Angelus News | September 20, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 31

PAGE 28: THE NEW AngelusNews.com
ANGELUS
CONSCIENCE
&
CHRISTIANITY
Rediscovering the right
to religious freedom
September 20, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 31

Contents
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation and Local News 4-6
LA Catholic Events 7
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
East LA Catholic school gets a meaningful makeover 14
John Allen: Why Pope Francis dropped the ‘s-word’ 18
Kathryn Lopez: Thomism for the digital masses 20
‘Anthems’ that get even Greg Erlandson to sing 22
Can we really be ‘Happy as Lazzaro’? 24
Heather King: A look at ‘Back Row America’ 26

ON THE COVER
The “peace cross” in Bladensburg, Maryland. The U.S.
Supreme Court’s recent decision in favor of preserving the
historic cross-shaped memorial, saying it does not endorse
religion, is just one example of the ongoing struggle to
interpret one of our country’s foundational principles. But
on Page 10, contributing editor Mike Aquilina explains why
primitive Christianity — rather than America’s founding
fathers — deserves the credit for one of humanity’s most
radical ideas.
SHUTTERSTOCK
IMAGE:
Archbishop José H. Gomez, together with staff and delegates
from the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/
Latino Ministry, met with members of the Dicastery for
Promoting Integral Human Development Friday, Sept.
13, in Rome. Led by Archbishop Gomez, who serves as
the vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, the delegation was scheduled to present the
“Proceedings and Conclusions” of the V Encuentro
process to Pope Francis this week.
PATRICIA JIMENEZ/V ENCUENTRO
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 1

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POPE WATCH
Seeds of hope in Africa
Having gone to Africa as a pilgrim
of peace and hope, Pope Francis said
he hoped the seeds planted there by
his visit would bear abundant fruit for
everyone.
Following in the footsteps of evangelizing
saints before him, the pope said
he sought to bring with him “the leaven
of Christ” and his Gospel, which is
“the most powerful leaven of fraternity,
justice and peace for all people.”
Speaking to some 12,000 people
gathered in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 11,
the pope recalled his fourth apostolic
journey to Africa. He dedicated his
general audience talk to a review of
some of the highlights from his visit
to Mozambique, Madagascar, and
Mauritius Sept. 4-10.
The pope said he wanted to “sow the
seeds of hope, peace, and reconciliation”
in Mozambique, which had
experienced two devastating cyclones
recently and 15 years of civil war.
While the Church continues to guide
the nation along the path of peace,
the pope made special mention of the
Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio,
which had facilitated the mediation
process that resulted in the nation’s
1992 peace agreement.
He said he also encouraged Mozambique’s
leaders to keep working together
for the common good, and he noted
how he saw that kind of cooperation
in action at a hospital he visited that
helps people, especially mothers and
children, with HIV and AIDS.
“I saw that the patients were the most
important thing” at the Sant’Egidio-run
center, which was staffed by
people of different religious beliefs,
including the director of the hospital,
who was Muslim,” he said.
Everyone worked together, “united,
like brothers and sisters,” he said.
Reflecting on Madagascar, the pope
noted how beautiful and rich in natural
resources the country is, but that it
is still marked by tremendous poverty.
He said he asked that the people
there would be inspired by their “traditional
spirit of solidarity” in order to
overcome the obstacles they face and
foster development that respects both
the environment and social justice.
In fact, “one cannot build a city
worthy of human dignity without faith
and prayer,” he said when he spoke to
contemplative religious women.
Francis said he wanted to visit Mauritius
because it has become “a place of
integration between different ethnicities
and cultures.”
Not only was interreligious dialogue
well-established there, he said, there
were strong bonds of friendship among
the leaders of different religions.
“It would seem strange to us, but they
have this friendship that is so natural,”
he said, explaining how touched he
was to find a large bouquet of flowers
sent to him by the grand imam “as a
sign of fraternity.”
He said he encouraged government
leaders to stay committed to fostering
harmony and protecting democracy.
In his audience talk, the pope also
explained why — before and after every
trip — he always visits Rome’s Basilica
of St. Mary Major to pray before the basilica’s
Marian icon “Salus Populi Romani”
(“Health of the Roman People”).
He said he prays that she “accompany
me on the trip, like a mother, tell me
what I must do” and help “safeguard”
everything he says and does.
Reporting courtesy of Catholic News
Service Rome correspondent Carol Glatz.
Papal Prayer Intention for September: That politicians, scientists, and
economists work together to protect the world’s seas and oceans.
2 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Seminary is a time of conversion
Editor’s note: Earlier this month,
Archbishop Gomez presided at the
opening Mass of the academic year at
St. John’s Seminary. The following is
adapted from his homily.
Recently, we had our convocation of
priests, about 350 of us gathering for
prayer and reflection. It was a time of
grace, a time of fellowship, renewal,
and inspiration.
I gave each of the priests who was
there a copy of the recent letter to
priests from Pope Francis.
It is a beautiful reflection, with the
Holy Father thanking priests for their
ministry, for giving their lives to God
completely.
He encourages priests to be grateful
for their vocation, to reflect often on
those moments when we first knew in
our hearts that the Lord was calling us
to be with him, calling us to serve him
and his kingdom. Pope Francis wrote:
“Vocation, more than our own choice,
is a response to the Lord’s unmerited
call.”
And I was thinking about this, as I
was praying over the words of St. Paul
that we just heard:
“We know that all things work for
good for those who love God, who are
called according to his purpose. For
those he foreknew he also predestined to
be conformed to the image of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers.”
These words speak to us in a special
way at the start of this new year.
Brothers, you have been called “according
to his purpose,” called from
the loving heart of the living God.
Your vocation is a gift of God’s generous
love, a sign of his mercy and love
toward you. Your vocation is a call to
be “conformed to the image” of Jesus.
And that is the work of a lifetime.
Seminary is a time of conversion.
More than the theological and pastoral
training you receive, these years are
a time of growing in your likeness to
Christ.
That means learning to live in his
presence, learning to belong entirely
to Jesus. This time of conversion also
means being intentional about detaching
ourselves from the ways of thinking
in our society, some of the habits that
even we grew up with.
To be a priest is to belong to Jesus,
and to “be” for others. For that, it is
not enough to be a good person who
works hard and cares for others. To be
a priest means we need to be “another
Christ,” a man of zeal, a man whose
soul is on fire to share the Gospel and
to bring others to Christ.
And in many ways, that means standing
against the trends in our culture
today.
You are called to live with humility
and obedience in a culture that says
“do your own thing.” You are called to
live chastity in a culture of aggressive
sexuality. You are called to be poor of
spirit in a consumer culture that says
happiness and success means having
many possessions.
So, let us pray for the grace today to
continue this work of conversion, to be
joyful in giving our lives for the love of
Jesus and to imitate him and consecrate
ourselves to him.
This is a prayer for our seminarians,
but really it is a prayer for all of us —
priests, deacons, lay people, religious,
faculty, administrators, benefactors,
and supporters of this great seminary.
All of us are entrusted with this mission
of the Gospel. The whole Church
is missionary!
Each member of the Church is
called to bring others to friendship
with Jesus Christ and to do our part in
the renewal of our politics, our society,
our culture.
And, my brothers, as seminarians, as
men training to be his priests, you are
called to follow him in the most intimate
way. So in these years of training,
stay close to Jesus. He will never leave
you alone. Open your heart to do his
loving will.
As Jesus did, you need to stay close to
Mary, who is the mother of Jesus and
the mother of all of us in our priesthood.
Our Gospel today was the story we
all know very well — the miracle Jesus
performed at the wedding of Cana.
The words that Mary speaks today to
the servants are the heart of her spirituality:
“Do whatever he tells you.”
These are good words for you, my
brothers. As you begin this new year, I
pray that you will renew your dedication
to living in the presence of Christ,
especially in the Eucharist.
I pray that you will listen closely to
his word, study his example, and continue
this beautiful work of conforming
yourself to his image.
Let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary
to be with us on this journey. May she
inspire all of us to bear witness to Jesus
and to the new life that he longs to
bring to every person! Amen.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Another Gospel town found?
Archaeologists think they may be
on the road to Emmaus.
A team led by Tel Aviv University
professor Israel Finkelstein uncovered
the remains of a 2,200-year-old
fortified city on a hill outside of the
Israeli city of Abu Ghosh. Located
seven miles west of Jerusalem,
the remains correspond with the
description of the town of Emmaus
found in the Gospel of Luke.
Emmaus, famous for the story
of Jesus appearing to his apostles
following his resurrection, has
long been lost. Two other sites are
considered to be possible locations,
but experts are especially intrigued
about this find.
“The finds at Kiriath-Jearim hint
at its long-term role as guarding the
approach to Jerusalem,” Finkelstein
The hill outside Abu Ghosh that may have once been Emmaus.
told Fox News. “This can be seen in
the Iron Age, Hellenistic and early Roman
periods. The Hellenistic and Roman
period remains shed light on the
much-debated issue of the location of
the New Testament’s Emmaus.”
THE KIRIATH-JEARIM SHMUNIS FAMILY EXCAVATIONS
Ukrainian prelate: Married
priests not the answer
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO / MARCO BELLO, REUTERS
REALITY SETS IN — People board a ferry Sept. 6 at Marsh Harbour Government Port during an
evacuation operation after Hurricane Dorian hit the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. “We are still
working through this,” Archbishop Patrick C. Pinder of Nassau told Catholic News Service. “We
have only begun to understand the full depths of this catastrophe. This is a disaster on a scale
that we have never seen before.”
Would a married priesthood solve
the vocations crisis? The leader of
Ukraine’s Catholics doesn’t think so.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church, the largest of 23 eastern rite
churches in full communion with
Rome, allows for married priests. But
according to its head, Archbishop Sviatoslav
Shevchuk, the option to marry
doesn’t translate into more vocations.
Speaking to Crux on Sept. 11,
Shevchuk said that if he could give
some advice to the bishops meeting
for this year’s Synod on the Amazon, it
would be, “Don’t look for easy solutions
to difficult problems.
“The same church with the same
way of living the priestly vocation in
other countries around the world does
not enjoy this quantity of vocations,”
Shevchuk told Crux.
“The familial state does not favor the
increase in vocations to the priesthood,”
he added. “This is our experience.”
4 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

