Currents News Staff
The category one storm ravaged Puerto Rico, nearly five years to the day Hurricane Maria, a category five storm hit the island. But officials there say Fiona’s flooding is worse.
The island-wide blackout caused Cristian Ortiz and his wife Crystal to temporarily move into a hotel.
Cristian works for DeSales Media Group, parent company of Currents News. He was in Puerto Rico during Maria and says the slight improvements to the infrastructure since then didn’t hold up.
Monsignor Sean G. Ogle’s Homily from Tuesday’s Mass on 9/20/22
By John Lavenburg
PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Speaking to the faithful ahead of National Migration Week, Archbishop Jośe Gomez of Los Angeles encouraged prayer for a society of “solidarity and compassion” that better serves the “poor and least among us.”
“My brothers and sisters, once again, we are called to help our neighbors and leaders to feel compassion for the common humanity and destiny that we share with one another, including our immigrant brothers and sisters,” Archbishop Gomez said. “So let us keep praying for our nation and working hard for immigration reform, and let us remember to keep our lives centered on Jesus.”
Archbishop Gomez, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, made the comments during his homily at an afternoon Mass on Sept. 18 to commemorate the start of the U.S. Catholic Church’s National Migration Week, Sept. 19-25.
Before the Mass, held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, 50 ministry leaders were honored for their work and support of immigrants and their families. Civic and diplomatic leaders, including the Consuls of Mexico and Guatemala, were present.
Archbishop Gomez celebrated the Mass and was joined by clergy from the Dioceses of San Bernardino, Orange, and San Diego. Relics of St. Junipero Serra, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and St. Toribio Romo — all saints of great significance to the immigrant community — were placed by the altar during the Mass.
During the homily, Archbishop Gomez lamented that the nation’s immigration system hadn’t been addressed for decades, saying that “we need to pray harder for our government officials and lawmakers” while never losing hope that immigration reform can be realized.
This year’s National Migration Week comes amid an ongoing immigration crisis in the U.S. There were more than 2.2 million migrant encounters nationwide between October 2021 and July 2022, and specifically more than 1.9 million migrant encounters at the southern border during the same span, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Both figures well exceed the respective totals for Fiscal Year 2021 by more than 200,000.
U.S. Bishops and Catholic immigration leaders this year have consistently called for long-needed comprehensive immigration reform by Congress, and the elimination of deterrent policies at the border, mainly Title 42, that limit migrants’ legal rights to seek asylum.
They’ve also called for a pathway to citizenship for the approximate 611,000 Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children — and for the Biden administration to re-designate Venezuela and Syria for Temporary Protected Status, citing the ongoing humanitarian crises that exist in each country.
Another call has been for the passage of federal legislation that would provide newly arrived Afghans an opportunity to become lawful permanent residents, which would impact more than 80,000 Afghan refugees who have resettled in the U.S. since last August when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
In a Sept. 16 statement ahead of National Migration Week, Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, the USCCB’s migration committee chair, highlighted migrants in the U.S., including Dreamers, Afghans, Ukrainians fleeing the war, TPS recipients, and undocumented agriculture workers, and their “important role” in “building the future” of the United States.
“This week provides a special opportunity for encounter, accompaniment, and prayer, as well as a chance for Catholics and others of goodwill to join together in support of those who depend on our collective voice,” Bishop Doronsville said, adding that he hopes this week provides “a renewed sense of what it means to live as brothers and sisters, traveling together on the same journey.”
The statement follows the theme for this year’s National Migration Week, “Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees.” The theme mirrors that of the Vatican’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday, Sept. 25.
In recent months, the immigration conversation in the U.S. has been dominated by the actions of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, busing migrants to Democratic-led cities — Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago — as a rebuke to President Joe Biden’s border policies. The move has led to a constant war of words between the cities’ mayors and Abbott as the cities struggle to respond to the migrants’ needs.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis initiated his own migrant-moving campaign last week, sending about 50 migrants on two flights to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Massachusetts. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced days later that the migrants were moved to a temporary shelter on the mainland that could better accommodate their needs.
Cardinal Séan O’Malley of Boston responded to DeSantis’s action on Sept. 16, focusing on the need to fix a broken immigration system that led to the present situation.
“From the Dreamers who still seek legal stability in their lives to those fleeing war in Ukraine, poverty in Latin America and Africa, or crises in the Middle East, the call of our common humanity will be with us for years to come,” he said. “I pray we will be equal to the challenge.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, where Abbott began busing migrants on Aug. 31, focused his National Migration Week message on the importance of welcoming the stranger.
“As Christians, we are called to welcome the stranger, the refugee, the marginalized and displaced persons, because they are children of God,” Cardinal Cupich said in a Sept. 15 statement. “Each migrant has a name, a face, and a story, and, as they arrive in our archdiocese, let us continue to welcome them with peace and fraternity.”
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Standing near a mass grave site in eastern Ukraine and seeing the delicate and solemn removal of bodies, Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, said he could only pray.
“I knew I would find so many dead, but I met men who showed the beauty that is sometimes hidden in our hearts,” Cardinal Krajewski said after visiting the mass grave in the northeastern city of Izium.
