Angelus News | July 30, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 15

ANGELUS
The fight for
FAMILY
July 30, 2021 Vol. 6 No. 15

July 30, 2021
Vol. 6 • No. 15
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ON THE COVER
JACOB POPCAK
The year is 2021. “G” and “PG” movies from big-name
studios are harder to find, and finding a definition of what
makes a “family film” these days is even harder. As the list
of viewing options that parents can enjoy with their children
shrink, a new domestic dilemma is emerging. On Page
10, Angelus culture writer Sophia Martinson hears from
Catholic parents and entertainment insiders with different
ideas on how to win the “fight for family movie night.”
THIS PAGE
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Faithful enter St. Vincent de Paul Church in Exposition
Park with candles at the start of Mass
the morning of Sunday, July 11, after an all-night
vigil on the front steps of the church celebrating
the reopening of its doors amid the COVID-19
pandemic. Auxiliary Bishop Edward Clark of the
Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region was one
of the concelebrants at the Mass.

CONTENTS
Pope Watch............................................... 2
Archbishop Gomez................................. 3
World, Nation, and Local News...... 4-6
In Other Words........................................ 7
Father Rolheiser....................................... 8
Scott Hahn.............................................. 32
Events Calendar..................................... 33
16
18
20
22
26
28
30
How LA Unified kept millions in federal funds from Catholic schools
Full list: 2021 pastoral assignments for the Archdiocese of LA
John Allen: Can the pope still be the pope in a hospital?
Mike Aquilina on the Catholic Church’s most dangerous invention
Grazie Christie: Our Lady and Cuba’s new song of hope
A tribute to longtime Tidings institution Hermine Lees
Heather King on the beauty of running through Skid Row
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
A stay among the sick
Pope Francis is back at the Vatican
after spending more than a week recovering
from colon surgery at Rome’s
Gemelli Hospital.
The pope was admitted to the hospital
on July 4 to undergo “a scheduled
surgical intervention for a symptomatic
diverticular stenosis of the colon,”
according to a statement from the
Vatican.
He underwent a three-hour left
hemicolectomy, which is the removal
of the descending part of the colon,
a surgery that can be recommended
to treat diverticulitis, when bulging
pouches in the lining of the intestine
or colon become inflamed or infected.
Catholics around the world wasted
no time in offering their prayers and
well-wishes as soon as the Vatican
announced Pope Francis’ hospitalization.
Los Angeles’ own Archbishop
José H. Gomez, president of the
United States Catholic Conference of
Bishops, expressed gratitude for news
of the pope’s successful surgery.
“Even as he is recuperating in the
hospital, our Holy Father, in his role
as our shepherd has selflessly expressed
his closeness to those who are
sick and in most need of care,” he said
in a July 9 statement.
A week later on July 11, Pope Francis
emerged onto the 10th-floor balcony
of his hospital suite to pray the Sunday
Angelus. He said his recovery time
had given him the opportunity to experience,
“once again, how important
good health care is,” and stressed the
need for free, universal health care,
especially for the most vulnerable,
calling it “a precious benefit (that)
must not be lost.”
Before praying the Angelus with the
crowds below, the pope thanked his
doctors, nurses, and the staff at Gemelli
Hospital. He asked the faithful
to pray for Gemelli’s other patients, especially
the children, several of whom
joined him on the balcony.
“Why children suffer is a question
that touches the heart,” the pope said.
“Accompany them with prayer and
pray for all those who are sick. May no
one be left alone.”
His prayers for the sick children in
Gemelli Hospital were returned. The
hospital released photos of a card
from one of the oncology patients,
with a drawing of Pope Francis and a
message inside: “Dear Pope Francis,
we heard you are not so well and that
you are in our hospital now. Even if
we cannot see each other, we send
you a big hug and hope you will heal
quickly.”
The pope was initially expected to
remain in the hospital for seven days,
but ended up staying for 10 in order to
“optimize his medical and rehabilitation
therapy.”
The evening before his release, Pope
Francis visited young patients, their
families, and staff at Gemelli’s pediatric
oncology ward.
On his way home to the Vatican July
14, the pope made a surprise stop at
a place he traditionally visits before
and after papal trips: the Basilica of St.
Mary Major, where he said a prayer of
gratitude before the icon of “Salus Populi
Romani” (“Health of the Roman
people”). He thanked Mary “for the
success of his surgery, and offered a
prayer for all the sick, especially those
he had met during his hospital stay,”
the Vatican’s statement said.
Reporting courtesy of Catholic News
Service.
Papal Prayer Intention for August: Let us pray for the
Church, that she may receive from the Holy Spirit the grace
and strength to reform herself in the light of the Gospel.
2 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
From Sunday to Sunday
I
hope you are enjoying these summer
days.
For many, summer is a time when
school is out and work slows down a little;
opportunities open up for recreation,
relaxation, vacation.
This is so important because the pace
of daily life in America has become one
of nonstop activity. More people’s days
are spent working longer hours, even
nights and weekends.
Our technology, which is meant to
be “labor-saving,” seems to encourage
only more labor, breaking down the
once-clear lines between work and
home. With smartphones, many of us
now carry our “offices” around in our
pockets, so we are always “on call,” checking
emails, sending text messages.
Even personal entertainment these
days often takes the form of a restless
scrolling from screen to screen, people
always on the lookout for something
new to share or react to.
I was reading recently about how
families are realizing that their childrens’
lives are now so tightly scheduled
— constantly running between lessons,
sports, and all sorts of “enrichment”
activities — that kids are more stressed
and no longer know how to be alone or
what to do with “downtime.”
We all need to take a pause.
I have long been concerned that our
lives are getting so crowded, so “noisy”
with distractions, that we are losing our
desire and even our ability for recollection
and contemplation, for just being
still and silent in the presence of God.
I have been reflecting a lot on this,
and I will share more in the weeks and
months to come. Here I want to suggest
simply that it is time for us to rediscover
a “Sabbath mindset.”
Most people today probably do not
remember there was once a day of rest
built in to our hectic weeks. For most
of American history, in fact, offices and
shops were closed on Sundays, and
only essential work was permitted.
That practice was rooted in the
biblical command to remember the
Sabbath day and to keep it holy, a
practice still upheld by many Jews and
Christians, but generally forgotten in
our secular world.
The Sabbath reminds us that in God’s
plan for creation, there is meant to be
a natural rhythm of labor and leisure; a
time to work and a time to rest; a time
for conversation and activity; and a time
for silence and prayer.
We are not created to give our lives
to work. We are created to give our
lives to God and to our loved ones and
neighbors. A Sabbath mindset can help
us to keep our balance and perspective.
In a workaholic culture, it is an act
of spiritual resistance to unplug from
screens and devices, to step back for
a little while from the pressures to
produce.
Keeping the Lord’s Day holy means
saying no to the “lordship” of the
consumer economy, to the logic that
working more and having more makes
us more — more secure, more fulfilled,
happier. It does not.
The Sabbath is “a day of protest
against the servitude of work and the
worship of money,” as the Catechism
says.
As Catholics, Sunday should be the
first day of the week for us, not the last
day of a weekend.
The Scriptures tell us that on the first
day of the week, the Lord rose from
the dead. On that Sunday morning,
life overcame death. And from that
moment on, our human lives were
given new possibilities — for holiness,
for eternity, for sharing in the divine
nature.
Easter comes now every Sunday and
we have the same privilege as the first
disciples — to eat and drink at the table
with the risen Lord, to hear his word
burning in our hearts and have our eyes
opened to know him in the breaking of
the bread.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who
labor and are burdened, and I will give
you rest.”
We have a duty to worship God —
the command to serve God and the
command to keep the Sabbath belong
together. But more than an obligation,
We are not created to give our lives to work.
We are created to give our lives to God and
to our loved ones and neighbors.
worshiping God on the Lord’s Day is a
way to find ourselves again, to discover
who we are made to be.
Coming to Jesus in the eucharistic
celebration on Sunday, resting in him,
we reclaim our true humanity, as creatures
of body and soul, children of God
whose lives, work, and relationships
find their meaning in serving him.
The early Christian father, Origen,
said that we should be “always in
the Lord’s Day … always celebrating
Sunday.”
Let us make that our intention, to live
from Sunday to Sunday, living every
day as the day the Lord made.
Pray for me this week, and I will pray
for you. And may our Blessed Mother
Mary go with us and help us to make
every day the Lord’s Day.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel, center, walks with others in San Antonio de los
Banos, Cuba, on July 11. | CNS/ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI, REUTERS
■ Pope reimposes
restrictions on Latin Mass
Pope Francis announced new restrictions
on the celebration of the traditional
Latin Mass, effectively reversing
his predecessor’s liberalization of the
pre-Vatican II form of worship.
Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic
letter “Summorum Pontificum” (“Supreme
Pontiffs”) had granted priests
permission to celebrate the Latin Mass
in public without permission from
their local bishop.
But the new rules outlined in the July
16 motu proprio “Traditionis custodes”
(“Guardians of the tradition”) bans the
celebration of the Latin Mass in parish
churches and requires bishops to
regulate the locations and times where
it takes place — if they allow it to take
place in their diocese at all.
In a note accompanying the motu
proprio, the pope cited “the distorted
use that has been made of” the wider
permissions granted by Pope Benedict
as a reason for the reversal. Pope
Francis said the rules are intended to
be used as a transition to a single form
of the liturgy for the Roman rite.
As of press time, several U.S. bishops
had announced that priests could continue
to celebrate the Latin Mass in the
interim while they took time to study
the new guidelines.
■ Dante’s writing
gets nun critique
■ Bishops hope for ‘favorable
solution’ amid Cuba protests
The Catholic bishops of Cuba said that anti-government
protesters have “the right to express their needs and hopes”
amid food shortages, a lack of medicine, and steep price
increases.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded to the
protests with internet blackouts and arrests, with more than
100 people detained and at least one person killed. U.S politicians
have called for direct aid, military and technological
intervention, and the dissolution of the decades-old embargo
on the country.
“A favorable solution will not be reached by impositions,
nor by calling for confrontation, but when mutual listening
is exercised, common agreements are sought, and concrete
tangible steps are taken to contribute, with the contribution
of all Cubans without exclusion, to build the homeland
‘with everyone and for the good of all,’ ” Cuba’s bishops said
in a July 12 statement.
Not even Dante Alighieri, author of the “Divine
Comedy,” can avoid a nun’s critique of his handwriting.
Sister Julia Bolton Holloway, a British researcher
turned hermit turned Catholic nun, discovered
handwritten manuscripts from Italy’s national poet
hidden in two Italian libraries — the first sample
of his handwriting seen in centuries.
“The handwriting [in the newly found manuscript]
is schoolboy-like in the early manuscripts,
but the writing is in excellent Tuscan,” Sister
Bolton Holloway said.
A page from a manuscript thought to
The manuscripts, which date from the late 13th be written by Dante. | BIBLIOTECA
century, featured early versions of ideas later captured
in the “Divine Comedy,” including a sketch
MEDICEA LAURENZANA
of a square imposed in a circle, which Dante used as a depiction of God.
■ Japan: Olympians not welcome in church
Visiting Olympic athletes to Tokyo have been asked to avoid attending local
churches during the games, as part of an effort to reduce COVID-19 infections
in the country.
Tokyo is under a state of emergency due to the pandemic, with some 2,000
people hospitalized and the government banning all spectators from viewing
the games in person. A dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation is still in
place in the archdiocese.
While churches in Tokyo remain open to the public with capacity restrictions,
the archdiocese has scrapped special plans to minister to visiting Olympians and
Paralympians.
“Let us keep in mind that it is an important duty for us to protect not only our
own lives but also to protect all those who have received God’s gift of life,” Archbishop
Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi said.
4 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

