Eleven-Year-Old Walks Thousands of Miles in Europe to Visit Grandmother During Pandemic

Currents News Staff

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go!

We all know the nursery rhyme, but one 11-year-old boy in Italy lived it by walking through entire countries to get to his grandma’s house.

Romeo Cox spent his summer walking from Palermo, Sicily to London, England and going through Switzerland and France to get there. He embarked on this journey with his dad because he wanted to see his granny during the pandemic.

But that’s not the only reason Romeo laced up his sneakers and hit the road! Romeo joined Currents News from Italy to share what happened on this trek. And if you’d like to donate to Romeo’s cause, go to justgiving.com/fundraising/romeosbigjourney.

Currents News full broadcast for Tues, 10/27/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

Judge Amy Coney Barrett is now Justice Barrett! The sixth Catholic to join the Supreme Court. Her lightning speed confirmation now one for the history books.

An emotional and once in a lifetime moment – a new American citizen gets to cast her vote for the very first time.

It’s exactly one week to Election Day. The candidates crisscrossing the country in key battleground states looking to make their final pitches.

Brooklyn Woman Votes for the First Time Since Becoming an American Citizen

By Emily Drooby

The line to vote stretched two city avenues. Despite the wait, underneath her mask, Simone Henry was smiling. This was the moment she had been working towards for years.

As a brand-new American citizen, she was finally getting a chance to cast her vote.

“I’m excited because I feel like it’s very important for this election,” Simone said.

More than 23 million U.S. immigrants will be eligible to vote in the 2020 election. That’s about 10 percent of the national electorate. It’s estimated that 3.1 million became naturalized after the 2016 election. Simone is one of them.

She came to the U.S. from Jamaica back in 2009 and got her green card in 2016.

“From there I knew that I wanted to become a citizen,” she said. “I can’t wait.”

The Christian woman relied on Catholic Migration Services’ free help throughout the process. The group offers free legal screenings and services to documented and undocumented immigrants residing in Brooklyn and Queens. They’re affiliated with Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens.

Simone wanted to vote in the 2020 election to ensure a better future for her sons.

“I have three boys, we are colored, we are minority, we are in a community that needs funding,” she said. “The schools need funding.”

So, she cracked the books and studied hard for her April citizenship test and interview. She was ready but then the world shut down. Simone was terrified she wouldn’t become a citizen in time.

“I was very worried,” Simone said. “I was very worried because I want to be a part of that group that has a voice. Especially for this election. It’s very important for me.”

It’s an issue many immigrants faced. Simone was one of the lucky ones, she got a new date in August and officially became a citizen on September 26, just in time.

“I’m really excited because I feel like I’m going to be a part of a change,” she said, “a part of making a decision for my kid’s future, for myself, in terms of immigration, in terms of jobs, benefits.”

On Saturday, Oct. 24, the first day of early voting, Simone exercised her right as an American.

While it was a two-and-a-half-hour line and the last leg of her 11 year journey to the polls, Simone finally got the “I voted” sticker.

But having her voice heard was the real prize.

Justice Barrett Promises to Serve ‘Without Fear or Favor’

By Jessica Easthope and Bill Miller

Judge Amy Coney Barrett became Supreme Court Justice Barrett Monday, Oct. 26 after the Senate voted 52-48 to confirm her nomination to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Justice Barrett is the third Supreme Court nomination by President Donald Trump and the sixth Catholic on the nation’s highest judicial panel. Her position secures a 6-3 majority of conservatives on the Court.

Barrett, at age 48, could serve for decades as a justice. She is the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, but the first with school-age children; she has seven.

Following the vote, Justice Clarence Thomas administered a ceremonial swearing-in for Barrett during a brief White House ceremony. Her husband, Jesse, held the Bible on which she swore the pledge. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the judicial oath to Barrett in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning.

“It’s a privilege to be asked to serve my country in this office,” the new justice told the audience on the South Lawn of the White House, “and I stand here tonight, truly honored and humbled.”

Barrett also said that although judges don’t face elections, “we still work for you.”

“It is your Constitution that establishes the rule of law and the judicial independence that is so central to it,” she added. “The oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences.”

