20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

The nationwide debate over the future of the police is front and center on Capitol Hill.

Controversy swirling around Christopher Columbus and his statues has New York Governor Andrew Cuomo saying ‘hold on.’

A man who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty – he grew up on a farm. But now he’s slated to become a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

People are back on the beaches in Florida – but maybe they shouldn’t be.

Coronavirus upended her family but it didn’t prevent a girl from finishing on top.

How This Student Found Faith in the Classroom & Became St. Peter Catholic Academy’s Valedictorian

By Emily Drooby

Samantha Chan has accomplished something many only dream of: she’s the valedictorian of her Catholic Academy.

“I feel pretty excited because I like school a lot and I feel like studying is a very important part of my life,” she said of her accomplishment.

Like children across the country, the St. Peter student has been dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. She has had to learn from home and miss out on typical school events.

Samantha was affected more than most. Her mom is a nurse — a hero working the frontlines of the outbreak.

Her principal, Danielle Alfeo, tells Currents News she learned of the family’s extra struggles while on a visit to deliver a graduation sign.

“Mom came out first and said, ‘Samantha hasn’t been out of the house at all.’ She says because she was so afraid that she was already exposed to so many germs,” Danielle explained. “She didn’t want her children to be exposed, either.”

Her mom’s job isn’t the only reason Samantha’s family was extra cautious. They also live with her grandparents.

“Because I don’t want to risk anything, because I live with my grandparents,” she explained, “I’m paranoid something could happen to them.”

But, she didn’t let these additional worries affect her school work.

“She’s such a phenomenal student but very quiet, very reserved, very polite and well mannered,” said Danielle.

The eight grade student says she loves to study, and that has helped her be successful.

Her Catholic faith has also helped during this time. It’s a faith she found while in Danielle’s fourth grade religion class.

“I wanted to become closer and understand more about the faith,” Samantha recalled.

She decided she wanted to be Catholic. Now, Danielle is her godmother and confirmation sponsor

“She always looked out for us in the classroom and she understood our interests, I felt like she was a good candidate for my godmother,” Samantha said.

She has a deep and ever-growing connection with God, and a strong work ethic. Samantha has also dealt with more than many kids her age, but she never let it affect her work. She’s valedictorian, and a role model.

The Road to Priesthood in the Brooklyn Diocese: Deacon Nestor Martinez’s Story

By Jessica Easthope

Deacon Nestor Martinez knows what it’s like to work hard. Anyone coming into Divine Mercy Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn would say he’s a natural. But, looking back on his days in the seminary that wasn’t always the case.

“There were some moments you want to give up. I went to the seminary and the first three months, oh my goodness, it was so hard for me,” Deacon Nestor told Currents News.

But his work ethic prevailed: he’s now two weeks away from becoming a priest. His perseverance started at a young age while growing up in a rural farm in Colombia.

“You’re growing corn, beans, peas,” he explained. “You work throughout the day until 4 p.m. or 5 p.m.”

He’s the eighth of 10 children. As a kid he lived, worked and did everything with his family. He hasn’t been with them since coming to the states in 2017.

“Whenever they have internet they call me, we keep in touch with each other,” he said. “I keep in touch with my parents too. I try to call them every day,”

His family and dedication to the Church has marked his vocation, but he can also look back on a time when a church was not at his doorstep.

He recalls having “to get up every Sunday like at 4 a.m., and then prepare myself and go to Mass walking like 30, 40 minutes.”

Once Deacon Nestor recognized he was being called by God, he looked to join the seminary at a very early age.

“I wanted to go to the seminary when I was 14 but the problem was it was hard for my dad to send all of us to high school,” he said.

His parents were surprised, but supportive.

“When I told them they were surprised, but they reacted positively,” Deacon Nestor said.

Though each priest serves his community fully, Deacon Nestor’s mission is to bring families back together; he said that’s been a silver lining of the pandemic.

“I think through this pandemic, we are realizing many important things in our lives and one of those is family,” Deacon Nestor said.

