Angelus News | December 11-18, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 30

ANGELUS
SIGNS OF NEW HOPE
Why we need this year’s
very different Advent
December 11-18, 2020 Vol. 5 No. 30

ON THE COVER
A woman lights an Advent candle before the Saturday vigil Mass at La Soledad
Church in East LA on Dec. 5. On Page 10, Kathryn Jean Lopez discovers
St. Augustine as a guide to help us make the most of this pandemic-time
Advent. On Page 13, Mike Aquilina offers reasons why the “dogma lives
loudly” in the Church’s celebration of Christmas. And on Page 16, Filipino
Catholics explain why this Advent’s pared down Simbang Gabi celebrations
are an accidental return to the centuries-old tradition’s origins.
IMAGE:
Local “Guadalupanos” carry the pilgrim image of Our Lady
of Guadalupe at the 89th annual procession and Mass in
honor of “la morenita,” celebrated Dec. 6 at Mission San
Gabriel. The celebration usually draws several thousands of
people to the streets of East LA, but this year was modified
to include a drive-by procession and a 200-person, socially
distanced Mass in the mission parking lot.
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
VICTOR ALEMÁN

Contents
Pope Watch 2
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation, and Local News 4-6
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
Meet the ‘Media Nuns’ that a pandemic can’t stop 20
Inés San Martín: Did an unlikely papacy save Maradona’s faith? 24
Down syndrome abortions and the commodification of our kids 26
In ‘The Crown,’ royalty are (mostly) just like us 30
Why Guadalupe makes Heather King grateful to be a woman 32

POPE WATCH
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December 11-18, 2020
Vol. 5 • No. 30
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Personal lockdowns
Pope Francis admits he is not an
economist, but he is a pastor.
And as a pastor, he has seen how
the global economy has cast so many
people aside, and he knows that the
Gospel and Catholic social teaching
call for a different response.
“Solidarity is not the sharing of
crumbs from the table, but to make
space at the table for everyone,” Pope
Francis said in a new book written
with Austen Ivereigh.
The book, “Let Us Dream: The Path
to A Better Future” (Simon & Schuster,
$26), was published Dec. 1.
The new book sets out systematically
how he uses the “see-judge-act”
method of social action to engage the
current state of affairs.
The COVID-19 pandemic, for
example, has been a global trauma or
trial, Pope Francis said, and it is precisely
how one acts in a trial that reveals
the state of his or her heart: “How solid
it is, how merciful, how big or small.”
“God asks us to dare to create something
new,” he said. “We cannot return
to the false securities of the political
and economic systems we had before
the crisis. We need economies that give
to all access to the fruits of creation, to
the basic needs of life: to land, lodging,
and labor.”
On a personal level, while the coronavirus
lockdowns and restrictions have
interrupted people’s lives and brought
suffering on a global scale, everyone
has or will experience traumatic interruptions
in their lives, he said.
“Illness, the failure of a marriage or a
business, some great disappointment
or betrayal,” he said, are moments that
“generate a tension, a crisis that reveals
what is in our hearts.”
Pope Francis pointed to three “CO-
VID moments” in his lifetime that
taught him that “you suffer a lot, but if
you allow it to change you, you come
out better. But if you dig in, you come
out worse.”
One of them was when he was hospitalized
with a diseased lung.
“I remember the date: Aug. 13, 1957.
I got taken to hospital by a (seminary)
prefect who realized mine was not
the kind of flu you treat with aspirin.
Straightaway they took a liter-and-a-half
of water out of the lung, and I remained
there fighting for my life.”
He was in his second year at the
diocesan seminary and it was his “first
experience of limit, of pain, and loneliness,”
he said. “It changed the way I
saw life.”
After three months in the hospital,
doctors removed a part of one of his
lungs.
Pope Francis said he also learned the
meaning of “cheap consolations.”
“People came in to tell me I was
going to be fine, how with all that pain
I’d never have to suffer again — really
dumb things, empty words,” he said.
The time in the hospital recovering,
he said, gave him the time and space
he needed to “rethink my vocation”
and explore his longing to enter a
religious order rather than the diocesan
priesthood. It was then that he decided
to join the Jesuits.
Reporting courtesy of Cindy Wooden,
Catholic News Service Rome bureau
chief.
Papal Prayer Intention for December: We pray that our personal relationship
with Jesus Christ be nourished by the word of God and a life of prayer.
2 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Mother of healing and hope
At the heart of Advent is Mary, our
Blessed Mother. Her figure always
appears early in this holy season, as we
celebrate her Immaculate Conception
on Dec. 8.
Our Advent liturgy follows the
divine design for salvation history. We
remember her birth as we await the
birth of her Son, Our Lord and Savior.
Jesus and Mary are united in the
mystery of God’s plan for the world.
And they are united in the mystery of
his plan for your life and mine.
It is not a coincidence that when she
was sent to the peoples of the New
World in 1531, our Blessed Mother
came at this time of year, when the
Church remembers the new creation
that began when she was conceived
without the stain of original sin.
As we recall the story, Our Lady
came to that hill at Tepeyac with
beautiful birds singing. The moment
was so beautiful it made St. Juan
Diego wonder whether he had come
upon the “paradise” that his elders
had spoken of.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to
him as a mother with child, announcing,
“Know, littlest of my sons, that I
am the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother
of the True God by whom we live,
of the Creator of all things, Lord of
heaven and earth.”
The Virgin Mary is the mother of
God and mother of the children of
God. Our mother. We know that, but
in these long months of the pandemic,
we feel her maternal love even
more deeply.
We continue to pray daily for her
intercession to end the coronavirus,
turning to her as “Mother of Healing
and Hope.” That was the theme of
our annual Guadalupe procession,
which we held Dec. 6 in San Gabriel.
Although our worship was limited and
largely virtual this year because of the
pandemic restrictions, it was a joyful
and hopeful time.
Our prayer to our Blessed Mother in
this Advent season continues. As we
anticipated the feast of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, we prayed a “digital novena.”
You can find the series of daily
prayers and reflections on our website:
https://lacatholics.org/guadalupe/.
Again, due to the pandemic restrictions,
our celebration of the feast this
year was forced to be largely virtual.
But it was beautiful. We had several
artists singing songs to Our Lady, a
mariachi tribute, and we prayed the
rosary before celebrating the holy
Eucharist. You can view a video of the
celebration at https://lacatholics.org/
guadalupe/.
One of the “messages” for us in this
pandemic, I believe, is that we need
to deepen our relationship with Mary,
our Blessed Mother.
Especially in this moment, we need
to take to heart those words of healing
and hope that she spoke to St. Juan
Diego: “Do not fear any sickness or
suffering. Am I not here, I who am
your Mother? Are you not in my shadow,
under my protection? Am I not
your health?”
Jesus told us from the cross, “Behold,
your mother.” Our relationship
with Mary is essential. And it cannot
remain only sentimental. All of us
need to have a mature understanding
of who Blessed Mary is and her place
in our spiritual life.
Mary’s love for us is tender; it is
a mother’s love. But like any good
mother, she is also strong and ready
to sacrifice and suffer to protect her
children and help them to grow.
The Gospels show her on that first
Christmas night delivering her Child
in uncertainty and poverty. Soon
after, we see her defending her Child
as they flee persecution and become
refugees in Egypt. And as her Son is
dying on the cross, we see her at his
side, silently sharing in his suffering.
When we understand Mary’s place
in salvation history, we recognize that
Jesus takes our lives very seriously.
The Book of Revelation shows our
Blessed Mother engaged in spiritual
combat with the “ancient serpent who
is called the devil” as he wages “war
on those who keep the commandments
of God and bear testimony to
Jesus.”
He entrusts us to his mother to continue
his work of salvation, to teach
us and to watch over us as we seek to
follow his commands and bear witness
to him in this journey of our lives.
As Jesus was formed in his humanity
in the Virgin Mary’s blessed womb, he
wants us to be formed in his likeness
through her example of faith and her
maternal intercession.
Pray for me this week, and I will pray
for you.
And as we continue in this holy
season, drawing nearer to Our Lord’s
birth, let us entrust ourselves more
closely to our Blessed Mother, and ask
her to be our healing and hope.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Remembering El Salvador’s American martyrs
Pilgrims gather near the tomb of Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke
Dec. 1, the eve of the 40th anniversary of their assassination.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/RHINA GUIDOS
Four American
missionaries
killed
while serving
the poor amid
El Salvador’s
civil war were
remembered
on the 40th
anniversary of
their deaths
this month.
Maryknoll
Sisters Ita
Ford and
Maura
Clarke,
Ursuline
Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan were abducted, raped, and
murdered by members of the Salvadoran National Guard on Dec. 2, 1980. Their
missionary work of bringing humanitarian aid to the region resulted in accusations
that they were fomenting political opposition.
Commemorations of their deaths were held in El Salvador, the U.S., and even in
Rome.
“Martyrs are those who walked in the footprints of Jesus,” said El Salvador’s Cardinal
Rosa Chavez during a Dec. 2 memorial Mass in the city of Chalatenango.
“And the U.S. women represent that in this country.”
The same day, Pope Francis said the women “lived their faith with great generosity”
during his weekly Wednesday audience.
“They are an example for all of us to become faithful missionary disciples,” he
said.
Pope defends Uyghurs,
annoys China
For all of his efforts to improve relations
between the Vatican and China,
the country’s government is not happy
with Pope Francis’ first criticism of its
treatment of Uyghur Muslims.
“I think often of persecuted peoples:
the Rohingya, the poor Uyghurs, the
Yazidis — what ISIS did to them was
truly cruel — or Christians in Egypt
and Pakistan killed by bombs that went
off while they prayed in church,” said
the pope in “Let Us Dream” (Simon &
Schuster, $26), a new book published
Dec. 1, based on conversations with
papal biographer Austen Ivereigh.
Despite widespread and well-documented
reports of the government
sending millions of Uyghurs to
“political re-education” camps in
the Xinjiang province, a government
spokesman said the pope’s remarks
“have no factual basis.”
The remarks came after Beijing and
the Vatican renewed an agreement
on the appointment of bishops in the
country in October, a move the pope
hopes will allow greater freedom for
Chinese Catholics who have suffered
persecution for decades.
An early Christmas
present for France?
France loosened COVID-19 restrictions on religious worship
that limited Mass attendance to only 30 people after a
successful court appeal by the country’s Catholic bishops.
The French Council of State, the highest administrative
court in the country, ruled Nov. 29 that restricting Mass
attendance to a 30-person limit was a “disproportionate”
government measure. Revised policies announced by the
government days later require churches to leave two free
seats between each person or family, and to leave every other
pew free.
The new rules will be in place through Dec. 15 and then
re-evaluated.
The French bishops’ conference called the new measure
“more realistic” as it is proportionate to each church’s building
capacity, and expressed hope that Christmas liturgies
would be able to take place with “the least possible restriction.”
VATICAN MEDIA
RED MEETS WHITE — After creating a new batch of cardinals
Nov. 28, Pope Francis brought them along to meet retired Pope
Benedict XVI at the 93-year-old retired pope’s residence. Two of the
13 newly named cardinals were not able to travel to Rome for the
consistory ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica due to COVID-19 travel
complications, but participated via livestream.
4 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

