Angelus News | May 17, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 18

ANGELUS 

DEFENDING 

THE SEAL 

California’s dangerous bid 

to enter the confessional 

January 25, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 3 

May 17, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 18

Contents 

Archbishop Gomez 3 

World, Nation and Local News 4-6 

LA Catholic Events 7 

Scott Hahn on Scripture 8 

Father Rolheiser 9 

A shuttered Catholic school’s STEM revival 14 

New parish leadership changes in LA 16 

John Allen: Curia reform for dummies 18 

Cleveland’s apostle for alcoholics 20 

A book to make Catholics grateful for the Church’s bad guys 22 

Dr. Grazie Christie: The problem with artificial insemination 24 

The comic who couldn’t laugh off cancer and Catholicism 26 

Heather King: When ‘feeling good’ is just a performance 28 

ON THE COVER 

A priest waits while sitting in a confessional box in the Cathedral of Barcelona. A new bill making 

its way through the California legislature would seek to force priests to break divine law in order to 

follow civil law. But would requiring priests to break the seal of confession in cases of alleged child 

sexual abuse really prevent abuse? On page 10, editor Pablo Kay weighs both sides of the debate 

surrounding SB 360 and looks at how similar legislation has fared in other places. On page 13, 

contributing editor Mike Aquilina recounts the history of confessional secrecy as a key part of the 

Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation in the Catholic faith. And on page 3, Archbishop José H. 

Gomez writes why the bill is a “mortal threat to the religious freedom of every Catholic.” 

JORDI SALAS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 

IMAGE: Archbishop José H. Gomez greets a mother 

and child after the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass at 

the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on 

Mother’s Day, May 12. In what has become a 

Mother’s Day tradition at the cathedral, the 

archbishop helped give carnation flowers to 

each of the mothers present at the liturgy. 

VICTOR ALEMÁN

ANGELUS 

May 17, 2019 | Vol.4 • No.18 

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AngelusNews 

POPE WATCH 

Steps to protect 

On Thursday, May 9, Pope Francis 

issued his most important response to 

the reawakening sexual abuse crisis 

affecting the Catholic Church by 

issuing a “motu proprio” (Latin for 

“on his own impulse”) titled “Vos estis 

lux mundi” (“You are the light of the 

world”), based on a verse from the 

Gospel of St. Matthew (5:14). 

The document clarifies norms and 

procedures for holding bishops and 

religious superiors accountable in 

protecting minors as well as in protecting 

members of religious orders and 

seminarians from abuse. 

The document is the fruit of months 

of high-profile discussions among 

Church leaders on the abuse crisis, 

including a meeting of leaders of 

bishops’ conferences from around the 

world at the Vatican in February. 

“The crimes of sexual abuse offend 

Our Lord, cause physical, psychological 

and spiritual damage to the 

victims and harm the community 

of the faithful,” the pope said in the 

document. The norms go into effect 

June 1. 

In order to stop all forms of abuse 

from ever happening again, not only is 

“a continuous and profound conversion 

of hearts” necessary, there must 

be “concrete and effective actions that 

involve everyone in the Church,” he 

wrote. 

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of 

the Congregation for Bishops, said the 

new norms ascribe a new role to heads 

of dioceses by making them responsible 

for alerting the proper Vatican 

authorities of all forms of suspected 

abuse, including the possession, distribution, 

or creation of pornography 

info@ 

angelusnews.com 

www.angelusnews.com 

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involving a minor. 

He told Vatican News May 9 that 

the norms respond to Francis’ continued 

insistence for concrete and 

effective measures to ensure bishops 

and religious superiors have a very 

clear understanding of what their 

obligations are and what they should 

and should not do when it comes to 

safeguarding. 

The new norms outline procedures 

that call for an eccesiastical province’s 

metropolitan bishop to handle the 

investigation of a bishop accused of 

sexual abuse in his province. If the 

metropolitan bishop is accused, the 

region’s most senior bishop is chosen 

to investigate. 

The document also requires all 

priests and religious to report suspected 

abuse or cover-ups and encourages 

any layperson to report through a 

now-mandated reporting “system” or 

office in each diocese. It also stipulates 

privacy protections for reporters 

of abuse and clarifies the definition 

of “vulnerable” adults, among other 

things. 

How the office or “system” works will 

be up to each diocese, but “the idea 

is that anyone who has suffered abuse 

can have recourse to the local church, 

while being assured they will be well 

received, protected from retaliation, 

and that their reports will be treated 

with the utmost seriousness,” Andrea 

Tornielli, editorial director of the 

Dicastery for Communication, told 

Vatican News. 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome correspondent Carol 

Glatz. 

@Angelus 


www.la-archdiocese.org 

@Angelus 


2 • ANGELUS • May 17, 2019

NEW WORLD 

OF FAITH 

BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

Confession is sacred 

Saint Mateo Correa Magallanes was 

a priest and a Knight of Columbus. 

During the persecution of the Church 

in Mexico in 1927, he had a choice 

to make. 

He was in the jails hearing confessions 

from prisoners rounded up by 

the government. Now, a general was 

pressing a gun to his head, threatening 

to kill him if he did not disclose what 

prisoners had told him in confession. 

Mateo said, “You can do that, but 

just know that a priest must keep the 

seal of confession. I am willing to die.” 

Shortly after that, he was taken to the 

outskirts of town and killed. 

Every priest takes his obligations as a 

confessor seriously. 

We know it is a beautiful duty and 

a privilege to guide souls and grant 

forgiveness in God’s name. Mateo 

and many priests down through the 

centuries have chosen to suffer rather 

than betray the confidentiality of what 

they hear in confession. 

Confession is sacred — to every 

priest and every Catholic. 

That is why I am greatly disturbed 

by a bill that is moving through the 

California legislature. Senate Bill 360 

would order priests to disclose information 

concerning the sexual abuse 

of minors that they hear in confession. 

Sometimes the best intentions can 

lead to bad legislation. That is the 

case with SB 360. 

Child sexual abuse is a horrible sin 

and crime that afflicts every area of 

our society. In the Catholic Church, 

we have grappled with this scandal for 

many years. 

Across the state, dioceses have put in 

place policies and programs to keep 

children safe. We fingerprint and 

do background checks on Church 

personnel, we have staff who help victims, 

and we have strict protocols for 

dealing with allegations against priests 

and others who work for the Church. 

As a result, new cases of child 

sexual abuse by priests are rare in the 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles and other 

dioceses in California. 

Every case is one too many. And the 

Church remains vigilant in protecting 

children and we are committed 

to helping all victim-survivors find 

healing. 

But from a public policy standpoint, 

if the goal is to prevent child sexual 

abuse, it does not make sense to single 

out Catholic priests and the Sacrament 

of Penance and Reconciliation, which 

is the formal name for confession. 

Catholics believe that in the confessional 

we can tell God everything that 

is on our heart and seek his healing 

mercy. The priest is only an instrument; 

he stands in the “person of 

Christ.” We confess our sins — not to 

a man but to God. 

The privacy of that intimate conversation 

— our ability to speak with total 

honesty from our lips to God’s ear — 

is absolutely vital to our relationship 

with God. 

This legislation, then, is a mortal 

threat to the religious freedom of 

every Catholic. 

What is more alarming is that this 

bill is moving forward without any 

evidence that it will protect children. 

Priests are already “mandated reporters” 

in California. That means we 

are required by law to report cases of 

sexual abuse that we suspect, except if 

we hear about it in the confessional. 

SB 360’s sponsor makes a sweeping 

claim that “the clergy-penitent 

privilege has been abused on a large 

scale, resulting in the unreported and 

systemic abuse of thousands of children 

across multiple denominations 

and faiths.” 

That is simply not true. Hearings on 

the bill have not presented a single 

case — in California or anywhere else 

— where this kind of crime could 

have been prevented if a priest had 

disclosed information he had heard in 

confession. Why is no one asking the 

bill’s sponsor to provide evidence for 

his accusations against the Church? 

SB 360 claims to solve a crisis that 

does not exist. 

The fact is, child sexual abuse is not 

a sin that people confess to priests in 

the confessional. Those who counsel 

such predators tell us that, sadly, many 

of them are secretive and manipulative 

and cannot comprehend the 

grave evil of their actions. 

It is far more likely that journalists 

and lawyers would hear admissions 

about such crimes. Yet this bill does 

not propose doing away with attorney-client 

privilege or the protection 

of journalists’ sources. It only targets 

Catholic priests. 

SB 360 should be voted down. And 

we should continue working together 

to seek effective ways to fight this 

scourge of child sexual abuse in our 

society. 

Pray for me this week, and I will pray 

for you. 

And let us pray for our priests — with 

gratitude for their courage in opening 

the doors of God’s mercy to us in 

confession. 

And let us ask our Blessed Mother 

Mary to help us to bring healing to 

every victim-survivor of abuse and 

help us to build a society where every 

child is loved, protected, and safe. 

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

May 17, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD 

L’Arche founder dies 

The pope does not call most 

people on their deathbeds. Then 

again, Jean Vanier was not most 

people. 

The Canadian founder of the 

L’Arche community died Tuesday, 

May 7, in France at the age 

of 90. Pope Francis called the 

ailing Vanier a week before his 

death. “I wanted to express my 

gratitude for his witness,” Francis 

told reporters after the news of 

Vanier’s death broke. 

Though Vanier had no direct 

heirs, he leaves behind a strong 

family — the L’Arche (French for 

“the arc”) community he founded 

in 1964 in which people with and 

without developmental disabilities 

could live together. L’Arche 

has communities in 38 countries 

and has revolutionized the way 

that people with developmental 

disabilities are cared for and 

included in society. 

“He saw people locked up, and 

he decided to make a gesture, 

inspired by the Bible,” the 

leader of L’Arche facilities, Pierre 

Jacquand, told the Los Angeles 

Times. 

“He felt a calling to defend the 

most marginalized.” 

Medjugorje pilgrimages get a more official OK 

The Church has not definitively approved the authenticity of the purported 

Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, but that shouldn’t stop pilgrims from 

making pilgrimages there — at least, not according to Pope Francis. 

