Monthly Newspaper • DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT

BRIDGEPORT—Thousands of people across the diocese went online during Holy Week to view the live-streamed Masses and liturgies celebrated by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport.

During the pandemic crisis, diocesan social media and website have been a major lifeline to Catholics throughout Fairfield County who were unable to attend public Masses, which were suspended in the interest of the health and safety of the faithful.

An estimated 50,000 faithful tuned in at some point for the live-streamed Holy Week Masses, and 215,157 minutes viewed on Facebook from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. Likewise, there were 91,331 views on the diocesan website during the same time.

In addition to being live-streamed, the liturgies were also available on the diocesan website (www.bridgeportdiocese.com) to be viewed at any time.

John Grosso, director of digital media for the diocese, said that social media analytics can be complicated when you try to break down the number of clicks and viewers, but the response to diocesan content over the past few weeks has set records for what was already a very active and far-reaching social media presence.

Grosso said that some viewers watched the Masses in their entirety, while others visited to hear Bishop Caggiano’s homilies or to view the Consecration and the Eucharist. The total number of people reached on social media was 176,180.

“It’s clear that our social media and website helped to unify the diocese during a time of crisis. People wanted to hear from the bishop and be connected to the Blessed Sacrament. We reached literally tens of thousands of people in a meaningful way, and hundreds of thousands joined us briefly.”

Grosso said while record-breaking numbers visited the website and view diocesan social media, it’s far from an overnight success. The significant reach and capability has been developed over the past five years with the introduction of social media through a generous grant from a donor to the Annual Catholic Appeal and to the steady work managing the social media accounts.

Catholics throughout the diocese can find information of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Bishop Caggiano said he was grateful that so many people went online during Holy Week to participate in the Triduum. He said that given the high level of interest and participation, he is considering continuing an online Masses, particularly for those who may be confined to their homes and unable to attend liturgies.

In addition to streaming Masses, the diocesan Leadership Institute live-streamed the “Nine Days of Prayer” online Novena and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. A town hall meeting for youth with the bishop also brought young people together online to deepen their faith.

Parishes throughout the diocese also turned to online Masses at a time when the faithful is unable to gather in person.

By Brian D. Wallace

TRUMBULL—The Parish of St. Catherine of Siena (220 Shelton Road, Trumbull) is hosting a Drive Through Food Drive to support area food pantries, which are experiencing extraordinary need right now. The Food Drive will take place in the parking lot of the church on Saturday, May 2, from 9 am until 12 noon. Social distancing guidelines will be followed at all times to protect the health of our donors and volunteers.

All donations of food will be delivered directly to the Trumbull Food Pantry, Blessed Sacrament Parish in Bridgeport, and the Thomas Merton Center in Bridgeport. Here’s how it will work:

Before leaving home, place food donations in bags in your trunk. Pull up to the front of the Family Center, where food will be collected. No need to leave your car! Open your trunk from the inside of your car. (If your car is not equipped with a means to open your trunk from inside the car, kindly step outside the car to open your trunk.) Volunteers wearing masks and gloves and maintaining social distancing will remove the bag(s) of food donations.

The food banks’ greatest needs include: tuna fish, mac & cheese, canned pasta (ex: Chef Boyardee), pasta, pasta sauce, peanut butter, canned fruit, canned soups, bread, granola bars, energy bars, pop tarts, apple sauce, small cereal boxes, Gatorade, bottled water, juice boxes, etc. (Please no corn, green beans, gravy or stuffing.) Also needed are toiletry items such as soap, toilet tissue, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.

You may also offer a monetary donation for this purpose. In this case, the Social Justice and Charitable Outreach Committee will use all financial donations to buy food which will be divided equally among the three food banks. Please make any checks for this purpose payable to St. Catherine of Siena, and write FOOD BANKS in the memo line.

The Drive Through Food Drive is organized by St. Catherine’s Social Justice and Charitable Outreach team, led by Salvatore Spadaccino. Other initiatives that the Social Justice & Charitable Outreach Team has worked on include: toiletry drive, school backpack drive, Thanksgiving food drive, annual Parish giving tree, pro-life baby shower, and more. For more information on the Social Justice and Charitable Outreach ministry at St. Catherine of Siena in Trumbull, contact Salvatore Spadaccino, Coordinator for Social Justice and Charitable Outreach, at caritas@stcatherinetrumbull.com.

The Parish of Saint Catherine of Siena warmly welcomes anyone who is new to our area, anyone who is searching for the truth, or anyone who is looking for a spiritual home. We are joyfully and faithfully Roman Catholic in belief and practice – a community of faith, worship, service, and formation – and with open hearts we invite all our brothers and sisters into a living and saving friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ, in the communion of His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We are conveniently located at 220 Shelton Road in the Nichols area of Trumbull.

FAIRFIELD—The current health-care crisis requires response, and Sacred Heart University alumnus Bing Carbone ’84 has stepped up to the challenge, epitomizing SHU’s mission to “make a difference in the global community,” personally and professionally.

Carbone recently wrote on Facebook that his company, Modern Plastics, was available to make products like face shields and intubation enclosures. He included his cell phone number in the posts.

What happened next was something Carbone never could have imagined. “My cell phone lit up,” he said. “And it hasn’t stopped.”

