Angelus News | December 30, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 26

A YEAR OF GRACES 

Stories that gave us hope in 2022 

ANGELUS 

December 30, 2022 Vol. 7 No. 26

ANGELUS 

December 30, 2022 

Vol. 7 • No. 26 

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ON THE COVER 


Riley Lin and Cruz Gutierrez, now kindergartners at All Souls 

World Language School in Alhambra, pray with classmates during 

Pope Francis’ consecration of the world, especially Russia 

and Ukraine, last March 25. In a year marked by suffering and 

trial for the institutional Church, such moments were a welcome 

relief. On Page 10, John Allen offers five Catholic storylines that 

challenged that narrative in 2022. On Page 14, our picks for five 

moments that proved the Church in LA is alive and well. 

THIS PAGE 


Archbishop José H. Gomez delivers Christmas 

gifts to a family living in Skid Row on 

Dec. 17. The archbishop was one of hundreds 

of volunteers who brought donated presents 

to low-income families in the downtown LA 

area on Dec. 17 as part of Adopt-a-Family, a 

program of the LA Archdiocese that serves 

more than 1,000 children annually. 

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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 

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CONTENTS 

LA Catholic school students get early Christmas present from Mary 

Female lineup lets it all out at LA’s Guadalupe ‘mañanitas’ serenade 

In the Holy Land, Christmas is a holiday for ‘the one percent’ 

Why the Catholic Church and good music need each other 

Robert Brennan itemizes his 2022 blessings 

Sign up for our free, daily e-newsletter 

Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

28 

30 

Oscar contender ‘Babylon’ tries taking on Old Hollywood’s sins 

Heather King on the Christmas message of ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ 

December 30, 2022 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

The pope’s secret letter 

Pope Francis revealed he wrote 

a resignation letter in 2013, his 

first year in office, to be used in 

case he became physically or mentally 

impaired and unable to fulfill the 

duties of the papacy. 

In an interview published Dec. 18, 

the day after his 86th birthday, Pope 

Francis said that during the time that 

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was Vatican 

secretary of state, a position he left in 

October 2013, he gave a resignation 

letter to the cardinal. 

“I signed it and said, ‘If I should 

become impaired for medical reasons 

or whatever, here is my renunciation. 

Here you have it,’ ” the pope told the 

Spanish newspaper ABC. 

Pope Francis joked that now that 

the letter’s existence has been made 

public, someone will go after Cardinal 

Bertone and say, “Give me that piece 

of paper!” 

But he also said he was certain 

Cardinal Bertone gave it to Cardinal 

Pietro Parolin, who succeeded him as 

secretary of state. 

The interviewer also noted that Pope 

Francis had named several women 

as secretaries or undersecretaries of 

Vatican offices, but that he had not 

appointed a woman to lead a Vatican 

dicastery, although his reform of the 

Roman Curia says it is possible for a 

layperson to head a dicastery. 

Pope Francis responded that he has 

been thinking of appointing a woman 

to lead “a dicastery where there will be 

a vacancy in two years.” He did not say 

what office that was. 

“There is nothing to prevent a woman 

from guiding a dicastery in which a 

layperson can be a prefect,” the pope 

said. 

However, “if it is dicastery of a sacramental 

nature,” presumably like the dicasteries 

for the Doctrine of the Faith, 

for Bishops, for Clergy or for Divine 

Worship and the Discipline of the 

Sacraments, “it has to be presided over 

by a priest or a bishop,” the pope said. 

Asked if he worries about active 

Catholics who may feel neglected by 

the pope paying so much attention to 

people who feel far from the Church, 

Pope Francis responded, “If they are 

good, they will not feel neglected.” 

But if they do feel shunned, he said, 

they may share the fault of the elder 

son in the biblical parable of the prodigal 

son, echoing his complaint to his 

father, “I’ve served you for years and 

now you take care of him and don’t 

pay any attention to me.” 

That attitude, the pope said, “is an 

ugly sin, one of hidden ambition, of 

wishing to stand out and be considered.” 

Pope Francis also told ABC that 

he believes the Church is making 

progress “little by little” in tackling 

clerical sexual abuse and in becoming 

more transparent in handling the 

cases. 

Asked what he would say to Catholics 

whose faith in the Church falters 

every time a new case is made public, 

the pope said, “It is good that you feel 

outrage about this. That leads you to 

act to prevent it, to make your contribution.” 

“It doesn’t scare me,” the pope said. 

“If their faith is faltering, it’s because 

it is alive. Otherwise, you would feel 

nothing at all.” 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Agency. 

Papal Prayer Intention for December: We pray that volunteer 

nonprofit organizations committed to human development 

find people dedicated to the common good and ceaselessly 

seek out new paths to international cooperation. 

2 • ANGELUS • December 30, 2022

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

Saint watching 

As a priest and now as a bishop, 

one of my great joys is baptizing 

infants and getting to know and 

minister to young families. 

Every mother and father knows that as 

their children grow, they learn through 

imitation. By watching what’s going on 

around them, especially their parents, 

they learn not only how to behave, but 

also what’s important. 

Adults are “formed” in much the 

same way. 

Often our attitudes and desires — 

what we think about, what we value, 

what we want to wear or watch or 

own — are suggested to us by “role 

models” in our lives or in the culture. 

These days, sometimes they’re called 

“influencers.” 

Jesus knew this about us. As the 

Gospel says, Jesus didn’t need anyone 

to tell him about human nature, he 

understood it well. 

That’s why Jesus presented himself — 

his words and example — as the “way” 

for our lives, calling us to follow him, 

and to learn from him. 

At the Last Supper, when he washed 

the apostles’ feet, he said, “I have given 

you a model to follow, so that as I have 

done for you, you should also do.” 

These words could be applied to his 

whole life. 

Jesus’ apostles taught as he did. St. 

Paul used to say, “Be imitators of 

me, as I am of Christ.” For centuries, 

the most widely read and translated 

spiritual book besides the Bible has 

been a 15th-century work called “The 

Imitation of Christ.” 

The meaning of our lives is to be like 

Jesus. And the Church has always held 

up the saints as “influencers” to guide 

us. Again, as every parent knows, if 

children are going to grow up right, 

they need to keep good company and 

have good examples to follow. 

Sometimes we can think that the 

saints were perfect people, who never 

had any problems or doubts. But that’s 

not accurate. In fact, when you read 

their lives, you find that many were 

complicated individuals with strong 

personalities. 

The truth is that the saints are no different 

than you and me. Like us, they 

are sinners still, ordinary people with 

their own shortcomings, blind spots, 

and weaknesses. 

One of my New Year’s resolutions is 

to do more “saint watching.” I want to 

spend more time praying and reflecting 

on the lives of the saints, especially 

the holy men and women of the 

Americas and the saints who lived in 

our times. 

I want to know their stories, their 

struggles, what they lived for, and how. 

Most of all, I want to learn how I can 

become more like them. St. Bernard 

once said in a homily, “I tell you: when 

I think of the saints, I feel myself inflamed 

by a tremendous yearning.” 

The saints speak to the yearnings we 

all have in our hearts — for love, for 

meaning, and happiness. 

There is a lot of talk these days in our 

popular culture about “self-care” and 

becoming “our best selves.” Watching 

the saints we see what Jesus would say 

if we asked him how to live life to its 

fullest. 

The saints teach us that the best way 

to care for ourselves is to care for others, 

and that we find happiness when 

we seek God’s will for our lives, not our 

own. To be our best selves means being 

the men and women who God created 

us to be, it means becoming saints. 

Saints are not perfect but they want 

to be. We can learn from watching 

them how to struggle with our own 

imperfections, how not to lose heart or 

be discouraged by difficulties; we can 

learn how to pick ourselves up when 

we make mistakes, and how to keep 

Sometimes we can think that the saints were 

perfect people, who never had any problems 

or doubts. But that’s not accurate. 

growing in holiness more and more 

each day. 

The path to becoming saints is found 

in our ordinary lives. And there are 

saints all around us. I meet them all 

the time, although they would hardly 

consider themselves saints. 

What we learn from watching the 

saints is that there is a quiet heroism in 

trying to live the Gospel every day. 

Keeping calm in a tense moment, 

being generous with your time, being 

patient with someone who upsets you; 

forgiving the little offenses you might 

feel; making sacrifices and denying 

your own needs to serve others. These 

are heroic acts, the works of everyday 

saints. 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And as we begin this new year, let 

us ask the intercession of Holy Mary, 

Queen of the Saints. May she help us 

to really want to be saints and to turn to 

the example of the saints to learn how. 


WORLD 

Celebrating ‘Carmen’ — Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid takes the microphone from postulator Carlos 

Metola during the official opening of the beatification cause of Spanish laywoman Carmen Hernandez on 

Dec. 4 in Madrid. Hernandez, along with Spanish artist Kiko Argüello, began the Neocatechumenal Way, a 

parish-based post-baptismal catechumenate for adults that started in the slums of Madrid in the 1960s and is 

now active in 130 countries. An orchestra of members of the Way performed two symphonic pieces, “Akeda” 

and “Daughters of Jerusalem,” at the end of the ceremony. | LUIS MILLÁN/ARCHDIOCESE OF MADRID 

■ Pope reins in unregulated Vatican foundations 

Pope Francis issued new guidelines that require all Vatican entities, including 

its sprawling and largely unregulated network of charitable foundations, to be 

subject to new oversight requirements imposed by the Secretariat for the Economy. 

The new rules are the pope’s latest attempt to improve accountability of 

Vatican funds. They specify that the books of the different foundations will be 

subject to review by the Vatican’s auditor general, a position created by Pope 

Francis in 2014 to provide an independent review of financial procedures. 

The “motu proprio,” meaning an amendment to Church law on the pope’s 

own initiative, took effect on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. 

■ Nicaraguan bishop to go on trial for ‘conspiracy’ 

The Nicaraguan government has ordered a Catholic bishop to remain under 

house arrest, accusing him of “conspiracy” and “spreading false news.” 

The charges against Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa were made public 

Dec. 13. Bishop Álvarez, an outspoken voice against the repression of Catholics 

under Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, has been under house arrest since 

August while he awaits a Jan. 10 trial. 

“I would like to express my conviction and my hope that through means of 

open and sincere dialogue, one can still find the basis for respectful and peaceful 

co-existence,” Pope Francis said following Bishop Álvarez’s initial arrest. 

Over the past year, Ortega’s government has expelled the papal nuncio and 

nuns from Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity following claims that a wave of 

pro-democracy protests in 2018 were stirred up by Church leaders. 

