Angelus News | July 28, 2023 | Vol. 8 No

ANGELUS 

GUADALUPE’S 

GIFT 

LA pilgrims find new strength 

in their Mother’s love 

July 28, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 15

July 28, 2023 

Vol. 8 • No. 15 

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ON THE COVER 

TANIA ESTRADA 

Pilgrims from LA joined locals for Sunday Mass at Santa 

Maria Tulpetlac Church outside of Mexico City July 9, 

as part of a special Guadalupe pilgrimage this month. 

On Page 10, pilgrims spoke to Editor-in-Chief Pablo Kay 

about the prayers they brought to Tepeyac Hill — and 

some of the surprises the Virgin Mary had waiting for 

them. 

THIS PAGE 

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP 

A volunteer wearing a T-shirt with an Our Lady image 

assembles “pilgrim kits” at a warehouse in Setúbal, 

Portugal on July 12 that will be distributed to those 

attending World Youth Day (WYD) festivities. Lisbon 

is preparing to welcome Pope Francis and around a 

million young pilgrims for World Youth Day on Aug. 

2-6.

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 

14 

16 

18 

22 

26 

28 

30 

LA Catholics step up to help as migrant buses arrive from Texas 

Full list: 2023 pastoral assignments for the Archdiocese of LA 

John Allen: Is the next pope among the new crop of cardinals? 

An interview with U.S. nuncio Christophe Pierre after his big surprise 

Grazie Christie on the meaning behind the mantilla 

The slow death of heroism in the final ‘Indiana Jones’ film 

Heather King basks in the spirit of the ‘Huckleberry’ art compound 

July 28, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

A synod takes shape 

Pope Francis appointed more 

than 450 people to participate 

in the first general assembly of 

the Synod of Bishops on Synodality in 

Oct. 4-29. 

The list, published July 7, features 

363 cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, 

and lay men and women — a 

first in the history of the synod. Pope 

Francis made significant changes to 

who can be a voting member of the 

Synod on Synodality and he gave 

women the right to vote in the synod 

as well. 

Out of the 364 members who can 

vote, which includes the pope, 54 

are women — either lay or religious; 

the number of cardinals appointed 

as members also is 54. More than a 

quarter of all the voting members, that 

is 26.4%, are not bishops, according to 

the 21-page list. 

The bishops appointed to attend 

from the U.S. Conference of Catholic 

Bishops are: Archbishop Timothy P. 

Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the 

Military Services and president of the 

USCCB; Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan 

of New York; Bishop Daniel E. Flores 

of Brownsville, Texas; Bishop Robert 

E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; 

and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades 

of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. 

Those appointed directly by the 

pope from the United States include: 

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago; 

Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington, 

D.C.; Cardinal Robert W. 

McElroy of San Diego; Cardinal Seán 

P. O’Malley of Boston; Archbishop 

Paul D. Etienne of Seattle; and Jesuit 

Father James Martin. 

The pope also appointed five religious 

men and five religious women 

to represent the International Union 

of Superiors General and the Union of 

Superiors General. 

Another novelty is a large group of 

nonbishop voting members who represent 

the “continental assemblies” and 

are named “witnesses of the synodal 

process.” There are 10 members in 

each group divided by continental 

regions. 

The group for North America includes 

Richard Coll, executive director 

of the Department of Justice, Peace 

and Human Development at the 

USCCB in Washington, D.C.; Cynthia 

Bailey Manns, the adult learning 

director at St. Joan of Arc Catholic 

Community in Minnesota; and Father 

Iván Montelongo of the Diocese of El 

Paso, Texas. 

Nine members will serve as delegate 

presidents of the assembly, including 

Bishop Flores of Brownsville, Mexican 

Sister of St. Joseph María de los 

Dolores Palencia, and one consecrated 

laywoman from Japan. 

Synod members will be called upon 

to continue to carry forward a “process 

of spiritual discernment” that was 

begun in 2021 and will continue with 

a second synod assembly in 2024. 

More names are going to be added 

to the list of nonvoting members, 

such as experts and representatives of 

non-Catholic Christian communities, 

organizers said. 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome correspondent Carol 

Glatz. 

Papal Prayer Intention for July: We pray that Catholics may 

place the celebration of the Eucharist at the heart of their 

lives, transforming human relationships in a very deep 

way and opening to the encounter with God and all their 

brothers and sisters. 

2 • ANGELUS • July 28, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

Mary’s love is God’s love 

On July 8, Archbishop Gomez celebrated 

Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady 

of Guadalupe in Mexico City for more 

than 200 pilgrims from the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles and for the prayer intentions 

of the whole family of God in Los 

Angeles. The following is adapted from 

his homily. 

What a privilege to be here in 

this holy place, in the presence 

of this sacred tilma. 

I am so happy to see so many of you 

come to make this pilgrimage to pay 

homage to our Blessed Mother. 

Ever since I was a young boy and we 

would come here as a family, I have 

always felt a profound sense of peace 

here. 

The virgin is our mother, and she loves 

us so much that she wanted us to have 

a “portrait” of her face. She wanted us 

to be able to look into her eyes and to 

know how much she loves us. 

This holy tilma is a miracle of Our 

Archbishop Gomez preaches at the Guadalupe basilica 

July 8. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Lady’s love, a treasure that she gives to 

each of us. 

So, as we pray today in the presence 

of this sacred image, we know that she 

is with us, and that she is so happy that 

we have come to worship her Son, who 

we love with all our hearts and all our 

strength. 

The beautiful truth is that we are sons 

and daughters of God, as St. Paul says 

in the second reading today. “God sent 

the spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ ” 

In the presence of our mother’s loving 

eyes, let us reflect on that truth. You are 

precious to God, each one of you. 

He has made us his sons and daughters! 

That should bring us great joy! We 

can call him our Father, he can know 

that he loves us as his children. 

When Jesus is with us, we 

have perfect joy. 

In our Gospel today, we 

hear the joyful mystery of the 

Visitation. And all the notes in 

this story are notes of joy: Mary 

brings the infant Jesus in her 

womb to visit St. Elizabeth and 

the child in Elizabeth’s womb, 

St. John the Baptist, leaps for 

joy. 

And of course, in her Magnificat, 

Mary rejoices in the greatness 

of the Lord, who has done 

such great things for her! “My 

soul proclaims the greatness of 

the Lord,” Our Lady prays, “my 

spirit rejoices in God my savior. 

… The Mighty One has done 

great things for me, and holy is 

his name.” 

And my brothers and sisters, this is 

how we are called to live — with joy, 

with gratitude! 

“We should try to share our joy, to share the love 

of Jesus, with everyone we meet.” 

The Lord has done great things for us, 

as well. Each one of us. He has made us 

his sons and daughters! He has shown 

us the way to live — a way of love, a 

way of truth that will lead us to heaven. 

So, we should rejoice and be glad, 

every day! And we should try to share 

our joy, to share the love of Jesus with 

everyone we meet. Just as Mary did, just 

as she asked St. Juan Diego to do. 

Always, when I am here in the presence 

of this sacred tilma, I reflect on Our 

Lady’s beautiful words to Juan Diego. 

And she speaks those words to each one 

of us today: 

“Am I not your mother? Are you not 

under my shadow and my gaze? Am I 

not the source of your joy? Are you not 

sheltered under my mantle, under the 

embrace of my arms?” 

Let us ask her to always be a mother to 

us, and to help us to keep walking with 

her Son, following his way for our life, 

and living with joy and gratitude. 

Let us make our prayer today in the 

presence of this beautiful “portrait” of 

Our Lady. 

In a special way, we come today with 

the petitions and prayer requests of 

many people from Los Angeles. We lay 

them at the foot of the virgin and we ask 

for her intercession for all our needs. 

Let us remember, as we look into her 

eyes, that she loves us and that God 

loves us! And that their love is all we 

need. 


WORLD 

A Ukrainian soldier picks up unexploded parts of a cluster bomb left after Russia’s 

invasion last year. | OSV NEWS/MYKOLA TYMCHENKO, REUTERS 

■ Ukraine: Some bombs are 

worse than others, Vatican says 

President Joe Biden defended what he called a “very 

difficult decision” to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, 

despite objections from the Holy See. 

“Retaliating against war crimes with more atrocities 

doesn’t bring us closer to peace,” said Archbishop Giovanni 

Ricchiuti, head of the Italian arm of Pax Christi. 

The Vatican has persistently opposed use of such weapons 

due to their potential to indiscriminately harm civilians. 

Appearing on CNN July 9, Biden said Ukraine needs the 

weapons to fend off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 

invasion. 

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law 

School who specializes in international law, suggested to 

OSV News that the U.S. and its allies should use other 

artillery shells, because an “unlawful weapon is never permissible 

to use because of military necessity.” 

■ Nicaragua: Bishop back 

in prison after refusing exile 

Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, was 

briefly released from prison and rearrested after refusing to 

leave in exile. 

Álvarez was released July 3, less than five months into his 

26-year sentence on charges of treason for his outspoken 

criticism of the country’s dictator, Daniel Ortega. As a 

condition of release, negotiated by his fellow bishops and 

the Vatican, Álvarez would have to go in exile from the 

country, which he refused. 

“He would not leave Nicaragua for any reason unless the 

pope ordered him to do so,” said exiled Auxiliary Bishop 

Silvio Báez of Managua July 5. “He added that it was a 

decision he made in conscience before God. Thus, there is 

nothing to negotiate.” 

This was not Álvarez’s first time refusing exile. His sentencing 

in February was prompted by his refusal to join 222 

political dissidents, including four other priests, who were 

flown to the U.S. 

■ Portugal’s World Youth Day to 

use prison-built confessionals 

Prisoners in three Portuguese prisons have built 150 

confessionals to be used during World Youth Day (WYD) 

festivities in Lisbon next month. 

Volunteers will set up the wooden structures in an area 

called “Reconciliation Park,” to be used by Pope Francis 

and visiting priests to hear pilgrim confessions. They were 

built as part of an agreement between WYD organizers and 

Portuguese prison officials. 

One of the prisoners selected to build the boxes, Pedro 

Silva, recently concluded a six-year prison sentence for 

drug trafficking. 

“I was very happy and grateful, and it makes me proud to 

know that in those confessionals there is a part of me and 

of my companions,” he told Catholic News Agency. 

A prisoner-built confessional made from recycled wood. | CLARA RAIMUNDO 

■ United Nations responds 

to Swedish Quran burning 

Despite opposition from the U.S. and European delegations, 

the U.N. Human Rights Council approved a resolution 

urging countries to prosecute antagonism against 

religions more aggressively. 

The resolution, which calls on member states to fix any 

“gaps that may impede the prevention and prosecution of 

acts and advocacy of religious hatred,” was inspired in part 

by a burning of the Quran in Stockholm, Sweden, this 

June. 

Pope Francis condemned the Quran burning in a July 

3 interview, saying that “any book considered sacred by 

its people must be respected out of respect for those who 

believe in it.” 


NATION 

■ 8-week paid family leave 

comes to Virginia diocese 

The head of the U.S bishop’s prolife 

committee announced a new, 

expanded parental leave benefit in his 

diocese. 

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, 

Virginia, announced the new 

policy — which provides eight weeks 

of full pay for family medical leave 

— in a July 7 podcast. It is meant to 

replace a policy of 12 unpaid weeks of 

state protected family leave. 

“I’ll talk to employees who share the 

joy about the birth of a child, but that 

joy is tempered with the added stress 

of having to rush back to work so they 

can pay bills,” Burbidge said. 