Health-care workers from all over the country have called Carbone, asking for supplies. “We don’t turn anyone away,” he said.

History

Carbone’s grandfather, Joseph C. Carbone, established Modern Plastics—initially Modern Glass Co.—in 1945 in Bridgeport. Bing Carbone helped out with the family business throughout his childhood and into his teens. Summer breaks, days off—he was there, doing everything from sweeping floors to processing orders.

Carbone majored in business administration and marketing at SHU and recalls his years there as a “phenomenal experience.” He came to SHU from Trumbull High School, where, he admits, his grades were less than extraordinary. However, he worked hard to excel at SHU and made the dean’s list every year—an especially impressive accomplishment, considering that after he was done with classes, he drove down Park Avenue to his family’s business. “Those four years were really about school and work,” he said.

In 1998, Carbone became president of Modern Plastics, now in Shelton.

Before the pandemic, Carbone and his team of 25 employees manufactured and distributed plastic sheets, rods, tubes and film, and they produced custom-design work. Modern Plastics also is known for products designed for the medical industry, manufacturing parts used for hip and knee replacements.

New normal

When Carbone first learned of a possible pandemic, he said, he was in disbelief, but soon he started thinking of ways to help. He knew medical professionals needed supplies because the stock of personal protective equipment (PPE) was diminishing and finding more was impossible. His company came up with a face shield prototype, and he turned to social media to let people know what his company could do. Each post was shared more than 200 times.

“The calls have not slowed down,” Carbone said, and he has listened to many emotional voicemails. “There are a lot of messages from doctors and nurses so desperate for materials. Many are thanking us, too.” He said the response has been humbling and overwhelming.

In light of the desperate need for PPE, Modern Plastics now has an infection control division that produces items specific to the pandemic, including face shields and protective plastic barriers for hospitals and grocery stores.

Advice remembered

When Carbone was at Sacred Heart, beloved business and marketing professor Laurence Weinstein passed along some worldly advice. “He told me, ‘Life is difficult, and once you understand that, you start to move forward,’” Carbone recalled.

“Life has gotten a lot more complicated,” he said. “This virus is affecting a lot of people in many ways, and we’re going to try to do what we can to help.”

Modern Plastics has donated supplies to the Shelton Police Department, and Carbone said he and his employees are doing their best to fulfill every order as quickly as possible, whether it’s 10 face shields or 100,000.

For more information, visit Modern Plastics at https://modernplastics.com/.

Photos courtesy of Modern Plastics. Pictured from left are hospital/healthcare plastic protection, alumnus Bing Carbone ’84 wears one of the face shields and an acrylic plastic physical contact barrier.

FAIRFIELD—When Sacred Heart University’s faculty and staff learned they would be working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, they chose to be proactive, rather than sit back and watch the world struggle. They started asking each other, “How can we help?” And they came up with answers.

Within days, faculty came together and devised plans to help those who are fighting the crisis on the front lines.

Shelter for first responders, health-care workers
Neighboring communities have been seeking shelters for first responders who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and need to self-isolate for 14 days away from their families. Sacred Heart is providing these responders, as well as health-care workers and other displaced persons requested by local authorities, with a place to stay.

“No one wants to bring this infection home, but they’re put on that front line to fight this pandemic,” said Gary MacNamara, SHU’s executive director of public safety and governmental affairs. “We hope all local emergency responders and health professionals know they have a home at Sacred Heart for as long as they need it.”

MacNamara, former Fairfield police chief, is encouraging all emergency responders to pack a travel bag and bring it with them to work each day. If they are exposed, they won’t have to go home for personal belongings; they can just come to the University.

Center for Healthcare Education provides equipment
When administrators from Bridgeport Hospital reached out to SHU looking for equipment to set up a temporary patient-housing tent, Mary Alice Donius, dean of the Dr. Susan L. Davis, RN, & Richard J. Henley College of Nursing, didn’t think twice. Within an hour, she let the administrators know the Center for Healthcare Education could provide 12 set-ups for the hospital’s tent. Each includes a bed or cot, trash can, side table or cart with drawers, over-bed table and an IV pole.

“If we can help, we will,” Donius said. “We are happy to provide any services we can to the health-care workers fighting this fight.”

The University also distributed additional medical supplies to area hospitals. This included surgical masks, N95 masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, all which would normally be used by students in SHU’s nursing and health professions programs. Sacred Heart also offered to house tents on its campus for hospitals in need of extra space for its COVID-19 patients.

SHU President John J. Petillo shared his thoughts in an editorial for the Hartford Courant requesting that the state lift regulations and allow medical students and students in health professions who are about to graduate to be allowed to work as soon as possible. Governor Lamont has since made that decision.

Face shields
In light of the nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), professor Tolga Kaya and IDEA Lab manager Cedric Bleimling of the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology (WCBT) took home 3D printers from the University’s IDEA Lab to manufacture face shields for health-care workers. “We filled my minivan with the printers and dropped them off at our houses, all while practicing social distancing,” said Kaya, who is also director of the engineering program in the School of Computer Science & Engineering. “We are going to do whatever we can do to help the world.”

To make the shields, these professors ordered plastic and elastic fabric online. The 3D printers manufacture two pieces for the masks: the top part of the shield, which holds the elastic fabric or headband, and a bottom piece that enables the plastic to stay curved around the user’s face. Kaya estimated each shield costs about $5.

