We’re learning more about the victims of the Louisville bank shooting.
Six months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortions in the U.S. have decreased by 6%.
A hidden chapter of the Bible has been discovered.
We’re learning more about the victims of the Louisville bank shooting.
Six months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortions in the U.S. have decreased by 6%.
A hidden chapter of the Bible has been discovered.
WARNING: SOME OF THE FOOTAGE IN THE VIDEO MAY BE DISTURBING.
The rookie cop who responded to the Louisville shooting at the Old National Bank on Monday morning is fighting for his life at a nearby hospital.
Nickolas Wilt was on the job for just a few days when he was shot within seconds after arriving on the scene.
The officer’s body cam footage was just released by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
The footage shows Officer Wilt running up the stairs of the bank just before being shot in the head.
“[The shooter] then went to the front lobby and set up an ambush and waited for officers to respond,” Paul Humphrey, Deputy Chief of the LMPD, said.
One of the officers can be heard in the video, ordering the shooter to stop as gunshots ring out.
Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville continues to pray for the victims, saying in a statement, “My heart is heavy as we learn about another mass shooting, now in our own Louisville community. Even with our Easter hope so recently renewed, we have been quickly reminded that we still live in the shadow of the cross, the cross of senseless violence.”
A fifth victim has died after a mass shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky.
President Joe Biden is in Northern Ireland today.
The mom of a 6-year-old boy accused of shooting and seriously injuring his first grade teacher in Virginia back in January is facing criminal charges.
Everyone knows there’s nothing better than your grandma’s cooking.
It’s warm and comforting and can even sometimes work faster than medicine when you’re sick.
Imagine going to a restaurant where that’s all they serve.
That’s exactly what one Staten Island restaurant is doing and Currents News was there to see one of their Nonnas in action.
At Enoteca Maria they only employ grandmothers.
They come on a rotation to cook food from all over the globe. The menu changes everyday, from Japanese cuisine, to Azerbaijan dishes, and even Peruvian meals. Italian dishes are usually a constant at the restaurant.
Restaurateur Jody Scaravella, said Enoteca Maria was created to be a culinary experience with every dish stimulating the taste buds and pulling at the heartstrings.
“People are missing their grandmothers and missing those times and their grandmothers’ house and those meals and interactions and basically we’re just trying to recreate that and I think we succeeded,” Scaravella said. “It kind of evokes that walk down memory lane, usually the people will start talking about their mother or grandmother and what they used to make and how she would love to cook here so it’s that kind of experience.”
Just like at your grandma’s house, at Enoteca Maria you eat whatever they’re making.
Dishes like the restaurant’s zucchini parmesan and fresh cavatelli with sausage are made with Maria Giallanella’s two hands.
Her old world upbringing in Avellino, Italy lead her to the modern kitchen of a restaurant with an innovative concept.
“I’m the oldest one in the family, so I made everything for myself,” Giallanella “I washed clothes, I do a lot of work, I was on the phone taking the orders, my mother she couldn’t do it but I like to do it.”
Enoteca Maria is currently looking for Italian Nonnas to come and cook.
If you or your grandmother are interested you can contact the restaurant at 718-447-2777
A community in mourning, that may never have its questions answered, is turning to faith for comfort after a loss of lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Through prayer vigils across the city, Louisville is now turning to God.
One of the victims of the shooting, Joshua Barrick, 40, was Old National Bank’s Senior Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Banking and attended Holy Trinity Parish.
The pastor there isn’t just offering comfort to Barrick’s family but also to a congregation wondering how this could have happened.
“They’re in shock. I’ve been with his wife. I’ve been with his children,” Father Shayne Duvall said. “I’ve been with his brother, and members of this community, and everyone is just kind of walking around in a fog. Like, did this just really happen today?”
The congregation at the church is now leaning heavily on their faith and each other.
After a shooting took the lives of four people at Old National Bank in the city, a fifth victim died from their injuries late Monday evening.
