20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

The COVID crisis is not letting up. A Queens family is getting hit hard twice – and across borders. The outbreak is surging again throughout the United States. New details about possible rollbacks and a New York area quarantine.

The Big Apple’s city workers are facing layoffs by the thousands. The outbreak is crippling the economy.

A parish devoted to the needs of Black Catholics is being set up in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The Bishop is saying Mass celebrated there is special.

Election 2020 – primaries in New York, the race for the White House and more. Political analyst Brian Browne of St. John’s University looks ahead.”

Coronavirus Cases On the Rise In 26 States

Currents News Staff

New weekly cases are on the rise in at least 26 states, including California recording 5,000 new cases – its highest daily count since the start of the pandemic.

“We are now seeing a disturbing surge of infections. The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges we’re seeing,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In Texas, one of the first states to begin reopening, Governor Greg Abbott now says its possible restrictions will be back, adding “Because the spread is so rampant right now, there is never a reason for you to have to leave your home unless you do need to go out. The safest place for you is at your home.”

There’s no statewide mandate for wearing masks in Texas, nor is there in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis is still resisting issuing one.

“I think you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. When you attach criminal penalties for something you’ve got to enforce it and the question is in some of the parts of Florida is that really a good use of resources,” said DeSantis.

Top health officials testified before a House Committee about the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus.

“We’ve all done the best that we can do to tackle this virus. And the reality is it brought this nation to its knees,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, CDC Director.

On the question of a possible vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci said “I still think there is a reasonably good chance that by the very beginning of 2021 that, if we’re going to have a vaccine, that we will have it by then.”

Peruvian Families in the Brooklyn Diocese Desperate to Help Their Relatives Back Home

By Jessica Easthope

COVID-19 is taking over in Latin America, hitting Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Peru the hardest. In the Brooklyn Diocese, Peruvian families who have experienced the worst of the pandemic are now desperate to help their relatives back home.

“The virus really affected my household, we were isolated for two months and I wasn’t able to see my children and I was having a lot of medical issues,” said Rosa Pajares a parishioner at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jamaica, Queens.

Rosa and her husband Juan Avila feel helpless. Rosa’s mother and two sister are back in Peru. COVID-19 is ravaging her hometown and there’s a severe shortage of oxygen.

“The need for oxygen is really high but people don’t have money so there’s not a lot of places you can get it,” Rosa said.

Peru’s oxygen shortage is igniting a healthcare crisis. People are forced to buy the life-saving canisters at exorbitant markups, some are even turning to the black market.

“People are taking advantage, reselling the oxygen at a high price and not a lot of people can get it and people are dying,” said Rosa.

Peru has reported more than 183,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 5,000 people have died from the virus.

Rosa has already suffered a tremendous loss, her brother who was living here in the United States was killed by COVID-19.

“This affected my family so much, we needed financial help from friends and we were not able to have a dignified funeral for my brother,” Rosa said.

Through her faith, Rosa says she has forgiven those taking advantage of her home country’s most vulnerable.

“The people reselling the oxygen I pray to God to help these people and to help me not judge them,” Rosa said. “I ask God to help me love them and for them to change their hearts.”

Currents News full broadcast for Tue, 6/23/20 (Catholic news)

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

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

A New York City crackdown is coming just in time for the warriors who’ve kept America safe.

Rayshard Brooks is laid to rest at the Atlanta Church where Martin Luther King was pastor.

An attack on a monument to a past President has the current one hopping mad.

New Yorkers can now go back to work but many aren’t, including one woman who has no plans to leave her home. She’s taken a vow.

How America’s Response to Racism is Changing Foreign Relations

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.

What This Vietnam Veteran Has to Say About Illegal Fireworks

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.

As the World Reopens, This Woman Is Choosing to Stay in Quarantine for the Rest of Her Life

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.

Parishioners of Brooklyn and Queens Rejoice Over the Countdown to Public Masses on June 29

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 full broadcast for Mon, 6/22/20 (Catholic news)

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.

Statues Are Coming Down Across America. Is New York’s Columbus Circle Next?

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.