Choosing a Catholic High School

The Test for Admission to Catholic High Schools (on Saturday, November 4, 2017) is accepting applicants now.  Parents are urged to look at this information site and read each of the links in the left-hand column.  You may have to print some forms and directions. The list of schools is posted sideways on the PDF, so printing those pages would help you to read the information. It appears that the nine Catholic high schools of the borough of Brooklyn offer 1,210 places for incoming freshmen, but high schools in other boroughs might be convenient for some. Please note that the TACHS exam will forward your score to three high schools. 
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Please also note the dates of the Open House visitations and the Information Fairs.
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The cost of the test is $63.
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The tuition-free Regis High School in Manhattan has a different system of admission, so a boy may take TACHS for other schools while still applying to Regis. Please see http://www.regis.org/section/?id=20

St. Michael & St. Edward

Sometimes I find an article from a few years ago that explains much. The link HERE is to an extensive article in Brownstoner about the church of St. Michael and St. Edward near the Navy Yard.

Regina Pacis minus St. Rosalia, May, 2017

On May 2, 2017, the bishop of Brooklyn decreed that the church of Saint Rosalia at 6301 Fourteenth Avenue is relegated for profane, not sordid, use, ultimately putting it up for sale with that restriction.
The decree is linked HERE, but sometimes these links to official documents become stale.
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The mailing address for the parish the Basilica of Regina Pacis is 1230 65th Street, Brooklyn NY 11219, telephone 718-236-0909. The neighborhood is the northern part of Bensonhurst.
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The people of the parish of St. Rosalia (founded in 1902 as an Italian national parish, not a territorial parish) made a vow in 1942 to build a votive shrine, the magnificent Regina Pacis church, if their servicemen came home safe from the war and peace was established. In broad summary, that seems to be why this parish had two or three names. The history of the votive shrine from 1942 onward is given on the parish website. I have been unable to learn the parish history for the first forty years, especially whether there was more than one building for Sunday worship. This is not a merged parish. It is a parish that took on a supplementary name, Regina Pacis. Now, in 2017, the name Saint Rosalia has been dropped.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it. I took the eight photos on this page in 2010.

Above is the now-closed church on 14th Avenue. In 2010, three weekend Masses were offered here: Saturday 5 p.m. in English, Saturday 7:30 p.m. in Chinese, Sunday 9 a.m. in Italian. In 2016, I can find little reference in the parish bulletin to services at Saint Rosalia. In 2017, the church was canonically closed.

Above is the Regina Pacis Votive Shrine on 65th Street near 12th Avenue, Bensonhurst. I note that the Sunday Mass schedule includes five Masses in English, plus one each in Chinese, Italian, and Spanish.

The parish website once had descriptions and photos of the artwork surrounding the congregation, but I have been unable to find these helpful descriptions on the new website.

The above view looks west on 65th Street towards 12th Avenue.
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Some Catholic parishes with beautiful churches do not host weddings of couples who are not active attendees of the parish itself. The Regina Pacis website implies a ready willingness to assist the celebration of Catholic marriage.

The above view looks along 65th Street towards 12th Avenue. This building is signed Regina Pacis Youth Center and Catholic Migration Office. However, it seems the upper floors may have had classrooms. To the right is the rectory and then the Regina Pacis Votive Shrine. A former parish school building extends the short block on 12th Avenue from 65th Street to 66th Street.
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A helpful reader pointed out that the parish also included St. Theresa's Chapel on 12th Avenue at 66th Street.  A link to the news article with that information is HERE. Father Angelo Rafael Cioffi became pastor in 1923 and purchased the land for the school, chapel, and new rectory two blocks west of St. Rosalia's church.  In the mid-twentieth century, Sunday Mass attendance was much higher than today, and pastors often had to add more worship spaces, churches, and chapels.  I am guessing that in 1950, Mass was celebrated in three or four locations, the old church on 14th Avenue, the new shrine church upstairs, the same church downstairs, and maybe at St. Theresa's chapel. It would be interesting to see a Sunday bulletin or Mass schedule for that era. 
The same helpful reader showed me this link to a website about church organs.  The address given for St. Theresa's chapel appears to be in error.

Catherine Laboure Program to close 8.31.2017

For the unfortunate news of the closing of a special needs program, please see the Tablet website HERE.

The students were taught at the former elementary school of St. Frances Cabrini parish, Dyker Heights, which I photographed in 2010.

Angel Guardian Home, Dyker Heights

This article from the Brooklyn Daily has an excellent photo and history of Angel Guardian Home in Dyker Heights.

Photos from other sources

Skilled photographers have added many pictures of the churches and schools of Brooklyn to the immense collection on flickr.com
For example, when one goes to the Flickr group pool "Catholic School Architecture" and searches within this group for "brooklyn," the result is astounding.
Please see the link HERE.
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I particularly applaud the work of Matthew X. Kiernan, who has added many photos to that group. Please see his photo stream HERE. He has uploaded more than 14,000 photos, and they are searchable. Type the name of the parish in the search box, and you will probably find better photos than what I have offered on my blogs.

St. Ann, Vinegar Hill

I saw St. Ann's church in Vinegar Hill years before I began taking photos for this blog. The church designed by Patrick Keely was demolished, and now a fight has arisen about development of the property.  One of the later pastors was Fr. Fursey O'Toole.
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Link to an article with photos in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1.25.2017 HERE.

Open House and Registration at Brooklyn Catholic elementary schools

The Tablet website has posted a list of Open Houses and Registration Days during Catholic Schools Week at the end of January, 2017.
The link is HERE.
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Because only six Brooklyn schools are listed at the above link, I refer you to the complete list of Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn HERE.