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Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris to Deliver Historic Speech During DNC

Currents News Staff

It’s set to be a historic night three of the Democratic National Convention.

Senator Kamala Harris will give her speech as the first woman of color to be a vice presidential nominee.

“The Biden/Harris ticket is about an agenda, that is about representing who america really is,” Senator Harris said.

Aug. 19 is jam-packed with appearances by heavy-hitters, and fellow politicians who know what it’s like to “be the first” including Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, and the first woman to be a major party nominee for president in 2016.

“I want to add my voice to the many that have endorsed you to be our president,” Hillary said, “and of course, former President Barack Obama, the country’s first Black president, who chose Joe Biden as his own vice president 12 years ago.”

Barack Obama went on to say,”Joe Biden won’t only make a good vice president..he’ll make a great vice president.”

He’ll make the case that his former running mate and Harris are the ones to move America forward.

“This is going to an administration, the Biden/ Harris Administration that is focused on the future of our country,” Kamala said. “Motivated by what can be, and unburdened by what has been.”

 

Kids Care Crew Cleans Up Metropolitan Ave. After Visit From NYC Officials Bob Holden and Eric Adams

By Jessica Easthope

If you litter, you’re not taking good care of your community, but the Kids Care Crew is doing just that.

The Kids Care Crew, a new organization,  held its inaugural community service event August 19. The mission: clean up Metropolitan Avenue.

“These streets shouldn’t look like this, they should look clean, they should look good and nobody should really litter so I think it would be really nice if we could clean up the streets and it would be better than it is right now,” said Chloe Miranda, a fourth grader at St. Margaret Catholic Academy.

Before the children, who are students at St. Margaret Catholic Academy in Middle Village, Queens began the clean-up, they were visited by two people who know all about serving in the community, Queens Councilman Bob Holden and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. The two stopped by to thank the kids and give them some encouragement.

“This is what community is about, parents telling their kids every day how do we do acts of kindness, looking at these budget cuts and instead of saying woe is me, saying why not me, why don’t I clean up on my block,” said Adams.

During the pandemic, trash has been piling up on the streets of New York City. In June the City cut $106 million from the Sanitation Department budget, reducing pickup for public garbage cans by 60 percent.

“We went through the 70s and 80s, I remember the days of trash all over the cities, you couldn’t go on the subway without graffiti everywhere, we’re getting back to that and it’s unfortunate so our young people are now stepping up and saying we’re going to help out,” said Holden.

The Kids Care Crew was there to pickup the slack and everything they could grab.

“The people who put it down don’t really ever pick it up they just leave it there and other people sometimes trip and we want to clean it up so people don’t trip and get hurt,” said Jewelz Mayol, a third grader and Kids Care Crew member.

Kids Care Crew was formed by a group of moms who say they want to lead by example and make community service a big part of their children’s lives and faith.

“I think to me faith is helping people even when it’s not convenient, we know the coronavirus is here and it’s easier to stay home and watch things on TV but we can very safely mask up, glove up, and go out and show our kids that even in hard times it’s still important to give back and do the right thing,” said Kate Barvels an organizer of the Kids Care Crew.

The Kids Care Crew’s next event will be a backpack donation to students from PS 157 in Harlem on September 2.

Currents News full broadcast for Wed, 8/19/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

An exclusive look into the Diocese of Brooklyn’s classrooms. They’re getting scrubbed and sanitized.

Big news from City Hall, the Big Apple is setting a new COVID record.

The spotlight shines tonight on Kamala Harris as she steps into the history books.

As Brooklyn Diocese Prepares to Reopen Schools, Health and Safety Precautions Are Being Put in Place

By Emily Drooby and Erin DeGregorio

WINDSOR TERRACE — In a few weeks, a majority of the 66 Catholic schools and academies in Brooklyn and Queens plan to physically reopen under Plan A (100% in-person instruction), with the flexibility to adopt Plan B (hybrid instruction) or Plan C (100% distance learning through the new St. Thomas Aquinas Distance Learning Catholic Program) quickly if COVID-19 cases arise.

