Angelus News | May 10, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 17
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan is LA’s no longer. In the presence of family, friends, excited Catholics and his brother priests and bishops, the Van Nuys native was officially installed as the new bishop of Fresno May 2. On page 10, Angelus editor Pablo Kay reports from Fresno on the rousing welcome “Bishop Joe” received from Central Valley Catholics and the challenges of a Church “in the fields.” On page 16, the bishop’s brother and Angelus columnist Robert Brennan reflects on the parents whose quiet witness shaped their children forever.
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan is LA’s no longer. In the presence of family, friends, excited Catholics and his brother priests and bishops, the Van Nuys native was officially installed as the new bishop of Fresno May 2. On page 10, Angelus editor Pablo Kay reports from Fresno on the rousing welcome “Bishop Joe” received from Central Valley Catholics and the challenges of a Church “in the fields.” On page 16, the bishop’s brother and Angelus columnist Robert Brennan reflects on the parents whose quiet witness shaped their children forever.
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ANGELUS<br />
‘Fasten your<br />
seat belts!’<br />
LA’s ‘Bishop Joe’ takes<br />
the wheel in Fresno<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> <strong>Vol</strong>. 4 <strong>No</strong>. <strong>17</strong>
Contents<br />
Archbishop Gomez 3<br />
Catholic schoolteachers take a field trip to Finland 20<br />
World, Nation and Local <strong>News</strong> 4-6<br />
A veteran’s final homecoming, 52 years in the making 24<br />
LA Catholic Events 7 Elise Harris: Young faces of holiness get the spotlight in Rome 28<br />
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8 450 years later, Saint John of Ávila is a saint for all ages 32<br />
Father Rolheiser 9<br />
Gary Jansen: An Ignatian secret prayer weapon 36<br />
LA’s oldest priest dies at <strong>10</strong>3 38<br />
Dr. Grazie Christie on a transition worth defending 40<br />
Ruben Navarrette breaks down the Poway rabbi’s most important lesson 42<br />
Heather King: A documentary’s look behind the gun 44
ON THE COVER<br />
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan is LA’s no longer. In the presence of family, friends, excited<br />
Catholics and his brother priests and bishops, the Van Nuys native was officially<br />
installed as the new bishop of Fresno <strong>May</strong> 2. On page <strong>10</strong>, <strong>Angelus</strong> editor Pablo Kay<br />
reports from Fresno on the rousing welcome “Bishop Joe” received from Central Valley<br />
Catholics and the challenges of a Church “in the fields.” On page 16, the bishop’s<br />
brother and <strong>Angelus</strong> columnist Robert Brennan reflects on the parents whose quiet<br />
witness shaped their children forever.<br />
NICK CADENA/DIOCESE OF FRESNO<br />
IMAGE: Priests from Los Angeles pose before processing into St.<br />
Anthony of Padua Church in Fresno for Bishop Joseph V.<br />
Brennan’s installation Mass <strong>May</strong> 2. From left to right: Fathers<br />
Brian Nunes, Gabriel Kang, Richard Sunwoo, Walter Paredes,<br />
John O’Brien, Abel Loera, Riz Carranza, Jim Bevacqua, Vito<br />
DiMarzio, and Patrick Mullen.<br />
JACOB SCOTT
ANGELUS<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>Vol</strong>.4 • <strong>No</strong>.<strong>17</strong><br />
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POPE WATCH<br />
A Christian’s ID card<br />
In the Catholic heart of Bulgaria,<br />
Pope Francis celebrated a special<br />
Mass for 245 children receiving their<br />
first Communion and thanked them<br />
for helping him, their parents and<br />
grandparents remember their own first<br />
Communion.<br />
“Today you have made it possible for<br />
us to relive that joy and to celebrate<br />
Jesus, present in the bread of life,” the<br />
pope told the children <strong>May</strong> 6 in Rakovski’s<br />
Church of the Sacred Heart.<br />
The Mass was one of several liturgies<br />
in the pope’s packed schedule during<br />
his <strong>May</strong> 5-7 apostolic voyage to Bulgaria<br />
and Macedonia.<br />
While only about 1 percent of<br />
Bulgaria’s population is Catholic, in<br />
Rakovski the vast majority of the city’s<br />
27,000 people are Catholic.<br />
“Jesus is alive and here with us; that<br />
is why we can encounter him today<br />
in the Eucharist,” the pope said. “We<br />
do not see him with our physical eyes,<br />
but we do see him with the eyes of<br />
faith.”<br />
After he read his prepared homily,<br />
Pope Francis focused on the first communicants,<br />
dressed in white robes and<br />
seated in the front rows.<br />
“Are you happy to receive your first<br />
Communion?” he asked them. “Yes,”<br />
the braver ones said out loud. “Are<br />
you sure?” the pope asked. “Yes!” they<br />
all shouted.<br />
“In the homily I said something I<br />
want you to remember forever,” the<br />
pope told the children. “I spoke of the<br />
ID card of a Christian. I said our ID<br />
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card is this: God is our father. Jesus<br />
is our brother. The Church is our<br />
family, and we are brothers and sisters.<br />
Our law is love.”<br />
To drive the point home, Pope<br />
Francis had the children repeat each<br />
line after him — or rather, after the<br />
translator who was telling the children<br />
in Bulgarian what the pope had said<br />
in Italian.<br />
At one point, either to test the translator<br />
or the children, the pope said,<br />
“We are enemies.” When it was about<br />
to be repeated, he said, “Are we enemies?”<br />
Of course, they shouted, “<strong>No</strong>.”<br />
After the recitation of the Lord’s<br />
Prayer, the pope had more words for<br />
the children. “<strong>No</strong>w you will receive<br />
Jesus,” he told them. “Do not let<br />
yourselves be distracted; think only<br />
of Jesus. Come to the altar to receive<br />
Jesus in silence; silence your hearts.”<br />
The pope, dipping the consecrated<br />
host in the consecrated wine, personally<br />
gave Communion to each of the<br />
children, while other priests brought<br />
the Eucharist to another 500 people<br />
inside the church and an estimated<br />
<strong>10</strong>,000 people gathered on the church<br />
grounds for the Mass.<br />
The Vatican press office said it was<br />
the first time on a papal trip that Pope<br />
Francis had administered first Communion.<br />
<br />
Reporting courtesy of Catholic <strong>News</strong><br />
Service Rome Bureau Chief Cindy<br />
Wooden.<br />
Papal Prayer Intentions for <strong>May</strong>: That the Church in Africa, through the commitment of its members,<br />
may be the seed of unity among her peoples and a sign of hope for this continent.<br />
@<strong>Angelus</strong><br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
www.la-archdiocese.org<br />
@<strong>Angelus</strong><br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
2 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
NEW WORLD<br />
OF FAITH<br />
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ<br />
The rosary in Mary’s month<br />
<strong>May</strong> is Mary’s month, a time in the<br />
Church when we reflect on our relationship<br />
with the mother of Jesus.<br />
Jesus wanted us to know that his<br />
mother was our mother. It is one of<br />
his last teachings, words he spoke<br />
from the cross: “Behold your mother.”<br />
We need our Blessed Mother Mary<br />
to help us understand the beautiful<br />
mystery of our life in Christ.<br />
Jesus took on our humanity in the<br />
womb of the Virgin Mary. We are able<br />
to call him the Son of Man because<br />
he is the Son of Mary.<br />
As we try ourselves to live truly as<br />
sons and daughters of God, we need<br />
to understand that like Jesus, we are<br />
also children of Mary.<br />
The 20th-century spiritual master,<br />
Blessed Columba Marmion, said, “We<br />
ought to imitate Jesus in all things.<br />
The Eternal Word chose Mary for his<br />
mother; in like manner we should<br />
choose her for our mother and have a<br />
childlike devotion to her.”<br />
This is beautiful advice. All of us<br />
need to find ways to grow in our love<br />
for Mary.<br />
Blessed Marmion used to consecrate<br />
himself to Mary every morning after<br />
receiving Communion. Knowing<br />
that Jesus was with him in the holy<br />
Eucharist, he would pray, “Behold<br />
your Son! O Virgin Mary, I am your<br />
child … accept me as your son as you<br />
have accepted Jesus.”<br />
And like all the saints, Blessed<br />
Marmion had a deep devotion to the<br />
rosary.<br />
The rosary is the prayer of the saints.<br />
Through this prayer we follow the<br />
example of Jesus, who taught us that<br />
unless we become as little children,<br />
we cannot enter the kingdom of<br />
heaven.<br />
During this month of <strong>May</strong>, let us try<br />
to rediscover the power of the rosary.<br />
The goal of our life is to follow<br />
Jesus and become more like him.<br />
And when we pray the rosary, we are<br />
joining our Blessed Mother in turning<br />
our eyes with loving attention toward<br />
Jesus — to the mysteries of his life,<br />
the mysteries that reveal the meaning<br />
of our own lives.<br />
Some people object that the rosary<br />
is repetitious. But that is part of its<br />
beauty and power.<br />
When we observe the ways of nature<br />
— the song of a bird, the mighty<br />
waves of the ocean, the rising of the<br />
sun and its setting — we see that the<br />
order of God’s creation is all repetition.<br />
Patterns that repeat, day in and<br />
day out. Our own lives depend on the<br />
repetition of our hearts beating, our<br />
breathing in and out.<br />
When we pray the rosary we are<br />
not just repeating empty words with<br />
our lips. The rosary is a prayer of the<br />
heart, a contemplative prayer.<br />
For me the rosary is like the “Jesus<br />
Prayer” that so many Christians pray,<br />
repeating words from the Gospel,<br />
“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on<br />
me, a sinner.”<br />
The rosary, too, is a scriptural prayer.<br />
In the Hail Mary we are repeating the<br />
words of an angel, words that brought<br />
about the Incarnation, words that invite<br />
us to join our lives to the mystery<br />
of God’s plan of salvation.<br />
As we pray with our lips, our minds<br />
and hearts enter into a rhythm that<br />
allows us to meditate on the mysteries<br />
of Christ’s life, as seen through the<br />
eyes of his mother.<br />
The scenes that pass before us in<br />
the joyful, sorrowful, luminous, and<br />
glorious mysteries, are all scenes that<br />
Mary saw with her own eyes.<br />
In the rosary, we are learning how<br />
to look at Jesus the way Mary looked<br />
at him, with wonder, with love. The<br />
Gospels tell us that Mary “kept all<br />
these things, reflecting on them in her<br />
heart.”<br />
The rosary is a prayer of remembering,<br />
in which we keep the memory of<br />
Jesus’ words and his example present<br />
and alive, pondering these mysteries<br />
until they come to fill and shape our<br />
own heart.<br />
Through his joyful mysteries, we<br />
learn his humility. Through his<br />
luminous mysteries, we share his<br />
zeal to bring God’s light to the world.<br />
Through his sorrowful mysteries,<br />
we learn that love requires sacrifice.<br />
Through his glorious mysteries, our<br />
confident hope for heaven grows.<br />
Each decade of the rosary begins<br />
with the prayer that Jesus taught us,<br />
the prayer of God’s children. And this<br />
prayer opens our hearts to our Father’s<br />
plan, his loving will for our lives.<br />
At the heart of the rosary are Mary’s<br />
words from the wedding feast at Cana,<br />
the second luminous mystery — “Do<br />
whatever he tells you.” We find this<br />
same spirit at the heart of the Our<br />
Father — “Thy will be done.”<br />
Pray for me this week and I will pray<br />
for you.<br />
And let us ask our Blessed Mother<br />
Mary in this beautiful month of <strong>May</strong><br />
to help us grow in our love for her<br />
and in our desire to live as children of<br />
God. <br />
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 3
DÉJALE IR, CATÓLICO/MARVEL/TWITTER, @DISMASOP<br />
WORLD<br />
Saint Teresa of Ávila’s hand reliquary<br />
(left) and the “Infinity Gauntlet” from<br />
“Avengers.”<br />
A Spanish saint’s real<br />
‘Infinity Gauntlet’?<br />
Saving <strong>No</strong>tre Dame<br />
with a video game<br />
Could a violent video game’s<br />
enormously detailed rendering of<br />
Paris’ <strong>No</strong>tre Dame Cathedral help<br />
in its rebuilding?<br />
French video game giant Ubisoft<br />
has offered data from computer<br />
models that went into creating the<br />
virtual version of the church from<br />
its smash video game hit “Assassin’s<br />
Creed: Unity” to aid the rebuilding<br />
of the fire-damaged cathedral in<br />
Paris.<br />
The 2014 game immerses gamers<br />
in a dispute between medieval<br />
Knights Templar and a syndicate of<br />
anti-Christian assassins.<br />
Its creators hired university<br />
professors and other consultants<br />
to help craft an eminently realistic<br />
18th-century Paris to ensure the<br />
game’s historical fiction plot had a<br />
historically accurate backdrop.<br />
Carolina Miousse, who spent two<br />
years working on the cathedral’s<br />
in-game design as an assistant art<br />
director, said that the effort was<br />
important because “you really need<br />
to be sure that you’re recreating<br />
(<strong>No</strong>tre Dame) as accurately as<br />
possible because it’s so well-known.”<br />
Miousse noted that she was<br />
particularly proud of how <strong>No</strong>tre<br />
Dame’s famous spire was recreated<br />
in the game, a process<br />
she described as incredibly challenging.<br />
<br />
Judging by the pictures, there’s<br />
a good case to be made that the<br />
design of the “Infinity Gauntlet”<br />
— the magical glove that Marvel<br />
villain Thanos first wielded in<br />
“Avengers: Infinity War” to eliminate<br />
half of all intelligent life —<br />
may have been inspired by the<br />
reliquary encasing the incorrupt<br />
hand of Saint Teresa of Ávila.<br />
Twitter user and Dominican<br />
priest Father Dismas Sayre was<br />
responsible for calling attention<br />
to similarities between the two,<br />
stating in a viral tweet on March<br />
27, “Did you know that the<br />
gauntlet of Thanos is so powerful<br />
because it is a replica of the relic<br />
of the hand of Saint Teresa de<br />
Jesus? Good luck unseeing that<br />
now” along with pictures of the<br />
two side by side.<br />
But the parallels really are<br />
uncanny — both have colorful<br />
jewels placed at each knuckle,<br />
a central oval, and the hue of<br />
gilded silver. The creators of<br />
“Avengers: Endgame” — which is<br />
currently dominating theaters —<br />
have yet to address the similarities.<br />
<br />
A NATION IN TURMOIL — Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido throw<br />
stones at riot police in front of images of Mary and the Christ Child and Michael the Archangel<br />
<strong>May</strong> 1 in Caracas. While protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro raged<br />
across the country, National Guard forces loyal to the embattled head of state launched tear<br />
gas at churchgoers attending Mass at a parish in San Cristobal.<br />
Pope Francis donates<br />
$500K to help migrants<br />
Pope Francis has pledged $500,000<br />
to Mexican dioceses and missions<br />
providing food, water, and shelter<br />
to the throngs of Central Americans<br />
fleeing political and gang violence.<br />
The increasingly strict immigration<br />
policies of both Mexico and<br />
the United States have resulted in<br />
thousands of migrants waiting in<br />
overwhelmed and often dangerous<br />
border cities where they await the<br />
results of their asylum claims.<br />
Catholic institutions in Mexico<br />
have expressed their frustration at<br />
their government for its lack of a<br />
plan so far on how to deal with the<br />
crisis.<br />
“<strong>No</strong>body wants to take charge,” Ciudad<br />
Juarez migrant shelter director<br />
Father Javier Calvillo told Catholic<br />
<strong>News</strong> Service last month. <br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/MANAURE QUINTERO, REUTERS<br />
4 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
NATION<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/JOSHUA ROBERTS, REUTERS<br />
Alabama’s challenge to Roe v. Wade<br />
Last Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives<br />
approved by a margin of 74-3 a bill that makes<br />
performing an abortion a Class A felony. Doctors<br />
who break the law and perform the procedure can<br />
face years of jail time, but the law explicitly states that<br />
