Angelus News | March 20, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 11

Hope in a time of
Pandemic
ANGELUS
March 20, 2020 Vol. 5 No. 11

Join the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Official
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
11 Days: October 26 to November 5, 2020
Under the Spiritual
Leadership of
Archbishop José H. Gomez
along with:
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
including Bethlehem, Sea of Galilee,
Nazareth, Jerusalem, and much more!
$4,299 from Los Angeles (LAX)
plus $195 in tips
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Msgr.
Antonio
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Space is limited – sign up today!
Fr.
James
Anguiano
Fr.
Parker
Sandoval
Download a brochure and registration form today at
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Contact: Mrs. Judy Brooks, Director
Archbishop’s Office for Special Services
(213) 637-7551 or pilgrimage@la-archdiocese.org
CST#: 2018667–40

ON THE COVER
Standing in the window of the Apostolic
Palace overlooking an empty St. Peter’s
Square, Pope Francis blesses the city of
Rome March 15, still under lockdown to prevent
the spread of the coronavirus. On Page
10 is the story of how saints and creative
minds throughout the ages — including Pope
Francis — remind the Church of her vocation
to care for the good of souls in times of
great physical suffering. On Page 14, Mike
Aquilina offers some perspective on the
“providential” consequences of pestilence
going back centuries.
IMAGE:
People wearing protective masks
pray during Mass at the National
Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual
Help in Manila, Philippines, last
month, following confirmed cases
of coronavirus in the country.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/
ELOISA LOPEZ, REUTERS
VATICAN MEDIA VIA REUTERS
Contents
t
3
Pope Watch 2
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation, and Local News 4-6
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
In San Pedro, sisters ponder the future of home for the elderly 16
John Allen on the Cold War’s 2020 Catholic comeback 20
Mike Aquilina on the best of the ‘Four Last Things’ 22
Evangelizing aliens? Sign me up, says one priest 24
Greg Erlandson: Zombies, saints, and fear of the unknown 26
Heather King: Poetry that startles the soul 28
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 1

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March 20, 2020
Vol. 5 • No. 11
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POPE WATCH
‘Domine, quo vadis?’
Editor’s Note: While its actual authorship
has been the subject of debate
— with some credible Vatican insiders
believing it was written by Pope Francis
himself — the following letter addressed
to priests was signed by Pope Francis’
personal secretary, Father Yoannis
Lahzi Gaid, Sunday, March 13.
There is an episode attributed to the
apostle Peter, who according to tradition,
was fleeing Rome to avoid Nero’s
persecutions and met Christ who was
carrying the cross upon his shoulders,
walking toward Rome.
Peter asks Jesus, “Domine, quo
vadis?” (Lord, where are you going?)
and Jesus answered him, “Eo Romam
iterum crucifigi” (“I am going to
Rome to be crucified again”). Peter
understood from this that he needed
to go back to face martyrdom.
Humanly speaking, Peter had every
right in the world to flee to save his
life from persecution and perhaps to
be able to found another community
and other churches, but in reality,
he was acting according to the logic
of the world — like Satan, that is,
thinking as men think and not as God
thinks. Jesus, “turning toward Peter,
said: ‘Get behind me Satan! You are a
stumbling block for me, because you
do not think according to God but
according to men.’ ”
In St. John’s Gospel, when Christ
speaks of the good shepherd and the
hired hand, he defines himself as the
good shepherd, who not only takes
care of his sheep but knows each of
them and even gives his life for them.
Jesus is the sure guide of the people
who are looking for a path that will
lead them to God and toward their
brothers and sisters.
In the epidemic of fear that all of us
are living because of the pandemic
of the coronavirus, we risk acting like
hired hands and not like shepherds.
We cannot and should not judge, but
the image that comes to mind is that
of Christ who meets Peter who is terrified
and fleeing, not to reproach him
but to go and die in his place. Think
of all the souls who feel terrified and
abandoned because we pastors follow
the instructions of civil authorities,
which is right in these circumstances
to avoid contagion — while we risk
putting aside divine instructions —
which is a sin.
We think as men think and not as
God thinks. We join the group of those
who are terrified rather than joining
the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers,
the health care workers, and mothers
and fathers, who are on the front
lines. I think of all the people who
live by nourishing themselves from
the Eucharist, because they believe in
the real presence of Jesus who gives
himself in holy Communion.
I think of those people who now
have to be satisfied following the Mass
transmitted via streaming. I think of
the souls that have need of spiritual
comfort and of the sacrament of confession.
I think of all those people who
will certainly abandon the Church
when this nightmare is over, because
the Church abandoned them when
they had need of her.
It is good for the churches to remain
open. Priests should be on the front
lines. The faithful should find courage
and comfort from seeing their
Continued on Page 14
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Papal Prayer Intention for March: We pray that the Church in China may
persevere in its faithfulness to the Gospel and grow in unity.
2 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
In the time of coronavirus
How the world has changed in just a
few weeks. It seems hard to remember
life before the worldwide outbreak of
the coronavirus, and right now it is
hard to imagine that life might one
day return to normal.
As I write, world health officials have
declared the virus to be a “pandemic,”
and there are more than 6,500
deaths already, across many nations. A
national emergency has been declared
by the president, and the governor
of California and the mayor of Los
Angeles have each announced new
restrictions on public gatherings and
other measures aimed at preventing
the spread of the virus.
In the midst of this grave and extraordinary
moment, I regret to say that we
have been forced to temporarily suspend
public celebration of the Mass
in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, at
least for the next two weeks, through
the weekend of March 28-29. We
have also closed our Catholic schools
at least until March 31, and canceled
most gatherings in the archdiocese.
What we do in the Church, we do
out of love for God and love for our
brothers and sisters. We have taken
this extraordinary step of suspending
Masses out of love for those in our families
and communities who are most
vulnerable to this deadly virus.
It was fitting that the Gospel this past
weekend was the beautiful story of
Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman
at the well. Jesus’ words struck me:
“The hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshippers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth; and
indeed the Father seeks such people
to worship him.”
It seems to me that in this moment,
in this time when so many are afraid
and uncertain, our Father is calling
us to intensify our worship, our discipleship.
He is calling us to seek him
with all our hearts, to serve him with
our whole lives. He is calling us to
trust in his Providence, in his plan for
our lives and our world.
With the worldwide outbreak of the
coronavirus, we see how the forces
of “globalization” have made us one
family, and that what afflicts our
brothers and sisters in one country can
no longer be isolated. We are confronted,
not only with the reality of our
common humanity, but also with our
responsibility for one another. As St.
Paul said, if one of us is suffering, we
all suffer together.
God is calling us to trust
in his Providence, in his
plan for our lives and
our world.
These are troubling times. People are
getting sick, people are dying. Many
families are struggling with the dislocations
caused by the shutting down
of businesses and schools. People are
feeling the anguish of being separated
and far away from loved ones in
a time of need. Some have relatives
dying in other parts of the world, and
they cannot reach them.
Now is the time to intensify our
prayers and sacrifices for the love of
God and the love of our neighbor. Let
us draw closer to one another in our
love for him. We are called to bear
one another’s burdens and we need to
stand in solidarity with our brothers
and sisters, as one family. We need to
reflect on the fragility of our lives, and
rediscover what truly matters.
We are a people of faith, not of fear.
“Be not afraid!” is what the angel
told Mary at the Annunciation. Jesus
spoke these same words to his disciples
after the resurrection. And in
this time of trial and testing, I think he
is speaking these words to his disciples
again.
Jesus has passed through the valley
of the shadow of death, so there is
no evil that we should be afraid of.
He has promised to be with us until
the close of the age. And there is no
promise that Jesus makes that he will
not keep.
St. John writes that “perfect love
casts out fear.” Of course, we know
that our love is far from perfect. But
we also know that God does not abandon
us. Throughout the history of the
Church, Jesus continues to walk with
us: through persecutions, plagues,
and pestilence, and now a pandemic.
Jesus goes with us even now and we
know that in all things he works for
good for those who love him. And we
have his promise: “In the world you
will have trouble, but take courage, I
have overcome the world.”
Pray for me this week, and I will pray
for you. And let us pray for all those
afflicted by this virus and all those
working to care for them.
And I invite you to join me in seeking
the maternal intercession of Our
Lady of Guadalupe for our nation and
our world.
You can find a special prayer for this
time of the coronavirus on our website:
archla.org/prayer.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
England: Unearthed bones
belong to saint-princess
A seventh-century skeleton unearthed at a Kent
church is believed to belong to one of the earliest saints
of England.
Through carbon dating of bone and teeth samples
and archival research, archaeologists concluded that
it was “highly probable” that the remains belonged to
St. Eanswythe, a Kentish royal who became a nun as a
teenager.
A descendent of Anglo-Saxon kings and the foundress
of one of the first English monastic communities
around A.D. 660 (and perhaps the first of its kind for
women), St. Eanswythe represents a significant moment
of Kentish and Church history.
“This locally based community partnership has pro-
An archaeologist removes human remains at the Church of St. Mary
and St. Eanswythe in Kent, England.
duced a stunning result of national importance,” said Dr.
Andrew Richardson, archives manager of the Canterbury
Archeological Trust.
MARK HOURAHANE/DIOCESE OF CANTERBURY
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
TRANSMITTERS OF THE FAITH — A 1906
wedding photo shows Karol and Emilia
Wojtyła, the parents of the future St. Pope John
Paul II, whose official beatification process
was begun March 11 by the Vatican. The
couple had three children and were known
for their visible devotion to their Catholic faith
and for “strongly influencing the spiritual and
intellectual development of the future pope,”
the bishops of Poland said in a statement. The
Archdiocese of Kraków, which Karol Wojtyła
led as archbishop before becoming pope,
will be accepting documents, letters, and
messages regarding Karol and Emilia from the
faithful until May 7.
Mexico: Women’s Day
marches get ugly
Nationwide protests denouncing
violence against women in Mexico
earlier this month could hardly be
described as peaceful: Throughout
the country, demonstrators vandalized
several churches in their path.
During the “women’s strike” March
8 in Mexico City, police officers were
overrun by protesting women who
stormed the city’s cathedral. In other
locations, the vandalism included
marking walls with graffiti, breaking
windows, and throwing explosive
devices.
At the cathedral of Hermosillo in Sonora,
about 80 faithful had to be evacuated
during Sunday Mass. Markings
on the wall proclaimed phrases such
as “legal abortion” and “pedophile.”
The attacks took place even after
several bishops had voiced support for
women’s rights in the country. The
day of the march, Cardinal Carlos
Aguiar Retes of Mexico City stated,
“We not only want to show solidarity
and accompany women who suffer
violence, but we also celebrate any
initiative or public policy that helps
to eradicate the harmful culture that
invades us.”
Poland encourages more,
not fewer, Masses amid
coronavirus
While several dioceses around the
world, including Rome, were canceling
Masses and closing churches
amid the coronavirus outbreak, the
Church in Poland has called for more
Masses than ever.
“Just as hospitals treat illnesses of
the body, the Church is there to heal
illnesses of the soul. That’s why it’s
unimaginable that we should not
pray in our churches,” Archbishop
Stanislaw Gadecki, head of the Polish
bishops’ conference, wrote in a
March 10 statement.
In light of widespread precautions
against holding large gatherings of
people, he asked that parishes increase
the number of Sunday Masses
in order to reduce congregation sizes.
He also encouraged the elderly and
sick to remain at home and watch
broadcasts of Mass on television.
“Let us pray for health for the sick
and for the doctors, medical staff,
and all services that work to stop the
spread of this virus,” wrote the archbishop.
“Let’s pray for the epidemic
to end.”
4 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

