Pope, Bishops Urge Action to Save Burning Amazon Rainforest

VATICAN CITY (Catholic News Service) — Describing the Amazon rainforest as “vital for our planet,” Pope Francis joined the regions bishops in praying for action to extinguish the massive fires burning there.

“We are all worried about the vast fires that have developed in the Amazon,” the pontiff said Aug. 25 after leading the recitation of the Angelus prayer. “Let us pray that with the commitment of all they will be brought under control quickly. That forest lung is vital for our planet.”

Leaders of the Latin American bishops’ council also urged international action to save the Amazon rainforest from the fires.

“We urge the governments of the Amazonian countries, especially Brazil and Bolivia, the United Nations and the international community, to take serious measures to save the lungs of the world,” said the statement Aug. 22 by the top officers of the council, known by its Spanish acronym, CELAM.

“What happens to the Amazon is not just a local issue, but is of global reach,” the bishops said. “If the Amazon suffers, the world suffers.”

The Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen, according to scientific measurements.

Brazil’s space research institute, which is responsible for satellite monitoring of the Amazon, had reported that the number of wildfires, common in July and August, had reached a record number already in 2019, with 72,843 fires spotted.

The U.S. space agency, NASA, Aug. 21 and 22 released satellite imagery showing how smoke from the fires had created “a shroud that is clearly visible across much of the center of South America.”

French President Emmanuel Macron called on world leaders to place the fires at the top of their agenda as they meet in France for the Group of Seven summit starting Aug. 24. Attendees will include President Donald Trump, Macron and the leaders from Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said publicly that he believes nongovernmental agencies — including Catholic-backed agencies such as the Land Pastoral and the Indigenous Missionary Council — are behind the illegal burnings because they have opposed his call for development of the rainforest. The organizations have strongly denied the allegations.

In its edition released Aug. 23, the front page of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, led with two articles about the Amazon fires. The first, titled “The Amazon must be protected,” included general coverage of the fires’ scope and the alarm launched by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. A second article reported on the CELAM statement under the headline, “Save the forest to save the world.”

In their statement, the bishops noted that the upcoming October Synod of Bishops for the Amazon will discuss the plight of the indigenous living in the area as well as the deforestation of the region. Sixty percent of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil.

“Hope for the proximity of the Amazon synod, convened by Pope Francis, is stained by the pain of this natural tragedy,” the bishops said. “To the brethren indigenous peoples who inhabit this beloved territory, we express all our closeness and join your voices with yours to shout to the world for solidarity and pay attention to end this devastation.”

And while the deforestation of the world’s largest tropical forest and the violence against the indigenous population there have been a great concern to the Catholic Church, the upcoming synod also has caused apprehension for the Bolsonaro government.

In February, the Brazilian government was forced to deny that it was spying, through its intelligence agency, ABIN, on more “progressive” bishops and priests working on the synod.

The government’s Institutional Security Cabinet, known as ISC, however, admitted it was worried that the meeting would be used to criticize the Bolsonaro administration’s stance on environment and indigenous rights.

“There are no general criticism of the Catholic Church. There is the functional concern of the Minister of State Chief of the Institutional Security Office for some points of the synod’s Amazon agenda that will take place at the Vatican in October this year,” said an ISC statement at the time.

The CELAM bishops, quoting Pope Francis from his homily at his papal inauguration in March 2013, requested to “please ask all those who hold positions of responsibility in the economic, political and social fields, all men and women of goodwill: (to) be guardians of creation, of the design of God inscribed in nature, guardians of the other, of the environment; let’s not let the signs of destruction and death follow the path of our world.”

The declaration was signed by Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, of Trujillo, Peru, CELAM president, as well as the officers of the organization.

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Contributing to this story was Lise Alves in Sao Paulo and Cindy Wooden at the Vatican.

Vatican Promotes Green Travel With Charging Stations for Electric Cars

Currents News Staff

According to the United Nations, traditional transport annually emits about eight gigatons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, a figure that could double by 2040 and accelerate climate change.

One state promoting initiatives to reduce air pollution is the smallest in the world: the Vatican.

Within the Vatican State, 12 charging towers for electric cars have already been installed.

“Following the spirit of papal encyclicals, the Vatican began to equip itself with electric cars. The Vatican has signed an agreement with Enel X to provide us with a network of electric charging columns,” said Roberto Mignucci, the Vatican’s Technical Director.

By the end of the year, he expects that around 20 of these columns will have been installed inside the state.

The 22 kilowatt charging stations allow up to two cars to be recharged at the same time. It’s use is simple: present a card and connect the vehicle to the column.

