Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15

PILGRIM’S PROGRESS 

Why Christians can’t stay home 

ANGELUS 

July 29, 2022 Vol. 7 No. 15

July 29, 2022 

Vol. 7 • No. 15 

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ON THE COVER 

CNS/CARLOS JASSO, REUTERS 

A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our 

Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, 

on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave 

everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On 

Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her 

last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California 

historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in 

our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman 

Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the 

one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France. 

THIS PAGE 

JOE POLILLIO/AEROJO.COM 

Two-hundred fifty young men from the U.S. came 

forward for a blessing to express their openness to 

discern the priesthood at a vocational encounter 

of the Neocatechumenal Way on the Mount of 

Beatitudes in Israel on July 19. More than 1,000 

California youth (wearing white and gold shirts) 

were among the 8,000 who made the pilgrimage 

to the Holy Land. Read more about the event at 

AngelusNews.com/CAIsraelPilgrimage.

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 

20 

22 

24 

26 

28 

30 

A California pilgrim’s case for St. Junípero’s Camino 

The things I lost — and found — at the waters of Lourdes 

C3 is back: What have LA Catholic tech innovators learned since COVID? 

John Allen on the passing of the cardinal who helped name the pope 

Charlie Camosy on the untimely criticisms of papal birth control teaching 

Why the new ‘Stranger Things’ could use some more interesting good guys 

Heather King on making interior pilgrimage with the ‘Jesus Prayer’ 

July 29, 2022 • ANGELUS • 1

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POPE WATCH 

Help for a ‘disoriented’ world 

A 

new free e-book from the Vatican 

on bioethical questions aims 

to give young Catholics answers 

to the “great challenges generated by 

scientific and technological progress.” 

“Keys to Bioethics: A Manual for 

Youth” was prepared by the Jérôme 

Lejeune Foundation and released by 

the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family 

and Life this month. Its publication 

comes at the close of the “Amoris Laetitia” 

(“The Joy of Love”) family year 

declared by Pope Francis last year. 

“On the occasion of the ‘Amoris 

Laetitia Family Year,’ the pope invites 

us to strive to discover together, as a 

family of families, the values that lead 

to the true Good,” read the July 15 

announcement from the dicastery. 

“To this end, this e-book is intended 

to help transmit the teaching and hope 

of life to our young people. It can be 

useful for parents and educators to 

accompany young people on the path 

of accurate reflection on the most 

current issues concerning bioethics.” 

According to the dicastery, the manual 

“aims at objectively introducing 

children and young people to the 

significant issues of Bioethics, which 

arise in each of us when faced with 

scientific and technological progress, 

leaving us sometimes disoriented. 

“Adhering to the principles of science 

and human reason, it aims at helping 

give simple answers starting from precise 

and rigorous technical information, 

to which the Christian faith adds 

meaning.” 

The manual states that human life 

begins at fertilization and that IUDs, 

RU-486, and the morning-after pill 

can induce abortions — and that the 

regular birth control pill can have an 

abortifacient effect. Other topics covered 

include the contraceptive mentality, 

genetic screening, reproductive 

technology, eugenics, stem-cell 

research, euthanasia, organ donation, 

and gender. 

Discussing gender identity, the 

manual states that “in fact, there is no 

way to change one’s sex. To try to do so 

is to mutilate the body and to create a 

lie within the human person, who may 

be altered to look like the other sex but 

can never truly be the other sex.” 

The manual also takes issue with 

homosexual parenting, citing recent 

research that “has shown that a loving 

mother and father in a stable relationship 

are essential to the healthy 

development of children. The desire 

of homosexual couples to override the 

biological constraint on their ability 

to have children is not a sufficient 

reason to place children in a same-sex 

household.” 

The e-book’s publication comes a 

month after the same dicastery published 

a document with suggestions for 

a yearlong “marriage catechumenate” 

endorsed by Pope Francis. That document 

underlined the importance of 

education of young couples on such 

topics. 

“Some complex issues pertaining to 

marital sexuality or openness to life 

— such as responsible parenting, artificial 

insemination, prenatal diagnosis 

and other bioethical issues — have 

strong ethical, relational and spiritual 

repercussions for spouses and require 

specific formation and clarity,” the 

document read. 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service and Catholic World News. 

Papal Prayer Intentions for August: We pray for small- and 

medium-sized businesses; in the midst of economic and 

social crisis, may they find ways to continue operating, and 

serving their communities. 

2 • ANGELUS • July 29, 2022

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

The eucharistic revival begins 

The eucharistic revival is beginning. 

In a Mass and procession 

celebrated last month at the cathedral 

on the feast of Corpus Christi, we launched 

the National Eucharistic Revival, 

an initiative of the U.S. Catholic 

bishops. This revival will go on for the 

next two years, closing with a National 

Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, 

in July 2024. 

On Aug. 13, we will hold our 

archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress at 

the cathedral. 

I hope many of you will join me. 

The daylong event is free for everyone. 

We will have Mass and Exposition 

of the Blessed Sacrament, along with 

presentations from top speakers, in 

English and Spanish. 

I am praying that our Eucharistic 

Congress will be an encounter with 

Jesus that renews us and transforms 

our daily lives. 

This revival is about restoring the 

vision of the Eucharist to the heart of 

Catholic identity and to our experience 

as followers of Jesus Christ. 

In the mystery of the Eucharist, we 

witness to our worldview as Catholics, 

the beautiful truth that our world is 

created and sustained by the love of 

God. 

In the Eucharist, we proclaim the 

truth that this creation has a loving 

Creator, and that each one of us receives 

our life as a gift from the Creator. 

We proclaim that the Father loves 

each one of us so much that he gave 

his only Son, who offered his body 

and blood, who poured out his life 

on the cross, who died and rose again 

for us for the life of this world that he 

created. 

In the Eucharist, we remember that 

Jesus loves us to the end, that he gave 

everything he had for us on the cross. 

He became flesh in the womb of the 

Virgin Mary in order to offer his flesh 

and blood on the cross. Now, he gives 

his body and blood to us, to be our 

daily bread, to nourish and strengthen 

us, as we walk with him on our journey 

through this world. 

When the priest speaks the words of 

consecration at the altar, we proclaim 

Jesus’ death, and he comes to us 

again, and speaks to us of his love. In 

these words, the Lord is telling us: 

This is my body, broken and given 

for you and your salvation. This is my 

blood, poured out for you, and for the 

life of the world. 

And as Jesus humbled himself to 

share in our humanity, in the Eucharist 

he calls us to share in his divinity. 

Jesus wants to live his life in us, and 

he wants us to live our lives through 

him, in him, and with him. 

These are mysteries beyond words. 

But these mysteries give our lives a 

direction and shape, a purpose. 

The offertory prayer that we make in 

every Mass — “Lift up your hearts / 

We have lifted them up to the Lord” 

— this is how we should live now, 

offering our life back to our Creator. 

This gift that we have received, we 

should give back to him in gratitude, 

in remembrance of his gift, his sacrifice 

for us, and for our salvation. 

The Eucharist makes our lives as Catholics 

a prayer, something beautiful 

that we offer to God, that we offer to 

our brothers and sisters. 

Just as the bread and wine we offer in 

the Mass is transformed into his body 

As Jesus gave his life for us, he calls us now to 

walk with him and to follow him. He calls us to 

love as he loves, and to give our lives for others, 

in works of mercy and love. 

and blood, so our lives are meant to 

be transformed through our partaking 

in the Eucharist. 

As Jesus gave his life for us, he calls 

us now to walk with him and to follow 

him. He calls us to love as he loves, 

and to give our lives for others, in 

works of mercy and love. 

We have a beautiful opportunity in 

these next two years, to revive and 

renew our personal love for Our Lord 

in the Eucharist and to rediscover his 

love for us. 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And let us pray for the Holy Spirit to 

bring many hearts back to the Eucharist 

and to Mass in these coming 

months. 

May our Blessed Mother Mary, in 

whom the word became flesh, help all 

of us to make the Eucharist and the 

Holy Mass the center of our lives. 


WORLD 

A nun holds an image of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara at his canonization Mass in Rome in 

2014. | CNS/PAUL HARING 

■ Indian Catholics protest saint’s 

removal from textbooks 

India’s communist government has removed school lessons 

on St. Kuriakose Elia Chavara, a 19th-century social reform 

leader in the Indian state of Kerala. 

“It is a deliberate attempt to ignore the contributions of 

St. Chavara in reforming the caste-ridden society of Kerala 

through the light of education,” said Father Jacob G. Palakkappilly, 

spokesman of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council 

(KCBC), which is calling for the restoration of the lessons. 

The government argues that two brief mentions in the 

social science textbooks for grades 10 and 12 are appropriate 

and a full lesson is not needed. 

Chavara expanded schools to all church premises, regardless 

of caste, during a time when education was reserved 

for social elites. He instituted free mid-day meals, provided 

clothing and books to reduce dropouts among poorer 

students, and founded the first indigenous Catholic religious 

congregation for men and women, the Carmelites of Mary 

Immaculate, which continues to run hundreds of schools. 

■ Controversial papal 

interviewer dies at 98 

An atheist Italian journalist whose interviews with Pope 

Francis sparked controversy is dead at the age of 98. 

Eugenio Scalfari, founder of the Italian newspaper La 

Repubblica, famously reported that Pope Francis denied the 

existence of hell in 2015 and 2018 and the divinity of Jesus 

in 2019, even though the Vatican denied the claims, saying 

that Scalfari’s writing cannot be considered an accurate 

description but his own “reconstruction.” 

“I try to understand the person I am interviewing, and after 

that I write his answers with my own words,” Scalfari said to 

the Foreign Press Association of Rome in 2013, explaining 

his practice of conducting interviews without a recording 

device or notes. 

In a statement after his July 14 passing, Pope Francis said 

he cherished “with affection the memory of the meetings” 

with Scalfari and entrusted “his soul to the Lord in prayer.” 

■ Pope makes changes to 

Opus Dei’s status 

Pope Francis announced changes to Opus Dei’s relationship 

to the Vatican Curia, including that it will now answer 

to its Dicastery for Clergy (rather than for Bishops) and that 

its head can no longer be a bishop. 

In the apostolic letter “Ad Charisma Tuendum” (“For the 

Protection of the Charism”), released by the Vatican on July 

22, the pope said the changes are intended to highlight the 

movement’s special charism and its evangelization work. 

Opus Dei has a unique structure in the Church. As a “personal 

prelature” first established by St. Pope John Paul II in 

1982, it has its own seminaries and priests but unites clergy 

and laity committed to the same missionary or apostolic 

work. 

Pope Francis noted that the change is a consequence of his 

recently implemented overhaul of the Vatican bureaucracy. 

In a statement, the prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando 

Ocáriz, said “the pope’s desire to highlight the charismatic 

dimension of the Work (Opus Dei)” rather than its hierarchical 

structure, “now invites us to reinforce the family atmosphere 

of affection and trust: the prelate must be a guide but, 

above all, a father.” 

A president’s pilgrimage stop — An Orthodox clergyman greets U.S. President 

Joe Biden as he crosses himself before visiting the Church of the Nativity in 

Bethlehem on July 15. Biden was on a four-day visit to the Middle East. | CNS 

PHOTO/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS 


NATION 

Volunteers with the Ladies of Charity of Calvert County, Maryland, give away provisions for a Thanksgiving meal in 

November 2021. | CNS/BOB ROLLER 

■ Should the US brace for a ‘charity deficit’? 

The decline of religious observance in the United States could spell bad news for 

the future of philanthropy, according to one Christian author. 

Writing in the The Wall Street Journal June 30, Ericka Andersen argued that 

“even nonbelievers should worry about the practical consequences of an increasingly 

secular U.S.” in which a “ticking time bomb of philanthropic demise” could 

cause a “charity deficit.” 

