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Brooklyn Diocese Pastors Say Recent Crime Surge is a Pro-Life Issue

By Jessica Easthope

This year there have been more than 600 shootings in the streets of New York, crime the city hasn’t seen since the 1980s.

“This proves more and more that what we need in this world is some real real real faith,” said Father Frank Black the pastor of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Father Black says he barely recognized his parish neighborhood. Crown Heights has seen nearly a dozen shootings just this month.

“Breaking into people’s businesses, shooting other people, drive-by shootings, that’s not pro life,” said Father Black.

Violence is fundamentally at odds with church teaching. To be pro-life is to respect all stages of life from conception to natural death, something Father Black says is not happening in New York right now.

In July alone, 239 shooting incidents have been reported, a 210 percent increase from last year.

The shootings surge comes as the NYPD disbanded its Anti-Crime Unit, a plainclothes group of officers that worked to keep illegal guns off the streets but had a large number of complaints.

Another area hard hit by gun violence is Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“The violence in our community has to come to an end especially for our young people for them to grow in a place where they can walk the streets of the community in a peaceful manner is important,” said Father Alonzo Cox the pastor of St. Martin de Porres church.

Father Cox says the church needs to focus on young people if it ever wants to help curb violence and fulfill its role in the community.

“What we have to do is be an example to our youth and those who we want to guide and it’s our responsibility to be those leaders and those examples,” said Father Cox.

Father Cox has been holding virtual forums for the youth of his parish, allowing them to express their frustrations as well as their hopes for the future of their city.

“Trying our best through the gift of social media to reach out to our youth, our young people here at the parish want to see peace, they want an end to this violence and they want to get out into the community,” said Father Cox.

At a time when a swirl of violence is moving rapidly through the city, pastors say the power of prayer and peace can be much stronger.

Pope Francis Calls For International Ceasefire in Order to Help Pandemic Victims With Humanitarian Aid

Currents News Staff 

According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of global coronavirus deaths already exceeds 600,000 people. Thus, Pope Francis insisted on the proposal for a global ceasefire by the United Nations to help care for the sick and prevent the spread of the virus. 

“I renew the call for an immediate and global ceasefire that will allow the peace and security that is essential for the necessary humanitarian assistance to be given,” Pope Francis said.

The pontiff is also concerned about a conflict that has been reactivated these days in the Caucasus Mountains. Armenia and Azerbaijan have resumed armed conflict for control of the Nagorno Karabakh region and have caused more than a dozen deaths.

“I hope that, with the effort of the international community and through dialogue and the good will of the parties, a lasting peaceful solution can be reached,” Pope Francis said.

In Italy, although there is greater freedom of movement, crowding is still prohibited to avoid contagions. That means the Vatican is far more emptier than usual, with fewer pilgrims this summer in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis addressed his concerns after the daily Angelus prayer in Rome.

“Dear brothers and sisters, in this time, when the pandemic does not seem to be stopping, I want to assure my closeness to all those facing the disease and its economic and social consequences,” he said. 

Archdiocese of Madrid Builds Burial Structure for Coronavirus Victims’ Remains

Currents News Staff 

In record time — only 15 days — the  “Túmulo del Recuerdo” or Tumulus of Memory was created and opened in Madrid. It’s a seven-and-a-half-foot-tall hexagonal structure that will hold the ashes of more than a thousand people who died from the coronavirus.

“Like all priests, the archbishop must respond to the needs of the faithful,” said Father Nelson Nájera, chaplain of the San Justo Cemetery where the structure is located. “The archbishop, aware of this need, opened this tumulus of memory where the ashes of around 1,900 people will be deposited for families who don’t have a place to put them. It’s a way to say there is a place for them.”

The structure was developed by the Sacramental de San Justo Foundation. The designers included a marble finish to the structure that will be covered by a canopy, according to Sacramental de San Justo’s architect Licinio Rivero.

