Currents News Staff
In Bensonhurst, Wonder Woman and Harry Potter showed up for class.
It was all a part of St. Athanasius Catholic Academy’s storybook character day.
Students went to school dressed as their favorite characters from books, fairy tales and movies. It even gave them the opportunity to share some of their favorite books with their classmates.
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Catholic Schools Week may be nearing its end, but that’s not stopping students in the Diocese of Brooklyn from joining in on the fun.
At Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy in Canarsie, teachers there encouraged some friendly competition with their annual sports day.
The students got a taste for speed while facing off in a relay race, and some even got to show off their muscles with a classic game of tug-of-war.
In the wake of the shooting deaths of two NYPD officers, President Biden is in New York City today. He’s meeting with Mayor Eric Adams to address the spike in gun violence.
Earlier today, President Biden attended the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill. The Catholic President stressed the importance of unifying the country.
Catholic Schools Week continues in the Diocese of Brooklyn and students at St. Athanasius Catholic Academy in Bensonhurst are really diving into their books.
By Jessica Easthope
In just January alone, 24 police officers were shot in New York City, but the deaths of two of them, Detectives Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora are shedding a light on how rampant violent crime in the Big Apple has become.
“Enough is enough,” said President Biden. “Because we know we can do things about this, but for the resistance we’re getting from some sectors of the government.”
New Yorkers are calling for change, including the NYPD chaplain who met with the families of the slain officers.
“Hopefully these times change, hopefully through our politicians we get back to some law and order in society,” said NYPD Deputy Chief Chaplain Monsignor David Cassato.
During President Joe Biden’s visit to the city, Thursday, he opposed defunding the police.
“The answer is not to de-fund the police. It’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding, to be partners, to be protectors,” he said.
The president came at the invitation of Mayor Eric Adams and joined Governor Kathy Hochul and the United States Attorney General Merrick Garland. Mayor Adams is asking the president to federally fund a “9/11 response” to the violence.
“This room came together to zero in on the violence that is attempting to take our way of life,” said Mayor Adams.
And the rise in violence isn’t just in New York, it’s across the country. Last year 16 cities broke their own murder records including Philadelphia and Atlanta. So far this year 316 people have been shot, 106 killed, 64 children have been shot and injured and 26 have been killed by guns.
“There’s no violation of the second amendment right. We talk like there’s no amendment that’s absolute,” said President Biden.
With midterm elections coming up the country is keeping a close eye on the president’s response. He faces a balancing act of getting guns off the street, but also keeping his promise of police reform.
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In September of 2019, Dr. Ramón Tallaj met the Pope. He told him about the network of family physicians he’d founded. These doctors belong to the same cultural community as their patients, so they’re able to communicate with them in the language with which they feel most comfortable.
“Our services are geared toward migrants, the poor and the most vulnerable in New York. They come from many different parts of the world,” said Tallaj.
“This solidarity with the sick is a real treasure, and it is a distinctive sign of authentic health care and assistance, which puts the person and his needs at the center,” said the Pope.
Neither of them imagined that the pandemic would make their work indispensable and submit them to unprecedented pressure.
While the streets emptied out, Somos Community Care began looking for ways to help its patients, since for many Latinos and Asians, being quarantined was out of the question.
The organization distributed food and Covid-19 tests, and set up hotlines to answer questions in different languages.
“We’re working with authorities. We have around 20,000 of these kits so they can be used on other people. It’s completely free for our community,” said Tallaj.
Somos Community Care put $30 million from its own savings toward helping the community.
They served 40,000 people a day, administered more than 2 million tests and hundreds of thousands of vaccines. They even covered funeral costs for people who could not afford them.
It was a difficult moment that brought with it a unique faith experience.
“At one point, our people were dying, our doctors too. Twelve of them died, five during that period. And then, on March 26, I told the employees I saw during the day that whenever they got home, be it six in the morning or seven at night, to change, eat and be ready for prayer at 8 p.m. That was the first day. And that’s what we’ve been doing non-stop since. Every day,” said Tallaj.
The doctor thinks that, barring any new unexpected obstacles, the pandemic will likely be overcome soon.
That’s why he’s advocating for preventative medicine, so people don’t have to be hospitalized or receive painful treatment.
“Prevention is very important. Prevention, if we start with today’s young people, will make it so less people have complications with diabetes in the future, or with hypertension or stroke. These problems are those that cause health disasters and economic troubles toward the end of life,” said Tallaj.
That’s the policy of this network of family physicians, which already serves at least 700,000 people in New York.
The pandemic has shown that they are doctors who are unwilling to leave anyone behind.
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Catholic students in the Diocese of Brooklyn are thanking the nation’s vets with their annual “Valentine’s for Veterans” event.
