Feast Day of Saint Lucy: Blind Priest Ministers Through Xavier Society

By Tim Harfmann

Father Jamie Dennis is blind, and celebrates Mass through his fingertips.

He describes his eyesight as looking through a straw.

“By the time I was in eighth grade, I had to use a cane. By the time I was about to finish high school, I could not read large print anymore,” he explained.

While studying for the priesthood, his eyesight worried him.

“That was one of my fears,” he said. “How am I going to have the liturgical texts? How am I going to have biblical sources? All of those basic Catholic things that everybody else can just pick up off the bookshelf.”

Fr. Jamie is able to celebrate Mass thanks to the Xavier Society For The Blind. The Catholic organization distributes braille materials to Catholics throughout the United States and in 20 other countries, so they can grow closer to Christ.

“Having something in braille, that opens up a whole world of independence that I wouldn’t have had otherwise,” said Fr. Jamie. “All I have to do is have my paper clips ready to put in the book, and I’m set.”

It’s not a disability, but an ability to serve the people of God.

Fr. Jamie traveled from Kentucky to New York for a special Mass at Saint Francis Xavier Church in Chelsea Dec. 13, the Feast Day of Saint Lucy, patroness of the blind.

Some Catholics in the pews were visually impaired. Readings, responses and prayers were all in braille.

“They have enough difficulties in terms of obstacles and barriers to live life everyday, let alone to get to church and practice their faith,” explained Malachy Fallon, executive director of the Xavier Society. “So anything we can do is just wonderful.”

Four Day Summit Kicks Off First Annual Pan-African Congress on Pastoral Life

Currents News Staff

The first ever large scale gathering of African Catholics took place last week.

The four day congress in Nigeria focused on what must be done to perform the work of God across the continent.

The National Correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, Christopher White was there and he joins Currents News to breakdown the event.

The Tablet has a special section dedicated to Christopher’s coverage from Africa. Click here to read his reports.

50 Years of Priesthood: An Incredible Milestone for Pope Francis

Currents News Staff

It was 50 years ago today that Jorge Bergolio was ordained a priest.

We now know him as Pope Francis.

In his honor, the Vatican issued two postage stamps depicting Pope Francis when he first entered the priesthood, and as he is now.

At 82 years old, the pontiff has a vigorous schedule at times, traveling throughout the world’s Catholic communities.

John Allen, Editor of Crux, joins Currents News from Rome to discuss the Holy Father’s impact on the Catholic Church.

House Judiciary Committee Votes on Articles of Impeachment

Currents News Staff

In just a few minutes, the House Judiciary Committee voted along partisan lines to send two articles of impeachment to the floor of the House of Representatives for a full House vote next week.

“The article is agreed to,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler. “The resolution is amended as ordered, reported favorably to the House.”

The committee was originally supposed to vote on the issue Thursday night, but after 14 hours of debate, Nadler stunned Republicans by calling a sudden end to the session.

He told everyone to come back Friday instead of continuing on in the middle of night, while many Americans were sleeping. Republicans cried foul.”

“That was the most lack of integrity thing i’ve ever seen by a member of Congress, especially a chairman,” said Republican Representative Doug Collins, a ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

Last night, Democrats charged Republicans with dragging out the vote to spin the narrative to the American people.

“We suspect there was some strategy to drag us into the night and say the Judiciary Committee did this in the middle of the night and so on,” explained Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland. “We want to do it in broad daylight.”

Friday morning before the vote, Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch steered the conversations back to why he says the president committed impeachable offenses.

“That’s abuse of power,” he said. “It’s the highest crime in our constitution. That’s why we need to go forward.”

Pope Francis: 50 Years of Priesthood Serving God and His People

Currents News Staff

Personal Facts

Birth date: December 17, 1936

Birth place: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Birth name: Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Father: Mario Bergoglio

Mother: Regina (Sivori) Bergoglio

Religion: Roman Catholic

Other Facts

The first Jesuit pope.

The first Latin American pope and the first from the Americas.

The first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years.

Reportedly received the second most votes in the 2005 papal election.

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio took the bus to work and cooked his own meals.

Part of one lung was removed when he was a young man, but he is in good health, according to the Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Timeline

December 13, 1969 – Is ordained as a priest.

1973-1979 – Serves as provincial for Argentina.