Andersen pointed out that as the wealthy, “disproportionately religious” baby 

boomer generation slowly ages out, so will the money it gives to fund some of the 

country’s most important charities. She noted there is no guarantee that more 

nonreligious millennial “nones” will be as generous. 

To fill the gap, Andersen suggested offering younger generations more ways to 

give, as well as forging charity partnerships between religious and secular organizations. 

“By the grace of God, bringing religious ‘nones’ into the charitable fold could 

have the welcome side effect of bringing them back to religion,” she wrote. 

■ OSV announces plan to replace Catholic News Service 

Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) announced that it will launch a new Catholic news 

service to replace Catholic News Service (CNS), which will suspend U.S. coverage 

at the end of the year. 

“After the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops decided to bring the 

domestic operations of Catholic News Service to a close at the end of 2022, we 

started talks with the USCCB and have reached an agreement to acquire rights to 

the platform that CNS uses to produce and distribute its content,” announced OSV 

Publisher Scott P. Richert July 6 at the Catholic Media Conference in Portland, 

Oregon. 

In addition to providing national and international news, analysis, and editorials, 

OSV News will acquire usage of all CNS’s digital archives. The new service will also 

partner with the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications, Aleteia, and CNS’s Rome 

Bureau, which will continue to operate independent of OSV. 

The USCCB announced May 4 that CNS would close domestic offices and coverage 

as part of a “significant realignment” of the conference’s communications arm. 

■ Bishops blast President 

Biden over abortion 

executive order 

The U.S. bishops’ pro-life chairman 

called President Joe Biden’s new 

executive order on abortion “disturbing 

and tragic.” 

The executive order, signed July 8, 

came in response to the overturning of 

Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 

June. The order safeguards access to 

medication abortion and emergency 

contraception; protects patient privacy; 

launches public education efforts; and 

strengthens “the security of and the 

legal options available to those seeking 

and providing abortion services.” 

Baltimore Archbishop William E. 

Lori criticized the president for “seeking 

every possible avenue to deny unborn 

children their most basic human 

and civil right, the right to life.” 

“Rather than using the power of the 

executive branch to increase support 

and care to mothers and babies, the 

president’s executive order seeks only 

to facilitate the destruction of defenseless, 

voiceless human beings,” he said 

in a July 9 statement. 

A well-deserved ‘Franny’ — Ann Augherton, 

managing editor of the Arlington Catholic Herald, 

newspaper of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, 

receives the 2022 St. Francis de Sales Award July 

7 from Amy Kawula, president of the Catholic 

Media Association during the Catholic Media 

Conference in Portland, Oregon. | CNS/BOB 

ROLLER 


LOCAL 

■ Archbishop to bless 

former convent-turnedmaternity 

home 

Archbishop José H. Gomez will visit 

and bless a new home for homeless 

pregnant women in the Mid-City area 

of Los Angeles on Aug. 19. 

The residence, located next door to St. 

Mary Magdalene Church, was formerly 

a convent belonging to the Sisters of the 

Holy Faith. It will be operated by Harvest 

Home, a local nonprofit residential 

program that serves homeless pregnant 

women and their babies. For years, 

Harvest Home has partnered with the 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Office of 

Life, Justice, and Peace (OLJP) to help 

women, children, and families. 

“The opening of Harvest Home’s second 

residence in LA is a sign of hope for 

our community,” said Michael Donaldson, 

senior director of OLJP. “It will be 

a gift for many moms and their children 

for years to come.” 

Angelus wins 

15 Catholic 

Media awards, 

2 first place 

columnists 

Angelus brought home 15 awards 

from the Catholic Media Association 

(CMA) conference this year, 

for works published in 2021. The 

awards were announced July 7 at 

the end of the annual CMA conference, 

in Portland, Oregon. 

Wyatt Mueller with some of the used batteries collected 

at Our Lady of Refuge Church. 

■ Long Beach teen 

leads parish battery 

disposal project 

Parishioners at Our Lady of Refuge 

Church in Long Beach are putting 

papal teaching into practice by collecting 

100 pounds of used batteries for safe 

disposal so far. 

The idea of using the parish to collect 

the batteries, which can harm the 

environment and cause fires in maintenance 

vehicles if thrown into the trash, 

came from Pope Francis’ encyclical on 

the environment, “Laudato si’” (“Praise 

Be to You”), said Shirl Giacomi, director 

of Religious Education at Our Lady of 

Refuge. 

Leading the project is teen Wyatt 

Mueller, who earlier this year made 

disposal boxes for parishioners to drop 

off their used batteries. Mueller is working with Long Beach councilwoman Suzie 

Price to dispose of the batteries safely. 

“It’s been an overwhelming response, and it still goes on,” said Giacomi. “It’s easy. 

It doesn’t take a lot of work.” 

FIRST PLACE 

Best Regular Column: 

Arts, Leisure, Culture and Food — 

“Desire Lines,” by Heather King 

Best Regular Column: 

General Commentary — “Ad Rem,” 

by Robert Brennan 

Personality Profiles: 

Religious Leader — “A deacon in 

demand,” by Steve Lowery 

Best Sports Reporting — “The baseball 

manager who gave God a jersey,” 

by Tom Hoffarth 

SECOND PLACE 

Best Cover for Color: Large — 

“The Fight for Family Movie Night,” 

by Jacob Popcak 

Best Essay: Diocesan Magazines — 

“Every Catholic’s homeland,” 

by Mike Aquilina 

Best Review — “Secular sermons,” 

by John J. Miller 

Best Writing: In-Depth — “Protected 

by providence,” by Ann Rodgers 

THIRD PLACE 

Best Reporting of the 

Celebration of a Sacrament — 

“My mom’s saving medicine,” 

by Elise Italiano Ureneck 

Best Review — “In search of a savior,” 

by Msgr. Richard Antall 

HONORABLE MENTION 

Best Coverage: Immigration — 

“Caught between borders,” 

(team coverage) 

Best Coverage: Pandemic — 

“A virus leaves its mark,” 

(team coverage) 

Best Feature Article: Diocesan 

Magazine — “A restless farewell,” 

by Ann Rodgers 

Best Diocesan Directory — 

“2021-2022 Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

Catholic Directory,” by Angelus Staff 

and Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

FIRST RUNNER UP 

Editor of the Year (English) — 

Pablo Kay 

Y 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

Realizing the wreckage of porn 

As someone who works to engage men and specifically fathers in the 

prevention of human trafficking, I really appreciated the insights in Elise 

Ureneck’s July 1 cover article “How to Save Men.” 

I have been doing trainings on the link between pornography and trafficking 

for years now. The article references the 2,000 hours a year 7 million men spend 

on their screens, and too much of that is spent on porn, which is dismembering 

families and castrating faith at an alarming rate. 

Men are losing their identity as God’s children, their moral authority and their 

credibility in ways that are leaving children vulnerable to social media predators 

and traffickers. 

— Patrick Erlandson, Rancho Palos Verdes 

Of wars and men 

I found the July 1 issue cover article to have interesting and valid ideas, but a 

couple of wrong messages too. 

I work at a large public university, and contrary to the article do not see “typical 

college males” to be “paralyzed by insecurity and guilt” 

Also, when did “harming the earth, and starting wars” become virtues to be 

recommended in a Catholic diocesan paper? Every pope I have known has been a 

peacemaker trying to end wars, not start them. 

Claiming that to have happiness and energy men need to start wars and harm 

the earth, is completely against centuries of Catholic teaching (and basic logic). 

— Keith Jayawickrama 

Response from the editor: 

Some readers have expressed their disagreement with a quote from the late 

American poet Robert Bly that appeared in the July 1 cover story describing the 

“soft male”: men who are “not interested in harming the earth, or starting wars, or 

working for corporations” but seem devoid of happiness and energy. 

To be clear, the article was in no way criticizing a perceived lack of interest “in 

harming the earth, or starting wars.” Rather, by quoting Bly, the paragraph in question 

contrasted this positive aspect with the perceived negative quality of seeming 

“devoid of happiness and energy.” 

Y 

Continue the conversation! To submit a letter to the editor, visit AngelusNews.com/Letters-To-The-Editor 

and use our online form or send an email to editorial@angelusnews.com. Please limit to 300 words. Letters 

may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity. 

The faith of Uganda comes to the Valley 

Representatives from the government and the Archdiocese 

of Gulu in Uganda came to Panorama City last 

month to celebrate the dedication of a new shrine to 

Uganda’s Catholic martyrs at St. Genevieve Church. | 

SUBMITTED PHOTO 

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. 

“Why don’t we just teach 

each other how to garden?” 

~ Michael Guidice, a member of the Catholic Land 

Movement, on how a growing number of Catholics 

are opting out of modern living to return to the 

land, in a July 12 Tablet magazine story. 

“The costs of pregnancy, 

childbirth, and postpartum 

care really do spell the 

difference between life 

and death for scores of 

American mothers and 

infants.” 

~ Elizabeth Bruenig in a July 9 article in the Atlantic, 

“Make birth free,” on the lack of maternal health 

policies that support mother and child. 

“When love for Jesus is 

strong in us … we can 

see persecution not as 

something that is the end 

of our life, but as a way to 

say ‘Yes’ to Jesus.” 

~ Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop 

Pierbattista Pizzaballa, reflecting on the 

beatitudes during a vocational encounter of the 

Neocatechumenal Way with 8,000 youth from the 

U.S. on the Mount of Beatitudes in Galilee. 

“[LAUSD’s gender-ideology 

programming] will keep 

[children] trapped in a 

morass of confusion, 

fatalism, and resentment — 

while the bureaucrats keep 

collecting their paychecks.” 

~ Christopher F. Rufo, on the Los Angeles Unified 

School District’s decision to introduce “transaffirming” 

gender ideology in all classrooms, in a July 

20 article “Sexual liberation in public schools.” 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronaldrolheiser.com. 

The temptations of the good person 

Many of us are familiar with an 

often-quoted line from T.S. 

Eliot: “The last temptation 

is the greatest treason; to do the right 

deed for the wrong reason.” This, he 

suggests, is the temptation of the good 

person. What’s the temptation? 

In John’s Gospel, Jesus asks his listeners 

this question: “How can you believe 

who receive glory from one another 

and do not seek the glory that comes 

from God?” What’s Jesus’ challenge 

here? This: We can do all the right 

things, be doggedly faithful, resist every 

kind of compromise, and even accept 

martyrdom — but why? To be respected? 

To be admired? To win approval? 

To win a permanent good name for 

ourselves? 

Aren’t these good, noble enough 

reasons? 

They are. However, as T.S. Eliot 

suggests in “Murder in the Cathedral,” 

a temptation can present itself 

as a grace, and that can be the case in 

terms of being virtuous. He illustrates 

this through the struggles of his main 

character, Thomas à Beckett. Beckett 

was the archbishop of Canterbury from 

1162 until he was murdered in his own 

cathedral in 1170. 

As Eliot presents him, Beckett does all 

the right things. He is altruistic, radically 

faithful, resists all compromise, and 

is ready to accept martyrdom. However, 

as Eliot highlights, these can be 

“the temptations of the good person,” 

and it can take some time (and a 

deeper maturity) to distinguish certain 

temptations from grace. Hence, Eliot 

coined these now-famous lines: 

Now is my way clear; now is the meaning 

plain: / Temptation shall not come 

in this kind again. / The last temptation 

is the greatest treason: / To do the right 

deed for the wrong reason. … / For those 

who serve the greater cause / Make the 

cause serve them. 

Those who serve the greater cause 

can easily make the cause serve them, 

blind to their own motivation. 

Don’t we all know it! Those of us who 

work in ministry, in teaching, in administration, 

in the media, in the arts, 

and those of us who are habitual good 

Samaritans helping out everywhere, 

what ultimately drives our energy as we 

do all this good? 

