Despite the Pandemic, Rite of Election Marked a Big Step in the Faith Journey of Hundreds

By Emily Drooby and Paula Katinas

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Jasmin Zuniga, a student at Rachel Carson High School, Coney Island, wants to own her own hairstyling business someday. She also wants to become a Catholic. The latter dream is now within her grasp.

“I’m very excited. It’s something I’ve been working for,” she said.

Jasmine was one of the hundreds of people, called catechumens, who are enrolled in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the Diocese of Brooklyn and have been busy studying in their local parishes to be baptized into the Catholic Church.

On Feb. 21, Jasmine and her fellow catechumens took part in the Rite of Election, where Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio officially accepted them.

The Rite of Election is a time-honored ritual marking the church’s election, or choice, of catechumens who have been judged to be fit and ready to take part in the next and all-important step — receiving the sacraments.

This year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the catechumens showed remarkable dedication to their goal, officials said. Bishop DiMarzio marveled at the determination of the students who faithfully kept up with their studies, despite the raging pandemic.

“They’re stormtroopers in a sense,” he said. “They have taken a lot of time and effort. These people really wanted to have their baptism.”

Most RCIA classes were conducted on Zoom this year, according to Father Joseph Gibino, vicar for evangelization and catechesis for the diocese. Father Gibino said RCIA coordinators at parishes went above and beyond the call of duty.

“We Catholics are a very creative people and sometimes we forget that. It takes a whole team of parish spiritual leaders to nurture the candidates along.”

The catechumens will be baptized at the Easter Vigil in their home parishes on Holy Saturday, April 3.

The Rite of Election kicks off a period of intense spiritual preparation as the catechumens get ready to take the major step in their lives.

Catechumens are people who were never baptized into any Christian faith but wish to receive the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. There is another group of people, called candidates, who have been baptized into the Catholic Church or were baptized into another Christian faith and are now seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.

Jasmine is a catechumen on track to be baptized at Holy Cross Church in Flatbush.

“I can’t wait. This means so much to me,” she said excitedly as she awaited the start of the Rite of Election ceremony at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on Sunday.

It’s not as if religion has been absent from her life all these years. “I would go to church with my mom and her friend,” she said. But joining the Catholic Church is important to her so that she can receive the Eucharist. “I’m very excited to receive the body of God,” she said.

Becoming a Catholic is to “know that they’re taking care of you from on high,” she said.

The Rite of Election was markedly different this year.

The ceremony at which Bishop DiMarzio presided was one of four held in the diocese on the same day. Auxiliary Bishop Neil Tiedemann led the ceremony at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto presided over the event at the Immaculate Conception Center. There was also a ceremony at Queen of Martyrs Church, presided over by Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez.

“We had to do it this way this year to make sure we could socially distance. We had to be creative,” Father Gibino said.

Normally, the catechumens gather together for the Rite of Election, and the bishop personally greets each.

Normally, there are more than 1,000 catechumens and candidates, but this year, there were 252 catechumens, according to the diocese. The number of candidates — baptized Catholic but never received the other sacraments and now wish to do so — is 285. Besides, 22 people were baptized into non-Catholic Christian churches and are now converting to Catholicism.

During the ceremony, the catechumens’ names were contained in a book that Father Gibino presented to the bishop. “They have found strength in God’s grace,” Father Gibino said.

There are all sorts of ways people come to the Catholic Church. For Cory Mendenhall, a catechumen at St. Patrick’s Church, Bay Ridge, it was the artwork in churches that drew him in.

“I used to come to church and look up at the beautiful stained glass windows and statues and wonder who made those?” he said.

The beauty of the church’s art unveiled in Mendenhall a desire to learn more about the church and its traditions: “It kind of led me eventually to the church.”

Mendenhall, who is in the U.S. Coast Guard and has been stationed at various sports around the country, entered an RCIA program two years ago in San Francisco.

“It’s been a long journey for me,” he said.

