DeSales Media
DeSales Media was able to get FOX 5 coverage on the Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, who is working to reverse the trend of a decline in vocations to the priesthood. FOX 5’s Sharon Crowley reports on how the seminary—once home to more than 200 seminarians and now down to 75—is training the next generation of clergy, many of whom come from abroad.
DeSales Media helped Saint Leo Catholic Academy in Queens appear on NBC as its students celebrate the election of Pope Pope Leo XIV.
DeSales Media positioned Bishop Brennan as a key source as CBS News covered the faithful gathering in Queens to pray for cardinals at the papal conclave prior to Pope Leo XIV’s election.
Faithful gather in Queens to pray for cardinals at papal conclave
DeSales Media’s press office gathered quotes from the Archdiocese of New York’s Cardinal Dolan and the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Bishop Brennan to supply to OSV News for their coverage of the call to prayer amid war, antisemitism, and widespread suffering.
Cardinal Dolan, Bishop Brennan Call For Prayer Amid War, Antisemitism, Widespread Suffering
DeSales Media garnered coverage of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Eucharistic Revival event, helping the National Catholic Register produce what is a photo journal of the “breathtaking” event.
The Subway to the Sacred: Brooklyn’s Breathtaking Eucharistic Revival
In 2021, DeSales Media partnered with Vinea Research to conduct a groundbreaking study examining the lives of Catholic disciples across the United States. We reached out to Catholics who are truly committed to following Jesus Christ, seeking to understand their unmet needs, spiritual practices, and aspirations.
Through collaboration with over 20 Catholic organizations, we surveyed 3,137 Catholics who demonstrate a deep relationship with the Lord. Their responses revealed both expected patterns and surprising insights about the state of Catholic discipleship today.
More than two-thirds of committed Catholics pray every single day, making prayer the cornerstone of their spiritual lives.
Nearly all respondents embrace both physical and digital tools in their faith journey, blending tradition with technology.
Over three-quarters are eager to develop their evangelization skills, showing a hunger to share their faith with others.
Nearly half have never received spiritual direction, representing a significant untapped opportunity for growth.
While more than half don’t currently go on retreats, that same number acknowledges they need growth in this area.
Once finished, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage (NEP) spanned a combined distance of more than 6,500 miles. Traveling through Catholic dioceses all across the country, the NEP joined local participants with a core group of “perpetual pilgrims” to make the journey. Pilgrims traveled 10-15 miles each day while taking part in local Eucharistic processions. Along the routes, parishes hosted Mass, adorations, 40-Hour devotions, praise and worship services, lectures on the Eucharist, pilgrim testimonies, meals, fellowship, and more.
The route in our area began in New Haven, Connecticut, and was called the Seton Route after Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was the first American-born saint recognized by the Catholic Church. From Connecticut, the pilgrimage crossed into the Archdiocese of New York. DeSales Media Group’s External Affairs Department assisted the Archdiocese of New York’s participation and managed the logistics for the Diocese of Brooklyn’s participation for the following processions:
• Friday, May 24 – Westchester County to the Bronx
• Saturday, May 25 – New York County (Manhattan)
• Sunday, May 26 – New York County (Manhattan) to Kings County (Brooklyn)
• Monday, May 27 – Kings County (Brooklyn) to New Jersey
The work involved coordinating with the relevant NYPD Patrol Borough Chiefs (Bronx, Manhattan North, Manhattan South, Brooklyn North, and Brooklyn South), the Counterterrorism Bureau, and the Community Affairs Bureau. This was necessary to ensure that the NYPD could accompany the pilgrimages throughout New York City, as well as to make any adjustments to the routes to ensure the safety of all pilgrims and make sure all necessary permits were filed. Preparation work included planning and conducting site walkthroughs in advance, testing the routes in vehicles, and creating documents that illustrated the routes for the participants and logistics coordinators to use during the processions.
This project involved collaborating directly with Father Peter Martyr Yungwirth from the Archdiocese of New York and Father Joseph Gibino from the Diocese of Brooklyn, who had connected External Affairs with Father Yungwirth to ensure a seamless transition from the Archdiocese of New York to the Diocese of Brooklyn. Across the days listed above, these processions crossed into the Bronx from Westchester, traveled through the Bronx into Manhattan, then down the length of Manhattan from Washington Heights to the Financial District, over the Brooklyn Bridge, where the monstrance was transferred from the Archdiocese of New York to Bishop Brennan in the Diocese of Brooklyn, and then from Dumbo all the way down to Bay Ridge, then back to the Brooklyn waterfront to take a boat to New Jersey.