Two Vatican officials confirmed on Sunday, May 12, that the pope has 

authorized pilgrimages to the site in present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

Papal spokesman Alessandro Gisotti clarified that the apparitions “still 

require an examination by the Church” — a process that is still underway 

— and that the authorization of pilgrimages is not an authentication of the 

apparitions. 

The alleged apparitions began June 24, 1981, and have long been both a 

source of controversy and inspiration. Many pilgrims to the site believe it is 

a place of holiness and conversion, while others, including Francis himself, 

have expressed skepticism that apparitions have continued. 

HER GRACES CONTINUE — Pilgrims hold candles as they pray during a vigil at the Fátima 

shrine in Fátima, Portugal, on May 12, the day before Our Lady of Fátima’s feast day. 

Thousands of pilgrims converged on the Fátima Sanctuary to celebrate the anniversary of 

Fátima’s miracle when the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in May 1917. 

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES 

Church attacked in Burkina Faso 

JEAN VANIER ASSOCIATION 

Jean Vanier in 2015. 

At least six people were killed, including one priest, during an attack on a 

Catholic church in the country of Burkina Faso in West Africa on Sunday, 

May 12. 

Toward the beginning of a Sunday morning Mass, between 20 to 30 gunmen 

attacked the northern town of Dablo, setting fire to the church, nearby 

shops, and a health center, according to multiple news outlets. 

This is the second of such attacks this year on Catholic churches in the 

region, which has been under a state of emergency since December due to 

a rise in Islamist attacks. 


MARIA CASTILLO VIA INSTAGRAM 

NATION 

Kendrick Castillo 

A son of a Knight’s 

ultimate heroism 

Friends and family are drawing 

attention to the Catholic faith of 

18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, 

the Denver teen who gave his life 

to protect his classmates from a 

school shooter in Colorado. 

Along with another boy, the high 

school senior threw himself at the 

shooter who entered his classroom 

at STEM School Highlands 

Ranch May 7, giving classmates 

enough time to escape or hide. 

“I wish he had gone and hid,” 

said his father John Castillo in 

an interview with the Denver 

Post. “But that’s not his character. 

His character is about protecting 

people, helping people.” 

Kenrick was known to usher at 

the Saturday night vigil Mass at 

Notre Dame Church in Denver 

and participate in the Knights of 

Columbus with his dad. 

Friend Cece Bedard (whose 

father was also a Knight) told 

Catholic News Agency that 

Kendrick “loved his Faith and he 

really loved to serve others.” 

It was not just that Kendrick did 

one heroic act, Bedard said, but 

“he lived the life of a hero, always 

helping others to the point where 

I’m not quite sure what he did for 

himself.” 

ICE sparks interdenominational project 

A year after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in a 

small Iowa town, Catholics and Protestants are working together to help 

support a broken community. 

A May 9, 2018, ICE raid in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, led to 32 arrests. Today, 

seven deportations and 25 cases are still awaiting trial. A small community 

with families who depended on these immigrants as breadwinners, Mount 

Pleasant now is joining together in faith to support the families that ICE left 

behind. 

Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport has helped lead the ecumenical 

effort to supply aid to the families, offering Masses and leading interdenominational 

prayer services. Together with other leaders, Zinkula and the 

Davenport Diocese have raised more than $300,000. 

“We are called to welcome our neighbors and to welcome the newcomer,” 

Zinkula told Crux May 6, following a prayer service on the anniversary of 

the ICE raid. “That’s who we are as Catholics.” 

Father Michael Pfleger 

talks with Nation of 

Islam leader Louis 

Farrakhan May 9. 

Chicago cardinal condemns Farrakhan’s ‘slander’ 

An outspoken Chicago pastor’s decision to invite Nation of Islam founder 

Louis Farrakhan to speak at his parish has earned him criticism from his 

archbishop. 

Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church, invited his “brother 

and friend” Farrakhan to speak May 9 in response to a May 2 decision by 

Facebook to ban Farrakhan due to his history of “hate speech.” 

The minister, who has been frequently criticized for anti-Semitic language, 

said in his speech that he “was here to separate the good Jews from 

the satanic Jews.” 

“Minister Farrakhan could have taken the opportunity to deliver a unifying 

message of God’s love for all his children,” Chicago Cardinal Blase J. 

Cupich said in a May 10 statement. “Instead, he repeatedly smeared the 

Jewish people, using a combination of thinly veiled discriminatory rhetoric 

and outright slander.” 

In the statement, Cupich said that Pfleger had not consulted him before 

inviting Farrakhan. 

Cupich has had a warmer relationship with Pfleger than did his predecessor, 

Cardinal Francis George. 

In 2002, Pfleger threatened to leave the priesthood when George tried to 

reassign him to another parish. In 2008, he censured him over comments 

on the presidential election, and in 2011 he briefly suspended Pfleger from 

ministry. 

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES 


POMONA CATHOLIC SCHOOL 

LOCAL 

Catholic Charities honors 

Pomona Catholic 

Pomona Catholic was a recipient of the Spirit of 

Caring Award at the 35th annual San Gabriel Region 

Volunteer Recognition Dinner on May 6, along with 

Bishop David O’Connell and the late Bill Clark. 

At the dinner, attendees watched a video telling the 

story of how the school community partnered with 

Catholic Charities (who hosted the dinner) to provide 

support for the family of a student who was in need. 

“We applaud Pomona Catholic for their creative and 

service-first approach to education, which was especially 

demonstrated in their significant efforts to help 

one family who was most in need,” said Priya Tharayil, 

the San Gabriel regional director of Catholic Charities. 

 

Pomona Catholic representatives accept the Spirit of Caring Award. 

Kathleen Buckley Domingo and Father Allen Figueroa Deck, SJ. 

LA faith leaders work it out 

Two leading LA Catholics discussed the Church’s 

charity efforts and social teaching on labor at an event 

organized by WorkingNation, a nonprofit media 

company that promotes dialogue about today’s rapidly 

changing labor force. 

Father Allan Figueroa Deck, SJ, and Kathleen Buckley 

Domingo spoke on different panels at the May 8 

“Faith at Work” event at the Skirball Center. 

Deck, a professor of Theological and Latino Studies 

at Loyola Marymount University, spoke at the first panel, 

in which he and representatives of various religions 

discussed common ground about the ways faith can be 

a powerful foundation during the fearful and uneasy 

times of downsizing and re-education. 

In the second panel discussion, Domingo touched 

on how the local church has organized community 

job fairs through Catholic Charities, and found ways 

to mentor and support people entering the labor force 

through programs like “Catholics@Work” and Archdiocesan 

Youth Employment. 

WorkingNation CEO Art Bilger said afterward both 

panels showed a “commonality of perspectives,” and 

“will help move the discussion along across this country.” 

 

MATTHEW WATERS/WORKINGNATION 

A MOTHER’S 

PRAYER — Two 

women pray 

the rosary at 

Calvary 

Cemetery in 

Santa Barbara 

at one of 

several “Rosary 

in honor of 

mothers” 

events held at 

the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles’ 

various 

cemeteries and 

mortuaries on 

Saturday, May 

11, the day 

before Mother’s 

Day. 

SARAH YAKLIC 


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 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. 

St. Kateri Tekakwitha Circle Retreat: “Christ Revealed 

Through the Beauty of Native American 

Traditions.” St. Lawrence Martyr Church parish hall, 

1940 S. Prospect Ave., Redondo Beach, 9 a.m.-4 

p.m. Presented by Deacon Andy Orosco. Freewill offering 

accepted. Continental breakfast and lunch will 

be served. Contact Mary Meier at 310-901-2432 or 

email marymeier1231@gmail.com. 

Sun., May 19 

Rosary Service. Shrine to the Unborn at Holy Cross 

Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Culver City. Service 

begins at 2 p.m., with procession from the Risen 

Christ Chapel to the shrine, led by the Fourth Degree 

Color Corps and Assembly Officers. Rosary will 

be recited and a floral offering will be presented to 

Mary. Scripture reading, homily by Father Peter Mallin, 

OFM, and hymn will conclude the service. All are 

welcome. 

Mon., May 20 

Mass with Healing Service. St. Linus Church, 13915 

Shoemaker Ave., Norwalk, 7:30 p.m. Celebrant: Father 

Stephen Viblanc. Call 562-921-6649. 

St. Padre Pio Healing Mass. St. Anne Church, 340 

10th St., Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al 

Scott. Call 562-537-4526. 

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., May 25 

St. Padre Pio Birthday Celebration. St. Denis Church 

parish hall, 2151 S. Diamond Bar Blvd., Diamond Bar, 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Speakers: Dominic Berardino and Father 

Bill Delaney, SJ. Topics include “St. Padre Pio: 

Miracle Worker and Mystic” and “Extraordinary Happenings 

in the Life of St. Padre Pio.” Day includes 

Mass, blessing, healing prayer, and veneration of 

Pio’s relic glove. Cost: $20/person through May 20, 

$25 at the door. Bring a sack lunch. Contact SCRC at 

818-771-1361 or email spirit@scrc.org or visit www. 

scrc.org. 

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 June 7), lunch 

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

ext. 234 for reservations or information. 

Sat., June 22 

Celebration of Our Cultures Mass. Cathedral of Our 

Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 

3:30 p.m. 

This Week at AngelusNews.com 

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. 

• Exploring the friendship and faith between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. 

• Catholic teaching and charity efforts represented at Skirball labor discussion. 

• John Allen on how the pope’s new laws regarding clergy abuse play out in practice. 


SUNDAY 

READINGS 

BY SCOTT HAHN 

Acts 14:21–27 / Ps. 145:8–13 / Rev. 21:1–5 / Jn. 13:31–35 

By God’s goodness 

and compassion, 

the doors of 

his kingdom have 

been opened to 

all who have faith, 

Jew or Gentile. 

That’s the good 

news Paul and 

Barnabas proclaim 

in today’s First 

Reading. With 

the coming of the 

Church — the 

new Jerusalem 

John sees in today’s 

Second Reading 

— God is “making 

all things new.” 

In his Church, 

the “old order” of death is passing 

away and God for all time is making 

his dwelling with the human race, so 

that all peoples “will be His people 

and God Himself will always be with 

them.” 

In this the promises made through 

his prophets are accomplished 

(see Ezekiel 37:27; Isaiah 25:8; 35:10). 

