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The Future of Frankincense Is In Crisis Due to Conflict, Climate Change and Poverty

By Currents News and Carol Glatz 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Gospel of Matthew never details how many Magi came from “the East,” but it makes it clear they traveled to pay homage to “the newborn king of the Jews” and “offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

Beyond their great monetary value, scholars say, the gifts had deep symbolic significance: gold for the Christ child’s nobility as king of the Jews; frankincense, which was burned in religious ceremonies, for his divinity; and myrrh, which was used on cuts or wounds and in the anointing of corpses, to prefigure his role as healer and foretell of his death.

Both myrrh and frankincense have exceptional medicinal qualities, which would have made them a very useful and thoughtful gift for the Holy Family, said Anjanette DeCarlo, chief sustainability scientist for the U.S.-based Aromatic Plant Research Center.

“At that time, infant mortality was high,” and frankincense and myrrh were “two of the most potent anti-microbial substances in the ancient medicine cabinet,” DeCarlo told Catholic News Service in a video call from Vermont, where she teaches at St. Michael’s College in Colchester.

“From a Christian perspective, he’s the most important baby ever born and, of course, wouldn’t you bring that baby something to ensure” he could stay healthy, she said.

What is not healthy, however, is the future of frankincense.

Highly sought after for its religious, medicinal and household purposes, it is one of the oldest traded commodities in the world, spanning at least 5,000 years.

An aromatic resin, frankincense is harvested from the “tears” that seep from cuts made to a variety of boswellia tree species, which grow in the harsh, dry climates of Yemen and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan in East Africa, and in northwestern India.

These trees are in severe decline and one species in particular — the boswellia papyrifera, which grows in conflict-rife regions of Ethiopia and Sudan — risks going extinct in the next 50 years, said DeCarlo, who also heads the Save Frankincense project. A study published last year in the journal, Nature Sustainability, predicted frankincense resin production will be halved in the next 20 years.

The Catholic Church is a major consumer of frankincense since incense has an important place in its liturgies.

Dried gum grains are burned over hot coals in a censer or thurible to incense the altar, the book of Gospels, offertory gifts, sacred images and the people participating in the Mass, with the smoke symbolizing sanctification, purification and the prayers of the faithful rising up toward God.

Billowing upward, the smoke draws people’s gaze with it to remind them of heaven, and the incense aroma is a reminder of the transcendence of the Mass.

Burning frankincense also activates different channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“It promotes a feeling of connection and spiritual enlightenment,” which is why burning frankincense has been an integral part of many different religious rites and rituals for millennia, said Stephen Johnson, an organismal biologist and frankincense researcher.

“Religions have a very important role to play” in helping not just to preserve, but to regenerate frankincense sources and support harvesters, he told CNS in a video call from Seattle.

“It is absolutely possible for us to take care of trees, take care of harvesters, take care of their communities and take care of ourselves,” he said. “Everybody involved in the supply chain should benefit.”

After years of working in Somalia and developing ethical and sustainable harvesting standards, Johnson said he decided to establish his own business and projects that show what regenerative supply chains look like.

Regeneration tries to leave ecosystems, communities and plants better off by using profits to support research, conservation and community development and by making sure harvesting communities have access to fair prices and greater opportunities, he said.

This new way of doing business has to happen now, DeCarlo said. “Ten years from now will be too late.”

Most existing trees are “the last of their generation,” with no young trees taking their place, she said, and over-tapping trees hurts their ability to regenerate, stay healthy and survive.

Conflicts and climate change worsen already harsh conditions, and local communities are under great pressure to clear the land to grow crops for survival, she added. Also, grazing cattle love to chew on the tender baby leaves of new growth.

Johnson and DeCarlo both insisted that frankincense buyers, including Catholic churches and the essential oil industry, must demand transparency and traceability in the source of the resins and accountability in making sure harvesters are paid fairly.

“Today, we have the ability to go directly to the source, to talk to the actual harvesters and to employ technologies that allow us to track products all along the supply chain and make sure that that is all being done ethically” and in a way that allows the trees and the communities to flourish, Johnson said.

