After a year with COVID-19, glimmers of hope and light emerge
A year after the coronavirus pandemic turned life upside down, wide vaccine availability and time’s passage spur assessments of losses and lessons learned.
At Catholic Charities, ‘We had to learn to adapt’
A staff member at Catholic Charities of Onondaga County’s men’s shelter in Syracuse works during the pandemic. (Photo provided) By Renée K. Gadoua | Contributing writer Michael Melara apologies for the awkward metaphor he uses to describe Catholic Charities’...
As Catholic school communities faced pandemic challenges, ‘nobody gave up’
Teacher Mary Heintz leads her class of first-graders at Notre Dame Elementary School in Utica Sept. 14. (Photo courtesy Sondra Nassar) By Katherine Long | Editor Last March, all 22 of the diocese’s Catholic schools, like their public counterparts, closed to...
A year of loss and challenges; an opportunity for reflection and growth
The Ranieri siblings, including one-month-old Salvatore, are pictured on the Solemnity of St. Joseph. (Photo courtesy Nina Ranieri) The Catholic Sun asked members of the Syracuse Diocese to share their experiences of life during the coronavirus pandemic....
Public Masses resume on feast of Pentecost with prayers for rebirth
Parishes around the Diocese of Syracuse resumed public Masses May 30 and 31, the first public liturgies celebrated since Bishop Douglas J. Lucia suspended them March 16 amid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bishop Lucia asks faithful to combine ‘expression of faith with prudential sense’ as public Masses resume
Bishop Douglas J. Lucia wears a face mask as he prepares to celebrate a Holy Hour at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception May 3. (Sun photo | Chuck Wainwright) Bishop Douglas J. Lucia announced last week that public Masses in the Diocese of Syracuse were...
Churches begin navigating a gradual reopening with safety as top priority
By Jeff Thomas | Catholic News Service In recent weeks, U.S. dioceses have begun issuing their own plans for the gradual reopening of churches over several phases with the safety of congregants, priests, deacons and other parish staff foremost in the minds of Catholic...
Peacemakers sign ‘Pledge to Protect’ during pandemic as economy reopens
By Dennis Sadowski | Catholic News Service CLEVELAND (CNS) — Pax Christi USA has invited people to sign a new “Pledge to Protect” in which the signees promise to take personal responsibility for protecting others during the coronavirus pandemic as...
L.A. Archdiocese to begin opening churches under detailed safety measures
By Pablo Kay | Catholic News Service LOS ANGELES (CNS) — After being closed for more than two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles can begin to open to the public the first week of June if they implement certain safety...
Public Masses to resume May 30 and 31 with new rules issued by diocese
Bishop Douglas J. Lucia today released protocols for sanitizing, social distancing, and crowd size as he approved resumption of public Masses in the Syracuse Diocese beginning May 30 and 31, the Solemnity of Pentecost.
Vatican distributes notes on cleaning, protecting church objects
By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — To help prevent damaging artistic and historically significant objects, the Pontifical Council for Culture released suggestions for cleaning and disinfecting church buildings, furnishings and...
Wonder at gift of creation opens human hearts to prayer, pope says
By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The mystery and wonder of God’s creation can open the hearts of men and women to express their gratitude through prayer, Pope Francis said. During a live broadcast of his weekly general...
Pope: Church’s preferential option for the poor is nonnegotiable
By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A missionary or church reality that is truly inspired by the Holy Spirit “manifests predilection for the poor and vulnerable as a sign and reflection of the Lord’s own preference for...
Death penalty opponents decry first execution carried out amid pandemic
By Carol Zimmermann | Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic advocates against the death penalty spoke out against Missouri’s May 19 execution of a death-row inmate, Walter Barton, whose death by lethal injection was the first execution to...
Templeton winner’s ‘every waking moment’ focused on efforts to cure COVID
By Catholic News Service WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. (CNS) — Dr. Francis S. Collins, a geneticist and physician who is director of the National Institutes of Health outside Washington in Bethesda, Maryland, is the 2020 Templeton Prize Laureate. Collins, who led the...
