During the height of the Iraq War, David Santos saw the worst of humanity.
His time in the Army brought him closer to his faith in a way he didn’t understand until he returned home.
As Memorial Day approaches and we remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice, he says serving God and serving country are not all that different.
Currents News’ Jessica Easthope has the story from Springfield, New Jersey.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is now underway and expected to reach several churches in Brooklyn.
Pilgrims are on their way to New York and will arrive in the city on Memorial Day weekend.
The most accessible spot to meet up with the pilgrims will be in Manhattan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Pilgrims will be at the landmarked cathedral at 10 AM on Sunday, May 26. They’ll eventually make their way to the Brooklyn Bridge, where the journey will be passed off into the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The procession will head to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph for adoration and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament before another full day of stops throughout the diocese, including Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral.
From Brooklyn, the pilgrimage will travel through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio, eventually ending up in Indianapolis for the National Congress.
This is just one of four routes traveling across the country to the Congress. Altogether, the pilgrims will be traveling 6,500 miles and passing through 65 dioceses.
After a Pentecost vigil Mass at St. Mary Church in New Haven over the weekend, pilgrims on the Elizabeth Ann Seton route got on their way.
Following the Blessed Sacrament through the city streets, they stopped at another church and ended at the waterfront, where they boarded a boat for the next leg of their journey.
Archbishop Christopher Coyne of Hartford led the pilgrims out of St. Mary’s and described the inspiring show of faith. The archbishop says that despite the light rain, the pilgrims persevered.
Father Joseph Gibino, Vicar for Evangelization and Catechesis in the Diocese of Brooklyn, joins Currents News to discuss the procession’s plans.
There was a lot of excitement in Queens over the weekend.
Approximately 1,900 students graduated from St. John’s University.
One of the people to receive a degree yesterday is someone who got their first St. John’s diploma in 1984.
Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn, who already has a bachelor’s in Math and Computer Science, was given an honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology degree 40 years later.
By Jessica Easthope
Hot glue, zip ties, and fabric flowers are all Eileen Savelli needs to show her love.
She’s hand-making a crown for the statue of Mary outside her parish, St. Francis de Sales, in Belle Harbor.
“Now it feels great. It really does. She’s a beautiful statue outside, you know,” Savelli said. “And then we also went inside, and we were able to adorn her for her birthday in September.”
Savelli takes care of the crafting and crowning, but the idea came when her former high school classmate and fellow parishioner, Cathy Somerville, noticed the statue could use some attention.
“Cathy had gone there a couple of times to pray, and she saw that she didn’t like the way the crown looked,” Savelli recalled. “It was kind of, in her words, shabby.”
“The Blessed Mother brings me hope and life, and I just didn’t like the way it looked,” Somerville said. “So my friend Eileen, very crafty, and I made an idea together, and here we are.”
At first, Cathy purchased the supplies, and the women would crown Mary with a new headpiece every few months. Then they realized the Queen of Heaven deserved to look like royalty year-round.
“It’s more about adorning the mother of all,” Somerville said. “And peace and solace is what it gives me.”
Now, the money for Savelli’s supplies is donated by parishioners.
They make a new crown every month, each with a different theme, but one thing always stays the same.
“It was just part of my life, always,” Savelli said. “I think she kind of just listens to my woes. How’s that in life?”
The ladies are already planning for the future and don’t plan to stop any time soon.
“We can reuse some of them. I have 11 nieces and nephews. Nine of them are here in St. Francis, and I told them that they’ll have to take it over,” Savelli said. “I plan on doing it as long as I can jump a fence.”
This is one of the most unique Pentecost traditions in Rome.
Thousands of red petals fell through the oculus of the Pantheon—a tradition that takes place every year to symbolize the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Roman firefighters launched the shower of rose petals after the Mass from 140 feet.
The Pantheon is the oldest building in the world and is still in use today. It was built in Ancient Rome as a place of worship dedicated to the pagan gods.
Under Pope Boniface IV, the Pantheon became a Catholic basilica, named after Saint Mary of the Martyrs, because he ordered the bodies of the Christian martyrs to be transferred from the catacombs to this building.
While May is the month of Mary, when many parishes crown the Blessed Mother, parishioners at one church in Queens crown the Mother of God every month.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is now underway! The Eastern route, the Elizabeth Ann Seton route, began over the weekend after a Pentecost vigil Mass at St. Mary Church in New Haven. The pilgrims are now headed to Brooklyn as part of their path to Indianapolis. This pilgrimage is a journey of faith and devotion.
Bishop Robert Brennan has been awarded a doctorate 40 years after graduating from St. John’s University with a bachelor’s degree in Math and Computer Science.
We’ll take you to the Pantheon for a Pentecost celebration. Thousands of red petals fall through the dome, symbolizing the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Two Belle Harbor parishioners don’t just crown The Blessed Mother come May but hail Mary every month of the year.
Each headpiece is handmade and crafted with care, making it fit for a queen.
Currents News Jessica Easthope will have more tonight at 7 PM on NET TV.
By Jessica Easthope
His reasons for serving God are simple; Deacon Caetano Moura de Oliveira owes him everything.
“You know, my life before was a constant search for meaning, and with the Lord’s call, I found this meaning,” Deacon Oliveira said. “I remember once it clicked that it was a call from God, a horizon appeared in front of me. So what makes me sure that this is the thing for me is that I’ve been happy, grateful.”