NATION
Winston Marshall of Mumford and Sons in 2016. |
SHUTTERSTOCK
■ Rocker leaves the band after Holy Hour
Winston Marshall, member of the folk-rock band Mumford and Sons, announced
he was leaving the band last month following public criticism of his
praise for a book by Andy Ngo purporting to expose the violence of Antifa.
Marshall said that his leaving is an act of protecting conscience and his bandmates.
In a June 24 essay, Marshall said, “For me to speak about what I’ve learnt
to be such a controversial issue will inevitably bring my bandmates more trouble,”
he wrote. “My love, loyalty, and accountability to them cannot permit that.”
In a July 2 interview with Bari Weiss, Marshall explained the role his Catholic
faith played in the decision process.
“My faith has played a big part in this period of my life, and actually the week
before making the final decision, I was pretty much planted in my local Catholic
church around the corner from the house,” Marshall said.
■ Catholic concern over composted remains
Following the legalization of composting deceased bodies as a valid burial method
in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, Catholic bishops are warning that the
method does not provide proper respect for the dead.
The procedure was introduced by Seattle-based company Recompose and breaks
down a human body into soil in about 30 days. The company claims the process is
more sustainable than cremation and provides the soil to families for use to honor
their loved ones.
In California and New York, lawmakers are looking to introduce their own legislation
to allow for composting funerals.
In a statement earlier this year, the bishops of New York warned that many New
Yorkers would be “uncomfortable at best with this proposed composting/fertilizing
method, which is more appropriate for vegetable trimmings and eggshells than for
human bodies.”
Keeping vigil — People in Surfside, Florida, pray on July 4 as the rest of the Champlain Towers South condo
building was demolished ahead of the possible arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa. The section brought down was
damaged but had remained standing after the partial collapse of the residential building June 24. | CNS/SHAN-
NON STAPLETON, REUTERS
■ Farewell to the
Hyde Amendment?
The U.S. House Appropriations
Committee took the first step toward
removing the Hyde Ammendment,
which prohibits federal funding of
abortions, from the federal budget.
The committee passed an appropriations
bill July 15 following an
attempt to include the Hyde Amendment,
which was struck down in a
27-32 vote. The bill also requires
family planning clinics that receive
Title X federal funding to provide
abortion counseling, make referrals
for abortions, and remove conscience
protections for health care workers.
In a joint statement, New York
Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Kansas
City Archbishop Joseph Naumann
called the legislation “the most
extreme pro-abortion appropriations
bill that we have seen, effectively
mandating health-care professionals
to participate in abortion, and forcing
American citizens to pay for abortion
with their tax dollars.”
The cardinal is chairman of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’
Committee for Religious Liberty,
and Archbishop Naumann is chairman
of the Committee on Pro-Life
Activities.
“Eliminating Hyde is an extreme
measure, is not what most Americans
want and is out of step with our
democracy,” added Patrick Kelly,
Supreme Knight of the Knights of
Columbus, in response to the news.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
■ LA County churches to ‘mask up’ again
Masks will once again be required at indoor Masses in some, but not all, churches
in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health announced masks would be
required for all indoor gatherings regardless of vaccination status starting July 18
due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, many related to the newer Delta strain of
the virus.
California had dropped its mask mandate for vaccinated individuals on June 15,
and lifted almost all restrictions on businesses and public places.
It is unclear how long the new mandate, which does not include any capacity
restrictions, will last. Churches in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, which
are also comprised by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, are not affected by the
announcement.
Raising the roof — Repairs at San Gabriel Mission are continuing as scheduled after last year’s arson attack.
Construction crews are nearly finished with the new roof, which includes fire-retardant sheeting and pitched
wooden shingles. Once work on the roof is completed, cleaning and repairs can begin inside. The mission
estimates all work will be done by Sept. 11, the start of its Jubilee Year. | COURTESY SAN GABRIEL MISSION
■ Farewell to San Diego’s ‘hustler for Christ’
San Diego is mourning the passing of the city’s most recognizable Catholic.
Msgr. Joseph Carroll — or “Father Joe,” as he was better known — was the
president emeritus and namesake of San Diego’s largest homeless services provider,
Father Joe’s Villages. After years of declining health, Msgr. Carroll died
July 11 at the age of 80.
In 1982, Msgr. Carroll was appointed to oversee San Diego’s St. Vincent de
Paul Center. Under his watch, the center grew into the present-day Father Joe’s
Villages, which has a four-block comprehensive campus near downtown San
Diego and programs across the county that house about 2,000 nightly.
Last year, the organization served nearly 12,000 homeless individuals, and has
served more than 60,000 people in the last decade, according to The Southern
Cross, the newspaper of the Diocese of San Diego.
The priest’s enterprising spirit earned him the label of a “hustler for Christ,”
even to the point that in a 1984 television commercial for Father Joe’s Villages’
vehicle donation program, Msgr. Carroll’s opening line was “Hi, I’m Father Joe.
I’m a hustler.”
■ Hannon Foundation
grants benefit Catholic
schools, nonprofits
Notre Dame High School and Loyola
Marymount University (LMU) are
among the recipients of new grants
announced by the William H. Hannon
Foundation totalling $250,000.
The grants will fund scholarships and
tuition assistance for students in need,
the foundation announced. Others
receiving grants include the University
Catholic Center at UCLA, the
Catholic Education Foundation of Los
Angeles, and Flintridge Sacred Heart
Academy.
The foundation was founded in 1983
by William H. Hannon, who attended
LMU on a handshake agreement to
pay back his tuition after graduation,
when his mother could not afford the
school during the Great Depression.
“My late uncle believed that the greatest
gift we could give our young people
is a Catholic education,” said Kathleen
Hannon Aikenhead, president of the
foundation.
Along with the schools, Catholic
nonprofit organizations, including
Covenant House California, Good
Shepherd Shelter and Center, and the
St. Francis Center, received funds to
continue their community service for
homeless youth and families in Los
Angeles.
“Father Joe” Carroll. | THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Y
6 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
Room for disagreement
The judgmental view expressed in the letter “The choice for
pro-abortion Catholic politicians” in the July 16 issue that “nobody
who embraces the Democratic Party can be a Catholic” seems oblivious to the
fact that neither of our major political parties fully aligns with Catholic social
teaching.
Even the bishops’ conference, while highlighting the “pre-eminence” of
abortion, has reminded us that “Catholics often face difficult choices about how
to vote” and for grave reasons may at times “reasonably decide” to support a
candidate in spite of a morally unacceptable position.
In making such decisions, one “should take into account a candidate’s commitments,
character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue” (cf. Nos.
34, 35, 37, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, NCCB, 2020).
In the end, we should be able to agree on basic moral truths, but there is room
for conscientious disagreement about how best to promote them in civil society.
— Father Robert Caro, SJ, Loyola Marymount University
Where do the bishops’ concerns lie?
I am distressed by the use of deliberately inflammatory language in the article
“Teachers or policymakers?” in the July 16 issue. There are no pro-abortion
politicians or any others. If the bishops are so concerned with pro-life concerns,
where was their outrage with the federal death penalty and the 13 individuals
who were executed at the end of the Trump administration?
It would seem to me that the bishops are more concerned with politics than
teaching.
— Sheila Anderson, Redondo Beach
Y
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may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity.
Doors open in Exposition Park
Parishioners gather on the steps of St.
Vincent de Paul Church in Exposition
Park at the conclusion of the parish’s
all-night reopening celebration July 11.
| DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
“Do not forget this: Save
free institutions.”
~ Pope Francis on Catholic-run hospitals that are
threatened with closures due to a lack of funds.
“Then I thought, ‘No, you
know what? Everything
happens for a reason. I just
have to trust God on this
one and that he’s looking
out for me.’ ”
~ U.S. Olympic Team gymnast Grace McCallum on
breaking her left hand earlier this year. McCallum
made a full recovery and is headed to the Tokyo
Olympics.
“We pray that Our Lady
of Charity, our mother,
watches over her children
in Cuba, and that, together,
our countries can grow in
friendship in the interests of
justice and peace.”
~ July 19 statement of the U.S. bishops in response
to recent protests against Cuba’s communist
dictatorship.
“The freedom to associate
with others of like mind is
indispensable to freedom.”
~ Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief
counsel for First Liberty Institute. The U.S. Supreme
Court recently ruled that California violated the First
Amendment by requiring charitable organizations to
disclose donors’ names and addresses.
View more photos
from this gallery at
AngelusNews.com/photos-videos
Do you have photos or a story from your
parish that you’d like to share? Please
send to editorial @angelusnews.com.
“It’s not about a provider’s
preference, it’s about a
provider’s religious belief.”
~ Rep. Andy Harris, an obstetric anesthesiologist
by trade, at a July 15 hearing after the House
Appropriations Committee advanced a funding bill
for 2022 without the Hyde Amendment.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronaldrolheiser.com.
Grieving death
Most of us are familiar with the
story of “Zorba the Greek,”
either through Nikos Kazantzakis’
famous book or through the
movie. Well, Zorba was not a fictional
character. He was a real person, Alexis
Zorba, who had such a larger-than-life
personality and energy that when he
died, Kazantzakis found his death very
difficult to accept, incredulous that
such energy, verve, and color were
mortal.
On learning of Zorba’s death, this
was Kazantzakis’ reaction: “I closed
my eyes and felt tears rolling slowly,
warmly down my cheeks. He’s dead,
dead, dead. Zorba is gone, gone
forever. The laughter is dead, the song
cut off, the santir broken, the dance
on the seaside pebbles has halted, the
insatiable mouth that questioned with
such incurable thirst is filled now with
clay. … Such souls should not die.
Will earth, water, fire, and chance ever
be able to fashion a Zorba again? …
It was as though I believed him to be
immortal.”
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that a
certain person can die because of the
life and energy that he or she incarnated.
We simply cannot imagine that
life-pulse dead, stilled, forever gone
from this planet. Certain people seem
exempt from death because we cannot
imagine such energy, color, generosity,
and goodness dying. How can such
wonderful energy just die?
I have felt that many times in my life;
this past January, when two former
colleagues, both specially spirited,
colorful, witty, and generous men,
died. Kazantzakis came to mind, and
his struggle to accept Zorba’s death,
along with the way he tried to deal with
that death. He decided he would try to
“resurrect” Zorba, bring him back to
life, by taking his story to the world in
such a way so as to transform his life
into a myth, a dance, and a religion.
Kazantzakis believed this is what
Mary Magdala did in the wake of Jesus’
death, when she left his tomb and
went back to the world. She resurrected
Jesus by telling his story, creating a
myth, a dance, and a religion.
So, in the wake of Zorba’s death,
Kazantzakis said to himself: “Let us
give him our blood so that he can be
brought back to life, let us do what we
can to make this extraordinary eater,
drinker, workhorse, woman-chaser,
and vagabond live a little longer —
this dancer and warrior, the broadest
soul, surest body, freest cry I ever knew
in my life.”
Bless his effort! It made for a great
story, a gripping myth, but it never
made for a religion or an eternal
dance because that’s not what Mary
Magdala did with Jesus. Nonetheless,
there’s still something to be learned
here about how to deal with a death
that seemingly takes some oxygen out
of the planet. We must not let that
wonderful energy disappear, but keep
it alive. However, as Christians, we do
this in a different way.
We read the Mary Magdala story
quite differently. Mary went to Jesus’
tomb, found it empty, and went away
crying; but before she got to tell anyone
any story, she met a resurrected
Jesus who shared with her how his
energy, color, love, and person would
now be found, namely, in a radically
new modality, inside his spirit. That
contains the secret of how we are to
give life to our loved ones after they
have died.
How do we keep our loved ones and
the wonderful energy they brought to
the planet alive after they have died?
First, by recognizing that their energy
doesn’t die with their bodies, that it
doesn’t depart the planet.
Their energy remains, alive, still with
us, but now inside us, through the spirit
they leave behind (just as Jesus left
his spirit behind). Further still, their
energy infuses us whenever we enter
into their “Galilee,” namely, into those
places where their spirits thrived and
breathed out generative oxygen.
What’s meant by that? What’s someone’s
“Galilee”? A person’s “Galilee”
is that special energy, that special
oxygen, which he or she breathes
out. For Zorba, it was his fearlessness
and zest for life; for my dad, it was
his moral stubbornness; for my mom,
it was her generosity. In that energy,
they breathed out something of God.
Whenever we go to those places where
their spirits breathed out God’s life,
we breathe in again their oxygen, their
dance, their life.
Like all of you, I have sometimes
been stunned, saddened, and incredulous
at the death of a certain person.
How could that special energy just
die? Sometimes that special energy
was manifest in physical beauty,
human grace, fearlessness, zest, color,
moral steadiness, compassion, graciousness,
warmth, wit, or humor. It
can be hard to accept that beauty and
life-giving oxygen can seemingly leave
the planet.
In the end, nothing is lost. Sometime,
in God’s time, at the right time,
the stone will roll back and like Mary
Magdala walking away from the grave,
we will know that we can breathe
in that wonderful energy again in
“Galilee.”
8 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

