Angelus News | February 10, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 3

ANGELUS 

MARCHING 

ON Next steps 

in building a 

culture of life 

and love 

February 10, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 3

February 10, 2023 

Vol. 8 • No. 3 

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Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

ON THE COVER 

ISABEL CACHO 

Thousands of pro-lifers from around the state walked from 

La Placita Olvera to Los Angeles State Historic Park north of 

downtown for the annual OneLife LA event Jan. 21. On Page 

10, Natalie Romano heard from participants and speakers 

about what this year’s theme, “Our Mission is Love,” meant 

for the fight for human dignity after a year of both wins and 

losses for the pro-life movement. 

THIS PAGE 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Students sing during a special Jan. 29 Sunday 

Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in 

East Hollywood with Archbishop José H. Gomez, 

kicking off this year’s Catholic Schools Week. 

The parish school recently celebrated the 100th 

anniversary of its founding and followed the 

Mass with an open house event.

CONTENTS 

Pope Watch............................................... 2 

Archbishop Gomez................................. 3 

World, Nation, and Local News...... 4-6 

In Other Words........................................ 7 

Father Rolheiser....................................... 8 

Scott Hahn.............................................. 32 

Events Calendar..................................... 33 

16 

20 

22 

24 

28 

30 

Monterey Park Catholics pray for healing after losing one of their own 

John Allen on the barrage of new Vatican books after Benedict’s death 

Mike Aquilina: Why the Eucharist is as intimate as it gets with God 

Dr. Grazie Christie ponders the need for mourning after losing her father 

The South Korean movie with a funny, yet profound take on abortion 

Heather King on a Duarte doctor who builds his practice on faith 

February 10, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

A pontificate at 10 

Public criticism by cardinals and 

bishops is annoying — “like a 

rash that bothers you a bit,” Pope 

Francis said — but differences need to 

be aired and criticism can be helpful, 

he told the Associated Press (AP) in a 

wide-ranging interview conducted Jan. 

24 and published the next day. 

The papacy is not a dictatorship, he 

said, and, besides, “criticism helps you 

to grow and improve things.” 

Asked about the case of Jesuit Father 

Marko Rupnik, Francis said he had no 

role in lifting the 2020 excommunication 

of the Slovenian priest and artist 

who continues to have restrictions on 

his ministry after additional accusations 

of sexually, psychologically, and spiritually 

abusing women in a religious 

order he helped begin. 

And while he said he always orders 

the lifting of the statute of limitations 

when a case involves someone who 

was a child at the time of the abuse, he 

does not when survivors were adults 

because justice demands respect for 

the idea that a person is innocent until 

proven guilty and that crimes must be 

prosecuted within a certain time limit. 

In the discussion about homosexuality, 

Francis said that “being homosexual 

is not a crime. It is not a crime.” And 

he defined as “unjust” laws that criminalize 

homosexuality or homosexual 

activity. 

According to Church teaching, homosexual 

activity is sinful, the pope said, 

but, as the Catechism of the Catholic 

Church teaches, gay people must be 

respected and welcomed and not marginalized 

or discriminated against. 

Being gay “is not a crime,” he said. 

One could say, “ ‘Yes, but it’s a sin.’ 

Fine, but first let’s distinguish between 

a sin and a crime.” 

“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one 

another,” he added. 

Pope Francis also objected to the idea 

that criticism has increased since Pope 

Benedict XVI died, and that somehow 

it is related to the late pope no longer 

being around to quiet the critics. 

Instead, he said, it seems to be a 

natural part of “the wear-and-tear” of 

his papacy, which is nearing its 10th 

anniversary. 

As he had done shortly before Benedict’s 

death, Francis also told AP that 

he had no plans to issue norms for how 

a retired pope should live and dress and 

what he should be called. 

But, he said, if he were ever to resign, 

he would insist on being referred to 

as the emeritus bishop of Rome and 

he would live in a Rome diocesan 

residence for retired priests. 

Francis insisted he is “in good health,” 

at least “normal” for his age, which is 

86. His knee has healed, he said, but 

he told AP that he again is suffering 

from diverticulosis, or bulges in his 

intestinal wall, a condition for which 

he underwent surgery in 2021. 

Responding to a question on his 

view of Germany’s synodal process, 

which began in 2019, Francis told 

AP it seemed to be “elitist” because it 

involved mainly bishops, theologians, 

and laity invited to participate by the 

bishops’ conference and the country’s 

Central Committee of German Catholics. 

And, he said, it could become 

“ideological,” which is dangerous 

because “when ideology gets involved 

in Church processes, the Holy Spirit 

goes home.” 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome bureau chief Cindy 

Wooden. 

Papal Prayer Intention for February: We pray that parishes, 

placing communion at the center, may increasingly become 

communities of faith, fraternity, and welcome toward those 

most in need. 

2 • ANGELUS • February 10, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

Catholic schools, where Jesus is the teacher 

I 

had the joy to mark the start of 

Catholic Schools Week (Jan. 29- 

Feb. 4) by celebrating Mass for the 

100th anniversary of Immaculate Heart 

of Mary School in East Hollywood. 

It is a reminder of the enduring legacy 

of our education ministry here in Los 

Angeles. Founded by the Sisters of the 

Immaculate Heart of Mary, and later 

run for many years by the Religious 

Sisters of Charity, the school is thriving 

still today. 

In addition to offering first-rate academics 

and good religious formation, 

the school has a world class children’s 

choir that has performed at Carnegie 

Hall and for Pope Francis. 

And this is just one of our schools! 

We run the largest Catholic school 

system in the nation, with 254 schools 

serving roughly 67,400 students. And I 

am happy to report that our enrollment 

numbers are up again this year. Over 

the past two years, enrollments are up 

more than 4%. 

More importantly, our students’ 

academic performance continues to be 

excellent, even with the challenges in 

recent years from the pandemic. 

Our schools are a light of hope and 

we are changing lives and lifting 

people up every day. About 70% of 

our students come from low-income 

families. 

Education continues to be the most 

important single factor in helping people 

to rise in our society, opening up 

economic opportunities, and offering 

people a way out of poverty. 

So many of our students go on to 

become the first in their families to attend 

and graduate from college. Many 

return home to become leaders in their 

communities. 

I have such great admiration for our 

principals, faculty, and families, and for 

all the many benefactors and spon- 

soring religious orders who make this 

education possible. 

Our Catholic Education Foundation 

plays a vital role. Last year, the 

foundation provided $16 million in 

tuition assistance to more than 12,000 

students in 200 schools. 

But there are thousands more families 

waiting to send their children to Catholic 

schools, if they could just afford the 

tuition. My dream continues to be to 

make a Catholic education possible for 

every child. 

Jesus sent his Church, not just 

to preach but also to teach. 

Catholic education is a beautiful gift. 

Because what students learn in 

Catholic schools is more than reading 

and writing, science and math. Those 

subjects are all important, and we 

strive to give every student an excellent 

and well-rounded education. 

But Catholic education is “Catholic.” 

That means it is part of the mission 

that Jesus gave to his Church 2,000 

years ago. 

We remember that before he ascended 

to heaven, Jesus commanded his 

disciples to preach the Gospel to the 

ends of the earth, and to make disciples 

of all nations. He also commanded that 

we teach people to observe all that he 

commanded. 

Jesus sent his Church, not just to 

preach but also to teach. 

When we read the Gospels, we read 

over and over again about how Jesus 

was “teaching” — in the synagogues, 

in the streets, in the homes of the 

people. The disciples called Jesus their 

“teacher.” 

And through our Catholic schools, 

Jesus is still teaching. 

Our Catholic faith is more than 

feelings and sentiments. Our faith has 

a content. It has truth. And that truth 

has a name: Jesus. 

The deepest aim of Catholic education 

is to help our young people to 

know Jesus. Because when we know 

Jesus, we meet the living God. 

When we meet Jesus, we find the 

answers to the questions that are born 

in our hearts: Who am I? Where did 

I come from, and where am I going? 

What should I be living 

for? What is the good 

life and why should I 

even want to be a good 

person? What is it that 

God wants from me? 

What path should I 

follow to find happiness? 

Catholic education starts with Jesus 

and the truth he reveals in his Gospel. 

Jesus does not teach us science or 

grammar. He does not teach us how 

to specialize in a certain profession or 

how to use technology. 

What Jesus teaches is more fundamental. 

He shows us that the world has 

an order, that the world has a purpose 

and a design. And Jesus shows us that 

you and I are made for greater things, 

that we are all made for love and holiness 

and glory. 

Jesus teaches us that God has the plan 

for our lives, that every one of us is a 

child of God, made to love and serve 

him and to serve our brothers and 

sisters in love. 

When we know that, we can count 

ourselves truly educated. 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And let us ask our Blessed Mother 

Mary to keep our young people always 

close to Jesus so that he can teach 

them the way to happiness and to 

heaven. 

Frebruary 10, 2023 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD 

■ France: World’s oldest person 

‘Sister André’ dies at 118 

A French nun 

believed to be 

the world’s oldest-known 

person 

died Jan. 17 at 

the age of 118. 

Lucile Randon 

— better known 

as “Sister André” 

— was born to a 

Protestant family 

in France on 

Feb. 11, 1904. 

The Daughter 

Sister André Randon in 2021. | SAINTE-CATHERINEof 

Charity lived 

LABOURÉ CARE HOME/DAVID TAVELLA 

through two 

world wars, 

the 1918 and 2020 pandemics, and 10 pontificates. She 

even survived a mild bout with COVID-19 two years ago. 

“People say that work kills. For me, work kept me alive,” 

she told reporters in April 2022. “I kept working until I was 

108.” 

“There is great sadness but ... it was her desire to join her 

beloved brother. For her, it’s a liberation,” David Tavella, 

speaking for the Sainte-Catherine-Labouré nursing home 

in Toulon, France, where Sister André died, told news 

agency AFP. 

■ Spain: Sacristan killed, 

priest injured in jihadist attack 

A parish sacristan was killed and a priest seriously wounded 

in a suspected Islamist terror attack on two Catholic 

churches in the south of Spain. 

The suspect — a Moroccan national identified as Yasin 

Kanza — first attacked 74-year-old Salesian Father Antonio 

Rodriguez as he celebrated Mass the evening of Jan. 25 in 

the port city of Algeciras. He then entered a second church 

nearby, began to throw things that were on the altar, and 

killed Diego Valencia, a sacristan at the parish, as he was 

trying to flee. 

Although seriously wounded in the neck, Rodriguez underwent 

surgery and is in stable condition. Kanza was later 

arrested and an investigation is underway. 

In a statement, the Diocese of Cádiz-Ceuta (where 

Algeciras is located) remembered Valencia as someone 

“much loved in the parish and in the city for his dedication 

and affability with everyone.” 

