Our Lady of Sorrows Parishioners Start Applications for Funeral Reimbursements Under New FEMA Plan

By Jessica Easthope

Jennifer Perez is in nursing school hoping to become one of the people who helped her dad, Gabriel, in the final days of his battle with COVID-19.

“It just feels like it’s not real,” Jennifer said. “I still believe I’ll still see him walking around. But he’s gone, so it’s been really tough to be honest.”

After Gabriel’s death on March 22, Jennifer and her family were devastated. Financially, her dad’s death was taking an unimaginable toll: costing $12,000 for his cremation.

“We just put whatever we had together to give him a proper goodbye,” Jennifer said. “It was a lot. Some friends were helping us with money.”

When FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Reimbursement plan rolled out, they started gathering receipts, contracts and Gabriel’s death certificate.

“Getting all the paperwork is like reliving the situation again,” Jennifer said. “It makes it more real that he’s gone.”

But Jennifer is not alone.

“Whether it happened recently or a year ago, you still have to look for their name, see the time of death, the cause of death, where and everything,” said Katherin Matute, the FEMA case manager at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona, Queens. “You’re basically reliving that moment.”

The church had at least 100 parishioners die of COVID-19. Katherin is only 17-years-old but the church pastor, Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, is trusting her with a big responsibility.

“Katherin is perfectly bilingual. She’s a perfect fit for this. She’s very personable, a great communicator,” Father Manuel said. “I’m sure the parishioners will be very comfortable working with her because she’s compassionate and patient.”

Though the parish bookkeeper and Father Manuel will be overseeing Katherin’s work, she says now is her time to prove herself.

“Age does put some pressure on me because you want to make sure you’re doing everything right,” Katherin said. “I’m glad that he trusted me with such a big case. It’s helping me grow and learn from it.”

More than one-million people called the FEMA hotline on the first day it opened. The agency has already received tens of thousands of applications. Father Manuel says he was expecting cases from his parish to come flooding in, but his parishioners are skeptical.

“We try to convince them,” he said. “They don’t think they will meet the requirements or that they will be able to prove or come up with certain evidence of the COVID status of the loved one who passed away.”

Jennifer’s dad’s death certificate listed COVID-19, but the church is now working with Elmhurst Hospital to help parishioners change any inaccurate death certificates before they apply to FEMA.

For more information on how you can be reimbursed for funeral expenses, call the COVID-19 funeral assistance line Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time or visit FEMA’s website at fema.gov.

COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Line Number
844-684-6333 | TTY: 800-462-7585

Hours of Operation:
Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time

Saying He Missed People, Pope Francis Returns to Window for Sunday Prayer

By Carol Glatz and Currents News Staff

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Greeting visitors in St. Peter’s Square after nearly a month of tight restrictions due to the pandemic, Pope Francis said he was happy to see people allowed to gather and be present for Sunday noonday prayer.

“I offer a warm greeting to all of you, people of Rome and pilgrims,” he said, pointing out the many flags he could see being held high.

A few hundred people, all wearing masks and socially distanced, attended the recitation of the “Regina Coeli” prayer April 18 after nearly a month of tighter controls on gatherings in an ongoing attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“Thanks be to God, we can find ourselves again in this square for the Sunday and holiday appointment,” he said, adding how much he misses greeting people in the square when he must recite the midday prayer inside the apostolic library.

“I am happy, thanks be to God! And thank you for your presence,” he said to applause.

In his main talk, Pope Francis said Jesus is a real living person whose presence always leaves the person encountering him astonished, which “goes beyond enthusiasm, beyond joy; it is another experience” that is profoundly beautiful.

He said the day’s Gospel reading of the risen Christ’s appearance to the disciples in Jerusalem, “tells us that Jesus is not a ‘ghost,’ but a living person,” who fills people with joy.

“Being Christian is not first of all a doctrine or a moral ideal; it is a living relationship with him, with the risen Lord: we look at him, we touch him, we are nourished by him and, transformed by his love, we look at, touch and nourish others as brothers and sisters,” he said.

