Angelus News | May 10, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 17

ANGELUS 

‘Fasten your 

seat belts!’ 

LA’s ‘Bishop Joe’ takes 

the wheel in Fresno 

May 10, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 17

Contents 

Archbishop Gomez 3 

Catholic schoolteachers take a field trip to Finland 20 

World, Nation and Local News 4-6 

A veteran’s final homecoming, 52 years in the making 24 

LA Catholic Events 7 Elise Harris: Young faces of holiness get the spotlight in Rome 28 

Scott Hahn on Scripture 8 450 years later, Saint John of Ávila is a saint for all ages 32 

Father Rolheiser 9 

Gary Jansen: An Ignatian secret prayer weapon 36 

LA’s oldest priest dies at 103 38 

Dr. Grazie Christie on a transition worth defending 40 

Ruben Navarrette breaks down the Poway rabbi’s most important lesson 42 

Heather King: A documentary’s look behind the gun 44

ON THE COVER 

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. 

NICK CADENA/DIOCESE OF FRESNO 

IMAGE: Priests from Los Angeles pose before processing into St. 

Anthony of Padua Church in Fresno for Bishop Joseph V. 

Brennan’s installation Mass May 2. From left to right: Fathers 

Brian Nunes, Gabriel Kang, Richard Sunwoo, Walter Paredes, 

John O’Brien, Abel Loera, Riz Carranza, Jim Bevacqua, Vito 

DiMarzio, and Patrick Mullen. 

JACOB SCOTT

ANGELUS 

May 10, 2019 | Vol.4 • No.17 

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POPE WATCH 

A Christian’s ID card 

In the Catholic heart of Bulgaria, 

Pope Francis celebrated a special 

Mass for 245 children receiving their 

first Communion and thanked them 

for helping him, their parents and 

grandparents remember their own first 

Communion. 

“Today you have made it possible for 

us to relive that joy and to celebrate 

Jesus, present in the bread of life,” the 

pope told the children May 6 in Rakovski’s 

Church of the Sacred Heart. 

The Mass was one of several liturgies 

in the pope’s packed schedule during 

his May 5-7 apostolic voyage to Bulgaria 

and Macedonia. 

While only about 1 percent of 

Bulgaria’s population is Catholic, in 

Rakovski the vast majority of the city’s 

27,000 people are Catholic. 

“Jesus is alive and here with us; that 

is why we can encounter him today 

in the Eucharist,” the pope said. “We 

do not see him with our physical eyes, 

but we do see him with the eyes of 

faith.” 

After he read his prepared homily, 

Pope Francis focused on the first communicants, 

dressed in white robes and 

seated in the front rows. 

“Are you happy to receive your first 

Communion?” he asked them. “Yes,” 

the braver ones said out loud. “Are 

you sure?” the pope asked. “Yes!” they 

all shouted. 

“In the homily I said something I 

want you to remember forever,” the 

pope told the children. “I spoke of the 

ID card of a Christian. I said our ID 

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card is this: God is our father. Jesus 

is our brother. The Church is our 

family, and we are brothers and sisters. 

Our law is love.” 

To drive the point home, Pope 

Francis had the children repeat each 

line after him — or rather, after the 

translator who was telling the children 

in Bulgarian what the pope had said 

in Italian. 

At one point, either to test the translator 

or the children, the pope said, 

“We are enemies.” When it was about 

to be repeated, he said, “Are we enemies?” 

Of course, they shouted, “No.” 

After the recitation of the Lord’s 

Prayer, the pope had more words for 

the children. “Now you will receive 

Jesus,” he told them. “Do not let 

yourselves be distracted; think only 

of Jesus. Come to the altar to receive 

Jesus in silence; silence your hearts.” 

The pope, dipping the consecrated 

host in the consecrated wine, personally 

gave Communion to each of the 

children, while other priests brought 

the Eucharist to another 500 people 

inside the church and an estimated 

10,000 people gathered on the church 

grounds for the Mass. 

The Vatican press office said it was 

the first time on a papal trip that Pope 

Francis had administered first Communion. 

 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome Bureau Chief Cindy 

Wooden. 

Papal Prayer Intentions for May: That the Church in Africa, through the commitment of its members, 

may be the seed of unity among her peoples and a sign of hope for this continent. 

@Angelus 


www.la-archdiocese.org 

@Angelus 


2 • ANGELUS • May 10, 2019

NEW WORLD 

OF FAITH 

BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

The rosary in Mary’s month 

May is Mary’s month, a time in the 

Church when we reflect on our relationship 

with the mother of Jesus. 

Jesus wanted us to know that his 

mother was our mother. It is one of 

his last teachings, words he spoke 

from the cross: “Behold your mother.” 

We need our Blessed Mother Mary 

to help us understand the beautiful 

mystery of our life in Christ. 

Jesus took on our humanity in the 

womb of the Virgin Mary. We are able 

to call him the Son of Man because 

he is the Son of Mary. 

As we try ourselves to live truly as 

sons and daughters of God, we need 

to understand that like Jesus, we are 

also children of Mary. 

The 20th-century spiritual master, 

Blessed Columba Marmion, said, “We 

ought to imitate Jesus in all things. 

The Eternal Word chose Mary for his 

mother; in like manner we should 

choose her for our mother and have a 

childlike devotion to her.” 

This is beautiful advice. All of us 

need to find ways to grow in our love 

for Mary. 

Blessed Marmion used to consecrate 

himself to Mary every morning after 

receiving Communion. Knowing 

that Jesus was with him in the holy 

Eucharist, he would pray, “Behold 

your Son! O Virgin Mary, I am your 

child … accept me as your son as you 

have accepted Jesus.” 

And like all the saints, Blessed 

Marmion had a deep devotion to the 

rosary. 

The rosary is the prayer of the saints. 

Through this prayer we follow the 

example of Jesus, who taught us that 

unless we become as little children, 

we cannot enter the kingdom of 

heaven. 

During this month of May, let us try 

to rediscover the power of the rosary. 

The goal of our life is to follow 

Jesus and become more like him. 

And when we pray the rosary, we are 

joining our Blessed Mother in turning 

our eyes with loving attention toward 

Jesus — to the mysteries of his life, 

the mysteries that reveal the meaning 

of our own lives. 

Some people object that the rosary 

is repetitious. But that is part of its 

beauty and power. 

When we observe the ways of nature 

— the song of a bird, the mighty 

waves of the ocean, the rising of the 

sun and its setting — we see that the 

order of God’s creation is all repetition. 

Patterns that repeat, day in and 

day out. Our own lives depend on the 

repetition of our hearts beating, our 

breathing in and out. 

When we pray the rosary we are 

not just repeating empty words with 

our lips. The rosary is a prayer of the 

heart, a contemplative prayer. 

For me the rosary is like the “Jesus 

Prayer” that so many Christians pray, 

repeating words from the Gospel, 

“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on 

me, a sinner.” 

The rosary, too, is a scriptural prayer. 

In the Hail Mary we are repeating the 

words of an angel, words that brought 

about the Incarnation, words that invite 

us to join our lives to the mystery 

of God’s plan of salvation. 

As we pray with our lips, our minds 

and hearts enter into a rhythm that 

allows us to meditate on the mysteries 

of Christ’s life, as seen through the 

eyes of his mother. 

The scenes that pass before us in 

the joyful, sorrowful, luminous, and 

glorious mysteries, are all scenes that 

Mary saw with her own eyes. 

In the rosary, we are learning how 

to look at Jesus the way Mary looked 

at him, with wonder, with love. The 

Gospels tell us that Mary “kept all 

these things, reflecting on them in her 

heart.” 

The rosary is a prayer of remembering, 

in which we keep the memory of 

Jesus’ words and his example present 

and alive, pondering these mysteries 

until they come to fill and shape our 

own heart. 

Through his joyful mysteries, we 

learn his humility. Through his 

luminous mysteries, we share his 

zeal to bring God’s light to the world. 

Through his sorrowful mysteries, 

we learn that love requires sacrifice. 

Through his glorious mysteries, our 

confident hope for heaven grows. 

Each decade of the rosary begins 

with the prayer that Jesus taught us, 

the prayer of God’s children. And this 

prayer opens our hearts to our Father’s 

plan, his loving will for our lives. 

At the heart of the rosary are Mary’s 

words from the wedding feast at Cana, 

the second luminous mystery — “Do 

whatever he tells you.” We find this 

same spirit at the heart of the Our 

Father — “Thy will be done.” 

Pray for me this week and I will pray 

for you. 

And let us ask our Blessed Mother 

Mary in this beautiful month of May 

to help us grow in our love for her 

and in our desire to live as children of 

God. 

To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com. 

May 10, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

DÉJALE IR, CATÓLICO/MARVEL/TWITTER, @DISMASOP 

WORLD 

Saint Teresa of Ávila’s hand reliquary 

(left) and the “Infinity Gauntlet” from 

“Avengers.” 

A Spanish saint’s real 

‘Infinity Gauntlet’? 

Saving Notre Dame 

with a video game 

Could a violent video game’s 

enormously detailed rendering of 

Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral help 

in its rebuilding? 

French video game giant Ubisoft 

has offered data from computer 

models that went into creating the 

virtual version of the church from 

its smash video game hit “Assassin’s 

Creed: Unity” to aid the rebuilding 

of the fire-damaged cathedral in 

Paris. 

The 2014 game immerses gamers 

in a dispute between medieval 

Knights Templar and a syndicate of 

anti-Christian assassins. 

Its creators hired university 

professors and other consultants 

to help craft an eminently realistic 

18th-century Paris to ensure the 

game’s historical fiction plot had a 

historically accurate backdrop. 

Carolina Miousse, who spent two 

years working on the cathedral’s 

in-game design as an assistant art 

director, said that the effort was 

important because “you really need 

to be sure that you’re recreating 

(Notre Dame) as accurately as 

possible because it’s so well-known.” 

Miousse noted that she was 

particularly proud of how Notre 

Dame’s famous spire was recreated 

in the game, a process 

she described as incredibly challenging. 

 

Judging by the pictures, there’s 

a good case to be made that the 

design of the “Infinity Gauntlet” 

— the magical glove that Marvel 

villain Thanos first wielded in 

“Avengers: Infinity War” to eliminate 

half of all intelligent life — 

may have been inspired by the 

reliquary encasing the incorrupt 

hand of Saint Teresa of Ávila. 

Twitter user and Dominican 

priest Father Dismas Sayre was 

responsible for calling attention 

to similarities between the two, 

stating in a viral tweet on March 

27, “Did you know that the 

gauntlet of Thanos is so powerful 

because it is a replica of the relic 

of the hand of Saint Teresa de 

Jesus? Good luck unseeing that 

now” along with pictures of the 

two side by side. 

But the parallels really are 

uncanny — both have colorful 

jewels placed at each knuckle, 

a central oval, and the hue of 

gilded silver. The creators of 

“Avengers: Endgame” — which is 

currently dominating theaters — 

have yet to address the similarities. 

 

A NATION IN TURMOIL — Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido throw 

stones at riot police in front of images of Mary and the Christ Child and Michael the Archangel 

May 1 in Caracas. While protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro raged 

across the country, National Guard forces loyal to the embattled head of state launched tear 

gas at churchgoers attending Mass at a parish in San Cristobal. 

Pope Francis donates 

$500K to help migrants 

Pope Francis has pledged $500,000 

to Mexican dioceses and missions 

providing food, water, and shelter 

to the throngs of Central Americans 

fleeing political and gang violence. 

The increasingly strict immigration 

policies of both Mexico and 

the United States have resulted in 

thousands of migrants waiting in 

overwhelmed and often dangerous 

border cities where they await the 

results of their asylum claims. 

Catholic institutions in Mexico 

have expressed their frustration at 

their government for its lack of a 

plan so far on how to deal with the 

crisis. 

“Nobody wants to take charge,” Ciudad 

Juarez migrant shelter director 

Father Javier Calvillo told Catholic 

News Service last month. 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/MANAURE QUINTERO, REUTERS 


NATION 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/JOSHUA ROBERTS, REUTERS 

Alabama’s challenge to Roe v. Wade 

Last Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives 

approved by a margin of 74-3 a bill that makes 

performing an abortion a Class A felony. Doctors 

who break the law and perform the procedure can 

face years of jail time, but the law explicitly states that 

women receiving abortions will not be held accountable 

in any way. 

State Rep. Rich Wingo, R-Tuskaloosa, stated that 

the bill was a strong defense of human dignity, while 

lamenting that in his home district currently “(t)here 

are more abortions … than births.” 

The bill is now bound for the Alabama Senate and 

the desk of GOP Gov. Kay Ivey. 

While the bill represents a significant step for 

Alabama, its backers have bigger plans for it, namely 

forcing a legal challenge from those who oppose it that 

would make the Supreme Court reconsider the 1973 

Roe v. Wade decision, which first established abortion 

as a constitutional right. 

Paul Ryan in 2017. 

Former speaker gets Notre Dame gig 

Starting in the fall, former U.S. House Speaker Paul 

Ryan will teach at University of Notre Dame as a guest 

lecturer teaching political science and economics. 

Some of the subjects he will cover will include the 

fundamentals of American government, political polarization 

in America, and Catholicism and economics, 

the university announced April 15. 