Without such controls the industry is “very open to corruption and/or decline,” and “it’s not helping the people on the ground, it’s not helping the companies that want to do the right thing” and it doesn’t help the consumers who “don’t want to be killing trees or hurting communities or being complicit in something that isn’t sustainable,” DeCarlo said.

“We desperately need the Catholic Church to step in,” she said, for example, by promoting regenerative supply chains and tree growing with programs to adopt trees and help struggling nurseries, even on a parish, school or individual level.

It is a direction that aligns with Pope Francis’ call for caring for creation, said DeCarlo.

As a Catholic, she said, “I always felt that if he knew really what was happening with frankincense, he would get involved. That this is something so near and dear to us. The fact that it was brought to baby Jesus is not a small matter.”

Former Swiss Guard Chef David Geisser Releases ‘The Vatican Christmas Cookbook’

Currents News Staff

The holidays may not be what we’re used to this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have your own very special Christmas at home. A Vatican christmas cookbook has 100 recipes from inside the walls of the Holy See that you can see on your tables this Christmas.

Currents News spoke with the cookbook’s creator, Chef and former Swiss Guard David Geisser about why he thought it was important to release the cookbook during the Christmas season – especially the pandemic.

If you’d like to prepare your own Vatican Christmas at Home, go to sophiainstitue.com.

Times Square Billboard Inspires Chain of Hope in Search for Kidney Donor

By Jessica Easthope 

These days it seems like everyone is looking down. But Marc Weiner wants you to look up.

That’s because he’s hoping someone — anyone — will see these two billboards that tower over Times Square. On the electronic displays is Marc’s picture and his story. To put it simply: he needs a kidney.

“It’s about living donors and for me, I’m sending out the awareness because I still need a kidney,” said Marc. “I still need someone to donate one.”

This isn’t the first time Marc’s story has been seen at the “crossroads of the world.” In 2018, Marc got creative in his search for a kidney. Through his wife Lisa’s job and some friends, they put a billboard up in Times Square.

Hundreds of thousands of people saw Marc’s billboard every day, but it only took one to give him hope.

“For me, I always thought it would be a friend or a family,” said Marc. “That didn’t happen and out of nowhere, this selfless individual saw this billboard and wanted to donate to me.” 

That person was Mike Lollo. Mike was working as an NYPD detective at the time when he read about Marc’s story and decided he was going to help. Unfortunately, Mike wasn’t a match for Marc. But he was for a woman in Pennsylvania named Ruth, and one year ago, Mike saved Ruth’s life by giving her his kidney.

“You don’t need to be a match,” said Mike. “Blood type doesn’t matter, geography doesn’t matter, whoever’s seeing this wherever you are, you could be Marc’s living donor.” 

Exposure like this usually comes with a hefty price tag. Just ask Denise Levine, the woman in charge of what gets put up on these screens.

Denise knows a compelling ad when she sees one, so she knows this one is priceless.

“It brings life and happiness and it helps people,” said Denise, chief revenue officer at Branded Cities. “If we need help, we can get Marc help. We can help people and save lives.” 

As for Marc, he hit some speed bumps on his journey for a kidney, but he’s now cancer-free and once again putting everything into his search.

“I’m hoping that I will find a donor soon,” said Marc. “I’m cancer-free. I’m looking forward to having that so I don’t have to be on dialysis anymore. I’m with Mike celebrating his anniversary of donating a kidney, and hopefully my chance will come soon.” 

Marc’s match is out there, and just like his Times Square billboard, the search could be over in an instant. All it takes is a little courage and a lot of kindness.

“The idea that people, strangers, individuals are coming forward and are wanting to help is just surreal,” said Marc, “and I hope I can help someone in a similar situation.”

It’s been more than two years since Mike and Marc met. They now have become advocates for living kidney donation.

“I now have extended family in Pennsylvania,” said Mike. “I have Marc and I really know someone is going to see this and they’re going to press that link because it’s the right thing to do.” 

