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An Inspirational Restaurant in Queens Gives Back to Their Community Despite Pandemic Struggles

By Emily Drooby

Sangria Tapas Bar & Restaurant has been a staple of the Jamaica, Queens neighborhood for 17 years. They’re located near a courthouse and a major stop on the Long Island Railroad, so normally there would be a large lunch rush. But with the pandemic, that’s gone.

“It has been very tough, very, very tough,” said co-owner, Rita Coutinho.

Rita and her family are faithful Catholics and longtime parishioners of St. Pius X Church in Rosedale, Queens. When the city first shut down last year, they lost about 80 percent of their business.

Now with less restrictions and both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announcing their intentions to fully open the city back up soon, they’re seeing an improvement.

“Thank God we are doing better, [but] it’s not the same thing like before COVID,” Rita said.

They’re now up to about 50 percent of their business. However, they did spend about $30,000 on COVID safety features. They had to dip into their own pockets to keep the place afloat. Like many restaurants, they’re calling on the government for financial help.

A new survey suggests that the pandemic has especially affected minority-owned small businesses. Ninety-percent of the survey’s respondents said they won’t last six months without financial relief. This is according to a survey done by nonprofit, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) New York City.

That makes what Rita and her co-owners did even more incredible. While it was a time of struggling, they still gave away $11,000 worth of meals to first responders and local churches who distributed them to parishioners. They have another large drop planned for next month.

“We know that God is going to help us because we are helping the community,” Rita said, “and the community comes to support us, so it’s like a beautiful circle.”

Now, it seems that God is helping them. If all goes well, Mayor de Blasio plans to fully reopen the city in just two months, on July 1.

It’s an announcement that inspires hope. Rita told Currents News that every morning she thanks God that she still has her health and her business.

“Gives you the hope that something better is coming for everybody,” Rita added.

COVID Crisis in India: The U.S. Will Send $100 Million in Supplies to the Country

Currents News Staff

India is facing one of the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks: more than 200,000 people have died.

Crematoriums are running around the clock and new infections continue to rise and continue to break records.  

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says hospitals are overwhelmed.

“More than 350,000 people a day are getting infected,” Murthy said. “They’re seeing the hospital systems in many cities on the brink, unable to meet the full demand. They’re running out of oxygen.” 

And medical experts in the U.S. say we need to step up.

“We can’t stop until COVID has been conquered all over the world,” Murthy added. 

Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the outbreak is a risk. 

“Transmission anywhere in the world poses a risk to people everywhere in the world,” said Besser.

This week, the White House committed to sharing up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while still not authorized in the U.S., with other countries.

The U.S. is delivering supplies worth more than 100 million dollars to India that includes the following:

  • Refillable cylinders of oxygen 
  • 1,700 oxygen concentrators to pull oxygen from the air
  • 15 million N-95 masks
  •  Supplies to make 20 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine
  • 1 million rapid diagnostic tests
  • The first of 20,000 treatment courses of Remdesivir

Planes packed with supplies will continue into next week.

“Global pandemics require global cooperation,” said Murthy.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, 4/28/21

The pandemic is forcing people into homelessness – but a new building in the Bronx is offering hope.

President Biden is set to deliver his first speech to a joint session of Congress. He’s expected to press for expanding access to health care and police reform.

Abortion fight – two New York dioceses are asking the Supreme Court to review their case against the state.

A man attacks a mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe with a sledgehammer. The pastor is calling for justice, but praying for the suspect.

Catholic Charities of New York’s New Affordable Housing in the Bronx Is Changing Lives

By Emily Drooby

The most important thing in the world to Tameca Gather are her three kids. So when a dangerous situation forced her family into the shelter system, she was devastated.

“It was depressing, it was really depressing,” Tameca said. “I used to cry every day and blame myself for the situation I got into, for my children, for me to end up in the shelter.”

They didn’t have a reliable place to call home.

“A lot of days we didn’t have no heat, when it was like two degrees outside, we didn’t have no heat,” she said. “I had to boil water for my kids to stay warm. My kids, I had to buy blankets. I had to go to my mom’s house to buy a space heater. It was really cold and we had to suffer.”

Now, Tameca and her family don’t have to suffer. That’s because she’s the new owner of an apartment at Catholic Charities of New York’s new housing complex in the Bronx.

“I love my apartment, I would not trade it for nothing in the world,” said Tameca.

