Catholic News Headlines for Friday, 12/17/21

The state of Kentucky is still picking up the pieces since that deadly tornado hit last week, and for those morning, a makeshift memorial has risen to help in their grief.

As the Supreme Court wrestles with the future of Roe v Wade, the FDA has loosened some restrictions on the medication mifepristone, allowing the abortion pills to be delivered by mail.

We have an update on The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Campaign that goes to parishes and Catholic organizations around the diocese. They’re inching closer to their goal and we have information on how you can help!

Makeshift Flower Memorial Created By Surfside Resident Remembers Those Lost from Tornado Tragedy

Currents News Staff

During what feels like a helpless moment, Trina Cruse and her daughter were looking for ways to help.

“It’s so broad, so big, you don’t know where to try to start,” Trina said, “so we just stopped, and asked what they were doing and asked if we could help.”

Buckets of flowers seemingly just appeared in downtown Mayfield, Kentucky. Before long, passers-by were pitching in to grow the wall of hope.

“There’s just something about flowers,” said memorial creator Leo Soto.

Leo traveled to this small Kentucky town from Miami, Florida.

“They were struck by a sudden tragedy where there’s a lot of, a lot of loss of life,” Leo said. “I wanted to head there, to be able to help.”

The “Wall of Hope” was born of his own community’s tragedy, started by Leo after the Surfside, Florida condo collapse earlier this year.

“I know what it’s like to feel somebody,” Leo said, “to lose somebody that shouldn’t have been lost.”

Leo drove to Kentucky from Nashville, Tennessee, collecting flower donations along the way.

“I know that there’s a lot of families here that need the help, that need a place to come together and to begin to accept what happened here,” he said. “And hopefully that’s what this place becomes.”

A simple gesture through one flower.

“The flower is a symbol of life exemplified,” he said, “so people seeing their loved ones, pictures of their loved ones surrounded by flowers, is seeing their loved ones surrounded by life.”

Yet, the flower symbolizes profound impact.

“For him to just think of us, little old Mayfield,” Trina said, “you know that makes you feel good.”

Leo hopes the people don’t just move on, but stand united as a community.

“You know that they understand that this community is forever impacted,” Leo said. “It’s forever changed, and there has to be a certain amount of respect paid to the victims here.”

The 12 Remaining Christian Missionaries Held Hostage in Haiti Are Freed

Currents News Staff

Twelve of the 17 Christian missionaries kidnapped by gang members in Haiti in October were set free over the last month or so, according to the country’s Justice Minister.

A group of 17 missionaries were kidnapped exactly two months ago to the day here, rather, in a suburb just outside of Port au Prince, not in an area known to be controlled by this particular gang, 400 Mawozo, which is the gang that authorities say was responsible for this kidnapping.

The remaining 12 were released around 5 a.m. local time, according to one source, and they were actually found by members of this community in this neighborhood south of Port au Prince, where they were released.

The people, the locals who saw this group of missionaries just wandering around their neighborhood, alerted authorities to the fact that they had been released. The conditions of their release we’re not yet sure, whether a ransom was paid, exactly how they were let go and why they were let go.

The gang made an initial ransom demand in october of 1 million dollars per hostage, but it is not known the exact circumstances around their release.

Bishop Robert Brennan Impressed by Brooklyn’s ‘Amazing’ Celebration and Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe

Currents News Staff

It was such a huge celebration in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Diocese of Brooklyn this December, that people are still talking about it. One of those people who got to experience the spectacular devotion to Our Lady was the new bishop of Brooklyn – Robert Brennan.

Hundreds of people filled the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph and the streets outside, and for the first time, Bishop Brennan helped light the special Guadalupe torch.

The bishop joined Currents News to share his experience witnessing the large turnout of Guadalupe devotees and what that community means to the diocese he leads.

As Kentucky’s Disaster Relief Operations Continue, Sisters of Charity Work To Meet Need of Community

Currents News Staff

Since the tornadoes touched down last week, Kentucky has been mostly dry. That weather allowed storm crews to conduct damage assessments throughout the Bluegrass State, as well as let families and first responders begin the clean up process. But turbulent weather has once again lined up in the state’s forecast.

Currents News spoke to Tablet and Crux National Correspondent John Lavenburg about the latest weather developments in the area. Lavenburg is in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a city north of Nashville, Tennessee.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday, 12/16/21

Supply chain disruptions are causing product shortages everywhere – including Christmas trees and secular holiday decorations. But what about religious decorations?

Some good news out of Haiti: the remaining twelve Christian missionaries being held hostage there have now been released.

A series of record-setting storms slams the Midwest, from the Rockies to the Great Lakes Wednesday. It comes on the heels of the deadly tornado spree that left at least 90 people dead and devastated parts of Kentucky and other states.

J.J.’s Christmas Trees Sells More Religious Decorations this Christmas

By Jessica Easthope

The shelves look fully stocked, but the staff at J.J.’s Christmas Trees says the store is empty. Supply chain issues put a kink in their inventory – but sales are up – and the items flying off the shelves go much higher than reindeer.

Maria LaRosa has been the manager at the Dyker Heights store for three decades. She says this year, more than any other, she’s selling more religious than secular decorations.

“They’ve never really asked for them before as much as they have now and because of the pandemic and losing so many loved ones, everyone’s looking up to God and going back to their roots,” Maria said.