Marc is still waiting, and while he didn’t get a kidney from Mike, he did get a friend. Now all he needs is you.

Dawn del Mastro-Churma, the president of the company that owns the billboard, donated the space to the Weiners for free at two minutes an hour, a fee that would normally cost $30,000  a month.

Marc is still looking for his life-saving kidney. For more information on his story and how to become a living donor, visit www.kidney4marc.org.

Currents News full broadcast for Fri, 12/18/20 (Catholic news)

Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.

Some of the top stories on this special edition of Currents News:

Vice President Mike Pence calls the COVID vaccine a medical miracle, plus new details on the rollout plan in New York City.
 
The coronavirus didn’t stop devotion to Mary – how the Diocese of Brooklyn safely celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
 
Staying safely connected to your faith during the Advent season – details on a new digital Advent calendar.
 
A former Swiss Guard – who is now a chef – debuts “The Vatican Christmas Cookbook.”

 

Vice President Mike Pence Receives COVID Vaccine on Live TV, Calls Production Speed a ‘Medical Miracle’

Currents News Staff

Vice President Mike Pence, his wife Karen and Surgeon General Jerome Adams got the coronavirus vaccine the morning of Dec. 18.

It was done on live television at the White House.

The Trump administration says the event was aimed at building public confidence in the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.

Staff from Walter Reed Medical Center administered the shots of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.

Pence called the speed of producing a vaccine a “medical miracle,” and “the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a second vaccine by Moderna.

U.S. Court of Appeals to Hear Arguments in Diocese of Brooklyn Religious Liberty Case

Currents News Staff

Arguments in the case are scheduled to be heard Friday, Dec. 18 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, after the Supreme Court issued an injection against Gov. Cuomo’s 10 and 25-person occupancy limits pending the state’s appeal of the decision. 

Currents News spoke with Marc DeGirolami from St. John’s University School of Law about the case. 

“The limitations on worship that were put in place by the gov. were significantly harsh by comparison with other activities,” he said. 

In his response to the Supreme Court injunction on his executive order, Gov. Cuomo downplayed the significance of the decision.

“It is just an opportunity for the court to express its philosophy and politics,” he said. 

Professor DeGirolami disagreed with the Governor’s assessment, and even cited two dissenting Justices that disprove Cuomo’s claim.

“There you have two dissenting justices that are taking a hard look at Cuomo’s order and are saying no no no there really are differences between what Cuomo has done here and what other Governors have done around the country,” he said.

But Msgr. Kieran Harrington, the rector at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral who is also in charge of communications for the Brooklyn Diocese, understands that though Mass may look a bit different, it is every bit as essential to the health of the faithful as other, less regulated public gatherings.

“While we have to take every precaution we can to ensure people are safe, we also have to recognize that people’s faith is important to them,” he told Currents News. 

Church leaders believe that the Court of Appeals will uphold the Supreme Court decision.

“We do believe that the courts will rule in our favor,” explained Msgr. Harrington. 

He  is not alone in thinking that religious liberty will be upheld in the judiciary. There are at least 20 legal challenges from religious organizations against state-imposed attendance limits being argued all across the country. 

Even in our nation’s capital, the Archdiocese of Washington has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s strict limits.  On Nov. 25, cases in New Jersey and Nevada were both decided in favor of religious liberty.

 As the lower court hears arguments this week four and against Gov. Cuomo’s order, it won’t be just religious leaders in New York who will be paying close attention. Governors and legislators across the country —  who have sometimes handed down arbitrary attendance limits on religious services of their own —  may find themselves on the wrong side of the Constitution.

Away With the Manger? Nativity Scene at Vatican Generates Controversy

By Cindy Wooden and Currents News Staff

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Especially in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic will rule out many people’s favorite Christmas traditions, they have a right to express their dislike of the decidedly untraditional Nativity scene on display in the center of St. Peter’s Square, said a priest who specializes in catechesis through art.

But it may be more edifying to try to understand it, said Msgr. Timothy Verdon, director of the office of sacred art for the Archdiocese of Florence, Italy, and director of the Florence cathedral’s museum.