The Church is “the kingdom for all 

ages” that we sing of in today’s Psalm. 

That’s why we see the apostles, under 

the guidance of the Spirit, ordaining 

“presbyters” or priests (see 1 Timothy 

4:14; Titus 1:5). 

Anointed priests and bishops will 

be the apostles’ successors, ensuring 

that the Church’s “dominion endures 

through all generations” (see Philippians 

1:1, note that the New American 

Bible translates “episcopois,” the 

Greek word for bishops, as “overseers”). 

Until the end of time, the Church 

“Paul and Barnabas at Lystra,” by Jacob Pynas, 1592/1593-circa 1650, 

Dutch. 

will declare to the world God’s mighty 

deeds, blessing his holy name and giving 

him thanks, singing of the glories 

of his kingdom. 

In his Church, we know ourselves as 

his “faithful ones,” as those Jesus calls 

“My little children” in today’s Gospel. 

We live by the new law, the “new 

commandment” that he gave in his 

final hours. 

The love he commands of us is no 

human love but a supernatural love. 

We love one another as Jesus loved us 

in suffering and dying for us. We love 

in imitation of his love. 

This kind of love is only made 

possible by the Spirit poured into our 

hearts at baptism (see Romans 5:5), 

renewed in the sacrifice his priests 

offer in every Mass. 

By our love we glorify the Father. 

And by our love all peoples will know 

that we are his people, that he is our 

God. 

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


IN EXILE 

BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Who goes to hell, and who doesn’t? 

Hell is never a nasty surprise waiting 

for a basically happy person. Nor is it 

necessarily a predicable ending for an 

unhappy, bitter person. Can a happy, 

warmhearted person go to hell? Can 

an unhappy, bitter person go to heaven? 

That’s all contingent upon how 

we understand hell and how we read 

the human heart. 

A person who is struggling honestly 

to be happy cannot go to hell since 

hell is the antithesis of an honest 

struggle to be happy. Hell, in Pope 

Francis’ words, “is wanting to be 

distant from God’s love.” 

Anyone who sincerely wants love 

and happiness will never be condemned 

to an eternity of alienation, 

emptiness, bitterness, anger, and 

hatred (which are what constitute the 

fires of hell) because hell is wanting 

not to be in heaven. 

Thus there’s no one in hell who’s 

longing for another chance to mend 

things so as to go to heaven. If there’s 

anyone in hell, it’s because that person 

wants to be distant from love. 

But can someone really want to be 

distant from God’s love and from 

human love? The answer is complex 

because we’re complex: What does 

it mean to want something? Can we 

want something and not want it all at 

the same time? Yes, because there are 

different levels to the human psyche, 

and consequently the same desire can 

be in conflict with itself. 

We can want something and not 

want it all at the same time. That’s 

common. For instance, take a young 

child who has just been disciplined by 

his mother. At that moment, the child 

can bitterly hate his mother, even as 

at another, more inchoate, level what 

he most desperately wants is in fact his 

mother’s embrace. 

But until his sulk ends he wants to be 

distant from his mother, even as his 

deepest want is to be with his mother. 

We know the feeling. 

Hatred, as we know, is not opposite 

of love but simply one modality of 

love’s grieving, and so this type of 

dynamic perennially plays itself out 

in the befuddling, complex, paradoxical 

relationship that millions of us 

have with God, the Church, with one 

another, and with love itself. 

Our wounds are mostly not our own 

fault but the result of an abuse, a violation, 

a betrayal, or some traumatic 

negligence within the circle of love. 

However, this doesn’t preclude them 

doing funny things to us. 

When we’re wounded in love, then, 

like a reprimanded, sulking child 

who wants distance from his mother, 

we, too, can for a time, perhaps for a 

lifetime, not want heaven because we 

feel we’ve been unfairly treated by it. 

It’s natural for many people to want 

to be distant from God. The bullied 

child who identifies his or her bullies 

with the inner circle of “the accepted 

ones” will understandably want to be 

distant from that circle, or perhaps 

even do violence to it. 

However, that’s at one level of soul. 

At a deeper level, our ultimate longing 

is still to be inside of that circle of 

love which we at that moment seemingly 

hate, hate because we feel that 

we’ve been unfairly excluded from it 

or violated by it and hence deem it to 

be something we want no part of. 

Thus someone can be very sincere of 

soul, and yet because of deep wounds 

to her soul go through life and die 

wanting to be distant from what she 

perceives as God, love, and heaven. 

But we may not make a simplistic 

judgment here. 

We need to distinguish between what 

at a given moment we explicitly want 

and what, at that same moment, 

we implicitly (really) want. They’re 

often not the same. The reprimanded 

child seemingly wants distance from 

his mother, even as at another level he 

desperately wants it. 

Many people want distance from 

God and the churches, even as at another 

level they don’t. But God reads 

the heart, recognizes the untruth hiding 

inside a sulk or a pout, and judges 

accordingly. 

That’s why we shouldn’t be so quick 

to fill up hell with everyone who 

appears to want distance from love, 

faith, Church, and God. God’s love 

can encompass, empathize with, melt 

down, and heal that hatred. Our love 

should, too. 

Christian hope asks us to believe 

things that go against our natural 

instincts and emotions, and one of 

these is that God’s love is so powerful 

that, just as it did at Jesus’ death, it 

can descend into hell itself and there 

breathe love and forgiveness into the 

most wounded and hardened of souls. 

Hope asks us to believe that the final 

triumph of God’s love will be when 

Lucifer himself converts, returns to 

heaven, and hell is finally empty. 

Fanciful? No. That’s Christian hope; 

it’s what many of our great saints 

believed. Yes, there’s a hell and, given 

human freedom, it’s always a radical 

possibility for everyone; but, given 

God’s love, perhaps sometime it will 

be completely empty. 

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


RICHARDBAKERRELIGION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 

Confession penitent and priest at St. Lawrence’s Church in Feltham, London. 

Confession under fire 

Why is California 

trying to end 

centuries-old 

privacy protections 

for the sacrament? 

BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS 

A 

bill making its way through the 

California legislature would 

make the state the largest in the 

country — and the first since 1999 — 

to require priests to choose between 

violating the law or violating the seal of 

the confessional. 

At issue is the serious matter of child 

sexual abuse. Seven states right now require 

priests to violate the seal to report 

child abuse based on legislation passed 

in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. 

While many states have tried since 

2002 to pass laws resembling California’s 

Senate Bill 360, none have been 

successful. Instead, lawmakers around 

the country have concluded similar 

bills would not protect children and 

would be an egregious violation of 

religious liberty. 

But last year’s “summer of shame” — 

which included a Pennsylvania Grand 

Jury report on historic abuses by priests, 

the revelations of sexual misdeeds by 


WIKIMEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS 

Jerry Hill in 2006. 

then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 

and multiple state Attorney General 

investigations into clergy abuse records 

— has taken the battle against sexual 

abuse to the confessional box. 

In California, priests, along with 

teachers, social workers, doctors, and 

other professionals, are “mandated reporters.” 

That means they are required 

by law to report any case of suspected 

abuse to authorities. 

But currently there is an exemption 

in the law for any clergy member “who 

acquires knowledge or a reasonable 

suspicion of child abuse or neglect 

during a penitential communication.” 

SB 360’s sponsor, Sen. Jerry Hill, 

D-San Mateo, said his bill is necessary 

because of evidence that the confession 

privilege hurts children. 

“Recent investigations by 14 attorneys 

general, the federal government, and 

other countries have revealed that 

the clergy-penitent privilege has been 

abused on a large scale, resulting in 

the unreported and systemic abuse of 

thousands of children across multiple 

denominations and faiths,” according 

to Hill. 

Buoyed by those assertions, proponents 

of the bill showed up in force at a 

Senate Public Safety Committee hearing 

in Sacramento April 2. Citizens 

lined up to voice their opinion on the 

bill, including sexual assault victims 

who told of how their reports of abuse 

to faith leaders from various religions 

had gone unaddressed. 

Among the lawmakers who came out 

in support of Hill’s bill was committee 

member Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, 

D-Santa Barbara. In her remarks, Jackson 

equated the penitential privilege 

with a “pass” given to churches. 

“The state, the people do have the 

right to limit certain practices that are 

believed to be inappropriate [and] 

immoral,” Jackson said at the hearing. 

“We are a society. We are governed by 

laws, we are governed by what we believe 

to be morally correct, and what is 

in the best interest of our communities 

and society. And I would submit having, 

accepting … condoning, allowing 

this kind of behavior to continue on a 

claim of religious freedom, is anathema 

to everything we hold dear. 

“This has got to stop,” she added. 

Yet Catholics and others strongly dispute 

Hill’s analysis. While committed 

to ending sexual abuse in the Church 

and in the broader society, they say 

there is no evidence for Hill’s allegations 

that the “penitential exemption” 

is being abused. They also question 

whether the members of the legislature 

understand how confession works in 

the Church. 

Confession is only Catholic 

SB 360 does not explicitly single 

out confession or the Catholic faith. 

Instead, it uses the term “penitential 

communications” without naming 

specific religions. 

California law protects any confidential 

communication between a 

person of faith and his or her minister, 

explained Father Pius Pietrzyk, OP, a 

canon and civil lawyer who teaches at 

St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in 

Menlo Park. 

Father Pius Pietrzyk, OP 

In an interview with Angelus News, 

Pietrzyk said that “so long as the person 

has an expectation of confidentiality 

with regard to that spiritual matter, all 

those communications do not fall under 

the [mandated] reporting requirement” 

in California law. 

Pietrzyk wrote a strong op-ed piece 

against Hill’s bill in the April 28 edition 

of USA Today. 

He noted that historically, the courts 

in the U.S. “have almost universally 

upheld a ‘priest-penitent’ privilege, 

akin to the attorney-client privilege. 

“Although not directly taken up by 

the U.S. Supreme Court, the privilege 

is also rooted in the constitutional 

imperative not to prohibit the free 

exercise of religion,” he wrote. 

Pietrzyk said SB 360 wrongly con- 

IMAGE VIA ST. PATRICK’S SEMINARY & UNIVERSITY 


flates current reporting requirements 

applied to state-licensed employees 

— doctors, lawyers, and social workers, 

to name a few examples — with those 

of priests, who are not licensed by the 

state. 