“We feel the strength of the prayer of the entire Church 

and its closeness, its encouragement, and its testimony 

strengthen us a lot,” Bishop Rafael Zornoza of Cádiz-Ceuta 

told the media. 

■ Vatican rejects German 

bishops’ governance plan 

Three top Vatican cardinals have notified Germany’s 

bishops they do not have authority to establish a permanent 

“Synodal Council.” 

A letter published Jan. 23 and signed by the Vatican’s secretary 

of state, a top doctrine official, and chief of its Dicastery 

for Bishops disapproved of plans to establish a permanent 

decision-making body of bishops and laypeople proposed by 

Germany’s Synodal Assembly last year. 

“Neither the Synodal (Path), nor any body established by it, 

nor any episcopal conference has the competence to establish 

the ‘Synodal Council’ at the national, diocesan or parish 

level,” read the letter to Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of 

the German bishops’ conference, which the cardinals said 

was approved by Pope Francis. 

Bishop Bätzing responded by saying that the Vatican’s 

concerns were unfounded. 

“No one questions the authority of the episcopate,” he 

wrote in a response, adding that the bishops will continue to 

“think much more intensively about the forms and possibilities 

of synodal consultation and decision making” for a 

Synodal Council. 

Peru in peril? — Demonstrators take part in an anti-government protest in Lima, 

Peru, on Jan. 23 as they demand the release of protesters detained in demonstrations 

in support of former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, who was ousted. 

The country’s bishops pleaded for peace as violent protests against the country’s 

current president and legislature have claimed the lives of dozens of people. | 

OSV NEWS/ANGELA PONCE, REUTERS 


NATION 

■ Seattle Archdiocese 

to merge parishes amid 

drops in attendance 

The Archdiocese of Seattle cited 

shrinking numbers of churchgoers and 

a decline in vocations in its decision to 

begin a yearslong parish consolidation 

initiative. 

Announced Jan. 22, the “Partners in 

the Gospel” plan will combine two or 

more parishes into “family structures” 

under the leadership of a single pastor 

and at least one parochial vicar. 

The archdiocese reported an 11% 

decline in Mass attendance, a 30% decline 

in baptisms, and an 18% decline 

in weddings from 2010 to 2019, the 10 

years before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said the 

plan was about “adapting to our current 

reality so that we can strengthen 

our relationship with Jesus, accompany 

one another in faith, and credibly 

proclaim the Gospel.” 

While parish closures and mergers 

have become more common in Eastern 

U.S. dioceses, Seattle’s announcement 

is the first in recent memory on 

the West Coast. 

TOI 700 e orbits within the 

“habitable zone” of its star in 

this illustration. | NASA/JPL- 

CALTECH/ROBERT HURT 

■ NASA’s newest find and the case for God 

Catholic scientists say NASA’s latest extraterrestrial discovery is a testament to 

“the marvels of God’s creation.” 

On Jan. 10, NASA announced it had discovered a potentially habitable planet 

named TOI 700 e. The planet is 95% the size of earth and located at a distance 

from its sun where liquid water could occur. 

However, it has a few significant differences from Earth: It takes only 28 days to 

orbit its sun and is likely “tidally locked,” meaning that one side is always facing its 

sun while the other is always facing away. 

Although it’s hard to know whether life can exist on it, the planet’s discovery 

shows that “in the same way that God likes planets, [he] likes variety in planets,” 

Christopher Graney, a scientist at the Vatican Observatory, told Catholic News 

Agency. 

“The more exoplanets we detect, the more startlingly unique we realize earth 

really is,” said Christopher Shingledecker, an astronomer at Benedictine College 

in Kansas. 

The cause continues — Pro-life advocates gather for the 50th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., 

Jan. 20. The event was the first held following last summer’s overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision that initially 

prompted it. “While the march began as a response to Roe, we don’t end as a response to Roe being overturned,” 

Jeanne Mancini, the march’s organizer and a Catholic, told tens of thousands gathered at the pre-march rally. 

“Why? Because we are not yet done.” | OSV NEWS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ 

■ Church nonprofits 

probably won’t miss 

AmazonSmile 

It appears Catholic nonprofits will 

survive Amazon’s decision to cancel its 

AmazonSmile program. 

For a decade, AmazonSmile allowed 

shoppers to select a participating charity 

to receive a .05% value of qualifying purchases. 

On Jan. 19, Amazon announced 

it will end the program, which has distributed 

more than $400 million to U.S. 

charities, because the program’s impact 

was “often spread too thin.” 

Catholic nonprofit leaders agree that the 

financial impact has been minimal. 

“The Church is completely full of loyal 

donors,” Cory J. Howat, executive director 

of the Catholic Community Foundation 

in New Orleans, told OSV News. “Have 

we put in enough time as a Church to 

reach out to them and respond?” 


LOCAL 

Servant of God Cora Evans. | OSV NEWS PHOTO 

■ Hannon Foundation awards 

science grants, scholarships to 

LA Catholic schools 

Twenty local Catholic schools and nonprofits were 

awarded more than $250,000 in grants to close out 2022, 

the William H. Hannon Foundation announced. 

The grants will be used toward things such as career 

pathway programs, scholarships, and field trips, the foundation 

said. 

One of the recipients, the Salk Institute, was awarded a 

grant to support its mobile science labs for grade school 

and high school students. 

“As a former schoolteacher and mother, I have seen 

firsthand the positive impact that a well-formed education 

can have on the youth in LA,” said foundation president 

Kathleen Hannon Aikenhead in a statement. “These 

organizations are educating the next generation of leaders 

in our great city, and we are proud to help them in their 

efforts.” 

Among the beneficiaries were St. Pius X-St. Matthias 

Academy in Santa Fe Springs, Flintridge Sacred Heart 

High School, and Archdiocesan Youth Employment 

Services. 

■ California mystic’s 

sainthood cause 

goes to Rome 

The Vatican is expected to begin its 

own investigation into the sainthood 

cause of California woman Cora Evans. 

Born in Utah in 1904, Evans converted 

from Mormonism to the Catholic 

faith. She and her husband had three 

children, eventually living in both 

Southern and Northern California. 

She went on to convert many other 

Mormons, reportedly received many 

mystical experiences and the stigmata, 

and recorded detailed writings on her 

experiences with Jesus and the saints. 

She died in 1957. 

Evans has been recognized as a Servant 

of God, and the Diocese of Monterey, California, closed the “diocesan phase” 

of documentation on Jan. 22. Sealed documents were sent to the Vatican, where the 

next investigation phase will begin this spring. 

Noël Fuentes, pastoral associate at San Roque Church in Santa Barbara, told OSV 

News how her mother’s friendship with the Evans family ultimately shaped her 

faith. 

“She taught us to see with more than our own eyes,” Fuentes said of the woman 

she calls “Aunt Cora.” “She completely gave her whole self to God, she trusted in 

God and said, ‘I surrender.’ ” 

■ Three more 

pastoral regions to 

hold eucharistic 

congresses in February 

A series of regional eucharistic 

congresses will continue this month in 

three parishes as part of the ongoing 

Eucharistic Revival initiative. 

The gatherings will take place Feb. 

4 at Our Lady of the Assumption 

Church, Ventura (Santa Barbara 

Pastoral Region), Feb. 11 at Our 

Lady of Grace Church, Encino (San 

Fernando Region), and Feb. 18 at St. 

Augustine Church in Culver City 

(Our Lady of the Angels Region). 

Similar congresses were already held 

for the San Pedro and San Gabriel 

Pastoral Regions in late 2022. 

In addition, the archdiocese’s Office 

for Divine Worship announced that 

Saturday, March 25, Archbishop José 

H. Gomez will lead a 6.5-mile-long 

eucharistic procession from Mission 

San Gabriel to St. Luke the Evangelist 

Church in Temple City and back. 

A blessing for Chinatown — Father John Lam, SDB, pastor of St. Bridget Church 

in Chinatown, addresses parishioners during a Jan. 22 blessing ceremony for a 

new multipurpose hall, the “Mary Help of Christians Center.” The blessing for 

the building, which is still being finished, took place during Archbishop José H. 

Gomez’s visit to the parish for the Lunar New Year. Father Lam said it will be used 

for “the evangelization of the Chinatown area,” hosting catechism classes and other 

parish events. | JOHN MCCOY 

Y 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

Beware of the wellness paradox 

I appreciated Elise Ureneck’s balanced and fair reporting on the 

wellness craze in her “Healing With Meaning” cover story for the 

Jan. 27 issue. 

I think that many of the trend’s goals are well-intentioned, including in Catholic 

circles. Today’s technology can make us more sedentary and stressed at the same 

time. But I think that when a movement focuses too much on the physical, it 

risks forgetting about the spiritual — and at great cost to younger generations. 

— Doris Manriquez, Thousand Oaks 

A message for women and men 

I was a bit taken aback when I read the following quote from St. Pope Paul VI 

cited in Kathryn Jean Lopez’s piece, “A surprising messenger” in the Jan. 13 

issue: “Women of the entire universe, whether Christian or non-believing, you 

to whom life is entrusted at this grave moment in history, it is for you to save the 

peace of the world.” 

I think this is a rather heavy mantle to place on women. Yes, most women are 

natural nurturers, collaborators, and peacemakers, and do our best to use these 

qualities for the betterment of all, including teaching them to our children. But 

in today’s world of escalating violence and the subjugation of women, with most 

positions of power still in the hands of men, we could really use the partnership of 

enlightened men everywhere. 

Saving the peace of the world is an all-hands-on-deck job! 

— Joanna Ryder, American Martyrs Church, Manhattan Beach 

Y 

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

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

may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity. 

The post-Roe generation 

Young people were enthusiastic participants in this year’s OneLife LA festivities. The ninth annual event kicked off 

with a youth rally at La Placita Olvera before the walk. | 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. 

“This is how we continue 

to improve the human 

condition.” 

~ Alan Rock, executive director of Catholic 

Charities Bureau. The charity sued the Wisconsin 

Supreme Court in January after being denied legal 

benefits for religious charity organizations. 

“I might die tomorrow, but 

it’s under control.” 

~ Pope Francis, in a Jan. 24 interview with the 

Associated Press. 

“This was not just a 

professional failing. This was 

a failing of basic humanity 

toward another individual.” 

~ Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, after the 

release of body camera footage of the Jan. 7 arrest 

of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by five officers. Davis 

died at a hospital shortly after the arrest. 

“His hope was that he might 

be able to touch one heart 

that day, so he could save a 

second heart.” 

~ Brian McMonagle, defense attorney for pro-life 

advocate and Catholic father of seven Mark Houck. 

“The [COVID-19] 

pandemic made it harder 

to maintain the building. 

