DeSales Media
Catholic Gatherings is a place for the faithful of the Diocese of Brooklyn to find out what’s going on in their area. The Diocese lists its Catholic events, and the site invites any parishioner to list an event happening in the Church anywhere in the area. All submissions are vetted before being posted, to ensure appropriateness.
Mere weeks after the devastating Hurricane Harvey caused in Houston and much of Texas, Louisiana, Belize, and Nicaragua, a deadly Category 5 hurricane landed on Puerto Rico, Dominica, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hurricane Maria is regarded as the worst natural disaster on record to affect those islands.
And so, once more, DeSales responded. This time, we worked with the relief organization, All Hands and Hearts, removing debris, fixing and laying tarps on damaged roofs, and performing minor demolition work.
The work made a difference for the hurricane victims, and it made an impact on the 15 DeSalers who got to take the opportunity and help out.
Watch the full coverage from NBC 4 NY here:
Above all else, our goal is to help Catholics put their faith into action and practice. Our Lenten campaign was designed to welcome Catholics back to church at this incredibly important time of solemn remembrance and joyous celebration. And why not engage when so many unchurched Catholics still receive their ashes on Ash Wednesday?
So, in addition to the Easter and Reconciliation Monday program we run each year, we also run a Lenten campaign for the Diocese of Brooklyn. In 2019, we designed an omnichannel campaign Walk with Him in the Desert executed at several levels. At the diocesan level was a print and digital awareness campaign, run in cooperation with neighboring dioceses. At the parish level, a toolkit of traditional and digital ads, social posts and announcements was developed to make it easy for our 180 parishes to join the campaign. And at the parishioner level, we provided a Lenten challenge calendar to support their individual walk through the desert–available in PDF/printout and Google Calendar.
This program was well received by pastors throughout the diocese, and was incorporated into more than half of all parishes’ Lenten programs. We’ve now established a strong library of free resources centrally designed and developed to build on in the future: https://desalesmedia.org/lenten-toolkit-2019/.
Monsignor Kieran Harrington is a great homilist. We felt that all would benefit from the preservation of his wise words. This podcast is a collection of Sunday homilies from the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, New York.
Listen on PodBean, download on iTunes, or listen, download and subscribe wherever you download podcasts. https://foryouandforme.podbean.com/
Catholic elementary academies and schools continue to face enrollment challenges. Through our initial communication audit, we identified several areas where we could help drive enrollment. Our most recent engagement with the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Superintendent of Schools office was to re-think the Diocesan Schools Office’s web and social media presence.
Historically, the web was used as an information hub. We refocused the site for the primary purpose of selling the value of Catholic education and encouraging prospective parents to Visit a School.
With that foundation in place, we are now expanding the program to increase site traffic and nurture prospective parents through the entire school selection and admission process.
Each year, DeSales Media produces a World Communications Day as its flagship event for the Diocese of Brooklyn. It is a day called upon by the Holy Father, who announces this year’s theme in January. We at DeSales make an effort to apply the theme to what we see here in our region, and to make the event unique and interesting for those invited.
DeSales runs every part of the event, from branding and promotion to experiential production. Have a look at past themes and activations at wcdnyc.org.
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey laid waste to Houston and many other towns along the Gulf Coast.
The tropical cyclone inflicted $125 billion in damage. Our hearts went out to the survivors of such a catastrophe. We remembered what is was like back in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy wrecked much of the coast of Brooklyn and Queens here in our own diocese. Inspired to help, we organized a trip to send 18 volunteers to go and help Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in their mission to give relief to hurricane victims in Houston.
Volunteers from DeSales Media and around the Diocese of Brooklyn did thankless manual labor for a week. Working with Team Rubicon, we met to muck and gut damaged homes, took out flooring, and gathered garbage.
Read the full story on The Tablet here, or watch the 1 hour special we produced:
On Sunday, September 11, 2016, we produced a Memorial Mass for the Diocese of Brooklyn, complete with a rendition of Mozart’s Requiem, for the FDNY firefighters who lost their lives on that fateful day 15 years ago. Bishop DiMario celebrated the Mass with the help of the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture and the Schiller Institute NYC Community Chorus performing the Requiem.
There was also a procession of flags, symbolizing each member of FDNY Battalion 57 who gave the ultimate sacrifice, starting at Ground Zero in Manhattan and traveling across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, where the Mass was held.
Here is the program book, designed and printed by DeSales Media:
On Monday, July, 11, 2016, in the wake of continued violence between the police and communities around the country, Brooklyn community members joined in Grand Army Plaza to pray for healing.
Nearly 2,000 members of the community attended DeSales Media’s event “Witnessing To Hope: A Candlelight Vigil of Prayer and Peace” produced for the Diocese of Brooklyn. The community members were joined by local police officers, NYPD Deputy Chief Chaplain Robert J. Romano, NYPD Chaplain Monsignor David L. Cassato, Rev. A.R. Bernard, Dr. Uma Mysorekar of the Hindu Temple Society, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, and the Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn, for the vigil.
In addition to planning and producing the event, we created and distributed flyers and programs:
