Father Bill Brisotti

He is a former lacrosse player. He is a skilled banjo man. And at OLMM, he is our Pastor. But what Father William Brisotti is really best known for is making Christian ideals come alive in the world; not just by preaching but by acting. Father Bill’s personal history is an enduring model of how actions speak louder than words...especially when they are motivated by love, compassion, and faith.

William F. Brisotti was born on July 28, 1942 in the Bronx. Dad was an insurance executive supporting 5 children. When young Bill was 3, his family moved to Glen Cove, putting down roots that would keep them there for decades. Bill first attended St. Patrick’s School and then spent his high school years at St. Mary’s in Manhasset. Next, Fr. Brisotti enrolled at Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland, which in turn led him back to Long Island, where he entered Huntington’s Immaculate Conception Seminary.

Father Bill was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest in 1968. By this time, he was already a "man of the world", having devoted himself in the summers of 1964, ’65, and ’66 to helping the poor and destitute of Peru and Chile at Maryknoll Society Missions. Projects he worked on in South America included agricultural cooperatives and home building.

Born in the first year of America’s entry into WWII., Fr. Bill (a member of Pax Christi) has worked his entire life to promote the cause of universal pacifism. Since 1977, he’s been an active member of the Atlantic Life Community, which joins spiritually-based intentional communities from North Carolina to Maine, to support each other in direct, nonviolent action for disarmament.

Consistently, Father Brisotti has exhibited compassion and the courage of his convictions by putting himself in harm’s way to help "the least among us" get through serious life and death crises. He braved several trips to El Salvador while civil war raged there, during the 1980’s. As a member of various organized delegations, Father Bill has seen "active duty" on the peace front in far flung locations throughout Central America on many occasions. At the same time, Father Bill has helped further efforts to educate the American public about the effects of (and to reform) US military policy in Central America, so it reflects the democratic ideals of our country.

It was in Hempstead’s Our Lady of Loretto that Fr. Brisotti took on his first parish assignment, serving there from 1968-1974; then it was on to his first stint at OLMM here in Wyandanch where he served 9 years, until 1983. During the 1990’s, Fr. Bill was engaged in Pastoral ministry in St. John of God Church (Central Islip), Resurrection Church (Farmingville), and St. Anthony’s (Rocky Point) helping developing Hispanic communities.

On June 30, 1999, Father Bill was appointed Administrator of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, Wyandanch...and then Pastor in April, 2002. Never afraid of playing his banjo "to the beat of a different drummer", Father Bill has joined Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) and is on the Advisory Board of Voice of the Ordained (VOTO) for the dioceses of New York, Brooklyn, and Rockville Centre. As president of the RVC chapter, Father Bill has called on all the ordained to always act in accordance with Jesus’ vision of a Servant Church.

Deacon Don Zirkel

Deacon Don and his wife Marie ("Ree") Zirkel were drawn to OLMM because they see it as a model of the Church to come: a rainbow parish, warm and open to all, committed to the least of the brethren, home to good liturgy, encouraging the gifts of women, a bridge between the concerns of the hierarchy and the felt needs of the faithful.

Their shared ministry is somewhat unique. They are the only couple giving dialogue homilies to support the diocesan mission in the Dominican Republic. They currently are both involved in Pax Christi, Voice of the Faithful, Teams of Our Lady, parish prayer groups, and letter-writing to editors, and to church and public officials. Over the decades, the Zirkels’ "couple power" has been used in Baptism and Marriage preparation classes, Marriage Encounter, Parish Council, parish retreats and Cursillo (their "conversion moment").

As young adults Don and Marie were softball teammates, and frequently they attended Miraculous Medal’s novenas on Monday nights together. But when they were wed friends and family gave little chance for a successful marriage between a clothes-conscious pianist, singer, dancer, casino gambler, snorkeler, Democrat with a public school and Irish Czech Catholic background who sometimes would drink her coffee with Jameson’s...and a clothes-unconscious, straight-laced, tone-deaf mathematician, and pinochle player with two left feet, a former Catholic seminarian from German Lutheran stock who prefers his coffee with decaf. But, thanks be to God, it all worked out in the end!

