Diocese of Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph. The bishop also washed the feet of parishioners from the Prospect Heights parish.
Children from St. Dominic and St. Athanasius in Bensonhurst took to the streets for the way of the cross.
Pope Francis will once again lead the way of the cross at the Colosseum in Rome.
Currents News Staff
Christians believe that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago.
Yet while images of Christ on the cross are omnipresent in Christian churches, little is known about how Jesus was crucified, and the society that put him there.
A new book, “The Cross and the Whip,” by Alessia Muliere, reexamines public punishments in ancient Roman society, and contextualize Christ’s passion for modern audiences.
“It was a society that attributed a different value to human life based on a person’s legal standing,” said Alessia.
Above all, they wanted to suppress people who were uncomfortable for the state, who were considered monsters in some way, and non-Romans fell into this category. Jesus was not Roman, and that’s why this [punishment] happened to him.
Historian Alessia Muliere says that while crucifixion was a known practice during the time of the Roman empire, details about Christ’s crucifixion are scarce due to a lack of icons and images of Jesus in the years following His death.
“It’s difficult to find visual sources,” she said. “We only have them after the fifth century after Christ. This could be out of respect for the figure of Christ, before there was almost a fear of producing these kinds of images.
As a result, she says it is possible Jesus was crucified like this, on a T-structure rather than on the traditional image of a cross, and with nails inserted in His wrists rather than the hands, as was more commonly practiced.
Alessia adds that during his procession to Calvary, Jesus likely only carried a portion of the cross on which he was hung.
“They would came hung, basically tied, to the patibulum, the horizontal log that formed part of the cross structure,” Alessia said, “they would be undressed, and continuously beaten along the way that lead them to the place of the punishment.”
Although much is lost from ancient Jerusalem, historians like Alessia say they are encouraged by recent archeological findings in the Holy Land, and maintain there is still much left to be discovered about the world in which Jesus lived and died.
Currents News Staff
Tradition holds that Jesus climbed these stairs, dubbed the “Scala Santa,” before coming face-to-face with Pontius Pilate.
Each year, thousands go up these 28 steps on their knees. Now, the flow of pilgrims is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels after Italy loosened its restrictions.
“Of course, it is a difficult moment for everyone,” said rector Father Leonello Leidi, “but we have noticed that in the people that came to the Scala Santa, there was this desire to contemplate the Passion of Christ up close, and to be present in that moment of pain and pray in it.”
The rector of the Scala Santa says that among the groups that visit the stairs are schools, who bring their students.
“It’s very beautiful to see groups of students that come to Rome on pilgrimage,” Father Leidi said. “They climb the Scala Santa as a challenge to bring themselves closer to Jesus’ passion.”
But the pilgrims are not limited to students, Emilia Mangas comes from Spain, and is a widow. It is her first time coming to the Scala Santa. She says she followed the tradition and climbed them on her knees.
“I felt very close to God,” said Emilia, “to everything that goes on during Holy Week. I was looking at the sky and thinking of my husband, that everything will end, this war, this pandemic, and that we can all live in peace right where we are.”
Many others like Emilia come to these stairs during Holy Week, and some groups of pilgrims see it as an essential stop in Rome. Yet tourists aren’t the only ones that climb them on their knees, popes such as Pope Pius IX did so in 1853.
Currents News Staff and Paula Katinas
PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The time-honored ritual of recreating the act of Jesus Christ washing the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper was the highlight of the Holy Thursday Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on April 14. Bishop Robert Brennan got on his hands and knees on the altar to perform the service for 12 members of the congregation.
Twelve people were chosen for the privilege because that is the number of disciples whose feet Jesus washed. The recipients at Thursday’s Mass included all age groups, from children to senior citizens. After completing his task, Bishop Brennan dried each person’s feet, smiled and said “God bless you.”
The ritual is significant, he said, because it commemorates Jesus’ love for the disciples and serves as an inspiration for Catholics to follow the Lord’s calling to love one another as He loves them. “This is a glorious night,” Bishop Brennan said. “It’s also a night about friendship.”
The Holy Thursday Mass, formally known as the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, is the first event in the Easter Triduum, which includes the Easter Vigil on Saturday and culminates on Easter Sunday.
Kesna Guerrier, whose feet were washed by Bishop Brennan, has taken part in the ritual in previous years. “It is always a wonderful feeling. You feel different, like you’re being taken out of your everyday experience,” she said.
Guerrier, who attends Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph every Sunday, said having her feet washed brings her closer to her faith.
Jacques Pardovany, a parishioner of the co-cathedral, stepped forward when the church asked for volunteers. “I’ve been a Catholic all my life and it’s important to me to do this,” he said. The last time he participated in the foot washing was four years ago, he explained, adding: “I wanted to do it again.”
Erica Figaro, a parishioner of St. Teresa of Avila Church, was a first-timer. “It’s a big moment for me. I’m excited,” she said prior to the Mass. Figaro was looking forward to another big night in the Easter Triduum. She will be baptized into the Catholic faith at the Easter Vigil on Saturday.