women receiving abortions will not be held accountable<br />
in any way.<br />
State Rep. Rich Wingo, R-Tuskaloosa, stated that<br />
the bill was a strong defense of human dignity, while<br />
lamenting that in his home district currently “(t)here<br />
are more abortions … than births.”<br />
The bill is now bound for the Alabama Senate and<br />
the desk of GOP Gov. Kay Ivey.<br />
While the bill represents a significant step for<br />
Alabama, its backers have bigger plans for it, namely<br />
forcing a legal challenge from those who oppose it that<br />
would make the Supreme Court reconsider the 1973<br />
Roe v. Wade decision, which first established abortion<br />
as a constitutional right. <br />
Paul Ryan in 20<strong>17</strong>.<br />
Former speaker gets <strong>No</strong>tre Dame gig<br />
Starting in the fall, former U.S. House Speaker Paul<br />
Ryan will teach at University of <strong>No</strong>tre Dame as a guest<br />
lecturer teaching political science and economics.<br />
Some of the subjects he will cover will include the<br />
fundamentals of American government, political polarization<br />
in America, and Catholicism and economics,<br />
the university announced April 15.<br />
The Catholic father of three joins former Indiana<br />
Sen. Joe Donnelly and former Obama Chief of Staff<br />
Denis McDonough as one of <strong>No</strong>tre Dame’s “professor-of-the-practice”<br />
appointments.<br />
Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, served as speaker<br />
of the House of Representatives from 2015 until the<br />
beginning of this year. <br />
CHICAGO CHEER — Paulette Clagon, principal of St. Gregory the<br />
Great School in Whittier, high-fives the coordinators following the<br />
closing Mass at the NCEA <strong>2019</strong> Convention & Expo in Chicago April<br />
25. More than 9,000 Catholic educators from across the country<br />
gathered in Chicago for the annual event.<br />
A White House win<br />
for religious freedom<br />
The Department of Health and Human Services<br />
(HHS) instituted a new rule <strong>May</strong> 2 giving health care<br />
workers more freedom to resist procedures that they<br />
have moral or religious objections with, even if they<br />
serve only in support or administrative roles.<br />
HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Roger Severino<br />
said in a statement that the rule ensures religious<br />
health care providers “won’t be bullied out of the<br />
health care field.” Christian organizations like the<br />
Christian Medical Association praised the change,<br />
declaring that the rule is “consistent with decades of<br />
federal conscience law” and simply protects existing<br />
rights.<br />
A statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic<br />
Bishops thanked the Trump administration for “taking<br />
seriously its duty to enforce these fundamental civil<br />
rights laws.”<br />
“We look forward to swift action by HHS to remedy<br />
current violations in several states,” the bishops said.<br />
“<strong>No</strong> one should be forced to violate their deeply held<br />
convictions about the sanctity of human life.” <br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/KAREN CALLAWAY, CHICAGO CATHOLIC<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 5
LOCAL<br />
State AG requests<br />
diocesan abuse<br />
records<br />
The California Attorney<br />
General has issued a letter to<br />
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles<br />
and the other Catholic dioceses<br />
of California asking to review<br />
documents related to how the<br />
dioceses have addressed past<br />
allegations of sexual abuse of<br />
minors by priests, religious<br />
men and women, and other lay<br />
Church employees and volunteers.<br />
The archdiocese said it would<br />
“respond cooperatively as we<br />
have with the past three Grand<br />
Jury investigations of the Archdiocese.”<br />
The records requested by Becerra’s<br />
office include allegations<br />
of sexual misconduct received<br />
by the dioceses since 1996 —<br />
including those handled in<br />
compliance with the law — as<br />
well as those of individuals<br />
accused of misconduct toward<br />
minors who may still be active<br />
in ministry. The letter also asks<br />
for records on actions taken by<br />
the dioceses against individuals<br />
accused of abuse or anyone who<br />
may have failed to report sexual<br />
abuse allegations to law enforcement.<br />
In a statement, the archdiocese<br />
said it is committed to transparency<br />
and “does not tolerate<br />
anyone who does harm to a<br />
child or vulnerable person.”<br />
It also pointed out that it<br />
has “also already cooperated<br />
with two state and one federal<br />
investigation and continues to<br />
fully cooperate with all civil<br />
authorities.”<br />
The archdiocese’s full statement<br />
can be found on the<br />
Catholic LA section of <strong>Angelus</strong>-<br />
<strong>News</strong>.com. <br />
1,000 cranes for 1,000 prayers<br />
At St. John the Evangelist Church in South Los Angeles, parishioners<br />
wrapped up a month of child safety prayers and awareness by hanging 1,000<br />
paper cranes April 28. Each crane symbolizes a victim of child abuse, and<br />
represents the parish’s prayers for hope and healing.<br />
Since the USCCB designated April as “Keep Kids Safe Month,” the Safeguard<br />
the Children Committee at the parish organized monthlong events<br />
to keep parishioners actively involved in the important work of child safety.<br />
This year, parishioners were given blue-ribbon pins on the first Sunday of<br />
the month, and asked to wear them throughout the month as a reminder of<br />
the need to pray for the safety and welfare of children and young people.<br />
The church passed out “Prayers for Victims” cards on the second Sunday,<br />
inviting everyone to include victims of child abuse in their prayers at home.<br />
On Easter Sunday, these prayers were offered from the pulpit.<br />
The month concluded with the hanging of the cranes, made by Hector<br />
Munoz and his family, which represent the thousands of prayers offered<br />
each day for child abuse victims across the world. <br />
THE WOOD OF THE CROSS — Attendees at the Santa Cruz Mass <strong>May</strong> 3 hold up crosses<br />
made from construction leftovers to be blessed by Archbishop José H. Gomez at Our Lady<br />
Queen of Angels Church at La Placita Olvera. The Mass recognized the contributions of<br />
construction workers and laborers. At the end of the liturgy, Archbishop Gomez received<br />
the prestigious Ohtli Award from the Mexican Consulate in LA for his contributions to the<br />
Hispanic and immigrant communities.<br />
PHOTOS COURTESY ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST CHURCH<br />
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA<br />
6 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
LA Catholic Events<br />
Items for LA Catholic Events are due two weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be mailed to <strong>Angelus</strong> <strong>News</strong> (Attn: LA Catholic Events), 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 900<strong>10</strong>-2241; emailed to<br />
calendar@angelusnews.com; or faxed to 213-637-6360. All items must include the name, date, time, and address of the event, plus a phone number for additional information.<br />
Sat., <strong>May</strong> 11<br />
“Breath of Spring” Luncheon with Heather King.<br />
Sacred Heart Retreat House, 920 East Alhambra<br />
Rd., Alhambra, <strong>10</strong> a.m.-2 p.m. Luncheon with King,<br />
beginning with outdoor rosary, light reception, and<br />
lunch. She will speak about holiness in the ordinary<br />
as we celebrate the unknown saints and venerables<br />
of our time. Cost: $45/person. Register at sacredheartretreathouse.com,<br />
or email sjcprogcoordinator@carmelitesistersocd.com,<br />
or call 626-289-1353,<br />
ext. 203.<br />
Vivaldi’s Venice with the DeAngelis Vocal Ensemble.<br />
Our Lady Queen of Angels, 2<strong>10</strong>0 Mar Vista Dr., Newport<br />
Beach, 8 p.m. For more information and tickets,<br />
visit deangelisensemble.org/calendar/.<br />
Children’s Liturgy of the Word Team Formation. San<br />
Gabriel Mission, 428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 8:30<br />
a.m.-12:30 p.m. Register at laliturgy.org.<br />
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting. Andrew’s<br />
Plaza, 11335 West Magnolia Blvd., Suite 2C,<br />
<strong>No</strong>rth Hollywood, <strong>10</strong> a.m.-12 p.m. Discover if you<br />
have the willingness, ability, and resources to take on<br />
the challenge of helping a child in need. RSVP or learn<br />
more at 213-342-0162 or toll free at 800-730-3933,<br />
or email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.<br />
Wed., <strong>May</strong> 15<br />
Clearing Outstanding Tickets and Warrants: Free<br />
Legal Clinic for Veterans. Bob Hope Patriotic Hall,<br />
1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 5:30-6:30 p.m.<br />
Self-help workshop, 6:30-8:30 p.m. <strong>Vol</strong>unteer attorneys<br />
will be available to provide one-on-one assistance<br />
and consultation. RSVP required. Call 213-896-<br />
6537 or visit lacba.org/veterans.<br />
Thur., <strong>May</strong> 16<br />
Mass and Healing Service. Our Lady of Grace<br />
Church, 5011 White Oak Ave., Encino, 6:30 p.m.<br />
Celebrant: Father Thomas Sunil. Call Claudia at 818-<br />
342-6626.<br />
Sat., <strong>May</strong> 18<br />
NPM Presents: Music Ministry “Lend Us Your Ear.”<br />
St. John Fisher Church, 5448 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos<br />
Verdes, <strong>10</strong> a.m.-12:30 p.m. All are invited to honor<br />
and listen to music ministers, including music directors,<br />
instrumentalists, cantors, leads, and choral<br />
singers, for conversation, music activities, and refreshments.<br />
RSVP required ASAP to Tiffany at theresaphimsings@gmail.com<br />
(English) or jgmmusic678@<br />
gmail.com (Spanish).<br />
32nd Annual Walk for Life South Bay. South Side,<br />
Veterans Park in Redondo Beach, registration 7:30<br />
a.m., with coffee, bagels, selfie and kids’ booths,<br />
raffles, and more. 5K walk along the beach starts<br />
at 8:30 a.m. Local event sponsors: Barden Electric,<br />
Inc., Hope Chapel, His Life Woodworks, Dan and Linda<br />
Houston, St. Lawrence Referral Group, Dan and<br />
<strong>No</strong>reen Thomas. Register at supportphctorrance.org<br />
or call 424-263-4855.<br />
Ministry Renewal for Lectors. San Gabriel Mission,<br />
428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.<br />
Register at laliturgy.org.<br />
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.<br />
Children’s Bureau’s Magnolia Place, 19<strong>10</strong> Magnolia<br />
Ave., Los Angeles, or Children’s Bureau, 27200 Tourney<br />
Rd., Ste. <strong>17</strong>5, Valencia, <strong>10</strong> a.m.-12 p.m. Discover<br />
if you have the willingness, ability, and resources to<br />
take on the challenge of helping a child in need. RSVP<br />
or learn more at 213-342-0162 or toll free at 800-<br />
730-3933, or email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.<br />
Mozart Requiem Concert. St. Bede the Venerable,<br />
215 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, 8 p.m. Performed<br />
by the St. Bede Choir and the ELAC Chamber<br />
Chorale under the direction of Dr. Anthony Lupica.<br />
Suggested donation: $25/person at the door, online at<br />
www.bede.org, or in the parish center. RSVP, information,<br />
and tickets available at 818-949-4300. All proceeds<br />
benefit the St. Bede Choir and Music Ministry.<br />
Wed., <strong>May</strong> 22<br />
St. Rita of Cascia Feast Day Celebration. St. Rita<br />
Church, 318 N. Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre. 8 a.m.<br />
Mass, blessings with St. Rita relic throughout the day,<br />
Armenian Rite Mass at 12 p.m., blessing and distribution<br />
of roses, adoration and benediction at 7 p.m.<br />
Call 626-355-1292 or visit st-rita.org.<br />
Fri., <strong>May</strong> 24<br />
Married Couples Retreat. Sacred Heart Retreat<br />
House, 920 East Alhambra Rd., Alhambra, 5 p.m.-<br />
<strong>May</strong> 26, 1 p.m. Are you in need of growing deeper<br />
in your relationship with your spouse? A married<br />
couples retreat with the Carmelite Sisters and Father<br />
Bryce Sibley might be exactly what you need!<br />
Includes five meals, beginning with dinner on Friday<br />
and concluding with breakfast on Sunday. Register at<br />
sacredheartretreathouse.com, or email retreatcoordinator@carmelitesistersocd.com,<br />
or call 626-289-<br />
1353, ext. 204.<br />
Sat., June 1<br />
Italian Catholic Club 5th Anniversary Dinner. Spumoni’s<br />
Restaurant outdoor patio, 249<strong>17</strong> Pico Canyon<br />
Rd., Stevenson Ranch, 6 p.m. Authentic Italian food,<br />
one complimentary bottle of wine per table, a raffle<br />
and dancing to the live music of Duo Domino. Cost:<br />
$45/person, prepaid. Call Anna Riggs for reservations<br />
and information at 661-645-7877.<br />
Sat., June 8<br />
When One Door Closes: Day of Recollection for<br />
People in Transition. Mary & Joseph Retreat Center,<br />
5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 8:30 a.m.-<br />
4 p.m. Join those who have lost loved ones, gone<br />
through divorce, sickness, new jobs, and other transition<br />
periods in seeking spiritual healing. Cost: $60/<br />
person and includes lunch. Call Marlene Velazquez<br />
at 3<strong>10</strong>-377-4867, ext. 234 for reservations or<br />
information.<br />
Conscious Contact: <strong>10</strong>th & 11th Step Reflections<br />
for People in Recovery. Mary & Joseph Retreat<br />
Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 5:30-9<br />
p.m. Evening of reflection, beginning with a Feast of<br />
Gratitude, will offer people in recovery an opportunity<br />
for fellowship, renewal, and another look at our relationship<br />
with God. Bring a friend, sponsee, spouse, or<br />
partner and be renewed in your program of spiritual<br />
recovery. Cost: $60 by <strong>May</strong> 24, includes dinner. Call<br />
Marlene Velazquez at 3<strong>10</strong>-377-4867, ext. 234 for<br />
reservations or information.<br />
Sat., June 15<br />
Healing Workplace Conflicts. Mary & Joseph Retreat<br />
Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 9 a.m.-<br />
4 p.m. Find the courage and strength to invite light,<br />
integration, and healing into work situations. Dr. Pamela<br />
Davidson is a researcher who has developed<br />
a workplace training program, “Creating Positive<br />
Organizational Climate by Design.” Father Thomas<br />
Kelly is an Air Force Chaplain (Ret.) who has served<br />
the military for more than 30 years, counseling those<br />
with PTSD. Cost, $50/person ($55 after 6/7), lunch<br />
included. Call Marlene Velazquez at 3<strong>10</strong>-377-4867,<br />
ext. 234 for reservations or information. <br />
Visit <strong>Angelus</strong><strong>News</strong>.com for these stories<br />
and more. Your source for complete,<br />
up-to-the-minute coverage of local news,<br />
sports and events in Catholic L.A.<br />
This Week at <strong>Angelus</strong><strong>News</strong>.com<br />
• Violence against Christians and the waning of reason.<br />
• A Triple Crown winner reflects on his Catholic faith.<br />
• CIF-SS playoff schedules for spring sports.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 7
SUNDAY<br />
READINGS<br />
BY SCOTT HAHN<br />
Acts 13:14, 43–52 / Ps. <strong>10</strong>0:1–2, 3, 5 / Rev. 7:9, 14b–<strong>17</strong> / Jn. <strong>10</strong>:14<br />
Israel’s mission — to be God’s instrument<br />
of salvation to the ends of the<br />
earth (see Isaiah 49:6) — is fulfilled in<br />
the Church.<br />
By the “Word of<br />
God” that Paul<br />
and Barnabas<br />
preach in today’s<br />
First Reading, a<br />
new covenant people<br />
is being born, a<br />
people who glorify<br />
the God of Israel<br />
as the Father of<br />
them all.<br />
The Church for<br />
all generations<br />
remains faithful<br />
to the grace of<br />
God given to the<br />
apostles, and continues<br />
their saving<br />
work. Through<br />
the Church, the<br />
peoples of every<br />
land hear the<br />
Shepherd’s voice,<br />
and follow him<br />
(see Luke <strong>10</strong>:16).<br />
The Good Shepherd<br />
of today’s<br />
Gospel is the<br />
enthroned Lamb<br />
of today’s Second<br />
Reading.<br />
In laying down<br />
his life for his<br />
flock, the Lamb brought to pass a new<br />
Passover (see 1 Corinthians 5:7), by<br />
his blood freeing “every nation, race,<br />
people and tongue” from bondage to<br />
sin and death.<br />
The Church is the “great multitude”<br />
John sees in his vision today. God<br />
swore to Abraham his descendants<br />
“The Risen Christ,” by Michelangelo, circa<br />
1532.<br />
would be too numerous to count.<br />
And in the Church, as John sees, this<br />