The fight for
FAMILY
As major studios embrace themes at odds with Christian and traditional
family values, parents have some tough choices to make.
BY SOPHIA MARTINSON
SHUTTERSTOCK
The idea of a family movie night
involves a host of fun rituals:
popping the popcorn, gathering
blankets and pillows in the living
room, and dimming the lights to create
the perfect movie theater setting.
But for many families, the most important
step is often the hardest one:
finding the right movie.
“Friday movie nights can be challenging!”
said Melissa Brady, a mom
of seven from Los Angeles County.
“We have such a wide range of ages
and tastes that sometimes we find
ourselves searching for what to watch
so long that all the popcorn and candy
is gone before the movie even starts.”
But more and more, the domestic
dilemma is becoming more than just
a simple matter of differing tastes.
LA-area mom Emily Goodwin has
six children, ages 1 through 12. For
her, the bigger challenge is finding
a film her brood will enjoy without
being scandalized. During one recent
family movie night, a scene in the
film made reference to men not being
faithful to their wives.
“My littlest kids, of course, had no
idea what they were talking about, but
we did have to talk about it with the
big kids,” recalled Goodwin.
And as Brady pointed out, infidelity
is just one in a growing list of troubling
themes working their way into
popular kids’ media.
“There are many shows now which
portray gender confusion as normal,”
she noted. When it comes to animated
films, an entire Wikipedia page
demonstrates the increasing popularity
of this trend, which clashes with
many families’ moral beliefs.
Goodwin’s and Brady’s experiences
are hardly isolated ones. For many
parents, finding a “good” family
film is like looking for a needle in a
haystack.
“I often find that the whole show is
wonderful,” said Megan Harrington,
a mom and senior producer at LAbased
Family Theater Productions,
“and then there’s that one moment
that I feel I don’t want my nieces and
nephews [seeing that], or I don’t feel
comfortable watching that with my
mom.”
Amid the constant battle of managing
media at home, the question
arises: Is family movie night even
worth it?
Longtime Catholic movie critic
Stephen Greydanus described two options
for parents. “You can either opt
out of popular culture entirely, or you
can try to make the best choices that
10 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

ERSTOCK
you can and have conversations with
your children about the elements in
these … movies, with the understanding
that they’re going to be encountering
the same mindset and the same
worldview in life.”
Both options present challenges.
And as more parents feel that good
family films are increasingly hard to
find, Greydanus and others in the film
industry face the challenge of convincing
them not to pull the plug —
and to see family movie night as both
possible and worthwhile.
is the dominance of the Walt Disney
Company over much of the industry.
Now the owner of Pixar Animation
Studios, 20th Century Studios, Lucasfilm
Studios, and Marvel Studios, Disney
has shrunk
the space for
Father David Guffey,
CSC, national director
of Family Theater
Productions, encourages
families to support films
they like by seeing them
in theaters. | FAMILY
THEATER PRODUCTIONS
creative competition,
according to
Greydanus. “Disney
is the mouse
that swallowed
Hollywood,” he
said.
Another explanation
for the
decline in family-film
quality is
that the term “family film” is so hard
to define. Father David Guffey, CSC,
national director of Family Theater
Productions, has found that besides
the diversity among family cultures
and backgrounds, few families watch
films all together.
“When you say ‘family content,’ you
really have to ask what people mean
by that,” he told Angelus. “I’ve had
people tell me that a hard PG-13 movie
was family [content]. And I think,
‘Well, not if your family has got 5- and
6-year-olds in it!’ It really depends on
your perspective.”
Because of its vagueness, said Father
Guffey, the “family film” can become
a catchall marketing label for studios
to draw a bigger audience, even if it
ends up offending some.
Father Guffey and his filmmaking
colleagues tend to direct their projects
toward more specific groups within
families: small kids, teenagers, moms,
or dads. And in many ways, that
fracturing of the family film category
makes sense. Different age groups
and maturity levels will find different
content appealing.
At the same time, Hollywood
provides precious few options that
would even be appropriate, let alone
enjoyable, for the whole family.
Most studios have all but abandoned
G-rated, “general audience” films,
and even PG movies are falling to
the wayside in favor of edgier PG-13
content. A recent Wall Street Journal
article reported that between 2010
and 2019, PG-13 movies grossed more
than twice as much as PG movies, at
$54.6 billion.
While the trend might appeal to
older audiences and yield studios a
higher profit (after all, most children
don’t pay for their own movie tickets
or streaming subscriptions), it also
narrows the range of choices for a
stress-free family movie night.
Even for parents who don’t mind
moments of adult language or violence,
they still have something to be
“The opposite of the golden age”
Looking back on his own experience
raising children, Greydanus described
the movie backdrop of his children’s
upbringing as
a “golden age,”
studded with the
early Pixar films,
which spurred
other studios like
DreamWorks to
produce other
great films.
But since then,
things seem to
have gone downhill.
“Over the past decade or so, Pixar
has declined markedly in quality,
Melissa and Colin Brady
with their seven children.
For the Bradys, who live
in LA County, finding
entertaining yet wholesome
family films can be a challenge.
| MELISSA BRADY
and the other studios. … It’s been the
opposite of that golden age,” he said.
“Hollywood animation in general has
collapsed creatively.”
Part of the problem, he continued,
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 11

A scene from “The Mitchells vs. the Machines.” | © SPAI VIA IMDB
wary of in even the most apparently
kid-friendly films: confusing messages
about sexuality and marriage.
“There’s no question that the world
in which we live — and this is not
just entertainment — is increasingly
out of step with traditional Christian
and Catholic sexual morality,” said
Greydanus, “and that situation is only
going to become more pronounced in
the years ahead.”
It’s not difficult to find examples.
The recent Netflix hit “The Mitchells
vs. the Machines,” an animated family
adventure film, includes a post-credit
sequence in which one protagonist
and her mother mention her new
girlfriend. The brief, easy-to-miss
moment did not prevent Greydanus
from giving the film a glowing review,
but he noted that this theme will only
grow more prevalent.
“Disney, and the people catering
to the same audience as Disney, are
looking to make waves,” he said.
“They’re looking to feel good about
being socially progressive and socially
responsible from their point of view.
They want to go home at the end of
the day and feel like they’ve made a
positive difference in the world. And
to them, this is the way of doing that.”
Greydanus disagrees with the
“culture warrior” approach, namely
signing petitions, boycotting films,
or canceling streaming subscriptions
to protest this film trend. “I don’t
think that we’re going to win hearts
and minds that way, and I don’t think
we’re going to win the culture that
way.”
But to keep family movie night alive
without losing control of what images
and ideas enter the living-room
screen, parents face no small task:
navigating the minefield of the industry.
“Custody of hearts and minds”
While the Goodwins generally limit
screen time when it comes to choosing
a family movie, intentionality
is key. “When
Megan Harrington is
a senior producer at
LA-based Family Theater
Productions. | FAMILY
THEATER PRODUCTIONS
we do watch
movies or shows,
we put thought
into what we’re
putting on for
them,” said
Goodwin. “One
of our biggest
criteria is, ‘Has it stood the test of
time?’ ”
But Goodwin and her husband also
take other measures, like researching
a family film and sometimes even
watching it themselves first before
showing it to their children.
Almost every person interviewed
for this story referred to a parental
12 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

A scene from “Spirited Away.” | © STUDIO GHIBLI VIA IMDB
guide or review site (such as ScreenIt,
Kids-in-Mind, PluggedIn, or Common
Sense Media) as another helpful
resource for vetting family films.
Several also use some sort of filtering
system, such as VidAngel, in order to
enjoy a film without, as Harrington
put it, “that one moment” that causes
a cringe.
So after vetting, filtering, and (finally)
approving a film, mom and dad
might want to collapse on the couch
and breathe a sigh of relief for finding
a safe, if passive, family activity. But
according to Greydanus, a permanent
deacon in New Jersey and the father
of seven, there’s much more opportunity
for bonding than simply enjoying
a bowl of popcorn together.
“Parents [should be] watching movies
with their children, as opposed to
just sitting them down and turning it
on and then walking away,” he said.
“It’s the way not only to introduce kids
to good movies, but also to introduce
them to how to engage a movie, how
to watch it, how to think about it.”
Brady finds that asking her children
questions about the film, rather than
lecturing them on Church teaching,
often proves more productive. For
instance, when it comes to TV shows
that have characters with “gender
confusion,” she suggested using questions
like, “How could we practice
real friendship with someone going
through a similar situation? Do you
think that God had an idea of who
you would be before he created you?
What do you think God’s idea was for
you?”
“You have to give them freedom …
while accompanying them in their
journey,” she said.
Although her children are young
now (her oldest is 12), Goodwin hopes
the choices she and her husband
make on “movie nights” will help
guide their children’s judgment later.
“We’re going to try to give them a
sense of how to choose things,” she
said. “We want them to have custody
of their hearts and minds when they
go into choosing something they want
to watch.”
Finding the right film
While filtering out problematic
films is possible, having a wider range
of wholesome options would make
parents’ media managing job much
easier. That’s what Harrington hopes
to accomplish through her film productions.
“My focus is making true, good, and
beautiful stories that a family can sit
“You can either opt out of pop culture
entirely, or you can try to make the
best choices that you can and have
conversations with your children
about the elements in these movies.”
and watch together and not have to
wonder, ‘Do I need to change the
channel?’ ” she said. “That doesn’t
mean you don’t tackle tough issues …
but the idea is content that draws you
to something inspiring and good.”
Not surprisingly, reaching that
standard is a challenge for filmmakers,
not just on a creative level but on
a financial one as well.
“There are opportunities in any
genre,” said Father Guffey, “but you
really have to know the audiences well
enough to be able to prove to distributors
that there will be an audience for
this content. And that can be difficult.
And then you need to get the funding
to create it.”
Given the obstacles and trends in
mainstream media, Harrington sympathized
with parents’ inclination to
give up on family movie night.
“Certainly in this situation, it’s so difficult
to monitor even commercials,”
she said. “But I would keep saying
that there is content out there. There
is wonderfully made, beautifully shot
and acted media that their family
should be consuming.”
Greydanus noted that parents might
need to look “off the beaten path” to
find those hidden gem films.
”There are tons of great family
entertainment choices out there flying
under the radar that a lot of parents
don’t know about,” he said. “Studio
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 13

