Angelus News | March 13, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 10
With hundreds of streaming options available today, Catholic families are having a hard time making sure their media content stays clean. Angelus asked Sophia Martinson to survey the best help out there for parents. She reports on her results beginning on Page 10.
With hundreds of streaming options available today, Catholic families are having a hard time making sure their media content stays clean. Angelus asked Sophia Martinson to survey the best help out there for parents. She reports on her results beginning on Page 10.
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ANGELUS<br />
AGAINST THE STREAM<br />
Keeping kids safe in the<br />
new digital world<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> <strong>Vol</strong>. 5 <strong>No</strong>. <strong>10</strong>
Join the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Official<br />
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land<br />
11 Days: October 26 to <strong>No</strong>vember 5, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Under the Spiritual<br />
Leadership of<br />
Archbishop José H. Gomez<br />
along with:<br />
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land<br />
including Bethlehem, Sea of Galilee,<br />
Nazareth, Jerusalem, and much more!<br />
$4,299 from Los Angeles (LAX)<br />
plus $195 in tips<br />
Bishop<br />
David<br />
O’Connell<br />
Msgr.<br />
Antonio<br />
Cacciapuoti<br />
Space is limited – sign up today!<br />
Fr.<br />
James<br />
Anguiano<br />
Fr.<br />
Parker<br />
Sandoval<br />
Download a brochure and registration form today at<br />
GoCatholicTravel.com/20033<br />
Contact: Mrs. Judy Brooks, Director<br />
Archbishop’s Office for Special Services<br />
(2<strong>13</strong>) 637-7551 or pilgrimage@la-archdiocese.org<br />
CST#: 2018667–40
Contents<br />
Archbishop Gomez 3<br />
World, Nation, and Local <strong>News</strong> 4-6<br />
LA Catholic Events 7<br />
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8<br />
Father Rolheiser 9<br />
Kobe memorial gives Bishop Mora athletes surprise inspiration 14<br />
30 years later, an LMU star gets his statue 18<br />
Who’s missing on the Vatican’s new abuse task force 20<br />
Mike Aquilina on the worst of the ‘Four Last Things’ 22<br />
Why single-payer health care is a bad idea 24<br />
Why spiritual self-care is a good idea 26<br />
Heather King’s drive for Bach 28<br />
t<br />
3<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
With hundreds of streaming options available today,<br />
Catholic families are having a hard time making<br />
sure their media content stays clean. <strong>Angelus</strong> asked<br />
Sophia Martinson to survey the best help out there<br />
for parents. She reports on her results beginning on<br />
Page <strong>10</strong>.<br />
IMAGE:<br />
Pope Francis is pictured on a video monitor in St. Peter’s Square as he leads<br />
the <strong>Angelus</strong> from his library in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican <strong>March</strong> 8. As a<br />
precaution to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the pope’s Sunday <strong>Angelus</strong> was<br />
broadcast on television and displayed on monitors in St. Peter’s Square. After<br />
leading the <strong>Angelus</strong> through video, the pope said he wanted to see the crowd in<br />
“real time” and came to the window of his studio to greet people in the square.<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 1
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<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong><br />
<strong>Vol</strong>. 5 • <strong>No</strong>. <strong>10</strong><br />
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2 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong><br />
POPE WATCH<br />
Laudato Si' Week<br />
Pope Francis is calling on Catholics<br />
to participate in Laudato Si' Week in<br />
May to encourage care for our common<br />
home.<br />
“I renew my urgent call to respond<br />
to the ecological crisis. The cry of the<br />
earth and the cry of the poor cannot<br />
wait anywhere,” Pope Francis said in a<br />
video message published <strong>March</strong> 3.<br />
The video shows young protesters<br />
yelling, “Climate justice, now” juxtaposed<br />
with images of wildlife in Africa<br />
and a beached whale.<br />
Laudato Si' Week, sponsored by the<br />
Dicastery for Integral Human Development,<br />
will take place May 16-24.<br />
The date marks the 5th anniversary<br />
of the publication of Pope Francis’<br />
encyclical on integral human ecology.<br />
The Global Catholic Climate Movement<br />
and Renova + are facilitating<br />
the campaign.<br />
The Laudato Si' Week website<br />
recommends Catholics participate<br />
by engaging elected representatives,<br />
conducting an energy audit, or divesting<br />
in fossil fuels. It also recommends<br />
the option to “represent your commitment<br />
with a symbolic gesture,”<br />
such as planting a tree or attending a<br />
climate strike.<br />
Laudato Si', which means “Praise be<br />
to You,” was published June 18, 2015,<br />
and was dated May 24. Pope Francis<br />
took the name for the encyclical<br />
from St. Francis of Assisi’s medieval<br />
Italian prayer “Canticle of the Sun,”<br />
which praises God through elements<br />
of creation such as “Brother Sun,”<br />
“Sister Moon,” and “our sister Mother<br />
Earth.”<br />
The encyclical argues that it is not<br />
possible to effectively care for the<br />
environment without first working to<br />
defend human life.<br />
It states that it is “clearly inconsistent”<br />
to combat the trafficking of<br />
endangered species while remaining<br />
indifferent toward the trafficking<br />
of persons, to the poor, and to the<br />
decision of many “to destroy another<br />
human being deemed unwanted.”<br />
Pope Francis also highlighted that<br />
concern for the protection of nature is<br />
“incompatible with the justification of<br />
abortion.”<br />
“How can we genuinely teach the<br />
importance of concern for other vulnerable<br />
beings, however troublesome<br />
or inconvenient they may be, if we<br />
fail to protect a human embryo, even<br />
when its presence is uncomfortable<br />
and creates difficulties?” he asked.<br />
The pope also addressed the highly<br />
debated topic of population control, a<br />
proposed solution to problems stemming<br />
from poverty, and maintaining a<br />
sustainable consumption of the earth’s<br />
resources.<br />
“Instead of resolving the problems<br />
of the poor and thinking of how the<br />
world can be different, some can only<br />
propose a reduction in the birthrate,”<br />
Pope Francis lamented.<br />
He denounced the fact that developing<br />
countries often receive pressure<br />
from international organizations that<br />
make economic assistance “contingent<br />
on certain policies of ‘reproductive<br />
health.’ ”<br />
“In the face of the so-called culture<br />
of death, the family is the heart of the<br />
culture of life,” Pope Francis wrote in<br />
Laudato Si'. “The urgent challenge to<br />
protect our common home includes<br />
a concern to bring the whole human<br />
family together … for we know that<br />
things can change,” he said. <br />
Reporting courtesy of Catholic <strong>News</strong><br />
Agency Rome correspondent Courtney<br />
Mares.<br />
Papal Prayer Intention for <strong>March</strong>: We pray that the Church in China may<br />
persevere in its faithfulness to the Gospel and grow in unity.
NEW WORLD<br />
OF FAITH<br />
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ<br />
The virtue that confronts fear<br />
Jesus Christ never promised it would<br />
be easy to follow him. In fact, just the<br />
opposite. He said the path would be<br />
narrow, that he was sending us out<br />
like sheep among wolves.<br />
The first Christians took this teaching<br />
to heart. “It is necessary for us to<br />
undergo many hardships to enter the<br />
kingdom of God,” they would say.<br />
So far, during my columns in Lent, I<br />
have spoken about the cardinal virtues<br />
of prudence and justice.<br />
This week we turn to fortitude, the<br />
moral virtue that strengthens our souls<br />
so that we are capable of meeting our<br />
fears, overcoming our weariness, and<br />
making the sacrifices that must be<br />
made for us to carry out our Christian<br />
duties in the face of hardships and<br />
opposition.<br />
Several years ago I wrote a book<br />
about fortitude in the priesthood,<br />
called “Men of Brave Heart” (Our<br />
Sunday Visitor, 2009). I am convinced<br />
that this is a virtue that all of us<br />
must cultivate in a world that is often<br />
opposed to our Christian values.<br />
Jesus said that the world would hate<br />
Christians, just as the world hated<br />
him.<br />
Millions today still face hatred<br />
expressed in violence, persecution,<br />
martyrdom.<br />
In our secular society, hatred is less<br />
dramatic, but no less real. Our “martyrdom”<br />
can often take the form of<br />
being mocked or marginalized socially<br />
and politically. Christians cannot<br />
work in certain professions or carry<br />
out certain ministries without being<br />
intimidated or facing moral conflicts<br />
because of their beliefs.<br />
In our daily lives, we need fortitude<br />
to stand up for Jesus Christ and<br />
the values of his Gospel, to fight for<br />
what is true and good in society, to<br />
go against the grain of a culture that<br />
denies the sanctity and dignity of<br />
human life.<br />
Having fortitude does not mean that<br />
we have no fear.<br />
It is natural to be afraid when we<br />
are threatened with injury or evil, or<br />
“lesser” fears like the fear of being embarrassed<br />
or humiliated or losing our<br />
livelihoods or professional standing<br />
for living the Gospel.<br />
Fortitude does not take away these<br />
fears, but fortitude helps us not to be<br />
ruled by fear — not to allow fear to<br />
cause us to do something wrong or to<br />
prevent us from doing what is right.<br />
Through fortitude we can resist<br />
temptations and overcome our fears,<br />
and we can have the courage to seek<br />
God’s will before all else.<br />
We exercise fortitude by an act of the<br />
will. We may not think we have the<br />
strength. And that is absolutely true,<br />
we do not.<br />
To practice fortitude means we need<br />
humility, knowing that our strength<br />
lies in the Lord. Without him we can<br />
do nothing. But through his grace, he<br />
will empower us with the strength for<br />
everything.<br />
Jesus is our model in fortitude as he<br />
is in every other virtue. In his humanity<br />
he suffered agonizing fear in the<br />
Garden of Gethsemane, but he offered<br />
himself to God: “Father, if you are<br />
willing, take this cup away from me;<br />
but not my will, but yours be done.”<br />
Following our Lord’s example of<br />
fortitude means that when we face<br />
struggles and trials, we need to ask<br />
God for his grace and we need to<br />
make up our minds to do what is<br />
right, despite our fears.<br />
To grow in this virtue, the spiritual<br />
masters encourage us to reflect often<br />
on Jesus’ passion and on the sorrows<br />
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These<br />
give us concrete examples and inspiration<br />
to draw from as we try to stay firm<br />
and resolved in seeking God’s will.<br />
As with all the virtues, fortitude<br />
grows by practice.<br />
If we think about it, we will find<br />
opportunities every day to make little<br />
acts of courage: defending the Church<br />
when we hear her being criticized or<br />
ridiculed, refusing to engage in gossip,<br />
speaking up when we see something<br />
that is unethical or not right in our<br />
workplace or in our communities.<br />
Of course, our acts of fortitude must<br />
always be informed by prudence. We<br />
want to show our bravery always in<br />
ways that are charitable and effective<br />
in bringing people closer to God.<br />
We grow in fortitude also through<br />
practicing self-denial and learning to<br />
accept the little irritations, inconveniences,<br />
and sufferings we experience<br />
every day, from aches and pains, to<br />
sickness and discomforts, to feelings of<br />
being insulted or not appreciated.<br />
God wants to purify and strengthen<br />
us through these experiences, so we<br />
need to pray for the grace to receive<br />
these little trials without complaining<br />
or bitterness.<br />
We need to pray every day that God<br />
will increase our courage and help us<br />
to be courageous in his service, especially<br />
when things are hard. If we do,<br />
in time, we can know what the saints<br />
know: that God’s grace is sufficient for<br />
us in our weakness, and that we can<br />
conquer through Jesus, who loves us.<br />
Pray for me and I will pray for you.<br />
And let us ask our Blessed Mother<br />
Mary to help us grow in virtue, as we<br />
continue on our Lenten journey. <br />
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 3
WORLD<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/FERNANDO LAVOZ, REUTERS<br />
Clerical abuse cleanup<br />
postponed in Mexico<br />
The Vatican announced it was dispatching its top clergy<br />
sex abuse investigators to Mexico, only to postpone<br />
the investigation a few days later due to concerns about<br />