The diocese also announced expanded 

bereavement leave, allowing employees 

who work 20 or more hours 

to take 10 paid days following the loss 

of a loved one, including a miscarried 

child. 

Praying for the Hotshots — Father Raj Britto, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Prescott, Arizona, accepts the 

offertory gifts during a memorial Mass June 30 to mark the 10th anniversary of the deaths of 19 members of the 

Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshots, who lost their lives fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire in Yavapai County in 

2013. | OSV NEWS/BOB ROLLER 

■ New York Cardinal Dolan: Did we do 

enough during the COVID-19 pandemic? 

New York’s cardinal is calling for some self-reflection on the part of U.S. Catholic 

leaders on how they handled the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Did we as a Church, here in the United States, go too far in obeying all the 

restrictions imposed during the COVID pandemic, resulting in a lack of pastoral 

care for those sick?” asked Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York in a June 

30 Our Sunday Visitor editorial. 

Though he praised the Church for its “scrupulous” attention to protecting the 

health of those susceptible to the COVID-19 virus, he also wondered whether 

it got in the way of “the biblical commands to be near the sick, to comfort the 

dying, to reverently bury the dead” and, for clergy, bringing the sacraments to 

those sick with the virus. 

Dolan pointed to the witness of saints — including Aloysius Gonzaga and 

Damien of 

Molokai — who 

contracted illness 

while ministering 

to the sick. And 

while Christian 

groups matched 

safety protocols 

with compassion 

and accompaniment, 

Dolan 

A woman in Washington Island, Wisconsin, takes the temperature of guests attending an 

outdoor Mass in September 2020. | CNS/SAM LUCERO, THE COMPASS 

said, “I nag 

myself, did we do 

enough?” 

■ US bishops respond 

to court’s takedown of 

affirmative action 

The U.S. bishops called for college 

education to be “within the reach of 

all, especially racial and ethnic groups 

who find themselves on the margins” 

after the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 

ruling against affirmative action. 

Several leaders of Catholic universities 

and educator groups have 

criticized the court’s June 29 opinion 

in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 

which effectively struck down 

the ability for universities to use racebased 

affirmative action in student 

admissions. The case centered on 

whether Harvard’s actions discriminated 

against Asian-American applicants. 

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago, 

who serves as chairman of the 

U.S. bishop’s committee on racism, 

said in a July 7 statement that “it is 

our hope that our Catholic institutions 

of higher learning will continue 

to find ways to make education 

possible and affordable for everyone, 

regardless of their background.” 


LOCAL 

Sister Leticia Salazar, ODN 

■ Cardinal McElroy, 

San Bernardino 

chancellor to represent 

SoCal at synod 

Pope Francis has picked a religious 

sister from San Bernardino and San 

Diego’s cardinal to participate in October’s 

synod gathering in Rome. 

Sister Leticia Salazar, ODN, with the 

Order of the Company of Mary Our 

Lady, is the chancellor of the Diocese 

of San Bernardino, and the diocesan 

contact for the synod. Leticia has 

been involved in the drafting process 

for documents on the national and 

continental levels for the Synod on 

Synodality. 

Cardinal Robert McElroy, who was 

made a cardinal by Pope Francis last 

year, was also chosen to participate in 

the Synod on the Amazon in 2019. 

Paul F. Ford teaches Systematic Theology and Liturgy 

at St. John’s Seminary. | SUBMITTED PHOTO 

■ Mount Saint Mary’s students receive 

Marymount program support 

Four incoming students from Mount Saint Mary’s, the all-female Catholic 

university in Los Angeles, are the first recipients of the new Marymount Scholars 

Program from the Marymount Education Foundation. The program will 

provide these students with up to $25,000 for their education, plus mentorship 

and support until they graduate. 

Because research indicates that many students don’t earn a bachelor’s degree 

due to financial restraints and a lack of support, the Marymount Education 

Foundation identified Mount Saint Mary’s as an ideal partner to help sponsor 

students. 

The four recipients — two first-year students and two transfers — will begin at 

Mount Saint Mary’s in the fall. 

“The four Marymount Scholars that we selected are caring and ambitious 

young women who will go on to make positive impacts in their communities,” 

said Robyn Jones, executive director of the Marymount Education Foundation. 

LA’s forgotten workers? — Unionized hotel workers protest in front of the InterContinental Hotel in downtown 

LA July 2 during the first wave of strikes at some hotels in LA and Orange County. The strikes were organized by 

Unite Here Local 11, which represents more than 32,000 hospitality workers in the Southwest. The union is asking 

for short- and long-term wage increases, health care benefits, and safer workloads, among other conditions. | OSV 

NEWS/DAVID SWANSON, REUTERS 

■ St. John’s Seminary professor 

honored with Jubilate Deo Award 

Paul Ford, Ph.D., a professor of Systematic Theology and Liturgy at St. John’s 

Seminary in Camarillo, was awarded the prestigious Jubilate Deo Award from 

the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM). 

The award is annually given to a person who performs “a substantial contribution 

to the development of pastoral liturgy in the United States.” 

Ford is a musician, liturgist, and speaker who has written several books, articles, 

and songs. He is also a renowned scholar of author C.S. Lewis’ works. 

“Through his collaboration with other scholars and artists, his teaching, his 

composing, and all of his ministry, Paul has been a constant prophet of the 

Word of God as integral to the Eucharistic worship of the Church,” said Jeremy 

Helmes, chairman of the NPM board. 

The award was given during the 46th NPM National Convention July 10-14 in 

Reno, Nevada. 

Y 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

Something we can agree on about California 

I appreciated Charlie Camosy’s appreciation in the July 14 issue of 

the hard work that our state’s bishops and lay leaders are doing in such 

difficult circumstances. 

But while many of us disagree morally with the policies enacted by our elected 

officials, something else is happening, too: California is literally becoming unlivable. 

For many families, extremely high gas prices and unaffordable housing in cities 

have made the cost of living here too high. Homelessness is everywhere. If there’s 

a middle class here in LA, I can’t find it. 

Perhaps Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies should take a break from the culture 

wars and make this state Golden again. That would go a long way toward healing 

the polarization that Camosy talks about. 

— Bobbie Eubanks, Los Angeles 

Note from the Editor 

Shortly after publishing a news item on Sister Mary Schlehuber, OP, celebrating 

her 75th jubilee in Local Briefs of the June 16, 2023 edition of Angelus magazine, 

we learned that Sister Mary had died at St. Elizabeth Manor in Wisconsin. Her 

funeral Mass was held at the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa’s motherhouse on 

July 7, followed by burial in the motherhouse cemetery. 

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. 

Finding freedom in faith 

“Did Adam and Eve name 

our plants and animals in 

New Mexico, too?” 

~ Embroiderer Julia Gomez, in a July 11 National 

Catholic Register article on Sacred Heart Spanish 

Market, an annual showcase in New Mexico that 

fuses Catholic roots with art. 

“Nobody warned me how 

anxiety and fear can take 

the thing you care about 

most — your faith.” 

~ Alan Noble, associate professor of English at 

Oklahoma Baptist University, in a July 10 Plough 

commentary on how obsessive-compulsive disorder 

affects his life. 

“We are praying for the 

soul of this person who cut 

down our cross.” 

~ Father Glenn Baaten, chaplain of the Santiago 

Retreat Center, in a July 1 Orange County Register 

article on someone cutting the center’s 14-foot wood 

cross with a chainsaw. 

“It’s tricky because, for 

many women, this is their 

livelihood.” 

~ Sharon Sagiv, associate adjunct professor in 

environmental epidemiology at UC Berkeley, in 

a June 30 KFF Health News article on the lack of 

clarity about a new law meant to protect pregnant 

lab workers. 

Simone Rizkallah is the director of Program Growth at Endow, which brings women 

together to help educate them about the beauty and depth of the Church’s teachings on 

womanhood. Rizkallah is also the daughter of immigrants from the Armenian Diaspora 

in Cairo, Egypt, and spoke to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles about religious freedom, 

culture, and spirituality. | ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES 

To view this video 

and others, visit 

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] violates the 

Hippocratic Oath by 

putting the health of 

women at grave risk.” 

~ Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, 

Minnesota, head of the U.S. bishops’ Laity, Marriage, 

Family Life, and Youth Committee, on the FDA’s 

approval of the first over-the-counter contraceptive 

pill. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com 

Relating to both Jesus and Christ 

For too many years, for me, Christ was simply Jesus’ 

last name: Jack Smith, Susan Parker, Jesus Christ. Intellectually, 

I knew better; but practically, both in my 

private faith and as a theologian, I functioned as if Christ 

were simply Jesus’ surname. Whether in prayer, writing, or 

preaching, I almost always used the two names together, 

Jesus Christ, as if there were a perfect identity between the 

two. 

There’s not. Jesus is a divine person inside the Trinity, 

someone who once walked this earth as a flesh and blood 

individual and who now is with the Father as part of the 

Godhead. And although he is also the key component 

inside the reality of Christ, Christ is more than Jesus. 

Christ is a mystery, which also includes us, Jesus’ followers 

on earth, the sacraments, the word (Scripture), and 

the Church. Scripture is clear: We are the body of Christ 

on earth. We don’t represent Christ, replace Christ, or are 

some vague mystical presence of Christ. We are the body of 

Christ, as too are the Eucharist and the word (the Christian 

Scriptures). 

That distinction has huge implications both for our private 

faith and for how we live out our faith in the Church. 

To simply identify Jesus and Christ impoverishes our 

discipleship, irrespective of which name (Jesus or Christ) 

we most relate to. 

Let me begin with a mea culpa: In living out my faith, I 

more easily and existentially relate to Christ than to Jesus. 

What that means is that I have a belief in and a lifelong 

commitment to the reality of the resurrection, to Jesus’ 

teaching, to the Church, to the sacraments, and to the 

Christian Scriptures. I believe that participation in the 

Eucharist is the single most important thing I do in life, 

that the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest moral code 

ever written, and that the Church, despite all its faults, is 

the body of Christ on earth. 

But, unlike many of the faith-filled mystics and saints 

that I read, and unlike many of my Evangelical friends 

and colleagues, I struggle to have a real sense that Jesus is 

an intimate friend and lover. I struggle to be the beloved 

disciple in John’s Gospel who has his head reclining on 

the breast of Jesus and for whom one-to-one intimacy with 

Jesus relativizes everything else. 

I know that Jesus is real and wants a deep one-to-one 

intimacy with each of us, but truth be told, I struggle to 

actually feel that most days and to make it the central part 

of my discipleship. Commitment to the Eucharist, Jesus’ 

teaching, and the Church are, save for graced affective 

moments in prayer, the heart of my faith and lived discipleship. 

Habitually I relate more to Christ than to Jesus. 

And, let me risk adding this: I believe that is also true for 

various Christian churches. We have churches that relate 

more to Christ and churches that relate more to Jesus 

(not that either excludes the other). For example, my own 

church, Roman Catholic, is a very Christ-centered church. 

Ecclesial community, Eucharist, the sacraments, and Jesus’ 

teachings are key. No true Roman Catholic can ever say 

that all I need is a private relationship to Jesus. That is also 

true of most Anglicans, Episcopalians, and mainline Protestants. 

It is less true for churches within the Evangelical 

family, where the salient mandate in the Gospel of John to 

have an intimate relationship to Jesus more easily becomes 

the central tenet within Christian discipleship. 