“Our principals, teachers, boards, and administrators have been hard at work to ensure all the health and safety protocols will be met at all our Catholic academies and parish schools,” said Brooklyn Diocese Superintendent of Schools Thomas Chadzutko. “We are prepared and excited for a full reopening in September.”

The schools in Plans A and B will undergo enhanced cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing protocols so educators and students can safely return on the first day of school.

“This may be slightly different school-by-school given the building footprint and student population,” Chadzutko added. “Some schools will need to use a hybrid model if they cannot meet the social distancing standards.”

On Aug. 18, a four-man team from cleaning company CS Care Group sanitized Salve Regina Catholic Academy, East New York, including the cafeteria, gymnasium, classrooms, and main offices. In its preliminary sweep, the crew wiped down the most-touched surfaces, such as handrails, doorknobs, light switches, and desktops. Afterward, they used a hydro-fogger machine with EPA-approved chemicals to sanitize the air. Completely sanitizing both of SRCA’s buildings took between four and five hours, which is the norm according to the company. Individuals can return to a recently sanitized space an hour after spraying is completed.

Moving forward, SRCA’s maintenance staff will maintain cleaning, as confirmed by the principal, Michelle Donato. Daytime maintenance staff members will spray and disinfect bathrooms, door handles, handrails, light switches, and other common spaces every two hours.

The academy has spent more than $1,000 from its budget on health and safety equipment, including two backpack misters, filled with a disinfectant, a hydrofogger, and five buckets of disinfecting wipes (4,000 wipes in total). These items will be used to disinfect such areas, as needed, throughout the day and at night when the building has been vacated.

Donato also purchased tall hand sanitizing dispensers with foot pedals that avoid the need for hand contact. This, she said, must be used by all who enter the building once their temperatures are checked.

“My main concerns, right now, are to make sure that the building is ready for the students and that we are able to show them that this is the new way for now,” Donato said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get back to our normal routine, but this is going to become our new normal. And we’re going to handle it with the grace that we always had.”

In Canarsie, Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy will undergo mandatory cleaning on Aug. 20. The incoming eighth grade — which has 30 students and is the academy’s largest class — will be taught in the gymnasium rather than the classrooms.

“It took a while to think everything through,” said OLTCA Principal Muriel Wilkinson, who noted that a maximum of only 14 desks can fit in each classroom under social distancing guidelines.

From the school’s budget, Wilkinson has also ordered hand sanitizer dispensers, partitions for the main office, plexiglass shields for teachers’ desks, and other necessary personal protective equipment. Teachers in the younger grades, for example, will wear face coverings that have a see-through window in front of the mouths, so that students can see what is being said.

“It’ll be especially [helpful] for phonics, and so that the students can also see the teachers smiling underneath,” Wilkinson explained. “For the younger ones, that might be a little more comforting.”

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy in Windsor Terrace will be sanitized from top to bottom on Aug. 31. According to Stephanie Germann, the academy’s principal, a professional cleaning team will be using an electrostatic sprayer to sanitize the air and all surfaces. This, she said, is incredibly important because the building has high ceilings that normally can’t be sanitized.

An additional challenge SJTWCA faces with its high ceilings is the dust that collects atop the school’s hanging, rectangular light fixtures.

“Any breeze of wind or air conditioning can blow that down onto the students and teachers,” Germann added. “Cleaning all that dust is the next big step.”
To mitigate the spread of germs, automatic hand sanitizer dispensers will be installed outside each classroom’s two doorways and bathrooms will be retrofitted with automated paper towel dispensers and automated antibacterial soap dispensers.

“Every summer, we focus on the building and give it a little extra tender, love, and care to welcome kids back into the building,” Germann said. “But I think, in light of COVID-19, it’s extra important to make sure all our surfaces have been sanitized. The kids haven’t been in the building and the building’s been clean twice over. We’re being extra cautious.”