The printers produce materials to make one mask per hour. The faculty members have made more than 100 masks so far.

Ventilators
Kaya and Bleimling are also taking part in an initiative to create ventilators, a device that helps patients breathe. Hospitals across the country are struggling with ventilator shortages. The IDEA Lab team took part in a local initiative led by MakeHaven, a makerspace in New Haven, to prototype a ventilator based on an existing Israeli design called “AmboVent.” If the coalition is successful, Bleimling said a production batch could help fight the shortages in local hospitals.

“Think of all the people who could be saved,” Kaya said.

Bleimling said these efforts are truly grassroots—engineers and people from makerspaces are coming together to try to find solutions to serious problems. He and Kaya have received interest from industry partners, companies and others asking for advice related to the pandemic, he said.

“It’s been an amazing response from people,” said Bleimling.

Folding for a cure
Sacred Heart also is donating unused computer bandwidth to help researchers find potential cures for COVID-19. The University’s IT department downloaded software provided by the organization Folding@Home on computers in the WCBT’s IDEA and artificial intelligence labs.

“Since classes are being hosted online, a lot of the computer labs are not currently being used,” said Tom Tarantino, a technical support specialist. “We thought it would be a good idea to put some of the computing power to good use.”

Folding@Home describes itself online as a distributed computing project for simulating protein dynamics, including the process of protein folding and the movements of proteins implicated in various diseases. It brings together citizen scientists who volunteer to run simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers. Folding refers to the way human proteins fold in the body’s cells. Bodies rely on proteins to stay healthy and to assemble themselves by folding, according to Folding@Home.

Tarantino said that, through Folding@Home’s software, SHU computers are set to analyze the COVID-19 protein. Sometimes the computers are analyzing the genetic makeup of the protein and sometimes it’s looking for areas on the protein itself that are vulnerable. These calculations would take “ages” for humans to do, so researchers from Stanford University developed Folding@Home to allow computers to join the effort, Tarantino said.

Researchers are trying to understand how the virus’s proteins work, with a goal of designing therapeutics to stop them, according to the organization.

Sacred Heart’s computers are contributing to the top 3% of Folding@Home’s calculations. “We have very powerful computers in these WCBT labs that can handle a lot of calculations at once, so it’s the ideal environment for computational research,” said Tarantino. “Folding@Home sends a job to our computers, our computers analyze the protein, and they report the information back to Folding@Home. Our results and those of everyone else participating in this project globally are analyzed by scientists to help find cures and better understand COVID-19.”

“I think given a cause, people demonstrate innovation and the ability to change things,” Bleimling said.

Throughout the pandemic, Kaya said, Martha Crawford, WCBT dean, has been very supportive, with conversations over text, video and phone taking place at all hours of the day and night. “She has allowed us to think more and more and is always telling us to “go for it” and asking what she can do to help,” he said.

About Sacred Heart University
As the second-largest independent Catholic university in New England, and one of the fastest-growing in the U.S., Sacred Heart University is a national leader in shaping higher education for the 21st century. SHU offers more than 80 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and certificate programs on its Fairfield, Conn., campus. Sacred Heart also has satellites in Connecticut, Luxembourg and Ireland and offers online programs. More than 9,000 students attend the University’s nine colleges and schools: Arts & Sciences; Communication, Media & the Arts; Social Work; Computer Science & Engineering; Health Professions; the Isabelle Farrington College of Education; the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology; the Dr. Susan L. Davis & Richard J. Henley College of Nursing; and St. Vincent’s College. Sacred Heart stands out from other Catholic institutions as it was established and led by laity. The contemporary Catholic university is rooted in the rich Catholic intellectual tradition and the liberal arts, and at the same time cultivates students to be forward thinkers who enact change—in their own lives, professions and in their communities. The Princeton Review includes SHU in its Best 385 Colleges—2020 Edition, “Best in the Northeast” and Best 252 Business Schools–2019 Edition. Sacred Heart is home to the award-winning, NPR-affiliated radio station, WSHU, a Division I athletics program and an impressive performing arts program that includes choir, band, dance and theater. www.sacredheart.edu

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ROME—Holy Week and Easter events broadcast and shared by Vatican media reached millions of people around the world, attracting new viewers, followers and fans inspired by Pope Francis’ words and gestures.

“We have been struck by the many emails we have received, comments and posts on our social media from people, even agnostics and nonbelievers, who say they have been moved by the words and gestures of the Holy Father during this very difficult period,” Alessandro Gisotti, vice-editorial director of Vatican media, told Catholic News Service by email April 14.

Huge spikes in online visitors, views, follows and comments on their numerous platforms showed that “many people, not just the Catholic faithful, were able to follow and ‘encounter’ the Holy Father and, through him, the Word of God thanks to this technology and especially to streaming services and social media,” he said in a response to a request for information about online engagement during Holy Week and Easter.

Gisotti told CNS that Vatican media outlets tried to put into practice that “creativity of love that the pope asks of us in order to overcome the isolation caused by the pandemic.”

Their Vatican News site, which offers video, radio, podcasts, images, news and audio services in more than 30 languages, saw its number of visitors and page views quadruple from the same liturgical period last year.