NATION
Minnesota: Abortion day
‘an affront to our Creator’
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/JASON REDMOND, REUTERS
OPEN ONLY FOR PRAYER — Jun Lee, a Catholic from South Korea, prays in front of an
image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James Cathedral in Seattle March 12. On March
11, the Archdiocese of Seattle became the first in the country to announce the temporary
suspension of all public Masses to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
As of press time, places of worship in the archdiocese were still open for prayer.
America’s oldest
coronavirus victim:
St. Paddy
For U.S. Catholics, concerns about
the spread of coronavirus impacted
not only their worship schedules, but
one of their longest-held pastimes: the
St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Most if not all St. Patrick’s Day
parades in major U.S. cities were
canceled due to concerns about the
spread of the coronavirus (COV-
ID-19).
In New York, the cancellation
marked the first time the parade was
not being held since 1762.
New York Archbishop Cardinal
Timothy Dolan, himself a son of
Irish-Americans, said he understood
the decision, but “like everybody else,
I’m disappointed.”
In some places, such as in Louisville,
Kentucky, organizers vowed the parade
would be rescheduled to a future
date, rather than canceled, due to the
funds it raises for local businesses and
charities.
‘Remain in Mexico’
stays — for now
The U.S. Supreme Court granted
the Trump administration’s request to
continue enforcing its controversial
“Remain in Mexico” policy while it
appeals a decision by a lower court to
block the policy.
The 2019 Migrant Protection
Protocols, as the policy is formally
known, require asylum-seekers to stay
in Mexico while their cases make their
way through U.S. immigration courts.
Previously, some asylum-seekers had
been allowed to enter the U.S. while
awaiting court decisions.
For now, the Supreme Court’s decision
overrules a San Francisco federal
appeals court, which last month heard
evidence that people returned to Mexico
under the policy “face targeted discrimination,
physical violence, sexual
assault, overwhelmed and corrupt law
enforcement, lack of food and shelter,
and practical obstacles to participation
in court proceedings in the United
States.”
The Catholic archbishop of Minneapolis
and St. Paul slammed the Twin
Cities’ decision to declare an official
“Abortion Providers Appreciation
Day.”
In a March 10 statement, Archbishop
Bernard A. Hebda declared he was
“profoundly saddened” by the St. Paul
city council and Minneapolis mayor’s
decisions.
“Given that each human life is created
in the image and likeness of God
and has value, to honor those who
purposefully end such life is an affront
not only to our Creator but to the
foundational values of civil society,”
he wrote.
The day, already commemorated nationally
by abortion proponents, falls
in the middle of the national 40 Days
For Life campaign, which encourages
pro-life supporters to pray daily to end
abortion.
Archbishop Hebda expressed admiration
for “the countless women and
men of goodwill who tirelessly give
of themselves” to “create a culture of
life.”
“It is those people we should be
honoring,” he said.
Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and
Minneapolis.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/BOB ROLLER
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
New abuse reporting system launched
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
A family in Thousand Oaks shared photos of its participation in
Archbishop Gomez’s celebration of Sunday Mass March 15 via
livestream at home.
ADLA liturgies, classes
go to cyberspace
A reporting system accepting sexual misconduct allegations
against U.S. bishops and eparchs launched March 16,
including in Los Angeles.
Reports made to the Catholic Bishops Abuse Reporting
Service (CBAR), may be made by calling 800-276-1562 or
visiting ReportBishopAbuse.org.
The nationwide system is being implemented by individual
dioceses under the direction of each respective cardinal,
archbishop or bishop. The information gathered, which is
protected through enhanced encryption, is forwarded to the
local metropolitan bishop, who designates a layperson with
whom to review the allegation before forwarding it to the
apostolic nuncio.
If a report is received that concerns the local metropolitan,
then it is forwarded to the local province’s “senior suffragan.”
Here in Southern California, Archbishop José H. Gomez
is the local metropolitan and Bishop Gerald Barnes of San
Bernardino is the senior suffragan.
Like many places in the world hoping to stem the
growth of the coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, parishes
and schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are
turning to technology to continue their mission.
Faithful in their homes looking to participate in Mass
via livestream can find several local Mass streaming
links at LACatholics.org/mass-for-the-homebound/.
On Sunday, March 15, more than 40,000 viewers
tuned in for Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H.
Gomez at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
As part of similar measures, schools in the archdiocese
were closed at least through March 27, with “remote
learning” at home replacing classroom sessions
for students.
For the latest information and updates, please visit
LACatholics.org/Emergency.
ST. JOHN PAUL II STEM ACADEMY
St. John Paul II STEM Academy principal Jeff Hilger presents to
students via “distance learning” March 16.
COMMUNION IN THE PARKING LOT — A deacon at St. Elizabeth of
Hungary Church in Altadena administers holy Communion to a person
in his car at a “drive-in Mass” in the parish’s parking lot March 15.
Guidelines from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for liturgical celebrations
last week encouraged smaller gathering sizes at parishes, but
since then public Masses have been canceled in the archdiocese. Visit
LACatholics.org/Emergency for up-to-date directives in light of the
coronavirus crisis.
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
6 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