The Catholic father of three joins former Indiana 

Sen. Joe Donnelly and former Obama Chief of Staff 

Denis McDonough as one of Notre Dame’s “professor-of-the-practice” 

appointments. 

Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, served as speaker 

of the House of Representatives from 2015 until the 

beginning of this year. 

CHICAGO CHEER — Paulette Clagon, principal of St. Gregory the 

Great School in Whittier, high-fives the coordinators following the 

closing Mass at the NCEA 2019 Convention & Expo in Chicago April 

25. More than 9,000 Catholic educators from across the country 

gathered in Chicago for the annual event. 

A White House win 

for religious freedom 

The Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS) instituted a new rule May 2 giving health care 

workers more freedom to resist procedures that they 

have moral or religious objections with, even if they 

serve only in support or administrative roles. 

HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Roger Severino 

said in a statement that the rule ensures religious 

health care providers “won’t be bullied out of the 

health care field.” Christian organizations like the 

Christian Medical Association praised the change, 

declaring that the rule is “consistent with decades of 

federal conscience law” and simply protects existing 

rights. 

A statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic 

Bishops thanked the Trump administration for “taking 

seriously its duty to enforce these fundamental civil 

rights laws.” 

“We look forward to swift action by HHS to remedy 

current violations in several states,” the bishops said. 

“No one should be forced to violate their deeply held 

convictions about the sanctity of human life.” 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/KAREN CALLAWAY, CHICAGO CATHOLIC 


LOCAL 

State AG requests 

diocesan abuse 

records 

The California Attorney 

General has issued a letter to 

the Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

and the other Catholic dioceses 

of California asking to review 

documents related to how the 

dioceses have addressed past 

allegations of sexual abuse of 

minors by priests, religious 

men and women, and other lay 

Church employees and volunteers. 

The archdiocese said it would 

“respond cooperatively as we 

have with the past three Grand 

Jury investigations of the Archdiocese.” 

The records requested by Becerra’s 

office include allegations 

of sexual misconduct received 

by the dioceses since 1996 — 

including those handled in 

compliance with the law — as 

well as those of individuals 

accused of misconduct toward 

minors who may still be active 

in ministry. The letter also asks 

for records on actions taken by 

the dioceses against individuals 

accused of abuse or anyone who 

may have failed to report sexual 

abuse allegations to law enforcement. 

In a statement, the archdiocese 

said it is committed to transparency 

and “does not tolerate 

anyone who does harm to a 

child or vulnerable person.” 

It also pointed out that it 

has “also already cooperated 

with two state and one federal 

investigation and continues to 

fully cooperate with all civil 

authorities.” 

The archdiocese’s full statement 

can be found on the 

Catholic LA section of Angelus- 

News.com. 

1,000 cranes for 1,000 prayers 

At St. John the Evangelist Church in South Los Angeles, parishioners 

wrapped up a month of child safety prayers and awareness by hanging 1,000 

paper cranes April 28. Each crane symbolizes a victim of child abuse, and 

represents the parish’s prayers for hope and healing. 

Since the USCCB designated April as “Keep Kids Safe Month,” the Safeguard 

the Children Committee at the parish organized monthlong events 

to keep parishioners actively involved in the important work of child safety. 

This year, parishioners were given blue-ribbon pins on the first Sunday of 

the month, and asked to wear them throughout the month as a reminder of 

the need to pray for the safety and welfare of children and young people. 

The church passed out “Prayers for Victims” cards on the second Sunday, 

inviting everyone to include victims of child abuse in their prayers at home. 

On Easter Sunday, these prayers were offered from the pulpit. 

The month concluded with the hanging of the cranes, made by Hector 

Munoz and his family, which represent the thousands of prayers offered 

each day for child abuse victims across the world. 

THE WOOD OF THE CROSS — Attendees at the Santa Cruz Mass May 3 hold up crosses 

made from construction leftovers to be blessed by Archbishop José H. Gomez at Our Lady 

Queen of Angels Church at La Placita Olvera. The Mass recognized the contributions of 

construction workers and laborers. At the end of the liturgy, Archbishop Gomez received 

the prestigious Ohtli Award from the Mexican Consulate in LA for his contributions to the 

Hispanic and immigrant communities. 

PHOTOS COURTESY ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST CHURCH 

DAVID AMADOR RIVERA 


LA Catholic Events 

Items for LA Catholic Events are due two weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be mailed to Angelus News (Attn: LA Catholic Events), 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241; emailed to 

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. 

Sat., May 11 

“Breath of Spring” Luncheon with Heather King. 

Sacred Heart Retreat House, 920 East Alhambra 

Rd., Alhambra, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Luncheon with King, 

beginning with outdoor rosary, light reception, and 

lunch. She will speak about holiness in the ordinary 

as we celebrate the unknown saints and venerables 

of our time. Cost: $45/person. Register at sacredheartretreathouse.com, 

or email sjcprogcoordinator@carmelitesistersocd.com, 

or call 626-289-1353, 

ext. 203. 

Vivaldi’s Venice with the DeAngelis Vocal Ensemble. 

Our Lady Queen of Angels, 2100 Mar Vista Dr., Newport 

Beach, 8 p.m. For more information and tickets, 

visit deangelisensemble.org/calendar/. 

Children’s Liturgy of the Word Team Formation. San 

Gabriel Mission, 428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 8:30 

a.m.-12:30 p.m. Register at laliturgy.org. 

Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting. Andrew’s 

Plaza, 11335 West Magnolia Blvd., Suite 2C, 

North Hollywood, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Discover if you 

have the willingness, ability, and resources to take on 

the challenge of helping a child in need. RSVP or learn 

more at 213-342-0162 or toll free at 800-730-3933, 

or email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org. 

Wed., May 15 

Clearing Outstanding Tickets and Warrants: Free 

Legal Clinic for Veterans. Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, 

1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 5:30-6:30 p.m. 

Self-help workshop, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Volunteer attorneys 

will be available to provide one-on-one assistance 

and consultation. RSVP required. Call 213-896- 

6537 or visit lacba.org/veterans. 

Thur., May 16 

Mass and Healing Service. Our Lady of Grace 

Church, 5011 White Oak Ave., Encino, 6:30 p.m. 

Celebrant: Father Thomas Sunil. Call Claudia at 818- 

342-6626. 

Sat., May 18 

NPM Presents: Music Ministry “Lend Us Your Ear.” 

St. John Fisher Church, 5448 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos 

Verdes, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. All are invited to honor 

and listen to music ministers, including music directors, 

instrumentalists, cantors, leads, and choral 

singers, for conversation, music activities, and refreshments. 

RSVP required ASAP to Tiffany at theresaphimsings@gmail.com 

(English) or jgmmusic678@ 

gmail.com (Spanish). 

32nd Annual Walk for Life South Bay. South Side, 

Veterans Park in Redondo Beach, registration 7:30 

a.m., with coffee, bagels, selfie and kids’ booths, 

raffles, and more. 5K walk along the beach starts 

at 8:30 a.m. Local event sponsors: Barden Electric, 

Inc., Hope Chapel, His Life Woodworks, Dan and Linda 

Houston, St. Lawrence Referral Group, Dan and 

Noreen Thomas. Register at supportphctorrance.org 

or call 424-263-4855. 

Ministry Renewal for Lectors. San Gabriel Mission, 

428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

Register at laliturgy.org. 

Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting. 

Children’s Bureau’s Magnolia Place, 1910 Magnolia 

Ave., Los Angeles, or Children’s Bureau, 27200 Tourney 

Rd., Ste. 175, Valencia, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Discover 

if you have the willingness, ability, and resources to 

take on the challenge of helping a child in need. RSVP 

or learn more at 213-342-0162 or toll free at 800- 

730-3933, or email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org. 

Mozart Requiem Concert. St. Bede the Venerable, 

215 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, 8 p.m. Performed 

by the St. Bede Choir and the ELAC Chamber 

Chorale under the direction of Dr. Anthony Lupica. 

Suggested donation: $25/person at the door, online at 

www.bede.org, or in the parish center. RSVP, information, 

and tickets available at 818-949-4300. All proceeds 

benefit the St. Bede Choir and Music Ministry. 

Wed., May 22 

St. Rita of Cascia Feast Day Celebration. St. Rita 

Church, 318 N. Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre. 8 a.m. 

Mass, blessings with St. Rita relic throughout the day, 

Armenian Rite Mass at 12 p.m., blessing and distribution 

of roses, adoration and benediction at 7 p.m. 

Call 626-355-1292 or visit st-rita.org. 

Fri., May 24 

Married Couples Retreat. Sacred Heart Retreat 

House, 920 East Alhambra Rd., Alhambra, 5 p.m.- 

May 26, 1 p.m. Are you in need of growing deeper 

in your relationship with your spouse? A married 

couples retreat with the Carmelite Sisters and Father 

Bryce Sibley might be exactly what you need! 

Includes five meals, beginning with dinner on Friday 

and concluding with breakfast on Sunday. Register at 

sacredheartretreathouse.com, or email retreatcoordinator@carmelitesistersocd.com, 

or call 626-289- 

1353, ext. 204. 

Sat., June 1 

Italian Catholic Club 5th Anniversary Dinner. Spumoni’s 

Restaurant outdoor patio, 24917 Pico Canyon 

Rd., Stevenson Ranch, 6 p.m. Authentic Italian food, 

one complimentary bottle of wine per table, a raffle 

and dancing to the live music of Duo Domino. Cost: 

$45/person, prepaid. Call Anna Riggs for reservations 

and information at 661-645-7877. 

Sat., June 8 

When One Door Closes: Day of Recollection for 

People in Transition. Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 

5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 8:30 a.m.- 

4 p.m. Join those who have lost loved ones, gone 

through divorce, sickness, new jobs, and other transition 

periods in seeking spiritual healing. Cost: $60/ 

person and includes lunch. Call Marlene Velazquez 

at 310-377-4867, ext. 234 for reservations or 

information. 

Conscious Contact: 10th & 11th Step Reflections 

for People in Recovery. Mary & Joseph Retreat 

Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 5:30-9 

p.m. Evening of reflection, beginning with a Feast of 

Gratitude, will offer people in recovery an opportunity 

for fellowship, renewal, and another look at our relationship 

with God. Bring a friend, sponsee, spouse, or 

partner and be renewed in your program of spiritual 

recovery. Cost: $60 by May 24, includes dinner. Call 

Marlene Velazquez at 310-377-4867, ext. 234 for 

reservations or information. 

Sat., June 15 

Healing Workplace Conflicts. Mary & Joseph Retreat 

Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 9 a.m.- 

4 p.m. Find the courage and strength to invite light, 

integration, and healing into work situations. Dr. Pamela 

Davidson is a researcher who has developed 

a workplace training program, “Creating Positive 

Organizational Climate by Design.” Father Thomas 

Kelly is an Air Force Chaplain (Ret.) who has served 

the military for more than 30 years, counseling those 

with PTSD. Cost, $50/person ($55 after 6/7), lunch 

included. Call Marlene Velazquez at 310-377-4867, 

ext. 234 for reservations or information. 

Visit AngelusNews.com for these stories 

and more. Your source for complete, 

up-to-the-minute coverage of local news, 

sports and events in Catholic L.A. 

This Week at AngelusNews.com 

• Violence against Christians and the waning of reason. 

• A Triple Crown winner reflects on his Catholic faith. 

• CIF-SS playoff schedules for spring sports. 


SUNDAY 

READINGS 

BY SCOTT HAHN 

Acts 13:14, 43–52 / Ps. 100:1–2, 3, 5 / Rev. 7:9, 14b–17 / Jn. 10:14 

Israel’s mission — to be God’s instrument 

of salvation to the ends of the 

earth (see Isaiah 49:6) — is fulfilled in 

the Church. 

By the “Word of 

God” that Paul 

and Barnabas 

preach in today’s 

First Reading, a 

new covenant people 

is being born, a 

people who glorify 

the God of Israel 

as the Father of 

them all. 

The Church for 

all generations 

remains faithful 

to the grace of 

God given to the 

apostles, and continues 

their saving 

work. Through 

the Church, the 

peoples of every 

land hear the 

Shepherd’s voice, 

and follow him 

(see Luke 10:16). 

The Good Shepherd 

of today’s 

Gospel is the 

enthroned Lamb 

of today’s Second 

Reading. 

In laying down 

his life for his 

flock, the Lamb brought to pass a new 

Passover (see 1 Corinthians 5:7), by 

his blood freeing “every nation, race, 

people and tongue” from bondage to 

sin and death. 

The Church is the “great multitude” 

John sees in his vision today. God 

swore to Abraham his descendants 

“The Risen Christ,” by Michelangelo, circa 

1532. 

would be too numerous to count. 

And in the Church, as John sees, this 

promise is fulfilled (compare Revelation 

7:9, Genesis 

15:5). 

The Lamb rules 

from the throne 

of God, sheltering 

his flock, feeding 

their hunger with 

his own Body and 

Blood, leading 

them to “springs 

of life-giving 

waters” that well 

up to eternal life 

(see John 4:14). 

The Lamb is the 

eternal Shepherd-King, 

the son 

of David foretold 

by the prophets. 

His Church is the 

kingdom of all Israel 

that the prophets 

said would 

be restored in an 

everlasting covenant 

(see Ezekiel 

34:23–31; 37:23– 

28). 