Nearly 5.5 million users registered more than 14.5 million views on the vaticannews.va website between April 5 and April 13 versus Holy Week last year, which saw 1.5 million users and some 3.5 million page views.

Vatican News livestreamed all the major events on its YouTube channels with live commentary in six languages, plus, for the first time, a channel featuring a sign-language interpreter.

Easter events broadcast on YouTube, Gisotti said, had more than 2.1 million views.

The social media accounts for Vatican News and Pope Francis also saw huge growth, he said.

Over Holy Week the @Pontifex Twitter accounts surpassed 50 million followers, while the @Franciscus Instagram accounts exceeded 7 million followers.

The Vatican News Instagram account gained 27,000 new followers over Holy Week, bringing them to more than 436,000 followers. Vatican News tweets, over its different Twitter accounts in six languages, had 61 million views and received 31,000 mentions.

There were almost 18 million viewers watching the live video feeds of Holy Week events on the Vatican News Facebook pages in different languages. The Good Friday Way of the Cross alone had more than 5 million viewers. Levels of engagement on Facebook were high with 1.9 million actions on their accounts and an “exceptional number” of almost 143,000 comments made during the pope’s Easter events April 12, Gisotti said.

While all major papal Masses, liturgies and services have long been offered online, only a handful of events are broadcast worldwide via satellite each year. However, this year the Vatican offered for the first time, all major Holy Week and Easter events.

A total of six events were broadcast and distributed free-of-charge, thanks to funding from the Knights of Columbus, to television outlets and networks around the world.

Gisotti said they had no way to estimate the number of television viewers around the world, but there were almost 8 million households (25 percent of the audience share) tuning in to the Way of the Cross on the Italian public broadcasting company’s RAI 1 channel as well as 750,000 viewers on the Italian bishops’ conference TV channel and unspecified numbers of viewers on the stations’ streaming services.

Easter Mass had a nearly 50 percent share of the television audience in Italy with more than 8.1 million households viewing the entire event, while 17.5 million households tuned in for at least part of the event.

By Carol Glatz  I  Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY—Using the media to pray together and, especially, to join others for Mass is showing Catholics that they can be united around the Lord’s table even when they are not physically together, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

When Pope Francis began inviting a small group of people to the chapel of his residence for early morning Masses, he began with Vatican gardeners and garbage collectors.

It was March 22, 2013, just nine days after his election as pope. Father Lombardi, who was his press officer at the time, said he soon went to the pope with a request from the Italian bishops’ television station, which wanted to broadcast the Mass each day.

The pope thought about it, Father Lombardi said, and decided no “because, unlike the public celebrations, he wanted to preserve a more intimate and private character, one that was simple and spontaneous, without the celebrant and assembly feeling like the world was watching.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in Italy and other countries, the situation—and the pope’s thinking—have changed, Father Lombardi wrote in the first installment of his “Diary of a Crisis” for the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

Pope Francis still celebrates Mass at 7 am in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, but there are no invited guests, just his secretaries, a few of the sisters who work in the residence, an organist and the television camera operator.

“It is transmitted live and followed by a great number of people who receive comfort and consolation from it,” Father Lombardi wrote. The viewers unite with the pope in prayer and are “invited by him to make an act of ‘spiritual communion’ because they cannot go forward to receive the body of the Lord.”

When giving a homily, he said, Pope Francis “loves to look in the eyes of those present and dialogue with them,” but now he looks at the camera and the “congregation” hears his voice over the TV set, the internet or the radio.

But his words still “reach the heart,” he wrote. “The assembly is no longer present physically, but it is there and, through the person of the celebrant, is truly united around the Lord who died and rose again.”

Pope Francis praying in an empty St. Peter’s Square or an almost empty St. Peter’s Basilica is even “more intense,” Father Lombardi said. The Vatican is used to giving crowd estimates—50,000 or 100,000 or 200,000 for major events—but it always has known that millions more are watching on television.

The reality of those global “gatherings,” he said, were especially obvious during the “urbi et orbit” (to the city and the world) blessings of St. John Paul II, who always wished people “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Easter” in more than 50 languages, reading off a page where the words were printed phonetically.

But, Father Lombardi wrote, Pope Francis’ special “urbi et orbi” prayer in late March, praying for an end to the pandemic, and his Way of the Cross service on Good Friday demonstrate that “the pope can be alone in St. Peter’s Square, like in the chapel at Santa Marta, but the church, the universal assembly of the faithful, is strongly real and united by bonds that are very deeply rooted in the faith and in the human heart.”

Even in the empty square, he said, it was obvious people were more present that the word “virtual” would suggest, showing a whole web of “spiritual relationships of love, compassion, suffering, longing, waiting, hoping.”

The church as the body of Christ is a spiritual reality that “is manifest when the assembly is physically gathered and present, but it is not tied to or limited by physical presence,” Father Lombardi wrote. “Paradoxically, in these days that can be experienced in a stronger and more evident way.”

By Cindy Wooden  I  Catholic News Service

DYKER HEIGHTS—When I see Dr. Anthony Fauci on the TV screen explaining expertly everything we need to know about the coronavirus pandemic, I find myself thinking back to his father, Stephen Fauci, whose drugstore our family relied on back in the 1950s. Steve Fauci was the neighborhood pharmacist.