The mother of three now has a safe, clean and affordable place for her family to call home.

Second Farms is housing for low-income families. It has 319 units, with 38 units reserved for people who were homeless. They have a community room, a laundry room, a daycare room, a fenced in courtyard, and soon, they’ll even have their own supermarket.

Thousands of people applied to live in this building. Right now, it’s only one-third of the way full, but they’re sorting through applications as more applications are underway.

“I mean the average rent now in the Bronx is like $2,000 a month for a one bedroom,” explained Renee Lopez, senior case manager for Catholic Charities Of New York. Her office is in the building.

“So now, they’re able to move to an apartment that’s so much more affordable for them, where they can work, bring their children to the daycare, go to the supermarket,” Renee said.

Rent is already high for many, but the pandemic and the rampant unemployment has made it even worse. An estimated 1.2 million households are at-risk of eviction in New York State, according to financial service consulting firm, Stout.

This building, which took two years to build, is helping to relieve that financial burden for families like Tameca’s.

“I’ve been praying so hard because I was in the [housing] system for like three years,” Tameca said, “And I prayed and I swear, God answered my prayers.”

Through the Eyes of a Marathon-Running Bishop: New Book Tackles Spiritual and Physical Fitness

Currents News Staff

If you’ve been looking for inspiration to get rid of some of that quarantine weight you might’ve put on, a new book explains the correlation between physical and spiritual fitness: “Running For a Higher Purpose: 8 Steps to Spiritual and Physical Fitness.”

It’s written by Bishop Thomas Paprocki from the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois. Bishop Paprocki completed 24 marathons. He joined Currents News to discuss what his motivation was for writing this book and how anyone can get a copy.

To get your copy of the bishop’s book, head to avemariapress.com or holygoalie.net

Related: Marathon Running Bishop Says Exercise Can Help Spiritual Life

Caught on Camera: California Catholic Church Vandalized

Currents News Staff

Police are looking for a man caught on camera vandalizing a church near Los Angeles. Video shows him taking a sledgehammer to a mural depicting the woman Catholics consider the mother of God.

“You feel bad. You have no words,” said Rev. Vito Di Marzio, St. Elisabeth Catholic Church’s pastor.

The pastor and parishioners at Saint Elisabeth Catholic Church were left saddened and stunned when they watched the security video.

It shows a man armed with a sledgehammer vandalizing a Virgin of Guadalupe mural, which overlooks an altar where people come to pray and light candles.

Father Vito Di Marzio says the unholy act happened around 1:30am Wednesday while he was sleeping on the other side of the building.

He thought someone was knocking on the door, so he went back to sleep. The next morning, he discovered what had happened.

“In the Catholic faith, the Virgin Mary is special because she is the mother of Jesus, the mother of God,” said Father Di Marzio.

The unidentified man dressed in black and wearing a bright green or yellow neck gaiter, approached the mural and took one swing before hopping up on the altar.

He then continued to angrily smash the tiles that make up the face of the Virgin Mary a dozen more times.

“I was shocked. I went to Mass, and I invited all the people to pray for the author of this sacrilegious act,” said Father Di Marzio.

The father called police to report the vandalism that defaced the hand-painted ceramic mural that was installed over 35 years ago as a symbol of unity.

“I’m not angry. Since the beginning, we were praying for him that he will repent and realize that it is something very wrong,” he said.

Father Di Marzio wants the suspect to be held accountable for what he did, but he also hopes the man will find help and healing from whatever issues he may be facing, saying “for sure, he needs some help, especially medical attention, I’m sure. He should ask for forgiveness, and the Lord will forgive him.”

The church says tiles in the mural will have to be replaced. Leaders plan to install bulletproof barriers in front of it.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday, April 27 2021

At the brink — shelters and advocacy groups are completely overwhelmed with migrants.

New York State loses a House seat after the latest U.S. Census — what that means for future elections.

India battles latest wave of COVID-19 — hospitals are desperate for oxygen while the death toll climbs.

The alumni of one Queen’s Catholic academy are honoring their mothers lost to the pandemic with a gift to current students.

Catholic Asylum Center in California Racing to Help With Ongoing Migrant Surge

Currents News Staff

Inside a small shelter in the eastern Coachella Valley, they’re in a race against time. Claudia Castorena is the founder and CFO of Galilee Center.

“We want to be ready ahead of time and prepare cots,” Claudia said.

