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Crisis In Venezuela – Devastation Causing Unrest

Currents News Staff

Cross into Venezuela’s unending disaster, the world’s worst growing refugee crisis.

Oil once made them the richest in South America, but now the line is for three days and nights to get a full tank.

In the capital, there’s a queue for everything, everywhere and hunger breeds a special kind of anger.

This is how hyperinflation works: groceries cost $50 now but because of what’s happening with the local currency, they will be worth at least double next month from now – people paying tomorrow’s prices today.

[See More: Crisis in Venezuela: U.S. Now Backing Opposition Leader Juan Gualdo]

There’s no queuing for the youngest living off of what, even here, nobody wants. This isn’t play, it’s practice for self-defense.

“My brother got killed in July by another gang,” says 14-year-old Uzmaria. “They found the body in the river. We gather stuff, we beg, a piece of chicken skin to take home,” he adds.

In the socialist utopia that now leaves nearly every stomach empty, this was the day when change was meant to come.

Hundreds of thousands flooding central Caracas, watching opposition leader Juan Guaido swear himself in as interim President.

But it fast turned sour. They’ve had this standoff, outside the military airfield here, for months.

This is the first time an opposition leader has claimed the presidency. All eyes were on the army, and whether it too would rise up.

This is the important question here, really, the army’s vote. They may be throwing stones at them here, but what they really need is the army to switch sides.

That didn’t happen. And the police tear gas and motorcycle charges sent us fleeing down side streets.

Some lightly wounded, although dozens reported dead during the day. Army defectors outside Venezuela called on soldiers to rise up.

But we hear from one junior officer that even when you can’t feed your family it’s more complicated.

“I would say 80 per cent of soldiers are against the government, some even go to demonstrations. But the big fishes – the senior officers – are the ones eating – getting rich – while at the bottom we have it hard. I get a dollar and a half every month, promptly, enough for one chicken,” said one Junior Officer.

And as Washington says Maduro isn’t President, Moscow insists he is.

 

Pope Addresses Sexual Abuse, Venezuela And A Lack Of Faith During Flight To Rome

Currents News Staff

Pope Francis has arrived back to Rome. On his 12-hour flight back, Pope Francis spoke about many topics during his in-flight press conference with journalists, including the upcoming Summit on Sexual Abuse, the situation in Venezuela and reasons youth leave the Church.

In anticipation of next month’s upcoming Summit on Sexual Abuse, Pope Francis spoke aboard the papal plane, saying many bishops don’t know how to fix situations of abuse. Thus, he said there were three steps he wants to instill in the them at the meeting.

“First, that they become aware of this. Second: that they know what must be done; the procedure.Let me say that I have perceived some inflated expectations. Expectations must be deflated, because the problem of abuse will continue. It is a human problem, but human everywhere,” said Francis.

Then, Pope Francis commented on Venezuela, after his statement on Sunday calling for a ‘just and peaceful solution’ to the political crisis.

“I thought about my words, I reflected a lot on them. I think that with this I expressed my closeness, what I feel. I suffer from what is happening in Venezuela at this time,” he said.

After drawing close to youth during the October Synod and this past week, he also reflected on the reasons young people leave the faith.

“There are many things, but the most general reason, I think, is first the lack of Christians witnesses: priests, bishops. I can’t speak about the popes because… but also them,” he added.

It was a 45-minute long meeting in which journalists saw the Pope visibly tired, but pleased at what he had experienced at WYD in Panama. Upon arriving back in Rome, the first stop Pope Francis made was at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, to thank the Blessed Mother for a safe and successful trip.

Cuba’s First Catholic Church in 60 Years

Currents News Staff

Cuba’s first Catholic church since the revolution opened its doors over the weekend. 

For decades, Cubans who were religious suffered discrimination at the hands of the officially atheist government of Fidel Castro.

A converted garage in the small Cuban town of Sandino is where Mass used to be held.

The communist-run government wouldn’t let the Catholic Church build a new house of worship in Sandino, or for that matter anywhere else.

Cubans of faith made do with what they had, until now.

