California Teenager Aces SAT College Examination With Perfect Score

Currents News Staff

Apurva mishra is a senior at Davis Senior H.S. in California. The 17-year old has his own typical teenage imperfections including a disheveled room and a problem – getting out of that bed! His chemistry teacher says he’s been caught falling asleep in class.

But his parents have plenty of room for forgiveness. Because how could a teenager be perfect? You heard that right. Apurva got a perfect score on his SAT exam.

Every single question was answered correctly. The College Board, which administers the exam, says only a “fraction of a percentile” of test-takers achieve this.

Apurva said he prepared “whenever he had free” time. But free time?

He’s vice captain of the Robotics Team, student body president and add to that list – a perfect SAT score?

His dad says he is so proud of his son. Those smarts also run in the family. Auprva’s older brother is a junior at Harvard. He says as long as he is taller than Apurva, he wins.

Back to the ‘80s: Brooklyn Catholic Academy Students Celebrate the Decade

Currents News Staff

Cue Bonnie Tyler and these kids from St. Bernard Catholic Academy in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. They brought it back to the 80’s this week for their 80th day of school.

In true ’80s fashion, they even made a music video. A favorite decade for many, these guys had to learn all about one of the greatest ages: big hair, bright leggings and bling.

They pulled it off – maybe even giving their parents a run for their money.

How You Can Attend This Year’s March for Life in Person

Currents News Staff

If you still want to go to the March for Life in person, we have a last-minute call for anyone interested in joining the country’s faithful in the fight for life.

The Diocese of Brooklyn is offering a round-trip service to the nation’s capital on Jan. 21.
The bus will leave the diocesan office at 310 Prospect Park West in Brooklyn at 6:30am.

Each seat costs $25 dollars – so grab your tickets now!

Just contact Martha Hernandez at 718-281-9540 or email her at mhernandez@diobrook.org for more details.

Remembering NYC Subway-Shove Victim Michelle Go

Currents News Staff

From New York City to San Francisco: vigils were held for Michelle Go, the 40-year-old California native who was killed this weekend after being pushed in front of an oncoming train in a Times Square subway station.

“Could have been me, could have been my friend and so I think it just hit a little differently,” said Pam Yang.

Pam Yang was one of hundreds who gathered in Times Square Tuesday night, Jan. 18, holding flowers, candles and signs denouncing anti-Asian violence. But while crimes against Asians have gone up in the city, police have not deemed this latest subway-shove a hate crime. Benjamin Wei of the group Asians Fighting Injustice does.

“We’re being targeted, this just hits so close to home,” Benjamin said. “Just another death, another passing, it’s painful.”

Mayor Eric Adams, who at first came under fire for his response to the crime, is now vowing to make the subways safer by putting more cops and outreach workers underground. but Pam says she still doesn’t feel safe in her own city.

“It’s a very pervasive threat that’s constantly bubbling under the surface,” Pam said, “because you have no idea who it’s coming from, you have no idea if a specific time of day is gonna be worse than another. So there’s no parameters around which you can kinda set yourself up for safety.”

The suspect is a 61-year-old man being held without bail. A judge ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation during his arraignment Wednesday from Bellevue hospital.

Meanwhile, the MTA is now looking into installing platform barriers in the subway. Some cities like Paris and Hong Kong have them, but New York City transit leaders say it would be a complicated and expensive safety solution costing in the billions likely taking years to install.

Migration at Historic Highs: Northern Triangle Countries Surge at Southern Border

Currents News Staff

The Migrant Protection Protocols, more commonly known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, requires migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to wait in Mexico until their asylum cases are decided.

Poverty, corruption, crime, violence and environmental destruction has caused 2 million people to flee their homeland since 2014. The majority are coming from the Central American region called the Northern Triangle.

“It’s no secret that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala form part of a war-torn region from the 1980s into the 1990s,” said Paul Angelo from the Council on Foreign Relations. “The legacy of civil war still informs the kind of violence that we see in the region today.”

Paul Angelo has spent years in Central America and just returned from a visit to Honduras and El Salvador. He says conditions on the ground are alarming.

“Corruption and impunity for corrupt acts is really at the root of all of the rest of these countries’ woes,” said Paul. “Corruption is the reason people do not have formal economy jobs, or access to healthcare, why people don’t have bank accounts, why people don’t have property rights, why people build their homes on farms on land that is vulnerable to erosion or to category 4 or 5 hurricanes.”

Northern Triangle countries are among the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. An estimated 300,000 flee the region every year. Of the 3.4 million Central Americans living in the United States, 85 percent of them are from the Northern Triangle. The vast majority make the trek through Mexico to America’s Southern border. Many are hoping to reunite with family already in the states.

Author and journalist Carmen Molina Tamacas immigrated from El Salvador 10 years ago and has documented the stories of fellow immigrants in a new book called “Salvi-Yorkers”

“How desperate is a mother, about the fear, about the children down there, that she pays a coyote or puts their children in charge of any people to make that trip,” Carmen said. “People risking everything, even though being in the shadows, being discriminated, being on the margins of the society in the United States is better than to have to live what they are living in their countries.”