I just heard God tell me, 

‘You’re not going back into 

the same building that you 

came out of.’ ” 

~ Monica Marshall, pastor of Varick Memorial 

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 

Brooklyn, on the deteriorating state of her church 

in an Associated Press interview. Varick Memorial 

is one of 35 churches — including Catholic ones — 

that will receive financial grants from the National 

Trust for Historic Preservation to help restore aging 

historic Black churches. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com/. 

Tomorrow and tomorrow 

In his “Confessions,” St. Augustine 

describes how his conversion to 

Christianity involved two separate 

moments of grace, the first that 

convinced him intellectually that 

Christianity was correct, and the second 

that empowered him to live out 

what he believed. There were nearly 

nine years between these two conversions, 

and it was during those nine 

years that he said his famous prayer: 

“Lord make me a good and chaste 

Christian — but not yet.” 

Interestingly, a contemporary of his, 

also a saint, Ephraim the Syrian (A.D. 

306-373) wrote a similar prayer: “O 

my beloved, how daily I default and 

daily do repent. I build up for an hour 

and an hour overthrows what I have 

built. At evening I say, tomorrow I will 

repent, but when morning comes, joyous 

I waste the day. Again, at evening 

I say, I shall keep vigil all night and I 

shall entreat the Lord to have mercy 

on my sins. But when the night is 

come, I am full of sleep.” 

What Augustine and Ephraim 

describe with such clarity (and not 

without a touch of humor) is one of 

the real difficulties we face in our 

struggle to grow in faith and human 

maturity, namely, the tendency to go 

through life saying, “Yes, I need to do 

better. I need to bear down and work 

at overcoming my bad habits, but now 

is not the time!” 

It’s consoling to know that a number 

of saints struggled for years with 

mediocrity, laziness, and bad habits, 

and that they, like us, could for years 

give in to those things with the shrug, 

“Tomorrow, I will make a new start!” 

For a few years, one of Augustine’s 

expressions was, “tomorrow and 

tomorrow!” 

“Yes, but not yet!” How often does 

this describe us? I want to be a good 

Christian and a good person. I want 

to live more by faith, be less lazy, 

less selfish, more gracious to others, 

more contemplative, less given over to 

anger, bitterness, paranoia, and judgment 

of others. I want to stop giving 

in to gossip and slander. I want to be 

more realistically involved in justice. I 

want a better prayer life. I want to take 

time for things, spend more time with 

my family, smell the flowers, drive 

slower, be more patient, and be less 

hurried. I have a number of bad habits 

that I need to change, there are still 

areas of bitterness in me, I am defaulting 

on so many things, I really need to 

change, but now is not the time. 

First, I need to work through a 

particular relationship, grow older, 

change jobs, get married, get rested, 

get healthy, finish school, have a 

needed vacation, let some wounds 

healed, get the kids out of the house, 

retire, move to a new parish, and get 

away from this situation — then I will 

get serious about changing all this. 

Lord, make me a more mature person 

and Christian, but not yet! 

In the end, that’s not a good prayer. 

Augustine tells us that, for years, as he 

said this prayer, he was able to rationalize 

his own mediocrity. However, 

a cataclysm began building inside 

him. God is infinitely patient with us, 

but our own patience with ourselves 

eventually wears out and, at a point, 

we can no longer continue as before. 

In Book 8 of the “Confessions,” 

Augustine shares how one day, sitting 

in a garden, he was overwhelmed with 

his own immaturity and mediocrity 

and “a great storm broke within me, 

bringing with it a great deluge of tears. 

… I flung myself down beneath a fig 

tree and gave way to the tears which 

now streamed from my eyes … in my 

misery I kept crying, ‘How long shall 

I go on saying, tomorrow, tomorrow. 

Why not now?’ ” When he got up 

from the ground, his life had changed; 

he never again finished a prayer with 

that little nuance, “but not yet.” 

We all have certain habits in our 

lives that we know are bad, but for a 

variety of reasons (laziness, addiction, 

lack of moral strength, fatigue, anger, 

paranoia, jealousy, or the pressure of 

family or friends) we are reluctant to 

break. We sense our mediocrity, but 

take consolation in our humanity, 

knowing that everyone (save fullblown 

saints) often has this spoken or 

unspoken caveat in their prayers, “Yes, 

Lord, but not yet!” 

Indeed, there is in fact a valid consolation 

in this prayer in that it recognizes 

something important inside the 

infinite understanding and mercy of 

God. God, I suspect, copes better with 

our faults than we cope with them, 

and others cope with us. However, 

like Augustine, even as we say, 

“tomorrow and tomorrow,” a storm 

steadily continues to build within us 

and, sooner or later, our own mediocrity 

will sicken us enough to cause us 

say, “Why not now?” 

When the psalmist says, “Sing to 

the Lord a new song,” we might ask 

ourselves, what is the old song? It’s the 

one that ends with us praying, “Yes, 

Lord, but not yet!” 


A movement 

with a mission 

Beyond recent wins and defeats for 

the pro-life movement, this year’s 

OneLife LA emphasized love as an 

answer to attacks on human dignity. 

BY NATALIE ROMANO 

10 • ANGELUS • February 10, 2023 

The Mercado family at 

OneLife LA on Jan. 21. | ROSE 

ESPARZA/SUBMITTED PHOTO

A woman prays among the participants of the OneLife 

LA Walk for Life on Jan. 21. | STEFANO GARZIA 

OneLife LA is an important tradition for the Mercado 

family. 

Every year they make the 60-mile trip from San 

Bernardino County to the pro-life event sponsored by the 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles to celebrate their faith — and 

their son. As the festivities were in full swing, 15-year-old 

Gabe wrapped his arms around his dad’s shoulders. 

It was a moment only made possible because his mom 

said no to abortion. 

“His birth mother was a teenage girl who was struggling. 

We are just so blessed that she chose life,” said Rich Mercado, 

whose family attends The Holy Name of Jesus Church 

in Redlands. “I can’t imagine our family without him.” 

Love stories like the Mercados’ weren’t hard to find 

between La Placita and Los Angeles State Historic Park on 

the cloudless, picture-perfect Saturday afternoon. 

More than 7,500 people descended on downtown Los 

Angeles Jan. 21 for the event, organized by the archdiocesan 

Office of Life, Justice and Peace. They traveled by 

car, bus, and even train to support the dignity of life from 

conception to natural death at an important moment in 

the history of their cause: the first OneLife LA event since 

the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court 

last June. 

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez welcomed and 

prayed with the crowd at La Placita Olvera before leading 

the mile-long midday walk to the park. He was joined by 

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishops David O’Connell and Marc 

Trudeau, Bishop Joseph Brennan of Fresno, and Auxiliary 

Bishop Ramon Bejarano of San Diego. 

Archbishop Gomez thanked the animated marchers — 

many of whom came in groups organized by parishes and 

ministries — for being part of this “spiritual movement.” 

“What a joy it is to be alive, to believe in Jesus, and to 

celebrate the gift of life,” said Archbishop Gomez. “We all 

want to live in a society where human life is cherished and 

welcomed, where everyone can live with dignity, beginning 

with the child in the womb and extending to every person 

in every condition.” 

As the giant trail of people with banners and balloons 

wove through the streets, you could hear laughter, prayer, 

and song but, sporadically, one voice rose above the fray. It 


Thousands march through downtown Los Angeles during OneLife LA on Jan. 21. | STEFANO GARZIA 

belonged to Greg Perea, who came with his family — and 

a bullhorn. 

“We’re loudly spreading the pro-life message but we’re 

making this a positive movement,” said a grinning Perea, 

a parishioner of St. John Paul II Polish Center in Yorba 

Linda. “We’re trying to show the world we’re all about love 

and peace and bringing others into the sheepfold.” 

In his remarks, Archbishop Gomez said this year’s 

OneLife LA theme, “Our mission is love,” summed up the 

“single purpose” of our lives. 

“Our mission is to radiate and to share God’s love in his 

creation … and when we know this it gives our lives beautiful 

clarity, a beautiful simplicity,” he said. 

Both One Life and San Francisco’s annual pro-life rally, 

March For Life West Coast, as well as similar gatherings 

around the country, were celebrated on the eve of the 50th 

anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. 

But because of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health 

Organization decision that overturned Roe and returned 

the matter of regulating or restricting abortion to individual 

states, participants like Dina Martins thought this year’s 

crowd seemed a “little more enthusiastic.” Still, she concedes, 

living in the Golden State can make some feel like a 

fish out of water. 

“In California, we’re the minority, but you come out here 

and you’re not alone, you’re a part of something,” said 

Martins, a parishioner of Holy Family Church in Artesia. 

“When you see all these people here with the same message, 

it feels good.” 

Bejarano, who also took part in San Diego’s Walk for Life 

event Jan. 14, said faithful shouldn’t get discouraged even 

after the passage of Proposition 1, the state ballot measure 

that enshrined the right to abortion in the California 

Constitution. 

“Jesus never said it was going to be a piece of cake,” said 

Bejarano. “Don’t give up. Do your best. It’s not so much 

about whether abortion is legal or not … our mission is to 

show love and to show people there are better options.” 

While abortion is still a “forefront battle,” there’s more to 

OneLife LA, said Michael P. Donaldson, senior director of 

the Office of Life, Justice and Peace. 

“OneLife is all encompassing,” explained Donaldson. 

“We really try to focus on the fact that our human dignity is 

under attack, from homelessness, mental health issues, end 

of life care, to immigration. We need to rally together to 

witness to the sacredness of human life.” 

The day’s speakers had those very topics in mind on the 

event stage. Attendees sat on blankets and lawn chairs to 

listen to powerful stories from people like Mike and Penny 

Michalak from Louisville, Kentucky. 

The Michalaks are the founders of Angels in Disguise, an 

organization that “celebrates the gift of Down syndrome” 

by supporting grants for adoption, heart surgery, and education. 

They also founded Immaculata Classical Academy, 

a Catholic school in Louisville that serves more than 200 

children with and without Down syndrome. 


But today, they had come to talk about their children. 

The Michalaks have 16 in total, 10 of them adopted, and 

four with Down syndrome. 

“Our world needs more people with Down syndrome,” 

said Mike. “If our mission here is love, our world deserves 

more children with Down syndrome, because [they] are 

the master teachers of love.” 

While the chromosomal condition is often cited as a reason 

for abortion, the Michalaks spoke of the blessing that 

children like their son, Francis, have been to them. The 

7-year-old was adopted from Poland along with his brother, 

Max, who passed away from a terminal condition related 

to blood pressure. Penny spoke of the legacy he left behind 

despite his short life. 

“He died in my arms,” shared Penny from the event stage 

through tears. “It was the most beautiful, perfect way. God 

had a plan and I just needed to surrender to it. … He 

[Max] taught us to let go of our fear and live.” 