NATION
Seattle bishop wants a rectory, not a mansion
On his first day on the job,
Seattle’s new Catholic archbishop
told clergy he won’t be living in
the 9,000-square-foot mansion that
many of his predecessors called
home.
“I prefer to live a more simplified
life,” explained Archbishop Paul
Etienne in a Sept. 3 letter, adding
that he was “exploring options on
church properties” and hoped to
find an alternative soon.
The 60-year-old prelate took over
this month for Archbishop Peter
Sartain, who was forced to retire
due to severe back problems.
While he stresses that his decision
“is not a reflection upon how
the previous bishops lived,” the
archbishop told diocesan magazine
Northwest Catholic that he’s “a pastor,
not a prince,” and wants “to live
in a manner that’s more reflective
of how my people live.”
Archbishop Paul Etienne will not live in
Seattle’s “Connolly House.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/BOB ROLLER
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/KEVIN BIRNBAUM
White House urged
to let more people in
A federal commission is warning
against the Trump administration’s
threats to cut the number of refugees
it resettles in the U.S., potentially
even reducing the number to zero.
“Unprecedented numbers of individuals
worldwide are forcibly displaced
by religiously motivated conflict or
persecution based on their religion or
belief,” U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom Vice Chair
Gayle Manchin told the Washington
Times, “[a]nd the United States
should continue to provide safe haven
to the most vulnerable among them.”
The commission argues that the
number of refugees resettled in the
U.S. is at a record low, and that it
should be raised — rather than cut —
to the “previously typical” 95,000.
“We strongly urge the administration
to extend its admirable commitment
to advancing religious freedom to
its refugee resettlement policy,” said
commission president Tony Perkins.
FDA sues over abortion pills
The FDA ordered them to stop prescribing and mailing
unregulated abortion pills. They responded with a lawsuit.
Aid Access, a European company founded by Austrian
licensed physician Dr. Rebecca Gompers, prescribes and
mails drugs required for medical abortions to women in the
U.S. Following a March cease-and-desist order from the
FDA, Gompers has filed a civil action lawsuit seeking to
allow the company to continue business.
Pro-life groups have criticized the lawsuit and the company
Aid Access for the “service” it provides.
“Far from being safe and effective, abortion pills from Aid
Access have been shown to be damaged and contaminated,”
Dr. Tara Sandra Lee, senior fellow and director of life
sciences for Charlotte Lozier Institute, told Catholic News
Agency. “And these tainted drugs have caused serious, and
sometimes even fatal, bacterial infections and excessive
bleeding in women.
“It is fully within the FDA’s jurisdiction to protect
women from harm and prevent these dangerous abortion
pills from getting into the hands of anymore women,” Lee
continued.
MINI YOUTH
MINISTRY — Cub
Scout Patrick
McDonough
participates in the
presentation of
the gifts during
an evening Mass
Sept. 11 at the
Towers of Freedom
9/11 Military
Monument in
Massapequa, New
York. The liturgy
was offered for all
who perished in
the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, those who
mourn their loss,
and all who suffer
from illnesses
stemming from the
attacks.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
Bringing back the
message of ‘El Norte’
Catholic film director and screenwriter Gregory Nava
described receiving holy Communion at the Sept. 7
Mass for All Immigrants at the Cathedral of Our Lady
of the Angels as “one of the most moving experiences of
my life.”
Nava made the comments in an interview with Angelus
News Sept. 10. A restored version of Nava’s classic 1984
film “El Norte” screened at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15
in theaters around the country to mark 35 years since its
original release.
“El Norte,” which tells the story of a brother and
sister’s perilous journey from Guatemala to the United
States, is widely credited with helping prompt the U.S.
government to action with the 1986 Simpson–Mazzoli
Act, which extended the protection status for Central
American immigrants.
“We need to build bridges, not walls; we need policies
of compassion, not cruelty,” said Nava. “That is the
message of ‘El Norte,’ and it needs to ring loudly in our
country once again.”
You can read the full interview with Gregory Nava at
AngelusNews.com.
A pathway to success
for single moms?
Pro-life advocates are cheering the
passing of a California law intended to
protect parents enrolled in college.
Signed into law by Gov. Gavin
Newsom Sept. 6, Assembly Bill 809
requires California public colleges to
make Title IX protections available
online and through campus health
clinics for pregnant and parenting
students. Kathleen Domingo, senior
director of the Office of Life, Justice,
and Peace for the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles, thanked voters who
contacted lawmakers to support the
bill.
“With your help, pregnant women
on campus will now have access to
their federal, legal protections. It will
empower students to succeed at both
parenting and learning for greater
lifelong success,” she said.
The bill was backed by groups
including the California Catholic
Conference and Feminists for Life.
Police are
investigating an
overnight graffiti attack
on San Jose’s Catholic
cathedral that took
place hours before
Sunday Masses.
Officials believe the
attack on the Cathedral
Basilica of St. Joseph
happened in the early
morning of Sept. 1.
According to the San
Jose Spotlight, “Satanic
and anti-semitic graffiti
spray were sprawled
against the church’s
outside walls, alongside
taunting drawings of a
ghoulishly painted
smile below two
windows and a two-toned
colored pentagram.”
The Diocese of San Jose said
Church officials are working with
Gregory Nava during the filming of “El Norte.”
San Jose cathedral vandalized
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose.
police to find the vandals.
Finished in 1885, the cathedral is
listed as a historical landmark by the
state of California.
EL NORTE PRODS WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
6 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