the coronavirus.<br />
Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu<br />
investigated the Church in Chile in 2018,<br />
leading to a 2,600-page report that led all the bishops in<br />
Chile to submit their resignations.<br />
Their scheduled <strong>March</strong> 20-27 mission to Mexico was<br />
described as providing “assistance” to the Mexican<br />
bishops.<br />
In a <strong>March</strong> 6 statement, the Vatican said the mission<br />
had been “postponed” because the Holy See has “suspended<br />
all activity abroad” due to the coronavirus. <br />
Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu Farnos and Archbishop Charles Scicluna pray<br />
at a church in Chile in 2018.<br />
Canada: A rush to ‘death on demand’<br />
New health care legislation in Canada threatens patients’<br />
lives, according to Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto.<br />
Bill C-7, introduced in Parliament earlier this month,<br />
would allow patients without a terminal illness to receive<br />
physician-administered death. It would also remove the<br />
currently required <strong>10</strong>-day reflection period.<br />
In a <strong>March</strong> 2 op-ed, Cardinal Collins said the legislature<br />
was “rushing towards death on demand.”<br />
“We should be alarmed that those who have struggled for<br />
decades to be treated with equality may well be pressured<br />
… to ‘ease their burden’ and end their lives.”<br />
Cardinal Collins said that the bill attacks those with disabilities<br />
or any incurable illness that is not terminal. “Their<br />
lives matter. They should never be seen as a burden to<br />
our society. These people need assisted living, not assisted<br />
death.” <br />
Vatican official blasts UN<br />
gender equality report<br />
A new U.N. report on gender-based discrimination related<br />
to religious beliefs is drawing fire from the Vatican.<br />
The report does not protect human rights so much as it<br />
promotes “a sort of ‘ideological colonization’ on the part<br />
of some states and international institutions,” Archbishop<br />
Ivan Jurkovic, the Vatican’s observer to U.N. agencies, said<br />
<strong>March</strong> 2.<br />
According to the Vatican, the new report by the U.N.’s<br />
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, promotes<br />
a “gender ideology” that does not reflect the “reality”<br />
that gender is based on “the biological identity that is male<br />
and female.”<br />
“The report seems to focus less on the protection of men<br />
and women, of any faith or personal belief, that are persecuted<br />
or discriminated against — a still too vivid reality for<br />
millions of persons worldwide — and more on pushing a<br />
vision of human society that is not shared by all and does<br />
not reflect the social, cultural, and religious reality of many<br />
peoples,” Archbishop Jurkovic said.<br />
In addition to promoting gender ideology, the report<br />
criticized limits on abortion, contraception, and artificially<br />
assisted reproduction — policies the Catholic Church<br />
speaks out against in promoting the sanctity of life. <br />
France: Archbishop resigns after acquittal<br />
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin<br />
Pope Francis has accepted Cardinal Philippe Barbarin’s<br />
resignation as archbishop of Lyon, France, despite the<br />
fact that he was recently acquitted after appealing a 2019<br />
conviction for failing to report abuse.<br />
Last <strong>March</strong>, the 69-year-old cardinal received a six-month<br />
suspended sentence for allegedly not properly reporting<br />
abuse allegations against Father Bernard Preynat to judicial<br />
authorities. Father Preynat had been accused of abusing<br />
dozens of minors in the 1980s and 1990s. <br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/EMMANUEL FOUDROT, REUTERS<br />
4 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
NATION<br />
Priest rescues Blessed Sacrament during Nashville tornado<br />
As a tornado ripped through Nashville, Tennessee,<br />
<strong>March</strong> 3, it came dangerously close to the city’s historic<br />
Church of the Assumption.<br />
While the storm, which killed at least 25 people, destroyed<br />
the church’s north transept, sacristy, and rectory<br />
chimney, the Blessed Sacrament was unharmed, thanks<br />
to Father Bede Price.<br />
Father Price, the pastor of the parish, removed the<br />
sacred species from the tabernacle during the storm and<br />
managed to get away safely.<br />
The Church of the Assumption was built in 1858, and<br />
has been on the National Register of Historic Places<br />
since 1977. According to parishioner Mark Cassman,<br />
the parish has a long road to recovery.<br />
“Mass cannot be held here for a while,” Cassman told<br />
the National Catholic Register. “It’s bad.” <br />
People look over the damage to the Church of the Assumption<br />
following a tornado in Nashville, Tennessee, <strong>March</strong> 3.<br />
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/RICK MUSACCHIO, TENNESSEE REGISTER<br />
Seminar preps educators on<br />
gender-theory dilemma<br />
With gender theory as a hot-button issue, the Archdiocese<br />
of St. Paul and Minneapolis is seeking to equip Catholic<br />
educators with a response.<br />
In a two-day seminar in late February, Catholic school<br />
principals, pastors, and religious education directors came<br />
together to break down the Vatican’s recent document on<br />
confronting gender theory, “Male and Female He Created<br />
Them.”<br />
Mary Rice Hasson, a seminar speaker and fellow at the<br />
Ethics and Public Policy Center, said that a culture saturated<br />
with gender confusion poses serious challenges.<br />
“Parents are being kept in the dark,” said Hasson. “They’re<br />
being shut out of the conversation.” Catholic parents, she<br />
asserted, need strong parishes and schools to support them<br />
in teaching their children the truth. <br />
<strong>March</strong> for martyrs to remember persecuted Christians<br />
Mississippi bill fights<br />
abortion, discrimination<br />
A new bill that would prohibit abortion on the basis of<br />
race, sex, or genetic abnormality is one step closer to law.<br />
The Life Equality Act of <strong>2020</strong> was passed by the Mississippi<br />
House judiciary committee <strong>March</strong> 3. It is based on federal<br />
and state anti-discimination policy, and Justice Clarence<br />
Thomas’ concurring opinion in a 2019 Supreme Court<br />
case concerning abortion.<br />
In that case, Thomas asserted that the government has a<br />
“compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming<br />
a tool of modern-day eugenics.”<br />
Judiciary chair Rep. Nick Bain said Mississippi has “a solid<br />
record of supporting pro-life measures, and we wanted to<br />
continue that.”<br />
The Life Equality Act must now receive approval from<br />
the state House of Representatives. <br />
When Gia Chacón realized how little<br />
Americans knew about persecuted<br />
Christians in 50 other countries, she<br />
knew she had to do something.<br />
On May 9, Chacón and her nonprofit<br />
organization, For the Martyrs, will<br />
lead the first public march in commemoration<br />
of persecuted Christians<br />
in Long Beach, California.<br />
“I wanted to do something in the<br />
United States for the people of the<br />
West,” Chacón told Catholic <strong>News</strong><br />
Agency, “to not only wake them up to<br />
the reality of what’s going on around<br />
the world, but also connect them to<br />
know that we’re one body of Christ.”<br />
Chacón founded For the Martyrs<br />
after hearing stories from Iraqi and<br />
Syrian refugees about the abuse they<br />
suffered for their faith. The organization<br />
works to raise awareness and<br />
promote religious freedom.<br />
“The Lord placed a heavy burden on<br />
my heart for the persecuted Church,”<br />
Chacón said.<br />
Visit marchforthemartyrs.com. <br />
Gia Chacón, founder and president of For the<br />
Martyrs, is pictured with a Syrian refugee<br />
child.<br />
MARCH FOR THE MARTYRS<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 5
LOCAL<br />
Archdiocese updates coronavirus guidelines<br />
As more coronavirus (COVID-19) cases are reported<br />
in the U.S., the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has updated<br />
precautionary guidelines, including placing certain<br />
restrictions on the celebration of the Mass.<br />
In a statement released <strong>March</strong> 6, the archdiocese has<br />
suspended the distribution of the Precious Blood, and<br />
recommended that all faithful receive holy Communion<br />
on the hand.<br />
Parishioners should refrain from shaking hands at the<br />
sign of peace and holding hands at the Lord’s Prayer,<br />
and holy water will be removed from all fonts that do not<br />
have filtration systems.<br />
The archdiocese also reminded the faithful that those<br />
who are ill should stay home from Sunday Masses,<br />
schools, and work. More information can be found at<br />
lacatholics.org/emergency. <br />
A man receives Communion at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the<br />
Angels on Ash Wednesday, 2019.<br />
VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
Torrance decathlon team comes out on top<br />
On Sunday, <strong>March</strong> 1, students at<br />
St. Catherine Labouré School in<br />
Torrance competed against 93 other<br />
archdiocesan schools at the Academic<br />
Junior High Decathlon, held at Cal<br />
State Long Beach’s Walter Pyramid.<br />
The team won first place in the logic<br />
quiz, third in current events, and<br />
ranked among the top <strong>10</strong> in several<br />
other categories, earning enough<br />
points for a first-place win.<br />
The students will head to San Bernardino<br />
for the state competition on<br />
April 4. <br />
COURTESY ST. CATHERINE LABOURÉ SCHOOL<br />
Local GeoBee champ headed to States<br />
Charles, a seventh-grader at Good<br />
Shepherd Catholic School in Beverly<br />
Hills, has been named one of the semifinalists<br />
eligible to compete in the<br />
<strong>2020</strong> National Geographic GeoBee<br />
State Competition <strong>March</strong> 27 at Cal<br />
State Fresno.<br />
State champions will receive $1,000<br />
in cash and a trip to Washington,<br />
D.C., to compete in the national<br />
championship.<br />
An estimated 2.4 million students<br />
The St.<br />
Catherine<br />
Labouré<br />
School<br />
Decathlon<br />
team with<br />
coach<br />
Eddie<br />
Ozawa.<br />
competed nationwide, and up to <strong>10</strong>0<br />
local winners per state were invited to<br />
compete in the State GeoBees.<br />
The <strong>2020</strong> GeoBee National Championship<br />
will take place May 18-21.<br />
The national champion will take<br />
home a variety of prizes, including a<br />
$25,000 college scholarship and an<br />
all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition<br />
to the Galápagos Islands aboard<br />
the National Geographic Endeavour<br />
II. <br />
A WIN FOR THE BOOKS — Karina Moreno<br />
Corgan celebrates at the finish line of the Los<br />
Angeles Marathon Sunday, <strong>March</strong> 8. Corgan,<br />
president of Dolores Mission School in Boyle<br />
Heights, represented the Catholic Education<br />
Foundation (CEF) along with 46 others at this<br />
year’s marathon. Corgan is a graduate of<br />
Catholic schools, and most of the students at<br />
Dolores Mission School receive CEF tuition<br />
awards. As of race day, students, parents, and<br />
teachers had raised more than $62,000, and<br />
CEF will continue to accept donations through<br />
the rest of the month at cefrunsla.org.<br />
COURTESY CATHOLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION<br />
6 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
LA Catholic Events<br />
Items for LA Catholic Events are due two weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be mailed to <strong>Angelus</strong> <strong>News</strong> (Attn: LA Catholic Events), 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 900<strong>10</strong>-2241; emailed to<br />
calendar@angelusnews.com; or faxed to 2<strong>13</strong>-637-6360. All items must include the name, date, time, and address of the event, plus a phone number for additional information.<br />
Fri., <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong><br />
St. Clare’s Lenten Fish Fry. 19606 Calla Way, Santa<br />
Clarita, 4:30-8 p.m. Dinner: Beer-battered cod, coleslaw,<br />
choice of French Fries, rice pilaf, and beans.<br />
Fish tacos with rice and beans also available. Cost:<br />
$11/person for two-piece dinner, $12/person for<br />
three-piece dinner. Dine in or take out. Call 661-252-<br />
3353 or visit st-clare.org.<br />
Sat., <strong>March</strong> 14<br />
Drawing Closer to Jesus Retreat. Pauline Books<br />
and Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, <strong>10</strong><br />
a.m.-4 p.m. Led by Sister Kathryn Hermes, FSP, this<br />
retreat guides you on a journey to trust more in God’s<br />
love and his plan for you. Donation: $30/person and<br />
includes lunch. Call 3<strong>10</strong>-397-8676 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com.<br />
Divine Mercy and the Family in this Challenging<br />
Time: Lenten Retreat. Sacred Heart Church, Cavanagh<br />
Hall, 344 W. Workman St., Covina. Registration<br />
starts at 8 a.m. Featured speakers: Father Robert<br />