First, he said, people need to recognize that dioceses ask the Vatican to feature their Nativity scenes, and the Vatican City governor’s office makes a choice from those offers many months in advance.

“Pope Francis goes out of his way to surprise people, to get them to think, to go to a deeper, more mature understanding of their faith,” Msgr. Verdon told Catholic News Service Dec. 15. So, given the pope’s willingness to embrace a challenge, when the governor’s office chose the ceramic Nativity scene from the town of Castelli, it made sense.

The controversial scene was made by students at a high school specializing in art; the pieces on display at the Vatican are among the 54 pieces students created over a 10-year period beginning in 1965. The town of Castelli, in the mountains of Italy’s Abruzzo region, had a world famous, thriving ceramics industry since the 17th century, but the art — and the town — was dying out. The school was part of an effort to revive the industry and modernize it.

The human figures in the Nativity scene are made of rings of ceramic stacked on top of each other. They are cylindrical, not curvy like a natural human form. And the presence of an astronaut and a knight carries the whole thing to another level of untraditional.

“This is not the sweet, warm nostalgia that Christmas usually generates,” Msgr. Verdon said. “But even in this intimate area of our religious lives, we have to grow in unexpected ways.”

As for adding the astronaut, the monsignor said that definitely is part of tradition. “In Naples, they add political figures, pop stars and, this year, (Diego) Maradona,” the soccer star who died in late November. “Not only shepherds and kings go to the manger, but all humanity makes that pilgrimage in one way or another.”

“But maybe especially this year when the celebration of Christmas is going to be so poor in tradition, when many people will be unable to do the beautiful, warm, tender things” they are used to associating with Christmas, they might not need such a challenging Nativity scene, he said.

And, at least judging from the social media reaction, they did not welcome it.

The vehemence of the reaction may be attributable to “a widespread idea that a lot is going on in the world that is not being explained to us — a maniacal universal plot to deprive humanity of values and traditions,” Msgr. Verdon said. And even if one does not buy into such a conspiracy theory, “everyone is at the limit of his or her patience, so something like the creche in St. Peter’s Square becomes bigger than it should be.”

Angelo Bottone, a native of Abruzzo teaching in Dublin, was one of the few people on Twitter defending the manger.

“There is a sentimental element because it comes from my region,” he told CNS. For example, the scene has a curved neon light behind it. “For a foreigner, that may mean nothing, but I immediately saw that that is the Gran Sasso mountain — it’s a symbol of Abruzzo — where Pope John Paul II used to go skiing.”

The colors used are the traditional colors of Castelli ceramics, he said. But “it’s also traditional in the sense that especially in the south of Italy, we always have contemporary elements in the ‘presepe,'” the Italian word for a creche.

“It’s been a very well-established tradition for centuries. The crib is not historically accurate at all; the Holy Family is surrounded by people of the time the creche was made because the sense is that Jesus is born now, in our world,” Bottone said. “So, when the teenagers from Castelli made it in 1965 and the years following, they included contemporary elements of their own day.”

Those elements included an astronaut after the moon landing in July 1969. “What they did was portray an astronaut offering the moon to Jesus,” Bottone said. “To me, it’s an expression of profound worship.”

Many of the negative reactions are simply the result of not understanding the Nativity scene, Bottone said. Others thought “this was something that Pope Francis commissioned. And obviously, the whole anti-Francis brigade went berserk.”

“It’s important for people to know that this was made by teenagers in 1965; it was not made today by some mad artists,” he said. “If people don’t like it, that’s fine. It’s a piece of art, and we have different tastes.”

Whether St. Peter’s Square was the best place to exhibit the Nativity scene is another question, he said. “But I’m not seeing any effort to go beyond the first reaction and try to express a more charitable judgment.”

DeSales Media Group Brings Advent Over the Airwaves With Digital Advent Calendar

By Jessica Easthope

The four candles on an Advent wreath represent the 4 weeks of Advent, but each candle also has a meaning; hope, peace, joy and love.

