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Inspired By Pope Francis: Student With Chronic Lyme Disease Becomes Advocate

By Jessica Easthope 

Twenty-one-year-old Julia Bruzzese hasn’t taken a step in almost 10 years. But Julia would say she’s taken many to make sure no one else suffers the way she has. 

“Countless doctors that I went to at the beginning of this,” she tells Currents News. “Because of that misdiagnosis, I’m in a wheelchair today, and this is happening to so many people.”

Before Julia was diagnosed with lyme disease in 2015 her father and main caregiver Enrico saw his healthy, active daughter fade away. Doctors told him Julia was faking it.

“I was tired, I was always falling asleep in class. I wasn’t able to see the board anymore,” she explains. “You know, I’d be getting recurring fevers for no reason. And I’d be going to my pediatrician for these really concerning symptoms. My hair was coming out like falling out in clumps. My hair. And she would be like, ‘It’s growing pains, you know, it’s just puberty.’”

“She’s blue in color. She has a high fever. And the doctor tells me she may be embellishing a bit,” recalls Enrico

The last decade of Julia’s life has been spent in a wheelchair, lobbying before Congress, advocating for funding, research, and for doctors to take symptoms of chronic lyme disease seriously.

“There’s a tremendous lack of awareness and lack of resources. And people need help,” Enrico tells Currents News. “And we’re trying to get more research, more funding for research, and just more awareness in medical schools and just in the public, about the disease and how serious it could be.”

The inaccuracy of testing is why I’m here today,” says Julia. “So if they would have caught it sooner, if my pediatrician had said, ‘That’s a bull’s eye rash, let me treat you for Lyme disease,’ I wouldn’t be here right now. Probably, I wouldn’t be in a wheelchair. It’s become my mission to raise awareness about lyme disease and advocate for people, because there are millions of people right now suffering with chronic lyme disease.”

Julia feels her platform was given to her early on in her disease by Pope Francis. She met him – fresh off the papal plane on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City the summer of her diagnosis. She thought if anyone could help her walk again it was him.

“I felt so much hope that day. I didn’t get up and walk, but he brought me so many different miracles and so much love,” she says. “And so that’s what I want to give back. And I think the pope brought me that.”

“It all started with the pope. He touched Julia. That’s what he did. He touched her, and he opened up Julia’s life to all these blessings that continue to this day,” adds. Enrico. “It’s just amazing.”

Now a junior at Long Island University, Julia is on track to becoming a doctor. 

She still hopes to walk again – she has yet to get the miracle she asked Pope Francis for.

“So many people are suffering in silence and I’m grateful to be able to be their voice in a way,” she tells Currents News.” 

“May this only happen to us,” says Enrico. “And that’s what I always ask God when I pray to him. Nobody else.”

But she says today, with confidence, she’s gotten more.

Pope Francis Marks 12 Year Anniversary With Resolve to Continue

By Currents News

Twelve years ago reporters stood in St. Peter’s Square and heard that Jorge Bergoglio had been elected as the next pope.

Then Pope Francis appeared on the balcony. People have been asking who he is since – and over the past 12 years, Francis has proven to be a pope full of surprises.

This year, Pope Francis is marking the anniversary of his election from hospital.

As such, Currents News is taking it as a moment to look at how much of a huge impact the pope has had on the papacy and the Catholic Church. 

Pope Francis has embraced simplicity, wearing simple black shoes rather than the red papal slippers.

He uses a modest car and lives in a Vatican guest house rather than the papal palace. 

The Holy Father has also been an advocate for migrants, even bringing refugee families to Rome on his papal plane. 

Before his hospitalization, he sent a strong rebuke to the Trump administration over its immigration deportation policy.

Pope Francis has also appointed the first female leaders of Vatican departments, appointed the first women voting members of a global Vatican assembly, and washed the feet of female prisoners during his papacy. 

The pontiff has made repeated efforts for peace, working with other religious leaders and making bold appeals to end conflicts in Africa, Ukraine, and the Middle East. 

Finally, the pope has insisted that the Church is open to everyone, including LGBT Catholics.

“If a person is gay and accepts the Lord and has goodwill, well, who am I to judge” he said. 

He authorized blessings for same-sex couples and called for the decriminalization of homosexuality. 

Lamb has been speaking to those who know Pope Francis very well, and they say that he is a determined character driven by a deep sense of mission. 

