NEWSFEED: Spring 2022

Photo: On stage at the Frank Shiner Theater (left to right): Sheen Center Executive Director Bill Biddle, Msgr. Joseph LaMorte, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and Frank and Suzanne Shiner.

STAGING A COMEBACK

THE FUTURE IS LOOKING BRIGHT at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture. Last fall, after 18 months of virtual programming, the archdiocesan arts hub on Bleecker Street reopened with a nearly full schedule of in-person performances, lectures, and gallery shows. Now it has announced the renaming of two key spaces, and plans a robust season of music, theater, and art for 2022–23. 

On February 28, Cardinal Timothy Dolan delivered an inaugural blessing for the newly named Frank Shiner Theater (formerly the Black Box Theater), an 80-seat venue for theater and music performance with versatile seating and a new state-of-the-art lighting system. And on April 5, the Gallery at the Sheen Center was rechristened the Janet Hennessy Dilenschneider Art Gallery. The generosity of the donors not only funded makeovers for the gallery and the theater, but will also underwrite a secure future for the center as a showcase for vibrant cultural offerings aligned with Catholic values. Visit sheencenter.org.

CYO REBOUNDS

CYO trophy time at Our Lady Star of the Sea, Staten Island.

In March 2020, during the first round of the annual archdiocesan basketball championship, Catholic Youth Organization director Seth Peloso ruefully announced a postponement. “I shared with the community that we would pause the season for two weeks,” he recalled. “Then the world stopped.”

For almost two years, there was no CYO basketball in the Archdiocese of New York. On February 5, 2022, it officially resumed.

Overall participation was down compared to pre-pandemic levels. “Still, we have over 900 teams participating from seven counties,” Peloso said. It was a shortened season, but families were glad to be back in the gym amid the din of bouncing basketballs, referees’ whistles, and parents’ cheers.

In April, CYO track and field, spring basketball, and baseball began holding practices. Pre-pandemic levels of participation were anticipated. Visit CYONY.org.

SPRING BLOSSOMING

New York Catholic Youth Day 2017 at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.

The activities at the Sheen Center and CYO are two signs among many that our Catholic communities are reemerging after social distancing. Ministries throughout the archdiocese are relaunching programs that went dormant (or virtual) during the pandemic. Of note:

On April 23, New York Catholic Youth Day, the event of the year for teenage Catholics, was held in person for the first time since 2019. More than 700 young people and youth ministry leaders participated at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, singing, attending Mass with Bishop Joseph Espaillat, and packing more than 40,000 meals for Catholic Relief Services. Visit archny.org/ministries-and-offices/youth-faith-formation/oymny/events/nycyd.

The Summer Sacred Music Program at St. Joseph’s Seminary will also be held in person this year, offering classes suited to a wide range of students. Visit dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes.

The Young Adult Outreach office continues to expand its dynamic menu of in-person events  throughout the archdiocese. Visit catholicnyc.com.