“A canopy is a structure with an altar or coffin inside, so it’s perfect,” Rivero said. “That way, even if it doesn’t cover the whole interior, when you look at it, you can clearly see the silhouette of a temple.” 

Families who were affected by the health and economic crises will now have a final resting place for their loved ones.

“They were counting on being able to choose what to do with the ashes of their loved ones, but they were left without options and without the possibility of burying them,” said Francisco Belmonte, from Sacramental de San Justo.

The “Túmulo del Recuerdo” is ready for use. Cardinal Carlos Osoro blessed it. It’s yet another example of the Church in Madrid’s closeness to the people amid the pain and crisis sparked by the coronavirus.

This American Priest Wants to Make the Church a ‘Field Hospital for Mercy’

By Melissa Butz

In 2016, During the Jubilee Year of Mercy called for by Pope Francis, 1,071 priests were sent out as Missionaries of Mercy. They were given the special grace to forgive sins that hold penalties only the Apostolic See can lift.

“In this case we speak of the five sins reserved to the Holy See. Only the Missionaries of Mercy can absolve from such sins, no other,” said 2016 Jubilee organizer Monsignor Rino Fishichella.

Even though the Jubilee year ended, this ministry continues. Father Jeffrey Kirby is one of the most recent to be nominated as a Missionary of Mercy at his parish in Charleston, South Carolina.

“The Holy Father appoints the priest and then the local bishop gives the decree. That’s what’s happened in my case. My bishop encouraged, he’s promoted me,” Fr. Jeffrey explained. “I was given the appointment by the pope and now the bishop is presenting me with this decree.”

As an author, he said his writings on mercy could be a reason why he was selected. In 2016, he wrote a study called Doors of Mercy and then another on how Maria Goretti is a witness of mercy.

“Throughout my writings or different talks that I’ve done, I’ve always tried to accentuate that message of mercy because I think of all the messages the world is hearing – hate, intolerance – it seems we are told everything’s permissible, but nothing is forgivable,” he said. “I think it’s so important in our world today that the message of mercy be the predominant, emphasized message, especially from the Church.”

Fr. Jeffrey explained his mission will be carried out in his parish, with his parishioners. His goal is for his Charleston church to become a “field hospital for mercy,” as Pope Francis has asked, and for an overflowing of mercy throughout the world.

Civil Rights Leader Rep. John Lewis Dead at 80

Currents News Staff

Civil rights activist and U.S. Representative John Lewis has died at the age of 80.

Lewis announced in December that he had stage four pancreatic cancer. Throughout his life he was a leader –  first as a civil rights activist and then as a long-time congressman. 

Throughout his life, John Lewis stood for people’s rights. Born on an Alabama cotton farm into a segregated America, he would not only live to see an African-American elected president, he would be a major part of making it happen.

“Tonight, tonight, we gather here in this magnificent stadium in Denver because we still have a dream,” Lewis said. “We still have a dream. “

Lewis growing up was angered by the unfairness of the Jim Crow south. He credited Martin Luther King Jr., for inspiring him to join the civil rights movement. Eventually Lewis would become one of its most prominent leaders.

As a student, he organized sit-ins at lunch counters. In the early 1960s, he was a freedom rider challenging segregation at interstate bus terminals across the south. He was the embodiment of non-violence and frequently suffered beatings by angry mobs.

Lewis, 23-years-old at the time, was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington when he said that “we do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now.”

Then two years later, he led a march for voting rights in Selma. On the Edmund Pettus Bridge, he and the other marchers were met by heavily armed state and local police. They were sat upon and beaten and Lewis suffered from a fractured skull. It would be forever remembered as “Bloody Sunday”.

The images of brutality shocked the nation, galvanizing support for the Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Lewis never lost his young activist spirit, taking it from protests to politics, standing up for what he believed was right and he was arrested more than 40 times by police, according to his congressional office.

“I’m on my way, and we’re going to win this race,” he said.