NATION
The March for Life goes on
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the March for Life organizers
plan to host their annual pro-life march in January.
The 48th annual March for Life, scheduled for Jan. 29,
2021, in Washington, D.C., will take place with pandemic
protocols in place. Travelers from states restricted by the
Washington government must get a negative COVID-19
text within 72 hours of traveling. Face coverings will be
required, in addition to other forthcoming safety measures.
“We marched during the blizzard of 2016, we’ve marched
during government shutdowns, we marched after 9/11, we
will march again this year,” said Jeanne Mancini, March
for Life president, at a September press conference. “We’ve
marched for 47 years, and no sacrifice is too great to fight
this human rights abuse of abortion.”
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines raise no
ethical red flags, bishops say
The two first COVID-19 vaccines expected to be distributed
to Americans in the coming months are morally
acceptable to use, according to a memo sent to U.S. Catholic
bishops.
“Neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccine involved the
use of cell lines that originated in fetal tissue taken from the
body of an aborted baby at any level of design, development
or production,” read a Nov. 23 memo from Bishop Kevin C.
Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, and Archbishop
Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who lead the
U.S. bishops’ committees on doctrine and pro-life activities.
They noted there is a “relatively remote” connection in that
“both Pfizer and Moderna made use of a tainted cell line”
during vaccine testing, but that does not make it “immoral to
be vaccinated with them.”
Another vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford
University, however, is sourced from cell lines that were
originally abortion-derived, according to the Lozier Institute,
a pro-life organization based in the U.S.
DACA demonstrators rally in Washington, D.C., in 2019.
The Holy Trinity Diocesan High School quartet poses next to an image of
Blessed Carlo Acutis last month.
New York: Blessed teen inspires new
song written by high school quartet
Blessed Carlo Acutis, the recently beatified Italian teenage
computer geek, is the inspiration for a new song written by
Catholic high schoolers in Long Island, New York.
Theresa Marino, campus minister at Holy Trinity Diocesan
High School in Hicksville, and three students helped
compose the song.
The lyrics feature quotes directly from Acutis’ own writings,
including the chorus: “Born an original, that’s how I’m
gonna stay till my dying day,” a reference to Acutis saying it
is best to not be a photocopy.
“I’m aiming for the kind of relationship he had with God,”
said one of the students, senior Bryce Ridley, after the song’s
debut. “It makes teens want to have a relationship with God
as well.”
Acutis died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15 and was beatified
this year in Assisi, Italy, on Oct. 10.
A new victory for Dreamers
The Trump administration must fully restore the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a federal judge
ruled Dec. 4.
The program that protects qualifying young adult immigrants
from deportation was suspended this summer by
Chad Wolf, acting Homeland Security secretary.
Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in
Brooklyn said the program must be reopened for first-time
applicants, the period of protection for DACA recipients reinstated
to its initial two-year extension, and that the federal
government had to post a public notice by Dec. 7 that new
DACA applications were being accepted.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva with inmates at Men’s Central Jail at
Christmas Mass in 2019. The annual Mass has been canceled this year due
to COVID-19 restrictions.
Back in church by Christmas?
A request by the Supreme Court that federal judges take
another look at pandemic limits on California churches
means worshippers could be allowed back inside churches
soon.
The court’s Dec. 3 unsigned order sent a challenge by
Pasadena’s Harvest Rock Church back to a lower court. The
order was based on a Nov. 25 ruling overturning similar
restrictions in New York.
“While the court’s order appears to have no immediate
legal impact, it suggests the state’s ban on indoor services is
likely to fall,” reported veteran LA Times legal correspondent
David Savage on the decision.
In San Francisco, which has seen some of the country’s
strictest restrictions on public worship, Archbishop Salvatore
Cordileone said the ruling shows that “Catholics and other
responsible faith communities should not be lumped in with
a few irresponsible bad actors.”
JOHN MCCOY
San Gabriel Mission’s winter roof
A temporary roof now covers Mission San Gabriel as work
continues to restore the church, which was damaged in a
mysterious fire last July.
The roof, which is meant to protect the mission from the
winter rains, will be in place until February or March 2021.
Although the fire’s cause is still under investigation, law
enforcement officials have allowed the mission to move
forward with rehabilitation efforts, which includes removing
and replacing the burned roof, and cleaning debris from
inside the church. Spectra Co., the company handling the
restoration, expects to have a new roof completed by the end
of August 2021.
So far, close to $400,000 has been raised to restore the
249-year-old church, including nearly $3,000 from a Go-
FundMe started by Remy Tran, a former Vietnamese choir
leader at the mission.
Mission San Gabriel’s temporary roof is seen in the background as
Archbishop José H. Gomez and Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell celebrate
the annual Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 6.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Biden picks California AG to lead HHS
President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to
lead the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) represents an
“aggressively pro-abortion” approach,
California pro-life advocates worry.
A native of East LA, California
Attorney General Xavier Becerra has
a long track record in taking legal
action against pro-life organizations.
If confirmed, Becerra would lead
the policy team helping navigate the
COVID-19 pandemic, but would also
guide the administration’s approach
to social issues like abortion.
In 2018, Becerra defended the
California Reproductive FACT Act,
a law that required pro-life pregnancy
centers to advertise for abortions. The
Supreme Court ruled that the law
was a violation of the First Amendment.
Becerra also defended a California
mandate that employers cover
abortions in health plans, including
religious groups. The Office of Civil
Rights at the HHS recently ruled that
this mandate violates the law, and
threatened to withhold federal funds.
He also led a coalition of state attorneys
general advocating for looser
federal restrictions on the distribution
of the abortion pill.
“With Joe Biden’s pick of AG Becerra
for HHS secretary, we are seeing
him make good on his promise to become
the most radically pro-abortion
president in history,” tweeted Jeanne
Mancini, March for Life president,
on Dec. 7.
6 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Is. 61:1–2, 10–11 / Lk. 1:46–50, 53–54 / 1 Thess. 5:16–24 / Jn. 1:6–8, 19–28
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The mysterious figure of John the
Baptist, introduced in last week’s readings,
comes into sharper focus today.
Who he is, we see in this Sunday’s
Gospel, is best understood by who he
isn’t.
He is not Elijah returned from the
heavens (see 2 Kings 2:11), although
like him he dresses in the prophet’s
attire (see Mark 1:6; 2 Kings 1:8) and
preaches repentance and judgment
(see 1 Kings 18:21; 2 Chronicles
21:12–15).
Not Elijah in the flesh, John is
nonetheless sent in the spirit and
power of Elijah to fulfill his mission
(see Luke 1:17; Malachi 3:23–24).
Neither is John the prophet Moses
foretold, although he is a kinsman and
speaks God’s word (see Deuteronomy
“St. John the Baptist Seated in the Wilderness,” by Giovanni Baglioni, 1566-
1643, Italian.
18:15–19; John 6:14). Nor is John the
Messiah, though he has been anointed
by the Spirit since the womb (see
Luke 1:15, 44).
John prepares the way for the Lord
(see Isaiah 40:3). His baptism is
symbolic, not sacramental. It is a sign
given to stir our hearts to repentance.
John shows us the One upon whom
the Spirit remains (see John 1:32), the
One who fulfills the promise we hear
in Sunday’s First Reading (see Luke
4:16–21). Jesus’ bath of rebirth and the
Spirit opens a fountain that purifies Israel
and gives to all a new heart and a
new Spirit (see Zechariah 13:1–3; Ezekiel
36:24–27; Mark 1:8; Titus 3:5).
John comes to us in the Advent
readings to show us the light, that we
might believe in the One who comes
at Christmas.
As we sing in
Sunday’s Psalm,
the mighty One
has come to lift
each of us up, to
fill our hunger
with bread from
heaven (see John
6:33, 49–51).
And as St.
Paul exhorts in
the Epistle, we
should rejoice,
give thanks, and
pray without
ceasing that God
will make us
perfectly holy in
spirit, soul, and
body — that we
may be blameless
when Our Lord
comes.
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
8 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Our power to heal others
Nearly 50 years ago, Henri Nouwen
wrote a book titled “The Wounded
Healer.” Its reception established his
reputation as a unique spiritual mentor,
and he went on to become one of
the most influential spiritual writers of
the past half-century.
What made his writings so powerful?
His brilliance? His gift for expression?
He was gifted, yes, but so are many
others. What set him apart was that he
was a deeply wounded man and from
that disquieted place inside him issued
forth words that were a healing balm to
millions.
How does this work? How do our
wounds help heal others? They don’t.
It’s not our wounds that help heal
others. Rather, our wounds can color
our gifts and talents in such a way so
that they no longer educe resistance
and envy in others, but instead become
what God meant them to be, gifts to
grace others.
Sadly, the opposite is often true. Our
gifts and talents often become the
reason we’re disliked and perhaps even
hated. There’s a curious dynamic here.
We don’t automatically, nor easily, let
the gifts of others grace us.
More often, we’re reluctant to admit
their beauty and power and we resist
and envy those who possess them, and
sometimes even hate them for their
gifts. That’s one of the reasons we find
it hard to simply admire someone.
But this reluctance in us doesn’t just
say something about us. Often it says
something, too, about the persons who
possess those gifts.
Talent is an ambiguous thing, it can
be used to assert ourselves, to separate
ourselves from others, to stand out and
to stand above, rather than as a gift to
help others.
Our talents can be used simply
to point to how bright, talented,
good-looking, and successful we are.
Then they simply become a strength
meant to dwarf others and set ourselves
apart.
How can we make our talents a gift
for others? How can we be loved for
our talents rather than hated for them?
Here’s the difference: We will be
loved and admired for our gifts when
our gifts are colored by our wounds so
that others do not see them as a threat
or as something that sets us apart, but
rather as something that gifts them in
their own shortcomings. When shared
in a certain way, our gifts can become
gifts for everyone else.
Here’s how that algebra works: Our
gifts are given to us not for ourselves
but for others. But, to be that, they
need to be colored by compassion.
We come to compassion by letting our
wounds befriend our gifts. Here are
two examples.
When Princess Diana died in 1997,
there was a massive outpouring of love
for her. Both by temperament and as a
Catholic priest, I’m normally not given
to grieving over celebrities, yet I felt a
deep sorrow and love for this woman.
Why? Because she was beautiful and
famous? Not that.
Many women who are beautiful and
famous are hated for it. Princess Diana
was loved by so many because she was
a wounded person, someone whose
wounds colored her beauty and fame
in a way that induced love, not envy.
Henri Nouwen, who popularized the
phrase “the wounded healer,” shared
a similar trait. He was a brilliant man,
the author of more than 40 books, one
of the most popular religious speakers
of his generation, tenured at both
Harvard and Yale, a person with friends
all over the world; but also a deeply
wounded man who, by his own repeated
admission, suffered restlessness,
anxiety, jealousies, and obsessions that
occasionally landed him in a clinic.
As well, by his own repeated admission,
amid this success and popularity,
for most of his adult life he struggled to
simply accept love. His wounds forever
got in the way. And this, his wounded
self, colors basically every page of every
book he wrote.
His brilliance was forever colored by
his wounds and that’s why it was never
self-assertive but always compassionate.
No one envied Nouwen’s brilliance; he
was too wounded to be envied. Instead,
his brilliance always touched us in a
healing way. He was a wounded healer.
Those words, wounded and healer,
ordain each other. I’m convinced that
God calls each of us to a vocation and
to a special work here on earth more
on the basis of our wounds than on the
basis of our gifts.
Our gifts are real and important; but
they only grace others when they are
shaped into a special kind of compassion
by the uniqueness of our own
wounds. Our unique, special wounds
can help make each of us a unique,
special healer.
Our world is full of brilliant, talented,
highly successful, and beautiful people.
Those gifts are real, come from God,
and should never be denigrated in
God’s name. However, our gifts don’t
automatically help others; but they can
if they are colored by our wounds so
that they flow out as compassion and
not as pride.
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.
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 9

