Waves of Afghan Refugees Being Resettled in United States by Catholic Charities

Currents News Staff

Afghan refugees are being relocated around the world since the Taliban toppled the nation’s government on August 15.

Catholic Charities networks are helping to resettle the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders, or SIVs, who worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

“The SIVs that have been coming to us in the last few days and weeks are understandably very traumatized, very relieved to be here obviously, but also there’s a great sorrow that they carry with them because in most cases they’re coming with just their immediate family so they are leaving behind family members, loved ones, friends,” said Stephen Carattini, President and CEO, Catholic Charities of Arlington.

In the last two months alone, Catholic Charities of Arlington has received 200 refugees—more than half of what they expect in the course of a year. The rush of arrivals has sent charities and resettlement agencies rushing to secure essentials for new arrivals.

“Tangibly we of course provide access to safe and affordable housing, first things first, we help kids get connected in school, we help families get connected with medical homes to make sure that they have the healthcare that they need, we make sure that there’s meal support so that not only is there nutritious food, but we try to make sure that it’s culturally appropriate for wherever our families are coming from,” said Jay Brown, CEO, Commonwealth Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities then provide long-term support to help refugees settle and integrate into their communities, including English classes and job development.

“Within three months there is an obligation to help them become self-sufficient, which means they have to be in permanent housing and employed. To be able to sit down with each of the refugees to talk with them about their history, their work history, their employment history, their own interests,” Carattini added.

US President Joe Biden has announced that as many as 50,000 Afghans could come to the United States under humanitarian parole, which grants at-risk persons one year in the U.S. to apply for formal asylum or Special Immigrant Visa programs.

Currents News Update for Wednesday, 9/1/21

The Vatican’s verdict is in: Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is innocent – exonerated of sexual abuse allegations that date back nearly a half-century. Now the bishop of Brooklyn is speaking out, saying the fight to clear his name isn’t over.

The faithful are remembering Guy Sansaricq – the diocese’s and the country’s first Haitian-born bishop.

Governor Kathy Hochul called state lawmakers to a special session on Wednesday to discuss Tuesday’s expiration of New York’s eviction moratorium.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio Cleared of Sexual Abuse Claims

By John Lavenburg and Currents News Staff

WINDSOR TERRACE — Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn has been exonerated of sexual abuse allegations that date back nearly a half-century.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced on Sept. 1 that it found the allegations “not to have the semblance of truth” after a year-plus-long independent investigation.

“I repeat what I have said from the beginning. There is no truth to these allegations,” Bishop DiMarzio said in a statement on Sept. 1. “Throughout my more than 50-year ministry as a priest, I have never abused anyone.”

Given this finding, the Vatican will not authorize any further canonical process to address the allegations. The investigation will not affect the status of the two civil lawsuits that claim Bishop DiMarzio abused two minors while he was a young priest in the Archdiocese of Newark.

The lawsuits were possible because of New Jersey’s Child Victims Act. The law, which went into effect in December 2019, temporarily rolled back the statute of limitations allowing alleged victims of sexual abuse to file civil suits against organizations. That window closes this December.

The Vatican investigation into the two allegations took place under the new procedures for bishop accountability, known as Vos Estis Lux Mundi, and mandates that any allegation of abuse against a bishop must be investigated. The Metropolitan, who is the head bishop of an ecclesiastical province (in this case, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York), oversees a Vos Estis investigation.

Cardinal Dolan retained New York attorney John O’Donnell, a former federal prosecutor, and the law firm of Herbert Smith Freehills to conduct the investigation. The law firm then hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s firm to conduct the third-party investigation.

Joseph A. Hayden, Jr., the lawyer representing Bishop DiMarzio, noted in a Sept. 1 statement that O’Donnell and Freeh are both former law enforcement officials with proven experience and impeccable integrity, therefore, “the result of their investigation should leave no doubt.”

Bishop DiMarzio has denied both accusations from the start, calling it an attempt to “smear” his 50-year ministry as a priest. He stated on Sept. 1 that he fully cooperated with the investigation, knowing he did nothing wrong.

“I have prayed for a conclusion to this investigation, and these final results further verify, as I have consistently said, that these allegations have absolutely no merit,” Bishop DiMarzio said.