Later, Ricardo and Modesta Pulido took the stage to 

chants of “stomp out the stigma” to talk about the challenges 

of raising two children with bipolar disorders. As Angelus 

first reported last April, the couple from St. Philomena 

Church in Carson has volunteered with the National Alliance 

on Mental Illness and the LA Archdiocese to support 

families affected by these issues. 

“Everybody can have a full recovery, Amen!,” said Ricardo. 

“Healing hearts starts with the Church, prayer, and 

willpower. I’m so glad that the LA Archdiocese has opened 

up its doors to mental health ministry.” 

The day’s uplifting messages moved some in the crowd to 

tears. 

“The speakers, their testimony, it’s been great,” said Artemio 

Sanguino of Sacred Heart Church in Lincoln Heights. 

“They all touched me in a way, they made me cry.” 

This year’s recipient of the OneLife LA Service Grant was 

FosterAll, a nonprofit that partners with churches to help 

match children with foster parents who have a faith tradition. 

The organization’s executive director, Lou Moore, 

accepted the check for $10,000 from Archbishop Gomez. 

To spiritually prepare for the day, the archdiocese’s Office 

of Vocations hosted a Holy Hour at St. Joseph Chapel/ 

Santa Teresita Medical Center in Duarte the night before, 

as well as a youth rally the morning of OneLife. Among the 

hundreds in the crowd, one tall young man stood out in 

his dark pinstripe suit. College student Grant Calderwood 

came by train from Santa Barbara. 

“I’m dressed up because I believe this is a very special 

event,” explained Calderwood, president of Students 

For Life, Santa Barbara City College. “Being part of the 

pro-life generation, I want to present myself well and turn 

Auxiliary Bishop Ramon Bejarano of San Diego (right) joined Archbishop José H. 

Gomez and several thousands of marchers for the walk through LA’s Chinatown 

during OneLife LA on Jan. 21. | ISABEL CACHO 


Pro-life crowd called to a 

‘new awakening of love’ at Requiem Mass 

A boy places a candle in the cathedral’s colonnade following the annual Requiem Mass for the Unborn at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. | JOHN MCCOY 

After the OneLife LA festival portion had concluded, 

some 3,000 people packed the Cathedral of Our 

Lady of the Angels for the annual Requiem Mass for 

the Unborn. 

“As we know, our work for mothers and children and families 

has not ended. It is only changed,” said Archbishop José 

H. Gomez, referencing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs 

decision in his homily. “We still need to work every day to 

build a city and nation where it is easier for people to be 

born and to raise families, where the strong help the weak, 

and the vulnerable are protected.” 

Archbishop Gomez said the Jan. 21 Requiem Mass was a 

moment to pray for those “who never had the chance to be 

born” but also “for a new awakening of love — in our hearts, 

and in the hearts of our neighbors.” 

“This movement for a culture of life and love is about children 

and families and mothers and fathers,” said the archbishop 

in his homily. “It’s about the kingdom — the family 

of God that Jesus wants us to build with him on earth.” 

Also present to honor the lives of the unborn at the service 

were interfaith representatives of local Buddhist, Mormon, 

Armenian, and Serbian Orthodox, and Pentecostal congregations. 

Before the end of the Mass, OneLife LA speaker Lauren 

Costabile was asked to share an anecdote from her work as 

the founder and executive director of Hearts of Joy International, 

a nonprofit that works to counsel pregnant mothers 

expecting children with Down syndrome and provide surgery 

for children with the life-threatening heart defect often 

associated with the syndrome. 

“God has a plan for each and every life that he creates, 

and it’s such a beautiful gift that should be celebrated,” said 

Costabile. 

As is done every year, several Massgoers carried large 

votive candles to be placed around the altar in memory of 

unborn children who lost their lives to abortion in Southern 

California last year. The cathedral lights were dimmed for a 

moment of prayer and remembrance for the preborn dead, 

and the candles were later placed in the cathedral’s colonnade 

to remain lit for a week. 

David Ramirez, a teacher at St. Bernard School in Bellflower, 

came with a bus of youth and adults from St. Justin Martyr 

Church in Anaheim, where he helps as the confirmation 

coordinator. He said the OneLife festival and Requiem Mass 

were an important answer to the ways young people are 

“influenced by society today through school and even social 

media to believe that aborting is a good option.” 

“Instead, here we saw and heard that God loves each and 

every one of us, that we’re all his children and that no matter 

what, we should love others as well.” 

— Pablo Kay 


people away from abortion and help them so they can have 

their babies.” 

Father Isaac Arrieta, associate pastor at St. Rose of Lima 

Church in Maywood, came to the event with a healthy 

crowd of confirmation students, catechists, and parishioners. 

He believes participation in events like OneLife are an 

important part of building a pro-life culture in his parish. 

“We had two buses full of people!” said Arrieta. “In our 

confirmation classes, we talk to the young people about 

this topic … this was a way to show them it’s not just words, 

we’re here affirming our promise to protect life.” 

Perhaps the big surprise of OneLife LA was when Father 

Victor Taglianetti (a.k.a. “Bro Vic”) started rapping on 

stage to a chorus of “Praise God that’s fa sho.” The Capuchin 

Franciscan writes and records uplifting Catholic 

music. He said the message he was trying to get across to 

the crowd was simple. 

“Sometimes people can be confused about their own 

worth and dignity,” he told Angelus later. “[God] does not 

desire your suffering or pain but desires your wholeness 

and well-being. My message today is God really loves you.” 

A family at La Placita near downtown LA at the start of OneLife LA Jan. 21. | ISABEL 

CACHO 

Natalie Romano is a freelance writer for Angelus and the 

Inland Catholic Byte, the news website of the Diocese of 

San Bernardino. 


Asking for 

answers 

Monterey Park 

Catholics united in 

prayer for the victims 

of the Lunar New 

Year rampage — 

which included one 

of their own. 

BY TOM HOFFARTH 

The memories of Valentino Marcos 

Alvero bring a wide, warm 

smile to the face of Father 

Joseph Magdaong. 

“A very happy person, always with 

jokes to share, just a fun guy to be 

with and have a meal with,” said 

Magdaong, standing on the steps 

outside St. Stephen Martyr Church 

in Monterey Park and speaking about 

Alvero, a fellow Filipino-American 

and parishioner. 

“Thank you God for giving me a 

chance to be with Val,” Magdaong 

added about his “kababayan,” or 

“countryman.” 

The pastor welcomed Archbishop 

José H. Gomez, regional Auxiliary 

Bishop David O’Connell, and more 

than 100 people the evening of Friday, 

Jan. 27, for a memorial Mass, a special 

visit for a community still looking for 

answers and seeking comfort from a 

Jan. 21 mass shooting at a dance club 

just two blocks from the church. 

The 68-year-old Alvero was one of 11 

killed, along with nine more injured. 

His name was listed with the other 

victims on a simple white sign placed 

next to a bouquet of flowers near the 

altar. 

In addition to Alvero, the shooting 

victims were identified as: Xiujuan Yu, 

57; Hongying Jian, 62; Lilan Li, 63; 

Mymy Nhan, 65; Muoi Dai Ung, 67; 

Diana Man Ling Tom, 70; Wen-Tau 

Yu, 64; Ming Wei Ma, 72; Yu-Lun 

Kao, 72; and Chia Ling Yau, 76. 

Archbishop Gomez began the service 

by reading a message from Pope 

Francis expressing his condolences 

to those affected by the shooting. 

He finished it with a message of his 

own, delivered in both English and 

Spanish: 

“We want to be close to you in this 

challenging time,” said the archbishop. 

“It is a tragedy that has affected 

all of us, especially the families of the 

victims as well as the parish and the 

community. But we are together. You 

have our prayers and somehow God is 

going to bring blessings to this difficult 

situation.” 

In his homily, Magdaong pointed to 

the importance 

of cherishing 

memories of 

those killed as 

a necessary part 

of coping with 

the tragedy, even 

singing lyrics 

during his homily 

to the 1974 

popular song, 

A memorial honors 

Valentino Alvero, a 

devoted Catholic and parishioner 

of St. Stephen 

Martyr Church, where 

Archbishop José H. 

Gomez celebrated a memorial 

Mass Friday, Jan. 

27. | TOM HOFFARTH 

“The Way We Were,” made famous by 

Barbra Streisand. 

The priest also was part of a multifaith 

outdoor candlelight vigil earlier 

that week on Monday, Jan. 23. He 

said he felt attendance at St. Stephen 

Martyr that last Sunday was lighter 

than usual because of parishioners’ 

uneasiness over what occurred just 

hours earlier. 


But to celebrate this memorial Mass 

for the victims, Magdaong said, was 

important because “it is our obligation 

and our duty to always pray, especially 

in this time of a mass shooting for 

those killed and injured. We pray for 

healing because we know prayer is 

powerful.” 

Prayer, he said, “helps us to stay calm 

and believe, a purpose to respond with 

peace and love instead of hate and 

violence.” 

As the memorial Mass concluded, 

some gravitated to two other nearby 

memorial sites that have been growing 

since the shooting took place: outside 

the entrance of the Star Ballroom 

Dance Studio, and in front of the 

Monterey Park City Hall. 

St. Stephen Martyr is considered 

a focal point for the Filipino, Indonesian, 

and Hispanic communities 

in Monterey Park, a city of about 

60,000 residents east of downtown 

Los Angeles, where some 65% of the 

population are of Asian descent. The 

parish once had a Chinese Catholic 

pastoral ministry and a Sunday Mass 

in Mandarin in the early 1980s, but 

that was eventually transferred to 

nearby St. Thomas Aquinas Church. 

Since 2001, the parish has celebrated 

regular Masses in Indonesian in addition 

to English and Spanish. 

Alvero was born in the metro-Manila 

area and settled in Monterey Park in 

the 1980s. He worked in the maintenance 

department at a local hotel and 

frequented the Star Ballroom Dance 

Studio, just a three-minute walk on 

Garvey Street from the church, where 

his funeral Mass will be held Feb. 3. 

His family said they did not want him 

to be remembered as just another 

name in a headline about another 

mass shooting. 

In a statement released the day after 

his death, the family described him as 

“a loving father, a dedicated son and 

brother, a grandfather who loved his 

three granddaughters fiercely, an uncle 

who loved his nieces and nephews 

like his own.” 

“He loved people and hearing about 

their lives and in return, he shared his 

own stories with so much gusto and 

enthusiasm that you couldn’t help but 

listen and laugh along with him. He 

loved ballroom dancing, he loved his 

community, and he was the life of the 

party. … We will all miss him for the 

rest of our days on this earth. We hope 

that he danced to his heart’s content 

until the very end 

and hope that he 

is now dancing in 

heaven.” 

They said he 

had hoped to 

retire soon and 

return to his native Philippines. 

