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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.
PROSPECT HEIGHTS — “Broken, mended, stronger” is how Bishop Robert Brennan characterized his faith to the nearly 300 priests assembled the evening of Tuesday, April 12 for the blessing of the oils at annual Chrism Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph.
Deacons, nuns, seminarians, and laity also attended, filling the co-cathedral for the first time for the Chrism Mass since the pandemic hit New York two years ago.
It was Bishop Brennan’s first time to celebrate the annual event in the Diocese of Brooklyn. This Mass has become a motivational address for the priests, and he delivered.
“Wow, what a sight,” exclaimed Bishop Brennan during his homily. “This is the first time in a couple of years that it is all of us, and that’s thrilling. It’s that sense of happiness and festivity.”
But, Bishop Brennan also noted how the realities of a fallen world are ever-present. For example, he mentioned the subway shooting on Tuesday morning that injured 16 people in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
“We were kind of shaken to our core this morning — weren’t we? — right here in the borough of Brooklyn when violence hit us at home,” Bishop Brennan said.
Meanwhile, he added, “We’re more than a little conscious of people who are experiencing that kind of violence every day. I think of the people in Ukraine and the war, and the violence, the killing. It’s just awful.”
“We continue to grapple with issues of racism in our nation and in our communities,” he said. “We live in a state that seems even more intent on attacks against human life. We see tensions at their highest level, and indeed violence still rocks us.”
Yet through it all, the brotherhood of priests has remained faithful, Bishop Brennan said.
Their character reminded him of his crozier, made from Long Island oak. But one day, in the middle of a homily, the heavy staff slid from where he placed it, and it hit the floor with so much force that it cracked at the bend in the “hook.”
A priest from the Marianist community on Long Island, who made the crozier, also repaired it.
“When he gave it back to me, he said, ‘You know, it’s not unlike human bones.’” Bishop Brennan recalled. “Here, where it broke, is now the strongest part of the wood.”
Only a slight “scar” remained where the break had been.
“Here’s what it says to me,” Bishop Brennan said of the scar. “That’s you, that’s me — broken, and mended, and stronger. We all know our own limits, but we were called by someone who knows us better than we know ourselves — by Jesus. Even through our weakness, we’re broken, mended, stronger, and now anointed and sent.
“Fathers, thank you for recognizing your own limits and, in humility, relying on the help and the grace of Jesus Christ. We are all enriched by your ministry, by your service.”
The centerpiece of the Mass was the blessing of oils to be used throughout the year in the Diocese of Brooklyn for anointing of the sick, baptisms, confirmations, and the ordinations of priests.
Also, as part of the Chrism Mass tradition, priests and deacons of the diocese renewed their promise of obedience to the bishop.
The Mass also was a salute to jubilarians — priests who are celebrating milestones in their priestly lives. There are priests in the diocese marking the anniversaries of their ordinations, including the 70th, 65th, 60th, 50th, and 25th anniversaries.
The clergy present were uplifted by this year’s Chrism Mass experience.
“I thought the Mass was absolutely beautiful,” said Father Henry Torres, administrator of Mary of Nazareth Parish in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “It was good to see so many of my brother priests together once again. The homily was powerful! I was really moved by his words, ‘Broken, mended, and stronger for it.’”
Father Dwayne Davis said the Mass “was truly a night for the history books” and “one of the best turnouts that I can remember.”
Father Davis is the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Flatlands, Brooklyn.
“The bishop’s homily was so good and fitting,” he added. “ He inspired us to recognize who we are and that we are in need of God’s mercy and grace because we can’t do it by ourselves.
“His story was so personal, which draws you into the homily. You could hear the amens from the back of the cathedral.”
The war in Ukraine has displaced millions of people.
But beyond the politics involved, religion is playing an important role in the ongoing conflict and it’s pitting churches from both countries against each other.
When a Kyiv prince converted to Christianity in the year 988 A.D, he started this church and the one in Russia which then grew to be the dominant branch. But Metropolitan Epiphanius says that now Russia is losing religious and political influence over Ukraine.
“We suffer together with Ukrainians,” Epiphanius said. “We are part of our Ukrainian people. Especially now when the aggressor – the Russian Federation, especially Putin – is trying to destroy us as a Ukrainian nation.”
Over the years Vladimir Putin has harnessed himself, and his project for a greater Russia to the church. And so parishioners here know that their church’s very survival hangs in the balance. 54-year old Tatiana pushes piety aside just for a moment:
“Putin is such a cynical man that any evil is easy for him,” Tatiana said. “I wish he were dead! Sorry, you can’t say that in the temple, but it’s honest…”
Among the most spectacular sights all over Ukraine are the golden-domed Christian Orthodox churches. Here, especially in wartime, they’ve taken on the outsize role of nationhood.