Well, motivation is rarely simply 

straightforward. We are a complex, 

often tortured creatures of motivation. 

Here’s a little parable vis-à-vis motivation 

from the Sufi tradition that 

suggests that we don’t have a single 

motivation but have multiple motivations. 

The parable runs this way. 

There was a holy man, a guru, renowned 

for his wisdom who lived near 

the top of a mountain. One day three 

men showed up at his door, seeking 

counsel. He questioned the first one: 

“Did you climb up this mountain to 

see me because I’m famous or because 

you truly are interested in gaining 

some wisdom?” The man answered, 

“To be truthful, I came to see you because 

of your fame, though, of course, 

I’m also interested in receiving some 

counsel.” The guru dismissed him, 

“You aren’t yet ready to learn.” 

He turned to the second man and 

asked him the same question, “What’s 

the real reason you climbed up this 

mountain to see me?” This man’s 

answer was different. “It’s not your 

fame that drew me here,” he said, “I’m 

not interested in that. I want to learn 

from you.” Surprisingly, the Guru also 

dismissed him, telling him that he was 

not yet ready to learn. 

He turned to the third man: “Did you 

climb this mountain to see me because 

I’m famous or because you truly seek 

some counsel?” The man replied, 

“To be honest, it’s for both reasons, 

and probably for a good number of 

other reasons that I am unaware of. I 

did want to see you because you are 

famous and I do really want to learn 

from you, and I am not even sure that 

either of them is the real reason I came 

to see you.” “You’re ready to learn,” 

said the holy man. 

Eliot presents his main character in 

“Murder in the Cathedral” as a man 

who does all the right things, is recognized 

for his goodness, but is someone 

who still has to examine himself as to 

his real motivation for doing what he 

does. What Eliot highlights is something 

that should give all of us who 

are trying to be good, virtuous, faithful 

persons, pause for reflection, scrutiny, 

and prayer. 

What’s our real motivation? How 

much is this about helping others and 

how much is it about ourselves, about 

gaining respect, admiration, a good 

name — and having a good feeling 

about ourselves? 

This is a hard question and perhaps 

not even a fair one, but a necessary one 

which, if asked, can aid us in our quest 

for a deeper level of maturity. In the 

end, are we doing good things because 

of what it does for others or because of 

what it does for us? 

As we stand somewhat naked and 

exposed before this question, we can 

take some consolation in the message 

contained in the Sufi parable. This 

side of eternity our motivations are 

pathologically complex and mixed. 


LIVING THE PILGRIM WAY 

The inner longing to go on pilgrimage is part of the 

spiritual DNA of every Christian. 

BY MIKE AQUILINA 

“Flevit super illam” (“He wept over it”), 1892, by Enrique Simonet. In the Gospel of Luke, as Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he looks at the city and weeps over it, foretelling the suffering 

that awaits the city. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

Christianity — unlike other world religions — has 

never mandated pilgrimage. 

But it didn’t have to. Christians just did it. Spontaneously. 

In impressive numbers. And often at great risk. 

The Law of Moses required Israelite males to make three 

trips to Jerusalem every year, for Passover, Pentecost, and 

Sukkot (see Exodus 23:14–17; 34:18–23; Deuteronomy 

16:16). In the early first century, the population of the Holy 

City doubled during these holidays as Jews arrived from all 

nations of the known world (see Acts 2:1, 9–11). 

Pilgrimage is the fifth pillar of Islam. Muslims are duty-bound 

to make the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, at 

least once in their lifetime — and some 2.5 million people 

complete the journey every year. 

For ancient Jews and modern Muslims, pilgrimage has 

occupied a place that’s comparable to the place of the 

sacraments in Catholic tradition. The Church, however, 

has never claimed such a place for pilgrimage. The New 

Testament doesn’t require it. Canon law has never mandated 

it. No catechism has ever presented it dogmatically. 

Yet Christians have always done it. That’s clear from the 

documents of the early Church. It’s evident also in the 

archaeological remains from that period. 

• • • 

A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken for a religious purpose. 

From at least his adolescence, Jesus fulfilled the command 

to celebrate the festivals in Jerusalem. It was his family’s 

custom (Luke 2:42), and the trip from Nazareth — on foot, 

on crowded roads — probably took between four and six 

days each way. 

In adulthood Jesus continued the practice, not out of a 

sense of obligation, but rather out of love. It was his earnest 

desire (Luke 22:15). He set out for Jerusalem with determination 

(Luke 9:51). The pilgrimages were so important 

to Jesus that St. John uses them as the dominant structural 

element in the narrative of his Gospel. 

The apostle St. Paul, even after his conversion to the Way 


of Jesus Christ, continued to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem 

for Pentecost (Acts 20:16). 

And others followed his example. St. Melito of Sardis, in 

the mid-A.D.100s, made his way to the Holy Land in order 

to enrich his understanding of the Scriptures. A few decades 

later, the Egyptian scholar Origen recounted his own 

sojourn in Palestine as a pilgrimage and availed himself of 

opportunities to visit the sacred sites. 

The pagan Romans even took measures to discourage 

Christian pilgrimage. The pagan emperor Hadrian ordered 

that the cave of Jesus’ nativity be buried and a grove planted 

over it, dedicated to the god Adonis. Every deterrent was in 

place, but believers visited anyway. 

As the Church spread outward from Jerusalem, Christians 

made their way to other pilgrim destinations. There was 

Rome. St. Paul himself was led inexorably toward the empire’s 

capital (Acts 19:21, 23:11; Romans 15:30–32). 

St. Peter was, too. Both men sanctified the ground there by 

their martyrdom — and so drew many more pilgrims in their 

wake. 

In the next generation after the apostles, in A.D. 107, St. 

Ignatius of Antioch felt himself to be propelled toward 

Rome, to die there as a martyr, but also to pay his respects to 

the place that was already regarded as the religious capital 

of Christianity — the Church that “presides in the place of 

the region of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, 

worthy of the highest happiness, worthy of praise, worthy of 

obtaining her every desire, worthy of being deemed holy, 

and which presides over love.” 

In spite of persecution, Christians streamed to Rome and 

left their marks in graffiti at the burial places of St. Peter and 

St. Paul — and then at the sites associated with other saints. 

Paul and Peter, pray for Victor! … 

Martyrs and saints, keep Maria in mind … 

O Hippolytus, remember Peter, a sinner … 

Master Crescentio, heal my eyes for me! … 

O St. Sixtus, remember Aurelius Repentinus in your prayers! … 

O holy souls, remember Marcianus, Successus, Severus, and 

all our brethren! 

In the fourth century, St. Jerome traveled from Croatia 

to Rome to pursue his studies; but he spent his Sundays 

wandering with a torch through the dark tunnels of the catacombs. 

There he prayed in a weekly pilgrimage. 

Later in life, St. Jerome would go to Jerusalem, along with 

an entourage from Rome. They would become history’s 

most ardent promoters of religious tourism to the Holy Land. 

He describes the effect such an excursion had on his friend, 

St. Paula of Rome: 

Tourists leave after visiting the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem in 2010. Tradition holds that the church is built over the spot where Jesus was born. | 

CNS/AMMAR AWAD, REUTERS 


Women pray at the Stone of Unction, or Stone of Anointing, representing where the body of Jesus was prepared for burial after the crucifixion in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 

in the Old City of Jerusalem. | CNS/DEBBIE HILL 

“She … started to go round visiting all the places with such 

burning enthusiasm that there was no taking her away from 

one unless she was hurrying on to another. She fell down 

and worshipped before the Cross as if she could see the Lord 

hanging on it. On entering the Tomb of the Resurrection 

she kissed the stone which the angel removed from the 

sepulcher door; then like a thirsty man who has waited long, 

and at last comes to water, she faithfully kissed the very shelf 

on which the Lord’s body had lain. Her tears … they were 

known to all Jerusalem — or rather to the Lord himself to 

whom she was praying.” 

• • • 

Shortly after the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity 

in A.D. 313, his mother, St. Helena, went abroad to 

see the holy places described in the Scriptures. In Jerusalem 

and Bethlehem she commissioned the construction of great 

basilicas in honor of the Savior. Christians from everywhere 

would throng these places, and they continue to do so today. 

Believers also made pilgrimage to living saints and sages. 

St. Anthony of Egypt strove to live in the desert in poverty 

and solitude, but he was visited daily by the devout, the 

inquisitive, and the curious, who sought his advice or just his 

blessing. So diverse were the pilgrims — coming from every 

direction — that St. Anthony had to keep translators at hand, 

drawn from the monasteries nearby. 

Why did the early Christians go on pilgrimage? They did 

it because Jesus did, and they wanted to follow his example. 

They did it because St. Paul had done it — the same St. 

Paul who said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 

Corinthians 11:1). 

And so, down to our own day, Christians continue the 

pilgrim way. 

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). 

A SHORTER TRIP 

A pilgrimage doesn’t have to be a voyage overseas. 

Catholics in California can trek to sites where canonized 

saints have trod — mission churches as old as 

our country. Check out these resources for stateside 

destinations. 

— The American Catholic History Podcast (and 

Tours), hosted by Tom and Noelle Crowe at americancatholichistory.org. 

— “A Catholic Pilgrimage through American History,” 

a new book by Kevin Schmiesing (Ave Maria 

Press, $19.95). 


The Votive Chapel at St. Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal. | SHUTTERSTOCK 

Waiting on a miracle 

A dying mother’s pilgrimage doesn’t provide the healing 

she needed, but a spiritual nourishment. 

BY ELISE ITALIANO URENECK 

I 

think it was the picture of the 

crutches stacked against the wall 

that made her want to make the 

pilgrimage. It was May of 2018, and 

my mom asked me out of the blue to 

drive her to the Oratory of St. Joseph 

in Montreal, Canada. She was a year 

and three months into a terminal 

diagnosis of ALS and was beginning 

to lose the use of her legs. Doctors 

estimated that she had about two or 

three years left to live. 

My brother, father, and I were busy 

with practical tasks to stay ahead of 

her successive needs, like customizing 

a power wheelchair, researching how 

to thicken liquids, and getting the advanced 

health care directive in order. 

My mom didn’t want to talk much 

about those things. She vacillated between 

fear, anger, and a firm resolve 

not to focus on tomorrow’s troubles 

when today’s were sufficient. 

She was also intent on getting a 

miracle. 

My mom was convinced, until the 

end, that God could heal her. “When 

I get my legs back,” she would begin a 

sentence, detailing the hopes she had 

for her future. 

My father had already accompanied 

her to Lourdes and Fátima. She returned 

in the same state as when she 

went. Later, she and I flew down to 

Arlington, Virginia, to a women’s conference 

so that she could meet Sister 

Briege McKenna, an Irish religious 

sister with the gift of healing. She left 

that event without a cure. 

And then she asked me to make the 

10-hour drive to Canada from New 

Jersey. I was starting to worry about 

her faith turning into desperation, 

but I didn’t have the heart to put the 

brakes on the idea. Plus, the clock 


RSTOCK 

was running out for future mother-daughter 

trips. 

My mom had been reading about St. 

André Bessette, the Quebecois porter 

of Notre Dame College in Montreal. 

A religious brother of the Congregation 

of the Holy Cross, St. Bessette 

was assigned to the role of doorkeeper 

due to his poor health and lack of education. 

Yet his was not a hidden life. 

Many visitors who prayed with him 

received physical healings, and word 

spread quickly. People came in droves 

to meet with him. 

Brother Bessette attributed 

the healings to the intercession 

of St. Joseph, not to 

himself. In the interest of increasing 

devotion to the foster 

father of Jesus, he saved up 

money to build a small shrine 

dedicated to him. 

When the oratory opened 

in 1904, he was assigned to 

be its full-time caretaker. 

There he received thousands 

of pilgrims, many of whom 

received physical healings. A 

larger basilica was completed 

after Brother Bessette died. 