Reopening plans for each school can be found on the individual school’s website. Additionally, parent meetings will take place this week, via ZOOM, to review and discuss the re-opening plans.

Making the Poor a Priority Isn’t Political, It’s the Gospel, Pope Says

By Currents News Staff and Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Church teaching on giving priority to the well-being of the poor and marginalized is not a political or ideological choice; it lies at the very heart of the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

The preferential option for the poor, which includes feeding the hungry and drawing close to the excluded, “is the key criterion of Christian authenticity,” he said Aug. 19 during his weekly general audience.

The principle also would include making sure that any vaccine developed for the novel coronavirus helps everyone, he added.

“It would be sad,” he said, if priority for a vaccine “were to be given to the richest. It would be sad if this vaccine were to become the property of this nation or another, rather than universal and for all.”

During his audience, livestreamed from the library of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis continued a series of talks on the principles of the church’s social doctrine as a guide for healing and building a better future, particularly as the world is struggling with a pandemic and its negative effects.

In fact, he said, a proper response to the pandemic is twofold:

“On the one hand, it is essential to find a cure for this small but terrible virus, which has brought the whole world to its knees. On the other, we must also cure a larger virus, that of social injustice, inequality of opportunity, marginalization and the lack of protection for the weakest.”

“It would be a scandal if all of the economic assistance we are observing — most of it with public money — were to focus on rescuing those industries that do not contribute to the inclusion of the excluded, the promotion of the least, the common good or the care of creation,” the pontiff said.

These are the four criteria that should be used “for choosing which industries should be helped: those which contribute to the inclusion of the excluded, to the promotion of the least, to the common good and the care of creation.”

Pope Francis said the COVID-19 pandemic “has exposed the plight of the poor and the great inequality that reigns in the world” and it has made those inequalities and discrimination even worse.

One of the responses that must not be missing is the preferential option for the poor, he said.

This key element of the church’s social teaching “is not a political option, nor is it an ideological option,” he said; it is “at the center of the Gospel.”

Jesus “stood among the sick, the poor, the excluded, showing them God’s merciful love,” he said.

The preferential option for the poor is a duty for all Christians and communities, he said, and it means doing more than providing needed assistance; it requires remedying the root causes and problems that lead to the need for aid.

“Many people want to return to normality” and get back to business, the pope said, but this “normality” must not entail ongoing social injustice and the degradation of the environment.

“The pandemic is a crisis, and we do not emerge from a crisis the same as before: either we come out of it better or we come out of it worse,” he said. “We must come out of it better” and build something different.

The world needs an economy and remedies that do not “poison society, such as profits not linked to the creation of dignified jobs,” but rather profits that benefit the general public.

“We must act now to heal the epidemics caused by small, invisible viruses and to heal those caused by the great and visible social injustices,” he said.

By “starting from the love of God, placing the peripheries at the center and the last in first place,” he said, “a healthier world will be possible.”

Recovering from the pandemic will require action rooted in tangible love, “anchored in hope and founded in faith,” he said, “otherwise, we will come out of the crisis worse.”

The Holy Father concluded by praying, “May the Lord help us and give us the strength to come out of it better, responding to the needs of today’s world.”

Currents News full broadcast for Tues, 8/18/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn are revealing plans for the fall.

The Big Apple’s public schools are facing mounting pressure to keep the classrooms closed.

A champion of Catholic education in the Brooklyn Diocese has passed away.

Brooklyn Diocese Mourns Loss of Brother Ralph Darmento, Deputy Superintendent of Catholic Schools

By Emily Drooby

On Aug. 18, family and friends said a final goodbye to Brother Ralph J. Darmento, F.S.C., an indispensable educator in the Brooklyn Diocese. He passed away on August 14 at the age of 68.

“It’s a big loss for the Diocese of Brooklyn,” said Auxiliary Bishop James Massa.