promise is fulfilled (compare Revelation<br />
7:9, Genesis<br />
15:5).<br />
The Lamb rules<br />
from the throne<br />
of God, sheltering<br />
his flock, feeding<br />
their hunger with<br />
his own Body and<br />
Blood, leading<br />
them to “springs<br />
of life-giving<br />
waters” that well<br />
up to eternal life<br />
(see John 4:14).<br />
The Lamb is the<br />
eternal Shepherd-King,<br />
the son<br />
of David foretold<br />
by the prophets.<br />
His Church is the<br />
kingdom of all Israel<br />
that the prophets<br />
said would<br />
be restored in an<br />
everlasting covenant<br />
(see Ezekiel<br />
34:23–31; 37:23–<br />
28).<br />
It is not a kingdom<br />
any tribe<br />
or nation can<br />
jealously claim as<br />
theirs alone. The<br />
Shepherd’s Word<br />
to Israel is addressed now to all lands,<br />
calling all to worship and bless his<br />
name in the heavenly temple.<br />
This is the delight of the Gentiles —<br />
that we can sing the song that once<br />
only Israel could sing, today’s joyful<br />
Psalm: “He made us, his we are — his<br />
people, the flock he tends.” <br />
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.<br />
8 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
IN EXILE<br />
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI<br />
Beyond mysticism<br />
“I’m a practicing mystic!” A woman<br />
said that in one of my classes some<br />
years ago and it raised lots of eyebrows.<br />
I was teaching a class in mysticism<br />
and asked the students why the<br />
topic of mysticism interested them.<br />
Their responses varied: Some were<br />
simply intrigued with the concept;<br />
others were spiritual directors who<br />
wanted more insight into what constitutes<br />
mystical experience; and a number<br />
of others were taking the course<br />
because their faculty adviser asked<br />
them to. But one woman answered,<br />
“Because I’m a practicing mystic!”<br />
Can someone be a practicing mystic?<br />
Yes, providing both terms, practicing<br />
and mystic, are understood properly.<br />
What does it mean to be a mystic? In<br />
the popular mind, mysticism is most<br />
often associated with extraordinary<br />
and paranormal religious experience,<br />
namely, visions, revelations, apparitions,<br />
and the like.<br />
Sometimes this is the case, as is<br />
true of some great mystics, but these<br />
are exceptions. <strong>No</strong>rmally, mystical<br />
experience is ordinary; no visions, no<br />
apparitions, no ecstasies, just everyday<br />
experience — but with a difference.<br />
British Carmelite Ruth Burrows<br />
defines mysticism this way: “Mystical<br />
experience is being touched by God<br />
at a level deeper than words, thought,<br />
imagination, and feeling.”<br />
We have a mystical experience when<br />
we know ourselves and our world with<br />
clarity, even if just for a second. That<br />
can involve something extraordinary,<br />
like a vision or apparition, but normally<br />
it doesn’t. <strong>No</strong>rmally a mystical<br />
experience is not a moment where an<br />
angel or spirit appears to you or something<br />
paranormal happens to you.<br />
A mystical moment is extraordinary,<br />
but extraordinary because of its<br />
unique lucidity and clarity, extraordinary<br />
because for that moment we are<br />
extraordinarily centered, and extraordinary<br />
because in that moment we<br />
sense, in some dark, unconscious, and<br />
inchoate way, what mystics call the<br />
indelible memory of God’s kiss on our<br />
soul, the primordial memory of once<br />
having experienced perfect love inside<br />
God’s womb before birth.<br />
Bernard Lonergan, SJ CC, calls<br />
this “the brand of the first principles<br />
on our soul,” that is, the innate imprint<br />
of the transcendental properties<br />
of God: oneness, truth, goodness, and<br />
beauty, inside us.<br />
We have a mystical experience when<br />
we are in touch with that part of our<br />
soul that was once touched by God,<br />
before we were born, that part of our<br />
soul that still bears, however unconsciously,<br />
the memory of that touch.<br />
We all have experiences of this to<br />
some degree. We all have mystical<br />
experiences, though we aren’t<br />
all mystics. What’s the difference<br />
between having a mystical experience<br />
and being a mystic? It’s the difference<br />
between having aesthetic experiences<br />
and being an artist.<br />
All of us have deep aesthetic experiences<br />
and are at times deeply moved<br />
in our souls by beauty, but only a few<br />
persons become great artists, great<br />
composers, and great musicians, not<br />
necessarily because they have deeper<br />
experiences than the rest of us, but<br />
because they can give exceptional aesthetic<br />
expression to their experience.<br />
Aesthetic expression is always according<br />
to more or less. Hence, anyone<br />
can become a practicing artist, even if<br />
not a professional one.<br />
The same holds true for mysticism.<br />
A mystic is someone who can give<br />
meaningful expression to mystical<br />
experience, just as an artist is someone<br />
who can give proper expression<br />
to aesthetic experience. You can be a<br />
practicing mystic, akin to a practicing<br />
artist or practicing musician.<br />
Like a struggling artist, you can<br />
struggle to give meaningful expression<br />
to the deep movements you sense<br />
within your soul and, like an amateur<br />
artist, you will not be the Rembrandt<br />
of the spiritual life, but your efforts<br />
can be helpful to you in clarifying the<br />
movements within your own soul.<br />
How, concretely, might you practice<br />
being a mystic? By doing anything<br />
that helps you to more consciously get<br />
in touch with the deep movements<br />
of your soul and by doing things that<br />
help you steady and center your soul.<br />
For example, in striving to get in<br />
touch with your soul you can be a<br />
practicing mystic by journaling, doing<br />
spiritual reading, taking spiritual<br />
direction, doing various spiritual exercises<br />
such as the “Spiritual Exercises<br />
of St. Ignatius,” and by prayer.<br />
In terms of centering and steadying<br />
your soul, you can be a practicing<br />
mystic by more consciously and more<br />
deliberately giving yourself over to the<br />
biblical practice of Sabbath and by<br />
doing other soul-centering things.<br />
These could include gardening,<br />
taking long walks, listening to good<br />
music, making love with your spouse,<br />
holding a baby, or visiting a person<br />
who is ill.<br />
There are ways of being a practicing<br />
mystic, even without taking a formal<br />
class on mysticism. <br />
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 9
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan at his installation Mass in Fresno.<br />
COURTESY DIOCESE OF FRESNO<br />
New valley, same ‘Bishop Joe’<br />
At a rousing installation, Fresno Catholics welcome<br />
their new shepherd, LA native Joseph V. Brennan<br />
BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS<br />
your seat belts!”<br />
Bishop Joseph V.<br />
Brennan’s first words to<br />
“Fasten<br />
the faithful as the newly<br />
installed bishop of Fresno launched<br />
a wide-ranging homily that touched<br />
on everything from his time in “the<br />
strange land of Los Angeles” to the<br />
heroic witness of the early Christian<br />
martyrs, and even the dedication of<br />
his secretaries through the years.<br />
It was a fitting introduction to what<br />
promises to be an exciting ride for<br />
Catholics in a diocese set to be first in<br />
the country with a “bullet train.”<br />
The 65-year-old Van Nuys native<br />
formally succeeded retiring Bishop<br />
Armando X. Ochoa as the Catholic<br />
bishop of Fresno in a <strong>May</strong> 2 Mass at<br />
St. Anthony of Padua Church, becoming<br />
the sixth bishop of a diocese<br />
much larger in territory but far less<br />
densely populated than Los Angeles,<br />
where Brennan grew up and has spent<br />
the last four decades as a priest and<br />
auxiliary bishop.<br />
For friends, family, and fellow clergy<br />
from Los Angeles, the Thursday afternoon<br />
installation Mass and Solemn<br />
Vespers the night before served as a<br />
sort of farewell to a native son.<br />
For the Fresno faithful it was an opportunity<br />
to give a rousing welcome to<br />
their new shepherd, filled with local<br />
flavor. Brennan was serenaded by mariachi<br />
bands, embraced by local faith<br />
<strong>10</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
leaders, grabbed for selfies, and greeted<br />
wherever he went by singing youth<br />
and families of the Neocatechumenal<br />
Way, a Catholic movement present in<br />
several parishes of the diocese.<br />
Brennan took possession of his new<br />
diocese in the company of local<br />
Metropolitan Archbishop José H.<br />
Gomez of Los Angeles, and the pope’s<br />
representative in the U.S., Apostolic<br />
Nuncio Archbishop Christophe<br />
Pierre.<br />
And during those 24 hours, Fresno<br />
Catholics took possession of their new<br />
shepherd, too.<br />
Brennan pointed out at the Wednesday<br />
night vespers that it was the<br />
first bishop of Fresno — the future<br />
archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal<br />
Timothy Manning — who would go<br />
on to ordain Brennan to the priesthood<br />
in 1980.<br />
Another striking coincidence:<br />
Manning was a seminary classmate of<br />
Brennan’s uncle, Msgr. John L. Brennan,<br />
who was a major influence on<br />
Brennan’s life and priestly vocation.<br />
During his installation Mass homily,<br />
he switched easily between English<br />
and fluent Spanish, a skill that will<br />
serve him well, with Latinos making<br />
up 65-70 percent of Fresno’s Catholic<br />
population, according to diocesan<br />
officials.<br />
And the joyful, gregarious personality<br />
known so well to Catholics in Los Angeles<br />
made a fast and deep impression<br />
on his new flock.<br />
At vespers, Brennan jokingly asked<br />
his predecessor, Ochoa, and Pierre if<br />
formally taking possession of the city’s<br />
cathedral also included the bishop’s<br />
residence.<br />
“All you need to know is, rent is due<br />
on the 15th of every month, cash<br />
only, no checks, no credit cards here<br />
in Fresno,” Ochoa replied to roaring<br />
laughter.<br />
In his inaugural homily, Brennan<br />
was quick to deploy some of his own<br />
customary self-deprecating humor:<br />
“Well, you’ve learned something<br />
about your bishop: He’s a crybaby,” he<br />
quipped at one point, referring to his<br />
visible emotions during several parts<br />
of the Mass.<br />
“I love the joy that he has, and how<br />
he is not afraid to be himself,” said<br />
36-year-old Lucy Gomez, a youth<br />
Fresno Catholics wait to greet their new bishop before his arrival to St. John’s Cathedral in downtown<br />
Fresno for evening prayer <strong>May</strong> 1.<br />
Bishop Brennan hugs his sisters during the <strong>May</strong> 2 installation Mass.<br />
minister at St. Joachim in Madera. “I<br />
love that, and I know the youth are<br />
going to love that.”<br />
Speaking to <strong>Angelus</strong> <strong>News</strong> after the<br />
Mass, Gomez said she knows how<br />
much young people need a shepherd<br />
“who is not uptight.”<br />
“When somebody makes you laugh, it<br />
just breaks down the barriers,” she said.<br />
Everybody’s brother now<br />
That sense of humor was just one of<br />
the fruits of growing up as one of <strong>10</strong><br />
children in a working-class family in<br />
the San Fernando Valley, Brennan’s<br />
brothers and sisters told <strong>Angelus</strong><br />
<strong>News</strong>.<br />
Franny O’Malley, the sixth of the<br />
JACOB SCOTT<br />
JACOB SCOTT<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 11
Father Joseph Brennan (second row, third from left) after his ordination by Cardinal Timothy Manning in June 1980.<br />
BRENNAN FAMILY<br />
Brennan children, said the example<br />
their parents gave of putting God<br />
“always first … without saying a word”<br />
was the most important influence on<br />
their brother’s vocation.<br />
“We went to church because we<br />
had a deep love of God. We went to<br />
church first, and then we did whatever<br />
we needed to do after,” O’Malley told<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong> <strong>News</strong>.<br />
That’s not to say Brennan’s character<br />
wasn’t tested from an early age.<br />
“He had a lot of sister-in-laws and<br />
sisters to contend with, and we all got<br />
along. <strong>No</strong>body fought with him. I<br />
mean, he just got along with everybody,”<br />
O’Malley recalled.<br />
As he matured and eventually<br />
answered the call to the priesthood,<br />
Brennan became a source of support<br />
not only for parishioners but for his<br />
brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews,<br />
and their children as well.<br />
“I’ve seen him, when we all faced really<br />
difficult things,” said Helen Mary<br />
Fisher, the seventh Brennan. “He<br />
never raises his voice, but he has that<br />
resolve, the same resolve that we saw<br />
in our father, where tough decisions<br />
have to be made, and he was always<br />
ready to do the right thing. He always<br />
knew what was right.”<br />
Brennan’s twin brother, Terry, lives<br />
in Frazier Park, near the southern<br />
edge of his brother’s new diocese. He<br />
is learning that as a bishop, his brother<br />
is “everybody’s brother at this point,”<br />
he said.<br />
“I’ve had to learn to accept the fact<br />
that I have to share him with tens of<br />
thousands of people now, and I’m OK<br />
with that,” he said.<br />
Terry believes that beyond all the<br />
“bells and whistles” that come with<br />
the episcopacy, the people of Fresno<br />
would still be getting a “padre.”<br />
“I don’t know how much he really<br />
wants something like this,” said Terry.<br />
“He’s just down to earth. He’d rather<br />
be with the people. And I think the<br />
people of Fresno will find that out<br />
very quickly.”<br />
A different valley<br />
Brennan has now officially swapped<br />
his native San Fernando Valley for the<br />
San Joaquin Valley, also known as the<br />
“salad bowl of the world.”<br />
“I’m very happy to still be a ‘valley<br />
boy,’ just a different valley,” he said in<br />
his inaugural homily.<br />
Although only separated by a couple<br />
of hours on the 5 Freeway, the two<br />
regions present different challenges<br />
for evangelization.<br />
12 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
Often called “the Appalachia of the<br />
West” for its poverty, the Fresno Diocese<br />
is more than seven times the size<br />
of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,<br />
but contains just a quarter of as many<br />
Catholics.<br />
“In our 35,000 square miles is a<br />
diocese that is rich with possibility,<br />
but it also has many, many challenges,”<br />
said Jim Grant, who directs social<br />
justice ministry for the diocese. “We<br />
need a bishop to help us reach out to<br />
the “periferia” that Pope Francis has<br />
been challenging us to do for six years<br />
now.”<br />
In recent years the area’s residents<br />
have faced drought and water supply<br />
controversies, immigration-related<br />
issues, poverty, and both air and<br />
ground pollution, added diocesan<br />
spokesperson and Chancellor Teresa<br />
Dominguez.<br />
Then there are the prisons.<br />
The Diocese of Fresno has more<br />
detention facilities and more people<br />
living behind bars than any Catholic<br />
Representatives from Fresno’s Jewish and Muslim communities take a selfie with Bishop Brennan<br />
during his installation Mass.<br />
JACOB SCOTT<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 13
Bishop Brennan and a mariachi band perform “<strong>Vol</strong>ver, volver” at a reception for his installation Mass.<br />
JACOB SCOTT<br />
diocese in the world, according to<br />
diocesan officials.<br />
“That is a huge, huge area of concern<br />
for us because it’s not just the<br />
inmates, but also their families,” said<br />
Dominguez. “Because a lot of times<br />
the families will follow them. It’s not<br />
just the crime that has taken place<br />
in our area — this is a place where<br />
inmates are shipped to on a national<br />
basis.”<br />
It is a daily challenge for parish leaders<br />
ministering to families.<br />
“In my program, I have kids who<br />
are being raised by the 70-80-year-old<br />
grandparents, because one of their<br />
parents might be dead, the other in<br />
prison,” said Gomez, the Madera<br />
youth minister. “That’s a reality we<br />
face here.”<br />
Along with the work being done<br />
to minister to the men and women<br />
behind bars, Dominguez said the<br />
diocese is looking to establish a<br />
