The Seton Route is the first group to reach Indianapolis ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress. They’ve traveled through 18 dioceses and eight states, and we’ve been checking in with one of those pilgrims, New Yorker Zoe Dongas, all along the way!
As her journey comes to a close, she says this has been an awe-inspiring experience. Zoe also says in every diocese she’s passed, she’s seen people getting excited to walk with Jesus.
The Eucharistic Revival that sparked that nationwide pilgrimage, and the Congress happening soon, began because of a 2019 Pew Research study that caught the bishops’ attention.
It found about 69 percent, or two-thirds of U.S. Catholics, said they do not believe the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood and that they are just symbols.
A more recent study, however, found that may not be the case. The Catholic firm, Vinea Research, says it’s actually the opposite. Their study says 69 percent of Mass-going Catholics do believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
A Catholic family from Brooklyn lands in Ukraine right as a missile strike hits the war-torn country. They were only 83 miles away from the deadly attack at a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Pope Francis is preparing for the longest international trip of his papacy! He will travel 20,000 miles during his 12-day visit to Asia in September.
In another ongoing foreign conflict, an Israeli air strike on a Gaza Catholic school killed at least four, drawing condemnation from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Catholics celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Neocatechumenal Way in America with a mass at Barclays Center, attended by nearly 20,000 members! Bishop Robert Brennan was among several bishops from around the country and scores of priests to mark the anniversary. Learn more about the massive celebration.
By Katie Vasquez
Sketching with just a pencil and paper. Cartoonist and illustrator Melinda Steffen, also known as Mindy Indy, loves to let her creativity flow.
“I’ve been drawing all my life. I just never stopped,” said Steffen.
She’s drawn a lot of different comics, but she is proudest of her most recent heroes called God’s Superheroes, the series highlights amazing real-life Catholic women and men.
“It really was the perfect, like the perfect, like meeting of worlds here because, yeah, it’s like I draw in a very, like, exciting and dynamic style, like comics are. and then it’s like incorporating the faith,” said Steffen.
She drew her first volume in 2021, telling the stories of saintly figures like Blessed Carlo Acutis.
“I learned about Blessed Carlo Acutis from this book and he helps me with tech problems like all the time,” said Steffen.
And famous lay Catholics like “Lord of the Rings” author, J.R.R Tolkien. Mindy says this page took her 15 hours to complete.
“I totally geek out on Tolkien and I was like, yeah, like drawing my versions of, you know, the characters,” said Steffen.
She offered Currents News a sneak peek of the second volume in the series, coming out in the fall. It features heroes like Saint Marianne of Molokaʻi.
“It was really fun drawing those illustrations because it’s like, oh, Hawaii is so beautiful, and I incorporated the cool plants and stuff,” said Steffen.
Mindy attends mass every week at St Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village. She says that blending her faith and drawing skills has been a highlight of her career, especially when she sees other Catholics enjoying her comic.
“A woman comes up to me, she sees this book,” said Steffen. “And she is like, my daughter loves this St Therese drawing because her name is Therese and so she carries this book wherever she goes. And I was like, oh my gosh.”
Mindy ultimately hopes to continue the series… but who her next hero will be? That’s a super-secret.
According to the United Nations, gang violence in Haiti has displaced more than 300,000 children since March. For months now, the country has struggled to control kidnappings and killings.
Here in the Diocese of Brooklyn, Haitians are praying for their homeland, asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The Mass, sponsored by the Diocese’s Haitian Apostolate, marked the feast day of the Marian apparition.
Every year, people from the Caribbean island remember and thank the Patroness of Haiti for answering their prayers and saving the country from a smallpox and cholera outbreak in 1882.
During this year’s Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Sunset Park, Bishop Robert Brennan and the faithful prayed for Mary’s intercession again.
By Christine Persichette
A Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian children’s hospital has left dozens dead, intensifying the chaos in Kyiv. Amidst the turmoil, a Catholic family from Brooklyn, visiting their ailing grandmother in Zhytomyr, is desperately seeking safety while urging for more international aid to help Ukraine.
