Chief Justice John Roberts says the leak of the Supreme Court draft document will not affect the court’s decision process.
Christians in Iraq are returning to their homes and rebuilding their lives after the military defeat of ISIS in the Nineveh Plains.
There are some talented kids in Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn! Check out some of the artwork they submitted this year for The Tablet’s Easter Art Contest.
Deacon Kevin McCormack Named Superintendent of Schools for Diocese of Brooklyn
By Currents News Staff and Paula Katinas
BAY RIDGE — Deacon Kevin McCormack, the principal of Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge, has been appointed superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn by Bishop Robert Brennan, the diocese announced on Thursday, May 5.
McCormack, whose appointment becomes effective July 1, will succeed Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, who is retiring after serving as superintendent for 19 years.
“The schools and academies of the Diocese of Brooklyn have been blessed by the many years of steady, strong, and devoted leadership of our Superintendent Dr. Thomas Chadzutko,” Bishop Brennan said. “He truly has championed the growth of our schools and academies through teacher professional development, technology, and curriculum enhancements. Today we see the success of Catholic schools throughout Brooklyn and Queens because of his work. I am confident Deacon Kevin McCormack will expand on that success, given his exemplary work leading Xaverian and his clear commitment to Catholic Identity.”
“I am grateful that Bishop Brennan has placed his trust in me to build upon the formative work of Dr. Chadzutko and continue the blessed tradition of excellence in Catholic education,” said McCormack, who helped shepherd Xaverian High School’s transition to a co-ed institution in 2016.
In an interview with The Tablet, Deacon McCormack, 61, outlined his priorities — chief among them strengthening students’ Catholic identity.
“I want to renew our understanding of the mission of Catholic schools,” he said. “Every school teaches math, science, history, and English. Catholic schools do something different. We bring a Catholic identity to a world that so desperately needs it.”
Schools in the diocese saw a 2.4% increase in enrollment between the 2021 and 2022 school years and Deacon McCormack said he will work to keep that trend moving up.
There are 70 Catholic elementary academies and schools in the diocese, as well as 15 Catholic high schools. The current enrollment is 30,894 students — 19,613 in elementary students and 11,281 in high schools.
Another priority will be to recruit and maintain teachers.
“The biggest crisis we have, I think, is being able to sustain the people that we need. We need to invest financially in our faculties and our administrators and our staff,” he said.
Keeping up with the latest advances in technology is also at the top of his agenda. “Technology is an essential part of what we do. We need to keep pushing the envelope on technology,” he said.
However, he vowed to proceed carefully. “We have some great things that are being done here. We don’t need a complete overhaul by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
Deacon McCormack spent 37 years at Xaverian High School, first as a teacher of English and religion before he was appointed principal 15 years ago. During his tenure, the formerly all-boys school went co-ed, welcoming girls in September 2016.
There were other notable gains during his years there. In 2010, Xaverian became one of the first schools in the country to introduce iPads into the classroom.
“We also worked with outside communities finding new ways for funding and making sure that we have access to all the things that are rightfully ours by state mandate,” he explained.
Deacon McCormack was the co-host, with Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, of the program Religion on the Line on WABC Radio from 2006 to 2018.
As he gets ready for his new job, Deacon McCormack looks with admiration at his predecessor.
“In Tom Chadzutko, you’re talking about a guy who is dedicated. I don’t think he sleeps! I’ve never had a situation where I reached out to Tom, no matter what time of day, where he hasn’t helped me,” he recalled.
Chadzutko said he was grateful for the chance to serve.
“I have been blessed with pastors, principals, and staff that share the faith and the mission of Catholic education,” he said. “The greatest joy is the knowledge that our work has impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of students over the past three decades.”
Deacon McCormack was born in the Fordham section of the Bronx. His dad Joe was a transit worker. His mother Betty was a homemaker. McCormack attended Our Lady of Mercy School. “We lived in a Catholic community. Your whole world was the church,” he recalled.
The family moved to Valley Stream, New York, and Kevin transferred to Blessed Sacrament School.
For a time, he thought God was calling him to the priesthood. He entered the St. Pius X Prep Seminary Seminary and later attended Cathedral College and the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. But he left Immaculate Conception in his pastoral year.
McCormack had met Regina Procida, a novice preparing to take her vows to join the Sisters of St. Joseph. “We took classes together and we became friends. And then we were in a wedding together and things started to move in a different direction,” he recalled.
They were married in 1987 and have four children.
Years later, McCormack heard God’s call again — this time to be a deacon. He was ordained a deacon of the Diocese of Rockville Centre by Bishop William Murphy on May 18, 2002.
Deacon McCormack holds a Master of Arts in Theology from the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from Fordham University.