A scene from “Black Panther.” | © WALT DISNEY PICTURES VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES
Ghibli is just wonderful. And many
parents that I talk to have never heard
of it. Cartoon Saloon, and the Irish
folklore trilogy in particular, is really
wonderful.” He also encouraged
parents to look overseas, naming titles
like “Ernest & Celestine,” “April
and the Extraordinary World” (both
French), and the Paddington films
(British-French).
Even within the mainstream,
Disney-dominant media world,
Greydanus pointed out a few bright
spots, including some Marvel films
(specifically “Dr. Strange” and “Black
Panther”) and the work of directors
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the
minds behind “The Mitchells vs. The
Machines” and Oscar-winning “Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse.”
“I’m so excited to see what they do
next,” he said.
Making voices heard
While there still seems to be plenty
of appealing film options for families
today, the future of the film industry is
showing few signs of becoming family
friendlier, and the task of “guarding”
children’s hearts without cutting them
off from mainstream culture is more
Because of its vagueness the term
“family film” can become a catchall
marketing label for studios to draw
a bigger audience, even if it ends up
offending some.
difficult.
But Father Guffey believes that
parents are not completely powerless.
One way they can have an impact, he
said, is to support good films.
“If you hear about a film for family,
and you like it, go see it in the theater
on opening weekend, or watch it in
the first week that it’s broadcast,” said
Father Guffey. “You’re basically voting
for good content.”
A second strategy, Father Guffey
continued, is to give filmmakers
feedback.
“When there is something objectionable
… write,” he said. “Write to the
studio or to the distributor — or even
better, if it’s a feature film, write to the
manager of the theater. Because that’s
where people are going to get a better
sense of what’s hitting or missing the
mark.”
Given the widening range of production
and distribution methods, from
independent companies to streaming
platforms, Father Guffey is hopeful
that more films in accordance with
family values are on the horizon. “I
really think it’s an exciting time to be
a content creator,” he said.
In Brady’s opinion, one of the surest
ways of uplifting the film industry is to
fill the ranks of content creators.
“We have to be making the best in
the industry,” she said. “We should be
making the best comedies, the best
romances, the best dramas, the best
action films. A great movie probably
has several of these themes combined.
… And what better source for all of
these things is there than family life?”
Sophia Martinson is a writer living in
New York City.
14 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

Flaws in
the system
A state investigation
has found that LA
Unified kept millions
in federal funds
intended for struggling
students from LA’s
Catholic schools.
BY ANN RODGERS
In a decision that could restore millions
of dollars to Catholic schools,
the state of California has ruled
that the Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD) violated federal law
in ways that slashed assistance for academically
struggling students in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles (ADLA).
The 58-page “investigation report,”
issued June 25 by the California Department
of Education, gives LAUSD
60 days to establish “timely and
meaningful consultation” with the
archdiocese and to rectify any errors
in calculating student need. It orders
LAUSD to “provide the agreed-upon
services to eligible archdiocesan
students beginning by the start of the
2021-2022 school year.”
The archdiocese filed a complaint
in September 2019, after LAUSD
blocked all but 17 of more than 100
previously eligible Catholic schools
from receiving federal Title I funds,
which assist underperforming students
with math, English, and counseling.
The report called LAUSD’s action
“egregious.”
In the three years prior to 2019,
LAUSD received an annual average
of around $291 million in Title I
funds and distributed between 2%
and 2.6% among private schools,
according to figures in the report. But
in 2019, when it cut the Catholic
recipients from 102 to 17, the district
had received more than $349 million
for Title 1 — an increase over earlier
years — but distributed less than 0.5%
among private schools.
The total amount shared with private
schools dropped from roughly $7.5
million to $1.7 million. Catholic
schools reported receiving about
$190,000 or 11% of the total for
private schools. The Department of
Students at St. Maria Goretti School in Long Beach
on Oct. 26, 2020, the first day of in-person classroom
instruction since the start of the pandemic.
| DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
Catholic Schools is the largest private
school system in the LA area.
Archdiocesan officials expressed surprise
at the sudden change in LAUSD
tactics after decades of what the
Church considered to be an effective
partnership between private schools
and the school district.
Paul Escala, senior director and
superintendent of Catholic schools,
described it as a “David versus Goliath”
victory for Catholic students.
The decision “affirmed and validated
what we have known for a very
long time — that the most poor and
vulnerable students we serve within
the area of the Los Angeles Unified
School District have been disenfran-
16 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

chised,” Escala told Angelus.
“There has been a very clear and —
one can only deduce by the findings
— methodical approach to find ways
and means of reducing legally entitled
resources to our children.”
Title I mandates assistance to poorly
performing students, regardless of
whether they attend public, private, or
religious schools.
Under the program, the public
district is responsible for making an
“equitable” distribution of funds to
private schools, based on “timely and
meaningful consultation.”
In 2018, a dispute erupted between
LAUSD and the archdiocese over how
to calculate which Catholic schools
qualify. The ruling upholds the archdiocese’s
claim that the school district
abruptly changed the process —
sometimes multiple times in one year
— then excluded every school whose
paperwork it deemed inadequate.
“On its face, that was unlawful,” the
report said of the LAUSD decision to
consider only 24 schools that its auditors
had personally reviewed, of which
it rejected seven.
“It was also doubly flawed, because
LAUSD had refused to consult concerning
the review results and provide
[the archdiocese] with an opportunity
to provide alternative sources of poverty
information, locate missing surveys,
provide missing grades and/or other
addresses, or otherwise to challenge or
mitigate the results.”
LAUSD also demanded $800,000
back from the archdiocese. The district
alleged that the archdiocese had
obtained overpayments by using “dirty
data,” and warned it would recover
the money “by any available means.”
In a statement provided to Angelus, a
LAUSD spokesperson said the school
district “strives to comply with all applicable
rules and regulations regarding
the provision of Title I equitable
services. Los Angeles Unified is in the
process of reviewing the investigation
report.”
Escala believes the archdiocese
would win any appeal because the
U.S. Department of Education recently
issued a similar ruling in a parallel
dispute between LAUSD and Jewish
schools in Los Angeles.
The impact on students grew worse
in 2020 when school eligibility for
federal pandemic assistance was
linked to Title I eligibility, said Nancy
Portillo, assistant superintendent of
Catholic schools. Only the 17 Catholic
schools that LAUSD had certified
for Title I received federal help to
protect staff and students under the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security or CARES Act.
“Our poorest of the poor schools
got zero dollars from CARES for the
coronavirus,” Portillo said.
When she learned of the favorable
ruling, “I cried,” Portillo said. “It’s not
even the money. It’s that what they are
doing is wrong. It’s wrong.”
The archdiocese cited an email
from a district auditor as evidence
of a deliberate district agenda to cut
funds from Catholic schools. “[T]he
Archdiocese of LA receives over 10
million dollars of Title I funds every
year, money that could otherwise
be allocated to LAUSD schools,” the
auditor stated.
In May 2018, the district had
abruptly changed the methods for
documenting Title I need, insisting
that each school submit paperwork
that had long been compiled by the
archdiocese. The report describes the
district repeatedly changing forms,
setting unattainable deadlines, then
denying aid if the paperwork was
deemed incomplete.
“One spreadsheet alone went from
six columns to seven and then to 13
columns, all in the same year,” Portillo
said in an interview.
According to the report, in 2019,
“LAUSD insisted on a hard deadline
of June 26 for [the archdiocese] to
produce in 12 days all underlying surveys
for 123 schools and over 12,000
funding-eligible students. The district
was effectively requesting a full census
(equivalent to a 100% review) of all
[archdiocesan] schools, with 12 calendar
days to comply, during a summer
break when most schools were closing
or closed.”
When the archdiocese was unable to
meet the deadline, the report said, the
school district removed all but the 17
schools from Title I, based solely on
its own review of 24 schools.
After its review concluded that
many students were not low-income,
“LAUSD essentially weaponized
the review by refusing to allow [the
archdiocese] to consult regarding the
review findings or to challenge or
correct them by, for example, providing
missing surveys, supplying missing
grades and/or addresses, or providing
alternative sources of poverty data,”
the investigation report said.
Furthermore, “LAUSD even told the
archdiocese that if it wanted copies
of the review reports it should file a
PRA request[.]” A Public Records Act
request is how any Californian can
pursue government records.
The report says that “LAUSD had an
obligation to give ADLA the requested
information. LAUSD’s hide-the-ball
approach breached both the spirit and
the letter of the duty to consult.”
The loss of Title I funds has hurt
students, Escala said. For decades,
children from neighborhoods such as
Watts and South LA relied on Title I
tutors.
In 2018 “our schools received a letter
saying that your specialist will no
longer be at your school. They will
report to collect their personal belongings,”
he said.
“It was heartbreaking. We’ve been
fighting every day to win back those
legally entitled services for the children
who went without,” he added.
It is common for public districts to
fail to distribute equitable funds to
private schools, though it is usually
because overworked administrators
in small districts simply don’t know
the law, said Ron Reynolds, executive
director of the California Association
of Private School Organizations.
He expects this ruling to serve as an
abject lesson.
“The LAUSD is the most prominent
of all the state school districts. What
transpires there between the district
and its private schools is certainly
going to be noticed throughout the
state,” he said.
Ann Rodgers is a longtime religion
reporter and freelance writer whose
awards include the William A. Reed
Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Religion News Association.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 17

2021
PASTORAL
ASSIGNMENTS
The full list of clergy changes and appointments for
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, effective July 1, 2021.
THE FOLLOWING PRIESTS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED AS PASTORS:
Msgr. Albert Bahhuth, Holy Family, South Pasadena
Fr. Juan Ochoa, Christ the King, Los Angeles
Fr. Arturo Valadez, Holy Spirit, Los Angeles
Fr. Anthony Lee, St. Agatha, Los Angeles
Fr. Luis Espinoza, St. Agnes, Los Angeles
Fr. Fidelis Omeaku, St. Anselm, South LA
Fr. Albert Van Der Woerd, St. Mark, Venice
Fr. Paul Fitzpatrick, St. Martin of Tours, Brentwood
Fr. Joseph Visperas, St. Timothy, West LA
Fr. John Love, Santa Clara, Oxnard
Fr. Marinello Saguin, Our Lady of Grace, Encino
Fr. Alden Sison, St. Euphrasia, Granada Hills
Fr. Ethan Southard, St. John Eudes, Chatsworth
Fr. Vaughn Winters, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Santa Clarita
Fr. Marco Ortiz, St. Robert Bellarmine, Burbank
Fr. Joachim Lepcha, Immaculate Conception, Monrovia
Fr. Ronald Clark, St. Dorothy, Glendora
Fr. John Collins, Ss. Felicitas and Perpetua, San Marino
Fr. Michael Gutierrez, St. Louis of France, La Puente
Fr. Paul Vigil, St. Anthony, El Segundo
Fr. Mark Strader, St. Bartholomew, Long Beach
Fr. Alidor Mikobi, St. Cyprian, Long Beach
Fr. Erasmus Soriano, St. Linus, Norwalk
Fr. Budi Wardhana, St. Lucy, Long Beach
Fr. Andrew Chung, St. Pancratius, Lakewood
Fr. Samuel Ward, St. Raymond, Downey
18 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