It is the largest shrine to St. 

Joseph in the world, and it 

attracts more than 2 million 

pilgrims a year. Both the 

smaller shrine and the basilica 

are laden with crutches 

that pilgrims have left behind 

after praying at the site. 

A general rule with religious 

pilgrimages is that anything 

that can go wrong does go 

wrong. I had a sense that even 

though we were driving north, 

things were headed south only 

an hour into the drive at the 

Vince Lombardi rest stop on the New 

Jersey Turnpike. 

I accompanied my mother into 

the restroom using her walker, only 

to find the handicapped bathroom 

occupied by an able-bodied woman. 

Once we got into the stall, I received 

my first introduction to the world of 

ADA compliance. It turns out when 

it comes to disabilities, the one-sizefits-all 

approach doesn’t actually fit all 

needs. 

Our Airbnb advertised accessibility 

as well, but the beds were too close to 

the ground for my mom to get in and 

out of, and the walls reeked of smoke. 

The weekend we chose happened to 

coincide with a Grand Prix race, so 

the city streets were blocked by sportscars 

and filled with tourists, making 

already treacherous navigation more 

difficult. 

This is to say nothing of the most 

disappointing part of the trip: When 

we got to the tomb of St. André, we 

found it closed to visitors for renovation. 

When I saw the blockade, I 

began to cry. 

St. André Bessette, a member of the Holy Cross Brothers and founder 

of St. Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, is pictured in an 

undated photo from the archives of St. Joseph’s Oratory. | CNS 

My hands were sore from pushing 

my mother along city streets and up 

the steep incline to the basilica. But 

most of all, my heart ached for her. 

We had come all of this way — the 

physical and emotional distance — to 

meet the porter who couldn’t open 

this one door for us. 

I didn’t have the heart to look at her 

face, so I wheeled her a few steps over 

to the eight altars dedicated to St. 

Joseph. There the saint appears in relief, 

lit up by an intense red hue emanating 

from the votive candles. There 

are eight altars, each dedicated to a 

group of people of cause for which 

the saint’s intercession is sought, 

including Joseph, Guardian of the 

Pure in Heart; Joseph, Protector of 

the Church; Joseph, Mainstay of 

Families; Joseph, Terror of Demons; 

and Joseph, Model of Laborers. 

Then we stopped by the three others 

and were overcome: Joseph, Hope 

of the Sick; Joseph, Our Solace in 

Suffering; and Joseph, Patron Saint of 

the Dying. It seemed that St. André 

was doing what he had always done 

— pointing pilgrims away 

from himself and toward St. 

Joseph. 

We stood there at the last 

altar praying together: 

Open our eyes that we may 

glimpse the road to Life that 

lies beyond death. / May 

nothing, not denial, anger, 

nor depression, separate 

us from the Love of God./ 

Strengthen our faith in God 

who always finds ways of 

preserving us in his friendship. 

/ Be beside us to hold 

our hands when we take our 

first steps toward the Eternal 

Kingdom. 

Three years later, my father, 

brother, and I were praying 

at my mother’s bedside as she 

received the anointing of the 

sick. She died a few hours later. 

I spent a long time asking 

God why my mother wasn’t 

among the pilgrims who left 

the waters of Lourdes able to 

walk, or who left her wheelchair 

behind at the oratory. 

But I can now imagine that as she 

passed from this life to the next, she 

walked through the gates of heaven 

on those legs she wanted back, greeted 

by St. André at the door. And the 

ever glorious patron of a happy death 

would be close behind, welcoming 

her home to rest at the end of her 

earthly pilgrimage. 

Elise Italiano Ureneck is a contributor 

to Angelus and columnist for 

Catholic News Service writing from 

Rhode Island. 

July 29, 2022 • ANGELUS • 15

The apostle of California 

SoCal Catholics have an opportunity 

for pilgrimage in their own backyard — 

tracing the path of St. Junípero Serra. 

BY STEPHEN J. BINZ / PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHEN J. BINZ 

Bell tower of Mission San Diego in San Diego. 

At the heart of pilgrimage is a 

longing that has fascinated and 

compelled the human spirit 

from time immemorial. And this 

ancient practice is experiencing a 

growing attraction and taking on new 

forms today. In fact, America now has 

its own pilgrim way: the road connecting 

the California missions of St. 

Junípero Serra, canonized in 2015. 

In ancient times, pilgrimage often 

involved distant travel along hazardous 

roads and across perilous 

seas. Today, Christians continue to 

make long journeys along ancient 

pilgrimage routes — the path of Jesus 

through Galilee to Jerusalem, the way 

of the early martyrs in Rome, and the 

Camino of Santiago de Compostela 

— seeking the transforming power 

that seems to reside in these sacred 

places. 

But such distant travel is not necessary 

to experience a pilgrimage. More 

and more people are discovering that 

a journey in the way of America’s 

great missionary saint, the apostle of 

California, is a superb way of absorbing 

his saintly passion and love for the 

Gospel. Travelers today, like pilgrims 

of old, are experiencing a transforming 

journey along the Camino — the 

pilgrim way. 

St. Junípero’s motto — “¡Siempre 

Adelante!” (“Always Forward!”) — expresses 

his courageous life, bringing 

the good news of Jesus Christ to the 

Native Americans of California. By 

traveling his Camino with a pilgrim’s 

heart, we can prepare ourselves to 

continue, in our own way, the journey 

forward that he began in California 

from 1769 to his death in 1784. By 

embodying his spirit on pilgrimage, 

we can become more missionary in 

our discipleship and more evangelical 

in our Catholicism. 

Traveling the Camino 

The missions — 21 in number, beginning 

in San Diego and stretching 

to Sonoma, north of San Francisco 

Bay — were the inspiration of St. 

Junípero. As he envisioned them, the 


Main altar of Mission Dolores in San Francisco. 

missions would form a holy ladder, 

with rungs placed conveniently up 

and down the coast. This “royal 

way” — El Camino Real — holds the 

tangible memories of the days when 

Christianity first came to California. 

St. Junípero’s Camino links these 

missions as a pilgrimage route. Begun 

as trails created by the California 

Native Americans for travel and 

trade, this roadway was adopted by 

the Spaniards as they explored and 

settled California. Today, while much 

of it lies under the asphalt of Highway 

101, in other areas it can be traced 

along city streets, rural roads, and still 

occasionally as dirt trails on mission 

grounds. 

Nowadays, this Camino is most 

conveniently traveled by car along 

the California coastal highways. The 

route is marked by a series of miniature 

mission bells originally erected 

in the early 20th century. These 

cast-iron bells have been hung from 

11-foot bent guideposts, designed 

to resemble a shepherd’s staff and 

to be easily visible along the route. 

Travelers simply follow a map or set 

their GPS device to move from one 

mission to the next. 

Each of the 21 missions is a unique 

jewel and a spiritual oasis. The sacrifices 

of the indigenous peoples who 

built these places and memories of 

the early missionaries and their ardor 

for the Gospel pervade these grounds. 

The walls and ceilings of the mission 

structures express the Native American 

culture, with bright oranges, 

reds, yellows, and blues in geometric 

patterns. Iridescent abalone shells, 

spiritually powerful objects for the 

Indians, hold holy water in wall 

niches and adorn the tabernacle for 

the Eucharist. Old Spanish mission 

art can be found next to Indian wall 

paintings, as symbols of piety from 

two centuries ago form a wonderful, 

holy mix. 

Some of these missions are found 

wedged into cities; others are surrounded 

by mountains and valleys. 

They have all been shaped and reshaped 

for generations. The grounds 

are filled with bells, statues, fountains, 

and gardens, all symbols of life 

and feasts of color. Native American 

talents blended with European ways 

to create thriving communities. 

Yet those who travel along this ancient 

road not only experience slices 

of history, but also gain opportunities 

to encounter the presence of the 

living God in tangible ways today. All 

but two of the missions are functioning 

churches, where Christian 

baptisms, holy Mass, and beautiful 

weddings are regularly celebrated. 

The Sunday schedule of worship 

alternates between English and Spanish 

and sometimes includes services 

in Vietnamese, Haitian, Portuguese, 

and other languages for California’s 

immigrant communities. 

St. Junípero’s Camino is the ideal 

pilgrimage. It challenges the traveler 

to make an internal, spiritual 

journey that parallels the external, 

geographical trip. In traveling this 

road, pilgrims encounter holy places, 

communities of faith, occasions for 

meditative prayer, and prospects for 

inner healing — all opportunities to 

align their lives more closely with the 

Gospel. 

The pilgrimage can be as rugged or 

as luxurious as you choose. My first 

trip through the missions was in a 

rental car, driving along the coast at 

my own pace, stopping to seek lodging 

at the end of each day. I’ve also 

led pilgrimages in luxury coaches, 

with nice hotels and dinners awaiting 

us each evening. And I’ve always 

admired hikers and cyclists trekking 

to one mission after another, as in 

the days before gasoline and electric 

power. 

The missions as spaces for encounter 

Far more than museums documenting 

the past, the missions have always 

been places of encounter among 

peoples. They began as Native American 

and European cultures met. Two 

traditions wove themselves together: 

the Spanish Franciscan way — which 

affirmed the goodness of creation and 

the incarnation of God in the world 

— and the California Indian spirituality 

— which practiced respect for the 

earth and the divine spirit that fills it. 

St. Junípero was part of a missionary 

team that went out to the peripheries 

— beyond the geographical, social, 

and racial boundaries of their time 

— to proclaim the Gospel. Yet in his 

encounter with the Native American 

people, he sought to understand their 

indigenous spiritual beliefs. 

His diaries show examples of how 

he used traditional beliefs as springboards 

for preaching the Gospel. 

He fiercely criticized the Spanish 

colonists and military, consistently 

protecting the Native American people 

from being mistreated or morally 

tainted. He poured out his life out 

of love for the California Indians, 


St. Junípero Serra, who loved the Native 

peoples of California, teaching a Native child. 

and they deeply loved him in return. 

Six-hundred wept at his funeral, 

piling his bier high with wildflowers, 

and countless people testified to his 

sanctity. 

At St. Junípero’s canonization, 

Pope Francis said that he embodies a 

Church that goes forth: “He was excited 

about blazing trails, going forth 

to meet many people, learning and 

valuing their particular customs and 

ways of life. He learned how to bring 

to birth and nurture God’s life in the 

faces of everyone he met; he made 

them his brothers and sisters.” 

Following St. Junípero’s Camino 

convinces us that all of the baptized 

have two fundamental callings: the 

calls to holiness and to mission. In 

the extraordinary life of St. Junípero, 

holiness and mission were one, unified 

in the joy of the Gospel. 

As pilgrims in his way, we take on 

his joyful conviction, learning to 

leave behind our islands of comfort 

and witness to Jesus Christ in the 

modern world. And because of our 

call to holiness, we proclaim his good 

news not only with words, but above 

all by a transfigured life. 

Pope Francis said that this call to 

evangelize must be a normal part of 

a mature, authentic, and integrated 

Christian life. Evangelization is the 

urgent call of our Church: to renew, 

expand, and cultivate disciples. St. 

Junípero’s Camino points the way forward 

for us. “The joy of the Gospel,” 

the pope said, “is something to be 

experienced, something to be known 

and lived only through giving it away, 

through giving ourselves away.” 

The response of St. Junípero and 

his followers to the call to share the 

Gospel is a complex reflection of 

who we are and have always been as 

a Church: a sinful yet holy people, 

constantly striving to follow God’s 

will as best we can in light of our 

weaknesses and our strengths, with 

both our blindness and our zeal to be 

missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. 