Spitzer, SJ, Ph.D., Father Ed Broom, OMV, Father Lou<br />
Cerruli, and Donna Lee. Cost: $35/person on-site.<br />
Lunch included. Call Estrella Mijares at 562-972-<br />
5675, or email angelstar73@earthlink.net, or call<br />
Ruby Gonzales at 626-482-1284, or email Lourdes<br />
Garrison at 714-585-9579.<br />
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.<br />
Children’s Bureau’s Carson office, 460 East Carson<br />
Plaza Dr., Ste. <strong>10</strong>2, Carson, or Andrew’s Plaza, 1<strong>13</strong>35<br />
West Magnolia Blvd., Ste. 2C, <strong>No</strong>rth Hollywood, <strong>10</strong><br />
a.m.-12 p.m. Discover if you have the willingness,<br />
ability, and resources to take on the challenge of<br />
helping a child in need. RSVP or learn more by calling<br />
2<strong>13</strong>-342-0162, toll free at 800-730-3933, or email<br />
RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.<br />
Ninth Annual St. Patrick’s Day Car Show. St. Louis<br />
de Montfort Church, 1190 E. Clark Ave., Orcutt, <strong>10</strong><br />
a.m.-3 p.m. More than <strong>10</strong>0 cars, live music, vendors,<br />
and food. Free event. Information at kofccarshow.com.<br />
Lenten Retreat. Incarnation School auditorium, <strong>10</strong>01<br />
N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Cost: $15/<br />
person and includes lunch and snacks. Call 818-242-<br />
2579 to register.<br />
St. Patrick’s Day Dinner: Knights of Columbus Council<br />
#<strong>13</strong>555. St. Timothy Church parish hall, <strong>10</strong>425 W.<br />
Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, 6-<strong>10</strong> p.m. Dinner served at<br />
7 p.m. and includes Irish corned beef, cabbage/veg-<br />
etables, dessert. <strong>No</strong>-host bar and live Irish-themed<br />
music. Cost: $35/person, $15/under 15, free under 5<br />
years old. For tickets or more information, email kmclean@parkerbrowninc.com<br />
or call 3<strong>10</strong>-736-5714.<br />
Sun., <strong>March</strong> 15<br />
Italian Catholic Club of Santa Clarita Valley: Bingo<br />
Games. The Smokehouse Restaurant, 24255 Main<br />
St., Santa Clarita, 12 p.m. Cost: $25/person. Call Anna<br />
Riggs to RSVP at 661-645-7877, or email Italians@<br />
iccscv.org, or visit www.iccscv.org.<br />
St. Camillus Center Annual Awards and Fundraising<br />
Luncheon. San Antonio Winery, 737 Lamar St.,<br />
Los Angeles, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Honorees: Archbishop<br />
José H. Gomez, supervisor Hilda Solis, The Unihealth<br />
Foundation, and John Pappas, LCSW at Keck<br />
Medicine of USC. RSVP at https://stcamilluscenter.<br />
networkforgood.com/events/18564-san-antoniowinery-annual-awards-fundraising-luncheon-2019.<br />
Mon., <strong>March</strong> 16<br />
St. Padre Pio Healing Mass. St. Anne Church, 340<br />
<strong>10</strong>th St., Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al<br />
Scott. Call 562-537-4526.<br />
Lenten Retreat: Three Night Interactive Word Services.<br />
St. Paul the Apostle Church, <strong>10</strong>750 Ohio Ave.,<br />
Los Angeles, 7-8:30 p.m. <strong>March</strong> 16-18. Father Dave<br />
Dwyer, CSP, hosts “The Busted Halo Show” on the<br />
Catholic Channel. Monday: “Who is Jesus?” Tuesday:<br />
“Where is Jesus?” Wednesday: “Why Jesus?” Freewill<br />
offering, parking available, refreshments after<br />
each service.<br />
Lenten Parish Mission. Assumption of the Blessed<br />
Virgin Church, 2640 E. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena.<br />
Retreat runs <strong>March</strong> 16-18, choice of two<br />
sessions per day: 9 a.m. or 7 p.m. Speaker: Father<br />
Francis Benedict, OSB, on the theme “Our Life in<br />
Christ.” Each day will feature new topics, with light<br />
refreshments to follow. Call 626-792-<strong>13</strong>43 or visit<br />
abvmpasadena.org.<br />
Mass with Healing Service. St. Linus Church,<br />
<strong>13</strong>915 Shoemaker Ave., <strong>No</strong>rwalk, 7 p.m. Celebrant:<br />
Father Adrian San Juan. Call 562-921-6649.<br />
Wed., <strong>March</strong> 18<br />
The Triduum Training. Nativity Church, 953 W.<br />
57th St., Los Angeles. Cost: $15/person. Register at<br />
http://store.la-archdiocese.org/el-triduo-pascualnativity-<strong>2020</strong>.<br />
Clearing Outstanding Tickets and Warrants: Free<br />
Legal Clinic for Veterans. Bob Hope Patriotic Hall,<br />
1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 5:30-6:30 p.m.<br />
Self-help workshop, 6:30-7:45 p.m. <strong>Vol</strong>unteer attorneys<br />
will be available to provide one-on-one assistance<br />
and consultation. RSVP required. Call 2<strong>13</strong>-896-<br />
6537 or visit lacba.org/veterans.<br />
Fri., <strong>March</strong> 20<br />
St. Clare’s Lenten Fish Fry. 19606 Calla Way, Santa<br />
Clarita, 4:30-8 p.m. Dinner: Beer-battered cod, coleslaw,<br />
choice of French Fries, rice pilaf, and beans.<br />
Fish tacos with rice and beans also available. Cost:<br />
$11/person for two-piece dinner, $12/person for<br />
three-piece dinner. Dine in or take out. Call 661-252-<br />
3353 or visit st-clare.org.<br />
Sat., <strong>March</strong> 21<br />
“I Thirst” Lenten Retreat. St. Robert Bellarmine<br />
Church, 143 5th St., Burbank, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Presented<br />
by John Paul II Foundation for the New Evangelization<br />
and led by Tim Glemkowski, president and<br />
founder of L’Alto Catholic Institute. Cost: $25/person<br />
including lunch. Register at ithirstretreat.eventbrite.com.<br />
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.<br />
Children’s Bureau, 27200 Tourney Rd., Ste. 175,<br />
Valencia, <strong>10</strong> a.m.-12 p.m. Discover if you have the<br />
willingness, ability, and resources to take on the challenge<br />
of helping a child in need. RSVP or learn more<br />
by calling 2<strong>13</strong>-342-0162, toll free at 800-730-3933,<br />
or email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.<br />
Day of St. Oscar Romero. St. Thomas Church, 2727<br />
W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, 7 a.m. Exhibit of the mural<br />
“The Life of St. Oscar A. Romero,” 4 p.m. procession,<br />
5 p.m. documentary: “San Romero,” 7 p.m. Mass.<br />
Special guest: Bishop Oswaldo E. Escobar, bishop of<br />
the Diocese of Chalatenango, El Salvador. Call 323-<br />
737-3325 for more information.<br />
Sun., <strong>March</strong> 22<br />
Italian Catholic Club of Santa Clarita Valley: St.<br />
Joseph’s Table. Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 23233<br />
Lyons Ave, Santa Clarita, 12-6 p.m. Free plate of spaghetti<br />
and roll for all guests. Feel free to donate baked<br />
items. Contact Anna Riggs at 661-645-7877 or italians@iccscv.org<br />
or visit www.iccscv.org.<br />
Mon., <strong>March</strong> 23<br />
Mass with Healing Service. St. Cornelius Church,<br />
5500 E. Wardlow Rd., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. Celebrant:<br />
Father Joseph K. Santiago. <br />
Visit <strong>Angelus</strong><strong>News</strong>.com for these stories<br />
and more. Your source for complete,<br />
up-to-the-minute coverage of local news,<br />
sports and events in Catholic L.A.<br />
This Week at <strong>Angelus</strong><strong>News</strong>.com<br />
• Robert Brennan on why Netflix’s new anti-Nazi “Hunters” misses the mark<br />
• Pop star priest has traveled from hell to heaven<br />
• Movie review: “Emma” offers pretty picture but diluted plot<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 7
SUNDAY<br />
READINGS<br />
BY SCOTT HAHN<br />
Ex. 17:3–7 / Ps. 95:1–2, 6–7, 8–9 / Rom. 5:1–2, 5–8 / Jn. 4:5–15, 19–26, 39–42<br />
The Israelites’ hearts were<br />
hardened by their hardships<br />
in the desert. Though they<br />
have seen his mighty deeds,<br />
in their thirst they grumble<br />
and put God to the test in<br />
today’s First Reading, a crisis<br />
point recalled also in today’s<br />
Psalm.<br />
Jesus is thirsty, too, in<br />
today’s Gospel. He thirsts for<br />
souls (see John 19:28). He<br />
longs to give the Samaritan<br />
woman the living waters that<br />
well up to eternal life. These<br />
waters couldn’t be drawn<br />
from the well of Jacob,<br />
father of the Israelites and<br />
the Samaritans, but Jesus<br />
was something greater than<br />
Jacob (see Luke 11:31–32).<br />
The Samaritans were<br />
Israelites who escaped exile<br />
when Assyria conquered the<br />
<strong>No</strong>rthern Kingdom eight<br />
centuries before Christ (see 2<br />
Kings 17:6, 24–41). They were despised<br />
for intermarrying with non-Israelites<br />
and worshipping at Mount<br />
Gerazim, not Jerusalem.<br />
But Jesus tells the woman that the<br />
“hour” of true worship is coming,<br />
when all will worship God in Spirit<br />
and truth. Jesus’ “hour” is the “appointed<br />
time” that Paul speaks of in<br />
today’s Epistle. It is the hour when the<br />
Rock of our salvation was struck on<br />
the cross. Struck by the soldier’s lance,<br />
living waters flowed out from our<br />
Rock (see John 19:34–37).<br />
These waters are the Holy Spirit (see<br />
John 7:38–39), the gift of God (see<br />
Hebrews 6:4). By the living waters<br />
“Moses Striking the Rock,” by Pieter de Grebber,<br />
1600-1652/1653, English.<br />
the ancient enmities of Samaritans<br />
and Jews have been washed away, the<br />
dividing wall between Israel and the<br />
nations is broken down (see Ephesians<br />
2:12–14, 18). Since his hour, all may<br />
drink of the Spirit in baptism (see 1<br />
Corinthians 12:<strong>13</strong>).<br />
In this Eucharist, the Lord now is<br />
in our midst, as he was at the Rock<br />
of Horeb and at the well of Jacob. In<br />
the “today” of our liturgy, he calls us<br />
to believe: “I am He,” come to pour<br />
out the love of God into our hearts<br />
through the Holy Spirit. How can we<br />
continue to worship as if we don’t understand?<br />
How can our hearts remain<br />
hardened? <br />
Scott Scott Hahn is is founder of of the the St. St. Paul Paul Center for for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.<br />
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
8 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> August <strong>13</strong>, 16-23-30, <strong>2020</strong> 2019
IN EXILE<br />
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI<br />
Jean Vanier — revisited<br />
Like many others, I was deeply distressed<br />
to learn of the recent revelations<br />
concerning Jean Vanier. He was<br />
a person whom I much admired and<br />
about whom, on numerous occasions,<br />
I have written glowingly. So, the news<br />
about him shook me deeply. What’s to<br />
be said about Jean Vanier in the light<br />
of these revelations?<br />
First, that what he did was very<br />
wrong and deeply harmful, not least<br />
to the women he victimized. Without<br />
knowing the specifics of what happened<br />
(and without wanting to know),<br />
enough is known to know that this<br />
was serious abuse of trust. <strong>No</strong> cloak of<br />
justification can be placed around it.<br />
Second, what he did may not be<br />
linked to or identified with clerical<br />
sexual abuse. He was not a cleric, nor<br />
indeed a canonically vowed religious.<br />
He was a layman, a public celibate<br />
admittedly, but his betrayal of his<br />
commitment to celibacy may not be<br />
identified with clerical sexual abuse.<br />
He broke the sixth commandment,<br />
albeit in a way that merits a harsh<br />
judgment, given his public stature<br />
and the abuse of a particular kind of<br />
sacred trust. However, his breaking of<br />
his professed celibacy doesn’t put into<br />
question the legitimacy and fruitfulness<br />
of vowed celibacy itself, any more<br />
than a married man being unfaithful<br />
to his wife puts into question the legitimacy<br />
and fruitfulness of the vocation<br />
of marriage.<br />
Third, Vanier’s transgressions do<br />
not negate the good work of L’Arche<br />
nor cast any negative shadow on the<br />
dedication and good work of the many<br />
women and men who work there and<br />
who have worked there. By their fruits<br />
you shall know them!<br />
Jesus taught that, and no one can<br />
deny or question the good work that<br />
L’Arche has done and continues to do<br />
in more than 30 countries. L’Arche is<br />
a work of God, of grace, of the Holy<br />
Spirit. It turns out now that its founder<br />
had some flaws. So be it. Jesus is the<br />
only founder who had no flaws.<br />
Indeed, the good work of L’Arche<br />
attests too to the fact that he is and<br />
was bigger than his sins. <strong>No</strong>body who<br />
is essentially duplicitous can leave<br />
behind such a grace-filled legacy.<br />
Finally, the disillusionment and<br />
anger we feel says as much about us as<br />
it says about him. In Luke’s Gospel, a<br />
young man comes up to Jesus and says<br />
to him, “Good teacher, what must I<br />
do to inherit eternal life?” (18:18–23).<br />
Jesus challenges the way he is being<br />
addressed by saying, “Don’t call me<br />
good! Only God is good.”<br />
That was our mistake with Vanier,<br />
just as it’s our mistake with other persons<br />
whom we cloak with divinity in<br />
an idealization that’s supposed to be<br />
reserved for God alone. And whenever<br />
we do that, and we did it to Vanier, we<br />
cannot not ultimately be disappointed<br />
and disillusioned. <strong>No</strong>body, except<br />
God, does God well; all the rest of us<br />
eventually disappoint.<br />