Despite a serious health crisis, Pope Francis is determined to continue.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 3/13/2025

Young people from the Diocese of Brooklyn have been busy fundraising to travel to Rome this summer. But thanks to a generous parishioner, the financial stress of getting there has been alleviated for one church in Williamsburg.

On March 13, 2013, Pope Francis marked the beginning of his papacy. Currents News takes a look at his pontificate over the years.

One woman who met Pope Francis at the time of her lyme disease diagnosis says the encounter felt miraculous. Now she’s using that inspiration to help others.

Parishioner’s Generous Donation Offsets Costs for Youth Ministry to Travel to Jubilee in Rome

By Katie Vasquez

A group of six young people from Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation parish in Williamsburg are eager to head to Rome this summer, where they will take part in the 2025 Jubilee of Young People in July. 

“We get to meet a lot of people our age from all over the world, not just in New York. And we get to hear about different perspectives and different stories of people’s lives, and maybe we can all connect to them,” Angelique Alonso, a member of the youth ministry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation, tells Currents News.

During a recent youth ministry meeting, they each wrote a note of gratitude to the many donors who have been making their future pilgrimage possible. 

The church has been fundraising since last July, and had collected about $50,000 dollars through their efforts and events like a radio bingo fundraiser in late February. 

“We had a great night. I think we’re going to be short $10 or $12,000,” is what Deacon Michael Chirichella, the director of the youth ministry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish, anticipated at the time of the fundraiser. 

That’s when parishioner John Bardi stepped in.

“I said, ‘How much?’ and he told me, and I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll give you the check this week.'” the parishioner tells Currents News.

The church has always been the center of John’s life, and he knew this experience would be empowering. 

“I could have covered the entire cost of the trip, but I wanted them to believe in this and put their time and effort in,” he explains. 

Two brothers in the youth ministry, Ariel and Leonardo Mantilla, say that without John’s support this pilgrimage wouldn’t be possible. 

“I told my parents that if we didn’t have enough money or had enough only to send my brother, I would let him go instead of me,” Leonard says.

“They’re very hard working parents, I would say, but I don’t think they would be able to pay for two people,” adds Ariel.

But Bardi says he isn’t looking for a thank you for his $12,000 donation.

” It’s about what this means, and what this means to these young adults in the parish that really want to experience this and experience Rome and go on this journey of faith,” he tells Currents News. “And, it’s exciting… looking forward to hearing how they feel afterwards.”

Now, these young people are focused on being pilgrims of hope.

12 Years Later: Marking the Anniversary of Pope Francis’ Papacy

By Currents News

It’s been 12 years of Pope Francis’ pontificate and 12 years of reform.

On one hand, economic concerns forced Pope Francis to make more internal controls in the Vatican accounts.

The objective was to avoid scenes like the arrest of a monsignor accused of alleged money smuggling.

“The auditors pointed out to the Pope the situation that can be summarized in this sentence: there is almost no transparency in the Holy See’s balance sheets,” journalist  Gianluigi Nuzzi tells Currents News.

On the other hand, there was the reform against sexual abuse in the Church.

In 2019 the Holy Father summoned the presidents of all the bishops’ conferences of the world. The aim was to sensitize them to the need for action. Pope Francis made reforms to better prevent and prosecute alleged abusers, although there are Vatican officials who point out that the processes are still not transparent.

“The permanent, constant complaint is the lack of communication. A canonical process begins and then many of these victims know absolutely nothing about this process,” Monsignor Luis Manuel Alí Herrera of the Pontifical Commission for the Guardianship of Minors, explains. “This same situation, this same complaint, is not only said of the organisms of the Roman Curia, but also of the particular churches, the dioceses, of those in charge of their canonical processes.”

Perhaps the pope’s least understood position within the Church, or the one that has raised the most controversy among Catholics, has been the question of the relationship with homosexuality and the LGBTQ field, especially when he decided to explore if a type of blessing could be performed for same-sex couples.

“There has been a masterful innovation, an innovation in the way we understand blessings. The pope wanted to broaden the understanding of blessings to develop its pastoral richness,” 

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, notes. “In other words, it helps us understand that there are blessings that do not confirm, do not sanction, do not consecrate, do not justify anything. They are just a prayer of the minister to express God’s help to continue living.”

Controversies aside, what cannot be left out is Pope Francis’ travel history: 47 trips and almost 70 countries. He took the longest trip of all at the age of 87 in 2024, Among the places he visited: the country with the most Muslims in the world, Indonesia. While there, he sent a message against religious fundamentalism.