From our perspective today, we 

can see that the early missionaries of 

California were often too immersed 

in their own European culture to 

clearly see the richness of the culture 

they were entering. In their eyes, 

European culture was “civilized,” 

while the Native American culture 

was “primitive.” As global Christians 

today, we have to learn to see how the 

Gospel lives in a multitude of cultural 

contexts, obliging us to be humble 

in examining beliefs and customs in 

order to bring Jesus Christ to another 

culture. 

Today, Christian Native Americans 

in California seek ways of being equal 

participants in the life and mission of 

the Church — as indigenous people. 

They continue to explore ways to 

experience the freedom and spiritual 

power of the Gospel, while still 

fully embracing their tribal identity, 

traditional customs, and cultural ways 

in their expressions of faith in Jesus 

Christ. 

As we embrace a multicultural 

Church, as it exists today in California 

and in our own local context, let 

us celebrate our universal Christian 

faith, expressed through the languages, 

customs, art, music, values, and 

rituals of Native American, Spanish, 

Mexican, and a host of Asian, African, 

and European cultures. By doing so, 

we continue to follow the Camino of 

St. Junípero. 

A pilgrimage worth taking 

Traveling along St. Junípero’s 

Camino and enjoying the beautiful 

California missions, let us work for 

healing, lamenting what went wrong 

in the past and acknowledging the 

real pains that remain. But let us also 

recognize the heroism of St. Junípero 

and all the great men and women, 

Native American and Hispanic, who 

sanctified the missions of California 

and bear witness to their history. 

Go to the mission churches with 

a pilgrim’s heart searching for God. 

Take the water of the font at each 

door into your hand, reminding you 

of baptism and the water of new life 

that God desires to spring up within 

you. Bless yourself as a tangible sign 

of the saving death and resurrection 

that unites believers in one faith. 

Light a candle at your favorite altars 

as a sign that your prayer lingers in 

this place after you depart. 

If you arrive and the church is filled 

with people celebrating a Mass, baptism, 

wedding, or funeral, don’t turn 

away, disappointed that your touring 

has been impeded. But stand to the 

side, grateful that the faith these 

missions represent remains alive for 

so many today. 

The questions that arise along 

America’s pilgrim way become the 

challenges of our discipleship today. 

Can the missionary past be transformed 

into something new that 

speaks powerfully and challenges the 

era in which we live? Can the sparks 

of sanctity still alive from missionary 

California come to flame today to 

bring about justice and reconciliation 

for the people of our land? The rich 

spirituality of pilgrimage along St. 

Junípero’s Camino can arouse within 

Christian travelers today a deep desire 

to hope, work, and pray for a new 

civilization of love. 

Stephen J. Binz is a biblical scholar, 

award-winning author, and popular 

speaker. He is the author of more than 

50 books, including “Saint Junípero 

Serra’s Camino” (Servant Books, from 

Franciscan Media, $18.99). 


We’re all 

‘malades’ 

Lessons learned 

from a pilgrimage 

to Lourdes. 

BY JENNY GORMAN PATTON 

The statue of Mary at the grotto of the Shrine of 

Our Lady of Lourdes in southwestern 

France. | SHUTTERSTOCK 

all ‘malades.’ ” Referring 

to the French word 

“We’re 

for people who are sick, 

my cousin and godfather, Mike Smith, 

a Knight in the Order of Malta, spoke 

these words that persuaded me to say 

yes to his invitation to join the pilgrimage 

to Lourdes. 

Years earlier, after reviewing the 

pilgrimage application he’d sent, I had 

said no. I wasn’t sick enough. I wasn’t 

Catholic enough, my inner voice 

said. I felt that that honor should go to 

someone with a life-threatening illness, 

not someone with a chronic condition, 

not someone who attended Mass 

intermittently, not someone who questioned 

some of the Church’s teachings, 

not someone like me. 

I didn’t want to take the place of 

someone more worthy. 

For nearly 30 years, I’ve lived with onand-off-again 

pain and other symptoms 

triggered by a range of autoimmune 

conditions. 

When my pain level has been at its 

worst, I’ve felt closest to God. 

In 2019, when I was in a wheelchair 

for four months and battled pain daily, 

Mike called me. “Mary has asked me 

to ask you again,” he said. 

“Let’s do this,” I responded. I hadn’t 

expected a second chance to go to a 

place of healing, and I felt grateful for 

it. 

My application was accepted, but the 

pandemic delayed my journey for two 

more years. In April 2022, I landed in 

Lourdes with the Order of Malta and 

my caregiver, Dori Wagner O’Donnell, 


Jenny (left), with Knight Mike Smith, her cousin, and caregiver Dori O’Donnell. | COURTESY JENNY GORMAN PATTON 

a dear friend from my days at Mayfield 

Senior School in Pasadena. 

As someone who fatigues easily, I was 

worried about the demanding schedule. 

In one day, I attended Mass, was 

re-baptized, went to reconciliation, had 

my feet washed, and received a medal 

at a special ceremony, among other 

activities. But the kindness and positive 

energy of the Knights, Dames, priests, 

nuns, caregivers, volunteers, and my 

fellow malades — and the place itself 

— energized me. 

Even though I was one of the malades 

who rode in a blue cart, I met Knights, 

Dames, priests, and nuns who had 

once been malades or who were now 

caregivers. As Mike said, we are all 

malades — or will be. 

While in Lourdes, something 

unexpected occurred. My pain level 

increased. This was a place of healing, 

so why was I hurting so much? Perhaps 

the barometric pressure changes 

during the flight and stormy weather 

in France ignited inflammation in 

my body. Tendons in my wrists were 

on fire, evoking pain that shot up my 

arms into nerves in my neck. Dr. Joe 

Pachorek, a member of the Order of 

Malta medical team, jumped into 

action and purchased medicine to treat 

my symptoms, which took the edge off. 

But I didn’t feel whole. I didn’t feel 

like the version of myself I wanted to 

find in Lourdes. 

One Knight-turned-malade shared 

something that stayed with me: “When 

young Bernadette saw Mary at the 

grotto in 1858, it had been a garbage 

dump, not a holy place.” He encouraged 

us to dump our garbage there. I 

had viewed the grotto with its intention 

box as a place to ask Mary for what I 

wanted, not as a place to dump what I 

no longer wished to carry. 

His words inspired me to make two 

lists: what I want and what I release. On 

a sunny afternoon, I went alone to the 

grotto, a place of peace. I kneeled and 

prayed in front of the statue of Mary, 

now flanked by pink roses that recently 

appeared. 

Among the many items I wanted were 

patience, direction on the book I was 

writing, and a fitting job for a loved 

one who was unemployed. To my surprise, 

my dump list was longer: pain, 

self-pity, resentment, and ego, among 

others. Tears flooded my eyes. I placed 

my intention list in the box beside the 

healing water, then crumpled up my 

release list and threw it in a trash can 

beside the Gave de Pau River. 

Now, a few months later, everything 

on my intention list has been manifested, 

and several items on my release list 

have begun to dissipate. 

I wish I could say that all my physical 

pain is gone. It’s not, but that’s OK. 

I’m pursuing new treatments and feel 

hopeful — and I’m practicing patience. 

The trip to Lourdes reset me emotionally 

and spiritually, and I learned that 

we can feel both broken and whole at 

the same time. We’re all malades, and 

we’re all worthy. 

Jenny Gorman Patton grew up in Pasadena 

and now teaches writing at Ohio 

State University in Columbus, Ohio. 

“Des voitures” (“carriages”) carrying malades sponsored by the Order of Malta Western Association are lined up for 

Mass at the grotto. | COURTESY JENNY GORMAN PATTON 


Participants at the 2019 C3 Conference. | JOHNMICHAEL FILIPPONE 

Flipping the switch 

C3 Conference to apply pandemic lessons to a post-COVID era. 

BY EVAN HOLGUIN 

Nearly 1,000 people are expected 

to join the Catholic Communication 

Collaboration (C3) 

Conference in person on Aug. 2 — the 

first time since the COVID-19 pandemic 

sent it, like most events, online 

only. 

But as the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ 

technological initiative, C3 is using 

the opportunity not merely to return to 

a pre-pandemic status quo but to take 

advantage of newly developed technological 

infrastructure to expand the 

reach of their conference. 

A descendant of the archdiocese’s 

foray into Educational Broadband 

Service (EBS) licenses from the 1960s, 

C3 officially launched in 2012. 

“We kind of referred to it as swampland 

back then,” conference chair Paul 

Hernandez said, “because as big as the 

archdiocese was, it was a good way to 

communicate and have some content 

to go out.” 

What once was used for PBS-style 

television programming like “Davey 

and Goliath” from “Gumby” creator 

Art Clokey, has since become the 

foundational wavelength for cellphone 

signals. By licensing their EBS rights 

to cellular companies like T-Mobile, 

the archdiocese can invest in new 

types of technology, adapt to unexpected 

needs, and host the annual C3 

Conference to provide training on new 

technological trends. 

C3 programming has been so successful 

that the average LA Catholic has 

probably benefited from them without 

realizing. Throughout the pandemic 

lockdowns, C3 service technicians 

helped parishes set up streaming options 

for Mass, provided video conferencing 

training, and brought cloudbased 

collaboration tools like Microsoft 

365 or Google Suite. 

For thousands of students, C3 enabled 

the unexpected shift to remote 

learning in March 2020. Through the 

Ignite program, C3 provided 31,000 

iPads, equipped with wi-fi hotspots, to 

students at more than 190 archdiocesan 

schools — ensuring no student 

missed schooling due to technological 


inequity. 

The opportunity now, Hernandez 

said, is to sustain the growth seen over 

the past few years, especially in archdiocesan 

schools which have increased 

enrollment by 3.5% nationally, and 

apply those lessons to other areas. 

“We really want to identify things 

that worked, that were good, that were 

efficient,” he said 

“Maybe there were some good benefits 

to what we learned for these three 

years,” he added. “The exposure to the 

new resources and tools that we had 

to start using — maybe that’s a good 

thing. It helps us move in a different direction 

than we were three years ago.” 

That is the core focus of this year’s 

conference, which will include 

continued training on the basics of 

online tools like Zoom as well as 

newly emerging apps and electronics. 

Registrants have had online access 

to a host of on-demand and live web 

courses through an online platform 

since July 1, one way that the conference 

is embracing its theme, “Flipping 

the Switch.” 

Amy J. Cattapan, Ph.D., an 

award-winning writer and educator, 

will be presenting in person after 

leading a session during the 2021 

virtual conference. She compared the 

hybrid event model as following recent 

schooling trends. 

“Many of the presentations will 

discuss how teachers can ‘flip’ their 

classrooms,” she said, “where teachers 

provide students with a video to watch 

or a passage to read at home, and then 

class time is reserved for practicing 

under a teacher’s guidance.” 

But “flipping” the classroom goes 

beyond just providing a virtual and 

in-person meeting space, according to 

Cattapan. 

“Many teachers have been through 

a very dark period recently,” she 

said. “The pandemic has drained us 

physically, intellectually, and emotionally. 

We’re looking for the light of 

inspiration to be turned back on so that 

we can head back into our classrooms 

with new ideas, energy, and enthusiasm.” 

“We often talk about the ‘light of 

Christ’s love for us,” Lisa Henley, 

an author and speaker who will also 

present at this year’s conference, said 

Staff at Homeboy Electronics Recycling. | HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES 

in agreement. “I know that for me to 

share this light with others, I have to 

activate my own spiritual journey … 

before we can help someone else flip a 

switch, we need to bring light into our 

own lives.” 

Though not the original intention of 

the conference, Hernandez acknowledged 

that mental health and well-being 

has quickly become a prominent 

focus for this C3 Conference. 

“It’s definitely the time to understand, 

‘Hey, it’s OK to turn off every once in 

a while.’ You can be the light, but you 

don’t have to have it on 24/7, 365,” he 

said. 