The two self-described feminists, married 53 years, have nine children and 25 grandchildren. Before"retirement" Marie (a graduate of the diocesan Pastoral Formation Institute) was a successful travel agent and Don was the outspoken editor of the award-winning Brooklyn Tablet. He later worked for Governor Mario Cuomo at the State Division of Human Rights and with the Center for Development Disabilities in Woodbury. Deacon Don stresses that he is a long-time opponent of all discrimination, whether based on race, ethnic background, disability, age, religion, economic status, gender or sexual orientation.

Our deacon was born in Ozone Park, Queens County, NY. A graduate of St. John’s University, he loves to preach on special occasions (Good Friday, Martin Luther King’s birthday, Father’s Day). At 78 Don doesn’t have quite the energy to prepare homilies as often as he once did. But when he is on the alter speaking, his message is always loud and clear and passionate, with no shortage of energy. Don, who does many of the English Baptisms and wakes here, is praying for more men and women to be given the chance to serve in this fulfilling ministry.

   Naycha Florival

  A new member to OLMM staff is Naycha Florival who is now the     Religious Education Director. She has come to our church with a love for children, which started within our midst many summers ago. Naycha has been a part of the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Camp, for over 10 years, having gone to camp as a child. She continued this love for children by receiving a four year scholarship to St. Joseph's College, where she earned a degree in Elementary Education (2005). She has worked as a Director and preschool teacher for the past few years.

Naycha Florival was raised in Brooklyn with her two sisters, Dorline and Marjorie. She was raised by a hard working mother and grandmother, who made church and education an important part of her life. She is married to husband Isaac and has a young daughter, Rolanda.

Noelle Campbell, Executive Director., Gerald Ryan Outreach Center Inc., a 501c3 Non-Profit                   

 I am newly aboard and excited to be a part of The Gerald Ryan Outreach Center as Executive Director.  It is an honor to be a part of the outreach family.  I have been a dedicated social worker for over 15 years.  My experiences have allowed me to provide human services to many families and individuals within Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Born and raised in Amityville, NY.,  I attended public school until attending high school at Queen of the Rosary Academy in Amityville. I attended SUNY at Stony Brook for undergraduate studies and later I obtained my MSW in 2005.  I have volunteered with the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville and SUNY at Stony Brook.

I believe the mission of our program which is to change the lives of the people in Wyandanch by responding to the immediate and critical needs of our community.  The scripture passage:  "My people perish for the lack of knowledge", challenges us to educate, empower and teach those we serve.

Edda Nieves

Edda Nieves, a native of Puerto Rico, has been an OLMM parishioner for 33 years. Her broad smile says it all-Edda is a natural leader, a very spirited, positive person, and a big-hearted, compassionate role model for just about everyone at OLMM. Here is how she says it, modestly, in her own words: "I am happy that the Lord has given me the opportunity to work in the OLMM community because it has helped me grow spiritually and in my own life. I am more compassionate, open and concerned about others who are less fortunate. I sincerely love my parish community and all those with whom I come in touch."

Edda Nieves was raised in New York City by her mother, and when she lost her mother in 1986 to brain cancer, it turned out to be a life transforming experience. Edda’s mom, Leonor Luciano, lived with Edda and her family for the last 10 years of her life, a loving grandma who babysat the young ones when Edda was away at work. When Leonor knew that the end was near, Edda remembers the great moral support she got from OLMM’s Hispanic community, and from Father Twomey. She also remembers her mother saying to her: "A new day with God," as she was taken to the hospital...and a few days later, she was gone. And after her mother passed away, Edda says, " I was energized by the love, hugs, and kisses that I received from the whole community during my mother’s wake and funeral. I was so inspired by the care we received that I felt I had to give back some of the love given to us. This experience made me want to continue working in the community...because, as we say, OLMM means: OUR LOVE MAKES MIRACLES."

Edda followed through on that inspiration in a very big way-she has worked at the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center for 20 years already! But there were other influences on Edda, and it seems almost like fate that she ended upin our parish. Edda reveals: "While growing up, I was involved in my church’s Spanish Community and I became President of the Daughters of Mary for over six years." Edda was spiritually nourished in a parish she says was very much like OLMM: Our Lady of Victory, in the Bronx.

Edda’s background includes a working life with much variety. She’s worked as a doctor’s office receptionist, a Catholic school teacher’s assistant, an executive secretary, and as secretary for the Board of Education at District 9, the Bronx.

