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Obamacare Returns to Court

By Tamara Laine

The future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s signature healthcare legislation, is being challenged again in court. The fifth circuit court of appeals in New Orleans is hearing oral arguments on its constitutionality.

The case, brought by Texas and 19 other republican-led states, argues that the ACA is no longer constitutional now that Congress has removed the individual mandate, which required all Americans to obtain health insurance or face a tax penalty. 

Proponents of the ACA who fighting to preserve the law in court, including California and 19 mostly democratic states, maintain that Congress did not intend to repeal the whole law when they ended the mandate penalty in 2017.

A repeal of the nearly decade old law could leave up to 32 million people uninsured by 2026, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office.  

The battle is not expected to end any time soon.

 The fifth circuit’s decision will influence whether or not the Supreme Court considers the case. 

The Epidemic of Human Trafficking: Jeffrey Epstein Arrested Over Alleged Trafficking Ring

By Emily Drooby

Influential New York billionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Federal prosecutors out of New York unsealed the criminal indictment on July 8, after allegedly finding lewd photographs in his Manhattan mansion. 

Damage to the door of Epstein’s New York City apartment could be seen after federal agents stormed through. According to prosecutors, his home is one of the places from which he operated his sex trafficking ring. Earlier that day, Epstein was also arrested.

The indictment alleges he ran a trafficking enterprise between 2002 and 2005, paying women as young as 14 for sex. He now faces 45 years in prison if convicted. 

These charges come a decade after the financier avoided similar charges in Miami through a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Epstein is well-connected, known for having relationships with high level people like former President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump. Both have denied involvement in the case.

Epstein is charged with sex trafficking, which is a form of human trafficking, and part of a major global issue. 

Forced labor and human trafficking is estimated to be a $150 billion industry.

In New York City, it has become an epidemic. In 2018, The National Human Trafficking Hotline counted 206 cases in New York. 

Sister Joan Dawber is the Executive Director of Lifeway Network, a Brooklyn and Queens-based group educating the public and providing safe housing for trafficking victims. 

“Brooklyn and Queens is an epicenter for human trafficking,” she explained.

In an interview done earlier this year, she said that Pope Francis consistently fights against human trafficking, calling it a wound on humanity. 

She explained that it is important for the Church to work together to help stamp it out, “so that human beings can be just have the dignity that is part of being a human being, made in God’s likeness.” 

The importance of combatting human trafficking was not lost on U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who while announcing the charges against Epstein, said it’s important to hold him accountable for all of his past victims. 

“The alleged behavior shocks the conscience. and while the charged conduct is from a number of years ago, it is still profoundly important to the many alleged victims now young women. they deserve their day in court,” he said. 

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta was the U.S. attorney who oversaw Epstein’s original case where he received the controversial plea deal. As more information on the case becomes public, top Democrats including Nancy Pelosi are calling for Acosta’s resignation. 

From Brooklyn to the Catskills: Bishop DiMarzio Celebrates Special Mass for Boy Scouts

By Tim Harfmann

Brookly Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is no stranger to mother nature. A former Boy Scout, during his time as a Scout he earned the rank of ‘Life,’ the second-highest honor that can be bestowed upon a Boy Scout.

He was also a Scout Leader before he entered the seminary, and as part of a special visit, he traveled nearly 120 miles from Brooklyn to the Catskills mountains where over 1600 Boy Scouts will spend part of their summer at Ten Mile River scout camps.

Nearly 750 of them are from the Brooklyn Diocese.

The Boy Scouts’ motto is ‘be prepared,’ and they were prepared –  with sloppy joes and tater tots upon Bishop DiMarzio’s arrival. 

“It’s very important to men who are involved in it,” said Bishop DiMarzio, “and it’s always good for the diocese to show their show; so I do enjoy coming up for the day.”

He celebrated an outdoor Mass, where he related to the young Scouts in his homily.

“We don’t have a lot of leaders. We have a lot of followers, okay? A lot of followers on Facebook, on all the Twitter, all that stuff,” he said in his homily. 

“It’s a time for all of us to escape from the world of technology, just for us to relax and earn different merit badges and learn new things,” said Eagle Scout Joseph Magliulo, from Troop 139 at  Our Lady of Grace Church in Howard Beach.

Among those new skills: learning how to navigate on a map, and practice CPR.

During the Mass Bishop DiMarzio also urged the campers to consider following God’s call. 

“It’s an important time for them. We want to encourage them,” he said. 