What Vanier did to us was unfair.<br />
We cannot not feel betrayed by his<br />
betrayal. Conversely, though, what we<br />
did to him was also unfair. We asked<br />
him to be God for us and that’s also<br />
not a fair request.<br />
When I was a 21-year-old seminarian,<br />
searching for mentors, one of<br />
my seminary teachers came back<br />
from a Vanier retreat gushing with<br />
superlatives as he described Vanier<br />
as the “holiest, most wonderful, most<br />
single-minded, spiritual man” he’d<br />
ever met. My critical faculties immediately<br />
put me on guard: “<strong>No</strong> one’s<br />
that good!” So, I deliberately didn’t<br />
look to Vanier for mentorship.<br />
However, in the 50 years since, I did<br />
look to him for mentorship. Though<br />
I never met him personally, I read<br />
his books, was much influenced by<br />
numerous persons who counted him<br />
as a formidable influence in their lives<br />
(including Henri <strong>No</strong>uwen), I wrote a<br />
preface for one of his last books, and<br />
wrote a glowing tribute to him for the<br />
newspapers when he died.<br />
So, I was also enough besotted by<br />
him so that now I, too, felt dismayed<br />
and disillusioned when I learned of<br />
his moral lapses.<br />
However, disillusionment is a curious<br />
phenomenon. After the initial shock,<br />
you soon enough realize it’s a positive<br />
thing. It’s the dispelling of an<br />
illusion, and an illusion is always in<br />
the mind of the one who is doing the<br />
perceiving rather than on the part of<br />
the one being perceived. With Vanier,<br />
the illusion was on our part, not his.<br />
There was a certain falsity in his life,<br />
but there was one on our part, too.<br />
Yes, the revelations about Vanier<br />
shook me deeply, but not to my core<br />
because at our core, when we touch<br />
it, we know that no one, except God,<br />
is good, at least with a goodness that<br />
has no imperfections. Once we accept<br />
that, we can accept too that nobody’s<br />
perfect, even a Jean Vanier. At our<br />
core we can accept that, despite this<br />
betrayal, he did a lot of good and that<br />
L’Arche is clearly a graced reality. <br />
Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher, award-winning author, and president of the Oblate School of Theology<br />
in San Antonio, Texas. Find him online at www.ronrolheiser.com and www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser.<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 9
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Operation Movie Night<br />
How the difficulty in finding clean and<br />
quality films on streaming services is<br />
breeding innovation<br />
BY SOPHIA MARTINSON / ANGELUS<br />
<strong>10</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
One Wednesday night in<br />
February, Kent Dodds wanted<br />
a movie recommendation.<br />
Logging on to Twitter, he posted his<br />
criteria for his nearly 90,000 followers.<br />
“Action/adventure,” he wrote. “Light<br />
on violence. <strong>No</strong> sex/nudity. Interesting<br />
plot and good execution is a<br />
bonus. What you got for me?”<br />
Recommendations poured in. But<br />
finding a film that met all those<br />
criteria was easier said than done.<br />
When one user suggested “District 9,”<br />
Dodds responded, “Looks interesting,<br />
but wow that movie sure does love<br />
the f-word!”<br />
Another recommended “Captain<br />
Fantastic.” “Interesting premise!”<br />
Dodds noted, before someone<br />
commented, “This would fail the no<br />
nudity test though.”<br />
While Dodds’ criteria yielded some<br />
good titles, they also blacklisted several<br />
that, minus the unwanted content,<br />
might have made for a great movie<br />
night.<br />
Then one reply had a different kind<br />
of suggestion. “I recommend VidAngel,”<br />
wrote Jamon Holmgren, “for<br />
watching movies and shows while<br />
filtering for just the stuff you want<br />
to see.” Holmgren added that he<br />
used VidAngel to watch “Game of<br />
Thrones” with his son, “and it did a<br />
good job of removing the gratuitous<br />
stuff without taking away from the<br />
story.”<br />
Holmgren learned about VidAngel,<br />
a subscription-based filtering service,<br />
through a social media ad. “I enjoy<br />
a wide variety of shows,” he told <strong>Angelus</strong>,<br />
“but there are aspects of some<br />
popular shows that I am not interested<br />
in — gory violence, gratuitous<br />
nudity, and excessive profanity. I liked<br />
the idea of being able to experience<br />
the show in a format that I chose.”<br />
Holmgren and Dodds are not alone<br />
in their search for quality yet clean<br />
entertainment. Across the country,<br />
various groups have voiced dissatisfaction<br />
with Hollywood’s content trends<br />
and seek alternative ways to enjoy<br />
media.<br />
FAMILY MOVIE-NIGHT DILEMMA<br />
The video-streaming industry seems<br />
to be taking over the nation’s TV<br />
screens. According to a <strong>2020</strong> report<br />
from the Consumer Intelligence<br />
Research Partners, an estimated 112<br />
million Americans — more than onethird<br />
of the U.S. population — have<br />
an Amazon Prime subscription.<br />
The data platform Statista reports<br />
that 18.5% of the U.S. population,<br />
or 61.04 million people, subscribe to<br />
Netflix. And Disney Plus, launched<br />
just this past <strong>No</strong>vember, has already<br />
acquired 28.6 million subscribers.<br />
It’s safe to say that these services<br />
make up a big part of American families’<br />
means of entertainment. But to<br />
what extent are they family friendly?<br />
According to the Parents Television<br />
Council (PTC), the industry leaves a<br />
lot to be desired.<br />
In a 2017 report, the national advocacy<br />
group reviewed the most popular<br />
streaming services, including Netflix<br />
and Amazon Prime. The report found<br />
that among all of the streaming services,<br />
none of them allowed parents<br />
to block explicit titles and cover art<br />
across devices.<br />
“While Hulu and Netflix both<br />
provide the option of a separate user<br />
profile for child viewers,” the report<br />
states, “there is nothing to stop a<br />
child from switching over to an adult<br />
profile with either service. Amazon<br />
does not provide a separate child user<br />
profile option.”<br />
When it comes to original content,<br />
PTC found that very little of it is<br />
appropriate for children and families.<br />
After reviewing ratings of Netflix<br />
original content, the report found that<br />
65% of it was rated TV-MA, 8% was<br />
PG, and just 1% was G.<br />
“If your plans include family movie<br />
night,” wrote PTC, “in less than five<br />
hours — or three movie nights, tops<br />
— you will have exhausted Netflix’s<br />
entire inventory of original films rated<br />
PG or lower.”<br />
More recently, PTC described<br />
Disney Plus as an “80% streaming<br />
solution for families,” since it does<br />
not include any filtering or parental<br />
control systems.<br />
The bottom line: When it comes<br />
to movies and TV, good clean fun is<br />
hard to find, and when you do find<br />
it, it’s often mixed in with explicit<br />
content. This presents a real dilemma<br />
for those who try to weed out offensive<br />
language and behavior from their<br />
media diet, and especially for parents<br />
trying to guard the eyes of their<br />
children.<br />
FOR THEIR OWN HOMES<br />
Seven years ago in Provo, Utah, four<br />
brothers were facing this exact problem,<br />
and they were fed up.<br />
“We all have young children at<br />
home,” VidAngel co-founder and<br />
CEO Neal Harmon told <strong>Angelus</strong>.<br />
“We wanted to create something that<br />
we wanted for our own homes.”<br />
Tired of being bombarded with explicit<br />
material in their search for great<br />
films, the four Harmons wondered,<br />
Why not make something that allows<br />
you to skip over that content? So in<br />
2014, they launched VidAngel.<br />
The project posed a challenge: How<br />
would they execute a filtering service<br />
that would be consistent, efficient,<br />
and customizable? Their solution<br />
was to construct a series of categories<br />
(such as nudity, profanity, and graphic<br />
violence) and have multiple people<br />
watch each film to “tag” content<br />
in those categories, flagging it for<br />
filtering.<br />
Originally, VidAngel ripped movies<br />
from DVDs and redistributed filtered<br />
digital versions to customers. In 2016,<br />
a group of four studios, including<br />
Disney and Twentieth Century Fox,<br />
sued the company for copyright<br />
infringement.<br />
The studios won the case, and<br />
VidAngel was ordered to shut down<br />
its service. But soon after, the compa-<br />
Neal Harmon<br />
VIDANGEL<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 11
VidAngel promotional image.<br />
ny introduced a new system, which<br />
works through subscriber streaming<br />
services.<br />
“You download the VidAngel app,”<br />
Harmon told <strong>Angelus</strong>, “and then all<br />
the titles that are available for filtering<br />
are inside that app. If you want to<br />
watch something that requires Netflix,<br />
then when you go to watch it, it’ll<br />
[prompt you to enter] your Netflix<br />
email and password. VidAngel will<br />
then connect to your Netflix account<br />
on your behalf.”<br />
If customers want to watch a movie<br />
that has not yet been filtered, they<br />
can still search for the title and request<br />
a filtered version on the app.<br />
According to Harmon, it takes<br />
about a day for a film to undergo the<br />
filtering process, although VidAngel<br />
is working on technology that will<br />
computerize the tagging system and<br />
reduce the wait time. Once a filtered<br />
movie lands in the app, customers<br />
can select which filters they would<br />
like to apply.<br />
Options range from broad to specific.<br />
Viewers can mute all profanity<br />
and blasphemy or just certain words.<br />
They can skip over anything marked<br />
as “sex, nudity, or immodesty” or<br />
opt to leave in “implied, not shown”<br />
intimacy.<br />
VidAngel even makes subcategory<br />
distinctions, such as “passionate”<br />
versus “normal” kissing. And for the<br />
ultra-efficient watcher, the option to<br />
skip credits is also there.<br />
For the most part, the filtering system<br />
seems to work well, though it still<br />
isn’t perfect. Watch “Marriage Story”<br />
with all “kissing” filtered out, for instance,<br />
and you’ll find that one brief<br />
yet intimate smooch was missed. But<br />
according to Harmon, such lapses are<br />
rare; he told <strong>Angelus</strong> that he recalls<br />
only two occasions when VidAngel<br />
has had to apologize to a customer for<br />
an oversight.<br />
Reviews for VidAngel have been<br />
mostly positive. It received 4.7 out of<br />
5 stars from more than 17,000 reviews<br />
on AppGrooves, and 2,<strong>10</strong>0 reviews on<br />
Facebook gave it a 4.8 out of 5. But<br />
one of the service’s biggest handicaps<br />
is that movies owned by the studios<br />
that sued VidAngel are blocked.<br />
In an effort to change that, VidAngel<br />
has launched a campaign to support<br />
an update to the Family Movie Act, a<br />
federal bill that VidAngel argues gives<br />
legal backing to its service and should<br />
therefore allow more movies to be<br />
filtered.<br />
“Our customers have stuck with<br />
us and continue to support us,” said<br />
Harmon, “and they beg us not to give<br />
up.”<br />
‘NETFLIX FOR CHRISTIAN KIDS’<br />
More than 1,600 miles east of Provo,<br />
in Nashville, Tennessee, Erick Goss<br />
took note of another underserved audience:<br />
Christian families with young<br />
children.<br />
“The reality is there’s not a lot of<br />
Christian content out there,” said<br />
Goss, former Amazon executive and<br />
CEO of Minno, a media company<br />
launched this past fall.<br />
That scarcity concerned Goss, given<br />
Erick Goss<br />
VIDANGEL MINNO<br />
12 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
Minno promotional image.<br />
MINNO<br />
the portion of churchgoing Christians<br />
in America. According to the Pew<br />
Research Center, about <strong>10</strong>2 million<br />
(62%) Christian adults go to church<br />
at least monthly, and 72 million<br />
(44%) go at least weekly.<br />
Minno reports that about 48 million<br />
Christian families with children in<br />
prekindergarten through fifth grade<br />
attend church weekly or monthly.<br />
Like Harmon, Goss was dissatisfied<br />
with the dearth of wholesome content<br />
on popular streaming services. So in<br />
<strong>No</strong>vember 2019, he and his colleague<br />
Dan Raines launched Minno for<br />
Christian families.<br />
The online platform, whose title<br />
comes from the Greek word meaning<br />
“to abide” (a reference to the Gospel<br />
of John), includes a Netflix-like media<br />
library, an online bookstore, and a<br />
parental guidance blog.<br />
“What we’re trying to do is come<br />
alongside parents and solve the<br />
media and technology problems<br />
parents face,” Goss told <strong>Angelus</strong>. He<br />
explained that while many Christian<br />
parents are eager to help their kids<br />
grow in the faith, they’re often at a<br />
loss about where to begin, especially<br />