Jesus invites his disciples to truly look at him, which involves “intention, will” and an attitude of loving care and concern, he said.

More than seeing, it is the way parents look at their child, “lovers gaze at each other, a good doctor looks at the patient carefully. … looking is a first step against indifference, against the temptation to look the other way before the difficulties and sufferings of others,” the pontiff said.

By inviting the disciples to touch him, he said, Jesus shows that a relationship with him and with one’s brothers and sisters “cannot remain at a distance” but requires a love that looks and comes close, making contact, sharing and “entering into a communion of life, a communion with him.”

And the verb, to eat, clearly expresses “our humanity,” he said, and “our need to nourish ourselves in order to live.”

When people come together to eat, it becomes “an expression of love, an expression of communion, of celebration,” which is why “the eucharistic banquet has become the emblematic sign of the Christian community. Eating together the body of Christ: this is the core of Christian life,” the pontiff said.

Despite the Pandemic, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio’s Annual Vocation Retreat Sees Record Attendance

By Emily Drooby

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio’s annual vocational retreat has meant everything to Mauricio Mayen.

“I was able to pray in silence, meditate a lot, hear God’s calling,” Mauricio said.

It’s helped strengthen his decision to, God willing, enter the seminary next year.

“You get to concentrate a lot, you get to pray quietly, you get to adore Christ more, you also get to listen and understand other people’s story,” Mauricio told Currents News.

Mauricio’s story? He was born before hitting the seven-month mark, very premature but despite the odds, he survived. He believes it’s because God has a path laid out for him, one that leads to the priesthood.

This is his second year at the Bishop’s Vocational Retreat. The event normally takes place in Douglaston, but moved this year to the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Long Island.

It’s a weekend where high school boys and those older can consider whether God may be calling them to the priesthood.

Bishop DiMarzio explained that it’s a particularly inspiring year.

“This is the largest group we have ever had in my 17 years,” the bishop said, “and we’ve done this every year. Forty-two is a lot. Usually we have 25, 30 maybe? Not 42.”

That turnout is surprising that it’s occurring during a pandemic and just months after the Vatican released data showing the growing priest shortage across the world. However, bishops in the U.S. are reporting steady enrollment over the last decade.

“It’s moments like this that give me hope,” said Father Christopher Bethge, the vocation director for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

He explains that sometimes you just need to ask young men the question: would you become a priest?

“Well bishop always reminds us, if people are not asked, they can never respond,” said Father Bethge. “So, it’s important this weekend to ask the question, and once you plant the seed, you allow God to do the rest of the work.”

Bishop DiMarzio said that seeing other people might help them discern their vocation.

“People are thinking about it,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “When they see other people, 40 other people, here with them, they recognize, well it’s not only me thinking about it, it’s other people too.”

For Mauricio, this weekend is doing just that.

“Now I come with more of a prepared mentality of what I’m looking for,” he said. “What I am supposed to do. What I have to do.”

St. Mel’s Catholic Academy Alumni Build New Playground Dedicated to Their Mothers

By Jessica Easthope

When you’re a kid, it doesn’t get any better than the rush of recess on the playground and being silly on a slide. At St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Flushing, Queens, something so joyous was born out of sorrow.

“My mom was completely healthy one day and the next she was in the hospital and fought for 17 days,” said Kimberly Levin, the Vice President of the Unsung Siblngs Foundation.

Early on into the pandemic, Kim’s mom Dottie died of COVID-19 and a proper funeral wasn’t possible. But for Father Joseph Fonti, pastor of St. Mel’s Church, he gave her family some closure.

“He allowed us to bring our mother’s coffin outside of the church,” Kim said, “and family and friends were scattered all over the street as he screamed into a microphone giving my mother’s final blessing.”

After her mom’s passing, Kim – a St. Mel’s alumna, was driven to give back to her school and church with the help of her family’s non-profit, the Unsung Siblings Foundation.

