This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. By using this site, you consent to the placement and use of these cookies. Read our Privacy Policy to learn more.
ACCEPT
Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.
Some of the top stories on this newscast:
A couple feet of snow isn’t stopping Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens from doing its job. The organization is still delivering meals to homebound senior citizens.
A New York Supreme Court judge is ordering the Cuomo administration to release the total number of residents who died of COVID-19 in state regulated nursing homes.
Dreamers are hopeful that a pathway to citizenship becomes a reality as President Biden continues to alter immigration policy.
It’s still Christmas for some lucky kids – New York’s finest teaming up with one local parish in Astoria to help spread some joy.
The Biden administration, now two weeks old now, has a lot at stake on Capitol Hill. Cabinet confirmations continue to move along, but there are still a number the Senate has to sign off on. Plus, there is Biden’s chief priority: a massive economic rescue bill already testing Biden’s promises of more bipartisanship.
President Biden invited top Senate Democrats to the White House to discuss his $1.9 trillion COVID economic relief plan.
“I thought I’d welcome you all home. This is our new home, for a while anyway,” he told Them.
On Feb. 1, Biden heard from a group of Senate Republicans pitching a smaller plan — and bipartisan compromise. On a call Feb. 2, he told Senate Democrats the GOP number is just too low to meet the moment.
“I don’t think the problem is that we’re going to go too big to deal with this crisis,” he said. “The problem is we’re going to go too small.”
So, with his blessing, Democrats are ready to go at it alone, and quickly.
“We will do his best, but unity doesn’t mean unanimity. And unity doesn’t mean letting the minority party block progress in the Senate,” Deomcratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware told Currents News.
But Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, says he won’t let Democrats move too fast.
“The rushed budget process that will play out this week is exactly the wrong path toward making law,” he said.
The Senate is also set to begin the impeachment trial of former president Trump next week, creating a balancing act.
“There’s an urgency to deliver relief to the American people,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. “We are confident they have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Wednesday brought a flurry of activity on Biden’s cabinet nominees with multiple committee hearings, while newly-confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were sworn in.
Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell have finally struck a power-sharing agreement to work with the Senate’s 50-50 split. Vice President Kamala Harris, of course, gives the Democrats the tie-breaking vote. The deal means Democrats can now take control of committee chairmanships at a time, helpful to moving Biden’s agenda.
President Biden continues to change the policies of the previous administration on immigration, and has more plans on the horizon.
One of Biden’s plans is to re-establish a task force on new Americans to streamline the naturalization process. That’s big news in the Diocese of Immigrants — there are 30,000 Dreamers in New York City. What does this mean for them?
Joining Currents News is immigration attorney Steve Maggi, a naturalized American citizen himself, to shed light on what could be next for U.S. immigration reform.
Students at St. John’s University will soon be returning to in-person learning, thanks to the college’s on campus testing efforts.
The school will turn to a hybrid model for the spring semester, and is requiring students to get tested.
To help get that initiative rolling, the college held a massive testing effort, free of charge.
The on-campus testing is done with help from the university’s pharmaceutical graduate students, who can have results within 60 to 90 minutes.
St. John’s University is also an approved vaccine distribution site. The administration is waiting for the expansion and wider distribution of shots before they can begin those efforts.
Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.
Some of the top stories on this newscast:
New Yorkers are digging out after a massive storm battered the northeast with as much as two feet of snow in some areas.
President Biden is moving ahead with a series of executive actions on immigration that could provide a pathway to citizenship.
The fallout continues over New York’s Attorney General report that the state severely under-counted the number of nursing home deaths from the coronavirus.
Ilse Mendez came to Laredo, Texas with her parents at the age of 2. She’s now 33. Everyone in her family — including her four children — are now U.S. citizens, except her.
Ilse is one of the hundreds of thousands of people known as “dreamers.” President Joe Biden is proposing a pathway to citizenship for these immigrants who have been able to live in the U.S. because of the program known as DACA.
“We’ve lived four years of Trump basically stringing us along with that fear and anxiety. So, I’m hopeful that something positive will come out of these different legislations or these executive actions that Biden has brought,” said Ilse.
On other issues, Biden will face legal challenges. The president issued a 100-day pause on deportations but a federal judge has temporarily blocked that move. And there are still about 28,000 migrants sitting in Mexican border towns waiting to seek asylum through the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Advocates have pushed for these migrants to be allowed into the country while their cases are handled in immigration courts. Former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ronald Vitiello warns that Biden’s immigration policies could create another surge of migrants at the southern border.
“My warning is: learn from the history we already have. When you roll back those elements of what’s in place now, then you’re going to, you’re going to encourage people,” he said.
