Angelus News | October 6, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 20

ANGELUS 

LOST IN 

OUR TIMES 

Can the Church bridge the 

widening generation gap? 

October 6, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 20

B • ANGELUS • October 6, 2023

ANGELUS 

October 6, 2023 

Vol. 8 • No. 20 

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ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

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ON THE COVER 

JACOB POPCAK 

Divides in politics, religion, and education get blamed 

for many of society’s problems today. But what if the 

differences between age generations — i.e., millennials, 

baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Z — matter more than those? 

On Page 10, contributor Elise Italiano Ureneck takes a 

close look at a popular psychologist’s research into the 

“generation wars” and the cost of progress, before asking: 

Can faith succeed where technology has failed? 

THIS PAGE 

JOHN RUEDA/ADLA 

Archbishop José H. Gomez blesses a group 

of religious sisters and young women at the 

annual LA Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Sept. 

19. The event began with a rosary, Mass, and 

then breakfast with a keynote talk from local 

Catholic, author, actor, musician, and marriage 

and family therapist Joe Sikorra. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CONTENTS 

Santa Clarita parish mourns slain deputy as one of its own 

Migrant mom, baby bused from Texas gets special welcome from ‘Father Fili’ 

RSHM sisters celebrate 100 years in California, but have a soft spot for LA 

John Allen: A viewer’s guide to the unviewable October synod 

Greg Erlandson on the spiritual graces of a 335-mile bike ride 

Sign up for our free, daily e-newsletter 

Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

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30 

A Catholic historian’s take on ancient Rome’s social media moment 

Heather King reports back from a four-day silent retreat in Ireland 

October 6, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

The real leap of faith 

The following is adapted from the 

Holy Father’s homily Sept. 23 at a 

votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

de la Garde at the conclusion of his 

two-day visit to Marseille, France. 

When Mary enters Elizabeth’s 

house, the child she is 

carrying, recognizing the 

arrival of the Messiah, leaps for joy 

and begins to dance as David had 

before the Ark of the Covenant (cf. 

Luke 1:39–45). 

Mary is presented as the true Ark 

of the Covenant, introducing the 

incarnate Lord into the world. She is 

the young virgin who goes to meet the 

barren, elderly woman and, in bringing 

Jesus, becomes a sign of God’s 

visitation that overcomes all sterility. 

She is the mother who goes up to the 

mountains of Judah, to tell us that 

God is setting out to seek us with his 

love, so that we might exult with joy. 

In these two women, Mary and Elizabeth, 

God’s visitation to humanity is 

revealed. One is young and the other 

old, one is a virgin and the other barren, 

yet they are both pregnant in an 

“impossible” way. This is God’s work 

in our lives; he makes possible even 

what seems impossible, he generates 

life even amidst sterility. 

Brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves 

honestly, from the heart: Do 

we believe that God is at work in our 

lives? 

There is a way to discern whether or 

not we have this trust in the Lord. The 

Gospel says that “as soon as Elizabeth 

had heard Mary’s greeting, the child 

leapt in her womb” (v. 41). This is the 

sign: to leap for joy. Whoever believes, 

whoever prays, whoever welcomes 

the Lord leaps in the Spirit, and feels 

that something is moving within, and 

“dances” with joy. 

To leap means to be “touched 

inside,” to have an interior quiver, to 

feel that something is moving in our 

heart. This is the opposite of a flat, 

cold heart, accustomed to the quiet 

life, which is encased in indifference 

and becomes impermeable. 

Those who are born to faith, recognize 

the presence of the Lord, like the 

baby in Elizabeth’s womb. Faced with 

the mystery of life and the challenges 

of society, those who believe have 

a spring in their step, a passion, a 

dream to cultivate, an interest that 

impels them to personally commit 

themselves. Now each of us can ask 

ourselves: do I feel these things? Do I 

have these things? Those who are like 

this know that in everything the Lord 

is present, calling and inviting them 

to witness to the Gospel with meekness, 

in order to build a new world, 

using the gifts and charisms they have 

received. 

Besides enabling us to leap in the 

face of life, the experience of faith 

also compels us to leap toward our 

neighbor. Indeed, in the mystery 

of the Visitation, we see that God’s 

visitation does not take place through 

extraordinary, heavenly events, but in 

the simplicity of an encounter. 

Let us always remember this in the 

Church: God is relational and often 

visits us through human encounters, 

when we know how to be open to 

others, when there is a “stirring” 

within us in favor of those who pass 

us every day, and when our hearts do 

not remain impassive and insensitive 

before the wounds of the fragile. 

Papal Prayer Intention for October. For the Synod: We pray 

for the Church, that she may adopt listening and dialogue as 

a lifestyle at every level, and allow herself to be guided by the 

Holy Spirit toward the peripheries of the world. 