During this time of high alert for local
citizens, Angelus readers are invited
to visit LACatholics.org/Emergency
for:
U
U
U
Prayer and livestreamed liturgy resources
Coronavirus-related measures and
guidelines in the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles
News updates on the Church’s response to
the pandemic from AngelusNews.com
Prayer in the Time of the Coronavirus
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
Holy Virgin of Guadalupe,
Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas.
We fly to you today as your beloved children.
We ask you to intercede for us with your Son,
as you did at the wedding in Cana.
Pray for us, loving Mother,
and gain for our nation and world,
and for all our families and loved ones,
the protection of your holy angels,
that we may be spared the worst of this illness.
For those already afflicted,
we ask you to obtain the grace of healing and deliverance.
Hear the cries of those who are vulnerable and fearful,
wipe away their tears and help them to trust.
In this time of trial and testing,
teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient
and kind. Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and
to our hearts.
We come to you with confidence,
knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother,
health of the sick and cause of our joy.
Shelter us under the mantle of your protection,
keep us in the embrace of your arms,
help us always to know the love of your Son, Jesus.
In light of a number of event cancellations
and postponements around the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles due to COVID-19 coronavirusrelated
concerns, this week’s LA Catholic
Events calendar can be found online at
AngelusNews.com/Events-Calendar.
Amen.
March 20, 2020 •• ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
1 Sam. 16:1, 6–7, 10–13 / Ps. 23:1–6 / Eph. 5:8–14 / Jn. 9:1–41
God’s ways
of seeing are
not our ways,
we hear in
today’s First
Reading.
Jesus illustrates
this in
the Gospel,
as the blind
man comes
to see and the
Pharisees are
made blind.
The blind
man stands
for all humanity.
“Born
totally in sin”
he is made a
new creation
by the saving power of Christ.
As God fashioned the first man from
the clay of the earth (see Genesis 2:7),
Jesus gives the blind man new life by
anointing his eyes with clay (see John
9:11). As God breathed the spirit of
life into the first man, the blind man
is not healed until he washes in the
waters of Siloam, a name that means
“Sent.”
Jesus is the One “sent” by the Father
to do the Father’s will (see John
9:4; 12:44). He is the new source of
life-giving water, the Holy Spirit who
rushes upon us in baptism (see John
4:10; 7:38–39).
This is the Spirit that rushes upon
God’s chosen King David in today’s
First Reading. A shepherd like Moses
before him (see Exodus 3:1; Psalm
78:70–71), David is also a sign pointing
to the good shepherd and king to
“Christ Healing the Blind,” by El Greco, 1541-1614, Greek.
come: Jesus (see John 10:11).
The Lord is our shepherd, as we
sing in today’s Psalm. By his death
and resurrection he has made a path
for us through the dark valley of sin
and death, leading us to the verdant
pastures of the kingdom of life, the
Church.
In the restful waters of baptism
he has refreshed our souls. He has
anointed our heads with the oil of
confirmation and spread the eucharistic
table before us, filling our cups to
overflowing.
With the once-blind man we enter
his house to give God the praise, to
renew our vow: “I do believe, Lord.”
“The Lord looks into the heart,” we
hear today. Let him find us, as Paul
advises in today’s Epistle, living as
“children of light,” trying always to
learn what is pleasing to our Father.
Scott Scott Hahn is is founder of of the the St. St. Paul Paul Center for for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
8 • ANGELUS • March August 20, 16-23-30, 2020 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Judgment Day
We all fear judgment. We fear being
seen with all that’s inside us, some of
which we don’t want exposed to the
light. Conversely, we fear being misunderstood,
of not being seen in the
full light, of not being seen for who
we are. And what we fear most perhaps
is final judgment, the ultimate
revelation of ourselves.
Whether we are religious or not,
most of us fear having to face our
Maker, Judgment Day. We fear standing
naked in complete light where
nothing is hidden and all that’s in the
dark inside us is brought to light.
What’s curious about these fears is
that we fear both being known for
who we are, even as we fear not being
known for who we really are. We fear
judgment, even as we long for it. Perhaps
that’s because we already intuit
what our final judgment will be and
how it will take place.
Perhaps we already intuit, when we
finally stand naked in God’s light, that
we will also finally be understood and
that revealing light will not just expose
our shortcomings but also make visible
our virtues.
That intuition is divinely placed in
us and reflects the reality of our final
judgment. When all our secrets are
known our secret goodness will also
be known. Light exposes everything.
For example, here’s how the renowned
poet and spiritual writer,
Wendell Berry, foresees the final
judgment: “I might imagine the dead
waking, dazed into a shadowless
light in which they know themselves
altogether for the first time. It is a light
that is merciless until they accept its
mercy; by it, they are at once con-
demned and redeemed. It is Hell until
it is Heaven.
“Seeing themselves in that light, if
they are willing, they see how far they
have failed the only justice of loving
one another. And yet, in suffering the
light’s awful clarity, in seeing themselves
within it, they see its forgiveness
and its beauty and are consoled.”
In many ways, this wonderfully
captures it: When, one day, we stand
in the full light of God, stripped
naked in soul, morally defenseless,
with everything we have ever done
exposed, that light will, I suspect,
indeed be a bit of hell before it turns
into heaven.
It will expose all that’s selfish and
impure inside us and all the ways we
have hurt others in our selfishness,
even as it will expose its opposite,
namely, all that’s selfless and pure
inside us. That judgment will bring
with it a certain condemnation even
as it brings at the same time an understanding,
forgiveness, and consolation
such as we have never known before.
That judgment will be, as Berry suggests,
bitter but ultimately consoling.
The one nuance that I would add to
Berry’s idea is something taken from
Father Karl Rahner, SJ. His fantasy
of our judgment by God after death
is very similar to Berry’s, except that,
for Father Rahner, the agent of that
judgment will not so much be God’s
light as it will be God’s love.
For Father Rahner, the idea is not
so much that we will be standing in
an unrelenting light that sears and
pierces through us, but rather that we
will be embraced by a love so unconditional,
so understanding, and so
gracious that, inside that, we will know
instantly all that’s selfish and impure
inside us even as we know all that’s
pure and selfless.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to ask
God for forgiveness with these words:
“Punish me with a kiss!” Judgment
Day will be exactly that. We will be
“punished” by a kiss, by being loved
in a way that will make us painfully
aware of the sin within us, even as it
lets us know that we are good.
For those of us who are Roman
Catholics, judgment is also, I believe,
what we mean by our concept of purgatory.
Purgatory is not a place that’s
separate from heaven where one goes
for a time to do penance for one’s sins
and to purify one’s heart.
Our hearts are purified by being embraced
by God, not by being separated
from God for a time so as to be made
worthy of that embrace. As well, as St.
Thérèse implies, the punishment for
our sin is in the embrace itself.
Final judgment takes place by being
unconditionally embraced by Love.
When that happens to the extent that
we’re sinful and selfish, that embrace
of pure goodness and love will make
us painfully aware of our own sin and
that will be hell until it is heaven.
As a lyric by Leonard Cohen puts it:
“Behold the gates of mercy, in arbitrary
space, and none of us deserving
the cruelty or the grace.” He’s right.
None of us deserves either the cruelty
or the grace we experience in this
world. And only our final judgment,
the embrace of unconditional love,
God’s kiss, will make us aware both of
how cruel we’ve been and how good
we really are.
Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher, award-winning author, and president of the Oblate School of Theology
in San Antonio, Texas. Find him online at www.ronrolheiser.com and www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser.
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 9

Conversion
in a time of
coronavirus
COURTESY LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
People wearing masks for protection from the coronavirus tour the
Vatican Museums in this Feb. 29 file photo. The Vatican announced
March 8 that the museums will be closed until April 3 as a precaution
against spread of the coronavirus. Also closed for the same duration are
the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica, museums at the pontifical villa
at Castel Gandolfo, and the museums of the papal basilicas.
10 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

Through pandemics, plagues, and
pestilence, the Church always seeks
the health of the sick — not just
people’s bodies, but their souls, too
BY ELIZABETH LEV &
THOMAS D. WILLIAMS / ANGELUS
When Italy, the public display of affection (PDA)
capital of the world, shuns handshakes and discourages
kissing, one might well imagine the
apocalypse is close at hand. Indeed, the news out of the
Bel Paese — schools, shops, museums, and coffee bars
closed, soccer championships played behind closed doors,
citizens confined to their homes — evokes thoughts of the
Black Death that ravaged Europe 700 years ago.
While not as lethal as the bubonic plague or other devastating
epidemics of Italy’s past, the coronavirus (COV-
ID-19) nonetheless gives serious cause for concern. The
number of deaths (1,809 as of this writing) is not indifferent
and the virus’ long incubation period makes its spread
extremely difficult to contain.
The Italian government has been rolling out decrees on
a daily basis, effectively turning the country into a police
state, closing down everything but food stores, newsstands,
and tobacconists (yes, you read that right), with
patrol cars cruising the streets looking for citizens out of
their residences without due cause or the proper papers.
Yet for many, the actions of the state were less worrisome
than those of the Church, whose leadership was conspicuously
absent until very recently. For the first 10 days
of the virus, the official pronouncements of the Italian
Church seemed a mere echo of the safety measures established
by the civil authorities.
The Church’s pastoral program began with hygiene and
social distancing, first removing the sign of peace and
holy water, then suspending public Masses. Then, on
March 12, the vicar of Rome, acting under Pope Francis’
authority, announced the closing of all Rome’s churches,
even to private prayer, leaving the faithful feeling abandoned
and confused, with no sacraments and no distinctive
message of salvation.
Italians had gone from freedom to confinement in a
matter of days, while Church leaders prepared to board
up places of worship, claiming that they were only following
orders of the civil government.
And then something amazing happened. Less than 24
hours after Pope Francis had approved the closing of
Rome’s churches, he reversed the decision and ordered
all parishes and mission churches reopened.
This about-face is best illustrated by a letter dated March
13 signed by the pope’s personal secretary, but widely
thought to be written by the Holy Father. Circulated
among the Roman clergy, the letter urged priests to go
out to God’s people, since their place is on the “front
lines” in this crisis.
“Think of all the souls who feel terrified and abandoned
because we pastors follow the instructions of civil authorities
— which is right in these circumstances to avoid contagion
— while we risk putting aside divine instructions
— which is a sin,” the letter reflected, while insisting that
priests make the Eucharist and confession available to the
faithful.
“We think as men think and not as God thinks,” the
author continued. “We join the ranks of those who are
terrified rather than joining the doctors, the nurses, the
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 11

volunteers, the health care workers, and mothers and
fathers, who are on the front lines.”
This letter revealed the battle against naturalism, the
reduction of everything to the pleasures and pains, the
benefits and trials of this world, that underlies part of this
crisis. The Church has battled this mindset for centuries.
While recognizing the value and legitimate autonomy
of the things of this world, her mission has always been
to point beyond, to stir souls to “seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God”
(Colossians 3:1–3).
In his first encyclical letter, “Deus Caritas Est” (“God is
Love”), Pope Benedict XVI underscored an essential distinction
between the respective roles of the Church and
civil government. Whereas charity is the distinctive domain
of the Church, the “just ordering of society and the
State is a central responsibility of politics,” he wrote, and
therefore justice
“is both the aim
and the intrinsic
criterion of all
politics.”
“For her part,
the Church, as
the social expression
of Christian
faith, has a
proper independence
and is
structured on the
basis of her faith
as a community
which the State
must recognize.
The two spheres
are distinct, yet
always interrelated,”
he said
(DCE, 28a).
At the heart of
the Church’s
charity we find
solicitude for the
spiritual good
and eternal salvation of souls and this is, and always has
been, the Church’s primary concern.
Pandemics are scary. Much of what terrifies us is the lack
of control that disease and its attendant consequences
(quarantine, disruption, uncertainty) bring. The medieval
world knew it had little control over much of anything —
nature, weather, war, overlords — but the contemporary
world is accustomed to a feeling of self-determination.
A society used to thinking it controls everything from
climate to gender is poorly equipped to weather the storm
of unpredictability that epidemics bring.
Julien Carron, president of the ecclesial movement
Communion and Liberation, addressed this problem in
the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: “A fear, always
in the back of our minds, explodes when reality exposes
Pierre Mignard’s “St. Charles Borromeo Ministering to Plague Victims.”
our essential powerlessness, for many people taking over
and, at times, prompting impulsive reactions: pushing
us to close ourselves up, shy away from any contact with
other people to avoid contagion, stockpiling provisions…”
This fear has many outlets. Giovanni Boccaccio’s book
“Decameron” recounts how during the great plague of
1348, a group of young people fled to the safety of the
countryside to enjoy leisurely and amorous pursuits.
On the other hand, during the deadly 1918 Spanish flu
epidemic that claimed an estimated 50 million to 100
million lives, St. Jacinta of Portugal chose, as she endured
excruciating treatments, to offer her suffering for the
conversion of souls.
Carron reminds us that situations like these “reveal what
kind of progress we — each of us personally and all together
— have made on the path of maturity, how much
self-awareness we have gained and how capable we are of
facing the life in
front of us.”
Historically,
the Catholic
Church has had
a crucial role
to play in time
of pestilence.
She has been on
the front lines
of epidemics,
infectious diseases,
and mortal
danger since her
founding. The
pampered son
of the mayor of
Montpellier,
14th-century
St. Roch, was
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
transformed into
a missionary to
the sick, traveling
throughout
Italy ministering
to the infirm.
Our woke world
would probably accuse him of irresponsibility, spreading
contagion wherever he went, yet for centuries he was
invoked as the patron to ward off plague. The formation
of the Christian, intent on gaining a greater world than
this, helped to forge courage in the face of epidemic in
the most unlikely places.
For his part, St. Charles Borromeo was the privileged
scion of a Medici who worried more about his appearance
and his erudition than the spiritual needs of souls until
the 1576 plague in Milan called him to hands-on service.
This patrician waded into the fray, ministering to the sick
and encouraging other priests to do so as well. For where
all the world saw death and desolation, he saw a glimmer
of possibility to save souls.
St. Charles hoped for heavenly glory, writing to the reli-
12 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

