Archives

A Helping ‘Hand’: Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishops Give Out Class Rings

By Emily Drooby

On Friday, two of Brooklyn’s Auxiliary Bishops gave out 8th grade class rings to students at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Academy in Forest Hills, Queens.

The rings were blessed by Auxiliary Bishop Witold Mroziewski. The students were called up one-by-one and presented with the mementos by both Bishop Witold and Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez.

A bittersweet milestone they won’t soon forget. The rings are a way for students to always keep a piece of both their school and God with them.

Auxiliary Bishop Sanchez explained, “The ring is a reminder of the education they received here. It’s also a reminder of the faith, foundation that we have nourished in their heart together with their families.”

Victoria Borg has been a student at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Academy for 11 years.

She said, “It’s like my second home so it was really nice to get this as a reminder for when I graduate to high school.”

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs says their students will go on to do great things and continue their catholic education. Some have already received scholarships to top high schools like Xavier, Archbishop Molloy, and The Mary Louis Academy.

Countdown to Caucus: How a T-Shirt Salesman is Cashing in on the Caucus

By Michelle Powers

From the epicenter of the so-called middle of nowhere, hosting the caucus means big business for both Des Moines and Mike Draper, the owner of a t-shirt shop that’s attracting all the potential leaders of the free world.

“It’s nice to get the attention,” says Draper.

Political merch is everywhere and on everything in his story Raygun, and compared to a regular January, sales are through the roof.

Raygun is seeing a 30-40 percent spike in business, thanks to shirts inspired by the likes of Bernie, Pete, and Elizabeth – and those who have bit the dust.

Local city offices estimate that the 2020 caucus will generate nearly 11.3 million for the city in just this week, leaving many wondering if its fair Iowa has this first in the nation privileged process.

“Don’t take the caucus away, it’s all we have,” Draper says.

Like many other Iowan businessowners, the caucus has been Draper’s bread and butter.

After college this UPenn grad began selling t-shirts on the streets of New York, until he got a brighter and warmer idea.

So he headed back to the flyover state, except for that once every four years, when it’s the biggest pit stop for all things political.

“It’s nice to talk to people who come in about politics,” said employee Katie Minnehan.

That is, if you agree with them. But Draper says Raygun isn’t really about agreeing, as much as it is about having a good laugh.

If the votes were based on sales, right now he says Elizabeth would be taking home the win. But just weeks ago, Kamala was leading the way.

“I guess you can’t base everything on t-shirts,” Draper says.

U.S. Sanctions Salvadoran Military Officials Over Jesuit Massacre

Currents News Staff

Justice is being imposed on men responsible for the massacre of six Jesuit priests.

It was one the most glaring and brazen human rights crimes of the 20th century.

Before dawn in November 1989 an elite battalion of El Salvador’s military dragged the priests out of their beds and killed them, execution style.

A housekeeper and her daughter were also shot to death.

Now the State Department is barring 13 former military officials in El Salvador from ever entering this country.

The brutal violence occurred at the height of the Salvadoran civil war.

The State Department found the military officers were central to the planning and execution of a plot to kill the Jesuits for their outspoken defense of human rights.

Here to talk about the massacre and its impact on the church is the National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, Christopher White.

Human Trafficking Exposed: Part Three

By Franca Braatz
Additional Reporting by Tamara Laine

In a discreet office inside New York’s FBI headquarters, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Violent Crimes and Crimes Against Children, Michael Osborn, is tackling a growing crisis in America: online child sexual exploitation.

“Those individuals that are out there exploiting our most vulnerable victims are using a variety of social media platforms,” he explained.

Osborn, who has spent years putting abusers behind bars, said that predatory pedophile behavior online is different from all other forms of human trafficking.

“We in the bureau talk about online child exploitation as really those individuals that use the internet to target and exploit kids for child pornography or to meet for sex,” he said, “as compared to human trafficking, where you have individuals that are really trading or selling the commodity, which is the girl or the woman.”

That distinction is all the more abhorrent because the victims can be so young and the online abuse ongoing.

A perfect example is “sextortion.”

“They will take access of a child’s computer and through that they will ask for an image of the child,” said Osborn, “and then at some point when the child gives them an image, they capture that and then threaten that child. They will threaten to release that image.”

Once they have a child’s information, predators use it to groom their victims, coercing and blackmailing them and eventually selling those illicit images and videos in dark corners of the web over and over again, making the exploitation never-ending, even if the victim is rescued.

As technology advances and social media platforms mushroom, it only gets easier for perpetrators to hide their crimes and the money that goes with it.

Queens Prosecutor Jessica Melton believes it’s a business that is proliferating because many times loved ones are in the dark about what’s really going on.

“Every trafficker that we have seen has more than one victim, they are doing this as a business, to support themselves,” she said. “Traffickers can be targeting victims without people in their lives even knowing they are being recruited — through social media like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

And on sites like the now defunct ‘Backpage.com’ — a huge online marketplace synonymous with sex ads that was shut down by the Justice Department in a 93-count indictment.

“They were coaching folks on how to make their ads more acceptable and avoid detection.” Rachel Lloyd, founder of the survivor advocacy group GEMS, has lived through the horrors of being trafficked and knows just how hard it is to stay ahead of trafficking sites like Backpage.com.

“Backpage staffers had a whole kind of script on how to coach pimps and traffickers,” she explained. “There’s been a development of algorithms to be able to suss out certain keywords and ads. By the time folks catch up with that, traffickers have changed the types of words or have been smarter about hiding.”

Now that Backpage is gone, other sites have popped up in its place, proof that more needs to be done to protect our most vulnerable from being targeted.