“Either they’re going to be married, or priests or religious or something; but that’s important to make that choice early on. Usually God calls us, not when we’re old, but when we’re young.”

After the Mass, Bishop Dimarzio wished the Scouts a good summer, reminding them to “be prepared.”

Now these scouts are considering their vocation, all while having fun.

Human Rights in Foreign Policy, the Seal of Confession and the Amazon Synod

Currents News Staff

On July 7, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained the decision behind his newly announced Commission on Unalienable Rights, which will review the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy. 

Critics are afraid this could be the Trump administration’s way of pulling back on protections for minority groups. 

On July 8, a California bill that would have required priests to violate the seal of the confessional died in committee. 

The controversial legislation would have had far reaching implications for Catholics in the state and beyond.

Looking ahead towards October 2019, the Vatican’s upcoming meeting of bishops from the Amazon region is already creating controversy among U.S. bishops. 

At the likely heart of the fall meeting is a proposal that in some cases, married men could be ordained to the priesthood. what can you tell us about the proposal?

National correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, Christopher White, joins us to discuss these pressing human rights issues and what implications these changes could carry on a global scale.

 

The Arms Race: Putting the Right to Life at Risk

Currents News Staff

Weapons development is a growing industry that threatens humanity.

 In 2018, about 95 billion dollars were spent on weapons, and Amnesty International calculates that 650 million weapons are currently circulating around the world. 

The U.S. has around 46 percent of the total number, and more than half of weapons exported from the U.S. go to Middle Eastern countries. 

As a result, every day millions of people are living amidst the threat of a global increase in the arms industry. 

Pope Francis has denounced this reality.

“Many times I think of the wrath of God that will be unleashed against the leaders of those countries that speak of peace but sell weapons to make these wars,” he said, “this hypocrisy is a sin.”

Monsignor Silvano Tomasi is a member of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, and throughout his career, he has closely followed the arms race.

“Last year, for example, about 95 billion dollars were spent on weapons. Conventional arms and nuclear weapons are a source of enormous profits for some. at the same time, they are an investment that takes away resources from the general well-being of the human family,” he explained. 

It is a growing trade industry led by the United States, Russia, China, France and Germany, countries which are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council that control 75 percent of the global arms trade.

Among the largest buyers are the United Arab Emirates, India, China, Australia and South Korea.

“International relations, instead of being based on balance of power and on technology for destruction, must be based on mutual trust, exchange of information, working toward permanent dialogue that can build a future without violence but in a strong, secure way,” said Monsignor Tomasi, who ensures the solution is dialogue between all parties involved.

If one identifies the root of the problem and is transparent, peace efforts will succeed. 

Besides threatening family well-being and destroying peace, the most fundamental right – the right to life – is being annihilated each time a trigger is pulled.

 

Putin’s Third Meeting with Pope Francis

Currents News Staff

While on a political-agenda based visit to Italy, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a stop in the Vatican for his third meeting with Pope Francis during his six-year pontificate.

Continuing his usual tardy pattern, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived one hour late for his meeting with Pope Francis, just as he had done the previous two times.

It was a cordial meeting where the two leaders met for nearly one hour in private. A Vatican press release said topics of discussion were Venezuela, Syria and the Ukraine.

The two leaders also mentioned the situation for Catholics in Russia and the agreement signed between the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù hospital and Russian pediatric hospitals.

“I want to express to you the sincere and joyful satisfaction of the Holy Father with whom I was able to speak to immediately after the meeting with the Russian President,” said Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti.

During his pontificate, Pope Francis has made headway with the Russian Orthodox Church. He was the first pope to meet with a Russian Orthodox patriarch since the Christian church was divided into East and West in 1054.

This was Vladimir Putin’s sixth time at the Vatican. He had met John Paul II twice, Benedict XVI once and this meeting concluded his third encounter with Pope Francis.

Mother Cabrini Shines as Example of Care for Immigrants

By Antonina Zielinska, Tamara Laine and Franca Braatz

July is an important month for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, a nun who was known for her work for immigrants in New York City and who’s the namesake of a health foundation the Archdiocese of New York started last year.

Mother Cabrini, as she is commonly known (she started her own order of nuns), was born on July 15, 1850 in Italy and was canonized on July 7, 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

An immigrant herself, Mother Cabrini wasn’t accepted into religious life at first because of her poor health. Undeterred, she eventually received permission to start her own order in Italy, called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

She then gained an audience in 1889 with Pope Leo XIII, who urged her to go to the United States to care for the immigrants suffering there.