The statement also noted that it 

was “a great travesty” that he did 

not receive his last rites as “a devout 

Catholic.” The family asked that “all 

priests and Catholics pray for him 

by name, Valentino Marcos Alvero,” 

and offer Masses and rosaries for the 

repose of his soul. 

“Pray for Valentino by name, and 

for all the souls of all victims of mass 

shootings and for an end to the mass 

shootings in our nation and the world. 

He was a faithful servant of God, and 

we know that he 

LA Catholics gathered 

at St. Stephen Martyr 

Church to mourn the 

victims of the Jan. 21 

mass shooting in 

Monterey Park. 

| VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Mourners gather for a 

prayer vigil near the site 

of the Monterey Park 

mass shooting Jan. 25. 

| VICTOR ALEMÁN 

would want the 

world to lift his 

family in prayer 

more than anything.” 

The Asian 

Americans 

Advancing 

Justice Southern 

California group 

started a GoFundMe page to raise $1 

million for a victims’ fund. 

Meanwhile, Alverno’s daughter, 

Kristenne Reidy of Pasadena, also 

launched a crowdfunding page 

seeking to raise $50,000 to honor her 


father’s memory “the way he would 

want, with a big funeral Mass and 

party.” 

With more than 250 donations as of 

Friday, one of the donors identified 

as Edwin Estrada added a comment: 

“We worked and were friends for 35 

years. I’m going to miss his kindness 

and ability to know how to listen, to 

teach and help. I will never forget it. 

Friend, brother of the soul.” 

A sign left at a memorial honoring the 11 victims of the mass shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio on 

Jan. 21. | TOM HOFFARTH 

Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning 

journalist based in Los Angeles. 

A prayer from 

the pope for 

Monterey Park 

Pope Francis assured those 

affected by last weekend’s mass 

shooting in Monterey Park of his 

“spiritual closeness” and his blessing 

in a telegram sent to Los Angeles 

Archbishop José H. Gomez Jan. 25. 

The message was sent by Vatican 

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro 

Parolin in the wake of the Jan. 21 

late-night gun rampage in which 11 

people were killed and at least another 

10 injured in Monterey Park, where 

thousands had gathered that weekend 

for a two-day festival marking the 

Lunar New Year. 

The suspect in the shooting, 72-yearold 

Huu Can Tran, was found dead 

in a Torrance parking lot the next day 

after apparently taking his own life. 

“His Holiness Pope Francis was saddened 

to be informed of the shooting 

that took place in Monterey Park,” 

read the message. 

“Assuring those affected by this 

tragedy of his spiritual closeness,” it 

continued, “His Holiness joins the 

entire community in commending the 

souls of those who died to Almighty 

God’s loving mercy and he implores 

the divine gifts of healing and consolation 

upon the injured and bereaved. 

“As a pledge of strength and peace 

in the Lord, the Holy Father sends his 

Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrates Mass for the Lunar New Year at St. Bridget’s Chinese Church near downtown 

on Sunday, Jan. 22. At right is St. Bridget pastor Father John Lam, SDB. | JOHN MCCOY 

blessing.” 

Hours after the shooting happened, 

Archbishop Gomez had a previously 

scheduled visit to St. Bridget’s Chinese 

Church to celebrate Lunar New 

Year with a special Sunday Mass, a 

blessing of the parish’s nearly completed 

parish hall, and a blessing for 

22 parish couples celebrating wedding 

anniversaries. 

“It’s a real gut punch,” said Darrel 

Ng, who grew up attending St. 

Bridget’s and had traveled from Sacramento 

to celebrate the Lunar New 

Year at the parish with his family. 

Ng explained that for local Chinese 

immigrants, Monterey Park and 

Alhambra are considered suburbs of 

Chinatown, more residential areas 

that have welcomed more recent 

waves of Chinese immigrants. Most 

of the parishioners of St. Bridget are 

members or descendants of older 

generations of immigrants to LA, 

particularly from Cantonese-speaking 

areas of China like Hong Kong. 

“I’m glad that we have an event like 

this for us to be with each other, and 

to understand the strength of the 

community,” Ng told Angelus. 

Engeline Wong lives in Alhambra, 

near Monterey Park, but is an active 

parishioner at St. Bridget’s. She 

called the Lunar New Year Mass and 

Archbishop Gomez’s visit “a double 

happiness,” but said the shooting was 

on her mind during the Mass. 

“Monterey Park is a very safe city,” 

Wong said. “I never imagined something 

like this would happen there.” 

— Pablo Kay 


Pope Francis pays a visit to 91-year-old retired Pope Benedict XVI in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in 2018. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA 

Hope for 

a ‘Catholic 

synthesis’? 

A look beyond the 

headlines over the 

new crop of books 

out since Benedict 

XVI’s death. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — Reporters here will tell 

you that chasing Vatican news 

is sometimes akin to covering 

the United Nations in terms of high 

geopolitical drama. Other times it’s 

more like following the Royal Family, 

vis-à-vis personal rivalries and palace 

intrigue, and still other times you feel 

like you’re on the crime beat, following 

up on seamy accusations, investigations, 

and trials. 

Of late, however, Vatican reporting 

has taken on a whole new dimension 

as a sort of book-of-the-day club. Since 

the death of Pope Benedict XVI on 

New Year’s Eve, enough new Vatican-themed 

books have either been 

released or announced to fill an entire 

shelf in the Apostolic Library. The 

output includes: 

• “Nient’altro che la verità” (“Nothing 

But The Truth”), the tell-all memoir 

of Archbishop Georg Gänswein, 

the closest aide to the late Benedict. 

The preface was penned by veteran 

Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta. 

• “Dio è sempre nuovo” (“God is 

Ever New”), a collection of spiritual 

writings by Benedict packaged and 

released by the Vatican’s own publishing 

house with a fresh preface by 

Pope Francis. 

• “Che cos’è il Cristianesimo: Quasi 

un testamento spirituale” (“What 

Christianity Is: Almost a Spiritual 

Testament), a collection of 16 essays 

written by Benedict, which he had 

authorized to be published after his 

death. While many were already 

known, five are completely new. 

• “Ratzinger la scelta. Non sono scappato” 

(“Ratzinger’s Choice: I Didn’t 

Run Away”), a book by Italian 

journalist Orazio La Rocca, who’s 

covered the Vatican for many years 

for La Repubblica, documenting 

the decade of Benedict’s retirement. 

Gänswein contributed the preface. 

• “In buona fede: La religione nel 

XXI secolo” (“In Good Faith: 

Religion in the 21st Century”), a 

book-length interview with German 

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, often 

seen as an in-house critic of Francis, 

conducted by Franca Giansoldati, 

the Vatican correspondent for the 

Roma-based daily Il Messaggero. 

• “La paura come dono” (“Fear as a 

Gift”), also a book-length interview, 

this time with Francis. The dialogue 

is conducted by Salvo Noé, 

a popular Italian psychologist and 

author, and covers a wide range of 

topics from homosexual persons to 

migrants and refugees. 

Virtually all of these books have contributed 

to impressions of a mounting 

civil war in the Church following the 

death of Benedict. 

Gänswein’s book, for example, 

confirmed his own resentment over 

being effectively dumped by Francis 

as prefect of the Papal Household in 

2020, as well as touching upon certain 

differences between Benedict and 

Francis, including the traditional Latin 

Mass and Francis’ 2016 document 

“Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), 

which opened a cautious door to 


Communion for divorced and civilly 

remarried Catholics. 

The book reopened old wounds, 

including Benedict’s frustration over 

being enlisted to endorse a volume 

of Francis’ teaching that included an 

essay by an old German theological 

rival and critic of Benedict. 

The Müller interview book has been 

seen in a similar light. Among other 

things, the former head of the Vatican’s 

doctrinal office accuses Francis 

of having a “magic circle” around him 

of theologically dubious advisers, of 

being inconsistent in his approach to 

sex abuse cases, and of being sometimes 

impulsive in his judgments. 

The new collection of Benedict’s 

own writings contains a previously 

unpublished essay titled “Monotheism 

and Tolerance,” in which the 

late pontiff criticizes what he saw as 

the increasingly intolerant ethos of 

modern Western societies, which, he 

warns, are increasingly intolerant of 

Christianity. 

What’s garnered more attention, 

however, are three other points. 

One comes in a letter to the Italian 

journalist to whom Benedict entrusted 

the text, Elio Guerriero. Explaining 

his instruction that the volume not 

be published until after his death, 

Benedict wrote, “The fury of circles 

hostile to me in Germany is so strong 

that the appearance of every word I say 

provokes a verbal assassination. I want 

to spare myself, and Christianity, from 

that.” 

In the book, Benedict addresses the 

sexual abuse scandals, blaming in part 

a “collapse” in seminary formation, 

such as the existence of “gay clubs” 

among seminarians, including in the 

United States. He asserts that he’s 

aware of one bishop who allowed his 

seminarians to watch pornographic 

films — “presumably with the 

intention of rendering them capable 

of resisting behaviors contrary to the 

faith,” he added, in an ironic aside. 

Finally, Benedict complained that 

“in not a few seminaries, students 

caught reading my books are considered 

unworthy for the priesthood. My 

books are concealed as dangerous 

literature, and, so to speak, are read 

only in hiding.” 

Though Benedict blames none of 

this on Francis, it’s nonetheless been 

enough for the right-wing Italian press 

to treat it like the Battle of the Bulge: 

“War of the Popes,” screamed one 

headline. 

In terms of Francis’ own new book, 

it’s garnered attention mostly for his 

language on gay persons — which, 

of course, has been styled as a strong 

contrast with Popes John Paul II and 

Benedict. 

“God is a father who doesn’t renounce 

any of his children,” Francis 

says in the book. “The style of God is 

closeness, mercy and tenderness, not 

judgment and marginalization.” 

Sorting through it all, two things 

seem most arresting. 

First is how unsurprising most of it 

seems. 

Was Benedict disappointed by Francis’ 

repeal of his opening to the Latin 

Mass, or grumpy about hostility in his 

home country? Was Müller — who, 

after all, was fired by Francis — unhappy 

with the pope’s decision-making 

style? Francis reaching out to the 

marginalized and open to psychology? 

Gänswein miffed he was canned? 

This is all, frankly, “dog bites man” 

news, i.e., as predictable as the rising 

and setting of the sun and hardly 

evidence that Catholicism is on the 

brink of chaos. Clashes between 

popes, or between bishops and popes, 

or between their respective followings, 

are as old as the Church itself. 

Hence the other observation: 

how out of proportion much of the 

coverage and commentary on these 

volumes seems, relative to their actual 

content. 

As long as we’re revisiting texts from 

Benedict, here’s one that might be 

useful in the present context. It’s 

drawn from a session with Italian 

clergy in 2007. 