■ ‘Maria Goretti of 

Brazil’ declared blessed 

A Brazilian woman killed while 

resisting an attempted rape at the 

age of 20 was beatified this month 

after Pope Francis officially recognized 

her death as “in defensum 

castitatis” (“in defense of purity”). 

In 1982, Isabel Cristina Mrad 

Campos, called by many “the 

Maria Goretti of Brazil,” suffered 

15 stab wounds while being tied, 

gagged, and tortured by her attacker. 

Forensic doctors later confirmed 

that he failed to rape her. 

Before her death, Campos was 

engaged and studying to become 

a pediatrician. She was known for 

her frequent attendance of Mass 

and eucharistic adoration, as well 

as her charitable work with the 

Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. 

“May your example give us the 

courage to accept the crosses, the 

sufferings, the anguish, and the 

sorrows of our daily lives,” said Cardinal 

Raymundo Damasceno Assis, 

retired archbishop of Aparecida, at 

her Dec. 10 beatification Mass in 

her hometown of Barbacena. “If 

we are with Jesus, the martyr par 

excellence, the martyr of martyrs, 

we have nothing to fear!” 

Bl. Isabel Cristina Mrad Campos. | WIKIMEDIA 


NATION 

Justin and Hope Schneir, co-founders of the “Unplugged 

Scholarship.” | NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER 

■ Courts block 

enforcement of ‘genderaffirming 

care’ in 

Catholic hospitals 

A federal appeals court blocked 

the Biden administration’s attempt 

to force Catholic health care providers 

to provide transgender care. 

A panel of three GOP-appointed 

judges of the Eighth Circuit Court 

of Appeals affirmed a previous ruling 

in Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra, 

in which a coalition of Catholic 

health care providers sued the 

Biden administration for attempting 

to use the Affordable Care 

Act’s antidiscrimination provisions 

to require doctors and hospitals to 

provide gender transition surgeries. 

“The federal government has no 

business forcing doctors to violate 

their consciences or perform controversial 

procedures that could 

permanently harm their patients,” 

said Luke Goodrich, vice president 

and senior counsel at the Becket 

Fund for Religious Liberty, which 

represents the Sisters of Mercy. 

The court ruling came the 

same week that Biden signed the 

Respect for Marriage Act, a law 

that federally recognizes same-sex 

marriage. U.S. bishops criticized 

the act, saying it didn’t adequately 

protect for religious objections to 

same-sex marriage. 

■ When a flip phone comes with $5,000 

Thirty students at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio were granted a 

$5,000 scholarship each — and all they had to do was give up their phones. 

“We want to encourage people to take steps to reclaim what it means to be 

human,” Hope Schneir, co-founder of the Unplugged Scholarship, told the 

National Catholic Register. 

The scholarship, part of a larger initiative called the Humanality Foundation, 

awards financial aid to students who agree to give up their smartphones during 

college, for which 171 students applied for the scholarship, according to the 

university, and almost 50 students who did not receive the award have chosen to 

give up their smartphones anyway. 

“It’s really helped me become so much more present,” scholarship recipient 

Mary Saarinen told the Register. “I just learned too that sometimes you don’t 

need to be available 24/7. … Just because things are available to us doesn’t 

mean that we always have to busy ourselves all the time.” 

■ US Catholics are growing — and moving south? 

The number of Catholics in the United States is growing and moving south, 

according to new statistics. 

The latest report of the U.S. Religion Census, which is conducted every 10 

years, was released in November. It found 61.9 million Catholics in the U.S., 

2 million more than 10 years ago. That makes Catholics the country’s largest 

religious body in the U.S. at 18.7% of the population. Other surveys, however, 

indicate millions of people who self-identify as Catholics but say they never 

attend religious services. 

The study, conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious 

Bodies, also found changes in the distribution of Catholics by region. 

“Fifty years ago, 71% of U.S. Catholics were in the Northeast and Midwest; in 

2020, 45% were,” Clifford Grammich, a political scientist involved in the study, 

told Catholic News Agency Dec. 5. “And the South now has more Catholics 

than any other region.” 

Lone Star Lady — People in Houston participate in a two-mile procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe 

Dec. 4. The walk concluded with a celebration at the George R. Brown Convention Center. It was the 50th 

anniversary of what has grown to become an archdiocesan-wide Marian celebration. | CNS/JAMES RAMOS/ 

TEXAS CATHOLIC HERALD 


LOCAL 

From left: Dennis O’Hara, president of the NCRRG, Joan Vienna, Archbishop 

Gomez, and Pat Neal of VIRTUS at their Dec. 15 meeting. 

■ Archdiocese recognized for 

anti-abuse partnership 

The leaders of the National Catholic Risk Retention 

Group (NCRRG) and the VIRTUS program met with 

Archbishop José H. Gomez and diocesan representatives to 

recognize the archdiocese’s work with the VIRTUS model. 

“ ‘Virtus,’ which means ‘excellence,’ is a core pastoral value 

of Archbishop Gomez,” said Joan Vienna, director for 

the archdiocesan Office of Marriage and Family Life. “This 

has made our partnership a creative endeavor.” 

The VIRTUS program offers training courses and resources 

for child abuse prevention in Catholic institutions, 

including schools and religious education classrooms. 

“We have worked with Joan and her team in the continued 

effort to prevent child abuse and the abuse of the 

vulnerable for almost 20 years,” said Pat Neal, director of 

VIRTUS Programs and Services. “So many have experienced 

hope and healing through ongoing awareness and 

education, and we appreciate Joan’s vision of where and 

how the programs would and do best serve our Church and 

communities.” 

■ USC Heisman winner gives 

shoutout to his Catholic high school 

USC quarterback Caleb Williams credited his Catholic 

education in making him a “man for others” in his 

Heisman trophy acceptance speech this month. 

“The Gonzaga experience both on and off the field 

helped to prepare me in more ways than you can imagine,” 

Williams said after accepting college football’s highest 

honor Dec. 10. “Coach, you may not know this, but the 

Gonzaga mantra that you drilled into us, ‘men for others,’ 

has helped inspire me to create the Caleb Cares Foundation, 

which is all about giving back.” 

According to its website, the foundation looks to “inspire 

more superheroes to fight bullying so we can all realize 

that what makes us different is our superpower,” a reference 

to Williams’ nickname “Superman.” 

“We remain proud of Caleb’s leadership both on and off 

the field, his charitable nature, and his gracious and humble 

character,” Gonzaga president Father Joseph Lingan 

said to Catholic News Agency. 

■ Encino parish brings back 

candlelit ‘Lady Masses’ 

Our Lady of Grace Church in Encino celebrated two 

“Rorate Caeli” candlelight Masses leading up in December, 

reviving a Christmas tradition largely unknown in the U.S. 

Historically popular in Eastern European countries, the 

Masses in honor of the Virgin Mary usually a few days 

before Christmas are meant to accompany Mary in the last 

days of her pregnancy. They are celebrated illuminated only 

by candlelight and accompanied by Gregorian chants and 

sacred music. 

The Masses were celebrated Dec. 22 and 23 in English and 

Latin. Our Lady of Grace pastor Father Marinello Saguin 

said they’re about “nourishing the hope that we have for 

Christmastime.” 

“The offering of these Masses will give people the opportunity 

to worship in an entirely different way, in silence and 

in darkness, symbolizing the world when full of sorrow and 

pain,” read an announcement from Our Lady of Grace. 

The novena begins — Representatives from western San Fernando Valley 

parishes process into the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Dec. 15 for the 

annual Simbang Gabi opening Mass. At least 111 parishes around the archdiocese 

participated in the Filipino nine-day novena leading up to Christmas with Masses 

and celebrations. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Y 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

Glad to read beyond the headline of ‘Back to Mass’ story 

When I read the headline “Pasadena parish lets LA Catholics ‘choose 

their moment’ in church” on AngelusNews.com, I will admit that I was 

a little concerned. 

I assumed the story (which also appeared in the Dec. 16 issue) would be about 

some new experimental gimmick to get people back in the pews by any means 

possible. But when I read the article (always a good thing to do before forming an 

opinion based on a headline), I found the content and the strategy of this parish 

quite wonderful: This was a new marketing of “old” and timeless worship: Mass, 

confession, eucharistic adoration. 

The final quote from Sarah Yaklic about the importance of keeping churches 

open took me back to my youth, when you could always walk into a church at 

almost any time and kneel before a tabernacle. Nice article. 

— E.J. Taylor, Los Angeles 

Notes from the editor 

• A typo in “A religious riff” by John Miller in the Dec. 16 issue incorrectly 

stated that Peter Johnston RVA’s album “Joyful/Sorrowful” is a collection of 

110 songs. The album has 10 songs. 

• Due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the next issue of Angelus 

will skip a week and be published and delivered the week of Jan. 13. The 

following issue will be published a week later, before resuming our normal 

biweekly schedule. 

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. 

A Christmas guard at the cathedral 

“We haven’t had any wild 

parties yet, but they may be 

coming.” 

~ Sister Esther Anderson, one of the nuns at 

Neumann University, which recently expanded its 

on-campus housing into the school’s convent with 

40 nuns this year, to the Washington Post. 

“Labeling Catholic teaching 

or one’s political enemies 

as a root cause of violence 

may itself inspire violence.” 

~ Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver, in a Dec. 10 

National Catholic Register editorial, “Media Reaction 

to Club Q Shooting Scapegoated Religion.” 

“The overwhelming majority 

of priests genuinely love 

being priests.” 

~ Stephen P. White of The Catholic Project, in a 

Dec. 1 Our Sunday Visitor essay on the findings of 

the recently released “National Study of Catholic 

Priests.” 

“I will forgive the Russians, 

but not right now.” 

~ Auxiliary Bishop Oleksandr Yazlovetskyi of Kyiv, 

Ukraine, in a Dec. 19 interview with Italian Catholic 

newspaper La Vita del Popolo. 

“Our Sunday is Friday.” 

~ Father Rally Gonzaga, a Catholic priest in Qatar, 

where Sunday Mass is celebrated on Fridays and 

Saturdays to coincide with the Muslim religious 

weekend. Father Gonzaga was interviewed by 

Religion News Service for a feature on “Catholic life 

in Qatar” in light of the recent soccer World Cup 

tournament there. 

Archbishop José H. Gomez blesses a woman at the end of 

the Dec. 15 Simbang Gabi opening Mass at the Cathedral 

of Our Lady of the Angels. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

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. 

“You govern with your head, 

not with your knee.” 

~ Pope Francis, responding to a question about 

his health in a December interview with Spanish 

newspaper ABC. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com/. 

