Currents News Staff
Demands to stamp out the sin of racism are growing louder in the U.S. as social unrest expands from coast to coast in the wake of the deaths of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd and others.
Professor Travis Adkins of Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service offers his intel on the type of impact racial injustice in America has on its dealings with countries around the world.
By Jessica Easthope
Bill Miller says his walks along Shore Road haven’t been the same lately.
“I don’t always jump, generally I say about 80 percent of the time I do but I always look and I’m always looking to see where it came from,” said Bill, a combat veteran who served for 18 years.
Bill isn’t describing his time in Vietnam — he’s describing what it’s like when he hears fireworks.
“If I’m there and I can see what’s going on, for lack of a better expression, I’m in control. But say I’m going for a walk down Shore Road at night and fireworks are going off down a side street somewhere. It’s very unnerving,” he explained.
Bill and other combat veterans have felt that unnerving feeling most nights this June.
In Brooklyn alone, more than 4,500 complaints have been made to 311 this month. That’s 80 times the number of calls received by the city in the first six months of 2019. In addition, there have been more than 125 shooting incidents in June, numbers not seen in more than two decades.
For Bill, he says the fireworks are different because they can happen anywhere. While many associate the loud and colorful displays with celebration, for combat veterans the sound and smells fireworks leave behind can trigger flashbacks associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“When you slept and all of a sudden there was a rocket attack, that’s what the fireworks are like, and you always ran for cover, so that instinct stays with you,” said Bill..
He says for other combat veterans, the sound of fireworks can be mentally and physically exhausting.
“To run at heightened survival levels like that all the time is very hard on a person, mentally and physically, because your muscles are always tightened and you’re ready to do something,” he added.
There might be an end in sight for veterans like Bill, with a June 23 announcement by Mayor de Blasio on a major crackdown on illegal fireworks and the formation of a task force involving the Sheriff’s Office, NYPD and FDNY.
By Michelle Powers
New York City is reopening, but one woman is choosing to remain in quarantine — for the rest of her life.
“I was drawn to the enclosure,” said Sister Susan Marie, a cloistered nun. Her confinement mirrors Americans today.
She finds the silence nourishing, and the distance enlightening. The governor’s stay at home order has nothing to do with it. It hasn’t been only 100 days, for her it’s been decades.
“Last place I went to was Jones Beach, and then I never went again,” she explained.
Just outside those 20 foot walls is the heart of the pandemic, Brooklyn, New York, where people only leave their homes for necessities, grocery and pharmacy runs.
But the outside world isn’t something she misses, it’s just something she remembers.
“I remember smells, nostalgia,” Sr. Susan Marie told Currents News.
Her order — the Visitation of the Holy Mary — have been living apart from the secular world since the 17th century. She joined the order in Bay Ridge when she was 36, having already lived a life, working for years at NBC.
She “said little goodbyes along the way,” she recalled.
But the life Sister Susan Marie left behind outside those walls doesn’t compare to what she found inside.
The sisters follow a strict routine each day, rising early to pray, work and mediate.
They share a meal — and silence — together.
It’s a “presence behind solitude,” she said. “You can hear God.”
Silence is not something found by many Americans in the last three months. Right now a perfect storm of civil unrest brewing, fueled by George Floyd’s death at the hands of police, racism, the coronavirus crisis and massive unemployment.
But, Sr. Susan Marie. Says the conditions don’t have to be perfect to hear God.
“Even if angry, express it to God,” she advises. “Ask for strength, beg for it.”
And even if you don’t find God, she believes, you will still find yourself.
“Sit with a sentence and say it over and over again,” she adds.
Whether you try it or not, Sister Susan Marie says something mystical is happening right now.
“Right now, the whole world is on the same cross.”
Perhaps then, we are locked in, but not locked out.
By Emily Drooby
Every day, Anne Marie McNerney says the rosary at Saint Francis de Sales Church. For her, it’s a way to strengthen her faith while Mass has been suspended for the pandemic.
However, that all will change on Monday, June 29. That’s when churches in the Diocese of Brooklyn can reopen for weekday Mass. Weekend Mass will start that Saturday, with the vigil Mass on July 4.
“I can’t wait,” Anne Marie, a parishioner of the Belle Harbor, Queens church for 55 years, told Currents News.
She got emotional as she thought of receiving communion for the first time since March.
“It’s going to feel like our first Holy communion, really, it will be,” she said.
Her pastor, Father William Sweeney, is excited to welcome back his flock, but also a little nervous.
“Being back in the church will be good,” he said. “We will be interested to see how many people come. A lot of our senior citizens have already said they’re going to wait a little bit and come whenever they can.”
The Diocese of Brooklyn has put strict safety measures into place to keep people safe — that includes limiting church capacity to 25 percent and requiring masks.
Over in Coney Island, the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Solace have made their own branded masks as way to get their people ready for Mass, but also reinforce their church community.
“You go outside wearing a mask and, you belong to Our Lady of Solace,” explained Epifania Tolama, the church’s secretary. “This is your parish, this is your family. It’s a sense of community. Even if we haven’t seen each other in a long time.”