It is not a kingdom 

any tribe 

or nation can 

jealously claim as 

theirs alone. The 

Shepherd’s Word 

to Israel is addressed now to all lands, 

calling all to worship and bless his 

name in the heavenly temple. 

This is the delight of the Gentiles — 

that we can sing the song that once 

only Israel could sing, today’s joyful 

Psalm: “He made us, his we are — his 

people, the flock he tends.” 

Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com. 


IN EXILE 

BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Beyond mysticism 

“I’m a practicing mystic!” A woman 

said that in one of my classes some 

years ago and it raised lots of eyebrows. 

I was teaching a class in mysticism 

and asked the students why the 

topic of mysticism interested them. 

Their responses varied: Some were 

simply intrigued with the concept; 

others were spiritual directors who 

wanted more insight into what constitutes 

mystical experience; and a number 

of others were taking the course 

because their faculty adviser asked 

them to. But one woman answered, 

“Because I’m a practicing mystic!” 

Can someone be a practicing mystic? 

Yes, providing both terms, practicing 

and mystic, are understood properly. 

What does it mean to be a mystic? In 

the popular mind, mysticism is most 

often associated with extraordinary 

and paranormal religious experience, 

namely, visions, revelations, apparitions, 

and the like. 

Sometimes this is the case, as is 

true of some great mystics, but these 

are exceptions. Normally, mystical 

experience is ordinary; no visions, no 

apparitions, no ecstasies, just everyday 

experience — but with a difference. 

British Carmelite Ruth Burrows 

defines mysticism this way: “Mystical 

experience is being touched by God 

at a level deeper than words, thought, 

imagination, and feeling.” 

We have a mystical experience when 

we know ourselves and our world with 

clarity, even if just for a second. That 

can involve something extraordinary, 

like a vision or apparition, but normally 

it doesn’t. Normally a mystical 

experience is not a moment where an 

angel or spirit appears to you or something 

paranormal happens to you. 

A mystical moment is extraordinary, 

but extraordinary because of its 

unique lucidity and clarity, extraordinary 

because for that moment we are 

extraordinarily centered, and extraordinary 

because in that moment we 

sense, in some dark, unconscious, and 

inchoate way, what mystics call the 

indelible memory of God’s kiss on our 

soul, the primordial memory of once 

having experienced perfect love inside 

God’s womb before birth. 

Bernard Lonergan, SJ CC, calls 

this “the brand of the first principles 

on our soul,” that is, the innate imprint 

of the transcendental properties 

of God: oneness, truth, goodness, and 

beauty, inside us. 

We have a mystical experience when 

we are in touch with that part of our 

soul that was once touched by God, 

before we were born, that part of our 

soul that still bears, however unconsciously, 

the memory of that touch. 

We all have experiences of this to 

some degree. We all have mystical 

experiences, though we aren’t 

all mystics. What’s the difference 

between having a mystical experience 

and being a mystic? It’s the difference 

between having aesthetic experiences 

and being an artist. 

All of us have deep aesthetic experiences 

and are at times deeply moved 

in our souls by beauty, but only a few 

persons become great artists, great 

composers, and great musicians, not 

necessarily because they have deeper 

experiences than the rest of us, but 

because they can give exceptional aesthetic 

expression to their experience. 

Aesthetic expression is always according 

to more or less. Hence, anyone 

can become a practicing artist, even if 

not a professional one. 

The same holds true for mysticism. 

A mystic is someone who can give 

meaningful expression to mystical 

experience, just as an artist is someone 

who can give proper expression 

to aesthetic experience. You can be a 

practicing mystic, akin to a practicing 

artist or practicing musician. 

Like a struggling artist, you can 

struggle to give meaningful expression 

to the deep movements you sense 

within your soul and, like an amateur 

artist, you will not be the Rembrandt 

of the spiritual life, but your efforts 

can be helpful to you in clarifying the 

movements within your own soul. 

How, concretely, might you practice 

being a mystic? By doing anything 

that helps you to more consciously get 

in touch with the deep movements 

of your soul and by doing things that 

help you steady and center your soul. 

For example, in striving to get in 

touch with your soul you can be a 

practicing mystic by journaling, doing 

spiritual reading, taking spiritual 

direction, doing various spiritual exercises 

such as the “Spiritual Exercises 

of St. Ignatius,” and by prayer. 

In terms of centering and steadying 

your soul, you can be a practicing 

mystic by more consciously and more 

deliberately giving yourself over to the 

biblical practice of Sabbath and by 

doing other soul-centering things. 

These could include gardening, 

taking long walks, listening to good 

music, making love with your spouse, 

holding a baby, or visiting a person 

who is ill. 

There are ways of being a practicing 

mystic, even without taking a formal 

class on mysticism. 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com. 


Bishop Joseph V. Brennan at his installation Mass in Fresno. 

COURTESY DIOCESE OF FRESNO 

New valley, same ‘Bishop Joe’ 

At a rousing installation, Fresno Catholics welcome 

their new shepherd, LA native Joseph V. Brennan 

BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS 

your seat belts!” 

Bishop Joseph V. 

Brennan’s first words to 

“Fasten 

the faithful as the newly 

installed bishop of Fresno launched 

a wide-ranging homily that touched 

on everything from his time in “the 

strange land of Los Angeles” to the 

heroic witness of the early Christian 

martyrs, and even the dedication of 

his secretaries through the years. 

It was a fitting introduction to what 

promises to be an exciting ride for 

Catholics in a diocese set to be first in 

the country with a “bullet train.” 

The 65-year-old Van Nuys native 

formally succeeded retiring Bishop 

Armando X. Ochoa as the Catholic 

bishop of Fresno in a May 2 Mass at 

St. Anthony of Padua Church, becoming 

the sixth bishop of a diocese 

much larger in territory but far less 

densely populated than Los Angeles, 

where Brennan grew up and has spent 

the last four decades as a priest and 

auxiliary bishop. 

For friends, family, and fellow clergy 

from Los Angeles, the Thursday afternoon 

installation Mass and Solemn 

Vespers the night before served as a 

sort of farewell to a native son. 

For the Fresno faithful it was an opportunity 

to give a rousing welcome to 

their new shepherd, filled with local 

flavor. Brennan was serenaded by mariachi 

bands, embraced by local faith 

10 • ANGELUS • May 10, 2019

leaders, grabbed for selfies, and greeted 

wherever he went by singing youth 

and families of the Neocatechumenal 

Way, a Catholic movement present in 

several parishes of the diocese. 

Brennan took possession of his new 

diocese in the company of local 

Metropolitan Archbishop José H. 

Gomez of Los Angeles, and the pope’s 

representative in the U.S., Apostolic 

Nuncio Archbishop Christophe 

Pierre. 

And during those 24 hours, Fresno 

Catholics took possession of their new 

shepherd, too. 

Brennan pointed out at the Wednesday 

night vespers that it was the 

first bishop of Fresno — the future 

archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal 

Timothy Manning — who would go 

on to ordain Brennan to the priesthood 

in 1980. 

Another striking coincidence: 

Manning was a seminary classmate of 

Brennan’s uncle, Msgr. John L. Brennan, 

who was a major influence on 

Brennan’s life and priestly vocation. 

During his installation Mass homily, 

he switched easily between English 

and fluent Spanish, a skill that will 

serve him well, with Latinos making 

up 65-70 percent of Fresno’s Catholic 

population, according to diocesan 

officials. 

And the joyful, gregarious personality 

known so well to Catholics in Los Angeles 

made a fast and deep impression 

on his new flock. 

At vespers, Brennan jokingly asked 

his predecessor, Ochoa, and Pierre if 

formally taking possession of the city’s 

cathedral also included the bishop’s 

residence. 

“All you need to know is, rent is due 

on the 15th of every month, cash 

only, no checks, no credit cards here 

in Fresno,” Ochoa replied to roaring 

laughter. 

In his inaugural homily, Brennan 

was quick to deploy some of his own 

customary self-deprecating humor: 

“Well, you’ve learned something 

about your bishop: He’s a crybaby,” he 

quipped at one point, referring to his 

visible emotions during several parts 

of the Mass. 

“I love the joy that he has, and how 

he is not afraid to be himself,” said 

36-year-old Lucy Gomez, a youth 

Fresno Catholics wait to greet their new bishop before his arrival to St. John’s Cathedral in downtown 

Fresno for evening prayer May 1. 

Bishop Brennan hugs his sisters during the May 2 installation Mass. 

minister at St. Joachim in Madera. “I 

love that, and I know the youth are 

going to love that.” 

Speaking to Angelus News after the 

Mass, Gomez said she knows how 

much young people need a shepherd 

“who is not uptight.” 

“When somebody makes you laugh, it 

just breaks down the barriers,” she said. 

Everybody’s brother now 

That sense of humor was just one of 

the fruits of growing up as one of 10 

children in a working-class family in 

the San Fernando Valley, Brennan’s 

brothers and sisters told Angelus 

News. 

Franny O’Malley, the sixth of the 

JACOB SCOTT 

JACOB SCOTT 


Father Joseph Brennan (second row, third from left) after his ordination by Cardinal Timothy Manning in June 1980. 

BRENNAN FAMILY 

Brennan children, said the example 

their parents gave of putting God 

“always first … without saying a word” 

was the most important influence on 

their brother’s vocation. 

“We went to church because we 

had a deep love of God. We went to 

church first, and then we did whatever 

we needed to do after,” O’Malley told 

Angelus News. 

That’s not to say Brennan’s character 

wasn’t tested from an early age. 

“He had a lot of sister-in-laws and 

sisters to contend with, and we all got 

along. Nobody fought with him. I 

mean, he just got along with everybody,” 

O’Malley recalled. 

As he matured and eventually 

answered the call to the priesthood, 

Brennan became a source of support 

not only for parishioners but for his 

brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, 

and their children as well. 

“I’ve seen him, when we all faced really 

difficult things,” said Helen Mary 

Fisher, the seventh Brennan. “He 

never raises his voice, but he has that 

resolve, the same resolve that we saw 

in our father, where tough decisions 

have to be made, and he was always 

ready to do the right thing. He always 

knew what was right.” 

Brennan’s twin brother, Terry, lives 

in Frazier Park, near the southern 

edge of his brother’s new diocese. He 

is learning that as a bishop, his brother 

is “everybody’s brother at this point,” 

he said. 

“I’ve had to learn to accept the fact 

that I have to share him with tens of 

thousands of people now, and I’m OK 

with that,” he said. 

Terry believes that beyond all the 

“bells and whistles” that come with 

the episcopacy, the people of Fresno 

would still be getting a “padre.” 

“I don’t know how much he really 

wants something like this,” said Terry. 

“He’s just down to earth. He’d rather 

be with the people. And I think the 

people of Fresno will find that out 

very quickly.” 

A different valley 

Brennan has now officially swapped 

his native San Fernando Valley for the 

San Joaquin Valley, also known as the 

“salad bowl of the world.” 

“I’m very happy to still be a ‘valley 

boy,’ just a different valley,” he said in 

his inaugural homily. 

Although only separated by a couple 

of hours on the 5 Freeway, the two 

regions present different challenges 

for evangelization. 


Often called “the Appalachia of the 

West” for its poverty, the Fresno Diocese 

is more than seven times the size 

of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, 

but contains just a quarter of as many 

Catholics. 

“In our 35,000 square miles is a 

diocese that is rich with possibility, 

but it also has many, many challenges,” 

said Jim Grant, who directs social 

justice ministry for the diocese. “We 

need a bishop to help us reach out to 

the “periferia” that Pope Francis has 

been challenging us to do for six years 

now.” 

In recent years the area’s residents 

have faced drought and water supply 

controversies, immigration-related 

issues, poverty, and both air and 

ground pollution, added diocesan 

spokesperson and Chancellor Teresa 

Dominguez. 

Then there are the prisons. 

The Diocese of Fresno has more 

detention facilities and more people 

living behind bars than any Catholic 

Representatives from Fresno’s Jewish and Muslim communities take a selfie with Bishop Brennan 

during his installation Mass. 

JACOB SCOTT 


Bishop Brennan and a mariachi band perform “Volver, volver” at a reception for his installation Mass. 

JACOB SCOTT 

diocese in the world, according to 

diocesan officials. 

“That is a huge, huge area of concern 

for us because it’s not just the 

inmates, but also their families,” said 

Dominguez. “Because a lot of times 

the families will follow them. It’s not 

just the crime that has taken place 

in our area — this is a place where 

inmates are shipped to on a national 

basis.” 

It is a daily challenge for parish leaders 

ministering to families. 

“In my program, I have kids who 

are being raised by the 70-80-year-old 

grandparents, because one of their 

parents might be dead, the other in 

prison,” said Gomez, the Madera 

youth minister. “That’s a reality we 

face here.” 

Along with the work being done 

to minister to the men and women 

behind bars, Dominguez said the 

diocese is looking to establish a 

“reentry” program to help marriages 

after a spouse comes home from 

prison. 

‘He’s a warm person, and this is definitely a 

very warm area. ... I think we’re going to 

love him.’ 

‘Inspiring’ encouragement 

Once the formalities of his installation 

had been completed, the new 

bishop made sure to squeeze in some 

unscripted parts into the May 2 Mass. 

During his homily, he invited four 

women — three former secretaries 

from LA, plus a “brand new” one in 

Fresno — to come forward. 