He is happy to be completing his journey of faith at St. Patrick’s.

“It’s a wonderful parish, and we have a great RCIA leader who makes us feel comfortable and that we can ask anything,” he said.

Bishop DiMarzio told the catechumens and candidates that they are reaching a turning point in their lives.

“You will follow God’s will for the rest of your life,” he said.

Airplane Debris Falls Over Denver Neighborhoods Following United Flight’s Engine Failure

Currents News Staff

A Honolulu, Hawaii bound flight was forced to make a return landing after an engine failure on Feb. 20.

Debris from United Airlines flight 328 is now scattered around the greater Denver, Colorado area.

“There was a giant black cloud of smoke high up in the sky immediately followed by, you know, what looked like pieces of the aircraft really just coming off,” Kieran Cain, an eyewitness, told Currents News.

The craft suffered engine failure shortly after take-off from Denver International Airport.

“A lot of people said they heard that really loud explosion and it startled a lot of people, and then they started seeing basically what they thought was a plane falling from the sky,” explained, Rachel Welt, Broomfield Police PIO.

The plane returned to the airport about 20 minutes after the failure.

According to United, none of the passengers or crew members on the plane suffered any injuries.

There’s also no reports of injuries from the fallen debris.

“This park on a day like today, when it’s not as cold as it was last weekend, we could have hundreds of people here,” said Welt. “And the fact that we are still not getting reports of any injuries is absolutely shocking at this point. It’s amazing.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

Investigation Underway, 777s Grounded Following United Airlines Flight’s Engine Failure

Currents News Staff

An investigation is now underway into the cause of a shocking mid-air engine failure aboard a United Airlines flight over the weekend.

Boeing is recommending suspending some 777s from service over safety concerns after a terrifying flight for passengers aboard United 328 on Feb. 20.

Travis Loock, a passenger onboard the flight, described it as “the kind of sound you don’t want to hear when you’re on an airplane”

The Boeing 777’s engine caught fire in mid-air, 20 minutes into the Denver-to-Honolulu flight.

“I grabbed up my rosary, I was scared,” passenger Brenda Dohn told Currents News.

Thousands of feet below, debris rained down on Colorado neighborhoods as the flight returned to Denver International Airport

“The stuff started showering down on the neighborhood,” Kieran Cain, an eyewitness, explained.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board says a preliminary investigation shows two fan blades in the plane’s Pratt and Whitney pw4-0-7-7 engine were fractured, and the remaining blades also showed signs of damage.

Although the findings are not yet conclusive, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency order stepping up inspections, as United Airlines grounded 24 777s equipped with the same engines.

Experts say this is drawing attention to an overlooked problem following similar incidents in recent years.

“We have been playing Russian Roulette with this problem for years now, and it’s finally catching up with us. It’s time to do something about it,” said Alan Armstrong, a pilot and aviation attorney.

Houston Catholics Struggle With Historic Storm, Power Outages

Click here to donate to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and assist families recovering from Winter Storm Uri.

By James Ramos and Currents News Staff

HOUSTON (CNS) — A 75-year-old Houston-area man died in his truck Feb. 16 after he ran out of oxygen for his oxygen machine.

His last option to breathe was the small portable machine in his truck outside. It was 19 degrees that night in Crosby, Texas, a small community near Houston.

That same night, in Sugar Land, a southwest Houston suburb, a grandmother and her three grandchildren died in an overnight fire. Though the cause was unknown, firefighters suspected something went fatally wrong with the fireplace, the house’s only source of heat. The mother, injured from the fire, had to be restrained from running back into her burning house.

A few hours later, a Houston priest lost his car and all his belongings after his rectory at Holy Name Catholic Church went up in flames. He still celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass the next day in a frigid cafeteria.

The historic winter storms in February shattered electric plants across Texas, prompting energy providers to force blackouts across the state to preserve what fragile electricity they could generate. At least 49 deaths have been linked to the storms and subsequent power outages.