It is not that the different churches exclude the other 

dimension. For example, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, 

and mainline Protestantism emphasize private prayer 

as a means to relate to the person of Jesus as an intimate 

friend and lover. To this, Roman Catholicism brings its 

rich (sometimes over-rich) tradition of devotional prayer. 

Conversely, Evangelicals, with their strong focus on Jesus, 

use communal services of the word and preaching as their 

major way to relate to the wider mystery of Christ. 

We have something to learn from one another. Churches, 

just as individuals, must be about both, Jesus and Christ, 

that is, focused on a personal relationship with Jesus and 

participation in the historical incarnational mystery of 

Christ, of which each of us is part. 

We must be focused on Jesus, but also on the Eucharist, 

the word, and the community of believers — each of which 

is the body of Christ. 

Our faith and discipleship must be both deeply private 

and visibly communal. No Christian can legitimately say, 

my discipleship consists wholly in a private relationship to 

Jesus, just as no Christian can legitimately say, I don’t need 

Jesus, I only need church and the sacraments. 

We are disciples of Jesus Christ, both the person and the 

mystery. We are committed to a set of teachings, a set of 

Scriptures, the Eucharist, and to a visible community we 

call the Church — as well as to a person named Jesus who 

is the heart of this great mystery and who wants to be our 

friend and lover. 


IN HER PRESENCE 

LA pilgrims in Mexico reflect on meeting Our Lady of Guadalupe — and 

the surprises she sent along the way. 

BY PABLO KAY 

When it came to picking the right place to ask his 

girlfriend to marry him, Donnie Miller had a 

pretty good idea. 

Little did he know his patron saint had a better one. 

The 33-year-old parishioner of St. Agnes Church in New 

York City had first gotten to know Marian Joyce on a hike 

with mutual friends in Runyon Canyon during a visit to 

LA. On their first date days later, Joyce drove him between 

scenic sights around the city. 

“I think I met the one,” Miller texted his father that day. 

“I’m gonna go for it.” 

A few years later, as he mulled the right place to pop the 

question, he liked the idea of going back to where it all 

started: Mulholland Drive. 

But Miller wasn’t comfortable making life-changing decisions 

— including, at the time, whether to enter business 

school — without a little divine consultation. So last fall 

he began a 54-day novena to his confirmation saint, Juan 

Diego. 

Shortly after finishing on Dec. 9 — the indigenous saint’s 

feast day — Miller’s spiritual director approached him 

and challenged his proposal plans. There’s a pilgrimage to 

Mexico City next summer, he told him. Why don’t you do 

it there? 

Miller had gotten his answer. He would have to keep it to 

himself for six months. 

And that’s where he found himself after joining a Saturday 

morning Mass July 8 celebrated by Archbishop José H. 

Gomez inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 

Mexico City with fellow St. Agnes parishioners and some 


More than 200 pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Archbishop José H. Gomez, outside the new 

and old basilicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City July 8. | SARAH YAKLIC 

230 pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Miller 

nervously invited Joyce on a walk through the gardens of 

Tepeyac Hill, along the same path where the Blessed Virgin 

Mary caught his patron saint by surprise five centuries 

ago. 

Miller didn’t know exactly where he should do it, but 

something inside told him to continue up the stairs that 

lead to the top of Tepeyac Hill. There, in front of a small 

church with a spectacular view of Mexico City marking 

the spot of the first Guadalupe apparition, Miller got down 

on one knee and made his move. 

The answer, thankfully, was an unflinching yes. As onlookers 

began to notice, a mix of surprised gasps, exclamations, 

and finally, applause, built up to a delightful crescendo 

around the couple. 

“It just was very relieving to be able to ask, receive, get a 

yes,” confessed Miller. 

Signs of an important journey 

Most of the fellow pilgrims didn’t come to Mexico City 

with plans as ambitious as Miller’s. But all, it seemed, felt 

Donnie Miller proposes to his 

girlfriend, Marian Joyce, at the 

top of Tepeyac Hill overlooking 

the Guadalupe basilica 

on July 8 after a Mass with 

pilgrims. Miller bought the 

engagement ring months ago 

after completing a 54-day novena 

to his confirmation saint, 

Juan Diego. | JOHN-HENRY 

KEENAN 

they’d been called 

to the holy place to 

ask, receive, and give 

thanks. 

Becky Salgado, a parish secretary at St. Lorenzo Ruiz 

Church in Walnut, had plenty of things on her prayer list, 

including asking for the grace to forgive and for the intentions 

of her five children, all adults. But it was the death 

of her husband nine months ago from colon cancer that 


were on another. What was that like? 

“Heaven,” Victoria replied. 

“We told mother Mary, this is for 

you, to give thanksgiving and if you 

want us there, we will be there,” she 

said. 

Archbishop Gomez was 

joined by a dozen priests 

celebrating Mass for some 

4,000 people — including 

pilgrims from LA — at the 

Guadalupe basilica July 8. | 

SARAH YAKLIC 

prompted her to make the trip. 

“I was hoping that I’d be able to 

get some healing, peace, some 

kind of calmness in my life and 

be able to slowly move on,” said 

Salgado. 

Her prayer was answered, she 

said, in the span of a few seconds 

at the basilica. As she stood on the 

slow-moving conveyor belt that brings visitors closest to the 

Guadalupe tilma, she was suddenly overcome by the smell 

of roses. 

“After that, I just got really emotional,” said Salgado. 

“That’s what I had been asking for, for me to feel her 

presence.” 

Salgado took the experience as a direct message that the 

Virgin Mary “is there with me” in her suffering. 

Ricardo and Regina Escueta, parishioners of Holy Trinity 

Church in Atwater Village, figured this would be no 

ordinary trip when a series of strange events struck in the 

days before leaving home: a short-circuiting garage door, a 

boiler leak, and Regina tearing her rotator cuff. 

“The evil one was trying to stop us,” said Ricardo after a 

Friday evening Mass with Archbishop Gomez at the Mexico 

City hotel where his group stayed. “It was little things 

that irritate you, but you know somehow you’re going to a 

place where you’re gonna meet God. So somehow, we felt 

that the enemy was trying to remove that balance in our 

lives.” 

When the Escuetas invited Regina’s sister, Victoria, and 

her husband, Jose Baltasar, to join the pilgrimage from 

Sacramento, they seemed unlikely to make it. They’d just 

returned from walking the Camino de Santiago in Portugal 

and Spain, and the enrollment date had already passed. 

“We were told it was closed,” said Jose. “But we didn’t 

give up, and the coordinator said, ‘Wait a minute,’ and after 

about eight minutes on the phone, she said, ‘OK, we can 

take you in.’ ” 

Less than three weeks after ending one pilgrimage, they 

More than a dream 

Although both of her grandmothers 

in Mexico had instilled a devotion to 

Guadalupe into her, Leslie Gomez 

had never been to the basilica. 

“It was always a dream, but it was just 

a thought,” she remembered. 

So this year, she and her husband, 

Octavio, both lectors at Presentation 

of Mary Church in South LA, joined 

a parish group led by pastor Father 

Fredy Rosales. They also brought their 

two youngest daughters, 15 and 9, 

who are both altar servers at Presentation. 

Heavy on her mind was her “abuela” Lucila, who had 

died of COVID-19 in Mexico during the pandemic. 

“This pilgrimage was a connection to something my 

grandmother left me, and that I’ve transmitted to my 

daughters through our Catholic faith,” said Gomez. 

Like Salgado, Gomez was also given a surprise at the 

basilica that she took as a sign from the Virgin Mary. 

Moments after the Mass with Archbishop Gomez began, 

a basilica employee went into the pews frantically looking 

for a lector to read the first and second readings in Spanish. 

A few of her fellow Presentation parishioners pointed to 

Gomez. 

“Can you read?” he asked her. 

By the time Gomez had said yes, Archbishop Gomez had 

already sat down after finishing the opening prayers of the 

Mass. The packed basilica waited patiently as she was led 

up to the ambo, wearing her light blue pilgrimage T-shirt. 

“I could never have expected that they’d choose me to 

proclaim the word in the basilica,” she said. “When I got to 

the lectern, I was so overcome with emotion that I felt like 

I couldn’t speak, I was missing my breath. Being up there 

touched me profoundly.” 

An essential mission 

Every summer, another Gomez family would make the 

12-hour drive from Monterrey, Mexico, to the country’s 

capital. 

Before visiting his grandparents, who lived in Mexico 

City, Archbishop Gomez remembered their first stop was 

always at the Guadalupe shrine to attend Mass. 

Later, as a college student studying in Mexico City, the 

future priest would join the crowds of people making the 

long walk to the basilica on the Dec. 12 Guadalupe feast 

day. From Mexico to Spain to Texas — and all the places 

in between — Archbishop Gomez said he’s felt her “deep 

protection” first as a layman, then as a priest and bishop. 

The night before his ordination as an auxiliary bishop in 


Denver in 2001, he entrusted his ministry to “La morenita” 

— as she is affectionately called in Mexico — and encouraged 

devotion to her wherever he went. 

“For me, it’s essential to bring people to Our Lady of 

Guadalupe,” he said in an interview during the pilgrimage. 

“This is not something that just happened somewhere 

out there. Knowing that she’s taking care of us, it’s very 

personal.” 

That Saturday morning, the archbishop stood feet away 

from the tilma as he celebrated Mass for some 4,000 

people, including the LA pilgrims. In front of the altar sat 

a basket filled with thousands of written prayer requests to 

the Blessed Mother from Angelenos back home. 

“As we pray today in the presence of this sacred image, we 

know that she is with us, and that she is so happy that we 

have come to worship her Son, who we love with all our 

hearts and all our strength,” he said in his homily. 

Just as Mary rejoiced in God for having done “great things 

for her” in the Gospel of the visitation, “the Lord has done 

great things for us as well,” said the archbishop. 

“He has made us his sons and daughters. He has shown us 

the way to live, a way of love, a way of truth that will lead 

us to heaven.” 

Part of a perpetual miracle 

The following day, the pilgrims from St. Lorenzo Ruiz 

and St. Agnes traveled by bus to the town of Tulpetlac for 

Sunday Mass at the church marking the place of the fifth 

Guadalupe apparition, when the Virgin Mary appeared to 

and healed Juan Diego’s uncle, Juan Bernardino. 

The 10:30 a.m. liturgy happened to be the parish’s children’s 

Mass. A few of the kids helped nuns with the music, 

while others — some looking younger than first Communion 

age — processed into the small church as altar servers 

with Archbishop Gomez. 

Miller and Joyce were sitting a few rows from the front, 

still recovering from the whirlwind of excited thoughts, 

emotions, prayers, and phone calls made the day before. 

Joyce, who attended St. Monica’s Church in Santa 

Monica during her years living in LA, wasn’t even remotely 

expecting the proposal on the trip. Spiritually, she came 

hoping for the grace “to be able to listen more and receive 

more from God and from Mary.” 

The pilgrimage, she realized, was their special way of 

preparing her for the next chapter of her life, an opportunity 

to be a part of “the mystery and the miracle” of the 

Guadalupe tilma. 

“As much as I’m excited and in love with Donnie, I’m also 

really happy that we get to be here and that he proposed 

to me here,” said Joyce after the Sunday Mass. “We’re just 

getting so much grace at the beginning of our journey 

together.” 

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


Mercy for migrants 

When out-of-state buses carrying asylumseekers 

showed up downtown, LA Catholics 

were among those ready to help. 

BY MIKE CISNEROS 

Officials and volunteers 

deliver diapers, supplies, 

and toys to St. Anthony 

Croatian Catholic 

Church, where a busload 

of migrants were transported 

on June 14 after 

arriving at Union Station 

in Los Angeles from 

Texas as claimed by Gov. 

