Currents News Staff
One man is helping bring people back to the Church for the Christmas season: Tim Glemkowski.
He is the author of “Made for Mission,” a book that gives churches a practical approach to evangelization by addressing many of the real problems facing pastors today.
Tim joins Currents News from Denver, Colorado to share tips that pastors can use now to help revitalize evangelization and face obstacles that arise when it comes to bringing people into the pews.
On the newscast: Reaction in the Brooklyn Diocese to the Pope’s call for nativity scenes in public and in private spaces; President Trump and French President Macron clash at the NATO summit; On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a Brooklyn family’s urgent plea to make subways accessible for all; And could the Smart TV you just bought on Black Friday be spying on you? The FBI warning you need to hear.
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By Emily Drooby
Homemade bread, creamy chicken and paninis are made fresh every day at Holy Cross High School.
The school is changing the game when it comes to cafeteria food, ditching the mystery meat for items like steak, spinach pie and baked ziti.
“It’s really good, it’s like my grandmother made if for me at home,” said Matthew Gelpi a student at the school.
Food is made fresh daily at the school – it’s an extra effort that students can taste thanks to Corato Food Service Group.
The company was brought in two years ago by the school to provide healthy, fun and unique meal choices.
“From Greek to Italian to Asian, we really just try to see what they want but we try to keep it as balanced as possible,” explained Marco Cerbone of Corato Food Service Group.
“Every single day there’s a different type of theme or food. Sometimes we can have sushi, other days we can have straight Italian foods,” explained student Cindy Leung.
Corato Food Service Group also listens to students while creating the menus, offering different options. Even so, one thing remains consistent: the quality.
“The food is great. Like the fries, everything. Everything is really good,” said Chris Harris, a student.
Principal Edward Burns said the food is a far cry from the school lunches most people grew up with.
“Reactions are always positive which is wonderful because I think they all think back to their school experiences and maybe what their options were, and what they had for lunch choices,” he said. “And then they come back and see what we have for choices. It’s just opened a world of different opportunities.”
An extra perk at Holy Cross Catholic High School is making sure kids are happy, healthy and ready to learn.
By Tim Harfmann
Nativities are mostly found underneath a Christmas tree — not on a New York City sidewalk.
But one in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn is on full display.
John Minero, who makes the display by hand, said the highlight of the masterpiece is baby Jesus.
“That’s the purpose, so the focus is on that,” he said.
It’s the same message Pope Francis is reinforcing this Christmas season. He just visited the Italian town where Saint Francis of Assisi built the first nativity. The pontiff wants to see them everywhere, in public and private — like schools, hospitals and town squares.
“God loves us to the point of sharing our humanity and our life,” he explained.
In this secular city some people disagree, but not John, who creates smaller nativity scenes, or presepios, in his basement.
John makes most of his presepio sets by screwing pieces of cork together, but he’s also made nativity scenes from old picture frames, parts of a tree, and even a glass water bottle.
For him, regardless of how they’re made, Christ remains the focal point.
“That’s what counts, you know, for religious people especially,” John added.
Over at Saint Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, bigger seems better. A life-size nativity draws hundreds traveling along Bay Parkway.
“This is, what I would say, a tool of evangelization because it makes people stop. It makes people think, and it makes people reflect on the true meaning of Christmas,” said Monsignor David Cassato, pastor of St. Athanasius.
The true meaning of Christmas is also on display at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza.
The mastermind behind the crèche and Christmas tree, Mark Steele, says for the most part, passersby enjoy having the religious symbols in a public space.
“Once you start seeing the trees arrive and all these installations going, you know it’s just around the corner,” said Mark, noting that a crèche is the only reason for the season.
On the newscast: The Bishops of New Jersey and Pennsylvania are back from their Ad Limina visit with the Pope. One of their requests: release the findings of Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse investigation; The Pope’s message to Christians around the world about the importance of public nativity scenes; We’ll take you inside the Sistine Chapel for a history-making musical performance; And decking the halls — it’s Christmas at the White House.