SUNSET PARK — Police have nabbed the suspect who went on a shooting rampage on a Brooklyn subway train, authorities said. The suspect, identified by police as Frank R. James, 62, was arrested Wednesday — the day after the shootings — in the East Village following a stabbing incident.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him. We got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
James was taken into custody without incident, police said.
The suspect was charged in Brooklyn Federal Court with violating a federal law prohibiting terrorism on mass transportation, according to Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“The government will prove, among other things, that James traveled across a state line in order to commit the offense and transported materials across a state line in aid of the commission of the offense,” Peace said at a press conference at One Police Plaza Wednesday afternoon.
At the same press conference, NYPD officials said that on the day of the shooting, James had entered the subway system at the Kings Highway station on the N line, rode it to 36th Street-Fourth Avenue station and opened fire as the train was entering that station, police said.
Following the shooting, he boarded an R train — the same train many of the fleeing victims got on — and rode to 25th Street, the next stop, where he got off.
James had previously been labeled by police as a person of interest in connection with Tuesday’s violence — meaning that authorities believed he had information about it. But in a series of media interviews on Wednesday morning, Adams said James was believed to be the man responsible for the rampage in which 10 people were shot and at least 13 others were injured.
A $50,000 reward had been offered for information leading to the suspect’s arrest and indictment.
Authorities linked James to the scene because a credit card with his name on it had been left behind at the 36th Street station, along with a key to a U-Haul van he had rented. The van was found on the street eight hours after the shootings.
James, who had addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, apparently rented the van in Philadelphia and it drove to New York, police said.
Police also found other items left behind at the scene, including a handgun, ammunition, a hatchet, fireworks and a liquid believed to be gasoline.
James had posted several troubling videos on YouTube in recent months under the name prophetoftruth88 in which he ranted against Adams and blamed the mayor for not solving the city’s problems, particularly when it comes to the issue of mental illness.
“Mr. Mayor, I’m a victim of your mental program,” he said in one video. “I’m 63 now full of hate, full of anger, full of bitterness.”
Witnesses told police the shooter, wearing a gray sweatshirt and an orange vest, was aboard an N train at 8:24 a.m. on Tuesday. As the train was entering the station, he put on a gas mask, set off a smoke bomb inside the subway car and then opened fire, getting off a total of 33 shots, police said.
None of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, although at least five were listed in critical condition, authorities said.
Hundreds of clergy, priests and deacons are coming together for one purpose: the blessing and consecration of the sacred oils. Tonight, a closer look. Where does the oil come from and how is it exactly used?
The Chrism Mass signals the beginning of Holy Week and is one of the most solemn services in the liturgical calendar. Join Currents News for in-depth coverage.
This ancient tradition dates back centuries. It’s the blessing of the church’s oils – those used in the sacraments to baptize, sanctify the sick, ordain priests and anoint altars.
It’s called Chrism Mass and although the custom is as old as the bible itself, it packs the pews of even the biggest churches in the Diocese of Brooklyn and around the world.
The blessed oils are distributed to every parish, every Holy Week, and they’ll last the whole year through. In a week of solemnity, this Mass is a happy occasion.
Nearly 300 priests will come to St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral. It’s the first time in three years there aren’t any pandemic restrictions on the Mass. It’s a chance for them to renew their vows, and hear a special homily from their bishop.
This year will mark Bishop Robert Brennan’s first.
Chaos erupted on a New York subway train Tuesday morning. People covered their faces as panic and smoke began to fill the car.
“As soon as the smoke, like, flared up, it started to engulf everything,” said Yav Montano, who was onboard the train during the shooting.
The shooter donned a gas mask and deployed a smoke canister on a Brooklyn subway, wounding multiple people with gunfire.
“There was blood on the floor,” said Yav. “There was a lot of blood trailing on the floor. And at the time in the moment, I did not think it was a shooting because it sounded like fireworks. All I saw was people trampling each other, trampling over each other, trying to get into the door which was locked and just a lot of panic, but thankfully, the train moved quickly to the next stop and everyone filed off the train in a rush.”
Right now, investigators say there is no known motive for the shooting a this time.
“There are currently no known explosive devices on our subway trains,” said Keechant Sewell, New York City Police Commissioner, “and this is not being investigated as an act of terrorism at this time. We can also report that although this was a violent incident, reportedly, we have no one with life-threatening injuries as a result of this case.”