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., Sept. 21
Eucharistic Ministry Training. Mary Star of the Sea,
463 W. Pleasant Valley, Oxnard, 1-7 p.m. Cost: $15/
person. Register at http://store.la-archdiocese.org/
em-092119.
Simple, Effective Yoga to Clear the Mind and
Feel Better. Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 5300
Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Yoga
breathing and stretching to help refocus on what is
important. Instructors have more than 20 years of
experience, with focus on students ages 50+. Bring
yoga mat, props, water, and small item for meditation.
Cost: $25/person. Call Marlene Velazquez at
310-377-4867, ext. 234, for reservations or information.
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.
Children’s Bureau, 27200 Tourney Rd., Ste. 175,
Valencia, or Andrew’s Plaza, 11335 West Magnolia
Blvd., Suite 2C, North Hollywood, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Discover if you have the willingness, ability, and resources
to take on the challenge of helping a child in
need. RSVP or learn more by calling 213-342-0162,
toll free at 800-730-3933, or email RFrecruitment@
all4kids.org.
Sustaining Balance in Recovery: Addressing Challenges
of Alcoholic and Addictive Families. Mary &
Joseph Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos
Verdes, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Workshop will address how to
live a balanced life of setting boundaries. Prayer and
meditation will be practiced. Cost: $50/person and
includes lunch. Call Marlene Velazquez at 310-377-
4867, ext. 234, for reservations or information.
Memorial for Sister Pat Krommer, CSJ: A Woman
of Faith in Action. Ramona Secondary High School,
1701 W. Ramona Rd., Alhambra, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Celebrate Sister Pat with stories, networking for actions,
and living out her legacy. Includes a vegetarian
lunch. Freewill donations welcomed. RSVP to info@
stcamilluscenter.org or call 323-225-4461, ext. 111.
Padre Pio Testimony and Veneration of his Glove.
Pauline Books & Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver
City, 2 p.m. Consiglia Corretti, healed of cancer by Padre
Pio, will share her experience and her friendship
with Padre Pio, followed by a Q&A and veneration of
Padre Pio’s glove. For more information, call 310-
697-8676 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com.
Sun., Sept. 22
Annual Pilgrimage to Virgen de los Remedios.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple
St., Los Angeles, 2:30 p.m. Procession and Mass to
celebrate the coronation of Virgen de los Remedios
by Pope Pius XII in 1956. For more, email aguadelosangeles@aol.com
or call 323-530-7652.
14th Annual Korean Martyrs Day Celebration. St.
Bede the Venerable Church, 215 Foothill Blvd., La
Canada Flintridge. Mass at 5:30 p.m., reception to
follow with traditional Korean food. All are welcome.
Call Deacon Augie Won at 818-949-4300.
Mon., Sept. 23
Healing Mass. St. Cornelius Church, 5500 E.
Wardlow Rd., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. Celebrant:
Father Bill Delaney.
St. Padre Pio Mass and Healing Service. St. Denis
Church, 2151 S. Diamond Bar Blvd., Diamond Bar. 6
p.m. exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, 6:30 p.m.
rosary, 7 p.m. Mass. Evening includes blessing with a
St. Padre Pio first-class relic glove. Celebrant: Father
Michael Barry, SSCC. Call 909-861-7106.
Wed., Sept. 25
Bosco Tech “Gear Up for High School” Information
Night. 1151 San Gabriel Blvd., Rosemead,
6:30-8 p.m. Free event open to elementary and
middle-school students. Representatives from local
Catholic private and archdiocesan high schools will
provide information and answer questions. Call 626-
940-2009 or email admissions@boscotech.edu for
more information.
Adoration/Benediction and Healing Service. Our
Lady of Peace Church, 15444 Nordhoff St., North
Hills, 7 p.m. Bring friends and family. For more information,
call Deacon Celso at 818-667-8998.
Thurs., Sept. 26
Moses and Migration: The Radical Response of the
Bible to a Modern Crisis. Holy Trinity Church parish
center auditorium, 209 N. Hanford Ave., San Pedro,
7-8:30 p.m. Led by professor Daniel L. Smith-Christopher,
Ph.D., discussion proposes that the Bible has
a surprisingly modern approach of compassion and
concern about “the foreigner” among us. Open to all.
Light refreshments after discussion. Call 310-548-
65365, ext. 300, for more information.
Sat., Sept. 28
Feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz Regional Celebration.
St. John Eudes Church, 9901 Mason St., Chatsworth,
10:30 a.m. Procession immediately followed by
eucharistic celebration with Father Joel Henson.
Reception, fellowship, and program to follow. Call
Patty Santiago at 818-472-4288, Dominic Mendoza
at 818-687-4890, or Mia Macalino at 818-517-4300
for more information.
Life in the Spirit Seminar. Incarnation School auditorium,
1001 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, 8:30 a.m.
For information or to register, call 818-421-1354 or
email hojprayergroup@gmail.com.
Spiritual Warfare: What You Need to Know. St.
Edward the Confessor School gym, 33926 Calle La
Primavera, Dana Point, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Speakers
include Father Bob Garon and Dominic Berardino.
Topics include “Evil spirits — Are they for real?” and
“Discernment of spirits.” Day includes Mass. Cost:
$20/person (by Sept. 23), $25/person at door. Contact
SCRC at 818-771-1361, email spirit@scrc.org,
or visit www.scrc.org.
Sun., Sept. 29
Pechanga Resort & Casino Trip. Meet at Our Lady
of Perpetual Help Church, 23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall,
at 8 a.m., return at 6 p.m. Hosted by Italian
Catholic Club of the Santa Clarita Valley. Coffee and
donuts served before leaving, birthdays celebrated
on the way home. Cost: $25/person and includes $5
casino credit. Call Anna Riggs at 661-645-7877 to
RSVP.
Spirituali-Tea with Cheryl Zellhoefer. Mary & Joseph
Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos
Verdes, 2-5 p.m. Share generations of faith with one
another and deepen relationships with Mary and
St. Anne while sipping tea. Bring a teacup to loan
to a fellow participant for the day, a picture of your
mother, grandmother, or other mother figure, and an
object from your history of faith. Cost: $25/person.
Call Marlene Velazquez at 310-377-4867, ext. 234,
for reservations or information.
Mon., Sept. 30
Junipero Serra High School: Dedication to Excellence
and Celebration of the Arts. 14830 Van Ness
Ave., Gardena, 5-8 p.m. Event honors poet, former
chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and
former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia 1969. For
more information, contact Vince Kates at 310-324-
6675, ext. 3010 or email vbkates@la-serrahs.org.
Woman to Woman Ministry: Gathered in Joy and
Kinship. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd.,
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Join other women to welcome the
sacred gifts of autumn and winter. Suggested donation:
$15/person. Email jmcbroehm@aol.com with
questions and to RSVP.
Visit AngelusNews.com for these stories
and more. Your source for complete,
up-to-the-minute coverage of local news,
sports and events in Catholic L.A.
This Week at AngelusNews.com
• Visit the new AngelusNews.com! More information on Page 28.
• Why ‘culture’ is the key to finding your future Catholic spouse.
• Check out our sports section for the latest fall scores and schedules!
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Amos 8:4–7 / Ps. 113:1–2, 4–6, 7–8 / 1 Tim. 2:1–8 / Lk. 16:1–13
The steward in today’s
Gospel confronts the reality
that he can’t go on living
the way he has been.
He is under judgment,
and must give account for
what he has done.
The exploiters of the
poor in today’s First Reading
are also about to be
pulled down, thrust from
their stations (see Isaiah
22:19). Servants of mammon
or money, they’re so
in love with wealth that
they reduce the poor to
objects, despise the new
moons and Sabbaths, the
observances, and holy
days of God (see Leviticus
23:24; Exodus 20:8).
Their only hope is
to follow the steward’s
path. He is no model of
repentance. But he makes
a prudent calculation:
to use his last hours in
charge of his master’s
property to show mercy to
others, to relieve their debts.
He is a child of this world, driven by
a purely selfish motive, to make friends
and be welcomed into the homes of
his master’s debtors. Yet his prudence
is commended as an example to us,
the children of light (see 1 Thessalonians
5:5; Ephesians 5:8). We, too,
must realize, as the steward does, that
what we have is not honestly ours, but
what in truth belongs to another, our
Master.
All the mammon in the world could
not have paid the debt we owe our
Master. So he paid it for us, gave his
“Christ on the Cross,” by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn,
1606-1669.
life as a ransom for all, as we hear in
today’s Epistle.
God wants everyone to be saved,
even kings and princes, even the lovers
of money (see Luke 16:14). But we
cannot serve two Masters. By his grace,
we should choose to be, as we sing in
today’s Psalm, “servants of the Lord.”
We serve him by using what he has
entrusted us with to give alms, to lift
the lowly from the dust and dunghills
of this world. By this we will gain what
is ours, be welcomed into eternal
dwellings, the many mansions of the
Father’s house (see John 14:2).
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
8 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
The scent of humility
According to Isaac the Syrian, a
famous 7th-century bishop and
theologian, a person who’s genuinely
humble gives off a certain scent that
other people will sense and that even
animals will pick up, so that wild animals,
including snakes, will fall under
his spell and never harm that person.
Here’s his logic: A humble person,
he believes, has recovered the smell of
paradise and in the presence of such
a person one does not feel judged and
has nothing to fear, and this holds
true even for animals. They feel safe
around a humble person and are
drawn to him or her. No wonder people
like St. Francis of Assisi could talk
to birds and befriend wolves.
But, beautiful as this all sounds, is
this a pious fairytale or is it a rich, archetypal
metaphor? I like to think it’s
the latter, that this is a rich metaphor,
and perhaps even something more.
Humility, indeed, does have a smell,
the smell of the earth, of the soil, and
of paradise.
But how? How can a spiritual quality
give off a physical scent?
Well, we’re psychosomatic, creatures
of both body and soul. Thus, in us,
the physical and the spiritual are so
much part of one and the same substance
that it’s impossible to separate
them out from each other.
To say that we’re body and soul is
like saying sugar is white and sweet
and that whiteness and sweetness
can never be put into separate piles.
They’re both inside the sugar. We’re
one substance, inseparable, body and
soul, and so we’re always both physical
and spiritual.
So, in fact, we do feel physical things
spiritually, just as we smell spiritual
things through our physical senses. If
this is true, and it is, then yes, humility
does give off a scent that can
be sensed physically, and Isaac the
Syrian’s concept is more than just a
metaphor.
But it’s also a metaphor: The word
humility takes its root in the Latin
word “humus,” meaning soil, ground,
and earth. If one goes with this definition
then the most humble person
you know is the most earthy and most
grounded person you know.
To be humble is to have one’s feet
firmly planted on the ground, to be in
touch with the earth, and to carry the
smell of the earth. To be humble is
to take one’s rightful place as a piece
of the earth and not as someone or
something separate from it.
The renowned mystic and scientist,
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, expressed
this sometimes in his prayers. During
the years when, as a paleontologist
he worked for long stretches in the
isolated deserts of China, he would
sometimes compose prayers to God
in a form he called, “A Mass for the
World.”
Speaking to God as a priest, he
would identify his voice with that of
the earth, as that place within creation
where the earth itself, the soil of the
earth, could open itself and speak to
God. As a priest, he didn’t speak for
the earth; he spoke as the earth, giving
it voice, in words to this effect:
Lord, God, I stand before you as a
microcosm of the earth itself, to give it
voice: See in my openness, the world’s
openness, in my infidelity, the world’s
infidelity; in my sincerity, the world’s
sincerity, in my hypocrisy, the world’s
hypocrisy; in my generosity, the world’s
generosity; in my attentiveness, the
world’s attentiveness; in my distraction,
the world’s distraction; in my desire to
praise you, the world’s desire to praise
you; and in my self-preoccupation, the
world’s forgetfulness of you. For I am
of the earth, a piece of earth, and the
earth opens or closes to you through my
body, my soul, and my voice.
This is humility, an expression of
genuine humility. Humility should
never be confused, as it often is, with a
wounded self-image, with an excessive
reticence, with timidity and fear, or
with an overly sensitive self-awareness.
Too common is the notion that a
humble person is one who is self-effacing
to a fault, who deflects praise
(even when it’s deserved), who is too
shy to trust opening himself or herself
in intimacy, or who is so fearful or
self-conscious and worried about
being shamed so as to never step
forward and offer his or her gifts to the
community.
These can make for a gentle and
self-effacing person, but because we
are denigrating ourselves when to
deny our own giftedness, our humility
is false, and deep down we know it,
and so this often makes for someone
who nurses some not-so-hidden angers
and is prone to being passive-aggressive.
The most humble person you know
is the person who’s the most grounded,
that is, the person who knows
she’s not the center of the earth, but
also knows that she isn’t a second-rate
piece of dirt either. And that person
will give off a scent that carries both
the fragrance of paradise (of divine
gift) as well as the smell of the earth.
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 9