“Unless Senator Hill is contending 

that priests must be licensed by their 

state, essentially he’s turning priests 

into agents of the state, which is 

precisely what the First Amendment 

is meant to avoid,” said Pietrzyk. “It’s 

hard to argue that this bill is anything 

but a direct assault on the First Amendment.” 

Pietrzyk said the bill’s authors do not 

A 

struggle 

down under 

Territories in 

Australia last year 

passed a law similar 

to that being debated 

in California. Despite scant 

evidence that the seal of confession 

had hampered any efforts to report 

sexual abuse in the country, the law 

was one of several passed following 

a 2017 government commission report 

on the sexual abuse of children 

in the Church. 

Australian priests have vowed to go 

to jail rather than break the seal. 

“What sexual abuser would confess 

to a priest if they thought they 

would be reported? If the seal is 

removed, the remote possibility that 

they would confess and so could 

be counselled to report is gone,” 

Archbishop Christopher Prowse of 

Canberra and Goulburn wrote in 

an essay last year. 

“The Government threatens religious 

freedom by appointing itself 

an expert on religious practices and 

by attempting to change the sacrament 

of confession while delivering 

no improvement in the safety of 

children,” Prowse said. 

seem to understand that the sacrament 

of reconciliation is a communication 

that is not like others broadly classified 

as “penitential communications.” 

Only confession, as understood by 

Catholic church law, has an “absolute 

inviolability,” meaning that the priest is 

forbidden to disclose any information 

gained in the sacrament, under pain of 

excommunication from the Church. 

While the proposed law focuses on 

sexual abuse, this kind of legislation 

can lead to a “slippery slope” in which 

the state demands that priests disclose 

other sinful actions that also happen to 

be illegal. 

“Surely murder, theft, spousal abuse, 

child neglect, and rape are terrible 

crimes,” wrote Los Angeles Auxiliary 

Bishop Robert Barron in a May 7 Word 

of Fire online article. “Would the state 

determine that priests are obligated 

to report these offenses to the authorities, 

should they hear of them in the 

confessional?” 

Pietrzyk agrees. 

“If the state of California can essentially 

insert itself into the sacrament of 

confession with regards to child abuse 

issues, why can’t it insert itself into any 

other issue it deems to be of public 

importance to the state?” 

Confession in other states 

The campaign to force open the seal 

of the confessional in cases of revelations 

or claims of sexual abuse is not a 

new one. 

Currently there are seven states with 

laws requiring priests to report information 

gained solely in the confessional: 

New Hampshire, North Carolina, 

Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, 

Texas, and West Virginia. 

Seven states in recent years have 

tried to pass their own versions of a 

“confessional bill” since 2002 but 

have failed: Massachusetts (2002), 

Kentucky (2003), Connecticut (2003), 

New Hampshire (attempted to amend 

the existing law in 2003 and 2006), 

Maryland (2003), Nevada (2003), and 

Florida (2003). 

Church advocates in those states successfully 

pointed out several problems 

with the bills, such as the difficulty of a 

priest identifying a penitent (since the 

sacrament itself doesn’t require a person 

to identify themselves), concerns 

about government intrusion, and the 

First Amendment’s protections regarding 

the free exercise of religion. 

Pietrzyk said there’s an argument to 

be made that “mandatory reporting 

laws can push people away from seeking 

the help that they need, or from 

coming forward” out of fear of the law. 

Ultimately, however, he sees SB 360 

as “opening the doorway to a greater 

entanglement” in which “essentially 

the state of California is forcing priests 

to be agents of the state, even within 

the confessional.” 

But could that really happen in the 

Golden State? 

“I just don’t think any priest is going 

to come forward as a mandatory reporter 

for anything he hears in the sacrament 

of confession,” said Pietrzyk. 

“All it will have an effect in doing is 

putting a cloud over innocent priests. 

And I think that’s the real intent. My 

fear is that’s the real intent, to scare the 

Church. Because that’s the only effect 

it’s going to have.” 

Resisting SB 360 

Leading efforts to resist SB 360 are 

the California Catholic Conference 

(CCC) and the Pacific Justice Institute 

(PJI), an evangelical Christian probono 

legal advocacy group active in 

California. 

In its statement against the bill, the 

PJI argued such a law would do “little 

to address the causes of such abuse 

while sweeping away centuries of legal 

protections.” 

According to CCC Executive Director 

Andy Rivas, the existing state law 

requiring priests and ministers to be 

mandated reporters is something that 

his bosses — the state’s Catholic bishops 

— “believe is right and important.” 

“However, there is no evidence 

that forcing priests to disclose what 

is learned in the confessional would 

prevent a single case of child abuse,” 

Rivas told Angelus News. 

“There is every reason to believe 

that doing away with the privacy of 

the confessional, a core principle of 

our Catholic tradition and doctrine, 

would create confusion, discourage 

spiritual counseling, and deter many 

from seeking a closer relationship with 

God without gaining any protection for 

children.” 


Protecting 

confession 

The California Catholic Conference is urging believers to tell legislators 

to oppose SB 360, which would remove the “seal of confession.” 

To send a message to your lawmaker, go to www.cacatholic.org, click 

“Take Action” and then click “Action Alerts” and you will see the 

option to “Oppose Bill Targeting Seal of Confession.” 

GREGORY A. SHEMITZ/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE 

A hushed history 

BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS 

The sacrament of reconciliation in a stained-glass window at St. Aloysius 

Church in Great Neck, New York. 

The Church has observed the “seal of the confessional” 

— the privacy and secrecy between confessor and 

penitent — since the time of the Fathers. 

The earliest Christian documents suggest that confession 

was a public event, at least for public sins. When sinners 

caused scandal, the damage was social, and so the Church 

prescribed a social remedy. A Christian who publicly 

renounced the Faith, for instance, giving in to pressure or 

torture during persecution, bore responsibility for the bad 

example he had set. 

Before he was restored to communion, he would demonstrate 

his repentance by admitting his fault and professing 

the Faith before the congregation. 

There are problems with public confession, of course. It 

was embarrassing, and many people would avoid it for that 

reason. In the early years of the third century, the African 

writer Tertullian acknowledged that some Christians “flee 

from this work as being an exposure of themselves, or they 

put it off from day to day.” 

Public confession could also shine an unwelcome spotlight 

on a sinner’s victims. Think of the sin of adultery. 

Those who told this sin to the assembly might find themselves 

shaming not only themselves, but also, inadvertently, 

the people they had seduced, as well as the spouses they 

had betrayed. 

And so private, secret confession seems to have been an 

option from the beginning. Origen, a third-century Scripture 

scholar in Egypt, mentions confession “to a priest,” and 

the practice is further discussed in the fourth- and fifth-century 

rules for monks. 

Saint Aphrahat, the “Persian Sage,” insisted that confessors 

must honor every penitent’s trust and confidentiality. 

Addressing priests, he wrote: “And when [a sinner] has 

revealed [a sin] to you, do not make it public.” 

Confessional secrecy appears also in the Irish penitential 

books of the seventh and eighth centuries. 

The practice is listed, in the 12th century, among customs 

that have the force of law in the Church: “Let the priest 

who dares to make known the sins of his penitent be deposed.” 

This passage is the earliest known to carry a severe 

punishment for the priest who violates the confessional seal. 

Whoever breaks this trust should be exiled, the author goes 

on to say, and made to wander the earth in shame. 

In the following century, the Fourth Lateran Council 

(1215) imposed the obligation of annual confession upon 

all the faithful. In doing so, the council also confirmed the 

priest’s obligation to secrecy: 

“Let the priest absolutely beware that he does not by word 

or sign or by any manner whatever in any way betray the 

sinner. … For whoever shall dare to reveal a sin disclosed 

to him in the tribunal of penance we decree that he shall 

be not only deposed from the priestly office but that he 

shall also be sent into the confinement of a monastery to do 

perpetual penance.” 

Those are not light penalties for priests who violate the 

seal. Why was it treated with such gravity? 

Confessional secrecy is the hope and protection of sinners 

who want to reform. For that reason it has always been 

essential to the practice of the Catholic faith. 


New school mentality 

A renovated campus and curriculum will welcome freshmen starting 

high school at St. John Paul II STEM Academy in Burbank this fall 

BY JULIE SCHNIEDERS / ANGELUS 

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY GLORIA RIVERA/ST. JOHN PAUL II STEM ACADEMY 

St. John Paul II STEM Academy at Bellarmine-Jefferson High School will keep its original historic 

replica of Independence Hall. 

From the outside, the replica 

of Independence Hall in Burbank 

will not be changed. 

Yet inside the walls of 

Bellarmine-Jefferson High School’s 

campus, an extensive overhaul is 

currently underway, leading up to its 

reopening as St. John Paul II STEM 

Academy on Aug. 14 with the arrival 

of its inaugural freshmen class. 

The transformation includes new 

engineering and digital media arts 

labs, a learning commons area, and 

an updated library using a mix of 

old and new materials. The STEM 

Academy — STEM — for science, 

technology, engineering, and math, 

is the first Catholic STEM-immersion 

high school in the Los Angeles 

Archdiocese. 

“We are excited for ourselves and our 

son to have the opportunity to be present 

at the launch of this great school 

and their new educational STEM 

model,” said Vivian Sarkisian, parent 

of an incoming, or “rising” freshman. 

“We believe the educational model is 

at the leading edge of education and 

will provide relevance in the context 

of our world today.” 

Dr. Jeff Hilger, the founding director 

of the STEM Academy, jumped 

full-steam ahead in July 2018 after the 

archdiocese closed Bellarmine-Jefferson 

High School due to low enrollment. 

Hilger, who has a record of successfully 

opening charter schools 

and graduating students to the top 

quarter of colleges nationwide, began 

researching how to make the STEM 

Academy a reality by mapping out 

what it means to “be STEM.” 

Hilger and staff members visited 

more than 25 schools across the 

United States to observe, learn, and 


Construction has begun on an engineering lab. 

A freshly painted hallway at St. John Paul II STEM Academy. 

plan the curriculum. The staff also 

has attended conferences at the Buck 

Institute, the National Conference for 

Teachers of Mathematics, New Technology 

Network, and the Q-Computer 

Conference. 

