Francis Urges Hungary to Open Doors to Migrants

Pope Francis is back at the Vatican, after wrapping up a three-day visit to Hungary.

It was The Holy Father’s first trip since he was hospitalized about a month ago.

It was the closest he’s gotten to the war in Ukraine.

Pope Francis visited a Catholic University in Budapest, where he spoke with students and faculty.

He came with a big message to Hungary and the rest of Europe; to open their doors to migrants.

“It is sad and it hurts to see closed doors,” Pope Francis said. “Brothers and sisters, please, please, please. Let us open the doors. Let us also try to be like Jesus with our words, gestures and daily activity. An open door–an open door that never closes in anyone’s face.”

While the pope was meeting with refugees at St. Elizabeth Church of Hungary, two Ukrainian children, grateful for that door Hungary opened for them, played a song of thanksgiving on Saturday.

Despite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s harsh treatment of Syrian refugees in 2015, which included building a 13 foot razor wire fence along Hungary’s southern border, the country has welcomed more than two-million Ukrainian refugees since the invasion last year.

Elise Allen, a senior correspondent for Crux, was in Hungary with the pope. She joins Currents News to discuss The Holy Father’s visit to the country.

As A.I. Progresses Forward, Many Are Concerned About Job Safety

Most people carry high power tech in their pockets all day, but the everyday tasks computers can carry out are starting to worry some, including Pope Francis.

There are concerns over a new report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which claims as more companies adopt advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, 14-million jobs will disappear in the next five years.

“This could potentially save time and resources,” said Douglas Rushkof, an American media theorist. “But it could also lead to a loss of personal connections and a decline in the quality of those types of interactions.”

Although big changes are expected for the global job market, some of the fastest declining jobs are bank tellers, cashiers and data entry clerks.

The WEF was also able to identify three of the fastest growing jobs in A.I., such as machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists and business intelligence analysts.

Entrepreneur and big tech heavyweight, Elon Musk, is cautiously optimistic about the future of A.I., but he is working with lawmakers to make sure it’s handled accordingly.

“Met with Senator Chuck Schumer and many members of congress about artificial intelligence regulation today. That which affects safety of the public has, over time, become regulated to ensure that companies do not cut corners. A.I. has great power to do good and evil. Better the former,” Musk said last week on Twitter.

Dorothy Day Staten Island Ferry Makes Inaugural Ride

By Carol Zimmermann and Jessica Easthope

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The Dorothy Day ferry — a new Staten Island Ferry boat bringing passengers between Staten Island and lower Manhattan — made its inaugural ride April 28.

And before it set sail across the New York Harbor, city officials, and friends and family of Day marked the occasion with a brief ceremony, paying tribute to the ferry’s namesake — a peace activist and journalist who is a candidate for sainthood and primarily known for co-founding the Catholic Worker Movement, a group committed to the social justice teachings of the Church.

“As we get on this boat and sail the choppy waters with her, stand tall against the headwinds which sometimes can cause us to falter. And may we, like her, ask for that vision that sees goodness, love, and dignity in every single person,” said retired New York Auxiliary Bishop John O’Hara.

Bishop O’Hara noted that the significance of the ferry named after Day was not just about boats but should remind people in this polarized and divided society that “God has raised up a prophet from Staten Island.”

He said Day had a vision “that we need to embrace, celebrate, and activate in our own lives.”

Martha Hennessy, social justice activist and granddaughter of Day, thanked those who made this day possible and shared with the crowd one of her grandmother’s writings that spoke against war and emphasized the need to care for the poor.

“We know that during her life, Day loved riding this ferry — and she was like Staten Islanders who know that a short ferry ride can serve as a peaceful, even meaningful, escape from the hustle and bustle of life in our city,” said Ydanis Rodriguez, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.

Day, who died in 1980, had deep roots in Staten Island, where she lived for many years and where she is buried. It is also where she was baptized into the Church as an adult and began a cooperative farm for those in need and Catholic Worker members.