Msgr. David Cassato, vicar for Catholic schools, said Deacon McCormack enjoys an advantage coming into his new job because of his decades of experience.
“He can hit the ground running on Day One,” he said. “He knows the diocese so well. He’s done great things at Xaverian. He’s a man of vision and a man with a lot of energy.”
Xaverian announced that Daniel Sharib, Xaverian Class of ’96, will be the new principal effective July 1. Sharib, who has been the assistant principal of academics since 2016, will serve as the school’s 10th principal.
“It is an honor and privilege to be able to serve as the principal of a community and family that have meant so much to me personally for nearly 30 years as a student, teacher, and administrator,” Sharib said in a statement.
By Currents News Staff and Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Although many pro-life groups immediately reacted positively to the news that the majority of Supreme Court justices seem set to overturn the court’s Roe v. Wade decision, some tempered their reaction with a continued call for more advocacy while others kept a wait-and-see approach until the court issues its opinion in the weeks ahead.
Some Catholic bishops likewise kept their response in check, but acknowledged the work done on the grassroots level by pro-life activists.
For example, hours after the draft of the court’s opinion was published by Politico May 2, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone tweeted: “Tonight I am thinking of all the years of hard work by pro-life people of all faiths and none. Years and years of patient advocacy, help for unwed moms, political engagement and more.”
The next day, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in a statement that he will “comment when the Supreme Court releases its official ruling. No matter the court’s decision, the Catholic Church will continue to work toward building a culture of life and supporting women and their children,” he said.
National Right to Life, an advocacy group that has long fought against abortion, similarly said it “agrees with the statement of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who said, ‘We will let the Supreme Court speak for itself and wait for the Court’s official opinion.’”
Other groups were not so cautious. Texas Right to Life said it was encouraging news that “Roe soon may be gone. Yet new attacks on life will emerge.”
In its May 2 statement, the group called its supporters to further action saying: “Already, abortion advocates are calling on Congress to ban states from passing pro-life laws.”
“If and when the court overturns Roe, the pro-life movement must defeat attacks such as these and build a culture that values preborn children and pregnant mothers.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, likened the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade as the beginning for the antiabortion movement.
The previous day, her group sent a letter to all the Republican members of Congress urging them to back a nationwide “heartbeat bill,” banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy. Hawkins, and nine other antiabortion leaders, emphasized that the 15-week ban at stake in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before the court did not go far enough.
“If we are not focusing on limiting early abortions, we are not really addressing the violence of abortion at all,” Hawkins wrote in the letter.
After the court’s draft decision was leaked, she told The Washington Post: “We are on the precipice of a whole new America.”
One thing many groups said they were not happy with was that the opinion was leaked to a news outlet.
Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said the leak was a breach of trust and “an attack on the integrity of the Judicial Branch of government.”
“When our highest court cannot operate free of political interference or intimidation, it serves as a stark example that nothing is sacred anymore. While we fervently pray for legal protections of unborn children, we will not dignify the goals of the leaker by commenting on the contents of the draft document.”
The California Catholic Conference said in a May 3 statement that the leak of the opinion draft “triggered the governor and California legislative leadership to announce its intent to create a California constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion. This will destroy lives, families and significantly limit the ability of the Catholic Church in California to protect the unborn.”
The conference said this was moment for the church and California Catholics to “engage with their communities, actively and publicly oppose this amendment.”
Right to Life Michigan expressed “cautious optimism” about the leaked draft and said its mission won’t change if Roe is overturned.
“We’d have a complete abortion ban in our state, but there are a lot of different moving parts with different groups and with a governor who is trying to invalidate this law. Our focus would be on those efforts and making sure we are fighting against them and have as many people on our side fighting against them as well,” Anna Visser, director of communications and education for Right to Life Michigan, told Detroit Catholic.
She warned pro-life advocates not to celebrate too early, considering the official opinion hasn’t been released and the final version might not reflect the views of Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the draft opinion.
She also noted that the work of pro-life advocacy goes beyond abortion.
“As a pro-life organization, we have to protect the vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled, the unborn,” she said, adding that the focus is “on the marginalized and those discriminated against.”
Contributing to this report was Daniel Meloy, a staff writer for Detroit Catholic, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Just days after that Supreme Court draft was leaked, pro-life groups are focusing on the future.
Schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn will soon have a new leader.
Currents News Staff
It’s the moment students from across the Diocese of Brooklyn have been waiting for: who won the Tablet’s Easter art contest!
The winners were announced this week at the Knights of Columbus’ Archbishop John Hughes Council in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. A special ceremony was held there. The Tablet hosted the winners and their families.
The competition was tough this year – there were nearly 300 entries and more than 25 schools participated.