The C3 Conference will also serve as 

the launch of a new partnership with 

Homeboy Electronics Recycling, a part 

of the gang rehabilitation and re-entry 

program Homeboy Industries, in the 

face of a new challenge facing Catholic 

institutions: e-waste. 

“It just happens because things age 

out,” Hernandez said. “Whether it’s a 

new phone system or internet router 

or wiring, old printers, laptops, it kind 

of accumulates. We were looking to 

figure out the best possible opportunity 

to recycle all of that.” 

Through the partnership, Homeboy 

Electronics Recycling will offer pickup 

services of e-waste for Catholic 

institutions. 

“It’s a win-win situation. They have 

more items so that they can continue 

to train with their mission, and it helps 

us because all of our locations end up 

eliminating all the waste and we have 

more space,” Hernandez said. 

In recognition of the new partnership, 

Father Greg Boyle, SJ, founder 

of Homeboy Industries, will offer an 

opening keynote address. 

“When we get together on Aug. 2 in 

person, that is really our celebration,” 

Hernandez said. “That we are still 

here. That our ministries are still there 

… and that we’re stronger than we 

were even three years ago.” 

Evan Holguin is a graduate of the 

University of Notre Dame. Originally 

from Santa Clarita, he now lives in 

New Haven, Connecticut. His work has 

been featured on the website Aleteia. 

com and on Ultramontane: A Catholic 

News Podcast. 


A reformer’s voice 

Behind the little-understood legacy of the 

late cardinal who helped name the pope. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the former archbishop of São Paolo and former prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy, died July 4 at the age of 87. He is pictured with Pope Francis 

during the pope’s election night appearance on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on March 13, 2013. | CNS/PAUL HARING 

ROME — By common consensus, Pope Francis 

is a reforming pope. Indeed, one could make the 

argument that the very first decision the new pontiff 

made, the one that introduced him to the world, signaled a 

dramatic reform course. 

Recall the sequence when a new pope is elected. First, he 

has to accept election, which is the last choice he’ll ever 

make as anything less than the Vicar of Christ; then he has 

to pick a name, which is the symbolic opening move of the 

new papacy. 

For centuries, many theologians and Church historians 

had maintained a short list of papal names that could never 

be used. There could never be a “Pope Jesus,” because no 

pontiff could arrogate to himself the name of the Savior, 

however common a name it might be in Spanish-speaking 

lands. There could also never again be a “Pope Peter,” 

since the first pope is in a class all by himself. 

By a similar logic, many experts felt there could never be 

a “Pope Francis,” since the Poor Man of Assisi was such a 

singular and iconic figure in Church history, his name had 

to be forever restricted to his own memory. 

All that changed in March 2013, when Cardinal Jorge 

Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected to the papacy. 

The new pope would later recall in a session with the press 

that it was Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil, a longtime 

fixture in Latin American Catholicism, who inspired his 

choice of name. 

“When things started getting a little dangerous, he 

cheered me on,” the new pope said, referring to the conclave 

in which he was elected. “And when the vote came 

to two-thirds, the usual applause began, as the pope had 

been elected. He [Cardinal Hummes] hugged me, kissed 


me, and said, ‘Do not forget about the poor.’ Those words 

were carved on my mind.” 

Thus, the Francis papacy was born. 

It’s ironic that Cardinal Hummes, who did so much to 

inspire the vision of this papacy, including its particular concern 

for the Amazon region, died July 4 at the age of 87, just 

as the latest steps in Pope Francis’ ongoing reform campaign 

were being revealed. 

On July 13, Pope Francis named three women to the 

Vatican’s über-powerful Dicastery for Bishops, formerly the 

Congregation for Bishops, which is responsible for recommending 

new bishops to the pope around the world. 

A good argument can be made that nothing any pope ever 

does is more important in terms of shaping the culture of 

the Catholic Church than the appointment of bishops, so by 

choosing who’ll recommend those names, a pope in effect is 

choosing whose instincts and preferences he trusts to set the 

tone for the Church for the next generation. 

The women named to the Dicastery are Sister Raffaella 

Petrini, FSE, secretary general of the Governorate of the 

Vatican City State; Sister Yvonne Reungoat, FMA, former 

superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; 

and Maria Lia Zervino, Ph.D., president of the World 

Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations. 

“I am open to giving (women) a chance,” Pope Francis said 

in an interview with Reuters days before the nominations, after 

being asked by the news agency about his plans to further 

promote the role of women at the Vatican. 

“This way, things are opening up a bit,” the pope added. 

At the time, Pope Francis didn’t specify which women he 

intended to appoint to the bishops’ panel. Still, for traditionalists 

who believe that such matters should pertain exclusively 

to clergy, it was the latest papal pronouncement destined 

to engender heartburn. 

To be clear, not everyone is ready to hail Pope Francis as 

the “Great Reformer,” in the phrase of his leading English-language 

biographer Austen Ivereigh. 

Some Catholic feminists find Pope Francis’ steps so far 

toward empowering women — naming a woman, for example, 

as the No. 2 official in the Vatican City State, another 

as an official of the Synod for Bishops, and so on — to be 

half-measures, and remain frustrated that he hasn’t moved to 

ordain women as deacons, a measure recommended by the 

very Synod of Bishops for the Amazon Region that his good 

friend Cardinal Hummes did so much to encourage. 

“How much longer should Catholic women be expected 

to be grateful at being offered crumbs from the table?” asked 

Kathleen Cummings, professor of American Studies at the 

University of Notre Dame, 

Maria Lia Zervino, an Argentinian who is 

president of the World Union of Catholic 

Women’s Organizations, shows Pope 

Francis a document on June 11, during a 

meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace 

at the Vatican. The Vatican announced 

on July 13 that the pope had named 

Zervino to be a member of the Dicastery 

for Bishops. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA 

in a July 6 statement. 

In other areas, too, some 

object that Pope Francis’ 

reforms fall short of real 

change. From the left, 

one hears such objections 

about his openness on 

LGBTQ issues, which 

falls short of endorsing 

gay marriage; from the 

right, some grouse that the 

pope’s advocacy for the 

unborn doesn’t include 

Communion bans for pro-choice Catholic politicians. 

Such complaints are baked into the cake for anyone in a 

position of leadership. One person’s “reform,” inevitably, is 

another’s failure or disappointment. 

What no one can reasonably doubt, however, is that Pope 

Francis has remained true to the charge given by his friend 

Cardinal Hummes, not to forget the poor. 

We got another reminder this week, when the Vatican confirmed 

that Pope Francis will travel to Assisi, his namesake’s 

home, for the sixth time on Sept. 24. The occasion will be 

the first in-person gathering of a new movement he helped 

launch called the “Economy of Francis,” which brings 

together young economists, businesspeople, academics, 

and other change agents desiring to build a new economy 

inspired by the vision of St. Francis of Assisi. 

One prays that Cardinal Hummes, whatever his own 

private catalog of frustrations and disappointments over the 

last nine years, nevertheless may rest in peace, knowing his 

legacy lives on in the papacy he helped name. 

John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux. 


SHUTTERSTOCK 

A time to tell the truth 

Why the latest criticism of the Church’s teaching 

on birth control could use a reality check. 

BY CHARLIE CAMOSY 

Earlier this month, the Pontifical 

Academy for Life’s (PAL) 

official Twitter account suggested 

that Catholic teaching on the 

necessary connection between sex and 

openness to having children might 

one day be discarded, just as the 

Church once rejected its long-held 

belief that the earth was the center of 

the solar system. 

“The Sun does not rotate around the 

Earth,” read the academy’s tweet from 

July 11. “Otherwise there would be no 

progress and everything would stand 

still. Even in theology. Think about 

it.” 

The idea that the Church might 

overturn St. Pope Paul VI’s 1968 

encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (“On 

Human Life”) has predictably set off 

a firestorm of reaction in the Catholic 

world, both positive and negative: 

That this suggestion was made by an 

institution founded to advise the pope 

on issues of law and biomedicine and 

their implications for morality and 

Church teaching, was doubly disturbing. 

This all started with the recent 

publication of a new 528-page book 

(currently available only in Italian), 

the apparent result of a 2021 academy-sponsored 

theological seminar. 

America magazine’s Gerard O’Connell 

reported that “the subject that 

is likely to draw most attention is the 

revisiting of the question regarding the 

use of artificial contraceptives” in the 

book’s seventh chapter. 

O’Connell noted that, both in 

the seminar and in the book, it was 

affirmed that a couple can make a 

“wise choice” by having recourse to 

contraception in situations where the 

“conditions and practical circumstances 

would make it irresponsible to 

choose to procreate.” 

Those words suggest the select group 

behind the document wants to revisit 

St. Paul VI’s authoritative teaching in 

“Humanae Vitae” that the connection 

between sex and openness to having 

children was so essential that it needed 

to be honored in every single act, 

without exception. 

Other academy members have 

strongly objected to the book being 

published. Dr. Mónica López 

Barahona, an academy board member 

and president of the Jérôme Lejeune 

Foundation in Spain, said the book 

does not represent an official declaration 

of the PAL and also that it should 

have been reviewed by Vatican doc- 


trine officials before being published. 

She acknowledged that some of its 

statements seem to contradict Church 

teaching, implying in particular that 

there are no actions that are intrinsically 

evil. 

The president of the academy, Archbishop 

Vincenzo Paglia, claims in the 

book’s introduction that it heralds a 

“paradigm shift” in moral theology, 

one which dismisses the old teaching 

as a “handbook of formulas” that 

doesn’t adequately capture the “existential 

aspects that are most relevant 

to the dramatic nature of the human 

condition and addressed from the 

perspective of an anthropology that is 

appropriate to the cultural mediation 

of faith in today’s world.” 

Since what is being called for here is 

a shift affecting the whole of Catholic 

moral theology, those making this 

argument wouldn’t have to stop with 

issues like contraception and in vitro 

fertilization, but could also hypothetically 

revisit the Church’s teaching 

against racism, torture, and sexual violence 

— all of which are prohibited in 

each and every act without exception. 

After all, there are Catholics (especially 

when it comes to torture) 

who will also dismiss such teachings 

as applying a simplistic “handbook 

of formulas” to what can be a much 

more complex moral situation. 

Let’s hope and pray that this is just 

the wishful thinking of a small group 

of seminar participants, so that the 

Church’s teaching that sins like racism, 

torture, and sexual violence are 

always and everywhere impermissible 

remains. 

But let’s also realize that it is literally 

the worst time ever to be challenging 

the teaching of “Humanae Vitae.” It 

is true, as critics have said for multiple 

generations, that most Catholics have 

rejected the Church’s teaching in that 

document. But the Catholic Church’s 

teaching, whether about contraception 

or about our radical duties to give 

our wealth to the poor, is not subject 

to a popularity contest. 

By any objective measure, the 

Church’s teaching in “Humanae Vitae” 

is more relevant than it has ever 

been. A few reasons why: 

• The separation of sex from openness 

to procreation has produced 

a hookup culture in which the 

primary script for sex involves intentionally 

using another person’s 

body as a mere object and then discarding 

them. That this throwaway 

sexual culture very often crosses 

the line into sexual violence is a 

feature, not a bug. 

• Virtual porn already dominates the 

lives of large majorities of young 

people, but in separating sex from 

marriage open to procreation, that 

kind of person-less sexual behavior 

will become our culture’s norm, 

especially with the advent of the 

so-called “metaverse” and sex 

robots driven by artificial intelligence. 

• Happily, more and more women 

are rejecting the patriarchal 

expectation that they will “choose” 

to pump their bodies full of dangerous 

hormones as the price of 

admission not only for dating and 

relationships, but for following 

their educational and vocational 

dreams. More and more women 

(including those who are secular 

in their approach) are honoring 

their given, embodied femininity 

by using the latest technology to 

practice various eco-friendly and 

strikingly effective versions of the 

fertility awareness method. 

