Angelus News | August 2-9, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 27
A nationwide trend pushing to remove tributes to certain historical figures of U.S. history has seized on a new, unlikely target: the bells lining California’s iconic El Camino Real. The reason? The belief that Spanish missionaries — among them St. Junípero Serra — were oppressors, captors, and even murderers of California’s first peoples. On Page 10, renowned historian Gregory Orfalea examines the most common critiques of the Spanish evangelization of California and makes the case for why the bells represent a legacy of love, not oppression.
A nationwide trend pushing to remove tributes to certain historical figures of U.S. history has seized on a new, unlikely target: the bells lining California’s iconic El Camino Real. The reason? The belief that Spanish missionaries — among them St. Junípero Serra — were oppressors, captors, and even murderers of California’s first peoples. On Page 10, renowned historian Gregory Orfalea examines the most common critiques of the Spanish evangelization of California and makes the case for why the bells represent a legacy of love, not oppression.
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tainment. As some psychiatrist once<br />
put it, we all build castles in the air.<br />
The problems come when we try to<br />
live in them.”<br />
It gets worse, however. For while the<br />
kids are playing, their siblings and<br />
their parents are streaming. And the<br />
streaming companies compete for our<br />
every waking hour, literally.<br />
In an article on “The Great Race to<br />
Rule Streaming TV,” The New York<br />
Times quotes the head of Netflix:<br />
“We actually compete with sleep. And<br />
we’re winning.”<br />
Grabbing eyeballs, consuming our<br />
waking hours, keeping us binging so<br />
we will either pay the monthly subscription<br />
fee or — in terms of social<br />
media — justify their ad rates: This<br />
is modern capitalism, entertainment<br />
style. As Aldous Huxley foretold in<br />
“Brave New World,” we are all mainlining<br />
our Soma and loving it.<br />
So how does the Church respond to<br />
all this? For if it is not salvation we are<br />
seeking, but entertainment 24/7, the<br />
Church is at a grievous disadvantage.<br />
The Church becomes, to borrow<br />
Howard Eppis’ line in “The Big Fix,”<br />
the spoilsport at the orgy.<br />
There are small signs of hope.<br />
Among the elites, there is a growing<br />
distrust of the Silicon Valley puppet<br />
masters. Among the young, some are<br />
intentionally downgrading their tech.<br />
Loneliness is epidemic, but there is a<br />
hunger not just for relationship, but<br />
for contemplative solitude.<br />
The Church is not called to fix it all.<br />
Right now, it is having trouble fixing<br />
itself. What the Church can do is<br />
create oases of spiritual nourishment<br />
staffed by authentic witnesses whose<br />
lives testify to something more than the<br />
consumerist distractions of our age.<br />
We don’t need celebrity heroes and<br />
internet influencers. We need everyday<br />
saints, the quiet laborers in the<br />
vineyard who show us another way.<br />
This is the message of Pope Francis<br />
for our age: Encounter. Accompaniment.<br />
Flesh and blood reality versus<br />
the narcotic distractions being offered.<br />
The allure is authenticity. The ultimate<br />
antidote is Christ. <br />
Greg Erlandson is the president<br />
and editor-in-chief of Catholic <strong>News</strong><br />
Service.<br />
<strong>August</strong> 2-9, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>27</strong>
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