1980-1986 – Rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel.

June 3, 1997 – Appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

February 28, 1998 – Succeeds Cardinal Antonio Quarracino as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

February 21, 2001 – Is made a cardinal by Saint Pope John Paul II.

November 8, 2005 – November 8, 2011 – President of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina.

February 11, 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI announces that he will retire, effective February 28th. He cites his “advanced age” as the reason.

February 28, 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI leaves the Vatican. At 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. EST), his reign officially ends.

March 13, 2013 – Bergoglio is elected the 266th pope by 115 cardinals on the second day and the fifth ballot of the cardinals’ conclave. White smoke appears above the Sistine Chapel just after 7 p.m. local time. He takes the name Francis and appears on the balcony at St. Peter’s to greet the crowd.

March 19, 2013 – Pope Francis is inaugurated before a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square.

March 23, 2013 – Pope Francis flies to Castel Gandolfo to meet with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican says this is the first time in the history of the church that the current pope has met with his predecessor.

March 26, 2013 – The Vatican announces that Pope Francis has decided to continue staying in a suite in the Vatican hotel instead of moving into the papal apartment.

April 13, 2013 – It is announced that an international council of eight cardinals has been appointed to advise Pope Francis in reforming the Catholic Church.

July 29, 2013 – During his first news conference Pope Francis makes the statement, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” while discussing the gay and lesbian community within the church.

September 19, 2013 – An interview is released in which Francis says that the church has the right to express its opinions but not to “interfere spiritually” in the lives of gays and lesbians.

November 26, 2013 – Pope Francis releases “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel), an 85-page call for the church to rethink some traditions.

December 11, 2013 – Pope Francis is named Time magazine’s person of the year.

December 24, 2013 – The pontiff visits with the former pope at the monastery Mater Ecclesia, where Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI lives. Francis later visits children in a local hospital.

December 24-25, 2013 – At St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis celebrates his first midnight Mass as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

March 5, 2014 – In a newspaper interview, Pope Francis reaffirms the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage, but suggests that it could support some types of civil unions.

April 27, 2014 – Presides over the Canonization of Blesseds, installing popes John XXIII and John Paul II as saints. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI attends the ceremony as a guest.

August 30, 2015 – Pope Francis announces that priests around the world will be able to forgive the “sin of abortion” during the Catholic Church’s “Year of Mercy” beginning on December 8 and ending on November 20, 2016.

September 8, 2015 – The Vatican announces reforms to the legal structures Catholics must follow to achieve marital nullity.

September 19, 2015 – Visits Cuba for the first time and praises the reconciliations taking place between Cuba and the United States. Pope Francis also asks Cuba to allow for more religious freedom as the communist country prepares to build the first Catholic Church since the Cuban Revolution.

September 22-28, 2015 – Pope Francis becomes the fourth head of the Church to visit the United States. Pope Paul VI made the first visit by a pontiff in October 1965. While in the United States, Pope Francis visits Washington, D.C., speaking at a joint meeting of Congress, addresses the UN General Assembly in New York and holds Mass at Madison Square Garden and attends the Festival of Families in Philadelphia.

November 25, 2015 – Pope Francis arrives in Nairobi for his first-ever Apostolic journey to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

April 8, 2016 – Urges priests around the world to be more accepting of gays and lesbians, divorced Catholics and other people living in what the church considers “irregular” situations.

May 13, 2016 – Says the Vatican should study the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, answering a call that women, particularly in the United States, have been asking the church to address for decades.

June 26, 2016 – Says Christians owe apologies to gays and others who have been offended or exploited by the church, remarks that some Catholics hail as a breakthrough in the church’s tone toward homosexuality.

November 21, 2016 – Extends indefinitely the power of Catholic priests to forgive abortions. This follows a special dispensation during the Year of Mercy, which ended November 20, 2016, and allowed all priests, rather than just bishops and specially designated confessors, the power to absolve the “sin of abortion.”

July 16, 2017 – Dozens of conservative Catholic scholars and clergy send a letter to Francis accusing him of spreading heretical positions on marriage, the moral life and the Eucharist.

October 11, 2017 – During a Vatican conference, Pope Francis argues to change the official church teaching on the death penalty. The Catholic church currently teaches that recourse to the death penalty is permitted. The Holy Father says the death penalty is “inadmissable,” and that official Catholic teaching should reflect that.