Coincidentally, Day also loved the Staten Island Ferry, which she rode back and forth for years from her cottage in Staten Island to the soup kitchen where she worked in Manhattan.

Those promoting her sainthood cause — which officially opened in 2000 and gave her the title “Servant of God” — are hoping the ferry lets more people know about her.

“There’s a very nice plaque (on the ferry) that tells who she is,” said Kevin Ahern, an associate professor of religious studies at Manhattan College and member of the advisory committee for the Dorothy Day Guild working to promote Day’s sainthood cause.

Ahern told The Tablet that the ferry launch comes at a time when there is an increased interest in Day’s life and legacy, and is a good opportunity to educate more people about her.

He said it was conflicting for some in the Catholic Worker Movement that Day, who was such a humble woman, is getting her name on an expensive vessel paid for with public funds, but he also said there are many positive aspects to this honor that the members acknowledge.

For starters, Day loved Staten Island, which she viewed as a place of retreat, and she wrote about her love of taking the Staten Island Ferry, taking in nature and the New York City skyline.

Ahern also stressed that the Staten Island Ferry is free, connects New Yorkers, and serves primarily the working class, all things Day would appreciate.

Also, Day often wrote about the Christian view of pilgrimage — being on a journey — which the ferry ride certainly is.

The ferry will join the rotation of vessels going back and forth across the New York Harbor about a week after the initial launch.

It is one of three Ollis-class passenger ferries commissioned in 2014. The first two ferries, the Staff Sergeant Michael H. Ollis and the Sandy Ground, began serving passengers in early 2022.

The group of new ferries is named after US Army Staff Sergeant Ollis, a Staten Islander killed in action during the War in Afghanistan in 2013. Sandy Ground is named in honor of the nation’s oldest continuously inhabited free black settlement on Staten Island.

New York City has operated the Staten Island Ferry since 1905. The boats carry more than 12 million passengers annually on a 5.2-mile run between the St. George Terminal in Staten Island and the Whitehall Terminal in lower Manhattan.

The ferries run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and on a typical weekday, five boats make 117 trips, carrying approximately 35,000 passengers. The boats make over 40,000 trips a year.

When the Dorothy Day ferry was commissioned last November, Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement: “Dorothy Day represents so much of what is great about New Yorkers and our city, and we are proud to honor her by commissioning this Staten Island Ferry.

“Having her name on this boat,” he said, “will remind New Yorkers and visitors alike of her fight for peace and against hunger, fights that we are continuing every day.”

Catholic News Headlines for Friday 04/28/2023

Pope Francis is in Hungary visiting with the president and prime minister of the country.

One Ukrainian refugee who fled his home and came to the U.S. looking for safety is struggling to survive in New York City.

A deacon in the Diocese of Brooklyn wants to teach you self defense at his karate dojo.

We’ll introduce you to a Brooklyn parishioner who’s serving up food and faith to those in need.

Breaking Down the Pope’s Speech on His First Day in Hungary

Pope Francis ended his first day in Hungary at the Co-Cathedral of St. Stephen’s, which was packed with Hungarian clergy and lay people.

Much of the rest of the pope’s trip will be spent with the lay people of Hungary. On Saturday, he will visit visually impaired children, then he’ll meet with refugees at the church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

Finally the pope will meet with young people at a sports arena, where he will deliver a speech.

On Sunday, The Holy Father will celebrate Mass at what is commonly known as Nation Square in the center of Budapest.

Elise Allen, Senior Reporter at Crux, joins Currents News to discuss the Pope’s visit to the country.

Pope Arrives in Hungary Preaching Cooperation, Welcome — Not Isolation

By Cindy Wooden

BUDAPEST, Hungary (CNS) — Paying homage to Hungary’s history, culture and location in the heart of Europe, Pope Francis pushed against the notion that the country needed to insulate itself to protect its identity.

As expected, in his first speech in Hungary — to government and civic leaders and diplomats serving in Budapest — the pope acknowledged efforts to protect traditional values, but insisted those values include supporting European unity, welcoming migrants and working to end the war in neighboring Ukraine.