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By Tim Harfmann
A contingent of U.S. bishops spent their Thanksgiving Day with Pope Francis.
A group picture showed the bishops from New Jersey and Pennsylvania with the Holy Father. The meeting was the highlight of their ad limina visit to the Vatican, when they shared detailed reports on the life of the Church in their dioceses.
The term “ad limina” means the bishops are making a pilgrimage as the successors of the Apostles.
“When you take a look at the story of the acts of the Apostles, it wasn’t always easy. But there was always a direction of where the Holy Spirit was guiding them. And I think that we’re at a similar moment in the history of the Church, too,” said Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The bishops’ meeting with the Holy Father lasted more than two hours. In that time a major topic — the clerical sexual abuse crisis — was discussed.
American bishops asked for the release of the report on the Vatican’s investigation into ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick
He had served in New Jersey and in Washington as archbishop, and was laicized last year for alleged abuse in the 1980s.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey said the McCarrick case was one of several incidents that hurt the Church’s reputation, including the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clerical abuse and the allegation by the former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. that McCarrick’s wrongdoing wasn’t being investigated.
“Those three things just unleashed a reaction that at times was very angry, at times was very desperate, at times was almost hopeless,” Cardinal Tobin explained.
The bishops believe publishing the Vatican’s investigation on McCarrick could restore trust.
“That’s all we’ve been accused. If you read the Pennsylvania grand jury report: coverup, coverup, coverup. And this would be one way in which we can express transparency, too, that okay, we went up the chain to see where the mistakes were made,” said Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie, Pennsylvania.
“My hope is that it’s going to be true and it’s going to be complete,” added Cardinal Tobin.
Cardinal Tobin said Pope Francis told him the report will be released, but didn’t give a time frame.
By Melissa Butz
A small-town farm girl from Manitoba, Canada, and her 300-year-old violin, which was part of King Louis XVI’s orchestra, hold an amazing title in the Vatican. Musician Rosemary Siemens was the first violinist ever to play at the Sistine Chapel. As part of the “biggest honor of her life,” the Vatican gifted her a scroll with the title.
“We were in the Sistine Chapel And literally, they didn’t know if it would be allowed until the last minute and but we got, I got to play Amazing Grace,” said Rosemary.
“And it was like one of the highlights of my career. It was unbelievable. And I — a few years earlier — I was actually the first violinist to ever played this at St. Peter’s Basilica as well,” she added.
She played “Amazing Grace,” coinciding with her love for Gospel music and church hymns, which make up a majority of her music.
“It’s actually turned into a musical ministry — a kind of modern musical ministry — for me. I’ve always loved hymns and I wrote a song on my last album called, ‘Bring back the hymns,’” she said.
“It’s just been something on my heart, because I feel like a lot of churches are leaving the hymns and there’s so much history and so much beauty in them. I thought I would do my part to bring back the hymns. So I started a ‘Sunday hymn serenade.’ So people know they can come to my YouTube every Sunday and have a new hymn,” Rosemary said.
She has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, for two U.S. Presidents and Canadian Prime Ministers, and has won “Best Country/Gospel Album of the Year.” Yet, she still has one more goal: to play for the pope.
“He was supposed to be at the event at the system but last minute couldn’t come,” she explained. “I wish that’s a dream. That’s a new dream. But hopefully one day it will happen.”
For now, she is happy making history with her Gospel music and touching lives all with a stroke of her violin.
BALTIMORE (Catholic News Service) — Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is the new chairman of the board of Catholic Relief Services following his appointment by Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Bishop Caggiano succeeds Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour, whose three-year term has ended. Bishop Mansour heads the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn.
“It’s a great honor to lead an organization that is such a bright light for all of our brothers and sisters overseas who don’t have enough to eat or a place to sleep because of entrenched poverty,” Bishop Caggiano said in a statement released Nov. 25 by CRS.
“All of God’s children have the right to live in just and peaceful societies, and for more than 75 years CRS has worked toward making that a reality. I look forward to joining forced to build on all of the organization’s substantial achievements and to tackling the challenges that affect so many members of God’s family,” he said.