If the pontiff has stood out for anything it is for his kind gestures towards others, especially towards the poor, with the sick, and with the marginalized.

One of the most endearing took place in a simple Roman parish when a child asked him if his father, who had recently died and was an atheist, was in heaven.

Middle School Students Get Closer to Faith At Lenten Rally

By Katie Vasquez

A March morning filled with song and benediction before the Blessed Sacrament at St Mel’s Church in Flushing, Queens wasn’t a usual school day for Diocese of Brooklyn middle school students.

“The kids got to step out of the regular everyday stuff and to be quiet with their God for about an hour. It doesn’t get better than that,” Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn, Deacon Kevin McCormack, said of how the students spent their day.

Four Catholic academies, St Mel’s, St Luke’s, St Andrew Avellino, and St Michael’s brought their students together for a Lenten rally as a chance for reflection and prayer. 

7th grader Jayden Morita says it’s this time with God that convinced him to transfer from public schools. 

“I pray before eating. Every morning I pray. Every afternoon I pray, and so every night I pray like I’m getting closer to God now that I’m in a Catholic school,” he tells Currents News.

Seeing other kids her age is an inspiration to Genesis Lin, an 8th grader at St. Michael Catholic Academy.

 “Usually teenagers, they’re pretty far away from God nowadays,” she explains, “and it’s pretty reassuring that we’re all here in his name.”

Father Joseph Fonti, the pastor of St Mel’s, led a eucharistic procession around the Queens church. He is urging the students to follow their vocation whatever it might be. 

“We usually believe around that time young people are invited to know Him, love Him, serve Him as a vocation, whether it be through marriage, through religious life, or or priesthood,” he says.

During this Lenten season, students like Jayden plan to follow whatever path God has for him. 

“He spent 40 days without, you know, but I feel like it’s getting me closer to him,” he explains.

Another Lenten rally is planned for March 18 at St Thomas Aquinas in Flatlands, giving nearby schools in Brooklyn a chance to be alone with Christ. 

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 3/12/2025

Students from the Diocese of Brooklyn are getting closer to Christ this Lenten season during a youth rally in Queens.

Pope Francis continues to be stable – according to the Vatican he spent the day in prayer.

NET-TV is preparing to bring you full Holy Week coverage. We have the details on when and where you can tune in to services

Sober St. Patrick’s Day: Family-Friendly Celebration Shifts Focus From Drinking to Appreciation of Irish History 

By Currents News and Gina Christian

(OSV News) – An annual celebration of St. Patrick’s Day is looking to recenter the observance on Ireland’s patron saint and the spiritual strength that enabled him to live life fully and freely.

In the U.S., the March 17 feast day has long been an occasion for vaguely themed celebrations of Irish culture, with alcoholic drinks figuring prominently in the mix.

But Bill Reilly, founder of Sober St. Patrick’s Day, has been working to change that for well over a decade.

“At least in New York, and I’m sure this is true virtually everywhere, most people are not celebrating St. Patrick,” Reilly, a former theater and television producer, told The Tablet. “And they’re not really sure why they’re celebrating except to have a good old time. So we really want to stay focused on who it is we’re celebrating.”

Now in its 14th year, the 2025 Sober St. Patrick’s Day gathering, which follows New York City’s iconic parade in honor of the saint, will take place March 17 at the Church of Our Saviour in the city’s Murray Hill neighborhood, part of the Archdiocese of New York.

The entertainment lineup includes two all-Ireland champion musicians – fiddler Brian Conway and button accordionist John Whelan – as well as awarding-winning pipers, dancers and other entertainers.

Tickets are available at soberstpatricksday.org, where participants can also register to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the nonprofit’s contingent. The website also features resources for establishing additional “Sober St. Patrick’s Day” celebrations.

Back in 2011, Reilly was inspired to create an alcohol-free, family-friendly St. Patrick’s Day bash that would highlight the best of Irish musical and dance performance, while pointing revelers to the fifth-century saint, who came to be known as the apostle of Ireland.

Born in Britain to a Romanized family, Patrick was captured at age 16 by Irish raiders and spent six years as a slave. During that time, he developed a profound prayer life, and following his escape and reunion with his family, he eventually returned to Ireland to evangelize its people.

Last year, Reilly told The Tablet that St. Patrick’s “Confession” – which along with the “Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus” can be definitively attributed to the saint – had a “great effect” on him.

Reilly’s website features a number of resources – among them, two three-minute videos – for learning more about St. Patrick and of another patron of Ireland, St. Brigid, who is believed to have been a fifth-century abbess.