Greg Abbott. | DAVID 

SWANSON/AFP VIA 

GETTY IMAGES 

Nearly two weeks after seeing 

charter flights with migrants 

flown from Florida and 

dropped off in California’s capital 

city, Sacramento, in early June, the 

members of Coalition for Humane 

Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) in Los 

Angeles received word that a bus full 

of asylum-seekers had left Texas and 

was heading their way. 

Two weeks later, another bus full of 

migrants arrived. Two weeks after that, 

on July 13, it happened again. 

In each case, despite the anxiety, the 

media attention and the politics, the 

group was prepared. 

That’s because CHIRLA — along 

with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, 

Central American Resource Center 

(CARECEN), Immigrant Defenders 

Law Center, Esperanza Immigrant 

Rights Project, Clergy and Laity 

United for Economic Justice (CLUE), 

city and county officials — had been 

meeting since 2022 to prepare for 

these exact scenarios. 

“We were all in it together,” said 


Jorge-Mario Cabrera, CHIRLA’s director 

of Communications, about the 

group formed as the L.A. Welcomes 

Collective. “The city of Los Angeles, 

Angelenos, were in essence doing 

what a good Samaritan would do. And 

that is assisting the downtrodden and 

providing safe haven for those who 

needed it the most. And that’s just 

gold because you don’t get that type of 

collaboration on many things.” 

In each instance, about 30-40 migrants 

— including women and young 

children — were sent to Los Angeles’ 

Union Station and then taken to 

nearby St. Anthony Croatian Catholic 

Church, where they could eat, change 

clothes, and rest. They received legal 

resources and assistance about their 

impending court appointments before 

being picked up by local sponsors, 

family, or friends. 

Migrants with sponsors outside of 

Southern California were put up in a 

hotel for the night until arrangements 

could be made to fly or bus them to 

their final destination. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Los Angeles 

Mayor Karen Bass sparred over 

the reasons behind the migrants being 

sent to LA. 

“It is abhorrent that an American 

elected official is using human 

beings as pawns in his cheap political 

games,” Bass said June 14 after the 

first bus’ arrival. 

“Los Angeles is a major city that 

migrants seek to go to, particularly 

now that its city leaders approved its 

Sister Norma Pimentel, the executive director for Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande 

Valley in Texas, gives a keynote address at the 2022 OneLife LA event. | SIMON KIM 

self-declared sanctuary city status,” Abbott 

said in a statement. “Our border 

communities are on the front lines of 

President Biden’s border crisis, and 

Texas will continue providing this 

much-needed relief until he steps up 

to do his job and secure the border.” 

All parties said the process went 

even smoother thanks to the help of 

Sister Norma Pimentel, the executive 

director for Catholic Charities of the 

Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Pimentel 

was instrumental in giving leaders in 

Los Angeles a heads-up on who the 

migrants were, where they were from 

and the contact information for their 

sponsors in the United States. 

“Just the beauty of our partnership 

with Sister Norma has been huge,” 

said Michael Donaldson, senior director 

for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ 

Office of Life, Justice, and Peace. “Just 

to be able to have that relationship 

with her has been a blessing.” 

Even though all of the arriving 

migrants have been placed with loved 

ones, the work doesn’t end there. The 

groups in L.A. Welcomes Collective 

will continue to stay in touch with 

the asylum-seekers and provide any 

needed services related to their applications. 

As much as everyone acknowledges 

that immigration 

can be 

employed for 

political theater 

— including 

the expectation 

that migrants 

will continue to 

be sent to Los 

Angeles — the 

group insists that 

it’s important 

to help those in 

need regardless 

of the situation. 

“We want to do 

this out of mercy,” 

Donaldson 

said. “We don’t 

want to make 

this a political thing. We want to make 

sure that we’re acting as Christians 

with our brothers and sisters coming 

in and we’re called to be merciful and 

“We want to do this out of mercy. We don’t want 

to make this a political thing.” 

to welcome the stranger.” 

“Our nation’s first settlers … came 

from Europe, they were fleeing persecution, 

intolerance, and at times violence,” 

Cabrera said. “So the fact that 

our beginning of the United States of 

America has its roots on being a safe 

haven should make us pause when we 

are trying to be isolationist and when 

we are trying to close our heart to the 

suffering of others. 

“I do believe that what Los Angeles 

showed is that you can also be kind 

to those in need when the moment 

arrives.” 

Mike Cisneros is the associate editor 

of Angelus. 


2023 pastoral assignments 

The full list of new priest assignments for the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles, effective July 1, 2023. 

THE FOLLOWING PRIESTS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED AS PASTORS: 

Father Paul Prince Appiah-Kubi, S.V.D., St. John the 

Evangelist Church, Los Angeles 

Father Jose Manuel Baeza, Our Lady of Peace Church, 

North Hills 

Father Rolando Clarin, St. Raphael Church, Goleta 

Father Joshua Diener, St. Anthony Church, Oxnard 

Father Julio Domenech, Mary Immaculate Church, 

Pacoima 

Father Edwin Duyshart, St. Luke Church, Temple City 

Father Altaire Fernandez, Queen of Angels Church, 

Lompoc 

Father Anthony Garcias, Holy Family Church, Glendale 

Father Egren Gomez, Holy Cross Church, Santa Barbara 

Father Jose Rafael Lara, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 

Guadalupe 

THE FOLLOWING PRIESTS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED AS ADMINISTRATORS: 

Father Miguel Acevedo, St. Paul Church, Los Angeles 

Father Sarfraz Alam, O.S.A., Our Mother of Good Counsel 

Church, Los Angeles 

Father James Anguiano, St. Teresa of Avila Church, Los 

Angeles 

Father Luis Estrada, Guardian Angel Church, Pacoima 

Father Daniel Garcia, Our Lady of Perpetual Help 

Church, Downey 

Father Danilo Manzano Guinto, St. Cyril of Jerusalem 

Church, Encino 

Father Oscar Daniel Martinez Gutierrez, St. Rose of 

Lima Church, Maywood 

Father Alexander Hernandez, C.Ss.R., Our Lady of Victory 


Father Chan Lee, St. Paul of the Cross Church, La Mirada 

Father Spencer Lewerenz, St. Anthony Church, San 

Gabriel 

Father Marlon Mateo, St. Clare of Assisi Church, Santa 

Clarita 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Father Olin Mayfield, St. James the Less Church / Holy 

Redeemer Church, La Crescenta / Montrose 

Father Eben MacDonald, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 

Northridge 

Father R. Dario Miranda, St. Catherine of Alexandria 

Church, Avalon 

Father Long Nguyen, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque 

Church, Lomita 

Father Truc Quant Nguyen, St. Maria Goretti Church, 

Long Beach 

Father Ismael Robles, St. John the Baptist Church, Baldwin 

Park 

Father Ryan Thornton, O.F.M., St. Mark University 

Church, Goleta 

Father Raymont Medina, St. Mary of the Assumption 

Church, Whittier 

Father Miguel Menjivar, St. Joseph Church, La Puente 

(Extern Priest) 

Father Michael Montoya, M.J., Our Lady of the Assumption 

Church, Claremont 

Father Jose Maria Ortiz, La Purísima Concepción 

Church, Lompoc 

Father Ramon Pons, St. Francis of Assisi Church, Fillmore 

Father Roberto Rueda, Immaculate Heart of Mary 


Father Miguel Angel Ruiz, St. Agnes Church, Los Angeles 

Father German Sanchez, St. Sebastian Church, Los 

Angeles 

Father Jeejo Vazhappilly, Sch.P., St. Bridget of Sweden 

Church, Lake Balboa 

Father Matthew Wheeler, Visitation Church, Los Angeles 

ASSOCIATE PASTOR TRANSFERS: 

Father Juan Martin Barajas, St. Emydius Church, Lynwood 

Father Juan Cesar Carrasco, St. Rose of Lima Church, 

Maywood 

Father Jose G. Castaneda, St. John Neumann Church, 

Santa Maria, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Gua- 


N 

dalupe 

Father Filiberto Cortez, St. Columbkille Church and 

Nativity Church, Los Angeles 

Father Avelino Salvador Crisanto, O. de M., Mother of 

Sorrows Church, Los Angeles 

Father Samuel A. Cuarto, M.I., St. Mariana de Paredes 

Church, Pico Rivera 

Father Alberto Cuevas, St. Francis Xavier Church, Pico 

Rivera 

Father Ronnie Custodio, O.S.A., Our Mother of Good 

Counsel Church, Los Angeles 

Father Alejandro Del Bosque, St. Mary of the Assumption 


Father Alejandro Enriquez, St. John Fisher Church, 

Rancho Palos Verdes* 

Father Raymundo D. Espiga Jr., F.I., St. Bridget of Sweden 

Church, Lake Balboa 

Father Christopher M. Felix, St. Rose of Lima Church, 

Simi Valley 

Father Juan Francisco Gonzalez, St. Joseph Church, 

Pomona 

Father Cristobal Guardado, Our Lady of the Valley 

Church, Canoga Park 

Father Prosper Atsu Hedagbui, Holy Family Church, 

Glendale 

Father Cesar Juarez, St. Catherine of Siena, Reseda 

Father Daniel Lopez, St. Agnes Church, Los Angeles 

Father Oscar Macias Rosales, Our Lady Queen of Angels 


Father Khoa Mai, St. John Baptist de la Salle Church, 

Granada Hills 

Father Diver Joar Martinez Ruiz, Holy Family Church, 

Wilmington 

Father Valerian Menezes, Corpus Christi Church, Pacific 

Palisades** 

Father Michael S. Mesa, Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels, Master of Ceremonies for Archbishop Gomez 

Father Carlos Mesa, St. Paul Church, Los Angeles 

Father Everardo Monroy Herrera, S.S.P., St. Joseph 

Church, Hawthorne 

Father Jonathan D. Nestico, St. Monica Church, Santa 

Monica 

Father Huy Nhat Nguyen, Nativity Church, El Monte 

Father Justin J. Oh, St. Alphonsus Church, Los Angeles 

Father Alexander Okondu-ugba, O.P., St. Joseph Church, 

La Puente 

Father Manuel A. Ramos, Our Lady of Guadalupe 

Church, Santa Barbara 

Father Arockia Rajendra Benedict, M.S.F.S., Our Lady of 

Perpetual Help Church, Downey 

Father Louie Reyes, Christ the King Church, Los Angeles 

Father George L. Reynolds II, St. Basil Catholic Center, 

Los Angeles 

Father Predheep Sathiyananthan, S.V.D., Our Lady of 

Lourdes Church, Los Angeles 

Father Jesus Silva, Sacred Heart Church, Lancaster 

Father Jorge Alberto Soto Lugo, St. John Chrysostom 

Church, Inglewood 

Father Everardo Soto Montoya, St. Mary of the Assumption 

Church, Santa Maria 

Father Louis Sung, St. Gregory the Great Church, Whittier 

Father Eder Tamara, St. Paschal Baylon Church, Thousand 

Oaks 

Father Jean Gregoire Tattegrain, St. Thomas the Apostle 


Father Ryan Thornton, O.F.M., St. Mark University 

Parish, Goleta 

Father Pedro Valdez, St. Teresa of Avila Church, Los 

Angeles 

Father Salvador Vazquez Flores, St. Aloysius Gonzaga 


Father Mark A. Villano, C.S.P., St. Paul the Apostle 


Father Fufa Wakuma, M.C.C.J., St. Gertrude Church, 

Bell Gardens 

THE FOLLOWING PRIESTS HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO SPECIAL MINISTRIES: 

Father Joseph Choi, Advanced Studies 

Father Joseph Aline Dadiri, S.M.A., priest minister, St. 