“reentry” program to help marriages<br />
after a spouse comes home from<br />
prison.<br />
‘He’s a warm person, and this is definitely a<br />
very warm area. ... I think we’re going to<br />
love him.’<br />
‘Inspiring’ encouragement<br />
Once the formalities of his installation<br />
had been completed, the new<br />
bishop made sure to squeeze in some<br />
unscripted parts into the <strong>May</strong> 2 Mass.<br />
During his homily, he invited four<br />
women — three former secretaries<br />
from LA, plus a “brand new” one in<br />
Fresno — to come forward.<br />
“I know, I know, I’m doing it again,”<br />
Brennan joked. “So just get used to<br />
it.”<br />
“You represent all of the women in<br />
our Church who work so beautifully<br />
with us, who keep us in line, who<br />
keep us on track,” Brennan told the<br />
women standing before the assembly.<br />
Later, just before the final blessing,<br />
Brennan invited two more guests to<br />
come forward: Clem and Maureen<br />
Linnebur, his longtime friends since<br />
his time as a parish priest at St. Linus<br />
in <strong>No</strong>rwalk.<br />
He hadn’t forgotten that they were<br />
celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary<br />
that day. So in front of more<br />
than a dozen bishops and hundreds<br />
of new faces in an unfamiliar church,<br />
Brennan insisted on having them<br />
renew their vows by simply repeating<br />
them after him.<br />
“To bring up a couple for 55 years<br />
of marriage — it let us see in that<br />
Mass that we’re not just celebrating<br />
priests and bishops, we’re celebrating<br />
faithfulness,” remarked Grant after the<br />
liturgy.<br />
“If that’s a harbinger of the way that<br />
14 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
he is able to do things that include so<br />
many people, and also, I must admit,<br />
his facility in Spanish and English,<br />
singing and preaching, he is already<br />
engaging us in the moments we’ve<br />
had him,” Grant added.<br />
Nineteen-year-old Fresno native Rebecca<br />
Higuera said she was touched<br />
by Brennan’s preaching about God’s<br />
refusal to “ration” out his free gift<br />
of the Holy Spirit, and saw it as an<br />
“inspiring” encouragement at a time<br />
and place where it’s not always easy to<br />
witness to the faith.<br />
“Being Catholic is different,”<br />
explained Higuera, who belongs to<br />
a Neocatechumenal community in<br />
Fresno. “When I see my life compared<br />
to my friends from school, we<br />
have the same problems, but we deal<br />
with them differently. My friends<br />
don’t have the Church to look at to<br />
help them.”<br />
Here in Fresno, “we need a bishop<br />
who helps young people look at a<br />
different way of life,” she said.<br />
After attending the installation Mass<br />
— which included an impromptu<br />
performance of “Holy Is His Name”<br />
(a family favorite, according to the<br />
Brennans) with his longtime friend<br />
and duet partner Anna Bettencourt —<br />
Lina Gamez said that she’s thankful<br />
for a new shepherd who personifies<br />
“the joy of Christ” that’s expected of<br />
Christians.<br />
“He’s a warm person, and this is<br />
definitely a very warm area,” Gamez<br />
chuckled. “I think we’re going to love<br />
him.”<br />
Dominguez saw Brennan as already<br />
bringing “an uplifted spirit” to the<br />
diocese on Day One. “I think he’s<br />
going to help all of us. We’re very,<br />
very serious, because we have so many<br />
challenges,” she said following Brennan’s<br />
rousing rendition of Mexican<br />
singing legend Vicente Fernandez’s<br />
classic “<strong>Vol</strong>ver, <strong>Vol</strong>ver,” on which he<br />
was accompanied by a mariachi band<br />
at a post-Mass reception.<br />
“But I think he’s going to help us<br />
balance that out. And remember to go<br />
back to the source. The Lord wants us<br />
to be fully human, and to be joyful.<br />
And I think that we can lighten up<br />
a little bit and still get all our work<br />
done.” <br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 15
The Grocer<br />
As he says goodbye to the new bishop of Fresno, Robert<br />
Brennan remembers the man who raised them both<br />
BY ROBERT BRENNAN / ANGELUS<br />
BRENNAN FAMILY<br />
The Brennan family circa 1960. Front row, left to right: Michael,<br />
Helen Mary, and Frances. Seated on couch, left to right: Kathy,<br />
Robert (on her lap), Richard, Terry (on his lap) Ray, and Joseph<br />
(on lap of Roger).<br />
Members of the Brennan family listen to Bishop Joseph Brennan preach his first<br />
homily as the bishop of Fresno at the installation Mass <strong>May</strong> 2.<br />
From the moment our brother<br />
announced he felt a calling to<br />
the priesthood, we knew that<br />
he would never fully belong<br />
to us anymore. The “secret” would get<br />
out, the secret we all knew about our<br />
brother — his vocation began many<br />
years before he ever entered St. John’s<br />
Seminary.<br />
He had innate kindness and generosity<br />
of spirit. He could be a goof and<br />
we had plenty of fun, some of it not<br />
always attached to parental approval.<br />
But it was evident from the very beginning<br />
there was something about our<br />
brother that was unlike the rest of us.<br />
Then, when the news came that he<br />
was to be ordained a bishop, we knew<br />
we were on borrowed time — the<br />
day would come when he would be<br />
selected to lead a diocese of his own.<br />
That day has come.<br />
How did this happen? How did a<br />
guy from a very ordinary background,<br />
without a lot of initials at the back of<br />
his name, who never studied in Rome<br />
or hobnobbed with the higher echelon,<br />
get ordained a bishop?<br />
He came from a family dynamic not<br />
known for functioning with the precision<br />
of a German engineered sports<br />
car, and kids from Van Nuys just<br />
aren’t made bishops — until they are.<br />
There were indicators, of course. He<br />
was the only one of us, except for our<br />
late brother Roger, who was willing<br />
to work as hard as it took to achieve at<br />
school, even if it meant hours of study<br />
and stupendously exact note taking.<br />
He was born with a “servant’s heart”<br />
and a love of God he was never too<br />
afraid to put into action. I have no<br />
doubt that when he told our parents<br />
about his decision to enter the<br />
seminary neither one of them was very<br />
surprised.<br />
From his childhood, to his teens, to<br />
young adulthood, to him becoming<br />
a man in full, my brother the bishop<br />
always demonstrated an abundance of<br />
grace and charity, not always easy in a<br />
chaotic household with multigenerational<br />
inhabitants all living under the<br />
same roof.<br />
I’m going to stop right there. All<br />
the people in the Archdiocese of Los<br />
Angeles who know my brother know<br />
all these things, and I’m positive the<br />
bishop of Fresno would not want this<br />
article to be a litany of his wonderful-<br />
16 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
ness — so it will not.<br />
Instead, it will be about the one<br />
person who probably had the most<br />
impact on his life and on the life of<br />
his nine siblings: the Grocer.<br />
We are the sons and daughters of a<br />
grocer. To some, that may sound like<br />
irony; to others it may even sound<br />
like a put-down. To my brother and<br />
his siblings, it is the highest form of<br />
praise.<br />
God may have had plans for our<br />
brother when he was in our mother’s<br />
womb, and if he did, he also made<br />
plans for shaping and forming him<br />
into the priest, and now bishop, he<br />
is today. So, if God was the master<br />
builder, his foreman on the job was<br />
the Grocer.<br />
By the measure of all things the<br />
world values, our dad was a failure.<br />
He battled with alcohol for most of<br />
his life. He invested everything he had<br />
in a grocery store that went bankrupt,<br />
which left him physically and emotionally<br />
devastated. He never owned<br />
his own home and never bought a<br />
new car.<br />
He ended his working life in<br />
much the same way he had started<br />
it — working as a grocer in a small<br />
independent market when small<br />
independent markets dotted the San<br />
Fernando Valley landscape as plentiful<br />
as medical marijuana dispensaries<br />
do now.<br />
The Grocer checked all the boxes<br />
of hardship his generation was heir<br />
to: the Great Depression, a migration<br />
from the Midwest to wide-open California<br />
as a boy, a world war that he<br />
did not get to participate in because<br />
of some esoteric medical condition<br />
and raising children from the 1940s<br />
through the 1970s.<br />
Throw in Vatican II and you have a<br />
very interesting passel of decades from<br />
which to keep your equilibrium.<br />
If the Grocer had the world effortlessly<br />
glide by him, noticing him<br />
only sporadically and to pound him<br />
into the ground, it provided the same<br />
service to our mom. After all, she was<br />
“just a housewife” and a mother, and<br />
her husband just a grocer.<br />
To our mom the Grocer was a man<br />
of courage and loyalty and faith, a<br />
man who came from as different<br />
BRENNAN FAMILY<br />
Roger and Helen Brennan in an undated photo while on vacation in what is today the Diocese of<br />
Fresno.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>17</strong>
a background — Catholic big-city<br />
affluence — as you could get from her<br />
unchurched Arkansas farm life.<br />
But she saw what the world did not:<br />
a man so sure and anchored to his<br />
faith that she wanted the same. She<br />
became his first convert. They built<br />
a life together and remained open to<br />
life despite economic woes and the<br />
Grocer’s continuing battle with his<br />
demons.<br />
This was the greenhouse where they<br />
raised their future bishop and their<br />
other nine children.<br />
Dinner was always at 6 p.m. on the<br />
dot, no meat on any Friday regardless<br />
of it being Lent or not, Sunday Mass,<br />
confession, a dime-store portrait of<br />
the current pope in the front<br />
hall, statues of Jesus, the Blessed<br />
Mother, and St. Joseph in just<br />
about every room, and Sunday<br />
kept as a mandatory day of rest,<br />
which ended with the best meal<br />
of the week.<br />
<strong>No</strong>t exactly high-end Catholic<br />
theology.<br />
We did pray the rosary as a<br />
family in the living room on<br />
occasion, we did make novenas,<br />
all the boys altar served, and<br />
everyone pitched in one way<br />
or another at our parish. Living<br />
only a block away from church<br />
and our parish school, we were<br />
often called on by the nuns and<br />
the priests to help out with cleaning<br />
classrooms and other odd jobs.<br />
When I hear people say how tough<br />
it is to raise a couple of kids, I reserve<br />
a private laugh for myself. Every<br />
summer the Grocer would take us all<br />
camping either in Sequoia or Yosemite<br />
National Parks (now part of the<br />
diocese their new bishop oversees).<br />
To manage that venture, the Grocer<br />
had to visit a finance company on<br />
Van Nuys Boulevard and borrow a<br />
hundred bucks every summer so he<br />
would have enough gas, grocery, and<br />
camping money.<br />
These summer camping trips were<br />
another constant the Grocer attached<br />
to our life, though it required the<br />
use of a not-so-consistent late-model<br />
station wagon hauling a utility trailer<br />
full of camping equipment down and<br />
back up the infamous Grapevine and<br />
the winding mountain roads of the<br />
High Sierras.<br />
The very act of trying to get a car of<br />
dubious mechanical pedigree up these<br />
steep inclines was a religious experience<br />
for many of us as prayers were<br />
said to keep the radiator from blowing<br />
its top. Sometimes those prayers were<br />
answered, other times not.<br />
And when we would drive through<br />
the San Joaquin Valley, we would<br />
marvel at the fields and farms that<br />
seemed to go on forever. Did my<br />
brother look out the window as we<br />
drove through Bakersfield and Visalia<br />
and yes, even Fresno, thinking,<br />
“Someday this will all be mine!” I<br />
doubt it. But does God give us hints<br />
about our paths? Ask the apostles.<br />
Joseph Brennan (left) with his now-deceased older brother<br />
Roger holding little brother Robert (center) and twin brother<br />
Terrence (right).<br />
If the timing was such and our<br />
summer camping trip included a<br />
Sunday, the Grocer found a place that<br />
was holding Mass. We may not have<br />
looked our Sunday best on these occasions,<br />
but the naturalness of being at<br />
Mass on a Sunday, whether we were<br />
home or on the road, was another<br />
modeling technique utilized by our<br />
parents.<br />
The battle our father fought against<br />
alcohol climaxed in of all places,<br />
Death Valley — who says God doesn’t<br />
know a metaphor when he sees one.<br />
Only three of his children went<br />
through it with him: myself, my brother<br />
Terry and his twin, the new bishop<br />
of Fresno.<br />
<strong>No</strong> need for details; rest assured it<br />
was horrible and traumatic. He had<br />
hit the proverbial “bottom” people<br />
with addictions hit. There was no<br />
lower place to go — even in Death<br />
Valley.<br />
With the strength of his wife, who<br />
always got her strength from the<br />
Blessed Mother, incredible efforts by<br />
our oldest brother Roger and others,<br />
the Grocer had his Good Friday and<br />
Easter morning. With a miraculous<br />
act of will and never-faltering trust<br />
in God, he came back. For the last<br />
several years of his life he was sober<br />
and never healthier.<br />
Those years were woefully short —<br />
God’s timing, not ours — the Grocer<br />
never got to see his son ordained a<br />
priest let alone a bishop. God had one<br />
more cross for him to bear and it was<br />
cancer. He fought it the way he always<br />
fought things, with immense amounts<br />
of willpower and trust in God.<br />
The Grocer gave all his children<br />
one last lesson in suffering,<br />
perseverance, and faith.<br />
The Grocer’s wife did get to<br />
see her son ordained and serve<br />
the people of Los Angeles for<br />
many years. But she joined the<br />
Grocer several years ago as well.<br />
Neither one of them died with<br />
ROBERT BRENNAN<br />
a retirement portfolio, but they<br />
left all <strong>10</strong> of their children with<br />
a love for Jesus, his Church,<br />
and the Blessed Mother. That’s<br />
<strong>10</strong> for <strong>10</strong>, not a bad batting<br />
average.<br />
When the bishop of Fresno<br />
was an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese<br />
of Los Angeles, his house was<br />
adjacent to the San Fernando Mission<br />
and the Mission Cemetery. It is the<br />
place where the Grocer and his bride<br />
rest in peace.<br />
The bishop has the coordinates of<br />
these two graves on his phone and<br />
looks in that direction every night to<br />
say goodnight to the Grocer and our<br />
mom, to pray for them and to them<br />
and for our beloved brothers Roger<br />
and Ray and sister Kathy, who have<br />
joined their parents.<br />
There is no doubt he will use those<br />
same coordinates from his backyard in<br />
Fresno after a long day of serving the<br />
people of God there. He will know he<br />
fell short of the courage of the Grocer,<br />
but he will know the Grocer and his<br />
bride smile, and his siblings who have<br />
gone before him look down with the<br />
only kind of pride God approves. <br />
18 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 19
Field trip to Finland<br />
A group of LA Catholic school principals made a<br />
transatlantic trip in search of transferable lessons<br />
BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS<br />
A<br />
week later, Kris Brough’s<br />
head was still spinning.<br />
The principal of Our<br />
Lady of Lourdes School in<br />
<strong>No</strong>rthridge had just come back from<br />
Finland with 11 local Catholic school<br />
principals to observe the <strong>No</strong>rdic<br />
nation’s acclaimed education system<br />
in late March.<br />
The group visited primary, middle,<br />
and secondary schools, met with<br />
administrators, teachers and students,<br />
and attended lectures at the University<br />
of Tampere, where many teachers are<br />
trained.<br />
“We were overwhelmed by seeing<br />
the Finnish educational system in<br />
action,” he wrote in a letter to his<br />
school’s parents. “So much of it is<br />
transferable, and a great deal of what<br />
we observed is rooted in the distinct<br />
culture of Finland.”<br />
One of those transferable lessons<br />
is the basic value of trust, which the<br />
principal said is a foundation for successful<br />
