Angelus News | October 25, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 36
Young dancers from Ballet Folklórico Herencia Mexicana at St. Agatha in Mid-City at the first “Día de los Muertos” celebration 2014 at Calvary Cemetery in East LA. On Page 10, Pilar Marrero reports on how both the cultural and religious aspects of the traditional Mexican feast of “Día de los Muertos” (“Day of the Dead”) have created an opportunity for evangelization in Los Angeles. On Page 14, R.W. Dellinger gives a look into the daily reality of life and death seen through the eyes of three employees at a local Catholic cemetery.
Young dancers from Ballet Folklórico Herencia Mexicana at St. Agatha in Mid-City at the first “Día de los Muertos” celebration 2014 at Calvary Cemetery in East LA. On Page 10, Pilar Marrero reports on how both the cultural and religious aspects of the traditional Mexican feast of “Día de los Muertos” (“Day of the Dead”) have created an opportunity for evangelization in Los Angeles. On Page 14, R.W. Dellinger gives a look into the daily reality of life and death seen through the eyes of three employees at a local Catholic cemetery.
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AD REM<br />
BY ROBERT BRENNAN<br />
When grace beats guilt<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/TOM FOX POOL VIA REUTERS<br />
Brandt Jean hugs former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger.<br />
Guilty pleasures still make us<br />
guilty. The Liam Neeson “Taken”<br />
franchise is such a form<br />
of entertainment I have dabbled in.<br />
Guilty. From the rash of sequels at least<br />
I’m not alone. Why do movies like this<br />
attract us?<br />
Maybe it’s because watching Neeson<br />
track down all those bad guys who kidnapped<br />
his daughter — or whichever<br />
family member this guy seems to have<br />
such a difficult time keeping track of<br />
— gives us a false sense of justice.<br />
Movies have no monopoly doling out<br />
desensitizing product that taps into our<br />
baser selves. Television has been doing<br />
it for decades. We may be passively<br />
watching in our living rooms, but we<br />
participate when we shrug and grab a<br />
snack after watching some TV reporter<br />
thrust a microphone in front of a grieving<br />
mother to ask how she feels after<br />
her child was hit by a car.<br />
If it’s a particularly awful story about<br />
a child being hurt and the culprit is<br />
still on the loose, television helps fan<br />
the outrage flames and we become<br />
like the mobs in old monster movies<br />
with torches and pitchforks demanding<br />
“justice.”<br />
What we are really demanding is<br />
vengeance. It’s the same emotion we<br />
entertain ourselves with in all those<br />
Neeson movies where he hunts bad<br />
guys and does unspeakable things to<br />
them. It makes us feel good, in the<br />
most superficial and fleeting way.<br />
<strong>No</strong>ne of this is television’s or the movie<br />
industry’s problem. Just as long as<br />
people keep walking to the box office<br />
or buy the products advertised on our<br />
favorite television shows, all is good in<br />
the pop culture universe.<br />
24 • ANGELUS • <strong>October</strong> <strong>25</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
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