Mother Cabrini Foundation Donates Millions to COVID-19 Emergency Response Agencies

By Emily Drooby

For years, Mother Cabrini tirelessly helped immigrants, orphans and the sick. Now her legacy of lending a helping hand lives on through the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.

They’re stepping up in a big way to help out New York communities impacted by COVID-19, dedicating $50 million dollars in grants as support for nonprofit organizations.

“We could not stand-by without doing something immediately to help those most in need,” explained their chief programs and grants officer Deborah Konopko, who says the money will help those who have been most affected by the pandemic.

“We are going to cast a very wide net, and give grants out as soon as we can to help people in this really difficult situation we are encountering in ny right now,” she added.

Catholic Charities, health care providers and food banks are just some of the programs the money will help, and it’s badly needed.

As of last week, nearly 800,000 New Yorkers had applied for unemployment.

The need for food assistance is surging. Normally, about 2.5 million city residents turn to charitable food banks for help. Experts are predicting that number could double or triple.

At the same time, senior citizens are afraid to go outside these days, and they’re relying on services like ‘Meals on Wheels’ to stay fed.

Catholic Charities Brooklyn Queens can really use the help. They’ve been working non-stop to make sure people are fed.

With so many jobs lost because of the crisis, over the past few days, Catholic Charities has had two pop-up food distribution operations in Corona, Queens.

More than 1,700 bags full of food were handed out, each one with enough to feed a family of three for three days.

Catholic Charities could have distributed even more – that’s how great the need is right now.

Currents News full broadcast for Tue, 4/21/20

On the newscast: The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is donating millions of dollars to help New York in the coronavirus crisis; A Brooklyn Catholic family feels forgotten when, only days before adopting their foster daughter, the court shutdown; President Trump plans to halt immigration in the United States to protect American workers; Some states are reopening for business; New York’s first bi-lingual testing facility is now in operation.

Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.

New York City Opens Bilingual Walk-In Testing Site for Coronavirus

Currents News Staff

Non-english speakers can struggle when receiving health care, as the language barrier can confuse an already complicated situation.

The first bilingual walk-in testing site for coronavirus has opened in New York City. The facility is in Washington Heights and will have the ability to test large numbers of New Yorkers per day.

Doctor Ramon Rallaj is one of the medical professionals trying to help them here in New York City. He is the chairman of Somos Community Care, which serves more than 650,000 patients in largely under-served communities.

He joins Currents News to discuss risk factors these communities face, as well as how the city’s health system can improve on reaching them with the vital information and healthcare they need during this crisis.

Currents News full broadcast for Mon, 4/20/20

On the newscast: The Blessed Sacrament is on the streets of the Diocese of Brooklyn bringing hope to neighborhoods; Protests against stay-at-home orders grow across the United States as workers struggle to make ends meet; The light of Christ fills a Cathedral as Orthodox Christians celebrate the Resurrection; Seminarians are getting ready to join the frontlines in the virus fight; Keeping your finances safe in these troubled times.

Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.

Pastors Bring Hope Through Parish Neighborhoods With Blessed Sacrament

By Emily Drooby

In a sign of hope, community and faith, clergy from Saint Helen Church in Howard Beach, Queens are taking to the streets, processing with the Blessed Sacrament.

They’re bringing the Church right to their parishioners’ doorsteps – but from a safe distance.

“The people here miss their church,” said Father Francis Colamaria, pastor at St. Helen’s, “but we also have an elderly population that is not watching online.”

It’s a unique way to give a benediction to the sick, to see their parishioners and to make sure they’re reaching everyone, including those unable to tune into the church’s popular live-streamed Masses.

Fr. Colamaria says the idea came from the past.

“Historically, this has been done during plagues, processions of popes and bishops going through their diocese or their parishes,” he explained. “We wanted to do the same thing.”

They will continue to do this every day starting at 1:30 p.m., taking a different route until they have covered the whole parish.

And St. Helen’s is not alone. Pastors all over the country have been doing this as a way to stay connected with the faithful, including in Brooklyn.

