Currents News Staff
New York just hit the lowest positivity rate since the day before Thanksgiving. What do the numbers reflect in the bigger picture now that there are several new strains of the virus here in the U.S.?
Joining Currents News to provide answers to more COVID questions is Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist with The Catholic Medical Association.
By Jessica Easthope
Lent in the pandemic age means another change to how we practice our faith. This year, Catholics in the Diocese of Brooklyn are being sprinkled with ashes on the crowns of their heads instead of a prominent cross on their foreheads. And instead of the words “Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel,” there’s silence.
“Some people are not too happy about it, but they want that sign,” said Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. “But it has to be internal now, can’t be external.”
This “new” way of doing things isn’t actually new at all — it’s ancient.
“The ancient forms of penance were sackcloth and ashes, to show that you were really penitent and that you were really giving up things that were pleasurable,” Bishop DiMarzio said.
Lent is a time of sacrifice, getting us ready for Christ’s Resurrection on the most holy day, Easter. But in a year that’s called for so much sacrifice, how can we give up anything more?
“Sacrifice is all part of life and sometimes you have to sacrifice a little bit more than other times, and this has been one of those years when sacrifice has been the epitome of it,” said Isabel Navarro, who’s been a parishioner at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James for nearly 40 years.
Isabel says the sacrifices she’s made this year have allowed her to appreciate her life even more.
“He sacrificed for us, we sacrifice a little bit for Him. And compared to His, it’s nothing,” she said.
And Isabel’s not the only one who feels that way.
“As we enter this season of Lent understanding the sacrifices that have been made for us and the blood that was shed, I feel this is nothing compared to what the Lord had to go through,” said Marie Calixte, who’s a parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Flatlands, Brooklyn, but attended Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James on her lunch break from work.
This year people are showing their sacrifice on the inside, but the pandemic still lingered in the front of everyone’s minds.
“I’m just hoping as of today — Ash Wednesday —on forward, there are a lot of changes in this pandemic. Because a lot of people are dying and hopefully God is watching over everybody, and helps us get past this pandemic safely,” said Miguel Deida, who also attended the Mass because he was nearby, but is a parishioner at Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge.
For many, giving something up has transformed into giving more of themselves.
“I’m not really giving up. I’m increasing more in prayer, meditation and spending time with family,” Marie said.
“There’s so much to be done, people to help. Things you can do are greater than saying you’ll sacrifice. The more you give, the more you’re going to get back,” said Isabel.
A lot is different, but why we sacrifice will never change.
By Emily Drooby
Patriotic sounds rang out on a Williamsburg, Brooklyn street Wednesday afternoon as a drive-by 100th birthday party was held for Joseph A. SanPietro. On Feb. 17, friends and family celebrated a man who spent his life serving others as an army sergeant and police detective.
The Catholic veteran stood on his porch, watching the parade thrown in his honor. He was filled with emotion by the beautiful gesture.
“I feel like General McArthur,” he told Currents News.
The 100th birthday extravaganza was organized by the Catholic War Veterans Williamsburg Post, where Joseph is one of their members.
“It’s a big thing,” said fellow member Vincent Patuto. “Not many people, especially in this day and age, live to be 100 years old.”
It’s been 100 incredible years. Joseph spent four of them in the Army, where he was a sergeant and served during World War 2 in Okinawa, the site of one of the bloodiest battles in history.
Once he got back to the U.S., he joined the NYPD. He spent 20 years protecting city residents. He’s even the officer in the famous arrest photo of alleged crime boss, Joseph Colombo.
Joseph’s fellow post members put together a record of his accomplishments, and a proclamation from the Brooklyn Borough President. They gave him both during the party.
The drive-by was a fitting celebration for someone who gave so much for both his country and his city.
A Syracuse New York woman who is grieving the loss of her father is reacting to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s explanation for how he handled coronavirus death data in nursing homes.
Natalie Walters lost her father, Jack, to both COVID-19 and dementia in December.
He passed away at Loretto Health & Rehabilitation.
“I’m going to try and keep it together for you,” she told Currents News. “I don’t know how anybody can divorce the consequences or the culpability from the actions that were done.”
Cuomo’s aide, Melissa DeRosa, says the Cuomo team “froze” when the Department of Justice was asking for information on nursing home deaths.
That was in August, when state lawmakers were requesting the same data
“He is trying to deflect the responsibility of being governor in our state,” said Natalie. “The governor who kept saying over and over ‘follow the facts’ and when you decide to manipulate facts for your own fortitude, that is suspect to me.”
Currents News read Natalie some of the governor’s words, asking if that was an apology to families like hers.