The STEM Academy, which is 

co-institutional, (co-ed, but girls 

and boys are in separate classrooms) 

will offer two tracks: Digital Media 

Arts and Engineering. The students 

choose their path in the 10th grade. 

Juniors and seniors will have the 

opportunity to take classes for college 

credit, too, through the University of 

Texas at Austin, Glendale Community 

College, and Los Angeles City 

College. The high school will offer 

four classes each semester with two 

interdisciplinary labs. 

“Students can do three years of math 

in two years. Teachers are able to 

give the students more time with this 

format,” said Hilger. 

The STEM Academy will begin the 

day with an optional lab at 7:30 a.m in 

the morning followed by daily Mass. 

The actual school day will begin at 

9 a.m. Another unique feature of 

the high school is that the students 

are required to build partnerships 

in the community by interviewing 

professionals in the media industry 

and visiting studios and businesses in 

Burbank. 

Students are expected to collaborate 

with one another and with people in 

the community to get projects done. 

“A lot of the learning is project-based,” 

said Hilger. 

According to Hilger, an example of 

a project students will be assigned in 

the fall entails building a sound-recording 

device. Teachers will give the 

students equipment, but no instructions. 

The budding engineers will 

The original archway from the old high school 

is being preserved during the renovation. 

build a prototype in co-educational 

groups and will be expected to build a 

real world prototype. 

“The students will be graded equally 

on the content and processes, and will 

receive an individual grade on how 

they think,” said Hilger. 

An important part of the STEM 

Academy will be integrating science 

and faith and instructing students that 

faith and science do connect, said 

Hilger. 

“Catholic identity is very important 

to me. We absolutely do believe that 

faith and science go hand in hand.” 

Parents of some of the first students 

to sign up for the STEM Academy 

were attracted to the school not only 

because of the innovative approach to 

academics, small size and CYO sports 

like track, volleyball and basketball, 

but also its approach to form a 

balanced understanding of faith and 

science. 

Theresa Rosette, whose son will 

attend the STEM Academy in the 

fall, chose the academy because of the 

spirit of its namesake, who famously 

said “that faith and reason are like two 

wings on which the spirit rises.” 

“The Catholic faith is both the 

steering wheel and the anchor of their 

boat. I would like my son to be, as Father 

Spitzer says, a ‘credible’ Catholic. 

The St. John Paul II STEM Academy 

will give him that foundation,” said 

Rosette. 

Tuition is $14,950, which includes 

textbooks, an Amazon Kindle, and 

three annual trips during their time at 

the school. 

The first trip will be nature-themed 

and will encourage classmates to 

bond; the second trip will be related 

to community service such as building 

a house in Mexico; and the third 

trip the students will go on will be a 

college tour to the East Coast, South, 

and Midwest. 

The founding class will visit the East 

Coast first, with the trip beginning 

in Philadelphia (in a nod to Bellarmine-Jefferson’s 

original founding as a 

military academy 75 years ago). The 

trip will culminate in Williamsburg, 

Virginia. 

And uniforms? Those will feature 

an updated version of red, white, 

and blue, carrying on the colors of 

Bellarmine-Jefferson’s traditional 

uniform. 

St. John Paul II STEM Academy is located 

at 465 East Olive Ave., Burbank. 

For more information on admissions, 

go online to www.jpstem.org or call 

818-972-1400. 


New pastoral assignments, 2019 

A list of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ appointed pastors, administrators, 

parish life directors, and religious administrators, effective July 1 

Archbishop José H. Gomez has approved the following priests to be 

appointed pastors on July 1: 

Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region: 

Father John-Paul Gonzalez, St. Victor, West Hollywood 

Father Paul Sustayta, St. Martin of Tours, Los Angeles* 

Father Anthony Gonzalez, St. Mary Magdalen, Los Angeles 

Santa Barbara Pastoral Region: 

Father Aloysius Ezeonyeka, Sacred Heart, Ventura 

San Fernando Pastoral Region: 

Father Alberto Avenido, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Santa Clarita 

Father Rodel Balagtas, Incarnation, Glendale* 

Father Rufino Carlos Nava, St. Bridget of Sweden, Lake Balboa 

San Gabriel Pastoral Region: 

Father Thomas Asia, St. Martha, Valinda 

Father Freddie Chua, Annunciation, Arcadia* 

Father Marcos Gonzalez, St. Andrew, Pasadena* 

San Pedro Pastoral Region: 

Msgr. Jarlath Cunnane, St. Cornelius, Long Beach* 

Father Edward Dover, Beatitudes of Our Lord, La Mirada* 

Father Kevin Nolan, Holy Trinity, San Pedro 

The following priests will be appointed or reappointed administrators: 


Father Christopher Bazyouros, St. John Chrysostom, Inglewood 

Father Matthew Murphy, Our Lady of Malibu, Malibu 

Father Juan Ochoa, Christ the King, Los Angeles 

Father Fidelis Omeaku, St. Anselm, Los Angeles* 

Father Arturo Valadez, Holy Spirit, Los Angeles 

Father Albert Van Der Woerd, St. Mark, Venice 

Father Michael Wu, O’Carm., St. Clement, Santa Monica (extern priest) 


Father Marinello Saguin, Our Lady of Grace, Encino 

Father Ethan Southard, St. John Eudes, Chatsworth* 


Father Ronald Clark, St. Dorothy, Glendora* 

Father Julio Domenech, FMVD, St. Louis of France, La Puente* (extern 

priest) 

Father Joachim Lepcha, Immaculate Conception, Monrovia * (extern priest) 

Father John Palmer, St. Denis, Diamond Bar* 

San Pedro Pastoral Region: 

Father Andrew Chung, St. Pancratius, Lakewood* 

Father Martin Madero, St. Francis Xavier, Pico Rivera* 

Father Alidor Mikobi, St. Cyprian, Long Beach (extern priest) 

Father Gerard O’Brien, Our Lady of Refuge, Long Beach* 

Father Adrian San Juan, St. Linus, Norwalk* 

Father Alfredo Vargas, CMF, St. Athanasius, Long Beach* (extern priest) 

Father Budi Wardhana, St. Lucy, Long Beach* 

The following parish leaders will be appointed or reappointed parish life 

directors: 


Sister Mary Karen Collier, SSL, Holy Redeemer, Montrose/St. James the 

Less, La Crescenta* 

(Father Michael Grieco will serve as priest/minister) 


Dr. Humberto Ramos, St. Marcellinus, Los Angeles* 

(Father Gilbert Cruz will continue to serve as priest/minister) 

The following parishes will be entrusted to religious orders: 


St. Raphael, Los Angeles, entrusted to the Missionary Servants of the Most 

Holy Trinity (ST)* 

(With Father Stanley Bosch, ST, as pastor) 


Our Lady of Peace, North Hills, entrusted to The Order of St. Camillus (MI)* 

(With pastor/administrator to be announced) 

The following religious orders have also proposed the following pastors at 

parishes they administer and have been approved by the archbishop: 

St. Dominic, Los Angeles, under the pastoral care of the Dominican Friars 

(Father Roberto Corral, OP, effective May 1, 2019) 

St. Thomas Aquinas, Ojai, under the pastoral care of the Augustinians 

(Father Kirk Davis, OSA, effective June 15, 2019) 

Our Mother of Good Counsel, Los Angeles, under the pastoral care of the 

Augustinians 

(Father Alvin Paligutan, OSA, effective June 15, 2019) 

St. Francis Xavier, Burbank, under the pastoral care of the Carmelites of Mary 

Immaculate 

(Father Sebastian Vettickal, CMI, effective July 1, 2019) 

* Parishes with an asterisk denote parishes that were on the open pastorate 

listing this term. 

Editor’s note: Any updates to this list can be found in the Catholic LA section 

of AngelusNews.com 

16 • ANGELUS • May 17, 2019 

Archdiocesan priests gathered at the 

2019 Chrism Mass at the Cathedral 

of Our Lady of the Angels. 

VICTOR ALEMÁN

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

May 17, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17

Curia reform 101 

Pope Francis is making several moves 

to streamline the Vatican bureaucracy 

— but will they work? 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. / ANGELUS 

ROME — When Pope Francis 

was elected more than six 

years ago, one of the key 

things the cardinals thought 

they were voting for was a thorough 

reform of the Roman Curia, meaning 

the central administrative bureaucracy 

in the Vatican. 

In part, that was a reaction to scandals 

that plagued the Vatican during 

the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI 

years, including: The Hollywoodesque 

“Vatileaks” affair, in which the butler 

actually did it; the bungled rehabilitation 

of a Holocaust-denying traditionalist 

bishop; various sexual abuse and 

financial meltdowns; and a surreal 

soap opera in which the head of the 

Vatican security force was accused of 

framing the editor of the newspaper 

of the Italian bishops’ conference for 

political reasons through an alleged 

case of gay harassment. 

Cardinals felt the train had gone off 

the rails in Rome, and they wanted 

somebody to make it run on time. 

In part, however, the push for reform 

had deeper roots, stretching back to 

the Second Vatican Council (1962- 

65) and its vision of a more participatory 

Church, one in which all the 

power in the ecclesiastical system 

wasn’t concentrated in Rome. 

One of the first things Francis did 

was to establish a council of cardinal 

advisers from around the world, which 

came to be known as the “C9” (now 

the “C6” after three of its members 

were dismissed), whose mission was to 

prepare a sweeping reform of the curia. 

It has met at least four times a year 

ever since, 29 times in all, and the 

pope has sat in on virtually all those 

sessions. 

Now, the long-awaited product of all 

that time and effort is set to appear in 

the form of a new apostolic constitution 

for the curia titled “Praedicate 

Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”). 

A draft of the document is currently 

in the hands of local bishops’ conferences 

around the world and a variety 

of other bodies for consultation, and 

it’s expected to be formally issued by 

Francis soon, perhaps as early as June 

29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. 

According to reports, the biggest 

novelty will be the creation of a “super-dicastery,” 

meaning an expanded 

and more powerful new Vatican department, 

dedicated to evangelization, 

which will result from merging two 

existing bodies. 

It will include the Congregation for 

the Evangelization of Peoples, also 

known as “Propaganda Fidei,” tasked 

with overseeing “missionary territories;” 

and the Pontifical Council for 

the Promotion of the New Evangelization, 

created in 2010 by Benedict 

to confront the rapid secularization of 

Western countries. 