SHUTTERSTOCK
Who invented
religious freedom?
A new book addresses the issue at
a time when ‘freedom of religion’ is
increasingly set aside while ‘freedom
from religion’ is advanced
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
10 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

Religious freedom is a hallmark of American identity.
The United States fancies itself the “land of the
pilgrim’s pride.” When we tell our story we begin
with the Puritans, William Penn, and others who fled
religious persecution. Our Constitution’s First Amendment
guarantees: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof. …”
Where did the idea come from?
The standard histories tell us that a right to religious
freedom was first proposed in the aftermath of the Protestant
Reformation and the bloody Wars of Religion. It
was the only way, they say, to keep Christians from killing
one another, and it had to be imposed by states that were
indifferent to religion.
Christianity, in this telling of the story, is inevitably prone
to violent persecution of dissenters, and so it needed to be
disciplined by more enlightened minds.
Actual historical documents, however, present a different
story, and it’s well told in a new book by Robert Louis
Wilken, professor emeritus of history at the University of
Virginia and the dean of U.S. church historians.
In “Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins
of Religious Freedom” (Yale, $19), Wilken traces the idea
not to the American founding, but rather to an African
Christian of the late second century.
Quintus Florens Tertullian was an intellectual of the first
rank and an adult convert to Christianity. He wrote with
concision and rhetorical force. He probably had training in
law. Christians recognize him as the first to write theology
in Latin. He is the earliest witness to the word “Trinity.”
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Quintus Tertullian, A.D. 160-220, Church Father and theologian.
SCREENSHOT VIA YOUTUBE
Robert Louis Wilken
Wilken, however, would have us remember him also
as the first to advance the idea of worship as a matter of
conscience. He emphasizes that he is speaking of religious
freedom and not mere tolerance. “Tolerance is the
forbearance of that which is not approved, a political policy
of restraint toward those whose beliefs and practices are
objectionable.”
The Romans, as Tertullian knew, could be tolerant of foreign
religions, but their tolerance was a concession. Only
the emperor could recognize a god as suitable for worship.
Most religions passed muster because, like the Roman religion,
they permitted the worship of many gods, including
those of the Roman pantheon.
But Tertullian’s religion, Christianity, presented a special
problem, because its God made an exclusive claim to
worship. His first commandment forbade devotion to other
gods. Since Roman religion was woven through so much
of common life — the military, commerce, law, and even
sports — Christians could not be assimilated in society.
Thus their loyalty to that society was always in question.
Rome found it difficult, if not impossible, to accommodate
Christian religion. Persecution had legal precedent
going back to Nero in A.D. 64. In the years following Tertullian’s
conversion, the emperors of the Severan dynasty
turned up the heat and enacted laws against conversion to
Christianity. Thus, those already Christian were safe, but
those who entered the catechumenate were committing a
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 11

capital crime.
In making an appeal to Roman authorities, Tertullian
knew that he could not appeal to Roman law or custom. So
he cast his argument in terms of moral philosophy.
To the proconsul of Africa, Scapula, Tertullian wrote:
“It is only just and a privilege inherent in human nature
that every person should be able to worship according to
his own convictions; the religious practice of one person
neither harms nor helps another. It is not part of religion
to coerce religious practice, for it is by choice not coercion
that we should be led to religion.”
In another work he wrote still more forcefully: “Let one
man worship God, another Jupiter. … For see that you do
not give a further ground for the charge of irreligion by
taking away religious liberty and forbidding free choice
of deity, so that I may no longer worship according to my
inclination, but am compelled to worship against it. Not
even a human being would care to have unwilling homage
rendered him.”
With these passages, the idea of religious freedom “enters
the vocabulary of the West,” Wilken says.
A
century after Tertullian, another Latin-speaking
North African, Lucius Lactantius, would advance
the argument. He asked again whether the gods of
the Romans were truly honored by sacrifices that were
forced. “Religion cannot be compelled,” he wrote. “It is
by words rather than wounds that you must bend the will.
Nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion.”
The words of these two men, Tertullian and Lactantius,
would echo down the centuries, cited in defense of the
primacy of conscience and the free exercise of religion.
The principles were adopted by the first Christian emperor
of Rome, Constantine the Great. In fact, they were
enacted as law. The so-called Edict of Milan (A.D. 313)
did not favor Christianity over any other religion. It simply
SHUTTERSTOCK
The “Metamorphosis Constantiniana” is a monument presented by the Catholic Church to the City of Niš for the 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of
Milan in 2013. It is the work of academic sculptor Dragan Radenovic, and presents the metamorphosis of Constantine the Great through different
perods of his life.
12 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

TYLER ORSBURN/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
A participant holds a sign at a Religious Freedom Rally in Washington, D.C., July 10. It was one of several rallies held the same day in cities around
the country and sponsored by Save the Persecuted Christians.
granted Christians the status already enjoyed by other
cults, so that “each one may have the free opportunity to
worship as he pleases; this regulation is made that we may
not seem to detract from any dignity of any religion.”
Constantine’s later edicts, to the Palestinians and to the
Eastern Provincials, state with similar clarity: “Let no one
disturb another. Let each man hold fast to that which his
soul wishes. Let him make full use of this.”
Wilken observes that Christian emperors and churchmen
did not always live up to these principles. But St. Pope
Gregory the Great used them when he counseled bishops
to convert Jews by persuasion, not coercion.
Later authors invoked them as they tried to curb the
tyrannical acts of kings. When Charlemagne, in the eighth
century, gave the conquered Saxons the choice between
conversion and death, the leading scholar of his court, Alcuin,
condemned him in terms that echoed the arguments
of Tertullian and Lactantius.
In the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas elaborated the
principle of religious freedom and the role of conscience in
its exercise. Medieval popes used these arguments to shore
up the rights of Jews.
Religious liberty was not, as some later commentators
charged, a “loser’s creed,” a convenient argument for
Christians when they were persecuted, but quickly forgotten
once they gained power. It was a truth that Christians
spoke to power, a limit on the authority any state should
hold over persons.
That is why Tertullian and Lactantius found a sudden
utility in the aftermath of the Reformation. What would
Europe’s new nation-states do now that Christianity had
been fractured into a growing number of sects? For the sake
of order, they declared that the religion of the ruler should
dictate the religion of those who were ruled (“Cuius regio,
eius religio”).
To individuals who held to minority religions, this was unacceptable.
In their defense they called upon the ancient
Fathers. Catholics did this in Protestant lands. Protestants
did the same in Catholic lands.
The principle was congenial as well to the first thinkers of
the Enlightenment, most of whom were agnostic or deist.
Yet they were aware of Tertullian, and they recognized the
truth of his argument for religious freedom.
Wilken ends his book by showing us that Thomas Jefferson,
himself a deist, copied out Tertullian’s argument at
length, in Latin.
It’s rare to find a “history of ideas” that’s also a spellbinding
story anyone can enjoy. “Liberty in the Things of God”
is just that kind of book.
It is, needless to say, most useful at a time when “freedom
of religion” is increasingly set aside while “freedom from
religion” is advanced — using fake history as its justification.
The state, whether in Rome or Washington or
Sacramento, would prefer to recognize no higher authority
than its own.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor to Angelus. He is the
author of many books, including “How Christianity Saved
Civilization … And Must Do So Again” (Sophia Institute
Press, $18.95).
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13

