For Ash Wednesday, Vatican Asks Priests to ‘Sprinkle’ Ashes on Heads

Currents News Staff

ROME (CNS) — The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, including sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.

The congregation’s note on the “distribution of ashes in time of pandemic” was published on the congregation’s website Jan. 12 and directs priests to say “the prayer for blessing the ashes” and then sprinkle “the ashes with holy water, without saying anything.”

“Then he addresses all those present and only once says the formula as it appears in the Roman Missal, applying it to all in general: ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’ or ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.’”

“The priest then cleanses his hands, puts on a face mask and distributes the ashes to those who come to him or, if appropriate, he goes to those who are standing in their places,” it said. “The priest takes the ashes and sprinkles them on the head of each one without saying anything.”

The usual practice would be to repeat the formula — “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” — to each person as the ashes are sprinkled on the top of their head or rubbed onto their forehead.

Sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads, rather than marking foreheads with ashes, is the customary practice at the Vatican and in Italy. Given the spread of the coronavirus, the practice has the advantage of not requiring the priest to touch multiple people.

The Latin, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese versions of the note also specify that the mask should cover the priests’ “nose and mouth.”

Currents News full broadcast for Tues, 1/12/21 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

Major changes to the vaccine rollout after weeks of intense criticism over the sluggish process.

President Trump calling for calm – speaking publicly for the first time since the chaos at the Capitol erupted.

There’s a major push to ramp up vaccinations around the country – as Moderna announces that their vaccine will protect you for up to a year.

The Easter season is fast approaching, the Holy See putting out some needed guidance on how to safely observe Ash Wednesday.

Brooklyn Diocese Catholic School Teachers Begin Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine

By Emily Drooby

On Jan. 12, a steady stream of people headed into a Queens, New York, COVID vaccine hub located at Hillcrest High School. The list of who could get the shot dramatically expanded this week.

People over 65 were added on Tuesday, which bumped the list up to seven million people. That list also includes police officers, firefighters and teachers.

Initially, Catholic school teachers feared they wouldn’t be included. The superintendents of schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Archdiocese of New York wrote a letter to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza on Jan. 5, to request they be included.

They were — and many have already taken advantage.

Ashley Lantz showed Currents News the portal she used to sign up for her COVID vaccine. She is a teacher at St. Kevin Catholic Academy. She received her first shot on Monday, and is already signed up for her second.

“I went right online to the vaccine hub, found my appointment and said, ‘You know what, the sooner the better,'” she explained.

For her, the process was easy because she signed up right away. But now that word has spread, and others haven’t been as lucky. She knows teachers who are waiting months for their slot.

New York City has a portal for finding vaccination sites. Just add a zip code and local spots will pop up. The trick? Getting an appointment. Many locations are booked up. The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is urging patience as they open up more vaccination sites.

“At the end of the day you only have 300,000 dosages for a population of 7 million on the other side. I said in the State of the State, ‘patience.’ We need patience at an impatient time in history,” he said during his State of the State address.

John Santamaria, a teacher at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy in Glen Oaks booked an appointment in Queens after hitting a dead end closer to home.

“The sites out in Long Island haven’t really been as friendly as the city ones, so I took what I was able to get, making sure I was able to do it immediately,” he told Currents News.

Now, he’s having trouble booking a Long Island appointment for his mother. He’s not the only one.

“In Long Island, I was not able to find anything,” said Janet Campo, a teacher at St. Kevin Catholic Academy.

She also booked a Queens appointment after running into trouble on the island. She signed her grandparents up too.

However, that doesn’t mean in-person teachers get the vaccine first. Right now, there’s no system in place to make them a priority over teachers who are remote. It’s just the honor system. Many say it’s unfair.

Janet, who is an in-person teacher said, “People who are teaching remotely should not be getting the vaccine before people who are putting their lives on the line every day to come in and teach the kids.”

The strain on that system is only going to get more intense, as New York State will soon add immunocompromised people to the list of those eligible to get the shot, as soon as they get more of a guideline on who is considered to be in that group.

The governor further raised concern that even with all of these people eligible, they’re still only getting 300,000 doses a week from the federal government.

Catholic Social Issues and What’s to Come Next in the White House

Currents News Staff

A new administration is on the horizon and President-Elect Joe Biden is inheriting a divided country. All this after last week’s riots at the U.S. Capitol and talks of impeaching President Trump again.

Brian Browne, political science professor at St. John’s University joins Currents News to continue the conversation surrounding the transition of power in the White House and calls for unity in the country.