Bishop Mansour in a statement from the agency said he expects his successor to be a “hands-on leader who will roll up his sleeves and get to work while inspiring others to do the same.”
Bishop Caggiano, 60, has had a particular focus on building youth and young adults in the church. He also has directed his ministry toward troubled and marginalized people and to Catholics who no longer participate in the life of the church.
Bishop Caggiano has led the Bridgeport Diocese since September 2013 following his appointment by Pope Francis. Previously he was an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn for seven years. He was ordained a priest in 1987 after a short stint as a sales representative for the Gregg Division of McGraw Hill Publishing Co.
The bishop is a member of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis and chairs the Subcommittee on Catechism. In 2018 he was one of five U.S. bishops elected to represent the American church at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment.
Bishop Caggiano was elected to a seat on the CRS board during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall general assembly Nov. 12. His term as chairman lasts three years.
Currents News Staff
Pope Francis visited the Franciscan shrine in Greccio on Dec. 1. It is the place where, in the thirteenth century, St. Francis started the tradition of the Nativity scene.
Upon arriving to the town, Pope Francis warmly greeted a group of sick and disabled people who waited for him with their family members.
At the sanctuary, the Holy Father was welcomed by the Bishop of Rieti and the Franciscan groundskeeper of the shrine.
A crowd holding colorful balloons cheered as the Holy Father walked by. A group of children sang this song about St. Francis.
Once inside the sanctuary, the pontiff stopped for a moment of silent prayer.
Then he signed “Admirabile signum,” an apostolic letter on the significance of the Nativity scene.
Afterward he stopped to talk to the religious men and women gathered in the grotto. They shared a moment of laughter after Pope Francis surprised them with an unexpected question. Then they all took a group photo.
He exited the grotto and greeted the people waiting for him outside. He was surprised to see them wearing traditional costumes for the living Nativity scene.
Pope Francis then offered a reflection on the Gospel reading of the Nativity of Jesus. The pontiff reminded those present of the importance of simplicity, wisdom, silence and prayer. He also spoke of the need to recognize in the Nativity the sign of God’s immense love for humanity.
“This simple and visible sign of the Nativity, which faith has grasped and passed from generation to generation, shows the great mystery of our faith: God loves us to the point of sharing our humanity and our life. He never leaves us alone,” said the Holy Father.
The Pope blessed those gathered, asking God to grant them peace. As he left to head back to Rome, this choir was in charge of saying goodbye.
Currents News Staff
President Trump and his lawyers declined an invitation to take part in the House’s impeachment hearing this week. They say they believe the President would not get a “semblance of a fair process.”
While the impeachment process rolls on, the president is heading out of the country – putting thousands of miles between himself and his impeachment woes. He and the first lady are attending a NATO event in London this week.
But even if he was in town, the president wouldn’t participate in the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing Wednesday.
White House lawyer Pat Cipollone released a letter Sunday night calling the inquiry “baseless and highly partisan.”
“This is entirely consistent with a strategy that’s been pursued by the president’s lawyers through the Mueller investigation, which is promising enormous levels of cooperation, promising that the president would be actively involved and then pulling back at the last minute,” said CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan.
The letter accuses Chairman Jerrold Nadler of “purposely” scheduling the hearing during the NATO meeting. However, Cipollone left the door open for White House participation in future hearings.
Some believe that could be a good idea. “I think that it would be to the president’s advantage to have his attorneys there, that is his right,” said Rep. Tom McClintock.
Others say that could be a risky move for the White House. “By allowing his own attorneys to participate in the proceedings, he gives the proceedings legitimacy,” said CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan.
And one democratic presidential candidate says she’s already made up her mind. “I’ve made very clear I think this is impeachable conduct,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
President Trump is accused of abusing his power in order to get political dirt on presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
The House Judiciary Panel is expected to have multiple public hearings, eventually considering articles of impeachment.
A House vote could come before Christmas.