Anne Church, Santa Monica 

Father Gerardo Galaviz, Advanced Studies 

Father George Gonzalez, resident, St. Mary of the Assumption 


Father Felix N. Just, S.J., deacon formation: theological 

and liturgical formation 

Father Joung-Gook Columbano Kim, SS.T., St. Joseph 

Korean Center, Winnetka (Chaplain) 

Father Msgr. Jon F. Majarucon, senior priest, Our Lady of 

the Assumption Church, Ventura 

Father Charles Jesse Ramirez, pastor emeritus, Our Lady 

of the Assumption Church, Claremont 

Father Jorge Luis Chalaco Vega, Defender of the Bond at 

the Metropolitan Tribunal (Extern Priest) 

Father Paul J. Velazquez, adjutant judicial vicar, Archdiocesan 

Catholic Center, Los Angeles 

Father Mark Warnstedt, senior priest, Holy Trinity 

Church, San Pedro*** 

RETIRED: 

Father James J. Clarke 

Father Paul G. Griesgraber 

Msgr. James L. Halley 

Father Tovia Luis 

Father Larry S. Neumeier 

Father Joseph Dang Kim Nguyen 

Father John S. Schiavone 

* Effective June 1, 2023, ** Effective July 15, 2023, *** Effective July 17, 2023 


THE SUBSTANCE OF 

A SUCCESSOR 

A cardinal holds his biretta as Pope Francis celebrates Mass with new 

cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Nov. 29, 2020. | OSV 

NEWS/GREGORIO BORGIA, REUTERS POOL 

Could a future pope be among the 21 new cardinals 

named this month by Pope Francis? 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — Though it’s admittedly 

a somewhat flippant comparison, 

there’s a sense in which 

every consistory, an event in which 

a pope creates new cardinals, is a bit 

like the Iowa caucuses in American 

politics — that is, it’s a chance for new 

contenders for the system’s top job to 

introduce themselves. 

Formally, cardinals serve as the 

most senior advisers to the pope who 

created them, and, of course, one day 

they’ll choose his successor. 

Yet in addition, they also represent 

the field of potential contenders to 

become that successor. Every time 

a consistory occurs, therefore, the 

lineup is scrutinized for indications 

not only of what the cardinals may be 

looking for, but who their candidates 

might be. 

Naturally, identifying “papabili,” 

meaning candidates to become the 

next pope, is an inexact science. Nobody 

creates exploratory committees, 

or makes splashy campaign announce- 

ments — even ones made exclusively 

on Twitter, which turn into metaphors 

for stumbling out of the gate. 

Indeed, if you were to ask the vast 

majority of prelates who eventually 

became pope before their election 

if they considered themselves candidates, 

they’d deny it until they were 

blue in the face — and some of them 

would even have meant it. 

Into this vacuum, therefore, steps an 

amorphous class of humanity popularly 

known as “Vatican-watchers,” which 

often functionally means people 

who will say out loud what others are 

thinking and speaking only “sotto 

voce” (“soft tones”). 

So, what do we Vatican-watchers 

make of the crop of 21 new cardinals 

announced by Pope Francis, including 

18 under the age of 80 who will 

help elect the next pope? 

Three key observations suggest 

themselves. 

First, it’s tempting to believe that 

because with this group Francis will 

have named almost three-quarters of 

the cardinals who will elect his successor, 

he’s therefore increased the odds 

that the next pope will be like him. 

As Lee Corso would say during an 

ESPN “College GameDay” broadcast, 

however, “Not so fast!” 

Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández. | CNS/PAUL 

HARING 


The new cardinal 

class of 2023 

ass with new 

20. | OSV 

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto. | CNS/PAUL 

HARING 

In truth, because of Francis’ predilection 

for naming cardinals from the 

peripheries, a striking share of the 

electorate in the next conclave will be 

composed of prelates with extremely 

low profiles, whose outlook and 

desires for the next pope are almost 

impossible to handicap. 

Recently Crux had the chance to 

speak informally to one of Francis’ 

periphery cardinals, created during 

an earlier consistory, who happened 

to be in Rome on a bit of business. 

When the subject arose of controversies 

surrounding Cardinal-designate 

Victor Manuel Fernández, the pope’s 

top theological adviser, it was clear 

this cardinal was bewildered and a bit 

troubled by what it all might mean. 

While that’s hardly conclusive, it 

does suggest that any forecasts about 

the outcome of an election in which 

a large share of the voters are essentially 

unknowns, amount to exercises 

in guesswork. It’s probably also worth 

recalling that in 2013, a body of cardinals 

entirely composed of Popes John 

Paul II and Benedict XVI appointees 

nevertheless elected Francis. 

Second, this consistory is unusually 

chock full of possible “papabili.” By 

my count, there are at least four. Here 

they are, along with a one-sentence 

version of the argument in their favor. 

1. Fernandez: Like Cardinal Joseph 

Ratzinger was to John Paul, Fernandez 

would be the logical heir to 

Francis’ doctrinal legacy. 

2. Italian Archbishop Claudio 

Gugerotti: The next pope will inherit 

These are the 21 new cardinals to be created by Pope Francis Sept. 30: 

Archbishop Robert F. Prevost, 67, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops 

Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, 67, prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern 

Churches 

Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, 60, incoming prefect of the 

Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith 

Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, 76, apostolic nuncio to Italy 

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, 77, apostolic nuncio to the United 

States 

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 58, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem 

Archbishop Stephen Brislin, 66, of Cape Town, South Africa 

Archbishop Ángel Sixto Rossi, 64, of Córdoba, Argentina 

Archbishop Luis José Rueda Aparicio, 61, of Bogotá, Colombia 

Archbishop Grzegorz Rys, 59, of Lódz, Poland 

Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, 59, of Juba, South Sudan 

Archbishop José Cobo Cano, 57, of Madrid, Spain 

Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, 63, coadjutor archbishop of Tabora, 

Tanzania 

Bishop Sebastian Francis, 71, of Penang, Malaysia 

Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan, 63, of Hong Kong 

Bishop François-Xavier Bustillo, 54, of Ajaccio in Corsica, France 

Auxiliary Bishop Américo Alves Aguiar, 49, of Lisbon, Portugal 

Father Ángel Fernández Artime, 62, rector major of the Salesians 

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, 82, a retired papal nuncio, a former 

curial official and a respected historian of the Second Vatican Council 

Archbishop Diego Rafael Padrón Sánchez, 84 (retired), of Cumaná, 

Venezuela 

Father Luis Pascual Dri, 96, confessor at the Shrine of Our Lady of 

Pompei, Buenos Aires 

a geopolitical scenario dominated by 

the aftermath of the Russian war in 

Ukraine, and few figures among the 

current crop of cardinals know the 

Russian sphere and the Orthodox 

churches better. 

3. French Archbishop Christophe 

Pierre: The current papal ambassador 

to the U.S., Pierre would be the substance 

of the Francis papacy but with 

a much greater degree of diplomatic 

caution in terms of what he says out 

loud. 

4. Italian Archbishop Pierbattista 

Pizzaballa: Having navigated the 

Israeli/Palestinian conflict artfully as 

the patriarch of Jerusalem, healing the 

tensions of a divided Catholic Church 

might be a walk in the park. 

Third, there’s a fascinating pick 

among the so-called “honorary” cardinals, 

meaning those over the age of 80 

and therefore ineligible to take part in 

the next conclave: Italian Archbishop 

Agostino Marchetto, a former secretary 

of the erstwhile Pontifical Council 

for Migrants and Refugees, but 

better known for his historical studies 

of the Second Vatican Council. 

What makes the selection truly 

remarkable is that Marchetto is known 

for advocating a hermeneutic of 


Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti. | CNS/VATICAN 

MEDIA 

continuity vis-à-vis Vatican II, meaning 

that the council did not mark a 

rupture with the Church before the 

mid-1960s. In a word, he’s seen as a 

more “conservative” historian, often 

crossing intellectual swords with the 

“School of Bologna” in Italy and its 

progressive reading of the council, 

which Francis has ratified by elevating 

a series of churchmen associated with 

that outlook, including the current 

archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal 

Matteo Zuppi. 

So what does it mean that Francis 

has offered a sort of papal seal of 

approval to Marchetto? 

It should be said that Marchetto’s 

Vatican service was devoted to migrants 

and refugees, a special concern 

for Francis. But more broadly, it’s 

probably fair to say that for a pope 

whose new buzzword is “synodality,” 

broadly meaning dialogue and consultation, 

it’s not a bad thing to be seen 

as open to a churchman associated 

with different views. 

Of course, it’s also fair to point out 

that Francis waited until Marchetto 

was over 80, and therefore safely out 

of the way in terms of participating in 

the next papal election, before bestowing 

the honor. 

In other words, this is balance after a 

fashion … inclusion, but not influence. 

No matter how you slice it, this is a 

compelling and deeply consequential 

consistory. And the thing is, it’s really 

no more than a warmup act for the 

drama to follow the next day, when 

the curtain rises on the first of Francis’ 

two Synods of Bishops on Synodality. 

Say what you will about the Francis 

papacy, but we all should be able 

to agree on this: It’s never, not for a 

single moment, ever been dull. 

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

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa. | CNS/BOB 

ROLLER 



ASKED TO ‘SERVE MORE’ 

The papal ambassador to the US opens up about his surprise promotion, 

what the Eucharistic Revival should focus more on, and why he considers 

Bishop David O’Connell a martyr. 

BY PABLO KAY 

Archbishop Pierre blesses a young family at a vocational gathering for young people of the Neocatechumenal Way in 

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 25, 2021. | COURTESY PHOTO 

For most American Catholics, 

perhaps the only familiar name 

among Pope Francis’ latest 

round of picks for new cardinals is 

that of Archbishop Christophe Pierre, 

apostolic nuncio to the U.S. since 

2016. 

But the nomination of the 77-yearold 

French diplomat was a bit of a surprise. 

Typically, bishops of large, wellknown 

dioceses or Vatican officials 

in important posts rank higher than 

papal ambassadors when it comes to 

deciding who gets a cardinal’s red hat. 

Before coming to Washington, D.C., 

Pierre served as nuncio in Uganda, 

Haiti, and Mexico. In the U.S., he 

has overseen the selection process for 

a generation of new bishops, helped 

navigate the tricky politics involving 

two presidential administrations, and 

coordinated the implementation of 

the Vatican’s new policy for investigating 

bishops accused of abuse or 

cover-up amid the resurgence of the 

clerical abuse crisis. 

A few days after the announcement, 

Cardinal-designate Pierre took questions 

via Zoom on a range of topics, 

including his reaction to the surprise 

news, perception problems between 

American Catholics and the pope, 

and the side of late Auxiliary Bishop 

David O’Connell that he didn’t know. 

The conversation has been edited for 

length. 

Archbishop, your job involves delivering 

surprising news, like telling 

priests that the pope has nominated 

them to become bishops. What was 

it like to be on the other end of the 


news this time? 

I was still half asleep when I got the 

call on that Sunday morning. It was 

a big surprise, of course; I was not 

expecting that. 

When I call a priest to tell him that 

the Holy Father has appointed him a 

bishop, I am quite anxious because 

I always want him to say yes. This 

is a bit different, because I heard I 

was already appointed. The news is 

already out there, so there is no point 

in saying no. 