Details of the shooter, Connor Sturgeon, 25, are still emerging as police continue to search for a possible motive behind the shooting.
Sturgeon, an employee of the bank reportedly knew he was going to be fired and wrote a note of his planned attack to his parents and a friend before heading into work on Monday.
He opened fire while several employees were in a meeting and live streamed the attack, at least eight others were wounded, some critically.
Sturgeon also shot at police, prompting officers to return fire and he was killed at the scene, according to authorities.
Police revealed that he purchased his weapon legally from a local dealership just one week ago.
There is no word yet on the viewing or funeral arrangements for the five victims involved.
Dylan O’Connor’s first full day as a Catholic was Easter Sunday, April 9, but he did not spend the entire Mass planted in a pew.
The night before, O’Connor received sacraments of initiation — baptism, first holy Communion, and confirmation — at the Easter Vigil, Saturday evening, at St. Andrew Avellino Parish in Flushing.
But at Easter Mass the next day, he was already serving the church as an usher, and parishioners noticed.
It began, O’Connor said, when Father Gregory McIlhenney gave a “shout out” to him and the other former catechumens, now “neophytes” in the parish. Next, as an usher, O’Connor assisted an elderly woman who needed some help getting down the stairs.
“She pointed out the cross that my fiancé gave me,” O’Connor related. “She said, ‘Oh, how long have you had that cross? I said, ‘Just under 12 hours now.’ She said, ‘You’re the guy Father Greg was talking about.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ ”
O’Connor, 26, a digital marketing specialist from Whitestone, credited his fiancé, Elizabeth Meittinis, for introducing him to the faith.
“She is a third-generation parishioner at St. Andrews,” he explained. “So, obviously, the faith is very important to her. I began spending a lot more time around the Church and meeting the community. So, that’s what inspired me to pursue everything and become a member.”
O’Connor said he grew up without any religious influence. “What I tell people,” he added, “is I was a free agent.”
Still, he had a lifelong curiosity about spirituality and where it came from. Answers emerged as he participated in St. Andrew’s program for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
“It opened my eyes to something new — kind of an understanding of a greater power, how everything works together in this world, and where it all comes from,” O’Connor said. The whirlwind weekend “felt really good.”
“At the end of it, I felt a little bit closer to the Church and the community. It was just a really great way to start my journey as a new Catholic,” he said.
Nataly Castillo, 19, also received sacraments Saturday. Her initiation was at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Windsor Terrace.
She said that growing up, her family “identified as Catholic,” but she did not receive sacraments.
“They never had the chance to baptize me,” Castillo said of her family. “But I got to a position where it is left up to me. When I was younger, I didn’t really care much for any of this. But now that I’m older, I understand a bit more. I thought it would be a great thing for me to open myself up to.”
Castillo, of Prospect Lefferts Gardens, regularly takes long walks through Prospect Park to reflect on issues, including spirituality and earthly challenges she faces. Along the way, she routinely passes the Holy Name of Jesus Parish, where she had attended Mass a couple times.
One day about a year ago, she decided “to just stop by” and ask about receiving the sacraments of initiation, she said.
Castillo, who is studying digital marketing and web design at Brooklyn College, said the parish staff welcomed her to the community and “were fully embracing of me on this journey.”
Receiving the three sacraments at the Easter Vigil sort of reminded Castillo of her high school graduation. “But it felt different because it was like a spiritual graduation,” she said. “At that moment, I realized that this was truly just the beginning.”
Castillo described Easter Sunday as a “wow moment.”
“It was a lovely Mass,” she said. “I got to participate in the Eucharist. Previously, I hadn’t been able to eat the bread. I could only just receive a blessing, but now I can fully participate in it. I felt a bit emotional thinking that I had become official. I’m very happy.”
Bishop Robert Brennan administered the sacrament of baptism during the Holy Saturday Easter Vigilat the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.
On Sunday, he celebrated Easter Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James in Downtown Brooklyn.