“I know, I know, I’m doing it again,” 

Brennan joked. “So just get used to 

it.” 

“You represent all of the women in 

our Church who work so beautifully 

with us, who keep us in line, who 

keep us on track,” Brennan told the 

women standing before the assembly. 

Later, just before the final blessing, 

Brennan invited two more guests to 

come forward: Clem and Maureen 

Linnebur, his longtime friends since 

his time as a parish priest at St. Linus 

in Norwalk. 

He hadn’t forgotten that they were 

celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary 

that day. So in front of more 

than a dozen bishops and hundreds 

of new faces in an unfamiliar church, 

Brennan insisted on having them 

renew their vows by simply repeating 

them after him. 

“To bring up a couple for 55 years 

of marriage — it let us see in that 

Mass that we’re not just celebrating 

priests and bishops, we’re celebrating 

faithfulness,” remarked Grant after the 

liturgy. 

“If that’s a harbinger of the way that 


he is able to do things that include so 

many people, and also, I must admit, 

his facility in Spanish and English, 

singing and preaching, he is already 

engaging us in the moments we’ve 

had him,” Grant added. 

Nineteen-year-old Fresno native Rebecca 

Higuera said she was touched 

by Brennan’s preaching about God’s 

refusal to “ration” out his free gift 

of the Holy Spirit, and saw it as an 

“inspiring” encouragement at a time 

and place where it’s not always easy to 

witness to the faith. 

“Being Catholic is different,” 

explained Higuera, who belongs to 

a Neocatechumenal community in 

Fresno. “When I see my life compared 

to my friends from school, we 

have the same problems, but we deal 

with them differently. My friends 

don’t have the Church to look at to 

help them.” 

Here in Fresno, “we need a bishop 

who helps young people look at a 

different way of life,” she said. 

After attending the installation Mass 

— which included an impromptu 

performance of “Holy Is His Name” 

(a family favorite, according to the 

Brennans) with his longtime friend 

and duet partner Anna Bettencourt — 

Lina Gamez said that she’s thankful 

for a new shepherd who personifies 

“the joy of Christ” that’s expected of 

Christians. 

“He’s a warm person, and this is 

definitely a very warm area,” Gamez 

chuckled. “I think we’re going to love 

him.” 

Dominguez saw Brennan as already 

bringing “an uplifted spirit” to the 

diocese on Day One. “I think he’s 

going to help all of us. We’re very, 

very serious, because we have so many 

challenges,” she said following Brennan’s 

rousing rendition of Mexican 

singing legend Vicente Fernandez’s 

classic “Volver, Volver,” on which he 

was accompanied by a mariachi band 

at a post-Mass reception. 

“But I think he’s going to help us 

balance that out. And remember to go 

back to the source. The Lord wants us 

to be fully human, and to be joyful. 

And I think that we can lighten up 

a little bit and still get all our work 

done.” 


The Grocer 

As he says goodbye to the new bishop of Fresno, Robert 

Brennan remembers the man who raised them both 

BY ROBERT BRENNAN / ANGELUS 


The Brennan family circa 1960. Front row, left to right: Michael, 

Helen Mary, and Frances. Seated on couch, left to right: Kathy, 

Robert (on her lap), Richard, Terry (on his lap) Ray, and Joseph 

(on lap of Roger). 

Members of the Brennan family listen to Bishop Joseph Brennan preach his first 

homily as the bishop of Fresno at the installation Mass May 2. 

From the moment our brother 

announced he felt a calling to 

the priesthood, we knew that 

he would never fully belong 

to us anymore. The “secret” would get 

out, the secret we all knew about our 

brother — his vocation began many 

years before he ever entered St. John’s 

Seminary. 

He had innate kindness and generosity 

of spirit. He could be a goof and 

we had plenty of fun, some of it not 

always attached to parental approval. 

But it was evident from the very beginning 

there was something about our 

brother that was unlike the rest of us. 

Then, when the news came that he 

was to be ordained a bishop, we knew 

we were on borrowed time — the 

day would come when he would be 

selected to lead a diocese of his own. 

That day has come. 

How did this happen? How did a 

guy from a very ordinary background, 

without a lot of initials at the back of 

his name, who never studied in Rome 

or hobnobbed with the higher echelon, 

get ordained a bishop? 

He came from a family dynamic not 

known for functioning with the precision 

of a German engineered sports 

car, and kids from Van Nuys just 

aren’t made bishops — until they are. 

There were indicators, of course. He 

was the only one of us, except for our 

late brother Roger, who was willing 

to work as hard as it took to achieve at 

school, even if it meant hours of study 

and stupendously exact note taking. 

He was born with a “servant’s heart” 

and a love of God he was never too 

afraid to put into action. I have no 

doubt that when he told our parents 

about his decision to enter the 

seminary neither one of them was very 

surprised. 

From his childhood, to his teens, to 

young adulthood, to him becoming 

a man in full, my brother the bishop 

always demonstrated an abundance of 

grace and charity, not always easy in a 

chaotic household with multigenerational 

inhabitants all living under the 

same roof. 

I’m going to stop right there. All 

the people in the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles who know my brother know 

all these things, and I’m positive the 

bishop of Fresno would not want this 

article to be a litany of his wonderful- 


ness — so it will not. 

Instead, it will be about the one 

person who probably had the most 

impact on his life and on the life of 

his nine siblings: the Grocer. 

We are the sons and daughters of a 

grocer. To some, that may sound like 

irony; to others it may even sound 

like a put-down. To my brother and 

his siblings, it is the highest form of 

praise. 

God may have had plans for our 

brother when he was in our mother’s 

womb, and if he did, he also made 

plans for shaping and forming him 

into the priest, and now bishop, he 

is today. So, if God was the master 

builder, his foreman on the job was 

the Grocer. 

By the measure of all things the 

world values, our dad was a failure. 

He battled with alcohol for most of 

his life. He invested everything he had 

in a grocery store that went bankrupt, 

which left him physically and emotionally 

devastated. He never owned 

his own home and never bought a 

new car. 

He ended his working life in 

much the same way he had started 

it — working as a grocer in a small 

independent market when small 

independent markets dotted the San 

Fernando Valley landscape as plentiful 

as medical marijuana dispensaries 

do now. 

The Grocer checked all the boxes 

of hardship his generation was heir 

to: the Great Depression, a migration 

from the Midwest to wide-open California 

as a boy, a world war that he 

did not get to participate in because 

of some esoteric medical condition 

and raising children from the 1940s 

through the 1970s. 

Throw in Vatican II and you have a 

very interesting passel of decades from 

which to keep your equilibrium. 

If the Grocer had the world effortlessly 

glide by him, noticing him 

only sporadically and to pound him 

into the ground, it provided the same 

service to our mom. After all, she was 

“just a housewife” and a mother, and 

her husband just a grocer. 

To our mom the Grocer was a man 

of courage and loyalty and faith, a 

man who came from as different 


Roger and Helen Brennan in an undated photo while on vacation in what is today the Diocese of 

Fresno. 

May 10, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17

a background — Catholic big-city 

affluence — as you could get from her 

unchurched Arkansas farm life. 

But she saw what the world did not: 

a man so sure and anchored to his 

faith that she wanted the same. She 

became his first convert. They built 

a life together and remained open to 

life despite economic woes and the 

Grocer’s continuing battle with his 

demons. 

This was the greenhouse where they 

raised their future bishop and their 

other nine children. 

Dinner was always at 6 p.m. on the 

dot, no meat on any Friday regardless 

of it being Lent or not, Sunday Mass, 

confession, a dime-store portrait of 

the current pope in the front 

hall, statues of Jesus, the Blessed 

Mother, and St. Joseph in just 

about every room, and Sunday 

kept as a mandatory day of rest, 

which ended with the best meal 

of the week. 

Not exactly high-end Catholic 

theology. 

We did pray the rosary as a 

family in the living room on 

occasion, we did make novenas, 

all the boys altar served, and 

everyone pitched in one way 

or another at our parish. Living 

only a block away from church 

and our parish school, we were 

often called on by the nuns and 

the priests to help out with cleaning 

classrooms and other odd jobs. 

When I hear people say how tough 

it is to raise a couple of kids, I reserve 

a private laugh for myself. Every 

summer the Grocer would take us all 

camping either in Sequoia or Yosemite 

National Parks (now part of the 

diocese their new bishop oversees). 

To manage that venture, the Grocer 

had to visit a finance company on 

Van Nuys Boulevard and borrow a 

hundred bucks every summer so he 

would have enough gas, grocery, and 

camping money. 

These summer camping trips were 

another constant the Grocer attached 

to our life, though it required the 

use of a not-so-consistent late-model 

station wagon hauling a utility trailer 

full of camping equipment down and 

back up the infamous Grapevine and 

the winding mountain roads of the 

High Sierras. 

The very act of trying to get a car of 

dubious mechanical pedigree up these 

steep inclines was a religious experience 

for many of us as prayers were 

said to keep the radiator from blowing 

its top. Sometimes those prayers were 

answered, other times not. 

And when we would drive through 

the San Joaquin Valley, we would 

marvel at the fields and farms that 

seemed to go on forever. Did my 

brother look out the window as we 

drove through Bakersfield and Visalia 

and yes, even Fresno, thinking, 

“Someday this will all be mine!” I 

doubt it. But does God give us hints 

about our paths? Ask the apostles. 

Joseph Brennan (left) with his now-deceased older brother 

Roger holding little brother Robert (center) and twin brother 

Terrence (right). 

If the timing was such and our 

summer camping trip included a 

Sunday, the Grocer found a place that 

was holding Mass. We may not have 

looked our Sunday best on these occasions, 

but the naturalness of being at 

Mass on a Sunday, whether we were 

home or on the road, was another 

modeling technique utilized by our 

parents. 

The battle our father fought against 

alcohol climaxed in of all places, 

Death Valley — who says God doesn’t 

know a metaphor when he sees one. 

Only three of his children went 

through it with him: myself, my brother 

Terry and his twin, the new bishop 

of Fresno. 

No need for details; rest assured it 

was horrible and traumatic. He had 

hit the proverbial “bottom” people 

with addictions hit. There was no 

lower place to go — even in Death 

Valley. 

With the strength of his wife, who 

always got her strength from the 

Blessed Mother, incredible efforts by 

our oldest brother Roger and others, 

the Grocer had his Good Friday and 

Easter morning. With a miraculous 

act of will and never-faltering trust 

in God, he came back. For the last 

several years of his life he was sober 

and never healthier. 

Those years were woefully short — 

God’s timing, not ours — the Grocer 

never got to see his son ordained a 

priest let alone a bishop. God had one 

more cross for him to bear and it was 

cancer. He fought it the way he always 

fought things, with immense amounts 

of willpower and trust in God. 

The Grocer gave all his children 

one last lesson in suffering, 

perseverance, and faith. 

The Grocer’s wife did get to 

see her son ordained and serve 

the people of Los Angeles for 

many years. But she joined the 

Grocer several years ago as well. 

Neither one of them died with 

ROBERT BRENNAN 

a retirement portfolio, but they 

left all 10 of their children with 

a love for Jesus, his Church, 

and the Blessed Mother. That’s 

10 for 10, not a bad batting 

average. 

When the bishop of Fresno 

was an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles, his house was 

adjacent to the San Fernando Mission 

and the Mission Cemetery. It is the 

place where the Grocer and his bride 

rest in peace. 

The bishop has the coordinates of 

these two graves on his phone and 

looks in that direction every night to 

say goodnight to the Grocer and our 

mom, to pray for them and to them 

and for our beloved brothers Roger 

and Ray and sister Kathy, who have 

joined their parents. 

There is no doubt he will use those 

same coordinates from his backyard in 

Fresno after a long day of serving the 

people of God there. He will know he 

fell short of the courage of the Grocer, 

but he will know the Grocer and his 

bride smile, and his siblings who have 

gone before him look down with the 

only kind of pride God approves. 



Field trip to Finland 

A group of LA Catholic school principals made a 

transatlantic trip in search of transferable lessons 

BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS 

A 

week later, Kris Brough’s 

head was still spinning. 

The principal of Our 

Lady of Lourdes School in 

Northridge had just come back from 

Finland with 11 local Catholic school 

principals to observe the Nordic 

nation’s acclaimed education system 

in late March. 

The group visited primary, middle, 

and secondary schools, met with 

administrators, teachers and students, 

and attended lectures at the University 

of Tampere, where many teachers are 

trained. 

“We were overwhelmed by seeing 

the Finnish educational system in 

action,” he wrote in a letter to his 

school’s parents. “So much of it is 

transferable, and a great deal of what 

we observed is rooted in the distinct 

culture of Finland.” 

One of those transferable lessons 

is the basic value of trust, which the 

principal said is a foundation for successful 

learning. 

Parents trusting teachers, teachers 

trusting students as well as students 

trusting teachers. 

On many occasions, the principals 

observed children, from the first grade 

up, doing lessons alone on school 

campuses, which Finnish educators 

believe fosters creativity. 

“Part of that trust I think comes from 

the fact that teaching is a rather highly 

regarded profession in Finland,” 

Brough said in an interview with 

Angelus News. “There are just three 

teaching universities and they only 

accept 10 percent of applicants. Here 

in the states, parents are so likely to 

question the teacher — their credentials, 

their motivations. And that’s 

Visiting principals outside of Rellu, a Finnish high school in Tampere, where they participated in 

classroom observations and discussions with teachers, administrators, and students. 

pervasive. 