• It now clear that it is virtually 

impossible to separate the logic 

of contraception from the logic of 

abortion. Indeed, until very recently 

the United States was governed 

by abortion law (Planned Parenthood 

v. Casey), which insisted that 

women need abortion as a backup 

to contraception. Abortion is the 

fail-safe for participation in sexual 

culture created by contraception. 

• When reproduction is separated 

from sex and moved to a laboratory, 

gross ableism follows. Indeed, 

disabled embryonic children are 

discarded and those with genetically 

preferred traits are implanted — 

a practice that will become even 

more common. Furthermore, this 

culture of reproduction mirrors the 

excesses of our country’s consumerist 

practices, producing millions 

of “extra” embryos destined for 

the absurd fate of perpetual frozen 

storage. 

• This model of reproduction as disconnected 

from sex has led to the 

rejection of the idea that having 

children is an unmerited gift from 

God. Instead, it pushes in the direction 

of a so-called “right to have 

children” which may (especially if 

one is older and/or gay or lesbian) 

require mandatory coverage of in 

vitro fertilization. One wonders 

what such a shift will require of 

vulnerable women who are already 

structurally coerced into renting 

their bodies to serve the fertility of 

others. 

The Church’s teaching on the 

inherent connection between sex 

and procreation was not only divinely 

inspired, but has never been more urgent 

in the consumerist West. Instead 

of resurrecting a played-out attempt 

to undermine this teaching, Catholic 

moral theologians should be working 

on new and creative ways to invite all 

people of goodwill to see its truth. 

One obvious way to move toward this 

goal: U.S. and European Catholics 

should take a harder look at how and 

why Catholics in Africa and other 

places in the developing world have 

not capitulated to our consumer 

throwaway culture in the areas of sex 

and procreation. This is an opportunity 

to listen to peoples who can provide 

language and strategies — based on 

their lived experience — for helping 

the world see the truth St. Paul VI 

taught in “Humanae Vitae.” 

Charlie Camosy is professor of 

Medical Humanities at the Creighton 

University School of Medicine. 

In addition, he holds the Monsignor 

Curran Fellowship in Moral Theology 

at St. Joseph Seminary in New York. 

His most recent book is “Losing Our 

Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is 

Undermining Fundamental Human 

Equality” (New City Press, $22.95). 


NOW PLAYING STRANGER THINGS 

WHEN THE DEVIL IS AT THE DOOR 

The fourth season of ‘Stranger Things’ needs 

a little less hellfire and a little more heaven. 

BY HANNAH LONG 

Gaten Matarazzo, Joseph 

Quinn, and Finn Wolfhard in 

the fourth season of Netflix’s 

“Stranger Things.” | IMDB 

When the Netflix show 

“Stranger Things” premiered 

in the summer of 

2016, it was a surprise nostalgia-fueled 

hit. But more important to its success, 

it was charming. And ultimately, 

despite its focus on nerdy outcasts, it 

was an ode to the power of traditional 

community and intact families. 

Consider the adult leads. In many 

1980s films, the theme of divorce 

looms large, while united parents are 

written as square and reactionary. In 

a similar vein, the only sympathetic, 

competent adults in “Stranger Things” 

tend to be single parents, allies to their 

free-spirited children. But season one 

does something interesting with that 

convention. 

Loving father Chief Jim Hopper (David 

Harbour) and devoted mom Joyce 

Byers (Winona Ryder) form a team 

which is, archetypally, a united family. 

The two of them ultimately descend 

into hell to rescue Joyce’s son. The 

shot where they resurrect and cradle 

him is striking cinematic iconography. 

In that moment, even while each is 

unmarried, they typify a complete 

family, rebuking corrupt, indifferent 

parents not through their singleness, 

but through their unity. This, the show 

asserts, is how families should be. 

Subsequent seasons have lost that 

vision. Increasingly glorifying rebellious 

loners instead of recognizing 

the beauty of united communities has 

kneecapped each season, even the 

ambitious and engrossing new volume. 

At least the power of friendship is still 

important, but volume four’s mythology 

is so sprawling that it overshadows 

the sorts of community bonds that were 

concretely established in season one. 

On the other hand, there are some 

bonds that are well-developed in the 

show. Now that Mike (Finn Wolfhard), 

Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas 

(Caleb McLaughlin) have moved 

on to Hawkins High School, they’ve 

been inducted into the high school 

“Hellfire” Dungeons & Dragons Club. 

While Lucas defects to the basketball 

team, Mike and Dustin fall under the 

sway of charismatic Hellfire leader 

Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), a 

metalhead 19-year-old who’s flunked 

two years of school. 

Eddie recognizes Dustin and Mike as 

“the future of Hellfire” and describes 

the gawky freshmen as “little lost 

sheep” (a later, similar line will make 

his Christ figure status unmistakable). 

He is a saint of loserdom, ranting 

loudly in the cafeteria about “forced 

conformity” being “the real monster,” 

not the satanic panic sweeping 1980s 

America. (He follows this rant against 

conformity by bullying Mike and 

Dustin into doing things his way.) 

The only thing is … Satan? He really 

is stalking the streets — or understreets 


— of Hawkins. The season’s new 

villain is “Vecna” (Raphael Luce as a 

child and Jamie Campbell Power as 

an adult), a grim serial-killing monster 

who gruesomely murders teenagers. 

Vecna’s demonic psychological sway 

represents a significant escalation in 

evil from previous seasons’ creepy-crawly 

monsters. The lack of a countervailing 

power of good is therefore a great 

weakness in the show. The devil is real 

in “Stranger Things,” but God is not. 

Despite some interesting but weightless 

dialogue about “miracles,” the Church 

is merely a blind institution full of 

ignorant townspeople. 

What’s interesting here is that “Stranger 

Things” lacks categories for good 

and evil, so it translates them instead 

to “normal” (bad) and “marginalized” 

(good). For the most part, the “normal” 

people in the show are uniformly monstrous. 

Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) 

is bullied by Angela (Elodie Grace 

Orkin) and her pack of mean girls. 

Jason (Mason Dye), the anti-Eddie, is 

a blond basketball captain who reads 

his lines like a Southern preacher. He 

is seen as a psychopathic bigot, even 

though, by the show’s internal logic, 

he’s making reasonable assumptions 

about the evil in his town. 

Jason is a vigilante, but so are Nancy 

(Natalia Dyer) and her friends. But in 

Jason’s case, his vigilantism is perceived 

as villainous because he is slightly off 

about the culprit’s identity. And really, 

because he is normal. At least the 

characters praise Joe Keery’s jock Steve 

Harrington, but that’s a weak concession; 

Steve transcends his identity by 

being a toothless, albeit sweet, nerd 

ally. 

Ignoring the good-evil distinction also 

saps the tension from the existential 

crisis facing Eleven. Having internalized 

the logic of conformity, she 

— who is not a murderer — wonders 

whether she is truly a monster because 

she’s socially awkward, or if her “father” 

— a murderous but suave scientist — 

is. Gee, wonder what the answer is? 

Eventually Eleven realizes that it’s 

the abused “monsters” like herself 

who are righteous, not their abusers. 

But this logic — still free of good and 

evil distinctions — leads her to offer 

absolution to an actual monster! (In 

the immortal words of Indiana Jones, 

“Didn’t you guys ever go to Sunday 

School?”) 

The lack of a concrete (probably 

religious) sense of good is also problematic 

for the show’s strongest, most 

affecting storyline: the stalking of 

Vecna’s victims. They are outside of 

the jock-nerd distinction. Previously, 

“Stranger Things” monsters picked off 

whoever happened to be around. This 

time, Vecna hunts the emotionally 

vulnerable, as all predators do. 

It’s a terrifyingly perfect threat for 

high-schoolers, for the fantasy logic 

of Vecna’s hunt is a perfect metaphor 

for teen suicidal ideation. He lies to 

them about their worth, watches them 

spiral, then moves in for the kill. It’s 

Screwtape 101. Kids, full of hormones 

and oversized emotions, are the perfect 

prey for a demon. 

Tomboy Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) 

is his key target. Despite her spunk, 

Max is at heart the most fatalistic and 

sensitive of the Hawkins kids because 

she has been burdened by far more 

adult struggles. Her journey this season 

is engrossing and (in that one scene) 

empowering, but its grim resolution 

undermines what comes before. Totemic 

pieces of ’80s pop culture aren’t 

really strong enough to beat the devil, 

it turns out. 

But at least the showrunners, brothers 

Matt and Ross Duffer, seem to know 

that. They are aware, in the end, that 

these characters need something stronger 

to combat evil than pop culture, 

and that being an outsider does not 

always make one righteous. Yet what 

else is there? 

In season five, the Duffers will 

need to be more honest about the 

limitations of righteous loner logic. 

The show should take the time to let 

character moments breathe (more of 

Eddie and a cheerleader awkwardly 

flirting, less endless exposition), restore 

healthy authority figures (bring back 

Smart Hopper!), 

Millie Bobby Brown and 

Jamie Campbell Bower 

in the fourth season 

of Netflix’s “Stranger 

Things.” | IMDB 

and be comfortable 

with united 

families (less 

bickering, more 

bantering). These 

changes would go 

a long way toward 

creating a community network that 

feels real. After all, that is the thing that 

stops teenage spiraling in real life. 

It also wouldn’t hurt, when the devil 

is at the door, for the Hellfire Club to 

go to Sunday School. 

Hannah Long is an Appalachian 

writer based in New York City. 

July 29, 2022 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

Looking for a divine spark 

JMARUIZ/CATHOPIC 

“Like all archetypes the archetype of 

pilgrimage is experienced as compelling. 

Sometimes the reasons seem obvious 

to the pilgrim and, on the other hand, 

the reasons offered, especially to the 

outsider, do not always seem adequate 

to the compulsion that is felt.” — Jean 

Dalby Cliff and Wallace B. Clift, “The 

Archetype of Pilgrimage: Outer Action 

With Inner Meaning.” 

The compulsion to go off and 

wander — to connect, to 

complete oneself, to heal a 

wound — is as old as man himself. It’s 

certainly been a continuing theme in 

my life. 

In my younger days I hitchhiked all 

around the country. I once drove from 

LA to my New Hampshire hometown 

and back, alone, and made it a 

pilgrimage by going to Mass every day 

for seven weeks. I’ve been a pilgrim in 

California and within the archdiocese, 

visiting innumerable gardens, missions, 

churches, studios, and museums. 

But our real pilgrimage is interior. If 

a pilgrim is defined as “a person who 

journeys to a sacred place for religious 

reasons,” then for every seeker who 

walks the Camino, another never 

leaves home. 

You can be a pilgrim in your own 

neighborhood, walking the streets, 

praising the flowers and birds, praying. 

You can be a pilgrim among your 

family and friends: offering a greeting, 

sharing your bread, opening your heart 

to all those you meet on the way. 

A 19th-century classic on the subject 

is “The Way of a Pilgrim,” whose anonymous 

Russian author was a homeless 

wanderer with a knapsack, a hunk of 

dried bread, and a Bible. 

One question obsessed him: how to 

follow St. Paul’s instruction to pray 

without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 

5:17). 

A “starets” (“holy man”) he met on 

his travels finally taught him to call 

upon the name of Jesus, with spirit, 

lips, and heart, tens of thousands of 

times a day. 

“Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the living 

God, have mercy on me, a sinner” 

— the “Jesus prayer” immortalized 

by J.D. Salinger in the novel “Franny 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

and Zooey” — at last of its own accord 

began to voice itself deep inside, the 

pilgrim found, even while sleeping. 

The Russian émigré and contemplative 

Catherine de Hueck Doherty 

(1896-1985) founded Madonna House, 

a lay apostolate now based in Combermere, 

Ontario. 