BARCENAS/CATHOPIC
An Advent to
overcome anxiety
Advent and the events of this year are trying to tell
us the same thing. Have we been listening?
BY KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ / ANGELUS
Advent? You’ve got to be kidding me.
That sums up my feeling — one probably shared
by some of my fellow Catholics who have been
living the year 2020 like one long Lent — at the sight of
the first Christmas decorations a few weeks ago.
Despite all of its difficulties, one of the graces of this year
has been my renewed appreciation for the prayers of the
Church. For many years now, I’ve been praying the Liturgy
of the Hours, the daily cycle of prayers that priests and consecrated
commit to praying every day, but which can also
be prayed by laypeople. I’ve long thought that if everyone
could have just a little taste of it, it would be a great help to
people’s lives.
Included in the Liturgy of the Hours are two long readings
in what’s known as the Office of Readings. The second
one is usually an excerpt from the writings of a well-known
saint or doctor of the church, and I’ve come to expect it to
read like a sermon written for precisely this day.
And so it was on the last day of Ordinary Time, when it
was St. Augustine’s turn to talk to me and get me ready for
10 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

BARCENAS/CATHOPIC
Advent. The man has credibility, to say the least, a hardfought
conversion that was the fruit of faith, reason, his
persistent and long-suffering mother, and the Holy Spirit.
“Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we still live in
anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full
security,” the great doctor of the church wrote that day.
The word hit me: Anxiety.
Has anyone been able to escape it in this year of plagues?
Among them, there’s the obvious one, COVID-19. But
others come to mind, too, themselves propagated thanks to
this pandemic: loneliness; depression; suicide; pornography;
addictions of all sorts. It goes on and on, and we want
nothing more than for it all to go away. We want better. We
want “normal.”
And yet, isn’t there some sort of irrational nostalgia that
goes with this kind of longing? No matter what our world
looks like, there is always a cross. Sometimes, as in this
year, those crosses can feel more acutely overwhelming
than others.
Thankfully, St. Augustine is here to put us in our place,
now, at the end of the year 2020:
“Why do we now live in anxiety? Can you expect me
not to feel anxious when I read: Is not man’s life on
earth a time of trial?
“Can you expect me not to feel anxious when the
words still ring in my ears: Watch and pray that you
will not be put to the test? Can you expect me not to
feel anxious when there are so many temptations here
below that prayer itself reminds us of them, when we
say: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who
trespass against us?
“Every day we make out petitions, every day we sin.
Do you want me to feel secure when I am daily asking
pardon for my sins, and requesting help in time of
trial? Because of my past sins I pray: Forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and then, because of the perils still before me, I immediately
go on to add: Lead us not into temptation. How
can all be well with people who are crying out with
me: Deliver us from evil?”
piece of pottery, shaped by instruction, fired by tribulation.
When you are put into the oven therefore, keep
your thoughts on the time when you will be taken out
again; for God is faithful, and he will guard both your
going in and your coming out.”
There’s no doubt most people have been aching for the
end to the “oven” that has been 2020, eager to start a year
with less suffering, and more normality. But even once
vaccines start getting to circulate in the coming weeks and
months, this virus isn’t going to disappear, and can we
expect any politician to truly heal our country or our ailing
planet? And even if those things were to be accomplished
by some miracle, that is not what this year’s tribulations are
meant to lead us to.
As we begin this new year in the Church, we are given
these weeks to reflect on our long-term response to 2020
and its plagues.
For myself, I think especially about Jesus in the sacraments
and how much I need him. I used to have the
luxury of being picky about the priests I would go to for
confession. Now, if it’s offered and it’s time, I’m there. (At
one church, I nearly had to shout my sins because of the
protocols in place.)
When it comes to the Mass, we’ve hopefully learned not
to take it for granted (indeed, you may be reading this and
not have it available to you at the moment). Here in New
That last thought is an insight that resonates, and, come
to think of it, may make some of us even more anxious.
But St. Augustine writes like a man who’s lived through a
pandemic, and has found what awaits on the other side.
“And yet, brothers,” he continues, “while we are still in
the midst of this evil, let us sing alleluia to the good God
who delivers us from evil.”
He goes on to proclaim the truth that comes to console
and encourage us all:
“God is faithful. Scripture does not say that he will
not allow you to be tried, but that he will not allow you
to be tried beyond your strength.
“Whatever the trial, he will see you through it safely,
and so enable you to endure. You have entered upon
a time of trial but you will come to no harm — God’s
help will bring you through it safely. You are like a
“Portrait of Saint Augustine of Hippo receiving the Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus,” by Philippe de Champaigne, circa 17th century.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 11

York City, I’m less afraid than I have been about losing the
Eucharist again.
That is thanks in large part to Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio
and the Diocese of Brooklyn’s successful lawsuit to
overturn the governor’s arbitrary restrictions on religious
worship before the Supreme Court.
Advent begins with the reminder to be on watch for the
Lord. Much of our fear in this year is of death, is it not?
And yet people have been dying of all sorts of things, not
just COVID-19. It all serves to remind us that this time is
to prepare us not for Dec. 25, but for our death and judgment
by a merciful and just God. As St. Augustine puts it:
“O the happiness of the heavenly alleluia, sung in
security, in fear of no adversity! We shall have no
enemies in heaven, we shall never lose a friend. God’s
praises are sung both there and here, but here they are
sung by those destined to die, there, by those destined
to live forever; here they are sung in hope, there, in
hope’s fulfillment; here they are sung by wayfarers,
there, by those living in their own country.”
This is our temporary home. That is the message of
2020. Our priorities this Advent cannot be decorating, but
uniting ourselves with God. That’s the gift worth giving:
our lives to God completely. Ask him to do it. Give yourself
more and more every day. Offer everything to God. Ask
him to eradicate anything that is not of him in your life. Do
nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit, as Scripture says.
And, even as you face all the same burdens, take St. Augustine’s
advice:
“So, then, my brothers, let us sing now, not in order
to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten our
A young woman prays in front of an Advent candle.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/LISA JOHNSTON, ST. LOUIS REVIEW
labors. You should sing as wayfarers do — sing, but
continue your journey. Do not be lazy, but sing to
make your journey more enjoyable. Sing, but keep going.
What do I mean by keep going? Keep on making
progress. This progress, however, must be in virtue; for
there are some, the Apostle warns, whose only progress
is in vice. If you make progress, you will be continuing
your journey, but be sure that your progress is in
virtue, true faith and right living. Sing then, but keep
going.”
An extraordinary minister of holy Communion distributes the Eucharist
during Mass on the first Sunday of Advent at St. James Church in
Setauket, New York, Nov. 29.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
We are not alone. We are members of the body of Christ,
with all of heaven cheering us on, where the eternal victory
resides. Our song — the witness of this lived joyfully and
confidently, even in times of plague — will make every
difference. And only Christ makes it possible.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review
Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine, and
the author of many books. Her newest is “A Year with the
Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living” (Tan Books,
$44.95).
12 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

Christmas as a catechism
How the holiday teaches
the truths of the Creed
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
The “Adoration of the Shepherds,” by 17th-century Italian artist Guido Reni.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
calendar is a catechism.” That is a commonplace
saying of modern Judaism, and
you’ll find it in the works of many rabbis.
“The
The premise is simple. Before there were
any biblical texts, there were sacred feasts. The Torah records
the observance of pre-existing feast days, such as Passover,
Pentecost, and Tabernacles (see Exodus 5:1, 12:14).
Each feast served to strengthen common identity, memorialize
a real event, and teach important truths about God.
Rabbi Harold Kushner explained: “Jews absorbed the central
ideas of their faith not by studying them systematically but
by celebrating the weekly Sabbath and the annual cycle of
festivals, and gradually absorbing the lessons they conveyed.”
Catholics today do have a catechism. In fact, we have
many. But the principle still applies, and it’s possible that
most believers learn more religion by celebrating the feasts
than they do by reading religious books.
For Catholics as for Jews, the calendar is a catechism. And
for Catholics no feast delivers core doctrines as effectively as
Christmas.
Doctrine is embedded in the symbols of the season. It’s
encoded in the carols. It’s plated with the foods. The holiday
is an aggregate of customs, all designed to make religious
truth sweet and memorable.
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 13

