September was full of new projects for DeSales Media Group. Our team organized a unique September 11th Memorial, which included a solemn march, Mass and rare performance of the Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in honor of fallen FDNY firefighters and all who lost their lives in the September 11th terror attacks 15 years ago. Our NET TV team produced a live broadcast of the event, which was also streamed online.
Led by fire trucks and motorcycles, a procession of FDNY firefighters and family members of those killed on 9/11 were joined by firefighters from across the country as they marched from Ground Zero across the Brooklyn Bridge. The march served to symbolically bring home 24 Brooklyn firefighters whose bodies were never recovered from the World Trade Center, and led to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, where hundreds gathered for a Memorial Mass presided over by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. During the Mass, 80 members of the Schiller Institute NYC Community Chorus, accompanied by a 42 piece orchestra performed Mozart’s Requiem. Rarely sung as part of a Mass, the Requiem was performed in January 1964 at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross at the request of Jackie Kennedy, in memory of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, who had been slain two months earlier.
Also in the month of September, NET TV presented a brand new primetime Hispanic block of programming, “El Bloque Hispano,” in response to the growing Hispanic community in our Diocese and throughout the Catholic Church.
In light of Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on September 15, NET TV created El Bloque Hispano, which features a variety of original Spanish language programming. The hour block of nightly programming from 10:30 to 11:30 pm has included the shows Dios Nunca Duerme, Tu Fe Al Día, Donde Dios Llora, as well as documentaries and short features on immigration, human trafficking and other issues affecting the Hispanic community.
The Diocese of Brooklyn is the eighth largest in the United States and the only entirely urban diocese in the nation. It serves 1.5 million Catholics in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Due to its multicultural and diverse populations, Masses are regularly held in 24 different languages across the Diocese, throughout 186 parishes with 210 churches. 32 % of parishioners throughout the Diocese attend Spanish-language Mass reflecting the great presence of Hispanic families in over 100 parishes.
Through the gift of communication, DeSales Media aims to entertain, inform and inspire in the name of God.