“It’s always about the vulnerability,” Osborn says. Vulnerabilities that need to be addressed through awareness, education, and tougher laws…the key to putting an end to online child exploitation, as well as holding social media providers accountable.

“I’m sure that if most of these folks had really thought about, ‘Oh, you’d be able to buy sex from a 12-year-old on your phone… that wasn’t why they were creating,” Lloyd explained. “But you did create it, so now, there is a responsibility to figure out how to combat it and how to fix it.”

It’s one piece of the puzzle that’s part of a much larger problem.

“It has to be a multi-pronged approach,” said Melton. “First, prosecuting the traffickers is a must. We have to support the victims, give them alternatives. These are women and children.”

“And really trying to educate people and bringing them into the fold,” added Osborn. “It’s a war right? You have to be patient because, as we’ve seen sometimes, children are ready to receive benefits and receive help and sometimes they’re not, but we’re going to be there regardless.”

These are just some of the solutions that could help put an end to this horrible crime.

Another? Remembering that behind every online image, every video, is a real-life human being — an exploited child — whose suffering can last a lifetime.

Stolen Catholic Charities Meals on Wheels Truck was Left Running

By Tim Harfmann

Exclusive video obtained by Currents News shows two suspects hijacking a Meals on Wheels delivery truck Jan. 29.

Police say a third suspect was later picked up for a high-speed joyride.

A Catholic Charities driver, Balroop Pirmal, left the truck running while delivering meals to homebound residents.

“I went up, less than 10 minutes. By the time I came down, the truck was gone,” said Pirmal.

Two hours later, the Meals on Wheels truck was wheels up.

The Ford F-150 t-boned a Kia near 119th Avenue and 192nd Street in St. Albans, damaging two homes. No one was killed.

A 19-year-old girl is under arrest. The two other suspects fled.

As for Pirmal, he had one goal yesterday – finish his route. He used another truck to deliver meals to 40 homebound residents.

“We make sure that all the clients are fed. Some of them have kids, and the kids don’t even come looking for them. We are their eyes and ears.”

Catholic Charities was issued a summons for the running vehicle, and the Meals on Wheels Program Manager Kathleen Dalbey says Pirmal followed protocol.

“We generally leave the trucks running in the winter time because it’s cold. Drivers always carry two sets of keys on them. The trucks are always locked,” she said.

Dalbey says Catholic Charities plans on fighting the summons.

Police are still searching for the two suspects who fled the scene.

Currents News for Thursday, January 30, 2020

On the newscast: A Catholic Charities food van is stolen for a joyride that ends in a violent collision on a Queens street. We’ll have the latest; That deadly virus from China is now officially a global health emergency. The outbreak shows no signs of stopping; Our Currents News special series — Human Trafficking Exposed — shines a light on predators exploiting children; And why you could wind up living longer.

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

Catholic Students ‘Go for the Gold’ at STEM Olympics

By Emily Drooby

A buzzer kicked off a fierce competition on Thursday at St. Patrick Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Students raced the clock and competed with their classmates for the highest score in the fourth annual STEM Olympics.

STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has become a beloved part of the curriculum at schools across the nation.

“In order to get kids interested in science and technology and math, stuff that they’re not really interested in on a daily basis, we try to apply things they do like basketball, and building, and exercising,” explained Paige Grupico, the school’s STEM teacher.

During the competition, students used their heart rate before and after exercising, to work on their math skills.

They tested their engineering skills by building towers out of cards, and they even texted out geometry thorough basketball.

The event was fun, but at the end it was still a competition. Team number two was crowned the champions.

“This is my first STEM Olympics. I just transferred and it’s just an amazing feeling,” said Luka Puglisi-Scandone from the first-place team.

The Catholic Schools Week Event was fun and informative, but it also reinforced other important skills.

“We highlight leadership so to be a leader you have to work with other people, so that’s why teambuilding is so important, and of course as part of our values and our faith, we want to get along with everyone,” explained the school’s principal, Kathleen Curatolo.

This is just another way which St. Patrick is helping their students succeed.

“Our test scores are through the roof in every area throughout the Diocese as well as in our own local school district so we are very, very proud of our outstanding achievement here at St. Patrick,” explained their pastor, Father Gerard Sauer.

Countdown to Caucus: Politics, With a Side of Hash Browns

By Michelle Powers

David Stoney might as well be welcoming customers to the middle of nowhere – and his patrons might as well respond, “that’s just the way we like it – with a side of hash browns.”

“Great food and the service is just as good,” Stoney tells us.

Sure, the so-called “best restaurants” open up in big cities for a higher chance at big success, but after decades in the business, Stoney says a truly great place only needs a dedicated group of workers and some devoted regulars to keep it going.

Plus, some out of towners willing to make the trek to a place just hours away from the geographical center of the United States. Not only does the Waveland Café serve up nearly three tons of hash browns a month, they also serve them to future leaders of the United States.

That’s because this diner outside of Des Moines has become the spot and a go to campaign stop.

“In 2012 we had all the presidential candidates,” Stoney said.

The Waveland has seated Joe Biden, Ron Paul, John Edwards, and Fred Thompson – just to name a few.

The open sign on Stoney’s door means open for anyone, but Stoney doesn’t caucus and neither do any of his employees.

Still though, they keep serving up the hash browns and the customer service, no matter the party.

“Biden is very nice,” Stoney says.

In fact, they say the Catholic was so friendly, they were on a first-name basis.

“Started calling him Joe,” Stoney continues.

But that doesn’t mean he’ll leave Iowa with the biscuits and gravy. Stoney says we should just be thankful for the opportunity to break bread and talk at a diner in the middle of nowhere – and it doesn’t get any more American than that.