Sales on religious items are up 20 percent. The store started with 24 small nativity scenes and now they’re all gone. When they opened on Black Friday, they had around 20 large nativity scenes that were costing a pretty penny: An outdoor nativity goes for $400.

But Maria says people are willing to pay the price of keeping Christ in Christmas.

“There’s always Christ around at Christmas in our house,” said customer Christine Anant.

Christine was shopping for a cross to put on her parents grave. She says her home is already full of religious decorations – and she can see why others would want the same.

“I think that needing your faith more would be validated by having these items around and on the top of your tree,” she said.

Nick Badolato was browsing for some validation of his own after turning toward his faith during the pandemic.

“It really brings it home, especially what’s happened the last year and a half or so,” he said, “so I think a lot of people are looking toward their faith and looking around for items that bring us closer to the reason for the season.”

Buying these decorations might make customers feel closer to God – Maria says she feels that way just selling them.

“I’m born and raised Catholic and for the last few years,” she said. “You don’t go to church, and now, I think I’m going to go back.”

Maria says next year she’s planning to stock up on more religious items after learning this year what people want and need.

The Pope Used to Work as a Club Bouncer and Dreamed of Becoming a Butcher

Currents News Staff

Pope Francis is celebrating his 85th birthday on Dec. 17. Eighty-five years that began in the Flores neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Holy Father has occasionally shared snippets from his past, including from his time in school. Once he shared a memory of a teacher he remembered especially fondly.

“She was a good teacher. She taught us how to write and read, she was great. Then, always, when I finished school, I always remembered her, because remembering one’s first teacher is very important, because he or she is the one who sees you off into life first. And I would call her on the phone, as a kid, then as a priest. Then as a bishop, I helped her when she fell ill,” he said.

Besides Argentina and the Vatican, the pontiff has lived in Chile, Spain, Ireland and Germany. He is fluent in Spanish, Italian and German, and conversational in a number of other languages, including French and English.

As Pope, he’s often surprised the world with his unusual way of doing things. For example, he was the first Pope since the first century who chose a name not used by a predecessor.

And during his first Holy Thursday celebration as pontiff, Pope Francis made headlines when he celebrated it with inmates at a prison in Rome.

But for him, it was nothing new. Already in Argentina, he had made it his custom to celebrate the washing of feet in places like jails, hospitals, retirement homes or slums.

During his first canonization celebration, on May 12, 2013, Pope Francis surpassed Pope John Paul II’s record in canonizing the most saints in a single pontificate. He did this when he canonized the 813 Martyrs of Otranto, who had been executed by the Ottomans in 1480.

But before becoming Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio held a number of very different jobs, from a bouncer at a club to a chemist in a lab. In fact, when he was younger, he had a very different idea for his future.

“I changed my mind, obviously. But to answer your question, when I was little, I wanted to be a butcher. I would have loved that,” he once said.

Now, at 85 years old, Pope Francis continues to surprise the world with his words and actions.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, 12/15/21

President Biden is getting an up-close look at the devastation caused by this weekend’s deadly tornadoes that killed more than 70 people in Kentucky.

The Holy Father is praying for the victims of a fuel tanker explosion in northern Haiti.

Keechant Sewell will become the NYPD’s first female police commissioner.

Retired 9/11 First Responder With Terminal Cancer Battles NYCERS Over Disability Pension

By Jessica Easthope

Mike Earley walks around knowing his days are numbered. That’s because he has stage four pancreatic cancer and was given one year to live – that was seven months ago.

“It’s debilitating,” Mike said. “I haven’t been able to leave the house much. I have very, very bad weakness in my legs.”

But his battle with cancer isn’t the only one Mike feels like he’s losing. After working tirelessly since June to get the New York City Employees’ Retirement System – commonly known as NYCERS – to approve his disability pension, Mike was approved. The pension would give him and his family 75 percent of his salary, but his work and his waiting is far from over.

“They’ve been running me in circles since June,” he said. “It’s not fair to the people who are waiting. I made it six months, what if I don’t make it another six months?”

Mike served the city of New York as an EMS captain for nearly 30 years. His cancer is 9/11 related.

“They really didn’t push masks at the beginning,” Mike said, “then it got to the point we had to wear masks. Was it too late at that point? I don’t know.”

Now Mike wants to make sure his wife and two daughters are taken care of when he’s gone. After saying there wasn’t enough proof of just how sick he was, NYCERS could take up to another eight months to get Mike his full pension.

“In six months if I don’t make it past the prognosis date what happens to my family?” he asked. “What happens to the house we just bought, are they homeless? At this point all I care about is my family.”

The agency says 58 percent of applicants seeking disability pensions get an answer within four months. But World Trade Center Liaison for Local 2507, Gary Smiley, who’s also battling NYCERS, says the system is broken.

“In 2021, no one wants to be a World Trade Center first responder,” Gary said. “Every day you’re looking over your shoulder wondering what’s going to happen to you medically. We’re all sick.”

Mike says now all he can do is pray.

“I don’t have the strength to go to church, but I pray to God all day long and I’m a firm believer He knows what I’m going through and He’s going to help me,” Mike said.

His hope is that the city does right by him.

“What more do you need to know? To say ‘okay this guy worked 28 and a half years with the fire department taking care of the city’, how about the city takes care of him? At this point all I care about is my family.”