Bishop: Public Masses could resume on Pentecost
Public Masses in the diocese have been suspended since March 16 and New York has been under stay-at-home orders since March 22 as the coronavirus pandemic spread. After eight weeks of shutdown, however, regions across the state are beginning to reopen.
As state begins reopening, public Masses remain suspended
Some New York businesses have restarted operations after eight weeks of state-at-home orders, but Bishop Douglas J. Lucia says the diocese cannot yet resume public Masses. “We’re trying to balance the health of neighbor with people’s desire again to come together for worship,” he said.
Shelter guest quarantined after positive COVID-19 test
Sun staff reports A guest of the Catholic Charities Men’s Shelter in Syracuse has tested positive for COVID-19, and four guests and two staff members are being quarantined and monitored for symptoms of the novel coronavirus. The Onondaga County Health Department...
Music ministers up to the challenge of virtual Masses
By Tom Maguire | Associate editor The stone walls and wooden pews take the music and bounce it back at the isolated church singers and instrumentalists now. Music ministers say echoes have replaced the congregation members who used to absorb that sound and add their...
Wednesday nights virtually glorious on Gospel Hill Road
Chenango deacon leads rosary with people online or on their phones By Tom Maguire | Associate editor For the deacon of Guilford, the “new rhythm” of life includes a slot for devotion. As the COVID-19 lockdown began two months ago, Deacon Timothy O. McNerney felt that...
Bright Spots May 14: Mobile Mother’s Day blessings
Father Jason Hage, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Hamilton and St. Joan of Arc Mission in Morrisville, offered a special Marian blessing upon all mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, and spiritual mothers who drove up to his outdoor station at St. Mary’s May 10....
Bright Spots May 14: Parade, lunches prove love for teachers at St. John the Evangelist in Binghamton
By James Fountaine | Principal BINGHAMTON — Even though children are learning from a distance, they still love their teachers. Teacher Appreciation Week at St. John the Evangelist School gave them a great opportunity to show their love. On May 4, we launched our...
New York Catholic school faculty members visit graduating seniors
By Emily Benson | Catholic News Service ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) — It’s the senior year no high-school student wanted. Prom is canceled, graduation ceremonies are postponed, and last goodbyes are being told through phone and computer screens. It’s not the...
English Catholic school turns classrooms into workshops to make visors
By Catholic News Service MANCHESTER, England (CNS) — Staff and students of a Catholic secondary school are making thousands of visors to equip front-line health service staff in the battle against the coronavirus. With more than 30,000 deaths from COVID-19,...
Another pandemic side effect: Some priest reassignments delayed
By Mark Pattison | Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — Big-time college athletics has something called a transfer portal, a window of time during which athletes on scholarship can switch schools. The Catholic Church in the United States has its own transfer...
From behind the camera lens, bishops adapt to ‘virtual’ dioceses
By Rhina Guidos | Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — Bishops John E. Stowe, Oscar Cantu, and Mark J. Seitz are known for putting on the miles visiting their respective dioceses, whether on the rural roads of Kentucky, the bottleneck traffic of San Jose,...
Let yourself be consoled by the Lord, pope says
By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Jesus continues to console his followers, and it is important to learn to recognize the consolation he offers, Pope Francis said. “When we must pass through moments of sadness, we need to learn...
Florida Catholic student, now in virtual choir, says she’ll never stop singing
By Maurice Beaulieu | Catholic News Service ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) — The coronavirus restrictions haven’t stopped people from singing, but it’s moved their public singing to online formats. And Danielle Latell, a senior and choir member at Bishop Verot...
Like a good neighbor: Post-pandemic solidarity means buying local
By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service ROME (CNS) — In Rome’s historic Trastevere neighborhood, and throughout Italy, the easing of the coronavirus lockdown not only meant disinfecting shops, coffee bars and restaurants, it also involved tons of garbage...