Another highlight of the Mass came when Bishop Brennan covered the Blessed Sacrament in a humeral veil and carried it throughout the co-cathedral in a solemn procession along with members of the clergy, altar servers and seminarians.
The Blessed Sacrament was placed in the tabernacle on the altar of repose and many of the faithful stayed behind after the Mass so that they could approach the altar and pray. Co-Cathedral Rector Father Christopher Heanue announced that the church would stay open until midnight.
Good Friday: The Lord’s Passion: Padre Pio
“In order to console a soul in it’s sufferings, point out to it all the good it can still do.”
Pope Francis celebrated the Chrism Mass today at the Vatican.
Ukrainian officials claim their forces hit the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet with missiles overnight.
Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan have released video of the officer who shot and killed 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya.
By Currents News Staff and Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In the life of every Christian, but especially of priests, God’s love and forgiveness are the greatest rewards, and any attempt to seek one’s own glory plays into the hands of the devil, Pope Francis said.
With some 1,800 priests concelebrating and renewing the promises made at their ordinations, Pope Francis celebrated the chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica April 14.
“There is no recompense greater than friendship with Jesus,” the pope told them. “There is no peace greater than his forgiveness. There is no greater price than his precious blood, and we must not allow it to be devalued by unworthy conduct.”
The chrism Mass was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing restrictions in 2021 meant that only 75 priests from the Diocese of Rome could represent all their brothers at the Mass with their bishop, the pope.
Although masks are still required for most people while indoors in Italy and at the Vatican, Pope Francis’ 2022 Holy Week and Easter services were again open to the public. The Vatican said about 2,500 laity joined the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests for the chrism Mass.
Still having difficulty walking, Pope Francis processed to the main altar from the back of the basilica rather than walking the entire length of the church, and he delivered his homily while seated.
Cardinals Mauro Gambetti, the pope’s vicar for Vatican City, Angelo De Donatis, his vicar for Rome, Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Leonardo Sandri, vice dean, were the principal concelebrants at the morning chrism Mass, which is named for the oils blessed during the liturgy.
After the homily and the renewal of priestly promises, deacons wheeled massive silver urns up the center aisle of the basilica to the pope for his blessing. The oils will be distributed to Rome parishes and used for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination and the anointing of the sick in the coming year.
While thousands of laypeople attended the Mass, Pope Francis’ homily was addressed to the priests, including himself and the cardinals and bishops present.
“Being priests, dear brothers, is a grace, a very great grace, yet it is not primarily a grace for us, but for our people,” he told them.
“The Lord is inviting us to be faithful to him, to be faithful to his covenant and to let ourselves be loved and forgiven by him,” he said. “They are invitations addressed to us, so that in this way we can serve, with a clear conscience, the holy and faithful people of God.”
Pope Francis suggested that at the end of each day, “we do well to gaze upon the Lord, and to let him gaze upon our hearts and the hearts of all those whom we have encountered.”
That “examen,” he said, is not meant to be “an accounting of our sins,” but an act of contemplation by which “we review our day with the eyes of Jesus, seeing its graces and gifts and giving thanks for all that he has done for us.”
Obviously, he said, sins and temptations also will show themselves, and recognizing them is the only way to reject them.
Pope Francis pointed particularly to the temptation of the “idols” of spiritual worldliness, exaggerated pragmatism and functionalism, all of which are really about “glorifying ourselves” and not God, he said.
“We need to remember that the devil demands that we do his will and that we serve him, but he does not always ask us to serve him and worship him constantly,” the pope said. “Receiving our worship from time to time is enough for him to prove that he is our real master and that he can feel like a god in our life and in our heart.”
“Seeking our own glory robs us of the presence of Jesus, humble and humiliated, the Lord who draws near to everyone, the Christ who suffers with all who suffer, who is worshipped by our people, who know who his true friends are,” Pope Francis said. “A worldly priest is nothing more than a clericalized pagan.”
Another “hidden idolatry,” he said, is devotion to numbers or statistics, which “can depersonalize every discussion and appeal to the majority as the definitive criterion for discernment.”
But “this cannot be the sole method or criterion for the church of Christ,” he said. “Persons cannot be ‘numbered,’ and God does not ‘measure out’ his gift of the Spirit.”
With functionalism, he said, mystery is ignored, and efficiency becomes the measure for everything.
“The priest with a functionalist mindset has his own nourishment, which is his ego,” he said. “In functionalism, we set aside the worship of the Father in the small and great matters of our life and take pleasure in the efficiency of our own programs.”
By Currents News Staff and Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Shannen Dee Williams describes her upcoming book about Black Catholic sisters as a “labor of love.”
Her book, “Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle,” which comes out in May, is the result of more than a dozen years of research and oral history interviews.
It recounts not only how Black sisters were front-runners in pushing for desegregation in society at large but how they also had to do that on a very personal level in their push to get accepted into predominantly white religious orders and to persevere in their vocation when some of them endured not just prejudice but outright bullying in these orders.