2 • ANGELUS • October 6, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

‘Should you not have had pity’ 

Archbishop Gomez recently celebrated 

the annual Mass for All Immigrants 

at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels. The following is adapted from 

his homily. 

Today, we celebrate the beautiful 

diversity of peoples that 

make up the family of God 

in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

and in the Dioceses of Orange, San 

Bernardino, and San Diego. 

And we are all here today because 

we share one vision and one 

hope. We are united in the cause of 

building a home for all peoples, all 

nations, races, and languages. 

Jesus said that he was sent into this 

world by the Father, and that the 

Father sent him to unite all things in 

heaven on earth in him. He said the 

Father sent him “that all may be one” 

under the one God who made all of 

us. 

This is God’s heart. This is what he 

wants for Los Angeles, for southern 

California, for America, for the world. 

This is what he wants for each one 

of us. 

What makes us one is that we are 

created by God and saved through 

Jesus Christ. We have one Father in 

heaven, and through Jesus the Father 

has shown us mercy, and made us 

sisters and brothers on earth. 

That is the beautiful message of our 

readings today from the sacred Scriptures. 

As we heard in today’s passage 

of the Gospel: “Should you not have 

had pity on your fellow servant, as I 

have had pity on you?” 

Those words from the Master in 

Jesus’ parable are spoken to you and 

to me. But they are also spoken today 

to our leaders in this country. 

This has been another frustrating 

summer, part of another frustrating 

year, for all of us who hope for 

immigration reform. People are being 

sent from the border all over the 

country, but there is no plan for them 

to be welcomed, no plan for them to 

be settled. 

We all are working together to 

welcome them and provide for their 

needs, but our leaders seem to be 

standing by, instead of coming together 

and working to fix our broken 

immigration system. 

So, Our Lord’s words today are 

addressed to everyone, including our 

political leaders: “Should you not 

have had pity on your fellow servant, 

as I have had pity on you?” 

We pray for our leaders, as we do 

every year in this Mass. And we 

commit ourselves once again this 

year to continuing to seek justice for 

immigrants. 

We ask the Lord today in this Eucharist 

to give us strength to overcome 

our frustrations at the situation of our 

brothers and sisters. 

Jesus tells Peter today in the Gospel 

that we need to forgive those who 

trespass against us “seventy times seven.” 

That means always. That means 

every time. Every offense. 

Jesus is telling us today in this parable 

that his mercy knows no limits. 

And neither can ours, my dear brothers 

and sisters. His mercy makes us 

one family. As our Father is merciful 

with us, we must be merciful with 

one another. 

Every time we draw near to the altar, 

we remember our Lord’s mercy. And 

we realize that we are like that servant 

in the parable today. We can never 

repay what we owe to Jesus. 

He loved us and he gave himself for 

us on the cross. And in his love, he is 

still giving his life for us in the bread 

and wine, in the sacrifice of every 

Mass. 

At this altar, Jesus is sharing his body 

and blood with us. That means that 

each one of us now has his divine life 

living within us. The life we live now 

is his life, not our own. 

Because we are the Lord’s, because 

we have his life within us, we have 

the power to love as he loves. We 

have the duty to forgive as he forgives. 

So, my dear brothers and sisters, let 

us thank him for saving us, for redeeming 

us by his love on the cross. 

Let us ask him to give us new eyes to 

see that every person is someone just 

like us, someone who has been shown 

mercy, forgiven a debt that we could 

never repay. 

Because we are the Lord’s, because we have his 

life within us, we have the power to love as he 

loves. 

And let us ask Our Lady of Guadalupe 

to wrap each of us, and all 

our loved ones, in the mantle of her 

tender care, especially those who are 

suffering the cruelty of our broken 

immigration system. 

May Our Lady help us to always be 

aware of her Son’s love for us. And 

may she help us to grow in our love 

for all our brothers and sisters! 


WORLD 

■ Report: Christian women sexually 

enslaved in Mozambique 

Peace advocates are sounding the alarm about reports of jihadists in the African 

country of Mozambique forcing kidnapped Christian women to convert to 

Islam and sexually enslaving some of them. 

Johan Viljoen, director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute, told news agency 

ACI Africa they had confirmed the reports sparked by leaked internal instructions 

to Islamic State members about what to do with enslaved women, which 

includes orders to kill those who refuse to convert. 

“We condemn any attempt to force people to change their religion,” Viljoen 

said in an interview. “We condemn the Islamists for forcing women into sex 

slavery. It is a reprehensible violation of human rights.” 

Some 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in 

the last four years from violence caused by the Islamic terrorists in the country’s 

northern Cabo Delgado province. 

■ Permanent diaconate coming to the Philippines 

Pope Francis approved the ability to ordain men to the permanent diaconate in 

the Philippines. 

