Brooklyn’s Guatemalan community gathers to pray, collect funds for victims of Volcán de Fuego
The Guatemalan community in Brooklyn has turned a disaster in their homeland into an opportunity for outreach and hope—themes of a Mass that St. Finbar Roman Catholic Church, Bensonhurst, held in support of the victims of a June 3 volcano eruption. The Most Rev. Octavio Cisneros, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, concelebrated the Mass, on Wednesday, June 20, with St. Finbar’s pastor, Fr. Michael Gelfant, and other priests and deacons.
Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego — Spanish for fire volcano — erupted on Sunday, June 3, billowing gas, fire and ash more than 15,000 feet high. It was the volcano’s most violent eruption since 1974, and caused widespread destruction. The initial death toll of 110 increased to more than 300 earlier this week. Volcán de Fuego is about 25 miles southwest of the capital Guatemala City.
Just prior to the Mass, Cisneros told INBrooklyn, “First there was the volcano on Hawaii (on May 3), and then the volcano eruption in Guatemala.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.