learning.<br />
Parents trusting teachers, teachers<br />
trusting students as well as students<br />
trusting teachers.<br />
On many occasions, the principals<br />
observed children, from the first grade<br />
up, doing lessons alone on school<br />
campuses, which Finnish educators<br />
believe fosters creativity.<br />
“Part of that trust I think comes from<br />
the fact that teaching is a rather highly<br />
regarded profession in Finland,”<br />
Brough said in an interview with<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong> <strong>News</strong>. “There are just three<br />
teaching universities and they only<br />
accept <strong>10</strong> percent of applicants. Here<br />
in the states, parents are so likely to<br />
question the teacher — their credentials,<br />
their motivations. And that’s<br />
Visiting principals outside of Rellu, a Finnish high school in Tampere, where they participated in<br />
classroom observations and discussions with teachers, administrators, and students.<br />
pervasive.<br />
“But in smaller Finland trust pervades<br />
everything. And for students it<br />
leads to increased independence and<br />
increased creativity because the kids<br />
are able to identify their best learning<br />
situation. And that may be outside<br />
the classroom in the library or gym —<br />
alone or in small groups. We saw this<br />
at all grade levels. So I think they are<br />
a little bit more self-directed than our<br />
students might be.”<br />
Classroom trust<br />
Three fellow principals <strong>Angelus</strong><br />
<strong>News</strong> interviewed readily agreed.<br />
At the one high school they visited<br />
in Finland, the administrators walked<br />
into a classroom where a student was<br />
making a presentation — with no<br />
teacher present. The other students<br />
were busy taking notes and doing<br />
a peer evaluation of the presenter.<br />
Downstairs in another visited classroom,<br />
it was the same. In the library<br />
there were no adults, just a small<br />
group working on math problems.<br />
“That level of independence taught<br />
to children began at an early age,”<br />
said Patricia Holmquist, principal of<br />
Our Lady of Refuge School in Long<br />
Beach. “The little ones are responsible<br />
to get their own clothing and boots<br />
on and off. They dished up their own<br />
lunch in the cafeteria and bused their<br />
own tables. And walked themselves to<br />
school.”<br />
ALL IMAGES COURTESY KRIS BROUGH<br />
20 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
Just how safe Finland was also stood<br />
out for the principal of All Souls<br />
School in Alhambra. Carrie Ann<br />
Fuller watched three little girls with<br />
backpacks heading home from school.<br />
On a cell phone, one was calling her<br />
parents: “I’m heading home.”<br />
“Even though the society is so safe,<br />
that was still surprising to see that<br />
scene,” she recalled.<br />
“What was surprising was the independence<br />
of the children.”<br />
That independence applied to<br />
teachers as<br />
well, according<br />
to Erika Avila,<br />
principal of St.<br />
Vincent School<br />
in Los Angeles.<br />
“When we<br />
asked administrators,<br />
‘Do you<br />
check lesson<br />
plans of the<br />
teachers?’ they<br />
looked at us<br />
very bizarrely.<br />
Like saying,<br />
‘Why? They are<br />
doing what they<br />
need to do.’ So<br />
administrators in<br />
Finland spend<br />
more of their<br />
time looking at<br />
their budget, finding funds to help<br />
their school out and just enjoying the<br />
good teaching that’s happening in the<br />
classrooms.<br />
“It was amazing,” Avila added, “because<br />
we spend a lot of time here in<br />
the U.S. hovering over our teachers,<br />
checking up on them, which isn’t very<br />
trusting.”<br />
‘Less is more’<br />
Another element of Finnish education,<br />
which has been rated among the<br />
top among industrialized nations, is a<br />
basic logic of “less is more.”<br />
Less testing means less stress on<br />
students cramming for exams and<br />
more focused on learning, agreed the<br />
principals.<br />
The school day, at least for middle<br />
school and high school, is shorter.<br />
Depending on what class they have<br />
first, school for Finnish students might<br />
From left: Ryan Halverson, Ryan Bushore, Kris<br />
Brough, and Rick Billups record observations<br />
after visiting classrooms.<br />
start at <strong>10</strong> a.m. and be over by 1 p.m.<br />
But it was less testing and less homework<br />
that stood out for the California<br />
visitors.<br />
“The teachers we talked to stressed<br />
that students don’t have much homework<br />
or none,” said Holmquist.<br />
“But when they do have homework,<br />
it’s very purposeful. There’s intentionality<br />
behind it. And it’s not doing repetitive<br />
things, like going through one<br />
to 25 math problems. It would be very<br />
targeted, like maybe five homework<br />
problems to show<br />
they’ve mastered<br />
the lesson. And<br />
then they move<br />
on.”<br />
Another big<br />
difference is how<br />
Finns look on<br />
vocational training<br />
versus higher<br />
education: Both<br />
are valued the<br />
same. And every<br />
student takes<br />
classes in wood<br />
and metal shop,<br />
arts and crafts,<br />
home economics,<br />
and even<br />
sewing, life skills<br />
that can serve<br />
students well<br />
later in life no matter their profession<br />
or occupation.<br />
And then there’s “brain breaks” every<br />
so often to stimulate learning. Sometimes<br />
students go outside, even in the<br />
winter, to take a brief hiatus from all<br />
that learning and just get some fresh air.<br />
Transferable lessons<br />
So are any of these best practices<br />
of Finnish education transferable to<br />
local Catholic schools here?<br />
Brough, who helped organize the<br />
trip, believes some definitely are.<br />
“Catholic schools in the Archdiocese<br />
of Los Angeles are autonomous within<br />
a small network compared to public<br />
schools,” he pointed out.<br />
“We have the flexibility to actually<br />
experiment and in real time try to<br />
implement some of these things. The<br />
goal for us now is to stop talking about<br />
Finland and start celebrating what<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 21
Schools in Finland, Catholic school principals found, stress eight essential components.<br />
we’re doing, so that in the future we<br />
can say, ‘We tried this and it’s working.’<br />
Efforts that will support some<br />
system change.”<br />
After a moment, the educator added:<br />
“We want to commit our schools<br />
to taking different tracks to try to<br />
implement these innovations, then<br />
some of us who went to Finland will<br />
really adopt the notion of ‘less is more’<br />
or ‘brain breaks.’ And then compare<br />
those students with others who didn’t<br />
have these breaks to see who did better.<br />
Are younger students with more<br />
play time really more creative?<br />
“And if more breaks and play time<br />
mean better students, later on point<br />
to our colleagues in the archdiocese<br />
and say, ‘We saw this in action over<br />
in Finland and now we’ve tried it and<br />
it’s working.’ So our goal is to sustain<br />
engagement with these lessons that<br />
we’ve picked up and to support each<br />
other in implementing them, and<br />
then share the successes more widely<br />
with other Catholic schools.”<br />
Fuller said her teachers at All Souls<br />
School have already been doing some<br />
lessons the principals took away from<br />
Finland, educational elements like<br />
building independence in children,<br />
caring for the environment, and doing<br />
these “brain breaks,” especially in<br />
primary grades.<br />
“Also making sure that lessons are interactive,”<br />
she said. “Mini-lessons with<br />
the younger children should only be<br />
15 to 20 minutes. After, they’re moving<br />
to the carpet for “wiggle breaks.”<br />
“But we need to make sure ‘brain<br />
breaks’ and interactive learning are<br />
also happening in the upper grades,”<br />
stressed the principal.<br />
“We’re trying to prepare our students<br />
to make sustainable life choices, to<br />
trust their teachers and to work together.<br />
Those were things I noticed in<br />
the Finnish schools that we’re trying<br />
to implement. Seeing these things<br />
firsthand happening in Finland made<br />
me realize we’re on the right track.<br />
And now I want to emphasize them<br />
even more.” <br />
<strong>No</strong>te: The other local principals who<br />
went on the weeklong trip to Finland<br />
were Ryan Halverson of St. Cyril of<br />
Jerusalem School in Encino, Ryan<br />
Bushore of St. Pascal Baylon School<br />
in Thousand Oaks, Nicole Johnson of<br />
St. Aloysius Gonzaga School in Los<br />
Angeles, Allison Kargas of St. Anthony<br />
School in Long Beach, Beate Nguyen<br />
of St. Augustine School in Culver<br />
City, Raquel Shin of St. Patrick School<br />
in <strong>No</strong>rth Hollywood, Fidela Suelto<br />
of Holy Family School in Glendale,<br />
and Rick Billups of St. Bernard High<br />
School in Playa del Rey.<br />
R.W. Dellinger is the features editor<br />
of <strong>Angelus</strong>.<br />
22 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 23
Left behind no longer<br />
Fifty-two years after his death in Vietnam, Navy war journalist Raul<br />
Guerra was given a final goodbye by the parish that raised him<br />
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS<br />
A flower arrangement with Raul Guerra’s photo<br />
just after he enlisted in the Navy in 1965 in the<br />
vestibule of St. Alphonsus Church for his<br />
funeral on April 25.<br />
Raul Guerra was home at last, at<br />
St. Alphonsus Catholic Church<br />
in East Los Angeles last week.<br />
Ruben Valencia made sure of it.<br />
In the mid-1950s, when they were<br />
11-year-olds growing up in nearby<br />
Montebello, Guerra made sure<br />
Valencia joined him at St. Alphonsus<br />
for Mass every Sunday. The two had<br />
formed a brother-like bond — both<br />
were sons of single mothers, put together<br />
by their fifth-grade teacher to watch<br />
out for each other.<br />
In 1964, just months before Valencia<br />
would receive a draft notice from the<br />
U.S. Army and Guerra would follow<br />
by enlisting in the U.S. Navy, Valencia<br />
asked Guerra to be the best man at his<br />
wedding.<br />
“Raul asked me right away if I had<br />
made all my sacraments. I had been<br />
baptized and made my First Communion,<br />
but I hadn’t been confirmed yet,”<br />
said Valencia. “So Raul said to me, you<br />
have to do this before you get married.<br />
TOM HOFFARTH<br />
I’ll be your sponsor. I felt he was like<br />
my godfather.”<br />
Again, Guerra made sure that happened.<br />
Again, at St. Alphonsus.<br />
Last week, when it came time to<br />
plan a funeral Mass for Guerra —<br />
more than 50 years after his death in<br />
Vietnam, a process that included more<br />
than a decade just to clarify his identification<br />
and finally return his remains<br />
— Valencia told the mortuary planners<br />
about their childhood connection to<br />
St. Alphonsus.<br />
“Nancy Valdez, the coordinator at<br />
Risher Mortuary who has been a guardian<br />
angel through this whole process,<br />
heard that and said, ‘That’s where we<br />
had to have it,’ ” Valencia said last Saturday<br />
morning from his home in Pico<br />
Rivera, becoming emotional again. “It<br />
just took us back to when we were so<br />
young.”<br />
More than <strong>10</strong>0 people attended<br />
the funeral for Guerra April 25, as<br />
Montebello police officers served as<br />
pallbearers, LA County first responders<br />
showed up in force, and the Garfield<br />
High ROTC members and musicians<br />
participated. Clusters of Vietnam veterans,<br />
many arriving on motorcycles, also<br />
attended.<br />
Hundreds more waved American<br />
flags and offered salutes on a <strong>10</strong>-mile<br />
motorcade procession up Whittier<br />
Blvd., through Montebello and Pico<br />
Rivera toward the burial site at Rose<br />
Hills Memorial Park.<br />
Through it all, Valencia said he felt<br />
his prayers to bring Guerra back were<br />
finally answered.<br />
“I prayed every day — please help me<br />
accomplish this, let him come home,”<br />
said the 74-year-old Valencia. “My faith<br />
has played a big part ever since Raul<br />
and I went to church together.<br />
“Never knowing who my own father<br />
was, I always thought of God as my<br />
father. Through my life in Vietnam<br />
when things were difficult, my faith<br />
in Jesus carried me. My belief in God<br />
now is stronger than it ever has been.”<br />
Guerra was a petty officer, third class<br />
Navy enlistee at age 23, trying to start a<br />
writing career as the editor of the East<br />
LA College (ELAC) school paper and<br />
covering sports for the local Monte-<br />
A view from the choir loft at St. Alphonsus Church for the April 25 funeral Mass.<br />
DAVID MUÑOZ<br />
24 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
DAVID MUÑOZ<br />
Ruben Valencia, center, with his wife, Emily, right, receive commendations from the Navy at Raul Guerra’s gravesite service at Rose Hills Memorial Park.<br />
Left is Navy Rear Adm. Theodore LeClair.<br />
bello newspaper. Valencia was his<br />
Montebello High School classmate,<br />
as well as with his wife-to-be, Emily,<br />
who he met in a math class. They all<br />
graduated in 1963.<br />
Guerra had a fiancé, Mary Barrow,<br />
who attended rival Garfield High<br />
School but met up with him at ELAC.<br />
They decided to put off a wedding<br />
until he returned from Vietnam.<br />
In the summer of 1967, Guerra was<br />
sent to serve on the USS Oriskany,<br />
joining John McCain, the future U.S.<br />
senator and presidential candidate.<br />
Less than three weeks before McCain<br />
would be shot down on a mission and<br />
taken as prisoner, Guerra volunteered<br />
to be on a reconnaissance flight over<br />
Da Nang in an E-1B Tracer, with four<br />
others.<br />
As the plane returned on Oct. 8,<br />
1967, it crashed into a steep mountain.<br />
It was only a few months short of Guerra’s<br />
25th birthday.<br />
The site in hostile territory was inaccessible<br />
because of hazardous terrain.<br />
Over the course of 40 years, more<br />
than a dozen recovery missions were<br />
unsuccessful. It turned out the remains<br />
had been discovered and buried by a<br />
Vietnamese farmer.<br />
Before leaving on that mission, Guerra<br />
sent a letter to Valencia telling him<br />
about it — he was interested in flying<br />
over a part of Vietnam where Valencia<br />
was stationed. But Valencia had been<br />
wounded and returned to Los Angeles<br />
by then, receiving a Purple Heart in<br />
<strong>May</strong> 1967.<br />
Five months later, Valencia got a call<br />
from Guerra’s mother asking him to<br />
come over. Navy personnel were coming<br />
with the news of her son’s death.<br />
It wasn’t until 2007 when the bodies<br />
of all five on the plane were finally recovered<br />
and flown to Hawaii. As the remains<br />
of the four others identified were<br />
buried in Arlington National Cemetery<br />
in Washington, D.C., Guerra’s ID had<br />
to wait. Valencia didn’t know about it<br />
until he was told by his daughter about<br />
a story in the Whittier Daily <strong>News</strong>.<br />
That delay lasted another 12 years. As<br />
Valencia tried to help with the process,<br />
it was discovered Guerra had been<br />
adopted in Mexico and brought to<br />
Montebello as a youngster. There were<br />
no DNA matches, and no next of kin<br />
willing to offer any.<br />
Last February, the U.S. Department<br />
of Defense POW-MIA Accounting<br />
Agency finally confirmed the remains<br />
of Guerra through circumstantial<br />
evidence.<br />
Guerra, whose name was recorded<br />
years ago on the National Vietnam Veterans<br />
Memorial in Washington, D.C.,<br />
was released to Valencia last March. A<br />
cemetery plot at Rose Hills was donated<br />
for Guerra’s resting place.<br />
Valencia and his family met the casket<br />
containing Guerra at LAX on April 23.<br />
A vigil and memorial took place the<br />
next night. The funeral Mass was the<br />
following day.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 25
A lid for the concrete burial vault donated by a local veterans group.<br />
TOM HOFFARTH<br />
Father Alex Ibarra said during the<br />
homily that it was “an historic moment<br />
for Raul and for our nation. … These<br />
last 52 years may seem like a lifetime<br />
— it’s longer than I have been alive<br />
— but not for God. Everything has<br />
transpired the way God intended. …<br />
“We accompany our brother home<br />
and give him the gift of eternal rest.<br />
For Ruben and his family, his restlessness<br />
never stopped and they worked to<br />