“But in smaller Finland trust pervades 

everything. And for students it 

leads to increased independence and 

increased creativity because the kids 

are able to identify their best learning 

situation. And that may be outside 

the classroom in the library or gym — 

alone or in small groups. We saw this 

at all grade levels. So I think they are 

a little bit more self-directed than our 

students might be.” 

Classroom trust 

Three fellow principals Angelus 

News interviewed readily agreed. 

At the one high school they visited 

in Finland, the administrators walked 

into a classroom where a student was 

making a presentation — with no 

teacher present. The other students 

were busy taking notes and doing 

a peer evaluation of the presenter. 

Downstairs in another visited classroom, 

it was the same. In the library 

there were no adults, just a small 

group working on math problems. 

“That level of independence taught 

to children began at an early age,” 

said Patricia Holmquist, principal of 

Our Lady of Refuge School in Long 

Beach. “The little ones are responsible 

to get their own clothing and boots 

on and off. They dished up their own 

lunch in the cafeteria and bused their 

own tables. And walked themselves to 

school.” 

ALL IMAGES COURTESY KRIS BROUGH 


Just how safe Finland was also stood 

out for the principal of All Souls 

School in Alhambra. Carrie Ann 

Fuller watched three little girls with 

backpacks heading home from school. 

On a cell phone, one was calling her 

parents: “I’m heading home.” 

“Even though the society is so safe, 

that was still surprising to see that 

scene,” she recalled. 

“What was surprising was the independence 

of the children.” 

That independence applied to 

teachers as 

well, according 

to Erika Avila, 

principal of St. 

Vincent School 

in Los Angeles. 

“When we 

asked administrators, 

‘Do you 

check lesson 

plans of the 

teachers?’ they 

looked at us 

very bizarrely. 

Like saying, 

‘Why? They are 

doing what they 

need to do.’ So 

administrators in 

Finland spend 

more of their 

time looking at 

their budget, finding funds to help 

their school out and just enjoying the 

good teaching that’s happening in the 

classrooms. 

“It was amazing,” Avila added, “because 

we spend a lot of time here in 

the U.S. hovering over our teachers, 

checking up on them, which isn’t very 

trusting.” 

‘Less is more’ 

Another element of Finnish education, 

which has been rated among the 

top among industrialized nations, is a 

basic logic of “less is more.” 

Less testing means less stress on 

students cramming for exams and 

more focused on learning, agreed the 

principals. 

The school day, at least for middle 

school and high school, is shorter. 

Depending on what class they have 

first, school for Finnish students might 

From left: Ryan Halverson, Ryan Bushore, Kris 

Brough, and Rick Billups record observations 

after visiting classrooms. 

start at 10 a.m. and be over by 1 p.m. 

But it was less testing and less homework 

that stood out for the California 

visitors. 

“The teachers we talked to stressed 

that students don’t have much homework 

or none,” said Holmquist. 

“But when they do have homework, 

it’s very purposeful. There’s intentionality 

behind it. And it’s not doing repetitive 

things, like going through one 

to 25 math problems. It would be very 

targeted, like maybe five homework 

problems to show 

they’ve mastered 

the lesson. And 

then they move 

on.” 

Another big 

difference is how 

Finns look on 

vocational training 

versus higher 

education: Both 

are valued the 

same. And every 

student takes 

classes in wood 

and metal shop, 

arts and crafts, 

home economics, 

and even 

sewing, life skills 

that can serve 

students well 

later in life no matter their profession 

or occupation. 

And then there’s “brain breaks” every 

so often to stimulate learning. Sometimes 

students go outside, even in the 

winter, to take a brief hiatus from all 

that learning and just get some fresh air. 

Transferable lessons 

So are any of these best practices 

of Finnish education transferable to 

local Catholic schools here? 

Brough, who helped organize the 

trip, believes some definitely are. 

“Catholic schools in the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles are autonomous within 

a small network compared to public 

schools,” he pointed out. 

“We have the flexibility to actually 

experiment and in real time try to 

implement some of these things. The 

goal for us now is to stop talking about 

Finland and start celebrating what 


Schools in Finland, Catholic school principals found, stress eight essential components. 

we’re doing, so that in the future we 

can say, ‘We tried this and it’s working.’ 

Efforts that will support some 

system change.” 

After a moment, the educator added: 

“We want to commit our schools 

to taking different tracks to try to 

implement these innovations, then 

some of us who went to Finland will 

really adopt the notion of ‘less is more’ 

or ‘brain breaks.’ And then compare 

those students with others who didn’t 

have these breaks to see who did better. 

Are younger students with more 

play time really more creative? 

“And if more breaks and play time 

mean better students, later on point 

to our colleagues in the archdiocese 

and say, ‘We saw this in action over 

in Finland and now we’ve tried it and 

it’s working.’ So our goal is to sustain 

engagement with these lessons that 

we’ve picked up and to support each 

other in implementing them, and 

then share the successes more widely 

with other Catholic schools.” 

Fuller said her teachers at All Souls 

School have already been doing some 

lessons the principals took away from 

Finland, educational elements like 

building independence in children, 

caring for the environment, and doing 

these “brain breaks,” especially in 

primary grades. 

“Also making sure that lessons are interactive,” 

she said. “Mini-lessons with 

the younger children should only be 

15 to 20 minutes. After, they’re moving 

to the carpet for “wiggle breaks.” 

“But we need to make sure ‘brain 

breaks’ and interactive learning are 

also happening in the upper grades,” 

stressed the principal. 

“We’re trying to prepare our students 

to make sustainable life choices, to 

trust their teachers and to work together. 

Those were things I noticed in 

the Finnish schools that we’re trying 

to implement. Seeing these things 

firsthand happening in Finland made 

me realize we’re on the right track. 

And now I want to emphasize them 

even more.” 

Note: The other local principals who 

went on the weeklong trip to Finland 

were Ryan Halverson of St. Cyril of 

Jerusalem School in Encino, Ryan 

Bushore of St. Pascal Baylon School 

in Thousand Oaks, Nicole Johnson of 

St. Aloysius Gonzaga School in Los 

Angeles, Allison Kargas of St. Anthony 

School in Long Beach, Beate Nguyen 

of St. Augustine School in Culver 

City, Raquel Shin of St. Patrick School 

in North Hollywood, Fidela Suelto 

of Holy Family School in Glendale, 

and Rick Billups of St. Bernard High 

School in Playa del Rey. 

R.W. Dellinger is the features editor 

of Angelus. 



Left behind no longer 

Fifty-two years after his death in Vietnam, Navy war journalist Raul 

Guerra was given a final goodbye by the parish that raised him 

BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS 

A flower arrangement with Raul Guerra’s photo 

just after he enlisted in the Navy in 1965 in the 

vestibule of St. Alphonsus Church for his 

funeral on April 25. 

Raul Guerra was home at last, at 

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church 

in East Los Angeles last week. 

Ruben Valencia made sure of it. 

In the mid-1950s, when they were 

11-year-olds growing up in nearby 

Montebello, Guerra made sure 

Valencia joined him at St. Alphonsus 

for Mass every Sunday. The two had 

formed a brother-like bond — both 

were sons of single mothers, put together 

by their fifth-grade teacher to watch 

out for each other. 

In 1964, just months before Valencia 

would receive a draft notice from the 

U.S. Army and Guerra would follow 

by enlisting in the U.S. Navy, Valencia 

asked Guerra to be the best man at his 

wedding. 

“Raul asked me right away if I had 

made all my sacraments. I had been 

baptized and made my First Communion, 

but I hadn’t been confirmed yet,” 

said Valencia. “So Raul said to me, you 

have to do this before you get married. 

TOM HOFFARTH 

I’ll be your sponsor. I felt he was like 

my godfather.” 

Again, Guerra made sure that happened. 

Again, at St. Alphonsus. 

Last week, when it came time to 

plan a funeral Mass for Guerra — 

more than 50 years after his death in 

Vietnam, a process that included more 

than a decade just to clarify his identification 

and finally return his remains 

— Valencia told the mortuary planners 

about their childhood connection to 

St. Alphonsus. 

“Nancy Valdez, the coordinator at 

Risher Mortuary who has been a guardian 

angel through this whole process, 

heard that and said, ‘That’s where we 

had to have it,’ ” Valencia said last Saturday 

morning from his home in Pico 

Rivera, becoming emotional again. “It 

just took us back to when we were so 

young.” 

More than 100 people attended 

the funeral for Guerra April 25, as 

Montebello police officers served as 

pallbearers, LA County first responders 

showed up in force, and the Garfield 

High ROTC members and musicians 

participated. Clusters of Vietnam veterans, 

many arriving on motorcycles, also 

attended. 

Hundreds more waved American 

flags and offered salutes on a 10-mile 

motorcade procession up Whittier 

Blvd., through Montebello and Pico 

Rivera toward the burial site at Rose 

Hills Memorial Park. 

Through it all, Valencia said he felt 

his prayers to bring Guerra back were 

finally answered. 

“I prayed every day — please help me 

accomplish this, let him come home,” 

said the 74-year-old Valencia. “My faith 

has played a big part ever since Raul 

and I went to church together. 

“Never knowing who my own father 

was, I always thought of God as my 

father. Through my life in Vietnam 

when things were difficult, my faith 

in Jesus carried me. My belief in God 

now is stronger than it ever has been.” 

Guerra was a petty officer, third class 

Navy enlistee at age 23, trying to start a 

writing career as the editor of the East 

LA College (ELAC) school paper and 

covering sports for the local Monte- 

A view from the choir loft at St. Alphonsus Church for the April 25 funeral Mass. 

DAVID MUÑOZ 


DAVID MUÑOZ 

Ruben Valencia, center, with his wife, Emily, right, receive commendations from the Navy at Raul Guerra’s gravesite service at Rose Hills Memorial Park. 

Left is Navy Rear Adm. Theodore LeClair. 

bello newspaper. Valencia was his 

Montebello High School classmate, 

as well as with his wife-to-be, Emily, 

who he met in a math class. They all 

graduated in 1963. 

Guerra had a fiancé, Mary Barrow, 

who attended rival Garfield High 

School but met up with him at ELAC. 

They decided to put off a wedding 

until he returned from Vietnam. 

In the summer of 1967, Guerra was 

sent to serve on the USS Oriskany, 

joining John McCain, the future U.S. 

senator and presidential candidate. 

Less than three weeks before McCain 

would be shot down on a mission and 

taken as prisoner, Guerra volunteered 

to be on a reconnaissance flight over 

Da Nang in an E-1B Tracer, with four 

others. 

As the plane returned on Oct. 8, 

1967, it crashed into a steep mountain. 

It was only a few months short of Guerra’s 

25th birthday. 

The site in hostile territory was inaccessible 

because of hazardous terrain. 

Over the course of 40 years, more 

than a dozen recovery missions were 

unsuccessful. It turned out the remains 

had been discovered and buried by a 

Vietnamese farmer. 

Before leaving on that mission, Guerra 

sent a letter to Valencia telling him 

about it — he was interested in flying 

over a part of Vietnam where Valencia 

was stationed. But Valencia had been 

wounded and returned to Los Angeles 

by then, receiving a Purple Heart in 

May 1967. 

Five months later, Valencia got a call 

from Guerra’s mother asking him to 

come over. Navy personnel were coming 

with the news of her son’s death. 

It wasn’t until 2007 when the bodies 

of all five on the plane were finally recovered 

and flown to Hawaii. As the remains 

of the four others identified were 

buried in Arlington National Cemetery 

in Washington, D.C., Guerra’s ID had 

to wait. Valencia didn’t know about it 

until he was told by his daughter about 

a story in the Whittier Daily News. 

That delay lasted another 12 years. As 

Valencia tried to help with the process, 

it was discovered Guerra had been 

adopted in Mexico and brought to 

Montebello as a youngster. There were 

no DNA matches, and no next of kin 

willing to offer any. 

Last February, the U.S. Department 

of Defense POW-MIA Accounting 

Agency finally confirmed the remains 

of Guerra through circumstantial 

evidence. 

Guerra, whose name was recorded 

years ago on the National Vietnam Veterans 

Memorial in Washington, D.C., 

was released to Valencia last March. A 

cemetery plot at Rose Hills was donated 

for Guerra’s resting place. 

Valencia and his family met the casket 

containing Guerra at LAX on April 23. 

A vigil and memorial took place the 

next night. The funeral Mass was the 

following day. 


A lid for the concrete burial vault donated by a local veterans group. 

TOM HOFFARTH 

Father Alex Ibarra said during the 

homily that it was “an historic moment 

for Raul and for our nation. … These 

last 52 years may seem like a lifetime 

— it’s longer than I have been alive 

— but not for God. Everything has 

transpired the way God intended. … 

“We accompany our brother home 

and give him the gift of eternal rest. 

For Ruben and his family, his restlessness 

never stopped and they worked to 

give him peace. It is fitting we come to 

this church during the octave of Easter 

as Christ has risen from the dead. The 

memory of our brother Raul has never 

died. We speak of Raul in the present 

as he’s alive in all of us and his legacy 

is alive.” 

Jose Munoz, a Navy veteran who 

served in Vietnam and attends St. 