The Fauci Pharmacy stood on the southwest corner of 13th Ave. and 83rd St., in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, diagonally across from the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette. We lived two blocks away on 85th.

Long ago parishioners like me remember what the store looked like, the soda fountain that ran along the right wall, the telephone booths at the left close to the entrance and the counter straight ahead down the center.

Whenever my mother sent me there, Mr. Fauci would be behind the counter, but it was a family enterprise. They lived in an apartment above the store, and if the patriarch wasn’t serving you, his wife, Eugenia, or daughter, Denise, was there. Young Anthony, I’ve since learned, pitched in too, his father sending him out on his bike to deliver items to customers.

I’ve never met the man who has become the most important medical voice in the country. Nor have former parishioners that I’ve spoken to about him in recent days, like boyhood pals Anthony LoFrisco, from 80th St., now in Connecticut, and Bob Orlando, who lived on 84th, now a New Jersey resident, as well as Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Palm Beach Diocese., from 11th Ave. But each remembers the pharmacy as a Dyker Heights institution.

While we don’t know him personally, in a sense he’s become everyone’s friend. With his steady television presence, he’s imparted his vast knowledge and straightforward advice in a trademark, sometimes gravelly or raspy, Brooklyn accent that has endeared him to people far and wide. You can’t be anything but proud of someone of his prominence who came from the parish.

Anthony became known as Tony, as he tells it, when Father Flanagan, principal of Regis High School, decided to call him that on his first day as a freshman. The name stuck.

Tony took buses and trains to the Jesuit school in Manhattan, including the old Sea Beach Express. He traveled 70 minutes each way, did three hours of homework, captained the basketball team and excelled in the class room.

I remember hearing that when Tony was a high schooler, he had a part-time job working in St. Bernadette’s rectory, answering the phone and doing whatever else parishioners wanted him to do to put them in touch with one of the parish priests. In those days, the rectory had a priestly bonanza. There were four of them.

Because St. Bernadette’s School had not yet been established, Tony went to Our Lady of Guadalupe School, where he was taught by Dominican Sisters. It was, and is, St. Bernadette’s neighboring parish.

Like most kids, he loved sports. He played CYO baseball and basketball. At Dyker Park on 86th St., he and his friends developed skills in imitation of their heroes. A Yankee follower living in the midst of Brooklyn Dodgers fans who adored The Boys of Summer, he’s said his favorite players were Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.

Tony’s father and mother married at 18, after they graduated from New Utrecht High School. Steve went on to Columbia to study pharmacy.

Sometime after he opened his pharmacy, he became friends with Father Al Varriale, one of St. Bernadette’s beloved parish priests. At one point, Steve, as a parent, and the priest known as Father V, who directed the parish’s robust CYO sports program for youths, shared a concern. It was the easy availability of indecent and immoral publications that they knew was a threat to the moral development of young people.

So, with the approval and support of the Diocese of Brooklyn, together they formed a diocesan commission against pornography. Both men are now long gone, and so is the commission, but it was a good idea, though it did not survive them.

Remarkably, just a few houses up the block from where Steve established his pharmacy, lived the Pellegrinos, another family of St. Bernadette’s parishioners that produced a renowned medical professional.

The eldest son, Edmund, became a bioethicist, a “preeminent” one, as one newspaper described him after he died. But he was more. He helped develop medical programs at Kentucky, Stony Brook and Tennessee Universities. Later, he took on the presidency of The Catholic University of America. Then, after completing his tenure there, he became, as physician and philosopher, the director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

Though years apart in age, both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Pellegrino became Hippocratic stars, nurtured on the same block. Only in Brooklyn, I say, not without bias.

Steve Fauci was known by members of his extended family and friends for his personality, kindness, sense of humor and wit, and for telling good stories. So they said in comments after he died in 2008.

Tony appears to have inherited Steve’s gene for lightheartedness. His daughter once told the Washington Post that her dad could be a “goofball. . .he works hard and does his thing, but he comes home and he’s singing opera in the kitchen and dancing around.”

That kind of calm can help a man maintain his balance as he deals with the pressure of talking to millions of people every day about the complexity of a global pandemic. As one newsman said, “When Fauci appears on the screen, you turn up the volume.”

He once said the Jesuits at Regis and Holy Cross College taught him the importance of “precision of thought and economy of expression.” That’s what he delivers every day: accurate information given concisely.

That’s Tony Fauci, now a national treasure. And to think, he came from the neighborhood.

By Frank DeRosa
(DeRosa retired as Associate Publisher of The Tablet and director of the Diocesan Public Information Office in 2008)

NEWTOWN—As a way to celebrate Easter, while still practicing social distancing, St. Rose School families organized an Easter car parade to greet pastor Msgr. Robert Weiss with messages of hope, support and love.

Organized by a St. Rose parent who put the offer out and received so many positive responses.

More than 50 cars lined the parking lot decorated with Easter messages and filled with enthusiastic children and families who called out loving messages to Monsignor as they passed by the rectory porch where he stood waving back to them and calling out “Thank you and God bless.”

The St. Rose School spirit is strong!