That choice has raised eyebrows in 

some quarters, since it could be seen 

as playing down the importance of the 

Congregation for the Doctrine of the 

Faith, the Vatican’s traditional doctrinal 

watchdog agency, which over 

the years has been known informally 

as “La Suprema” — the “supreme” 

department. 

While awaiting the broader overhaul, 

Francis hasn’t been idle over the last 

six years. 

He’s approved a large number of 

smaller-scale reorganizations, created 

a series of new departments for specific 

purposes (such as the Secretariat 

for the Economy and the Pontifical 

Commission for the Protection of Minors, 

for instance) and issued a host of 

laws that have reshaped Vatican rules 

and procedures on a variety of fronts. 

Most recently, last week he issued 

a new set of norms governing the 

reporting of clerical sexual abuse and 

cover-up and outlining how a preliminary 

investigation of those charges is 

supposed to work. 

If that past is prologue, what can we 

expect once “Praedicate Evangelium” 

is official? 

First, the mere fact that a department 

has been created doesn’t mean reform 

has arrived. 

Most observers, for instance, would 

say that the Secretariat for the Econ- 

18 • ANGELUS • May 17, 2019

Pope Francis gives his annual pre-Christmas speech to officials 

of the Roman Curia and cardinals present in Rome Dec. 21, 

2018, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/VATICAN MEDIA 

omy, envisioned in 2014 as the tip of 

the spear for financial reform, hasn’t 

really lived up to its potential. Today, 

its once-broad powers have been 

circumscribed, and it still doesn’t have 

a new leader after former Cardinal 

George Pell was charged and then 

convicted of “historic sexual offenses” 

in his native Australia. 

In the small world of the Vatican, 

personnel is policy, and without the 

right leadership, no structure, new or 

old, accomplishes much. 

Second, Francis’ concept of “reform” 

has been a mix of the new with the 

old, in ways that many observers believe 

generally favors the latter. 

Operationally, the single greatest 

result of his flurry of activity over the 

past six years has been to accent the 

predominance of the Secretariat of 

State, the 800-pound gorilla on the 

Vatican scene that exercises a coordination 

and oversight role over all the 

other departments. 

Ironically, perceptions that too much 

power had been concentrated in the 

Secretariat of State, and that an “old 

guard” imbedded in its culture represented 

an obstacle to any real change, 

were a large chunk of the original 

impulse for reform. 

The practical result of the Francis 

era as it now stands, however, is that 

the Secretariat of State has more real 

power than at any time since the time 

of Pope Pius XII. 

(That’s true of the new sex abuse 

norms too, which require other 

Vatican departments handling cases 

to inform the Secretariat of State and 

also assigns State direct authority over 

papal diplomats.) 

It remains to be seen if “Praedicate 

Evangelium” will mark a break with 

those patterns, or, as seems more 

likely, reinforce them. 

If so, Italians may be tempted to 

see Francis’ curial reform as a classic 

case of what they call “una riforma 

gattopardesca,” referring to Lampedusa’s 

celebrated novel “The Leopard” 

and its most famous line, “Everything 

must change, so that everything may 

remain the same.” 

John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux. 


An AA candidate for sainthood? 

How the holiness of Sister Mary Ignatia Gavin rescued 

countless Americans from alcohol addiction 

BY MSGR. RICHARD ANTALL / ANGELUS 

A 

Portuguese proverb has it that God writes straight 

with crooked lines. The story of Sister Mary Ignatia 

Gavin, CSA, seems to illustrate that maxim. 

She was born in Ireland and baptized Mary 

Della Gavin. She immigrated to America with her family 

when she was 7 years old. The family was poor and made 

the journey as “two-boaters,” as the Irish immigrants on the 

East Coast called them. 

Their first boat was to Newfoundland, and the little girl 

won the contest of being 

the first to sight land on the 

14-day voyage to Canada. 

From there passage to the 

United States was cheaper. 

The family settled in 

Cleveland, Ohio. Her 

father worked as a laborer 

and supplemented his 

income with a part-time job 

as a watchman. 

Mary was given music 

lessons and became very 

proficient at the piano, 

eventually becoming a 

private music teacher. 

When she began to think 

of a religious vocation, 

her mother resisted the 

idea, hoping to keep her at 

home. Nevertheless, at 25 

years old, she joined the 

Sister Ignatia at Rosary Hall. 

Sisters of St. Augustine, a community that worked with 

orphans and the sick. 

The community took advantage of her musical ability and 

she worked especially with the orphans teaching music. 

She was a perfectionist and struggled with some of her 

duties, especially since she had as an assistant a sister who 

seemed to have had mental problems. 

Ignatia eventually developed her own problems. Bleeding 

ulcers and what she called a “nervous breakdown” ended 

her career as a music teacher. The doctor told her, “You 

can either be a live nun or a dead musician. Which will it 

be?” After a long recovery in one of the community’s hospitals, 

she was assigned to work as a registrar in St. Thomas 

Hospital in Akron. 

The work as registrar was supposed to be easier for her, 

but God had other plans. Ignatia met Dr. Bob Smith, the 

co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), and their instant 

rapport led her to begin admitting alcoholic patients 

in the throes of addiction, sometimes under disguised 

diagnoses. 

Together with Dr. Bob, she created the first medical 

treatment program for alcoholics in a Catholic hospital. 

Sister Ignatia saw that the alcoholic was sick in body, mind, 

and spirit, and tailored a program with AA participation 

that was both original in 

concept and very successful 

in practice. 

The first admitting of an alcoholic 

as such at St. Thomas 

Hospital was Aug. 16, 

1939, a date that has entered 

the annals of AA history. The 

medical treatment coincided 

with an explosion of AA 

membership. Eventually, St. 

Thomas Hospital was recognized 

as a pioneer in the field 

SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE 

of treating addiction. 

Dr. Bob and his wife, Ann, 

died and Ignatia continued 

the work. Then she was transferred 

away from St. Thomas. 

Although it is unclear why 

exactly she was moved, it did 

not help that she had many 

conflicts about administration 

and finances, and that she was receiving more attention 

than some of her community appreciated. 

It was a second setback to Ignatia. She wrote to Bill 

Wilson that she did not know whether she would be able to 

help alcoholics at her new mission in St. Vincent Charity 

Hospital in Cleveland. 

She prayed and was obedient and eventually talked her 

superiors into opening a special ward for recovering alcoholics 

she named Rosary Hall Solarium. The words had 

the extra meaning for her of being the initials of her old 

friend Dr. Robert H. Smith. Again God had written straight 

with crooked lines — what had seemed a detour was only 

God’s course correction. 

Although she shunned publicity, Ignatia was celebrated by 

her grateful friends. Wilson wrote at the time of her golden 


jubilee as a religious: “We of Alcoholics Anonymous look 

upon you as the finest friend and the greatest spirit we have 

ever known.” 

She corresponded with President Kennedy, refused the 

actress Loretta Young’s interest in presenting her 

life on television, and was known nationally 

and even internationally for her work with 

alcoholics, whom she compared with 

the orphans she had thought to work 

with in her mission as a religious. 

Stories about her feistiness and her 

spirituality abound. A man told her 

he was drinking because he had 

lost his job and couldn’t support his 

family. 

“That makes sense,” she said, 

“Because drinking is going to help 

them a lot.” 

Even in her latter days, when she was 

in a wheelchair, she could tame men 

whose sickness and anger made them unmanageable 

to themselves and others. Her fiveday 

program and initiation in the AA saw thousands of 

men and women, including alcoholic priests and nuns, to 

a better life. 

Almost all of the alcoholics (and their wives and children) 

whom Ignatia helped considered her a living saint. 

A Cleveland priest in his 90s tells a story about a milkman 

who knocked on a rectory door one day in a desperate 

state. The man wanted a phone to call Ignatia. He had 

been in an accident with the milk wagon and had decided 

to go back to drinking. 

Sister had given him a Sacred Heart badge as he left 

Rosary Hall and had told him, “Before you drink again, I 

Sister Mary Ignatia 

Gavin, CSA 

want you to call me.” The priest was able to help the man 

with another plan, called his employer and saved the day. 

He never forgot the way the man’s loyalty — confused as it 

was — to Ignatia. The badge had been a life preserver. 

There were contradictory elements in her saintly 

life. She was obedient to her bishop who 

prohibited her from speaking to a National 

Clergy Conference, but refused treatment 

to another bishop who wanted to 

stay at Rosary Hall without complying 

with its program. 

Ignatia retired to the motherhouse 

in May 1965. Her successors at Rosary 

Hall kept in touch with her and 

were afraid to upset her by talking 

about changes to be made in treatment, 

changes later mostly regretted. 

Her health gradually declined and on 

April 1, 1966, she went home to God. 

Cleveland’s AA community has not forgotten 

her and celebrates a Mass each year in her 

memory. 

Many members have a keen interest in her cause for 

canonization, as does her religious community. After 

hearing about her, an AA member who had lived in LA 

and just moved to Cleveland said, “Maybe why I am here 

is like what was said in the homily about God making turnarounds 

in our lives, writing straight with crooked lines.” 

We could use another saint for that. 

Msgr. Richard Antall is pastor of Holy Name Church in 

Cleveland, Ohio, and author of the new book “The Wedding” 

(Lambing Press, $16.95). 

SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. UGUSTINE 

Sister Ignatia, AA co-founder Bill Wilson, Father Otis Winchester, and Mary Vorhees. 

SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE 


“Nero’s Torches” (Christian Candlesticks), by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1876. 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

Holy lemonade from heretical lemons 

A new book gives Catholics plenty of reasons 

to thank the bad guys of the early Church 

BY JANE GREER / ANGELUS 

As Mike Aquilina was recording 

the audio version of “Villains 

of the Early Church: 

And How They Made Us 

Better Christians” (Emmaus Road, 

$23), he posted on Facebook, “I think 

this might be my funniest book so far. 

In the afternoon session I was laughing 

so hard at my own jokes that we 

barely eked out the Nero chapter.” 

Nero funny? Aquilina a humorist? 

No and no — and yet yes. 

Aquilina is author of more than 50 

books on things Catholic. He’s a born 

teacher who puts words together to 

reach rather than to impress. 