On April 19, the Celebration of the Divine Mercy at Shrine Church of Our Lady of Solace in Brooklyn included the visitation of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Coney Island.

They spread an important message to their parishioners.

“They are not alone in their suffering, that is the best message we could communicate through the best medium of the Church which is the Holy Sacrament, the Eucharist,” explained the church’s pastor, Father Shiju Chittattukara. “God is visiting them to give them the healing, to give them the consolation, to give them the peace that they need at this time.”

It’s just another way priests are creatively changing their approach when it comes to spreading the faith during the global pandemic.

How to Manage Your Finances While Facing the Economic Impact of Coronavirus

By Franca Braatz

The stock market is teetering, businesses are shuttered and people are out of work. The coronavirus pandemic and the financial chokehold gripping the country has people scared.

Managing your finances during this potentially devastating time economically can be stressful, but experts like Aquiles Larrea, founder and CEO of Larrea Wealth Management says don’t panic. Instead, use this time to get your money in order.

“I tell people, ‘Let’s first look at our savings,’” he explained. “You want to have around 6 months of savings, piled up, ready to go for scenarios just like this. Forget about investing, forget about anything else. Once that particular guideline is reached, then you can start thinking about the other things.”

Other things include a plan to stabilize your financial future — do not run from creditors, prioritize bill payment and spending, and make adjustments to your 401K only if necessary.

If you do have investments, “you want to make sure that you don’t want to make any dramatic moves at the moment,” said Aquiles. “I see a lot of people have such doubt, and that’s one of the worst things you could do unless you need the money right this second.”

Though no one can estimate when the country will reopen for business or what the long-term economic impact will be, the time to plan for any eventuality is now. And if you can, be bold, Aquiles says.

“This is a time to be brave,” he added. “Go after what you want and go above and beyond what you think is possible in your own world.”

While it’s hard to predict, many economists believe that the economy should start to rebound by the fall, but that the real headway won’t happen until at least the first quarter of 2021.

Catholic Leaders Unite in Grassroots Effort to Help Migrants During Pandemic

By Christopher White, National Correspondent

NEW YORK — A number of prominent Catholic leaders have joined grassroots organizations from Central America, Mexico, and the United States in releasing a five-point action plan to protect migrants and refugees during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Released on April 15 in an effort spearheaded by the Hope Border Institute and Faith in Action, the joint statement says it is aimed to promote both preventative and protection strategies.

“This pandemic is a public health crisis that brings home how interconnected we are,” they wrote. “It is our collective responsibility to act rapidly and in solidarity.”

The five-step plan calls for the “rapid, safe and orderly” release of as many asylum seekers and migrants currently in detention; significant new measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus in refugee camps, migrant shelters and detention centers; equitable access to testing and emergency care; a guaranteed right to asylum; and a call for “immediate and large-scale” investments for public health systems, food, and income support for vulnerable families.

Catholic signatories to the statement include Sister Norma Pimentel, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini Imeri of Huehuetenango in Guatemala, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey; Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, Archbishop Charles Thompson of Indianapolis, Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson, Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, and Bishop Emeritus Gerald Kicanas.

Other Catholic organizations that have signed on are Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Labor Network, Faith in Public Life, Ignatian Solidarity Network, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, and Pax Christi. They were joined by a number of interfaith leaders, representing nearly 50 organizations.

“We call for an international solidarity that promotes the economic recovery of the countries of the region and as well as the human and integral development of the most vulnerable families and communities,” write the signatories, with a focus on the root causes of poverty, violence and corruption that force people to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere.

The joint statement comes at a time when the health and safety of migrants and refugees are facing extreme risks, with public health officials warning that detention facilities could become a hotbed for the spread of the virus.

Earlier this week the health minister of Guatemala said that the United States has deported “many” COVID-19 positive migrants to the country heightening fears that such practices could continue the spread of the virus during a critical time in which countries around the globe are taking forceful measures to stop its spread.

“Even before the pandemic immigrants in detention were forced to endure unsafe conditions, and now this crisis requires an urgent humanitarian response,” said John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, which signed on to the statement.

