“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.
Marcus Mergulho/TNN-Panaji: Father Felix Lobo is busy manning the counter of the St Joseph Vaz canteen at Old Goa, making note of the orders he has to deliver and the cash that’s left in the drawer.
Located on the grounds of the St Cajetan Church, just across the Se Cathedral where the relics of Saint Francis Xavier have been kept for public veneration, the canteen serves a variety of delicious Goan dishes, with the ‘Oxtail soup’ listed as a speciality. With whatever money he can make at the end of the 45-day Exposition, the diocesan priest wants to help the poor in Goa’s remote areas and invest in building a school in Mollem dedicated to St Joseph Vaz, a Goan celebrated as one of the greatest missionaries in South Asian history.
“Right now, we have very few students (at the St Joseph Vaz Kindergarten) since we are running from a private house whose construction was abandoned,” Lobo told TOI. “It’s for nursery and pre-primary students, and I will continue to run the school, no matter the difficulties.”
In 2000, when Lobo was posted at the St. Joseph Church in Usgao, where he eventually served as the parish priest for 17 years, he started a kindergarten, largely catering to migrant and underprivileged communities. The kindergarten was upgraded to a high school after then chief minister Manohar Parrikar gave the green signal.
“We took care of everything (for the needy) and charged very little to those who could afford to pay. For about a thousand rupees (a month), we provided free uniforms, books, stationery and even transport. 80% of our students were migrants,” said Lobo, now in charge of diocesan properties in Mollem, Collem, Usgao, Valpoi, and Kale.
Lobo has made it his mission to provide a helping hand to the needy. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lobo mobilised funds to purchase 30 cellphones for students from economically-weak families, so that they could attend online classes.
He has also helped poor families in remote areas, building houses, providing electric sewing machines to families who later made scapulars, and generating employment with the production of communion wafers.
“The scope for social work has widened. I want people to be happy. I will not keep any money in the bank because there’s always someone in need. When I do something, I don’t look at the money. I just look at the need,” said Lobo.
It was during the last Exposition in 2014 that Lobo was invited to cater to the visiting pilgrims by Fr Alfred Vaz, then convener of the Exposition committee. He had a dedicated order list of catering to approximately 600 pilgrims, providing three meals a day at Rs 125.
After 45 days of work, he ended up making a profit of Rs 18 lakh, good enough to clear a loan of Rs 15 lakh that he had taken to procure two buses for school students in Usgao. The remaining Rs 3 lakh was spent on purchasing stationery for the students.
This time around, Lobo is not expecting similar profits, not even remotely close.
“We had orders for 600 pilgrims in 2014, now it’s only about 150-200 (at the pilgrims’ village). The canteen is also located at a place which is not easily seen, so people miss (noticing) this canteen and the delicious food that we serve. I haven’t got as many visitors here as I would have liked, but there’s still some hope (till the end of the Exposition on Jan 5),” said Lobo, who plans to serve customers a special Christmas and New Year buffet.
Cardinal Mykola Bychok is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Among the new crop of cardinals created by Pope Francis on Dec. 7, Cardinal Mykola Bychok, CSSR, stands out. He is the bishop of the Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Melbourne for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, and at age 44, he has become the youngest cardinal in the world.
The website of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia explains that the new cardinal belongs to an Eastern-rite church, so for the Dec. 7 occasion he wore “a purple robe according to the old Kyivan tradition” that was “adorned with embroidered images of Sts. Peter and Paul.”
“On his head he wore a black koukoul [or koukoulion] in accordance with the Ukrainian monastic tradition, styled after the 17th-century Brest Union and trimmed with a thin red border.” Bychok also wore on his chest a medallion with an image of the Virgin Mary.
During the ceremony, Pope Francis placed a red skullcap and biretta on the heads of all the other cardinals whereas on Bychok he placed the koukoulion.
The 1596 Union of Brest (or Brześć) united Orthodox Christians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Holy See, leading to what is now the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Eastern rites and the Ukrainian rite
The website of Ukrainian Catholics in Australia explains that “the Ukrainian Catholic Church (UCC) is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Apostolic See.”
“With more than 5.5 million faithful, it is the largest of all 23 Eastern Churches in the global Catholic community, second in number after the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church. The UCC is headed by the major archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, His Beatitude Sviatoslav [Shevchuk],” the site notes.
This church has “its own rite, which originates in the Constantinopolitan tradition, and preserves its liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage in the cultural and historical circumstances of its people.”
The majority of Catholics in the Western world belong to the Latin rite.
‘Ukraine is in my heart’
“We have a special title in the Church, but we must remember who we are: human beings, dependent on God,” said the new cardinal following Saturday’s consistory, according to Vatican News.
After saying that he has not forgotten his native country, now ravaged by war, the 44-year-old cardinal said: “I am a bishop in Australia, a cardinal of the universal Church, but Ukraine is in my heart,” and he asked for prayers for Ukrainians.
Bychok was born on Feb. 13, 1980, in Ternopil, Ukraine. He was ordained a priest in 2005.
In 2020, he was appointed bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Melbourne. On June 7, 2020, the feast of Pentecost according to the Julian calendar, he was consecrated bishop in St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv, Ukraine.
His episcopal motto is Пресвятая Богородице, спаси нас (“Holy Mother of God, save us”). St. Sophia on Via Boccea was designated yesterday as his titular church as a cardinal.
મારું જીવન…મારાં સ્વજન…મારો સમાજ…મારું જગત…૨૦૦૪ થી આ જાળું ગૂંથી રહ્યો છું…