The Gospel reading was scheduled to be John 20:1-19 — the scene when Mary Magdalene tells the disciples that Jesus was missing from the tomb, and Peter and John sprint off to see for themselves.
Instead, Bishop Brennan directed Deacon Ron Rizzuto to read Matthew 28:1-10 — a depiction of the earlier scene when Mary Magdalene and another woman arrive at the tomb and encounter an angel.
“Do not be afraid,” the angel said in verses 5-6. “I know that you are seeking Jesus, the crucified. He is not here for he has been raised just as he said.”
During his homily, Bishop Brennan explained he was “exercising the option” to read from the Gospel of Matthew that was “proclaimed at last night’s Easter Vigil.”
Members of the congregation chuckled when he added, “I guess I should have told you that before. I saw some of you trying to follow along.”
Still, Matthew’s Gospel holds a unique illustration for Resurrection Sunday, Bishop Brennan said.
“The women go off as the angel had told them,” he said, “and what happens? Jesus meets them on the way. They actually see and hear the risen Lord. They reach out to grasp his feet, and they hear his assuring words, ‘Do not be afraid.’”
Bishop Brennan said, “It’s not an overstatement to say that our lives on earth can indeed be fearful,” with a world saddled with war, crime, drug addiction, and the “culture of death.”
“But friends,” he exclaimed, “we are Christians. Christ is risen, indeed. We know that in the core of our being, in Jesus, death is not the final answer. He lives, and because he lives, he is closer to us than we can possibly imagine. We are overjoyed.”
The Gospel ends with Jesus telling the women to go to Galilee, “and there they will see me.”
“Well, let me interject,” Bishop Brennan said. “Tell my brothers and sisters to go to Brooklyn and Queens, ‘and there they will see me.’
“So do not be afraid, but go, and then we will see Jesus.”
The Archdiocese for the Military Services has accused Walter Reed National Medical Center of committing a “glaring violation” of hospitalized Catholics’ rights after the medical center terminated its contract with a community of Franciscan priests, and ordered them to stop their hospital ministry ahead of Holy Week.
According to the Archdiocese of Washington, Walter Reed issued a “cease and desist order” to Holy Name College, a community of Fransican priests who have long provided pastoral care to service members and veterans at the hospital. The order follows the priests’ contract being terminated by the medical center on March 31.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, called the move “incomprehensible,” adding that he hopes that “this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected.
“It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available,” Archbishop Broglio said. “This is the classic case where the adage ‘if it is not broken, do not fix it’ applies.”
The reason behind Walter Reed’s decision isn’t clear. However, Archbishop Broglio alluded to the price of the priests’ contract being a factor. Walter Reed awarded the priests’ contract to a secular defense contracting firm, according to the archdiocese.
“I fear that giving the contract to the lowest bidder overlooked the fact that the bidder cannot provide the necessary service,” Archbishop Broglio said.
Walter Reed did not immediately respond to The Tablet with a comment.
With the ouster of the community of Franciscan priests, the Archdiocese for the Military Services said there is only one Catholic Army chaplain assigned to Walter Reed, but he is in the process of separating from the Army.
Two very different rulings on April 7 by federal judges on the abortion drug mifepristone highlight the country’s disparate views on the subject and signal that the Supreme Court will likely have to weigh in on the drugs’ future availability.
The conflicting rulings, issued about one hour apart by judges in Texas and Washington state, centered on the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in more than half of the abortions in this country.
In Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a nominee of former President Donald Trump, suspended the FDA approval of the drug, saying that the agency incorrectly determined the drug’s safety and effectiveness and went beyond its regulatory authority when it approved it in 2000.
In direct contrast, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice in Washington, a former President Barack Obama nominee, said the FDA should not change the availability of mifepristone in the states involved in a lawsuit over the drug’s access.
Kacsmaryk issued a nationwide injunction blocking FDA approval of the drug that goes into effect in seven days and gives the Justice Department time to appeal the ruling.
Rice did not grant a nationwide preliminary injunction to protect the drug’s availability, saying his order only applied to the 17 states and the District of Columbia that had filed a lawsuit seeking increased access to the drug.
