, to abandon their own natural and cultural environment. In any case, it is necessary to avert, if possible at the earliest stages, the flight of refugees and departures as a result of poverty, violence and persecution.

Our charitable organizations are doing all we can to welcome these immigrants but our nation has done nothing to address the systemic issue that has made this situation our current reality. As the article above tells us:

Every president for a generation has tried, and failed, to enact some kind of comprehensive immigration reform. Experts argue that only a holistic approach will work and it needs to address two main problems:

• The millions of undocumented people living in the US

• The antiquated and broken legal immigration system, which does not appropriately acknowledge labor needs of the country and drives people to seek unlawful routes.

Comprehensive immigration reform and Global Development initiatives are the systemic solutions that could help us authentically address the issues that cause the current immigration situation. We are inn-keepers doing what we can for the situations we find ourselves in. But we must hold the global and national political system responsible for the reality of the situation. Our nation needs to respond to our own immigration reality, but we also need to work with the global community to address the issues affecting these nations facing war, conflict and economic depression. Hopefully then, our inn-keepers can respond justly to the local needs that are not over-stressed by international crisis.

In the meantime we will do what we can to bring a little joy to those who are forced to reside in the mangers of our modern urban society.

Bishop Brennan joined us in blessing our toy distribution. Below are his remarks supporting what we do.

Catholic Charities: A leader is Disaster Response

The last segment of the October 4th “Last Week in the Church” episode journalist and author John Allen offers a well earned recognition of the work of Catholic Charities in the United States in how they respond to disaster relief here in this nation. 21 minutes into this episode John Allen honors the work of the Sr. Donna Markham, the CEO of Catholic Charities USA, who is stepping down as head of CCUSA. What touches me here is the overall recognition that John Allen gives to the great work of Catholic Charities but especially with how we have been stepping up in our response to various disasters both social, political and natural. This quote was especially touching.     

I like to think of Sr. Donna as, in a sense as emblematic of, all those Catholics out there, clergy and lay, men and women, young and old, most of whom you will never know their names and their stories will never be told, but nevertheless, when there is tragedy, when there is disaster, when there is heartache, they step up and on the basis of their faith try to bring healing to people whose lives have been broken in ways that most of us can't even imagine. It is the paradoxical effect of a tragedy like a hurricane that it has the capacity to elicit holiness and obviously one would hope that it doesn't take something like that to summon the better angels of our nature but nevertheless it is cheering and edifying to see it when it does happen.

Thank you John for your kind words. As a member of Catholic Charities who works with amazing colleagues I appreciate hearing this thoughtful reflection which captures much of our reality in serving the communities of Brooklyn and Queens.