Police are looking for the person who broke into a Queens church and stole some valuable items.
The Diocese of Brooklyn has 19 new deacons.
Bishop Robert Brennan marked Memorial Day by celebrating a field Mass.
While there has been no major influx of migrants at the southern border since Title 42 was lifted, there are still newcomers entering the U.S.
By Jessica Easthope
The gift shop inside the foyer of Our Lady of Fatima Church in East Elmhurst, Queens was found ransacked and religious items were thrown all over the floor. The physical damage has since been cleaned up and some of it repaired but the staff and parishioners said the emotional damage is going to last.
Building manager, Leo Martinez said it must have taken serious force to get in. The real marble wall was broken and when he came across it, it was powder on the ground.
“It’s sort of like a violation to your own property, this is pretty much a home for me so you take it pretty personal when things like that happen,” he said.
Early morning May 18, a man came with a bag of tools and broke into the small gift shop, making off with a garbage bag of cash and religious items worth $1,500.
“It’s shocking, someone comes into your home and your own space and violates,” Father Darrell Da Costa said.
Father Da Costa reported the crime to police immediately. The church will now get more cameras and new alarms and locks for its vicinity.
The pastor hopes people in the community feel safe and welcomed in church, including the man who burglarized it.
“It’s an opportunity to pray for that person to turn around and do better, with God’s help, turn around, turn to god and people will help you,” he said.
“I don’t wish bad on anybody,” said Leo. “But this hurt people emotionally.”
Police are now asking for the public’s help finding the person responsible. If you have any information you can call NYPD’s Crime Stoppers.
There’s a photo exhibit returning to New York City that will take you places you’ve never been before and introduce you to people living in other parts of the world.
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association or CNEWA is back with a photo exhibit at the Sheen Center For Thought and Culture in Manhattan.
The papal agency that does relief work in 15 different countries is showing the “And Who Is My Neighbor – The Faces Of CNEWA” exhibit.
“It speaks to the truth of the dignity of every human person, it obviously speaks to the goodness, the good works CNEWA is doing in these areas,” David Dicerto, Director of Faith Programming at the Sheen Center said. “But that truth and that goodness is ultimately beautiful and that beauty comes through magnificently in these photos so I think it’s the perfect marriage of CNEWA’s mission and our mission here as a Catholic arts center.”
The exhibit features 11 photos from the agency’s magazine spanning three decades.
The photos of people in places where war or conflict has created a humanitarian crisis were all taken by women photojournalists.
The exhibit is free and open to the public and will be at the Sheen Center For Thought and Culture until June 15th everyday from 9AM – 6 PM.If you can’t make it in person, there’s a virtual tour of the gallery at CNEWA.Org
By Jessica Easthope
Deacon Samuel Mwiwaiwi knows both Kenyan and American sign language, but he is not deaf. His mission is to minister to those who believe in the word of God, but have never actually heard it.
“Mostly the deaf community is ignored and people sometimes look down on them because they cannot understand some things and you find that society tries to push them” he said.
His passion for working with the deaf community started back home in Kenya when he was tasked with teaching deaf children.
“I would write and give to them, they would write and give back to me so it was hard to communicate and I thought their grammar was wrong but I realized they were using Kenyan Sign Language and the wording is different,” he said.
Growing up in East Africa, Deacon Samuel and his seven siblings moved around a lot, but his mother’s strong Catholic faith and his father’s constant support kept them close knit.
“That love that he had for us, for his family that makes me really emotional, most of the time his presence was always felt when at home, sometimes on Saturday we would sit together on the porch outside and he would get sugar cane and we would chop and cut, it was a closely knit family, we were always together,” said Deacon Samuel.
When he eventually moved to the United States to follow his priestly vocation, the complexities of the country’s immigration system stopped him in his tracks.
“I had many challenges with my immigration paperwork, that was a big challenges, I even at one time received a letter telling me to go back home but with God’s grace I’m here, things worked out and I have all reasons to believe God has called me to this vocation,” he said.
And now he’s on the heels of putting into practice the very ministry that has shaped his call to the priesthood.
“The deaf community they need someone to be with them,” he said. “The way they talk to you, you feel this is where I belong.”
It’s time to meet another soon-to-be priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
A thought-provoking art exhibit is happening now at the sheen center for thought and culture in Manhattan.
The Hunter College professor who got violent with pro-life students, then with a reporter outside her home, has turned herself in to police.
Shellyne Rodriguez, The Hunter College Adjunct professor who harassed a pro-life student club on campus, has since been fired.
But that didn’t happen right away.
Instead this teacher tantrum ended with the professor and a machete chasing down a reporter.
Earlier this month “Students For Life,” an anti-abortion group, set up an information table inside the campus, when Rodriguez approached the students manning the table yelling at them and throwing their literature on the floor.
Hunter College said they were looking into the incident but the school had yet to fire her right away.
Days later, the New York Post sent a reporter, Reuven Fenton, to Rodriguez’s home for her side of the story.
When Fenton arrived, Rodriguez threatened him with a machete.
In a video she holds the machete to the reporter’s neck and says she is going to chop him up.
After Fenton agrees to leave, Rodriguez proceeds to follow him and his cameraman outside in a black hoodie again threatening them with the machete.
Sidney Borland, a member for the college’s “Students For Life” club, speaks with Currents News to give her account of what happened when Rodriguez approached the group on the campus that day.
Currents News speaks with one of the members from Students For Life that was harassed by a Hunter College adjunct professor earlier this month, while they were handing out information on abortion.
Some local parishioners are now on their way to a special trip from Brooklyn to Maryland thanks to the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns.
The group hosted a fundraiser over the weekend that will help send their members to the National Black Catholic Conference this summer.
The vicariate, which works to ensure the voices of Black Catholics are heard, also honored Bishop Robert Brennan and Monsignor Paul Jervis.
The bishop was honored for wrapping up his first year of service to the community in Brooklyn and Queens, while Monsignor Paul Jervis was honored for a longer ministry.
The gift of priesthood is one Deacon Ernesto Alonso has been waiting his entire life to receive.
Deacon Ernesto will be ordained in the Diocese of Brooklyn on June 3, 2023, along with three other men. The Cuban native has many of his own gifts and talents to share.
If you would like to view the ordination, just tune into NET-TV to watch it live at 11 a.m.
But if you can’t make it, no worries, we will deliver. Just check Currents News and The Tablet in the days after for complete coverage.
For more information on how to become a priest go to BrooklynPriests.org.
Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated a special Mass to honor all of the Jubilarians at the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston on Saturday, May 20.
Bishop Brennan congratulated the religious women and men on their years of commitment to God and communion of life.
He then led the men and women religious in the renewal of their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.