‘The richness
of Talpa’
A Catholic school in East LA is counting
its blessings from a much-needed facelift
BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS
cutting it, they’re
cutting it!”
“They’re
There were no local
dignitaries, regional bishops, or long
speeches on this September morning
— just a nun with a big pair of scissors,
and nearly 300 Our Lady of Talpa
School students gathered around
the door to their newly remodeled
gym, many of them jumping up and
down excitedly on the newly installed
schoolyard pavement.
It was the moment these Talpa
Trojans had been waiting for after
a busy summer. Thanks to a $1.7
million grant from the Dorothy Shea
Foundation — and a lot of parent
volunteer hours — the Boyle Heights
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Our Lady of Talpa principal John Rojas and his
predecessor, Sister Adella Armentrout, at the
Sept. 10 ribbon-cutting.
K-8 parochial school has gotten a
much-needed facelift.
“Our school has been the same
for too many years. Nothing had
changed. It was always getting hot,
and we didn’t have any air-conditioning
vents, which now they added,”
explained eighth-grader Delilah
Anguiano.
“To say ‘renovation’ isn’t strong
enough,” remarked Daughters of
Charity Provincial Supervisor Sister
Julie Kubasak during a blessing ceremony
Sept. 10.
The upgrades include a state-of-theart
STEM laboratory, freshly painted
classrooms and hallways, new projectors,
and a playground for its youngest
14 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

VICTOR ALEMÁN
Students wait outside to see the newly renovated Our Lady of Talpa school gymnasium.
students.
And, of course, that gym.
“Our biggest need was to convert
an auditorium that was not well-used
and had been neglected for a long
time into a functional gymnasium,”
explained principal John Rojas.
The remodeled space hosted the
Tuesday morning blessing ceremony,
which began with students singing
“Talpa’s the school that the Lord has
blessed” (a version of the popular
hymn “This is the Day” rewritten for
the occasion).
Children, parents, and guests
watched a video presentation of the
project before Father Perry Henry,
CM, led them in prayer and blessed
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Father Perry Henry, CM, read three short Scripture
passages about the importance of “building”
well to students before blessing their new gym.
the gym with holy water.
For Rojas, the gym’s state-of-the-art
makeover is meant to make it the
“pearl of our parish community.”
Sixth-grader Arturo Medina had a
different perspective.
“I know they’re going to put a basketball
court in, and I really love basketball,”
answered Medina when asked
what he was most excited about.
The parish of Our Lady of Talpa
was founded in the 1920s by
families from the Mexican
town of Talpa de Allende in Jalisco,
driven into exile by religious persecution
during the Mexican Revolution.
In 1951, the parish opened the
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 15

PABLO KAY
Our Lady of Talpa School’s new STEM lab.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Students sing “Talpa’s the school that the Lord
has blessed” at the Sept. 10 blessing ceremony
for the new gymnasium.
school, and since then sisters of the
Daughters of Charity order like former
principal Sister Adella Armentrout
(the nun with the scissors) have helped
staff the school, educating students
from low-income immigrant families
in the Boyle Heights area. (Today,
there are fewer sisters, but the school is
still “co-sponsored” by the order.)
According to Rojas, more than 90
percent of enrolled students currently
receive help with tuition aid.
That’s in part thanks to a firm mandate
from the Daughters of Charity
Foundation, which helps fund the
school, to turn no family away, and
to “trust in God that somehow, some
way, we’ll make it work financially” for
them, said Rojas.
“The fact we can tell families, ‘You
may not be able to pay full tuition, but
this is your home,’ that’s why I think
this place is a real beacon of hope for
many people,” said the principal.
As gentrification in the neighborhood
pushes home prices higher and families
into cheaper areas like the Inland
Empire, schools like Talpa are under
pressure not only to balance budgets,
but to equip graduates for competition
in a changing job market.
That’s why the school’s new STEM
lab (short for science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics) is
about more than letting students enjoy
tinkering with Lego robots.
“When you give a STEM lab to a
school, it helps bridge not only the
achievement gap, it also bridges the
opportunity gap” for low-income family
students, said Leslie De Leonardis,
director of the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles’ STEM network.
“It provides students with the opportunity
to not just learn skills like
how to use a 3D printer or code and
program robots, but how to apply those
skills in the real world,” added De
Leonardis.
While construction on the campus
16 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

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Church Keyboard Center celebrates the
beautiful new Rodgers organ at
St. John Vianney Catholic
Church, Hacienda Heights
Msgr. Tim Nichols, Pastor
Michael Gribschaw,
Director of Music / Organist
Christine Leong Brydges, Choral Director
www.churchkeyboard.com
Nelson Dodge, President
Join us in 2020 for the Passion Play!
buzzed away this summer, parents
stayed busy, too, using their spare
time to paint walls, move equipment,
and wax floors before the school year
started. In May, they helped organize
a walkathon fundraiser together with
the school’s Vincentian Marian youth
group that brought in more than
$30,000 in donations for the project.
“These children come from poor
families, but when it’s time to give
and serve, it’s like the parable of the
widow giving all she has,” said Belinda
Pantaleon, vice principal.
Pantaleon, who has worked at Talpa
for 31 years, credits the school’s faith
foundation and the dedication of
parents to making “what seemed to be
impossible become possible.”
“What you see here is from parents
giving everything they have. This is the
richness of Talpa.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17
A Pilgrimage to Austria & Germany
Featuring the Passion Play of Oberammergau
8 Days: May 18 – 25, 2020
Under the Guidance of:
Fr. Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D.
Ms. Gail Gresser, M.A.
Fr. Parker Sandoval, M.Div.
Download brochure and registration form at:
www.GoCatholicTravel.com/20017
Contact: Fr. Felix Just, S.J., fjust@jesuits.org
CST#: 2018667–40

Francis and
the ‘s-word’
Why the pope’s talk of schism
means he understands what’s at
stake in his push for reform
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. / ANGELUS
PAUL HARING/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Pope Francis answers questions from journalists aboard his flight from Antananarivo, Madagascar, to Rome Sept. 10.
ROME — In the beginning, some wondered if Pope
Francis quite understood the consternation some
of his words and deeds can arouse, and how much
some sectors of the Catholic Church, especially those
usually seen as more conservative or traditional, often feel
aggrieved by the direction things seem to be heading.
After Sept. 10, however, there can be no doubt: Yes, he
gets it.
Many of the most memorable moments of this papacy
have come during airborne press conferences, and so it was
on the pope’s return flight from a Sept. 4-10 trip to Africa.
Talking about his critics, Francis actually used the “s-word”
— schism — saying that while he doesn’t want one and
prays to avoid it, he’s not afraid of it either.
Historically speaking, Rome has feared schism like almost
nothing else, because schisms have a tendency to split the
Church into pieces that all the pope’s horses and all the
pope’s men can’t put back together again.
In recent years, that’s why, beginning with St. Pope Paul
VI, every pope since the Second Vatican Council (1962-
65) has bent over backward to try to heal the traditionalist
rupture led by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and his
18 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