St. Rose of Lima Catholic School is a Christ-centered community committed to academic excellence in an atmosphere that nurtures the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical and moral development of each child. The dedicated staff partners with families to prepare students to be responsible leaders in a global society by fostering integrity, service and respect. By creating a sense of family where all are welcome, they encourage each child to develop his/her gifts and to become Christ’s compassionate heart and hands in the world. They center their community of learning around the four core values of respect, integrity, academic excellence and service. Their spirituality is fostered through their close connection with St. Rose of Lima church. Students attend weekly Mass and are blessed by the continual presence of Msgr. Robert Weiss and the other parish priests.

(For more information on St. Rose of Lima school, visit their website at: www.stroseschool.com.)

Due to the terrible COVID-19 illness that afflicts so many in our country and around the world, this Easter will not be like any other. We will not assemble in person in churches, most will not receive the Blessed Sacrament, and we will not exchange handshakes or hugs. We may feel alone and even forgotten, but in faith we know that we are neither alone nor forgotten by Christ. We may receive Him spiritually, and we will be sustained until this scourge is ended.

We invite Christians across the Nation to light a candle on Holy Saturday at sunset as a symbol of our unity and common vocation to glorify God. Place an electric candle in your window or light a candle in your driveway for all to see and join together in prayer:

We gather around this candle whose flame pierces the darkness and proclaims by our faith that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. We thank you for your Son, our Savior, and ask You to bless us and grant these petitions:

Amen.

NORWALK — During a time of social distancing and isolation amid the coronavirus outbreak, longstanding religious traditions have suddenly changed.

City officials are encouraging residents to stay connected via technology instead of seeing people in person.

But that doesn’t mean the holidays are off. While many houses of worship are encouraging people to stay home, they’re also finding other ways to observe religious holidays.

In addition to live streaming all Holy Week liturgies and masses via Facebook Live and posting them to its website, St. Matthew’s Parish in Norwalk held a Stations of the Cross on Good Friday from its outdoor grotto that was livestreamed to parishioners.

“For parishioners who do not have Facebook, the livestream video is posted to our website, and we also email the link to parishioners,” a church spokesman said. “Parishioners are sending us photographs of themselves before and after livestreaming so that we can create a mural of our online worship.”

The church also offers to send liturgy programs and Mass readings to parishioners. There are also a number of online resources available across the church’s Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as well as through email. The church also remains open for private prayer daily, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“While the number of new positive cases reported to us has slowed the past few days, health experts warn that we are still weeks away from the peak,” Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said. “We all need to keep practicing physical distancing. I know that can be challenging with the holidays here, but please, do not take to your cars for parking lot gatherings or to drive through neighborhoods. That is an unnecessary risk no one should take.”

St. Matthew’s has also launched a funding effort to help parishioners who have lost their jobs, been furloughed and are struggling during the coronavirus crisis.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com from thehour.com

Dear Parents,

I hope that this letter finds you and your family healthy and safe. Today, as we begin our commemoration of the Lord’s Passion and prepare to celebrate His Resurrection, we remember in a special way all those who have been afflicted by Covid-19 and those that are working tirelessly to care for them.

I write today to announce that, in keeping with Governor Lamont’s announcement, we will continue our distance learning program with the plan of returning to our school buildings on May 20, 2020. While we hold onto hope that we will be able to return then and share the closing weeks of the school year together, we continue to plan for the possibility that we may finish out the year remotely. As we continue in this alternative teaching/learning model, I again wish to express my deep gratitude for the teachers and school leaders who have worked so hard to ensure that quality education continues in our schools.

I also need to express my gratitude to the members of our diocesan team who have been working to implement this model. Around March 1, I asked our Personalized Learning Team, led by Alan Barnicle and Stacy Clements, to start putting together a plan just in case we had to close school buildings for a short period of time. Within a week they created guidelines, resources and templates, and as the reality of the situation became clearer, we had each school submit their plan for distance learning. On March 16th our schools were able to transition almost all of the over 7000 students to a distance learning program—an amazing feat! Since then, the team has been meeting every day via zoom with groups of teachers and administrators and continues to facilitate the sharing of best practices, materials and resources. Additionally, they, along with our instructional coaches and our teacher leaders, have led over 100 professional development sessions and provide a virtual help desk for teachers and parents. As a result, our distance learning program gets better every day. As I have shared in previous letters, the most updated information can be found on a dedicated page on our website: www.dioceseofbridgeportcatholicschools.com/coronavirus-updates.

Finally, I again want to express that we recognize the financial stress some families may be experiencing and we encourage you to work with your school principal should you need an extension on making tuition payments. In the meantime, we have suspended late fees charged through FACTS. Also, as we are in the height of new enrollment season, I encourage you to continue sharing pictures and positive messages on social media and ask that you share the good news about Catholic schools with friends and relatives. Even though our buildings are closed, school administrators are still working and would love to talk with potential new families.

As we look forward to the promise and hope of the Easter season, let us continue praying for our friends, our families and our school communities that all of us may truly experience the joy given to us by the risen Christ.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steven F. Cheeseman
Superintendent of Schools

BRIDGEPORT—Foundations in Faith has launched the St. Francis Xavier Fund for Mission Parishes thanks to a significant initial donation to support vital, but financially challenged parishes during the COVID-19 crisis.

The announcement was made by Kelly Weldon, director of Foundations in Faith, which was created last year through the “We Stand with Christ” capital campaign to support parish ministries in the Diocese of Bridgeport.