The Biden Administration is focusing on those living conditions in an effort to get the growing crisis under control, but so far it’s had little impact.

“In order to unlock the human potential in the region, to stimulate the kind of activism that is going to get results you have to first meet people’s basic needs,” Paul said, “and you have to make them feel empowered and that is a space where the United States can be the most helpful.”

The overflow at the Border is further complicated by streams of Haitians joining caravans from other parts of Central and South America who are also planning to make the hazardous journey.

Despite the dangers, Carmen says when people are desperate, they won’t be deterred.

“I think people are always looking for the best and hoping for the best,” she said. “To get the best for them and their families.”

The Remain-in-Mexico policy is expanding along the Southern border to comply with the court order. The Biden Administration is asking the Supreme Court to step in to end the program.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, 1/19/22

A Catholic church is opening its doors tonight to help displaced parishioners after an explosion and building collapse in the Longwood section of the Bronx.

The city’s latest subway-shove death is hitting close to home for many New Yorkers.

And if you are flying to the March for Life you may want to check with your carrier. There could be quite a few cancellations in the near future.

St. Athanasius Church Opens its Doors to Emergency Crews and Parishioners After Bronx Explosion

By Jessica Easthope

Emergency crews, firefighters and the Buildings Department are investigating the cause of Tuesday’s massive explosion. According to officials there was a call to 9-1-1, someone said they smelled gas just moments before the home shot up in flames. People living on the end of Fox Street have been displaced and relocated by the red cross – what remains of the home now is in a pile.

The blast was so powerful it blew a front door and shattered glass across the street into Nelson Roman’s front yard.

“It was just a boom, a big boom and then the house shook and it was just like what happened,” Nelson said.

He’s still in shock over Tuesday’s explosion that happened in the home attached to his brother’s, he’s thankful he was at work at the time.

Ten families were forced out of their homes by the explosion. Shocking body camera footage shows police officers running into the destroyed building to rescue a woman trapped under furniture – her home in ruins.

“The five officers that were sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation, they’re heroes, they saved lives,” said city councilman Rafael Salamanca Jr.

Councilman Salamanca says the officers have since been released from the hospital, and now the community is looking to another hero to help them through this recovery.

“When tragedies hit we always depend on faith-based organizations to step up and that’s exactly what St. Athanasius did, the doors never closed,” he said.

All of the families displaced were parishioners of St. Athanasius. Juan Sotomayor, who works at the church, remembers back to the 1970s when the Bronx was burning. Negligent landlords were setting their properties on fire to collect insurance money – and St. Athanasius remained a symbol of hope.

“The church was pretty much the only building that stood in the community and has always been a beacon for people to come and pray and find help and again history repeated itself,” said Juan.

Though the blast made his home tremble, Nelson says his faith is not shaken.

“We just look for God and for peace, for strength and love and the strength to endure,” he said.

Emergency management officials are working with the 10 families to see if they can get back into their homes to salvage any belongings before four buildings on Fox Street are completely demolished. One person remains in critical condition.

You can help those families without a home by visiting archny.org to donate directly to Catholic Charities.

Inspirational Transformation: Brooklyn Man Inspired by Daughter to Lose Weight and Save His Life

Currents News Staff

Whether he’s working out himself or training his wife and daughter, you’ll often catch Anthony Lolli at the gym. The 44-year-old Brooklynite is a bodybuilding champ – but that wasn’t always the case.

“Since as far back as I can remember I struggled with my weight,” Anthony said.

Just a few years ago, he was a real estate mogul and best selling author at the top of his game when it came to everything – but his weight.

“At my heaviest, I was 315 lbs. I started getting sleep apnea, chest pains…” Anthony said.

So when his two and a half year old daughter, at the time, noticed daddy was obese,

“She said Daddy you’re fat I don’t want you to die… that was it- that was the moment that changed my life,” he said.

He got to work and documented his fitness journey. Anthony lost 140 lbs in nine months, had surgery to remove loose skin around his middle and entered his first body-building competition the following year.

His wife, Tereza, is his biggest supporter, fan and student.

“I just give him all the credit because he actually committed and did it,” Tereza said. “He took his life serious and he took his family’s serious.”

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Anthony turned his own transformation into a business: “Radical Body Transformations” helping others get fit and healthy.

“It was bigger than just me,” Anthony said. “I think maybe God used me as a tool as an instrument to help other people.”

And it’s all thanks to his daughter, Love.

“Well, me and my mom and my brother Legend inspired my Dad to lose weight,” Love said, “and… He did it and I’m so proud of him!”