For more than eight years, the students at Saint Gregory the Great Catholic Academy have been writing heartfelt valentine’s cards to send to a local V.A. hospital.
And this year in addition to that, some of the students are also sending cards to an Army troop in Japan, where their teacher’s loved one is stationed.
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Some older students are fessing up, admitting that they cheated during remote learning.
And these kids go to one of the city’s most elite public schools: Stuyvesant High School.
Students told the school’s newspaper that cheating was rampant during remote learning because it was easy to do it.
Stats show that 79% of 2021 graduates said they cheated at least once.
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It’s been difficult for police officers all over the country, with two officer funerals in less than a week in New York, and another shot while off duty.
In Virginia, two campus officers were killed after getting shot on the job.
The dangers of policing are just one of several reasons why departments across the country are facing staffing shortages.
“I’ve never seen the morale so low. I’ve never seen the ranks so low. I’ve never seen the level of violence that we’re seeing now,” said John McNesby, the President of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police
Tyrone Dennis, a Retired Atlanta Police Officer added “Basically, we’re one bullet away from death and one mistake away from indicting.”
Chuck Wexler is the Head of Police Executive Research Forum and he said, “So less people want to become cops and more cops wanting to leave the job earlier.”
Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews routinely patrols her city and knows firsthand the impact of officer shortages.
“The 911 calls don’t stop, so you know people are still having emergencies. The emergencies don’t stop, and certainly the emergencies don’t care if, you know, you are sixty percent staffed or below, and the expectation is that we continue the level of service that we’ve always done,” said Andrews.
Maintaining that level of service is difficult when you are down ninety officers and constantly battling against COVID and negative perceptions of law enforcement, along with low wages.
“They’ve got to be able to, to support their families. You know, we have officers that can’t even qualify for apartments because their, their income doesn’t match up with what the apartments require,” said Andrews
For decorated officers like newly retired Atlanta Police Officer Tyrone Dennis, his pay didn’t keep up with his career.
“It would be foolish for me to stay for 48,000 when I have a wife and three kids to feed. With 48,000, I can almost, in a family with three kids, I can almost qualify for public assistance,” said Dennis.
In Seattle, 356 of more than 1,300 officers have left the police force over the last two years.
In Austin, they’re short 117 officer, fifteen percent less than what the force could be.
In Phoenix, 411 officers, thirteen percent of their force.
And in Philadelphia, that department is short some 440 officers.
And beat officers are feeling the pressure.
McNesby says even finding people to apply has never been tougher.
Just last week we had a recruitment assessment. They were invited to come in for the initial assessment. We had 600 people that were invited. Just shy of 200 showed up, and out of those 200, only 26 walked away, moving on to the next step.”
Despite the challenges, there are still stand-out recruits who are eager to join the force.
Allen Taylor is an Atlanta Police Cadet and he said, “I want to be a change in the community. I want to uplift the community and be a positive role model.”
The typical police academy takes about eight months to finish, meaning it will take years to fill the open jobs at the departments across the country.
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President Biden says U.S. special forces have killed a top ISIS leader in northwest Syria.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” said Biden.
The Pentagon said U.S. Central Command conducted the mission that killed ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.
It is the biggest operation carried out by U.S. forces in Syria since the raid that led to the death of then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October 2019.
Biden said all Americans involved in the mission returned safely and acted with bravery.
“The members of our military are the solid steel backbone of this nation, ready to fly into danger at a moment’s notice to keep our country and the American people safe, as well as our allies,” Biden said.
Sources on the ground said shelling and explosions preceded an air-drop of U.S. forces shortly after midnight, targeting a house on the border between Turkey and Syria.
They say at least 13 people were killed.
Biden says al-Qurayshi detonated a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children.
In a final act of desperate cowardness, with no regard to the lives of his own family or those in the building, he chose to blow himself up,” Biden added.
The operation came amid an ISIS resurgence in parts of Syria and Iraq.
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President Joe Biden started his Thursday by delivering comments at the National Prayer breakfast.
Speaking at the Capitol, he delivered a message calling for unity at the 70th annual event.
“As I stand in this citadel of democracy that was attacked one year ago, the issue for us as unity. How do we unite us again? Unity’s elusive, but it’s really actually necessary. Unity doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but unity is where enough of us believe in a core of basic things. The common good, the general welfare, of faith in the United States of America. The United States of America,” said Biden.
Biden went on to say the best way to foster unity is to get to know people on a personal level.
He recalled days decades ago when he started in the Senate when it was common for lawmakers of both parties to eat lunch together.
The purpose of the multi-faith prayer breakfast is to bring bipartisan leaders and their religious counterparts together.
Every president since Dwight Eisenhower has headlined the event.