Staring into the light 

In her book, “Kitchen Table Wisdom, 

Stories That Heal” (Riverhead 

Books, $9.49), medical doctor 

and writer Rachel Naomi Remen 

shares this story. 

When she was 14 years old, she took 

a summer job working as a volunteer 

in a nursing home for the aged. This 

wasn’t easy for her. She was young, 

shy, and mostly afraid of elderly 

persons. One day she was assigned to 

spend an hour visiting a 96-year-old 

woman who had not spoken for more 

than a year and suffered from severe 

dementia. Rachel carried a basket of 

glass beads with her, hoping that she 

could engage the elderly woman into 

stringing beads with her. It was not to 

be. 

She knocked on the door, received 

no answer, and entered to see the 

woman sitting in a chair, staring out 

of a window. She sat in a chair next 

to the old woman and, off and on, for 

the next hour attempted to draw her 

attention. She never succeeded. In 

her words, “the silence in the room 

was absolute.” The woman never once 

acknowledged her presence, never 

even looked at her, and simply continued 

to stare out of the window. 

When a bell rang to signify that 

her hour with this woman was over, 

Rachel got up to leave, turned to the 

old woman, and asked, “What were 

you looking at?” The woman turned 

to her and said, “Why, child, I was 

looking at the light.” Rachel was 

momentarily stunned, not by anything 

extraordinary in those words, but by 

an extraordinary expression of a sort of 

rapture, in the old woman’s face. As a 

14-year-old, Rachel had no idea what 

lay behind that extraordinary facial 

expression. It would take her years to 

find out. 

She went on to become a medical 

doctor, a pediatrician, who helps 

deliver babies. When she helped 

deliver her first baby and the newborn 

opened its eyes, she saw in the face 

of that baby that same expression she 

had seen all those years before in the 

face of the old woman. That baby too 

was looking at the light — uncomprehending, 

mute, in a kind of rapture, 

fixated on a light it had never seen 

before. 

What’s the parallel between the expression 

of a newborn opening its eyes 

for the first time and the expression 

of an elderly person staring into the 

light? Rachel Remen’s image captures 

it. 

In essence, if you live long enough, 

there will come a time when your old 

ways of knowing will no longer serve 

you, your heart will be forced to look 

beyond its wounds, your old securities 

will all fall away, and you will be left 

staring into a very different light. This 

will radically shift your gaze, strip you 

of most everything that used to make 

sense, render you infantile again, and 

leave you mute, staring silently into 

the unknown, into its beckoning light. 

Why? What’s happening here? 

When a baby is born, it leaves a 

place that is small, confining, and 

dark, but protective, nurturing, and 

secure. It also leaves the only place 

it has ever known, and it can have 

no idea of what awaits it after birth. 

Indeed, could it think consciously, 

it would no doubt find it difficult to 

believe that anything, including its 

mother (whom it has never seen), exists 

outside the womb. Hence, a baby’s 

facial expression when it first opens its 

eyes and looks into the light — awe, 

bewilderment, rapture. 

We are born out of one womb into 

yet another. We live in a second 

womb, our world, which is somewhat 

bigger, somewhat less confining, and 

somewhat less dark, and which like 

our mother’s womb offers protection, 

nurturing, and security. For most of 

our lives, this second womb serves 

us well, giving us what we need. 

When we are young, healthy, and 

strong, there seems little reason to 

shift our gaze toward any other light. 

The womb in which we are living 

is providing enough light. As well, 

it’s the only place we know. Indeed, 

left to nature and ourselves, we have 

no assurance that there is any place 

beyond it. 

Moreover, we share this too with a 

baby in the womb. From the moment 

of its conception, a baby already has 

the imperative for its impending birth 

encoded in its body and soul. There 

comes a time when it must be born 

into a wider world. So too for us. We 

also have the imperative for an impending 

birth from our present womb 

encoded in our body and our soul. 

Hence, along with an unborn baby 

in the womb, we too share a certain 

“insanity” for a wider light. 

In a poem entitled “The Holy Longing,” 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

expressed this poetically: 

Now you are no longer caught / In the 

obsession with darkness, / and a desire 

for higher lovemaking / sweeps you 

upward. 

Distance does not make you falter, / 

now, arriving in magic, flying, / and 

finally, insane for the light, / you are a 

butterfly and you are gone. 


Pope Francis greets Franciscan Father Dionisio Mintoff, founder of 

the John XXIII Peace Lab’s Center for Migrants, during a meeting with 

migrants at the center in Hal Far, Malta, April 3. | CNS/PAUL HARING 

The bright side of 2022 

In what’s been a tough year for the Church, 

here are five doses of good news for Catholicism. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — Let’s face it: By conventional 

measures, 2022 has 

not exactly been a banner year 

for the Catholic Church. 

Over the last 12 months, the clerical 

sexual abuse crisis has continued to 

drain the Church’s resources and 

morale, defections from Catholicism 

have continued across much of the 

developed world, the pope’s attempts 

at reform in the Vatican have continued 

to raise as many questions as 

answers, and painful political and 

theological divisions have continued 

to pit Catholic vs. Catholic. In addition, 

from Hong Kong to Nigeria and 

Eritrea, the persecution of Christians, 

including senior Catholic figures, has 

continued apace with no end in sight. 

Truth to be told, for much of 2022 

it’s been difficult to pick up a newspaper 

or turn on the TV without finding 

yet another distressing narrative. 

Yet here’s the thing: Across more 

than 2,000 years of Church history, 

no matter what random moment in 

time we might choose, in that instant 

there was both a case for despair and 

a case for hope. So it was again in 

2022, because for those with eyes to 

see, there was actually plenty of good 

news, too. Here are five storylines 

about Catholicism to prove that point. 

Lives of service 

When Pope Francis made a brief, 

relatively uneventful trip to Malta in 

April, one of his hosts was a 90-yearold 

Franciscan priest named Father 

Dionysius Mintoff, founder and 

leader of an institution called the 

“John XXIII Peace Lab” in Malta, 


which today welcomes migrants and 

advocates for social justice. 

The sight of the then-85-year-old 

pontiff embracing the 90-year-old 

Father Mintoff, and then the two of 

them shuffling off to greet a swarm of 

migrants and refugees, was among the 

iconic papal images of 2022. 

Father Mintoff is a living symbol of 

the way in which thousands of Catholic 

religious, both men and women, 

quietly pour out their lives in service. 

Consider Benedictine Sister Pierre 

Vorster, who turned 100 this past 

March. She’s been at St. Scholastica 

Monastery since 1937, when she 

was 15 years old, and has educated 

three generations of young women. 

Sister Vorster was also instrumental 

in launching “Project Compassion,” 

which ensures that people visit the 

elderly in area nursing homes. 

In Sri Lanka, Carmelite Sister Mary 

Theonilla also celebrated her 100th 

birthday in December. She took her 

vows 75 years ago, and has devoted 

her life to serving cancer patients, 

feeding the hungry, and ministering 

to victims of armed conflict, and 

insists that through it all she’s felt “the 

love of God in abundance.” 

All around the world, typically with 

no fanfare either expected or desired, 

these legions of Catholic religious put 

the Gospel into action, day in and day 

out, and they keep doing it for their 

entire lives. They may not make headlines, 

but they certainly shape history. 

Faith and film 

Despite all the negative publicity 

surrounding Catholicism in 2022, it 

was also a good year for depictions of 

the faith in popular entertainment. 

Actor Mark Wahlberg, for example, 

starred in the biopic “Father Stu,” 

based on the true story of Father 

Stuart Long of the Diocese of Helena, 

Montana, a former boxer who converted 

to Catholicism and became a 

priest. Long contracted a rare progressive 

muscle disorder and died in 2014. 

As his condition worsened, people 

would flock to the long-term care facility 

where he was living so he could 

a time in a Capuchin friary to prepare 

for the role, that he converted to 

Catholicism. 

Even in England, where mocking 

Catholicism can sometimes be a popular 

indoor sport, 2022 gave us the 

BBC series “Sister Boniface” about 

If despite all its woes and malaise, the Church 

can still inspire such examples of courage and 

fidelity, then there’s hope for us all. 

a fictional crime-fighting nun with 

a Ph.D. in forensic science. She’s a 

devout Catholic believer who finds 

no difficulty reconciling her faith 

with her commitment to empirical 

science, and her cheery disposition 

makes her beloved. 

In other words, even at a time when 

“Catholicism Inc.,” meaning the 

institutional expression of the faith, 

may be at a low ebb in terms of public 

confidence, the lives of individual 

believers, whether real or imagined, 

still commanded respect and affection 

this year. 

hear their 

confessions 

and minister to 

them there. 

Shia LaBeouf in 

“Padre Pio.” | IMDB 

Also this year, actor Shia LaBeouf 

played the role of Padre Pio in a 

film of the same name, directed by 

the veteran filmmaker Abel Ferrara. 

Although the movie drew only mixed 

reviews, so moved was LaBeouf by the 

experience, which included living for 

Catholic growth 

Perusing the news, you might think 

the dominant Catholic storyline of 

the day is contraction. The headlines 

about formal defections from the 

Faith in Europe and the mounting 

numbers of ex-Catholics in the U.S. 

seem to paint a grim picture. 

In reality, 2022 confirmed that the 

exact opposite is true: Seen in global 

perspective, the dominant story isn’t 

decline but significant growth. 

In February we got the numbers for 

2020, the last year for which reliable 

statistics are available. They showed 

that Catholicism added 16 million 

new members that year — more than 

the entire Catholic population of 

Canada. Today, Catholics represent 

an impressive 17.7% of everyone on 

earth. 

The vast majority of this growth 

is outside the Western sphere. The 

Catholic population grew in Africa 

and Asia in 2020, by 2.1% and 1.8%, 

respectively. The share of the world’s 


Catholics who live in Africa has been 

climbing steadily over recent decades. 

Africa alone shot up from 1.9 million 

in 1900 to 130 million in 2000 and 

an estimated 236 million today, 

representing almost 20% of the global 

total. To take just one example, the 

Philippines alone recorded the most 

Catholic baptisms in the world with 

1,603,283, considering both children 

and adults. 

The bottom line is that Catholicism 

isn’t getting smaller, even if its center 

of gravity is shifting, and 2022 proved 

that its global growth isn’t over. 

The Church and the desperate 

Back in January, a picture by an 

Italian photographer went viral after 

winning an international photography 

competition. It depicted a 5-yearold 

Syrian boy named Mustafa, born 

without limbs due to a developmental 

problem during pregnancy, apparently 

caused by his mother’s inhalation 

of chemical weapons during an attack 

by government forces during the Syrian 

Civil War, along with his father, 

Munzir al-Nazzal, who also lost a 

leg during the 

conflict. 

