“Very nerve wracking. I was very nervous at the start, but then I felt honored and I felt like it was sort of my mission to provide them a voice,” John Oriundo said.
The collection of raw and vulnerable stories were written by students at 8 different high schools in Newark detailing their stories of saying goodbye, the journey to the U.S. and their families’ new lives.
Shawn Adler is a teacher at Science Park High School. He is the one who carefully chose, edited and compiled the stories.
“We knew that we wanted to tell the immigrant stories of our community. We wanted to give voice to the students who, quite frankly, were voiceless, and we wanted to share the positive and resilient stories of America,” Adler explained.
The book was officially published last year, but the students were honored at a ceremony Friday morning with U.S. Rep LaMonica McIver and given small royalty checks.
Newark schools superintendent Roger Leon says this book has been praised by local, state and federal leaders. He hopes this process has taught these 58 students that their stories matter..
“Their future is going to become brighter because what they’re living today and not only what they’re living, but the stories that they’re telling about their ancestry speaks volumes about the courage that is in their own respective families, that they come from accomplishments,” Leon said.
The story of Peter and Jackie Halpin, along with their entire family of six adult children, has moved many hearts online. (photo: Go Fund Me / Halpin Family)
When Peter and Jackie Halpin and their six adult children and some of their spouses showed up at the site of the family home in northern Los Angeles County on Thursday morning, there was almost nothing left.
One of the California wildfires had destroyed it, leaving only the foundation, debris, and singed concrete statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph.
They said a prayer near the statue of Mary — a version of the daily consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Then someone said they should sing something. But what?
Peter ended the discussion with an intonation, setting pitch with four notes going up the scale — “La – la – la – laaaaa.” Everyone in the family knows what that means: Regina Caeli, a 12th-century Latin hymn to Mary that Peter’s mother taught all nine of her children.
The Halpin parents, their six children, and at least four spouses — about a dozen people in all — immediately sang it in harmony.
A family friend shot video of the performance. Someone posted it online, where it has caught the attention of thousands of people.
Andrew Halpin, 36, the fourth of Peter and Jackie’s six children (three boys and three girls), described to the Register on Thursday night how he felt during the family prayer.
“I was thinking, ‘I want to be strong for my folks in this moment’— for my parents. And when we started singing, it felt like we were all being strong for each other,” Halpin said in a telephone interview.
“I already feel so much healing because we were able to be there together as a family, and we were able to bond over this song that means so much to our family,” he said.
The Halpins’ performance of Regina Caeli — a seemingly effortless multipart harmony with volume and various pitches — led to a question for Andrew: How did you do that?
“We’re a very musical family. It was instilled in us from Day One, really,” said Andrew, a composer who has a wife and a toddler daughter.
When they were kids, Andrew and his siblings participated in a choir led by an accomplished choirmaster as part of a Catholic home-schooling group. They all played musical instruments from a young age. Nowadays, they also occasionally perform publicly in a family band, called The Haypenny Pigs.
“After our faith, it’s been one of the most cohesive things about my family,” he said. “There really has never been a time joyful or sad when music doesn’t play a part.”
A Home Filled With Music
The Halpins moved into the house, a Craftsman bungalow in Altadena, in 1988. It was yellow and had three bedrooms and one bathroom. The boys shared one bedroom and the girls another. About two decades ago their parents added a master bedroom with another bathroom, Andrew said.
The moment on Thursday morning was sad, even devastating.
His parents lost their home, which is where all the children grew up. One of his sisters and her daughter lost their home, which was at the rear of the same property.
But it hasn’t shaken their faith, he said.
“We have to give everything to God. And if that means our home at this time, we choose to trust that we’re in the palm of his hand,” Andrew told the Register.
Before they evacuated, Andrew’s parents, who are in their early 60s, managed to save 40 years’ worth of family photo albums and some essential documents. But Jackie’s genealogical collection, including old family photos, are gone. So is almost everything else that was in the house.
“You’re standing on the ashes of your childhood, really of your life,” Andrew said. “But you’re alive.”
Peter is a contractor who runs a concrete business. He lost a work truck in the fire, in addition to his home.
A GoFundMe page for Peter and Jackie Halpin had raised more than $60,000 as of early Friday.
Meanwhile, the family is trying to stress the positive.
“What I would want people to get out of this sadness, out of this tragedy, is that we can wring joy out of it. We can instill love,” Andrew said.
Over the years, the back yard of the family home has seen many parties for family and friends, with live music.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a party at the old yellow house that didn’t end with a jam session,” he said.
Andrew said his dad decided even before he got married that he wanted to host a lot of parties like that.
“He wanted to create a place where his family and friends could celebrate and forget their worries,” Andrew said.
“This was home for more than just us. And that’s hard to let go of,” he said.
“People know that home as a place of faith, a place of fellowship, community and music,” Andrew said. “I tell you what, when we rebuild, there’s going to be music there again.”
Pope Francis appoints Sr. Simona Brambilla, an Italian-born religious sister from the Consolata Missionaries, as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, along with Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime as Pro-Prefect.
By Vatican News
Sister Simona Brambilla, who will turn 60 on March 27, previously served as the Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries.
Pope Francis appointed her on Monday, the Solemnity of the Epiphany, as Prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
She has served as Secretary of the same Dicastery since October 7, 2023, and becomes the first woman to be appointed Prefect of a Dicastery of the Holy See.
Pope Francis also chose Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, 65, whom he created Cardinal in the Consistory on September 30, 2023, as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery.
Sister Simona Brambilla has a background that includes missionary experience in Mozambique. She was a professional nurse before joining the Consolata Missionary Sisters Institute, which she led from 2011 to 2023.
On July 8, 2019, the Pope for the first time appointed seven women as members of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Later, Sister Brambilla was first chosen as Secretary of the Dicastery and now as Prefect.
Since the beginning of Pope Francis’s pontificate, the presence of women in the Vatican has increased. According to overall data covering both the Holy See and Vatican City State from 2013 to 2023, the percentage of women has risen from 19.2% to 23.4%.
A pathway outlined by the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium of 2022, the Pope has made it possible for laypeople, including women, to lead a Dicastery and become Prefect, a role previously reserved for Cardinals and Archbishops.
In Vatican City State, Pope Francis has appointed two women to leadership positions during his pontificate. In 2016, he named Barbara Jatta as Director of the Vatican Museums, which has traditionally been led by laypeople. In 2022, he named Sister Raffaella Petrini as Secretary General of the Governorate, a role usually held by a bishop.
There are also several female Undersecretaries, such as Gabriella Gambino and Lina Ghisoni at the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, while Sister Carmen Ros Nortes of the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation serves as Undersecretary at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Emilce Cuda is Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; Nataša Govekar heads the theological-pastoral department of the Dicastery for Communication (our parent organization); Cristiane Murray is Deputy Director of the Holy See Press Office; and Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchof is Deputy Coordinator of the Council for the Economy. The General Secretariat of the Synod also has a female Undersecretary, French-born Sister Nathalie Becquart.
On December 13, 2024, the Pope appointed Sister Simona Brambilla and María Lía Zervino, former president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), as members of the 16th Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat. María Lía Zervino had already been appointed as a member of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2022.