He was elected to city council in Atlanta, then to Congress in Washington, representing Georgia’s 5th district fighting against poverty and for healthcare while working to help younger generations by improving education.

He reached out to young people in other ways, co-writing a series of graphic novels about the civil rights movement, which won him a national book award.

In a life filled with so many moments and great achievements, it was the achievement of another, in 2008 that perhaps meant the most – the election of President Barack Obama – a dream Lewis admits was too impossible to consider decades before, even as he fought to forge its foundation.

“This is a unbelievable period in our history,” Lewis said. Martin Luther King Jr. would be very pleased to see what is happening in America. This is a long way from the March on Washington. It’’s a great distance from marching across the bridge on Selma in 1965 for the right to vote.”  

In 2011, after more than 50 years on the front lines of civil rights, Lewis received the nation’s highest civilian honor – the presidential medal of freedom, which was placed around his neck by America’s first Black president.

Lewis wasn’t content to just making history, he was also dedicated to preserving it. Consider the impetus for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

He never stopped stirring up “good trouble” as he liked to call it: boycotting the inauguration of George W. Bush after the contested 2000 election and vocally opposing Donald Trump in 2017 – citing suspicions of Russian election meddling.

At a protest against President Trump’s immigration policy, the congressman, by then an elder statesman of the Democratic party,  riled up the crowd by words he had lived by  as an activist, lawmaker and leader.

“We must never, ever give up,” Lewis said. “We must be brave, bold and courageous.”

 

Currents News full broadcast for Fri, 7/17/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

Multiple churches now crime scenes across America. The Blessed Virgin, vandalized.

A California Mission nearly burnt to the ground with no explanation.

And in Florida, a church set on fire with people inside.

Are Catholics targets, and is hate behind it?

Currents News full broadcast for Thurs, 7/16/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

A pandemic can’t stop prayer. A strong showing of Catholic faith in very challenging times.

Rededicated after being defaced – the men of Cathedral Prep showing their love for Mary is stronger than ever.

The Vatican is taking new action tonight to protect children.

Brooklyn Diocese Celebrates Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg in New Ways During Pandemic

By Jessica Easthope

Faith and devotion are alive in the Brooklyn Diocese. For the 133rd year, Our Lady of Mount Carmel was processed through the streets of South Williamsburg.

Though her feast day is usually celebrated with the Giglio Festival, the pandemic kept the iconic seven-story statue on the ground this year. But people of the parish and across the diocese still made sure Our Lady of Mount Carmel was honored.

“We weren’t sure this was even a possibility so this is honestly a blessing for all of us to be here with our families and loved ones and take our Mother out into the street,” said John Perrone, a member of the Giglio Feast committee.

This is the first time in decades John hasn’t lifted the Giglio. but he says his faith and gratitude to Our Lady is stronger than ever: it’s reflected in his dedication to the procession.

“To us this is a very important element of it all, the most important,” John said.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said Mass before the historic procession. He says though the pandemic has changed the way we worship, it hasn’t changed why.

“The festivities only point to one thing: we’re happy. We’re happy that this is the annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, our Heavenly Mother who gives so many graces to the people who honor her. The essential thing is we honor the Mother of God, and that’s what this feast is about,” said Bishop DiMarzio.

The annual Giglio Feast helps sustain Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish financially all year. This year, the street in front of the church wasn’t lined with dozens of vendors and people like years past, but Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello said the church found other ways to raise money.

“They’re donating all their proceeds today to the parish, it’s the two staples of the feast, zeppoles and sausage and peppers, they’re making all that donation it will all come back to the church,” said Msgr. Jamie.

Msgr. Jamie says he has no doubt the tradition’s deep roots in the neighborhood and in the lives of those who participate will continue to grow.

“People have such a great devotion and they want to come and honor our Blessed Mother,” he said. “We know next year is going to be a big year.”