In the shot, 

father and son 

are playing 

and laughing, 

making it a 

heart-rending 

image of the 

A woman receives Communion 

during a funeral 

Mass in the the parish hall 

of St. Francis Xavier Church 

in Owo, Nigeria, June 17. 

| CNS/TEMILADE ADELAJA, 

REUTERS 

power of love to overcome even the 

most awful forms of adversity. 

What makes the photo of Catholic 

interest is that it was taken in Siena, 

Italy, where Mustafa and his entire 

family had relocated after being rescued 

from a refugee camp in Turkey 

by a variety of civil organizations led 

by the Archdiocese of Sienna-Colle 

and the Catholic charity Caritas. The 

family is now living in an apartment 

provided by Caritas while traveling to 

the Vigoroso Prosthesis Center, near 

Bologna, for the necessary medical 

treatment. 

Mustafa’s story is emblematic of 

the way that throughout 2022, as in 

so many other years, the Catholic 

Church has been by far the largest 

and most committed provider of 

humanitarian relief to migrants and 

refugees. From the U.S.-Mexico border 

to the migrant corridors between 

Poland and Ukraine, and in so many 

other places, the Church stands on 

the peripheries and reaches out to 

those in need. 

Throughout 2022, Caritas, the global 

Catholic charity, served countless 

millions of migrants, refugees, and 

internally displaced persons in the 

most disparate settings — Rohingya 

refugees in Bangladesh, for instance, 

and Venezuelans fleeing their country’s 

meltdown in Brazil, Colombia 

and Ecuador, as well as in Pakistan, 

where rains and flooding displaced 33 

million people. 

Whatever pundits or intellectuals 

may say, the world’s most desperate 

people generally experienced the 

Catholic Church in 2022 as a massive 

force for good. 

The Church in Ukraine 

When Russia began its invasion 

of Ukraine on Thursday, Feb. 24, 

massive airstrikes forced the population 

of the country’s major cities into 

makeshift bomb shelters, including 

subway and sewer tunnels. Three 

days later, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav 

Shevchuk of Ukraine’s Greek 

Catholic Church released a video 

message to his flock, with a simple 


message. 

Don’t worry about missing Mass 

this Sunday because of curfews and 

air raid sirens, Archbishop Shevchuk 

said. We’re coming to you. 

He announced that priests of the 

Greek Catholic Church would fan 

out throughout the country’s bomb 

shelters, offering the Divine Liturgy 

to whoever wished to take part, 

while also ministering to the sick, the 

wounded, and the needy. 

“The Church is with its people!” 

the archbishop said. “The Church of 

Christ brings the eucharistic Savior 

to those who are experiencing critical 

moments in their life, who need the 

strength and hope of the Resurrection.” 

Flash forward to early December, 

with Auxiliary Bishop Jan Sobilo of 

Zaporizhzhia traveling to the front 

lines once a week to bring food and 

medical supplies to those most in 

need, saying that he can’t stay in any 

one place for more than about five 

minutes because Russian forces will 

begin firing in an effort to intimidate 

him. Yet Bishop Sobilo keeps coming, 

telling Catholic News Agency 

that “those who die show us that love 

always wins.” 

Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church 

has extended its mobilization even 

outside the country’s borders, setting 

up a welcome 

center, for 

example, in 

the Polish city 

of Przemysl to 

provide temporary 

relief for 

the millions 

of Ukrainians 

Father Rostyslav Vysochan, 

a military chaplain, celebrates 

a Divine Liturgy with 

soldiers in an undisclosed 

location in Ukraine in June. 

| CNS/VOZNYAK PRODUC- 

TION 

who’ve fled across the border since 

the fighting broke out. 

Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church is 

the largest of the 23 Eastern churches 

in communion with Rome, and, over 

the centuries, it’s earned a reputation 

for sharing the fate of its flock. It was 

the most martyred church in the 

world in percentage terms during the 

Soviet era, and again today it’s paying 

a price. In mid-November, two 

Greek Catholic priests were arrested 

by Russian forces in southeastern 

Ukraine and, according to Archbishop 

Shevchuk, are being “mercilessly 

tortured” to extract coerced confessions. 

The Greek 

A Caritas Pakistan worker 

and another man look 

at a destroyed bridge 

following heavy rains 

during the monsoon 

season in Sehwan, 

Pakistan, Aug. 18. 

| CNS/CARITAS PAKISTAN 

Catholic Church 

is not alone in its 

heroism. Clergy 

and laity of 

Ukraine’s Orthodox 

churches, as 

well as followers 

of other faiths 

and people with 

no religious 

affiliation at all, 

have also put their lives on the line to 

stand with the victims of the conflict. 

Yet for Catholics, the example of 

their confreres in Ukraine packs a 

special punch. If despite all its woes 

and malaise, the Church can still 

inspire such courage and fidelity, 

then there’s hope for us all — and if 

that isn’t a dose of good news from an 

otherwise bleak year, what is? 

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


Walking through 2022 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN 

As we say goodbye to 2022, here are images from five special moments in the life 

of the Church in the Archdiocese of LA that stood out to us this year. 

Local Catholics walk through Northeast LA during the “Camino: A Walk with Jesus” 11-mile walking pilgrimage 

from Mission San Gabriel to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on April 2. The walk, which drew more 

than 2,000 people, was organized as part of the “Forward in Mission” Jubilee commemorating 250 years since 

the founding of Mission San Gabriel. 

Archbishop José H. Gomez closes the jubilee year Holy Door 

at the Chapel of the Annunciation at Mission San Gabriel Sept. 

10 before the jubilee year closing Mass. The Mass was the first 

liturgy celebrated inside the newly restored Mission San Gabriel 

since an arson fire nearly destroyed the church in July 2020. 


Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell leads more than 3,000 people in eucharistic 

adoration during the LA Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress at the Cathedral 

of Our Lady of the Angels Aug. 13. The daylong event helped kick off the U.S. 

bishops’ multiyear “National Eucharistic Revival” initiative locally and also 

featured music, lectures from Catholic speakers, and a vigil Mass. 

Archbishop Gomez blesses a “Weeping Wall” water installation during the 

inauguration of a Healing Garden for victim-survivors of clerical abuse at the St. 

Camillus Center for Pastoral Care near East LA Oct. 26. “To you, who have been 

wounded by someone in our Church, who have had your innocence taken and 

your trust broken: I am deeply sorry,” said Archbishop Gomez at the service. “We in 

the Archdiocese of Los Angeles want to walk with you and help you to heal.” 

Visitors pray before relics belonging to St. Bernadette Soubirous at St. 

Bernadette’s Church in Baldwin Hills July 31. A fragment of ribs belonging 

to the French saint and Lourdes visionary visited Los Angeles at the end of a 

four-month U.S. tour. 


Precious 

medals 

Thanks to a nameless 

donor, every Catholic 

school student in 

LA now has a new 

connection to the 

Virgin Mary. 

BY NATALIE ROMANO 

Seventy-thousand Miraculous 

Medals are now hanging near the 

hearts of 70,000 Catholic school 

students in Southern California. 

The blessings they’ll bring this 

Christmas season are thanks to a 

one-of-a-kind gift for students in the 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and a 

dream come true for the anonymous 

donor who bought them. The medals, 

which carry a sacred promise from 

Mary, were blessed and handed out in 

most schools on Dec. 8, the feast of the 

Immaculate Conception. 

Perhaps none were more excited than 

the students at St. Catherine Labouré 

School in Torrance, whose namesake 

originally created the medals in Mary’s 

honor. The commotion was so loud, it 

reverberated throughout the campus. 

“We were in the office and all of a 

sudden we heard a roar of student 

noise. They were just so excited to have 

them,” said Tricia Holmquist, Ed.D., 

principal of St. Catherine’s. “It became 

a day of celebration.” 

That celebration was repeated at every 

Catholic school from Los Angeles 

County to Santa Barbara County. At 

Holy Name of Mary School in San 

Dimas, students were visibly moved 

by the unexpected gift. Derek Rhodes 

touched the medal as the chain was 

clasped around his neck. 

“It feels special,” said Holy Name 

seventh-grader Rhodes. “Even though 

they don’t know me, they wanted to 

give me something that reminds me we 

are all connected to Mary.” 

Earlier this year, the private individual 

wrote to the archdiocese with an unusual 

offer: the benefactor would buy 

the Miraculous Medals if the Catholic 

schools would dispense them. 

The benefactor explained that they 

were on a 10-year “mission” of gifting 

medals and had already done so in 

other cities, such as San Francisco and 

Sacramento. The motivation stemmed 

from the medal’s origin story, and 

the belief that “the Blessed Mother 

promised to provide special graces 

and protection to anyone wearing the 

medal around the neck.” 

The contribution, worth some 

$250,000, was happily accepted. Erick 

Rubalcava of the archdiocese’s Department 

of Catholic 

Schools 

(DCS) sees 

the medals as a 

morale booster 

following the 

COVID-19 

pandemic. 

“I thought 

maybe this 

Leila Gutierrez, a first-grader 

at St. Bernard School in 

Bellflower, with her newly 

blessed Miraculous Medal 

on Dec. 8, the feast of the 

Immaculate Conception. 

| ALL PHOTOS SUBMITTED 

could help [students] find a bit more 

grounding through the eyes of faith 

and help them on their spiritual 

journey,” explained Rubalcava, chief 

of Mission and Catholic Identity for 

DCS. “The Catholic Schools Department 

is really concerned about the 

entire child, not just their academic 

well-being … we’re about serving the 

soul as well.” 

The Miraculous Medal depicts the 


Blessed Mother 

standing on a 

globe. Her open 

hands are streaming 

out rays of 

light while her 

feet are crushing 

a serpent. The 

Before distribution, the 

Miraculous Medals 

were placed at the foot 

of the “gratitude tree” at 

Damien High School in 

San Dimas. 

back of the medal shows the Sacred 

Heart of Jesus encased in thorns next to 

the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced 

by a sword. 

The design itself is divine. In 1830, 

French nun Catherine Labouré was 

meditating when Mary appeared and 

tasked her with making the medals. 

The saint said Mary explained that 

the medals will protect those who pray 

the inscription, “O Mary, Conceived 

Without Sin, Pray For Us Who Have 

Recourse To Thee.” 

The prayer directly references the 

mystery celebrated on the feast of the 

Immaculate Conception, so priests 

at many schools took the occasion to 

bless and distribute the necklaces during 

Mass that day. Others, like Damien 

High School in La Verne, chose to wait 

for theology classes to allow for more 

discussion about their meaning. After 

learning about the medals’ significance, 

Elias Davila said he’ll wear his 

“all day.” 