Pope Francis prays in front of a crucifix at the Church of St. Marcellus in Rome March 15. The crucifix was carried through Rome in 1522 during the
“Great Plague.”
CNS PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA
gious in Milan that service in a time of epidemic is “the
stuff of martyrs.” He encouraged his clergy that this was
a “desirable time now when without the cruelty of the tyrant,
without the rack, without fire, without beasts and in
the complete absence of harsh tortures which are usually
the most frightful to human weakness, we can obtain the
crown of martyrdom.”
He was continuing the course set by St. Thomas Aquinas,
who wrote that “in the case where one is bound to
look after the salvation of his neighbor, he is also bound
to expose his bodily life to dangers for the sake of that
salvation” (On Charity, art 11).
In the end, this focus on the eternal salvation of souls
follows on the words of Jesus regarding the preeminence
of the eternal good over all temporal goods, including
health and life itself. “For what does it profit a man to
gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Christian art raised its own voice to drive home this
point. After the Black Death, images of the Last Judgment
transformed from showing static scenes of Christ in
glory into murals of dynamic events unfolding over vast
surfaces. Figures rising and falling, windows into hell
focusing on dire punishments for sins like lust, avarice,
and gluttony, warned against petty attachments that could
hinder a soul’s attainment of eternity.
Buonamico Buffalmacco’s “Triumph of Death,” painted
between 1336 and 1340 for the Camposanto of Pisa, was
one of the most powerful compositions of its kind. Occupying
an imposing space of wall, it was meant to overwhelm
the viewer. Amorous suitors and gossiping women
cavort in a garden, unaware that Death, a wizened hag
with bat wings, is flying above them, scythe in hand.
She is coming for the unsuspecting youths, and ignoring
the group of old, crippled people beckoning her to come
for them. Art in a time of plague promoted the virtues of
detachment and preparedness, taking advantage of these
moments when mortality was on the minds of all.
The early ecclesiastical silence regarding matters of
eternity prompted Italian historian Franco Cardini in the
Italian daily La Stampa to declare that “we have lost our
sense of the sacred” while warning against “the divinization
of science.”
“We have severed the roots that kept us in touch with the
dimension of transcendence,” the historian continued.
“The true great epidemic of our day is our savage and
desperate fear. During the plague of 1630 it was known
that death is not the end of everything.”
God is not indifferent to the ordeals his children suffer
and neither is the Church. Now is the time to assist the
sick and suffering, to reach out to the lonely and confused,
to tend to the needs of the least of our brethren.
Yet along with the care of the body, the Church has a
preeminent vocation to care for the good of souls and to
remind the faithful which is ultimately more important.
Like St. Mary, hers is the better part, and it shall not be
taken from her.
If the authentically evangelical attitude running through
the pope’s alleged letter were to take hold of the Church’s
pastors, we could be in store for a glorious period of
witness. In this moment when the laity’s trust in their
bishops and priests has plummeted due to worldly scandal
and corruption, this could be an opportunity to win back
the hearts and souls of the faithful as they face tough decisions
regarding the spiritual care of their flock.
The coronavirus has offered the Church hierarchy the
chance to prove themselves to be true shepherds rather
than “hired hands.”
As Pope Francis has written, “The government has the
duty to guarantee care and material sustenance for the
people but we have the duty to do the same for their souls.
May it never be said: ‘I’m never going back to a church
where no one came to find me when I needed help.’ ”
Elizabeth Lev is an American-born art historian and Thomas
D. Williams is an American theologian and author of 15
books. Both live in Rome.
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 13

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
PLAGUES AND PROVIDENCE
Buonamico Buffalmacco’s “Triumph of Death,” painted between 1336 and 1340.
Epidemics were among the great terrors of the ancient
world. Doctors knew how to identify the diseases, but
they knew no way to stop their spread. Antibiotics
and antiviral drugs were still centuries away in the future.
So when the plague hit a city, the physicians were among
the first to leave. They saw what was coming, and they
could do nothing to stop it.
Historians speak of three major plagues during the early
centuries of Christianity, and they estimate that each reduced
the empire’s population by a quarter to a third.
While the population plummeted, however, the Church
grew. The sociologist Rodney Stark argues, in his book
“The Rise of Christianity” (1997), that epidemics were a
testing ground of Christian principles and a time when
specifically Christian virtues were publicly displayed.
In the first of the plagues, in A.D. 165, the pagan physician
Galen praised the Christians’ fearlessness as they
cared for others.
In the second, which began around A.D. 250, we find
the African bishop St. Cyprian exhorting his congregation
to mobilize for the task of healing. He urged them to give
care not only to their fellow believers, but also to their pagan
persecutors. “There is nothing remarkable in cherishing
merely our own people,” he said, “… [We] should love
our enemies as well … the good [should be] done to all,
not merely to the household of faith.”
The Egyptian bishop St. Dionysius the Great described
in great detail the relief efforts extended by the Church to
everyone, even though the practice of the faith was then a
crime punishable by death. Christians were willing to risk
a double exposure, to the authorities and to the disease, in
order to tend to the sick and dying.
In the epidemic of A.D. 312, during the fiercest anti-Christian
persecution, the Church provided the only
care available in the cities.
In crises the Christians established systems of care that in
times of peace — when the persecutions stopped — the
Church would institutionalize in hospitals.
Stark believes that epidemics were a major factor in the
early growth of the Church: “Had classical society not been
disrupted and demoralized by these catastrophes, Christianity
might never have become so dominant a faith.”
— Mike Aquilina
10
1:
5:
5:
B
Pope Watch, continued from Page 2
shepherds. They should know that they can run in any
moment and find refuge in their churches and parishes
and find them open and welcoming.
The Church must truly be missionary, for instance,
through a hotline that anyone can call to find comfort, to
ask for the sacrament of confession or holy Communion,
or to ask for it for their loved ones.
We need to increase house visits, door to door, employing
all the necessary precautions to avoid contagion, but
never shutting ourselves in, standing back and watching.
Otherwise, we will find that people are ordering out to
have their meals and their pizzas delivered, but do not
have holy Communion brought to them when they want it
because they are old, or sick, or needy. It will happen that
supermarkets, newspaper stands, and cigarette stands are
open, but not the churches.
The government has the duty to guarantee care and
material sustenance for the people, but we have the duty
to do the same for their souls. May it never be said, “I’m
never going into a church where no one came to find me
when I needed help.” So let us apply all the means necessary,
but let us not be conditioned by fear. Let us ask for
the grace and the courage to behave according to God and
not according to men!
Translation by Thomas D. Williams.
Tun
the
new
14 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

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Trusting
until the end
On July 26, 1979, the statue of
St. Jeanne Jugan was blessed
at the new home in San Pedro,
which was dedicated in her
name: Jeanne Jugan Residence.
R.W. DELLINGER
Even as their San Pedro residence
prepares to be sold, the Little
Sisters of the Poor insist on ‘letting
God do his work’
BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS
The news came last month — Feb. 18 to be precise
— and every time Little Sister of the Poor Clotilde
Jardim thinks about it, she can’t help but feel sad.
“We never expected it,” said Sister Jardim. “You don’t
even want to talk about it ’cause you just start to feel so
bad.”
The nun was speaking about the announcement that
her order’s Jeanne Jugan Residence in San Pedro for the
elderly and dying poor would be closing. Sitting at a wood
conference table with three fellow women religious and a
priest, the shock of the decision still hasn’t seemed to have
worn off.
The sisters have staffed the home located along the last of
Western Avenue’s 29 miles for four decades, relying only
on Divine Providence to carry out their mission. Now, it
seems, the plans from above have changed.
The religious community, whose founder, St. Jeanne
Jugan, cared for impoverished elderly in French towns
and cities during the early 1800s, first came to Los Angeles
from Chicago on a train back in 1905. The sisters established
St. Ann’s Home for the Aged, operating it until the
wood-beam building could no longer meet fire codes.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles stepped in to donate the
former all-boys Fermin Lasuen High School property to
the sisters. In August 1979, the sisters moved 120 residents
across town to their new home, complete with an ocean
view.
Now, the sisters are left hoping that the property’s eventual
buyer will agree to continue the home’s use as a home for
the elderly.
“It’s our ideal to find someone who’s very close to our
mission, our approach, our desire to continue as a home
for the elderly,” said Mother Maria Christine Lynch, who
oversees the order’s Chicago Province, which includes
California. “Our desire would certainly be for a Catholic
or faith-based organization.”
©LSOP SAN PEDRO
16 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