Benedict Church in Montebello, said 

it was important for him to witness 

this Mass because “this gives rest for 

a fellow brother in arms. For many 

veterans, including me, this is part of 

therapy. Serving in Vietnam probably 

brought me closer to God. I kept 

hoping I would come home to see my 

wife and 1-year-old child. I thank the 

Lord we are here to see this after all 

these years.” 

Ibarra stood off to the side at the Rose 

Hills burial site while more Navy rituals 

were taking place, including the 

release of white doves and an honor 

guard playing taps. 

“It’s very moving to be able to witness 

to this,” said Ibarra. “I’m still kind of 

speechless about the ramifications of 

this whole story. 

“There is true patriotism and commitment, 

but also the beauty of not 

leaving anyone behind and being a 

true friend as Jesus himself told us: 

There’s no greater love than to lay 

down one’s life for a friend. It’s obvious 

Ruben did that to bring his friend 

home,” he said. 

“This was a homecoming for everyone. 

St. Alphonsus is important for 

the East LA community. It has a 

longstanding history. We are blessed to 

provide this closure for all them sacramentally, 

spiritually, and physically to 

be together.” 

Valencia told news reporters at the 

burial site that his home is not too far 

away. As he stands on his patio, he can 

see the Rose Hills sign near the 605 

Freeway. Valencia is also painfully 

aware that 44 years after the Vietnam 

War’s official ending, there are some 

1,500 American servicemen who 

remain unaccounted. 

“This was my brother,” Valencia said 

of Guerra. “Any brother would go look 

for his brother. I know I now have my 

brother close to me. 

“Once all this is over, I’ll go to the 

gravesite, take my chair, bring a lunch 

and we’ll reminisce.” 

Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning 

journalist based in Los Angeles. 



A conference, dedicated to lay holiness, took place April 30 at Rome’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. 

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY/DANIEL IBÁÑEZ 

Fruits of an early call 

A Rome conference 

examined the 

extraordinary lives of lay 

Catholics now being 

considered for sainthood 

BY ELISE HARRIS / ANGELUS 

ROME — At a time when Pope 

Francis is empowering young 

people while also pushing for 

a greater participation of lay people 

at every level of the Church, a 

conference in Rome highlighted the 

growing number of lay saints, pointing 

to several examples of youth whose 

causes are moving forward. 

One of these young people was Blessed 

Chiara Luce Badano. A member 

of the Italian Focolare Movement, she 

was known for her radiant smile and 

infectious joy throughout a long battle 

with cancer that would eventually 

claim her life in 1990 at the age of 18. 

Born in the small town of Sassello, 

in the northern Italian province of 

Savona, Badano was an answer to her 

parents’ prayers. After trying to have a 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY BEATIFICATION CAUSE OF CHIARA BADANO 

Chiara Badano Carlo Acutis Marta Obregón 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY SAINTHOOD CAUSE OF CARLO ACUTIS 

IMAGE VIA CAUSADEMARTA.NET 


child for 11 years, little Chiara finally 

came in 1971. 

Known for her kindness and her intelligence 

as she grew, Badano got involved 

with the Focolare Movement, 

dedicated to promoting Christian 

unity and brotherhood, when she was 

just 9 years old. 

She quickly adopted a passion for 

her faith, insisting she didn’t need to 

talk about Jesus, but show her love for 

him in her actions. She was given the 

nickname “Luce,” meaning “Light,” 

by the movement’s founder, Chiara 

Lubich, because of the brightness of 

her smile. 

Badano was diagnosed with a rare 

and painful form of bone cancer when 

she was just 16. Yet even amid the 

fear and apprehension her smile did 

not disappear. She continued to be a 

cheerful presence for her family and 

for other patients, offering her suffering 

to God and, when it became clear 

she would not recover, giving her 

savings to friends doing mission work. 

Rather than looking at death as the 

end, she planned her funeral as if it 

were her wedding because she viewed 

death as the moment when she would 

become a bride of Christ in heaven. 

Shortly before passing away, Badano 

offered her final words to her mother, 

telling her to “be happy mom, 

because I am.” 

Badano is just one of six lay people 

recognized for their “everyday” holiness 

at the April 30 conference, which 

was dedicated to lay holiness and 

which took place at Rome’s Pontifical 

University of the Holy Cross. 

Others whose lives and heroic virtue 

were explored were Venerable Carlo 

Acutis, a young tech-wiz who passed 

away at 15 after losing his fight with 

fulminant leukemia; Servant of God 

Marta Obregon Rodriguez, a young 

journalist who was involved with both 

Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal 

Way, and who was murdered at age 22 

after being abducted from her home 

by a man who attempted to rape her; 

and Angelica Tiraboschi, who also 

died at 19 after battling cancer, and 

who was known for her joy and deep 

faith. 

Also reflected on were the lives of 

Servant of God Enrique Shaw, who 

died from cancer at age 41 and was 

known for promoting the social doctrine 

of the Church in business growth 

by founding the Christian Association 

of Business Executives; and Servant 

of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo, who 

was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant 

and died in 2012 after refusing 

treatment in order to save her baby. 

Speaking to a packed room during 

the reflection day, Msgr. Fernando 

Ocáriz, leader of the personal prelature 

of Opus Dei, said that “every new 

saint and blessed is a source of hope 

and a living witness of the Gospel,” 

but the lives of lay people offer a concrete 

example of people who “have 

sought to radically live Christianity in 

Angelica Tiraboschi 

IMAGE VIA ANGELICATIRABOSCHI.IT 

Enrique Shaw 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 


the world.” 

Calling the individuals put forward a 

“bright example of Christian holiness,” 

Ocáriz said their lives are “an 

occasion of grace not only for those 

who remember them in intercession, 

but for all faithful” who work toward 

“the sanctification of man and the 

glorification of Christ in men.” 

The conference was organized 

ahead of the upcoming May 18 

beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de 

Landazuri, one of the first women 

members of Opus Dei and the first 

layperson from the prelature to be 

raised to the altars. 

Born in Madrid in 1916, Landazuri 

was known not just as a standout 

chemist at a time when the scientific 

field was dominated by men, but 

she was deeply devout and widely 

recognized as someone whose faith 

shone as bright as her intellect in her 

everyday work. 

She helped begin Opus Dei’s 

apostolate in Mexico and eventually 

returned to Spain, where she died in 

1975 from heart complications. 

Described by Ocáriz as someone 

who “knew how to find God in the 

daily efforts of her scientific research 

and teaching,” Landazuri has been 

hailed as a model of how to achieve 

personal holiness through one’s ordinary 

daily circumstances. 

Professor Maria Pilar del Rio, who 

teaches liturgical ecclesiology at 

Santa Croce, also spoke at the conference, 

focusing on the “theology of the 

laity” that came out of the 1962-65 

Second Vatican Council. 

She noted how after the council, the 

Catholic Church made a strong push 

to emphasize holiness as something 

attainable for everyone, and which 

should be pursued by all members 

of the Church, not just priests and 

consecrated people. 

This call, she said, goes out to 

people from all backgrounds: men 

and women, young and old, married 

and single, students and professionals, 

from all countries and backgrounds. 

The new form of theology geared 

toward lay people wasn’t developed 

“at the table,” del Rio said, but was 

drawn from the “lives, work, and 

numerous apostolic activities that the 

laity have brought forward,” including 

those highlighted at the conference. 

Each of the people whose lives were 

reflected on, del Rio said, had encountered 

Jesus at some pivotal point, 

“and this encounter changed their 

lives. Then they immediately fell in 

love … with him who loved them 

first,” and then spent the rest of their 

lives in service to God and others. 

Holiness is “a task for all baptized 

without question,” she said, adding 

that all Catholic faithful, “of whatever 

state and status, are called to Christian 

life and perfection in charity.” 

Elise Harris is the senior correspondent 

for Crux in Rome. 

Chiara Corbella 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/CRISTIAN GENNARI, COURTESY PETRILLO’S FAMILYBADANO 

Guadalupe Ortiz 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 



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 

celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2012. 

PAUL HARING/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE 

Master’s program 

He died 450 years ago this month, 

but John of Ávila is a saint for today 

BY FATHER GUSTAVO CASTILLO / ANGELUS 

May 10 marks the 450th 

anniversary of the death 

of John of Ávila. 

A saint who is a virtual 

unknown to most Catholics, his 

influence was widespread in his own 

time — and has a great importance 

for our time. 

Saint Pope Paul VI canonized Saint 

John of Ávila in 1970, and he was 

declared a Doctor of the Church by 

Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 — the 

first diocesan priest to hold such a 

distinction. 

Even before that, Pope Pius XII had 

declared him the patron of Spanish 

secular priests. 

And in these challenging days for the 

priesthood and the Church, John can 

still provide a shining light to point 

the way back to faithfulness and holy 

living. 

In his day, he was called a “Master,” 

and was a spiritual guide for such 

saints as Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius of 

Loyola, Peter of Alcantara and John of 

Ribera. 

The saints John of God and Francis 

Borgia owed their conversion to him 

and turned to him constantly for 

spiritual direction. 

Saint Francis de Sales and the Curé 

of Ars, Saint John Vianney, said they 

benefited from his writings. It is likely 

also that the 20th-century Spaniard, 

Saint Josemaria Escrivá, drank from 

his spiritual fountain. 

Ordained in 1526, only nine years 

after Martin Luther had broken away 

from the Church, John’s initial plan 

was to sail off for the “New World” as 

a missionary. 

But with the threat of Protestantism 

looming in Spain, John’s superiors decided 

his pastoral zeal and spirituality 


would better serve his home country. 

He began preaching and catechizing 

adults and children throughout the 

cities of the southern Iberian peninsula, 

eventually earning the title the 

“Apostle of Andalusia.” 

Mindful that he could only do so 

much on his own, he surrounded 

himself with other diocesan priests 

who wanted to defend and spread the 

Catholic faith. 

They started calling him “Master 

Ávila,” and he founded colleges and 

residences that formed generations of 

preachers and confessors who evangelized 

throughout Reformation-era 

Spain and beyond. 

He was so inspiring and effective that 

Saint Ignatius of Loyola tried to woo 

him over to the Jesuits. But it was not 

meant to be. 

Master Ávila’s zeal proved to be 

contagious. 

In Cordoba, more than 20 diocesan 

priests followed his lead and began 

living together as a community, inspired 

by John’s simplicity of life and 

commitment to the gospel. 

As John’s health began to decline, 

many of his disciples did join the 

Jesuits and the Carmelites. Others 

moved to new dioceses where they 

could continue to sow the seeds of 

sanctity and faith, as they had learned 

from him. 

In his later years, Church leaders 

turned to John for help in the longterm 

renewal of the priesthood. 

While he could not attend the Council 

of Trent due to his poor health, 

John contributed two important 

treatises that guided the conversations 

of the Council Fathers and proved 

fruitful for the future of the Church. 

His work was instrumental in the 

establishment of seminaries to form 

future priests, and in the shaping of 

the ministry of bishops in their dioceses. 

Building on his own experience, 

John also emphasized the importance 

of catechisms and religious education 

for children and adults. 

His main recommendation, though, 

was the reform of the Church through 

holiness, starting at the top. 

John did not hesitate to lovingly and 

respectfully recommend that the pope 

lead renewal through his own witness, 

to set an example that would inspire 

The closing session of the Council of Trent in an illustration from the 17th century. 

bishops, priests, and faithful alike. He 

was onto something here. 

It is well-known that Martin Luther 

left the Church because of the decadence 

he saw in it. The popes known 

to Luther and John seemed more focused 

on buildings and administration 

than on spiritual matters and care of 

souls. The last pope to be canonized 

before the Reformation lived more 

than 200 years earlier, Saint Pope 

Celestine V. 

But in the wake of the Council of 

Trent, a new springtime was soon felt 

in the universal Church, beginning 

with the saintly Pope Pius V, who 

began implementing the Tridentine 

reform. 

In Italy, the great archbishop Saint 

Charles Borromeo made a deep mark 

with his teachings on holiness and 

renewal and his founding of multiple 

seminaries. In France, besides Saint 

Francis de Sales, there were Saint 

Vincent de Paul, Saint John Eudes 

and others who brought about lasting 

reforms through holiness and commitment 

to the gospel. 

In Peru, Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo 

called synods to plant the true Faith 

in the newly discovered continent. In 

Asia and other mission territories, the 

Jesuits threw themselves to evangelize 

and make converts for the Lord. 

In some way, we can see all of this as 

building on the bricks that John had 

laid for the renewal of the Church. 

Even in generations to come he 

would continue to find admirers in pioneering 

and reform-minded leaders, 

such as Saint Alphonsus Liguori and 

Saint Anthony Mary Claret. 

In difficult times, it is wise to turn to 

credible witnesses for guidance and 

renewal. 

As he noted, John was a pioneer 

in highlighting the universal call to 

holiness, developing an authentic 

spirituality for priests, and advocating 

for true reform in the Church. 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY ART RESOURCE 


In declaring him a Doctor of the 

Church in 2012, Benedict was aware 

that he was lifting up a saint who 

guided many souls to a deeper relationship 

with the Lord and to conversion 

of life and an outstanding model 

of the diocesan priesthood. 