Students at Holy Name 

of Mary School in San 

Dimas with their medals 

after Mass on Dec. 8. 

“Knowing that 

Mary is watching 

over me, taking 

care of me, as 

my own mother 

would, maybe 

even more … it’s really powerful,” said 

Davila, a senior at Damien. “I think it’s 

important to continue to grow in my 

relationship with Mary.” 

Fittingly, the Miraculous Medals at 

Damien were displayed beneath the 

school’s “gratitude tree,” where students 

wrote on paper ornaments what 

they were thankful for this Advent and 

hung them on the branches. Damien 

president Joseph Siegmund, Ph.D., 

said he was thrilled that his students 

were receiving this sacramental. 

“Being gifted with Miraculous Medals 

for each of our students demonstrates 

the miracles found within our faith,” 

said Siegmund. “And how God the 


Father, God the Son, and God the 

Holy Spirit continue to work miracles 

through prayer and the intercessions of 

Mother Mary. In turn, leading more of 

the faithful to her son Jesus Christ and 

to a stronger relationship with God.” 

Because of the inscribed prayer, 

the Miraculous Medal was originally 

known as the Medal of the Immaculate 

Conception. But from the start, those 

wearing the medals began recounting 

stories of the many blessings that Mary 

promised. People took to calling the 

necklace “miraculous” and the name 

stuck. 

The children seem to sense the medals’ 

power. 

“It makes 

me feel safe 

and secure,” 

said Adrienne 

Ortiz, an 

Students at St. Bernard 

School in Bellflower 

hold their newly blessed 

Miraculous Medals. 

eighth-grader at Holy Name of Mary 

School. “If I ever feel nervous before 

tests or anything, I’m able to hold it.” 

Holy Name of Mary co-principal 

Brenda Berumen said the Blessed 

“Knowing that Mary is watching over me, 

taking care of me, as my own mother would, 

maybe even more … it’s really powerful.” 

Mother is “the center” of the school 

and even the youngest children understand 

her importance. Kindergartners 

got a simplified explanation of the 

medals and spent the morning talking 

about Mary. 

“She gave birth to Jesus and she’s 

special,” said Ethan Vander Poorten, 

age 5. 

“She’s kind and she’s helpful,” offered 

Brooke Davis, age 5. 

Assembling, packaging, and delivering 

the Miraculous Medals to some 

250 schools was a daunting project, 

so much so that the donor provided 

instructional videos on how to get it 

done. 

Boxes of medals and chains went to 

one volunteer school in every region: 

Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High 

School in Montebello, St. Joseph High 

School in Lakewood, Holy Family 

High School in Glendale, Bishop Conaty-Our 

Lady of Loretto High School 

in Los Angeles, and St. Joseph High 

School in Santa Maria. 

For a few days, the five schools 

became mini-factories where staff and 

students put the necklaces together 

then wrapped them for delivery. Rubalcava 

was pleased with how the schools 

all banded together on relatively short 

notice. 

“Every region responded tremendously. 

I was so proud,” said Rubalcava. 

“This was a unifying project for all our 

schools.” 

And an uplifting one. 

“I would like to thank the private 

donor for the extremely generous donation 

that he/she made,” said Holmquist. 

“I can’t tell you how grateful the 

students, faculty, and staff members 

were to receive them. … It was a beautiful 

day.” 

Matthew Coronado said he’s fortunate 

to attend Damien because of a 

scholarship and now feels twice blessed 

by receiving the Miraculous Medal. 

He intends to carry on that spirit of 

generosity by one day working as a probono 

lawyer. 

“This [medal] is another example 

of the kind of love I’ve been blessed 

with,” said Coronado, a senior at 

Damien. “Now I want to give back in 

some way. … I want to help those who 

need it.” 

Natalie Romano is a freelance writer 

for Angelus and the Inland Catholic 

Byte, the news website of the Diocese of 

San Bernardino. 


This year’s all-female musical lineup at the mañanitas Guadalupe celebration at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels featured the Hermanas Barajas (in green and yellow, 

holding hats), Angel Ng (second from left), Jacky Ibarra (in red), Lupita Infante (second from right), and Karla Carrillo (far right). 

In Mary’s way 

For its all-female lineup of performers, this year’s late-night ‘mañanitas’ 

Guadalupe tribute was personal. 

BY ISABEL GONZALEZ AND PABLO KAY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Faithful from around Southern California braved 

the rain and cold the evening of Dec. 11 to fill the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and celebrate 

another year under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 

“Empress of the Americas.” 

The birthday celebration of sorts included a rosary and 

Mariachi performance, as well as Aztec dancers and free 

refreshments on the Cathedral Plaza. It culminated in a 

Midnight Mass to kick off the 491st anniversary of Our 

Lady’s final apparition to an indigenous peasant in present-day 

Mexico City. 

And in what has become an LA tradition, the evening attracted 

some star power to the cathedral to lead a late night 

“mañanitas” birthday serenade for the Virgin. 

“I’m always busy this time of year, but today I had the 

chance to be part of something that’s so special to me,” 

remarked singer Lupita Infante. “For years, I’ve been entrusting 

myself to ‘La Virgencita’ in my singing career, and 

she’s always answered my prayers.” 

Infante, granddaughter of the late legendary Mexican 

singer Pedro Infante, was part of an all-female lineup 

of musicians paying tribute to Our Lady this year that 

included Las Hermanas Barajas, Angel Ng, Jackie Ibarra, 

and Karla Carrillo, as well as the mariachi group “Somos 

México.” 

For big-name artists like Infante, honoring Our Lady goes 

beyond performing in “mañanitas” celebrations like the LA 

cathedral’s or at the Guadalupe shrine in Mexico. 


“It’s something very important in our lives, as ‘Guadalupanos’ 

but also as Mexicans. She is our banner, our hope, our 

symbol of hope,” said Infante, who, like her grandmother, 

was named after the Virgin. 

Infante’s grandfather, who died in a plane crash in 1957, 

is considered one of the greatest musical idols in Mexican 

history. A well-known devotee to Our Lady, he once led 

a 30-hour national telethon in Mexico to raise money for 

the rebuilding of the old Guadalupe basilica in Mexico 

City. For Infante, the “mañanitas” serenade was both an 

opportunity to continue the family tradition of honoring 

the Virgin, and a way to feel united to the grandfather she 

never got to meet. 

At the cathedral that night, one of the two songs performed 

by Infante was her grandfather’s rendition of “Ave 

Maria,” which he sang to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the 

1950s Mexican film classic “Tizoc.” 

For another musician in the night’s lineup, the festivities 

were a special way to entrust themselves to Our Lady and 

invoke her protection for the year to come. 

“I’ve always promised since I started singing that I would 

sing to her every year,” said singer Angel Ng, on her sixth 

turn singing for the “Guadalupana.” “I wanted to offer her 

that because she takes care of my voice, of my gift. She’s 

guided me, and picks up when sometimes I am down,” Ng 

told Angelus with emotion before taking the stage Sunday 

night. 

The tradition of singing to the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe 

in Mexico — and televising it — began in 1951 — 

when the serenade had to take place outdoors because the 

Vatican wouldn’t give permission to sing inside the original 

basilica in Mexico City. Five years later, the restriction was 

loosened and the live “mañanitas” event became a national 

TV spectacle with the biggest names in Mexican music 

singing before her image. 

The LA cathedral, which houses a small fragment of the 

miraculous Guadalupe “tilma” (“cloak”) fabric, was also 

Archbishop José H. Gomez kisses an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the end of the 

annual Guadalupe mañanitas Mass in the early morning hours of Dec. 12. 

A worshipper venerates the pilgrim images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan 

Diego at the cathedral. 

the scene of a live special program aired by the local NBC 

and Telemundo TV stations that included coverage from 

San Diego, the Bay Area, and Mexico. The live transmission 

of the event itself was made possible through a collaboration 

with EWTN Español. 

It is commonly said in Mexico that one is a “Guadalupano” 

first and a Mexican second. The evening’s festivities 

offered evidence that among the Mexican immigrant 

community, the Faith and its traditions have immigrated 

with them. Archbishop José H. Gomez, a native of Mexico 

himself, urged the hundreds who stayed for the midnight 

Mass in honor of Guadalupe not to forget those roots. 

“The Virgin of Guadalupe is our mother!” said the archbishop 

in his homily, delivered in Spanish. “She is who we 

are! She is where we come from! She is the one we long to 

be with — because she shows us Jesus, she shows us God.” 

Archbishop Gomez also pointed to the example of the 

Virgin Mary’s life as a help for Catholics to live their own 

vocation, starting at home and in their families. 

“The kingdom grows through the little things in our daily 

lives, through little acts of love and gentleness, and friendship,” 

said Archbishop Gomez. “Love is the path. … Love 

those the Lord has put in your life!” 

“This was Mary’s way, and St. Joseph’s,” the archbishop 

added. “And it should be our way, too.” 

Isabel Gonzalez is a Los Angeles-based media professional 

and freelance writer. 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of Angelus. 


Christmas for the one percent 

What the holidays mean for the Holy Land’s 

shrinking Christian ‘remnant.’ 

BY PABLO KAY 

One of the three Wise Men distributes gifts to Israeli children at an Epiphany celebration in January 2020 at the Domus Galilaeae, an international retreat center on the Mount of 

Beatitudes. | DOMUS GALILAEAE 

In much of the world, Christmas is 

as much a cultural holiday as it is 

a religious one: bright lights, time 

off work, and wrapped presents don’t 

require much belief in anything. 

Not so in the land of Jesus’ birth. 

Christians — Catholics, but also 

many Orthodox — make up just 

1% of the population in Israel and 

Palestine. For the rest, Christmas is 

“a normal weekday,” in the words of 

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 

spiritual leader of the region’s Latin-rite 

Catholics. 

It’s also a sobering reminder of the 

increasingly awkward — and eternally 

complicated — situation faced by 

Christians there year-round. 

Christian believers living in Israel, 

Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus — 

which together comprise the Latin 

Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the diocese 

that Archbishop Pizzaballa has led 

since 2016 — live in what he calls “a 


sense of solitude.” 

“Being a small number, with a lot 

of struggles … it’s not easy to find 

support,” Archbishop Pizzaballa told 

Angelus in an interview during a visit 

to the U.S. in November. 

