U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Concludes General Assembly

By Emily Drooby

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’s general assembly, with Nov. 13 marking his last session as president.

Archbishop José Gomez, who is taking over the role, offered thanks to his predecessor.

“Thank you for leading us with knowledge and wisdom on behalf of all of us, let me say thank you and may God bless you for your excellent service to this body and to the Church,” Archbishop Gomez told Cardinal DiNardo.

There was also plenty on the agenda for day three of the national meetings. U.S. bishops heard about the status of a third-party reporting system that deals with allegations of abuse and misconduct by bishops, and discussed efforts to combat racism across the country using tools like roundtables and children’s books.

The committee against racism’s chairman, Bishop Shelton Fabre, delivered a powerful message, saying, “racism is opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Catholic Church in the United States is committed to standing against it with all its strength.”

Several non-profits also presented to the bishops on Wednesday, including Catholic Relief Services(CRS).

“What’s wrong with the world? There’s plenty. What’s right with the world? Groups like CRS,” said Bishop Gregory Mansour.

U.S. Catholic Charities also outlined a new way to help the chronically homeless through outreach, and Anna Marie Gallagher, the leader of Catholic Legal Immigration Network discussed her experience at the southern border.

“I saw a world that is hard to understand and accept given our country’s resources and our values. I saw people crowded into shelters with inadequate food and services,” she explained.

It was a busy time for Cardinal Daniel DiNardo’s final day as president. Now, Archbishop José Gomez takes over.

Currents News for Wednesday, November 13, 2019

On the newscast: Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is pushing back against sex abuse allegations from 50 years ago; He’s vowing to clear his name; Fires are raging in Chile and Catholic churches are being looted; Pope Francis has a new gift that comes from New York. The Tablet has the exclusive story; The Navy Seal — told he was too old — is getting a second chance to join New York’s Bravest.

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.

Bishop DiMarzio Categorically Denies Sexual Abuse Allegation

By Michelle Powers

The Bishop of Brooklyn is strongly refuting allegations that he molested an altar boy almost half a century ago.

“I am just learning of this allegation. In my nearly 50-year ministry as a priest, I have never engaged in unlawful or inappropriate behavior and I categorically deny this allegation. I am confident I will be fully vindicated,” Bishop DiMarzio said in a statement.

The Associated Press broke the story that a suit may be filed next month by the law offices of Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney best known for representing sexual abuse victims in Boston during the clerical abuse crisis in 2002.

The lawsuit alleges Bishop DiMarzio and a second priest, now dead, repeatedly abused Mark Matzek as a child at St. Nicholas Church in New Jersey in the 1970s.

In response, the Archdiocese of Newark is saying they have reported these allegations to law enforcement. Garabedian is demanding twenty million in compensation.

These accusations come on the heels of Bishop DiMarzio completing his Vatican appointed examination into the Bishop of Buffalo for allegations that Richard Malone failed to report abusive priests.

The conclusions of this fact-finding mission have yet to be released.

Before this moment, Bishop DiMarzio has been recognized as a national leader in taking steps to protect children.

In his own diocese, he established the Office of Victim Assistance, which helps individuals come forward with their own allegations of abuse.

He also established a toll free and confidential sexual abuse reporting line.

In addition, every employee for the diocese, including students, is required to undergo training to prevent and identify abuse.

Bishop DiMarzio has met with many survivors and the Diocese of Brooklyn holds a yearly Mass of Hope and Healing.

This past year, Bishop DiMarzio held a series of regional meetings throughout his diocese to allow for candid questions.

And last February, DiMarzio authorized the release of the names of 108 priests credibly accused of child abuse over the Diocese of Brooklyn’s 166-year history.

Bishop DiMarzio is vowing to vigorously defend himself against what he calls “false allegations.”

Read Bishop DiMarzio’s Letter to the Faithful here.

Italy Under State of Emergency – Venice 45% Flooded

Currents News Staff

Venice, Italy is under a state of emergency. Flooding from an exceptionally high tide — the highest in 50 years — has inundated 45 percent of the city, forcing businesses and schools to close.

On Nov. 12, the Tide Forecasting and Reporting Center of Civil Protection said “45 percent of the city was flooded,” and added that on Tuesday evening “50 volunteers operated throughout the canals and 30 will be deployed” on Wednesday.

“After the extraordinary tide peak of 187 centimeters that struck Venice last night, the local administration will submit a request for a state of emergency,” the government in Venice announced in a statement on their website that Wednesday morning.

That high water level was the second highest in the last century, after the tide of 1966 that reached a peak of 194 centimeters. The mayor blames the recent flooding on climate change.

In the statement, the government also asked “all citizens and businesses to collect evidence to prove the damages suffered” so they can request compensation.

According to Venice Mayor spokesman Alessandro Bertasi, an elderly man has died in the Venice floods. Officials say the man died while trying to run electric pumps in his home on the island of Pellestrina.

On Wednesday, the President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, and the Director of the National Department of Civil Protection, Angelo Borrelli, is holding a press conference in the Operations Room of the Regional Civil Protection in via Paolucci in Marghera.