Williams, an associate professor of history at the Marianist-run University of Dayton in Ohio, and a columnist for Catholic News Service, interviewed women religious and pored through the archives of many congregations for her work.
Putting all of it together gets to some “true truths,” she said, using one of Sister Thea Bowman’s expressions. The Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration pioneered the rights of Black Catholics and her sainthood cause is being considered by the Vatican.
In a February interview, Williams said the idea for the book sprang from her own lack of awareness of Black sisters and once she started looking into them, she unearthed stories that had long been kept silent and women who were eager to share them.
These are stories we need to champion, the author said, “not only within the church but also within our society,” noting these women religious are the “forgotten prophets of American Catholicism and democracy.”
Williams said the stories are painful in many ways because they seem to go against who Catholic sisters are but she says recounting them is part of a first step toward healing. She said many of the sisters she spoke with told her they were glad someone was interested and had been waiting for someone to come to them.
She presented some of her initial findings at a 2016 assembly in Atlanta for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, saying she needed help with this project. Several communities stepped forward and one gave her a grant.
In recent years, she has been invited to speak to congregations across the country about how to look into and address their own links with racism. Some have started this examination by scouring their archives for details of excluding or mistreating women of color or relying on the labor of enslaved people.
Williams has urged congregations to recognize that “every community story is different” and that they need to find out exactly what they did. “You need to collect your own stories,” she’s told them.
“Just because a white community is willing to educate Black children does not mean that they are automatically committed to racial justice,” Williams said, noting that some religious communities had “anti-Black admissions policies” in place prior to desegregation laws.
The untold number of Black women who were rejected from religious orders are lost vocations that the church should reckon with, Williams said.
But also, if a congregation accepted a Black woman, it didn’t mean they were “being racially progressive,” she added.
Part of what pioneering Black sisters went through, including Sister Bowman, were abuses “designed to drive them out of religious life,” Williams said, stressing that these stories are painful but imperative to hear.
“It’s gut-wrenching. It’s hard,” she said.
For example, she said some orders that allowed Black sisters would not touch their utensils or use the same cups. They also required Black sisters to profess their vows separately in segregated ceremonies.
She said that was the experience of Sister Antona Ebo, a Franciscan Sister of Mary, known for marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in his 1965 march on Selma in Alabama. The sister, who died in 2017, also spoke out in 2014 at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of a Black man by a white police officer.
Sister Antona’s training and profession of vows took place separately from the white women who entered the order at that time.
The stories Williams heard from Black sisters who experienced prejudice and white sisters who witnessed it shows “heartbreak, built on top of heartbreak on top of heartbreak.” Acknowledgment of what happened is a first step, she noted, followed by a hard look at what it means to make some type of reparation for how this has harmed the church.
Williams acknowledges that reparation it is a big undertaking with no clear-cut direction on how to do it. For her part, as an educator, “historical truth-telling” is a beginning, and only that. It does not give congregations a pass to admit something bad happened and move on.
She said several congregations have started the work of reckoning with their own histories and also joining with groups fighting for racial equality, but there still is a long way to go.
As she sees it, women religious can ultimately support the “freedom campaigns of the contemporary period” and all Catholics who want to reckon with the church’s history can as well.
She said the models for the church now come from primarily Black congregations, such as the Oblate Sisters of Providence, who have been working for racial equality for close to 200 years and give “the blueprint for how we want to be.” Williams noted they have always essentially been living out the slogan “Black lives matter” in their work.
The determination and persistence of Black orders and sisters, long ago and still today, is something Williams has faced straight on.
“It’s been with me a long time. So it’s great to finally share it,” she said.
Currents News Staff
Heavy fighting, explosion and immeasurable human loss exists now after 50 days into the Ukrainian war. Tearful families look on, as crews search for bodies, near Kyiv.
“A [neighbor’s] daughter doesn’t know yet that she doesn’t [have anyone left],” said one civilian. “How am I supposed to tell her she has no mother and father anymore?”
The U.N. estimates nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, warning the actual figures are likely considerably higher. The propaganda is unending.
“Russia is helping Ukraine to get rid of Nazi groups,” said Olesya Simonova who evacuated her daughter from Ukraine: “And this is not a war.”
Olesya recounts what her Russian parents told her, as she evacuated her daughter from the long-time Russian-occupied Crimea.
“It was devastating to hear it from your own parents,” she said.
There are conflicting claims about one of the Russian navy’s most important warships. The Kremlin claims sailors evacuated after a fire. Ukraine says its missile attack caused it.
“It’s a big blow to Russia,” said Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Adviser.
The Moskva was behind this viral moment in the black sea, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. On the way to Ukraine, more javelin missiles, howitzers, drones and helicopters could be heard. The Pentagon hopes it could make a difference in the critical Donbas region.
“We’re moving as aggressively as we can to source all those items and get our hands in that material,” said John Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary.