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As the war in Ukraine enters its seventh week, prayers continue for those affected by the fighting. A parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn is planning a big prayer event and it has special meaning for its parishioners.
Pastor of Church of Annunciation, Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, joined Currents News to talk about the prayer service and how you can take part in the event.
The Church of Annunciation is on 259 North 5th street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Lenten reflection, on Tuesday April 5, will feature music by Al Barbarino. It starts at 7 p.m. and the actual prayer begins at 8 p.m. with guest speaker Jason Jones.
“For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church,” the Holy Father told Indigenous representatives April 1, “I ask for God’s forgiveness, and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry.”
Saying he was impressed by their devotion to St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, the centerpiece of the popular Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage, scheduled this year for July 25-28, Pope Francis told them, “This year, I would like to be with you in those days.”
The Shrine of St. Anne, on Lac Ste. Anne, is located in central Alberta, not far from Edmonton.
Gathered in the frescoed Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, representatives of the Métis, Inuit and First Nations shared their prayers, music, dance and gifts with the pontiff.
Addressing all the delegates and their supporters at the end of the week, Pope Francis recalled that several delegates compared their communities to branches, growing in different directions, buffeted by wind, but still living because they are attached to the trunk and the tree’s deep roots.
“Your tree, which bears fruit, has suffered a tragedy, which you told me about in these past few days: uprooting,” he said. The normal transmission of language, culture and spirituality from one generation to the next “was broken by colonialization, which, without respect, tore many” from their homelands and tried to force them to adopt other ways.
Catholics could not use trying to evangelize the Indigenous as an excuse of running the schools because “the faith cannot be transmitted in a way contrary to the faith itself,” the pontiff said.
The Gospel calls Christians “to welcome, love, serve and not judge,” he said, and it is “a frightening thing” when, in the name of that faith, Christians act the opposite.
“Through your voices,” he told the delegates, “I have been able to touch with my own hands and carry within me, with great sadness in my heart, the stories of suffering, deprivation, discriminatory treatment and various forms of abuse suffered by many of you, particularly in residential schools.”
Pope Francis said it is “chilling” to think of how much thought and effort went into designing and running a system aimed at instilling “a sense inferiority” in the students and the attempt “to make someone lose his or her cultural identity, to sever their roots, with all the personal and social consequences that this has entailed and continues to entail: unresolved traumas that have become intergenerational traumas.”
“I feel shame — sorrow and shame — for the role that a number of Catholics, particularly those with educational responsibilities, have had in all these things that wounded you, in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values,” he said.
Those values were on display during the meeting in the Apostolic Palace, which began with representatives offering their prayers.
First Nations Elder Fred Kelly, wearing a feathered headdress and offering a prayer in Nishnawbe and English, prayed for the gifts of “love, kindness, respect, truth, kindness and humility from the one Creator.”
Métis Elder Emile Janvier, a residential school survivor, recited his prayer in Dene-Michif, asking the Creator for healing of “the hurts of the past” and for strength in moving forward “in forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Marty and Lizzie Angotealuk, members of the Inuit delegation, led the singing of the Lord’s Prayer in Inuktitut.
During the individual meetings earlier in the week, elected leaders of the groups asked Pope Francis for a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in suppressing their languages, cultures and spiritualities and, particularly, for the church’s role in running many of the residential schools that were part of the government’s plan of forced assimilation and where many children were emotionally, physically and sexually abused.
The leaders also asked Pope Francis to go to Canada to make that apology and requested his help in getting access to more of the school records so a full history of the schools could be written and so the children in unmarked graves could be identified.
But the major part of the private meetings with the pontiff were devoted to the survivors of residential schools telling their stories.
Pope Francis thanked the delegates for “opening your hearts and for expressing the desire to walk together,” and he assured them that he brought all of their stories to his prayer.
And, he said he looked forward to learning more about them and meeting their families when he visited their lands, but, he said, pointing to the Inuit, “I’m not going in winter.”
Thanking the pope for agreeing to go to Canada, Bishop Raymond Poisson of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, president of the Canadian bishops’ conference, told Pope Francis, “We are ready today to help you pack your bags!”
The recent history of the Catholic Church, he said, “is marked with the stigma of mistakes and failures to love our neighbor, in particular toward members of those nations who have been present in Canada for centuries.”
An acknowledgment of the church’s failures makes “our desire for reconciliation” even stronger, he said. “Our presence here is a testimony to our commitment for one another and to each other.”
Pope Francis gave each delegation a bronze olive branch as a sign of peace and reconciliation, according to the Canadian bishops’ conference.
The Assembly of First Nations gave the pontiff a liturgical stole, beaded with orange crosses, and a pair of snowshoes made of black ash with caribou and artificial sinew.
The Métis National Council gave him a memory book with the stories of Métis residential school survivors and a letter from Cassidy Caron, council president.
The Inuit gave the pontiff a cross carved from a baleen of a bowhead whale and riveted to a piece of sterling silver and a pouch made from sealskin with an ivory button.
From a simple ‘hello’ to a carefully crafted heart, the students at St. Theresa School in Oakland, California want the children of Ukraine to know they care.
“In social studies, we see the news and honestly it’s pretty sad,” said 7th-grader Brianna Coyle.
Brianna Coyle and Sophia Cruz Hernandez are leading the way to get these letters into the hands of children who’ve fled the war.
“Definitely makes me rethink about the things we have and just helping them makes me feel a little bit better,” said Sophia.
Their teacher Chris Lynch came up this idea as a way for his students to process some sadness and give some support.
“Let’s write to these students and say we’ve got your back,” said Chris. “We’re with you. Somebody halfway around the world is thinking of you.”
“So if they read this, then they know somebody is out there and they care and love them,” said Ada Ukoha-Ajike.
And word of these letters spread quickly throughout the school.
“We started just in 7th grade,” said Chris, “however the rest of the school found out about it and they’re like ‘wait we want to write letters too,’ that’s really cool.”
All 200 plus students – kindergarten through eighth grade – they’re all on board. Lucas Lee is in the fourth grade and wants Ukrainian children to know it’s safe in America.
“Maybe they’ll have a better life here in the US and then once the war is over they can go back to Ukraine and rebuild their house and have a better life,” said Lucas.
Alicia Ortegon is the school principal and says service to others is a big part of their mission.
“They want to do something positive and that they have the ability to do so and we’re really trying to grow future leaders,” said Alicia.
As for these two young leaders — they’re pretty proud of their school for getting behind Ukraine.
Brianna Coyle, 7th Grade Student: “Rather than just sitting back they can actually make a difference by writing a simple letter,” said Brianna Coyle.
According to UNICEF, some two-million children have fled the war in Ukraine in search of safety.
“COVID-19 no longer controls our life,” said President Biden.
That means the relaxation of more restrictions and guidance including some related to travel.
The CDC now says cruises don’t pose an increased travel risk, but it suggests checking out individual ship health guidelines and getting fully vaccinated against COVID-19 first. The FDA just expanded the emergency use authorization for a second round of Pfizer and Moderna boosters for people 50 and older.
The president now has his.
But, the CDC clarifies that people don’t need that extra shot to be considered “up-to-date” on their COVID-19 vaccinations.
“If you’re over the age of fifty or you’re younger than that and have important comorbid conditions, you should get boosted,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner at George Washington University School of Medicine.
In other travel news, 21 states are suing the Biden Administration to end the transportation mask mandate before it expires April 18. That’s in addition to other lawsuits from groups of pilots and flight attendants.
Travelers now can get pandemic information about places they plan to visit in the U.S. or where they live on COVID.GOV.
WASHINGTON (CNS) — News reports say the Biden administration may lift a public health measure in May that was put in place at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that has kept asylum-seekers out.
Catholic groups that support immigrants have long been calling for an end to Title 42 of the Public Health Safety Act, which the Trump administration began using in March 2020 as infections of the coronavirus began to surge in the U.S.
Border Patrol agents were instructed to expel anyone caught trying to illegally enter the U.S. instead of processing them under existing immigration law for those seeking asylum.
Several news agencies report that Biden administration officials are signaling the end of Title 42 by May 23 though nothing has been announced.
The Biden administration has taken heat from Catholic groups, among others, for keeping Title 42 in place. Administration officials have said it was not immigration policy but a health measure and that the government would take cues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on when to end it.
Many are expecting an increase in migrants looking for asylum at the southern border when the measure is lifted.
On March 22, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said there would be an “utter meltdown” if Title 42 were lifted.
The order, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection says on its website, prohibits “the entry of certain persons who potentially pose a health risk, either by virtue of being subject to previously announced travel restrictions or because they unlawfully entered the country to bypass health screening measures.”
Some like Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC, have attacked Title 42 since its implementation, calling it a shameful and racist action designed to keep migrants out.
“While we watch much of the nation remove their masks at the public health guidance of this administration, we simultaneously watch the same administration continue to expel vulnerable people back to harm for the supposed protection of public health. We will not stay silent in the face of such hypocrisy,” she said in a March 21 news release from CLINIC.
Women religious and their supporters protested outside the White House in December urging Title 42’s demise.
On March 30, 14 Jesuit law and immigrant advocacy institutions — including Jesuit law school deans, the Jesuit Refugee Service and the Border Justice Initiative at Gonzaga Law School — called for Title 42’s end, saying it was “unlawful, dangerous and inflicts profound suffering on extremely vulnerable people.”
There’s “no present public health justification for its continuation,” they added in a joint letter to President Joe Biden and key members of his administration.
The U.S. “must rescind Title 42 immediately so that no one is denied the right to seek protection,” Giulia McPherson, JRS director of advocacy and operations, said in the letter.
Other faith-based groups, including the Washington-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, also have called for its end.
“We are grateful that this long and shameful chapter in our nation’s history is coming to end,” said LIRS president and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah.
The decision recognizes that people fleeing violence and persecution have the right to seek protection, she said, while acknowledging the political fallout to come from lifting the measure.
“We know there will be much political theater surrounding this decision, but we urge the administration to remain focused on upholding our nation’s legal and humanitarian obligations to those seeking safety at America’s golden doors,” she said.
Members of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations marched out of the Vatican Apostolic Palace chanting and beating drums.
They had just finished a two-hour meeting with Pope Francis during which they shared how their communities were scarred by emotional, physical, and sexual abuse committed throughout Canada’s 130 government-funded residential schools. Nearly three-quarters of which were run by Catholic congregations.
“We’re here at this really divine moment to allow the messengers here to share the voices of our people,” said Northwest Territories Regional Chief Gerald Antoine, “that the things that happen to us, should never have happened. Unfortunately it has, it has it’s history. And so we’re here to tell you the truth.”
Among their requests for reparations is that Pope Francis travel to Canada to offer a formal apology to Indigenous Canadian communities on behalf of the Catholic Church.
“Our preference is for the Holy Father to come to Canada,” said survivor Phil Fontaine, “apologize on Canadian soil, and do it on one of our territories. That is our hope and wish, and we made that very clear to the Holy Father.”
The focus of their meeting was to share their reality with the pontiff. They say they were encouraged by his willingness to listen to their stories and hear their concerns, such as those over the thousands of unmarked graves on the properties of former residential schools.
“I feel that the Pope and the Church has expressed a sentiment of working towards reconciliation,” said Grand Chief of Cree First Nation Mandy Gull-Masty. “He shared words about the shame and sorrow that the Church feels for the history concerning the unmarked graves.”
On Friday, Pope Francis will gather with the entire group and deliver an address. While the Holy Father said he will travel to Canada, no date for a visit has been announced.
The Tablet Newspaper has another initiative you can take part in: the great COVID relief fundraiser is on! So students – ready, set, subscribe!
The person who sells the most subscriptions to The Tablet will get money back for not only themselves but for their school. That’s not all. Every new reader you earn for the Diocese of Brooklyn paper will get you that much closer to this year’s grand prize of $3,000 dollars!
Still not convinced you want to sell the paper or buy a subscription? Well Msgr. David Cassato, the vicar for Catholic schools has a special message for you.
So how do you get involved? For more information on the fundraiser, or to subscribe to the paper yourself, just go to TheTablet.org.