when it comes to navigating media in<br />
a secularized world.<br />
Minno Kids, which Goss described<br />
as “sort of like Netflix for Christian<br />
kids,” offers a variety of faith-based<br />
children’s shows, including “the<br />
world’s largest collection of Classic<br />
VeggieTales.” Currently, Minno offers<br />
128 shows and more than 2,000 episodes,<br />
but Goss said they’re continually<br />
working to add more.<br />
Three people review each potential<br />
show to determine whether it<br />
is wholesome, well-written, and<br />
entertaining. “We really want parents<br />
to trust us, [since] they’re inviting us<br />
into their homes,” said Goss.<br />
According to Goss, Minno has<br />
reached more than 20,000 subscribers<br />
in more than 40 countries worldwide.<br />
Some subscribers have made it their<br />
only household streaming service,<br />
relieved that they no longer have to<br />
worry about what their kids search for<br />
and watch.<br />
Others use Minno as a supplement<br />
to their media diet. Regardless, Goss<br />
is happy with the results so far. “It’s<br />
exceeding expectations,” he told<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong>.<br />
‘A CULTURE INFUSED BY CHRIST’<br />
Given the prosperity of the streaming<br />
giants and the types of films<br />
honored at the Emmys and Oscars,<br />
it still seems that graphic and explicit<br />
content comes part and parcel with<br />
the film industry. But according to<br />
Harmon and Goss, that need not be<br />
the case.<br />
“We hope we can change the conversation<br />
and the business of media,”<br />
Harmon told <strong>Angelus</strong>. He believes<br />
that as VidAngel’s audience grows,<br />
it could compel others in the film<br />
industry to cater more directly to a<br />
family-friendly crowd.<br />
Goss also sees his work as an opportunity<br />
to uplift not only families,<br />
but also the culture more broadly.<br />
He told <strong>Angelus</strong> that in launching<br />
Minno, he hopes to promote professional<br />
excellence as well as “a culture<br />
infused by Christ.”<br />
“The mission of Minno is to help<br />
people experience the goodness of<br />
God,” he told <strong>Angelus</strong>. “We really<br />
want Minno to be a platform that<br />
helps people imagine what a Christian<br />
life can be.”<br />
VidAngel and Minno are still young,<br />
and it’s hard to project their future<br />
success or impact. Nevertheless,<br />
they highlight the importance of<br />
family and Christian values. These<br />
are values that are fading in today’s<br />
media world, but as these companies<br />
demonstrate, they have not disappeared<br />
completely. <br />
Sophia Martinson is a writer living in<br />
New York City.<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>13</strong>
Some 50 members of the Bishop Mora<br />
Salesian basketball family were invited<br />
to experience the memorial service from<br />
a suite at Staples Center arranged by<br />
Lakers executive Tim Harris.<br />
COURTESY BISHOP MORA SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL<br />
Embodying KOBE<br />
How the Bishop Mora basketball<br />
team’s experience at the Lakers<br />
legend’s memorial service is<br />
pushing this group of boys to<br />
greater things — both on and<br />
off the court<br />
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS<br />
Profound sadness and bittersweet hope filtered through<br />
song and testimony during the recent Kobe and<br />
Gianna Bryant Celebration of Life event at Staples<br />
Center. Yet as they experienced all that firsthand, a group<br />
of students, coaches, and faculty at Bishop Mora Salesian<br />
High School appear to have harnessed that energy to propel<br />
its boys basketball team on a historic run.<br />
Some 50 members of the Salesian basketball family were<br />
invited to attend the Bryant memorial on Feb. 24, a fruit of<br />
the relationship forged by the college-prep school of some<br />
400 boys with Lakers executive Tim Harris, the team’s<br />
chief operating officer and senior vice president of business<br />
operations.<br />
Harris arranged for a Staples Center suite so the group<br />
could experience the two-hour service that was less than<br />
four miles from their east LA campus.<br />
The media attention given to Bryant’s Catholic roots —<br />
especially the story of his visit to his local parish in Newport<br />
Beach the morning that he, his daughter Gianna, and seven<br />
others died in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash — made an impact<br />
at Salesian, as many students wore Bryant jerseys to school<br />
on the following Monday.<br />
14 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
<strong>No</strong>w, the inspiration the group of boys took away from the<br />
memorial is something team members are crediting with<br />
uniting their focus on the basketball court: the small but defensive-minded<br />
roster captured the CIF-Southern Section<br />
3AA championship on Feb. 29, four days after the memorial.<br />
It’s the first title in the school’s 60-plus-year history.<br />
“I can feel Kobe’s messages relate to Salesian and Christianity,”<br />
said Alex Moriarty, a junior starter on the team. “It’s<br />
been about giving it your all, never giving up. That embodied<br />
Kobe. That has brought everyone together.”<br />
Salesian president Alex Chacon, a class of ’94 alum,<br />
explained how Harris was invited to the school by head basketball<br />
coach Jack Mai to speak at a school assembly about<br />
ways of overcoming adversity. The appearance was about <strong>10</strong><br />
days before the Bryant helicopter crash.<br />
Harris, in addition to donating some supplies to the team,<br />
reconnected during the team’s CIF quarterfinal game, delivering<br />
a pre- and post-game locker room talk. Harris said<br />
it was natural for him to invite members of the school to<br />
the memorial because of how so many have said they were<br />
huge fans of Bryant’s career.<br />
Chacon said the team’s unprecedented run, combined<br />
with the impact of the Bryant memorial on the boys, has<br />
made him feel a deeper connection with the students.<br />
“We’re a very loving community around here, and hugs<br />
are very common, so it was inspiring to see the range of<br />
emotions with the staff and students as they reflected on<br />
that entire experience,” said Chacon.<br />
“We are blessed with the opportunities we receive. We’re<br />
a very intentional community. Part of our ‘Salesianity’ is to<br />
accompany the young and show them they are loved. This<br />
particular moment has also allowed me to reflect about how<br />
much these students are part of my own personal journey.”<br />
Salesian principal Mark Johnson noted the moment when<br />
the memorial service’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, referred to<br />
how the Catholic faith offers a sign of peace at Mass before<br />
Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s Celebration of Life event at Staples Center Feb. 24 included several moving testimonies from family and friends, such as<br />
Michael Jordan.<br />
COURTESY BISHOP MORA SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 15
The Bishop Mora Salesian basketball team captured the CIF-Southern Section 3AA championship on<br />
Feb. 29, four days after the Bryant memorial. It’s the first title in the school’s 60-plus-year history.<br />
asking the 20,000 in attendance to take a moment to make<br />
a similar gesture with those around them.<br />
“He made the observation that it’s often at sports events<br />
and also at church when we turn to people who might be<br />
complete strangers and offer our shared humanity,” said<br />
Johnson. “That moment in the arena, we appreciated the<br />
moment to connect with each other.”<br />
This principal hopes the boys took away more from the<br />
service than just the inspiration to carry on Bryant’s famed<br />
“Mamba Mentality.”<br />
“As an all-boys school with a male-dominant culture, that’s<br />
even more reason for us to pay heed to that message about<br />
female empowerment and the importance of girls sports<br />
and in terms of lifting up women in our culture and society.<br />
We’d hope our young men recognize the importance of<br />
that.<br />
“The common connection for us, that Catholic connection,<br />
is important to be in support of Vanessa Bryant and<br />
their daughters as well, so our prayers and our faith in what<br />
we can do to bring them peace is important as well.”<br />
Adrian Lopez, Salesian’s director of admissions, said the<br />
service spoke to him in a special way as the new father of a<br />
baby girl.<br />
“I saw part of the grandeur that was Kobe was the fact<br />
he was a consummate ‘girl-dad.’ We try to instill into our<br />
students that they’ll be fathers someday,” he said.<br />
Lopez said the school’s staff often ask the boys, “What<br />
morals and ideals will you strive to pass on?”<br />
Hector Santiago, a junior at Salesian who is the basketball<br />
team’s videographer, said he was most inspired by the words<br />
of Bryant directed toward his daughters that were printed on<br />
the back of the memorial program.<br />
“When I left the arena, I said I’m going to make a promise<br />
COURTESY BISHOP MORA SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL<br />
today that I’m going to be a great father<br />
to my kids someday,” said Santiago.<br />
“I’ll do what Kobe did. My mission<br />
in life, and hopefully my peers, is to be<br />
a great father, and I felt Kobe was an<br />
amazing presenter of what Jesus did.<br />
He moved everyone in Los Angeles.<br />
Who is able to do that?”<br />
Max Lopez, a freshman basketball<br />
player at Salesian, said his previous<br />
impression of Bryant simply as a hardnosed,<br />
driven player changed when he<br />
heard all the tributes to his fatherhood.<br />
He recalled how one of Bryant’s last<br />
acts, as described by his agent, was a<br />
text to see if he could help someone<br />
get an internship at a Southern California<br />
sports agency.<br />
“Kobe used his platform to help<br />
others,” said Lopez, “and I believe, as<br />
Salesians, we can also use our platform<br />
to help people around us who are<br />
connected to us.”<br />
Jesus Martin, the Salesian senior class<br />
president and a soccer player, called<br />
the Bryant memorial “an eye-opening<br />
experience. There were moments of solemnity but we were<br />
joyful to be there. It was a beautiful moment. We all say<br />
we’re united through our faith, and to know someone like<br />
Kobe, the kind of influencer he was, we shared the same religion<br />
and belief. It shows how we can take upon his values<br />
and morals and incorporate it in our everyday life.”<br />
Salesian’s narrow 56-55 win over Hillcrest of Riverside in<br />
the CIF-3AA title game in Santa Ana gave the Mustangs a<br />
28-4 record, winning their last 11 in a row and 18 of their<br />
last 19. Moriarty tied with teammate Kenji Pallares for a<br />
game-high 16 points.<br />
As a bonus, Salesian was given entry into the Southern<br />
California Regional tournament for a shot at a state title,<br />
but also boosted into the Division II bracket. As a <strong>No</strong>. 14<br />
seed in the 16-team division, the Mustangs upset <strong>No</strong>. 3<br />
Foothills Christian of El Cajon, 53-50, in the first game on<br />
<strong>March</strong> 3. But in the regional semifinals, they lost to <strong>No</strong>. 6<br />
Roosevelt of Eastvale, 49-38. Salesian came up two wins<br />
short of going to the state title game against the <strong>No</strong>rthern<br />
California winners, set for <strong>March</strong> 14 in Sacramento.<br />
“(Former Lakers coach) Phil Jackson would always talk<br />
about the journey instead of the destination and, for basketball<br />
in general for our team at Salesian, I feel like that<br />
encapsulates our season,” said Moriarty, who had a teambest<br />
17 points in Salesian’s 45-25 CIF semifinal victory over<br />
Keppel on Feb. 21.<br />
“The support for our team here has been outrageous. I feel<br />
we have earned it. From Day One, we knew if we had the<br />
talent and worked hard enough we could reach our goal of<br />
a [CIF-Southern Section] championship. I feel like Kobe’s<br />
mantra.” <br />
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles.<br />
B<br />
Po<br />
S<br />
16 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
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<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 17
The gift of Hank<br />
LMU paid special tribute to the ‘walking thunderbolt,’<br />
whose on-court death 30 years ago still echoes<br />
BY STEVE LOWERY / ANGELUS<br />
A statue of basketball legend Hank Gathers, located just outside of Loyola Marymount’s Gersten Pavilion, was unveiled Feb. 29.<br />
COURTESY LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY<br />
It was just a moment. It came after the blousy material<br />
dropped to reveal a statue of basketball legend Hank<br />
Gathers, located just outside of Loyola Marymount University’s<br />
Gersten Pavilion Feb. 29. It came after the faintest<br />
beat of a gasp was immediately followed by applause and<br />
cheers, broad smiles and — this being <strong>2020</strong> — selfies.<br />
Still, there was a moment when, Chris Knight said, amid<br />
the laughter and hugs he shared with former teammates who<br />