give him peace. It is fitting we come to<br />
this church during the octave of Easter<br />
as Christ has risen from the dead. The<br />
memory of our brother Raul has never<br />
died. We speak of Raul in the present<br />
as he’s alive in all of us and his legacy<br />
is alive.”<br />
Jose Munoz, a Navy veteran who<br />
served in Vietnam and attends St.<br />
Benedict Church in Montebello, said<br />
it was important for him to witness<br />
this Mass because “this gives rest for<br />
a fellow brother in arms. For many<br />
veterans, including me, this is part of<br />
therapy. Serving in Vietnam probably<br />
brought me closer to God. I kept<br />
hoping I would come home to see my<br />
wife and 1-year-old child. I thank the<br />
Lord we are here to see this after all<br />
these years.”<br />
Ibarra stood off to the side at the Rose<br />
Hills burial site while more Navy rituals<br />
were taking place, including the<br />
release of white doves and an honor<br />
guard playing taps.<br />
“It’s very moving to be able to witness<br />
to this,” said Ibarra. “I’m still kind of<br />
speechless about the ramifications of<br />
this whole story.<br />
“There is true patriotism and commitment,<br />
but also the beauty of not<br />
leaving anyone behind and being a<br />
true friend as Jesus himself told us:<br />
There’s no greater love than to lay<br />
down one’s life for a friend. It’s obvious<br />
Ruben did that to bring his friend<br />
home,” he said.<br />
“This was a homecoming for everyone.<br />
St. Alphonsus is important for<br />
the East LA community. It has a<br />
longstanding history. We are blessed to<br />
provide this closure for all them sacramentally,<br />
spiritually, and physically to<br />
be together.”<br />
Valencia told news reporters at the<br />
burial site that his home is not too far<br />
away. As he stands on his patio, he can<br />
see the Rose Hills sign near the 605<br />
Freeway. Valencia is also painfully<br />
aware that 44 years after the Vietnam<br />
War’s official ending, there are some<br />
1,500 American servicemen who<br />
remain unaccounted.<br />
“This was my brother,” Valencia said<br />
of Guerra. “Any brother would go look<br />
for his brother. I know I now have my<br />
brother close to me.<br />
“Once all this is over, I’ll go to the<br />
gravesite, take my chair, bring a lunch<br />
and we’ll reminisce.” <br />
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning<br />
journalist based in Los Angeles.<br />
26 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 27
A conference, dedicated to lay holiness, took place April 30 at Rome’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY/DANIEL IBÁÑEZ<br />
Fruits of an early call<br />
A Rome conference<br />
examined the<br />
extraordinary lives of lay<br />
Catholics now being<br />
considered for sainthood<br />
BY ELISE HARRIS / ANGELUS<br />
ROME — At a time when Pope<br />
Francis is empowering young<br />
people while also pushing for<br />
a greater participation of lay people<br />
at every level of the Church, a<br />
conference in Rome highlighted the<br />
growing number of lay saints, pointing<br />
to several examples of youth whose<br />
causes are moving forward.<br />
One of these young people was Blessed<br />
Chiara Luce Badano. A member<br />
of the Italian Focolare Movement, she<br />
was known for her radiant smile and<br />
infectious joy throughout a long battle<br />
with cancer that would eventually<br />
claim her life in 1990 at the age of 18.<br />
Born in the small town of Sassello,<br />
in the northern Italian province of<br />
Savona, Badano was an answer to her<br />
parents’ prayers. After trying to have a<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY BEATIFICATION CAUSE OF CHIARA BADANO<br />
Chiara Badano Carlo Acutis Marta Obregón<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY SAINTHOOD CAUSE OF CARLO ACUTIS<br />
IMAGE VIA CAUSADEMARTA.NET<br />
28 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
child for 11 years, little Chiara finally<br />
came in 1971.<br />
Known for her kindness and her intelligence<br />
as she grew, Badano got involved<br />
with the Focolare Movement,<br />
dedicated to promoting Christian<br />
unity and brotherhood, when she was<br />
just 9 years old.<br />
She quickly adopted a passion for<br />
her faith, insisting she didn’t need to<br />
talk about Jesus, but show her love for<br />
him in her actions. She was given the<br />
nickname “Luce,” meaning “Light,”<br />
by the movement’s founder, Chiara<br />
Lubich, because of the brightness of<br />
her smile.<br />
Badano was diagnosed with a rare<br />
and painful form of bone cancer when<br />
she was just 16. Yet even amid the<br />
fear and apprehension her smile did<br />
not disappear. She continued to be a<br />
cheerful presence for her family and<br />
for other patients, offering her suffering<br />
to God and, when it became clear<br />
she would not recover, giving her<br />
savings to friends doing mission work.<br />
Rather than looking at death as the<br />
end, she planned her funeral as if it<br />
were her wedding because she viewed<br />
death as the moment when she would<br />
become a bride of Christ in heaven.<br />
Shortly before passing away, Badano<br />
offered her final words to her mother,<br />
telling her to “be happy mom,<br />
because I am.”<br />
Badano is just one of six lay people<br />
recognized for their “everyday” holiness<br />
at the April 30 conference, which<br />
was dedicated to lay holiness and<br />
which took place at Rome’s Pontifical<br />
University of the Holy Cross.<br />
Others whose lives and heroic virtue<br />
were explored were Venerable Carlo<br />
Acutis, a young tech-wiz who passed<br />
away at 15 after losing his fight with<br />
fulminant leukemia; Servant of God<br />
Marta Obregon Rodriguez, a young<br />
journalist who was involved with both<br />
Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal<br />
Way, and who was murdered at age 22<br />
after being abducted from her home<br />
by a man who attempted to rape her;<br />
and Angelica Tiraboschi, who also<br />
died at 19 after battling cancer, and<br />
who was known for her joy and deep<br />
faith.<br />
Also reflected on were the lives of<br />
Servant of God Enrique Shaw, who<br />
died from cancer at age 41 and was<br />
known for promoting the social doctrine<br />
of the Church in business growth<br />
by founding the Christian Association<br />
of Business Executives; and Servant<br />
of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo, who<br />
was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant<br />
and died in 2012 after refusing<br />
treatment in order to save her baby.<br />
Speaking to a packed room during<br />
the reflection day, Msgr. Fernando<br />
Ocáriz, leader of the personal prelature<br />
of Opus Dei, said that “every new<br />
saint and blessed is a source of hope<br />
and a living witness of the Gospel,”<br />
but the lives of lay people offer a concrete<br />
example of people who “have<br />
sought to radically live Christianity in<br />
Angelica Tiraboschi<br />
IMAGE VIA ANGELICATIRABOSCHI.IT<br />
Enrique Shaw<br />
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 29
the world.”<br />
Calling the individuals put forward a<br />
“bright example of Christian holiness,”<br />
Ocáriz said their lives are “an<br />
occasion of grace not only for those<br />
who remember them in intercession,<br />
but for all faithful” who work toward<br />
“the sanctification of man and the<br />
glorification of Christ in men.”<br />
The conference was organized<br />
ahead of the upcoming <strong>May</strong> 18<br />
beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de<br />
Landazuri, one of the first women<br />
members of Opus Dei and the first<br />
layperson from the prelature to be<br />
raised to the altars.<br />
Born in Madrid in 1916, Landazuri<br />
was known not just as a standout<br />
chemist at a time when the scientific<br />
field was dominated by men, but<br />
she was deeply devout and widely<br />
recognized as someone whose faith<br />
shone as bright as her intellect in her<br />
everyday work.<br />
She helped begin Opus Dei’s<br />
apostolate in Mexico and eventually<br />
returned to Spain, where she died in<br />
1975 from heart complications.<br />
Described by Ocáriz as someone<br />
who “knew how to find God in the<br />
daily efforts of her scientific research<br />
and teaching,” Landazuri has been<br />
hailed as a model of how to achieve<br />
personal holiness through one’s ordinary<br />
daily circumstances.<br />
Professor Maria Pilar del Rio, who<br />
teaches liturgical ecclesiology at<br />
Santa Croce, also spoke at the conference,<br />
focusing on the “theology of the<br />
laity” that came out of the 1962-65<br />
Second Vatican Council.<br />
She noted how after the council, the<br />
Catholic Church made a strong push<br />
to emphasize holiness as something<br />
attainable for everyone, and which<br />
should be pursued by all members<br />
of the Church, not just priests and<br />
consecrated people.<br />
This call, she said, goes out to<br />
people from all backgrounds: men<br />
and women, young and old, married<br />
and single, students and professionals,<br />
from all countries and backgrounds.<br />
The new form of theology geared<br />
toward lay people wasn’t developed<br />
“at the table,” del Rio said, but was<br />
drawn from the “lives, work, and<br />
numerous apostolic activities that the<br />
laity have brought forward,” including<br />
those highlighted at the conference.<br />
Each of the people whose lives were<br />
reflected on, del Rio said, had encountered<br />
Jesus at some pivotal point,<br />
“and this encounter changed their<br />
lives. Then they immediately fell in<br />
love … with him who loved them<br />
first,” and then spent the rest of their<br />
lives in service to God and others.<br />
Holiness is “a task for all baptized<br />
without question,” she said, adding<br />
that all Catholic faithful, “of whatever<br />
state and status, are called to Christian<br />
life and perfection in charity.” <br />
Elise Harris is the senior correspondent<br />
for Crux in Rome.<br />
Chiara Corbella<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/CRISTIAN GENNARI, COURTESY PETRILLO’S FAMILYBADANO<br />
Guadalupe Ortiz<br />
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
30 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 31
A tapestry of St. John of Avila hangs from the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica before the opening Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization<br />
celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2012.<br />
PAUL HARING/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE<br />
Master’s program<br />
He died 450 years ago this month,<br />
but John of Ávila is a saint for today<br />
BY FATHER GUSTAVO CASTILLO / ANGELUS<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong> marks the 450th<br />
anniversary of the death<br />
of John of Ávila.<br />
A saint who is a virtual<br />
unknown to most Catholics, his<br />
influence was widespread in his own<br />
time — and has a great importance<br />
for our time.<br />
Saint Pope Paul VI canonized Saint<br />
John of Ávila in 1970, and he was<br />
declared a Doctor of the Church by<br />
Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 — the<br />
first diocesan priest to hold such a<br />
distinction.<br />
Even before that, Pope Pius XII had<br />
declared him the patron of Spanish<br />
secular priests.<br />
And in these challenging days for the<br />
priesthood and the Church, John can<br />
still provide a shining light to point<br />
the way back to faithfulness and holy<br />
living.<br />
In his day, he was called a “Master,”<br />
and was a spiritual guide for such<br />
saints as Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius of<br />
Loyola, Peter of Alcantara and John of<br />
Ribera.<br />
The saints John of God and Francis<br />
Borgia owed their conversion to him<br />
and turned to him constantly for<br />
spiritual direction.<br />
Saint Francis de Sales and the Curé<br />
of Ars, Saint John Vianney, said they<br />
benefited from his writings. It is likely<br />
also that the 20th-century Spaniard,<br />
Saint Josemaria Escrivá, drank from<br />
his spiritual fountain.<br />
Ordained in 1526, only nine years<br />
after Martin Luther had broken away<br />
from the Church, John’s initial plan<br />
was to sail off for the “New World” as<br />
a missionary.<br />
But with the threat of Protestantism<br />
looming in Spain, John’s superiors decided<br />
his pastoral zeal and spirituality<br />
32 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
would better serve his home country.<br />
He began preaching and catechizing<br />
adults and children throughout the<br />
cities of the southern Iberian peninsula,<br />
eventually earning the title the<br />
“Apostle of Andalusia.”<br />
Mindful that he could only do so<br />
much on his own, he surrounded<br />
himself with other diocesan priests<br />
who wanted to defend and spread the<br />
Catholic faith.<br />
They started calling him “Master<br />
Ávila,” and he founded colleges and<br />
residences that formed generations of<br />
preachers and confessors who evangelized<br />
throughout Reformation-era<br />
Spain and beyond.<br />
He was so inspiring and effective that<br />
Saint Ignatius of Loyola tried to woo<br />
him over to the Jesuits. But it was not<br />
meant to be.<br />
Master Ávila’s zeal proved to be<br />
contagious.<br />
In Cordoba, more than 20 diocesan<br />
priests followed his lead and began<br />
living together as a community, inspired<br />
by John’s simplicity of life and<br />
commitment to the gospel.<br />
As John’s health began to decline,<br />
many of his disciples did join the<br />
Jesuits and the Carmelites. Others<br />
moved to new dioceses where they<br />
could continue to sow the seeds of<br />
sanctity and faith, as they had learned<br />
from him.<br />
In his later years, Church leaders<br />
turned to John for help in the longterm<br />
renewal of the priesthood.<br />
While he could not attend the Council<br />
of Trent due to his poor health,<br />
John contributed two important<br />
treatises that guided the conversations<br />
of the Council Fathers and proved<br />
fruitful for the future of the Church.<br />
His work was instrumental in the<br />
establishment of seminaries to form<br />
future priests, and in the shaping of<br />
the ministry of bishops in their dioceses.<br />
Building on his own experience,<br />
John also emphasized the importance<br />
of catechisms and religious education<br />
for children and adults.<br />
His main recommendation, though,<br />
was the reform of the Church through<br />
holiness, starting at the top.<br />
John did not hesitate to lovingly and<br />
respectfully recommend that the pope<br />
lead renewal through his own witness,<br />
to set an example that would inspire<br />
The closing session of the Council of Trent in an illustration from the <strong>17</strong>th century.<br />
bishops, priests, and faithful alike. He<br />
was onto something here.<br />
It is well-known that Martin Luther<br />
left the Church because of the decadence<br />
he saw in it. The popes known<br />
to Luther and John seemed more focused<br />
on buildings and administration<br />
than on spiritual matters and care of<br />
souls. The last pope to be canonized<br />
before the Reformation lived more<br />
than 200 years earlier, Saint Pope<br />
Celestine V.<br />
But in the wake of the Council of<br />
Trent, a new springtime was soon felt<br />
in the universal Church, beginning<br />
with the saintly Pope Pius V, who<br />
began implementing the Tridentine<br />
reform.<br />
In Italy, the great archbishop Saint<br />
Charles Borromeo made a deep mark<br />
with his teachings on holiness and<br />
renewal and his founding of multiple<br />
seminaries. In France, besides Saint<br />
Francis de Sales, there were Saint<br />
Vincent de Paul, Saint John Eudes<br />
and others who brought about lasting<br />
reforms through holiness and commitment<br />
to the gospel.<br />
In Peru, Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo<br />
called synods to plant the true Faith<br />
in the newly discovered continent. In<br />
Asia and other mission territories, the<br />
Jesuits threw themselves to evangelize<br />
and make converts for the Lord.<br />
In some way, we can see all of this as<br />
building on the bricks that John had<br />
laid for the renewal of the Church.<br />
Even in generations to come he<br />
would continue to find admirers in pioneering<br />
and reform-minded leaders,<br />
such as Saint Alphonsus Liguori and<br />
Saint Anthony Mary Claret.<br />
In difficult times, it is wise to turn to<br />
credible witnesses for guidance and<br />
renewal.<br />
As he noted, John was a pioneer<br />
in highlighting the universal call to<br />