Dozens were killed after a Russian missile attack hit a Ukrainian children’s hospital. Kyiv is scrambling to pick up the pieces, and a Catholic family from Brooklyn is in the middle of the chaos.
They’re in the city of Zhytomyr, which is just over 80 miles from Kyiv. Natalia Pastushenko brought her three children there to see their grandma, who is fighting cancer. Soon after arriving, they heard the air raid sirens.
“Once we came, I heard the sirens,” said Igor Ozminskyy. “We went to the house to find cover.”
Ten-year-old Igor Ozminskyy, an altar boy at Guardian Angel Church in Brighton Beach, is currently in Ukraine with his younger siblings and his mom, visiting their grandma.
“Every time I hear sirens, I feel like a missile is either gonna hit this house or somewhere near us,” said Alexander Ozminskyy.
They arrived just as dozens of Russian missiles bombarded cities across the war-torn country Monday. The deadly strike at that children’s hospital in Kyiv was just 83 miles away.
“They don’t care where they’re bombing – kids or adults, or they don’t care absolutely – it’s pure evil,” said Natalia Pastushenko.
Natalia Pastushenko moved to Brooklyn 15 years ago. Her three young children are enrolled at St. Peter Catholic Academy. But she says her mother won’t leave her home, even though previous missile strikes have come close. A school just a half mile away was destroyed by one last year. But the kids know what to do when danger comes close.
“Go hide—I would go look for cover,” said Alexander. The room behind us has two walls all around, so I go there and just stay there until the sirens stop.”
Natalia is hoping the U.S. will do more to help her homeland.
“Only Ukraine is fighting for the whole world, and at least the United States give us more air defense system and maybe more tanks, more ammunition to help us to fight this devil,” said Pastushenko.
In the meantime, they hold out hope.
“I hope the war ends,” said Solomia Ozminska.
And they pray every single day.
“We are praying for Ukraine, for Ukrainian soldiers, for Ukrainian volunteers,” Pastushenko added. “We hope this awful war to be over soon, but it doesn’t look like it’s gonna be over soon.”
Christian Kauffmann is not a carpenter by trade but the parishioner who fixes everything at Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen Church in Carroll Gardens.
Nancy Cardinale, a member of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, does more than ‘ring the bells to heaven.’ Her diverse contributions are a testament to her deep involvement and commitment.
Dave Beaudry is known for always putting his faith into action. He heads up the BrownBaggers at St. Saviour Parish in Park Slope, a group that meets monthly to make sandwiches and deliver them to people experiencing homelessness.
Paulita Dacosta-Campbell is taking the “steps” to grow a new ministry. Praise dancing is another way to pray at St. Bonaventure and St. Benedict the Moor in Jamaica.
Steps, statues, saints, fountains and faith – summer in Rome.
We are taking you there on this special edition of Currents News.
Melissa Corsi is leading the way.
Many Americans haven’t been to Europe since the pandemic, but she has our exclusive itinerary, complete with tour guides.
Discover forgotten Catholic histories in piazzas and even in prisons. Plus, statues with a voice as we roam around the Eternal City.
By Katie Vasquez
After four years at St. Francis College, Zenovia Gonzalez has a lot to be proud of.
She graduated co-valedictorian of the class of 2024 and is a member of several honor societies including the Duns Scotus.
“That is the highest honor at St. Francis College. About 15 students per year get into it,” Gonzalez said. “And so that is just, that was a true honor to get in.”
The 21-year-old is heading to medical school on her way to becoming a doctor after interning in multiple emergency rooms.
“You never know what’s going to come through the doors,” Gonzalez said. “And I think that’s the most thrilling part of, you know, like you feel like you’re on fire when you step in because you have to find a diagnosis right away.”
But she says her dream to help others didn’t start in a hospital.
It began here at the Chateau at Brooklyn Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, where she learned to see beyond a chart.
“I had no idea what these patients were going through. I don’t see their chart,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t know what their diagnosis is, but I think that’s the beauty because you don’t treat patients as if they were a diagnosis.”
She first started volunteering here at 14 years old. Her main job is to help patients feel less lonely.
“They need someone to talk to and they need that support system that they may not have their family there all the time,” Gonzalez said.
It’s a medicine resident Maria Paige says is like no other.