If you’d like to learn more about Anthony’s transformation and how he’s helping others get fit and healthy, check out the “Radical Body Transformations Website” at RBTSHOW.COM

Catholic Parish Helped Families of Hostages During Texas Synagogue Standoff

By John Lavenburg

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — At one point during the synagogue hostage situation in Colleyville, Texas, on Jan. 15, interfaith leaders stationed at nearby Good Shepherd Catholic Community Church began discussing why bad things happen to good people.

The togetherness that happened in the church that day among leaders of the Jewish, Islamic, Christian, and Catholic communities — who prayed alongside one another and supported each other for almost 12 hours — was a positive takeaway from a tragic situation, according to Good Shepherd pastor Father Michael Higgins.

“We really need to recognize our commonality and stop being so angry and tied up with things that divide us but concentrate more on the thing that unites us: our common belief in God,” Father Higgins told The Tablet on Jan. 17.

The four hostages at Congregation Beth Israel escaped Saturday night after an 11-hour standoff. The armed hostage-taker was 44-year-old British national Malik Faisal Akram, who was killed by law enforcement after the hostages escaped.

The involvement of Father Higgins and the Good Shepherd community began just before noon when law enforcement asked if he could provide a safe space for the family members of the hostages. Father Higgins gave them a private space in the church hall, which is less than a half-mile from the synagogue. From that point forward interfaith leaders came and went throughout the day, parish staff came in to handle the phones, and many people dropped off meals for the families.

“The feeling here was these are our neighbors,” Father Higgins said. “We were just trying to be present with [the families]. Give them the space that they need to support one another and then be here for any personal needs that they have.”

Father Higgins described the experience of “seeing the pain that the families were going through” as one that “really highlights the fragility of life.” Meanwhile, he and the others were on “pins and needles throughout the day encouraging one another” until late in the evening when they got word that everyone was safe.

“It was a very uplifting and supportive environment and when we heard finally that the hostage situation was solved, there was a collective sigh of relief, hugs, prayer, thanking God, patting each other on the back,” Father Higgins said. “It was just a great relief and celebration.”

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth told The Tablet in a statement that he is “grateful” for the response of Father Higgins and the Good Shepherd community, adding that he joins with “religious leaders of all faiths in expressing relief and happiness at the safe rescue of the hostages.”

One of the hostages was Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker of Congregation Beth Israel, who Father Higgins described as a “friend of the community.” The Catholic and Jewish communities in Colleyville, he noted, have had a close relationship for many years.

Cytron-Walker posted a message of gratitude to those involved on Facebook on Jan. 16.

“I am thankful and filled with appreciation for All of the vigils and prayers and love and support, All of the law enforcement and first responders who cared for us, All of the security training that helped save us,” Cytron-Walker wrote. “I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for the CBI community, the Jewish community, the Human Community. I am grateful that we made it out. I am grateful to be alive.”

Antisemitism is nothing new in the United States — the Anti-Defamation League tracked 533 incidents of antisemitism in 2021. Speaking with The Tablet, Father Higgins said it’s important for Catholics to recognize and support other religions, especially “our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

“They are our older brothers and sisters in the faith. We are rooted in Judaism,” Father Higgins said. “Catholicism comes from that stock, if you will, so we have a very deep connection to them, and I think it’s important for us to recognize that and to celebrate that as well.”

Pope Francis Sends Aid to Victims in Philippines, Migrants on Belarus Border

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis is sending thousands of dollars in relief aid to the Philippines after a devastating typhoon struck the Southeast Asian archipelago in December.

In a statement released Jan. 18, the Vatican said that in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Rai, the pope sent “an initial contribution of 100,000 euros ($113,868) for the relief of the population, through the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.”

The distribution of the money, the Vatican said, would be coordinated through the apostolic nunciature in the Philippines and “will be sent to the local church and allocated to the dioceses most affected by the disaster to be used in works of assistance.”

“It is intended to be an immediate expression of the Holy Father’s feeling of spiritual closeness and paternal encouragement toward the people and territories affected,” the statement said.

The Vatican announced that the pope also will send 100,000 euros to help migrants stranded on the border of Belarus and Poland and to Caritas Poland, which has been working to assist them.

In late December, the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called on both countries to address the crisis along their border, where hundreds of migrants and asylum-seekers, primarily from the Middle East, have been unable to move.

The crisis has resulted in a spat between the two countries, with one accusing the other of manufacturing the crisis. Nevertheless, the United Nations expressed concerns of human rights violations on both sides.

In a video message sent to the Geneva-based International Organization of Migration in November, Pope Francis seemingly referred to the crisis when he denounced the use of migrants “as bargaining chips, as pawns on a chessboard and victims of political rivalries.”

“How can suffering and despair be exploited to advance or defend political agendas? How can political considerations prevail when it is the dignity of the human person that is at stake?” the pope asked.

“The basic lack of human respect at national borders diminishes all of us in our humanity. Beyond the political and legal aspects of irregular situations, we must never lose sight of the human face of migration and the fact that, beyond the geographical divisions of borders, we are part of a single human family,” he said.