Society of St. Pius X.
It’s also why the Vatican
under St. Pope John Paul
II went to such lengths to
try to bring ex-Archbishop
Emmanuel Milingo,
nicknamed the “Zambezi
Zinger” for his penchant
for exorcisms, back into the
fold. (That effort ultimately
proved unsuccessful, but
Rome’s anxiety about a
widespread African schism
led by Milingo never materialized.)
In that context, Francis’
indirect recognition that a
schism is possible on his
watch is striking, amounting
to a clear signal that he
understands the intensity of
the reactions he’s generated.
It’s also arresting, of course,
that the line came in the
context of a question about
the criticism Francis sometimes
gets from Americans.
Francis had set things into
motion Sept. 4 during his
outbound flight from Rome
to Maputo in Mozambique.
As he customarily does,
he made the rounds of the
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1981.
ring to the Roman Curia, the central
administrative bureaucracy of
the Vatican.
So, is there a serious danger
of a schism today? Probably, it
depends on what one means.
As any church historian will
tell you, the formal sense of
a “schism” is a break in communion
with the leadership of a
church, carried out by someone
in a position to speak authoritatively
for a segment of the faithful.
In Catholic terms, that means
to have a real schism you need at
least one bishop to lead it. It’s not
clear there’s any bishop prepared
to formally reject the pope’s
authority, and it isn’t clear how
many people would follow him
should one actually do it.
In the United States, while there
certainly are bishops who aren’t
turning cartwheels over some
aspects of Francis’ rhetoric and
governance, there’s no one who’s
even hinted at the prospect of
setting up a rival church.
Moreover, even after the clerical
abuse scandals of the past year,
polls show Francis still has the
support of seven out of 10 American
Catholics, which is the sort of
press compartment on the plane to greet the reporters
flying with him.
One was a French journalist who’s just published a
book with the provocative title of “How America Tried to
Change the Pope,” about a purported effort by American
conservatives, including EWTN and LifeSite News, to
sabotage Francis’ agenda.
In response to being presented with a copy of the book,
Francis said he considers it “an honor when Americans are
attacking me.”
The line left people wondering what exactly Francis
meant, which led to the question from English-speaking
journalists on the flight back to Rome. Part of what was
asked was whether Francis fears a schism.
“On the question of schism. … In the Church, there have
been many,” Francis said, giving the example of ruptures
that followed the First and Second Vatican Councils,
including the one led by Lefebvre.
“There always is the schismatic option in the Church,”
Francis said. “It’s a choice that the Lord leaves to human
freedom. I am not afraid of schism … I pray for them not to
happen, as the spiritual health of many people is at stake.”
The pope acknowledged that Americans aren’t his only
headache.
approval rating of which politicians can only dream.
The prospect of a schism in the full-blown sense, therefore,
seems remote. Instead, what may already be in the
works is a de facto, informal schism. No one walks out of
the Church in a huff, but some — a relatively small minority,
no doubt, but an influential and vocal one — practice
a sort of internal exile. Some protest and complain, others
simply hunker down and try to ride out the storm.
Francis seems alert to this reality as well, telling reporters
on the way back to Rome that today’s problem, as he sees it,
is “rigidity” rather than schism.
“Today we have pockets of rigidity, which aren’t a schism,
but they’re semi-schismatic ways of life that will end badly,”
the pope said, adding that bishops, priests, and laity who are
“rigid” lack the “health” of the Gospel.
None of that settles the debate over any specific aspect of
Francis’ papacy. What it does resolve, however, is any lingering
doubt about whether Francis understands that such
a debate is raging.
No pope uses the “s-word” without understanding what’s
at stake. Francis also told reporters on the plane that if anyone
has advice on how to avoid such a schism, he’s open to
it, so now the drama may become, who’s going to take the
pope up on that offer?
“Criticism comes not only from the Americans, they’re
coming from all over, including the Curia,” he said, refer-
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19

© THOMISTIC INSTITUTE
Aquinas made easy
Thanks to some creative friars,
getting to know Catholicism’s bestknown
theological heavyweight
doesn’t have to be so intimidating
BY KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ / ANGELUS
© THOMISTIC INSTITUTE
Father Gregory Pine, OP.
Just before the start of September, the Thomistic Institute,
a project of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph,
launched Aquinas 101, an online course in Thomism.
Intended to be the very opposite of intimidating, Aquinas
101 makes the best of Thomism accessible and digestible
with short videos in small doses from dynamic Dominican
friars, known for their preaching and teaching.
To get a better sense of how this new initiative plans to
reach hearts and minds, Angelus News spoke to Father
Gregory Pine, OP, assistant director for campus outreach at
the Thomistic Institute in Washington, D.C.
20 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

Kathryn Jean Lopez: People are busy. Why take time for
an online course in Thomas Aquinas?
Father Gregory Pine, OP: Ultimately, because we want
to be wise, and we often don’t know where to begin. We
wish we had the habits of mind and heart that would infuse
a little contemplative verve into our lives, but we don’t
know where to turn. Turn here.
Lopez: What can I expect to learn from your videos?
Pine: You’ll learn the essentials of St. Thomas’ teaching,
which is a synthesis of the whole Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
It was said of St. Thomas Aquinas that he seemed to
have inherited the intellect of all.
He is able to synthesize the riches of Scripture, tradition,
Greek philosophy, Jewish and Islamic thought, the early
Church Fathers, and his contemporaries in a way that is coherent
and true and that give you a vision of all of theology.
Lopez: What’s practical about St. Thomas Aquinas?
Pine: St. Thomas sees all things in light of God. Whereas
many today are tempted to reduce most considerations to
politics, management, bureaucracy, or therapy, St. Thomas
sees everything as proceeding from God and returning to
him. He’s a real theologian, and he is able to communicate
that wisdom in marvelous fashion.
Lopez: What if someone reading this is generally intimidated
by Aquinas?
Pine: The point of the course is to overcome the intimidation.
The goal is that, by the end, you’ll be able to read
St. Thomas on his own terms. It fashions for you the tools
of learning and you can do it in the privacy of your own
home.
Each lesson also affords you the opportunity to “Ask a
Friar.” So, we’ll be able to walk you through it. Admittedly,
St. Thomas seems intimidating: 13th century . . . jargon . . .
speculative theology. The thing is, once you learn a couple
of words and concepts, the whole thing opens up before
you. It’s marvelous.
Lopez: Do you have a favorite among his writings?
Pine: There is really nothing quite like the “Summa
Theologiae.” A few minutes each day with it are sufficient
to have a habit of contemplative study, which deepens an
interior life and enriches the life of prayer.
Lopez: You’ve worked with college students. How can
Aquinas help them with the challenges they face, beyond,
say, a prayer before study?
Pine: I think the university is a place of serious fragmentation.
You can spend four years in an institution of higher
learning and never broach the most significant questions in
life. Who is God? Why were we created? What is happiness?
What is distinct about the Christian claim?
St. Thomas helps you to approach life’s most significant
questions in a way that is attuned to what is. Truth, on St.
Thomas’ terms, is the conformity of our mind to reality.
St. Thomas has no interest in crafting an overly facile or
elegant theory if it doesn’t correspond to what is. He knows
that the truth serves only its slaves. And so, he is able to
help those who follow after him to engage questions of
deepest import with a fidelity to the real, as both revealed
and reasoned.
This is a salve for the sad, lonely, and anxious. It’s an invitation
into a wider circle. It’s the beginning of communion.
Lopez: How can Aquinas help us pray, particularly in the
wake of tragedy or suffering?
Pine: St. Thomas is a contemplative and would argue
that every human person has a contemplative vocation.
With the world in shambles around us, it’s easy to permit a
frantic spirit to inform our apostolic labors.
In St. Thomas’ understanding, God doesn’t need our
prayers to achieve his ends. He could achieve all that he
wills directly. Rather, our participation in his work is itself
his gift . . . it makes us more like him, it affords us the
opportunity to be more than mere recipients in the drama
of salvation . . . to be also agents.
And so, our prayers work within this contemplative vision.
We learn what it is that God wants from us first by considering
God, and then setting about the task.
Lopez: How can Aquinas help us with those recent Pew
Research Center results about Catholics not knowing and
believing in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist?
Pine: St. Thomas lived right after Lateran IV, which used
the language of transubstantiation to describe the change
from bread to the Lord’s body and from wine to the Lord’s
blood. His treatise on the Eucharist is a masterpiece of
philosophical and theological insight.
I suspect many people don’t believe in the Real Presence
because they don’t even understand the claim, much less
the explanation. St. Thomas can help with both. He was
known to have struggled with the issue. In times of difficulty,
when writing the treatise, he was known to rest his
head on the tabernacle itself. We would do well to follow
in turn!
Lopez: Does Aquinas have anything to offer the Church
post-Theodore McCarrick?
Pine: St. Thomas has a beautiful theology of the priesthood.
In his understanding, a priest is ordained to give divine
things. By baptism and confirmation, we are outfitted
to receive divine things, but holy orders make a man suited
to communicate them.
And a priest is called to conform his life to the mysteries
that he communicates in order to be a better sign of the
realities he administers. This he does by his own ongoing
conversion. So, yes, priests should be holy. That being said,
St. Thomas is not scandalized by the fact of bad priests.
God’s plans will ultimately not be defeated by bad priests.
You can sign up online at aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org
Kathryn Jean Lopez is a contributing editor to Angelus, and
editor-at-large of National Review Online.
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21