Currents News Staff
Currents News had a busy work day bringing its audiences the top headlines Catholics should know – as well as welcoming future journalists and anchors.
7th graders and 8th graders from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy in Brooklyn were invited to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph by rector Father Christopher Heanue for a retreat-like event.
After Mass, they were given a tour of the Currents News set and control room to see journalism in action!
Currents News Staff and Bill Miller
BROWNSVILLE — When Denise Robinson was shown an apartment unit at the Catholic Charities Pope Francis Apartments at Loreto, she knew she had found a new home.
“My eyes got big, and I was like a kid just after Santa Claus came,” said Robinson, who in mid-April settled into one of the 135 units. “I didn’t ask to see another one. I said, ‘Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus!’ ”
Bishop Robert Brennan and Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio joined Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ) in dedicating the eight-story complex with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, April 28.
This site, 2377 Pacific St. in the Brownsville area, was once home to Our Lady of Loreto Parish. Structural problems forced the demolition of the church in 2017.
About half of the apartments have already been leased for low-income and formerly homeless senior citizens like Robinson, who struggles with back and hip ailments.
Robinson and her new neighbors now have access to Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services, including an on-call nurse, health counseling, and case management. Amenities include 24-hour security, a fitness room, two large community rooms, and laundry room.
Rooftop solar panels cut the building’s utility bills and its carbon footprint, in accordance with the environmental leadership expressed by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Sí.”
Bishop Brennan said that as the new head of the Diocese of Brooklyn, “you find yourself taking bows for work that other people did.
“And so,” he continued, “I’m proud to pick up the baton from Bishop DiMarzio and all of the work that went into the planning and all of the construction of this project.”
CCBQ broke ground on this affordable housing project in January 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic struck two months later, but construction continued while other projects in the area stalled.
That’s because affordable housing projects were exempted from the lockdowns, said Tim McManus, senior vice president of CCBQ’s Progress of Peoples (POP) Development Corporation. This organization develops affordable housing for Catholic Charities.
Although construction at the Pacific Street site continued, it was not without pandemic problems, McManus said.
“Everything we know about construction and real estate development changed because of COVID,” he said. “We had to adapt to new ways of doing things. Case in point: we had to learn how to do things remote.
“We had specialty software that the general contractor would [use to] walk around and do video tours so we could actually inspect without coming here, without the risk,” McManus added. “If someone from the outside came in and had COVID and infected someone on the site, we would have had to shut down for three weeks, potentially more.”
Including the rooftop solar panels added to CCBQ’s experience of developing clean alternative energy solutions. CCPOP launched its Laudato Si’ Corporation in 2021 to do just that. CCPOP now runs several solar arrays in the CCBQ housing portfolio.
Like Robinson, new resident Michael Freeman was ecstatic to have a new home
“I’m just so happy,” he exclaimed, verging on tears. “I want to scream and shout. But I don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Freeman, who spoke during the dedication, explained later that he became homeless during the pandemic, He fell into depression when family members died of COVID. He entered homeless shelters, but Catholic Charities quickly helped him find a new home.
“What you [CCBQ] guys are doing, please keep doing it,” he said. “Because I’m not the only one; many other people out here need help. And I know they will be just as grateful as me.”
Currents News Staff
The stunning success the much-smaller Ukrainian military has had against the Russian invaders would not be possible without the billions of dollars worth of U.S. and NATO weapons flooding into the country.
Notably, the thousands of easy-to-use, highly portable, American javelins and stingers, that for over two months have taken out countless Russian tanks and aircraft.
“Sometimes we’ll speak softly and carry a large javelin,” said President Biden, “because we’re sending a lot of those in as well.”
So many, in fact, that now the U.S. inventory of stingers and javelins are running dangerously low, with the war being far from over.
“The closet is bare,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of the Armed Services Committee. “Just to give you one example, the United States military has probably dispensed about one-third of its Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, one-third of our supply given to them.”
While the U.S. wants to give Ukraine what it ineeds, Pentagon officials must balance that with not letting supplies dip below what they need. The Biden Administration just requested over $5 Billion dollars from Congress to replenish its stocks.
But the Pentagon insists the aid packages for Ukraine have not hurt overall U.S. readiness.
“We will never go below our minimum requirement for our stockpiles,” said Lloyd Austin the U.S. Defense Secretary. “So we will always maintain the capability to defend this country and support our interests.”
The U.S. has already committed 1,400 stingers, almost 100 Howitzer systems and hundreds of drones and armored vehicles, as well as thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine.
Currents News Staff and John Lavenburg
NEW YORK — Sherif Girgis said he felt “kind of a gut punch” after the draft of a Supreme Court majority decision was leaked late on May 2. The former law clerk at the nation’s high court couldn’t believe what he called an “astonishing and appalling” move by the leaker.