The fact that John turned down several 

opportunities to become a bishop, and 

even a cardinal, shows him to be the 

kind of humble evangelizer that Pope 

Francis wants to hold up in our times. 

This jubilee year of the Master’s 

death is a great opportunity for the 

shepherds in the Church today to 

renew themselves under the guidance 

and inspiration of this great spiritual 

master. 

Father Gustavo Castillo is a Los 

Angeles priest and director of spiritual 

formation at St. John’s Seminary in 

Camarillo. His book, “Shepherding 

the Family of God: The Spirituality of 

Diocesan Priests in St. John of Ávila,” 

will soon be published by the Institute 

of Priestly Formation. 

Master insights 

“If you really believe that the Father gave you his Son, also believe that 

he will give you everything else, for everything else is less.” 

— “Treatise on the Love of God” 

“Pray, meditate, study.” 

— Letter 2, 285 

“Open your little heart to that breadth of love by which the Father gave 

us his Son, and with him gave us himself, and the Holy Spirit, and all 

things besides.” 

— Letter 160 

“Your neighbour is a concern of Jesus Christ.” 

— Letter 62 

“The proof of perfect love of our Lord is seen in the perfect love of our 

neighbour.” 

— Letter 103 

“The priest … is the face of the Church; and just as in the face is 

reflected the beauty of the entire body, likewise the clergy must be the 

principal beauty of the Church.” 

— “Treatise on the Priesthood” 



SHUTTERSTOCK 

Finding God in an 

Amazon Prime box 

Why praying Saint Ignatius’ ‘Examen’ 

is like a trip to ‘a spiritual chiropractor’ 

BY GARY JANSEN / ANGELUS 

My wife, Grace, and I came 

to a very important decision 

after we brought our 

first son, Eddie, home 

from the hospital. It had nothing to do 

with his diet or religion or what school 

he eventually would attend. It had to 

do with video games. 

We agreed we would keep our son 

away from video games for as long 

as possible. We had both spent years 

in front of a TV playing the likes of 

Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong and 

dozens of other games. Good times! 

But when we both looked back at 

our childhoods, we grimace when we 

think that we could have spent those 

hours reading, playing, or just hanging 

out with our family and friends. 

We were very good with Eddie. 

Granted, some people thought we 

were raising him in the Amish tradition 

because he didn’t know what 

a game controller was, but we were 

good for four years. 

And then . . . 

When Grace was in the hospital 

delivering our second child, our son 

spent the night with his aunt. Unbeknownst 

to us, her sister introduced 

Eddie to Nintendo. 

It was over. All the hard work of 

keeping Eddie ignorant of the digital 


world — ruined by my sister-in-law. 

Over the next few months Eddie 

would ask me, literally every day, to 

buy him a Nintendo DS, a handheld 

computer game. I refused! 

No son of mine was going to waste 

all his time playing video games. 

(Looking back, I guess I was acting 

like Saint Augustine, who, after living 

a lascivious life and fathering a child 

out of wedlock, converted to Christianity 

and then said no one could 

ever do what he did because it was the 

wrong thing to do.) 

Well, my son kept asking. He kept 

knocking at the door of my nerves until 

I finally caved. One day, I ordered 

my son a Nintendo DS from Amazon 

(I love Prime!). 

Yet, the moment I saw that box I 

knew I had made a mistake. I left it in 

the living room as I debated — to give 

or not to give, that was the question. 

My son had no idea I had ordered 

the game for him and his nagging 

persisted. 

Then I began having a God moment. 

‘Examen’ 

exercise 

Many people perform Saint Ignatius’s 

“Examen” twice a day, 

around lunchtime and before they 

go to sleep, but it can be done at any 

time of the day. 

Step 1: Take a few moments to settle 

yourself. Close your eyes or take a few 

deep breaths. Be like water and find 

level. 

Step 2: Remind yourself that God is 

all around you. He’s inside you and 

outside you. His heart beats in all 

creation. 

Step 3: Ask the Holy Spirit to rise up 

inside you and give you the wisdom 

to acknowledge God in your life and 

the gifts that are all around you. Ask 

the Spirit for guidance in reviewing 

your actions. 

Step 4: Give thanks for the day. 

Turn your eyes into microscopes and 

My son passed that box every day, 

and not once did he ever think to 

ask, “Hey, what’s inside the box?” He 

would be inches away from it. Sometimes 

he would run his small hand 

over the lettering, but at no time did 

he ever suspect that the thing he wanted 

most in life was actually already in 

his presence. 

That box for me became God. I 

don’t mean it changed shape or started 

talking to me, and I definitely don’t 

mean it turned into a cardboard idol 

that I worshipped. But I really did see 

God in that box. 

So many of us have this yearning to 

know God, to be with God, to have 

joy in God, and many of us go on long 

journeys to find him. But how many 

of us ever ask ourselves, is God here 

with me now? Is the God I desire here 

in the room with me? And if he is, 

what should I do? 

Little did I know that those questions 

I asked myself that day form the basis 

of the spiritual exercise known as the 

“Examen.” 

The “Examen,” an important part 

look for God in all things, the good 

and the bad. Find God in a book 

you’re reading, your loved ones, and 

even the rude bus driver who’s always 

barking at you, and the electric bill 

that arrives in the mail. 

Finding God in a flower can be easy. 

Finding God in someone who cuts 

you off in traffic … well, there’s a 

challenge. 

Step 5: Take inventory of your day. 

Ask questions and give honest answers. 

Where was God for you today? 

Where was God present in your actions 

and your thoughts? Was God silent 

or were you fixated on something 

in your mind? Did you treat someone 

unfairly? Lose your temper? Did you 

really have to send that email? 

Step 6: With the help of the Holy 

Spirit, make it a priority to reconcile 

your actions. If you feel you failed, 

ask God for guidance, strength, and 

forgiveness. And if you did a good job, 

well, be excited and build on that gift. 

Step 7: Thank God for this time 

together and repeat every day. 

— Gary Jansen 

of Saint Ignatius’s teachings, involves 

setting aside time to reflect on the activities 

and thoughts of the day. In this 

simple meditation, we ask ourselves 

primarily two questions: Where was 

God for me? What was my response to 

those encounters? 

This simple, seven-step process is a 

gentle, and sometimes startling, way 

of finding God in our daily lives, and 

it helps us learn from our actions — 

and reactions. Many of us may talk a 

good game, we may talk about love 

for God and neighbor or about the 

gifts in our lives, but our actions say 

otherwise. 

The “Examen” is a bit like a spiritual 

chiropractor, helping bring our desires 

into alignment with God’s will — and 

conversely, it helps bring our will into 

alignment with God’s desire. 

Oh, and did I give my son the 

Nintendo? Of course I did. I’m a total 

pushover. 

Gary Jansen is the author of “Life Everlasting” 

and “MicroShifts: Transforming 

Your Life One Step at a Time.” 

SHUTTERSTOCK 


LA’s last ‘Greatest 

Generation’ priest 

A final farewell to 103-year-old Msgr. Richard H. Murray, 

who was ordained during World War II and who spent 76 

years as a priest ‘among the people in all their stages’ 

BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS 

During his 76 years as a priest of the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles, Msgr. Richard H. Murray resided 

at only three parishes. 

First was All Souls Church in Alhambra, 

where he was assigned after his ordination 

on April 24, 1943, at St. Vibiana’s 

Cathedral — age 27, in the middle 

of World War II. 

Then came St. Paul Church 

in Mid-City Los Angeles, 

where Msgr. Thomas 

Blackwell kept him as 

a trusted administrator 

pro tem and associate 

pastor until 

Blackwell’s health 

worsened and he 

died in 1959. 

Three years later, 

Murray was asked 

to help establish 

St. Bernardine of 

Siena Church in 

Woodland Hills, 

on an empty lot of 

sagebrush. 

At the time of Murray’s 

death on April 

29 at the age of 103, he 

remained pastor emeritus 

of St. Bernadine of Siena. 

He was not only still living in 

the rectory, but while confined to 

a wheelchair he had a caregiver find 

him a special spot in the church so he could 

concelebrate the 7 a.m. Mass each Sunday in full vestments. 

“He remained the heart and soul of that community he 

dearly loved,” said Msgr. Austin Doran, the pastor at St. 

Msgr. Richard Murray in 

an undated photo. 

Anthony Catholic Church in San Gabriel. “He was very 

devoted to celebrating the holy Eucharist and the Litany of 

the Hours in daily prayer.” 

Doran was assigned to St. Bernardine of Siena 

in December 1978, six months after his 

own ordination. In four-plus years 

as the associate pastor, Doran 

said the lesson he learned 

from Murray that he still 

uses as a foundation 

today was “how to 

have a positive 

attitude about life 

and people.” 

“Life was a gift 

to be celebrated 

and valued. He 

was also a great 

minister to the 

sick and always 

found a way to 

encourage and 

support couples 

in living out 

their vows.” 

Doran admitted 

that “some priests 

today have three 

assignments in one 

year,” but Murray began 

at a time when terms were 

not yet assigned. 

“His assignments were more 

than just luck,” said Doran. “Every 

pastor he served realized they had someone 

special and wanted to keep him as long as they 

could.” 

Murray was born Sept. 11, 1915, in Alexandria, Louisiana, 

moving to LA in 1923 and attending Los Angeles 

THE TIDINGS 


Msgr. Richard Murray with Archbishop José H. Gomez at the archdiocesan priest retirement luncheon on May 14, 2018, at the Cathedral of Our Lady 

of the Angels. 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

College, a high school junior seminary, before going to St. 

John’s Seminary in Camarillo. 

In a Tidings article that celebrated his 100th birthday in 

October 2015, Murray recalled that when he was assigned 

to establish St. Bernadine of Siena in 1962, “there was 

nothing on the hillside but cactus and coyotes” at Valley 

Circle Boulevard, and Masses were first held at Chaminade 

High School or at the Canoga Park High School 

auditorium. 

The growing community of engineers and professionals 

fed into this new parish, and Murray invited them to be 

more active as volunteers at a time when the Second Vatican 

Council resulted in liturgical changes to the Mass and 

more emphasis on the laity. 

The Latin Mass was in transition to being celebrated in 

English, but that was not an issue for Murray. He loved 

studying languages and was proficient in Latin, Greek, and 

Spanish from his time at St. John’s Seminary. 

Elevated to monsignor in 1983, Murray was known for 

driving around in his Mustang visiting shut-ins and the 

sick, even long after he officially retired as full-time pastor 

in 1989. 

“I love to be among the people during both their sorrows 

and their joys,” he said. “Christ loved to be among people 

even when they were sick or dying. And that’s how I tried 

to model my priesthood: to be among the people in all 

their stages.” 

A 2008 article in the Los Angeles Daily News marking the 

65th anniversary of Murray’s ordination noted he was a bit 

disappointed that he recently had to give up driving his car. 

He was 92 at the time. 

“He has been retired from administrative work [for 20 

years] but there’s no retirement from shepherding the 

flock,” said Msg. Robert J. McNamara, then the pastor at 

St. Bernardine of Siena, now a pastor emeritus. 

In May 2018, Murray was one of 60 who attended an 

archdiocesan priest retirement luncheon at the Cathedral 

of Our Lady of the Angels. Murray sat next to Archbishop 

José H. Gomez. 

“He so enjoyed that day,” said Doran, assigned as Murray’s 

trustee and power of attorney. “That was challenging 

for him — not because of his health. He was very sharp 

and mentally clear. It’s just that so many of his generation 

have already passed, including his own brothers and sisters. 

Some very close friends. 

“He lost a whole generation of priests. It was difficult for 

him to be ‘the last one standing.’ But he venerated life as a 

gift from God.” 

Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning journalist based in Los 

Angeles. 


WITH GRACE 

BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE 

Protecting the true 

transition to womanhood 

SHUTTERSTOCK 

These days, the phrase “becoming 

a woman” brings 

up a whole range of ideas 

absolutely brand new in the 

history of the human imagination. I’m 

referring, of course, to the idea that a 

man can “become a woman” simply 

by denying his male nature and bodily 

reality. 

But this very phrase has been much 

on my mind lately. For the past few 

months, I’ve been watching someone 

I love become a woman — and this in 

the very real, biological sense. 

My youngest daughter is growing up. 

She is no longer, physically, a child. 

In times past and in most cultures, 

she’d be readying for her own adult 

life: wife and mother of her own 

family. 

In our modern age, she is only entering 

what is sure to be a long adolescence, 

a life phase that is also new in 

human history. In any case, it’s a difficult 

process, this natural “becoming,” 

and my heart is filled with an aching 

tenderness, watching her. 

In childhood a girl lives for years 

oblivious of what lies just around the 

corner. If she is very fortunate, she is 

protected by her mother and father 

like a hothouse flower as she grows. 

She is kept safe not only from ugly 

realities but even of their mention. 

Her innocence, the purity of her 

clean mind, are shielded from the 

scandals that plague humanity — the 


mess of sexuality untethered from true 

love of the “other” and the way men 

and women use one another remorselessly, 

to get ahead or just to feel OK. 

How many times, as parents, have 

we shushed one another, or a friend, 

when we knew that the girl with the 

seashell ears was nearby? She was not 

to know, not yet, that people don’t 

keep their solemn vows, or that they 

are capable of ending the life of their 

own son or daughter for the simple 

crime of being inconvenient or unexpected. 

And then it happens — the becoming. 