City __
INTERSECTIONS
BY GREG ERLANDSON
Anthems for eternity
National Public Radio’s “All
Things Considered” evening
news show has a running feature
called “Anthems.” It identified various
songs from our collective memory
that could be so labeled, from “This
Land is Your Land,” by Woody Guthrie
to “Get Together,” most famously sung
by the Youngbloods. Nirvana’s “Smells
Like Teen Spirit” even got a nod, described
as an “anthem for a generation
that didn’t want one.”
What makes a song an anthem
depends a lot on where you are coming
from. “Born in the USA” by Bruce
Springsteen had the rather odd fate of
being an anthem both for those who
sang the refrain with a certain post-war
bitterness and those who sang it as the
theme song of Ronald Reagan’s presidential
reelection campaign.
Anthems are songs that evoke a
particular time or a particular emotion
in the listener almost as soon as the
first notes are heard, binding us to all
who share a similar memory. Yet while
anthems have the ability to speak to
millions, the strings they pluck in each
of us can be intensely personal.
The same holds true for church
music: I think we all have our personal
church “anthems,” songs that can
move us to tears or bring back a rush of
memories.
If I hear “Hail Holy Queen Enthroned
Above,” for example, I am
immediately transported back to my
grammar school choir at Visitation
Church in Westchester, looking down
on a sea of bowed heads and veils from
our lofty choir perch while trying to
follow Sister’s earnest conducting.
In church, singing isn’t entertainment.
Whether we belt it out with
abandon or simply move our lips as
if we are in a Jimmy Fallon lip-sync
contest, singing is praying. I’m more
the lip-sync type, but there are certain
songs that will actually compel me to
join in, a sure sign it’s on my anthem
list.
For sheer exuberance, “All Creatures
of our God and King” is one that will
ring the church bells. Attributed to St.
Francis of Assisi, it is a soaring, exultant
entrance song, rife with alleluias. Yet
deeply Franciscan, the sixth verse, for
obvious reasons not sung very often, is
an ode to Sister Death:
“And you, most kind and gentle death,
Waiting to hush our final breath,
Sing your praises! Alleluia!
You lead to heav’n the child of God,
Where Christ our Lord the way has
trod…”
SHUTTERSTOCK
Two ultra-traditional songs that have
a solemnity and an elegance that make
them classics are “Tantum Ergo” and
“Pange Lingua,” both by St. Thomas
Aquinas. But for me the “Salve
Regina” has a special place because
it reminds me of the Night Prayer, or
Compline, at Mepkin Abbey.
In a church lit only by candles, it is a
final prayer sung before the monks are
blessed and sent to bed with the song’s
plaintive request: “Grant us after these,
our days of lonely exile, the sight of
your blest Son and Lord, Christ Jesus.”
One song that won’t ever make any
of the hymnals, but which I find very
moving, is Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be
Send m
Name
Addres
22 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

© MEPKIN ABBEY
The monks at Mepkin Abbey.
Your Will,” particularly the version
sung by the singer once known as Antony.
It is an artist’s prayer, hauntingly
beautiful, and beautifully haunted.
Cohen himself described his songs as
“muffled prayers,” and that certainly
describes this one.
But of all my church anthems, “The
Servant Song” is at the top of my list
these days. Composed by Richard
Gillard, it has a monastic simplicity to
it, a Gospel purity that cuts right to the
heart of the Christian challenge:
“Brother let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you,
Pray that I might have the grace to
Let you be my servant too.”
My regret is that I didn’t know “The
Servant Song” when I got married. It is
the one song my wife and I both want
played at our funerals.
Of course, when it comes to church
music, everyone is likely to have an
equally fierce idea about what they
don’t like: the anti-anthems. My wife
has a particularly strong antipathy to
“On Eagle’s Wings,” for example.
She has let it be known that if I allow
it to be played at her funeral, she will
come back from the grave and haunt
me. I have a similar feeling about
“Gather Us In,” whose cloying verses
claim “we have been sung throughout
all of hist’ry.” Not at my funeral,
anyway.
But instead of complaining about the
music we don’t like, or complaining
that Catholics can’t sing, or that no
good music has been written in the last
decades, or centuries, or millennium,
let’s acknowledge the new classics and
the old — our personal anthems. And
the next time we hear it in church, no
lip-syncing!”
Greg Erlandson is the president
and editor-in-chief of Catholic News
Service.
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In praise of the
‘Holy Fool’
Now streaming: a foreign film that revives one
of literature’s most uncomfortable character types
BY ROBERT INCHAUSTI / ANGELUS
The Italian film “Happy as Lazzaro”
was a surprise hit on Netflix
this summer. Yet I suspect many
of those who saw it might have been
disappointed. Not because it isn’t a
fantastic movie (it won the award for
best screenplay at Cannes last year, after
all), but because it is a serious work
that threatens to expose us for who we
really are.
Allow me to explain.
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher, the
films tells the story of its namesake, a
young man who lives among a group
of peasants living as slaves on a tobacco
farm in rural Tuscany. The farm is
owned by the Marquise Alfonsina de
Luna and managed by her affable but
manipulative farm administrator.
Lazzaro, at first, does not seem like
someone anyone would ever admire.
Hardly a hero and more of a fool, he is
neither intelligent, nor savvy, nor even
particularly religious. He is content to
do what his superiors tell him to do,
however inane, and takes correction
from everyone and anyone.
His only remarkable feature is that he
falls into a trance from time to time,
a behavior described by the laborers
he lives with as “staring into the void.”
But one suspects there is more than
“void gazing” going on here.
One of the darkest and yet most prophetic
scenes comes very early in the
film, when one of the women taking
care of the sharecroppers’ children
tells a small child that his mother is
dead.
“Killed herself to get away from you,”
she says. When he cries, she laughs
and says, “How ugly he looks when he
cries.”
Such dialogue is depicted as sport —
mere teasing; everyone here apparently
does it. Besides, the woman thinks
she is doing the boy a favor; he must
get used to abuse like everyone else.
Having already met the innocent,
happy-go-lucky Lazzaro, the viewer
shudders at horrors sure to come.
The film begins as a work of social realism,
documenting the class conflict
and the effects of economic exploitation,
then quickly evolves into a
saint’s story along the lines of Gustave
Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart” and I. B.
Singer’s “Gimple the Fool.”
All three of these works feature a
“Holy Fool” as their central character,
not an epic, comic, or tragic hero like
you find in most popular fiction. Such
heroic protagonists show us how to be
24 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

“excellent,” “famous,” “lovable,” or
“good.”
Holy Fools serve quite a different
function: They expose our pretenses
and challenge our convictions. The
conflict in such narratives does not
hinge on the clash between good and
evil, so much as on an interior struggle
between compassion and indifference.
When the spoiled son of the marquise
fakes his own kidnapping to get back
at his mother, Lazzaro helps him, not
because he hates the upper class or has
any grudge against the marquise, but
simply because he likes his friend and
wants to help. And yet in a mysterious
turn of events, the self-kidnapping
(of which Lazzaro is an accomplice)
leads to a police intervention and the
subsequent liberation of the entire
tobacco farm.
Adriano Tardiolo in “Happy as Lazzaro.”
Still, the poor peasants find it impossible
to benefit from this turn of good
fortune, largely because they possess
few skills and even less virtue to make
a go of it in the city. Relying on natural
ruthlessness, they become petty
criminals, committing larcenies and
inflicting their hardheartedness on one
another and any innocent bystanders
they may come across.
The trick to grasping the allegorical
elements in stories like these is for the
viewer not to identify with the Holy
Fool. After all, they are nothing like us.
Rather, such tales ask us to see ourselves
in all the “smart,” clever people
who mock him or have contempt
for his innocence, or try to manage
or exploit it — people like the farm
manager who have spent their lives
learning the art of the deal, or the
IMDB
“polite” nun who scoots Lazzaro out
of the cathedral during music practice.
(I, for one, saw myself in the tragically
hip, spoiled son of the marquise.)
These people mirror our egocentric
lives; the Holy Fool marks the contrast.
In this sense, “Happy as Lazzaro” is a
satire. There are no heroes here, only
victims, dupes, and perpetrators. The
rich exploit the poor, the poor exploit
one another, while the middle class
look after their reputations.
If there is any thesis statement in this
film, it comes in a scene where the
marquise reads to her child and friend
from the second chapter of Thomas
à Kempis’ “The Imitation of Christ.”
The irony of her reading such wisdom
to her child reveals her self-deluded
megalomania, and yet the words retain
their power:
“He who knows himself well is
humbled in his own presence. And the
praise of other men provokes no pleasure.
If I were to know everything in
the universe and scorned charity, who
would bring me to the grace of God?”
This film has stayed with me over the
several months since I first watched
it. It even got me looking forward to
the many moments of correction in
my life, however seemingly minor or
unimportant.
The day after watching it I was
scolded by a dog groomer for my dog’s
fleas and the thistle he found in his
toe. And then my barber reprimanded
me for not knowing the kind of haircut
I wanted. “I don’t know; cut it like you
always do!”
Lazzaro’s good intentions, like all
of ours, may be powerless against the
treacheries of this world, and yet our
failures to overcome those treacheries
do not condemn us in the eyes of God
but procure his mercy. And a man
who knows this will be humble in his
own presence, accepting the vicissitudes
of Divine Providence with great
joy.
Perhaps this is what it means to be as
happy as Lazzaro.
Robert Inchausti is an author of several
books and professor of English at Cal
Poly, San Luis Obispo. His latest book
is “Hard to be a Saint in the City: The
Spiritual Vision of the Beats” (Shambhala,
$16.95).
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
© CHRIS ARNADE
An image featured in the book “Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America,” by Chris Arnade.
A trip to ‘Back Row America’
How drug addicts,
prostitutes, and
McDonald’s tell the
story of modern-day
America in ‘Dignity’
“I because I was told not to.”
first walked the Hunts Point
neighborhood of the Bronx
So begins “Dignity: Seeking Respect
in Back Row America” (Sentinel,
$18), a recently published photo essay
collection by Chris Arnade.
A former Wall Street bond trader,
Arnade had achieved the American
dream when in 2011 he began to get
restless. He’d always taken long walks
around Manhattan, but now he started
venturing into “the less seen parts
of New York City, the parts people
claimed were unsafe or uninteresting.”
He found his way to Hunts Point, notorious
for two things: drugs and prostitutes.
Almost entirely black and Latino,
26 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019