R.W. DELLINGER
St. Jeanne Jugan depicted with an elderly woman and man in this icon
by George Pinecross. The ministry of the Little Sisters of the Poor centers
on caring for the elderly poor.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR
Sisters and residents was in serious jeopardy thanks to the
seemingly never-ending list of government regulations for
nursing homes and other elderly care facilities.
For the San Pedro house and the other 20-plus homes
across the U.S., striving to keep up with the state and federal
rules — which regulate food quality, building safety, and
environmental concerns — has proven to be a complicated
task.
“And those are good and necessary,” said Mother Lynch.
“But they create a gap, too, the bond we sisters want to
have in the lives of our residents. End-of-life care is so
important for us. That is why we are here, to accompany
these elderly persons in the last part of their lives to God.
And we have to be there for them, and we want to be there
for them.
“But you have all kinds of regulations and other distractions
that come into play now that widen that gap. So we
need more sisters to be able to assure the residents of our
presence.”
Another factor that has not worked in the Little Sisters’
favor is the decline in vocations. Like a great majority of
Catholic religious orders and communities today, their
numbers have been in decline. In the 1960s, the community
had about 5,000 members worldwide. Today, it’s closer
to 2,000, and just around 300 in the order’s homes in the
U.S.
At the Jeanne Jugan Residence right now, it’s down to
seven Little Sisters working with 93 staff members to care
for 97 residents, with different levels of physical and mental
health needs.
For Father Mark Cregan, a lawyer for the Little Sisters of
the Poor, the San Pedro home is the seventh home for the
elderly in seven years he will help “transition” when the
women religious leave. He’s worked with the order long
enough to know that while the process won’t be easy, the
As the order withdraws from the home, Mother Lynch
hopes that finding such a buyer will allow residents to stay
and be cared for, “a smooth transition, which removes as
much of the anxiety and the fear and the uncertainty for
residents.”
Like her friend Sister Jardim, Sister Anthony Selewicz
is from Oakland. Both entered the Little Sisters right
out of high school after volunteering with them.
Both have lived and worked at the Jeanne Jugan Residence
during multiple stints.
She said she’s told distraught residents to “start praying
that you’ll be able to stay.”
“It’s almost like a family, when your relatives have to move
away from each other,” she explained. “The residents have
confidence in us. So they’re going to miss us a lot.”
Sister Jardim said while the needs of the residents can
be demanding at times, they show a sincere appreciation
for the spiritual life the home offers them, helped by the
presence of a chapel and a chaplain.
Mother Lynch said the special bond between the Little
From left: Little Sisters of the Poor Mother Marguerite McCarthy, Sister
Anthony Selewicz, Sister Clotilde Jardim, and Mother Maria Christine
Lynch with Father Mark Cregan, CSC, the order’s general counsel.
R.W. DELLINGER
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 17

Little Sisters have a few things going for them.
“The sisters do a process unlike any other real estate process
in the world,” he pointed out. “They don’t start with a
price. And sometimes I wish they would give a price a little
earlier. For them it’s very important who is going to be the
buyer, because they don’t want to sell and have the buyer
turn around and sell the place a year or two later.”
But, he added, “Once in a while it happens, like for
everyone else.”
The sisters’ lawyer, who also has a private practice in
New Jersey, said a sale of a Little Sisters’ home really
depended on relationships. He and some sisters in
authority would try to get a sense of the potential buyer’s
interest. Did they want to keep the enterprise going as an
elderly care facility?
More pragmatically, did a buyer have the financial wherewithal
to make up for the Little Sisters’ begging expertise
to survive? That begging, which went back to St. Jeanne
Jugan going from house to house asking for help in the
early 1800s, has been bringing in an average of $2 million
to $3 million dollars every year per home in food and other
donations.
But Father Cregan reported that most of the buyers he
worked with, in fact, had done just that by adding 20 to 45
beds to the convent where sisters had lived on the property.
The order’s general counsel said there are two reasons
why the sisters have been able to find good buyers who
wanted to carry on their care of the elderly. One was simply
how many people admired the sisters’ charitable work
and wanted to continue it. But the second and even more
important reason was trusting in Divine Providence to
intercede. “Truthfully, I’ve never seen Divine Providence
fail with the sisters,” he said.
Part of that trust in Providence, said Mother Marguerite
McCarthy, superior and administrator of the Jeanne Jugan
Residence, is knowing that God will not abandon the
sisters or the home’s residents.
“I think it’s a sad time and there’s a lot of emotion involved,”
she said. “But there’s an acceptance because it’s
God’s will, and this is the best decision that our superiors
could make under the circumstances. So, I can see acceptance
and praying for the outcome for the future — for our
residents, especially.
“And so,” added the mother superior, “it’s a feeling of just
letting go and letting God do his work in whatever way he
ordains.”
Editor’s Note: At a March 4 meeting, Los Angeles County
Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced a motion, which was
approved by her colleagues, to explore taking over the Jeanne
Jugan Residence in San Pedro. The county’s real estate department
was ordered to “pursue negotiations to acquire the
Little Sisters of the Poor location with the intent of preserving
it as a home for low-income seniors.” Progress reports are
currently being filed.
R.W. Dellinger is the features editor of Angelus.
Jeanne Jugan
residents
Virginia Accetta,
94, and Walter
Madajewski, 86.
Residents in limbo
Virginia Accetta, 94, has lived at the Jeanne Jugan
Residence for nine years, her neighbor on the
first floor, Walter Madajewski, 86, for five. She
likes the holiday parties and the cake that comes with
each resident’s birthday. He likes playing the game
“Trivia” twice a week, walking up to the grotto of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and especially the cleanliness of
the building.
“You could eat off the floors,” he cracked.
Both remember well the day in February their world
changed. Residents and staff were gathered in the
dining room to hear Mother Marguerite McCarthy,
superior of the Jeanne Jugan Residence, announce that
the Little Sisters of the Poor would be leaving the San
Pedro home.
Reasons were given, such as the dwindling number of
Little Sisters of the Poor in the United States, along with
other factors the religious community considered, including
the quality of the Little Sisters’ community life.
As they search for the “right” buyer, the sisters said they
would stay at the residence for at least a year. Mother
McCarthy offered residents the possibility of moving
to another home sponsored by the Little Sisters of the
Poor.
“We were shocked when we got the word the sisters
would be leaving,” said Madajewski. “Oh, there was lots
of crying with both the employees and the tenants.”
In a quiet voice, Accetta agreed, “Yeah, we were. We
hope some Catholic organization will buy it and keep
us here.”
“Nobody knows,” Madajewski pointed out.
Both residents are concerned about their futures.
“We’re living in limbo here now,” said Madajewski.
“We figure it’ll probably be fine for six months or eight
months or so. And everything will be as usual. But what
happens after that we don’t know.”
Accetta felt the same about her suddenly precarious
future.
“It’s hard to live with,” Madajewski pointed out. But
after a moment he added, in a steadier voice, “I have no
doubt that the sisters are going to do their level best to
find someone to take this place, and, you know, keep it
open for the elderly.”
“I hope so,” added Accetti.
— R.W. Dellinger
R.W. DELLINGER
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“Cath
of Cerca
dying at
visited,
processi
They di
water w
asked u
Workin
tap a sp
water,”
Becau
problem
18 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