“They showed a human beauty in a place where there could have only been revenge. Instead, there wasn’t,” he told Vatican News in an interview published Sept. 19.
Russian forces fled the area after Ukraine launched a counteroffensive to regain occupied territory. In a forest near Izium, soldiers found a mass grave site with the remains of an estimated 500 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video message, said investigators saw evidence that some of the victims had been tortured.
Similar mass grave sites were found earlier this year in other areas formerly occupied by Russian forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia’s involvement in the atrocities, and repeated accusations that mass grave sites were staged by Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reported.
Cardinal Krajewski, who was accompanied by Ukrainian Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia, said the careful removal of the bodies in Izium seemed like a solemn liturgy.
“There was one thing that touched me so much,” he told Vatican News Service. “These young Ukrainians were pulling out the bodies so gently, so quietly, in total silence. It looked like a ‘celebration’; nobody was talking but there were so many policemen and soldiers there — at least 200 people. All in silence, with an incredible appreciation for the mystery of death. Truly there was so much to learn from these people.”
Noting that the workers removed the bodies as if they were doing it “for their own families, for their parents, children, siblings,” Cardinal Krajewski said that he and Bishop Honcharuk could only watch and pray.
“The bishop and I were walking around among them. I was reciting the Divine Mercy Chaplet the whole time; we were there for at least three hours. I couldn’t do anything else,” he said.
“This is what has stayed with me now that I’m back in Kharkiv. I am in the chapel and think about these young people,” he said.
In an interview with Vatican News published Sept. 17, Cardinal Krajewski said he and several others came under gunfire while delivering humanitarian aid to suffering Ukrainians on Pope Francis’ behalf.
The Polish cardinal was delivering goods in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with a Catholic bishop, a Protestant bishop and a Ukrainian soldier when the attack occurred.
“For the first time in my life, I didn’t know where to run because it’s not enough to run. You have to know where to go,” the cardinal said.
The cardinal and those with him managed to escape the attack and continued delivering goods loaded in a minibus.
The Dicastery for the Service of Charity announced Sept. 9 that Cardinal Krajewski would embark on his fourth trip to Ukraine and visit Odesa, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv and other locations in eastern Ukraine.
The purpose of his visit, the dicastery said, was to provide support to “various communities of faithful, priests and religious, and their bishops, who for more than 200 days continue to remain in the places of their ministry despite the dangers of war.”
“It is a silent and evangelical trip to be with the people who are suffering, praying and comforting each of them, showing with his presence that they are not alone in this situation that is only bringing destruction and death,” the statement said.
Speaking by telephone with Vatican News, Cardinal Krajewski noted that his visit to Ukraine coincided with the ninth anniversary of his episcopal ordination and his appointment as papal almoner.
The cardinal said he spent the day loading a minibus with provisions and rosaries blessed by the pope and delivering them to people in areas where “no one besides soldiers enter anymore.”
Witnessing the devastation of war in the country on the day of his anniversary, Cardinal Krajewski told Vatican News that it was a “day without mercy” in which “there are no tears nor words.”
“We can only pray and repeat: ‘Jesus, I trust in you,’” the cardinal said.
Bishop Robert Brennan was in Ozone Park to celebrate Catechetical Sunday.
President Biden was among the world leaders on hand for the Queen’s funeral today.
Puerto Rico is seeing catastrophic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Fiona.
Parishioners at St. Mary Gate of Heaven Church in Ozone Park held a celebration of Mexican Independence Day after 12:30 Mass.
Power is out across the island territory of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona brought powerful winds and heavy downpours. Now lives are hanging in the balance.
LONDON (CNS) — An English cardinal took part in the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in an indication of openness of the British Royal family to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.
Some observers believe the involvement of Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster represents the first time for possibly hundreds of years that a cardinal or Catholic bishop has taken a role in a royal funeral.
Cardinal Nichols, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, was one of a number of non-Anglican Christian leaders asked to lead the congregation in prayers for the queen during the Sept. 19 state funeral in Westminster Abbey.
The cardinal expressed thanks for the monarch’s “commitment to the Commonwealth throughout her reign” and prayed for a “spirit of mutual honor and respect” and that figures in authority “may promote justice and the common good.”
Among prominent Catholics in attendance were Archbishop Leo Cushley of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, representing the Catholics of Scotland; Archbishop Mark O’Toole of Cardiff, the most senior Catholic leader in Wales; and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Liverpool-born foreign minister, representing Pope Francis.
Gavin Ashenden, a former Anglican royal chaplain to Queen Elizabeth who became a Catholic in 2019, said no Catholic leaders were involved in the funeral of the King George VI, the queen’s father, in 1952.
He said that, for him, “seeing Cardinal Nichols standing by the high altar dressed as a cardinal during the queen’s funeral service gave birth to a complex mixture of emotions, amongst which joy and nostalgia were combined.”
The last British Catholic monarch was King James II, who died in France in 1701 after he was deposed in a coup in 1688.