“When we met with Father Fonti, we said ‘what can we do for you now,’” Kim said. “And we talked about a few different things and the word playground was said.”

The foundation took bids, found a company and in a few months, the playground was built.

“The glory of God is when we’re fully alive,” Father Fonti said, “and if a playground can bring that out, it’s not only lifting them up, it’s lifting us all up.”

When it came time to raising money for the playground, Kim called on her best friend RoseMarie Lanzetta. Kim and RoseMarie’s moms were also best friends, inseparable for decades and now together again.

“We grew up together as sisters pretty much and they really wanted to honor my mom in a way that she deserves and this wall it’s a symbol of who they were,” RoseMarie said.

The Unsung Siblings Foundation raised $68,000 and paid for the rest of the $81,000 playground named for Kim and RoseMarie’s mothers, but for Principal Amy Barron, it’s priceless.

“There’s no sound more beautiful than the joy of children laughing and playing,” Amy said, “and I’m so blessed to be able to hear that every day on that playground that was gifted to us.”

To thank everyone who made the playground possible, Kim created a donor wall with one special tribute: butterflies.

“It’s about new life, transformation, rebirth,” Kim said, “and our mothers were symbols of strong, beautiful women who were about their family first, faith and their friends.”

Now the playground is bringing together past and future generations of St. Mel’s students. They’ll always remember it as the place where they first spread their wings.

Catholic News Headlines for Friday, April 16, 2021

The federal government helping pay for COVID-19 funeral arrangements.

A mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis — police trying to figure out why.

The Vatican’s international health and medicine conference — find out which famous faces are invited.

Happy 94th Birthday Pope emeritus Benedict XVI!

Congresswoman Malliotakis’ Border Visit Reveals Horrific Conditions

By Currents News Staff and Paula Katinas

WINDSOR TERRACE — The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is “completely outrageous” and getting worse by the day, according to Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, who recently traveled to Texas to get a firsthand look.

“What I saw was disorder and chaos,” Malliotakis told Current News on April 15. “It was a very alarming trip.”

Malliotakis described the conditions at the border as “a humanitarian crisis” as well as a national security crisis.

Malliotakis, a Republican representing New York’s 11th Congressional District (Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn), went to the Rio Grande Valley on April 9 as part of a delegation of GOP House members. The trip was organized by Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, the House minority whip. The lawmakers visited a center in Donna, Texas, where migrant children are being housed, and talked to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

Malliotakis said she witnessed heartbreaking scenes of kids in overcrowded spaces.

“Children are being jammed and crammed into bubbles where they stay all day long on top of each other,” she said.

Malliotakis said the facility is set up to accommodate 250 people, but “they had 4,000 individuals there.”

She also expressed concern that the flood of migrants entering the U.S. is coming at a time when the nation is still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The facility was “certainly not part of social distancing,” she said.

Illegal border crossings are at a 15-year high, according to CBP data. CBP took 170,000 people — including 18,500 unaccompanied minors — into custody in March, an increase from 78,000 in January.

The delegation also visited an intake center where migrants are processed in McAllen, Texas, and toured the Rio Grande River on a boat.

Malliotakis said CBP agents told the congressional delegation that cartels are smuggling people across the border and making a ton of money doing it.

“You’re talking half a billion [dollars] that the cartels are making. They are viewing people as a commodity,” she said.

She said CBP agents described a horrific incident in which smugglers threw a 6-month-old baby into the Rio Grande from a raft because the agents were closing in. The smugglers knew the agents would stop chasing them and concentrate on saving the baby.

Malliotakis, who supported former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, laid the blame for the border crisis at the feet of President Joe Biden. She charged that Biden’s border policies, which include allowing unaccompanied minors into the country, have caused the situation to escalate.

At a March 25 press conference, Biden disputed charges that his policies are responsible for the situation. The increase in people crossing into the U.S. is a seasonal spike that “happens every year,” he said.