PAID ADVERTISEMENT
American Catholics Have Exciting Opportunities to Help
Impoverished Areas With the Blessing of Safe Water
“Roughly 10 percent of the
world’s population lives without
ready access to clean water. As a
result, about 500,000 children die
every year from diarrhea caused by
unsafe water and poor sanitation —
that’s about 1,300 children a day.
Worldwide, diarrheal diseases are
the leading killers of children under
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“No one would deny the importance
of water to sustain life, but few of us
realize just how critical the need for
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It’s literally a matter of life and death.”
With his recent statement, Cross
Catholic Outreach president Jim
Cavnar put the stark statistics of
UNICEF and the World Health
Organization into terms every
American Catholic can easily
understand. A serious water crisis
threatens the world’s poorest
countries, and it should be a major
concern to those of us who value the
sanctity of life.
Thankfully, the Catholic Church
is aware of this problem and has
stepped forward to act on behalf of
the poor, according to Cavnar.
“Priests and nuns serving in
developing countries are identifying
the areas of greatest need and are
creating plans to help solve the
problems,” he said. “All they lack
is funding. If we can empower them
with grants of aid and with other
resources, amazing things can be
accomplished.”
Cavnar’s own ministry, Cross
Catholic Outreach, was launched in
2001 with this specific goal in mind.
It rallies American Catholics to fund
specific projects overseas, and many
safe water initiatives have been
successfully implemented as a result.
In one case, tapping a spring
in Haiti allowed Cross Catholic
Outreach to reduce infant mortality
in a poor, remote part of the country.
“Catholic leaders in the village
of Cerca reported children were
dying at an alarming rate. If you
visited, you could see the funeral
processions carrying the tiny coffins.
They discovered contaminated
water was the problem, and they
asked us to help find a solution.
Working together, we were able to
tap a spring and provide clean, safe
water,” Cavnar explained.
Because every area’s water
problem is different, Cross Catholic
ABOVE: Children fill their water jugs from a contaminated spring in Kenya. In many areas of the developing world, the
poor depend on contaminated water sources like this for their drinking water. BELOW: Children often miss school to
collect water for their families. Catholic donors supporting Cross Catholic Outreach’s water projects can provide safe,
abundant water to impoverished communities like these.
Outreach needs to be flexible. Over
the years, its projects have included
everything from digging wells to
channeling water from springs
to installing filtration systems to
providing large holding tanks for
purchased water. They also work
worldwide and have done water
projects in Africa, South and Central
American countries, the Caribbean
and elsewhere.
“This year, some of our biggest
water projects are planned for
Zambia, Kenya and Guatemala,”
Cavnar said. “Of course, our ability
to take on that work will depend on
getting contributions here in the U.S.”
Cavnar is clearly grateful to
American Catholics who choose to
support Cross Catholic Outreach’s
work with their prayers and gifts,
and he emphasizes their role often,
describing them as the real heroes in
every success story.
“Take the water project needed in
the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima,
Guatemala, for example. Drilling
for water wasn’t an option due to
the terrain. So it’s an ambitious
plan that will develop a complex
water and distribution system to
pump clean water to every home
in a community currently relying
on contaminated lakes and streams
for survival. The Catholic priest in
the area desperately needs it and its
impact will be profound — but it takes
outside funding to turn that dream
into a reality. So, when our Catholic
benefactors support a project like this,
they are literally an answer to prayer.”
The same has been true in other
important outreaches too. Over the
years, Cross Catholic Outreach
donors have built homes, schools
and clinics — and have further
blessed those outreaches with gifts
to fund medicines, school supplies,
teacher salaries and more.
“It is possible to bless
people, save lives and transform
communities,” Cavnar said. “It just
takes concerned Catholics working
together to achieve those goals.”
How to Help
To fund Cross Catholic Outreach’s effort to help
the poor worldwide, use the postage-paid brochure
inserted in this newspaper or mail your gift to Cross
Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC01524, PO Box 97168,
Washington DC 20090-7168. The brochure also
includes instructions on becoming a Mission Partner
and making a regular monthly donation to this cause.
If you identify a specific aid project with your gift, 100% of the
proceeds will be restricted to be used for that specific project.
However, if more is raised for the project than needed, funds will be
redirected to other urgent needs in the ministry.

Return of the
revolutionaries
What two Cold
War giants back in
the news this month
teach us about the
impermanence of
victory and defeat
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. / ANGELUS
Father Ernesto Cardenal died March 1 at the age of 95.
OSWALDO RIVAS/REUTERS VIA CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
ROME — Today, it seems possible
young people will look back
on the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic as a defining historical turning
point in their lives, triggering huge
transitions not only in the power of
governments to restrict free movement
and assemblies for the sake of public
health, but also in the global economy
and many other spheres of life.
For those who were young a half-century
ago, however, there’s no need to
speculate on what that defining historical
force was for them, because we all
know: the Cold War.
For more than 70 years, the rivalry
between the West and the Soviet
sphere defined politics on both sides,
while the threat of nuclear annihilation
hung over three generations.
From Joseph McCarthy and the Alger
Hiss trial to popular movies such as
“WarGames” and “Red Dawn,” the
cultural and psychological footprint of
the Cold War was inescapable.
Technically, all that may have ended
in 1989 with the collapse of the Berlin
Wall. Yet history, like college fraternity
members and drunken sailors, is
sometimes prone to hangovers, and
recent weeks have provided a couple
of classic Catholic “for instances.”
On March 1, the Nicaraguan poet
and Sandinista activist Father Ernesto
Cardenal died at the age of 95. A hero
of the Latin American liberation theology
movement, Father Cardenal ran
afoul of St. Pope John Paul II and the
Polish pope’s robust anti-Communism.
Their infamous 1983 collision at Managua’s
international airport quickly
became an iconic global image.
While the conflict has abated under
Pope Francis, including lifting Father
Cardenal’s three-decade suspension
from the priesthood, there are still
significant divisions in Catholicism
over the legacy of liberation theology
and what critics saw as its overly
friendly approach to socialist thought
and analysis.
Also in early March, Chinese Cardinal
Joseph Zen, the emeritus bishop
of Hong Kong, publicly fired back
against Italian Cardinal Giovanni
Battista Re, the recently appointed
dean of the College of Cardinals, after
Cardinal Re had written to Cardinal
Zen, basically telling him to stifle criticism
of the Vatican’s landmark 2018
deal with China over the appointment
of bishops.
Cardinal Zen, a hero to anti-Communist
Catholic conservatives, has
described that deal on various occasions
in classic Cold War language as a
form of “appeasement” of the Chinese
regime and a “betrayal” of China’s
underground Catholic community,
which has paid in blood for its resistance
to the Communist system and its
loyalty to Rome.
In a Feb. 26 letter to Cardinal Zen,
Cardinal Re insisted that the 2018 deal
was completely in continuity with the
approach of Pope John Paul and Pope
Benedict XVI, suggesting to Cardinal
Zen that he should get behind “the
path of reconciliation, of unity, and of
mission at the service of the Gospel,”
which the new provisional agreement
represents.
Though the details of the agreement
have never been released, in broad
strokes it affords Chinese authorities
a role in the selection of new Catholic
bishops to avoid the Cold War
dynamic of bishops appointed by the
pope but rejected by the government,
or appointed by the government but
20 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

not recognized in Rome, splitting the
Catholic population in two.
Cardinal Zen responded to Cardinal
Re on March 1, rejecting the claim
that Pope John Paul or Pope Benedict
would approve the deal, and — as he
has on several other occasions — accusing
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
the Vatican’s secretary of state, of
“manipulating” the pope.
Cardinal Parolin, Cardinal Zen wrote
to Cardinal Re, “is manipulating the
Holy Father, who always shows so
much affection to me when we meet,
but never answers my questions.”
Both Father Cardenal’s passing and
Cardinal Zen’s defiance, in other
words, are reminders that the imprint
of the Cold War on Catholic life may
be receding, but it has hardly disappeared.
There’s also perhaps another moral
to the story, which is this: Just like in
politics of the geopolitical sort, so,
too, in the Church, neither defeat nor
victory are necessarily permanent, and
striking reversals of fortune are forever
possible.
Father Cardenal seemed largely
consigned to the ecclesiastical dustbin
after that 1983 tête-à-tête with Pope
John Paul, and within a decade it also
seemed the overtly political form of
liberation theology he embodied had
been more or less beaten back by opposition
from important sectors of the
hierarchy, both in Latin America and
in the Vatican.
Yet with the election of Pope Francis
the tide turned, with several of
the heroes associated with liberation
theology experiencing a renaissance:
Peruvian theologian Father Gustavo
Gutiérrez, OP, was feted in the Vatican
by the head of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop
Oscar Romero of El Salvador
was canonized, Father Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, MM, of Nicaragua
saw his suspension from the priesthood
lifted, and the same thing happened to
Father Cardenal in 2019.
Cardinal Zen, meanwhile, was
named bishop of Hong Kong under
Pope John Paul and made a cardinal
under Pope Benedict, and he seemingly
enjoyed those pontiffs’ personal
support in his hardline stance against
China’s Communist authorities.
Today, however, Cardinal Zen would
appear to be on the outs.
It’s certainly not every day the dean
of the College of Cardinals publicly
crosses swords with a fellow prince of
the Church. The only recent precedent
might be 2010, when Cardinal
Christoph Schönborn of Vienna was
called on the carpet in Rome after
suggesting Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano,
then the dean of the College of
Cardinals and former secretary of state
under Pope John Paul, had blocked
action against Cardinal Hans Hermann
Groër, Cardinal Schönborn’s
predecessor, who had been accused of
sexual abuse.
Right now, Father Cardenal’s legacy
seems to have greater traction in the
Vatican than Cardinal Zen’s. However,
just 10 years ago the opposite arguably
would have been true, suggesting
that perhaps the last word on these
two Cold War giants hasn’t yet been
written.
After all, even if the coronavirus is
eventually contained, there’s no such
strategy for containing change, either
in the Church or anywhere else.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, retired archbishop of Hong Kong, attends a news conference in Hong Kong.
BOBBY YIP/REUTERS VIA CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 21

Heavenly
bodies
Setting the record straight about
the last of the ‘Four Last Things’
— and our final goal
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
SHUTTERSTOCK
During this year’s liturgical season
of Lent, Angelus is featuring
a four-part series of interviews
with Catholic scholars on the “Four Last
Things” in Christian eschatology: death,
judgment, hell, and heaven.
When we think of heaven, memory
calls up vivid and strange images from
movies, comic strips, greeting cards,
and fine art. Almost one-and-a-half
centuries ago, Huckleberry Finn imagined
it as a place where spirits “go
around all day long with a harp and
sing, forever and ever.”
It is every Christian’s ultimate goal,
and yet it is commonly misunderstood.
James L. Papandrea has written a
short, often funny, engaging book to
set the record straight: “What Really
Happens After We Die (There Will Be
Hugs in Heaven)” (Sophia Institute
Press, $10.79). An eminent scholar of
early Christianity, he has also written
novels and religion books like “Trinity
101.” He spoke with Angelus about
the common hope of Christians.
What is the truth about heaven that
people find most surprising?
People are conditioned to believe
that it is your soul, or your spirit, that
“goes to heaven,” and they don’t think
much about the redemption of the
body. We say we believe in the resurrection
of the body in the Apostles’
Creed, but a lot of people who aren’t
faithful Catholics never actually say
the Apostles’ Creed.
People who never say the rosary,
even if they go to Mass, can rationalize
the phrase “resurrection of the
dead” in the Nicene Creed as though
it is just a vague reference to eternal
life.
We know that it means the resurrection
of the body, but people who
don’t give it much thought might be
surprised to realize that, yeah, we really
believe in the actual resurrection of
the body. So the kingdom of heaven
is not some ethereal, disembodied
existence. It is an embodied existence,
in which the body will be (like it is
now) the interface between the mind
and creation.
What are the most common
misconceptions people have about
heaven?
Based on what people accept from
the movies, it would seem that heaven
is supposed to be a very sparsely
decorated kind of “anti-space,” where
existence is primarily mental.
When people die, they first become
ghosts, and then when they follow the
22 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