It’s a great responsibility, and the 

trust of the Holy Father in my own 

person is important. We’ll see how he 

wants us [cardinals-elect] to help him. 

It is an honor, of course, but also quite 

a responsibility. I feel that. 

At that time, I remembered the 

sentence of Jesus to Peter: Do you 

love me? Do you really love me more? 

I think it’s a question of love. I love 

the Church, I really like the pope. I’ve 

always tried to be a faithful servant of 

the pope. But I also feel that this is 

asking me to serve more, in all senses 

of the term. 

Any interesting personal connections 

to any of the other cardinals-elect? 

Yes! Some of them I actually know 

quite well. There is another nuncio 

on the list who’s still active, Archbishop 

Emil Paul Tscherrig, the nuncio in 

Italy. We were together in diplomatic 

school in Rome for a while, even 

though he was one year after me. So 

I’m quite happy not to be alone, to 

have a colleague with me (laughs). 

We are good friends. 

There is also Archbishop [Agostino] 

Marchetto. He was also a nuncio, 

and we were together for a few years 

serving the same nuncio when I was 

working in Zimbabwe and he was in 

Mozambique. So we worked together 

and we are also good friends. 

So it’s interesting. I would have never 

thought I would be made a cardinal 

with them! 

Your time as nuncio has been 

marked by a few challenging realities, 

like the reawakening of this 

country’s clerical sex abuse crisis, 

declines in church participation 

and church closures in parts of the 

Archbishop Christophe Pierre speaks during a livestreamed discussion at the 2020 LA Religious Education Congress 

with Archbishop José H. Gomez and speaker Julianne Stanz. | ISABEL CACHO 

country, the COVID-19 pandemic, 

and two presidential elections. Have 

you kept a single top priority on your 

mind through it all? 

My main, personal concern is to 

accompany the work of evangelization 

in this country. 

We, the Church, are in the society in 

order to announce the good news of 

the Gospel. This is the main concern 

of the Holy Father. This is why all his 

documents speak about the invitation 

of Christ to all of us to become 

disciples and make disciples, and to 

announce the good news. 

For that, we need to go out of our 

comfort zone, to go to the peripheries. 

This is the language of the Holy 

Father that I’ve personally tried to 

communicate in my interventions and 

my conversations, to help the local 

church be attuned to the message of 

the Holy Father. 

This is what the Catholic Church 

is about. The Church is not just a 

connection of small churches. It’s one 

big church but one that is incarnated, 

inculturated in various circumstances 

and cultures. Part of my concern — 

and that of the pope — is to evangelize 

the people where they are, and 

as they are, taking into account the 

particularities but never forgetting the 

unity of the Church. 

This society is very polarized. The 

Church needs to help society and 

work for unity, not in an artificial way 

but to help people add new dimensions. 

If the Church is polarized like 

the society, of what use is the Church? 

Last month, speaking to the U.S. 

bishops at their spring meeting in 

Orlando, you remembered late Auxiliary 

Bishop David G. O’Connell 

as “a model of synodal service.” You 

were here for the LA Religious Education 

Congress just a few days after 

his death. Did you learn anything 

new about him during that visit? 

I knew Bishop David, I had met him 

a few times, I liked him as a human 

being, he was a very nice person, and 

I always appreciated him. But let’s be 

honest: I did not know him well. 

I just happened to be in LA for the 

congress during those days, and I 

accompanied Archbishop Gomez, 

who was, as you know, quite sad at 

the time. But being with him and 

encountering the thousands of people 

at the congress, I was quite amazed to 

hear the witness of the people about 

[O’Connell’s] life. 

I discovered the bishop there: how 

this man had been close to people 

and had been a true witness. He was 

loved by the people, but he didn’t 

make much noise. 

His death was very tragic, a bit 

absurd. But I personally consider him 

a martyr, because he finished his life 

the way he had lived it: It was a life 

given. And for me this is a wonderful 

example. 

Why did I speak about him and 


Members of the Little 

Sisters of the Poor and 

residents at the St. 

Jeanne Dugan Home 

in San Pedro greet 

Archbishop Pierre during 

a visit in 2018. | ROBERT 

BRENNAN 

synodality? Precisely because in this 

country today — and in this Church 

— a lot of people say that they don’t 

understand synodality. Some are 

resistant. What does the pope want 

when he speaks about synodality? It’s 

about getting people to work together. 

And you know, in his own way, [Bishop 

O’Connell] was close to the people 

but he was always trying to help them 

gather together, pray together, serving 

them. This is a synodal way. A kind of 

model. This is what the Holy Father 

means. 

Once we have met Christ, we enter 

into his body, which is the Church. 

And the Church will be the place 

where the witness of Christ will be 

manifested to the people. 

As a priest and as a bishop, David 

was really a wonderful instrument of 

encounter with the people. That was 

the purpose of his life. In a way he was 

quite modest. He was a good auxiliary, 

not making noise — but that’s the real 

noise I like (laughs). 

Speaking of synodality and misunderstandings, 

there’s a perception 

among some Catholics that Pope 

Francis doesn’t understand Americans. 

Then there are others who say 

that Americans just don’t understand 

the pope. Based on your experience, 

is there any truth to either of 

those statements? 

Well, these are certainly perceptions. 

So, if there are these perceptions, 

I think we have a responsibility to 

find out what’s behind them. I see 

that there is something much deeper 

behind them, perhaps a kind of misunderstanding 

as we prepare for the 

synod gathering in October and the 

one next year. 

Maybe we think preparing a synod is 

just expressing a few ideas about the 

reform of the Church and to write 

them down on a piece of paper and 

to send it to the dioceses, the bishops’ 

conferences, at the continental level, 

and to Rome. And then, once we have 

done the job, we say, OK, we’ve done 

it. But this is only one thing. 

But what we have to understand 

— and I think there’s been a lack of 

understanding from many quarters — 

is that the Synod on Synodality is supposed 

to reflect upon the experience 

that we’ve had at the local level. This 

is the reason why it is called Synod on 

Synodality. It’s a synod to reflect on 

how we could work together. 

The pope said it very clearly when 

he launched the synod. He invited all 

the churches all over the world, at all 

levels, to begin this process of listening 

to one another, of trying to discern 

the best way to evangelize at our level. 

And then to give the results of this 

reflection so that at the level of the 

whole universal Church we may have 

some indications. 

But the purpose of it is to work together. 

So for me synodality is not the 

end of the process. This is the reason 

why the pope said that the Church 

will be synodal or it will not be the 

Church. Because a church where 

everybody is not involved is not the 

Church. It’s not just the Church of 

the parish priest or the bishop, or of a 

small group of people. 

It seems that there’s been a misunderstanding, 

and many people have 

a kind of fear that the Church will 

be destroyed or that doctrine will be 

changed because of synodality. 

It’s not true. The pope said it many 

times: What I want is to have a real 

revolution at the level of evangelization, 

because the world is different. 

And we know that it’s difficult today 

to reach out to people, many people 

don’t go to church, parents have 

difficulty teaching the faith to their 

children. The teachers don’t communicate 

with their students, and even 

the priests! So there is a problem 

in society today, which is a cultural 

problem. 

What I proposed [in Orlando] is that 

we listen together and try to rebuild 

the Church so that it may correspond 

to the necessities of the time and 

evangelize the people of today. 

Last April, you gave a talk at the 

Catholic University of America 

spelling out some thoughts on the 

National Eucharist Revival. How do 

you think Americans can best take 

advantage of this initiative? 

I think it’s wonderful that the U.S. 

bishops have launched the whole 

Church in this kind of adventure. 

They’ve done it because they felt 

that a lot of people today may have 

forgotten about what the Eucharist 

is. And I think this comes from a lack 

of religious education. I think there’s 

a big crisis. Also with the COVID 

pandemic and the secularization of 

society. 

So, the bishops said, we have to do 

something, and I think this Eucharistic 

Revival is very important and that 

many fruits will come out of it. 

But on the other hand, as I said in 

my intervention, we need to also take 

the opportunity to discover all the 

dimensions of the Eucharist, to make 


a real catechesis. I think there is a 

kind of focalization on adoration and 

processions. And this is part of the 

tradition of the Church and I’m sure 

that many — especially young people 

— will have a personal encounter 

with Christ through these things. I’ve 

experienced it myself during my life 

and I think it’s extremely important. 

What’s important is the encounter 

with Christ in order to become the 

body of Christ as a Church, which is 

the purpose of the Eucharist. It’s what 

happened in the first Eucharist, which 

Jesus celebrated with his disciples 

after three years of preparation. 

Before dying and offering his life as a 

sacrifice to redeem us, Jesus had this 

paschal meal, during which he said 

“now I’m going to die out of love for 

you, to redeem you from your sins. 

But for that, remember what you 

are living now.” He took the bread 

and said “take it, this is my body, my 

blood…” 

That day, the disciples became the 

body of Christ. They are assimilated. 

That’s what holy Communion is. 

They assimilated Christ, they became 

part of him! 

So I think it’s important that the 

Eucharistic Revival helps people to 

realize that, because the consequences 

will be big, if we are the body of 

Christ, if we are Christ in the middle 

of society. We will be able to become 

witnesses of his presence and transform 

the reality. 

Pope Francis has named you a 

cardinal at 77 years old, two years 

past the standard retirement age for 

bishops. Did the pope just mess up 

your retirement plans? 

Well, I have no retirement plans! 

When I was 75, the pope told me no 

[to retiring]. So, I’m still there. I may 

stay for a while. But I’m quite open. 

Once it’s finished, it’s finished, and 

we shall see. Then I will see what to 

do, but it’s OK. I have no other plan 

than to do what I’m asked to do. This 

is the beauty of the life of a priest: You 

are free. 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 


WITH GRACE 

DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE 

A man, his wife, and her mantilla 

Our two oldest children married 

recently, a son and a daughter. 

Their weddings were very 

different, one small and simple at the 

height of the pandemic, the other 

large and fashionable in what felt like 

a raucous celebration of the return of 

normalcy. Yet the sacred motion at the 

center of each occasion was the same: 

the lifting of a couple’s love-bond into 

a holy one. 

Each pretty tradition was accomplished 

— the handing over of a 

daughter to her groom by a wistful 

father, the white dress of purity on the 

bride, the mutual promises repeated, 

wide-eyed, by the couple. Every moment 

and gesture were pregnant with 

meaning — and why not? Here was a 

little ark sent off on its maiden voyage, 

carrying the whole future in its holds. 

My favorite of the wedding traditions 

we observed is that of the mantilla, 

one I have only seen in Cuban weddings, 

although I suspect it is one with 

Spanish roots that came to the New 

World via conquistadors and “misioneros.” 

A mantilla is a large shawl, made 

of elaborate lace-work, that was, in 

the past, the head cover of a properly 

turned-out 

The author’s son and his 

bride, covered in a traditional 

mantilla during 

their wedding Mass. | 

SUBMITTED PHOTO 

Spanish woman. 

When attached 

with a tall, 

filigreed comb, it 

gives a haughty 

air to the head, 

as of a crown on 

a woman born 

to wear one. It goes naturally with a 

straight back, a stately bearing, and an 

aristocratic tilt of the chin. 