“Annunciation of Ustyug,” artist unknown, circa 1120–1130.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The very name of the holiday is derived from “The Christ’s
Mass.” And Catholic dogma lives loudly in all its hours.
With preparation through Advent — and review until
Epiphany — these winter weeks deliver a full immersion in
the truths of the creed. Such as …
The incarnation of the Lord. With Jesus’ conception in
his mother’s virginal womb, God assumed human flesh
and began to live a human life: “the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The finite
contained the infinite. The eternal entered time.
God did this in order to save his people, because we could
not save ourselves. The Incarnation is the fullness of God’s
self-revelation. What had been foreshadowed in the Old
Testament was now brought into the light.
Jesus’ true humanity. In Jesus Christ, God did not merely
assume the appearance of humanity. He was born a baby.
He was swaddled (Luke 2:7). He slept. He was circumcised
(Luke 2:21). He was carried in arms (Matthew 2:14).
He came to share the lot of his people and to refound the
human race.
At the end of his earthly ministry he would — for our
salvation — suffer torture, asphyxiation, and death. But the
condition for this is his true humanity, which is evident
throughout the story of Christmas.
Jesus’ true divinity. In the Christmas story Jesus is described
with titles ordinarily reserved for God. He is called
“Lord” (Luke 1:43) and “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
Even as a baby he receives worship (Matthew 2:11), indicating
his deity.
In another seasonal reading we see that he is the Son of
God, “born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4); and so he shares
his Father’s divine nature as well as his mother’s human
nature. “For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity
bodily” (Colossians 1:15).
The virginal conception of Jesus. This is a key element in
the Christmas story, revealed in different but complementary
ways in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Mary’s
virginity is introduced as proof of Jesus’ divinity (God is truly
his Father) and his humanity (she is truly his mother).
In the early centuries of Christianity, Mary’s virginity
was the Christian doctrine most attacked and mocked by
outsiders. Jews derided it in the Talmud. The pagan Celsus
scorned it in his denunciation of Christianity. Within the
Church, few doctrines were so passionately defended. The
earliest defenses were composed in the mid-first century,
and many more followed.
The Trinitarian nature of God. By the will of the Father
and the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary conceived God the
14 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

Son (Luke 1:32, 1:36). In the Old Testament we find hints
that God is one, but a communion of Persons.
In Genesis he speaks in the first-person plural: “Let us …”
(1:26). Later books in the canon speak of “the Spirit of God”
and “the Wisdom of God” as if they were distinct persons.
Only with the Incarnation was the truth about God made
manifest. And that revelation began with the Christmas
story.
The celebration of Christmas began at a time when heretics
were denying these core doctrines of Christianity. In the
fourth century, a Libyan named Arius gained a following by
rejecting the coeternity and coequality of God the Son and
God the Father.
Meanwhile, other heretics — who followed a man named
Marcion — asserted that Jesus possessed no divinity until
the time of his baptism, as an adult, in the River Jordan.
Still others — called Docetists or Gnostics — believed that
Jesus’ human body was illusory and unreal.
The most effective way for the Church to counteract these
heresies was to tell the Christmas story, and celebrate it as a
historical fact.
So the feast emerged in 336 in the West and a little bit
later in the East.
And for the 1,500 years that followed, Christmas remained
an important means of teaching Christianity. Why? Because
there were no readily available, published catechisms
in the Church.
Some of the early Fathers (Lactantius and St. Gregory of
Nyssa) had written summary handbooks of the Faith. But
that was long before the invention of the printing press. So
books, copied out by hand, were expensive rarities. And few
people could read anyway.
Yet, for all those years, the Church raised up devout generations,
millions of people who had a lively faith in Jesus
Christ and a deep familiarity with his saving doctrine.
One of the great Church historians of the last century,
Father Josef Jungmann, gave credit to the feasts. The
liturgy, he said, “dominated the seasons of the year through
the celebration of the ecclesiastical feasts and impressed the
chief mysteries of faith upon the popular consciousness.”
So, by celebrating Christmas, believers grew in their understanding
of the incarnation of the Lord … the humanity
and divinity of Jesus … the life of the eternal Trinity.
They learned the mysteries of Christianity by celebrating
the mysteries of Christianity.
The exercise is just as useful in an age of widespread
literacy. Today we Catholics do have a catechism, and yet it
also points us to the feasts: “The memorial is not merely the
recollection of past events. . . . In the liturgical celebration
of these events, they become in a certain way present and
real.”
That is how feasts work in biblical religion. They teach,
but they don’t merely instruct. God does not summon his
people to attend a history class. A feast teaches by sharing
life. The people of today come to participate in a long-ago,
saving event.
And so this season Catholics will celebrate — some in
churches and some at home — and they’ll sing their creed
with gusto, to melodies they’ve known since childhood.
“The Glory of Saint Nicholas,” by António Manuel da Fonseca, in the ceiling
of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Lisbon, Portugal. Nicholas of Myra,
a participant in the First Council of Nicaea, achieves the beatific vision in
the shape of the Holy Trinity.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“Silent night, holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light!”
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!
Hail the incarnate Deity!”
Their children and their grandchildren will hear and join
in, and the calendar will teach another generation, as it has
taught all others.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor to Angelus. He is the
author of many books, including “Work, Play, Love: How the
Mass Changed the Life of the First Christians” (Paraclete
Press, $12.99).
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 15

Back to the roots
LA’s Filipino Catholics see a deeper meaning behind
this year’s modified Simbang Gabi celebrations
BY ANN RODGERS / ANGELUS
Traditional Filipino lanterns
known as “parols” on display
before the 2019 Simbang Gabi
Mass at the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Jordan Mangaliman remembers
waking in the middle of a
mid-December night to sweet
and savory scents as his parents
cooked 300 Filipino sausages before
a 4 a.m. Simbang Gabi novena Mass.
The church would be packed for the
procession with “parols,” star-shaped
ornamental lanterns. Afterward,
everyone feasted on the sausages and
other delicacies.
In this year of COVID-19, Simbang
Gabi will be ascetic. A curfew
prohibits traditional 4 a.m. celebrations.
The 10-person limit on indoor
gatherings means that Mass will be
livestreamed or celebrated outdoors.
Singing is out, as is gathering to eat.
But those are mere outward expressions
of an inward celebration, as
believers accompany the Virgin Mary
on a nine-day journey to Bethlehem,
said Mangaliman, 29, the co-founder
of a financial services company who
devotes weekends to youth ministry at
St. Mary Magdalene Church in the
Mid-City area of Los Angeles.
“COVID-19 cannot hold back Jesus
and cannot hold back his followers
from worshiping,” he said.
While “parols” won’t be carried in
procession, many Filipinos display
them outside their homes, said
Giselle Victorio, Mangaliman’s partner
in business and youth ministry.
“The ‘parols’ are a sign of the spirit
of Christmas,” she said.
The nine days of Simbang Gabi
begin every Dec. 15. In LA, the
celebration’s opening Mass is celebrated
annually at the Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels. Distinctly
Filipino, but with notes of gospel
choir, praise festival, and Broadway
musical, it has opened with women
16 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

Giselle Victorio was crowned “Reyna Elena” (“Queen Helen”) in 2019, as part of Santacruzan, a
traditional Filipino ritual pageant held in May, honoring the finding of the true cross by St. Helen.
As the “Reyna Elena,” Giselle introduced last year’s Simbang Gabi festival at the Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels.
dressed in a kaleidoscope of full-skirted,
full-length dresses moving in
choreographed unison to contemporary
hymns. A brass band led the
procession of “parols” representing
hundreds of parishes and ministries.
“It really wakes you up,” Mangaliman
said. “It’s very charismatic and
alive in the Spirit.”
This year’s cathedral celebration,
with Archbishop José H. Gomez, will
be available for participation only via
SUBMITTED PHOTO
livestream, starting at 6:30 p.m. with
a display of the “parols.”
All of that is a far cry from its
inception in the 17th century, when
missionaries from Mexico created the
pre-dawn novena so Filipino workers
could participate before going
to the fields. They called it “Misa
de Gallo” in Spanish (“Mass of the
Rooster”) because it began when the
roosters crowed. When it became an
after-work celebration in the United
States, the name changed to “Simbang
Gabi,” Tagalog for “Evening
Mass.”
Father Riz Carranza, pastor of St.
Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley,
said the 4 a.m. Mass was no hardship.
“By 6 a.m. in the Philippines, the
sun is already scorching,” he said.
“The first thing they do in the morning
is to give praise to God and worship
to God before they go to work.”
The COVID-19-induced shift to
outdoors is a return to the novena’s
roots, said Patty Santiago, president
of the archdiocesan Filipino Ministry.
“This is how it started with the
missionaries before the church was
built,” she said.
Her own parish, Our Lady of Peace
Church in North Hills, isn’t holding
a Simbang Gabi Mass this year.
Most of the organizers are over 65,
she said. In addition to COVID-19
concerns, they can’t tolerate the cold,
damp evening air. “They will just
attend livestream,” she said.
COVID-19 has been hard on the
Filipino community locally and
worldwide, she said. Two of the most
popular professions for Filipinos are
nursing and service on cruise ships.
Nurses have been stressed or sick
from working the front lines of COV-
ID-19, and the cruise workers have
been laid off for months.
“So, they picked a really good
theme for this year’s Simbang Gabi.
The theme is ‘Gifted to be messengers
of hope,’ ” she said.
It was chosen in January, before
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 17