The first allegation made against Bishop DiMarzio was that he sexually abused an altar boy in a New Jersey church in the 1970s. The accuser, Mark Matzek, 57, went public, with the allegation in November 2019, before filing a lawsuit this past March.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian announced Matzek’s claim shortly after Bishop DiMarzio concluded an apostolic visitation to the Diocese of Buffalo — where he was asked by the Vatican — to look into claims of the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations there. Before the results of that inquiry were made public, Garabedian said the investigation was tainted because Bishop DiMarzio had now been accused himself. At the time, Garabedian was representing several clients filing sexual abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Buffalo. The findings of Bishop DiMarzio’s visit led to the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone.

Garabedian also represents Samier Tadros, 47, who filed a separate claim against Bishop DiMarzio in February, accusing him of sexual abuse in the 1970s at a different New Jersey church.

Garabedian claims he represents dozens of other plaintiffs in New Jersey claiming to have been sexually abused by priests. He has filed a number of lawsuits in several jurisdictions over the years. Each suit seeks $20 million in damages.

In his Sept. 1 statement, Bishop DiMarzio said he now looks forward to clearing his name in the civil suits pending in New Jersey courts.

“I ask for your prayers as I continue to fight against the lawsuits stemming from these two allegations,” Bishop DiMarzio said.

Garabedian told the Tablet the results of the Vos Estis investigation will not affect the civil lawsuits his clients have brought against DiMarzio.

“The Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith is a biased entity under the control of the Catholic Church, which has fully supported the secrecy and denial of clergy sex abuse for decades,” Garabedian said.

With Bishop DiMarzio’s Vatican investigation closed, there are still at least four Vos Estis investigations pending against U.S. prelates for allegations of sexual abuse, or negligence in reporting clerical sexual abuse allegations.

Bishop John Brungardt of Dodge City, Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, and retired Albany bishops Howard Hubbard and Edward Grosz are the subjects of those Vos Estis investigations.

The first Vos Estis investigation with standing in the U.S. concluded earlier this year after the Vatican looked into an allegation that Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston, Minnesota, mishandled accusations of clergy sex abuse in his diocese. As a result of the findings, Bishop Hoeppner resigned at the request of Pope Francis on April 13.

Retired Bishop Joseph Hart, formerly of the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was accused of 12 allegations of abuse. In January, a Vos Estis investigation exonerated the bishop on seven of the allegations and concluded that five others “could not be proven with moral certitude.” The Vatican also issued a canonical rebuke to Hart citing he acted irresponsibly in certain situations that could have given “rise to scandal among the faithful.”

There have also been at least five prelates in Poland that have resigned or been sanctioned following Vos Estis investigations, including three since the end of May.

Retired Bishop Jan Tyrawa of Bydgoszcz submitted his resignation at the end of an investigation into accusations of negligence in handling cases of clergy sexual abuse in his diocese, which Pope Francis accepted in May.

Retired Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy of Bielsko-Żywiec, was sanctioned by the Vatican in May, and retired Archbishop Marian Gołębiewski of Wrocław in August, after Vos Estis investigations into accusations of mishandling clergy sexual abuse cases in their dioceses. They were both ordered “to live a life in a spirit of penance and prayer,” donate to an organization that works to prevent abuse and assist abuse victims and barred from certain public settings.

As a result of other Vos Estis investigations into negligence in reporting allegations of abuse, the Vatican also barred retired Polish prelates Archbishop Sławoj Leszek Głódź of Gdańsk and Bishop Edward Janiak of Kalisz from participating in public liturgies, ordered them to live outside of the diocese and give personal funds to abuse prevention organizations as sanctions.

Bishop DiMarzio said he remains focused on leading the Diocese of Brooklyn while he defends himself against the civil lawsuits.

In Tadros’s lawsuit, he claims that Bishop DiMarzio abused him while he received one-to-one religious instruction from then-Father DiMarzio, who lived at Holy Rosary Church, Jersey City.

In his denial of that allegation, Bishop DiMarzio pointed out that Tadros did not attend the parish, or parish school, and doesn’t appear to be Catholic.