Weldon said St. Francis Xavier Fund grants are now available to provide short-term relief for parishes experiencing cash problems as a result of declining collections due to the pandemic.

“These funds would be issued as grants to support basic operating expenses. While there are limited funds available for this emergency effort, we are hopeful that we will be able to provide some support to all those who demonstrate immediate need,” she said.

On March 31st, 2020, Foundations in Faith Board of Directors approved an Emergency Funding proposal put forward by Bishop Caggiano that “In light of the extraordinary crisis that we are facing, it is proposed that portion of the St. Francis Xavier Fund for Mission Parishes be made available to grant limited emergency financial assistance to those parishes that face an immediate cash liquidity problem due to the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

Weldon said that while churches have suspended public Masses for health and safety reasons, they have been unable to take the weekly in-pew collections that pay fixed cost bills such as utilities, staff salaries, internet for remote communications, even basic needs such as food for our priests.

“Our Parishes are making drastic cost cutting decisions. They are levering loans, grants and government assistance but for some churches that will not be enough. On-line giving mechanisms are being put in place,” said Weldon who noted short-term aid is essential.

Bishop Caggiano thanked donors for creating an additional resource to reach out to financially challenged parishes during the crisis.

“The grants are yet another opportunity for managing these challenging times. I want to express my sincere gratitude for the generosity and willingness of our diocesan donors to assist each of our ministries in this time of great need,” he said.

For a parish to be considered for such assistance, it must meet criteria for eligibility established by Foundations in Faith and will be required to submit an application to be vetted and recommended for action by the St. Francis Xavier Fund Committee, which will assume the responsibility of overseeing the distribution of grants from the Fund.

Weldon said applications will be made to assist in meeting the parish’s ordinary financial obligations for a given month. A renewal of any application will be required if the parish seeks cash assistance beyond one month’s time.

All parishes seeking emergency financial assistance must first present the request to Michael Hanlon, the Chief Financial Officer of the Diocese, for review and approval before it is submitted to the Board of Foundations in Faith.

Parishes are also being encouraged to establish an online giving platform and pursue other grant or reimbursable loan opportunities, such as the CARE Act options, which diocesan officials presented to the parishes last week.

Once a parish has been approved by the diocesan CFO to proceed, the applicant will receive the electronic application which should be submitted, with specified documentation as required, to Kelly Weldon, director of Foundations in Faith, for submission to the committee for the St. Francis Xavier Fund for Mission Parishes for review and approval.

For questions on the application process, further information or to make a donation to the fund, visit Foundations in Faith website www.foundationsinfaith.org.

FAIRFIELD—Three Fairfield women have organized a “social distancing” Community Food Drive for Bridgeport Rescue Mission on Easter Sunday, April 12, in the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield from 10 am to Noon.

Helene Daly of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, and Alexis Harrison and Heather Dubrosky of St. Anthony of Padua in Fairfield, will be wearing masks and gloves and practicing appropriate social distancing as they and a small group of volunteers collect food for the hungry.

“On Sunday, April 12, we are going to turn our attention and help to our neighbors in Bridgeport, and donate items to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission who are in dire need of our assistance, too,” said Alexis Harrison.

“Over the past several weeks, our community has shown over and over again its generosity and its desire to help others. We have been blown away! Being apart has brought us together even more.”

Harrison said the volunteers are committed to social distancing and to adhering to public health guidance. They will remove the donations from a car trunk or individuals can place them in the Rescue Mission box truck, which will be available.

The three volunteers organized their first social distancing community food drive four weeks ago in response to COVID-19 and the demand it has caused on local food pantries and agencies.

“With the seasons of Easter and Passover upon us, and ordinarily a special time when families and friends would come together for celebrations, we inviting parishioners and congregants of all faiths to take part in our next food drive this Sunday as a way to mark our respective holidays,” said Harrison.

She urges all to come forward with canned and boxed food and grocery items to help those in need.

“As you know, many of our neighbors are experiencing hardships right now—from job losses to illness and lost wages, and it is our obligation to help others during this difficult time,” she said.

The food drive will take place at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1719 Post Road, Fairfield from 10 am to Noon in the back parking-lot.

(Editor’s note: During the coronavirus crisis, unprecedented in modern times, priests of the Diocese of Bridgeport have used their faith, their ingenuity and their technology to stay connected with parishioners, particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Here are some of their stories.)

‘The Lenty-est Lent ever Lented’

TRUMBULL—On Palm Sunday, Father Joseph Marcello and Father Philip Bochanski were stationed on the traffic islands in the parking lot of the Parish of St. Catherine of Siena, waiting for penitents to come for “drive-thru” confession while the Knights of Columbus provided traffic control.

Throughout the afternoon, many arrived in their cars, eager to confess their sins in what one parishioner told Father was “the Lenty-est Lent I’ve ever Lented.”

Many parishes throughout the Diocese of Bridgeport have begun “drive-thru” confessions in an effort to maintain social distancing during the cornonavirus crisis and still administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation at a time when the faithful feel a great need to draw closer to Christ despite the distance they’re obligated to maintain from one another.

“Even though we cannot celebrate Mass together or the liturgy of the Triduum, we are still providing the sacraments,” said Fr. Marcello, pastor. “During these uncharted times, like so many of my brother priests in the diocese, around the country and around the world, we have to get creative as to how we offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation safely.”