He wants people to experience the same family unity he had growing up. So, as many families work on reconnecting with each other, Deacon Nestor will soon be building his new family in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

NET TV Honors The Graduates of 2020 Night 1

Join us as we honor the 2020 graduates of the Brooklyn Diocese’s Catholic Academies with special messages for the graduates from their principals. We all know that 2020 has been a challenging year but our elementary school graduating class has risen to the challenge. Many have faced personal hardship and loss in their families and all of them have needed to adapt to remote learning and distance from their friends. This program salutes their accomplishment and ensures this milestone moment of their graduation is recognized throughout the Diocese.

How COVID-19 Is Impacting the Future of Religious Pilgrimages

Currents News Staff

A religious pilgrimage is often the trip of a lifetime for many Catholics. Amid the pandemic, those dreams were put on hold, but that could be changing.

Now that countries around the world may have different travel restrictions, companies and customers are facing new concerns.

Bob Faucett, who is in charge of religious pilgrimages for the Unitours Company, joins Currents News to share how the pandemic has affected his business.

St. Thomas Aquinas Food Pantry Brings Community Together

By Jessica Easthope

Differences during these divisive times are put aside at St. Thomas Aquinas’ food pantry.

“I think this really helps with working together and bringing the whole community together and this is a small piece of what we can do to support each other as brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Father Dwayne Davis, the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas in Flatlands, Brooklyn.

Support and food are in no short supply at the pantry. Father Dwayne says months into the pandemic the need is still great.

“We’re at 8,500 people who have been served at the pantry, this is our eighth week and I think this week that number will probably get closer to 9,000,” said Father Dwayne.

The pantry is a product of what can be accomplished when the community comes together.

“Right now, it’s really a community affair, we have the Jewish Center that does not want to be named that gives us the food and volunteers who come from all over to help us,” said Father Dwayne.

Ron Russo, a trustee at St. Thomas Aquinas, pays for the lunch for the pantry’s cache of volunteers – showing how strong the chain of community service can be when everyone plays a part.

“What’s more basic than feeding the hungry? You don’t need to be Catholic to volunteer, you don’t need to be Catholic to get a meal, the whole point of this is different communities joining together to help the people who need the help,” said Russo.

The pantry is one of the many ways the church has been a beacon of hope during both the coronavirus pandemic and a time of national unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

Parishioner and volunteer Jean Odenate says, this work is at the core of community outreach.

“They’re all in line talking to each other, they’re not worrying about color,” Odenate said. “They’re here as a community, talking and enjoying the fact that they can come here and get food to feed their family.”

Currents News full broadcast for Thurs, 6/11/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

Keeping the faith strong for kids in the Brooklyn Diocese, virtually.

A Catholic Church reaching out to people enduring the one-two punch of hunger and social unrest.

California police on high alert after a cop was ambushed and shot in the face.

More statues fall around the country. Now, Nancy Pelosi wants to sweep some out of the U.S. capitol.

President Trump’s next moves over policing practices. He’s getting ready for a new order.

Virtual Retreats Are Keeping Kids Connected With Their Faith During the Pandemic

By Emily Drooby

“It’s such a joy to be with all of you today,” said youth minister Lauren Gentry as she welcome students into a new kind of retreat, a virtual one.

She said, “It’s just been a huge blessing to get creative and to find ways to still bring the teens closer to Christ.”

In the past, kids would go to an in-person retreat to form a deeper connection with God. However, during the pandemic that’s no longer an option. Paul Morisi said he that meant schools would have to adapt their religious retreats. He didn’t want to just move them online, he wanted to make sure the kids were getting something really great.

Morisi said, “I remember one youth minister said that they were happy that our teens were getting something during this time and another youth minister stopped them and said, “no we have to make sure we are giving young people the best thing they could ever get because they deserve the best that we can give them.””

So, instead of canceling their end of the school year retreats, ministers in the Diocese of Brooklyn are using Young Life Catholic virtual retreats. Through music, interactive games, and speakers they’ve been able to create a unique and effective program, one that brings kids closer to God. That’s especially important during the pandemic when people can’t go to Mass.