holiness, developing an authentic<br />
spirituality for priests, and advocating<br />
for true reform in the Church.<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY ART RESOURCE<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 33
In declaring him a Doctor of the<br />
Church in 2012, Benedict was aware<br />
that he was lifting up a saint who<br />
guided many souls to a deeper relationship<br />
with the Lord and to conversion<br />
of life and an outstanding model<br />
of the diocesan priesthood.<br />
The fact that John turned down several<br />
opportunities to become a bishop, and<br />
even a cardinal, shows him to be the<br />
kind of humble evangelizer that Pope<br />
Francis wants to hold up in our times.<br />
This jubilee year of the Master’s<br />
death is a great opportunity for the<br />
shepherds in the Church today to<br />
renew themselves under the guidance<br />
and inspiration of this great spiritual<br />
master. <br />
Father Gustavo Castillo is a Los<br />
Angeles priest and director of spiritual<br />
formation at St. John’s Seminary in<br />
Camarillo. His book, “Shepherding<br />
the Family of God: The Spirituality of<br />
Diocesan Priests in St. John of Ávila,”<br />
will soon be published by the Institute<br />
of Priestly Formation.<br />
Master insights<br />
“If you really believe that the Father gave you his Son, also believe that<br />
he will give you everything else, for everything else is less.”<br />
— “Treatise on the Love of God”<br />
“Pray, meditate, study.”<br />
— Letter 2, 285<br />
“Open your little heart to that breadth of love by which the Father gave<br />
us his Son, and with him gave us himself, and the Holy Spirit, and all<br />
things besides.”<br />
— Letter 160<br />
“Your neighbour is a concern of Jesus Christ.”<br />
— Letter 62<br />
“The proof of perfect love of our Lord is seen in the perfect love of our<br />
neighbour.”<br />
— Letter <strong>10</strong>3<br />
“The priest … is the face of the Church; and just as in the face is<br />
reflected the beauty of the entire body, likewise the clergy must be the<br />
principal beauty of the Church.”<br />
— “Treatise on the Priesthood”<br />
34 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 35
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Finding God in an<br />
Amazon Prime box<br />
Why praying Saint Ignatius’ ‘Examen’<br />
is like a trip to ‘a spiritual chiropractor’<br />
BY GARY JANSEN / ANGELUS<br />
My wife, Grace, and I came<br />
to a very important decision<br />
after we brought our<br />
first son, Eddie, home<br />
from the hospital. It had nothing to do<br />
with his diet or religion or what school<br />
he eventually would attend. It had to<br />
do with video games.<br />
We agreed we would keep our son<br />
away from video games for as long<br />
as possible. We had both spent years<br />
in front of a TV playing the likes of<br />
Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong and<br />
dozens of other games. Good times!<br />
But when we both looked back at<br />
our childhoods, we grimace when we<br />
think that we could have spent those<br />
hours reading, playing, or just hanging<br />
out with our family and friends.<br />
We were very good with Eddie.<br />
Granted, some people thought we<br />
were raising him in the Amish tradition<br />
because he didn’t know what<br />
a game controller was, but we were<br />
good for four years.<br />
And then . . .<br />
When Grace was in the hospital<br />
delivering our second child, our son<br />
spent the night with his aunt. Unbeknownst<br />
to us, her sister introduced<br />
Eddie to Nintendo.<br />
It was over. All the hard work of<br />
keeping Eddie ignorant of the digital<br />
36 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
world — ruined by my sister-in-law.<br />
Over the next few months Eddie<br />
would ask me, literally every day, to<br />
buy him a Nintendo DS, a handheld<br />
computer game. I refused!<br />
<strong>No</strong> son of mine was going to waste<br />
all his time playing video games.<br />
(Looking back, I guess I was acting<br />
like Saint Augustine, who, after living<br />
a lascivious life and fathering a child<br />
out of wedlock, converted to Christianity<br />
and then said no one could<br />
ever do what he did because it was the<br />
wrong thing to do.)<br />
Well, my son kept asking. He kept<br />
knocking at the door of my nerves until<br />
I finally caved. One day, I ordered<br />
my son a Nintendo DS from Amazon<br />
(I love Prime!).<br />
Yet, the moment I saw that box I<br />
knew I had made a mistake. I left it in<br />
the living room as I debated — to give<br />
or not to give, that was the question.<br />
My son had no idea I had ordered<br />
the game for him and his nagging<br />
persisted.<br />
Then I began having a God moment.<br />
‘Examen’<br />
exercise<br />
Many people perform Saint Ignatius’s<br />
“Examen” twice a day,<br />
around lunchtime and before they<br />
go to sleep, but it can be done at any<br />
time of the day.<br />
Step 1: Take a few moments to settle<br />
yourself. Close your eyes or take a few<br />
deep breaths. Be like water and find<br />
level.<br />
Step 2: Remind yourself that God is<br />
all around you. He’s inside you and<br />
outside you. His heart beats in all<br />
creation.<br />
Step 3: Ask the Holy Spirit to rise up<br />
inside you and give you the wisdom<br />
to acknowledge God in your life and<br />
the gifts that are all around you. Ask<br />
the Spirit for guidance in reviewing<br />
your actions.<br />
Step 4: Give thanks for the day.<br />
Turn your eyes into microscopes and<br />
My son passed that box every day,<br />
and not once did he ever think to<br />
ask, “Hey, what’s inside the box?” He<br />
would be inches away from it. Sometimes<br />
he would run his small hand<br />
over the lettering, but at no time did<br />
he ever suspect that the thing he wanted<br />
most in life was actually already in<br />
his presence.<br />
That box for me became God. I<br />
don’t mean it changed shape or started<br />
talking to me, and I definitely don’t<br />
mean it turned into a cardboard idol<br />
that I worshipped. But I really did see<br />
God in that box.<br />
So many of us have this yearning to<br />
know God, to be with God, to have<br />
joy in God, and many of us go on long<br />
journeys to find him. But how many<br />
of us ever ask ourselves, is God here<br />
with me now? Is the God I desire here<br />
in the room with me? And if he is,<br />
what should I do?<br />
Little did I know that those questions<br />
I asked myself that day form the basis<br />
of the spiritual exercise known as the<br />
“Examen.”<br />
The “Examen,” an important part<br />
look for God in all things, the good<br />
and the bad. Find God in a book<br />
you’re reading, your loved ones, and<br />
even the rude bus driver who’s always<br />
barking at you, and the electric bill<br />
that arrives in the mail.<br />
Finding God in a flower can be easy.<br />
Finding God in someone who cuts<br />
you off in traffic … well, there’s a<br />
challenge.<br />
Step 5: Take inventory of your day.<br />
Ask questions and give honest answers.<br />
Where was God for you today?<br />
Where was God present in your actions<br />
and your thoughts? Was God silent<br />
or were you fixated on something<br />
in your mind? Did you treat someone<br />
unfairly? Lose your temper? Did you<br />
really have to send that email?<br />
Step 6: With the help of the Holy<br />
Spirit, make it a priority to reconcile<br />
your actions. If you feel you failed,<br />
ask God for guidance, strength, and<br />
forgiveness. And if you did a good job,<br />
well, be excited and build on that gift.<br />
Step 7: Thank God for this time<br />
together and repeat every day.<br />
— Gary Jansen<br />
of Saint Ignatius’s teachings, involves<br />
setting aside time to reflect on the activities<br />
and thoughts of the day. In this<br />
simple meditation, we ask ourselves<br />
primarily two questions: Where was<br />
God for me? What was my response to<br />
those encounters?<br />
This simple, seven-step process is a<br />
gentle, and sometimes startling, way<br />
of finding God in our daily lives, and<br />
it helps us learn from our actions —<br />
and reactions. Many of us may talk a<br />
good game, we may talk about love<br />
for God and neighbor or about the<br />
gifts in our lives, but our actions say<br />
otherwise.<br />
The “Examen” is a bit like a spiritual<br />
chiropractor, helping bring our desires<br />
into alignment with God’s will — and<br />
conversely, it helps bring our will into<br />
alignment with God’s desire.<br />
Oh, and did I give my son the<br />
Nintendo? Of course I did. I’m a total<br />
pushover. <br />
Gary Jansen is the author of “Life Everlasting”<br />
and “MicroShifts: Transforming<br />
Your Life One Step at a Time.”<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 37
LA’s last ‘Greatest<br />
Generation’ priest<br />
A final farewell to <strong>10</strong>3-year-old Msgr. Richard H. Murray,<br />
who was ordained during World War II and who spent 76<br />
years as a priest ‘among the people in all their stages’<br />
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS<br />
During his 76 years as a priest of the Archdiocese<br />
of Los Angeles, Msgr. Richard H. Murray resided<br />
at only three parishes.<br />
First was All Souls Church in Alhambra,<br />
where he was assigned after his ordination<br />
on April 24, 1943, at St. Vibiana’s<br />
Cathedral — age 27, in the middle<br />
of World War II.<br />
Then came St. Paul Church<br />
in Mid-City Los Angeles,<br />
where Msgr. Thomas<br />
Blackwell kept him as<br />
a trusted administrator<br />
pro tem and associate<br />
pastor until<br />
Blackwell’s health<br />
worsened and he<br />
died in 1959.<br />
Three years later,<br />
Murray was asked<br />
to help establish<br />
St. Bernardine of<br />
Siena Church in<br />
Woodland Hills,<br />
on an empty lot of<br />
sagebrush.<br />
At the time of Murray’s<br />
death on April<br />
29 at the age of <strong>10</strong>3, he<br />
remained pastor emeritus<br />
of St. Bernadine of Siena.<br />
He was not only still living in<br />
the rectory, but while confined to<br />
a wheelchair he had a caregiver find<br />
him a special spot in the church so he could<br />
concelebrate the 7 a.m. Mass each Sunday in full vestments.<br />
“He remained the heart and soul of that community he<br />
dearly loved,” said Msgr. Austin Doran, the pastor at St.<br />
Msgr. Richard Murray in<br />
an undated photo.<br />
Anthony Catholic Church in San Gabriel. “He was very<br />
devoted to celebrating the holy Eucharist and the Litany of<br />
the Hours in daily prayer.”<br />
Doran was assigned to St. Bernardine of Siena<br />
in December 1978, six months after his<br />
own ordination. In four-plus years<br />
as the associate pastor, Doran<br />
said the lesson he learned<br />
from Murray that he still<br />
uses as a foundation<br />
today was “how to<br />
have a positive<br />
attitude about life<br />
and people.”<br />
“Life was a gift<br />
to be celebrated<br />
and valued. He<br />
was also a great<br />
minister to the<br />
sick and always<br />
found a way to<br />
encourage and<br />
support couples<br />
in living out<br />
their vows.”<br />
Doran admitted<br />
that “some priests<br />
today have three<br />
assignments in one<br />
year,” but Murray began<br />
at a time when terms were<br />
not yet assigned.<br />
“His assignments were more<br />
than just luck,” said Doran. “Every<br />
pastor he served realized they had someone<br />
special and wanted to keep him as long as they<br />
could.”<br />
Murray was born Sept. 11, 1915, in Alexandria, Louisiana,<br />
moving to LA in 1923 and attending Los Angeles<br />
THE TIDINGS<br />
38 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
Msgr. Richard Murray with Archbishop José H. Gomez at the archdiocesan priest retirement luncheon on <strong>May</strong> 14, 2018, at the Cathedral of Our Lady<br />
of the Angels.<br />
VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
College, a high school junior seminary, before going to St.<br />
John’s Seminary in Camarillo.<br />
In a Tidings article that celebrated his <strong>10</strong>0th birthday in<br />
October 2015, Murray recalled that when he was assigned<br />
to establish St. Bernadine of Siena in 1962, “there was<br />
nothing on the hillside but cactus and coyotes” at Valley<br />
Circle Boulevard, and Masses were first held at Chaminade<br />
High School or at the Canoga Park High School<br />
auditorium.<br />
The growing community of engineers and professionals<br />
fed into this new parish, and Murray invited them to be<br />
more active as volunteers at a time when the Second Vatican<br />
Council resulted in liturgical changes to the Mass and<br />
more emphasis on the laity.<br />
The Latin Mass was in transition to being celebrated in<br />
English, but that was not an issue for Murray. He loved<br />
studying languages and was proficient in Latin, Greek, and<br />
Spanish from his time at St. John’s Seminary.<br />
Elevated to monsignor in 1983, Murray was known for<br />
driving around in his Mustang visiting shut-ins and the<br />
sick, even long after he officially retired as full-time pastor<br />
in 1989.<br />
“I love to be among the people during both their sorrows<br />
and their joys,” he said. “Christ loved to be among people<br />
even when they were sick or dying. And that’s how I tried<br />
to model my priesthood: to be among the people in all<br />
their stages.”<br />
A 2008 article in the Los Angeles Daily <strong>News</strong> marking the<br />
65th anniversary of Murray’s ordination noted he was a bit<br />
disappointed that he recently had to give up driving his car.<br />
He was 92 at the time.<br />
“He has been retired from administrative work [for 20<br />
years] but there’s no retirement from shepherding the<br />
flock,” said Msg. Robert J. McNamara, then the pastor at<br />
St. Bernardine of Siena, now a pastor emeritus.<br />
In <strong>May</strong> 2018, Murray was one of 60 who attended an<br />
archdiocesan priest retirement luncheon at the Cathedral<br />
of Our Lady of the Angels. Murray sat next to Archbishop<br />
José H. Gomez.<br />
“He so enjoyed that day,” said Doran, assigned as Murray’s<br />
trustee and power of attorney. “That was challenging<br />
for him — not because of his health. He was very sharp<br />
and mentally clear. It’s just that so many of his generation<br />
have already passed, including his own brothers and sisters.<br />
Some very close friends.<br />
“He lost a whole generation of priests. It was difficult for<br />
him to be ‘the last one standing.’ But he venerated life as a<br />
gift from God.” <br />
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning journalist based in Los<br />
Angeles.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 39
WITH GRACE<br />
BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE<br />
Protecting the true<br />
transition to womanhood<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
These days, the phrase “becoming<br />
a woman” brings<br />
up a whole range of ideas<br />
absolutely brand new in the<br />
history of the human imagination. I’m<br />
referring, of course, to the idea that a<br />
man can “become a woman” simply<br />
by denying his male nature and bodily<br />
reality.<br />
But this very phrase has been much<br />
on my mind lately. For the past few<br />
months, I’ve been watching someone<br />
I love become a woman — and this in<br />
the very real, biological sense.<br />
My youngest daughter is growing up.<br />
She is no longer, physically, a child.<br />
In times past and in most cultures,<br />
she’d be readying for her own adult<br />
life: wife and mother of her own<br />
family.<br />
In our modern age, she is only entering<br />
what is sure to be a long adolescence,<br />
a life phase that is also new in<br />
human history. In any case, it’s a difficult<br />
process, this natural “becoming,”<br />
and my heart is filled with an aching<br />
tenderness, watching her.<br />
In childhood a girl lives for years<br />
oblivious of what lies just around the<br />
corner. If she is very fortunate, she is<br />
protected by her mother and father<br />
like a hothouse flower as she grows.<br />
She is kept safe not only from ugly<br />
realities but even of their mention.<br />
Her innocence, the purity of her<br />
clean mind, are shielded from the<br />
scandals that plague humanity — the<br />
40 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
mess of sexuality untethered from true<br />
love of the “other” and the way men<br />
and women use one another remorselessly,<br />
to get ahead or just to feel OK.<br />
How many times, as parents, have<br />
we shushed one another, or a friend,<br />
when we knew that the girl with the<br />
seashell ears was nearby? She was not<br />
to know, not yet, that people don’t<br />
keep their solemn vows, or that they<br />