Originally from Northern Italy, the 

57-year-old Franciscan has spent the 

last three decades serving in the Holy 

Land. As patriarch, he leads Catholics 

every Christmas Eve in a procession 

from Jerusalem to the Church of the 

Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the 

spot where Jesus is believed to have 

been born to the Virgin Mary. Part 

of the six-mile trek is done walking, 

another driving (with a security checkpoint 

in between). The day’s festivities, 

which attract crowds of pilgrims 

from around the world as well as local 

dignitaries like the city’s mayor, culminate 

in Midnight Mass on the basilica 

grounds. 

The holidays are an especially important 

part of the year for the tourism 

industry, which many Christians in 

the Holy Land depend on for survival. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic 

halted almost all religious travel in 

the region for months, Catholic aid 

organizations had to step in to help 

struggling families. Others had to rely 

on their savings. 

“We tried to help as much as we 

could,” said Archbishop Pizzaballa. 

Last Christmas, tourism levels were 

about “half and half,” said the prelate. 

This year, it’s “full normality,” with 

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, then the apostolic administrator 

of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, arrives through an Israeli 

checkpoint on the way from Jerusalem to attend Christmas celebrations 

in Bethlehem in 2016. | CNS/MUSSA QAWASMA, REUTERS 

all health restrictions dropped and 

pilgrimage groups arriving in numbers 

close to pre-pandemic levels. 

But from Archbishop Pizzaballa’s 

point of view, it’s been an uneasy 

recovery: The number of Christians 

in the Holy Land is shrinking, with 

the struggling economy pushing many 

youths to look for jobs abroad. According 

to figures cited by Archbishop Pizzaballa 

during a presentation to the 

U.S. bishops at their annual meeting 

in Baltimore last month, half of the 

population in Palestine and Jordan are 

under the age of 25. 

“Little by little, the best part of 

society, they are leaving,” the patriarch 

told the bishops. “The middle class 

is shrinking. It’s becoming more and 

more difficult to make the Christian 

character of the Holy Land visible.” 

Christians in the region try to stay 

together, but for families who want 

to “preserve the Christian context of 

life also for their children,” sticking it 

out is becoming increasingly difficult, 

Archbishop Pizzaballa told Angelus. 

The precariousness is compounded 

by political tensions. According to 

figures cited by the Associated Press, 

2022 has been the deadliest year in 

Israeli-Palestinian violence in the 

West Bank and East Jerusalem since 

2006. Many Christians are worried 

about even more violence as a result 

of a new coalition government of 

far-right parties set to take power in 

Israel, Msgr. William Shomali, vicar 

general for the patriarchate, told Aid 

to the Church in Need in a Dec. 13 

interview. 

“The two-state solution is now near 

death, and risks being buried,” said 

Msgr. Shomali of the political dream 

— long supported by the Holy See 

and peace advocates — that Israel and 

Palestine could one day co-exist as 

neighboring countries. 

Beyond the practical hardships, 

Christmas still serves as an occasion 

of unity among the Christians of the 

various Catholic and Orthodox rites 

in the region. Archbishop Pizzaballa 

has the custom of personally exchanging 

Christmas greetings with the 

several other Christian patriarchs in 

the region. 

In the town of Nazareth, another 

Christmas-time tourist hotspot 

where some 20% of the population is 

Christian, the tensions are less visible, 

said Sara Fornari, an Italian journalist 

based in Nazareth with Catholic radio 

network Radio Maria. Secular Jews 

especially “show a lot of interest in 

the beauty, especially the beauty of 

the Christian liturgy, of the Christian 

feasts.” 

For example, the city’s giant Christmas 

tree near Mary’s Well — said to 

be one of the biggest in the Middle 

East — is a favorite selfie spot for 

Muslims and Jews, said Fornari. 

On the other side of Galilee, the 

Domus Galilaeae, a Catholic retreat 

center on the Mount of Beatitudes, 

hosts a large-scale Epiphany event, 

complete with Christmas carols and 

a visit from the three Wise Men and 

their camels. Every year, the celebration 

draws hundreds of Jewish 

neighbors with their children. 

According to Fornari, events like 

those are a reminder of the crucial 

role that the shrinking “remnant” of 

Christians has to play in the Middle 

East. 

“The Christian presence here, even 

if small, can be a very important sign 

if they live out values that others don’t 

have,” said Fornari. “But that’s what 

it all comes down to: whether we 

Christians actually live as authentic 

Christians.” 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 


Sounds of 

salvation 

The connection between music 

and faith isn’t what it once was. 

But both still need each other. 

BY FATHER DORIAN LLWELYN, SJ 

Angelenos who like music are spoiled for choice this 

time of year. There are more concerts in this city 

than people have time or money to attend. Our 

local radio stations are filled with Christmas music of all 

styles. You can’t escape the sounds of the season. 

Music is an important part of Advent and Christmas. 

Our memories are kindled by old and familiar songs, comforting 

us with ritual, tradition, and continuity. 

One might adapt the familiar Spanish proverb “Dime 

con quién andas, y te diré quién eres” (“Tell me who 

you hang around with, and I’ll tell you who you are”) to 

“Tell me what you listen to, and I’ll tell you who you are.” 

Typically, the music we relate to reflects our age, hometown, 

education, life experience, social class, and ethnic 

community. Music expresses and builds identity. 

Music also has a deep, ancestral 

connection to spiritual experience. 

In the overwhelming majority of 

religions and cultures, music and 

worship are inseparable. 

Early Christians inherited the 

chants of the synagogue, which developed 

into Byzantine chant and 

medieval plainsong, the ancestor 

Members of the gospel 

choir of St. Saviour High 

School sing during the 

Diocese of Brooklyn’s annual 

Christmas tree-lighting 

ceremony in 2019. | CNS/ 

GREGORY A. SHEMITZ 

of modern classical music. For much of the first millennium, 

music was integral to public worship. Scripture was 

sung and Christians experienced the psalms musically — 

in and with the body. 

The Fathers of the Church taught that the structure and 

harmonies of music reflected the order and beauty of the 

cosmos. An important part of a clergyman’s curriculum 

in early medieval universities was “musica speculativa,” 

the study of the theoretical and philosophical aspects of 

music. 

However, with the Renaissance, music began to be less 

integral to study, faith, and prayer. It gradually stopped 

being considered an essential element in a well-rounded 

and spiritually mature life. Instead, it developed its own, 

autonomous existence, unmoored from faith. 


Sadly, the connection between music and faith is still 

broken. It is hard to think of a living composer with the 

degree of fame as Catholic composers of the past like 

Mozart, Vivaldi, and Haydn, or Christians such as Bach 

(Lutheran) or Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov (Orthodox). 

“Sacrosanctum Concilium” (“Constitution on the 

Sacred Liturgy”), the document of the Second Vatican 

Council on liturgy, declared that “the musical tradition of 

the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, 

greater even than that of any other art.” But many of that 

document’s recommendations are still unrealized. Few 

clergy and lay pastoral workers have much more than an 

average appreciation of music. Parish musicians often 

have to work with limited financial resources and without 

substantial theological training. And while there are a few 

excellent theological discussions on music, on the whole 

the insights have not trickled down to the grassroots. 

Why is any of this important? “It is extraordinary,” says 

a character in one of the plays of the English dramatist 

Noel Coward, “how potent cheap music is.” However, 

when it comes to religious music, feeling good doesn’t 

necessarily mean we are feeling God. There is a difference 

between sentiment and sentimentality. 

Mature faith requires good music. Ritual music — the 

music we hear at Mass — demands certain skills. But 

unlike music that is performed for entertainment, good 

ritual music should not draw attention to itself — and 

certainly not to the performers. It is part of prayer, which 

glorifies God and helps us grow in holiness. In the classic 

definition of St. John of Damascus (circa 675-749), when 

we pray we lift our minds and hearts to God. “Minds and 

hearts” suggests that prayer is not only about feelings. It 

involves truth, too. 

The Grammy-nominated Catholic composer Pedro 

Rubacalva is a contributor to a new book on Our Lady of 

Guadalupe. Recently we had a lively discussion about the 

different kinds of music used in Guadalupan devotion, 

in the light of faith, culture, and musical education. We 

speculated whether there ever could be, for example, 

Guadalupan reggae? Or rock, or rap? The fundamental 

question is whether particular styles of music — even 

without words — express religious truth and meaning in 

their structure, rhythm, volume, instrumentation, and 

melody. 

But if music does contain meaning, is every kind of music 

fit for use in church? In 1985, then-Cardinal Ratzinger 

argued that since rock music, with its “anarchic idea of 

freedom,” stresses individualism and lack of responsibility, 

it is the complete opposite of what Christians mean by 

freedom. It therefore cannot be used in Catholic worship. 

Not everyone agreed. But Cardinal Ratzinger’s deep 

reflection on the place of music in faith and worship was 

an accomplishment in itself — and still today should lead 

to some musical soul-searching. 

Pope Francis has rightly insisted on the importance of 

good preaching: “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the 

Gospel”) contains a whole section dedicated to the topic. 

The working document of the synod reports that the calls 

for “deeper homilies” are being heard across the world. 

However, neither document references music: the word 

proclaimed is understood to be spoken and read, not 

sung. 

Good homilies, however, are only one of many things 

that may attract people to a particular parish. Music can 

also draw people in. Catholic leaders have started to take 

note of music’s effect on faith. In 2020, the United States 

Conference of Catholic Bishops called for hymns that 

truly reflect our faith, pointing out the wonky theology of 

some well-known — and well-loved — hymns. 

Beauty in worship feeds the soul, by lifting it above this 

world and offering a glimpse into the world to come. 

Many different kinds of good music can open those 

windows into 

heaven. 

Pedro Rubalcava, director Catholic life in 

of music development this country is 

and outreach at strong on goodness. 

We have 

Oregon Catholic Press in 

Portland, leads delegates the consolation 

in song during the Fifth of the truth. But 

National Encuentro in we have work to 

Grapevine, Texas. | CNS/ 

do on beauty. 

TYLER ORSBURN 

“Beauty,” says 

Dostoyesky, “will 

save the world.” 

Music cannot save us on its own. 

But it can play its part in bringing us 

closer to God. 

Father Dorian Llywelyn, SJ, is 

president of the Institute for Advanced 

Catholic Studies, an independent research 

center located at the University 

of Southern California. 


AD REM 

ROBERT BRENNAN 

A New Year’s technique 

SHUTTERSTOCK 

God willing and the creek don’t 

rise, another year will soon be 

in the books. Like the swallows 

returning to San Juan Capistrano, 

talk of New Year’s resolutions again 

descends upon us. I’ve learned to avoid 

those, finding that making them is 

usually a lose-lose game. 