“Catholicism, a little simplistically, 

always has been considered the religion 

of the great et et [‘both/and’] — 

not of great exclusions, but of syntheses,” 

Benedict said that day. “Catholic 

means precisely ‘synthesis.’ … I’d say 

that this belongs to a good and truly 

Catholic pastoral approach: To live in 

the et et. I’d simply commit myself to 

the great Catholic synthesis, for this et 

et. … Let’s live catholicity joyously, in 

this sense.” 

In that spirit, it’s instructive to quote 

the final lines of Benedict’s post-mortem 

volume. 

“At the end of my reflections, I want 

to thank Pope Francis for everything 

he does to constantly display the light 

of God, which, even today, has not 

faded,” Benedict wrote. “Thank you, 

Holy Father!” 

Given that, it’s at least worth considering 

whether today’s bevy of books 

has to be seen as evidence of disarray 

— or whether, just possibly, they 

actually may provide raw material for 

a glorious, and classically Catholic, 

future synthesis. 

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


“The Supper at Emmaus,” about 1615–1625, by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi. | PAUL GETTY MUSEUM 

WHEN GOD GETS CLOSE 

In the Eucharist, we experience an intimacy with the divine that our 

spiritual ancestors could only pray for. 

BY MIKE AQUILINA 

The U.S. bishops are encouraging 

Catholics to deepen their love for the 

Eucharist as part of the ongoing National 

Eucharistic Revival initiative. In 

light of that effort, the following is the 

final installment in a series from Angelus 

contributing editor Mike Aquilina 

on the meaning and makeup of the 

Eucharistic Prayers. 

If God is everywhere, does it make 

sense to speak of his “real presence” 

in the Eucharist? An omnipresent 

God is already here, and always here. 

He says in the Book of Jeremiah: 

“Can anyone hide in secret without 

my seeing them? Do I not fill heaven 

and earth?’ (Jeremiah 23:24). 

And the Book of Proverbs bears 

witness: “The eyes of the LORD are in 

every place, keeping watch on the evil 

and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). 

Yet we can in the Book of Genesis 

see that Adam and Eve enjoyed a far 

greater intimacy with God. It was his 

custom to walk about in their garden 

at certain times of day (Genesis 3:8). 

They had that kind of nearness — and 

they lost it through their sin. They 

were banished from his presence to 

live in exile (Genesis 3:23–24). 

Through the rest of the Old Testament, 

God’s people drew close to him 

by means of sacrifice. In their offerings 


they expressed sorrow for their sins, 

and presented animal victims who 

suffered the death that was the sinner’s 

just punishment. By placing a hand 

on the sacrificial victim, the sinner 

identified with it. 

Sacrificial worship was the precondition 

for intimacy with God. The Jewish 

scholar Baruch Levine described 

all the prescriptions in the Book of 

Leviticus as etiquette for “meals eaten 

in the presence of God.” 

Along with the animal sacrifices, 

Israel made a perpetual offering of 

“the Bread of the Presence” (Exodus 

25:30). The bread was transformed 

and made holy by its nearness to God. 

According to the Mishnah, the authoritative 

collection of the testimonies of 

the ancient rabbis, “On the table of 

marble [the priests] laid the Bread of 

the Presence when it was brought in, 

and on the table of gold they laid it 

when it was brought out, since what is 

holy must be raised and not brought 

down.” 

Only the priests could eat this bread, 

though three times a year they exhibited 

it to the people and proclaimed, 

“Behold God’s love for you.” 

The people could see the holy bread 

and know God’s presence, but they 

could not receive his holiness. 

Through the sacrificial system prescribed 

in the Law, God had established 

a special mode of presence. He 

was there for his people — first in the 

tabernacle and then in the Temple — 

but they could only draw so close. It 

was not the intimacy Adam and Eve 

had known in the garden. 

God created Adam to be the high 

priest of his creation, but Adam 

forfeited that office by sinning. All the 

priests of the tabernacle and Temple 

were similarly sinful. But the prophets 

foresaw a day when not only Israel, but 

the whole world, would be restored 

to fellowship with God. At that time, 

“from the rising of the sun to its 

setting,” the name of God would be 

“great among the nations” and incense 

offered to his name everywhere, “and a 

pure offering” (Malachi 1:11). 

The priest who would restore God’s 

nearness was Jesus Christ, who would 

walk the paths of the earth during 

his ministry — and then establish his 

eucharistic presence forever in his 

Church. 

He made the matter abundantly 

clear in his lengthy “Bread of Life 

Discourse” in John’s Gospel (John 

6:22–66). He declared his flesh to be 

bread and food for the world. The 

more people challenged him, the 

more emphatically he stated his case. 

At his Last Supper, he fulfilled his 

promise by declaring the unleavened 

bread to be his body and the cup of 

wine to be his blood (Luke 22:19–20). 

It was a presence his disciples would 

not just see from distance, but also 

consume. Their flesh would mingle 

with his. His blood would course 

through their bodies. 

St. Paul would speak of this mingling 

as a communion — in Greek, 

“koinonia,” sometimes translated as 

“participation” or “sharing.” “The cup 

of blessing that we bless, is it not a 

communion in the blood of Christ? 

The bread that we break, is it not a 

communion in the body of Christ?” (1 

Corinthians 10:16). 

St. Peter declared infallibly that, 

through the Church’s sacramental life, 

the Lord’s disciples “come to share in 

the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). 

These early Christians described a 

presence and a communion greater 

than Adam had ever known. 

The Catechism of the Catholic 

Church describes this sacramental 

presence as “altogether special” 

(1509) and “unique” (1374). “When 

his visible presence was taken from 

them, Jesus did not leave his disciples 

orphans. He promised to remain with 

them until the end of time; he sent 

them his Spirit. As a result, communion 

with Jesus has become, in a way, 

more intense” (788). 

In the Mass, believers anticipate the 

union they will enjoy fully in heaven. 

Christ is present as truly in the 

sacrament as he is in heaven. St. Paul 

explained: “At present we see indistinctly, 

as in a mirror, but then face to 

face … then I shall know fully, as I am 

fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). 

And St. John said, “we know that when 

he appears we shall be like him, for we 

shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). 

The communion every Christian 

hopes to enjoy forever in heaven begins 

now at every Mass. The presence 

and communion are as real as it will 

be. The only difference is in the believer’s 

ability to perceive it. 

For more on the Bread of the Presence, 

see Margaret Barker’s book “Temple 

Themes in Christian Worship.” 

A priest holds the Eucharist in this photo taken May 27, 2021. | CNS/BOB ROLLER 

Mike Aquilina is a contributing 

editor to Angelus and author of many 

books, including “The Mass of the 

Early Christians” (Our Sunday Visitor, 

$14.95) and “Understanding the Mass” 

(Servant Books, $16.99). 


WITH GRACE 

DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE 

A time to mourn 

My father’s passing showed me that true love and grief need 

each other in a world that tries to look away from death. 

The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us 

that to everything in life there 

is a season, and an appointed 

time for every human experience. 

Our ancestors understood this — they 

lived the rhythms of life and respected 

them, their livelihoods tied to the harvests 

or the tides. They lived patiently 

attuned to the muffled cadences of 

their hearts, both the glad tempos and 

the dirges. 

Today it is harder for us to accept 

the true fullness of human experience, 

the wide breadth of the seasons 

of life. We live in rigidly controlled 

environments, our thermostats set to 

73 degrees in summer and winter, our 

pantries full of the same food the year 

round. We think we can do the same 

to our hearts, living narrowly only the 

The author’s late father 

with several of his 

grandsons at a family 

wedding after being 

diagnosed with ALS. 

| COURTESY IMAGE 

experiences we 

crave, like love’s 

embrace or at 

the very least the 

steady hum of a 

cheerful, active 

life. The gloomy 

seasons we reject 

as unhealthy or 

morbid, and we seek the therapist’s 

couch when a swamping tide of loss 

or grief doesn’t recede at once. 

The experience we fear the most is 

that of death, with its awful finality 

and hideous separation. And yet death 

is embedded in life, here to stay. With 

all our scientific progress we have 

not been able to extend our lifespan 

at all, let alone begin to see a way to 

achieve the pipedreams of billionaires 

who have poured their capital into 

“solving” death. 

What we have been able to do is to 

mute death — compartmentalize it, 

box it in, marginalize it, remove it 

from our sight — as we’ve done with 

many of our cemeteries and funeral 

homes. Our old people die in hospices, 

with trained assistants to sedate 

them on their way, and are rushed 

to the crematorium when their souls 

have barely fled. Ashes are scattered 

in bodies of water, while wakes and 

funeral rites have been replaced by 

“celebrations of life.” We are encouraged 

to celebrate immediately, 

because grief hurts and what hurts has 

no business interrupting the cheerful 

tempo of our modern lives. 

My dear father died a month ago. 

He was 86 and had been diagnosed 

with the terrible, terminal illness of 


amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) 

more than two years ago. And yet, I 

was completely unprepared for his 

going away from us. 

His death had all the hallmarks of a 

good death: he died in a state of grace, 

his soul and mind well prepared, nobly 

accepting the slow crucifixion that 

God chose for him as his purifying 

end. He died at home, with my mother, 

his wife of 56 years, yearning tenderly 

over him until his last wracked 

breath. Children and grandchildren 

surrounded him on his deathbed, 

suffering but unwilling 

to miss a last glance from 

his eyes. It was “normal,” 

it was “natural,” it was “to 

be expected,” and it was 

“a welcome relief.” 

Clearly there is nothing 

for me to complain about. 

But I am still grieving, 

and it’s made me reflect 

on the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: 

There is, in fact, “a 

time to mourn,” and I’ve 

learned there is a blessedness 

in that time that we 

do wrong to reject. 

The one who has lost enters 

a different dimension, 

as though separated by a 

veil from the unaffected 

around her. She has come 

face-to-face with the 

calamity of death and its 

incomprehensible transformation of 

the person she loves. 

Where there were eyes with eager 

welcome there are now glassy orbs 

that convey nothing. Where there 

was warm skin to pat and kiss there is 

something else, yellow and leathery, 

that repels the touch. Where there 

were words of affection, forgiveness, 

and self-sacrificial love, there is 

silence. She yearns for one moment 

more with him, a few seconds even, to 

see his tender smile, which he kept up 

no matter how cruel the torment of 

his paralyzed body. But that moment 

is not to be, and knowing that, she 

grieves. 

Grief is part of true love. When we 

mourn, observing all the age-old traditions 

that accompany bereavement, 

we live rightly through one of Ecclesiastes’ 

“appointed times.” It’s true 

that it hurts to carry the leaden weight 

that bows our shoulders. But when 

we wear the black that reflects our 

sadness, kneel in prayer at the coffin, 

and cry at hearing the Ave Maria in 

An undated photo of the author’s father, who died at 86 last December. | COURTESY IMAGE 

Mass as a great lament, we do what 

our hurting human hearts need to do: 

declare to the skies the enormity of 

our loss. 