THE FOLLOWING PRIESTS WILL BE APPOINTED
OR REAPPOINTED ADMINISTRATORS:
Fr. Miguel Angel Acevedo, St. Paul, Los Angeles
Fr. Oscar Daniel Martinez, La Purisima Concepcion,
Lompoc
Fr. Altaire Fernandez, Queen of Angels, Lompoc
Fr. Joshua Diener, St. Anthony, Oxnard
Fr. William Ian Hagan, St. Julie Billiart, Newbury Park
Fr. Ryan Thornton, O.F.M., St. Mark University, Goleta
Fr. Egren Gomez, Holy Cross, Santa Barbara
Fr. Jeejo Vazhappily, Sch.P., St. Bridget of Sweden, Lake
Balboa
Fr. Hector William Rodriguez, Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Irwindale
Fr. Jorge Chalaco Vega, Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa,
Los Angeles
Fr. Gilbert Guzman, Sacred Heart, Altadena
Fr. Ismael Robles, St. John the Baptist, Baldwin Park
Fr. Robert Victoria, St. Luke, Temple City
Fr. Julio Domenech, San Francisco, Los Angeles
Fr. Jeffrey Baker, St. Gregory the Great, Whittier
Fr. Anthony Garcias, St. Paul of the Cross, La Mirada
Fr. Ivan Jordan, St. Anthony (Croatian) Church, Los
Angeles
Fr. Marco Cesar Riveros, S.D.B., St. Mary, Los Angeles
and Santa Isabel, Los Angeles
Fr. Alexander Sila, S.V.D., St. John the Evangelist, Los
Angeles
THE FOLLOWING PARISHES WILL BE
ENTRUSTED TO THE PASTORAL CARE
OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS:
St. Mary, Palmdale, entrusted to the Misioneros Servidores
de la Palabra (M.S.P), with Fr. John Greeley, M.S.P.,
assigned as Pastor
St. Junipero, Lancaster, entrusted to Congregation of St.
Joseph, with Fr. Claudio Iori, C.S.J., as Administrator
Our Lady of Guadalupe, El Monte, entrusted to the
Guadalupe Missionaries (M.G.), with Fr. Julio Ramos,
M.G., assigned as Pastor
Our Lady of Solitude, Los Angeles, entrusted to the
Guadalupe Missionaries (M.G.), with Fr. Marco Navarro,
M.G., assigned as Pastor
Ss. Peter and Paul, Wilmington, O.Praem, entrusted to the
Norbertine Fathers, with Fr. Claude Williams, O.Praem,
assigned as Pastor
St. Martha, Huntington Park, entrusted to the Guadalupe
Missionaries (M.G.), with Fr. Jorge Cruz Avila, M.G.,
assigned as Pastor
ASSOCIATE PASTOR TRANSFERS:
Fr. Doan Pham to St. Dorothy, Glendora
Fr. Gerald Osuagwu to Our Lady of Grace, Encino
Fr. Samuel Cuarto, M.I., to Our Lady of the Valley,
Canoga Park
Fr. Jean Tattegrain to Sacred Heart, Lancaster
Fr. Eder Tamara to Sacred Heart, Lancaster
Fr. Deusdedit Najja to St. Anthony, Oxnard
Fr. Esteban Marquez to St. Augustine, Culver City
Fr. Fufa Wakuma, M.C.C.J., to St. Catherine, Reseda
Fr. Valerian Menezes to St. Charles Borromeo, North
Hollywood
Fr. Mark Martinez to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Rowland
Heights
Fr. Armando Hernandez, M.Sp.S., to St. Frances of
Rome, Azusa
Fr. Chan Lee to St. John the Baptist, Baldwin Park
Fr. Joseph Choi to St. John Vianney, Hacienda Heights
Fr. Paul Sustayta to St. John Chrysostom, Inglewood
Fr. Danilo Guinto to St. Paschal Baylon, Thousand Oaks
Fr. Rufino Nava to St. Joseph the Worker, Winnetka
Fr. Charles Balamaze to St. Lorenzo Ruiz, Walnut
Fr. Jose Vazquez Gonzalez to St. Paul, Los Angeles
Fr. Robert McGowan to Holy Innocents, Long Beach
Fr. Martin Bustos Gonzalez, M.N.M., to St. Louis of
France, La Puente
Fr. Mario Arellano to St. John Neumann, Santa Maria
and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Guadalupe
Fr. Isaac Arrieta to St. Rose of Lima, Maywood
Fr. Roberto Raygoza Beltran to St. Frances X. Cabrini,
South LA
Fr. Cesar Juarez to St. Bridget of Sweden, Lake Balboa
Fr. Alexander Hernandez, C.Ss.R., to Our Lady of
Victory, East LA
Fr. Alejandro Cortez, M.G., to Our Lady of Solitude, East
LA
Fr. J. Martin Cisneros Carboneros, M.G., to St. Martha,
Huntington Park
Fr. Jose Enrique Hernandez Torres, M.G., to St. Martha,
Huntington Park
Fr. Efrain Villalobos, M.S.P., to St. Mary, Palmdale
Fr. Saul Roman Lopez, M.S.P., to St. Mary, Palmdale
Fr. Joseph Farias, S.D.B., to St. Mary, Los Angeles
Fr. Michael Sezzi to Our Lady of the Assumption,
Claremont
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS:
Fr. Bao Nguyen to Marriage Tribunal
Fr. James Anguiano as Vicar for Clergy
Fr. Joel Henson as Associate Vicar for Clergy
Fr. Michael Perucho to Director of Vocations
Fr. Pedro Saucedo as Associate Director of Vocations
Fr. Timothy Grumbach as Chaplain of Bishop Alemany
High School
Fr. Brian Humphrey will be studying in Rome
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 19

The remote worker in white
Francis certainly can be pope from a hospital bed. But will he want to?
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME — If anyone wonders
whether Pope Francis has been
impeded in his ability to do his
job earlier this month while recovering
from colon surgery, at one level
the answer is, “Obviously not.”
During that stretch, the pontiff, who
was released from the hospital July
14, appointed no fewer than 11 new
bishops around the world, in addition
to one relator general for an upcoming
Synod of Bishops (Cardinal Jean-
Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, a
fellow Jesuit). He’s also issued three
sensitive messages: to the Syro-Malabar
Church on its eucharistic liturgy,
the nation of Haiti after the assassination
of President Jovenel Moïse, and
the leaders of South Sudan amid a
new cycle of violence.
Granted, most of that activity is
fairly routine and the pope probably
wasn’t engaged, or even aware it was
happening, until the very end, when
he had to give his approval. (Though
one of those new bishops was appointed
in Argentina, and it’s well known
that Pope Francis gets very personally
involved indeed in those decisions.)
Pope Francis delivered an Angelus
address on Sunday and has been
filmed making the rounds of Rome’s
Gemelli Hospital, chatting amiably
with both medical staff and fellow
Pope Francis gives a rosary to Sister Carla, a member
of the medical staff at Gemelli Hospital in
Rome July 11 as he recovers following scheduled
colon surgery. Earlier the pope led the Angelus
from a balcony at the hospital.
| CNS/VATICAN MEDIA VIA REUTERS
patients. He also found time Sunday
to congratulate both his native Argentina
and his adopted home of Italy for
winning their respective continental
soccer championships.
In other words, it seems the pope is
still the pope, even from a hospital
bed.
In truth, that shouldn’t be any surprise.
St. Pope John Paul II was in and
20 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

out of Gemelli a robust 13 times over
the course of his almost 27-year papacy,
10 times as a patient and three as
a visitor, spending so much collective
time there that the Polish pope even
dubbed it “the third Vatican,” after St.
Peter’s Square and the papal summer
residence at Castel Gandolfo.
During those stays, Pope John
Paul remained very much the pope,
too. It was from the Gemelli in July
1981, for instance, that Pope John
Paul named Bishop Józef Glemp to
replace the legendary Cardinal Stefan
Wyszyński of Warsaw, who had passed
away just five days after the assassination
attempt against the Polish pope
on May 13.
There’s no real job description for
a pope, no set of minimal capacities
he must possess or activities he must
be able to perform. Even lying prone
on a hospital bed, unable to speak
and clearly unable to make executive
decisions, a pope remains the spiritual
father of the universal Church and
the successor of Peter.
What may change as a pope ages and
illness and fatigue begin to take their
toll isn’t his ability to be pope, but the
kind of pope he’s able to be.
We saw that clearly in the long,
steady deterioration of Pope John
Paul. During most of the 2000s, he
became increasingly unable to move
under his own power, to speak coherently,
or to take the barnstorming trips
that were so characteristic of the early
stages of his papacy.
Yet he remained an enormously
powerful symbol for Catholics and
the whole world, in part because he
taught the entire planet a lesson in
dying with dignity and resolve — so
much so that when Italians were
asked after his death in 2005 whether
they wanted the young Pope John
Paul or the old on the official national
stamp issued for the occasion, the old
man in white won in a landslide.
It doesn’t seem we’re at that stage of
things yet with Pope Francis, though
it is striking that the two foreign trips
he’s confirmed so far for the rest of
the year — to Hungary and Slovakia
in September, and to Scotland in November
for the Cop26 climate summit
in Glasgow — are nearby locations to
Rome and of very brief duration.
In mid-August, when Italians take
their traditional “ferragosto” holiday
(also known as Assumption Day),
Pope Francis will be exactly as old as
Pope John Paul was when he died.
That doesn’t mean a great deal, since
Pope Francis isn’t suffering from Parkinson’s
disease and he hasn’t carried
the burden of the papacy for almost
27 years.
Nevertheless, it does beckon the
thought that before long, we’re likely
to see a more physically limited Pope
Francis, one who appears in public for
lesser stretches of time, who doesn’t
travel as much and who’s more protected
when he does, and who’s not as
hands-on in the day-to-day administration
of Church affairs as he’s been to
this point.
The real question posed by Pope
Francis’ recovery this month, therefore,
isn’t
Pope John Paul II is pictured
in bed at Gemelli Hospital in
Rome days after being shot
in St. Peter’s Square May 13,
1981, by Turkish gunman
Mehmet Ali Agca. The pope’s
recovery took several months.
| CNS/L’OSSERVATORE
ROMANO
whether
he can be
pope from a
hospital bed,
or from the
confines of
his suite at the
Domus Santa
Marta while
he received
the rest an
elderly man
obviously needs. Yes, he can, as others
have before.
Instead, the question is whether Pope
Francis will want to be that kind of
pope, whether he’ll accept the steady
limitations of age as part of the package,
or whether, like Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI before him, he’ll decide
at some point he no longer has the
strength, or the will, to carry on.
As I said, we’re not there yet. But
the scenes from the Gemelli Hospital
over this past month are a reminder,
in the immortal words associated with
King Canute the Great, that “time
and the tides wait for no man,” not
even, as it happens, a pope.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 21

Bishops and priests attend Pope Francis’ celebration of Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican June 29, 2018. | PAUL HARING/CNS
The invention of clericalism
It’s a disease the Church brought upon itself.
But perhaps there’s a cure in sight.
BY MIKE AQUILINA
If you believe movies like “The Da Vinci Code,” Constantine
the Great arrived to the throne as history’s greatest
bully. He took power in A.D. 312, and (according to this
narrative) he forcefully imposed the Catholic faith on his
subjects. He closed up the pagan temples — so the story goes
— and turned their keys over to the Catholic bishops.
This story line is, unfortunately, not only a plot device in B
movies. It is believed and assumed by people in the media
and even in academia.
The problem is that there’s no truth to it.
Constantine could be a bully, yes. He had his wife and son
killed in gruesome ways because he feared they were plotting
against him.
Constantine could be a thug, as all the Roman emperors
were thugs. But he was not a religious bigot.
Though he clearly had made his personal choice for Christianity,
he repeatedly made pleas for mutual tolerance between
Christians and pagans.
In his Edict to the Eastern Provincials he wrote: “Let those
who delight in error alike with those who believe partake of
the advantages of peace. ... Let no one disturb another, let
each man hold fast to that which his soul wishes. ... What
each man has adopted as his persuasion, let him do no harm
with this to another.” Constantine condemned “violent opposition
to wicked error.”
Constantine was convinced that we could all get along —
and he was as likely to enforce mutual respect as Christian
orthodoxy.
The problems came with his successors, who were far more
willing to take sides in religious disputes. Constantine’s sons
did not hesitate to show preference in the Arian controversy.
Constantine’s nephew, Julian the Apostate, tried mightily to
restore the old, pagan religious order to the entire empire —
and he almost succeeded.
But it was Theodosius the Great, who ruled from A.D. 379,
who did the deeds for which Constantine usually gets blamed.
22 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