light and get to heaven they become
angels. And of course, every time a
bell rings, an angel gets his wings.
Having said that, the 1998 film,
“What Dreams May Come,” was
visually stunning.
I wouldn’t say it teaches perfect theology,
but in the depiction of heaven
it was very creative. Rather than going
minimalistic with heaven, it went the
other way: Heaven was depicted not
as a place that lacked creation, but as
a place of hypercreation. It was like
earth, but more “alive,” and more
colorful.
So I think the people who made that
film got at least one thing right —
heaven is not outside of creation, it is
the ultimate creation — or to put it in
Christian terms, it is redeemed and
renewed creation.
What exactly is heaven? And how
do we know what we know about it?
What we know about heaven comes
primarily from the Scriptures, and
especially from what Jesus taught in
the Gospels and revealed to John as
recorded in the Book of Revelation.
I think we have to keep in mind that
the word “heaven” is rarely, if ever, in
the singular in the Scriptures. It’s really
“the heavens,” which is metaphorical
language, like saying God is “up
there looking down on us,” when in
fact we know that God is everywhere
around us.
Somehow the word “heaven” became
a kind of catch-all term for the
afterlife, at least for those who assume
they are not going to hell.
When we use the word, we are really
talking about a reality that has two
phases to it. There is pre-resurrection
heaven and post-resurrection heaven.
Pre-resurrection heaven is what we
call paradise.
It’s the existence of a blessed afterlife
(most likely after the purification of
purgatory), but paradise exists during
the time that human history continues
in the world as we know it. So right
now the spirits of many people are in
paradise, but their bodies (or the mol-
ecules that used to be their bodies) are
still on earth.
At some point, human history ends,
Jesus Christ initiates his “second
coming,” and there is judgment, and
the resurrection of the dead. That is,
all bodies will be resurrected, reunited
with their spirits, and those who
are being saved enter into the fully
revealed kingdom of God, which is
the New Heaven/New Earth, and the
“New Jerusalem” of the Book of Revelation.
So “heaven” really includes
both paradise and the kingdom of
God, but only in the latter will we
have bodies, so we have to wait for the
kingdom to be fully revealed before
there will be hugs in heaven.
Does the language we use for heaven
leave us vulnerable to anti-Christian
ridicule?
You’d think it would, but I would
argue that people who are not Christian,
or who are nominally Christian,
are actually more susceptible to accusations
of gullibility than we are.
Think about all the popular speculation
out there that personifies the universe
rather than believes in an intelligent
Creator, or ascribes all kinds of
comforting activities to angels without
any basis in Scripture or Tradition, or
ascribes power over the future to the
movements of the planets.
The truth is, the ones who most ridicule
our traditional view of heaven are
self-described progressive Christians
who think they are too rational to
believe in much that is supernatural,
but who reduce the Christian faith to
a worldly focused social program.
Like Judas, in response to the woman
who anointed Jesus, they take the
focus off the person of Christ (on the
rationale that such devotion is too
“pie-in-the-sky”) and emphasize the
social gospel disproportionately over
the gospel of salvation.
Or worse, they assume a universalist
afterlife and reduce the concept of
salvation to confronting injustice.
So, ironically, sometimes the ridicule
comes more from within the Church.
James L. Papandrea
How should our awareness of
heaven influence our lives from day
to day? Year to year? Season of life to
season of life?
I really believe that our bodies are
one of God’s greatest gifts to us. We as
a culture need to reaffirm the dignity
of the body as a sacred gift. It is not
to be reduced to an instrument of
pleasure; nor is it to be used to exploit
others or the rest of creation.
I think it would be great if parishes
could find a way to include the care
of our bodies into spiritual formation.
The fact that our bodies are integrated
into worship is a great start. That
is, we do not worship God with our
minds only, but we worship with our
whole bodies: standing, sitting, kneeling,
walking, seeing, singing, hearing,
touching, smelling, and tasting.
But it would be great if catechesis
could take the next step and help
people really understand their bodies
as essential to their personhood, and
help them understand how to care for
their own bodies, as well as the bodies
of others.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been
edited for brevity. To read the full text
of the interview with James Papandrea,
visit AngelusNews.com.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor
to Angelus and the author of many
books, including “How Christianity
Saved Civilization … And Must Do So
Again” (Sophia Institute Press, $18.95).
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 23

Evangelizing
BY MSGR. RICHARD ANTALL / ANGELUS
SHUTTERSTOCK
Recently a piece on the editorial page of the Wall Street
Journal introduced readers to what it called “Space’s
final frontier.”
“Evidence is growing for extraterrestrial life in our solar
system, and exploration is cheap,” read the subtitle of the
op-ed, written by an engineering professor who also works as
CEO of a company that makes “plasma thrusters for small
satellites.”
The piece was really a kind of advertisement looking to
interest “billionaire” investors in the technology for that
“cheap” exploration. After giving some numbers and talking
about the possibilities of life on other planets he came to a
conclusion that caught my eye: “Finding evidence of life beyond
earth would reshape the fields of evolutionary biology
and pharmacology, and possibly theology as well [emphasis
added].”
A book containing C.S. Lewis’ three “science fiction”
novels given to me by a priest friend for Christmas last year
came to mind. I am two-thirds of the way through the trilogy,
which imagines life on Mars (“Out of the Silent Planet”)
and Venus (“Perelandra”), where no original sin was committed.
Speculative or “science” fiction often deals with theological
and philosophical issues, but rarely in such an orthodox way.
Lewis’ ideas about angels and mankind in innocence and
after read like corollaries of St. Augustine’s ideas about the
Fall seen in his book “The City of God.”
Rarely does what I read in the Wall Street Journal remind
me of Lewis, but the Spirit blows where it wills. I decided
to take up the issues involved with my eighth-grade boys
religion class in our parish school.
First, I asked, how many believed in extraterrestrial intelligent
life? Some polls say a majority of Americans believe
in intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Our popular
culture, witness “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” (not popular
with my eighth-graders, by the way), and planets with names
like Krypton, certainly attests to the attraction of the idea.
Of the boys in the class, all but two believed in extraterrestrial
intelligent life and even those were “unsure.”
Second: Had anyone they knew thought they experienced
something indicating alien life? Several recounted stories
of strange lights in the skies. To reassure them I said it was
probably our government spying on us, but said I had an
open mind. Third, I asked them what their reaction would
be to a meeting with an intelligent being from another
planet.
Most concluded with my student Murdock, who is always
quick to answer my questions, that they would run away
from such a meeting, but when I insisted, they admitted
they would have some curiosity about the extraterrestrial
civilization. “And if they asked you about your religion, what
would you say?” I asked them. That stumped the group for a
24 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

The three books of C.S. Lewis’ “Space Trilogy.”
AMAZON
minute.
Then Amari, the epitome of eighth-grade “cool,” said
that he would say he believed in a Creator God who made
everything. Then Isaiah, whose stepfather is some kind of
pastor, said that he would say something about Jesus saving
us.
“Would the aliens need to know about Jesus?” I asked
them. This is one of the theological issues Lewis treats.
“No,” said Amari, but more than a little doubtfully, “They
would probably have their own religion.”
I said that if we believed that Jesus really was the Second
Person in the Trinity,
he would be the God
If intelligent life were discovered
somewhere beyond our planet, I
would sign up to be a missionary.
of all the universe,
wouldn’t he? St. Augustine
had heard of
“monsters” in other
parts of the world
and was fairly credulous
(he accepted
the possibility of the existence of the race of the Sciopedes,
which had one leg with two feet, could run without bending
its knees, and had the unusual advantage of being able to lie
down in the summer and shade itself from the sun with its
feet).
St. Augustine said, “However unusual to us may be the
shape of his body, or the color of his skin, or the way he
walks, or the sound of his voice, and whatever the strength,
portion or quality of his natural endowments is descended
from the first man.”
The Doctor of Grace, as St. Augustine is called, was also
apparently a flat-earther, who discussed whether there might
be other humans on the flip side of the planet (although
he doubted it.) What if he had believed in the Copernican
system and its implications for the infinite creativity of God?
Wouldn’t all rational animal life, wherever found, be like us,
image and likeness of God? If there was intelligent life other
than humankind on earth, wouldn’t they have souls?
“So, yeah, they might need him,” was the consensus the
boys came up with. I am not sure many adults have followed
that logic. The old cliché was, the alien would say to us,
“Take me to your leader.” Have you ever heard of anyone
saying, “I will take you to my Lord?”
Unlike Lewis, I could imagine that all intelligent life in
the universe has experienced the Fall and any extraterrestrials
would also need Jesus’ saving grace. What if the earth
was chosen for the
Incarnation because
we were the most
backward of all the
civilizations in the
universe?
The incursions of
UFOs could be the
space-age camels
of the Magi. Maybe, then, some intelligent life on a solar
system far away from us might be challenged to think, “What
good could come from earth?”
If intelligent life were discovered somewhere “far away”
and there was a means of entering into contact with their
cultures, I would sign up to be a missionary. I’m sure I would
miss paying off the debts of my parish, figuring out what to
do with our plumbing issues, and other such duties, but I
always liked the e.e. cummings poem with the theologically
unfortunate wording: “Listen: there’s a hell / of a universe
next door; let’s go.”
Msgr. Richard Antall is pastor of Holy Name Church in
Cleveland, Ohio, and author of “The Wedding” (Lambing
Press, $16.95).
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 25