Besides working at the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center, Edda is chief coordinator of the Hispanic Community, is a Eucharistic Minister, a Lector and is key staff for the Spanish Baptism program.

Edda has earned well-deserved recognition for her good works. She’s already received the Bronze Maria Regina Award from the Diocese, a Special Achievement plaque from OLMM’s Spanish Community, a Certificate of Appreciation from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, commendation as a Medical Social Workers Friend, and a proclamation of praise from Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. It will be no surprise to anyone if Edda wins more awards for her service in years to come.

Edda married her husband John, who is a Vietnam veteran, in 1967. They had two daughters, Eileen and Enid, in the early 1970s and Edda is now a grandmother too. It is OLMM’s good fortune to have a special person in a position of leadership and responsibility such as we have in Edda Nieves.

Mary Ann Maddock

Mary Ann Maddock has been married 45 years to husband John, and has lived all of those four-plus decades in nearby Deer Park. Mary Ann and John finished the job of raising their three daughters, Jill, Wendy & Jennifer years ago and are now doting grandparents of eight grandkids. But both of them are still very active, involved, energized and committed OLMM parishioners, and Mary Ann has been an official staffer at our Church for two years now.

Very candid and sincere in describing her views and experience, Mary Ann makes it obvious why she has become such a valued and appreciated member of our parish community. Asked where her motivation comes from, for example, she says: "I only have time in my life for things I am passionate about, and I am very passionate about OLMM, of course-and the involvements that have come through our association with this parish...I love the people here, what we stand for and what we do."

Mary Ann has also shown a lot of passion in her adult life towards hard work and leadership. After attending Catholic grammar school in Queens, and then St. Mary’s High School in Manhasset, she married John and started her family. After a time, she began working outside the home too, and ended up putting in seventeen years in manufacturing-first at Royal Button in Farmingdale, and then at Checkmate Industries in Wyandanch. Mary Ann’s varied positions in the workplace included accounting, purchasing, planning, expediting, production manager and general manager.

Even with the responsibilities of working and raising a family, Mary Ann somehow through the years has managed to find time for participation and involvement in many endeavors: OLMM’s Liturgy Committee, CCD teaching (St. Matthew’s), being a Girl Scout leader, a Marriage Encounter team couple/financial couple with her husband, a driver for FISH, a Pre-Cana mentor, a member of the Public Policy and Education Network, and a board member & speaker for Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

About all this activity, Mary Ann comments: "I work hard to find a balance with all the things going on in my life. I often fail to get that balance right, but it’s probably not such a bad thing that the imbalance falls on the side of service, of doing for others...and that’s the way I was raised."

More recent-and current-Church-based and social action activities that fill Mary Ann’s schedule are her work as a Eucharistic Minister, her work in the Consolation Ministry, on the Happening Committee, on the Stewardship Committee, the Parish Staff, the Diocesan Mission Office Speakers’ Bureau (speaking for Father John Cervini’s Dominican Republic mission), the Focolare Movement (Work of Mary), LI-CAN, and as a Board member of Resurrection House (a Wheatley Heights Women’s & Family Shelter, transitional and long term housing for the homeless). Clearly, OLMM is blessed to have a person who is not only devoted to our deepest values, but to constructive action that make those values very real.

Mary Ann sums it all up this way: "My life is so rich because so many people are a part of it. When I was a child, we were poor but I always thought I was rich. I didn’t know the truth until I was grown up, and my mother told me that we had been poor. Nothing has changed. I still think of myself as rich. And because I believe so, I am."

Father Pat Griffin

Father Patrick Griffin has become a familiar face and welcome leader at OLMM in the last few years. Those who’ve heard Fr. Pat’s homilies know he is a gifted, insightful and inspiring speaker. Add to that: worldly. Fr. Pat served in Rome between 1993 and 1999, as Econome General of the worldwide Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian order). Patrick Joseph Griffin was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1952 to Irish immigrant parents, the second of six children. He entered the seminary for the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) as a high school freshman, and graduated in 1975 from Niagara University (upstate) with a BS in Physics. Later, Fr. Pat studied theology at Mary Immaculate Seminary in Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1979, and was then ordained a Vincentian priest.

Later, Fr. Pat went on to complete his PhD in 1984 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and followed up with teaching positions at Niagara University, St. John’s University, Mary Immaculate Seminary, and the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception.