Brother Darmento was the deputy superintendent of schools. He worked closely with Auxiliary Bishop Massa when he held the position of Vicar for Catholic Education.

“He was a tremendous help in assisting our academies to balance their books and to try to maintain a steady enrollment or to increase the number of students in the schools, he was extraordinary in having both those talents,” added Bishop Massa.

Brother Darmento spent seven years helping to shape education in the diocese. Before that, he spent over 15 years working in the Archdiocese of Newark’s education office.

He was also a life-long teacher, working at schools across the country. While he transitioned into a more administrative role, teaching was a gift that even never left him.

“Ralph would sometimes walk into a seventh grade, a sixth grade classroom and he would ask questions of the students of the faith, but then he would do math drills with them,” said Bishop Massa. “It was just always amazing. You knew that was his element, that’s where he felt most comfortable.”

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Chadzutko says education was Brother Darmento’s passion. He would search all over for ways to make Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn the best.

“He was someone who was always researching, always looking for best practices, always looking for solutions, and a lot of the things That we have adapted in our academy governance model, really became because of him and the work that he has done,” Chadzutko recalled.

Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto was the main celebrant at Brother Darmento’s Mass of Christian burial. It was held at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.

“He was a very big asset to us here in the diocese,” remembered Bishop Chappetto. “He really was a great educator, and we were blessed to have him working here with us.”

What New College Grads Can Do to Find a Job During the Pandemic

Currents News Staff 

For those who have already graduated from college the job market isn’t looking so great, thanks to the coronavirus. 

According to Forbes, as of June 2020, there were 73% fewer entry level jobs available.

Pew Research Center says young adults have the highest rate of unemployment during the pandemic. In May, it was 25.3% percent among those 16 to 24-years-old, 12 percentage points higher than any other age group.

Joining Currents News to discuss the job market for college grads is Chris Hughes, the Associate Director of Career Development at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. He shares his advice for those who have just graduated college, or are entering their final year.

Hunter Telecom Brings ‘COVID Kiosk’ to Brooklyn Diocese to Help Screen Health in Catholic Schools

By Jessica Easthope

Once the bell rings on September 9, most of the Catholic schools in the Brooklyn Diocese will once again be flooded with students.

Everyone’s face has to be covered and temperatures must be taken. Now there’s new technology designed to make sure those guidelines are followed and kids get into school quickly and safely — the “COVID Kiosk.”

“They need a device to be put in front, just because a parent is sending their child to a school, this is a standalone device with robust software with management tools behind it that can grow within your network,” said Frank Marinello, CEO of Hunter Telecom, the company that sells the COVID Kiosk.

“You walk in front of it, and within one second it will tell you if you answered your COVID questions if that’s part of the entrance policy. It will give you a temperature and also mask detection,” said Frank.

Some schools are using handheld thermometers and even thermal cameras, but the COVID Kiosk, which sells for $2,875, sets itself apart.

“This is more focused individual, one kid at a time, self containing and non intrusive,” said Gene Venturino, the COO of Hunter Telecom.

The COVID Kiosk will detect a person’s temperature and if they’re wearing a mask or not. It can even stop them from entering a building without one.

“It will go into what activates a turnstyle or an electromagnetic door, or a secondary kiosk, it works as a security device if a security guard’s behind a desk and the first thing you need is to know what your temperature is,” Frank explained.

According to the Brooklyn Diocese reopening plan, everyone in school is required to wear a face covering and schools must conduct daily health screenings and temperature checks. Several schools in the Brooklyn Diocese are already looking to use the COVID Kiosk for the start of the school year.

“The budgets are completely different than the DOE budget, we really try to make it affordable and make sure the safety of the employees and the children is far exceeding the price of the machine,” said Frank.

Hunter Telecom says the device was created out of a need, but will outlive the pandemic.

“In schools you can have it where it checks your attendance, we want to continue to develop the software so they get full use out of it,” said Gene.

Hunter Telecom is trying to get the COVID Kiosk into as many schools as possible before the first day back.