{"id":248121,"date":"2026-05-29T20:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248121\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:12:07","slug":"bronx-catholic-schools-celebrate-graduation-mass-at-historic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248121\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx Catholic Schools Celebrate Graduation Mass at Historic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 700 eighth-grade Bronx Catholic school students gathered Thursday for a graduation Mass at the Church of St. Margaret of Cortona in the North Riverdale section of that borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to start high school, and you have a choice. You can either remain inside yourself, it\u2019s all about me, or you can throw yourself into the full high school experience. And if you do that, if you go beyond yourself, then like Mary, you\u2019re going to find how God is calling each of you to bring Jesus alive,\u201d said Bishop Edmund J. Whalen, vicar general of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.archny.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Archdiocese of New York<\/a>, the Mass\u2019 principal celebrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Twenty archdiocesan schools from the Bronx participated in the Mass as the Class of 2026 prepares to move on to high school in the fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to suggest three things to do in reflection, three things to tell God right now,\u201d Bishop Whalen urged the students in his homily. \u201cTell God who you are, not what you have, but who you are. Tell God about your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations for these next four years. And think of three people who have shaped you during your years in Catholic school, and tell God, \u2018Thank you for those three people,\u2019 because those three people have shown you God.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ray Vitiello, Bronx regional superintendent of the <a href=\"https:\/\/catholicschoolsny.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of New York<\/a>, echoed Bishop Whalen\u2019s sentiments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWork hard, be yourselves, and always reach for the stars. I wish you much luck, joy, and happiness in high school, and I pray that the Holy Spirit continues to guide you all the days of your life,\u201d said Vitiello.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A historic setting\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Opened in 1889, St. Margaret of Cortona, now part of the parish of St. Margaret of Cortona-St. Gabriel, houses a first class-relic from its namesake. It is also the church where President John F. Kennedy was confirmed on April 27, 1928.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The schools that participated in the Mass are: Academy of Mt. St. Ursula; Christ the King; Holy Cross; Holy Rosary; Mt. St. Michael Academy; Our Lady of Grace; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; St. Anselm; St. Athanasius; St. Benedict; St. Catharine Academy; St. Clare of Assisi\/St. Francis Xavier; St. Frances de Chantal; St. Francis of Assisi; St. Helena; St. John Chrysostom; St. Margaret of Cortona\/St. Gabriel; St. Philip Neri; St. Raymond; St. Theresa; and Villa Maria Academy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 700 eighth-grade Bronx Catholic school students gathered Thursday for a graduation Mass at the Church of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[5555,50435,96971,21730,96972,128,6300,4840,9895,9896,1089,9,24,63,50462,96973,96974,129,131,130,96975],"class_list":["post-248121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-auxiliary-bishop-edmund-j-whalen","tag-bishop-edmund-j-whalen","tag-bishop-edmund-whalen","tag-bishop-whalen","tag-bronx","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-church","tag-catholic-schools","tag-catholic-schools-of-the-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-president-john-f-kennedy","tag-president-kennedy","tag-st-margaret-of-cortuna","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-whalen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}