Fr. Pat’s says his extended stay in Rome was an extraordinary experience. In addition to learning (the Catholic Church’s version of) high-finance he also had a chance to see a number of the Vincentian Provinces throughout the world, which exposed him to the different ways of different cultures, and gave him a broadened horizon that has proven to be a real asset in many ways.

Upon returning from Rome in 1999, Fr. Pat was assigned to the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington and to the Vincentian House of Formation in Oyster Bay. Besides teaching at the Seminary, Fr. Griffin is closely connected to the formation of the seminarians with whom he lives. Currently, Fr. Griffin is also a member of the Board of Trustees of St. John’s University and on the Provincial Council of the Eastern Province of the Vincentians.

As a native New Yorker, Fr. Griffin loves living around the Big Apple-most of his large, extended family is in the general area. Studying, teaching and preaching Scripture, Fr. Pat feels he is blessed with a unique opportunity to do something that is much more a pleasure than a job. He prays that service to God’s people, especially the needy, will always be a top priority in his life and ministry.

Sister Vicki Toale

A member of OLMM’s staff is Sister Vicki Toale, O.P. Our parish community is very lucky to have access to  Sr. Vicki’s gifts as a spiritual, historical, and philosophical resource... someone to whom we might turn with our questions, both religious and academic.

Sister Vicki’s title is Adult Formation Director. With a doctorate in Theology and currently an Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, Sister Vicki is highly qualified to hold this job title, and describes herself as "a Brooklyn born-and-raised Dominican Sister, preacher and teacher...and someone who believes that parish is the place where we challenge and support each other while striving to follow Jesus, and making incarnate the Gospel in our own time and space."

Sister Vicki offers a concrete illustration: "For example, we’ve begun a monthly Prayer Hour for Peace - Jesus told his disciples that in order to overcome evil we must pray and fast -- so on the first Friday of each month, we meet in church from 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. to pray for peace in the world and peace in our hearts." Regarding her title, Sister Vicki says that being Adult Formation Director is all about creating opportunities for parishioners, regardless of age, to continue learning about Jesus and the Kingdom Jesus preached...and the Church that continues to work to bring about that Kingdom."

Sr. Vicki got her Doctorate of Ministry from the Graduate Theological Foundation (in 1998--with an emphasis on Scripture) in South Bend, Indiana, the famed home of Notre Dame University. In addition, she has years of valuable experience as an educator. Sr. Vicki has taught not just on the collegiate level but has accrued a combined total of 10 years in elementary and high school education as well. On top of that, she also worked full time at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Astoria, Queens as Director of Religious Education and as Pastoral Minister for 15 years-an experience, she reports, that she truly loved.

Sister Vicki’s been teaching at Molloy since 1995, and after all those years in the classroom with children and adolescents too, she feels that the greatest thing teachers can do is to show students what they have in their "pockets". By this she means teaching young people what great possessions they carry with them at all times: their memories, their particular culture, and their own unique experiences. Once they are made more aware of the true gifts they already have, students aren’t afraid "to look in their own pockets" to find answers to some of life’s most perplexing questions and challenges.

More recently, during her first year as part of the OLMM staff, Sr. Vicki has worked with other individuals to set up programs such as the "JustFaith" Program - a 30 week course of study and reflection on Catholic social teaching, focusing on its implementation in our daily lives. The "Just Faith" program has also been extended, with Sister Vicki’s assistance, by virtue of a newly formed committee that tries to bring some of the more notable Catholic social teachings to the parish, by holding bi-monthly events (movies or book readings, and open discussion groups).

Another adult formation growth opportunity that Sister Vicki is helping to develop and implement is connecting, across a three year cycle, the Lectionary readings - and the three parts of our parish mission statement- To Believe, To Belong, To Be Compassionate. "By reading the gospel of Matthew in the first year," she explains, we look at who we are as a parish. In the second year - with the gospel of Mark as our foundation, we look at our sacramental life. And during the third year - working from Luke’s Gospel, we assess and think about our outreach to the neighborhood - to those who are in need, especially."

No surprise-Sister Vicki likes to read. She also enjoys traveling and not long ago she visited Alaska and the Canadian Rockies. She comments: "I really appreciated this trip, and had to marvel at the beauty of nature, and the freedom that God has bestowed on creation." We at OLMM welcome Sister Vicki and appreciate all that she has brought to us in 2005 and 2006.