It was Theodosius who ended the government subsidy of
the pagan temples. It was Theodosius who enacted laws
against fortune-telling, witchcraft, and polytheism. And
it was he who put an end to the ancient Olympic games,
because they were dedicated to the gods of Greece.
The Christian bishops, for their part, welcomed every
intervention of Theodosius in religious matters. They were
tired of the long struggle for advantage. They knew, moreover,
that the old religion would likely collapse and vanish
without government subsidy. It had survived so long only
because its funding was guaranteed.
The bishops were right about this. Without help from the
imperial treasury, the traditional Greco-Roman religion soon
withered away.
And Christianity prospered — at least materially — as the
government shifted its largesse away from the old temples
and into the subsidy of the Christian Church.
The question is whether this was good for Christianity.
The question is not new. Keen observers like St. Augustine
in North Africa and St. John Chrysostom in the Middle
East noted with horror that the religious establishment had
created some unintended side effects, and these were deadly
for the spiritual life.
In the time of persecution — then almost a century in the
past — it had been a hard thing to be a Christian. To practice
the faith was a capital crime. Every believer was at risk.
But clergy and laity were in it together, and the rolls of the
martyrs bear this out.
Among the victims of the Diocletian persecution are stonecutters,
physicians, actors, soldiers, and civil servants, along
with the occasional priest, deacon, and bishop. As clergy and
laity shared equally in the hardship
and humiliation, they shared
equally in God’s glory.
Such was the dynamic in a
persecuted Church.
But a favored Church — a
funded Church — can become
something very different.
“The Emperor Theodosius
is forbidden by St. Ambrose
to enter Milan Cathedral,” by
Anthony van Dyck, 1619-1620.
| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Increasingly, religion was seen as something the clergy got
paid to do. Ordinary people might go to Mass on Sunday
and confession once a year, but that would be the extent of
their efforts.
“The tendency,” Brown explains, “was to be content with
a vicarious holiness by isolating and admiring a recognizable
caste of ‘holy’ men and women, who lived a life, the
demands of which were conceived of as so superhuman as to
be safely unrelated to one’s own life as a man of the world.”
The laity paid their tithe — and furthermore paid taxes to
the empire, which then channeled funding to the Church.
So what were they paying for if not vicarious holiness?
This first flush of clericalism was a tacit agreement eagerly
embraced by both the men in the sanctuary and the families
in the pews. That, more or less, is the arrangement the
Church settled into after Theodosius.
It wasn’t accepted by all. Augustine opposed it vehemently.
But the great crusader against this two-tiered spirituality
was John. First a deacon in Antioch and later the bishop of
Constantinople, John can hardly be cast as an anti-clerical
revolutionary. He wrote the earliest surviving treatise on the
priesthood. And he was himself an exemplary cleric, who
was not shy about using his rightful spiritual authority.
But one way he used it was by urging the laity to seize their
own authority — to take initiative in the spiritual life — to
struggle and never to settle for mediocrity. He berated his
congregations for being passive.
In one homily he called his people to a high degree of vir-
It’s at least arguable that
Theodosius — though he had the best intentions — did
something that was very bad for Christianity. He inadvertently
invented clericalism.
The new government subsidy was administered mostly by
bishops and their clergy. It changed civilization forever, as
millions of sesterces were poured into the building of hospitals
and churches. The hospital was an institution that had
never existed in the pre-Christian world. Now hospitals were
everywhere. They were fully funded, and they were usually
staffed by monks and nuns.
Times had changed for the clergy and ascetics. Once they
had been vilified by the government and shamed in their
public deaths. Now they had respect, prestige, and esteem.
They controlled the strings on a substantial purse that never
seemed to go empty.
Augustine’s modern biographer Peter Brown speaks of a
“widening gulf” between the clergy and “a passive rank and
file” — the laity.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 23

tue, and then he anticipated the objections of the men in his
audience: “You say to me, ‘Look, I’m not one of the monks. I
have a wife and children, and I support a household.’ ”
But he replied, “Why, this has been the ruin of us all! You
think that the word of the divine Scriptures concerns only
[the monks] — when you need it much more than they. For
those who dwell in the world are wounded every day, and so
have the greatest need of medicines.”
Elsewhere he lamented, “Why, it is just this that makes me
sigh — that you think that monks are the only persons properly
concerned with decency and chastity. And yet surely
Christ made his laws common to all.”
In the strongest terms, John assured his congregation that
their calling was nothing less than perfection. He said, “If
the beatitudes were spoken only to solitaries, and the secular
person cannot fulfill them, yet [Jesus] permitted marriage
anyway — then all things have perished, and Christian virtue
is boxed in.”
But that could
not be the case.
And so he continued:
“If persons
have been
hindered by their
marriage state, let
them know that
marriage is not
the hindrance,
but rather their
intentions, which
made an ill use of marriage.”
John told his hearers that their jobs and marriages were not
obstacles to holiness. Virtue was not somebody else’s job. It’s
everybody’s calling.
In a funny passage he imagines a dialogue between a pagan
and a Christian. The pagan asks earnestly, “How can I know
that God’s commands are feasible? For you were born of
Christian parents, and you’ve been brought up in this fine
religion, but you don’t do anything of the kind.”
And the Christian replies: “Look, I’ll show you others who
do — I’ll show you monks who live in the deserts.”
But, of course, the pagan is unimpressed: “Why should I
need to go to the mountains or hunt in the deserts?” Christianity
must be a weak religion, he says, if it can’t make him
holy in a city or at home.
John did not consider his dialogue to be far-fetched. In fact,
he assumed that most of the people in his congregation were
guilty of leaving holiness to the monks. He told them that
they and he together should “hang down our heads and be
ashamed.”
An indifferent disciple is not a disciple, he said. And he
quoted Jesus: “Let your light shine before men — not
mountains, and deserts, and wildernesses, and out-of-the-way
places.”
He insisted that he meant no disrespect to the solitaries and
monks in the mountains. He was, rather, bewailing those in
the cities. “I beg you,” he said, “let us introduce the discipline
they have there here also, that the cities may become
cities indeed. This will improve the pagan. This will free
him from countless offenses. And so if you would set him
free from scandal, and yourself enjoy rewards without number,
set your own life in order, and make it shine forth upon
all sides, that men may see your good works, and glorify your
Father who is in heaven.”
Repeatedly, John insisted that the same “regulations are for
all … for priests, and monks, and … men of secular occupations.”
The call to holiness goes out not to “the monks only … but
every believer … [every] lay person.” Why? Because, he said,
it is baptism that “renders a man a brother, and the partaking
of the divine mysteries.”
It is baptism that makes saints, not holy orders, and not
solemn vows. It is baptism that makes equals of clergy and
laity, though equals with very distinct roles.
In the time of persecution this had been clear to everyone.
The Church was everybody’s business.
In the time of
establishment,
As the Catholic Church prospered materially,
the Roman government shifted its
largesse away from the old temples and
into the subsidy of the Church. But was
this good for Christianity?
however, it was
increasingly
otherwise.
Religion was like
entertainment
— something to
be vicariously
enjoyed, from a
distance. Or it
was like sewer
service — something
that citizens paid other people to maintain.
Laypeople might take pride in it, as citizens take pride in
their public library. They might rely on it for comfort in hard
times and at the hour of death. But, for the most part, they
were content to leave Christian living to the priests.
That was the great sorrow of John, Augustine, and other
saints. But it was now the status quo, and it would remain so
for centuries.
It’s at least arguable that this two-tiered spirituality remains
the status quo even today, though God is doing the best
he can to change it.
Some 60 years ago, St. Pope Paul VI led the bishops of the
world as they met for the Second Vatican Council. As pope,
he stood as the council’s definitive interpreter, and he said
without hesitation that “the most characteristic and ultimate
purpose of the teachings of the Council” was the “universal
call to holiness.”
The council and the pope spoke with one voice as they
reminded the Church of this original doctrine of Jesus. The
Savior looked out on a vast crowd as he said, “Be perfect
as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The
crowd included some who were disciples, who had given up
everything to follow the Master. But those were a small minority.
An even tinier minority were the Twelve, the chosen
apostles, who would be the first clergy in the Church.
Yet all the crowd received the vocation to holiness, which
is universal. Only saints will enter heaven. And Jesus called
everyone in the crowd to enter heaven, to be a saint.
24 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

To live in heaven at the end of life, a saint must begin to
live in a heavenly way on earth.
This was the firm belief of Pope Paul. In 1968 he issued the
encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (“On Human Life”), in which
he affirmed the Church’s constant teaching against abortion
and contraception.
We now know that he upheld the doctrine against the
wishes of most of his advisers. He recognized a subtle form
of clericalism in their arguments. They were telling him that
the great life isn’t really intended for the laity. It’s just for the
elite, the ordained.
Almost 60 years have passed since the council, and still
some people promote this clericalism of low expectations.
But it’s getting harder to sustain.
Once upon a time the Church had so many priests it hardly
knew what to do with them.
Recent events, however, have reduced the numbers of
the clergy — and the prestige and trust associated with the
office. Charitable giving to parishes has plummeted. Cherished
institutions are closing.
Clericalism will go, one way or another. That seems to be
the will of God. It seems also to be an urgent concern of
Pope Francis. Indeed, no pope — in all the history of the
Church — has so frequently and passionately denounced
clericalism in his preaching.
In a 2016 letter he wrote that “Clericalism ... gradually extinguishes
the prophetic flame to which the entire Church is
called to bear witness in the heart of her peoples.”
In an interview shortly before he became pope, he called
clericalism a “disease.” He railed against priests whose only
way of showing respect for the laity was by making them
more like clergy.
Pope John XXIII leads the opening
session of the Second Vatican Council
in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican
on Oct. 11, 1962. | GIANCARLO GI-
ULIANI/CNS, CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO
He said, “We priests
tend to clericalize the
laity. We do not realize
it, but it is as if we infect
them with our own disease.
And the laity — not
all, but many — ask us on
their knees to clericalize them, because it is more comfortable
to be an altar server than the protagonist of a lay path.
We cannot fall into that trap — it is a sinful complicity.”
With such strong language, the pope makes clear that the
Christian future will be post-clericalist or it will not be at all.
This does not mean the Church will go forward without
clergy. But it means that more and more parishes may begin
to look healthier from back to front.
In a post-clericalist Church, there will be no more silent
complicity between clergy and laity. There will be no mutual
enabling in mediocrity.
There will be clergy and laity who take up the hard disciplines
of Christian prayer … and hold one another accountable.
There will be clergy and laity who lean into the moral
demands of Christian life … and hold one another accountable.
There will be clergy and laity who share responsibility not
only for the upkeep of the grounds, but for the evangelization
of the community.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor to Angelus and author
of many books, most recently “Friendship and the Fathers:
How the Early Church Evangelized” (Emmaus Road Publishing,
$22.95)
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 25