The covering of the mantilla is nothing 

like the covering of the Islamic 

“hijab,” which is meant to hide female 

charms from lustful eyes. Rather, the 

threads of the mantilla declare for 

modesty and decorum, but its open 

spaces declare for the goodness of the 

gift that is a woman’s beauty, a gift like 

a mountain landscape or the floating 

night-scent of jasmine. Inspiring poets 

and knights, happening magically in 

the most squalid places, launching 

ships, female loveliness reminds us 

that God is love and truth, yes, but 

also, and not least, beauty. 

Here is how the mantilla is used in 

the wedding ceremony: 

While the couple are standing or 

kneeling before the altar, after the 

vows have been pronounced, the 

mother of the groom and the mother 


Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five 

who practices radiology in the Miami area. 

of the bride approach them. Each 

holding two corners of the mantilla, 

the bride’s mother places the lace over 

her daughter’s head and shoulders; 

the groom’s mother drapes the other 

side of the shawl over her son’s shoulders. 

He wears her mantle for the 

consecration of the water and wine 

and then the mothers remove it. 

And here is what it means: 

The mantilla is the shelter the bride 

offers her husband from the sun and 

biting wind, and from the restless 

roughness of the world. Under its 

folds is the whole genius of woman: 

her hospitality, her life-making, the 

way she smooths and gentles, orders 

and preserves. Where she is there 

are rituals and rhythms, coziness and 

comeliness; there is artistry in living, 

not just execution. In that haven there 

is rest for the weary, tireless attention 

for the helpless, steadiness of purpose, 

and a large calm. 

For her husband the woman creates 

an oasis in a parched desert. Or, in a 

less poetic vein, she sweetens a rough 

bachelor pad into a sanctuary with the 

deft placement of a throw pillow and 

an insistence on coasters. She argues 

for framed family photos and for the 

keeping of tools in the shed. She 

asks him to build a wall around the 

garden, which she grows, and tighten 

well the fittings of the crib, which she 

fills. She makes the man out of the 

boy, and the man can’t understand 

how he ever lived without her. 

These are the things I saw happening 

when the lace dropped over my son’s 

shoulder, and my son-in-law’s, and 

when I laid the mantilla carefully over 

the foreheads of their brides. 

These are the things that happen 

when a man takes a wife, and with her 

he gains a home. 


NOW PLAYING INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY 

A PASSIVE FAREWELL 

Does the final installment of the Indiana Jones franchise 

revoke the title character’s permission to be a hero? 

BY ANDREW FOWLER 

Harrison Ford in “Indiana 

Jones and the Dial of 

Destiny.” | ROTTEN 

TOMATOES/DISNEY, 

LUCASFILM 

Once again, Indiana Jones is 

on the hunt for a precious 

artifact. His goddaughter, 

Helena Shaw (played by Phoebe 

Waller-Bridge) has absconded with 

Archimedes’ dial, the Antikythera — 

the MacGuffin in the franchise’s fifth 

installment, “Indiana Jones and the 

Dial of Destiny.” Conveniently, he 

learns from Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) 

of an auction in Tangier where Helena 

is heading to sell the object for a 

fortune. 

As the digger-now-turned-cabbie 

drops off the famed archaeologist at the 

airport on the cusp of the new adventure, 

Sallah triumphantly shouts, “Give 

’em hell, Indiana Jones.” 

The command is delivered on behalf 

of the audience, those of us eager to 

see octogenarian Harrison Ford don 

the fedora and crack the whip one last 

time. 

Before the “Raiders” march could 

even hum, a car nearly collides with 

Indy. The moment is played for laughs, 

but, instead, James Mangold, Disney, 

and Lucasfilm collectively stick a thorn 

in fans’ eyes who’ve longed to cheer on 

their film hero — or any hero. 

The scene is indicative of the film’s 

attitude toward one of cinema’s greatest 

and most popular characters. It’s an 

attitude that rinses and repeats Hollywood’s 

contrived, faux emotionalism 

when killing off heroes like Luke 

Skywalker, James Bond, and even Han 

Solo (also portrayed by Ford). And it 

poses an uncomfortable question: In 

the year 2023, is a relic like Indiana 

Jones even allowed to be a hero … 

even in his own movie? 

“Dial of Destiny’s” answer is no. Indy 

drives none of the action, with the 

exception of a few nonexhilarating car 

chases. Helena bears most of the heavy 

lifting; in fact, she has memorized her 

father’s notes on the dial (unlike Indy 

or his father writing things down so 

they “wouldn’t have to remember”) 

and directs the plot across the globe, 

while using her quick wit to help the 

alleged main character escape Nazi 

clutches. The story, however, gives 

barely enough scraps to the archaeologist 

to fool audiences that he is an 

active participant in thwarting the 

Nazis from altering history. 

This cynicism toward Indiana Jones, 

and all he stood for in the previous 

movies, rears its head in the film’s 

climax. After the de-aging, over-bloated 

opening prologue, Indy is a drunk, 

28 • ANGELUS • July 28, 2023

depressed man grieving over the loss of 

his son and failed marriage with Marion 

Ravenwood. His students (perhaps 

stand-ins for Gen-Zers) care little for 

him or the subject, a far cry from when 

they fawned over him in “Raiders of 

the Lost Ark” and “The Last Crusade.” 

However, the movie presents an arc: 

the MacGuffin, being a time travel 

device, offers Indy a chance to prevent 

his past failures from ever existing. He 

can literally rewrite his history. 

But Indy makes no attempts at doing 

just that, which makes the climax’s 

dilemma — returning to the film’s 

present-day to confront his grief or staying 

in antiquity — an utterly pointless 

journey. 

Compare this to the previous films 

in the franchise. In “Raiders,” Indiana 

begins as an agnostic, who doesn’t 

“believe in magic, a lot of superstitious 

hocus-pocus,” dismissive of the Ark of 

the Covenant’s power. Yet, when the 

wrath of God is imminent, he chooses 

to fear the Lord rather than incur 

his destruction (i.e., “Keep your eyes 

shut”). Ultimately, his progression 

toward faith is solidified when he frustratingly 

states, “They don’t know what 

they’ve got there.” And, of course, he 

restores his relationship with Marion. 

At the “Temple of Doom’s” outset, 

Indy is more of a grave robber than archaeologist, 

searching for “fortune and 

glory.” But he forgoes his quest for the 

legendary Sankara Stones after witnessing 

child slave labor inflicted by the 

Thuggee cult. The true glory is his gift 

to a poor Indian village: the return of 

its children. Meanwhile, in “The Last 

Crusade,” Indy states, “I didn’t come 

for the cup of Christ, I came to find my 

father.” When he renounces the Holy 

Grail for a new kinship with his father, 

we know Indy means what he says. 

Even in the maligned “Kingdom of 

the Crystal Skull” he gains a son and 

wife at a point where “life stops giving 

us things and starts taking them away,” 

by rescuing them from the Soviets and 

“inter-dimensional beings.” Here is a 

hero who chooses humanity over the 

artifact. 

But in “Dial of Destiny,” Indy is given 

no moral choice, at least none that 

makes sense. Thankfully, the rumors 

of Indy dying in the past, while passing 

the mantle to Helena, did not make 

the final cut. However, the third act 

would have made more thematic sense 

if the characters traveled to the 1940s 

— or some place within Indy’s own 

timeline — so he could reject “fixing” 

his past mistakes, while not altering 

history to achieve his own selfish ends. 

But this is not where the filmmakers 

go, thematically or in spacetime. Instead, 

audiences are given an obviously, 

haphazardly reshot ending where 

Indy makes no decision on whether to 

face his overwhelming grief or despairingly 

avoid his troubles (and possibly 

destroy history, the very subject he 

loves); Helena must — and does — 

decide for him. 

When Indy does see Marion again, 

and the pair begin reconciling, the 

moment means nothing because he 

did nothing at the most critical point. 

With Helena deciding for the doddering 

old man, Indy is allowed to exist, 

but has no impact on the greater landscape. 

He is an object of the past to be 

exploited for box-office grosses to fund 

progressive causes, though one too 

important that Disney and Lucasfilm 

could not completely kill off lest they 

incur the fans’ wrath. 

But like Belloq — Indy’s nemesis in 

“Raiders” — the filmmakers failed to 

comprehend the character’s powerful 

appeal, destroying another intellectual 

property and audiences’ trust in the 

process, as well as their own pursuit 

of fortune and glory (the movie is on 

track to be a box-office bomb). If they 

were trying to appeal to the “Sallahs” 

(“fans”), there was nothing to cheer 

about beyond seeing Ford in the outfit. 

If they were trying to grab the attention 

of the “students” (Gen-Zers), the film 

was too long and dull. 

Ultimately, “Dial of Destiny” diminishes 

the action-adventurer that 

inspired a generation or two of filmmakers 

(and even archaeologists), into 

a depressed, passive character. Yet his 

rough-and-tumble heroism, they forget, 

is what charmed moviegoers in the first 

place. 

Andy Fowler is the manager of internal 

affairs for Yankee Institute, and a former 

content producer at the Knights of 

Columbus. 

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” | 

ROTTEN TOMATOES/DISNEY, LUCASFILM 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

Detroit’s house of adventures 

The Huckleberry 

Explorers Club, in 

Detroit, Michigan, is the 

brainchild of Stefany Ann 

Golberg and Morgan 

Meis. | HEATHER KING 

One perk of creative writing is 

that over time, if you’re lucky, 

you gather a far-flung, richly 

varied group of friends. 

Many years ago, for example, I met 

Stefany Ann Golberg (better known as 

Shuffy) and Morgan Meis, a married 

couple who write, teach, and travel 

widely: Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Honduras, 

LA, Italy, India, South Tyrol. 

Morgan, an art theorist and critic, 

is working on the third of a trilogy of 

books, each centered upon a single 

painting. 

Shuffy, also a multimedia artist and 

filmmaker, has published two books of 

creative nonfiction. 

Cofounders of NYC’s Flux Factory, 

the well-known arts collective, the pair 

chucked city life a decade ago to dwell 

for a time in what they described as a 

bunker in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. 

In 2017 they moved to Detroit and 

bought a four-plex in an advanced state 

of disrepair. 

“We’re still trying to get the living 

room where we can sit in it,” Shuffy 

reported earlier this year. 

I was lucky enough to spend a week 

with them recently and, as I suspected, 

in fact they have spent the last seven 

years clearing, sanding, refinishing, and 

designing a house that is really a DIY 

work of art. 

There’s a big, open, light-filled 

kitchen, a dressing room, a meditation 

room, and a “mezzanine” loft for cozy 

winter conversations. To host guests — 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

The museum displays 

random found objects. | 

HEATHER KING 

an important element in their ethos — 

they’ve set up a separate wing with its 

own bedroom and bath. 

But they’ve constructed much more 

than a house. Shuffy has been collecting 

small objects — pebbles, ticket 

stubs, birds’ eggs — for decades. She’s 

also been writing text: short reflections, 

echoes, prose poems. She’s been taking 

photos and, lately, gathering sounds. 

At some point she received a message 

of sorts: This isn’t just for you. 

The house, located in a downtown-adjacent 

neighborhood called Core 

City, happened to be zoned for both 

residential and commercial use. So, as 

the upstairs living quarters took shape, 

Shuffy also began realizing a lifelong 

dream: The Huckleberry Explorers 

Club (HEC). 

The HEC comprises a general store, 

a museum, and gardens. The general 

store sells such items as Kodachrome 

U.S. travel booklets, boxes of rock sugar, 

a miniature watercolor set, vintage 

clothing, and books. An armchair-furnished 

sitting area offers free coffee, 

tea, soda, and candy. 