“Catholics and other people of faith are speaking out for the common good and public health. The goal is to hold those in power accountable for this injustice and demand policy changes that will protect the health and human dignity of migrants and their families,” he told The Tablet.

Last month, Dylan Corbett of the HOPE Border Institute, criticized the Trump administration’s decision to close the southern border to asylum seekers, arguing that the administration has weaponized the panic created from the spread of the coronavirus to turn back asylum seekers trying to enter the U.S.

“They are using pandemic as an excuse to effect the controls that they’ve always wanted to implement, which is the end of asylum,” he told The Tablet.

Jennifer Poidatz, vice president of Catholic Relief Services’s humanitarian response department, which also signed the statement, said that their teams are working to design triage centers for health facilities and temporary centers for isolation.

“Given the conditions so many men, women and children find themselves in after being displaced from their homes could mean this virus spreading like wildfire through shelters and camps, claiming many more lives and putting many more at risk,” Poidatz said in a statement, also highlighting that in places such as Mexico and El Salvador, some migrant shelters have closed forcing new arrivals to be homeless and even heightening their vulnerabilities.

“For refugees living in a camp, the congested environment and limited access to hygiene items like clean water and soap can make it difficult to follow the guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19,” she continued. “Hygiene supplies, clear information and social distancing practices are critical in camp environments. The ability to isolate and care for those who are sick is also essential during this crisis.”

“People living in precarious situations are at greater risk for disease in normal times and need even more protection now,” Poidatz warned.

Orthodox Christians Keep Easter Traditions Alive During Pandemic

By Jessica Easthope

A church that’s pitch black represents the tomb where Jesus is laid in the days leading up to his resurrection, and this is how the Orthodox Christian community begins its Easter celebration every year.

But unlike years past, this time a camera has replaced the parishioners of Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

“To not have the people there for the Easter Vigil, out in the streets, proclaiming the resurrection Gospel, was very surreal for us,” explained archpriest Father Thomas Zain.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the cathedral was nearly empty. The only people present were Fr. Thomas and his family.

Fr. Thomas is fighting to keep the usually interactive tradition alive against all odds.

“Usually all the people in the church would come up with their candles and light them with my candle and process outside,” he said.

Parts of the paschal vigil that normally require parishioner participation went on anyway. Fr. Thomas reenacted entering the tomb to discover that Jesus is risen.

“The priest comes out with the one candle and chants,” he explained, and then the once dark church is illuminated, every light is turned on and every candle is lit proclaiming the resurrection.

Fr. Thomas said when everything returns to normal, he hopes his parishioners continue to illuminate their homes with the Word of God proving that during times of darkness, Jesus is the light.

Ask the Doctor: Is the Drug Remdesivir the Answer to Treating COVID-19?

Currents New Staff

More than a hundred years after the Spanish flu, while we have more tools and knowledge to combat a pandemic, there are still so many unanswered questions.

One of our viewers, Judi, wants to know: if we take Tylenol before going food shopping could it help to ward off the virus?

A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed more than two-thirds of patients who were severely ill with Covid-19 improved after being treated with the drug remdesivir, and a Bronx hospital is using it in clinical trials.

Meanwhile, others are continuing to compare the coronavirus to the seasonal flu, saying things like, “the economy doesn’t shut down because of the flu.”

Are doctors looking into whether having the seasonal flu vaccine offers any type of protection against COVID-19?

Some people are trying to keep their local restaurants in business by ordering take out. How should we handle that food and the containers it comes in?

To help Currents News answer some of these questions and debates is Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease expert with the Catholic Medical Association.

Send Currents News your questions about the coronavirus at [email protected]. And tune in on Fridays – the doctor could have an answer.

Currents News full broadcast for Fri, 4/17/20

On the newscast: A bond with God that can’t be broken. St. John’s University students and faculty won’t let the coronavirus crisis stop the journey to their new faith; A special report on the undetected killer that swept the globe one hundred years ago and how the Church came to the rescue; A drug being tested in New York could be the cure everyone is hoping for; The doctor is in! And he’s answering the questions you have about the coronavirus.

Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.