Justice Barrett comes to the Supreme Court amid a very contentious presidential election.

Marc DeGirolami, a law professor at St. John’s University, said Monday’s events put Justice Barrett in a position to participate in Supreme Court decisions regarding potential disputes in election voting.

The Court’s 6-3 conservative majority is viewed by Democrats as a disadvantage for legal arguments on issues important to their bases, such as challenges to the Affordable Care Act, Roe vs. Wade, and climate change.

DeGirolami is the Cary Fields Professor of Law and the co-director of the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s. He said Justice Barrett’s track record is one of fairness, not partisanship.

He added that nothing in those accomplishments suggest her Catholic faith would influence her decisions on the Court. She was grilled on faith during her 2017 Senate Confirmation hearings for her seat on the 7th Court of Appeals

“One of my colleagues at another law school said there’s no Catholic way to cook a hamburger,” DeGirolami said. “And in the same way, there’s no Catholic way to interpret the Constitution.”

“There’s no Catholic way to do statutory interpretation, so it’s not like there’s one sort of outcome that all Catholics think is the correct set that will follow from the confirmation of a Justice Barrett,” he added. “If you notice this time around, the Senators largely stayed away from her religion. The subjects of conversation were of other things, the Affordable Care Act and how her vote might go, or her views on particular Supreme Court cases of the past.”

DeGirolami also noted that while Catholics are concerned about abortion, he was “dubious that a Justice Barrett would mean an immediate reversal of Roe vs. Wade.” That Supreme Court ruling made the right to an abortion legal throughout the U.S.

However, DeGirolami explained “Roe” could be challenged other ways in the Court such as, whether there might be “increased limitations with respect to the sorts of scope that that right enjoys as states bring more and more challenges to the scope of that right.”

Before Monday night’s vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), assailed Republican colleagues and President Trump for not waiting until after the election to replace Justice Ginsburg.

That’s what happened four years ago when President Barack Obama was prevented from replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia with Judge Merrick Garland. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to let the Senate move forward on Garland, saying that the task should go to the next holder of the executive branch, who turned out to be President Trump.

Sen. Schumer before Monday’s vote accused Republicans of hypocrisy.

But Sen. McConnell noted a difference between 2016 and 2020, that the makeup of government four years ago had the Democrats in charge of the executive branch while the GOP dominated the Senate; therefore, he said, awaiting the outcome of the 2016 election was appropriate.

But in 2020, McConnell explained, Republicans controlled the White House and the Senate, so it was their duty to fill the seat vacant since Ginsburg’s death last month.

“The Senate is doing the right thing,” McConnell said.

Still, the Brooklyn-born Sen. Schumer fumed.

“I want to be very clear with my Republican colleagues,” he said. “You may win this vote and Amy Coney Barrett may become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court, but you will never, never get your credibility back.”

“Generations yet unborn will suffer the consequences of this nomination, as the globe gets warmer, as workers continue to fall behind, as unlimited dark money floods our politics, as reactionary state legislatures curtail a woman’s right to choose, gerrymandered districts and limit the rights of minorities to vote,” Schumer continued, “my deepest, greatest, and most abiding sadness tonight is for the American people and what this nomination will mean for their lives, their freedoms, their fundamental rights.”

“Monday, October 26, 2020 — it will go down as one of the darkest days in the 231-year history of the United States Senate,” he concluded.

In her Monday night address, Justice Barrett said the confirmation process had illuminated for her the fundamental differences between the federal judiciary and the U.S. Senate.

“And perhaps the most acute is the role of policy preferences,” she said. “It is the job of a Senator to pursue her policy preferences. In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty for her to put policy goals aside.”

“By contrast, it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences. It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give into them,” Barrett continued. “A judge declares independence, not only from Congress and the president but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her. The Judicial Oath captures the essence of the judicial duty. The rule of law must always control.”

“I love the Constitution and the Democratic Republic that it establishes, and I will devote myself to preserving it,” the new Supreme Court justice said.

Currents News full broadcast for Mon, 10/26/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

Pope Francis names Archbishop Wilton Gregory to be the country’s first African-American cardinal.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett is on the brink of becoming the sixth Catholic justice to the Supreme Court as the Senate gets ready to vote on her confirmation.

An exciting morning as some Catholic schools forced closed by the state were able to reopen. But a dark cloud now hangs over their heads, the cost of testing.

Wilton D. Gregory Says His First Mass as Cardinal-Designate at Historic Maryland Church

By Currents News Staff and Mark Zimmermann

AVENUE, Md. (CNS) — On a day of history for the U.S. Catholic Church, Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory — who four hours earlier had learned Pope Francis had named him a cardinal — celebrated his first Mass as a cardinal-designate Oct. 25 at Holy Angels Church in Avenue in Southern Maryland.

The church is near the cradle of U.S. Catholicism, a few miles from St. Clement’s Island, where Jesuit Father Andrew White celebrated the first Mass in the English-speaking colonies March 25, 1634, after colonists from England made landfall there.

“It takes us back to the beginning. I thought about it all during Mass, (that) I’m so close to the beginning of the faith here in the United States on this first day of the announcement of my appointment,” Cardinal-designate Gregory said in an interview after the Mass.

He added, “It takes me back to the beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel and the care of God’s people” in what became the United States.

Noting the irony of the situation, he pointed out that celebrating the 250th anniversary Mass for Holy Angels had been on his calendar for a long time.

“It wasn’t something I planned. It was something God planned,” he said.

The announcement made history in another way: At the Nov. 28 consistory, Cardinal-designate Gregory will become the first African American cardinal in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church.

When asked what his elevation to the College of Cardinals meant to him personally, to be the first African American cardinal in the United States, and what that would mean to the nation’s Black Catholics, Cardinal-designate Gregory’s voice broke slightly.

“I’m deeply humbled,” he said. “I know that I am reaping a harvest that millions of African American Catholics and people of color have planted. I am deeply grateful for the faith that they have lived so generously, so zealously and with such great devotion.”

Cardinal-designate Gregory said he saw his appointment as “another opportunity to serve and to care for the church and to have the church (of Washington) in closer union with Pope Francis.”

He added, “I hope it is a sign of the continued investment of the church in the work of justice, peace and harmony among people.”

Cardinal-designate Gregory will become the sixth cardinal archbishop of Washington. The Archdiocese of Washington includes the nation’s capital and the five surrounding Maryland counties: St. Mary’s, where he celebrated that morning’s Mass, and Charles, Calvert, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

Asked if he had a special message for the people of the Archdiocese of Washington, Cardinal-designate Gregory said, “I renew my deep love for this local Church. Obviously my predecessors shared this title. I hope that I can continue to love and care for the people of the archdiocese with the same depth of devotion that the former cardinal archbishops have done from the beginning.”

Pope Pius XII established the Archdiocese of Washington in 1939. Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle, who became the first resident archbishop of Washington in 1948, was named as Washington’s first cardinal archbishop in 1967. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who led the archdiocese from 2006 until his retirement in 2018, was its most recent cardinal archbishop after being elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2010.

Considering that the last five archbishops to lead the Archdiocese of Washington had been named cardinals, Archbishop Gregory’s appointment wasn’t a total surprise, but the timing was a surprise, even to him.

“The Holy Father makes these announcements now spontaneously,” said Cardinal-designate Gregory. “This morning at the Angelus where the crowd was gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father prayed the Angelus with them, made a Scripture reflection for today, then he said, ‘I’m going to have a consistory on the 28th of November, and these are the new cardinals I will create.”

Archbishop Gregory said he learned the news about 6:30 that morning, from a phone call from Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life who earlier served as the bishop of Dallas and was an auxiliary bishop, archdiocesan administrator and parish priest in Washington.

In the phone call, Cardinal Farrell said, “I want to be the first to congratulate you,” Cardinal-designate Gregory said, smiling. “I didn’t know anything!”

In an interview about his appointment with the Catholic Standard, Washington’s archdiocesan newspaper, after Mass at Holy Angels, Washington’s archbishop joked, “So Kevin Farrell was my archangel this morning!”

As he welcomed Cardinal-designate Gregory to Holy Angels Church at the beginning of the morning Mass, Father Stephen Wyble, the parish’s administrator, noted the surprise news that Pope Francis had named Washington’s archbishop as a new cardinal that morning, which drew applause from the congregation and a broad smile from him.

Noting the parish’s special history, Father Wyble said, “Holy Angels Parish is the historical ‘descendant’ of the oldest of the Maryland Jesuit missions.”

The priest pointed out that after Father White celebrated the first Catholic Mass in the English-speaking colonies at nearby St. Clement’s Island in 1634, the Jesuit established his first mission on White’s Neck, both of which are in the present-dayconfines of Holy Angels Parish.

St. Clement’s Island is regarded as a landmark of religious freedom, since the Maryland colony was established on the principle of religious toleration.

COVID Testing Costs a Concern as Some Brooklyn Diocese Schools Reopen After NYC Hot Spot Closures

By Emily Drooby

On Oct. 26, there was a sea of backpacks in Forest Hills, Queens. It was the first-time doors at our Lady Queen of Martyrs opened in weeks.

The school is one of 11 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn forced to close in the beginning of October after COVID hot spot flare ups.

Three weeks later, those restrictions are being loosened and some “red zones” are now “yellow,” meaning school is back in session

“We were concerned that our closure could go beyond two weeks. So, we are very, very excited to be reopening,” said Anne Zuschlag, the principal at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.

Three other Catholic middle and elementary schools also opened back up: Brooklyn Jesuit Prep, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy in Brooklyn and St. Nicholas of Tolentine Catholic Academy in Queens.

“I’m glad to be at school and I can see all my friends,” said Aiya Richens, a student at the school.

Caroline Rutkowski, a parent, felt “relieved, excited, it feels like another opportunity to show everyone that we are doing things right here.”

But the reopening also brings a new set of problems: yellow zone schools must perform weekly COVID testing. Despite this being a state mandate, New York isn’t helping with the costs.

“And that is extremely troubling because many of us are already functioning at a deficit budget this year because of all the provisions we needed to put in place,” said Principal Zuschlag. “”So, we are very, very cautious about how this is going to impact us in the long run.”

They’re estimating the cost of testing for their school to be $2,500 per week. That’s on top of the tens-of-thousands the school has already spent this year on safety protocols. Diocesan leaders say they’re working with the city and the state to address this issue.

In the meantime, six other Catholic schools are still closed. Parents in those red zone neighborhoods have been speaking out on social media, calling elected officials and protesting.

The anger is understandable, especially with so many schools close to the yellow zone. In fact, Good Shepherd Catholic Academy is right on a border. Their side of the street is red, and the one across the street is yellow.

“Which just adds to the disappointment and discouragement that everyone is facing,” their principal, John O’Brien, explained. “Teachers, and faculty, staff, students and parents, all eager to get back to school. So, we remain hopeful, never giving up hope, but we are frustrated.”

Grandparents like Thomas DePrisco believe the zones need a closer look.

“Now a true leader would look at, if you’re hearing complaints, ‘Wait a minute, we can tweak it. We can adjust the boundaries based upon the facts.’ That’s all I’m asking for,” he said.

A neighborhoods positivity rate has to be under three percent for ten days for the restrictions to be loosened. Right now, it’s not clear when that will be. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been praising the plan, saying they have seen a drop in red zone cases.

Pope Francis Names Washington DC Archbishop Wilton Gregory First African American Cardinal

By Jessica Easthope and Bill Miller

The archbishop who will become the first African American cardinal in the U.S. has achieved much for the Catholic Church, and with calm, steely resolve, said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Pope Francis announced Sunday, Oct. 25 that he would create 13 new cardinals on Nov. 28, including Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Washington, D.C.

On the following day, Bishop DiMarzio joined African American priests in his diocese to praise the naming of Cardinal-designate Gregory. At age 72 he will be among cardinals under the age of 80 who are eligible to vote in the conclave.

“It’s wonderful that he received the honor,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “He has so many years serving the Church so well.”

Speaking soon after the announcement with the Catholic Standard, Washington’s archdiocesan newspaper, Cardinal-designate Gregory said he was “deeply humbled.”

“I am reaping a harvest that millions of African American Catholics and people of color have planted,” he added. “I am deeply grateful for the faith that they have lived so generously, so zealously, and with such great devotion.”

Cardinal-designate Gregory became archbishop of Washington D.C. in 2019 after having been archbishop of Atlanta since 2005.

Bishop DiMarzio recounted how the future cardinal joined the church as a teen-age convert in Chicago. After ordination, he performed pastoral work in Illinois before becoming auxiliary bishop of Chicago.

Later, as bishop of Belleville, Ill., he also served as president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops (USCCB).

As president of the USCCB, from 2001 to 2004, Cardinal-designate Gregory became a leader in the Church’s response to the scandal involving decades of sexual abuse allegations against some members of the Catholic clergy.

Subsequently, the USCCB in 2002 drafted the “Dallas Charter” — the directive that called for better measures to protect children while also helping victims heal.

Bishop DiMarzio said the future cardinal fully understood problems and solutions to the scandal, and he did a good job communicating what ought to be done.

“He got the responsibility, which he certainly lived up to, guiding the bishops,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “It was a difficult time. I was there.”

But, he added, “The cardinal-designate is kind of dispassionate.”

“He’s not the kind of person who gets excited,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “He is slow, steady, and effective.”

Father Alonzo Cox, pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish, Bedford-Stuyvesant, said that since he was a seminarian, he closely followed Cardinal-designate Gregory’s “rise in the hierarchy.”

Included was his leadership on the Dallas Charter, Father Cox said Monday.

“I think,” he added, “that will be his primary legacy, of shepherding the Church throughout that time of sadness and pain, and really pledging this cannot happen anymore and this will not happen anymore.”

The pontiff made the announcement at the end of his Angelus address Oct. 25, telling the crowd in St. Peter’s Square the names of the nine cardinals under the age of 80, who will be eligible to vote in a conclave, and the names of four elderly churchmen whose red hats are a sign of esteem and honor.

Father Cox rejoiced upon reading that Cardinal-designate Gregory was on that list.

“It was such a celebratory day, yesterday,” Father Cox said. “After I finished the 7:30 (Mass) I came back to the rectory to get a cup of coffee and I opened the iPad and I saw that the Holy Father at the end of his Angelus had appointed 13 new cardinals and one of them was Archbishop Gregory, and I was just excited.”

Father Cox also praised Cardinal-designate Gregory for urging African American clergy to celebrate their culture and find ways to share it with “the Church at large.”

“He has done that so wonderfully and so beautifully,” Father Cox said. “I think as a cardinal, he’ll be able to do that to a greater degree in the life of the Church. I think we’ll be able to look to him as a strong voice in the Church, now more than ever, as we go through race relations.”

Father Dwayne Davis at St. Thomas Aquinas called the news “historic.”

“I think it’s a great day in the Church and a great day for black Catholics in America,” Father Davis said. “I think the whole Black Community rejoices for us, almost like when a black Catholic saint is named. It shows that, as black Catholics, we do matter and we are a part of the Church in a real sense.”

Father Davis said many black Catholics have left the Church because they did not “feel at home,” while also feeling disenfranchised by the larger society.

Therefore, Father Davis added, the naming of Cardinal-designate Gregory “definitely is a message of great hope and even a call for great rejoicing.”

He noted, however, that Cardinal-designate Gregory serves everyone.

“He is a great churchman and great leader,” Father Davis said. “He stands with his people no matter who they are, regardless of race or background. He is a man for all people.”

But recent events show Cardinal-designate Gregory has no qualms about criticizing people in power.

In June, he called out President Donald Trump for showboating at the national Catholic shrine to coincide with an executive order on religious freedom. Police used teargas to deter protestors.

In a statement issued by the Washington Archdiocese, he said, “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.

“Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”

Another U.S. citizen among the new cardinals is retired Italian Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, 80, a former nuncio and a member of the Scalabrinian missionaries.

Archbishop Tomasi, who holds dual citizenship, is a longtime friend and colleague of Bishop DiMarzio.

The Brooklyn bishop said he has known Archbishop Tomasi for about 50 years. They worked together with U.S. bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services. From 1983 to 1987 Archbishop Tomasi was secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers.

“He is a wonderful man,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “We’ve stayed constantly in touch over the years. We speak frequently on migration issues. His knowledge is second to none.”

Pope Francis also chose as cardinal electors two officials of the Roman Curia and bishops from Italy, Rwanda, the Philippines, Chile and Brunei.

Once the consistory is held in late November, there will be 128 cardinals under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave — Pope Francis will have created just over 57 percent of them. Sixteen of the cardinals created by St. John Paul II will still be under 80 as will 39 of the cardinals created by Pope Benedict XVI; Pope Francis will have created 73 of the electors.

U.S. Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, retired archbishop of Washington, will celebrate his 80th birthday on Nov. 12, before the consistory. Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, whom the pope dismissed as prefect of the congregation for saints in late September, is 72 but renounced the rights of a cardinal, including the right to enter a conclave to elect a new pope.

Italians will continue to have an outsized portion of the electors, rising to 22 of the 128; the United States will stay at nine voters with Cardinal-designate Gregory taking Cardinal Wuerl’s place.

The Vatican press office said specifics will be announced later about how the consistory and related activities will unfold given COVID-19 restrictions on travel and gatherings.

According to canon law, cardinals are created by the pope’s decree, which is “published in the presence of the College of Cardinals.” Church law does not specify how many members of the college must be present nor does it insist that the new cardinal be present, although traditionally the consistory includes a public profession of faith by the new cardinals.

Here is the full list of the new cardinals, in the order named by the Holy Father:

Maltese Bishop Mario Grech, 63, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops.
Italian Bishop Marcello Semeraro, 72, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.
Archbishop Antoine Kambanda of Kigali, Rwanda, who will turn 62 Nov. 10.
Archbishop Gregory, 72.
Archbishop Jose F. Advincula of Capiz, Philippines, 68.
Archbishop Celestino Aos Braco of Santiago, Chile, 75.
Bishop Cornelius Sim, apostolic vicar of Brunei, 69.
Italian Archbishop Paolo Lojudice of Siena, 56.
Franciscan Father Mauro Gambetti, custos of the Sacred Convent of Assisi in Assisi, who was to celebrate his 55th birthday Oct. 27.
Retired Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, 80.
Retired Italian Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, a former nuncio, 80.
Italian Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, 86.
Italian Father Enrico Feroci, 80, former director of Rome’s Caritas.

This article includes reporting by Cindy Wooden for Catholic News Service.

How One Brooklyn Woman’s Breast Cancer Diagnosis Brought Her Closer to God

Currents News Staff

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and one breast cancer survivor from the Diocese of Brooklyn says her diagnosis has made her faith in God stronger.

Maureen Brody, co-owner of the Green Spa and Wellness Center in Bay Ridge, just celebrated one year of being cancer free.

She sells a “Pink Lotus Radiation Recovery Cream” for those going through treatment, and said she believes there was divine intervention when she created it.

Maureen joins Currents News to talk about her journey and how she’s giving back — and if you or someone you know would like to purchase one of Maureen’s lotions, you can go to legendofthespa.com for more.

Senate to Vote on Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation to Supreme Court

Currents News Staff

Senators voted on Oct. 25 to end a Democratic filibuster and proceed with the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, setting up a final confirmation vote, mostly along party lines, for Monday.

“The Senate is doing the right thing,” Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, said on Sunday. “We’re moving this nomination forward, and colleagues, by tomorrow night we’ll have a new member of the United States Supreme Court.”

“With this vote, the yeas are 51, the nay’s are 48,” said a Senate clerk. “The motion is agreed to.”

It only took a simple majority to break the Democratic filibuster, clearing the path for Judge Barrett to become the next Associate Supreme Court Justice.

For weeks, Democrats have called on Senate Republicans to postpone the confirmation until after the election.

“Nearly every Republican in this chamber, led by the majority leader, four years ago refused to even consider the Supreme Court nomination of a Democratic president,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “My colleagues, there is no escaping this glaring hypocrisy.”

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Barrett is a highly-qualified candidate, and Democrats are only focused on politics.

“They want to make apocalyptic predictions about policy,” he said

The Senate is reconvening Monday to hold the final vote to confirm, just eight days before election day.