She’s helping prepare their community room to house a bus full of asylum seekers recently released by immigration authorities.

“Right now, we are expecting 17 people from Murrieta and they’re going to be here in the next 20 to 25 minutes and then another bus from Yuma, 35 people,” Claudia said.

The buses come from nearby border towns. Those that test positive for COVID-19 are taken to hotels. Galilee Center provides them with food and clothing during their quarantine.Those that test negative are brought here.

“They receive everyday a clean pillow, pillow case, clean towel,” she said.

For Claudia, who came to this country as an undocumented immigrant, she says she is doing God’s work.

But not even a prophet could have prepared her for the latest immigrant surge.

“In the 30 years of providing social services, and human services in the Coachella valley . . . I’ve never seen it this way,” Claudia said.

Last year Galilee Center received a total of 125 migrants.

Since March, they’ve been getting that many every two to three days.

Exhausted, they stumble into the shelter with ankle monitors after being released by immigration authorities, capping off weeks on the road.

“Welcome to all of you,” Claudia said. “This is a Catholic shelter, we have no relation with immigration authorities.”

Claudia has hired 18 new people in the last few weeks, but it hasn’t been enough. So she’s running around helping Gabriela, a 21-year-old migrant woman shower and get clothes.

Gabriela says coming with her 2-year-old daughter was risky, but staying in Ecuador under the abuse of a relative was riskier.

“It was a hard decision,” Gabriela said. “Coming with my daughter was hard because sometimes we had nothing to eat, nothing to drink and she would ask for water or food and I had none to give her.”

One of the things that shocked her the most from the week-long journey was the number of people trying to come to the U.S.

“There were a lot of people,” she said. “A lot of migrants trying to get here. The ticket system for the bus had collapsed from all the people.”

Gabriela and the migrants will be here less than 24 hours, just long enough to shower, wash their clothes, eat, sleep and book the last leg of their trip.

Hours later a new set of buses will arrive to start the process all over again.

“We are helping, little by little, and even if it is one family at the time, that gives me a certain way of comfort in knowing that we made a difference for one family,” Claudia said.

Families that have come in search of a better life.

 

Legalized Marijuana in New York: What’s Next?

Currents News Staff

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his support for changes in federal marijuana laws after New York became the 15th state, plus Washington D.C., to legalize it for recreational use.

“I support decriminalization at the federal level,” Sen. Schumer said, “and we’ll be introducing legislation with a few of my colleagues shortly.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly signed the bill into law, saying it was “about time,” after years of excessive policing along racial lines and easy access to the drug in neighboring states. Gov. Cuomo pushed the pot law on a brand new website, cannabis.ny.gov.

“This will raise revenue and end the over-criminalization of this product that has left so many communities of color over-policed and over-incarcerated,” he said.

But critics say it’s just a money grab for the state and that users will begin to abuse the drug. The Diocese of Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is against the bill, saying the science is on his side.

“Marijuana unfortunately is like smoking,” the bishop said. “People who smoke are endangering their life. People who smoke marijuana will be doing the same thing, endangering their life with the possibility of cancer. That’s what science says.”

Bishop DiMarzio says the law puts the lives of teens and young adults at risk.  

“The fact of the matter is we’re making this now available and young people will start to use it as young people think they’re invincible and nothing will affect them,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “This is not a good thing for our society in New York or any place else.”

A new study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse backs up those concerns. Adolescents are more likely to develop substance-use disorders after first trying cannabis because their brains are still developing.

This data is according to the study’s co-author, Dr. Emily Einstein, Chief of Science Policy at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“The earlier someone initiates substance use, the more of an impact it has on their brain development,” Dr. Einstein said. “We found that within the first 12 months of first trying cannabis in the 12-17 year age group, there was a 10.7 percent chance of developing a substance use disorder.”

While the study didn’t look at the reasons behind the findings, Dr. Einstein underscored the need for more research into how marijuana interacts with the brain.

“I think it’s important for adolescents and young adults to really understand what risk looks like as they encounter substances in their lives,” she said. “It’s very true that not everyone who takes a drug will develop addiction. There’s still a large chance that you will develop addiction and that chance is even larger if you start using substances at a younger age.”

Parts of the new law are already in effect in New York State with the federal government now looking to follow suit, but it could be an uphill climb. President Biden supports medical marijuana and decriminalizing it, but hasn’t called for its full legalization.