The saint and her followers landed on New York shores in 1889, in poverty themselves. Their hosts weren’t prepared for them. They had no place to sleep until they secured one filthy room in a poor Italian neighborhood. The sisters also soon found out that their missionary stipend, the one they needed to eat and live, wasn’t actually available to them.

The sisters put faith in their True Benefactor. They went forward with their work and begged for food and supplies from the people living in Manhattan’s poor Italian neighborhoods on the Lower East Side.

Inspired by the sisters’ dedication, benefactors soon came forward. The sisters opened orphanages and schools. Their work in the Diocese of Brooklyn began in the Italian parish of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Carroll Garden, where they established a school and convent.

Mother Cabrini established 67 institutions during her lifetime. She made 23 trans-Atlantic crossings and started, schools, hospitals and orphanages throughout the U.S., Central and South America and Europe. She died in Chicago in 1917.

“That is also one of the reasons why Pope John Paul II actually refers to her as the Patroness of the New Evangelization … because she is such an example of the missionary spirit of going and building up the church,” said John Heyer, the parish archivist and pastoral associate at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary & St. Stephen. He has studied in depth Mother Cabrini’s impact on Brooklyn.

“It is so important to follow what Mother Cabrini laid before us, because we are all missionaries,” Heyer said. “We are all missionaries of Christ. And just like she was an immigrant, we are all immigrants.”

Sister Bernadette Anello, MSC, is now the general councilor of the Stella Maris Province for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which runs the Cabrini Mission Foundation. Part of the mission of the foundation is to help migrants all over the world and to fight for the human dignity of those from who it has been stripped away.

“From the global perspective, we are seeing this all over, there is a repetition of fear in so many countries now,” Sister Bernadette said.

“Here in this country, when I hear them being called drug traffickers, they’re robbers, they are going to infest our country,” she said. “This is the language that is being used. Yet when you see the pictures, they are young families with little children who are fleeing crime, drugs. They are being killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are risking their lives and leaving everything to get to safe borders.”

A good chunk of Mother Cabrini’s original work was health care. It wasn’t work she was eager to undertake. Bishop Michael Corrigan, the archbishop of New York and a strong supporter of Mother Cabrini, urged the nun to open a hospital, but she had her doubts. She felt she could help children learn, but the work that would go into a hospital scared her.

She then had a vision of the Blessed Mother tending to a hospital patient. Mother Cabrini asked the Virgin what she was doing. “The work you didn’t want to do,” came the answer.

Mother Cabrini went on to establish what would become Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan and other medical institutions around the world.

Her mission of health care continues in New York to this day, with the $3.2 billion Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, which was started by the archdiocese last year. It is giving grants of up to $150 million annually to organization that “improve the health and well-being of vulnerable New Yorkers, bolster the health outcomes of diverse communities, eliminates barriers to care and bridge gaps in health care,” according to the foundation. “This Foundation will exist in perpetuity, helping generations of New Yorkers of all faiths or no faith at all.”

Currents News for Monday, July 8, 2019

On the newscast: Pope Francis invites Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Vatican; Also, the Holy Father celebrates a special mass for migrants in Saint Peter’s Basilica; And, youth leaders from the Brooklyn Diocese are lending a helping hand in Puerto Rico.

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.

Rising to the Occasion: Brooklyn Baker to be Awarded at Bishop DiMarzio Golf Classic

By Tim Harfmann

Edward Mafoud is on a roll as the co-owner of Damascus Bakery in Downtown Brooklyn.

A third-generation baker, his grandfather started the business in 1930.

“The bakery business is in my veins, it’s part of my blood, my genetic makeup,” he explained.

From pita and pizza crusts to flatbreads and mini stuffed bagels, the Brooklyn factory pumps out tens of thousands of loaves every hour.

This week, Ed will receive a sweet treat, a special honor from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio at the annual Bishop DiMarzio Golf Classic Thursday.

The gathering raises money for a cause, while honoring organizations and individuals for dedication to their communities.

Ed is being honored not for kneading, but meeting a need. He’s Chairman of the Saint Nicholas Home, an assisted living facility in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

“I don’t believe I deserve the honor, but putting that to one side; it means everything. It means I lived a life that’s true to the community,” Ed said.

His parents co-founded the home where nearly 70 elderly residents currently receive 24/7 care.

“It’s always worth it when you look into the eyes of these senior citizens that they know you’re doing everything in your power to help them, to give them a quality of life,” he said.

Seventy-one-year-old Barbara Foresti has been living at the home for 14 years.