played with Gathers, that he suddenly, in a fleeting space of<br />
silence, “could hear Hank’s mother crying above it all.”<br />
Lucille Gathers was at the dedication of her son’s statue,<br />
accepting and giving as many hugs as anyone present. The<br />
statue is magnificent, which is not a given in the sports<br />
world. More than a few have been found lacking when it<br />
comes to representing their subjects accurately in visage,<br />
temperament, or action.<br />
But the Gathers statue not only looks like Gathers, it<br />
depicts him perfectly. Created by the Fine Art Studio of<br />
18 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
Rotblatt-Amrany — the same outfit that created statues of<br />
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Jerry West at<br />
Staples Center and Michael Jordan inside Chicago’s United<br />
Center — it shows Gathers in all his basketball glory, at<br />
the point of takeoff, about to slam a defenseless basketball,<br />
which he palms like a loaf of bread, his jersey rippling from<br />
the ferocious hallmarks of his game: speed and power.<br />
It was those hallmarks that moved his LMU coach, Paul<br />
Westhead, to say, “There was nothing ordinary about Hank<br />
Gathers. He was a walking thunderbolt.”<br />
Westhead’s words were so apropos that they are inscribed<br />
on the statue’s base. It was those hallmarks that made Gathers’<br />
death on court during a game in 1990 incomprehensible;<br />
that someone so young, so strong, so able, so beloved,<br />
could be taken so suddenly.<br />
It was something that Gathers’<br />
former teammates grappled<br />
with when he passed. They<br />
were young men, then. For<br />
many, this was the first time<br />
they had encountered death<br />
with someone close to them,<br />
certainly with someone their<br />
own age.<br />
That wasn’t true of Knight.<br />
Raised in South Central LA,<br />
he said he was no stranger to<br />
young men dying. But, he said,<br />
“It was always for people who<br />
were doing things they should<br />
not have been doing. Hank did<br />
nothing wrong. <strong>No</strong>thing. He<br />
didn’t even drink.”<br />
Like Knight, who replaced<br />
Gathers in the LMU lineup, a Loyola’s Bo Kimble, Hank Gathers, and Jeff Fryer.<br />
lot of the players spoke about<br />
Gathers’ passing as teaching them that life and death, often<br />
referred to as opposites, actually exist intertwined and in constant<br />
relation to each other.<br />
Most of them are approaching or in their 50s now, and<br />
seeing the Gathers statue in all of its strength and vitality<br />
reminded them also of life’s quicksilver nature and why it<br />
must be cherished.<br />
More than one mentioned Kobe Bryant’s recent passing<br />
as another reminder of that. Tom Peabody, a guard on the<br />
1989-90 team, said that learning of Bryant’s death gave him<br />
the same feeling as when his friend passed. “It’s the first time<br />
I’ve felt like that in 30 years,” he told the Los Angeles Times.<br />
Jeff Fryer, a record-setting shooting guard on the team, had<br />
a <strong>10</strong>-year professional basketball career, but it was one that<br />
gave him very little joy. Suffering from depression and anxiety,<br />
he had gone to a place of darkness, he said, one he wasn’t<br />
sure he wanted to ever leave. It was thinking about Hank, he<br />
said, that eventually moved him to “get down on my knees<br />
and commit myself to God. That was from thinking about<br />
Hank; about life and death.”<br />
Fryer said it was thinking about how his teammate and<br />
friend had embraced life that made him think about what he<br />
was doing with his own. He figured most of his teammates<br />
felt the same, which is why, he said, he wasn’t the least bit<br />
surprised to see the reaction to Gathers’ statue be so joyful,<br />
what Westhead called “unmistakably celebratory.”<br />
“I’ve had a couple people ask me that, if I thought people<br />
might be sad or cry, but I knew this is how it would be,”<br />
Fryer said. “We’re all so grateful for him, for that time. We’re<br />
grateful about the effect it’s had on the rest of our lives. Look<br />
at me. If it wasn’t for Hank Gathers, I’m pretty sure I’d be<br />
dead.”<br />
Fryer and his teammates were not only present to celebrate<br />
Gathers’ statue, but to celebrate the accomplishments of the<br />
1989-90 LMU team that made perhaps the most magical<br />
run through the NCAA tournament in the basketball program’s<br />
history.<br />
After Gathers’ death, Westhead<br />
left it up to his players<br />
whether they wanted to compete<br />
in the tournament. They<br />
said they did, and advanced to<br />
the Elite Eight, defeating along<br />
the way defending champion<br />
Michigan, a game in which<br />
Fryer made a record 11 3-point<br />
shots, yet eventually losing to<br />
UNLV, a team considered one<br />
of the greatest in NCAA history.<br />
Perhaps the lasting image of<br />
IMAGE VIA FACEBOOK @LMULIONS<br />
that tournament run is of Bo<br />
Kimble shooting free throws<br />
left-handed as his best friend<br />
Hank Gathers had. Kimble<br />
attended the ceremony and<br />
spoke during a halftime ceremony<br />
honoring the team.<br />
Kimble was effusive and<br />
joyous in his remarks, telling<br />
funny stories and inside jokes. But he made sure to recognize<br />
Lucille Gathers sitting courtside, thanking her for the<br />
gift of Gathers.<br />
A video released by LMU prior to the unveiling showed<br />
Lucille after seeing the statue for the first time. Overcome<br />
with emotion, she thanked those who created the statue and<br />
those who commissioned it.<br />
“I think about him often,” she said of her son through gentle<br />
sobs, “because he was my baby.”<br />
Later in the evening, after LMU had lost a close game to<br />
University of San Francisco, people once again gathered<br />
around the statue.<br />
The mood this time, in the dark, a spotlight casting long<br />
shadows of the statue across nearby buildings, was a bit more<br />
somber, one might say contemplative, as people seemed to<br />
consider the lessons of Gathers’ life, memories held in the<br />
perpetual flash of a thunderbolt. <br />
Steve Lowery began his journalism career at the Los Angeles<br />
Times, and he has since written for The National, the Los<br />
Angeles Daily <strong>News</strong>, the Press-Telegram, New Times LA, the<br />
District, and the OC Weekly. He is the arts and culture editor<br />
for the Post, overseeing the Hi-lo. He has two grown children.<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 19
Missing a mother’s touch<br />
Women offer a unique perspective<br />
and urgency to the abuse crisis.<br />
Why aren’t they on the<br />
Vatican’s new task force?<br />
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS<br />
ROME — Recently, the Vatican<br />
announced Pope Francis has<br />
created a task force to help bishops’<br />
conferences around the world address<br />
the clerical sex abuse crisis. The<br />
lineup is impressive, but much like a<br />
high-profile February 2019 summit on<br />
child protection, laypeople — women<br />
in particular — are the missing link.<br />
The eight-man lineup for the task<br />
force includes seven clerics, two of<br />
whom are regarded by all sides as part<br />
of the solution to the abuse crisis:<br />
Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna,<br />
once the Vatican’s top prosecutor on<br />
priestly abuse of minors; and German<br />
Father Hans Zollner, SJ, a member of<br />
the Pontifical Commission for the Protection<br />
of Minors and director of the<br />
Center for Child Protection of Rome’s<br />
Gregorian University.<br />
The list also includes the Vatican’s<br />
version of a chief of staff, Venezuelan<br />
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra; Cardinal<br />
Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal<br />
Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, who<br />
sits on the council of cardinals that advises<br />
the pope on reform of the Roman<br />
Curia; Spanish Bishop Juan Ignacio<br />
Arrieta of the Pontifical Council for<br />
Legislative Texts; and Father Federico<br />
Lombardi, SJ, former papal spokesman<br />
for both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope<br />
Francis and the moderator of last year’s<br />
summit.<br />
Last but not least is layman Andrew<br />
Azzopardi, who teaches in the Department<br />
of Youth and Community Studies<br />
at the University of Malta and also<br />
serves on the Safeguarding Commission<br />
of the Ecclesiastical Province of<br />
Malta, making him a protégé of Archbishop<br />
Scicluna. He’s been described<br />
to Crux as a “highly competent man,”<br />
and is the father of three children.<br />
At first glance, there’s little to object<br />
to about the group.<br />
<strong>No</strong>t one of the members of the task<br />
20 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
Andrew Azzopardi<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
SCREENSHOT VIA YOUTUBE @MALTAKSU<br />
force is just ballast in what seems an<br />
honest attempt to answer a real request<br />
from around the world to provide<br />
advice, guidance, help, particularly in<br />
countries where the clerical abuse crisis<br />
hasn’t yet really exploded. The fact<br />
that virtually all are clerics may be a<br />
help in many parts of the world where<br />
clergy still enjoy strong respect.<br />
Even in countries such as Iraq, where<br />
just being a Christian can be dangerous,<br />
on better days priests still can<br />
roam almost freely with no need of a<br />
visa or passport; their clerical clothing,<br />
in itself, is all the authorization they<br />
need.<br />
Yet there are also questions worth<br />
asking about the composition of the<br />
task force.<br />
First, all the people appointed have<br />
highly demanding jobs already, and<br />
they’re not giving them up anytime<br />
soon. Further, even those who are outsiders<br />
have strong ties with the Roman<br />
Curia, meaning the Church’s central<br />
government.<br />
Given that the Vatican often is seen<br />
as a barrier to reform and not the<br />
solution, several observers, including<br />
abuse survivors, have questioned the<br />
credibility of the task force.<br />
Despite the fact that an estimated<br />
40 percent of cases of clerical abuse<br />
currently being studied in the Vatican’s<br />
Congregation for the Doctrine of the<br />
Faith come from Latin America, it’s<br />
valid to wonder why only one member<br />
comes from this part of the world, and<br />
he’s the highest ranking curial official,<br />
arguably one of the busiest men in the<br />
Vatican already.<br />
It’s also valid to wonder why, even<br />
though Africa is the region where the<br />
Catholic Church is growing most rapidly,<br />
there are no Africans on the team.<br />
That’s especially relevant, since many<br />
African bishops and other Church<br />
leaders say the abuse problem plays<br />
out differently there, involving fewer<br />
cases of priests preying on boys and<br />
more of priests engaging in abusive<br />
relationships with women.<br />
Few omissions, however, are as glaringly<br />
obvious as the lack of women.<br />
Pointing this out is not about female<br />
empowerment or gender equality.<br />
It’s not about appointing women in<br />
leadership positions or making sure<br />
they have a seat at the decision-making<br />
table, goals Pope Francis has spoken<br />
about but only spottily accomplished.<br />
Having women at the forefront is<br />
about protecting children, nothing<br />
more, nothing less.<br />
It’s often argued that women and<br />
men have different sensitivities, and<br />
on few topics is that truth as obvious:<br />
<strong>No</strong> one has a more urgent reason to<br />
protect children than a mother who<br />
fears her children aren’t safe.<br />
Moreover, Church officials routinely<br />
acknowledge the critical role of women<br />
in the transmission of the faith.<br />
Without mothers dragging their kids<br />
out of bed on Sundays, or patiently<br />
rocking a crying baby during Mass<br />
while trying to remain inconspicuous,<br />
there would be no new generations of<br />
Catholics.<br />
In the words of Argentine abuse<br />
prevention expert Ines Frank, women<br />
— really, laity in general — are<br />
“fundamental” to the cleanup because<br />
they usually have skills priests don’t.<br />
Beyond that, there’s also a question<br />
of perception: “Those who are being<br />
questioned for their actions are priests.<br />
The majority of the accused and<br />
condemned are men, they are clerics;<br />
so here women also have a central,<br />
particular role. We have a different<br />
sensitivity to the world, so our contribution<br />
to resolve the problem from its<br />
root is important.”<br />
For any task force to have a trickle-up<br />
effect, people will have to be<br />
convinced that this time reform is for<br />
real. Parents will need to see serious,<br />
definitive steps being taken, to guarantee<br />
that simply saying “never again” is<br />
more than a slogan. <br />
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian<br />
journalist and Rome bureau chief for<br />
Crux. She is a frequent contributor to<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong>.<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 21
A permanent<br />
parting<br />