Record snowfall and single-digit temperatures froze the state’s electric systems, pushing over 4.3 million into darkness. The outages, first expected to be “rolling” and only a few hours, stretched to days for millions of Texans. Their homes and cities were ill-prepared for such intense winter weather.

After the “once-in-a-generation” storm first took the electricity from Jennifer Gonzalez’s home, the novelty of playing in the snow was brief. It wasn’t the right consistency to build a snowman, but enough to freeze their backdoor and side-gate shut and turn the neighborhood streets to ice.

With a growing unease of knowing there was no heat in the house, and limited water since the water was turned off to prevent any pipe bursts, they made the choice to trek to her husband’s parents’ house, where they had water and heat.

Driving to her in-laws’ house west of town, Gonzalez, 33, who is six-months pregnant, was already nervous about seeing puddles on the road before the winter storm clobbered Texas. The drive, which usually takes 20 to 25 minutes, took an hour.

In 2015, a major Memorial Day flood stranded Gonzalez and her daughter overnight in a grocery store parking lot when high water kept them from getting home. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey turned her house into an island, with streets all around her inundated by that record storm. Then in 2019, Tropical Storm Imelda trapped Gonzalez at work and her daughter at school. Water entered their home as well.

Those experiences made Gonzalez look at water on the road differently.

Anytime she saw any puddles, panic-driven thoughts bubbled up: “Are the streets going to flood? Will I make it home? Am I going to be safe?”

Seeing the puddles during the winter storm triggered these questions again, only now adding: “Is that water or is that ice? Are we going to skid off the road?”

The Sunday before the storm, Valentine’s Day, was also the anniversary of her father’s death. She had met up with her sisters that day, but the changing weather forced them home sooner.

Eventually, Gonzalez and her family made it back to their house when the power returned. The rolling blackouts forced them into darkness repeatedly.

Once, when the lights came back on, Gonzalez’s 2-year-old son looked up in awe.

“It’s magical,” he said. After nearly a full day without power, seeing her house illuminated once again was a relief, but a sense of dread reminded her it was only temporary.

During the week, millions in the state were still without power and water. From Dallas, to Austin and Laredo, electricity finally came back for thousands who lost power for more than four days, as temperatures continued to drop below freezing. People were melting snow to flush their toilets.

There were 10 hypothermia deaths, along with more than 600 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in Harris County, which includes Houston and neighboring communities.

By Feb. 19, as temperatures slowly rose above freezing, thousands of homes turned their water back on only to find cracked and bursting pipes. Compromised civic water systems forced millions in Texas to boil water for days. In San Angelo, city leaders were begging communities to conserve water.

The coincidence of the storm and Ash Wednesday’s start to Lent wasn’t lost on Gonzalez, who attends St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Houston.

“It’s a good reminder to unite our suffering with others,” she told the Texas Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Power outages and water issues forced parishes across Texas to cancel or postpone Ash Wednesday services.

Father Anil Thomas, a Society of the Divine Word priest, who lost his Houston rectory in the fire, told the Houston Chronicle: “Today is Ash Wednesday and we are in ashes.”

– – –

Ramos is a staff writer and designer for the Texas Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Catholic News Headlines for Friday, 2/19/21

Governor Cuomo continues to be in the hot seat as snow totals pile up around New York.

Post-storm, many in the Lone Star State have been without power for almost a week.

Vatican employees are being sent a strong message – get the vaccine, or get out.

Getting COVID-19 Vaccine Included in Vatican Employee Safety Regulations

By Currents News Staff and Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As a last resort, the Vatican may sanction employees who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine for non-medical reasons, according to a new Vatican decree.

A variety of sanctions for anyone violating measures intended to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus were included in a decree signed Feb. 8 and later posted on the Vatican website by the head of the commission governing Vatican City State.