The local government announced that all schools would stay closed on Wednesday due to the weather conditions.

First Public Impeachment Hearings Set to Take Place

Currents News Staff

Today on Capitol Hill, the first public impeachment hearings in Congress in more than two decades will take place. Democrats have invited two witnesses to testify today – while Republicans seek to poke holes in their case.

“Those open hearings will be an opportunity for the American people to evaluate the witnesses for themselves,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

Democrats will kick off this next phase with the public testimony of Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a State Department official who oversees U.S. policy in Ukraine.

Their accounts of the Trump administration’s actions regarding Ukraine are intended to set up the Democrats’ case that President Trump conditioned military aid and a White House visit on a promise that Ukraine would investigate his political rival Joe Biden and the 2016 election.

Republicans, per a memo circulated to the caucus, will argue that the summary of the July 25th phone call that prompted the whistleblower complaint at the core of the impeachment inquiry doesn’t show pressure, that both leaders have said there was no pressure and that Ukraine’s government wasn’t aware there was a hold on aid on July 25th.

They’re also likely to argue that Taylor and Kent don’t offer a firsthand, direct account of the President’s conversation, or intent.

“You can’t actually know what was really said when you’re relying on third- and fourth-hand information,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York.

Trump would be just the third U.S. President to be impeached by the house. Removal from office would be up to the senate, where his republican party holds a majority.

Currents News for Tuesday, November 12, 2019

On the newscast: Archbishop Jose Gomez has been elected the first-ever Latino leader of America’s bishops. We have team coverage of the historic choice; The battle over impeachment is heading to TV. Both sides are getting ready; Ex-New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg taking new action tonight on his quest for The White House; A big project for Christmas as a woman is determined to bring cheer to members of our military.

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.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Reaches Historic Milestone

By Emily Drooby

A historic milestone was reached by an overwhelming majority on Nov. 12 when America’s Catholic bishops elected Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles as the new president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during their general assembly.

The Mexican native is the first Latino to hold the title.

“I’m humbled by your support and I think it’s a special blessing for the Latino community as we always reflect on how important it is to take care of our people,” said Archbishop Gomez, who begins his 3-year presidential term Nov. 13 at the conclusion of the meetings.

He currently leads the largest and most diverse archdiocese in the country – and has long been a champion for immigrant rights.

He made clear that it would remain a priority for both him and the Bishops’ Conference, saying, “we have the situation at the border which is a tragedy, and we are constantly talking about immigration and especially encouraging our elected officials to do something, to come up with immigration reform that is reasonable and possible.”

The bishops also elected a new vice president: Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit. Six others were selected as chairmen of committees.

On the agenda for day two of the national meetings: a new hymn translation being approved for use in the Liturgy of the Hours. Students from Washington’s Catholic University performed the accompanying music at the conference.

The bishops also voted in favor of a new letter in connection with ‘Faithful Citizenship,’ the bishops’ official voting guidelines. The guidelines are being updated to include issues close to Pope Francis’s heart, like the environment.

They also remained firm in that the protection of life and opposition to abortion are the most important social priorities of our time.

Former President Jimmy Carter Recovering After Brain Surgery

Currents News Staff

Former president Jimmy Carter will remain in an Atlanta hospital for observation following a procedure to relieve pressure from his brain. The 39th President of the United States has had two recent falls in his Georgia home, causing a subdural hematoma.

A subdural hematoma occurs when a blood vessel near the surface of the brain bursts. Blood then collects between the brain and its tough outer layers, causing pressure.

“What that procedure involves is actually just making a small hole on top of the skull and typically a second hole as well, and getting into that fluid collection, which is mostly fluid,” explained neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. “It’s mostly liquefied at this point and just removing that fluid taking the pressure off the brain.”

The 95-year-old has had several health battles in recent years, including two bouts with cancer and two falls just last month.

“Those are significant – one he broke his hip. But it’s also significant because he hit his head probably in one of those falls, and when you hit your head like that, what can happen is that you can start to have a slow amount of bleeding on top of the brain, and that slow bleeding eventually can accumulate,” Dr.Gupta said.

Despite all that, Carter has shown no signs of slowing down. He continues to build houses with Habitat for Humanity and teach bible studies on Sundays, but the church says he will take this Sunday off.

Archbishop José Gomez Elected as First Latino Head of U.S. Bishops’ Conference

By Christopher White, The Tablet’s National Correspondent

BALTIMORE – U.S. Catholic bishops elected their first ever Latino leader in a vote on November 12, elevating Archbishop José Gomez as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Gomez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, succeeds Cardinal Daniel DiNardo for whom he served as vice-president over the past three years. He was elected by an overwhelming majority of 176 votes during the first ballot and received an immediate standing ovation from the bishops present in the grand ballroom of the Marriot Waterfront Hotel.

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit will serve as Archbishop Gomez’s vice-president for the three-year term. He was elected with 151 votes on a third-round ballot, beating out Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the archdiocese for Military Services and received 90 votes.