He will hold confessions again on Good Friday from 10 am to 2 pm, and his hope is that once the self-imposed quarantine is over and public Mass resumes, he will be reunited with his parishioners, who have kept the flame of faith alive.

Throughout these months, Father has sat at his desk and called parishioners to check up on them. He and his staff went through the list of 1700 families and divided it up among themselves and are attempting to reach out to everyone in the parish.

“I have really been encouraged by people’s tenacity and their spirit,” he said. “No one is unacquainted with suffering in their life, and people are really doing all they can to transform this quarantine into a retreat and keep the flame of faith alive during this time of darkness.”

He said an important message that he wants to convey to his parish is best articulated in a quote from St. John Paul II, from a homily at Camden Yards in Baltimore on October 8, 1995:

“There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross, we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfillment in the Resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world.”

Under an umbrella, hearing confessions

STRATFORD—A few Saturdays ago, Father Peter Adamski, pastor of St. James Church, sat in the parish parking lot under an umbrella, hearing confessions as a light rain fell. It didn’t dampen his spirits, though.

“Given my zeal for the Lord, I believe that if anyone is not in the state of grace, I have to do everything I can to get them back,” he said. “The Lord does not ‘Krazy Glue’ us to him, we’re not ‘Duck Taped’ to him. He will never pull himself away, but so often every one of us turns to the Lord and says, ‘You know I love you in my heart, but I am going to do this—this sinful thought, this sinful word, this sinful action.’”

In order for the priest and the penitent to stay safe during the coronavirus crisis, he followed a practice that a priest in Maryland used for “drive-thru confessions,” he said.

St. James adapted the idea with its own modifications. Traffic cones were placed in the parking lot to manage the flow of cars and keep them in line. A deacon was stationed 50 feet away and asked the driver whether he or she wanted to receive the sacrament face-to-face or privately. For those who wanted anonymity, Father Peter would put on a blindfold. If there were a few passengers, the driver pulled up and the others got out and waited their turn.

There were even several walk-ups, who maintained the required social distance. Week to week, the attendance has increased.

The system follows the necessary regulations, but most importantly, Father said, “It lets people be reconciled with the Lord and receive the peace that only he can give—true peace—and Lord knows we need peace in our hearts at this time.”

‘Carfessions’ attract crowd at St. Benedict’s

STAMFORD—Father Gustavo Falla decided to improvise and create a portable confessional so he could offer his parish what he called “carfessions.”

The pastor of St. Mary of Stamford, which recently merged with St. Benedict-Our Lady of Monserrat, said that more than 15 penitents showed up on Sunday, mostly on foot, and walked over to the “carfessional” under the rectory car port, where he was seated in the driver’s seat with a crucifix on the dashboard and a table separating him from the penitent. Just in case, he also had a can of Lysol spray disinfectant.

For the sake of anonymity and protection, a white cloth covered the window opening.

“People were very excited to know that the sacrament was available to them,” Father said. “They were waiting for me, and within an hour, I heard ten confessions. When I was ready to close up shop, six more showed up. I am expecting more people on Sunday from 3 to 4, and I will extend the time to 5 if necessary.”

Father Gustavo was especially gratified to hear his parishioners express their gratitude to be able to receive the sacrament. He said it has been a trying time for them because they are not able to take part in the celebration of the Mass and receive Holy Communion.

“To hear their gratitude really helps us as priests because so many times when we celebrate Mass or are serving God, we wonder how much people are really getting out of it,” he said. “Then, we find ourselves in these circumstances and realize it is real and that they really love and need the sacraments. So many people thanked us, and that is a humbling experience for us priests.”

The man in the sycamore tree

MONROE—When Father Henry Hoffman, pastor of St. Jude Parish in Monroe, describes the experience of hearing confessions while sitting on the curb as parishioners drive up, he recalls the story of the tax collector Zacchaeus, who used his ingenuity and persistence to get a glimpse of Jesus.

The Lord was passing through the town of Jericho, surrounded by a throng of people, pressing in on every side. As Luke wrote in his Gospel, “Zacchaeus could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.”

And he was rewarded for his determination. Jesus looked up, saw Zacchaeus, told him to come down, and said, “Today I must stay at your house.”

“Hearing confession in this way has taught us the need to be creative,” Father Hoffman said. “I think of Zacchaeus. He came up with a creative way to see Jesus. We need to find creative ways to make the Sacrament of Penance available while still observing social distancing.”

At St. Jude, two outdoor stations are set up on either side of the church for Father Hoffman and Father Jim Bates, the parochial vicar. The cars line up, leaving enough distance between them to ensure privacy. Rain or shine, the priests are seated by the curb, waiting for penitents.

Father Bates says that during this crisis, “The Church is neither idle nor is it silent; while the current pandemic has threatened to separate and drive us apart as a nation and as a community of faith, the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass continues, we are united in prayer, and we are finding ways to offer the sacraments to the faithful while keeping all of us safe.”

Father Hoffman especially encourages the faithful to pray to the Blessed Mother, who throughout history has interceded for her children during times of pestilence. He is hopeful that tremendous good will come out of this time of trial and says, “In the face of this horrible pandemic, I see us as a human family coming together, and I believe that the bonds we forge will continue to hold us together well into the future