The “passionate quest of a politics of community and the strengthening of multilateral relations seems a wistful memory from a distant past,” he said April 28 in his speech at the former Carmelite monastery that now houses the office of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“More and more,” the pope said, “enthusiasm for building a peaceful and stable community of nations seems to be cooling, as zones of influence are marked out, differences accentuated, nationalism is on the rise and ever harsher judgments and language are used in confronting others.”

The 86-year-old pope, who was released from the hospital April 1 after what the Vatican said was a bout of bronchitis and who frequently has been using a wheelchair or walker because of knee problems, simply used a cane when he walked the length of the ITA Airways plane to greet journalists during the two-hour flight from Rome.

He joked about his health — “weeds never die” — and, in response to a Polish journalist who thanked him for defending St. John Paul II, the pope described as “foolishness” rumors that the Polish pope was somehow involved in the disappearance in 1983 of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican resident.

Pope Francis continued using the cane instead of a wheelchair as he walked down the red carpet at the Budapest airport and around the presidential Sándor Palace where he met privately for 25 minutes with Hungarian President Katalin Novák and then for 20 minutes with Orbán.

Novák, welcoming Pope Francis to the meeting with government and civic representatives, told him Hungarians expected to receive encouragement from him in their quest to help make Europe “more peaceful, more democratic and stronger.”

“Over the past 30 years,” she told him, Hungarian Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants have joined forces in “the ecumenism of the preservation of Christian values,” specifically regarding marriage, family life and abortion.

In his speech, Pope Francis told those gathered that around the globe politics is showing signs of an “adolescent belligerence” that seems more about stirring up emotions than resolving problems.

“Peace will never come as the result of the pursuit of individual strategic interests, but only from policies capable of looking to the bigger picture, to the development of everyone: policies that are attentive to individuals, to the poor and to the future, and not merely to power, profit and present prospects,” Pope Francis said.

That attention, he said, must allow room for the different countries of the European Union and the different communities within each nation to assert their own identities but not at the cost of denigrating or denying the rights of others.

Mentioning some areas of common ground with Orbán’s government, Pope Francis described as “ideological colonization” efforts to promote acceptance across Europe of “so-called gender theory,” which sees gender as a social construct rather than a biological fact, and “reductive concepts of freedom, for example by vaunting as progress a senseless ‘right to abortion,’ which is always a tragic defeat.”

“How much better it would be to build a Europe centered on the human person and on its peoples,” he said, pointing positively to Hungary’s pro-family policies that encourage married couples to have children.

But Pope Francis also used the words of St. Stephen, the 11th-century king of Hungary, to draw attention to the theme of migration, a major area of difference with Orbán who, since 2015, has promoted a “no migrants” policy.

The sainted king, the pope said, told his people: “I urge you to show favor not only to relations and kin, or to the powerful and wealthy, or to your neighbors and fellow countrymen, but also to foreigners and all who come to you.”

Migration, Pope Francis said, is a “heated” topic in today’s world, but “for those who are Christians, our basic attitude cannot differ from that which St. Stephen recommended,” a lesson learned from Jesus, “who identified himself with the stranger needing to be welcomed” in Matthew 25.

Pope Francis said it was “urgent” that Europe as a whole devise “safe and legal ways” for those fleeing violence, poverty and climate change to enter its borders.

Migration cannot be stemmed by a general attitude of rejecting the possibility, he said, “but must be embraced in order to prepare for a future that, unless it is shared, will not exist.”

Pulse of The Parish: Our Lady of Grace

A dash of faith, a pinch of compassion, and a heart full of love.

It’s the recipe for the Feed the Homeless ministry at Our Lady of Grace in Gravesend.

The Brooklyn church is alive and well, thanks to its dedicated parishioners.

Pat Fleming, who runs the church’s kitchen, is the Pulse of the Parish.

“It makes me feel good when I come down and I can do something to help out other people,” Fleming said. “Which is what Jesus really wants us to do, he wants us to help out other people.”