“I think the overwhelming majority of people who have ever worked at the court in any capacity, including law clerks on both sides of the aisle, would never think to do something like this,” said Girgis, who clerked for Justice Samuel Alito in 2018-19, and currently works as an associate professor at Notre Dame Law School. “It’s an egregious breach of trust.”
The sentiment is shared by others in the law profession with connections to the Supreme Court. Their focus is less on the content of the leaked draft — which, as many anticipated, overturns Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and sends abortion law control back to state levels — and more on what it says about the current state of the court, and the implications for its future.
The court’s 1973 Roe decision legalized abortion nationwide. The Casey decision affirmed Roe in 1992.
Girgis made the comments at a May 3 Notre Dame Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government panel discussion about the leak. He said he believes it’s almost certain the leak won’t affect the outcome of the case at hand, that is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“I think the real or maybe even intended impact of it is just to make the court look like a political institution,” Girgis noted. “The goal, I think, or at least the likely effect, is to undermine the sense that the court is a legitimate institution that does law, not politics.”
On that point, University of California, Berkeley, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law John Yoo added during the panel discussion that the leak is the use of partisan political fighting tactics usually reserved for the Executive Branch and Congress. No matter what happens now, Yoo said, “the court has lost because this just strikes me as an effort to undermine the legitimacy of the court.”
Yoo was a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas in 1994-95.
Speaking with The Tablet, Boston College Law Professor Kent Greenfield views the leak a bit differently, acknowledging how the flaws of the current iteration of the court got it to this point. He classified the leak as “a symptom of a more profound, fundamental problem with the court’s legitimacy and the court’s standing in the public eye.”
To highlight the way he feels about the court has changed, Greenfield looks back to 1992 when the Supreme Court ruled on Casey. Similar to the current iteration, at that time the Supreme Court also had a strong conservative majority [that was] presented with an opportunity to potentially overturn Roe, and the public thought it was set to do so.
However, three of the then-conservative justices — Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter, and Anthony Kennedy — instead reaffirmed Roe, citing the need to respect precedent, and not risk undermining the court’s legitimacy to the American people. The justices argued that “an entire generation has come of age free to assume Roe’s concept of liberty in defining the capacity of women to act in society, and to make reproductive decisions.”
“I think back to Casey 30 years ago and you had O’Connor, Kennedy and Souter — three Republican-appointed justices cobbling together plurality that maintained the core of the holding of Roe — so in a way that was a court that thought of itself as separate from politics in ways that this court cannot hold itself out as being,” said Greenfield, who clerked for former Justice David Souter in 1994-95.
“This is the first time in several generations in which the polarization of the court is nearing the polarization of the country,” he continued. “The conservative appointees are conservative. The democratic appointees are liberal.”
The draft that was leaked on May 3 was a first draft majority opinion written by Alito that was dated February 10. It’s unclear what, if anything, has changed in the months since, as Greenfield said it’s almost certain that more drafts have circulated among the justices.
Girgis repeated his belief that whatever has or hasn’t changed, the leak “is almost certain to have no effect on what the court does in Dobbs.”
Richard W. Garnett, a Notre Dame Law School professor who clerked for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1996-1997 said in a statement to The Tablet that for the court’s sake “we should all hope that the justices will not be swayed or influenced by such efforts” regardless of one’s views on the legal questions of the case.
The question that hangs over everything related to the leak is still who and why. Chief Justice John Roberts has already called for an investigation into the source of the leak. Meanwhile, everyone is left scratching their heads for an answer.
Greenfield said it’s likely that fewer than 50 people had access to the opinion. He sees two possibilities: A liberal justice or clerk leaked the draft to create backlash and start a legislative response, or a conservative justice or clerk released the draft in order to maintain the thin five-vote majority with Roberts’ vote still up in the air. He’s leaning towards the latter.
“If Roberts has been trying to cobble together middle ground like the three justices did in Casey, then one way Alito or another conservative justice or clerk might try to keep those defections from happening is by releasing the draft so that, in the end, if this opinion does not turn out to be a majority, then it will be obvious who defected,” Greenfield said.
Yoo, on the other hand, can’t see why conservatives would want to leak this if they already had the five votes needed to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling it “an unsuccessful strategy.”
Girgis doesn’t see a benefactor.
“It’s very hard for me to reconstruct who would have done this because it doesn’t seem to make sense from anybody’s perspective,” Girgis said. “The personal risk is astronomical.”
Protests and praise after that document from the Supreme Court about Roe v Wade was leaked.
Russia pounded railroad stations and other supply points Wednesday.
More than 60 kids got to see behind the scenes of Currents News and some even read from a teleprompter during a school visit to our studio today.