COVID-19 was even a thought,
said Edna Cristobal, chairperson of
the 2020 Simbang Gabi cathedral
celebration.
“God has given us Jesus as our
gift, the greatest gift of all, so that
we could be gifts to each other,”
she said. “In this time of pandemic,
we can give people hope to not be
afraid — just as the angels told the
shepherds not to be afraid — to know
that God loves us, and that we should
be good and kind to each other with
masks and social distancing.”
Rhomie Ramierez, a real estate broker
from St. John Baptist de la Salle
Church in Granada Hills, has seen
the virus take its toll on people’s spirits.
In the past he stopped in church
daily to praise and thank God for his
blessings and seek his guidance. Now
he gives thanks that he can still receive
Communion at a drive-in Mass
and pray with others over Zoom.
“Don’t lose hope,” he said. “We
need God now more than ever.”
Twin sisters Norma Habunal and
Nora Simbulan are self-described
senior citizens from St. Basil in Koreatown,
where Simbulan is the RCIA
coordinator and Habunal prepares
children for first Communion. Although
their parish will be hosting an
outdoor Mass, they will join Simbang
Gabi via livestream. Both are delighted
that they have become technologically
adept enough to do so.
“In spite of the restrictions, the
parishioners have become closer
through the use of social media and
phones and Zoom,” Simbulan said.
“There will be more people from
other states and other countries
watching through Facebook or You-
Tube,” Habunal said.
Volunteers are preparing take-home
bags of food for participants at the
outdoor Mass.
“The younger ones are doing it,”
because so many longtime volunteers
are at high risk, Habunal said. “We
want to keep it alive. It is a beautiful
tradition.”
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18 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020
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Simbang Gabi 2020 schedule
All Masses will be held outdoors unless otherwise indicated.
Tue., Dec. 15
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
6:30 p.m.*
Wed., Dec. 16
St. Basil, Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
St. Martha, Valinda, 7 p.m.*
St. Bernardine, Woodland Hills, 6 p.m.***
Thu., Dec. 17
St. Bruno, Whittier, 8 a.m.
St. Basil, Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz, Walnut, 7 p.m.**
St. Mariana de Paredes, Pico Rivera, 7 p.m.
Our Lady of Grace, Encino, 6 p.m.***
Fri., Dec. 18
St. Francis Xavier, Burbank, 8 a.m.
Holy Name of Mary, San Dimas, 4 p.m.
St. Dominic, Los Angeles, 4 p.m.
St. Pancratius, Lakewood, 5 p.m.
St. Charles Borromeo, North Hollywood, 5 p.m.
St. Christopher, West Covina, 6 p.m.
St. Gregory the Great, Whittier, 6:30 p.m.
Christ the King, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. **
St. Paul of the Cross, La Mirada, 7 p.m.**
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Encino, 6 p.m.***
Sat., Dec. 19
Our Lady of Perpetual Help,
Downey, 8:15 a.m. (Zoom)**
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque,
Lomita, 8:15 a.m.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton,
Rowland Heights, 9 a.m.
Nativity, Torrence, 9 a.m.
Blessed Sacrament, Los Angeles, 2 p.m.
Our Lady of Refuge, Long Beach, 4 p.m.**
St. Mary Magdalen, Camarillo, 4 p.m.
Queen of Angels, Lompoc, 5 p.m.
St. Finbar, Burbank, 5 p.m.
St. Francis de Sales, Sherman Oaks, 5 p.m.
St. Ignatius, Los Angeles (Highland Park), 5 p.m.
St. John Eudes, Chatsworth, 5 p.m.**
St. Linus, Norwalk, 5 p.m.
St. Mary Magdalen, Los Angeles, 5 p.m.
Immaculate Conception, Monrovia, 5:30 p.m.
St. Bede the Venerable, La Cañada Flintridge,
5:30 p.m.
St. Denis, Diamond Bar, 5:30 p.m.
St. Mary, Palmdale, 5:30 p.m.
Christ the King, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. **
Maria Regina, Gardena, 7 p.m.
Our Lady of Loreto, Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
St. Thomas the Apostle, Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 20
Sacred Heart, Lancaster, 8 a.m.
St. Ann, Los Angeles (Atwater), 8 a.m.
St. John Fisher, Palos Verdes, 9 a.m.**
St. Brendan, Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m.**
St. Catherine Laboure, Torrance, 11:30 a.m.
Mary, Star of the Sea, Oxnard, 5 p.m.**
Sacred Heart, Altadena, 5 p.m.
St. Rose of Lima, Simi Valley, 5 p.m.
Mon., Dec. 21
St. Peter Claver, Simi Valley, 7 p.m.**
Christ the King, Los Angeles, 7 p.m.**
Tue., Dec. 22
St. John Baptist de la Salle, Granada Hills,
7 p.m.*
Christ the King, Los Angeles, 7 p.m.**
Wed., Dec. 23
St. Kateri, Santa Clarita, 7 p.m.*
Christ the King, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. *
Parishes with full novena:
Holy Family, Artesia, Dec. 15-23, 6 p.m.**
(bilingual)
Holy Family, Glendale, Dec. 15-23, 7 p.m.**
Holy Trinity, Los Angeles (Atwater), Dec. 15-18
& 21-23, 7 p.m., Dec. 19-20, 5 p.m., Dec. 16-19
& 21-24, 6:30 a.m., Dec. 20, 7:30 a.m.
St. Barnabas, Long Beach, Dec. 15-23, 6 p.m.
St. Hilary, Pico Rivera, Dec. 15, 18 & 22, 6 p.m.,
Dec. 16-17, 19, 21 & 23, 5 p.m., Dec. 20, 11:30
a.m.
St. John the Baptist, Baldwin Park, Dec. 15-18
& 21-23, 6:30 p.m., Dec. 19, 5 p.m., Dec. 20,
1 p.m.
St. John of God, Norwalk, Dec. 15-23, 5 p.m.
St. Philomena, Carson, Dec. 15-18 & 21-23, 7
p.m., Dec. 19-20, 6 p.m.
Incarnation, Glendale, Dec. 15-23, 6:30 p.m.
(drive-in), Dec. 16-24, 8:30 a.m. (outdoors).
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, Dec.
16-19 & 21-22, 7 p.m., Dec. 20, 4 p.m., Dec.
23-24, 5:30 p.m.
Mary, Star of the Sea, Oxnard, Dec. 16-18 &
21-23, 6 p.m., Dec. 19, 5 p.m., Dec. 20, 5 p.m.**
Precious Blood, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-24, 7 p.m.
Our Lady of Lourdes, Tujunga, Dec. 16-18 &
20-23, 7 p.m., Dec. 19, 6 p.m.**
St. Anthony of Padua, Gardena, Dec. 16-18 &
21-24, 6:30 a.m., Dec. 19, 8 a.m., Dec. 20, 7:30
a.m.
St. Catherine of Siena, Reseda, Dec. 16-19 &
21-24, 6 a.m., Dec. 20, 5:30 a.m.**
St. Columban, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-18 & 21-
23, 7 p.m., Dec. 19-20, 5 p.m., Dec. 24, 6 p.m.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Van Nuys, Dec. 16-18
& 20-23, 7 p.m., Dec. 19, 8:10 p.m.**
St. Jane Frances de Chantal, North Hollywood,
Dec. 16-19 & 21-24, 6 a.m., Dec. 20, 5:30
a.m.**
St. Genevieve, Panorama City, Dec. 16-19 &
21-24, 6 a.m., Dec. 20, 6:30 a.m.
St. John of God, Norwalk, Dec. 15-23, 5 p.m.
St. Kevin, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-24, 7 p.m.
St. Martha, Valinda, Dec. 16-24, 5:30 a.m.
St. Mel, Woodland Hills, Dec. 16-23, 6 p.m.
(Zoom), Dec. 23, 6 p.m. (Facebook & YouTube).
For livestream links and the most up-to-date times, visit
AngelusNews.com.
*Livestream only, no in-person Mass
**Livestream available
***Joining St. Mel in full novena
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 19

The kickstarting sisters
of COVID
When a pandemic shuttered their bookstores, the
‘Media Nuns’ wasted little time in finding new
ways to support their ministry
BY EVAN HOLGUIN / ANGELUS
Customers visiting the Pauline Books and Media Center in Culver City before the COVID-19 pandemic.
DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL
When they first came to Los
Angeles in 1987, the Daughters
of St. Paul were known
nationally as “blue-collar sisters.”
The Daughters would stand at a register
all day in one of their bookstores,
taking orders and fulfilling the duties
of the service industry. At their printing
plant in Boston, sisters would work
the press producing books that other
sisters would sell at their Catholic
bookstore on Sepulveda Boulevard in
Culver City, one of many such stores
across the country.
“We are women religious who are in
business,” said Pauline Sister Danielle
Victoria Lussier, who previously
worked at a center in Manhattan
before relocating to the Daughters’
publishing house in Boston. “We’re
DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL
20 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

called to consecrate this work in a
different way.”
But how do you complete that
mission when a pandemic closes your
doors? As cities like Los Angeles implemented
their stay-at-home orders
last March, the Daughters faced challenges
to their traditional ministries
while some apostolates received an
opportunity to reach further.
“We turned our whole media literacy
course — usually held every summer
in Los Angeles — online,” explained
Sister Nancy Usselmann, national
director of the Culver City-based
Pauline Center for Media Studies.
The center, which celebrates its 25th
anniversary Dec. 29, offers an Advanced
Certificate in Media Literacy
certified by the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles, as part of its work to evangelize
the culture through media.
The success of the virtual media
literacy course showed an active
audience — including attendees from
Vietnam and Canada — interested in
the content but unable to travel to Los
Angeles to complete it. In light of the
success, Sister Usselmann confirmed
that the certificate would continue
to be offered online, even when the
in-person program resumes.
But virtual events couldn’t undo
the damage that shuttered bookstores
and a limping economy has inflicted
on book sales. These effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic meant that the
Daughters had to cut back their usual
new additions to the catalogue to just
four new titles.
One of those titles, a project called
“In Caelo et in Terra: 365 Days with
the Saints,” had been 10 years in
the making and the fruit of multiple
sisters’ labor. The loss of funds would
also mean a scaled-back production
quality, far from what they had hoped
for.
“Immediately after having to close
brick-and-mortar due to the pandemic,
people were asking how they could
support us,” said Pauline Sister Maria
Kim-Ngan Bui, director of Marketing
and Sales for Pauline Books and
Media.
Even Sister Bui’s little brother Joe,
with a family and little disposable income,
was asking how he could help.
“We thought, ‘Why not invite people
Sister Nancy Usselmann (left) and Sister Rose Pacatte interview Clint Eastwood at the 2018 red
carpet premiere of “The 15:17 to Paris.”
to help us produce this book?’ ” said
Sister Lussier, who is the artist behind
“In Caelo et in Terra.”
The Daughters turned to Kickstarter
to raise the $17,400 needed to produce
a book according to their standards.
By the end of their crowd-funding
campaign, the Daughters had
raised more than $70,000 — enough
for two print runs, and with gilded
edges on the second printing.
“The generosity of good people, that
was the driver,” said Sister Bui about
their success. “A combination of
people’s goodwill, their desire to be in
solidarity, and God inspiring people to
support us.”
For Catholic author Tommy Tighe,
a longtime supporter of the Daughters
and postulant in the Holy Family
Institute, a lay association in the
Pauline family, the reason to support
the Daughters was clear.
“The things I’m blown away with
is the beauty of the projects they’ve
been pulling together,” Tighe said.
“The book “In Caelo et in Terra” has
become a book that my family uses on
a daily basis, and it is one of the most
beautiful books we own, which I think
is a great way to open people up to
what’s inside.”
Backers of the “In Caelo” Kickstarter
campaign were the first to receive a
copy of the book in response to their
support, giving them a second opportunity
to support the project. As books
started arriving in the mail, supporters
took to social media, posting video
reviews and showing off the delicate
DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 21