This year’s Lenten journey should<br />
include serious reflection on the<br />
harshest of the ‘Four Last Things’: hell<br />
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS<br />
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
During this year’s liturgical season<br />
of Lent, <strong>Angelus</strong> is featuring<br />
a four-part series of interviews<br />
with Catholic scholars on the “Four Last<br />
Things” in Christian eschatology: death,<br />
judgment, heaven, and hell.<br />
Scott Hahn is arguably the most widely<br />
influential Catholic layman of the<br />
last half-century. An ordained Presbyterian<br />
minister, he entered full communion<br />
with the Catholic Church in<br />
1986 and pursued an academic career.<br />
Since 1990 he has taught at Franciscan<br />
University of Steubenville. By the<br />
mid-1990s, his audio and video audience<br />
had reached millions. He is the<br />
author or co-author of dozens of books<br />
and has hosted or co-hosted dozens of<br />
television series. He spoke to <strong>Angelus</strong><br />
about the third of the “Four Last<br />
Things”: hell.<br />
Hell, it seems, is under attack, at<br />
least as a Christian doctrine. Even<br />
The New York Times recently published<br />
an essay inveighing against<br />
traditional beliefs about damnation.<br />
Does hell even exist?<br />
Well, we should all take that up with<br />
Jesus, since he told us 80% of what we<br />
know about hell. Taken together, they<br />
describe a state that is permanent and<br />
painful. And it’s not as if his statements<br />
are vague or ambiguous.<br />
Consider the one I find most chilling:<br />
“Woe to that man by whom the<br />
Son of man is betrayed! It would have<br />
been better for that man if he had not<br />
been born” (Matthew 26:24; Mark<br />
14:21). What Jesus said about Judas<br />
would be unthinkable for one person<br />
to say about another, if there were no<br />
hell. “Better not to have been born”?<br />
There’s no way to make sense of that<br />
if Judas got to enjoy the beatific vision.<br />
Why would a merciful and good<br />
God create hell?<br />
Step away from the traditional<br />
imagery for a minute. Concerning the<br />
“Last Things,” Scripture says, “What<br />
no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor<br />
the heart of man conceived, what God<br />
has prepared for those who love him”<br />
(1 Corinthians 2:9).<br />
What we have in the Bible then are<br />
terms that strain the limits of language.<br />
Hell’s endless fire and deathless<br />
worm are metaphors, just like<br />
heaven’s white robes and harps. But<br />
they’re extremely significant metaphors,<br />
because they tell us all we can<br />
know, given our current limitations.<br />
Emily Dickinson was on to something<br />
when she said the parting is all<br />
we need to know about hell. Hell is<br />
a permanent parting from God. It’s<br />
22 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
“The Tempest of Hell,” from Gustave Doré’s 1857 illustrations of Dante’s “Inferno.”<br />
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
the permanent choice for something<br />
other than God. That should be, for a<br />
Christian, the worst thing imaginable<br />
— worse than a fire that burns you or<br />
a worm that eats at you.<br />
It’s a natural thing for a human being<br />
to crave love. It’s part of being human.<br />
To have that craving and yet repel its<br />
satisfaction would be hellish.<br />
So you’re saying that hell is a<br />
choice?<br />
It’s more than that. It’s the proof of<br />
our freedom to choose. It’s the guarantor<br />
of our freedom, because love<br />
cannot be compelled or coerced. God<br />
wants our love, but he will not force<br />
us to love him.<br />
I think it’s fearfully possible to refuse<br />
God’s love. We see such refusals all<br />
too often, and sometimes they’re<br />
sustained over the course of a long<br />
lifetime. People make themselves<br />
miserable by their choices, but they<br />
dig in. They take their stand and<br />
plant their flag. Popular culture even<br />
celebrates that kind of rebellion. My<br />
friend Peter Kreeft once joked that the<br />
national anthem of hell is “I Did It<br />
My Way.”<br />
St. Catherine of Siena said that a<br />
drop of contrition could empty hell.<br />
But there is no such drop. The souls<br />
in hell despise their lot, but they’d despise<br />
heaven more. God’s love would<br />
be hellish for those who do not want<br />
it. It would burn them more than hell<br />
does.<br />
So where does the denial of hell<br />
come from?<br />
I understand the desire to disbelieve<br />
in it. And I understand why there are<br />
so few people in the Church standing<br />
up for it. Who wants to be known as<br />
hell’s great defender? But, again, the<br />
big problem here is Jesus.<br />
Is he the only problem?<br />
<strong>No</strong>! There are many others. I already<br />
mention that to deny hell is to negate<br />
our freedom. Freedom is illusory if it<br />
will be trumped by a supposed mercy<br />
that negates deliberate rebellion<br />
against God and his grace.<br />
But it also negates God’s justice. I’m<br />
not saying that God needs to extract<br />
his vengeful payback, his proverbial<br />
pound of flesh. I’m saying that the<br />
objectivity of the moral order is itself<br />
erased if sin has no real consequences.<br />
Think of what sin visits upon the<br />
world. It’s not just broken laws; it’s<br />
broken lives, broken homes, broken<br />
relationships. It would be a false justice<br />
that merely accepted the wrongs<br />
in the same way as the rights. It would<br />
make God at once a relativist and a<br />
dictator, and his heaven a dictatorship<br />
of relativism.<br />
So what is hell?<br />
It’s a train that jumped the tracks to<br />
exercise its freedom. It’s a fish that<br />
jumped the bowl to be free of the<br />
water. Hell is where you go to unite<br />
self-assertion and self-deception with<br />
its original source. On this side of<br />
death we can experience the consequences<br />
of sin in a remedial way. We<br />
can let them purify us and restore us.<br />
I’ll bet that many of the wisest and holiest<br />
people you know are the people<br />
who have suffered the most.<br />
The consequences of sin can be an<br />
occasion of healing. You’ll learn that if<br />
you attend an AA meeting. People hit<br />
bottom, and some of them recognize<br />
that they need to climb up and out.<br />
But they need to make that decision.<br />
We can refuse to be healed, and we<br />
can refuse this repeatedly, obstinately,<br />
and even permanently, at the hour of<br />
our death. It’s a surplus of pride, not<br />
a lack of mercy, that keeps humans<br />
from obtaining heavenly glory.<br />
But, again, it’s our choice. It’s because<br />
we have sinned against the light<br />
that we become willfully darkened.<br />
How should belief in hell affect our<br />
day-to-day lives?<br />
Fear of hell is the lower part of contrition.<br />
It’s better for us to be motivated<br />
by pure love. But it’s OK if we’re<br />
motivated by pure fear! It’s a start.<br />
Even Scripture tells us to work out<br />
our salvation in fear and trembling.<br />
In the traditional act of contrition,<br />
we say that we’re sorry because we<br />
“dread the loss of heaven and the<br />
pains of hell.” That’s the beginning of<br />
conversion.<br />
Eventually, what we want is a right<br />
ordering of loves and a right ordering<br />
of fears. We want to love God more<br />
than any created thing we’ve formerly<br />
preferred through sin. We want to fear<br />
the loss of God more than the pains<br />
of hell.<br />
What we don’t want is to be like the<br />
damned, who, according to Jesus, just<br />
wail and gnash their teeth. They don’t<br />
repent. They recognize their failure,<br />
but they’re still too proud to do anything<br />
about it. <br />
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor<br />
to <strong>Angelus</strong> and the author of many<br />
books, including “How Christianity<br />
Saved Civilization … And Must Do So<br />
Again” (Sophia Institute Press, $18.95).<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 23
WITH GRACE<br />
BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE<br />
The Catholic case<br />
against single-payer<br />
Sen. Bernie Sanders appears at a California Nurses Association Union rally in 2017 to show his support for SB 562, S. 1804, and Medicare for All.<br />
CHRIS ALLAN/SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
As we roll rapidly through the<br />
election year, the remaining two<br />
Democrats vying for the nomination<br />
have backed expensive and<br />
radical changes to health care policy.<br />
Whether the frontrunners’ plans<br />
directly abolish private medicine (Sen.<br />
Bernie Sanders) or do so slowly but<br />
inexorably through a “public option”<br />
(Joe Biden), voters should consider<br />
that there is more at stake than losing<br />
the considerable advantage we Americans<br />
enjoy over our British cousins in<br />
cancer survival rates.<br />
Also at stake is freedom.<br />
Today in the U.S., private-sector<br />
medicine provides a varied landscape<br />
of health care styles and choices, in<br />
contrast to the sclerotic uniformity and<br />
government micromanagement of a<br />
socialist, single-payer system.<br />
With private medicine, health care<br />
workers and hospitals can opt out of<br />
ethically problematic “treatments” like<br />
suicide, abortion, and amputations of<br />
healthy organs. And patients have the<br />
freedom to choose oases of sanity and<br />
Hippocratic medicine, like Catholic<br />
hospitals, where they will receive care<br />
in accordance with the highest concepts<br />
of human flourishing, and not<br />
just those that happen to be currently<br />
in vogue with social engineers.<br />
If these fears seem the result of a<br />
fevered imagination, a close reading of<br />
former candidate Elizabeth Warren’s<br />
Medicare for All plan illustrates how<br />
one-size-fits-all-medicine can and will<br />
be harnessed to the cart of a radical<br />
social agenda.<br />
From Warren’s bill: “Items and<br />
services to eligible persons shall be<br />
furnished by the provider without discrimination.”<br />
This is not an innocuous<br />
phrase meant to protect against age or<br />
race discrimination by providers and<br />
institutions. Formulations like this are<br />
currently being used to wield the accu-<br />
T<br />
24 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
sation of “discrimination” as a cudgel<br />
enforcing progressive aims.<br />
For an example, look no further than<br />
a lawsuit brought against a Catholic<br />
hospital network in California for<br />
refusing to perform a hysterectomy on<br />
a healthy woman who identifies as a<br />
man.<br />
The state’s Court of Appeals ruled<br />
in September that under California’s<br />
Unruh Civil Rights Act, the hospital,<br />
which performs hysterectomies only on<br />
women with cancer or other medical<br />
necessity, was discriminating against<br />
the plaintiff for being a “trans man.”<br />
Like the Medicare for All bill, the<br />
state’s civil rights act guarantees “full<br />
and equal accommodations, … privileges<br />
or services.” Under Medicare<br />
for All, every hospital in the country<br />
would be held to be discriminating<br />
against healthy women who were<br />
denied a hysterectomy, whether they<br />
refused for ethical, medical, or religious<br />
reasons.<br />
Discrimination will also be alleged<br />
when a medical worker refuses to perform<br />
or participate in an abortion. A<br />
woman who seeks a late-term abortion<br />
because her fetus has Down syndrome<br />
and is made to wait because the nurse<br />
on duty refuses to assist for religious<br />
reasons can claim to be a victim.<br />
Ditto for a man who is trying to fill<br />
his prescription for suicide pills and is<br />
told to go to the pharmacy next door.<br />
Under Medicare for All, any burden<br />
placed on the exercise of religion will<br />
be justified by the federal government’s<br />
compelling interest in ensuring equal<br />
access to medical treatment for all<br />
residents.<br />
What will be lost in the calculation,<br />
and quite purposefully, are the rights of<br />
doctors, nurses, and others to step aside<br />
and let someone else do the job they<br />
can’t in good conscience bring themselves<br />
to do: because it ends a human<br />
life, or irreparably harms a young and<br />
healthy body.<br />
This, of course, is the worst kind of<br />
discrimination, because it would prevent<br />
these good people from working<br />
for what would be the only medical<br />
employer in the country: the government.<br />
Americans who love their private<br />
health insurance were famously upset<br />
when President Barack Obama’s<br />
promise that, “If you like your health<br />
plan, you can keep it” turned out to be<br />
a gross mischaracterization.<br />
Medicare for All comes with lots of<br />
promises that will turn out to be false:<br />
of cost containment, no tax hikes for<br />
the middle class, and the preservation<br />
of cancer cure rates that are the envy<br />
of the developed world. It also comes<br />
with assurances that promise to be true,<br />
like the fact that no one gets to keep<br />
their plan.<br />
If that is not enough to scare voters<br />