On Saturday Catholics in Sandino celebrated the first Mass at their new church, the first to be built on the island since the 1959 revolution.

“To see this finished is like coming out of night into the day. We knew it would happen one day,” said Rev. Cirilo Castro, a Cuban Catholic Priest.

Despite the rain, people from the town and surrounding villages filled the church. They have been waiting a long time for this day. Even a local dog or two come in to see what the fuss was all about.

The church was built with nearly $100,000 in donations from a sister diocese in Tampa. Father Ramon Hernandez left Cuba for Tampa almost forty years ago and came back to see the church open.

“In the United States, with $90,000 you can do nothing -but here yes,” said Hernandez. “In 60 years it is the first one,” he added.

Soon after taking power Fidel Castro suspected the Catholic Church was conspiring against his officially atheist state. Churches were shut down, priests thrown into re-education camps – a dark history that the town of Sandino knows all too well.

In the early days of the Cuban Revolution, this remote town became notorious as a place where Cubans accused of engaging in anti-government activity were sent to live in internal exile, a kind of Cuban Siberia.

Now it will finally be famous for something else.

The Cuban Catholic Church says times have changed and they no longer face the same discrimination they once did. 

“If there was a problem once between the Church and the state then those things have been overcome, thanks to God,” said Castro.

A church sixty years in the making and proof that hope is never lost.

Latest on Philippines Cathedral Bombings

Currents News Staff

At least twenty people were killed in twin bombings at a cathedral in the Mindanao region of the Philippines Sunday.

That’s according to the Police Director Graciano Mijares of the Philippine National Police of the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao.

The first of the twin bombings was inside the Jolo Cathedral.

The second was targeting soldiers nearby who had rushed to help the victims from the first explosion.

Mijares added that over eighty people have been wounded, sixty-five of which are civilians.

The Mindanao region has been plagued with violence between Muslims and Christians for decades.

WYD Watch Party in Queens

By Emily Drooby

Aurelia Tello says she was excited when she found out that her son, Adalfo, had been given the opportunity to attend World Youth Day. Tello said, “I got so excited I asked my son; ‘do you want to go to Panama to see the Pope?’ And he said yes! And I feel so happy.”

The proud mother and her other children have been getting a first-hand look at all of the festivities happening in Panama, through photos and videos from her son. Tello said, “I call him and I said, ‘how do you feel’, and he says, ‘very good’, and I said ‘are you happy’ and he said ‘yes I’m very happy I feel so blessed’, and that makes me feel so good.”

Her daughter Hillary Tello, said, “He’s going to learn a lot about God, and get closer to him.”

On Saturday night, the Tellos’ and other members of the Brooklyn and Queens Diocese gathered at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish For A World Youth Day viewing party.

One of the event organizers tells us she’s been to two separate World Youth Days and because of her incredible experience, she wanted to make sure the rest of her community, knew what it felt like to be a part of it.

Event co-organizer, Laura Ramirez-Galeas, said, “It’s just, I can’t describe it. When you’re there, you don’t need to speak, you just know who you are and that you belong there…People don’t understand that we belong to this immense church, it’s not just the church that we go to go across the street, no, we are the church.”

The viewing was of the Vigil With The Youth and drew in about 80 parishioners, of all ages, from across the Diocese. Event co-organizer, Claudia Cruz, said, “We have this opportunity for them to come and enjoy the view even though we are not close together in the same place, we are one in spirit.”

All looking to feel some of the same sense of community the pilgrims in Panama are experiencing.

World Youth Day 2019 – Sunday Morning Live Coverage

Currents News live coverage of World Youth Day 2019 from Sunday, January 27, 2019. Coverage includes Holy Mass for World Youth Day at St John Paul II Field – Metro Park and a visit to El Buen Samaritano Home. (Good Samaritan Home)

Brooklyn Pilgrims At #WYD2019 Vigil

Currents News Tim Harfmann follows the pilgrims from the Diocese of Brooklyn on the next leg of their pilgrimage at the World Youth Day 2019 from Panama.