The administration is taking steps to address the situation — including setting up a 5,000-bed facility, the president said.

Biden said his administration is looking at the long-term by increasing financial aid to Central American countries to improve living conditions in their nations so that migrants won’t be so desperate to flee.

Malliotakis called for the reinstatement of migrant protocols that Trump had put in place. Those protocols included having people seeking asylum wait in their home countries as their cases were processed.

The U.S. needs to “send a message that our borders are not open for illegal migration,” Malliotakis said.

MTA Survey Shows Spike in Crime, Dip in Ridership as Agency Works to Get NYC Back on Trains

By Jessica Easthope

New York City and its subway system are evolving around the pandemic. Crime is up, ridership is down and now the MTA is pulling out all the stops to get people back onto the trains.

Train after train, the cars are nearly empty. At the Bowling Green station in Lower Manhattan, people appeared to be socially distant on the platform. But one question remains — are there just less people?

“The negative impact on ridership and revenue is orders of magnitude worse than the Great Depression,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye. “During the Great Depression, subway ridership, at the bottom, went down 13 percent. In March or April of 2020, subway ridership was down 95 percent.”

Pat said the last year has been the most challenging ever for the agency. Ridership was still down 35 percent and it’s not only because of COVID-19.

“The subway system is safer than it was five, 10 and 15 years ago,” Pat said. “But the increase in crimes, like the stabbing spree on the A train three or four weeks ago that resonates and frankly terrifies New Yorkers. No one wants to go back to the bad, old days of rampant crime.”

According to a survey of more than 25,000 active riders released by the MTA this week, only 26 percent were ‘satisfied’ with safety on trains. Crime and harassment was the top concern: 72 percent say they’re ‘very concerned’ about safety on their commutes.

“In the later hours of the night, there’s hardly anyone else on the train, so it’s concerning,” said commuter Ameena Caesar.

“I’m very cognizant of my surroundings,” said Liz Murray who commutes from Brooklyn. “I keep my back to the wall. Before, you really didn’t have to think about it and now you have to pay attention.”

To address safety concerns, the MTA added 600 more NYPD officers to its subway patrol, but the officers are spread out among 472 subway stations. Many riders say they haven’t seen an increased police presence.

“Honestly where I live in Brooklyn,” Liz said, “I don’t see police ever.”

But the MTA’s disinfecting efforts on trains and platforms are being noticed.

“They’re very clean,” said commuter Ben Thompson. “It’s been commendable on the MTA. It’s been well-managed and maintained.”

If it wasn’t for federal aid, the MTA would have lost $5.6 billion dollars this year, which is why Pat said getting riders back is the priority.

“The goal for this coming year is for us to be fully prepared to welcome New Yorkers and tourists from around the country and the world back to the subway system,” Pat said. “We want to present to everyone a safe environment.”

One move that’s expected to generate more than $116 million dollars for the MTA is happening: raising the toll prices on bridges and tunnels. As for subway fares, that increase has been postponed for several months.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday, April 15, 2021

We’re back in the subways hearing from the MTA and riders if the crowds will ever return.

Democrats in the House introduce legislation that would expand the Supreme Court.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis gives us her eyewitness account on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio weighs in on a very important Vatican conference.

‘Toxic Cocktail’ Forcing Unaccompanied Children to Cross U.S. Border Says Catholic Organization

Currents News Staff

As migrants continue to enter the U.S. from Mexico, the number of unaccompanied children in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services is now over 18,000.

Catholic organization “Hope Border Institute” is working to help them and others. Their Executive Director Dylan Corbett joined Currents News to discuss the ongoing events at the border and what his organization does to help.

If you would like to donate to Hope Border Institute, go to hopeborder.org

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, April 14, 2021

The emergency CDC gathering discusses the pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A Minnesota officer seen shooting an unarmed man will be charged for his death.

President Biden gives his timeline to get troops out of Afghanistan.

Brooklyn’s St. Francis College helps families struggling with tuition.