wrapping that adorned each book sent
to a supporter.
Sister Usselmann reported that copies
of “In Caelo” have “been selling
nonstop” at the Culver City bookstore.
“Most of the time they say ‘I saw this
online,’ or saw it on ‘Coffee Break
with the Media Nuns.’ ”
Though the “In Caelo” project was
the first foray of the Daughters into
digital crowdfunding, it is not their
last. The launch of the book also saw
the launch of a new media project,
The Daughters’ Project.
Part podcast, part fundraiser, and part
plan for the future, The Daughters’
Project relies on supporters via the
online membership platform, Patreon.
On Patreon, supporters of The
Daughters’ Project can sign up to give
monthly donations at one of six levels,
each with a higher dollar amount.
“Mainly The Daughters’ Project is to
fund the apostolate into more digital
media,” explained Sister Bui. “Camera,
sound equipment, new computers.
The project is driving new ways to
interact with collaborators.”
Currently, The Daughters’ Project
has launched a podcast of the same
name featuring Pauline sisters, but
with additional support and time they
hope to expand into more types of
media.
“The Holy Spirit is asking us to
invest in a really profound way,” said
Sister Lussier. “We know we can’t do
this without the help of others.”
In thanks for their support, patrons
— the official name of Patreon
supporters — are given some thank
you gifts depending on their donation
level, like early access to the project’s
podcast, free titles from Pauline Books
and Media, or even a handmade rosary.
But the goal, the sisters insist, isn’t
merely to provide a transaction, but to
build a relationship.
“We wanted to offer people a chance
to participate in the mission, no
matter what they are able to give,”
explained Sister Bui. “Crowdfunding
is the same — we’re going to say, ‘This
is what we’re doing, join us!’ ”
Even with these new ventures
expanding digital interaction, the
Daughters say they want their mission
to remain based in their centers.
“People are online, but they also
22 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020
Daughters of St. Paul during the filming of a promotional video for The Daughters’ Project in
their Boston warehouse.
appreciate a physical presence and an
encounter,” said Sister Usselmann.
“We’re here to support you and help
you. Come on by and contact us!”
The Pauline Book and Media Center
is located at 3908 Sepulveda Blvd.
in Culver City, and is open Monday
through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 6
p.m. For more information, visit Pauline.org
or call 310-397-8676.
Evan Holguin is a graduate of the
University of Notre Dame. Originally
from Santa Clarita, he now writes from
Connecticut.
LITURGICAL APOSTOLATE CENTER
Visit our Catholic Gift Shop...Free Parking!
Supplies to make
your liturgy beautiful.
Vestments, Sacred Vessels
and Religious Articles
Chapel is open to Public
during Center Hours.
Conference Facilities Available for:
Meetings Day Retreats
Prayer Service
Hours: Monday-Friday: 9am - 4:45pm — Saturday: 9am - 4pm
Sisters Disciples of the Divine Master
501 N. Beaudry Ave Los Angeles, CA.90012
Tel: 213-250-7962 | Email: 90012lacla@gmail.com
DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL
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December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 23

Men of the people
Jorge Bergoglio and Diego Maradona both rose to world fame after
leaving Argentina for Italy. Where else do their legacies overlap?
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
Pope Francis greets Diego
Maradona at the Vatican in
2014. The former soccer star
died of heart failure Nov. 25
at the age of 60.
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
ROSARIO, Argentina — If you ever find yourself in Italy,
you’ll be hard-pressed to find a taxi driver who doesn’t
drive with a prayer card with Pope Francis’ face. And if you
venture down south to the city of Naples, you’ll see there’s
another Argentine who’s just as omnipresent: Diego Maradona,
the soccer star who died Nov. 25 at age 60.
Although radically different in a myriad of ways — beginning
with their soccer ability — one was arguably the greatest
player in history and the other a self-confessed owner of
“two left feet” who could only play goalkeeper. Their bank
accounts, too: Upon his death, Maradona had a net worth
that Forbes magazine couldn’t estimate, while Pope Francis,
a Jesuit, made a vow of poverty many decades ago.
Yet they also had some things in common that go beyond
their nationality and the fact that both rose to international
fame upon moving from Argentina to Italy. Take those
Italian drivers, for example, who carry the picture of their
favorite Argentines and praise them both to no end, and
who still willingly offer a “but.”
In the case of Maradona, his lifestyle was not always a
virtuous one. He struggled with drug and alcohol addictions;
had children with several women whom he at times
refused to recognize; and his praise for communism, with
a long history of lending his face to both the Cuban and
Venezuelan regimes, both of whom paid him millions for
that support.
In the case of Pope Francis, taxi drivers and working-class
Italian Catholics often take issue with his sympathy for
pro-immigration causes; his perceived meddling in Italian
politics; and the fact that he rarely addresses middle-class
Catholics, which he acknowledged speaking with journalists
during an inflight press conference in 2015.
Yet having been born in a slum, Maradona famously never
forgot his humble beginnings: He was always there to lend a
hand — or one of his legs — and wasn’t afraid of getting his
“feet in the mud” to do so.
In 1985, shortly after joining Naples’ struggling soccer
team, he was invited to play in a charity match in one of the
city’s dirt fields. His coach refused to let him play, but Maradona
showed up anyway, with the entire Napoli team in
tow. They won 4-0, and when the money collected proved
insufficient, he covered the rest out of pocket.
It was often said that “El 10” exuded a childlike joy when
playing such matches, where field conditions resembled the
24 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

ones he grew up playing on. Likewise, during his days as the
archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future pope was known to
be much more at ease walking through the city’s slums than
its posh neighborhoods.
Born and raised in a shantytown, Maradona cultivated a
man-of-the-people persona, and much like the pope, credited
a woman with passing on the faith to him (in Maradona’s
case, his mother; in Pope Francis’, his grandmother).
Despite his upbringing, the player publicly struggled with
his faith. Back in 1987, he famously clashed with St. Pope
John Paul II on the issue of wealth disparity.
“I argued with him because I was in the Vatican and I saw
all these golden ceilings and afterwards I heard the pope
say the Church was worried about the welfare of poor kids,”
Maradona once recounted. “Sell your ceiling then ‘amigo,’
do something!”
It took the election of an Argentine as pope for Maradona
to settle his beef with the Church.
In 2014, Maradona played at the first charity soccer match
organized by the Vatican. During a press conference, he
said, “Everybody in Argentina can remember ‘the hand of
God’ in the England match in the 1986 World Cup. Now,
in my country, the ‘hand of God’ has brought us an Argentinian
pope.”
(The “Hand of God” is the nickname of the infamous
1986 World Cup match against England, in which the
referee inexplicably allowed a goal scored with the help of
Maradona’s hand to stand.)
“Pope Francis is even bigger than Maradona,” Maradona
said. “We should all imitate Pope Francis. If each one of
us gives something to someone else, no one in the world
would be starving.”
Two years later, Maradona credited Pope Francis for the
revival of his faith and his return to the Catholic Church
after he met him in a private audience at the Vatican.
“When he hugged me, I thought of my mother and inside
me, I prayed. I’m glad I’ve come back to the Church,”
Maradona said at the time.
His faith, according to what he told an Argentine priest in
2019, was a “simple” one, rooted in what his mother had
taught him. Father Gustavo Rubio, whom Maradona called
one day to visit the soccer team he was coaching at the
time, said the legend expressed regret for the many mistakes
he’d made in life.
“I was impressed by the fact that Diego could recognize
his flaws, the mistakes we all make, and said to me, ‘I’m not
an example for anyone,’ ” the priest said. “It was important
that he wanted to recognize his limits and smallness.”
The differences between the two certainly outshine the
similarities. Yet, in the days after Maradona’s passing, Pope
Francis, often described by observers as a chess player who’s
always several moves ahead in virtually every major decision
he takes, seems to have taken a page from the star’s playbook
for the ongoing “game” that is Argentina’s debate on
liberalizing its abortion law.
The other goal that Maradona scored in that 1986 match
against England was considered his greatest of all time, the
ultimate combination of his dribbling ability, vision, close
ball control, and creativity.
Now, his fellow countryman in the Vatican is hoping that
creative messaging, surprise phone calls, and “passing the
ball” to a lay-led ecumenical coalition in Argentina will
help score a victory against the country’s supporters of legal
abortion, a team that includes its president, Amnesty International,
and other international organizations.
Inés San Martín is an Argentine journalist and Rome bureau
chief for Crux. She is a frequent contributor to Angelus.
People gather at the top of the Quartieri Spagnoli in Naples Nov. 25 by a mural depicting Diego Maradona after the announcement of his death.
CARLO HERMANN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 25

The victims
of our
progress
What a story about Down syndrome children in Denmark
tells us about the perils of the ‘Genetic Information Age’
BY ELISE ITALIANO URENECK / ANGELUS
SHUTTERSTOCK
The 1997 science fiction film
“Gattaca” is set in a dystopic
future in which the practice
of eugenics — selective breeding designed
to pass on desired genetic traits
— is the norm.
In this society, couples who want to
have children pursue technological reproduction
rather than natural procreation.
This allows them to pick which of
their embryonic children they want to
bear after surveying their genomes.
The moral imperative is for parents
to conceive and bear the best possible
child, not only with preferred physical
traits or predispositions for particular
talents, but also free from hereditary
disease and disability.
To roll the dice and welcome whatever
child you get is seen as irresponsible:
Not only would you be knowingly
disadvantaging your child, you would
also be risking reintroducing undesirable
genes back into the gene pool.
Sadly, what was science fiction just a
few years ago has become a reality.
In the cover story of the December
issue of The Atlantic, reporter Sarah
Zhang visits Denmark, a country considered
“moral pioneers” in the field of
prenatal genetic testing, diagnosis, and
decision-making.
In her conversations with families and
experts, Zhang uncovers a devastating
trend: More than 95% of pregnancies
that have a test result showing
a likelihood of Trisomy 21, known
more commonly as Down syndrome,
end in abortion. The phenomenon of
selective abortion is gaining traction
despite the fact that some results are
false positives, and the fact that persons
with Trisomy 21 have excellent survival
rates and life expectancies.
Persons with Trisomy 21 have varying
symptoms (and varying degrees of
severity of symptoms), including intellectual
disabilities and muscular-skeletal
issues. They are more susceptible
to heart problems, gastrointestinal abnormalities,
and speech issues. Severe
cases require significant intervention,
therapy, and resources.
Yet others with Down syndrome
go to college, find employment, live
independently, and get married. Just
like any person, their particular challenges
and strengths become evident
over time, in part due to their genetic
makeup as well as the environment in
which they develop.
Within hours of the 8,000-word
article’s publication online, some were
praising Zhang’s reporting for humanizing
and giving a voice to people with
Down syndrome. Others, including
pro-lifers, expressed outrage: For
instance, one writer at The Federalist
accused the author of seeking to create
“sympathy and understanding for eugenics
and a modern-day genocide.”
But beyond the piece’s implications
for the pro-life and pro-choice movements,
Zhang identifies an uncomfortable,
telling paradox — one that
signals the dawn of what has been
called the “genetic information age.”
She writes:
“In wealthy countries, it seems to be
at once the best and the worst time for
Down syndrome. Better health care
has more than doubled life expectancy.
Better access to education means most
children with Down syndrome will
26 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