WITH GRACE
DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE
A nation chooses life
The unprecedented, astonishing
sight of thousands upon
thousands of men, women,
and children taking their meager lives
into their hands and filling the streets
of crumbling towns across Cuba has
transfixed the world.
Unarmed and thinly clad before the
heavily equipped agents of the government,
they have bravely dared to ask for
that shining thing they’ve been denied
for so long: freedom. They often carry
an image of Our Lady of Charity, the
patroness of Cuba, before them. In
solidarity, their brothers and sisters just
miles away in Miami flooded Calle
Ocho, the mainstreet of Little Havana,
and filled the Miami shrine to the same
lady with their fervent pleas.
The phrase on everyone’s lips, sung
and chanted, in Miami and in Cuba, is
“Patria y Vida” (“Homeland and Life”).
It is the title of a reggaeton song by a
group of young Afro-Cuban men who
have tied up all the grief and longing of
millions of oppressed people into one
lyrical cry.
The Communists who seized power
62 years ago declared “Patria o Muerte”
(“Homeland or Death”). The new
generation, they tell us, is choosing life.
They know that it is a choice now as it
was thousands of years ago when the
words inspired by God were written
into the Scriptures: Choose life, that
you and your children may live.
The singers, like so many of their
compatriots, are strong, talented, and
young, but trapped in a world destitute
of everything, but especially of hope.
“Who told you that Cuba is yours?”
they sing, addressing the island’s rulers.
“It belongs to the people.” They intone
the tragic injustice of a tiny ruling class
enjoying in dizzying abundance every
material good the world has to offer
People in Havana shout
slogans against the
government on July 11
amid the coronavirus
pandemic. | ALEXAN-
DRE MENEGHINI/CNS,
REUTERS
while in their own
homes “las cazuelas
ya no tienen
jama” (“the
saucepans have no
food”).
At the point of
a pistol and for
decades, they tell
us, they’ve been
trampled, and
fed not with food
but with lies and
evil ideologies.
The holdovers of
the “malignant”
revolution of 1959
keep advertising
the paradise of the
legendary beach
of Varadero, while
the mothers weep
for the sons and
daughters that
left the island in
despair.
There they were,
early this week,
their sons and
daughters, on the
main street of
Little Havana in
Miami, belting
out “Patria y Vida” with the same
fervor, the same urgency. They waved
Cuban flags in one hand, the stars
and stripes of their new country in the
other. They grabbed percussion instruments
on their way out the door, if you
can call a pan and a wooden spoon
“instruments.”
They produced a glorious beat,
hundreds of them, maybe thousands,
as countless cars and trucks drove by
slowly, festooned with more flags and
signs painted with the motto of the occasion.
As in all gatherings of Cubans,
26 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five
who practices radiology in the Miami area.
the rhythm found its response in bodies
whose knees can’t help but bend and
hips to sway.
As the week of demonstrations in
Cuba wore on, the news from the
island became darker and more tragic.
Short videos that have made it past the
country’s new near-total internet ban
depict a grim situation.
Instead of energized, demanding
crowds, shocking images of brutal
repression: a man shot in his home in
front of his wife, boys from 12 to 15
years old dragged from hiding places
to be conscripted forcefully into the
army, savage beatings, long lists of the
“disappeared,” streets empty except for
menacing groups of black-clad paramilitaries.
Everywhere fear, grief, and the
empty eyes of those who have hoped
for a moment, but in vain.
It is clear to Cuban Americans that
their island brethren have touched
bottom after 62 long years of immiseration,
despair, dreams of escape, the
dislocation and separation of exile. On
the island the pandemic has closed the
doors of tourism, for some time now
the oxygen of the dictatorship.
The Cubans stifle in their moldy,
crumbling houses waiting for COV-
ID-19 to strike, knowing that the hospitals
can’t even count on running water
or electricity, let alone the treatments
that could save them. Their rulers have
refused humanitarian medical aid,
including vaccines.
In the meantime, here and in Cuba,
we sing “Patria y Vida,” a song but
also a prayer. We pray with a faith that
cannot be exhausted by time or grief
to the same Lady: Nuestra Señora de
La Caridad del Cobre. More than 500
years ago she visited the shores of the
jewel of the Antilles that is Cuba, to
save the lives of her poor and ragged
children. Surely she will come again.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 27

‘The personification of nice’
Remembering Hermine Lees, a writer, researcher, and librarian at
The Tidings for three decades.
BY MIKE NELSON
Longtime Tidings employee Hermine Lees was joined by then-Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony at “Hermine Lees Recognition Day” on Dec. 2, 2007. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
My 23 1/2 years at The Tidings
started when Hermine Anna
Woerlein Lees stepped aside
— sort of.
It was Hermine’s decision to cut
back to part-time staff writer status in
the spring of 1991 that enabled me
to come on board as a Tidings staff
writer. More importantly, though, Hermine’s
decision opened the door to a
wonderful friendship that lasted three
decades, ended only by her passing
July 3, at age 94, at home in Cambria.
In her 29 years as a writer, researcher,
and librarian at The Tidings — which
also included 15 years as editor of the
archdiocesan Catholic Directory —
Hermine became an institution. She
may have worked in the office primarily
on Mondays and Wednesdays (and
more often during busy production
periods), but her presence was felt on
a daily basis by all who knew her, for
her professional skill, her kind heart,
and her deep faith.
“If there is ever a contest for who
gets to sit next to God in heaven, I’ll
vote for Hermine,” said Msgr. Francis
Weber, archdiocesan archivist
emeritus and Hermine’s dear friend
for more than 40 years. “She was the
personification of a nice lady who
led a wonderful Christian life, one of
28 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

those people who it’ll be hard to get
along without.”
Certainly, I could not imagine my
own years at The Tidings without
Hermine. This native Chicagoan and
lifelong Catholic with a gentle but
firm voice that bespoke her German
heritage was as much of an archdiocesan
library as the newspaper’s filing
system that she lovingly and rigorously
maintained for so many years.
And Hermine knew the territory as
well as anyone. Arriving in LA with
her family as a young girl, she attended
Catholic schools, became for a
short time an Immaculate Heart of
Mary nun before becoming a wife and
mother, and was an active parishioner
at All Souls Church in Alhambra.
At All Souls, her family was the first
to greet a new young associate pastor,
Father Royale Vadakin on his first
Sunday of ordained ministry in 1964.
It was Father (later Msgr.) Vadakin
who invited Hermine to join the growing
ecumenical and interfaith movement
of the 1960s and 1970s, and the
Catholic-Jewish Women’s Dialogue
that continues to this day remained a
ministry close to Hermine’s heart.
So, too, was her involvement as an
active Immaculate Heart community
member, participating in numerous
IHM projects and ministries, like running
the bookstore at La Casa de Maria
Retreat Center in Santa Barbara.
And, in her 50s, Hermine began a
new career, reporting on all facets of
archdiocesan church life when she
joined The Tidings in January 1986,
always with a devotion to quality,
detail, and accuracy.
“Hermine wanted the truth, and
she’d move heaven and earth to find
it,” said Msgr. Weber, who wrote 33
years of “California’s Catholic Heritage”
columns for The Tidings and
served as its interim editor in 1990.
“She could spot an error five miles
away, and she didn’t mind telling you
about it, but always in a nice way.”
In 1994, she became editor of the
archdiocesan Catholic Directory and
immediately set about making the volume
more readable and user-friendly,
not for her own satisfaction, but for the
sake of the readers.
“It’s not MY directory,” I heard her
say more than once, usually in response
to why she always checked with
“the powers that be upstairs” before
making changes. “It’s for the whole
archdiocese. It’s not about me.”
Her “God and Church first” attitude
framed her approach to everything
Hermine did, and it explained her
less-than-favorable opinions of anyone
— clergy, religious, laity, public
officials, and even fellow employees —
who were, as she would say, “humility
challenged.”
But she appreciated, and showed,
kindness, graciousness, and respect,
and was always ready to help someone
who needed assistance, whether with a
work-related issue or personal difficulty.
“I believe in the power of prayer,”
she’d say, with the authority of one
who had encountered and survived
her own share of difficulties.
At The Tidings’ former office on
West Ninth Street, it was my privilege
and good fortune to have my cubicle
adjacent to Hermine’s. I soon learned
that — in addition to having an affinity
for all things purple — she was highly
organized, highly efficient, and neater
than the proverbial pin, leaving her
desk each night as spotless as when she
arrived that morning. “You don’t raise
six children,” she pointed out, “without
being organized.”
That, I realized, is a product of love
and devotion to doing whatever it is
you’re doing with care, quality, and an
eye to the future. Hermine may have
loved what we would call “traditions”
(“I like a quiet Mass, without all the
noise,” she used to say, with a bit of
a growl, after attending liturgies that
were drowning in loud music), but she
also appreciated the increased visibility
for women as leaders in the post-Vatican
II Church.
“Why do you think Jesus appeared
to the women first, after leaving the
tomb?” she’d say with a smile on her
lips but a glare in her eyes that said,
“Don’t dismiss us.”
Yes, she would go to the mat when
Hermine wanted the truth, and she’d
move heaven and earth to find it.
necessary for what she believed was
right, as, of course, would Jesus. But,
like Jesus, she could also show great
kindness and generosity, as evidenced
in the thousands of handmade greeting
cards she’d create for friends and
loved ones, inspired by her favorite
artist and fellow Immaculate Heart of
Mary nun, Sister Mary Corita Kent.
I received many of these cards filled
with messages of praise, hope, and
love, always adorned in her immaculate
calligraphy, and almost always
with the word, “Peace.”
Hermine loved her family, her
friends, her faith, and her vocation,
all of which she endowed with great
passion, integrity, and skill. She was
proud of being a mother, grandmother,
and great-grandmother, of belonging
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
community, of proclaiming “the good
news” through the Catholic press
(which earned her a Catholic Press
Association award in 2003).
Her parish histories that accompanied
Sister Nancy Munro’s “The
Faces of God” parish profiles in The
Tidings (2001-2014) are among the
lasting testimonials to her work, as are
her contributions to Msgr. Weber’s
“A History of the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles,” published in 2006.
Most of all, though, Hermine will
be remembered for her honesty, her
kindness, and basic decency that emanates
from one who loves and follows
the teachings of Jesus. As Msgr. Weber
said, “If I ever get to heaven, I’m pretty
sure I’ll see Hermine right next to the
Lord himself. She deserves it.”
So step aside no more, Hermine.
Your reward awaits.
Predeceased by her husband, Walter,
Hermine Lees is survived by her six
children, 10 grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren.
Mike Nelson is the former editor of
The Tidings (predecessor of Angelus).
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
In it for the ‘long run’
Judge Craig J. Mitchell (blue tank top) leads a group of runners through downtown Los Angeles. | PHOTOS BY MARK HAYES
Each Monday and Thursday, at
5:45 a.m., LA Superior Court
Judge Craig J. Mitchell meets
his people in front of downtown’s
Midnight Mission for a run through
the gritty streets of downtown.
By “people,” I mean fellow members
of the running club he founded in
2012, and the subject of the 2017 documentary
“Skid Row Marathon.” Each
year, he takes upwards of 50 people
from the homeless missions and shelters
of LA, flies them halfway across
the world, and brings them to run an
internationally recognized marathon.
The documentary profiles four run-
ners — Rafael Cabrera, David Askew,
Rebecca Hayes, and Ben Shirley —
who end up getting clean, sober, off
the streets, and into full, productive
lives. During the course of the film,
they run a marathon in Accra, Ghana,
and another, bigger one in Rome.
When the documentary ends, the
club is about to embark for Jerusalem.
“We took 44 people from Skid Row,”
says Judge Mitchell by way of an update.
“Obviously it was very meaningful.
Many of our people were baptized
or rebaptized in the River Jordan.”
The club has also run marathons in
Vietnam, Ecuador, and the Galapagos.
“This coming January Judge Mitchell
will take 55 runners from Skid Row to
Egypt.”
At first most of the members were
men. Now about half are women.
Some are now involved with the LA
Tri Club and are training for triathlons.
Saturdays, the club meets at 7 a.m. in
Pasadena, for the “long run.”
“It’s so important that we meet on
such a regular basis. We share each
other’s experiences and lives. It’s not
really about running; it’s about creating
a community of people who care for
one another.”
In addition to recovering addicts,
30 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
ex-felons, and those who had otherwise
lost their way, the club includes
lawyers, social workers, and mental
health professionals. “These people are
instrumental because if you’re living
in the mission or coming off the street,
at some point you need to transition
into housing, you need a job. One of
our guys is now the lead IT guy for LA
tourism. This networking is a subplot
to the running.”
Anyone can be a member, but the
runners who get to go on the trips
have demonstrated real commitment.
Those who can afford to pay for their
own costs. Those who still live in the
mission but have an outside job are
expected to contribute 500 bucks.
For the rest, every year Judge Mitchell
gets on the phone, talks to his friends,
crunches the numbers, fundraises,
begs.
Meanwhile, five days a week he’s at
his post at the Main Criminal courthouse
by 8 a.m., where he presides
until 5 p.m. or so. Most of the cases he
hears carry a potential life sentence:
murder, sexual assault, child abuse.
“Do I believe we need to punish
people who hurt other people? Yes. Do
I believe that if a person has served 20,
25 years for a violent crime and has
sincerely rehabilitated, turned their life
around, had a conversion of heart, that
person deserves a second chance? Yes.”
The judge, 65, is married with three
grown sons and as his wife says laughingly
in the film, doesn’t spend money
on anything! “Running shoes, plane
trips. … He wanted to be a priest at
one point. I think he still has the heart
of a priest.”
When people ask why he spends so
much time and effort for no financial
return, Judge Mitchell credits first his
mother, who taught him early to extend
himself for others. She died when
he was young.
The club’s trip to Rome brings up
another mentor: “Pope Francis, many
years ago, did essentially the same
thing in Argentina. He would take
poor people who had never traveled
outside of Buenos Aires and give them
a holiday, a trip to the ocean. He observed
that giving people an opportunity
that they would not otherwise have
had to travel, to see things they hadn’t
seen before, would give them dignity.
That word stuck with me. These kinds
of opportunities give people dignity.
That’s what this is about.”
And just as Christ promised: As ye
sow, so shall ye reap.
“I’m a far better judge for the time
that I’ve spent with my friends on Skid
Row. I get friendship. I get love from
people who
Judge Mitchell, still wearing
his running shoes and
shorts, puts on his robe in
his chambers at the Main
Criminal courthouse.
don’t have a lot
of vessels to put
that into.”
“As Catholics,
we all have to
figure out how
we are going to
live the Gospel.
How are we going to take it out of the
Church and into the world?”
“My witness for lack of a better word
as a practicing Catholic is what I do on
Skid Row. I don’t have to wear a rosary
around my neck.”
But for the whole glorious story,
shell out the $3.99 and watch the
award-winning “Skid Row Marathon”
yourself. Make sure you have a box of
Kleenex handy.
Speaking of which, turns out there’s
another pair of unsung saints to this
tale: Catholic filmmakers Mark and
Gabriela Hayes. “You should talk to
them,” Judge Mitchell says. “You know
how they got that thing made? They
put up 500 grand of their own money.”
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 31