Archbishop Gomez, at 67, leads the nation’s largest and most diverse diocese in the country. Born in Monterrey, Mexico and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1995, he has become one of the U.S. Church’s most vocal champions of immigrants, regularly pushing for comprehensive immigration reform.

His 2013 book, “Immigration and the Next America: Renewing the Soul of Our Nation,” was dedicated to Pope Francis as the first pope from Latin America. He will now face the challenge of leading the U.S. bishops in their defense of migrants at a time when the Trump administration has threatened the status of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented migrants known as Dreamers and has vowed a continued crackdown of migrants at the southern border.

Along with migration, he has also been an outspoken advocate for religious liberty and pro-life causes, and in Los Angeles he has sought to bridge the divide between so-called “pro-life” and “social justice” Catholics through the creation of one umbrella diocesan office for Life, Justice and Peace.

At a 2016 conference at Georgetown University on overcoming polarization within the Church, which Archbishop Gomez headlined along with Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, he said that there a “no single-issue saints” in the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Gomez was ordained a priest through Opus Dei in 1978. Prior to becoming Archbishop of Los Angeles, he was the Archbishop of San Antonio from 2005-2010 and an auxiliary bishop of Denver from 2001-2005. He has participated in two of Pope Francis’s synods of the global Church, the 2015 synod on the family and the 2018 synod on young people.

At age 71, Archbishop Vigneron is a long-time ranking member of the leadership of the U.S. bishops, most recently serving as secretary of the USCCB and as chairman of the committee of doctrine. Prior to his appointment in Detroit in 2009, he was the bishop of Oakland, California from 2003 to 2009. He is also the former chairman of the board of trustees of the Catholic University of America.

A native of Michigan, he is broadly viewed as a theological conservative, although he has become known as a strong participant in interreligious dialogue and an ally of the state’s large Muslim population. In 2015, after then-candidate Donald Trump first spoke about restricting Muslim immigration into the country, he condemned the proposal as a “far-reaching” threat to religious liberty.

While it is customary for the outgoing USCCB vice-president to succeed the president, due to Archbishop Vigneron’s age, he would be close to the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2022 when the bishops hold the next presidential election. While he would not be precluded from running for president, the fact that the Holy Father could accept his resignation after turning 75 could possibly influence his decision to stand for president at the time.

The bishops also elected seven other committee heads on Tuesday, selecting Bishop George Murry of Youngstown, Ohio for the committee on religious liberty; Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee for the committee on canonical affairs and Church governance; Bishop David Talley of Memphis, Tennessee for the committee on ecumenical and interreligious affairs; Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis for the committee on evangelization and catechesis; Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Illinois for the committee on international justice and peace; and Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph for the committee on the protection of children and young people.

During the morning session on November 11, outgoing president Cardinal DiNardo delivered his final presidential address, where he urged the conference to continue to prioritize the fight against clergy abuse, abortion, and defending migrants.

The bishops also heard from the pope’s representative to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre who challenged the body to examine their priorities with that of Pope Francis.

“How have we and our local churches received the magisterium of Pope Francis?” he asked.

The bishops will continue their meeting in Baltimore through Wednesday where, among other agenda items, they will vote to approve a new letter to preface “Faithful Citizenship,” the voting guidelines of the U.S. bishops, and will hear reports on the ongoing plan to develop of a national third-party reporting system for abuse or misconduct by bishops, which according to new Vatican guidelines must take effect by next summer.

Syrian Christian Survives Kidnapping Through Faith, Forgiveness

By Melissa Butz

On Oct. 19, 2012, Maurice Agob was in a liquor store run by his sons in Aleppo, Syria.

Suddenly, three Islamic fundamentalists entered, pointed a gun at him and bound his hands. They stole everything he had and stuffed him into the trunk of a car. He went two days without food in an abandoned room with other prisoners awaiting a fatal end.

“We were initially very afraid because we heard they killed everyone they kidnapped. I was afraid of death,” Maurice recalled.

“Nevertheless, I felt something thanks to the prayer I said. It was the longest prayer of my life. I felt peace and faith in God. Before the interrogation, I abandoned myself to Him and felt an inner peace that helped me get through this painful experience,” he said.

They accused Maurice of promoting alcohol consumption, which is forbidden for Muslims. During the interrogation, he convinced them that the store was not his and that he was not an enemy of Muslims.

In fact, he told them that as a Christian, he prayed for them. His witness convinced them and even moved one of the abductors, who then asked for forgiveness for having treated him so poorly.

“I experienced what it feels like to forgive when one of them apologized to me. I told him I forgave him because my Lord, the Lord Jesus, taught me to forgive and love my enemies,” said Maurice. “I told him I didn’t consider him an enemy, but a brother. I said we should love one another, forgive one another, walk together and improve our country together.”

Maurice was freed, and he returned home where everyone anxiously awaited him. Now he lives as a refugee in Belgium along with his family.

He had never spoken about this terrible experience until he was contacted by the Catholic Episcopal Board of Aleppo, an organization that shares stories of exemplary Christians.