learn to read and write. Few people
speak publicly about wanting to ‘eliminate’
Down syndrome. Yet individual
choices are adding up to something
very close to that.”
Put in other words, the article is an invitation
for the world to ask itself: How
can a society that celebrates diversity,
inclusion, and tolerance allow its members
who have genetic differences to be
systematically, surgically extracted from
its population?
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Three overlapping factors have
created new moral questions around
child-bearing: 1) reproductive technologies,
originally designed to assist
couples struggling with infertility, have
proliferated in type and availability; 2)
the project to map the human genome,
completed in 2003, has given scientists
and doctors a window into the genes of
their patients as well as their patients’
gametes; and 3) prenatal genetic
testing has become a routine part of
obstetric care.
While originally developed to assist
couples who were unable to conceive
children through natural procreation,
artificial reproductive technologies
(ART) now comprise a booming
fertility industry. Services like in vitro
fertilization are now cheaper, less
riskier to women, and more likely to be
covered by insurance — and thus more
widely available.
Because marriage and child-bearing
are increasingly delayed in wealthier
nations, both infertility and the risk of
chromosomal abnormalities are on the
rise. This makes in vitro fertilization,
now paired with genetic testing, a
more desirable method of reproduction:
From a consumer standpoint,
getting the healthiest possible child is
the best investment in terms of time,
cost, and risk.
But even if a woman gets pregnant
naturally, she is likely to be offered prenatal
screening for major chromosomal
abnormalities. In the U.S., prenatal
testing was generally offered to women
over 35 or those with high-risk pregnancies.
As of 2019, more than 60% of
OBGYN’s had offered it as part of their
standard care to all patients.
In Denmark, nearly all pregnant
women choose to have their developing
children screened for genetic
abnormalities.
Prenatal testing used to be done later
in the second trimester if an ultrasound
revealed atypical development,
or if parents knew they were carriers
for genetic conditions. Today, that
information — as well as the sex of the
baby — can be gleaned from a mother’s
blood sample by the 10th week of
pregnancy.
Genetic counselors are supposed to
present findings with “value neutrality,”
meaning their language and
affect is not supposed to sway patients’
decision-making. But Zhang spoke
to advocates for persons with Down
syndrome who were actively lobbying
health care providers to change their
language, for fear that the increase in
selective abortion was correlated to
language that increased parental fear.
Even shifting language from “risk” to
During an amniocentesis, a doctor punctures the abdominal wall of a pregnant woman to
withdraw the fluid. The fluid is then analyzed for various chromosomal abnormalities. Today, that
information can be gleaned from a mother’s blood sample by the 10th week of pregnancy.
SHUTTERSTOCK
“probability” could help open parents
up to choosing life, they argued.
In many of the cases Zhang learned
about, the children were originally
wanted — sometimes desperately so
— but in one catastrophic moment,
they became unwanted. Parental fears
about their child’s quality of life as
well as disappointment over losing the
family that they had hoped for swayed
them toward abortion.
“Suddenly,” Zhang writes, “a new
power was thrust into the hands of
ordinary people — the power to decide
what kind of life is worth bringing into
the world.”
EMERGING MORAL QUESTIONS
The world that The Atlantic article
describes is one shaped by what Notre
Dame law and political science professor
O. Carter Snead calls “expressive
individualism” in his new book “What
It Means to Be Human: The Case for
the Body in Public Bioethics” (Harvard
University Press, $39.95).
This philosophy “equates being fully
human with finding the unique truth
within ourselves and freely constructing
our individual lives to reflect it,”
writes Snead. It considers human
relationships as “transactional, formed
by agreements, promises, and consent
for the mutual benefits of the parties
involved.”
Such a philosophy, he argues, leaves
us without a coherent vision of our
moral obligations to one another,
especially the most vulnerable. This is
illustrated in Zhang’s piece by a series
of moral quandaries that selective
abortion poses.
If “reproductive decision-making” is
an individual choice, what should a society
do when thousands (or millions)
of individual choices result in massive
demographic or sociological changes?
Is a eugenic movement brought about
by a society’s own choosing any less
problematic than one that is forced
on a people, such as the campaign
to eradicate persons with disabilities
designed by the Nazis or the current
campaign by the Chinese government
to eliminate its Uyghurs population?
Zhang uncovers what she calls the
most perverse moral problem in an
exchange with a Danish woman who
heads the National Down Syndrome
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 27

Association. The woman, who is also
a mother to an 18-year-old son with
Down syndrome, educates expectant
parents about the condition.
During one of their conversations, the
teenage boy leans over and looks at his
mother’s phone. The title of a controversial
documentary called “Death to
Down Syndrome” was displayed on the
screen, and he immediately recoiled.
The reporter realized that he was
cognizant of the fact that “there are
people who don’t want people like
him to be born.” Moreover, his mother
supports the right to abortion, even in
cases like his.
The scene illustrates the ultimate
conundrum for a society that supports
the unrestricted right to abortion while
claiming to uphold the equality of all
human beings as a foundational moral
principle: A woman must convince her
child that his life is valuable, dignified,
and worthy of living, while also supporting
the rights of others to end the
life of their child with his same genetic
markers.
A CATHOLIC RESPONSE
The response of a Catholic reader
to the article would seem clear-cut:
Because abortion is the taking of
human life in its most vulnerable stage,
it violates the fundamental right of all
human beings to continue their lives
until natural death. Abortion, as well as
any reproductive technology involving
the creation, testing, and destruction of
embryos, must be rejected.
But Catholic teaching does not stop at
the moral evaluation of the technology
or the act of abortion. The Gospel goes
deeper — it speaks to the heart of parents
who receive a devastating diagnosis.
It speaks to the vocation of health
care workers and geneticists to heal
when they can and offer comfort when
they cannot. And it speaks to families
about what it means to be open to the
mystery of God’s design for family life.
In a 2019 speech, Pope Francis
lamented the fact that thanks to
modern prenatal testing techniques,
“even the suspicion of an illness, and
especially the certainty of a disease,
changes the experience of pregnancy
and causes deep distress to women and
couples.”
The isolation and worry about the
suffering that lies ahead, the pope said,
“is like a silent cry, a call for help in the
darkness, when faced with an illness
whose outcome cannot be foreseen
with certainty.”
In the face of fear and isolation, parents
need support from a larger community,
whether through their extended
family, the parish, or others who
A scene from the movie “Gattaca.”
have been in their situation. Support
from a community is the first antidote
to the individualism and isolation of
“reproductive choice.”
When it comes to the issue of medical
language, The Atlantic article notes
that while genetic counselors and
obstetricians are trained and required
to present genetic information in as
neutral a way as possible to patients,
that doesn’t always happen.
Pope Francis has admonished
clinicians who use the phrase “incompatible
with life” to describe genetic
conditions that correspond with short
lifespans or severe physical and cognitive
impairments. For one thing, where
there is a living human being, there is
life.
Second, he says, “No human being
can ever be unfit for life, whether due
to age, state of health, or quality of
existence. Every child who appears in
a woman’s womb is a gift that changes
a family’s history, the life of fathers and
mothers, grandparents, and of brothers
and sisters. That child needs to be
welcomed, loved, and nurtured.”
Pope Francis kisses Peter Lombardi, 12, of Columbus, Ohio, after the boy rode in the popemobile
during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in 2018.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/VATICAN MEDIA
WITNESSING TO LIFE
The fact that so many parents,
when faced with a diagnosis of Down
syndrome or other genetic anomalies,
choose abortion tells Catholics a few
things about why and where the Gospel
is needed.
A society that reveres health and
wellness is one that will have trouble in
the face of sickness, aging, and death.
It needs to hear the good news that
suffering has been redeemed, and that
it stretches the hearts of patients, caregivers,
and the people they encounter.
28 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

IMDB
Being mortals, bodily decay or dysfunction
will come to all of us; some
members of our human family experience
it more acutely or earlier than
others. They should receive more care,
not more marginalization, because of
it.
A materialist society that reduces
people to their bodies — and even microscopically,
to their genetic material
— needs to know the truth that human
beings have a body and a soul. The
most important quality that children
have and develop is their capacity to
love, something that does not depend
on their physical or cognitive ability.
A consumer-driven society, one that
has become accustomed to customizable,
curated lifestyles, is one that considers
parenthood as a fulfillment of
desires or a way to construct meaning
and identity.
Such a society — which does not
pause at the ways it commodifies its
children — needs to be reminded to
protect “the little ones.” And a society
that has unlimited access to information
desperately needs wisdom.
The opening credits of “Gattaca” include
a cautionary line from the Book
of Ecclesiastes: “Consider what God
has done: Who can straighten what He
has made crooked?”
The answer to this rhetorical question
should humble us. It should also help
us to see all children not as something
owed, but as gifts to be received “as
is,” with all of their challenges and
strengths.
Elise Italiano Ureneck is a contributor
to Angelus and columnist for Catholic
News Service writing from Boston.
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December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 29
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Olivia Colman as
Queen Elizabeth II
in season four of
Netflix’s “The Crown.”
A royal
revelation
To tell the story of an
empire in decline, ‘The
Crown’ trades factual
accuracy for a healthy
dose of compassion
BY ROBERT INCHAUSTI /
ANGELUS
Crown,” a docudrama
based on the lives of the
“The
British royal family, is now
streaming its fourth season on Netflix.
This season chronicles the years between
1979 and 1990 when Margaret
Thatcher was prime minister, a period
that famously included the early years
of Prince Charles’ marriage to Princess
Diana.
The genius of this series comes from
its recounting of events affecting the
royal family without the sensationalism
with which they were originally
presented in the news and tabloid
press. “The Crown” offers a different
perspective, one that offers thoughtful,
nuanced, compassionate objectivity,
otherwise known as realism.
While realist writers and directors
must sometimes sacrifice literal facts
in order to provide a truer presentation
of social types and manners (what the
novelist Honoré de Balzac once called
“the history forgotten by historians”),
their ultimate goal is to rescue some
measure of existential truth from the
distortions of popular mythology.
By debunking what we falsely think
we know about the “Thatcher years,”
and providing a more detailed backsto-
Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher.
ry, “The Crown” replaces the myths of
the “Iron Lady,” the “Fairy Tale” wedding,
and the “Petulant Diana” with
the complexity of real life. The show’s
writers try hard to show no favorites
and to present each character as they
see themselves.
By sticking to this premise, the
creators of “The Crown” dramatize
the lives of the royal family with
Shakespearean “objective seriousness.”
Like in Shakespeare’s plays, there are
no clear winners or losers, villains, or
heroes.
The thread that unites the show’s four
seasons is Queen Elizabeth’s struggle
© NETFLIX © NETFLIX
30 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