Third in a series on St. Paul.
LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
The gospel of God’s fatherhood
St. Paul stood in the front lines of a revolution.
He preached a radical proposition.
And yet we have somehow lost our capacity
to be shocked by it.
At the heart, Paul’s gospel was the revelation
of God’s fatherhood. By now, after centuries
of Christian piety, this seems like a worn coin.
God’s fatherhood is so cliché that everyone
assumes it. Right?
Well, no. God’s fatherhood — at least as
Paul understood it — remains a scandal to the
world.
Remember that the very same message was
reason enough to get a man killed. “This was
why the Jews sought all the more to kill [Jesus],
because he … called God his Father, making
himself equal with God” (John 5:18).
It was customary for Jews to call upon God
as Father of their nation (see John 8:41), but
not as Father to an individual. To make such
a claim, they rightly assumed, was to make
oneself “equal with God”; for earthly children
do share a common nature with their earthly
fathers.
The shocking truth is that Jesus wanted us to share the
divine nature of our heavenly Father (see 2 Peter 1:4). That
was a religious bombshell in Jesus’ day. St. John felt its
impact (see 1 John 3:1).
Paul explored this revelation more deeply than anyone, and
he employed it more daringly. So he began his letters to the
churches: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father”
(Romans 1:7).
For Paul, God’s fatherhood was not a homey metaphor.
It was, rather, something eternal and metaphysical. He did
not say that God is “like” a Father. No, he said that God is
eternally Father because the word is his eternal Son (see
Philippians 2:6; Galatians 4:4).
It’s one thing to say that God is metaphorically “father”
to a nation or to the world, because he created both out of
nothing. But it’s quite another to say that God is eternally
“Father” by nature. If God is eternally Father, then there
must be an eternal “Offspring.” To a mind trained in monotheism,
that seems to imply a threat to God’s oneness and
transcendence. Indeed, even today,
“Benediction of God the
Muslims consider it blasphemy to
Father,” by Luca Cambiosa,
1527-1585, Italian.
attribute fatherhood to God.
Yet Paul placed God’s fatherhood — | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
and Jesus’ eternal sonship — at the
heart of his preaching. It was a revelation
of the Trinity.
And it was a revelation that we, through baptism, have
come to share in Christ’s sonship. Paul spoke of us repeatedly
as living “in Christ” (see Romans 8:1) and of Christ as
living in us (Galatians 2:20).
We are sons and daughters in the eternal Son of God.
Though Christ had the “form of God” (Philippians 2:6), he
poured himself out to take on a human “form” (2:7). Why?
So that we might be in him and he in us. God “destined us
in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5).
“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith”
(Galatians 3:26).
This is the truth that theologians call divine filiation. We
need to recover the doctrine, surely. But we also need to
recover its shock value.
32 • ANGELUS • July 30, 2021

■ MONDAY, JULY 26
St. Michael’s Abbey Summer Camp. A Catholic camp
for boys 7-14 in Orange County. Experience great summer
activities like hiking, sports, campfires, etc., and
learn more about the faith. Camp runs July 19-24, July
26-31, Aug. 2-7, or Aug. 9-14. Visit stmichaelsabbey.
com/summer-camp or email SummerCamp@StMichaelsAbbey.com.
■ TUESDAY, JULY 27
LA Council of Catholic Women Rosary Conference
Call. 8 p.m. Call 1-424-436-6200, code 410510#.
Prayer requests open. Rosary takes place every Tuesday
and Thursday in June and July. For more information,
call Carol Westlake at 661-263-0435.
Prayer and Life Workshops: A New Evangelization.
St. Mary Church, Whittier, Room 3, 7-9 p.m. Workshops
will be held on Tuesday evenings with Father
Ignacio Larrañaga, OFM Cap. Participants will learn to
pray using Scriptures and personal writings, and build a
personal relationship with God. For more information,
call Filomena Rombeiro at 562-715-0337.
■ TUESDAY, AUGUST 3
2021 C3 Conference. Hosted by the Catholic
Communication Collaboration, the 10th annual C3
Conference will be free and virtual Aug. 3-6. Register at
https://c3.leadlms.com/register. Contact April Zavala at
C3Con@la-archdiocese.org with questions.
■ FRIDAY, AUGUST 6
28th International Conference of the US-China
Catholic Association. Held at Santa Clara University,
the conference runs Aug. 6-8 and features five keynote
speakers, including Archbishop Savio Hon, a range
of practical and academic panels, and other events to
foster a deeper conversation about Christianity, culture,
and the friendship between the U.S. and Chinese
Catholic Churches. Friday night keynote and reception
are free. Register for in-person or online participation at
USCatholicChina.org/conference-2021.
■ SATURDAY, AUGUST 7
City of Saints Teen Conference. Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles,
2-6 p.m. Conference gathers teens from the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles to celebrate the cultures and
diversity of our communities and in community. Space
is limited. Reserve spot at cityofsaints.org. Cost: $20
donation/person. For more information, contact Jenny
Jackson or Natalie Aviles at cityofsaints@la-archdiocese.org.
■ TUESDAY, AUGUST 10
Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries Memorial Mass.
11 a.m. Mass will be livestreamed on LA Catholics social
media channels and will not be open to the public.
■ FRIDAY, AUGUST 13
Rosary Rally for a Better World. St. Louis of France
Church, 6 p.m. Mass, 7 p.m. rosary. Event held on the
13th of every month through October 2021. Contact
Margarita Acevedo at margie_therese@yahoo.com for
more information.
Retrouvaille: A Lifeline for Married Couples. Spanish
weekend program runs Aug. 13-15 in Los Angeles. Retrouvaille
is an effective Catholic Christian ministry that
helps married couples. The program offers the chance to
rediscover yourself, your spouse, and the love in your marriage.
Married couples of any faith are welcome. For more
information, visit https://www.losangelesretrouvaille.com
or call 909-900-5465.
Beginning Experience: “Beginning Experience Weekend”
for Separated, Divorced, and Widowed. Holy
Spirit Retreat Center, Encino. Beginning Experience is an
international lay ministry serving men and women who
have experienced the loss of a spouse through death,
divorce, or separation, and is recognized by the Office of
Marriage and Family Life. This program runs Aug. 13-15,
and helps participants move from grief into the light of a
new beginning. For more information, call Maria Rojas at
310-365-0186 or email her at beginningexp.losangeles@
gmail.com.
■ SUNDAY, AUGUST 15
Diaconate Virtual Information Day. 2-4 p.m. The Diaconate
Formation office invites all interested in joining
the diaconate program to learn more, 2-4 p.m. Send your
name, parish, and pastor’s name to Deacon Melecio Zamora
at dmz2011@la-archdiocese.org. Presentations will be
in English and Spanish.
“Pueblo Amante de Maria” Virtual Procession, Rosary,
and Tagalog Mass. Incarnation Church of Glendale will
host a virtual procession and rosary at 1:15 p.m. to celebrate
500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. Tagalog
Mass to follow. To join on livestream, visit the Incarnation
Church Facebook page. For details, call 818-242-2579.
■ SATURDAY, AUGUST 21
Catholic Bible Institute: New Testament Year Bible
Study. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Zoom Bible study from CBI meets
Aug. 21 and 28, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 13, Dec. 4, Jan. 15,
Feb. 12, March 12, April 9, May 14, and June 18. Cost:
$380/year, course covers three years. Register before Aug.
21 for only $300. Participants can earn LMU Extension
Semester Hours in the Certification Track. New participants
can join in August of any year, starting with either
the Old Testament or New Testament. For more information,
contact cbi@la-archdiocese.org or Alex Moreno at
JAMoreno@la-archdiocese.org.
■ SATURDAY, AUGUST 28
Many Peoples, One Mother Mass and Rosary Procession.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple
St., 3 p.m. Archbishop José H. Gomez will celebrate Mass
in honor of Our Lady of the Angels, patroness of the city
and Archdiocese of Los Angeles, followed by a rosary procession
on the Cathedral Plaza. Mass will be livestreamed
at facebook.com/lacatholics or at lacatholics.org/manypeoples-one-mother/.
■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries Memorial Mass.
San Fernando Mission Rey de España, 11 a.m. Mass will
be livestreamed on LA Catholics social media channels
and will not be open to the public.
■ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Day in Recognition of All Immigrants Procession and
Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W.
Temple St., Los Angeles, 3 p.m. Archbishop José H. Gomez
will celebrate a special Mass at 3:30 p.m., which will be
in person and livestreamed via Facebook.com/lacatholics
and lacatholics.org/immigration.
Items for the calendar of events are due four weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be emailed to calendar@angelusnews.com.
All calendar items must include the name, date, time, address of the event, and a phone number for additional information.
July 30, 2021 • ANGELUS • 33