The museum — a separate, dimly 

lit room — is a kind of literary sacred 

cave. For the structure (Morgan’s 

creation), think Gaudi’s Sagrada 

Familia in miniature, fashioned from 

cardboard. 

Each item — arranged in frames, boxes, 

and niches — has a little tag affixed 

bearing a short description, place, and/ 

or date. A string of dime-store purple 

beads: “Dave’s Market Parking Lot, 

Cleveland, Ohio, July 2, 2015.” An 

origami grasshopper: “Gift from Filip 

ven der Bergh, Antwerp, Belgium.” A 

rack of “Keys from Doors I No Longer 

Remember.” 

A scrapbook holds a seemingly random 

collection of Shuffy’s musings. If 

you peruse these small objects, photos, 

keepsakes, and writings slowly and 

carefully, they offer a glimpse into the 

story of a life. 

Then there’s the backyard garden. 

Bordered by catalpa, locust, and huge 

old-growth mulberry trees, this public 

green space is open 24/7 to whoever 

might happen by. 

A pollinator garden bursts with cone 

flowers, yarrow, pokeweed, dock, and 

black-eyed Susans. Kale, garlic, onions, 

tomatoes, squash, corn, watermelon, 

and herbs overflow from vegetable 

beds. More than 40 newly planted trees 

include redbud, cherry, and Japanese 

maple. And let’s not forget the eight or 

10 different kinds of berries. 

Morgan has built lopsided arches and 

overhead trellises from scrap lumber 

he finds on the street. A friend with 

a backhoe recently dug a giant hole 

in the backyard that’s earmarked for a 

pond. 

“A lot of it is aspirational,” says Shuffy. 

“We hope to add a wooded grove and a 

bird sanctuary.” 

The club opened on Jan. 1, 2020, 

suffered spotty operation for a couple 

of years due to COVID-19, then resurrected 

and now opens its doors three 

days a week. 

The hours are seasonal, but generally 

run along the lines of Saturday, 2-4 

p.m., Sundays, 3:30-6 p.m., and Mondays, 

4-7 p.m. After-hours gatherings 

include a micro-cinema, a book club, 

impromptu art talks, and the recent 

Strawberry Fest. 

Shuffy’s vision was that people would 

come in and have a kind of poetic 

experience. Instead, it turns out, much 

of the time visitors simply want to talk 

to her and Morgan. 

“In a way,” she says, “the thrust is religious 

without being about organized 

religion. It fulfills our desire and need 

to get together at certain times and 

share ritual. There is a structure to it, 

with the different activities and rooms. 

In summer especially, the garden is 

a focal point. The people who come 

seem to appreciate the structure.” 

The entire club is a freewill offering, 

not promoted on social media and with 

zero online presence. Neither Shuffy 

nor Morgan have cellphones. Local 

people simply stop by and for the rest, 

email suffices. 

Having been their guest for a week, I 

can vouch for the overflowing generosity 

of spirit that pervades this wondrous, 

mysterious adventure. 

As Father Luigi Giussani observed, 

“Other people are to be hosted within 

ourselves. Hospitality is making another 

person part of our own living. Bear 

in mind that hospitality is the greatest 

possible sacrifice after living one’s life.” 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

Transfigurations old and new 

Mark Twain observed that history doesn’t repeat 

itself, but it sure does rhyme. And it’s true. There 

is a discernible pattern to God’s self-disclosure in 

human events. 

We read the Old Testament, and it seems to be a story in 

search of an ending. 

We move on to the New Testament, and it seems to bring 

a sudden blossoming of 10,000 flowers that had been 

planted since the dawn of creation. Every story — from the 

Nativity to the Ascension — invokes many foreshadowing 

stories from the history of Israel. 

Christians have always read the Old Testament in light 

of its New Testament fulfillment. When we go to Mass, 

our lectionary trains us to read this way. It’s built into the 

arrangement of the Scriptures. 

The pattern is undeniable, and the study of this pattern is 

called typology. 

Every time we celebrate a Christian feast day, the Gospel 

accounts beg us to find their Old Testament anticipation. 

And that’s abundantly true of the day we’re about to celebrate: 

the feast of the Transfiguration. 

It commemorates an event that appears in three of the 

Gospels and in St. Peter’s second epistle. After predicting 

his passion, Jesus called his inner circle — his three 

most beloved disciples — and took them hiking up a high 

mountain. When they arrived at the top, the disciples saw 

Jesus transfigured in a glorious way, radiant and bathed 

in light. He was flanked by two of the greatest figures in 

history: Moses and Elijah. Jesus’ divinity was confirmed by 

the voice of the Father. 

The vision overwhelmed the disciples. It was like nothing 

they’d ever seen. It was so glorious as to seem unprecedented 

in all of history. 

And it may have been unprecedented, but it was not 

unanticipated. 

In the Gospels we see Jesus choose 12 helpers whom he 

called apostles and then a further 70 disciples. But from the 

original 12 he selected three to receive intensive teaching: 

Peter, John, and James, the men who went with him to the 

Mount of Transfiguration. 

But those details seem very familiar to anyone who has 

read the Old Testament. In the Book of Exodus (24:1) we 

see that Moses also chose 12 men from the 12 tribes of 

Israel; and he also chose 70 elders to assist him; and he 

chose three men in particular — Aaron, Nahab, and Abihu 

— to go up with him to the mountain of the Lord. Later 

on, Moses would be transfigured in prayer. His face glowed 

with divine glory so brightly that his companions could not 

even look at him (Exodus 34:30-35). 

That moment marked a high point 

“The Transfiguration,” in the Exodus; and yet it prefigured 

school of Raphael, late 16th a moment far greater: the fullness of 

century, Italian. | WIKIME- salvation in Jesus Christ. Moses and 

DIA COMMONS Elijah, the Law and the prophets, 

were summoned as witnesses to that 

fulfillment. 

This is the story of every Christian feast. The Law and the 

prophets come forward to testify that God has been preparing 

our salvation from the first moment of creation. 


■ SUNDAY, JULY 23 

Blessing of World Youth Day Pilgrims. Cathedral of Our 

Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 10 a.m. 

Local young adults and guardians planning to attend World 

Youth Day 2023 are invited to a special blessing from 

Archbishop José H. Gomez. Pilgrims are invited to wear 

their WYD T-shirts. 

■ THURSDAY, JULY 27 

“The Deepest Sorrow: Discovering New Ways to Bring 

Comfort and Hope to a Grieving Mother” Webinar. 

6:30-8:30 p.m. Parish leaders are invited to participate in 

a webinar hosted by the Office of Life, Justice, and Peace, 

and Sacred Sorrows. For more information, visit lacatholics. 

org/events. 

■ FRIDAY, JULY 28 

Women at the Well Summer Weekend Retreat: Jewish 

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

Encino, Friday, 4 p.m.-Sunday, 1 p.m. With Sister Chris 

Machado, SSS, and the Women at the Well Team. Visit 

hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 

■ SATURDAY, JULY 29 

Glorifying Christ: Retreat with Michael R. Heinlein. 

Pauline Books & Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver 

City, 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Heinlein will share lessons from 

Cardinal Francis E. George’s life and legacy. Donation: $30/ 

person, includes lunch. 4 p.m. Mass. RSVP to 310-397- 

8676 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com. 

Advanced Course in Media Literacy and Faith Formation. 

Virtual course in media literacy runs July 30-Aug. 5, 

11 a.m.-3 p.m. daily, and is for teachers, catechists, parents, 

and anyone interested in integrating faith with media. 

Topics include: God and Gaming, Virtues and Social Media, 

and more. Cost: $250/person. For more information, visit 

pauline.org/certificate. 

■ TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 

C3 Conference. Virtual Zoom learning on Aug. 1; in-person 

learning at Mary Star of the Sea High School, 2500 N. 

Taper Ave., San Pedro on Aug. 2. Theme: “Discover.” Two 

days of hands-on learning, resources, new ideas, and more. 

Includes over 75 sessions and panels. For more information, 

visit c3.la-archdiocese.org/c3-con-2023. 

■ THURSDAY, AUGUST 3 

Church of the Transfiguration: Celebrating 100 Years. 

Church of the Transfiguration, 2515 W. Martin Luther King 

Blvd., Los Angeles, 6:30-8 p.m. prayer service. Friday, Aug. 

4: international food and dance, 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5: 

KPC centenary awards, 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6: Mass and 

gala, 10 a.m. 

■ FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 

City of Saints. UCLA, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles. 

Catholic teen conference runs Aug. 4-6, features dynamic 

speakers, Mass, reconciliation, praise, and worship. Cost: 

$260/person, includes housing and meals. For more information, 

visit cityofsaints.org. 

■ SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 

Eight-day Directed Retreat. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 

4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, Sunday, 4 p.m.-Sunday, 1 p.m. With 

Sister Rosheen Glennon, CSJ, Sister Chris Machado, SSS, 

and the retreat team. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784- 

4515. 

Holy Silence Contemplative Prayer Group. St. Andrew 

Russian Greek Catholic Church, 538 Concord St., El Segundo, 

12-1:30 p.m. Call 310-322-1892. 


LACBA Unlawful Detainer Answer Clinic. LA Law 

Library, 301 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, 12-3 p.m. Providing 

limited assistance with reviewing unlawful detainer complaints, 

jury demands, fee waiver requests, and more. Open 

to the disabled veteran community in Los Angeles County. 

Spanish assistance available. RSVP to 213-896-6536 or 

email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. 

■ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 

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

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

call 562-537-4526. 

Creating Spaces of Inclusion to Accompany Special 

Needs Families. Zoom, 6:30-8 p.m. Speakers: Joyce Shaw 

and Nancy Brady. Hosted by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ 

Office of Life, Justice, and Peace. Visit lacatholics.org/ 

events for more information. 


St. Agatha Church Centennial Year Festival. St. Agatha 

Church, 2646 S. Mansfield Ave., Los Angeles, 6-11 p.m.; 

Saturday, Aug. 12, 5-11 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 13, 9 a.m.-9 

p.m. International foods, (Louisiana cuisine on Saturday 

and Sunday only), entertainment, festival rides, and raffle 

prizes. For more information, contact Marisol.p.gonzalez@ 

gmail.com or the parish office at 323-935-8127 or visit 

stagathas.org. 

■ SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 

Young Adult Rosary. Morgan Park, 4100 Baldwin Park 

Blvd., Baldwin Park, 6 p.m. Rosary for young adults and 

youth groups. Meets on the 13th of every month through 

December. Wear your ministry uniform and bring a flag or 

banner. 


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. 

■ SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 

San Gabriel Mission Marimba Ensemble Concert. San 

Gabriel Mission, 428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 6:30 p.m. 

Concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Marimba 

Ensemble. Tickets: $5/person through July and August, $8/ 

person at the door. 


Personal Transformation and a New Creation: Weekend 

Retreat on “The Spirituality of Beatrice Bruteau.” Holy 

Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, Friday, 5 

p.m.-Sunday, 1 p.m. With Father Stephen Coffey, OSB, 

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

22nd National Conference for Single Catholics. St. John 

Resort, 44045 Five Mile Rd., Plymouth, MI. Retreat for 

Catholic singles runs Aug. 25-27 and includes talks, music, 

social events, Mass, adoration, confession, fellowship, and 

more. Visit NationalCatholicSingles.com for more information 

and to register. 

Items for the calendar of events are due four weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be emailed to calendar@angelusnews.com. 

All calendar items must include the name, date, time, address of the event, and a phone number for additional information.

Angelus News | July 28, 2023 | Vol. 8 No

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