While the protocols apply to everyone at the Vatican, the harshest sanctions are reserved for Vatican employees whose contractual obligations include on-the-job health and safety regulations.

Because of the current state of emergency, getting the COVID-19 vaccine is part of a series of mandatory health and safety requirements for all employees, unless they have “proven health reasons” to not be inoculated; in legitimate cases, those employees will be given a different job that reduces their risk of spreading or contracting the virus, the decree said. They will receive the same pay.

For employees who lack a proven medical reason for forgoing the vaccine, a refusal to be inoculated during the current health emergency exposes them to the same range of potential sanctions that come with refusing any of the other mandatory health exams and safety measures that are part of their terms of employment. The harshest sanction, according to labor regulations issued in 2011, is a termination of employment.

However, in a follow-up note issued later Feb. 18 by the city state governing office, the 2011 norms are not meant to be seen as a set of sanctions or “punitive,” but as “allowing for a flexible and proportioned response that balances safeguarding the health of the community and the freedom of individual choice without creating any form of repression for the worker.”

It is always possible, the note said, to adopt measures that safeguard the community by minimizing the danger posed by someone who refuses to get a vaccine for non-medical reasons and finding “alternative solutions” for the worker in question to carry out their job.

The decree was signed by the head of the commission governing Vatican City State, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, who tested positive for COVID-19 in December, and Bishop Fernando Vergez Alzaga, secretary-general of the office.

The Vatican has had at least 30 reported cases of COVID-19 since March 2020 and no reported deaths.

The Vatican City State’s “public health emergency” decree said receiving the vaccine is part of making a “responsible decision” that recognizes that refusing the vaccine “may also constitute a risk to others” and can lead to a serious increase in risks to public health, quoting a December 2020 joint document by the Vatican COVID-19 commission and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The current health crisis means “there is an urgent need to issue the following rules that have the force of law,” and those rules went into effect starting Feb. 8, it said.

A public health emergency must be addressed in ways that “guarantee the health and well-being of the working community in the respect of the dignity, rights and freedoms” of everyone, it said.

Measures must be adopted according to the risks posed to the public, it said. Those measures, it added, apply to Vatican City State and its extraterritorial properties, its citizens, residents and personnel serving the governing office of Vatican City State, the Roman Curia and all other related institutions.

The measures in place, it said, include: limitations on the movement and gathering of people; social distancing; isolation and quarantine; sanitation norms; and the use of personal protective equipment.

Sanctions for not following those measures range from fines starting at 25 euros (US$30) to 1,500 euros ($1,800) with fines doubling for a failure to comply or repeated infractions. The Vatican gendarme is tasked with policing compliance and imposing the sanctions, it said.

When it comes to the protocol for COVID-19 vaccination, it said Vatican employees were already subjected to safety rules concerning “biological agents,” requiring them to reduce the risk of exposure, spread and infection of such agents in ways that included receiving vaccines scientifically proven to be effective.

The Vatican began its voluntary vaccination program in mid-January and expected it would receive enough doses to cover the needs of the Holy See and Vatican City State.

Pope Francis, who has been vaccinated, has said everyone should take the vaccine because those who did not would not only put their own lives at risk, but also the lives of others.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday, 2/18/21

Calls for investigations into the nursing home debacle continue to mount for Governor Cuomo.

Extreme weather conditions are affecting more than 100 million Americans.

Some of New York City’s most vulnerable populations are slowly getting vaccinated.

Gov. Cuomo Faces Investigations, Loss of Power, Accusation of Bullying Amid Nursing Home Controversy

By Emily Drooby

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn are investigating how New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration handled data on the state’s COVID nursing home deaths.

Now, Democratic leaders from the State Senate are moving to strip Cuomo of his pandemic emergency powers.

Many are angered by the state withholding death toll numbers.

“Him and his administration can be competent, but in this regard is what they’ve been doing is stonewalling us on data for months,” NY State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Chairman for the Committee on Health, said of Cuomo Feb. 16.

