Currents News Staff
The healing continues after Sri Lanka was devastated by coordinated bombings at churches and hotels last week.
The Archbishop of Colombo celebrated Mass at his home Sunday.
He canceled Sunday services in Catholic churches over safety concerns.
The country’s President, Prime Minister, and Opposition Leader attended Mass and lit candles for the victims.
Many of the 253 people who died in the attacks were celebrating Easter Mass when the bombings went off.
By Tim Harfmann
One by one, Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio greeted over 200 Catholics on a day of honor for them. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I was very surprised,” said Joyce Jones, from Brooklyn’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. The honorees were recognized for extraordinary service to their churches. “It gives us an opportunity to say ‘thank you,’ which is important because people sacrifice a lot to help us, so we really need to have them thanked,” said Bishop DiMarzio.
The honorees have performed vital tasks in their home parishes, including being members of the choir, serving on finance committees and proclaiming God’s Word as lectors. “This is such a humbling honor for me. I’m like third or fourth generation of family members that have helped out in the Church. It’s a feeling I’m carrying on the family history,” said Geri Anne O’Beirne. She is from Saint Saviour Church in Park Slope and leads the parish’s ‘Martha’s Ministry,’ a group made up volunteers. Their many duties include getting the church ready for Easter with floral decorations, candles and holy water. “That’s what I was brought up to do. You help out at your church,” said O’Beirne.
Along with a handshake and smile from Bishop DiMarzio, the parishioners also received a holy medal during a service at the Co-Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Prospect Heights on Sunday, April 28th. On one side of the medal is an image of the Immaculate Conception. On the other, a cross and two landmarks located in the diocese — the Brooklyn Bridge and the Unisphere.
The large number of Catholics saluted for their service was inspirational. Glenda Harry of Brooklyn’s Saint Jude Church in Canarsie is a member of the choir, prayer group and finance committee. “It’s a way of saying, ‘Wow! What can I do more?’ I am the eyes, the ears, the feet of Jesus. So, I would like to do more to encourage people to do more to evangelize,” said Harry.
“To see so many people so active in their faith, even just sitting here listening to the people responding to the prayers and singing the hymns, it’s such a shot in the arm,” said O’Beirne.
Bishop DiMarzio will honor other parishioners next week. He’ll be at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Church in Jamaica on Sunday, May 5th. The bishop plans to thank nearly 200 more Catholics for what they’ve done for their parishes in Queens.
On the newscast: The New York Archdiocese is publishing a comprehensive list of Archdiocesan clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor; A special Currents News report on a Catholic couple wanting a baby but thinking it would never happen. How the story changed; Joe Biden in New York on TV and President Trump taking him on; Bishop DiMarzio talks about a special program that delivered big results on Easter.
Today’s top news from the Catholic perspective anchored by Liz Faublas. Currents News airs Monday through Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET on NET-TV (netny.tv)
By Emily Drooby
A street sign forever memorializing FBI special agent Edwin R. Woodriffe, a hero from the Brooklyn Diocese.
In 1969, Woodriffe was shot and killed while on the job. He was the first African American FBI agent murdered in the line of duty. He was only 27 when he died.
His daughter, Lee Ann Woodriffe, wanted her father to be honored in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
She chose Jefferson Avenue because it’s where St. Peter Claver Church is located, a place that held a special spot in her father’s heart.
Lee Ann explained, “And so this church here is where he was an altar boy, he went to school right here, he was married here, his first-born was baptized here, his funeral was here, he was eulogized here, so I said this is the fitting corner, this is the street out of any other place in New York.”
Getting a street named after someone is not easy. In addition to government red-tap, the Woodriffe’s also faced criticism from supporters of Brooklyn radical activist Jitu Weusi, he’s been accused of being anti-Catholic.
After two and a half years of hard work and patience Lee Ann Woodriffe’s dreams finally became a reality.
Father Alonzo Cox, the pastor of St. Peter Claver, Brooklyn’s first African American Catholic church, and Auxiliary Bishop James Massa attended the unveiling ceremony, both expressed great respect for Woodriffe.
Bishop Massa said, “This is a day to really hold up a great New Yorker and a member of our Catholic community.”
Father Cox said, “The Woodriffe family considers this place their home, so it’s really such a beautiful day.”
The sign will now stand as a reminder Woodriffe, his success, his faith, and his sacrifice.
By Currents News Staff
On April 26, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan released the names of credibly accused clergy associated with sexually abusing a minor.
There are 120 names on the list. None are currently in active ministry.
The move comes as many other dioceses across the country have released similar lists. Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced the news on his Facebook page and in an online pastoral letter to the family of the New York archdiocese.
“After hearing from many of you, including many victim-survivors,” he wrote, “I have decided today to publish a comprehensive list of archdiocesan clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor or who were the subject of a claim, found to be eligible for compensation, made to the archdiocese’s independent reconciliation and compensation program.”
“Please be assured there is not a single priest or deacon of the Archdiocese of New York against whom there has been a credible and substantiated claim of abuse against a minor currently in ministry.”
The archdiocese also put out a chart of the years of ordination for clergy who were credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor. The peaks occurred in the nineteen-fifties and sixties with about five-dozen ordinations.
A second graph shows the years in which alleged sexual abuse of a minor by archdiocesan clergy occurred. Those numbers were largest in the nineteen-seventies, eighties and nineties.