His elder brother, King Charles II, converted to the Catholic faith on his deathbed in 1685, and in the previous century, Queen Mary I, the eldest daughter of King Henry VIII, used her five-year reign in the 1550s to force England to return to the Catholic faith.
Since the 18th century, all British monarchs have been obliged, under oath, to be Anglicans and to discharge the office of the supreme governor of the Church of England.
Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, were interested in ecumenism and welcomed St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to the U.K.
On Sept. 16, during a reception for religious leaders at Buckingham Palace, King Charles III signaled he would continue to pursue dialogue.
He said he recognized his “duty to protect the diversity of our country, including by protecting the space for faith itself and its practice through the religions, cultures, traditions and beliefs to which our hearts and minds direct us as individuals.”
The king said: “The beliefs that flourish in, and contribute to, our richly diverse society differ. They, and our society, can only thrive through a clear collective commitment to those vital principles of freedom of conscience, generosity of spirit and care for others which are, to me, the essence of our nationhood.
“I am determined, as king, to preserve and promote those principles across all communities, and for all beliefs, with all my heart,” he said.
Commentators are predicting that the coronation of Charles in 2023 is likely to include members of non-Anglican churches and possibly other faiths for the first time.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth, 96, who died Sept. 8 after a 70-year reign, brings to a close 11 days of official mourning in the U.K.
Her coffin, draped in the royal standard and bearing her crown, was drawn on a gun carriage by Royal Navy sailors the short distance from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey for a service in the presence of 2,000 guests, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders.
After the service the coffin was driven to Windsor Castle, where the queen was interred in St. George’s Chapel.
By Bill Miller and Jessica Easthope
OZONE PARK — While greeting public school students Sunday, Sept. 18, at Our Lady of Perpetual Hope Parish in Ozone Park, Bishop Robert Brennan appreciated that some of them might not yet know him.
In a teaching moment, he introduced himself by referring to the prayer intentions said during the Mass saying “the part when we pray for Francis our pope, and Robert our bishop.”
Waving to the assembly, he added, “I’m Robert, our bishop.” Parents and teachers laughed along with Father Thomas Ahern, OLPH’s pastor, and Fran DeLuca, the academy’s principal.
The 50 or so students, kindergarten through high school, came to the OLPH Catholic Academy gym to register for the faith formation Sunday school classes of the new school year.
Bishop Brennan had just celebrated the 10:30 a.m. Mass at OLPH in observance of Catechetical Sunday. He gave blessings to the students and their teachers.
According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catechesis is a distinct and special ministry in the Church. They added that Catechetical Sunday is “a day to highlight this ministry and invite the entire church community to think about our responsibility to share our faith with others.”
Bishop Brennan moved among the students, greeting and chatting with them.
But one boy still didn’t know what to make of the man who leaned on his wooden crosier (staff) while stopping at each table to greet students. Jay Ventura, 8, was off to the side, alone until Bishop Brennan sat down for a brief one-on-one visit.
After a chat, the Bishop gave Jay a fist bump and said, “Good, nice to meet you, Jay. See you again, all right?”
Later, Jay said he still didn’t understand who the bishop was or why he was there. Not to worry, said Linda Maldonado, assistant director of faith formation at the parish.
“Jay is going to find out who the bishop is,” she assured with a chuckle. “He’s going to find out because our teachers are very good with that. They’re going to make sure that he gets the proper education.”
Dr. Jonathan Mangar, who has many responsibilities at OLPH, said this is the first normal start to the catechetical school year since the pandemic.
He is a faith formation catechist for the sacrament of confirmation and the school board chair for OLPH Catholic Academy.
Also, Dr. Mangar is an alum of the academy, and he teaches foreign languages at Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens.
He said the academy and the religious education office have common goals for serving students — usually about 100-150 in faith formation, plus 350 in the academy and another 60 in universal Pre-K.
Simply put, “We give them a foundation for a life based on Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother,” Dr. Mangar said.
In a statement, USCCB members noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear that “Catechesis is intimately bound up with the whole of the Church’s life . . . her inner growth and correspondence with God’s plan depend essentially on catechesis.”
Bishop Brennan expressed pride for religious education offices throughout the diocese.
“First of all,” he said, “I want to thank and encourage the catechist volunteers who come to pass on the gift of faith. Secondly, I want to thank and encourage parents.
“Catechetical Sunday is great just to encourage parents because it takes extra effort, planning, and some sacrifice to be able to make sure your children are getting this religious formation. We want to supplement what they’re doing.”
Bishop Brennan said that he hopes to visit religious formation programs across the diocese in the coming months.
There was a party going on in Corona, Queens last night. The bell tower at Our Lady of Sorrows Church was re-dedicated.
The head of NYCHA is stepping down.
The Diocese of Brooklyn is stepping in to help educate migrant children that are arriving in the city.
A line to see the Queen’s coffin stretched for miles in London, forcing people to wait some 14 hours.
For more on Pope Francis’ trip and his remarks on the papal plane, Currents News is joined by Elise Allen, Senior Correspondent for Crux. She was traveling with the Pope and is now back in Rome.