“Having the bravery to look at a camera and say to the people of New York State, ‘I am so sorry that this has happened to you all,’ or ‘I promise,’ and ‘I will,’ or ‘I hope’ — anything that leads after that would’ve given, I think, all of us a sense of wow we’re not left behind in all of this”
On whether she thinks the circumstances with her father could’ve been different now if it weren’t for how things were handled, she says, “I think had the information been given to us timely that we have found out has been withheld, that perhaps — perhaps — there could’ve been a different ending in this situation. We might not even be talking, you know? My father might still be here.”
Natalie said she repeatedly watched the clip of the governor saying there shouldn’t be an investigation to make sure she heard him correctly, and believes an investigation should be done.
By Jessica Easthope
Christmas came and went, but the lights and decorations are still up at Sara Pascucci’s house. That’s because her father, Anthony, put them up, but never got the chance to take them down before he passed away of COVID-19 on January 15.
“He loved Christmas, that was his favorite holiday. On every year, the day after Thanksgiving he would get all his decorations out and put them up and have his Christmas music playing,” Sara said of her late father.
Sara, her brother Anthony Jr. and her aunt who all live on Berkshire Road in Bethpage, Long Island, found comfort in keeping them up for a little while, if it meant keeping her dad’s memory alive. But a few days ago, Sara got an anonymous letter in the mail with a message that shocked her.
“It was mailed anonymously, not even a return address or our names,” Sara said as she held the letter that read, “Take your lights down, it’s Valentine’s Day.”
Sara couldn’t help but take it personally, knowing what her family has been through and knowing how much the decorations meant to her dad.
“We were kind of shocked at first but then it set in and we’re like, ‘This is kind of ridiculous.’ And it hurt and we were upset, and it was something so silly that we didn’t need at this time,” said Sara.
But after posting about it on social media, she found out some of her neighbors got letters too for keeping their lights up too long.
“We were like, ‘This is crazy.’ Everything going on in the world, this is what somebody’s worried about,” said Bree Fazio, Sara’s neighbor.
Bree got her letter after her decorations were stowed away, so what did she do? She headed to the garage and got them right back out.
“We put the decorations back up in honor of that family, and for what Sara and Anthony had gone through,” she said.
Now, several houses on Sara’s block are decking the halls all over again. And with the recent weather, they say their White Christmas re-do is just what they needed.
“I just thought it was a nice way to bring joy to everybody and let everyone know that we’re all kind of in this together,” Sara said.
The block even went as far as giving the anonymous sender some Christmas cheer on Valentine’s Day, holding a car parade down the street.
As for when the Pascuccis will take the merry decor down? Who knows.
“Me and my brother are debating, he wants to keep them up all year,” said Sara.
Whether the decorations come down or not, Anthony’s picture will be in the window.
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Lent is a time to reconsider the path one is taking in life and to finally answer God’s invitation to return to him with one’s whole heart, Pope Francis said.
[CLICK HERE to Read the Pope’s Ash Wednesday Homily]
“Lent is not just about the little sacrifices we make, but about discerning where our hearts are directed,” he said, “toward God or toward myself?”
The pope’s remarks came in his homily at Mass Feb. 17 for Ash Wednesday, which included the blessing and distribution ashes, marking the beginning of Lent for Latin-rite Catholics.
Because of ongoing measures in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the Mass and distribution of ashes took place with a congregation of little more than 100 people at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis did not do the traditional walk from the Church of St. Anselm to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill to prevent large crowds of people from gathering along the route.
In St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope received ashes on his head from Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the basilica, and he distributed ashes to about three dozen cardinals, as well as the priests and deacons assisting him at the Mass.
In his homily, the pope said one must bow to receive ashes sprinkled on the crown of the head, which reflects the “humble descent” one makes in reflecting on one’s life, sins and relationship with God.
“Lent is a journey of return to God,” especially when most people live each day ignoring or delaying their response to God’s invitation to pray and do something for others.
“It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends,” he said.
“The journey of Lent is an exodus from slavery to freedom,” he said, noting the easy temptations along that journey, including yearning for the past, or hindered by “unhealthy attachments, held back by the seductive snares of our sins, by the false security of money and appearances, by the paralysis of our discontents. To embark on this journey, we have to unmask these illusions.”
The way back to God, he said, starts with understanding, like the prodigal son, how “we have ended up with empty hands and an unhappy heart” after squandering God’s gifts “on paltry things, and then with seeking God’s forgiveness through confession.
The pope again reminded confessors that they must be like the father in the story of the prodigal son and not use “a whip,” but open their arms in a welcoming embrace.