Doherty came from a long line of 

Russian hermit-mystics who wandered 

the countryside with the “Jesus Prayer” 

in their hearts. She married American 

journalist Eddie Doherty, and herself 

became a popular spiritual writer. In 

“Strannik” (1978), a Russian word 

meaning “pilgrim,” she observed that 

while all are called to pilgrimage, few 

can or will go. 

Pilgrimage doesn’t necessarily involve 

traveling, or traveling into the country. 

The journey is to our own hearts, and 

can thus take place in the “poustinia” 

(a sparse hut or room) of our apartments, 

or by walking through the 

streets of a city. Wherever we go, we go 

with bare feet — in spiritual poverty — 

and because we end up walking into 

the fragmented stones and sharp rocks 

of other people’s hearts, our feet get 

bloody. 

We’re chaste, we’re obedient, we fast 

and, like Christ, we’re constantly called 

to move on to another place. 

“A pilgrim preaches the gospel,” 

Doherty wrote, “but in order to preach 

it he has to live it day by day, hour by 

hour, minute by minute. For what is 

he really about, that pilgrim of mine? 

He is preaching the gospel with his life 

and so his pilgrimage has to reflect his 

life.” 

Jennifer Lash (1938-1993) was a 

novelist, wife, and mother. In the early 

1990s, suffering from cancer, and 

following a difficult operation, she took 

off alone for the Camino de Santiago: 

a solitary pilgrimage through France to 

Spain. “On Pilgrimage” is her account 

of that journey. In too much pain to 

walk, she took trains, buses, taxis. She 

went to Vezelay, Lisieux, and Lourdes; 

to Le Chaise-Dieu and Saint-Gilles. 

A seeker rather than firmly devout, 

she was open, observant, wry, deeply 

sensitive to nuance, beauty, and the 

spiritual temperature of any given 

place. 

In one sublime passage, she described 

standing in the basilica of St. Michel 

D’Aiguilhe in Le Puy, France, hearing 

a tremendous gust of wings, and high 

above the narthex, spotting “the unmistakable, 

compelling face of a barn owl. 

Again and again it flew and paused, 

frantically crashing its white body with 

terrible hopelessness against the dusty 

windows. Every so often it would fly 

the whole length of the church only 

to soar up again into another barrier of 

light… There were holes and spaces, 

if only it would see them. Each time it 

failed, the pause and stillness became 

longer, and the fearful despair of the 

bird felt greater. 

“Later, the whole experience haunted 

me… I suddenly thought, what if God 

witnesses in every man a divine spark, 

which flies within us blindly, like that 

bird, crashing in terror, punched and 

pounded from wall to wall, blinded 

by obstacles and dust, and yet, God 

knows, that there is a way for natural 

freedom and ascending flight. What an 

extraordinary pain that witness would 

be.” 

May God witness that divine spark in 

us as we embark upon, or continue, 

our own pilgrimage. May our hearts 

be consoled by the knowledge that he 

trudges the path alongside us. 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

What’s in a building? 

After the Exodus, as Israel sojourned 

in the desert, God gave 

Moses “the pattern of the tabernacle, 

and of all its furniture” (Exodus 

25:9). And so Moses commanded the 

construction of this portable sanctuary 

of God’s presence among his chosen 

people. Centuries later, in Jerusalem, 

God gave David “the plan of the vestibule 

of the temple, and of its houses, 

its treasuries, its upper rooms, and its 

inner chambers, and of the room for 

the mercy seat” (1 Chronicles 28:11). 

God gave Israel’s kings the right to call 

that Temple “the house of the Lord” (1 

Chronicles 28:20–21). 

The early Christians saw both the 

tabernacle and temple as biblical 

“types” foreshadowing the Christian 

Church. They were earthly sanctuaries 

that would find their fulfillment in the 

worship of heaven and earth that we 

find detailed in the New Testament 

books of Hebrews and Revelation (see 

Hebrews 8–10 and Revelations 11:19). 

The Church at worship included what 

Catholics traditionally call the Church 

Militant, the Church Triumphant, 

and the Church Suffering — the great 

cloud of witnesses — the communion 

of the Church on earth, in heaven, and 

in purgatory. 

Most of this was invisible to the eye. 

It was made known, however, through 

the preaching of the Fathers, especially 

those we know as “mystagogues”: 

Ambrose, Cyril of Jerusalem, John 

Chrysostom, Augustine, and Maximus. 

Mystagogy is guidance in the “mysteries,” 

in things hidden since the foundation 

of the world. The mystagogue 

guided his congregation, especially 

new converts, through the external, material 

appearances to grasp the unseen 

reality that is interior, spiritual, hidden, 

“The Church Triumphant,” by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1617-1682, Spanish. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

and divine. Thus he could demonstrate 

that the liturgical and sacramental signs 

have been foreshadowed in both the 

Old and New Testaments. He could 

trace their development from shadow 

(in the Old) to image (in the New) to 

reality (in heaven). 

Ancient mystagogy was intensely 

concerned not only with rite and 

gesture, but with architecture as well. 

The Apostolic Constitutions (fourth 

century) include a lovely symbolic interpretation 

of the church building as a 

ship sailing heavenward. It instructs the 

bishop: “You call an assembly of the 

Church as one who is commander of 

a great ship. Appoint the assemblies to 

be made with all possible skill, charging 

the deacons as mariners to prepare 

places for the brethren as for passengers, 

with all due care and decency. 

And first, let the building be long, with 

its head to the east, with its vestries on 

both sides at the east end, and so it will 

be like a ship. In the middle let the 

bishop’s throne be placed, and on each 

side of him let the priests sit down; 

and let the deacons stand near at hand 

… for they are like the mariners and 

managers of the ship.” 

You see, there’s a divine sense to the 

layout of a Catholic Church. But somehow 

such ideas got lost in the shuffle 

of the ages — so utterly lost that, in our 

own age, the popes have issued urgent 

calls for their recovery. Pope Benedict 

XVI pleaded for a “mystagogical catechesis 

… concerned with presenting 

the meaning of the signs.” 

To understand a church requires a 

cultivated interior life. What do you 

know about the way your parish church 

is built? What are you doing to learn 

more? 


■ SATURDAY, JULY 30 

Entering Into Relationship of Respect, Compassion and 

Sensitivity. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Road, 

Encino, 9:30 a.m.-3: 30 p.m. With Jackie Ford, HSRC staff, 

and Sister Marie Lindemann, SSS. For more information, 

visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 

Preparation for Consecration to Mary Retreat. Father 

Kolbe Missionary Center, 531 E. Merced Ave., West 

Covina, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Consecrate yourself to Mary in the 

spirituality of St. Maximilian Kolbe. To register or for more 

information, email FKMs@kolbemissionusa.org or call 

626-917-0040. 

■ SUNDAY, JULY 31 

A Silent Directed Retreat. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 

Lanai Rd., Encino. Retreat with Sister Ingrid, CSJ, Sister 

Chris Machado, SSS, and the retreat team runs Sunday, 

July 31 at 4 p.m. through Sunday, Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. For more 

information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 

■ MONDAY, AUGUST 1 

St. Bernadette Relic Mass. St. Bernadette Church, 3825 

Don Felipe Dr., Baldwin Hills, 7 p.m. Archbishop Gomez 

and Bishop Micas, bishop of Tarbes (Lourdes) will celebrate 

a special Mass to welcome relics of St. Bernadette to Los 

Angeles. The relic will travel to the Cathedral of Our Lady 

of the Angels on Aug. 2, and St. John Baptist de la Salle 

Church in Granada Hills on Aug. 3. 

■ TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 

Financial Literacy Workshop for Veterans. Zoom clinic 

runs 12-1 p.m., covering money management tips, handling 

credit, loans, and more. Open to Southern California veterans. 

To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/3nr4z3tn. 

■ THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 

Tenants’ Rights and Housing Dispute Advocacy Clinic 

for Disabled Veterans. 620 Olive Ave., Long Beach, 3-6:30 

p.m. Centennial Zoom clinic runs from 5-8 p.m., covering 

disability rights, reasonable accommodation requests, and 

more. Open to disabled veterans in LA County. To register, 

visit https://tinyurl.com/243x7fkc. 

■ SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 

Office of Ethnic Ministry: Memorial Mass. Incarnation 

Church, 1001 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, 10 a.m. Celebrant: 

Bishop Alex Aclan. Mass will be celebrated for all OEM 

members and families who have died during the pandemic, 

shooting, war, or in their home countries. All are welcome. 

For more information, email Magdalene Lau at maggielau00@hotmail.com. 

■ TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 

Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San Fernando 

Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 91345, 11 a.m. Mass is 

virtual and not open to the public. Livestream available at 

CatholicCM.org or Facebook.com/lacatholics. 

■ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 

LACBA Family Law Clinic. Zoom clinic runs 2-5 p.m., 

covering child support, child custody, divorce, and spousal 

support. Open to veterans in LA County. Registration 

required; call 213-896-6537 or email inquiries-veterans@ 

lacba.org. 

■ FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 

Retrouvaille: A Lifeline for Married Couples. Santa 

Clarita weekend program runs Aug. 12-14. 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 helpourmarriage.com or call 661-257-7980. 


Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress. Cathedral of Our 

Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 9 

a.m.-5:30 p.m. Join Archbishop José H. Gomez for Mass, 

exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, music, presentations 

by Noel Diaz, Christ Stefanick, and more. For more information 

and to register, visit lacatholics.org/eucharist. 

■ MONDAY, AUGUST 15 

Iconography Workshop. St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church, 

22508 Copper Hill Dr., Santa Clarita. Tenth annual Iconography 

Workshop will be held August 15-19, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Participants receive a creative, hands-on experience of 

studio time, prayer, and instruction in writing an icon of St. 

Thérèse of Lisieux. Instructor: master iconographer Nicholas 

Markell. Cost: $650, includes materials, instruction, 

and daily lunch. For more information, call Kevin Kipper at 

661-645-1431 or email iconic@socal.rr.com. 


Trevor Thomson Benefit Concert. Holy Name of Mary 

Church, 724 E. Bonita Ave., San Dimas. Suggested donation: 

$20. Proceeds will benefit the Sacred Hearts Secular 

Branch, Inc. For more information, email sacredheartssb@ 

ymail.com, call Stephany at 909-260-2033 or Terri at 909- 

459-9487. 

■ MONDAY, AUGUST 22 

Opus Angelorum/Mission on the Angel. Sacred Heart 

Chapel, 381 W. Center St., Covina, 6 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Event 

runs Aug. 22-24, and includes rosary, conferences, confessions, 

and Mass. On Wednesday, participants will have the 

opportunity to apply for consecration to one’s guardian 

angel next year. For more information, contact Trish at 

877-526-2151. 

■ FRIDAY, AUGUST 26 

The Art and Soul of Journaling. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 

4316 Lanai Road, Encino. Weekend retreat with Ella Weiss, 

MFT, runs Friday, Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m. through Sunday, 

Aug. 28 at 1 p.m. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com 

or call 818-784-4515. 

Prayer, Protest, and Power. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 

4316 Lanai Road, Encino. Weekend retreat on “The Spirituality 

of St. Julie Billiart” with Father Stephen Coffey, OSB, 

Cam, runs Friday, Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m. through Sunday, 

Aug. 28 at 1 p.m. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com 

or call 818-784-4515. 

■ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 

“What Catholics Believe” weekly series. St. Dorothy 

Church, 241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 7-8:30 p.m. 

Series runs Wednesdays through April 26, 2023. Deepen 

your understanding of the Catholic faith through dynamic 

DVD presentations by Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Edward 

Sri, Dr. Brant Pitre, and Dr. Michael Barber. Free event, no 

reservations required. Call 626-335-2811 or visit the Adult 

Faith Development ministry page at www.stdorothy.org for 

more information. 

■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 

Closing Mass for Forward in Mission Jubilee Year. Mission 

San Gabriel, 428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 10 a.m. 

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.

Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15

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