are capable of ending the life of their<br />
own son or daughter for the simple<br />
crime of being inconvenient or unexpected.<br />
And then it happens — the becoming.<br />
The outside changes first, and girls<br />
start to hunch when they used to<br />
stand tall and sword-straight. They<br />
are embarrassed by their breasts, and<br />
disconcerted by the glances that slide<br />
down from their faces to their chests.<br />
This had never happened to them<br />
before.<br />
Then the inside changes and the<br />
indignity begins. That first trembling<br />
phone call to mother from school:<br />
“Come and get me, Mami!” and the<br />
trip down that aisle in the pharmacy,<br />
eyes shifting furtively, hoping that no<br />
one she knows is watching.<br />
The cyclic pains begin, and also the<br />
terrible embarrassment at the inevitable<br />
accidents and contretemps. It feels<br />
like a betrayal on the part of one’s<br />
body, a body that one was comfortable<br />
with, and could trust.<br />
Mother’s insistence that it’s natural<br />
and good, that this is the way God<br />
prepares us for our most spectacular<br />
womanly feat — the carrying of a<br />
beloved child within us — does not<br />
begin to console.<br />
This process I’ve described is only<br />
the very beginning of “becoming a<br />
woman.” There is so much ahead that<br />
is difficult that a mother cringes to<br />
think of it. The little hothouse flower<br />
will have to learn to bloom where she<br />
is planted, whether that be scorching<br />
desert or teeming jungle.<br />
It is very likely that she will be taken<br />
for granted just when she is most vulnerable,<br />
and that her innocence will<br />
be squashed unceremoniously, and<br />
painfully. She will be judged strictly<br />
on her appearance, and how closely it<br />
matches with whatever unreachable<br />
standard of beauty is in vogue.<br />
The lovely girl will likely spend years<br />
thinking she is graceless and ugly. If<br />
she is again, very, very fortunate, and<br />
her child training has been excellent,<br />
she will not take herself at the world’s<br />
valuation. She will know that she was<br />
raised like a princess because she is<br />
one — a daughter of the divine King<br />
himself.<br />
<strong>No</strong>thing but knowledge of that fact<br />
can protect her from the ignoble plans<br />
the world has for her. Because even a<br />
loving mother and father can’t walk<br />
with her everywhere to fight off the<br />
dragons.<br />
I started off by talking of men “becoming<br />
women.” You see, I’ve been<br />
feeling resentful. Watching my little<br />
girl inevitably, inexorably, start her<br />
own difficult “becoming,” my soul is<br />
stirred with pity.<br />
We ought to have a culture that<br />
treasures and protects these vulnerable,<br />
budding women during their<br />
difficult transition, that “tempers<br />
the wind to the shorn lamb.” But we<br />
don’t. Instead, we have a coarse and<br />
deluded culture that pretends to find<br />
womanhood where it doesn’t exist,<br />
and at the same time does its best to<br />
stain the delicate purities that are our<br />
daughters.<br />
“Becoming a woman” is hard to do,<br />
and for a mother who knows just what<br />
is in store, hard to watch. But, unlike<br />
the false “becoming” of a man who<br />
denies his very real self, it is a natural<br />
process that takes the girl-child to<br />
graceful womanhood with all its beautiful<br />
possibilities.<br />
My daughter and I are getting used<br />
to living in this time of transformation,<br />
and I, for one, am starting to<br />
look forward with great eagerness to<br />
the woman she is becoming. <br />
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie grew up in<br />
Guadalajara, Mexico, coming to the<br />
U.S. at the age of 11. She has written<br />
for USA TODAY, National Review,<br />
The Washington Post, and The New<br />
York Times, and has appeared on<br />
CNN, Telemundo, Fox <strong>News</strong> and<br />
EWTN. She practices radiology in the<br />
Miami area, where she lives with her<br />
husband and five children.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 41
CHANGING<br />
AMERICA<br />
BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE<br />
A rabbi’s words<br />
of wisdom<br />
SAN DIEGO — In dark moments,<br />
it’s wise to listen to a<br />
rabbi.<br />
Darkness descended recently<br />
upon this laidback Southern California<br />
community on the coast.<br />
It came when John Earnest — a<br />
well-liked straight-A nursing student,<br />
classical pianist, and all-American<br />
boy with twisted ideas in his head,<br />
and evil in his heart — stormed into a<br />
packed synagogue in a suburban city<br />
on the final day of Passover with what<br />
the county sheriff called an “AR-type<br />
assault weapon,” and opened fire with<br />
a desire to kill Jews.<br />
One person was killed, and three<br />
more were injured.<br />
The deceased was Lori Gilbert Kaye,<br />
a devout 60-year-old worshipper at<br />
Chabad of Poway, about 30 miles<br />
north of San Diego, who, according<br />
to friends and family, brought light<br />
into the lives of many people over the<br />
years by sharing her time, affection,<br />
and effort with those who needed it.<br />
The injured included an 8-year-old<br />
girl named <strong>No</strong>ya Dahan, who recently<br />
moved to the San Diego-area from<br />
what is normally a more dangerous<br />
place, the Israeli city of Sderot,<br />
located only a mile from the Gaza<br />
Strip. Since 2001, Sderot has been the<br />
target of thousands of rockets fired off<br />
by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.<br />
Also injured was Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein,<br />
who was shot in both hands and<br />
lost his right index finger in the attack.<br />
He survived.<br />
And that’s because Kaye apparently<br />
jumped in front of Goldstein as the<br />
gunman was preparing to fire another<br />
round at him. According to little<br />
Dahan and other witnesses, Kaye<br />
put herself in the line of fire and said<br />
something like, “If the Rabbi dies, I<br />
die.” Earnest fired, and Kaye died.<br />
There could have been much more<br />
bloodshed. Police said Earnest came<br />
armed with dozens of rounds of ammunition.<br />
But, unexpectedly, once in<br />
the synagogue, the rifle jammed. That<br />
gave Oscar Stewart, a military veteran<br />
who served in Iraq, the chance to rush<br />
Earnest, even though Stewart was<br />
unarmed. Earnest fled the church,<br />
and he was soon arrested.<br />
The 19-year-old was charged with<br />
first-degree murder and three counts<br />
of attempted murder, all with the special<br />
circumstances enhancement that<br />
come with hate crimes. If convicted,<br />
he could get the death penalty.<br />
In a statement, Earnest’s parents<br />
said they were “shocked and deeply<br />
saddened” by their son’s actions. “To<br />
our great shame,” they said, “he is<br />
now part of the history of evil that has<br />
been perpetuated on Jewish people<br />
for centuries.”<br />
Speaking of evil, Earnest left behind<br />
his motivation for the attack. It’s race<br />
hatred. In a sickening 4,000-word<br />
manifesto published online, Earnest<br />
described Jews as destroying the white<br />
race. Latinos and African-Americans<br />
are part of the conspiracy, but they’re<br />
bit players. Jews run the show, according<br />
to Earnest.<br />
In his mind, Jews are not white.<br />
This isn’t about religion or skin color,<br />
but about culture. Earnest may say<br />
“white” but he means “WASP.” And<br />
he sees himself as uniquely positioned<br />
to avenge, through violence, the<br />
wrongs done to his people, white people,<br />
because someone has to do it.<br />
Local media commentators call<br />
Earnest a white supremacist. But that’s<br />
not so. White supremacists are always<br />
on the offensive, and they think<br />
they’re superior to people of color.<br />
Earnest was on the defensive, and<br />
he believes white people are being<br />
threatened with elimination by people<br />
of color.<br />
Where did this young man, who<br />
probably doesn’t remember any U.S.<br />
president before George W. Bush, acquire<br />
such an ancient perspective? He<br />
wrote in his manifesto that his parents<br />
didn’t teach it to him.<br />
He wrote that he picked a lot of it up<br />
from an online message board, where<br />
he has been roaming around for the<br />
last 18 months or so. He wrote that<br />
what he learned there about how the<br />
world really works, and how Jews are<br />
destroying whites, was “priceless.” <strong>No</strong>t<br />
42 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
Hannah Kaye (left center), daughter of shooting victim Lori Gilbert Kaye, is held by her father<br />
Howard Kaye as wounded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein (center) speaks above the casket during a<br />
graveside service April 29 in San Diego. Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed inside the Chabad of Poway<br />
synagogue April 27 by a gunman who opened fire as worshippers attended services.<br />
MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES<br />
to mention vile.<br />
Catholics know this story well, a<br />
variation of it, anyway. Anti-Catholic<br />
prejudice and bigotry left scars on the<br />
first half of the 20th century. To many,<br />
our customs and rituals have always<br />
seemed like superstitions.<br />
Even in a country that is advertised<br />
as welcoming and celebrating diversity,<br />
those who are different frighten<br />
those who are close-minded, insecure,<br />
and intolerant. ’Twas always thus.<br />
And what’s that about the rabbi?<br />
What does Goldstein have to tell us?<br />
“I had to look the murderer in the<br />
face for something for me to impart<br />
to the rest of the world,” he told CBS<br />
<strong>News</strong>. “Something has to change.<br />
It’s time for a change. It’s not just<br />
anti-Semitism. It’s all type of bigotry.<br />
We have lost our soul.”<br />
He’s right, you know. Something<br />
feels different. In the United States,<br />
and around the world, compassion<br />
and empathy are falling by the<br />
wayside. Hatred and acrimony are<br />
surging. We have lost our soul. And<br />
we have to get it back. <br />
Ruben Navarrette is a contributing<br />
editor to <strong>Angelus</strong> and a syndicated<br />
columnist with The Washington Post<br />
Writers Group and a columnist for<br />
the Daily Beast. He is a radio host, a<br />
frequent guest analyst on cable news,<br />
a member of the USA Today Board of<br />
Contributors, and host of the podcast<br />
“Navarrette Nation.” Among his books<br />
are “A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey<br />
of a Harvard Chicano.”<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 43
THE CRUX<br />
BY HEATHER KING<br />
Taking a different aim<br />
A new documentary explores the ‘moral injury’<br />
suffered by people who’ve pulled the trigger<br />
the Bullet” is a<br />
documentary, directed<br />
and produced by<br />
“Behind<br />
Heidi Yewman, with the<br />
tagline, “4 Shooters. 4 Stories. A New<br />
Perspective on Gun Violence.”<br />
Yewman is a graduate of Columbine<br />
High School and lost her former<br />
basketball coach Dave Sanders in<br />
the 1999 mass shooting. She’s since<br />
written a book, also called “Beyond<br />
the Bullet,” subtitled “Personal Stories<br />
of Gun Violence Aftermath.”<br />
Still, she intentionally tried to keep<br />
her own bias out of it. “I want to have<br />
a conversation with people, especially<br />
gun owners, and I can’t do that if<br />
they’re feeling judged or preached to.”<br />
Thus, the film offers no statistics till<br />
the closing credits. And its focus is not<br />
on people who have been shot, but<br />
rather the impact on those who have<br />
pulled the trigger.<br />
The first person we meet is Christen<br />
McGinnes, who is putting on makeup<br />
and has clearly undergone some kind<br />
of major physical trauma. “One of<br />
the hardest things I had to face was<br />
not having a face,” she says. “The two<br />
years I couldn’t eat, talk, or drink were<br />
the most difficult.”<br />
McGinnes had bought a gun in case<br />
someone broke into her room. In a<br />
moment of profound emotional pain,<br />
she picked it up, went out on her balcony,<br />
prayed for forgiveness, and shot<br />
herself in the head.<br />
She now works with other gunshot<br />
Christen McGinnes Kevin Leonard Taylor Dwyer<br />
trauma victims, and at the time had<br />
undergone 45 surgeries. I had to close<br />
my eyes during Operation <strong>No</strong>. 46<br />
shown in the film, but the point was<br />
well taken: This is what a gunshot<br />
does to a human face.<br />
Says Yewman: “It was hard to find<br />
someone who had survived a suicide<br />
by gun, and who could and would talk<br />
about it. We spend a lot of time talking<br />
about school shootings, but the<br />
fact is that 60 percent of gun deaths<br />
are from suicide. So I felt I really<br />
should include one such story.”<br />
Will Little, an African-American<br />
from the streets of Philadelphia, was<br />
18 when he shot and killed another<br />
18-year-old. He served <strong>10</strong> years. When<br />
he went to prison, his girlfriend was<br />
pregnant with their son, who is now a<br />
teenager. Little worked hard while in<br />
prison to develop into a worthy man<br />
and father.<br />
In an especially moving scene in the<br />
film, a gathering of local black men sit<br />
in a playground talking. “We all grew<br />
up believing a lie that the streets told<br />
us. That you couldn’t back down from<br />
an argument. That you can’t apologize<br />
to another man.” Three have lost<br />
sons. The tearing of the fabric of the<br />
community is palpable.<br />
But so is the desire to do better for<br />
the next generation. Little now proud-<br />
44 • ANGELUS • <strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
wyer<br />
Will Little<br />
ly mentors his son and heads up a<br />
neighborhood organization called Redemption,<br />
Forgiveness, Peace (RFP).<br />
Kevin Leonard, “a born and raised<br />
country boy,” came home from turkey<br />
hunting one day several years ago, saw<br />
a strange SUV out front, and found<br />
two intruders in his home.<br />
One man got away, but after firing<br />
a single shot the other “fell right<br />
there in the grass. He would not quit<br />
moving.” Though otherwise thoughtful<br />
and sensitive, Leonard stood there<br />
© <strong>2019</strong> BTB PRODUCTIONS<br />
for the 30 to 40 minutes it took for the<br />
cops to arrive, watching him die.<br />
Today his property is barricaded. He<br />
has motion detectors, trip wires, and<br />
firearms galore.<br />
“I wake up lost. My dreams are horrible.<br />
… I see things at night. … People<br />
make comments like, ‘Hey Kevin how<br />
ya doin, ya kill anybody today?’ ”<br />
Beth, the mother of sons Taylor and<br />
Matthew, is still weeping <strong>10</strong> years after<br />
the incident that derailed her life.<br />
“Daron [her husband and the boys’<br />
father] was traveling a lot. So I asked<br />
for a little gun, just a little protection<br />
for me and the boys. I had it out a lot<br />
at night and I guess that particular<br />
morning I just forgot to put it up.”<br />
Taylor, then 8, picked up the gun<br />
one morning and shot his 5-year-old<br />
brother Matthew in the forehead.<br />
Daron, a music minister, and his<br />
parents, also in ministry, choose their<br />
words carefully. With their faith as the<br />
backdrop, they developed a kind of<br />
script: This is how we’re going to think<br />
about it, this is how we’re going to talk<br />
about it. “We spoke of it in terms of an<br />
accident.”<br />
<strong>No</strong>netheless, Daron and Beth are<br />
now divorced. A teenager now, Taylor<br />
makes bombs with his high school<br />
buddies and stages explosions for fun.<br />
And faith notwithstanding, Daron,<br />
choking up, says, “In a lot of ways,<br />
it feels like the morning has never<br />
come.”<br />
The film has already won several<br />
awards and Yewman hopes to release<br />
it commercially in the fall.<br />
She says, “I feel there’s a false<br />
narrative to the effect that you can be<br />
the good guy with a gun and save the<br />
day killing a ‘bad guy’ with your gun.<br />
In the film, Kevin shows very clearly<br />
that you don’t just kill someone who’s<br />
threatened you or your family, and<br />
move on with your day and your life.<br />
A moral injury occurs.”<br />
I, too, came away haunted by his<br />
suffering. Supreme irony: The guys<br />
who broke into his home that fateful<br />
day were trying to steal — you guessed<br />
it — his guns. <br />
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>10</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 45