On Monday, August 29, Catholic Migration Services and Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens hosted information sessions at our church for migrants who had been bused from the border. Volunteers from St. Charles Borromeo helped serve food and welcome the migrants. Channel 12 News covered the event, a clip can be watched here.

Below is a message of thanks from our pastor, Fr. Bill Smith:

I would like to thank everyone who helped with the workshop for people seeking asylum this past Monday. Whether you helped to set up or serve the food or chatted in Spanish with the families, you helped make a difficult moment a pleasant experience. Indeed, several young men who have been in New York for months told a parishioner, “This is the first meat I have had since coming to New York.”

We at St. Charles are not usually asked to host events for the Diocese because of our limited parking. We, as the Church in Brooklyn and Queens, will be needed to help the poor and disadvantaged in the coming months. Our easy accessibility by public transportation will give us the opportunity to host many more such events. As St. Luke recently reminded us, we are most Christian when we hold a banquet for the poor and marginalized.