INTERSECTIONS
BY GREG ERLANDSON
Zombies, pandemics, and saints
I’m not a fan of zombie movies in
general, but I’m fascinated by the
phenomenon: the relentless attack
of brain-eating undead with our only
defense being endless firepower and
a double tap. It doesn’t take Freud to
deduce there’s something more going
on here than that a zombie apocalypse
is the best argument the NRA
has for everyone owning an AR-15.
What is it deep in our reptilian
cortex that somehow thrills at this
notion that everyone else — by which
I mean our neighbors, friends, and
fellow citizens — wants to feast on
us? Why is it satisfying that we must
slaughter with bloody abandon every
other human being who isn’t part of
our little band of imperiled survivors?
I do have a favorite zombie movie,
however. It is “World War Z.” I like it
because it offers up an explanation for
the zombie phenomenon that pits us
not only against our fellow man, but
against nature. Zombieism, it turns
out, is the fault of a virus. As a virologist
not long for this world explains in
the movie, “Mother Nature is a serial
killer. No one’s better. More creative.”
Watching the world succumb to the
fear of the coronavirus, aka COV-
ID-19, I kept thinking of scenes in
“World War Z.” For example, while
we clean off store shelves of Purell
and toilet paper, I remember the
looting of the grocery store in Philadelphia
as the doomed citizenry try to
stock up before the inevitable.
Zombies come in bunches, but start
as one. Each bloody bite infects a
second, and then two become four
and four eight and eight 16 as the infection
spreads exponentially. When
it comes to the coronavirus, it only
Brad Pitt, Sterling Jerins,
and Mireille Enos in
“World War Z.”
takes one to make us fearful. One
sick person is enough to shut down a
university, a factory, a cruise ship, a
church.
And as we race to limit the contagion,
we take increasingly draconian
steps to fight the threat. Italy’s government,
like an exasperated parent,
grounded its entire population. Even
Bethlehem is locked down. There is
no room at the inn these days.
Yet because the virus is particularly
sneaky, we aren’t sure who has it. Despite
the efforts to constrain its spread,
we are unable to identify easily who is
infected and who is not. Everyone is
suspect: Our priest. Our spouse. Our
cashier.
In zombie movies, the dark shadows
outside our window, the scratching
sounds at our front door fill us with
dread. The slavering, dull-eyed fiends
are no longer human beings. There is
no room for empathy or kindness. It is
“us” versus “them.” And in moments
like these, everyone else is a “them.”
We are seeing a bit of this in real life
as well. With relentless news coverage,
government confusion and fiscal
turmoil, we can be forgiven our fear
of the unknown. The danger is when
this drives us apart. Some communities
want to close their doors. Anyone
who might need to be quarantined
can be quarantined somewhere else,
not in my backyard or community
hospital.
The ties that bind us together grow
looser, and we start keeping our distance
— six feet, to be exact — from
one another.
What we are experiencing is no
movie, of course. In “World War Z”
(spoiler alert) weakness becomes
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26 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

strength, and sickness a cure. In real
life, weakness is just weakness: the
hourly worker who can’t skip work despite
fever and cough, the uninsured
or underinsured, the doctor with no
access to test kits, or the patient without
the resources to self-quarantine,
all are potential risks.
The virus is exposing our systemic
weaknesses as well as our physical
ones. The vulnerable become still
more vulnerable, the weak still more
weak, the unlucky remain unlucky.
And this is where the Church steps
in. It reminds us of the common
good, the need to care for those most
helpless and in need of care. There
are saints who have modeled such
concerns, people like St. Damien de
Veuster and St. Marianne Cope, who
served the leper colonies of Molokai
and Oahu, caring for those who were
treated like the zombies of their day.
Sts. Acacius, Barbara, Blaise, Christopher, Cyriacus,
Catherine of Alexandria, Denis, Erasmus
of Formia, Eustace, George, Giles, Margaret
of Antioch, Pantaleon, and Vitus. The Fourteen
Holy Helpers are a group of saints venerated
together in Roman Catholicism because their
intercession is believed to be particularly
effective, especially against various diseases.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/IMMANUEL GIEL
Or the brave sisters and priests of
the Diocese of Memphis, who in
1873 and again in 1878 tended to the
victims of a terrible Yellow Fever epidemic
that killed thousands. While
others fled the city, these heroes and
heroines risked, and often lost, their
lives caring for the sick.
Our chronicles of saintly men and
women are filled with examples of
those who have cared for “the other,”
be they plague victims or AIDS victims.
Such men and women responded
to the challenge we all face, to
see Christ even in our grievously ill
brothers and sisters.
Zombies are fiction. Saints and heroes
are real. Our faith asks us not to
fear others, but to care for them.
Greg Erlandson is the president
and editor-in-chief of Catholic News
Service.
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March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 27

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
A PATIENT ENDURANCE
A book of
poems explores
why we offer
our love in
a world of
suffering
SHUTTERSTOCK
Award-winning poet Leslie
Williams grew up in North
Carolina, lived and worked in
Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Charlottesville
(where she earned a degree
in English), got married, moved to
Chicago, had a son, moved back to
Washington, had another son, and
moved to the Boston area, where she
and her family have been for 15 years.
She’s been writing and doing
community and church work ever
since, including teaching poetry and
Sunday school.
Her first book, “Success of the Seed
Plants,” (Bellday Books Inc., $14)
came out in 2010 and garnered the
Bellday Prize. Her latest collection,
“Even the Dark” (Southern Illinois
University Press, $13), was co-winner
of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry
Open Competition.
She has received several artist fellowships.
Her poems appear widely in
such magazines as “Poetry,” “Kenyon
Review,” “Image,” “America,” and
“The Southern Review.”
Most notably, as her website states,
“She is always wondering about the
divine.”
She also hosts a blog, accessible
from her site, that focuses on Scripture
and is called “Finding the River.”
Of “Even the Dark,” Williams says,
“I worked on many of the poems for
probably 15 years and they slowly
came together into this book. Poems
are a way of thinking through my
role in the world and in others’ lives
and are for me a kind of prayer and
conversation with God. I also really
like words and sounds and the music
a poem can make.”
Williams’ poems soar, collide with
reality, wonder, observe, ache. They
are about the seeming paltriness and
inefficacy of our love, and the way we
offer it anyway, because the alternative
— to withhold our love or to
yield to despair — would be the one
thing blacker than life, with all its
suffering.
From “When Walking by Lilacs, a
Burning Smell”:
“I’m overwhelmed: the sublime /
perfumed featherings of lilac, never
knowing what / to do for others but
letting swallows make a home / here
because I can spare the eaves.”/
28 • ANGELUS • March 20, 2020

Moments that might bypass a less
keen observer crystallize as quicksilver
shafts of light: shorthand messages
from the world beyond. “Forgetful
Green” enshrines a stab of transcendence
while gathering tomatoes toward
dusk from the garden: each dinner
with family, in its way, a “last supper.”
“In Which the Bread Crumbs
Were Eaten by Birds” reflects on the
memory of a childhood friend lost to
suicide.
“Even the Gladioli,” “Prayer that
Starts in the Eye of a Bird,” “Exile
from the Kingdom of Ordinary Sight”:
these are poems that grope for transcendence
in the missed chance, the
offer to help rebuffed, our inability to
reconcile the human condition.
“Create in Me A Clean Heart, O
God” includes the lines:
“When my mother was sick / I didn’t
go / I rolled over in my own bed / I
thought she wanted // to be alone, /
alone how I like to be / to keep my
misery.”/
The title is borrowed from Psalm 51,
which runs in part, “O see, in guilt I
was born, a sinner was I conceived.”
The compact lines of Williams’
own “psalm” evoke our cognizance
of original sin; our knowledge that
original sin alone doesn’t absolve us;
and the way our mothers both shape
and wound us, sometimes forming us
to be unable to show up for them just
as they may have been unable to show
up for us.
Our absolution, the poem nonetheless
manages to suggest, consists in
our longing to be better, to love more
deeply, to be less afraid.
These are poems, one senses, whose
seeds were sown while sitting in
the bleachers at a soccer game, or
standing in line at the grocery store,
or nursing a child.
“If American women earned minimum
wage for the unpaid work they
do around the house and caring for
relatives, they would have made $1.5
trillion last year,” ran a recent headline
in The New York Times.
Maybe, but how do you assign a
price to poems of such rare beauty,
that germinated in snatched moments
of silence and solitude when the poet’s
husband was perhaps away at work
and the kids at school?
How do you cost-benefit analyze
such precious works of art that might
not have come to be but for the
paradox of motherhood in which the
insistent desire to bring life into the
world requires us in some sense to
die?
From her window one morning,
Williams sees a young girl in pajamas
— “The parents, their only child, the
apple, the amen” — pad down the
driveway.
This might be the start of an idyll,
except that the child is en route to
another chemo treatment:
“Thinking of God’s Goodness While
the Ten-Year-Old Neighbor is Suffering”
reminds us that religion has
no answers. Religion — our religion
— patiently endures. It plods. It drags
its heavy cross, broken and bleeding.
It praises when there seems nothing
left to praise, when we seem to be
howling into the abyss.
Against the existential uncertainty
that at times seems more than human
beings can bear, the world has assault
weapons, nuclear bombs, closed borders,
surveillance.
We have St. Michael the Archangel.
The poem ends like this:
“I do / believe a sickness can be
rebuked, vanish with all the darkest /
days; that they could return to singing.
That one day this / devastation could
be shadow only, a conquering. Where
even / the dark is not dark to see. My
God can do this but my God / might
not.”
Leslie Williams
Heather King is a blogger, speaker, and the author of several books.
March 20, 2020 • ANGELUS • 29
JENNIFER S. FLESCHER/© LESLIE WILLIAMS
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ANGELUS

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