November 27, 2017 – Pope Francis becomes the first pope to visit Myanmar, a majority Buddhist country. During a four-day trip, he meets with Myanmar’s cardinal, the military’s most senior general. While in the country, he avoids using the word “Rohingya,” a term the government rejects.

January 18, 2018 – Defends Chilean bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up abuse for decades.

April 8, 2018 – Pope Francis says he made “grave errors” in handling a Chilean abuse scandal in a letter to the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Chile.

June 11, 2018 – Accepts the resignation of three Chilean bishops, including Barros. The three bishops submitted declarations of resignation after meeting with the pontiff regarding abuse from May 15-17.

August 20, 2018 – The Vatican releases a letter from Pope Francis that directly addresses the latest accusations of abuse by priests. In part, he writes: “With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”

September 13, 2018 – The pontiff meets in Rome with leaders of the Catholic Church from the United States to discuss a deepening crisis related to abuse scandals.

October 24, 2018 – The Vatican announces that Pope Francis has removed Bishop Martin Holley of Memphis, Tennessee.

February 3, 2019 – Pope Francis arrives in the United Arab Emirates, making him the first pontiff to visit an Arab Gulf state.

February 5, 2019 – Pope Francis becomes the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, delivering an address to tens of thousands of people in Abu Dhabi.

April 27, 2019 – The Vatican announces that Francis has donated $500,000 to aid migrants in Mexico. The money will be used for housing, food and necessities for the Central American migrants. The funds will be split among 27 projects in 16 Mexican dioceses and religious congregations.

May 9, 2019 – Pope Francis issues new global rules for reporting abuse in the Catholic Church, mandating for the first time that all dioceses set up systems for reporting abuse and coverups. The new rules require all Catholic dioceses around the world to have a “public and accessible” system in place for reporting abuse by June 1, 2020.

October 5, 2019 – Pope Francis appoints 13 new cardinals during a ceremony at the Vatican.

Honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, Torches Light the Way to Christ

By Tim Harfmann

With torches in-hand, pilgrims honored Our Lady of Guadalupe as they traveled the road to Christ.

“It’s like setting your eyes on the prize,” said Angel Mendez, a torch runner from St. Leo Church in Corona, Queens.

“It symbolizes the light of Christ. We bring the light of Christ to the world. Sometimes there’s darkness. Sometimes there’s hatred without the love that Christ gives us,” said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.

Before the pilgrimage, there was music and dancing on the December 12 feast day. Bishop DiMarzio celebrated Mass for nearly 2,000 Catholics at the Co-Cathedral of Saint Joseph.

They have a great devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“She’s the protector of all. She’s the mother for everyone. If you don’t have a mother, she is your mother. So, for me it means everything,” said Mendez.

The tradition dates back to when St. Juan Diego encountered Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in the 1500s.

During the apparitions, the Blessed Mother told him to go to the mountaintop, where roses were in full bloom during winter — a symbol of deep faith.

“We have to be rooted in the faith, and we need be in the truth. And the truth is Jesus Christ,” said Father Jorge Ortiz, the coordinator for the Mexican ministry in the Brooklyn diocese.

Our Lady of Guadalupe led to the conversion of Mexico from Paganism to Christianity.

According to the Brooklyn diocese, there are over 175,000 Mexican-Catholics living in Brooklyn and Queens.

Bishop DiMarzio lit 39 torches after Mass, each one for a parish participating in the annual celebration.

Then, the groups spent hours walking or jogging back to their parishes, where they had another Mass and celebration to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Currents News for Thursday, December 12, 2019

On the newscast: We have the sights and sounds of the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Co-Cathedral of Saint Joseph; The NYPD investigating the murder of a Barnard College freshman in a park near campus; President Trump saying hate against Jews can never be tolerated in America; And the Vatican praising Time’s Person of the Year – Greta Thunberg – for her work on saving the planet.

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.

FBI Investigating Jersey City Shootout as Domestic Terror

By Emily Drooby

The FBI announced they are investigating a Dec. 10 shootout in Jersey City, N.J. as a domestic terrorist attack with a hate crime bias slant specifically against both Jewish people and police officers.