Cathedral Prep Restores, Rededicates Blessed Virgin Statue Following Vandalism

By Emily Drooby

It was a special moment outside of Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary during the prayer service and rededication of a 100-year-old statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now restored after it was desecrated by spray paint almost a week ago.

“Well, we pass it every morning and Mary is our mother and she’s our guidance sometimes, pretty much all of the time. She guides us to do good and to better ourselves,” said Christopher Santagata, a student at the school.

The rededication was done on the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Cathedral Prep’s students, teachers and staff put summer break on hold to pray outdoors at the school in Elmhurst, Queens.

“Although I was upset, I knew that something good will always come out of evil,” explained student Patrick Rubi. “I knew that Father Kuroly was going to do something and it would be cleaned eventually, and that Our Lady would not remain dirty.”

Father James Kuroly, the school’s rector and president says he’s grateful to Catholic Cemeteries, the group responsible for quickly cleaning and restoring the Blessed Mother’s monument.

On July 10, the statue was vandalized and the word “idol” was written in thick black spray paint down the front. The incident is being investigated by the NYPD as criminal mischief.

But Thursday wasn’t about anger towards this suspect. Instead, it was a celebration of the school’s resilience and their faith

“What a beautiful site it is that we are able to have a day where we are able to stand with in intercession with the students, faculty, and with members of the Elmhurst community to really show that our faith and our love does not waver, it only gets stronger,” Fr. Kuroly told Currents News.

Vatican Releases Guide on How Leaders Must Handle Abuse Allegations

By Melissa Butz and Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a 17-page document offering a step-by-step guide for how bishops, religious superiors and canon lawyers are supposed to handle accusations of alleged abuse by clerics against minors.

While nothing in the text is new, nor does it reflect any change to current church law, the handbook is meant to present clear and precise directions, procedures as well as attitudes church leaders should have toward victims, the accused, civil authorities and the media.

Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the handbook, called the “Vademecum,” was the result of numerous requests by bishops and superiors of men’s and women’s religious orders “to have at their disposal a tool that could help them in the delicate task of correctly conducting cases regarding deacons, priests and bishops when they are accused of the sexual abuse of minors.”

“The course of justice cannot alone exhaust the church’s response, but it is necessary in order to come to the truth of the facts,” Cardinal Ladaria said in a statement published by the Vatican July 16.

“This is a complex path that leads into a dense forest of norms and procedures before which ordinaries and superiors sometimes find themselves lacking the certainty how to proceed,” he said.

Cardinal Ladaria said the handbook was “designated as version 1.0” and will be subject to future updates.

It will be adapted to any eventual developments of canon law as well as to “respond to new challenges that experience will offer to the juridical treatment of the cases in question,” he said.

He also said it will be updated in the future with considerations from dioceses and church institutions whose “qualified contribution will help to correct, integrate, specify and clarify those points that, as is only natural, require deeper reflection.”

Some of the more notable clarifications of current norms and procedures include:

— Information about alleged abuse does not have to come as a formal complaint to an ordinary. The church leader can learn about it from a third party, anonymous sources and even through social media. “It is not advisable to dismiss the matter” outright, it said, no matter how dubious or uncertain the claim.

— In the case of an accusation being made during confession, the priest must respect the sacramental seal, however he “should seek to convince the penitent to make that information known by other means, in order to enable the appropriate authorities to take action.”

— Upon learning of an allegation, the ordinary “ought” to begin a preliminary investigation and gather and safeguard evidence. Even if the report is determined to be unfounded, the accusation, all documentation and an explanation for the ordinary’s decision should be kept and a note about the decision should be sent to the doctrinal congregation.

— “Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts.”

— In situations not involving a minor, but that are “cases of improper and imprudent conduct,” it said, “should it prove necessary to protect the common good and to avoid scandal, the ordinary or hierarch is competent to take other administrative provisions with regard to the person accused, for example, restrictions on his ministry, or to impose the penal remedies” in order to prevent further delicts.