The Biden Administration is also encouraging all people, regardless of immigration status, to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It says federal immigration agencies will not be conducting enforcement operations at or near vaccine distribution sites or clinics.
He was a world-famous architect and a devout Catholic. Antoni Gaudí’s faith is clearly on display in the details of his most important work: the design of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain.
“The principal dogmas of Catholic doctrine are represented on the facades of the Sagrada Familia,” said Father Gabriel Córdoba Rodriguez, a Spanish architect and author.
Father Rodriguez is also a Spanish architect, and wrote a book on the theology behind Gaudí’s work. Like Medieval cathedrals, authentic bibles in stone, Gaudí conceived the Sagrada Familia as a large catechesis. He took the altarpieces that are usually found inside the church and moved them outside where everybody could see the truths of the Christian faith. Gaudí wanted to reflect the early Christian church, but with the progress and advances of the time.
“Pope Benedict XVI said that Gaudí’s ability to bring out the altarpieces, his three facades, and his 18 towers, made an ecclesiology,” said Father Rodriguez. “There, the church is proclaimed, and he reveals the glory of God through beauty.”
Father Rodriguez says many elements have been gathered to show that the brilliant architect was a saint. He was a mystic and proclaimed God’s glory through his works and everyday life.
“Gaudí was a person with a great intellectual capacity,” said Father Rodriguez. “He was a cultured and very knowledgeable person, but he was also a deeply religious and spiritual person. The expression of faith through the liturgy was fundamental for him. He was a person of daily communion. Of course, he was also a defender of the faith, during those turbulent times at the end of the 19th century.”
Gaudí not only sought god through architecture and his way of working. He saw god through the creation and all its people. Gabriel explains that Gaudí also inspired faith in others and continuously showed acts of solidarity to his workers, peers and Barcelona’s citizens.
“I felt that it would be important to present a thesis that covers the entire building of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia,” said Father Rodriguez. “I particularly wanted to convey that Gaudí, being a deeply religious person, was able to capture the beauty of what he lived and what he felt from God. All this inspiration came directly to him from God.”
New Yorkers are demanding answers and action after the state’s Attorney General report shows nursing home deaths were much higher than originally detailed by the state.
“Someone has to be held responsible and we have got to get to the bottom of this,” said New York City Councilman Eric Ulrich, who has been vocal in sounding the alarm from the early days of the pandemic.
After losing several friends in nursing homes and hearing from his constituents, he realized the numbers weren’t adding up. Now his suspicions have seemingly been confirmed.
“Numerous mistakes made, and bad policy decisions made that directly resulted in the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers who didn’t have to die,” he told Currents News. “And then the governor tried to cover that up, and that’s why every single tax paying New Yorker should be outraged at the Cuomo administration.”
This past summer, there was speculation that the number of nursing home deaths attributed to COVID-19 could be much higher than the state was reporting. Nursing home residents who died in hospitals were not being counted in that number of those lost to the virus.
Governor Andrew Cuomo dodged the criticism for months. However, last week state Attorney General Letitia James (D), released a scathing report after a long investigation that began with the multiple complaints of COVID-related neglect.
This forced health department officials to release their closely held data, contributing thousands of new deaths to the nursing home total, about 45% higher than the original number. Many were angry over a lack of transparency.
The report also brings up a highly criticized early pandemic decision by Governor Cuomo, which forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients.
The Governor’s response fueled the fire. During a press conference he said, “Whether a person died in a hospital, or died in a nursing home, people died.”
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker reminded people the number of deaths hasn’t changed — just where they happened.
“When they said there was undercounting, that’s just factually inaccurate,” he said. “Reporting the number of deaths is always the hardest number to put out there, and we wanted to make sure those numbers were accurate.”
Support for the findings came from both sides of the aisle. Now, attention has been turned towards next steps.
“The fact that the governor engaged in this coverup, people should be outraged,” said Councilman Ulrich. “There needs to be a full-fledged investigation, and someone needs to be held responsible for this.”
The White House said they’ll decide if a Department of Justice investigation on the matter will take place.
There have also been calls for Zucker to resign, while Attorney General James continues to investigate at least 20 nursing homes of particular concern.
In general, nursing home cases in New York have steadily fallen since the vaccine became available. Still, for so many families, it’s too little too late.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City followed up with tough words criticizing the Biden administration in his homily Thursday night, Jan. 28, during the National Prayer Vigil For Life in Washington.
The National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, John Lavenburg joined Currents News after attending the vigil in Washington and the virtual March for Life rally.
Both Currents News and The Tablet will continue to have full coverage of the March for Life. Be sure to check out currentsny.tv and thetablet.org for the latest reports out of the nation’s Capitol.