During a Dec. 12 press briefing, officials released new details about the two suspects: David Anderson and Francine Graham. They can be seen in video footage leaving their U-Haul, both armed when they entered the kosher supermarket.

Officials also say after killing three inside and injuring one, they appeared to be directly targeting law enforcement.

Officials also confirmed both suspects had at one point expressed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a designated hate group with no connection to mainstream Judaism.

However, they still believe the suspects acted on their own. Officials are staying tight-lipped on what was in the letter found in the U-Haul, but claim there was no manifesto to be found.

Officials are also refusing to comment on if the suspects had additional targets.
“They had a tremendous amount of firepower. They had a pipe bomb in the van,” said New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. “But for the actions of chief kelly and his officers, they could have done more.”

Now attention has been turned towards keeping the Jewish communities in Jersey City, as well as in New York and New Jersey, safe.

“We will root out hate, we will not allow it to grow here,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. “You will see an increased presence from the NYPD throughout the Jewish community — you will see the actions of our hate crimes task force.”

On Dec. 11, members of the Jewish community in Jersey City gathered at Temple Bethel to mourn the loss and pray for the end of hate.

Jersey City is known as a diverse and welcoming city. Their mayor, Steven Fulop, has been shocked to see this kind of hate here.

“This is the golden door to America. This is the most diverse county in America, and it speaks to the fact that if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere,” he said. “That’s why we have to be extra conscious of it, and vocal about it and stomp it out once it rears its ugly head.”

The street was packed as victim Mosha Deutch’s coffin was carried through the street for his funeral. The 24-year-old lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The shooting also claimed the life of “Mindy” Ferencz, a co-owner of the supermarket and a mother of three young children, Miguel Rodriguez, an Ecuadorian immigrant who worked at the store. and Jersey City veteran Detective Joseph Seals, who was shot at a nearby cemetery before the supermarket shooting began.

On Dec. 11 his fellow officers paid tribute to the hero as they moved his body. He was also a father of five.

More than 48 hours out from this devastating attack, many questions are still unanswered —
especially what triggered the carnage.

Officials say they’re still combing through evidence including social media accounts in the hopes of figuring it out.

Army Veteran Makes Toys for Kids

Currents News Staff

Jim Annis spends most of his days carving, sculpting and sanding blocks of wood into toys.

“When the Salvation Army gives out the food and clothes to people in this area, I give out my toys,” he said.

Every Christmas for the past 50 years the Army veteran has worked around the clock to create nearly three-hundred toys, gifting them to kids in need through the Salvation Army of Sanford.

Other than the wooden scraps he gets for free from nearby homeowners, he pays for everything else out of pocket.

“My shellac, wheels and paint, I spent about $1,000,” he said.

But it’s not about the money. For him, this is personal. He remembers waking up many Christmas mornings with no gifts to open.

“It feels like you’re sort of forgotten. My dad, he worked, but he didn’t make a whole lot of money. With five kids, it’s sort of hard to have a very big Christmas with five kids,” he said.

Jim makes it all: small and large cars, John Deere tractors, fire trucks, dolls – even piggy banks.

Over the years he’s made Christmas a lot brighter for children living in Lee county, and hopes to keep this tradition going another 50 years.

“I love when people ask me how much do I get paid for making these toys. I say my pay is when I see the smile on the kids faces. I hope to do it until my toes curl up,” Jim said.

Impeachment Update: House Debates Articles

Currents News Staff

The House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of a two-day debate prior to its vote on the impeachment of President Trump.

“The two articles charge President Trump with placing his private, political interests above our national security, above our free and fair elections, and above our ability to hold public officials accountable,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler.

Democrats introduced two articles of impeachment against the president, saying he should be removed from office for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

“If we allow this president to put himself above the law, we allow all future presidents to be above the law,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.

Republicans have called this process a “political vendetta” against the president.

“This is about one basic fact. The Democrats have never accepted the will of the American people,” said Rep. Jim Jordan.

Rep. Louie Gohmert added, “I’ve sat through trials that were hard to sit through. But nothing like sitting this week in this committee hearing.”

Once the back-and-forth is done, the committee will take a final vote. If they are approved, the entire House then votes on the impeachment articles. Then it moves to the Senate for a trial.

During Thursday’s Judiciary Committee meeting any member is able to offer any sort of amendment and the entire body can then debate it.