“I think Ed Mafoud is a wonderful man. He’s been chairman for a long time, and anything we’ve asked him, he’s always said ‘yes,’” she recalled.

Ed, who is a Maronite Catholic living in Staten Island, said just like the yeast in his dough, his faith continues to rise.

“I talk to Jesus Christ all the time, and I say, ‘What is your plan for me? What have I done? What haven’t I done?”

What he has done is be there for his community, earning him the high honor from Bishop DiMarzio.

Celebrating America in US Territory

By Melissa Enaje

When celebrating America as an independent nation in the U.S., one can be certain that a few staple events will occur: highways will be piled with cars escaping to the beach, the smell of barbecue will fill the air and the sound of popping fireworks will be heard throughout the day. In the mountains of Puerto Rico, while separated from the mainland by twice the length of Florida in distance, the U.S. territory is somewhat tranquil on July 4.

Nearly two years after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, fireworks are far and in between, the smell of grilled meat fills the air, tropical fruits are being sold along the highway and ever so often locals are seen wearing bright t-shirts with the huge letters U-S-A or the flag displayed on them.

Cultural Exchange

In Aibonito, July 4 falls during the town’s 51st annual Festival de los Flores, or festival of flowers. The 30-plus group from Brooklyn and Queens attended the annual celebration. A local band played Bon Jovi in the background as the festival took full flight. For the group visiting from New York, the day reflected familiar street festivals back home. When they found items they wanted to purchase from a local vendor, U.S. dollars and coins exchanged hands in between a hello and a “gracias” greeting in Spanish.

But for some local Puerto Ricans, the road back to celebrating a normal livelihood is still yet to be seen. One neighborhood saw four homes destroyed within walking distance from each other.

“Maria destroyed everything, so they’ve been working on this for a while,” Marilyn Santos explained. She was translating for the diocesan contingent and accompanied them as a representative of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“They’ve obviously done a lot, but it’s only been within the last two months that they’ve been able to get what they needed.”

Despite the lapse in relief efforts, Aibonito was one of the towns that received expedited assistance during Hurricane Maria. According to Evelio Santiago, the director of social ministries at St. Joseph’s Parish, a church in Aibonito of the Diocese of Caguas, the town’s mayor, William Alicia Perez, first decided to empty and clear their town’s streets so that relief could reach the rural town.

Santiago added that FEMA provided his parish with vouchers to local groceries, but assistance from the international arm of Catholic Charities, Caritas Puerto Rico, was sparse. He said most of the help came from the local community, surrounding communities, as well as assistance from local organizations based in New Jersey and Chicago.

Government Assistance

In the town of Argenal, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided assistance for Amerelis Gonzalez and her family of four, including two young boys under the age of four. But FEMA decided that only the inside of her former house qualified for the monetary assistance. That’s because her house was made mostly of wood. So while her family tries to rebuild their house on concrete this time, they have been living for months out of a couple suitcases surrounded by the bricks of concrete that is yet to be covered by a roof. Amerelis said she is still thankful that her family is safe and together.

For one retired couple that grew up in the Diocese of Brooklyn but now live in Aibonito’s Rabanal semi-urban community, they said they celebrate the July 4 holiday when they are in the mainland, but not necessarily when on the island.

Whether it was the army soldiers who visited her community by helicopter and dropped boxes of bottled water to a nearby park, or FEMA who offered a loan to help offset the hurricane’s damage to their home that they couldn’t see for months because of the island’s condition, Maria said the U.S. helped the island and continues to help the people of Puerto Rico.

“God is good,” said the former Our Lady of Mercy- Our Lady of the Presentation, Brownsville, parishioner. Inside the couple’s home is a picture that lights up and displays the Twin Towers. Nearly two years ago, their home was filled with mold because of the devastation. They said what while they learned a huge lesson after the natural disaster, that their faith has carried them through.

“We were so scared, but the third day my husband came with my son and saw the house. And when they got back, I started to cry, because they said the house was still standing. It was such a blessing.”

Flavor of the Fourth

In the evening, the diocesan ambassadors and their co-partners in the mission trip, the parishioners from St. Joseph parish, gathered for a fusion celebration of the American holiday: hamburgers were served alongside plates of arroz con pollo and plantains, or rice and beans. The concrete dance floor transformed into the hub where salsa music played in between line dances like the “Cha-Cha” slide. Regardless of language differences or cultural backgrounds, whether their home was Brooklyn or the local barrio, they danced together to the boom-bap of the drums and the blurred words, English and Spanish alike.