Reaction to the videos “has been extraordinary,” with many struck by the saint’s ability to ultimately forgive his captors and serve those in the land of his exile and slavery, said Reilly.

“I think the video has gotten such attention … because it’s landed in a place where people who thought they knew a lot about Patrick didn’t take into account that aspect of his evangelizing and of his life, and of his transformative power,” Reilly said.

The video has “allowed people to think differently about the dangers of not forgiving, seeing what he did,” said Reilly. “It wasn’t just like he forgave his brother because he had an argument. He forgave people who enslaved him for six years. That’s big time stuff. And then as a result of that, I believe very strongly that’s how Ireland got converted.”

Another aspect of the saint’s legacy that Reilly’s celebration highlights is the bond among generations.

“It’s the notion of the communal,” he explained. “What we’re trying to do, and I think what we’ve done pretty well so far, is allow people to realize that it’s really about the interrelationship among human beings. And in the case of St. Patrick’s Day, we do that using the depth of Irish culture, because I don’t think any nationality has a more intergenerational form of art and music and dance.”

For example, he said, traditional Irish music “is the kind of thing where a 6-year-old can be dancing with a 96-year-old.”

In fact, said Reilly, there’s an Irish word that captures such conviviality: craic (pronounced “crack”).

“That sense of great craic and that sense of great community is really at the core of what happens at our event,” he said.

To learn more, go to soberstpatricksday.org/events.

NYPD Holy Name Society Honors Fallen Hero for Faith and Sacrifice

By Currents News and Mike Rizzzo

QUEENS VILLAGE — Almost a year to the date of his line of duty death, Det. Jonathan Diller’s widow, Stephanie, sat in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village on March 9 for the annual NYPD Brooklyn-Queens Holy Name Society Mass. It was there, with a congregation of hundreds of NYPD uniformed officers, that she rose to a standing ovation to accept the society’s Sgt. Paul Hargrove Award in her husband’s honor and a $1,000 donation to the scholarship fund she’s established in Det. Diller’s name.

The award pays tribute to “extraordinary heroism,” Sgt. Michael Ciota, the society’s president, said in introducing Stephanie. In accepting the award and speaking to those in the church, Diller called her husband and Sgt. Hargrove “two shining lights for all” as men of faith, family, and dedication to their work in the NYPD. The Mass preceded the society’s annual Communion breakfast at nearby Antun’s Catering Hall. The Sgt. Paul Hargrove Award was instituted in 2024 and named for the NYPD veteran and longtime society member. Sgt. Hargrove posthumously received the honor last year after he succumbed to cancer on March 8, just days before that year’s breakfast. Det. Diller was killed 17 days later.

Although Diller never met Sgt. Hargrove, she feels a connection to him. “I understand he was a wonderful person,” she said just before the Mass began. “They both passed in March, and in a way, I feel like Paul probably welcomed Jonathan.” She is grateful for the support she receives from organizations like the Holy Name Society. “I was talking with Paul’s wife just before this,” she said. “People don’t realize how much it means to us to keep remembering our husbands, keep talking about them, to keep supporting us, to keep showing up. That is the best way to honor our husbands. It’s the spirit of our husbands living on.”

The society members’ connection as a family came up in speeches at the breakfast and in an interview, also conducted before the Mass began, with Msgr. Robert Romano, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bensonhurst, the assistant chief of NYPD chaplain, and the society’s spiritual director. “Family of blood and family of blue,” he said, adding that the Holy Name Society is the bond between both. “These are Catholic police officers who live their faith.”

Sgt. Hargrove’s son Paul was among the Hargrove family members at the Mass and breakfast. “I think Jonathan exemplified what a true police officer was, which is what my father stood for,” he said. “As the first awardee after my father’s passing, it’s a tremendous honor for it to be Jonathan. I think if we continue to have people speak the way that Stephanie did about the importance of being Catholic and the connection to religion and the job, I think that’s very important.”

As Stephanie Diller looks to the future, she spoke of focusing on her young son Ryan, rooting her life in her faith, and doing for others. “Whenever I am in church, I always feel more connected to Jonathan. It’s just that extra layer of feeling like he’s with me,” she said. “Remembering him and living a life that he’s proud of, that honors him, that keeps his spirit in it, that’s really what I want to keep doing.”

“Helping people when I can, using the voice that I’ve unfortunately been given to help other families in a way that I know that Jonathan would want is basically how I’m going about things now,” she added.