“It felt like I reconnected with God,” said Angeliki Pappas, who took part in one of the retreats, “It made me feel closer to God cuz it felt like I was in church since in church they sing songs and things like that and there were people speaking, saying speeches.” She’s a student at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Glendale, Queens.

The retreat also brings God to their home.

“I think that this focuses on a lot of the domestic church, and kind of going into the space where they are. And so, it has a real missionary approach to it,” explained Brandon Morel. He’s the retreat emcee and is a youth minister at St Michael-St Malachy

To date over 30 virtual retreats have been booked and over 600 kids have taken part in them.

While so many things have been canceled this year, thanks to virtual retreats, kids can still deepen their relationship with God.

Small Business Owner Redesigns Queens Bar for Social Distancing

By Jessica Easthope

The front door of Yer Man’s Pub in Glendale, Queens has been locked for months and its employees, locked out and jobless.

“We need to open the backbone of New York and the backbone of America, we’ve worked too hard to go down,” Yer Man’s owner Jimmy O’Reilly said with tears in his eyes. “I’m not going down, I got a loan to keep going and I know I can come back.”

Yer Man’s is one of the millions of small businesses in New York City that closed temporarily due to COVID-19. According to the Governor’s office, it’s projected more than 100,000 will never open again. Jimmy is losing money by the hour.

“”I do $600,000 a year, maybe more. The last three months I maybe took in $10,000,” Jimmy said about the toll it’s taking on his business.

Like many other businesses, Yer Man’s closed its doors on March 15, not knowing when he would open them again. Now, nearly 90 days later, he still doesn’t know. Jimmy says he hasn’t been given any guidance from the government.

“We need to open, we have to open and our elected officials are not giving us any timeline of when, how, nothing, no guidelines, nothing,” he said.

Not only is Yer Man’s ready to open, but it’s ready to do it safely. A marine quality plastic barrier is one of the many safety precautions Jimmy and his staff have been working on to make social distancing inside the bar possible.

Jimmy has redesigned his entire bar in an effort to make customers feel safe — his livelihood depends on it.

“This is a partition I can remove. If two people sit here and they don’t know this person, no problem,” Jimmy said while showing Currents News of one of his designs.

He’s thought of every possible way people could come in contact with each other, and built a solution.

“Obviously they have to come in at their own risk,” Jimmy said. “But I will do my utmost best to keep it sanitary, keep it clean and keep it so that they’re safe.”

Catholic Mom Graduates as St. Francis College Co-Valedictorian After Juggling School and Jobs

By Emily Drooby

Alexa Rutkowska almost didn’t go to college. Now, she’s at the top of her class, graduating as one of two valedictorians at St. Francis College.

Rutkowska achieved her academic accolades while successfully handling her most important job: being a single mother.

“It was definitely a bit of a struggle,” she told Currents News. “I was waking up at five o’clock in the morning, going to work for 6 a.m., I was a barista,” she explained. “Then I would shoot right over to school, I had class and participated in extracurriculars. It was a lot. I had 16-hour days and at the end of the day, I would have to come home and take care of my daughter. So, it was a lot.”

In addition to her full-time barista job, the Brooklyn native was a tutor, had an internship and worked as a teaching and research assistant. She did all of this while still taking care of her daughter.

Alexa didn’t just persevere. She excelled, and maintained a 4.0 grade average. Now, she is graduating with a master’s degree in psychology.

“I just have to dedicate it all to hard work and perseverance and not letting anything get in my way,” she said. “Even though I would have to not sleep some nights, I would put those extra hours in and just apply myself really hard, put the best of my abilities in.”

Alexa is Catholic, and calls St. Francis Xavier in Park Slope, Brooklyn her home parish.

She says getting this top honor took a lot of persistence, organization and really good planning. But, nothing could stop her. She says anyone can achieve their dreams.

Her advice: “Avoid the naysayers, because there’s going to be people telling you that you can’t do it and it’s too much, but with the right support, perseverance and tenacity, you will be able to accomplish anything. I mean, look at this.”

Up next for Alexa? She’s applying for doctorate work in clinical psychology and hopes to one day work in private practice.