I also try to avoid dwelling too much 

on the past, and sometimes I even 

succeed. Focusing on all the ways I 

have been blessed (in the place of bemoaning 

things that I cannot change) 

is a technique that has served me well. 

This is not an advice column, but 

it’s a practice I highly recommend to 

anyone. 

The end of one year and the beginning 

of another can tend to make us 

wonder if we are like a hamster on a 

wheel. This is especially true after a 

year of chronicling the absurdities and 

foibles of monitoring popular culture. 

That same culture seems to like to refer 

to the “circle of life,” and I am truly 

thankful that Jesus took that circle and 

drove a vertical line pointing upward 

right through it. We still need directional 

finders sometimes, and the end 

of the year is always a suitable time 

to assess how well or poorly we have 

recalibrated our personal compasses 

to the coordinates Jesus has provided, 

through his Church and Scripture. 

It is easy to lose our way when we 

spend too much time counting our 

disappointments and not itemizing our 

blessings. 

No one is immune. Some things 

that have happened in our lives this 

year did not look like blessings at first 

blush. Still, as Jesus’ ministry has been 

reminding us for two millennia, things 

do not always happen on our timetable. 

When something hurts, it can 

be transformed into a source of good 

when enlightened by his cross. I know 

this and believe it. But I also know I’m 

supposed to keep my head down when 

I swing a golf club, but I forget that 

from time to time. 

So, what am I grateful for? 

First of all, I am grateful for the internet. 

Yes, the internet. This blessing 

does require several caveats, disclaimers, 

and warnings, but I’ve come to 

appreciate more deeply the accessibility 

of solid and reliable information in 

our digital age. Certainly, I could do 

without the false claims of the passings 

26 • ANGELUS • December 30, 2022

Robert Brennan writes from Los Angeles, where 

he has worked in the entertainment industry, 

Catholic journalism, and the nonprofit sector. 

of celebrities who are still with us. 

And any information taken from the 

web should be screened with a dose of 

scrutiny. 

Thanks to the internet, I should add, 

I can easily access official Vatican documents 

and scholarly papers that make 

me look like a more profound thinker 

than I actually am. It also allows me to 

check my facts in the seconds it takes 

to type on a keyboard. 

I am also grateful for my DVD library 

(yes, I still have a DVD player and a 

library of films from the Silent era to 

the modern era, up to 1968). When 

the time is right or if I need a “fix” of 

escape from the harsher realities of life 

in A.D. 2022, I can slide a disk into 

a machine and go back into a time 

machine. 

I would not only be exposed as the 

thin thinker I am but would have 

fewer interesting things to say if not for 

constant inspiration that comes from 

visiting and revisiting the works of giants 

of Catholic thinking. Thank you, 

Ven. Fulton Sheen, G.K. Chesterton, 

Evelyn Waugh, Malcom Muggeridge, 

Peter Kreeft, and many other brilliant 

minds who put me in my place and inspire 

me to be better at the same time. 

Speaking of giants, I am grateful this 

year and every year for the greatest 

theologians I ever encountered on a 

personal level: my father and mother. 

One was a failed businessman who 

never went to college and worked as a 

grocer. The other was “just” a wife and 

mother to 10 children. They struggled, 

they suffered, they rejoiced, and they 

persevered. 

Apart from those blessings (and, of 

course, his eternal patience with me), 

I am grateful beyond expression to 

the Almighty for placing my wife and 

children and grandson in my crooked 

path. They are a constant source of 

inspiration and love, even if they drive 

me nuts sometimes. 

As we face the temptation of glancing 

into the rearview mirror of the year 

that was, it’s a good time to keep our 

eyes forward. Even if it is a journey of 

two steps forward and one step back, 

blessed with enough time, we will 

eventually get to where we are going. 

Happy New Year. 


NOW PLAYING BABYLON 

NO ESCAPE FROM HELL 

While it is frank about the ugliness of early Hollywood 

hedonism, ‘Babylon’ still seems attached to it. 

A scene from “Babylon.” 

| PARAMOUNT PIC- 

TURES 

BY TYLER HUMMEL 

The early decades of what we call 

“Hollywood” were not innocent 

ones. When film became a popular 

form of mass entertainment, the 

violence and sexuality of early silent 

features shocked average audiences, 

giving the industry a reputation as a 

den of hedonism and lechery. Organized 

Christian groups like the Catholic 

Legion of Decency mobilized to rein it 

in — to some success. 

Given the subject matter, “Babylon” 

(in theaters Dec. 23) is an inspired title 

for director Damien Chazelle’s newest 

work, an epic post-modern dramatization 

of the decade-long transition in 

Hollywood from silent films to sound 

films. It borrows heavily in ideas and 

allusion to the classic 1950s comedy 

musical “Singing in the Rain” with 

the intention of revealing darker truths 

than its progenitor. Like its namesake 

city, it is a movie about a decadent, evil 

place that spreads chaos and corruption 

… Hollywood. 

Chazelle’s films — “Grand Piano,” 

“Whiplash,” and “La La Land” among 

them — are stories about dreamers 

who accomplish miraculous feats, 

singularly minded men and women 

with the talent to play an impossible 

song on the drums or land a spacecraft 

on the moon. 

“Babylon” might be his most ambitious 

and indulgent exploration of 

these ideas yet. We meet a large cast of 

eccentric, talented cutthroat artists at 

the height of the silent film era. Off the 

job, meanwhile, their lives are depicted 

in montages of hedonistic orgies, 

drug-fueled mania, and high stakes 

gambling. They are unable to hold 

down marriages, find authentic relationships, 

or live without expensive and 

costly vices — and the film portrays 

their condemnation quite graphically. 

This hedonism is romanticized by the 

characters who look back on it fondly 

as a reflection of the height of their 

creativity and success. In triumphalistic 

tones, the film seems to celebrate the 

fact that the sex and violence Christians 

once protested against is now 

mainstream and appealing. 

But like its progenitor “Singing in the 

Rain,” this all comes crashing down as 

Hollywood embraces sound technology, 

and actors who were beloved in the 

1920s can’t adapt to the new paradigm 

of the 1930s. With characters this toxic, 

it isn’t surprising to watch them melt 

down and collapse under the weight of 

their vices. 

But like most films about filmmaking, 

this one struggles to reckon with the 

consequences of Hollywood culture. 


“Babylon’s” most powerful scenes are 

the ones that contrast the chaotic inner 

lives of these men and women with the 

momentous success of their art, seeing 

how priceless and beautiful moments 

of art are created and impact future 

generations. 

Indeed, many of the greatest works of 

art in history, even religious ones, were 

made by unhappy, unstable, and even 

cruel people whose lives were overtaken 

by the greatness of the art they 

produced. 

The contrast calls to mind J.R.R. 

Tolkien’s semi-autobiographical short 

story “Leaf By Niggle,” which tells the 

story of an obsessive artist’s struggle to 

paint a perfect tree with total detail and 

success but who never fully succeeds 

in his life. At the end of the story, he 

sees a vision of the tree in all of the 

vision he wished to create. His personal 

struggle to realize something beautiful 

and true was found in his effort, not in 

his worldly accomplishments. Niggle’s 

spirit was willing but his flesh was 

weak. 

“He went on looking at the Tree,” 

Tolkien writes of his protagonist. “All 

the leaves he had ever laboured at were 

there, as he had imagined them rather 

than as he had made them; and there 

were others that had only budded in 

his mind, and many that might have 

budded, if only he had had time.” 

Unlike “Leaf by Niggle,” though, 

“Babylon” is populated by indulgent 

and feckless characters with no answer 

to the stress of change and the sting 

of failure. Niggle is easily distracted, 

lazy, and over-encumbered with life’s 

challenges.The movie’s characters are 

laboring to create their own personal 

hell on earth. The film can’t transcend 

this and ends up underdeveloped, 

merely alluding to the hope that art 

as an end to itself is worth the pain 

and suffering that goes into it, even as 

its artists become dead and forgotten. 

Even then, these characters are mostly 

consumed by despair and don’t get to 

see the fruit of their labors as Niggle 

does when he sees the completed tree. 

“Babylon” at its best captures the 

hope of eternity and the beauty of our 

suffering in the efforts to improve the 

world and bring joy to people’s lives. 

But at its worst, it is a work of self-gratifying 

indulgence that romanticizes 

humanity’s worst impulses. Angry, 

bloated, and self-important but filled 

with moments of beauty, “Babylon” 

can’t escape the hell it recognizes 

surrounds it. 

Chazelle’s Hollywood is far from 

heaven. It is depicted as a literal hell of 

sadomasochism and death, drenched 

in red light and descent imagery. As 

a result, “Babylon” amounts to little 

more than a prayer that Hollywood’s 

very real evils are worth it in the end. 

Tyler Hummel is a health care journalist 

with Main Street Nashville and a 

freelance entertainment critic.

DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

A rabbit and the resurrection 

An illustration by William Nicholson in 

Margery Williams’ 1922 book, “The Velveteen 

Rabbit.” | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

First published in 1922, Margery 

Williams’ “The Velveteen 

Rabbit: How Toys Become Real” 

is one of the most beloved children’s 

books of the 20th century. The story 

is also very much one of death and 

resurrection. 

The book begins: 

“There was once a velveteen rabbit, 

and in the beginning he was really 

splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a 

rabbit should be; his coat was spotted 

brown and white, he had real thread 

whiskers, and his ears were lined with 

pink sateen. On Christmas morning, 

when he sat wedged in the top of the 

Boy’s stocking, with a sprig of holly 

between his paws, the effect was 

charming.” 

The Boy loves him, “for at least two 

hours,” but there are many other 

toys that morning and what with “a 

great rustling of tissue paper,” and the 

excitement, and a lavish family dinner, 

the Boy forgets all about the Velveteen 

Rabbit who for a long time lives in the 

toy cupboard or on the nursery floor. 

The Rabbit is “naturally shy” (read: 

humble) and while mingling with 

the other nursery inhabitants, learns 

the ways of the world: that the more 

modern, mechanical toys look down 

on him, that the strong dominate the 

meek, that in such company he is 

made to feel “very insignificant and 

commonplace.” 

But “nursery magic is very strange 

and wonderful, and only those 

playthings that are old and wise and 

experienced like the Skin Horse understand 

all about it.” 

The Skin Horse, who is bald in 

patches and whose tail hairs have been 

pulled out to string bead necklaces, 

alone among the other toys is kind to 

30 • ANGELUS • December 30, 2022

Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

the Velveteen Rabbit. 

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit 

one day, when they were lying side by 

side near the nursery fender, before 

Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it 

mean having things that buzz inside 

you and a stick-out handle?” 