In 2024, DeSales Media helped the Diocese of Brooklyn plan and host its Diocesan Eucharistic Revival. The event saw thousands of Catholics gather at Arthur Ash Stadium in Queens to celebrate the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. DeSales’ broadcast helped to ensure the Revival was available to Catholics at home and online.
DeSales Media Group faced the difficult task of turning Louis Armstrong Stadium at the USTA Tennis Center from a place of elite athleticism to one of public worship headed by Bishop Robert J. Brennan. Thousands of the faithful from parishes all over Brooklyn and Queens flocked to Flushing Meadows to attend as an outward display of their faith.
Though many arrived with mobile tickets ready to display on their smartphones in the Ticketmaster app, thousands could not do so, and DeSales needed to figure out a workable solution given that the USTA Tennis Center exclusively offers entrance tickets through Ticketmaster. Working very closely with Father Joseph Gibino, the Vicar for Evangelization and Catechesis, and his staff, External Affairs liaised with the USTA Tennis Center staff and Ticketmaster to develop a workaround. This solution required thousands of these free tickets to be transferred into individual accounts for DeSales staff who volunteered to be at the entrance gates so they could use these tickets to grant entry to the faithful. DeSales also supplemented Evangelization’s outreach efforts to pastors and those that the pastors designated as responsible for gathering RSVPs from each parish by calling through the list to figure out which congregations still needed help.
Though many attendees arrived on an individual basis, driving or taking Mass transit, many decided to come as groups. These groups came in the form of 40+ buses all arriving at around the same time in the morning for dropoff, as well as multiple processions, including three traditional street processions and one subway procession that Bishop Brennan would lead personally. Anticipating gridlock, External Affairs prepared by arranging meetings with the NYPD, MTA, and USTA Tennis Center security to determine the best bus pickup and dropoff points and procession routes, and also to ensure that enough police officers would be on site at all these different places simultaneously, including:
Our Lady of Sorrows went along 37th Avenue, making a right onto 114th Street, then a left onto Roosevelt Avenue.
St. Leo’s headed down 48th Avenue, then left onto 111th Street, right onto 41st Avenue, then left onto 114th Street, then a right onto Roosevelt Avenue.
Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Leo’s met at 114th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
St. Michael’s traversed 41st Avenue, with a right onto Main Street, and a left onto Roosevelt Avenue.
The subway procession was even more complex. Bishop Brennan had specifically asked to lead this non-traditional approach and tasked External Affairs with coming up with something that could maximize access and participation, while preserving the safety of participants. This required research in advance as well as multiple in-person walkthroughs and meetings, determining a minute-by-minute plan with deacons stationed at each train stop and security posted with the bishop on the subway:
7:42 – Court Square (Side platform with 1 staircase access, no construction)
7:45 – Queensboro Plaza (Center platform accessed via 2 staircases, middle clear with
construction on ends)
7:53 – 61 St-Woodside (Side platform with 2 staircase access, middle clear with construction
on ends)
7:56 – 74 St-Broadway (Side platform with 2 staircase access, no construction)
8:06 – Mets-Willets Pt (Special Events access closed during walkthrough)
8:10 – Beginning of Pedestrian Bridge/Walkway
8:17 – East Gate
8:27 – At the Home Run Apple on the Citi Field side
External Affairs also made possible something that no one expected to actually happen: drone coverage of the arrival of the processions. Having worked with NYPD’s Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU) previously for drone coverage of other events, the team was told of the difficulties of getting drone approval for a location so close to LaGuardia Airport. Furthermore, DeSales was told that the USTA specifically did not want drones over their property for legal reasons. In the end, the NYPD came through with their drone, which provided coverage of the processions crossing the pedestrian walkway to the USTA entrance.
DeSales Media brings the security expertise of the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Community Security Initiative to conduct on-site threat assessments of Catholic schools and academies. Done so at no cost to the site that benefits from it, these assessments identify vulnerabilities and develop tailored safety plans for individual locations. These can be used to form the basis of applications for nonprofit security grants, which have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars for schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn that have been used to enhance the physical security of the schools.
At the request of schools and parishes, External Affairs also regularly engages with local police precincts as a liaison in sensitive and emergency situations.
Congresswoman Grace Meng with Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament