Currents News Staff
Scores of U.S. bishops from across the country are in Baltimore right now kicking off their annual fall meeting in person for the first time in two years.
John Lavenburg, National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux joined Currents News. Lavenburg is with the bishops in Baltimore and he had a chance to touch base with Bishop DiMarzio following his comments.
Currents News Staff
Church arsons, assaults on priests and robberies of Eucharistic hosts are just some of the incidents against Christians that are happening at an alarming rate worldwide.
According to a report from the Organization For Security and Cooperation in Europe, hate crimes against Christians are up. Nearly 1,000 incidents were reported in Europe in 2020 – that’s compared to around 600 in 2019.
Each year, Open Doors, an organization which supports persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries, compiles the World Watch List. It’s a list of the top 50 countries where Christians are most severely persecuted.
One of the most surprising findings of this year’s report is that the number of Christians killed for their faith is up by 60 percent compared to last year’s reporting period. This was mainly due to the increase of armed conflicts in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa.
On top of the list is North Korea. Christians living there are arrested and taken to work camps for possessing a bible or when caught praying. An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians are currently imprisoned.
The rest of the top five countries are Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan. Open Doors’ director explains that Christians are asked to convert to the dominant religion or face death in these countries.
“More than surprising me, it pains me, it pains me very much because they are souls, they are people killed, they are widows, orphaned children, they are entire towns and villages displaced and sacked,” said Director Cristian Nani. “In short, there is a lot of pain around this crisis.”
The primary focus of Open Doors is to provide emergency relief, contextualized Christian material in minority languages, and community development in places where Christians are deprived of basic and spiritual needs.
“The main focus is to go to the places where there is the most hostility towards Christians and even more hostility to the Gospel,” Cristian said. “We take care of small, large, isolated, or even hidden Christian communities. The heart of Open Doors is this: to tell these Christians, you’re not alone, we come there to you and ask what you need, we don’t tell you what we think you need. This is the basis of the way we operate.”
Weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida tore through New York City, one Queens parish is still trying to fix the damage left behind.
You better bundle up this winter and get ready to shell out some extra money to keep warm.
A startling report on hate crimes against Christians has just been released — the number of incidents against Christians went up in 2020.
By Jessica Easthope
Always forward, never back – that’s the slogan St. Mary’s Winfield adopted at the beginning of the pandemic to help parishioners pull through. But in recent months, it’s taken on a new meaning.
“I had this whole plan for this year to really get people back to church,” said pastor, Father Christopher O’Connor. “Trying to reengage with parishioners, reach out to the youth more and Sept. 1st came and it was just a nightmare.”
During Tropical Storm Ida, water surged into the lower church reaching more than 10 feet.
“The space was destroyed and it was traumatic because I realized when I was standing in front of the boiler trying to catch the water in garbage cans, if I had been there 15 minutes earlier, I wouldn’t be here talking to you,” Father O’Connor said.
Since then, St. Mary’s, like many of its parishioners in Woodside, Queens, has had to pick up the pieces and really drill down into starting over.
Where there were walls – now just wooden frames. The electrical system was ruined and the floor is all that’s left of the church’s brand-new adoration chapel. Father O’Connor says the church has shelled out $264,000 in repairs.
Parishioners have donated more than $100,000 to help and on Wednesday, Nov. 17, the church received an insurance check for $250,000. But the work is far from over. Father O’Connor estimates repairs will reach $1 million dollars.
“People have been extremely supportive financially with encouraging notes, emails,” he said. “They love their church and they want to see their church taken care of.”
And even as bad as the damage is, Father O’Connor knows the church is better off than some parishioners. He’s offered help to those affected and is leaving the rest up to God.
“It’s in his hands anyway. I wasn’t going to let COVID define us and I’m not going to let the flood define us either. We’re going to come out of this better and stronger,” said Father O’Connor.
He’s reminding himself and his parishioners – always forward, never back.
If you would like to help St. Mary’s Winfield rebuild, you can text “Ida Flood” to 308-300-4848 or go to the website: www.stmarysofwinfield.com and click the link.
The U.S. bishops are opening the door to the public today for day two of their fall meeting in Baltimore.
While the bishop’s meeting was closed to the public yesterday, a pro-life men’s march was happening outside of the Baltimore hotel.
It’s a red-hot housing market. Home prices are expected to end the year on a high note.
By Jessica Easthope
“So my brothers, our beautiful task is to continue to tell the Catholic story, to reveal Jesus to our people, to place their hands in his hands, so they can walk by his light and follow him on the path to eternity to the love that never ends,” said USCCB President, Archbishop Jose Gomez.
The Document on the Meaning of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church is a teaching document, an effort to revive the celebration of Communion. Despite rumors, no part of the document prohibits pro-abortion politicians from receiving the Cucharist; however, a draft of the document says “Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching.”
The topic of whether or not President Joe Biden, specifically, should receive Communion considering his record of pro-abortion policies, has caused a widespread debate. But the bishops have repeatedly said the document is not disciplinary in nature, but instead, it’s the responsibility of every Catholic to celebrate the Eucharist. As for whether any person can be denied – Canon Law leaves that up to individual priests and bishops.
“We are also united in our conviction that the Eucharist cannot be a tool for division. The Eucharist cannot be ideological. The Eucharist cannot be partisan,” said USCCB National Advisory Council, Mark Sadd.
Though the conversation surrounding the teaching document started with the issue of abortion, the bishops also discussed how the Church can evolve in its approach to combating loss of unborn life.
“The Church must be unapologetically pro-life. We cannot abandon our defense of the innocent human life or the vulnerable person,” said Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. “Yet the synodal approach to the question would be to understand better why people seek to end pregnancy.”
Currents News Staff
Scores of U.S. bishops from across the country are in Baltimore right now kicking off their annual fall meeting in person for the first time in two years. Continuing with our team coverage, National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, John Lavenburg is in Baltimore right now with the U.S. bishops.
He joined Currents News to delve deeper into their talks.
Currents News Staff
Scores of U.S. bishops from across the country are in Baltimore right now kicking off their annual fall meeting in person for the first time in two years. The gathering is highly anticipated, as the bishops are set to discuss the much debated draft document on the Eucharist and the synod process currently happening both in Brooklyn and across the nation.
John Lavenburg, national correspondent for The Tablet and Crux is there. He joins currents news from the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel where the meeting is taking place.
As Currents News continues to celebrate Black Catholic History Month, we’ll take you to a Catholic Academy in Brooklyn where students collected works of art depicting the Holy Family representing multiple races.
U.S. Catholic bishops are gathering in Maryland for their annual fall meeting.
New York City’s most famous Christmas tree has arrived thanks to the NYPD’s highway unit.
By Jessica Easthope
We were all made in God’s image and likeness – but the reality is that these students have to look a little harder to find an image of Jesus that looks like them.
But one place they see their diversity reflected in faith is right here in the hallways of Salve Regina Catholic Academy in East New York.
“Usually they’re represented as white people or Caucasian and it feels nice to see different people of color,” said seventh-grader Michelle Ebesunun.
Classmate Brennan Elder thinks about diversity.
“In the time we live in, diversity is very important,” Brennan said, “so it’s good to see that.”
Brennan says here at school, he’s represented, but he doesn’t see many other images of Jesus as Black.
“If you search ‘Jesus Christ’ on Google, the first three pages are going to be white, straight hair,” Brennan said, “because that’s how He’s mostly represented and that needs to change.”
So we tested his theory – and sadly he’s right.
Salve Regina decided to change up the depictions of the Holy Family, Last Supper and other iconic images at a student’s request. That student has now graduated but pastor Father Brendan Buckley, O.F.M. Cap, says he did the school a tremendous favor.
“Thank you for asking the right question,” Father Buckley said. “That question prompted me to then think about how do we see the reflection of our true Catholic identity as universal through art.”
According to researchers at Georgetown University, of those who have entered religious life from 2005 on: white men and women make up an overwhelming majority; Asians account for 12 percent; Latinos 11 percent and African- Americans only four percent. All other ethnicities came in at five percent.
Father Alonzo Cox says these images have the power to transform hearts – and maybe even help these students one day, discern their call.
“That’s a major part of stirring a young person’s vocation to priesthood or religious life,” Father Cox said, “seeing an image of our Lord that looks like him and represents who he is as a Black Catholic.”
The school is adding new diverse religious images to its halls all the time in the hope of one day having the ethnicity of every student represented.
You can join in on the diocesan celebration of Black Catholic History Month this Sunday, Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. (EST). The Mass will be at Our Lady of Victory Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and is in collaboration with the Archdiocese of New York.
The Mass will salute historically Black sororities and fraternities from colleges across the country.