“Just as we hope for the coming of Christ and Christmas but we all, mankind, are hoping for a time when the vaccine is here and this pandemic is behind us,” said Father Christopher Heanue, who serves as administrator at Holy Child Jesus and St. Benedict Joseph Labre Church in Richmond Hill.

This Advent, Fr. Heanue is partnering with DeSales Media Group, the communication and technology arm of the Diocese of Brooklyn that operates Net TV, to create a digital Advent calendar as part of DeSales’ “Rediscover Christmas” campaign.

“I think it was sort of a natural transition to digitalize the traditional advent calendar, it can reach a lot more people,” Father Heanue said.

The calendar features videos from Father Heanue with a new message for the week’s theme every Sunday, there are also prayers, quotes to reflect on and actions to take – some even let you treat yourself.

“Some of them they are create Christmas ornaments with your family, and some are a little deeper like reflect on five things you are grateful for this year. So I think the Advent Calendar created a good balance of treating yourself, but also remembering what it means to be Catholic this season,” said Caitlin Sakdalan, the Social Media Community Manager at DeSales Media.

Caitlin helped get the digital Advent calendar rolled out —it has nearly 600 daily viewers, and has reached more than 60,000 people on social media.

“This initiative is meant to be a purposeful way for us to reconnect and truly rediscover Christ in Christmas and even though 2020 has been a curveball of a year, Jesus can still be that light for us,” Caitlin said.

Unlike an Advent calendar you can buy at a store, there are no chocolates or sweet treats, but Caitlin says this calendar offers something much more satisfying.

“This one it’s really meant to fill your soul and feed you internally in a different way and fill you with the hope of Christ,” she said.

While this season is missing some tradition, it gives us a chance to bring Jesus back into focus and rediscover Christmas.

How New York City Handled Vaccinations During Another Infectious Outbreak: Smallpox in the 1940s

Currents News Staff

In 1947, New York City Health Commissioner Israel Weinstein urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated after an American businessman contracted smallpox during a trip from Mexico and later died in a New York City hospital, where others soon became infected.

“In 1947 there was a small but scary breakout of smallpox in New York City,” said Kent Sepkowitz, doctor and professor of infectious disease at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

The scare launched a city-wide scramble to keep New Yorkers safe from a deadly killer whose presence dates back 3,000 years. Dr. Sepkowitz, an infectious disease expert, studies outbreaks past and present. He says smallpox was an even bigger threat than COVID-19.

“Smallpox was a much more fatal disease if acquired and among survivors, it was quite disfiguring,” he told Currents News. “It could lead to blindness and a lot of other problems.”

Smallpox killed an estimated 300 million people in the first half of the 20th century alone. Thirty percent of those who contracted the disease died, which prompted the city to spring into full crisis mode.

“It was bad enough that the mayor and the Department of Health both decided that the entire city had to be vaccinated,” said Dr. Sepkowitz. “It was a city of about seven million-plus people at that time in 1947.”

Tens of millions of doses were distributed. Vaccinations were free and a coordinated public education campaign helped spread the word. Archivist Katie Ehrlich with Municipal Archives works with the valuable remnants of New York’s history, they’re pieces that tell the story of the time.

“The vaccination programs that the city implemented around the mid-20th century were really highly organized and kinda all hands on deck,” Ehrlich said. “[They were] setting up free health clinics, setting up points of contact where New Yorkers could go and get these vaccines. It was really targeted to specific populations, in terms of who the city thought was more, perhaps vulnerable, to these specific outbreaks.”

Less than a month later, millions of New Yorkers had been vaccinated –  and the public health emergency was declared over. Four to five million people in all – including part of the tristate area – were vaccinated over a two-month period.

“It was something to be proud of, you know,” said Dr. Sepkowitz. “It was New York style. It wasn’t you know, completely everyone behaving, but it was something that is a real achievement.

He said the success was a unifying, American moment.

“‘Let’s do this for America’ moment,” described Dr. Sepkowitz. “We were very much in a ‘taking orders is okay’ moment. That’s how you get things done.”