— The ordinary or his delegate is responsible for the preliminary investigation, which is not a trial, but a phase to collect information, and any “eventual omission of this duty could constitute a delict subject to a canonical procedure” in conformity with canon law and Pope Francis’ document on accountability, “As a Loving Mother.”

— Church authorities were urged to seek help from the doctrinal office or experts at any point in the proceedings.

— During the investigative phase, “a decision to be avoided is that of simply transferring the accused cleric from his office, region or religious house, with the idea that distancing him from the place of the alleged crime or alleged victims constitutes a sufficient solution of the case.” Other precautionary measures, which the document refers to, should be considered.

— If the church receives “a legitimate executive order requiring the surrender of documents regarding cases, or order (for) the judicial seizure of such documents, the ordinary or hierarch must cooperate with the civil authorities.”

— When it comes to whether the bishop or superior must inform civil authorities upon receiving an allegation and opening its own investigation, it said leaders should consider the “respect for the laws of the state” and “respect for the desire of the alleged victim, provided that this is not contrary to civil legislation.” Alleged victims should be encouraged to exercise their duties and rights as civilians in regard to state authorities.

— While the “secret of office” was to be respected by church personnel, “it must be remembered, however, that an obligation of silence about the allegations cannot be imposed on the one reporting the matter, on a person who claims to have been harmed, and on witnesses.”

— Accusers were also to be kept informed of the proceedings if they so desired.

In an effort to help those responsible for handling abuse allegations and to collect testimonials of credibility with regard to the complainants and the alleged victims, the congregation included a form to be filled out, listing what it considers “useful data that those carrying out the preliminary investigation will want to compile and have at hand.”

In an interview with Vatican News July 16, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said it is “the first time the procedure is described in an organized way — from the first report of a possible crime to the definitive conclusion of the cause — uniting the existing norms and the praxis of the congregation.”

He also affirmed that the guidelines ensure that anonymous complaints of abuse, which were often disregarded, are taken more seriously now and that ignoring a complaint “because it is not signed would be wrong.”

“It has become clear that a peremptory attitude in one sense or another is not conducive to the search for truth and justice,” he said. “How can a complaint which, even if anonymous, contains certain evidence (i.e. photos, films, messages, audio), or at least concrete and plausible clues of the commission of a crime, be thrown out?”

Archbishop Morandi said that while some crimes are recent, the congregation is “still witnessing reports emerge of old cases, sometimes many years later.”

Nevertheless, he said, “when this phase of past cases emerging comes to an end, I am convinced (and we all hope so) that the phenomenon we are witnessing today can recede.”

Plans to publish the handbook were first announced at a press briefing at the end of the Vatican summit on the protection of minors in 2019.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, who served as moderator of the four-day summit, said at the time that the handbook would be available in “a few weeks or month or two.”

Archbishop Morandi told Vatican News that the delay in publishing the handbook was “due to extensive analysis work, not only within the congregation but also outside of it, with experts in the field, other dicasteries, and in particular with the Secretariat of State.”

The summit brought together Pope Francis and 190 church leaders — presidents of bishops’ conferences, the heads of the Eastern Catholic churches, superiors of men’s and women’s religious orders and Roman Curia officials — for four days of listening to speeches, survivors’ testimonies, discussions in small groups, a penitential liturgy and Mass.

In addition to the handful of survivors who spoke at the summit itself, dozens of survivors from around the world gathered in Rome in solidarity with one another and to speak to reporters and to individual bishops. Twelve representatives of the survivors were invited to meet with the summit’s organizing committee.

Father Lombardi told journalists that the handbook would list a set of guidelines and “will help bishops around the world clearly understand their duties and tasks” when handling cases of abuse.

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The text in English can be found at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20200716_vademecum-casi-abuso_en.html.

The text in Spanish can be found at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20200716_vademecum-casi-abuso_sp.html.

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Contributing to this story was Junno Arocho Esteves