Our Lady of Solace has already sold 50 masks. Parishioners can buy them for six dollars at the rectory, and they cost almost that much to make.
“Every other day they seem to ask me, ‘When are you opening again?’ So I’m glad to finally have an answer,” said Father James Rodriguez, the administrator of Saint Rose of Lima Church.
He says his parishioners are excited to come back. However, even though they’re also following strict safety restrictions, some are still fearful. So, for now, they will continue to also live stream.
“For the people who can’t come or the people who would rather not come, the people who choose to exercise that kind of caution,” Fr. James explained.
Every church is different, so it’s important people check with their parish about their Mass schedule and safety precautions.
Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.
Some of the top stories on this newscast:
The most important aspect of life in the Big Apple is getting ready to come back. Exactly one week from today, Masses will be celebrated again in the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Body of Christ will be distributed.
A big Supreme Court decision on abortion is expected any day now. There is a lot at stake.
The statue of an American Saint is torn down on the West Coast. New York City’s Christopher Columbus statue could be on the chopping block next.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio delivered a powerful message of love and hope to the priests of the Brooklyn Diocese.
Could a second virus wave be on the way? As the numbers rise, the White House is preparing.
Currents News Staff
Statues that stood for years are crashing down around America.
Next to be removed is Theodore Roosevelt’s statue outside New York City’s Museum of Natural History.
Videos have also been circulating online of Christopher Columbus statues around the country being torn down and vandalized. When statues of Columbus and others are vandalized, what consequences should the protesters face?
Could New York City’s Columbus Circle be next?
Joining Currents News to discuss is Andre DiMino, from the Italian-American One Voice Coalition.
By Jessica Easthope and Paula Katinas
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio delivered a message of love and encouragement to the priests of the Diocese of Brooklyn, telling the clergy at the annual Chrism Mass on June 19 to persevere in tough times and remember their commitment to Jesus Christ.
“This has been a time of suffering personally for all of us,” he said in his homily, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. He urged priests to “take our suffering and offer it back to God.” Priests should always remember “the love we receive through the gift of our priesthood,” he said.
The bishop noted the pandemic’s toll on the diocese, but said the diocese appears to be coming through the ordeal. “We’re entering a new phase in the life of the church,” he said during the Mass, which took place at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral in Prospect Heights.
The Chrism Mass, in which the bishop consecrates the sacred Chrism and blesses the other oils to be used in baptisms and other sacraments in churches in the diocese throughout the year, normally takes place during Holy Week. But the pandemic, which forced churches to close, also caused a postponement of the Mass.
While the pandemic forced the closure of churches, it did not dampen the religious beliefs of the faithful, according to Bishop DiMarzio. “I don’t think people prayed more at home than during this time,” he said.
The 2020 Mass coincided with the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a point Bishop DiMarzio made in his homily. The clergy must “consecrate this diocese and ourselves to the Sacred Heart,” said the bishop.
June 19 is also Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19, 1865. Juneteenth celebration around the country took on additional meaning in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the protest demonstrations that followed.
Father Alonso Cox, pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish, Bedford-Stuyvesant, said the bishop’s words were deeply meaningful to him, particularly at this moment in time. “For me, as an African-American priest, his message of love is what we need to hear,” he said.
The Chrism Mass is notable because it gives priests, bishops and deacons the opportunity to renew their vows. This year’s Mass was different in that attendance inside the cathedral was limited to approximately two dozen members of the clergy due to social distancing regulations.
The restrictions prevented another part of the Chrism Mass — priests who are celebrating significant anniversaries of ordination and who are normally invited to be among the special concelebrants of the Mass, could not take part in large numbers this year.
The 2020 Chrism Mass was perhaps Bishop DiMarzio’s last as the leader of the 1.5 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens. The bishop, who recently marked his 76th birthday, submitted his resignation letter to the pope last year, when he turned age of 75, as required by Canon Law.
Currents News Staff
Pro-life advocates have rallied many times for the rights of the unborn. They’re now keeping a close watch on the Supreme Court as justices get ready to issue a major ruling on abortion.
The case centers on a Louisiana state law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at area hospitals.
This anticipated ruling comes after two recent decisions by the conservative-leaning court, which many say were setbacks for the Trump administration. The first of them came June 15 when the high court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who President Trump appointed, wrote the majority opinion.
Days later, the Supreme Court decided the trump administration’s action to kill DACA didn’t follow the rules. “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” or DACA, is a program that allows those who were brought to the U.S. as children to remain here without fear of deportation. There are about 700,000 so-called “Dreamers” who are protected by it.
Both decisions stunned President Trump who tweeted last week, “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”
Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.
Some of the top stories on this newscast:
Governor Cuomo giving the nod to phase two New York City this Monday.
New York is recovering, but could infants have permanent damage?
Catholics coming together in Queens to stomp out America’s original sin.
A Catholic school comes together for an in-person send-off.
Join us as we honor the 2020 graduates of the Brooklyn Diocese’s Catholic Academies with special messages for the graduates from their principals.