“This is a very important initiative. It is the forerunner of a great project that includes the use of electric cars throughout the Vatican, only electric,” Mignucci added.

Very soon Pope Francis could be riding in an electric popemobile, like the one he used on his trip to Colombia.

This initiative is a way to help materialize the content popes have written about on care of the environment.

“John Paul II already referred to the care of creation, a message ratified by Pope Benedict XVI and, finishing with Laudato si’. We begin to combine all the works. We are covering everything at 360 degrees, not only concerned about pollution generated by cars, but also a whole series of systems with energy and water conservation, photovoltage, etc.,” Mignucci explained.

For many, these initiatives in a territory of 108 acres does not represent a significant impact. However, like a small drop water in the middle of the ocean, the Vatican wants to be a pioneer among the countries of the world.

Thousands Gather to Reflect on History, Strife of Slavery in America

Currents News Staff

Four hundred years ago this month, the first documented Africans were brought to British North America.

The arrival of about 20 captured africans in Hampton, Virginia, began a painful era of American slavery.

By the Chesapeake Bay and at the same port where they arrived, thousands honored those captured by floating flower petals and prayers to them and those who did not survive the voyage.

“The ghost of the past is still alive with us today. You can feel it as you walk around and look at the backdrop here,” said Qahir Abdur-Rahman, an attendee.

Under the backdrop of fort monroe, people felt what shackles would have been like and took pictures at the historic marker where the ship dubbed ‘White Lion’ arrived.

Asia Leeds, the co-Director of African Diaspora Studies at Spelman College, explained how they group wasn’t the first group of Africans in America. There were others who had already taken to what were then Spanish, Portuguese and French territories.

But, their arrival does mark the first arrival to English North America.

“It marks the beginning of the foundations of this nation, of which slavery is deeply embedded. So we have the beginnings of not just U.S. governing systems, right? They emerge out of this colonial history but also the foundations of American wealth,” she said.

“Now we are engineers, lawyers, doctors, presidents, maybe a future female president, but we’ve come a long way,” said event attendee Tanya Woolfolk.

While they look at the traditions that made them who they are, the next generation is also looking at what the world could be.

“Imagine the problems that would be solved if all people were kind find and feel cared for…it does not matter what your race or religion may be, we all deserve kindness,” said Brycen Dildy, a student in attendance.

Mississippi Priest Loses Half His Congregation After ICE Raid

Currents News Staff

In the largest single-state immigration raid in U.S. history, hundreds were rounded up in Mississippi this month.

In Forrest, Mississippi, Father Roberto Mena says he’s lost half his congregation.

At the start of Thursday Mass at his church the pews were mostly empty.

Two weeks ago, ICE agents carried out one of the largest raids in American history, and they took as many as 150 people from Fr. Mena’s congregation.

Every one of the worshippers left have been impacted by what happened.

Fr. Mena has tried to reassure his parishioners that they’re going to be okay, though even he admits that since the raids, most of his dreams have been nightmares.

As Mass ended, parishioners were encouraged to pray to God out-loud.

One woman pleaded to God for parents to be reunited with their children. It’s a desperate prayer, but for many, their faith is all that’s left.

Gaspar Gomez Pablo says he needs help with an attorney. Along with his wife, the 33-year-old was detained in the recent raids at the Koch foods.

While he was released with an ankle monitor, his wife is still being held. Though they’ve lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, both of their futures, he says, are uncertain.

He said his children are sad, that they don’t eat much, and ask about their mom. They want to know when she’ll be back.

“I think now the Hispanics are living the same kind of discrimination and racism that others faced in the past,” said Fr. Mena.

He also said no one in the community seemed to be prepared for the possibility of a raid, or the chance that their family might be split up.

“For me, separating families is the work of the evil one among us. This is something I don’t understand, why they want to divide families and they are family, they are contributing to this country, all of them, they pay taxes and they are connected to this culture,” Fr. Mena said.

Of the 680 employees that were detained as a result of these raids, at least 70 have been charged for things that include illegal reentry into the United States, as well as falsifying documents. According to an ICE official, for those wondering whether or not the owners of these companies that were raided would be charged as well, that decision will ultimately be left up to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Currents News for Friday, August 23, 2019

On the newscast: The trade war is heating up. China say it will slap tariffs totaling $75 billion; A Nigerian bishop is taking matters into his own hands. Militant herdsmen are terrorizing his parishioners. We have the exclusive; Taking God to the beach this summer. Shorefront masses keep one parish afloat; He left high school to go to war. Now he’s graduating at the age of 93.