The Department of Justice filed a request in a federal appeals court April 10 seeking to block the ruling by the Texas judge. It asked the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals to put Kacsmaryk’s ruling on hold while the case worked through the appeals process.
Danco Laboratories, the New York company that distributes Mifeprex, the brand version of mifepristone, filed a similar request April 10.
The Justice Department has not yet said whether it will file an appeal in the Washington case.
The Washington case, led by the state’s Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, challenged restrictions the FDA has placed on the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone.
The Texas case was filed by the group Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on behalf of itself and member groups such as the Catholic Medical Association, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, and other pro-life groups. The plaintiffs were represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty law firm.
The Texas hearing in mid-March examined the suit’s claims that the FDA “ignored the potential impacts of the hormone-blocking regimen on the developing bodies of adolescent girls” and disregarded evidence that chemical abortions cause more complications than surgical abortions.
The suit also claimed the FDA unlawfully fast-tracked mifepristone’s approval.
Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is the first of a two-drug regimen used to end a pregnancy in its early stages — through 10 weeks gestation. It is often described as a medication abortion pill.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops leaders have been vocal in their opposition to this drug since it was first given FDA approval in 2000. They echoed objections in 2016 when the FDA relaxed rules for its use, saying it could be administered with fewer visits to a doctor, and they also objected earlier this year when the FDA announced it was allowing some retail pharmacies to distribute the drug.
Pro-life leaders applauded the ruling by the Texas judge. “This decision shines a light on something that the Biden administration wants to sweep under the rug — that these drugs do not treat or cure disease but kill unborn children and expose their mothers to dangerous side effects. The FDA should be in the business of ensuring safety, not in taking lives,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.
Similarly, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini told The Associated Press that the court’s decision “is a major step forward for women and girls whose health and safety have been jeopardized for decades by the FDA’s rushed, flawed and politicized approval of these dangerous drugs.”
Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement that the goal of mifepristone is “to end a developing human life in the womb, which is always a tragedy. However, the question before the courts involves the drug’s safety for women and whether the FDA’s approval process in that regard was flawed.”
Poust added: “While we can’t predict what the courts will ultimately rule, the reality is for the pro-life movement to be truly successful in building a culture of life, it will be less about litigation and legislation and more about converting hearts and minds, and giving women in crisis pregnancies the supports they need to encourage them to carry their babies to term.”
If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit does not allow the FDA to maintain approval of mifepristone, legal experts are saying it is unclear how the two conflicting rulings will play out. One possibility is that there would be increased pressure on the Biden administration to tell the FDA to ignore the decision of the Texas judge.
But the issue will likely come before the Supreme Court and sooner than later in an appeal to its emergency docket. This would be the first abortion case to come to the court since its ruling last year in Dobbs v. Jackson.
Bishop Robert Brennan took time on Holy Saturday to visit three churches in the diocese that have big Polish communities and he blessed their Easter baskets.
The Catholic Church welcomed some new members this Easter weekend as hundreds were baptized yesterday in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Now that Easter is over it doesn’t mean we’re done celebrating Christ’s resurrection. The season of Eastertide is just beginning.
The Diocese of Brooklyn welcomed 381 newcomers who now call the Catholic Church in Brooklyn and Queens home.
It became official at the Easter Vigil but really, it was months in the making.
For Nataly Castillo, the journey home has lasted a lifetime and it’s only just begun.
Castillo was baptized at Holy Name of Jesus in Windsor Terrace Saturday night, after she randomly visited the church more than a year ago.
Whenever Castillo feels anxious or stressed she comes to Prospect Park to take a long walk.
“I always come to walk in the park, I love it here. It brings me a lot of peace,” Castillo said.
One day last fall Nataly’s feet were leading her somewhere different.
She found herself at the church and all the signs were there that her life was about to change.
“I was just walking around that day and that was probably one of those decisions that led into one of the greatest things in my life,” Castillo said.