to hold on to her duties as a monarch
in a time when those responsibilities
are not easy to define. For her, the survival
of the crown and its traditions are
the center around which everything in
British life revolves.
The many stories within stories that
make up the series present us with an
encyclopedic soap opera of interrelated
characters, most of them in decline.
But unlike Balzac’s “Human Comedy,”
“The Crown” is shaping up to be a
tragedy with Elizabeth as its embattled,
stoic protagonist.
Seen in the context of this larger
story arch, season four presents the
“Thatcher years” as a less tumultuous
period than one might expect. True,
Britain changed more in these 10 years
than it had in any previous decade.
The unions lost influence, the Left
dissolved, and the Right gained power.
There was massive unemployment, a
punk cultural rebellion, and a growing
distrust of long-standing institutions,
including the crown.
Yet during this time, the royals took
an uncharacteristic reflective step back
to reconsider who they had become
and where they were going. Season
four dramatizes this brief inward
turn by juxtaposing the energy of the
Thatcher “revolution” and blockbuster
royal wedding of Charles and
Diana with the sobering revelations
of the queen, Charles, and others,
all of whom must come to grips with
unpleasant facts about their family and
themselves.
For example, episode four focuses
on Elizabeth’s sudden recognition of
the troubling effects the royal lifestyle
has had upon each of her children.
Motivated by a reporter’s question as
to which one of her children is her
“favorite,” she makes an attempt to find
out by arranging personal interviews
with each one of them. In the process,
she discovers that growing up “royal”
was a lot more difficult for them than
she had imagined.
Prince Edward, we are shown,
suffered from brutal bullying in prep
school. Princess Anne still harbors
resentment for being abandoned to
nannies and tutors. And given Charles’
problems with women, the queen
concludes that her youngest, Andrew,
is indeed her “favorite.” Though they
Emma Corrin as Princess Diana and Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles.
all bear emotional burdens, the queen
believes it is too late for her to do
much about it. Sadly, she describes all
of them as “lost … each in their own
deserts.”
This capacity (or is it a strategy?) to
distance herself from other people’s
problems is again demonstrated when
an unemployed painter and interior
decorator (Michael Fagan) breaks into
Buckingham Palace.
Fagan spends the better part of the
evening complaining to the queen
about how he lost his job, apartment,
and custody of his children. Once
again, when confronted with how
badly things have turned out for the
people she rules, she politely defers
responsibility and refers the man to
palace security.
Charles experiences a similar
avalanche of challenges. Shortly after
Lord Mountbatten recommends that
he stop “fooling around” and get
married, the lord is killed in an IRA
bombing while on a family boating excursion.
His assassination is both cruel
and strangely inevitable, a manifestation
of what comes from mixing power,
prestige, and politics.
In the wake of this tragic event,
Charles proposes to Diana but continues
seeing his married girlfriend,
Camilla Parker Bowles. And although
his wedding is a public triumph, his
marriage is a private disaster.
Diana and Charles’ first world tour
is a bracing week, not unlike John F.
Kennedy’s trip to Paris with Jackie.
Crowds of admirers. Photographers
everywhere. Charles plays second
fiddle while Diana receives mass
adulation, but it is a triumph for him
nonetheless. A domestic peace is
brokered, though all parties remain
dissatisfied.
When Diana complains, the queen’s
husband, Prince Philip, explains,
“Everyone in this system is a lost, lonely,
irrelevant outsider — apart from the
one person, the only person that matters.
She’s the oxygen we all breathe,
the essence of all our duty.” He is, of
course, talking about the queen.
As an American I was never a great
admirer of the British royalty. The lives
of these ornamental sovereigns never
much interested me, until I saw them
through the eyes of this show.
Here lies the genius of “The Crown”:
In the end, we are left with characters
who beg to be understood as human
beings, ordinary people like you and
me, doing their best to do their best in
the twilight of a fading empire.
Watching their oddly lived lives and
misaligned intentions, I was struck by
how art may be the only way to truly
reveal the deeper aspects of our shared
existence: each of us caught in codes
of conduct, obligations, and contingencies
largely invisible to those not inhabiting
our skin, until a great imaginative
effort is assembled to reveal the hidden
design.
“The Crown” season four does just
that. It is a truly wonderful accomplishment.
Robert Inchausti is the author of several
books and professor of English at Cal
Poly, San Luis Obispo.
© NETFLIX
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 31

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
Why we need a woman
Thoughts on femininity
and the promise
of Our Lady of
Guadalupe
A
few weeks ago, I attempted to
make an appointment for an
intake session with a therapist.
My co-pay would be zero, I’ve never
availed myself of such help, and especially
after this past year of COV-
ID-19, wildfires, and political unrest, I
thought: Why not?
I had to speak to three people first,
repeatedly assuring them I did not
own a gun, did not intend to harm
myself or anyone else, and did not
have suicidal ideation. Each employee
was civil and also without an iota
of warmth, humanity, vitality, or sense
of humor.
Finally, I got to the person who
would directly connect me with the
available therapist. We went through
the same questions again. And then
the person on the other end asked,
“Do you identify as female?”
My being screeched to a halt. The
very question was absurd, an affront.
The sky is blue. I don’t identify the sky
as blue. I live in a world in which the
sky is blue. The essence of a created
thing is not in my hands. I don’t
change facts; I don’t have the power. I
don’t bend reality to my will. I’m not
God.
Do I identify as female? I have a
female name, voice, affect, and body.
I have the chromosomes, heart, and
psyche of a woman. If ever there were
a loaded question, “Do you identify
An icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Mary Church in Whiting, Indiana.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/LAURA IERACI, HORIZONS
32 • ANGELUS • December 11-18, 2020

as female?” must be in the first tier. I
almost screamed, “I am female. I’m a
woman. I’m 100 percent a woman.”
Male and female are archetypes,
hard-wired deep into the human
brain, body, and consciousness.
Would anyone want Christ, nailed
to the cross, to be a woman? Would
anyone want the Virgin of Guadalupe,
appearing to the peasant Juan
Diego on four occasions on the hill of
Tepeyac in present-day Mexico City
in 1531, to be a man?
No — for the Empress of the Americas,
we need a woman. Not to round
out an affirmative action quota, but
because Our Lady is Queen of Heaven
and Earth. Because the Blessed
Virgin fulfills our desperate hunger
for the unconditional, guiding-light
love of a mother: a breast upon which
to rest, a comforting word, a restraining
hand.
Mary is the one who sees through
to our souls, to whom we can come
with our troubles, who forever stands
with us — steadfast, “pondering these
things in her heart” — at the foot of
the cross.
Besides, what would life be without
an occasional tilma full of winter
roses? Without courtly love? Without
poetry?
What woman on earth would not
want to stand in solidarity with Our
Lady of Guadalupe, with her mysterious
eyes, her star-studded turquoise
mantle, her background circlet of
golden rays from the sun?
Who can fail to be moved by the
fact that the world’s most cutting-edge
scientists have failed to “decode” the
miracle that occurred on Tepeyac
Hill? The tilma — the cloak of Juan
Diego’s upon which the image of Our
Lady mysteriously imprinted — for
example, was apparently woven from
agave fibers.
“All the cloths similar to the tilma
that have been placed in the salty and
humid environment around the basilica
have lasted no more than 10 years,”
notes researcher and physicist Dr.
Aldofo Orozco. That the fabric has
not deteriorated in almost 500 years
“is completely beyond any scientific
explanation.”
Fittingly, in Juan Diego’s vision,
the virgin was heavy with child. She
is the symbol of fecundity, long-suffering,
beauty, compassion. Woman:
protectress of the poor, sanctuary for
the downtrodden, seat of new life.
“Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.”
It’s no accident that Our Lady’s feast
day comes on Dec. 12, just two weeks
before Christmas. This year, it seems
parish Guadalupe celebrations will be
outdoors, circumstances permitting.
But if you’re not willing or able to
leave home, here’s another possibility.
The Latino Theater Company of
the Los Angeles Theater Center will
stream an archival video of “La Virgen
de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin”: its
signature holiday pageant, which has
taken place annually since 2002 at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
(the cathedral will be livestreaming its
annual novena, procession, and Mass
due to COVID-19 restrictions).
Opera singer Suzanna Guzman
plays the part of the virgin. More than
100 actors, singers, indigenous Aztec
dancers, singers, and seniors from the
community round out the cast.
The pageant has been adapted for
the stage by Evelina Fernández from
the mid-16th-century text “The Nican
Mopohua.” It’s performed in English
with Spanish subtitles. It streams at
thelatc.org/lavirgen from Friday, Dec.
11 at 7 p.m. PST and 10 p.m. EST,
straight though until Sunday, Dec. 20
at 11:59 p.m. PST. And it’s free.
“¿No estoy yo aquí que soy tu
madre?” (“Am I not here, I who am
your mother?”), the Virgin Mary is
said to have asked Juan Diego.
So deeply have the words gripped the
human heart that they are inscribed
over the main entrance of the Basilica
of Guadalupe, the most visited Catholic
pilgrimage site in the world.
Do I identify as female? I am female.
One thousand percent.
Heather King is an award-winning author, speaker, and workshop leader. For more,
visit heather-king.com.
December 11-18, 2020 • ANGELUS • 33
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