“She was a wonderful volunteer,” Paige said. “And wherever she’s going now, she’s a credit to them. You know, and they’re all thoroughly wonderful. I have no… they’re family. This is my family.”
Diane Ryabo, the director of recreation and volunteer services, could see Gonzalez was different from past volunteers.
“She was just a go-getter, very creative, very compassionate, really cared about the elderly, and that’s rare,” Ryabo said. “She wasn’t afraid. A lot of people who start volunteering, they’re a little afraid sometimes and they don’t know what to expect. They get nervous and that wasn’t the case. You know, she just really loved all the patients and adapted so easy where departments were fighting over who was going to have her in their department.”
Gonzalez feels her time here will make her a better doctor.
“In those stages where patients are vulnerable, like it’s their last stages of life, they want someone to talk to,” she said. “I think that really kind of molded my experience to want to keep going and doing medicine and hoping that I could be there for someone’s last stages of life.”
As Gonzalez prepares for her next stage of life, medical school at SUNY Downstate, she knows she got an even higher education in Brooklyn.
If you would like to volunteer at the center as well, you can call the Chateau at Brooklyn Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at 718-535-5100.
by Jessica Easthope
It doesn’t take much to see Ben Hack’s talent; just pass him the basketball, and watch him shine.
But not many people are willing to give you a shot when you’re 25, with autism.
“The adults with autism community is underserved, underfunded, and always understaffed,” said Mary Beth Walsh, Ben’s mother.
When Hack aged out of his day programs, Walsh was told he wasn’t fit for group sports. His diagnosis left her without options.
That was until Mary Beth teamed up with her parish, St. Joseph’s Church in Maplewood, New Jersey, and CYO coach Gerry O’Connor.
“Everywhere there’s many, many young adults with autism who are bored, who don’t have enough to do, who don’t have recreation programs that work for them,” Walsh said. “So it’s easy to find them. And I just started with calling my friends.”
“I didn’t know what to expect,” O’Connor said. “I didn’t know what levels of autism we were going to encounter. And we have all different levels; it’s been an eye-opening experience for me.”
With a few phone calls, Walsh was no longer on the sidelines, and the St. Joseph’s Adults with Special Disabilities (ASD) Clinic was born.
“It’s not a heavy lift, and it can make a real impact on the lives of young adults who are really, often overlooked,” Walsh said.
“We just took the drills that I teach the little kids and just kind of narrowed them down and simplified them for these guys,” O’Connor said. “They just want to do what their brothers and sisters do. That’s all they want.”
For an hour every Tuesday during the fall and spring semesters, this gym is theirs. It’s a frenzy of inclusion. St. Joseph’s pastor, Father Jim Worth, wonders why the program’s model hasn’t been picked up by parishes and schools all over the country.
“It made perfect sense to do something like this, and it was so organic and natural that, you know, it just happened and was hugely successful,” Father Worth said. “Young adults wouldn’t have this, and you would think, now this has been going on for a couple of years, no one is mimicking it.”
The players who can join for free are coached by Gerry and a team of high school athletes.
“They’re doing service hours that they need for school or CCD, but once they do it, they come back,” O’Connor said. “I think if they completed their service, they would still come back next year, and the year after.”
If these players were accepted everywhere like they are at St. Joseph’s, Mary Beth believes maybe more people would see what they can add to a team and to the number on the scoreboard.
“The promise that the church makes to everybody who’s baptized is that you belong, and you belong forever with us, and we are living out that baptismal promise, really,” Walsh said.
“You cannot help but fall in love with Ben,” Father Worth said. “So Ben has been such a great teacher for me and the parish. Mary Beth is such an incredibly valiant defender and fighter for as many services as possible.”
“What time is basketball? 6 o’clock. What day? Tuesday, every week. We’ll never miss it,” Walsh said.
This program has changed Ben’s life, and all it took was putting a ball in his hand. Maybe that is the point.
The program is free and welcomes young adults with autism from anywhere.
It starts back up again on September 3 and will run for 8 weeks on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Church in Maplewood.
For more information or to register, you can contact Coach Gerry O’Connor at 201-341-4289.