The extended time of our mourning, 

the months or years, is also a spiritually 

necessary time. During that stage, 

our minds become directed to eternal 

things, our souls softened for the 

consolation of the only One who can 

console. Our hopes go from meagerly 

material to highly ambitious: we dare 

to think of things like joyful reunions 

in heaven and an eternity of happiness. 

We have presence of God. We make 

time for prayer. We discover God is 

using our period of sorrow to draw 

us into the pure air of his company. 

These are graces easily missed when 

we set our emotional thermostats at 

the most comfortable temperature 

and reject the long chill of bereavement. 

While the materialist may dismiss 

mourning as sentimentalism that interferes 

with an active, achieving life, 

the Christian today can 

fall into the same mistake, 

but for other reasons. 

“Don’t be sad, you have 

an advocate in heaven 

now,” and “We believe in 

the resurrection, so there 

is nothing to cry about. 

You will be together soon 

in only a little while.” 

There is theological truth 

to these words of comfort, 

of course. But no Christian 

should make the 

error of disdaining mourning 

and going straight to 

“celebration.” 

Jesus didn’t. 

When the Divine Life 

on earth learned that Lazarus 

had died, he wept. 

Think of the enormity of 

that: The very same person 

who knew that he would raise Lazarus 

up again in just a few minutes, 

and the very same Creator who had 

planned from the beginning of time to 

conquer death itself, cried at learning 

of the passing of his friend. We are 

meant to imitate Jesus in everything. 

Should we turn away from grief the 

way we turn away from his example of 

forgiveness toward his tormentors? 

Why does Jesus weep? Great doctors 

of the Church have tried to answer 

that question. St. John Henry New- 


Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five 

who practices radiology in the Miami area. 

man, in one of his sermons, mused 

that it was more than sympathy for 

Mary and Martha. It was witnessing 

the victory of death, the greatest of the 

great miseries of the world — which 

filled Our Lord’s heart with pity. At 

the grave of Lazarus, he felt fully the 

“contrast between Adam, in the day in 

which he was created, innocent and 

immortal, and man as the devil had 

made him, full of the poison of sin 

and the breath of the grave.” 

If this sorrowful contrast, between 

what God had wrought and sin had 

corrupted, could bring Our Lord 

to tears, are we to resist grieving the 

death of a loved one? We who were 

made to walk eternally with God are 

instead destined for the grave, condemned 

to say farewell to those who 

seemed indispensable to our earthly 

When we lose a loved one, we are encouraged 

to celebrate immediately, because grief hurts 

and what hurts has no business interrupting the 

cheerful tempo of our modern lives. 

happiness. 

Of course, Our Lord conquered 

death through his passion and resurrection, 

and Christian faith and hope 

are waiting to relieve our grief in due 

course. There will come a time, I 

know, when thinking of my father’s 

tenderness will bring me smiles, not 

tears. When I picture his face, it won’t 

be turned eagerly toward me as I enter 

his room, but instead gazing happily 

at the face of God. The time to weep 

will be over and the time to dance will 

come, but not until I have allowed the 

rhythm and cadence of grief to play 

itself out in my heart. 

It has been more than a month since 

I watched my father draw his last 

breath. That day I fed him his last 

meal, spoon by spoon, and I thank 

God for that gift. He signed to my 

mother to comb his bit of hair. To the 

end he was an elegant, old-world Cuban 

of a type which is almost extinct. 

He smiled on all of us — reassuringly, 

bravely, lovingly — and then he left 

us. 

I don’t doubt that God pitied us in 

the sorrow of that moment. Perhaps, I 

wonder, he even wept again. 


NOW PLAYING BROKER 

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BABY BOX 

South Korean film ‘Broker’ takes on abortion through the 

eyes of a band of social outcasts. The results are refreshing. 

Song Kang-ho and Dong-won 

Gang in “Broker.” 

| ROTTEN TOMATOES 

BY JOSEPH JOYCE 

A 

common, and not entirely 

unfair, rejoinder to the pro-life 

movement is that it focuses on 

ensuring life but with little concern for 

whether that life thrives after. Even if 

you spare the child, what of the many 

years after that? Even if a fetus is a life 

by all technical definitions, is it a life 

worth living? 

The new film “Broker” from Hirokazu 

Kore-eda (a Japanese filmmaker 

directing an all-Korean cast) quietly 

yet firmly insists that it is. Sang-hyeon 

(Song Kang-ho) and Dong-soo (Gang 

Dong-won) call themselves brokers, a 

euphemistic cover for what’s really a 

human trafficking operation. 

A local church has a “baby box,” 

where mothers can legally abandon unwanted 

infants. Assuming no one will 

miss what they are quite literally tossing 

in a bin, the pair steal the babies and 

sell them to parents who can’t afford 

the cost or wait for the official adoption 

process (warning: spoilers ahead). 

It’s the perfect crime — until one 

mother, So-young (Lee Ji-eun), has an 

immediate change of heart and returns 

to the church, only to find no record 

and no baby. Sang-hyeon and Dongsoo 

are forced to reveal their scheme to 

her. Instead of alerting the authorities, 

the young mom decides to partake and 

get a cut. The bribery wouldn’t have 

mattered, as the authorities already do 

know: the trio is trailed by two detectives 

waiting to catch them in an actual 

transaction for a legitimate bust. 

This would all make for one cracking 

thriller, but what Kore-eda gives us 

instead is something far more daring: a 

family feature. 

These characters are all outcasts, inconvenient 

truths that a happy society 

tries to paper over. Sang-hyeon is a 

divorced ex-con whom his own child 

seems embarrassed by. So-young is a 

prostitute who refers to her madam as 

“mom.” 

Dong-soo has a personal investment 

in their trade, having been a baby 


ox child himself: He’d rather see the 

babies placed with parents who actually 

want them rather than languish in 

an orphanage. On a visit back to his 

childhood home, another orphan, Haejin 

(Im Seung-soo), stows away in his 

van and is thus required to accompany 

them on their sales trip. 

This is a motley crew bound together 

by necessity. But then again, the film 

seems to ask, isn’t that true of every 

family? Forced to care for an infant 

they are trying to sell, what starts as a 

mere cover story bleeds into sincerity. 

In one particularly moving scene, the 

“family” rushes to the hospital when 

the baby develops a common fever, 

fussing and fretting over him. 

But if the baby is infectious with 

anything, it’s with innocence. Prolonged 

exposure to the little baby, 

Woo-sung, melts away the rejections 

and the lies they have told themselves. 

One such lie is that new life is a burden, 

when we see that if anything it has 

lightened the load. 

It even heals the wounds of the past. 

At the top of a Ferris wheel, Dong-soo 

confesses his resentments to So-young, 

particularly toward the mother who 

abandoned him. 

“I can’t forgive her,” he admits, “but I 

can forgive you.” 

That such love can appear within 

such a heinous act of human trafficking 

is one of several contradictions in 

the film. For all their talk of altruistic 

intentions, the brokers still prioritize 

cash over ethics. The pursuing police 

are more invested in selling the baby 

than the makeshift family is, spurring 

or arranging sales to make sure they are 

caught in the act. And most dramatically 

of all, So-young killed the baby’s 

father when he insisted she abort, not 

the most seamless of pro-life garments. 

But Kore-eda’s storytelling embraces 

all: A life without paradoxes simply 

isn’t life. There are no straight lines in 

nature, let alone humanity. 

So-young is often questioned about 

her choice, with most characters insisting 

that it would have been far kinder 

to everyone involved if she had simply 

aborted. The detective wonders this out 

loud on stakeout, her hand pinning a 

fallen blossom to the driver’s side window. 

Without saying it, we sense that 

she too is an outcast, on the outside 

looking in. 

So-young doesn’t have an answer for 

this simple query, and perhaps doesn’t 

need one; little Woo-sung is justification 

personified. Life doesn’t have to 

qualify itself; if it did, then I doubt any 

of us would live up to the metric. It’s 

true that abortion would spare him and 

society any suffering. But that, the film 

suggests, would be like burning the 

rainforest to keep sap off your clothes. 

The climax of the film is its quietest 

scene. The crew lounges in a hotel 

room, when little Hae-jin insists that 

So-young tell the baby that she loves 

him. Trying to 

keep her emotional 

distance, 

she demurs, but 

compromises 

to say that she’s 

glad he exists. 

But she then extends that to the other 

three members of the “family.” What 

started as a concession blossoms into 

something far deeper. Each of them 

is reminded that their existence isn’t a 

burden. They are loved for simply who 

they are, with nothing to earn or make 

up for. 

Of course, this is all grossly sentimental, 

but a wise man once said that if 

something is true, it is not sentimental. 

We dismiss such romanticism out of 

hand because we fear what we could 

become. Or worse yet, what we already 

are. 

“Broker” is currently showing in a 

limited selection of Los Angeles-area 

theaters. 

Joseph Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance 

critic based in Sherman Oaks. 

Bae Doona, Song 

Kang-ho, Seung-soo 

Im, and Dong-won 

Gang in “Broker.” 

| ROTTEN TOMATOES 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

A medical profession in God’s footsteps 

Dr. Michael James Sullivan. | COURTESY CITY OF HOPE NATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER 

Dr. Michael James Sullivan is 

chair of the Department of Anesthesiology 

and Perioperative 

Medicine at the City of Hope National 

Medical Center in Duarte. 

He’s also a friend who reminds me 

why we often consider a physician the 

next best thing to a priest. 

Sullivan’s grandfather, father, and 

uncle were all physicians. He was 

born at the old San Bernardino County 

Hospital where his father was doing 

a residency. 

His mother lost four other pregnancies. 

“Now the babies would have 

been premature and we probably 

would have saved them. That kind of 

cast a shadow. My parents healed from 

it, and went on to adopt two daughters, 

my sisters. But I always felt I had 

a purpose. Don’t get me wrong; we’re 

all special. But some specific duty to 

fulfill.” 

His route to anesthesiology was circuitous. 

From the beginning he wanted 

to follow in the footsteps of his father 

and grandfather: old-school GPs (general 

practitioners) who were on call 

24/7. “They did everything: surgery, 

OB, pediatrics. My grandfather had 

delivered kids who went on to become 

my father’s patients.” 

He attended Catholic grade school, 

high school, and college (LMU). 

“When I got into med school 

(Creighton, also Catholic, in Omaha, 

Nebraska), my mother said, ‘Now the 

gates of hell have opened for you.’ 

Jokingly, but she knew the lifestyle.” 

Things were changing, however. The 

GP had become the family practitioner. 

With a great desire to serve 

the marginalized and underprivileged 

he ended up doing his residency at 

Martin Luther King Jr. Community 

Hospital in South LA: three years in 

emergency medicine. 