In his books, on broadcast and social 

media, and in person, his mission is 

to make clear the important details 

while never losing sight of the Big 

Picture: the eternal holy Catholic 

Church, against which not all the 

powers of hell shall ever prevail. 

And it’s precisely because he sees 

events by the light of eternity that he 

sometimes can’t help poking fun at 

the farcical aspects of human nature. 

His is the generous laughter of someone 

who knows his team has already 

won. 

This book’s 10 chapters tell the 

stories of 10 early Church-era men, 

from our old friend Judas to Nestorius, 

archbishop of Constantinople. Each 

of these men could have hurt the 

Church, had God not claimed it for 

his own. 

But with the possible exception of 

Nero — who today would have a 

dozen terrifying psychiatric diagnoses 

in his file — none of these men had 

evil motives. 

They were badly in error. They were 

grossly mistaken. They Just. Didn’t. 

Get. It. And that’s where the funny 

creeps in. Grave error, in the light of 

eternity, is ridiculous. 

God made lots of holy lemonade as 

the Church — in response to all those 

lemons — formed or strengthened 

critical doctrines. How does the Old 

Testament relate to the New? How 

does the Son relate to the Father? 

Is Mary the Mother of God? In the 

brand-new Church, these questions 

needed firm answers — and these “villains” 

helped compel those answers, 


often in preposterous ways. 

Take Marcion — please. A Roman 

shipping magnate born about 80 years 

after Christ, Marcion was a generous 

Church member and contributor — 

until the Church asked him to leave. 

In a nutshell (key word: nut), Marcion 

believed that creation, including 

the human body, was evil; that an 

unknown “stranger” God existed — a 

good God — who was mightier than 

the creator God; that Jesus Christ 

didn’t have a real body but rather 

an illusory “magic mist”; and that 

our bodies would not be resurrected, 

because, well, they were evil. 

Marcion’s most famous work, 

“Antitheses,” attempted to prove 

that the God of the Jews could 

not possibly have been the God of 

Jesus. The errors of his ways were 

not funny to Marcion’s critics, but 

he stood by his crazy convictions 

and, astonishingly, was siphoning 

a troubling number of converts 

from the Church. 

The Church Fathers objected. 

And today, we have Marcion to 

thank for a necessary and immense 

contribution to Catholic 

doctrine. In order to argue against 

him, the Fathers had to take a 

deep breath and decide exactly 

how the Old Testament was related 

to the New: how the God of 

Abraham was the God of Jesus. 

Or consider Arius, after whom 

the Arian heresy is named. He 

taught that the Son was subordinate 

to the Father, created by the 

Father, and thus not eternal as the 

Father is. 

“What was so shocking about 

Arius’ teachings,” writes Aquilina, 

“was that they went against the 

traditional practice of the Church — 

never mind the doctrine. Christians 

worship Christ as God. They baptize 

in the name of the Father, Son, and 

Holy Spirit.” Arius’ interpretation 

“denies and defies” all that — and 

yet he, too, was enticing people away 

from the Church. 

Both the Church and the political 

arena were in chaos at the time. 

“The Eastern emperor, Licinius, was 

becoming increasingly intolerant of 

Christians, and the Western emperor, 

Constantine [a Christian], was 

becoming increasingly intolerant of 

Licinius,” writes Aquilina. 

“Eventually, open war broke out 

between them — a war that Constantine 

easily won. Now there was just 

one emperor for the whole Roman 

Empire, and that emperor was a 

Christian.” 

But as Constantine quickly learned, 

all was not well. The miasma of 

Arianism was spreading rapidly. He 

took decisive action and, in A.D. 325, 

“Portret van Nestorius,” by Romeyn de Hooghe, 1688. 

called all the bishops of the world — 

about 250 of them — to a meeting at 

Nicaea. 

From that momentous gathering 

issued the Nicene Creed, and 1,800 

years later, all around the world, 2 billion 

Christians still repeat the words: 

“God from God, Light from Light, 

true God from true God, begotten, 

not made, consubstantial with the 

Father.” Thank you, Arius. 

And finally, consider Nestorius, 

archbishop of Constantinople. On his 

very first day in office, he offended the 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

emperor’s sister, who had consecrated 

her virginity to Christ and the Blessed 

Virgin Mary and “was the one who 

really ran things in Constantinople.” 

Next, Nestorius ordered the demolishing 

of Constantinople’s lone — 

and semi-officially tolerated — Arian 

chapel. To thwart Nestorius, the Arian 

congregation burned down their 

chapel before it could be torn down. 

The fire spread. Nestorius had been in 

office for five days. 

He went after monks, who were 

too independent. He went after 

women, who were too visible. And 

finally, he did himself in by insisting 

that technically the proper 

name for Mary was not “Mother of 

God” but “Mother of the Christ.” 

Aquilina writes: “The problem 

with most people, Nestorius 

seemed to believe, was that they 

didn’t choose their terms carefully 

enough. … The problem with 

Nestorius, thought practically 

everybody else in Constantinople, 

was that he had just said Mary 

wasn’t the Mother of God. 

“The people of the city instantly 

latched onto that little word ‘technically’ 

as representing everything 

they hated about Nestorius. 

‘If Mary is not technically the 

Mother of God,’ they said, ‘then 

her Son is not technically God.’ ” 

Everyone but the new archbishop 

knew that was wrong. 

Rome and Alexandria eventually 

got into the fight. Nestorius 

doubled down. Finally, the emperor 

(or possibly his virgin sister) 

called a council at a place named 

Ephesus. What happened there 

was like a long bingefest of “The 

Three Stooges” with some “Game 

of Thrones” thrown in. 

Ultimately, of course, Mary was even 

more firmly enthroned as the Mother 

of God. And Nestorius, who deserves 

our gratitude for precipitating that 

doctrinal decision, was exiled to the 

Great Oasis of Egypt. 

Error — and even evil: they just can’t 

win against the one, holy, catholic and 

apostolic Church. 

Jane Greer edited and published 

“Plains Poetry Journal” and is author 

of “Bathsheba on the Third Day.” 


SHUTTERSTOCK 

A plan that’s always good 

BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE / ANGELUS 

My sister-in-law, Adriana, 

just told me last week 

that she and her husband 

are starting the adoption 

process. 

I’m simply thrilled. I have an 

adopted child, and I am so glad that 

Adriana will taste that same joy — a 

joy unlike any other joy. Personally, 

I could tell you that she deserves it, 

because she is so good, and she has 

shouldered the cross of infertility with 

commendable courage. 

But more admirably, she and her 

husband have carried that cross 

with the integrity of Catholics who 

understand and treasure the teachings 

of the Church regarding marriage 

and procreation. Even when those 

teachings came across as complicated, 

and seemed to block their way to their 

highest desire: a child. 

After two years of marriage and many 

tests, Adriana’s gynecologist offered 

to send her to a fertility specialist, for 

procedures like insemination with her 

husband’s or even a stranger’s sperm. 

Or, he said, in vitro fertilization could 

be a solution for her and talked about 

freezing embryos and how convenient 

that could be. 

She and her husband resisted all his 

blandishments. They instinctively felt 

these artificial means must be wrong 

so they investigated, reading widely 

on the ethics of marital sexuality and 

the great gift of procreation. Their 

instincts were correct. 

One day she called me and read 

a quote from Pope Pius XII about 

insemination: “To reduce the common 

life of a husband and wife and 

the conjugal act to a mere organic 

function for the transmission of seed 

would be to convert the domestic 

hearth, the family sanctuary, into a 

biological laboratory.” 

This rang very true to her. She understood 

that it was wrong to use her 

body simply as a conduit for obtaining 

a child, and to violate her husband’s 


sexuality, reducing his involvement to 

“producing a sample.” 

To go down that route was to make 

their child a “project to be realized” 

by any means necessary, instead of a 

gift arising from their bodily union. 

In vitro fertilization, they understood, 

was exponentially worse. Creating 

sons and daughters in a petri dish, 

to be inserted, discarded, frozen for 

later? Impossible. 

In their decision to preserve the 

connection between the conjugal act 

and conception, they were swimming 

against a strong cultural current. In 

the last few decades, the idea has 

grown that everyone “deserves” to 

bear a child, if they want to. 

Women as old as 69 have given birth 

using donated eggs fertilized in a 

laboratory, their bodies pumped full 

of hormones their ovaries long ago 

stopped producing. Women on career 

paths regularly freeze their eggs so 

they can artificially conceive when it’s 

convenient. 

And men sell their sperm to banks 

and become the “fathers” of thousands 

of children. And with new 

DNA-tracing technology, their offspring 

have embarked on soul-rending 

searches for their “real dads,” sometimes 

with grim consequences. 

But Adriana and her husband chose 

a better path. First they tried NaPro 

Technology, an approach to infertility 

that supports a woman’s complicated 

and delicate hormonal cycle, seeking 

to fix underlying abnormalities. Most 

distinctively, it “assists the couple in 

achieving pregnancy while maintaining 

the natural acts of procreation.” 

Though it works for many, it didn’t 

help Adriana. 

This was a great disappointment, but 

she and her husband decided to embrace 

God’s plan — even if that plan 

was nonparental spiritual fruitfulness. 

Last week she called me breathless 

with happiness. “I’ve spoken with the 

agency and they say that we can expect 

to welcome our little one within 

the year.” 

I cried a little. I remembered vividly 

when I spoke to my agency and 

started the process that would bring 

me my little miracle-daughter. There 

were so many luminous moments on 

that path, all of them pure and good, 

all of them resting on our family like 

a benediction. They are all ahead of 

my dear sister-in-law and her husband, 

and once again ahead of me, for I 

mean to live them all vicariously. 

Personally, I believe that God’s plan 

is always good, and blessed are those 

who follow it. 

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. 


Surviving Hollywood 

with a grounded faith 

Surgery, treatment, and prayer helped Vinny Fasline beat cancer 

and pursue his dream of performing as a stand-up comedian 

BY CARL KOZLOWSKI / ANGELUS 

Growing up in Pittsburgh, 

Vinny Fasline was surrounded 

by his boisterous 

Italian Catholic family. 