The outside changes first, and girls 

start to hunch when they used to 

stand tall and sword-straight. They 

are embarrassed by their breasts, and 

disconcerted by the glances that slide 

down from their faces to their chests. 

This had never happened to them 

before. 

Then the inside changes and the 

indignity begins. That first trembling 

phone call to mother from school: 

“Come and get me, Mami!” and the 

trip down that aisle in the pharmacy, 

eyes shifting furtively, hoping that no 

one she knows is watching. 

The cyclic pains begin, and also the 

terrible embarrassment at the inevitable 

accidents and contretemps. It feels 

like a betrayal on the part of one’s 

body, a body that one was comfortable 

with, and could trust. 

Mother’s insistence that it’s natural 

and good, that this is the way God 

prepares us for our most spectacular 

womanly feat — the carrying of a 

beloved child within us — does not 

begin to console. 

This process I’ve described is only 

the very beginning of “becoming a 

woman.” There is so much ahead that 

is difficult that a mother cringes to 

think of it. The little hothouse flower 

will have to learn to bloom where she 

is planted, whether that be scorching 

desert or teeming jungle. 

It is very likely that she will be taken 

for granted just when she is most vulnerable, 

and that her innocence will 

be squashed unceremoniously, and 

painfully. She will be judged strictly 

on her appearance, and how closely it 

matches with whatever unreachable 

standard of beauty is in vogue. 

The lovely girl will likely spend years 

thinking she is graceless and ugly. If 

she is again, very, very fortunate, and 

her child training has been excellent, 

she will not take herself at the world’s 

valuation. She will know that she was 

raised like a princess because she is 

one — a daughter of the divine King 

himself. 

Nothing but knowledge of that fact 

can protect her from the ignoble plans 

the world has for her. Because even a 

loving mother and father can’t walk 

with her everywhere to fight off the 

dragons. 

I started off by talking of men “becoming 

women.” You see, I’ve been 

feeling resentful. Watching my little 

girl inevitably, inexorably, start her 

own difficult “becoming,” my soul is 

stirred with pity. 

We ought to have a culture that 

treasures and protects these vulnerable, 

budding women during their 

difficult transition, that “tempers 

the wind to the shorn lamb.” But we 

don’t. Instead, we have a coarse and 

deluded culture that pretends to find 

womanhood where it doesn’t exist, 

and at the same time does its best to 

stain the delicate purities that are our 

daughters. 

“Becoming a woman” is hard to do, 

and for a mother who knows just what 

is in store, hard to watch. But, unlike 

the false “becoming” of a man who 

denies his very real self, it is a natural 

process that takes the girl-child to 

graceful womanhood with all its beautiful 

possibilities. 

My daughter and I are getting used 

to living in this time of transformation, 

and I, for one, am starting to 

look forward with great eagerness to 

the woman she is becoming. 

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie grew up in 

Guadalajara, Mexico, coming to the 

U.S. at the age of 11. She has written 

for USA TODAY, National Review, 

The Washington Post, and The New 

York Times, and has appeared on 

CNN, Telemundo, Fox News and 

EWTN. She practices radiology in the 

Miami area, where she lives with her 

husband and five children. 


CHANGING 

AMERICA 

BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE 

A rabbi’s words 

of wisdom 

SAN DIEGO — In dark moments, 

it’s wise to listen to a 

rabbi. 

Darkness descended recently 

upon this laidback Southern California 

community on the coast. 

It came when John Earnest — a 

well-liked straight-A nursing student, 

classical pianist, and all-American 

boy with twisted ideas in his head, 

and evil in his heart — stormed into a 

packed synagogue in a suburban city 

on the final day of Passover with what 

the county sheriff called an “AR-type 

assault weapon,” and opened fire with 

a desire to kill Jews. 

One person was killed, and three 

more were injured. 

The deceased was Lori Gilbert Kaye, 

a devout 60-year-old worshipper at 

Chabad of Poway, about 30 miles 

north of San Diego, who, according 

to friends and family, brought light 

into the lives of many people over the 

years by sharing her time, affection, 

and effort with those who needed it. 

The injured included an 8-year-old 

girl named Noya Dahan, who recently 

moved to the San Diego-area from 

what is normally a more dangerous 

place, the Israeli city of Sderot, 

located only a mile from the Gaza 

Strip. Since 2001, Sderot has been the 

target of thousands of rockets fired off 

by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 

Also injured was Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, 

who was shot in both hands and 

lost his right index finger in the attack. 

He survived. 

And that’s because Kaye apparently 

jumped in front of Goldstein as the 

gunman was preparing to fire another 

round at him. According to little 

Dahan and other witnesses, Kaye 

put herself in the line of fire and said 

something like, “If the Rabbi dies, I 

die.” Earnest fired, and Kaye died. 

There could have been much more 

bloodshed. Police said Earnest came 

armed with dozens of rounds of ammunition. 

But, unexpectedly, once in 

the synagogue, the rifle jammed. That 

gave Oscar Stewart, a military veteran 

who served in Iraq, the chance to rush 

Earnest, even though Stewart was 

unarmed. Earnest fled the church, 

and he was soon arrested. 

The 19-year-old was charged with 

first-degree murder and three counts 

of attempted murder, all with the special 

circumstances enhancement that 

come with hate crimes. If convicted, 

he could get the death penalty. 

In a statement, Earnest’s parents 

said they were “shocked and deeply 

saddened” by their son’s actions. “To 

our great shame,” they said, “he is 

now part of the history of evil that has 

been perpetuated on Jewish people 

for centuries.” 

Speaking of evil, Earnest left behind 

his motivation for the attack. It’s race 

hatred. In a sickening 4,000-word 

manifesto published online, Earnest 

described Jews as destroying the white 

race. Latinos and African-Americans 

are part of the conspiracy, but they’re 

bit players. Jews run the show, according 

to Earnest. 

In his mind, Jews are not white. 

This isn’t about religion or skin color, 

but about culture. Earnest may say 

“white” but he means “WASP.” And 

he sees himself as uniquely positioned 

to avenge, through violence, the 

wrongs done to his people, white people, 

because someone has to do it. 

Local media commentators call 

Earnest a white supremacist. But that’s 

not so. White supremacists are always 

on the offensive, and they think 

they’re superior to people of color. 

Earnest was on the defensive, and 

he believes white people are being 

threatened with elimination by people 

of color. 

Where did this young man, who 

probably doesn’t remember any U.S. 

president before George W. Bush, acquire 

such an ancient perspective? He 

wrote in his manifesto that his parents 

didn’t teach it to him. 

He wrote that he picked a lot of it up 

from an online message board, where 

he has been roaming around for the 

last 18 months or so. He wrote that 

what he learned there about how the 

world really works, and how Jews are 

destroying whites, was “priceless.” Not 


Hannah Kaye (left center), daughter of shooting victim Lori Gilbert Kaye, is held by her father 

Howard Kaye as wounded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein (center) speaks above the casket during a 

graveside service April 29 in San Diego. Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed inside the Chabad of Poway 

synagogue April 27 by a gunman who opened fire as worshippers attended services. 

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES 

to mention vile. 

Catholics know this story well, a 

variation of it, anyway. Anti-Catholic 

prejudice and bigotry left scars on the 

first half of the 20th century. To many, 

our customs and rituals have always 

seemed like superstitions. 

Even in a country that is advertised 

as welcoming and celebrating diversity, 

those who are different frighten 

those who are close-minded, insecure, 

and intolerant. ’Twas always thus. 

And what’s that about the rabbi? 

What does Goldstein have to tell us? 

“I had to look the murderer in the 

face for something for me to impart 

to the rest of the world,” he told CBS 

News. “Something has to change. 

It’s time for a change. It’s not just 

anti-Semitism. It’s all type of bigotry. 

We have lost our soul.” 

He’s right, you know. Something 

feels different. In the United States, 

and around the world, compassion 

and empathy are falling by the 

wayside. Hatred and acrimony are 

surging. We have lost our soul. And 

we have to get it back. 

Ruben Navarrette is a contributing 

editor to Angelus and a syndicated 

columnist with The Washington Post 

Writers Group and a columnist for 

the Daily Beast. He is a radio host, a 

frequent guest analyst on cable news, 

a member of the USA Today Board of 

Contributors, and host of the podcast 

“Navarrette Nation.” Among his books 

are “A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey 

of a Harvard Chicano.” 


THE CRUX 

BY HEATHER KING 

Taking a different aim 

A new documentary explores the ‘moral injury’ 

suffered by people who’ve pulled the trigger 

the Bullet” is a 

documentary, directed 

and produced by 

“Behind 

Heidi Yewman, with the 

tagline, “4 Shooters. 4 Stories. A New 

Perspective on Gun Violence.” 

Yewman is a graduate of Columbine 

High School and lost her former 

basketball coach Dave Sanders in 

the 1999 mass shooting. She’s since 

written a book, also called “Beyond 

the Bullet,” subtitled “Personal Stories 

of Gun Violence Aftermath.” 

Still, she intentionally tried to keep 

her own bias out of it. “I want to have 

a conversation with people, especially 

gun owners, and I can’t do that if 

they’re feeling judged or preached to.” 

Thus, the film offers no statistics till 

the closing credits. And its focus is not 

on people who have been shot, but 

rather the impact on those who have 

pulled the trigger. 

The first person we meet is Christen 

McGinnes, who is putting on makeup 

and has clearly undergone some kind 

of major physical trauma. “One of 

the hardest things I had to face was 

not having a face,” she says. “The two 

years I couldn’t eat, talk, or drink were 

the most difficult.” 

McGinnes had bought a gun in case 

someone broke into her room. In a 

moment of profound emotional pain, 

she picked it up, went out on her balcony, 

prayed for forgiveness, and shot 

herself in the head. 

She now works with other gunshot 

Christen McGinnes Kevin Leonard Taylor Dwyer 

trauma victims, and at the time had 

undergone 45 surgeries. I had to close 

my eyes during Operation No. 46 

shown in the film, but the point was 

well taken: This is what a gunshot 

does to a human face. 

Says Yewman: “It was hard to find 

someone who had survived a suicide 

by gun, and who could and would talk 

about it. We spend a lot of time talking 

about school shootings, but the 

fact is that 60 percent of gun deaths 

are from suicide. So I felt I really 

should include one such story.” 

Will Little, an African-American 

from the streets of Philadelphia, was 

18 when he shot and killed another 

18-year-old. He served 10 years. When 

he went to prison, his girlfriend was 

pregnant with their son, who is now a 

teenager. Little worked hard while in 

prison to develop into a worthy man 

and father. 

In an especially moving scene in the 

film, a gathering of local black men sit 

in a playground talking. “We all grew 

up believing a lie that the streets told 

us. That you couldn’t back down from 

an argument. That you can’t apologize 

to another man.” Three have lost 

sons. The tearing of the fabric of the 

community is palpable. 

But so is the desire to do better for 

the next generation. Little now proud- 


wyer 

Will Little 

ly mentors his son and heads up a 

neighborhood organization called Redemption, 

Forgiveness, Peace (RFP). 

Kevin Leonard, “a born and raised 

country boy,” came home from turkey 

hunting one day several years ago, saw 

a strange SUV out front, and found 

two intruders in his home. 

One man got away, but after firing 

a single shot the other “fell right 

there in the grass. He would not quit 

moving.” Though otherwise thoughtful 

and sensitive, Leonard stood there 

© 2019 BTB PRODUCTIONS 

for the 30 to 40 minutes it took for the 

cops to arrive, watching him die. 

Today his property is barricaded. He 

has motion detectors, trip wires, and 

firearms galore. 

“I wake up lost. My dreams are horrible. 

… I see things at night. … People 

make comments like, ‘Hey Kevin how 

ya doin, ya kill anybody today?’ ” 

Beth, the mother of sons Taylor and 

Matthew, is still weeping 10 years after 

the incident that derailed her life. 

“Daron [her husband and the boys’ 

father] was traveling a lot. So I asked 

for a little gun, just a little protection 

for me and the boys. I had it out a lot 

at night and I guess that particular 

morning I just forgot to put it up.” 

Taylor, then 8, picked up the gun 

one morning and shot his 5-year-old 

brother Matthew in the forehead. 

Daron, a music minister, and his 

parents, also in ministry, choose their 

words carefully. With their faith as the 

backdrop, they developed a kind of 

script: This is how we’re going to think 

about it, this is how we’re going to talk 

about it. “We spoke of it in terms of an 

accident.” 

Nonetheless, Daron and Beth are 

now divorced. A teenager now, Taylor 

makes bombs with his high school 

buddies and stages explosions for fun. 

And faith notwithstanding, Daron, 

choking up, says, “In a lot of ways, 

it feels like the morning has never 

come.” 

The film has already won several 

awards and Yewman hopes to release 

it commercially in the fall. 

She says, “I feel there’s a false 

narrative to the effect that you can be 

the good guy with a gun and save the 

day killing a ‘bad guy’ with your gun. 

In the film, Kevin shows very clearly 

that you don’t just kill someone who’s 

threatened you or your family, and 

move on with your day and your life. 

A moral injury occurs.” 

I, too, came away haunted by his 

suffering. Supreme irony: The guys 

who broke into his home that fateful 

day were trying to steal — you guessed 

it — his guns. 

Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.

Angelus News | May 10, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 17

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