Pope Francis’ Trip to Iraq Will Be a Show of Christian Solidarity

Currents News Staff

When the start of the Iraq War began in 2003, most countries withdrew their ambassadors from Baghdad. But even though the Vatican opposed the war on moral grounds, the nuncio at the time remained in the country as bombs rained down on the capital.

“Having lived this experience with them has helped them see that we don’t leave because there is a war, we don’t abandon them,” said Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. “The Church always offers solidarity.”

In March, Pope Francis will travel to Iraq in a show of solidarity. He’ll visit Mosul, the city that was under ISIS control for more than a year. It’s a possible challenge to the safety of the pontiff’s visit.

“If we are talking about risks, we should not go there,” Cardinal Filoni said. “The authorities will do everything possible to make it a safe trip. I believe that, as has happened on other occasions, it will be the citizens themselves who will guarantee safety. It is something that goes beyond police deployment or political strategy.”

To those who think it would have been preferable to wait for a moment of greater stability in the country, Cardinal Filoni has a clear answer.

“We should not consider traveling to this country that, little by little, tries to find its path, only when the road is quiet, without obstacles,” he said. “It is contrary to all logic, especially the logic of the Christian Church. We are with the people. If the people suffer, we share the suffering with them.”

Mistake in Public School Roster Sends Child Abuse Investigators to Catholic School Family’s Doorstep

By Emily Drooby

“This is his real report card,” said Margaret Greene-Tomasi as she flipped through a folder that also contained two fake report cards which had set off a child abuse investigation.

“This was the letter from ACS that it was suspected child abuse or maltreatment,” she told Currents News, speaking of the letter which was also in that same folder.

It started when the Administration for Children’s Services, or ACS, showed up at their door.

Margaret described the interaction to Currents News:

“’I said ACS?’ And she said, ‘Yes. Yhere is an investigation open for John Tomasi.’ I said, ‘For what?’ She said, ‘Well he’s not attending Cobble Hill High School.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s crazy, because he attends Xaverian High School.”

John had been attending the Bay Ridge Catholic high school all year. The former Catholic Academy student had never been to public school.

However, for some reason, John was on the roster at Cobble Hill School of American Studies in Brooklyn. They never got the message he wasn’t coming. He was marked absent for months, prompting the abuse investigation.

John’s mom says the visit was terrifying and included interviews, a search of their home and even physically checking John for signs of abuse.

“Somebody knocked on your door and they can potentially take your child from your home,” she explained. “Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen, that didn’t happen. But for the first time in my life that could happen, and there are no words.”

And that wasn’t all: around the same time, a public-school report card came for John. It was filled out, he had grades and even comments.

Margaret could not get in touch with the school so that they could clear up their mistake. Finally, someone from the Department of Education said they would take John off the list. At the same time, the ACS investigation came back as unfounded.

“And I thought, okay, this is over,” said Margaret. But then a second report card showed up.

“When I got that second report card I was afraid. I thought, ‘Can they reopen another investigation on me, he’s still in that system?'”

Only after her story spread did the deputy superintendent for Brooklyn North Schools finally assured her it was a mistake.

But Margaret still isn’t 100 percent sure that it is over. Further, the trauma is long-lasting — so is the ACS record.

“And it doesn’t get expunged for another ten years, so it’s closed, but I don’t know what that means, how closed is it? That’s very frightening to me,” said Margaret.

She says they only had one warning from the school back in October, when she received John’s schedule in the mail. After multiple calls and emails to the school, she figured it was just a mistake, a decision she greatly regrets. Still, she’s confused as to how it got this far.

“How do you admit someone? They have no transcripts, they have no immunization records, he’s never been to public school, so where did this child come from,” she asked.

One of the reasons Margaret is speaking out about this situation is to warn other parents to stay vigilant and to never give up.

Currents News reached out to the school but we haven’t heard back.

The Department of Education sent a statement reading, “This should not have happened, and this matter has been referred for investigation. We will take follow up action as appropriate,” elaborating that the specifically it was referred to the Special Commissioner of Investigation.

For Margaret, the pandemic was a factor in trying to get this situation fixed. With a lot of people working from home at both the school and the DOE, Margaret had to rely on phone calls and emails, which weren’t always answered.

Currents News full broadcast for Mon, 1/11/21 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

A true nightmare for one Catholic school family – their child wrongly listed as attending a public school – a mistake that lead to a child abuse investigation.

House Democrats announce they’ll try to impeach President Trump for a second time.