away from presidential candidates who<br />
espouse single-payer medicine, the end<br />
of freedom of conscience in medicine<br />
should do the trick. <br />
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie grew up in<br />
Guadalajara, Mexico, coming to the<br />
U.S. at the age of 11. She has written<br />
for USA TODAY, National Review, The<br />
Washington Post, and The New York<br />
Times, and has appeared on CNN,<br />
Telemundo, Fox <strong>News</strong>, and EWTN.<br />
She practices radiology in the Miami<br />
area, where she lives with her husband<br />
and five children.<br />
Target loyal customers who share your faith<br />
Contact Jim Garcia at 2<strong>13</strong>.637.7590 or jagarcia@angelusnews.com
INSIDE<br />
THE PAGES<br />
By KRIS MCGREGOR<br />
Self-care that’s not selfish<br />
A Catholic therapist makes the<br />
case for the spiritual value of<br />
taking care of ourselves<br />
Self-care is a buzzword in our world today. Podcasts,<br />
ads, Instagram influencers: They all say if we find<br />
enough “me time,” we’ll be able to truly enjoy our<br />
lives. However, so much of what is being pitched to us only<br />
offers surface-level fulfilment and are at best temporary<br />
fixes.<br />
In “It’s Okay to Start with You” (Our Sunday Visitor, $<strong>13</strong>),<br />
Catholic therapist and speaker Julia Marie Hogan presents<br />
some ideas about the importance of authentic self-care, and<br />
what that looks like in a Catholic life.<br />
Kris McGregor: Do we realize we’re stressed out? That<br />
may seem like a silly question, but most people I know<br />
loath to admit they can’t handle things or that things are out<br />
of control. And yet they are demonstrating the classic signs<br />
of burnout.<br />
Julia Marie Hogan: There was an article in The New York<br />
Times years ago called “The Busy Trap.” The author talked<br />
about how being busy is equated with being important. If<br />
people need us, then we have value in the world, but that<br />
comes at a cost if we’re constantly busy, and that’s stress.<br />
If we see being busy as our source of value, to admit that<br />
we can’t handle it all feels like failure. A common excuse<br />
for not practicing self-care is, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” I<br />
don’t need to take time for myself.<br />
The reality is we’re mind and body, and both of those<br />
things are not meant to handle sustained stress for long periods<br />
of time. Practicing self-care is a way of giving yourself<br />
that chance to see what it’s like to not be stressed.<br />
McGregor: What is authentic self-care?<br />
Hogan: Think about what it means to be rooted in your<br />
knowledge of God’s love for you and to use that as motivation<br />
for taking care of yourself.<br />
Self-care is actually a discipline. It’s not self-indulgent or<br />
Julia Marie Hogan<br />
lazy, or trying to get out of responsibilities. It can be hard to<br />
practice — think about getting enough sleep! I’m tempted<br />
to get as much done as I possibly can, so going to sleep<br />
sometimes feels like, “Oh no, I didn’t get everything done<br />
that I wanted to do today.”<br />
McGregor: Because of the lightbulb and the other electronic<br />
devices we’ve created, such as television and smartphones,<br />
we’ve pushed ourselves to stay up so much later<br />
than what our bodies were designed to handle.<br />
Hogan: Because we’re constantly connected through the<br />
internet and social media, it can be hard to break yourself<br />
from that connectivity. Ultimately, it goes back to self-care<br />
being a discipline. It’s hard to avoid screen time. It’s hard<br />
to go to bed on time and get those seven to eight hours of<br />
sleep.<br />
McGregor: How much does your self-care depend on<br />
where you are in the season of your life?<br />
Hogan: The life of a new mom is very different than some-<br />
JULIAMARIEHOGAN.COM<br />
Be<br />
Ob<br />
<strong>10</strong><br />
He<br />
Stra<br />
Ob<br />
LAX<br />
26 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
one in the corporate world working an 80-hour week. They<br />
can both practice self-care, but it’s going to look different for<br />
both of them.<br />
With self-care, you need to take care of yourself mentally,<br />
emotionally, spiritually, physically, all of those things. It’s<br />
not about being perfect, it’s a continual process.<br />
I wrote about making an effort not to skip meals when I’m<br />
at work, because sometimes it’s tempting to fill my lunchhour<br />
slot with another client. And the past couple of weeks<br />
have been really busy, and I found myself skipping lunch<br />
here and there, so I have to remind myself, you wrote about<br />
this!<br />
McGregor: Where can a busy person start?<br />
Hogan: The idea is to start with something really small<br />
in each area: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.<br />
Research shows that when we take small, concrete, easily<br />
defined steps, we’re more likely to be successful at sustaining<br />
them in the long term.<br />
If my goal is to exercise more, if I say I haven’t been to<br />
the gym in three months, but I’m going to run five miles<br />
tomorrow, I’m going to be really sore the next day, and<br />
discouraged, and I’m going to think, “I can never do this.”<br />
But if I go and just do a slow jog, and then walk, and keep<br />
increasing slowly, that is much more sustainable. You’re<br />
showing yourself that you can do it.<br />
You need to find those small goals that make the most<br />
sense to you, and then define them so that you know exactly<br />
what you need to do to make that happen.<br />
We live busy lives. That’s the reality of our modern world.<br />
So by helping you identify those small steps, my goal is to<br />
help you see that self-care is something you can incorporate<br />
even when your life is busy.<br />
McGregor: Is it worth it to slow down and practice these<br />
things?<br />
Hogan: When you experience all those benefits of selfcare,<br />
you’re a better<br />
person. Your memory is<br />
better, your energy levels<br />
are better, your body<br />
metabolizes better, and<br />
you just feel better.<br />
But it takes that commitment<br />
to get enough<br />
sleep, and make that<br />
happen, to feel the<br />
benefits of that. It’s far<br />
from selfish. <br />
Kris McGregor is the<br />
founder of Discerninghearts.com,<br />
an online<br />
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contemporary Catholic<br />
spirituality.<br />
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<strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong> • ANGELUS • 27
THE CRUX<br />
BY HEATHER KING<br />
A ‘Laid-Bach’<br />
experience<br />
Renowned pianist Angela<br />
Hewitt includes a stop in Beverly<br />
Hills as part of her global tribute<br />
to the German composer<br />
Angela Hewitt<br />
RICHARD TERMINE<br />
People think Angelenos are “laid<br />
back,” but the fact is, a simple trip<br />
to a music concert requires nerves<br />
of steel, an encyclopedic memory for<br />
geographical layout, and a longing for<br />
transcendence that needs to trump all<br />
manner of danger and discomfort.<br />
I refer in this case to a recent trip to<br />
the Wallis Annenberg Center for the<br />
Performing Arts, which is located on<br />
“Little” Santa Monica Boulevard in<br />
Beverly Hills.<br />
As you may know, this two-lane artery,<br />
lined with ritzy restaurants, upscale<br />
boutiques, dentists’ offices, and plastic<br />
surgeons, has absolutely no shoulder or<br />
curb, is criss-crossed by one-way streets,<br />
has narrow, if at all, left-hand turn<br />
lanes, and is therefore basically suicidal<br />
to slow down or stop.<br />
It’s bad enough during the day, but<br />
try driving it at night. Palm trees were<br />
swathed in disconcertingly blinking<br />
fairy lights. Teslas, Porsches, Lamborghinis<br />
whizzed past at warp speed.<br />
The GPS went haywire and started<br />
giving directions even I knew were<br />
wrong. Gripping the wheel and frantically<br />
“navigating,” I realized I would<br />
have done just as well to close my eyes.<br />
Somehow I found my way and realized<br />
that in order to enter the parking lot,<br />
I had to stop on a dime — mid-block<br />
and with no turn lane — and make a<br />
sharp turn to the left and down.<br />
Having arrived, however, I discovered<br />
that the Wallis is stunning: a<br />
70,000-square-foot prime piece of real<br />
estate between Canon and Crescent.<br />
The restored building, designed by<br />
Zoltan E. Pali of SPF:architects, has<br />
won major architectural awards.<br />
The original 1933 Beverly Hills Post<br />
Office serves as its lobby. Beyond that,<br />
it’s all airy ceilings, hushed carpet,<br />
chi-chi bathrooms, spacious courtyards,<br />
upscale “waterfalls,” and bartenders<br />
surrounded by shelves of fancy liquors:<br />
all very spacious and tasteful and classy,<br />
LA-style.<br />
The center opened in 20<strong>13</strong> and has<br />
been known since for its eclectic and<br />
sophisticated programming which, to<br />
date, includes more than 275 dance,<br />
theater, opera, classical music, cinema,<br />
and family programs.<br />
Its programming has been nominated<br />
for 57 Ovation Awards and seven Los<br />
Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.<br />
A sampling of upcoming productions<br />
includes an experimental staging of<br />
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Al<br />
Pacino in a benefit-staged reading of<br />
28 • ANGELUS • <strong>March</strong> <strong>13</strong>, <strong>2020</strong>
Hewitt<br />
RICHARD TERMINE<br />
David Rabe’s “The Basic Training of<br />
Pavlo Hummel,” and the documentary<br />
“Violins of Hope: Strings of the<br />
Holocaust.”<br />
The 500-seat Bram Goldsmith<br />
Theater in which the concert took<br />
place, all sculptural wood and copper<br />
tones, is gorgeous. A lot of people in<br />
attendance looked vaguely like movie<br />
stars. A 20-something beauty in the<br />
seat in front of me greeted a friend and<br />
exclaimed: “Guess what I did today! I<br />
bought a condo in Century City!”<br />
The concert was in honor of Scott<br />
Timberg,<br />
longtime LA<br />
Times music<br />
and culture<br />
critic, who<br />
died tragically<br />
at 50 last<br />
December.<br />
The musician<br />
was<br />
world-renowned<br />
pianist Angela<br />
Hewitt (b.<br />
1958). Hewitt<br />
is on what she<br />
calls a “Bach<br />
Odyssey,” a<br />
series of concerts<br />
live-recording<br />
every<br />
single piece<br />
of music that<br />
Johann Sebastian<br />
Bach<br />
ever wrote.<br />
We were near the end of the cycle, as<br />
she started in September 2016, and<br />
plans to conclude on June 2, <strong>2020</strong>, at<br />
Wigmore Hall in London.<br />
Bach (1685-1750) is, of course, the<br />
Baroque-era composer and church<br />
organist universally considered to have<br />
written, among other things, some of<br />
the greatest choral and sacred works of<br />
all time (“Mass in B Minor,” “Christmas<br />
Oratorio,” and the universally<br />
known cantata excerpt “Jesu, Joy of<br />
Man’s Desiring”).<br />
The evening’s repertoire consisted<br />
of “Four Duets,” “Eighteen Little<br />
Preludes” (some of which Bach<br />
composed as lessons for his children),<br />
and the “Fantasia and Fugue in A<br />
Minor” (none of which are terribly<br />
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.<br />
well-known), followed by the “French<br />
Overture in B minor” and the “Italian<br />
Concerto in F Major” (which are).<br />
Hewitt is deeply likable. She’s humble,<br />
she’s accessible, she seemed to be<br />
enjoying herself. Each piece of Bach’s,<br />
she told us before starting, was like a<br />
puzzle that needed solving.<br />
She began her piano studies at the<br />
age of 3, has been associated with<br />
Bach since winning first prize in the<br />
Toronto International Bach Piano<br />
Competition in 1985, and describes<br />
his compositions as “the most beautiful<br />
and concentrated<br />
music<br />
that exists. …<br />
Something in<br />
it speaks to all<br />
humanity.”<br />
She has<br />
spent 11 years<br />
performing<br />
and recording<br />
all of Bach’s<br />
major keyboard<br />
works<br />
Heather King is a blogger, speaker, and the author of several books.<br />
© WALLIS ANNENBERG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS<br />
— a total of<br />
17 CDs — for<br />
Hyperion.<br />
“One of the<br />
record glories<br />
of our age,”<br />
Britain’s The<br />
Sunday Times<br />
called them,<br />
and Hewitt<br />
herself has<br />
been heralded<br />
as “one of the<br />
reliably mesmerising musicians of the<br />
day,” “the priestess of Bach,” and “the<br />
purring engine of a Rolls-Royce in<br />
motion.”<br />
She has played Bach in London’s<br />
Royal Festival Hall, knowing that her<br />
mother had died a few hours before.<br />
She once played a Bach fugue in the<br />
Château de Chillon on Lake Geneva<br />
while a beetle slowly climbed up her<br />
bare arm.<br />
And on Feb. 23, she played for us<br />
graced Angelenos who had braved<br />
traffic, found our way to this glittering<br />
theater, and were stunned into silence<br />
by her virtuosity.<br />
As for return traffic? I didn’t notice.<br />
I didn’t drive home that night: I<br />
floated. <br />
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