The Cardinal’s entire pastoral letter is available to read at archny.org/letter.
The clergy list is at archny.org/list
Several months ago, on February 15, the Diocese of Brooklyn released a list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse against minors.
The total of 108 names spanned the 166-year history of the diocese.
Most of the accused are deceased.
The Diocese of Brooklyn’s website now has a special section where people can go to get all the information in one place.
It includes the Clergy list, as well as videos and resources.
Go to dioceseofbrooklyn.org and on the home page, click on “Clergy abuse crisis response.”
The Brooklyn Diocese also has a toll free and confidential abuse reporting line.
That number is 888-634-4499.
By Currents News Staff
Former New York City Firefighter Christopher Slutman was finally laid to rest Friday April 26.
The U.S. Marine staff sergeant was among three Marines killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan earlier this month.
A solemn procession was held from the Bronx to Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan.
The 43-year-old is survived by his wife and three daughters.
With an infant, a toddler, and a pre-teen, Maria Heyer is on ‘mommy patrol’ around the clock. But her home wasn’t always a constant symphony of cries for attention and whines for baby bottles. The Heyer house used to be quiet.
“You know, just within the Italian community, before you’re married they ask, ‘When you getting married,” says her husband, John Heyer. “Then they ask ‘When you having a baby,’ and then before you have your baby, they ask ‘When you having your next baby.’”
The Heyer’s are part of a big Italian family, in the middle of a large Italian parish. They were expected to have a baby, and they did. It wasn’t until after their first born that their plans of having a full house began to fall apart.
“Just like you look to blame yourself, you look to blame your spouse, you look to blame God,” says John when he thinks about the years he and his wife could not conceive. It seemed impossible. So began years of train rides to consultations and appointments, poking and prodding. Maria remembers times when she just wanted to “give up.” “I remember being on the 6 train going up to Lenox Hill and wanting to turn around and just go home,” she says.
Maria, a devout Catholic, chose to refuse treatments that were supposed to ‘guarantee’ a pregnancy, like hormone injections and In Vitro Fertilization. In return, multiple doctors told her that IVF was the only way, and if she didn’t want to go through with it, her only alternative was to sit back and relax, with a glass of wine.
Desperate for the family of their dreams, the couple even asked the Bishop of Brooklyn for advice. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio gave them a third class relic of Saint Gerard Majella, the patron priest of expectant mothers and unborn children. They placed it underneath their bed. But, the relic didn’t seem to work either. After nearly six years of trying, the Heyer’s were giving up. Their marriage was being pushed to the brink. Then someone told them about the Gianna Center.
“The job of any doctor is to figure out what is causing the symptoms, says Dr. Paul Carpentier, “and infertility is a symptom. It’s a sign that something is going wrong.” Dr. Carpentier is the medical director at the Gianna Center, a small Catholic health center that specializes in women’s health and fertility. He’s one of the first family physicians trained in something called ‘NaProTechnology,’ a natural medical approach to treating women’s reproductive disorders.
“They went step-by-step to diagnose what could have been preventing fertility,” says John, “as opposed to just trying to get her pregnant.” This was the kind of care the Heyer’s were looking for all along.
NaProTechnology is a restorative reproductive medicine, meaning it’s based on figuring out what’s wrong, through tests and studies, and fixing it. As Dr. Carpentier explains, sometimes it takes more than just testing. What’s wrong could be revealed in simply listening to your patients.
Catholic Health Services allows on average one hour with patients. Across the United States, only spend seven minutes with their patients. Dr. Carpentier says it’s just not possible to really know what is going on in someone’s body in that brief amount of time.
Through simple blood tests and conversations, Maria found out she had endometrioses. Soon after she had surgery, the Heyer’s had an announcement to make. They were expecting a baby girl.
Maria credits NaProTechnology for the birth of her children. The success rate is the same as IVF, but the prematurity rate is six fold less. Dr. Carpentier says, through NaProTechnology, they are saving “one embryo at a time.”
Less than a year after their second born, the Heyer’s had another baby. This one was born on the Feast Day of St Gerard Majella. “I really believe that if you have faith, you don’t believe in coincidences, you believe in miracles and providence…and things happen for a reason,” says John, reflecting back on their long journey.
The Heyer’s say they are hanging onto the relic, but one day, they might give it to another couple that just might need a little faith.
**John Heyer is the Director of the Annual Catholic Appeal and Special Assistant to the Vicar for Development for the Diocese of Brooklyn
On the newscast: Joe Biden is running for President. We’ll have insight into the Catholic candidate – and his stand on church teachings; The latest on the Easter Sunday church bombings and priests in our area with close connections to the damaged houses of worship; A preview of The Tablet. It’s a special issue you may want to keep as a collector’s item; A controversy over Communion when a Bishop withholds the Body of Christ.
Today’s top news from the Catholic perspective anchored by Liz Faublas. Currents News airs Monday through Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET on NET-TV (netny.tv)
Joining us in the studio with more on the latest developments in Sri Lanka about the Easter Sunday bombings is the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amrith Rohan Perera.
Joe Biden is Catholic, but he’s at odds with the Church when it comes to abortion and the sanctity of life.
National correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, Christopher White, offers insight on the recently announced 2020 presidential candidate that you won’t find anywhere else.