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said 

the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens 

to you. When a child loves you 

for a long, long time, not just to play 

with, but REALLY loves you, then you 

become Real.” 

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. 

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, 

for he was always truthful. “When you 

are Real you don’t mind being hurt. 

… It doesn’t happen all at once. … 

You become. It takes a long time. … 

Generally, by the time you are Real, 

most of your hair has been loved off, 

and your eyes drop out and you get 

loose in the joints and very shabby. 

But these things don’t matter at all, 

because once you are Real you can’t 

be ugly, except to people who don’t 

understand.” 

One person who doesn’t is Nana, 

a stand-in for all those who favor 

efficiency, hygiene, and “tidying-up” 

over fun. For his own part, languishing 

in the cupboard, the Rabbit longs to 

become Real but, like us, would just 

as soon forgo the discomfort involved. 

But one night as Nana hurriedly puts 

the Boy to bed, she looks around in 

vain for the china dogs, swoops into 

the toy cupboard and, dragging out 

the Rabbit by one ear, puts him in 

the boy’s arms. “Here,” she says, “take 

your old Bunny! He’ll do to sleep with 

you!” 

The Boy holds the Rabbit to his 

breast, makes tunnels for him under 

the blankets, and eventually refuses to 

let him out of his sight. So happy and 

secure is the Rabbit in the Boy’s love 

that he doesn’t even notice that his 

fur is falling out, his tail is becoming 

unsewn, and the pink has rubbed off 

his nose where the Boy has kissed him. 

One dreadful night the Boy becomes 

sick. Scarlet fever tears through the 

nursery. Though he recovers, the doctor 

orders that all the infected toys be 

burned. Peeking forlornly out of a sack 

at the end of the garden, the Rabbit 

asks himself the question that at one 

time or another burns deep within 

every human heart: “Of what use is it 

to be loved and lose one’s beauty and 

become Real if it all ended like this?” 

A tear falls down his cheek. Out of it 

grows a mysterious flower. And from 

the flower steps the nursery magic 

Fairy. When the toys are old and worn 

out and the children don’t need them 

anymore, the Fairy explains, she takes 

them away with her and turns them 

into Real. 

And so it comes to pass: the Rabbit is 

incarnated. Just as the disciples didn’t 

recognize Christ after the resurrection, 

the Boy doesn’t quite recognize the 

Rabbit when he appears in the garden 

after becoming Real. 

Also unstated is the fact that now 

that the rabbit has taken on flesh and 

blood, he will eventually die. 

Then again, love — Real love — is 

eternal. That’s the message that, 

augmented by William Nicholson’s 

beloved color illustrations, has made 

“The Velveteen Rabbit” a book for the 

ages. 

In fact, the wise old Skin Horse 

might have been gazing out the 

nursery window toward the Christmas 

star when he imparted this miraculous 

news: 

“Once you are Real you can’t become 

unreal again. It lasts for always.” 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

From silence to song 

Last in a series on the Book of Psalms. 

People tend to think of Moses as the dominant figure 

of the Old Testament, but the starring role really belongs 

to David. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the name 

“Moses” occurs just over 720 times, but “David” almost 

1,020 times. David is mentioned 37 times in the prophets, 

Moses only seven times. And the prophets are often 

concerned with the return of the monarchy and the rise of 

a king like David — descended from David. 

David is the undisputed star of the “Psalter.” More than 

70 psalms are attributed to him. The first two divisions of 

the “Psalter” are characterized as “the prayers of David” 

(Psalm 72:20). Royal-Davidic psalms show up at key points 

in the canonical arrangement: at the beginning (Psalm 2) 

and at the end of books two (Psalm 72) and three (Psalm 

89). Meanwhile, only one psalm is ascribed to Moses 

(Psalm 90). 

David was founder of Israel’s royal dynasty, the only dynasty 

to be underwritten by a divine covenant. Under his reign 

and that of his son, Israel underwent a social and liturgical 

revolution, moving from a tribal confederation worshiping 

in silence at a portable tent-shrine to a centralized monarchy 

worshiping to musical accompaniment at a permanent 

and glorious Temple in Jerusalem. 

In the words of the Reformed theologian Peter Leithart, 

Israel moved “from silence to song” during the reign of 

David and Solomon. 

As songs — and as the largest book in the Bible — the 

psalms testify to this. Moreover, they overwhelmingly testify 

to the Son of David who is to come. 

They speak of a Son of David who is also the Son of God 

(Psalms 2:7; 89:26–27). 

“King David,” by Sir Peter Paul 

Rubens, 1577-1640, Flemish. 

| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

They speak of a king who is the 

Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed 

One (Psalms 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 

84:9; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17). 

They foretell a kingdom that is 

international in scope (Psalms 2:8; 

72:11; 89:27), and they call for the nations to acknowledge 

the God of Israel (22:27–28; 47:8–9; 67:1-7; 69:29, 31–35; 

86:9; 96:8-9; 100:1–2, 4). 

And they speak of a Son of David whose rule will be everlasting 

(Psalms 89:35–36; 21:4). 

Thus the Old Testament moves from the Mosaic to the 

Davidic, from the tabernacle to the Temple, from silence 

to song. 

In the time of David’s dynasty, history still reads like a 

story in search of an ending, but the ending is imminent. 

And indeed it comes with Jesus, who is born in the city of 

David and called the Son of David. 

The psalms are witness to Israel’s expectation in the centuries 

just before history’s climactic moment. The moment 

was so joyful, the prayers so thankful, that they could not 

simply be recited. They needed to be sung. 


■ TUESDAY, JANUARY 3 

The Sanctuary Course for Catholics: A Conversation 

about Mental Health. St. Christopher Church, 629 S. 

Glendora Ave., West Covina, 7-9 p.m. Event runs Tuesdays 

in December and January. For more information, 

call Father Kolbe Missionaries at 626-17-0040 or email 

FKMs@kolbemissionusa.org. 

■ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4 

“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. 

■ THURSDAY, JANUARY 5 

Bereavement Support Group. St. Mary of the Assumption 

Church, 7215 Newlin Ave., Whittier, 7-8:30 p.m. 

Support group runs for six weeks for those struggling 

with the death of a loved one. RSVP to Cathy Narvaez at 

562-631-8844 by Jan. 2 to register. 

Tenants’ Rights and Housing Dispute Advocacy Clinic 

for Disabled Veterans. 5-8 p.m. Zoom clinic will help 

disabled veterans in LA County with disability rights, 

reasonable accommodation requests, criminal history 

checks, and more. Register at https://tinyurl.com/uysr7t76. 

■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 7 

“La Befana” Dinner with Italian Catholic Club of Santa 

Clarita. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 23223 

Lyons Ave., Santa Clarita, 12 p.m. Italian dinner will be 

served, with gifts for children. Cost: $35/adults, $20/ 

teens 12-18, kids 11 and under are free. To RSVP, call 

Anna Riggs at 661-645-7877 or email italians@iccscv.org 

by Jan. 2. 

■ TUESDAY, JANUARY 10 

Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San 

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

virtual and not open to the public. Livestream available at 

catholiccm.org or facebook.com/lacatholics. 


St. Padre Pio Holy Mass. St. Anne Church, 340 10th St., 

Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Chaplain: Father Al Baca. For more 

information, call 562-537-4526. 


Bereavement Support Group. St. Bruno Church, 15740 

Citrustree Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. Group meets 

Thursdays through Feb. 16. RSVP to Cathy at 562-631- 

8844 by Jan. 9. 


New Year Silent Saturday Centering Prayer. Holy Spirit 

Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. 

With Marilyn Nobori and the Contemplative Outreach 

Team. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 

818-815-4480. 

■ SUNDAY, JANUARY 15 

Virtual Diaconate Information Day. 2-4 p.m. To register, 

email Deacon Melecio Zamora at dmz2011@la-archdiocese.org. 

The Feast of Santo Niño. Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 3 p.m. Join the 

36th celebration of the feast of Santo Niño. Bring Santo 

Niño statues for a special blessing. Celebrant: Father Rey 

Matunog. 


LACBA CFJ Veterans Record Clearing Clinic. 5-8 p.m. 

Zoom clinic open to Southern California veterans, assists 

with learning CA traffic tickets, expunging criminal 

records, and felony reductions. Registration required. 

Contact 213-896-6537 or inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. 


Children’s Bureau: Foster Care Zoom Orientation. 4-5 

p.m. Children’s Bureau is now offering two virtual ways for 

individuals and couples to learn how to help children in 

foster care while reunifying with birth families or how to 

provide legal permanency by adoption. A live Zoom orientation 

will be hosted by a Children’s Bureau team member 

and a foster parent. For those who want to learn at their 

own pace about becoming a foster and/or fost-adopt 

parent, an online orientation presentation is available. 

To RSVP for the live orientation or to request the online 

orientation, email rfrecruitment@all4kids.org. 

■ FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 

Ammas, Monks, and Archetypes Weekend Retreat. 

Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino. Retreat 

with Father Stephen Coffey, OSB Cam., runs Friday at 5 

p.m. through Sunday at 1 p.m. For more information, visit 

hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 


Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop. Holy Spirit 

Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

With Marilyn Nobori and the Contemplative Outreach 

Team. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 

818-815-4480. 


LACBA Family Law Clinic. 2-5 p.m. Zoom clinic will cover 

child support, child custody, divorce, and spousal support. 

Open to LA County veterans. Registration required. 

Contact 213-896-6537 or inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. 

■ THURSDAY, JANUARY 26 

“When the Wave Knows It’s the Ocean: Apostolic 

Wholeness and the Kinship of God”: An Evening with 

Father Greg Boyle. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 

10727 Downey Ave., Downey, 7 p.m. Hosted by the 

Catholic Women’s Guild-Our Lady of Perpetual Help 

Church. Freewill offering requested to benefit Homeboy 

Industries. For information, call 562-923-3246. 


Infant Jesus of Prague: 40th Annual 9-Hour Novena and 

Mass. Our Lady of Grace Church, 5011 White Oak Ave., 

Encino, 6:45 a.m. 

■ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 

Ninth Annual Nun Run 5K, 1-Mile, and Community 

Service Fair. La Reina High School and Middle School, 

106 W. Janss Rd., Thousand Oaks, 8 a.m. Hosted by the 

Sisters of Notre Dame, proceeds benefit local and global 

outreach, including the homeless, immigrants, human 

trafficking survivors, and recipients of health care and 

eldercare services. Nonprofit organizations will be available 

at the Community Service Fair. For more information, 

email jcoito@sndusa.org. 

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 | December 30, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 26

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