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Deacon Freddy: A Servant of God

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Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi  Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon…   For Deacon Freddy, the Prayer of St. Francis holds special meaning—it helped heal him from the emotional and psychological wounds of being a political prisoner in Cuba. He vividly remembers his time in a Cuban prison. “When I tell you it's terrible, it’s everything that people could tell you is true. It’s cruel.” Even during his eight years in prison, he never lost faith. “Faith is everything, and hope is your companion every day. So you cannot survive over there without faith and hope, without God,” he says. Even though he held on to his faith, Freddy emerged from prison a changed man—filled with hate and rage. It was only when he met the love of his life, his wife Clarita, whom he calls his angel, that the healing truly began. “I don't have any space for love or for understanding or nothing like that. I came out of p...
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Faith and Purpose in Action

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Article by Debra Braganza     Fifty-six years after graduating from CTK, Richard Carbo remembers his first day as a fifth grader at his new school, where he met Sr. Marjorie. “Oh, she’s still around!” he says jokingly, “she just retired!” As a religious young man at CTK, he never imagined how his faith would be tested as an adult. After experiencing a challenging period in his life, he was lost and felt abandoned by God. “I was angry. I felt so despaired,” Richard says with tears in his eyes. He wouldn’t return to the Catholic Church until three decades later with the help of his good friend Jimmy and a meeting with Father Nam.  After years away, he moved back to Terrytown to take care of his mother. It was a pivotal turning point in his relationship with God. By then, in his fifties, he was a successful businessman with a family, but something was always missing. “It was a Saturday, and Jimmy and I were talking, and I said, ‘You’re a man of good faith, but I’m just ...
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