“Anyone with a minimal understanding of parish life knows that it stretches the imagination to think a priest would be providing private catechism lessons to a non-Catholic six- or seven-year-old on a one-to-one basis,” Bishop DiMarzio stated at the time.

In Matzek’s lawsuit, he alleges that Father DiMarzio and another priest, Father Albert Mark, repeatedly abused him when he was an altar boy at St. Nicholas Church in Jersey City from 1973 to 1976. Father Mark died in 1996.

Wake for First U.S. Haitian Bishop Guy Sansaricq Held at Brooklyn’s St. Jerome’s Parish

By Jessica Easthope

One-by-one, a line of mourners came to say a goodbye to Bishop Guy Sansaricq but the farewell was especially painful for Michele Guerrier, someone who considered him a spiritual father and a best friend.

“Father Guy meant the world to me, but I’m hopeful we’re going to get a saint out of this one,” she said.

A wake for Bishop Guy Sansaricq was held, Aug. 31, at St. Jerome’s Parish in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he served as pastor for more than a decade. He died on Aug. 2, just one day shy of the 15th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

He spent 50 years of his ministry as invaluable resource for Haitians in the Diocese of Brooklyn, not just for spiritual needs but social, economic and immigration needs too.

“To make a community where people from Haiti from any corner could feel they belonged to one body, his message was one of unity,” said Monsignor Pierre-Andre Pierre.

Msgr. Pierre had been living with Bishop Sansaricq at St. Gregory the Great in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, for more than a year. He said he’ll miss their nightly strolls through the neighborhood, but is proud to follow in his footsteps, taking over as the leader of National Center of the Haitian Apostolate, for now.

“He was the man in the house at St. Gregory, he was the glue,” he said.

Following the recent earthquake in Haiti, Bishop Sansaricq, the first Haitian bishop in the U.S., quickly turned his efforts to the people and home he loved. Parishioners say he was both a powerhouse and a humble pastor.

“You always felt comfortable coming to Mass, talking to him,” said Merline Mainville, a long-time parishioner and family friend of Bishop Sansaricq. “You could tell he had a soft heart and everyone felt that way children and adults alike.”

Bishop Sansaricq’s wake on Wednesday, Sept. 1, will be held at St. Gregory the Great in Crown Heights and his Mass of Christian burial will be held on Thursday, Sept. 2, at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.

After Nearly 20 Years, The War in Afghanistan is Over, But The Mission to Get People Out is Not

Currents News Staff

Taliban fighters were firing off celebratory rounds after nearly 20 years: The war in Afghanistan is officially over.

“It’s a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end along with many of his Al-Qaeda co-conspirators and it was not a cheap mission,” said Commander at U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie. “The cost was 2,461 U.S Service Members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured.”

The U.S. Military conducted what it called its largest “non-combatant” evacuation in history over the span of 18 days.

“More than 123,000 people have been safely flown out of Afghanistan,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “That includes about 6,000 American citizens.”

Despite the United States’ historic efforts, our nation’s top general in the Middle East says that they weren’t able to get everybody out that they wanted to get out.

“I think if we’d stayed another 10 days, we wouldn’t have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out and there still would’ve been people who would’ve been disappointed with that,” said Gen. McKenzie. “It’s a tough situation.”

The mission to get people out is still underway. The United Nations Security Council has now approved a resolution for creating “safe passage” for people still seeking to leave Afghanistan from the Kabul airport. All the while warning the Taliban that they should know that the world is watching them closely.

“Everybody must be allowed to safely leave Afghanistan for whatever reason,” said the U.S.’s U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, “whenever they want by air or by land.”

Currents News Update for Tuesday, 8/31/21

President Biden spoke to the nation a day after America’s longest war officially came to an end. The last of the United States’ military planes left Afghanistan yesterday.

More than a million people in Louisiana are still without power as the death toll from Hurricane Ida continues to rise.

People who have struggled to pay their rent during the pandemic are losing some protection. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers owe back rent.

The celebration of the life of Bishop Guy Sansaricq begins today. The first bishop of Haitian descent in the U.S. passed away last week at the age of 86.

Currents News Update for Monday, 8/30/21

Hurricane Ida brought torrential rain and powerful winds to Louisiana — but over 50 million people are under flash flood watches and the entire city of New Orleans is currently without power.

