Keep Showing ‘7th Heaven’

Dear Editor: Through the years there have been lots of great family shows on TV that people loved to watch with their families. 7th Heaven is one of the great shows that I grew up watching. 7th Heaven lasted 11 seasons, and because of that, it became the longest running family show in TV history. Now it’s being cancelled. 7th Heaven is a feeling beyond happiness, and when we’re watching a family show, that’s how we feel in being a family.

Being a family is a miracle, and what makes a family is love. Love is a gift from God. Love is real and true, a gift that we give to our families and friends. In family shows, we can feel their love.

What makes us human is our faith in God, faith in each other, and in ourselves. God is watching over us and shining in our hearts. I believe that when we open our hearts, we will have the peaceful, warm, and beautiful love in it.

When I watch 7th Heaven with my mom, I’m opening my heart to her and to 7th Heaven. That’s why I want to save 7th Heaven — it is a family television show that, to me, is about the human spirit.

In this TV show, family love is real and true, not pretended or simply acted. I realize that television is a business that makes money, and when a show becomes too expensive, they have to cancel shows. 7th Heaven to me is not about money, it’s about life and love in a family setting. Don’t let money or television business take away the best family show on television.

I believe God put 7th Heaven on television to affect and touch us. Our families and 7th Heaven enrich our lives not by their money or how rich they are. What makes them rich is faith and love. That feeling will never go away, or get cancelled.

Tracy Rybacki
Middle Village

Thanks for St. Fidelis School

Dear Editor: With the ever-changing times our Catholic schools are facing today, the decline in enrollment has forced many nurturing well-structured schools to close.

On behalf of the parents of St. Fidelis School in College Point, let’s raise our hands to Father Arthur Minichello, the pastor, and Brother Robert Russo, F.S.C., principal, for their efforts to continue and maintain the safe and caring environment for our children and at the same time better the lives of other incoming students.

Rah, rah for St. Fidelis!

Gina Ianelli
College Point

St. Anselm’s Is Alive!

Dear Editor: I thank you and your reporter Linda Busetti for the article (April 14) regarding the baptism of my brother, Robert. It truly was a wonderful celebration and one of the highest points of my priesthood so far.

Unfortunately, in the mix of the excitement, there was an omission of one important person in the story: Sister Mary Gilmore, O.P., our director of R.C.I.A. She was the one responsible for guiding Robert, Nicholas and Kay through their preparation and the rites.

I wish to congratulate her for her ministry to our parish. She is one of many reasons why St. Anselm’s is so vibrant and full of life.

Father Michael Louis Gelfant
Bay Ridge

Loved H.S. Press Awards Day

Dear Editor: Thanks so much for giving my kids such an enjoyable day at The Tablet’s 2007 High School Press Awards. The speaker was very good (we saw him on TV Wednesday night speaking on Bill Moyers’ show on PBS) and, of course, the kids were thrilled to have won so many awards.

We also enjoyed meeting the St. Francis Prep staff and seeing their cool sweatshirts. Now my kids want The Stanner sweatshirts. We’ll see, I told them.
So thanks again and I look forward to seeing you again next year. We are thinking about going to color next year so we can make a run at finishing in first place in the General Excellence category.

Charley McKenna
Briarwood

Editor’s Note: Charley McKenna is the moderator of The Stanner, the newspaper of Archbishop Molloy H.S.

Irish-Hispanic Parishes

Dear Editor: Although I am not Irish, I read with much interest your March 31 issue. I enjoyed the column of your editor Ed Wilkinson, “It Was a Grand Day to Honor the Saint of the Irish” about the March 25 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Bay Ridge. I also enjoyed the two pages of photos which followed.

I echoed some of Mr. Wilkinson’s sentiments about St. Patrick’s Day, but for another reason. Until 2007, I felt no connection with St. Patrick’s Day other than it being an opportunity to accept an invitation to a fun party.

However, this past March 16 there was an article in El Vocero, the top daily newspaper in Puerto Rico that is also sold in the U.S., about an interesting situation in the Bronx. The article first told about the small Irish community in Puerto Rico in the last century, and then told about the parish of St. Francis of Assisi in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, which was once a totally Irish parish.

The gist of the article was not just that the Irish have all departed and the parish is now entirely Hispanic of many different nationalities, but rather the irony that the parish is now being helped by missionaries from France, who are part of Hearts Home USA (), which is part of the Heart’s Home network, an international Catholic volunteer network with 35 missions in 20 different countries. These French missionaries do many great things like visiting the elderly and disabled of the parish, helping parishioners apply for benefits like Social Security and food stamps, etc. There are even some nuns in the Hearts Home community who are teaching CCD in the parish; in the last century it seems that Irish nuns were imported to do such things. How ironic that missionary French nuns are now teaching in a formerly Irish parish that is now 100% Hispanic.

Having lived in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens for many years, I know that St. Francis of Assisi in the Bronx is not unique. There are parishes in this diocese that were former Irish “strongholds” that are now Hispanic. In the article in El Vocero, one of the elderly parishioners was interviewed about the French missionaries of Heart’s Home and she said that the nuns who taught her in school in Puerto Rico stressed that the word “catholic” really means “universal”. That word holds true to St. Francis of Assisi in the Bronx and all the formerly Irish parishes in the Brooklyn Diocese that are now Spanish-speaking.

I think that for next St. Patrick’s Day it might be nice if The Tablet profiled a couple of these parishes, as well as the former parishioners who departed long ago and still make a effort to help out their old parish in some way. Like the inspiring story of the French missionaries of Heart’s Home USA in the Bronx, it would maybe foster a deeper understanding of St. Patrick’s Day for Hispanic members of the diocese and in some way make them feel that this Irish saint is a universal saint.

Michael F. Ramirez
Astoria

Blessed Sacrament Alumna

Dear Editor: I am looking to get in touch with the alumni of Blessed Sacrament School in Brooklyn. I graduated in 1968 and I am eager to get in touch with my old classmates.

My email is fabfionna@yahoo.com.

Frances Scavone (Augugliaro)
Via Email

The Lessons of History

Dear Editor: Writer Thomas McCarthy says he had to work up the nerve to reply to Alan Wallach who had previously written The Tablet complaining about political positions The Tablet had taken in the 1950’s. I don’t have the same problem and I believe The Tablet’s positions back in the 50’s were quite correct.

Wallach had framed his complaint in the context of an Irish-Catholic and Jewish issue. There is no denying the fact that Irish Catholics (other than hack politicians like the Kennedys, Biden, Dodd, and Leahy) and Jews have been on different sides of political issues going back to the 1940’s. Catholics favored Franco in the Spanish Civil War and Jews favored the Communists.

I believe history has shown that the Spanish people are much better off with Franco victorious rather than a Communist victory. Back in the 1950’s most Catholics favored Joe McCarthy and Jews were behind Alger Hiss. History has shown that the U.S. State Department was full of communist spies including Hiss.
The main issue which separates the two groups today is abortion. Abortion is not a minor issue and Catholics are on the right side of this issue. Abortion is basically murder.

Jim Lundrigan
New Haven, CT