State Assemblyman Ron Kim of Queens claims the governor threatened him and demanded he immediately put out a statement of support.

This comes after a leaked conference call, where a top Cuomo aide admitted to withholding that data out of fear it would be used against them by federal prosecutors in the Trump administration.

For months, Kim has condemned Cuomo’s handling of the nursing home situation.

“He asked me to lie to cover up for his staff,” Assemblyman Kim added. “He’s biting his tongue, but he will go out tomorrow and destroy my political career.”

An advisor to the governor claims Kim is lying about the conversation.

However, on Feb. 18, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio backed Kim.

“I believe Ron Kim,” he said. “First of all you can just see that what he’s saying it’s from the heart, and it was a very painful experience for him.”

Earlier this week, Cuomo took responsibility for not providing that information sooner.

“Most of all the void we created allowed disinformation,” he said.

Still, pressure is mounting against Cuomo. Senator Ted Cruz, along with other Republican lawmakers, is now urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to open an investigation.

Changes in the Liturgy: Opportunities for Reflection

By Currents News Staff and Msgr. Steven Aguggia

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we do many things — from how we shop to how we work and go to school.

Even the way we worship God has changed as we have had to make changes in the way we behave in church as well as in the liturgy itself, all in an effort to keep people safe and healthy.

Some of the changes in the way we celebrate the liturgy, while perhaps unsettling at first because they are not what we are accustomed to, can also be opportunities for us to examine what we do and why we do it.

Ash Wednesday is fast approaching and this year’s celebration will bring with it some changes. We are not permitted to have physical contact with anyone; therefore, something like imposing ashes on one’s forehead becomes a challenge. This year we will be following an ancient custom in the Church: the imposition of ashes by sprinkling them on one’s head. This is a method widely used in Europe and which will enable us to celebrate this beloved custom in a safe manner this year.

Ashes are a symbol of our desire to repent, to turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel. Perhaps this year, we are offered an opportunity to consider what that really means for us, personally. Maybe no one will see that I have ashes imposed. Perhaps only I, myself, will know and that may present me with the opportunity to understand better what the ashes represent for me personally.

The imposition of ashes itself is just one of the ways that the liturgy has changed. No longer do we turn to our neighbors at Mass and offer an extended hand in a Sign of Peace. What are the other ways I can express my hope of peace, of communion with those around me?

Holy Communion is generally distributed in the hand. This is because there is less chance of accidental physical contact with another person. This is for the protection of everyone, including the minister of Holy Communion. Perhaps it may become an opportunity for me to think about how I receive Holy Communion, my attitude towards the Eucharist, how I participate in the celebration of the Mass and how I show the Lord reverence in His real Presence in the Eucharist.

On Palm Sunday, we are all accustomed to holding our palm branches and having them blessed. Perhaps we normally participate in a procession, honoring Jesus’ triumphal entry into the Holy City. This year, the palms may be left on tables in church. Perhaps we will be invited to take a branch at the end of Mass as we leave.

Can this help me to appreciate the ways that I welcome Jesus into my life? Maybe I can reflect on how my internal desire to welcome Him should better match my external desire to wave a palm branch?

The changes necessitated by the pandemic may be difficult for us to adapt to but, at the same time, they are opportunities for us to grow in our understanding of what we do and why we do it. The liturgy is something we participate in actively, not just as casual bystanders. This means we ought to strive always to understand it more and more.

Maybe, this is a blessing that has come from the changes in the liturgy which may at first make us uncomfortable. Maybe they are a way of God telling us something.

Msgr. Steven Aguggia is the chancellor of the Diocese of Brooklyn and pastor of St. Pancras Parish.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, 2/17/21

The Lenten season has begun – the pandemic impacting Ash Wednesday observances.

Storms – heading to New York – stall vaccine shipments and delay appointments.

It’s Christmas in February for one Long Island family.