He had dreams of taking his athletic 

abilities to college and beyond, but 

his idyllic life was thrown for a loop 

when he developed brain cancer at 

the age of 13, and wound up fighting 

to survive. 

Thanks to a combination of surgery, 

treatment, and intensive prayer, 

Fasline pulled through his ordeal and 

found a new path in life, applying his 

ample natural wit to stand-up comedy. 

He put aside his sports dreams 

and moved comedy to the top of his 

bucket list after his mom enrolled him 

in a stand-up comedy class when he 

was 16. 

Fasline has never looked back. At 32, 

he is a star performer at the Hollywood 

Improv Comedy Club and the 

Comedy Store, and he has headlined 

clubs across the country, touring the 

U.S. and Canada with comedy superstar 

Dane Cook. 

Fasline has also made it a point to 

give back with his talents, helping 

other cancer patients by performing at 

fundraisers for the Pittsburgh branch 

of Gilda’s Club, a cancer support organization 

started by comedy legend 

Steve Martin in honor of the late Saturday 

Night Live star Gilda Radner. 

“My mom pushed me into a college 

comedy class when I was 16, so I owe 

a lot of this to my mom,” said Fasline. 

“I was really funny as a kid, and did 

impressions when I was 3 years old. 

Vinny Fasline presents an award to a cancer survivor during the St. Baldrick’s Ever After Ball 

fundraiser in 2017. 

My mom used to think I was hilarious. 

[She] was probably my only fan. I 

was doing impressions and she always 

thought I had potential and I wanted 

to do all these daring things after my 

surgery. I went up right after I was 

cured and I was bad. Last year I went 

back home to Pittsburgh and headlined 

that same club. That was cool.” 

Fasline’s cancer first manifested itself 

one morning when he had a seizure 

while his father, a doctor, was driving 

him to school. Rather than physically 

shaking, he “spaced out” and stopped 

talking mid-conversation, not even 

noticing that his dad was telling him 

to get out of the car. 

“They call that kind of reaction 

‘episodes,’ and my dad figured out 

something was really wrong when I 

didn’t get out of the car and I said I 

had to get dressed for school,” Fasline 

IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM @VINNYFASLINE 


ecalled. “He took me for an MRI.” 

Doctors discovered he had a tumor, 

and Fasline had to undergo a string of 

in-depth tests, including EEGs, prior 

to his surgery. Although his tumor 

was successfully removed, Fasline lost 

some coordination and found that his 

memory was affected. 

However, one relative blessing was 

that because the tumor was on his 

temporal lobe, on the outer edge of 

his brain, he didn’t have to endure 

radiation treatments. 

“I always grew up in the Catholic 

Church anyway, so even if I didn’t 

have my super-supportive family, I 

always had faith that God put me 

here and gave me a plan,” Fasline 

said. “It was the destiny that he put 

me through. I was terrified the night 

before surgery, because I was a kid. 

My parents bought me a GameBoy 

the night before. I was only worried 

that they kept the receipt!” 

Fasline’s Catholic school education 

and strong sense of faith carried him 

through the side effects of his battle, 

when he was trying to remain positive, 

despite the fact his head was “super 

swollen” while he was in the hospital 

prior to surgery. 

He recalled that he “looked just like 

the monster in ‘The Goonies,’ so my 

family and friends would watch it with 

me later and laugh that he was me.” 

“At a surprisingly young age I had a 

lot of faith, and I still use it to this day 

because this town is so tough and so 

dark,” said Fasline. “I don’t know how 

I would survive in Hollywood without 

it, and I don’t understand how some 

people don’t even remotely consider a 

higher power. I definitely believe faith 

is what keeps me grounded and what 

keeps me strong.” 

Fasline refuses to make jokes about 

religion or God out of respect for his 

beliefs, and he also eschews joking 

about politics. He credits that decision 

to sage advice he received from 

another comic at what many consider 

America’s best comedy club — the 

Comedy Cellar in New York City. 

“People like comedy to escape the 

rough parts of their life, so I don’t like 

to make fun of specific things that 

people really care about,” Fasline 

explained. “I’ve definitely become 

a positive person from my crazy 

experience. As much as everybody 

else wants to laugh, I need to hear it 

just as much. It’s an important part 

of my life, it’s an escape, it’s therapy, 

it’s freedom. 

“I don’t regret having had cancer, 

because it made me who I am,” he 

added. “I wouldn’t have done standup. 

We all go through struggles. 

Life’s not supposed to be perfect — 

if it seems so, something’s about to 

happen.” 

To learn more about Vinny Fasline, 

and see his performance schedule, 

visit vinnyfasline.com. To hear the 

full interview this article was based 

upon, from the KRLA 870 AM radio 

show “Man Up” that Carl Kozlowski 

co-hosts with Antonio Delgado and 

Ron Pearson, visit https://www. 

manupshow.net/episodes/2019/4/10/ 

episode-006-vinny-fasline. 

Vinny Fasline 

IMDB 


THE CRUX 

BY HEATHER KING 

The limits of advice-column living 

The first thing I turned to 

in the newspaper as a kid 

was Ann Landers’ advice 

column. 

I couldn’t get enough — still can’t 

— of human dysfunction. The letters 

were longish but Ann’s advice was 

always succinct, 

practical, and to the 

point. 

“You have every 

right to tell your 

in-laws that they 

cannot smoke in 

your home.” 

“That child needs 

to be seen by a professional 

for evaluation.” 

“Give Gloria 

notice — either she 

stops seeing that 

married man, or she 

will have to move 

out at the end of the 

month.” 

My favorite was 

when Ann hit some 

prying busybody 

with the familiar 

zinger, MYOB: 

Mind Your Own 

Business. 

Enter “Tiny 

Beautiful Things,” a 

book by mega-popular 

author Cheryl 

Strayed and now a play that was 

recently staged at the Pasadena Playhouse. 

Strayed wrote an anonymous 

advice column for a time under the 

pen name Sugar and, after revealing 

her identity, collected the letters into 

“Tiny Beautiful Things.” 

Steve Almond, the writer who 

originally passed on the column to 

Strayed, calls her approach “radical 

empathy.” 

That’s one way to put it: padding 

around her suburban kitchen in a 

hoodie and pajama bottoms, to my 

Cheryl Strayed at the “Tiny Beautiful Things” opening night at the Pasadena Playhouse on 

April 14 in Pasadena. 

mind Sugar (played here by Nia 

Vardalos, who is best known as the 

screenwriter and lead actress in “My 

Big Fat Greek Wedding”) makes every 

problem about herself: her grief over 

her mother’s death, her fling with 

heroin, the risks she’s so bravely taken 

(and that worked out, because look, 

here she is, the best-selling author of 

“Wild ,” writing an advice column 

that will also be a bestseller!). 

The play consists of three characters 

who take turns reading their letters 

aloud. Then within 1 ½ seconds 

Sugar responds 

with a TED Talklike 

answer: “Don’t 

surrender all your 

joy for an idea you 

used to have about 

yourself that isn’t 

true anymore.” 

“Nobody will protect 

you from your suffering.” 

“You cannot 

convince people to 

love you.” 

I’m probably just 

jealous. But I kept 

thinking of Christ 

on the cross, and 

Sugar padding up in 

her pajamas to hand 

him a couple of 

purple balloons, pat 

KATHY HUTCHINS/SHUTTERSTOCK 

him on the head (oh 

wait, the Crown of 

Thorns would have 

been in the way), 

and remind him 

that he, too, could 

find healing through 

Tiny Beautiful 

Things. 

In fact, the Romans offered him such 

cheap anesthesia: sour wine mixed 

with gall. He refused it. 

The audience, however, seemed to 

love the play. So MYOB I told myself. 

And on the way home, I mentally 

composed my own letter. 


IMAGE VIA PASADENA PLAYHOUSE 

Natalie Woolams-Torres (left) as “Letter Writer No. 2,” Nia Vardalos (center) as “Sugar,” and Giovanni Adams as “Letter Writer No. 3” in the stage 

adaptation of “Tiny Beautiful Things” at the Pasadena Playhouse. 

“Hey Sugar, I’m almost 67 years old 

and have worked steadily since the age 

of 14. I’m divorced, childless, collect 

$1,417 a month in Social Security, 

and make approximately the salary of 

a fast-food worker in faithful service to 

my vocation of writing. 

“I pay $1,450 for a teeny one-bedroom 

apartment which, due to on-site 

construction noise, I’ve had to vacate 

for the last five months, six days a 

week, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., in favor of 

working in the library. I’m tired and I 

feel like a worldly failure. I’m afraid of 

becoming so debilitated I can’t work, 

then dying of Alzheimer’s as my mother 

and maternal grandmother did. 

“Sometimes I feel as if I’ve done 

my entire life wrong, missed some 

essential lesson or tenet or turn. On 

the other hand, I’m appalled by my 

self-obsession. Why should I have a 

roof over my head when so many of 

my brothers and sisters don’t? Have 

I ever for a second truly loved my 

neighbor as myself? 

“How, on this next leg of the journey, 

can I try to love God with all my 

soul, all my heart, all my mind, all my 

strength?” 

“Reach!” “Breathe in — breathe 

out!” and “Tackle your life!” don’t 

quite cut it here. So I went to Mass 

the next morning on behalf of both 

myself and a world in anxiety, conflict, 

and pain. 

Afterward, I fell into conversation 

with a fellow parishioner. She’s a wife 

and mother from an upscale neighborhood 

who, turns out, has also been 

going through a “rough patch” (we 

cracked up at the euphemism): childhood 

wounds, family wounds, wounds 

in the Church. 

“I’m starting to think that this struggle, 

this poverty of spirit, this longing, 

this sense of exile and that our lives 

aren’t bearing fruit — this is it!” she 

said at one point. “This is the Way to 

Mt. Calvary! We’re never going to find 

a true resting place, here on earth.” 

“But the Eucharist!” I added. “We’re 

so hungry for it. We just come and 

throw ourselves upon the Eucharist 

each day.” We exchanged numbers, 

embraced, and parted sisters. 

Afterward I thought about how this 

woman and I had seen each other 

many times at Mass, smiled, acknowledged 

each other, waved, but never 

talked — so why this particular day? 

Who knows. It was a Tiny Beautiful 

Thing. 

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

Angelus News | May 17, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 18

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