New York City opens up two 24-7 vaccination sites – hoping to ramp up the number of people vaccinated after a dismal start.

The Vatican rolls out their vaccines – Pope Francis saying he’ll get the shot and that its everyone’s ethical obligation to do the same.

A new documentary honoring the memory of Brooklyn born Bishop Francis Xavier Ford.

From Brooklyn to China: Bishop Ford’s Global Journey of Faith

By Ed Wilkinson and Currents News Staff

The cause of canonization for Bishop Francis Xavier Ford has taken on special meaning in the Diocese of Brooklyn, where he was born and raised before beginning his journey of faith. Brooklyn is where Bishop Ford first learned about the Catholic faith as a boy through his family’s love and from the examples of his teachers at St. Joseph’s School.

As this timeline shows, he attended the seminary to become a priest and, while there, decided to become a Maryknoll missionary in China. His decision to travel to the other side of the world to preach the Gospel was a bold one — one that made a difference in the lives of thousands of people in China.

Click below to view the timeline in full screen:

What to Keep in Mind as COVID-19 Vaccines Become Available to More Americans

Currents News Staff

Health officials continue to say being vaccinated is one of the best ways to protect yourself and others from getting sick. But no vaccine works 100 percent of the time.

“I would strongly encourage that we move forward with giving states the opportunity to be more expansive in who they can give the vaccine to particularly as more supplies become available,” said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn.

During trials, the current authorized vaccines were shown to be about 95 percent effective, which means some who are vaccinated became symptomatic.

Here’s why: It takes time to build immunity.

Both authorized vaccines require two doses, given several weeks apart to train the body’s immune system.

But people can be exposed to the coronavirus right before being vaccinated, or right after, which doesn’t give the body enough time to develop its defenses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says building immunity “typically takes a few weeks.”

Moderna measured its 95 percent vaccine efficacy starting 14 days after the second dose, while Pfizer started seven days after the second dose.

But let’s be clear: the current coronavirus vaccines cannot infect anyone with the virus.

They don’t contain the virus. But, the CDC says vaccinated people should still use all the tools available. Wear a mask; stay six feet away from others; and wash your hands.

Meanwhile, two different coronavirus vaccines continue to rollout across the U.S. But, as millions of Americans get their vaccinations over the coming months, it’s important to note that anyone who receives a vaccination could still end up getting sick.

Pope Says He Was ‘Astonished’ by Violence at Capitol

By Currents News Staff and Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis offered prayers for the people of the United States “shaken by the recent siege on Congress” and prayed for the five people who lost their lives “in those dramatic moments” when protesters stormed the Capitol Jan. 6.

Remarking on the events after reciting the Angelus prayer Jan. 10, the pope insisted that “violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.”

The pope urged government leaders “and the entire population to maintain a high sense of responsibility in order to soothe tempers, promote national reconciliation and protect the democratic values rooted in American society.”

And he prayed that “Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States of America,” would “help keep alive the culture of encounter, the culture of caring, as the way to build together the common good; and may she do so with all who live in that land.”

Pope Francis’ remarks came one day after the release of clips of an interview in which he said he was “astonished” by the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, especially because the people of the United States are “so disciplined in democracy.”

The interview with Italy’s Canale 5 was scheduled for broadcast Jan. 10, but some clips were aired Jan. 9.

Violence, he told the interviewer, must always be condemned, but it also is true that in even the most “mature” societies, there are violent minorities, “people taking a path against the community, against democracy, against the common good.”

“But thank God this erupted and people could see it well. That way it can be remedied,” he said.

“No nation can brag about never having a case of violence — it happens,” he said. “We must understand it, so it is not repeated — learn from history, right?”

In the interview, Pope Francis also spoke about the COVID-19 vaccine.

From an ethical point of view, he said, “I think everyone must take the vaccine; it’s the ethical option because you are playing with your health, life, but you also are playing with the lives of others.”

Sometime in the week beginning Jan. 11 the Vatican expects to begin vaccinating residents and employees who have asked to be vaccinated, “and I signed up; it must be done.”

Pope Francis recalled that when he was a child, polio was a real threat, “and many children were left paralyzed and people were desperate for a vaccine. When the vaccine came out, they gave it to you with a bit of sugar.”

“I don’t know why some people say, ‘No, the vaccine is dangerous,’ but if physicians present it to you as something that will do good, that doesn’t carry particular dangers, why not take it?” he said.

Pope Francis said he could not explain “suicidal denialism,” but “people must take the vaccine.”