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.

Christian Persecution and Violence on the Rise in Nigeria

Currents News Staff

Violence is on the rise in Nigeria as abuses by militant groups like Boko Haram and the Fulani Herdsmen continue to plague Africa’s largest economy making it one of the continent’s poorest nations. Something Auxiliary Bishop Ernest Obodo is battling to overcome.

“The greatest challenge we have is the security of lives and properties. The people are no longer safe and they feel very unsafe,” said Obodo.

Obodo serves the Diocese of Enugu in south-east Nigeria where 1.3 of its 1.8 million Christians are Catholic. Many of them are afraid of the escalating religious persecution being fueled by religious and ethnic divisions.

“The activities are known to the people. They come to villages, especially Christian villages. They kill people. Then they escape and nobody is apprehended,” he said.

While Boko Haram’s terrorist activity is known throughout the world, in southern Nigeria where Chrisitans are in the majority, there’s an emerging threat, hordes of nomadic cattle herders from the mostly Muslim Fulani ethic group are ramping up attacks on Christians. And Bishop Obodo says no one is exempt.

“This is a picture of my priest. A 49 year old priest. Father Paul Offu. He was gunned down by a suspected Fulani herdman. He was just going for a mass and people came from the bush and shot sporadically at his car. He managed to continue and after some time his car couldn’t move again. He got up and got out to run into the bush and they followed him and killed him on the spot,” said Obodo.

Bishop Obodo blames the inaction of the government and wide-spread corruption for the skyrocketing violence.

According to Open Doors, a group that tracks violence against Christians in over 70 countries, there have been 9 thousand to 11 and a half thousand Christians killed between 2006-2014. And there have been more than 13 thousand churches destroyed in northern Nigeria alone.

Now, the church in Nigeria is urging the faithful to act, demanding action from their political leaders but also taking security into their own hands.

“Every parish is secured by its own people because the government is doing more or less than helping the situation so we are saying we must constitute security for ourselves,” said Obodo.

And as he prays for a peaceful Nigeria, he continues the fight unafraid and full of hope.

“I am not afraid because I have faith. Faith in God. And his faith propels me.”

Bishops ‘Raise Their Voice’ for the Amazon, As Fires Rage in Brazil

By Inés San Martin

ROME (Crux) – At 3 pm on Wednesday, the sun was hidden from one of the world’s most populated cities. São Paulo, Brazil, was not experiencing an eclipse, but instead was blanketed in smoke.

The smoke came from forest fires in the Amazon jungle, which is located approximately 1,600 miles from the city. The fires have been burning at unprecedented rates for the past three weeks.

The bishops of Latin America, seeing the devastation being caused to the region, released a statement on Thursday called “We raise our voice for the Amazon rainforest.”

“The bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean want to raise our concern over the gravity of this tragedy that not only has a local or a regional impact, but of planetary proportions,” the bishops of CELAM – the Latin American bishops’ conference – wrote.

Over 60 percent of the Amazon basin, something that is at the center of an upcoming Vatican summit of bishops from the region, touches Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname.

“The hope for the closeness to the Amazon synod, convoked by Pope Francis is now fogged by the pain of this natural tragedy,” the bishops wrote. “To the brothers of the indigenous peoples who live in this beloved territory, we express all our closeness and we unite our voice to yours to show to the world the solidarity and the quick attention to stop this devastation.”

The prelates also urge the governments of the Amazonian countries – particularly Brazil and Bolivia – the United Nations and the international community to take “serious measures” to save the planet’s lungs.

“If the Amazon suffers, the whole world suffers,” they said.

Among the signatories of the statement is Brazilian Cardinal Odilio Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo.

Quoting Pope Francis’s homily at the beginning of his Petrine ministry, on March 19, 2013, the leadership of CELAM called on those who have “positions of responsibility” to be “protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world!”

The Amazon basin is not immune to fires, but this year’s blazes have been particularly bad, and their impact led the capital city of the Amazon state, Manaus, to declare a state of emergency on Friday.

Wednesday’s smoke over São Paulo was so thick, that NASA photographed it from space, and there are reports that the water in the region is being contaminated.

According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the fires are burning at the highest rate since the institute began tracking them in 2013.

INPE noted that so far this year there have been 72,843 fires in Brazil, with more than half in the Amazon region. That’s more than an 80 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

INPE estimates that more than 1½ soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day. Most of the fires were started by farmers clearing their lands, and even though they’re mostly burning in uninhabited areas of the forest, they’re beginning to intrude into populated areas in northern Brazil.

