Archives: Case Studies

The Museum of Memory: Assisi 1943–1944 is a portable reproduction of the permanent exhibition that is located in Assisi, Italy. This powerful exhibit tells the story of how the people of Assisi, under Nazi occupation, worked together to hide and protect over 300 Jews during the Holocaust, in close collaboration with museum curator Marina Rosati, Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo, and Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, as well as Gary Krupp of the Pave the Way Foundation, DeSales Media coordinated all aspects of the exhibit’s U.S. presentation, including the printing of the reproduction, venue selection and scheduling, logistics, transportation, security, and public engagement.

Starting in 2022, the exhibition was first brought to Temple Israel in New Rochelle, St. John’s University in Queens, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Manhattan. It later toured the Diocese of Rockville Centre through 2023 and 2024, and continued with visits to the Diocese of Brooklyn. Bringing the Museum of Memory to religious and academic institutions created opportunities for thousands to learn about the extraordinary courage of Assisi’s citizens. Doing so strengthened ties between the Diocese of Brooklyn and international partners and promoted Catholic-Jewish understanding, which is as important now as it ever has been with the recent rise in antisemitism.

DeSales Media works with U.S. Customs to facilitate the transportation of overseas relics so they can be venerated by American Catholics. An example of this is a relic of the Italian Millennial, Saint Carlo Acutis. Accompanied by priests and nuns from the Diocese of Assisi, where Acutis’ tomb is located, this relic has been brought into the United States several times during the past few years, including for a tour of dioceses in New York City and on Long Island, and for a multi-city tour that ended at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Why are all of these preparations necessary? 

Essentially, bringing a foreign, first-class relic to the United States involves a piece of a person who is no longer living being transported from one country to another by a person who has no family relation to the deceased. Though it happens more frequently than one might assume, it isn’t something that can be easily explained to a TSA agent or someone at a booth in Customs. To facilitate and even enable something like this to happen, high-level individuals working in Customs, the TSA, and even the airlines must be made aware and become involved in the process.

Many priests and nuns working for and in the Diocese of Brooklyn were born in other countries and do not have United States citizenship. The process of getting and renewing visas to enter the country to work as a priest or nun is far from straightforward, and so diocesan leadership will ask for assistance for these visiting priests. The assistance DeSales offers comes in the form of being connected to elected officials and federal workers who are able to take up the case and help solve the problem.

The Emergency Notification System was created to enable pastors to inform all diocesan stakeholders about critical incidents and situations simultaneously so that immediate support and action can be taken. This system was created by DeSales Media Group’s External Affairs Department, which continues to maintain and adjust the distribution list on request and provides all pastors with magnets showing the instructions for easy, convenient access.

The Emergency Notification System enables a pastor to notify several people at once by sending just one text message or email to a designated Google Voice phone number or Gmail address. Being powered by Google, the system will remain functional even during local outages or infrastructure failures, ensuring uninterrupted communication during a crisis. These notifications are sent to the leadership of the Diocese of Brooklyn, as well as those stakeholders in the various diocesan affiliates whose job it is to help our churches and schools in emergency situations. The system is activated in emergencies such as fires, physical threats, assaults, vandalism, theft, emotionally disturbed individuals disrupting Mass, protests, and other similar incidents that require immediate awareness, intervention, and support. It is not intended for non-urgent matters such as parking tickets, building inspections, or maintenance issues. This Emergency Notification System cannot be used in reverse to broadcast information.