oughly 40 percent of its residents live
below the poverty line.
He talked to whoever would engage.
He brought along his camera and started
taking portraits. To his surprise he
found community, beauty, creativity,
and a sense of place: barbershops, bike
shops, pigeon keepers.
He also found the addicts and sex
workers, and found as well that they
were accepted as part of the community.
He befriended Takeesha, who’d
been put out on the streets by her
mother’s pimp when she was 12 years
old. How did she want to be described?
asked Arnade. “As who I am,” she
replied, without missing a beat, “a
prostitute, a mother of six, and a child
of God.”
By 2015 he’d quit his job, left Hunts
Point, and started taking road trips to
towns across America hollowed-out by
corporate greed, drug addiction, and
white flight. He put 150,000 miles on
his car and spent three years sitting beside,
talking with, and listening to the
stories of the people whom the mostly
white elite purport to want to help.
He has no particular “answers.” He
has no axe to grind nor agenda to
promote.
He doesn’t romanticize the people of
“Back Row America.” He gives faces,
names, voices, and histories — dignity
— to the otherwise unseen and
unheard: in Selma, Alabama, where if
you’re willing to ruin your hands, you
can get a “slave labor” job chipping cement
off old bricks for 10 or 20 bucks
a day; in Portsmouth, Ohio, where a
single, jobless father pushes his kids
around town in a shopping cart; in
Bakersfield, California, aka “McMeth,”
statistically the most back row city in
the country.
He discovered that in dying towns all
over the country, the local McDonald’s
is the new town square. Retired gents
in Gary, Indiana, meet for morning
coffee and swap stories about the old
days. Elderly ladies gather to play bingo.
Homeless people can charge their
phones, cadge sponge baths, ice and
free refills, and sit for hours gossiping,
snacking, or napping.
The back row consists of individuals,
not types. He finds Trump supporters.
He finds those carrying placards reading
“American was NEVER great!”
AMAZON
In the projects of Cleveland, he talks
to a black man, smoking on his stoop,
who observes, “You know what I think
about Trump? He is so racist, he is past
racism, into something we can’t even
comprehend.”
Wherever he is, he goes to “services”
at the closest church each Sunday
morning, and finds himself welcome.
He makes this essential point:
“Religion and faith are essential
for surviving the streets of the South
Bronx. … There are dirty Bibles in
crack houses, Korans in abandoned
buildings. … Rosaries, crucifixes, and
religious icons are worn for protection
and good luck. Pages of the Bible
are torn out, folded up, and kept in
pockets, to be pulled out and fingered
nervously or read over in times of stress
or held during prayers. ...
“[C]hurches understand the streets,
understand everyone is a sinner and
everyone fails.”
That the front row’s cultural disdain
for religion constitutes a kind of reverse
colonialism, in other words, is a notion
lost on the elite. A second, related
insight has to do with one of the front
row’s favored solutions to poverty: just
move.
“Telling members of the back row
that they should solve their own problems
by moving is insulting, no matter
who you’re talking to. But it is particularly
insulting to African Americans;
their entire history in the United States
is of forced and coerced movement.”
Everywhere Arnade finds a pride of
place, an ache for family, a longing
for home. Everywhere, he encounters
people staying in blighted areas
because they want to take care of their
parents, stay close to their friends, raise
their kids with the same food, culture,
and community with which they were
raised.
Arnade understands this impulse to
stay put stems not from laziness or fear,
but rather a kind of stubborn love that
the privileged — whose ties to friends,
community, and family tend to be
more attenuated, who unthinkingly
pull up stakes in pursuit of high-paying
jobs, who pride themselves on their
“mobility” — can scarcely begin to
understand.
In the end, the real glory of “Dignity”
may lie here: “The walks, the portraits,
the stories I heard, the places they took
me, became a process of learning in a
different way. Not from textbooks, or
statistics, or spreadsheets … but from
people.”
That’s the Incarnation in action. “Jesus
knew human nature well.” Walking
the hills, plains, temple plazas, and cities
of his own time, talking to people,
looking into their eyes, reading their
hearts: that’s how he learned, too.
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.
September 20, 2019 • ANGELUS • 27

S
T
M
The NEW AngelusNews.com
In this week’s issue of Angelus, we’ve tried to save the best
news for last.
Since The Tidings became Angelus three years ago,
we’ve created a multimedia news platform that provides
smart analysis of the events and trends shaping the Church
and our society, reflections and advice from some of the best
spiritual writers on prayer and Catholic living, and quality
local journalism covering the Catholic experience in Los
Angeles.
Our weekly magazine, our award-winning daily email newsletter
Always Forward, and our website, AngelusNews.com,
are all a part of our mission to help form and inform engaged
Catholics in today’s world.
If you visited AngelusNews.com this week, you may have
noticed that it looks a little different.
Don’t worry: It’s the same Angelus, just presented with an
updated look and some new features we hope you, the reader,
will enjoy and benefit from.
After all, many of the improvements to AngelusNews.com
are thanks to feedback offered by readers.
For example, some of you asked about a “Letters to the
Editor” page. Well, that and a new “Classifieds” page can be
found in the new “About” menu.
Under our “Local” category, there’s an Events Calendar,
as well as an Obituaries page and our new “LA Catholics”
section featuring news from around the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles.
28 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019
The site has also been redesigned to offer photo and video
galleries capturing moments from events and stories from
around the archdiocese, which you can view on the new
Photo & Video page.
These and several other new features are all designed to
ultimately help you, the Angelus reader, live your faith in
your families and communities and better understand our
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vision that depends on your support in order to continue.
That’s why, if you haven’t already, please consider subscribing
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Redesigning this site has been a long, intense effort. During
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in that effort: Angelus Multimedia Editor Tamara
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Digital Officer Sarah Yaklic, both of whom have poured
their talents, time, and energy into making sure the new
AngelusNews.com is the best Catholic diocesan news site in
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We hope you like it.
— Pablo Kay, Editor-in-Chief
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FR. SERAPHIM MICHALENKO, MIC
Fr. Seraphim has been a priest for
63 years and has spent most of his
life spreading the message of
Jesus, The Divine Mercy. He served
for 20 years as Vice-Postulator in
North America for the canonization
cause of St. Maria Faustina, to whom
Jesus entrusted the message of The
Divine Mercy in the 1930’s.
FR. JOSEPH AYTONA, CPM
Fr. Joseph is the founder of the
Spiritual Motherhood Sodality as
well as the founder of Family
Vocation Ministries, an apostolate
that promotes vocations through
the sanctification of families.
FR. PARKER SANDOVAL
Following his formation at St.
John’s Seminary in Camarillo, he
was ordained a priest for the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
in 2015 and coordinator of Adult
Faith Formation in the Office of
Religious Education.
FR. ED BROOM, OMV
He is a member of the Oblates of
the Virgin Mary and was ordained
by Saint John Paul II on May 25,
1986. Fr Ed teaches Catholic
Ignatian Marian Spirituality
through articles, podcasts, a radio
show, retreats and spiritual direction.
PURISIMA NARVAEZ 818.543.1831
MARY WHITTLE 818.395.0143
Please cut and mail bottom portion only.
ESTRELLE MIJARES 562.972.5675
BETH BASILIO 562.842.6910
30 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2019
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