While at MLK he met a visiting 

nurse named Maura. They soon 

married, and served a year abroad 

practicing medicine in a little farm 

community in the mountains of the 

Dominican Republic “This was 1994- 

95. No TV, no electricity. A lot of time 

for introspection.” 

He started asking himself what he 

really liked about the ER. “I liked the 

trauma and the resuscitation: trying 

to stop the downward spiral, reverse 

the damage and stabilize. MLK was 

great for all that: knives, guns, ODs. 

That first hour of airway manage- 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

ment, placing lines for blood, fluids, 

and medicines is all anesthesia. And 

I realized I should really develop a 

specialized skill set.” 

So he went from making $144,000 

a year to $22,000, became a student 

again, and served a second three-year 

residency, this time at USC. 

(Maura meanwhile went on to earn 

a master’s in Nursing, and a Ph.D. in 

Educational Psychology and is now 

USC’s vice chair of Educational Affairs 

in the Department of Surgery). 

For years he happily did full-time 

anesthesiology at USC and moonlit 

there and at Queen of the Valley 

Hospital in West Covina in ER: (“I 

liked that it was a Marian-named 

institution”). He loved the pace, loved 

the work. 

But one day an old colleague called 

looking for a recommendation for a 

staff anesthesiologist at City of Hope 

National Medical Center. “And out of 

the blue, I said, ‘Can I have the job?’ ” 

The mission of City of Hope is 

cancer, very different from the trauma 

and ER work he was used to. “City of 

Hope is any kind of cancer, any kind 

of patient, any age. The care is more 

1-to-1, much of it palliative. Many 

patients don’t return to their former 

way of life.” 

He grew to love his work there, too. 

He’d always had deep affection for his 

patients and their families. 

If he could give one piece of advice 

to any physician, it would be to develop 

the skill of “empathetic listening.” 

“You want to cultivate a good therapeutic 

relationship with everyone 

involved: patient, family members, 

colleagues, nurses, techs.” 

Almost 20 years passed. He tried to 

be a “good citizen” at work, organizing 

lectures, celebrating milestones. 

His and Maura’s two kids, a son and a 

daughter, were growing up. 

Then around 2017, he felt a mysterious 

call to pray the rosary daily. Six 

weeks later the chairmanship of Anesthesiology 

job, again seemingly out of 

the blue, dropped in his lap. 

“Going from a staff anesthesiologist 

to chair was pretty sudden. But I attribute 

it all to Mary, and it goes back to 

being selected. I had to believe that I’d 

be given the graces to step up to the 

plate and serve.” 

He now oversees a department of 19 

anesthesiologists and an overall staff of 

around 60. “And we’re growing. City 

of Hope when I started was a regional, 

boutique hospital. Now we’re a national 

footprint with 11,000 employees, 26 

satellite clinics, and a full campus in 

Orange County.” 

His goal is to be a servant-leader. 

“Everything I’ve given to my patients, 

I now give to the department. If I 

make everyone in my department 

successful, I’m successful.” 

He jokes, “I’m able to combine 

anesthesiology with theology. I like to 

point to the Scripture passage where 

God put Adam asleep to make Eve. 

God chose at one point in time to be 

an anesthesiologist. So we have big 

shoes to fill.” 

He rises each morning at 5:30 to 

drive from Pasadena to Duarte. His 

hours, after all, are a physician’s hours 

and they leave little time for travel or 

rest. But Sullivan, who just turned 60, 

wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“If Mary decided tomorrow I’m done, 

I’d be fine. But this gift I’ve been given, 

I’ll keep going till it’s time not to.” 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

Love: A many-splendored mystery 

I’m sending this column as my Valentine. 

The season of “love” is upon us, filling the airwaves 

with reminders to buy candy, roses, even luxury cars. To 

marketers, love is a commodity. 

To true lovers, however, it is a mystery. 

St. Paul’s doctrine of human love is certainly mysterious 

— enigmatic, actually — to those for whom love is a 

commodity. But it’s still more than that. It’s a mystery in 

the traditional sense of the term. The New Testament word 

“mysterion” is often translated to English as “sacrament.” 

It is an outward, material sign that points to an inward, 

spiritual reality. 

There are people, of course, who dismiss St. Paul’s notions 

of love as outdated, but I think he knew our world better 

than we do. 

In his lifetime, Roman society was prosperous and at peace. 

People wanted to enjoy their leisure without the impediment 

of a spouse or children. Caesar Augustus feared that 

this would create a demographic and economic crisis for the 

empire, so he enacted legislation that penalized those who 

chose not to marry and taxed and fined those who intentionally 

rendered their sex lives sterile. It didn’t work. People 

weighed the cost of the fines against the pleasures of an 

unmoored lifestyle, and they decided they could afford it. 

Though young people still held on to vestiges of ancient 

courtship customs, the culture was all about casual sexual 

encounters fueled by wine. In such a climate, many people 

began to disdain and even condemn marriage. Some despaired 

of the possibility of human love. 

Yet St. Paul would have none of that. He wrote: “Now the 

Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from 

the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of 

demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences 

are seared, who forbid marriage” (1 Timothy 4:1–3). 

That’s strong language! What is it about the degradation 

of human love that provoked such righteous anger in the 

apostle? 

“Historiated Initial 

Excised from a Bible: St. 

Paul Preaching,” 13th 

century, Italian. | WIKI- 

MEDIA COMMONS 

He’s furious because he sees people 

desecrating a sacrament. In his 

discussion of marriage in Ephesians 5, 

St. Paul evokes the pristine goodness 

of the relationship between Adam and 

Eve in Eden. He praises the love of 

spouses for one another. And he concludes 

by saying that “this mystery is 

a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and 

the Church” (Ephesians 5:32). 

Marriage that is complementary, monogamous, faithful, 

and mutually self-giving is something more than domestic 

bliss. It is a sacrament of something still greater: God’s love 

affair with his bride, the Church. 

That sacramentality is the key to everything else St. Paul 

has to say about human love. It is the reason he condemns 

adultery and polyandry (Romans 5:3), divorce (1 Corinthians 

7:10), and homosexual acts (Romans 1:26–27). 

Against all these abuses of human potential, he dared to 

preach true love, which is patient and kind and does not 

insist on its own way (1 Corinthians 13:4–8). 

This was diametrically opposed to the Greco-Roman way of 

“love,” which was characteristically impatient and unkind, 

prone to rape, and a gateway to abortion and infanticide. 

St. Paul was countercultural then, as he is now. 


■ 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. 

Interfaith Engagement: From Conflict to Community. Holy 

Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 

p.m. With Reinhard Krauss, Ph.D. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 

818-784-4515. 

Housing/Tenants’ Rights Virtual Legal Clinic for Disabled 

Veterans. 5-8 p.m. Zoom clinic will help disabled veterans 

in LA county with an income level at or below 75% of HUD’s 

low income limit. Registration required. Visit https://tinyurl. 

com/2p95trmj. 

Santa Barbara Regional Eucharistic Congress. Our Lady 

of the Assumption Church, 3175 Telegraph Rd., Ventura, 9 

a.m.-1 p.m. English and Spanish music, prayers, reflection, 

and Mass. Free admission. 

■ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5 

Run with Spirit 5K. Our Savior Church and USC Caruso 

Catholic Center, 844 W. 32nd. St., Los Angeles, 8 a.m. Join 

the 100-year celebration of Catholic life at USC with a race 

around the campus perimeter. Every finisher will receive a 

medal and race t-shirt. To register, visit catholictrojan.org. 

■ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles Career Fair. Santa Clara 

Cemetery & Mortuary, 2370 N. H St., Oxnard, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Open positions for cemetery and mortuary (ground and sales 

positions). Bring your resume for on-the-spot interviews. For 

more information, visit lacatholics.org/event/career-fair. 

■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 

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

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

call 562-537-4526. 

“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, FEBRUARY 9 

“Celebrating a Week of Sundays: Tapping the Easter 

Season’s Potential for Discipleship and Mission.” Loyola 

Marymount University, 1 LMU Dr., Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m. 

Public lecture by Father Bruce Morrill, SJ. Details and RSVP 

at lmu.edu/morrill. 


San Fernando Regional Eucharistic Congress. Our Lady of 

Grace Church, 5011 White Oak Ave., Encino, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. 

English and Spanish music, prayers, reflection, and Mass. 

Free admission. 

World Day of the Sick Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 12:30 p.m. 

Celebrant: Archbishop José H. Gomez. 

Marian Retreat: Mary and the Eucharist. 531 E. Merced 

Ave., West Covina, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. With Father Gregory 

Dick, O. Praem. For more information, call Father Kolbe 

Missionaries at 626-917-0040 or email FKMs@kolbemissionusa.org. 

■ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12 

Italian Catholic Club of Santa Clarita Valentine’s Dinner. 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church parish hall, 23223 Lyons 

Ave., Santa Clarita, 12 p.m. Cost: $45/person, includes complimentary 

glass of wine. RSVP to Anna Riggs at 661-645- 

7877 by Feb. 7. 

■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13 

Bilingual Mass and Healing Service. St. Rose of Lima 

Church, 1305 Royal Ave., Simi Valley, 7:30 p.m. Celebrant: 

Father Luis Estrada, Deacon Pete Wilson. Call 805-526- 

1732. 

■ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 

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. 

Women at the Well. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai 

Rd., Encino, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. With Sister Chris Machado, SSS. 

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

■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15 

Record Clearing Virtual Clinic for Veterans. 5-8 p.m. Legal 

team will help with traffic tickets, quality of life citations, 

and expungement of criminal convictions. Free clinic is open 

to all Southern California veterans who have eligible cases 

in a California State Superior Court. Participants can call in 

or join online via Zoom. Registration required. Call 213- 

896-6537 or email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. For more 

information, visit lacba.org/veterans. 

■ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16 

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, FEBRUARY 17 

Priests vs. Seminarians Basketball Game. Chaminade Middle 

School, 10210 Oakdale Ave., Chatsworth, 6 p.m. Game 

starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be livestreamed at lacatholics.org/ 

catholic-hoops/. Cost: $10/person, limited tickets available. 


Our Lady of the Angels Regional Eucharistic Congress. St. 

Augustine Church, 3850 Jasmine Ave., Culver City, 9 a.m.-1 

p.m. English and Spanish music, prayers, reflection, and 

Mass. Free admission. 

■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20 

Winter Coat and Blanket Distribution. Church of the Nazarene, 

15518 Gale Ave., Hacienda Heights, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 

No lineups before 10:45 a.m. Hosted by the East San Gabriel 

Valley Coalition for the Homeless, winter coats, blankets, 

hygiene kits, and nonperishable lunches will be provided. 

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 | February 10, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 3

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