The U.S. military is vowing to press on in the final hours of withdrawal from Afghanistan, even after insurgents fired several rockets at Kabul airport.

Pope Francis is urging dialogue among Afghanistan’s leaders and asking the Catholic faithful to pray and fast for the country’s people.

Haiti is still recovering from that massive earthquake two weeks ago that killed more than 2,200 people. Catholic Charities has been on the ground there providing food, shelter and essential services to those who were left with nothing.

Diocese of Brooklyn Warehouse Ready to Send Items to Help Rebuild Haiti Churches After Earthquake

By Jessica Easthope

Everything you can think of that makes up a church is sitting in a warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Doors, stained glass windows, pews and candles are all things Monsignor John Bracken says could be used in Haiti.

“It’s an aid to devotion, a real connection that we are a universal church that we are one body and we’re happy to share it with each other,” said Monsignor Bracken, who runs the patrimony warehouse.

Right now they’re kept in the diocese warehouse, a home for all the unused or old items from churches across Brooklyn and Queens, but Monsignor Bracken says they’re ready to travel the globe.

After that 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti earlier this month, churches were destroyed, most notably Immaculate Conception Parish in Les Anglais and Sacred Heart in Les Cayes. Now the Diocese of Brooklyn wants to lend a hand and give back in a way you can’t put a price on.

“It should be something that’s used for worship and that’s our biggest pleasure is when we’re able to send something and then to receive pictures back,” Monsignor Bracken said.

The warehouse has sent items to Haiti in the past. This time, the request hasn’t come yet, usually it happens when the country is ready to rebuild. A representative will browse the warehouse, and whatever’s needed will be shipped right to Haiti. Parishioners here often pay for the shipping. New York City has the largest population of Haitians in the country – and the warehouse only adds to the connection.

“To be able to share some of their history and our history, to be able to strengthen a Christian community thousands of miles away – there’s a tie that binds us,” he said.

All of these items have a higher purpose. Monsignor Bracken has marveled at them over the years, but he says there’s nothing better than when they leave – and go where they’re needed.

Chinatown-Based Tour Helps Fight Against Asian Hate in New York City

By Emily Drooby

Walking, walking and more walking. That is how Anna Huang and Chloe Chan spend their free time while teaching others about Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Together, they’re the “Mott Street Girls” named for a popular downtown road and cheekily for MSG – a flavor enhancer often associated with Chinese food.

The two started this tour business after the pandemic shut down the local museum they volunteered with. Part of the drive behind the business was to help drive traffic back to Chinatown.

“We just thought, this is our niche, this is what we can bring to the table with our pre-existing skill sets,” Chloe explained.

The result? Historical walking tours done by the two second-generation Chinese Americans with close ties to this community.

The two are creating understanding during a pivotal time.

In New York City, attacks against Asian-Americans have been surging.

In the first half of 2021, the NYPD reported 102 hate crimes against Asian-Americans. Back in 2020 during the same time frame, there were only 21 incidents.

That’s a fear Anna and Chloe are forced to live with, but they’re fighting back and their weapon is this tour and the understanding it promotes.

“Drawing parallels of history is like seeing eye-to-eye on a lot of things and I think that helps us stop the Asian hate crimes,” Anna said, “because you’re being empathetic with each other, you’re trying to understand each other better.”

Also, the dynamic duo are bringing much needed business back to the area.

“I think that our role as second-generation Chinese Americans is to combat that misinformation and all of that stereotypes against Chinese Americans to show that personal side of our story,” Chloe explained, “to show the people and the faces behind these businesses in our community.”

MSG – it’s a business but also, it’s a calling. One Anna and Chloe have happily answered.

How to Get More Out of Mass with the 10th Anniversary Edition of a “Biblical Walk Through the Mass”

Everything at Mass has meaning. The gestures, the rituals, the words: God speaks to us through all of it.

For the past decade, a successful study program called a “Biblical Walk Through the Mass” has guided people through the biblical roots of liturgy.

Now, to celebrate a decade of success, a tenth anniversary edition has been released with all new content and videos.

Author and theologian, Dr. Edward Sri, joins Currents News to discuss.