ALUMNINEWS Navy Admiral to Serve as Next Command Surgeon Rear Adm. Michael H. Mittelman ’75 (left), a one-star admiral currently serving as the United States Navy’s director of medical resources, plans and policy will serve as the next medical officer for U.S. Joint Forces Command. As command surgeon, Mittelman will oversee the mission of leading the medical transformation of the armed forces of the United States. His directorate, JO2M, provides advice on force health protection
in the command’s joint force provider role, as well as overseeing medical plans and policies that support the commander’s initiatives. A native of Long Beach, N.Y., Mittelman was commissioned in the Navy Medical Service Corps in 1980. His many assignments around the world include serving as the first Navy optometrist designated as an aerospace optometrist in 1989.
Pascual Conducts Ultimate Bishop’s Mass in Yankee Stadium When Jennifer Pascual, ‘92 was a teenager, she fondly remembers participating in her high school’s annual Bishop’s Mass in the gymnasium at Bishop Kenny. Never had she imagined, however, that one day she would participate in what she refers to as the ultimate Bishop’s Mass and the highlight of her career. Pascual, the director of music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, was asked to help provide the soundtrack for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York April 18-20, 2008, broadcast around the world. “It was the most difficult undertaking I have encountered,” said Pascual. “I sat down with Cardinal Edward Egan in his living room for hours selecting music. I had to secure copyright licenses and deal with the logistics of broadcasting on TV and moving a choir around.” After six months of preparation, Pascual watched as Yankee Stadium 26 The Wave
turned into a house of worship from home plate, where she stood and conducted a choir of 200 and an orchestra of 58 for the pope who listened from second base. “Doing the music itself was not nerve-wracking,” said Pascual. “What made me nervous was that there were so few days to pull everything together.” But pull everything together she did, not only at Yankee Stadium but at several other locations throughout the city. And all this on top of her full-time job at St. Patrick’s, where she plans the music for the Masses each week and conducts the High Mass on Sunday. Since the Pope is a native of Germany, Pascual and Egan chose music by German composers such
as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Rheinberger. They also included a Gregorian Chant – the most revered form of music in the Church – and Renaissance Polyphony-style music by composers Tomas Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pieiluigi da Palestrina. “We also included regular congregational hymns that everyone could sing and some bilingual Spanish hymns as the Hispanic population in the United States is increasing rapidly,” said Pascual.