He appears to have it all figured out, but if you asked Deacon Oliveira, life wasn’t always in tune.
“For the kind of kid that I was, I was a rocker,” Deacon Oliveira said. “You know, I had long hair, scratchy jeans. There was a shirt that I loved, of Metallica that I cut the sleeves. You know, my life consisted of rock n roll concerts and mosh pits. You know, and, that was my liturgy. Let’s say.”
Alcohol abuse and seeking his father’s approval, even after realizing it would never come, inside of a mosh pit, led to a distorted family dynamic. Deacon Oliveira was uninhibited and free to express some of his darkest emotions, not realizing they were holding him hostage.
“With mosh pits, getting drunk every Friday to the point of puking, that was the type of life I lived,” Deacon Oliveira said. “The mosh pit expresses a jail. You know, an anger inside that you need to express. What unites you to the other is the common resentment, you know, and that’s what the mosh pit expresses. We punch each other, but we are okay, because you need to lash it out. I need to lash it out. So we are fine. We’re in common ground, you know?”
While he was growing up, Deacon Oliveira’s parents were part of the Neocatechumenal Way. His rebellion would take a brief pause on Sundays when they came together in community.
That same community welcomed him in with open arms time and time again.
“What kept me alive? I would say, what saved my life, was to have a community. I could go there,” Deacon Oliveira said. “And I spoke about my sins freely with no filter. And I was not judged.”
Finally, at 20 years old, he saw that God’s love was relentless and more powerful than the anger and frustration consuming him.
“I’m praying this rosary. And I’m in a peace that I never experienced before,” Deacon Oliveira said. “And at this moment, it dawns on me what’s going on. I said, ‘My life is yours. You do what the heck you want with me.'”
All Deacon Oliveira needed to do was surrender, to feel total freedom.
“The freedom I experienced in that moment is like a it launched me on a journey,” he said. “The freedom that God gives you is true freedom. You know, because there’s no resentment. There’s no anger.”
The Diocese of Brooklyn will have four new priests in just over two weeks. To prepare for ordination day, we are sharing their stories.
Ordination will be held on June 1. The ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph.
The Vatican recently issued crucial new guidance on how to proceed when alleged apparitions occur in a diocese. These norms, designed to expedite the process of determining the authenticity of such events, are of the utmost importance to the community.
In Louisiana, state senators voted to pass a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom. If the House passes the bill, it will go to the governor’s desk for his approval.
By Jessica Easthope
A group of 8th-grade students at St. Adalbert’s Catholic Academy looks on with pride as they complete their service project. It took nine months to finish but will long outlive their time. They’re the ones that made this street safer near the school.
Student Saoirsie Timmons saw her life flash before her eyes.
“I think that it’s really, like, sad that people would even speed next to a school, even if there is no speed bump, and that they wouldn’t even like, think about that,” Timmons said.
She did what she did every day at dismissal, never thinking it might be dangerous.
“I like to sit in the passenger seat of my car, so I started to go for a walk, and a car sped past without even taking into consideration that he’s right next to a school,” Timmons said. “He sped past, and I almost got hit while trying to go into the passenger seat.”
It was that October day that her classmates and teacher Michele Cardona, who witnessed the incident, collectively realized what their service project for the year would be.
“It was born of necessity, and then it dawned on me, you know, there are no speed bumps,” Ms. Cardona said. “Why don’t we have speed bumps?”
Determined to have a speed bump put in front of their school, the kids filled out the necessary forms on the Department of Transportation website.
They got a prompt rejection.
“Everywhere you go, you see a speed bump,” Ms. Cardona said. “Why not us? So we took that to them. I said, you know, are we going to just say okay, or are we going to say, let’s do something?
It was time to put this service project in full gear.
“It’s not fair because they said yes to public schools, but like as a Catholic school, they like to say no to it,” “So we want it to make sure that we have like an equal safety to that of a public school.”
“Just because we’re a Catholic school doesn’t mean that we don’t need safety.”
Most public schools in the area, including the three surrounding St. Adalbert’s, have speed bumps and reduced speed limits.
Their legacy wasn’t taking a backseat to the D.O.T.’s bureaucratic red tape; this was for future generations of students.
“I don’t know how many other kids almost got clipped, but one is too many,” “And we asked the bold question. Why are Catholic school kids not being protected?”
The answer is that the speed bump would be installed.
It’s now been in for a week, but has it stopped irresponsible drivers?
The road is already damaged from speeders bottoming out, but the 8th grade made a fundamental change with prayer and perseverance.
“There’s kids passing, and there’s young kids too, and they should be more careful now,” “It’s safer for all the kids that want to, or that need to cross the street.”
“A lot of people have actually gone through the same things as Saoirse did,” “And, people like haven’t really noticed until just then. And we thought it was very important that we prioritize our children’s safety.”
“As the leaders of this school, it is kind of our job and like we learn from other people’s mistakes,” “So we’re able to make these decisions that an adult may have struggled with because we see it from a different perspective.”
Now, this is how the Class of 2024 will be remembered.
“And now they have a legacy. Class of 2024,” “It’s a good thing we did a good thing.”
As the 8th graders soon move on to the next chapter of their lives, the road might not always be smooth, but at least they’ll always have this bump to be proud of.