Since the 1970s, nearly 497,000 square miles of Brazil’s original 1.5 million square miles of Amazon forest has been lost to logging, farming, mining, roads, dams and other forms of human development. Environmentalists note that in the past year, since rightwing populist Jair Bolsonaro took over the presidency of Brazil, the rate of deforestation has grown and it’s the highest it’s been in a decade.

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro claimed the fires were caused by nongovernmental organizations, who are setting the fires in retaliation for having their funding cut.

“It could be, it could, I’m not saying it is, a criminal action by these NGO people to call attention against me, against the Brazilian government,” he said, providing no evidence to back the accusation. “This is the war we face.”

He said the government was working to control the blazes.

The Amazon produces 20 percent of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists have warned that eventually the region could become a dry savannah, no longer habitable for much of its wildlife.

The basin is considered vital in slowing global warming, and it is home not only to indigenous peoples, many of whom live in isolation, but also countless species of fauna and flora.

The Synod of Bishops on the Amazonian region will meet next October in Rome, convoked by Francis, who described it as a direct result of Laudato Si’, a papal encyclical published in 2015 dedicated exclusively to the environment. In the pope’s words, the document is not a “green encyclical” but a “social one,” rooted in a “green reality: The care for creation.”

The synod is an “urgent” gathering, not of scientists and politicians, but for the Church, Francis said, noting that the main discussion of the gathering will be evangelization. However, the region’s biodiversity will also be part of the agenda.

According to Francis, the Amazon basin is a “representative and decisive place,” that together with the oceans plays a key role guaranteeing the survival of the planet.

“Much of the oxygen we breathe comes from there. That’s why deforestation means killing humanity,” he told the Italian daily La Stampa on Aug. 9. “And then the Amazon involves nine states, so it doesn’t concern a single nation. And I’m thinking of the richness of the Amazonian plant and animal biodiversity: It’s wonderful.”

School Uniforms: Not Just for Catholics Anymore

By Tim Harfmann

Last-minute shoppers wrapped around Flynn O’Hara uniform store in Middle Village, Queens.

“It’s gotten [to] where the customer is waiting until more of the last-second type of shop. This is Christmas during the summer for them,” said Anthony Algieri, a district manager who has spent nearly a half-century in the uniform industry, working at Flynn O’Hara for the last decade.

The family-owned-and-operated uniform provider boomed in the 1960s and 70s with the expansion of Catholic schools.

Today, most of their consumers still receive a faith-based education.

“Out of this location, we serve approximately 130 schools. I’d probably say 110 of them are parochial,” said Algieri.

But the company adapted over the years to keep the machines turning, now also catering to private and charter schools, and even creating new uniform designs to stick with the fashion of the times.

“The girls used to wear a blazer, a vest, a blouse, a skirt. Now, they have a choice of either skirt or pants,” Algieri added.

For instance, more schools are turning to polo shirts and sweaters to give students more options.

The Queens store sells four-to-five-thousand items a day, making it the largest of the company’s 35 locations nationwide.

Behind the scenes, employees are pressing and stitching school logos to keep up with the demand. Though the store isn’t as crowded as it once was, 80 percent of their customers are from Catholic schools.

The embroidery machines run up to 12 hours a day, cranking out hundreds of pieces.

Jessica Laszlo and her mom, Christine, picked up their order on August 22. A student at Saint Francis Prep High School, Jessica said she’ll always appreciate wearing a Catholic uniform; “I, personally, like it because it makes it quicker to get up in the morning without having to worry about what you’re wearing, or how you look, because everyone looks the same.”

“I want the customers to get what they need, and I want them to be happy that they got it,” said Algieri. “Not that they just have to come here.”

Just like Catholic education, these uniforms stand the test of time.

Currents News for Thursday, August 22, 2019

On the newscast: In just 3 weeks since the El Paso & Dayton massacres, dozens of people have been arrested for threatening mass shootings; President Trump has made a promise– he’s wiping out every penny of student debt held by disabled veterans; It’s that time of year again. The mad rush for school uniforms. We take a look at the business; MVP & All-Star Bob Cousy has a new honor– this one the highest in the land.

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.

Basketball Legend Bob Cousy Receives Medal of Freedom

Currents News Staff

A native New Yorker and basketball legend has added another award to his trophy case tonight.

Hall of Famer and thirteen-time all-star Bob Cousy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

The Celtics point guard helped to lead the Boston team to six championships.

The Catholic, who was an All-American at Holy Cross College, is the fourth NBA player to ever receive the medal of freedom.