For the past 15 years, Fleming has been the cook for Feed the Homeless.

Cooking is a skill the Brooklynite learned as a kid out of necessity.

“When I was young in grammar school, if I wanted to eat breakfast because I was up at 6 o’clock in the morning, and my mother ain’t getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning to cook, I had to cook my own breakfast,” Fleming said.

While times have changed Fleming’s love for cooking hasn’t. In fact, it’s because of his love and camaraderie that the

“Me and my wife, we argue over who’s gonna cook, ” Fleming said. “She’s a good cook. I’m a better cook.”

After cooking the meals, which include bread, franks, rice and beans, Fleming and other volunteers will pack and place the food into insulated bags and then drive them out to Brighton Beach to share their food and their faith.

Those who are homeless often wait for them in a parking lot to be served. And even when they’re fed the work doesn’t stop there.

Volunteers continue on to the boardwalk to find others who may be in need of food, prayer, or the word.

It’s one of several things Fleming values about the ministry and its efforts of helping those in need.

“They’re taking their time out to help other people and that’s what everybody here does,” Fleming said. “We got such a great crew. People are always willing to do something else for somebody and that’s a great thing.”

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 04/27/2023

A disturbing report from the FBI shows active shooters last year killed or injured more than 300 people.

Now that the House voted to pass a bill raising the nation’s debt ceiling, it goes to the Senate for consideration.

In tonight’s Pulse Of The Parish, we’ll meet Pat Fleming, a parishioner at Our Lady of Grace in Brooklyn, who takes over the rectory kitchen to cook for those less fortunate.

Gertrude Conway Reflects on Her Life and Faith Ahead of 100th Birthday

Gertrude Conway has a routine, first the candles, then the books, then she opens the door, next she fixes the ribbons on the pews. She runs a tight ship at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Brooklyn Heights.

“I always want it to look beautiful, I don’t need any help, I do it myself, people coming in if they see the pews strewn with books and things they get the wrong impression, they think we don’t care and we do care,” she said.

She’s been doing this volunteer work for decades, Pastor, Father Mark Amatrucola says she’s the lifeblood of the parish.

“Gertrude is at the center of everything we do, this is very much her home and her family and feels welcome here and is always willing to give her all,” he said.

And age definitely hasn’t slowed her down, in a few weeks she’ll be 100 and as her milestone birthday fast approaches, Gertrude says she’s always found comfort in consistency. The world around her is ever changing, but she stays the same.

“I could go tomorrow or I could go a couple of years from now, only God knows and I don’t plan on it, I don’t sit and worry about it, I don’t give it a second thought, I just get up in the morning and do the same thing I did yesterday. I’m the same today as I was 50 years ago, haven’t changed at all,” she said.

Over the years she hasn’t lost her spark – her passion lies right here with her in the pews of her parish.”I love my faith because it’s done so much for me, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my faith, I always joke I say what I do here in the church, I’m working my way to heaven it’s the only way I’ll get there,” she said.

You won’t find her front and center at mass, she sits in the back, alone with her prayers.

“There’s a real special, humble nature about who she is and knowing she’s seen a lot in her life but is always full of joy and good spirit for this place,” said Fr. Mark.

“God and the Blessed Mother have been very, very good to me and I feel like what little I can do is thank you,” Gertrude said.

When it comes to Gertrude’s faith, it’s not part of her routine – it’s who she is.

Education Expert on Catholic School Enrollment During and After COVID; ‘Brooklyn is a Great Example’

Since the pandemic, more families have been choosing Catholic schools for their children’s education here in the Diocese of brooklyn and beyond.

A new study by the National Catholic Educational Association shows that enrollment has been on an up-tick over the last three years.

Currents News catches up with Lincoln Snyder, the organization’s president, to break down the numbers and explain what it all means for Catholic Education.

If you’re interested in sending your child to Catholic schools visit https://catholicschoolsbq.org/ or call 718-965-7380 for more information.