“The journey is not based on our own strength. Heartfelt conversion, with the deeds and practices that express it, is possible only if it begins with the primacy of God’s work” and through his grace, the pope said.
What makes people just is not the righteousness they show off to others, “but our sincere relationship with the Father,” after finally recognizing one is not self-sufficient, but in great need of him, his mercy and grace.
The pope asked people to contemplate daily the crucified Christ and see in his wounds, “our emptiness, our shortcomings, the wounds of our sin and all the hurt we have experienced.”
“We see clearly that God points his finger at no one, but rather opens his arms to embrace us,” he said.
It is in life’s most painful wounds, that God awaits with his infinite mercy because it is there “where we are most vulnerable, where we feel the most shame” and where he comes to meet his children again.
“And now,” the pope said, “he invites us to return to him, to rediscover the joy of being loved.”
Currents News Staff
Sharon Hawks says it has been hard to hear people citing the Tuskegee experiment as one reason they’re reluctant to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
“It has brought up bad emotions,” says Sharon, the Director of Health Outreach for Reid Temple AME Church.
That’s because her own grandfather, a man named Willie Harris, was a part of that experiment until his death in 1960.
“It’s always been a part of the family history,” Sharon said. “We didn’t talk about it much.”
From 1932 until 1972, the Federal Public Health Service used about 600 impoverished sharecroppers in rural Alabama near Tuskegee to study the natural course of syphilis.
They were promised treatment but they were only given placebos. That deceit led to a mistrust of medicine, which for some, continues to this day.
“The fact that they experimented on him for so many years without him even knowing what they were doing is painful,” Sharon said.
But Sharon, who is a nutritionist and director of health outreach for Reid Temple AME church in Glenndale, she’s helping run a new pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Sharon says she now wants to share her story so the doubt can be overcome.
“I felt it was a moral obligation to let people know and to get them comfortable with it,” she said.
With people lined up and eager to be vaccinated today, she hopes resistance is already fading.
“African Americans can be assured that this is not experimenting or someone trying to kill us off,” she said, “everyone is going after the same vaccine.”
Her grandfather, she says, was denied treatment which could have extended his life. Sharon now hopes people don’t deny themselves a vaccine, which could save theirs.
By Emily Drooby
Gabby DiSalvo calls her Instagram page “@cooking.on.wheels.”
Like many, the Xaverian High School student picked up cooking as a new hobby during quarantine.
Now, she’s stirring up success and adding a hefty dash of donations.
Gabby was diagnosed with myofibrillar myopathy, an incredibly rare disease in children. Doctors told her at the time she was born, she was just one of three kids with it.
“The muscles in my entire body, so every single muscle, my hands, my arms, it’s extremely weak,” she told Currents News.
At birth she was told she would never walk, but she found a way.
“Because my muscles are so weak, I would take a step and shift my weight like that, about sixteen times more drastically, so it caused almost like a swaying motion,” she explained while demonstrating.
However, the sway movement caused scoliosis, which led to surgery and made her wheelchair bound.
The muscle weakening that comes with her condition makes it hard to cook. But like with all her other challenges, Gabby found a way. She created adaptations and utilized kitchen tools.
“When I’m cooking, I feel free, I feel so happy,” she said. “I have learned how to basically turn it into something I can do completely on my own, or almost completely on my own. It might not be what you see on TV of the professionals, but I have turned it into what I am capable of doing.”
The Instagram account has taken off. She’s teaching virtual cooking classes, and was even featured on the Rachael Ray Show.
For the past four years, Gabby has raised $25,000 for Global Genes, a non-profit for the over 400 million people affected by rare diseases.
Because of the pandemic, the bake sale and ribbon sale fundraisers she normally has are impossible this year.
Instead, she’s holding a virtual bake-along on Feb. 27, and a cook-along in partnership with her school’s key club on Feb. 28. She already has a $10,000 donation from Rachael Ray.
The link for both of Gabby’s events can be found here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zebra-cake-roll-free-online-bake-along-tickets-137896087911
https://www.xaverian.org/student-life/welcome/student-events
President Biden takes to the road, trying to sell his COVID relief package.
U.S. bishops are disbanding a committee meant to take on the presidents’s pro-abortion stance.
An immoral experiment where hundreds were lied to and deceived – the effects still being felt today.
Currents News Staff
In New York, more than 1 million residents are fully vaccinated, but questions and concerns still remain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people can skip quarantine if they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19.
Joining Currents News to provide some more answers to COVID questions is Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist with The Catholic Medical Association.