The decision comes after the country’s bishops petitioned the Vatican, writing 

that permanent deacons would be “a good leaven for evangelization especially 

for those who live in the margins of society not only geographically but also 

socio-pastorally due to lack of priests.” 

While permanent deacons are common in the U.S. and Europe, when St. 

Pope Paul VI restored the role of permanent deacon in 1967, he established 

that local episcopal conferences would individually decide, with papal approval, 

whether to ordain permanent deacons. 

The other ‘Cristiano’ Ronaldo — Retired soccer star Ronaldo Nazario announced on social media that he’d 

been baptized Sept. 12 in an intimate ceremony at a church in São Paulo in his native Brazil. “The Christian faith 

has always been a fundamental part of my life since I was a child, although I had not yet been baptized. With the 

sacrament, I feel truly regenerated as a child of God — in a new, more conscious, deeper way.” | @RONALDO/ 

INSTAGRAM 

Flames and smoke are seen at the site of the destroyed 

warehouse in Lviv, Ukraine, Sept. 19. | OSV NEWS/STATE 

EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE VIA REUTERS 

■ Russian drone destroys 

Caritas warehouse in 

Ukraine 

A warehouse in Ukraine belonging 

to the Vatican’s aid agency, Caritas, 

was hit in a nighttime Russian drone 

strike. 

Some 300 tons of food, hygiene kits, 

generators, and clothes were destroyed 

in the Sept. 19 attack on the site in 

Lviv, which had been operating as 

a humanitarian aid hub for the past 

year-and-a-half. No Caritas employees 

were harmed. 

“They struck to destroy the possibility 

to help people who are suffering,” said 

Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, 

prefect of the Dicastery for the Service 

of Charity. That same week Krajewski 

traveled to Lviv to personally deliver 

aid supplies. 

The day after the attack, Pope 

Francis sent a message to a Rome 

conference marking the 60th anniversary 

of St. Pope John XXIII’s landmark 

encyclical “Pacem in Terris” (“Peace 

on Earth”), in which he warned of the 

“increasingly urgent ethical problems 

raised by the use in contemporary 

warfare of so-called ‘conventional 

weapons,’ which should be used 

for defensive purposes only and not 

directed to civilian targets.” 


NATION 

The legacy of a ‘safe haven’ — Carol City, Florida firefighters Janice Matos, left, and Felicia McNair, right, flank 

Nick Silverio, founder of the nonprofit Gloria M. Silverio Foundation and its “A Safe Haven for Newborns” program, 

and Carol Gloria, the first of 381 Safe Haven babies, at the Miracle Theater in Coral Gables, Florida, Aug. 

24. The theater hosted the world premiere of the documentary “Uncle Nick,” about Silverio and his organization, 

which helps promote Florida’s Safe Haven laws allowing parents to surrender their unharmed newborns not 

more than a week old into the custody of personnel at fire stations and other facilities recognized as a safe haven. 

| OSV NEWS/LEIGH OSGOOD 

■ Ohio diocese announces gender norms for schools 

New guidelines for schools in the Diocese of Cleveland stress the need to be 

both welcoming and faithful to Church teaching when it comes to questions of 

gender identity. 

“Catholic institutions must accompany people experiencing gender dysphoria 

and be committed both to providing a loving environment and to upholding the 

truth of God’s created reality,” reads the introduction to the three-page document, 

which the diocesan website said formalizes existing practice. 

The policy creates parental notification requirements for students expressing 

“gender dysphoria or gender confusion,” and bars the use of “preferred pronouns” 

by students or staff. Dress codes and bathroom use must correspond with 

biological sex. 

■ Catholic experts 

denounce new embryo 

creation as ‘repugnant’ 

Catholic experts have condemned the 

creation of the first “human embryo 

model” without using sperm or egg as 

“repugnant.” 

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute 

in Israel created the “embryo model” 

by mixing a specific ratio of stem 

cells and creating something akin to a 

human embryo at day 14. The creation 

had no ability to grow to maturity, even 

if transplanted into a uterus. 

“What we have here is still a [disabled] 

human embryo. Without 

parents,” wrote Angelus contributor 

and professor of medical humanities at 

Creighton University Charles Camosy 

in a joint op-ed with Loyola University 

Chicago professor Joe Vukov in a 

Sept. 18 Religion News Service op-ed. 

“Such embryos cannot [yet] develop 

into full-grown human beings.” 

Camosy and Vukov said such research 

furthers a transactional view of 

procreation. 

“We’ve had decades, actually, of privileged 

people demanding the ability to 

purchase ova and sperm based on the 

donor’s IQ, attractiveness, participation 

in varsity athletics, and more,” they 

wrote. “And of course our throwaway 

culture simply discards the prenatal 

human beings who don’t fit the market-based 

criteria.” 

■ Biographer: Late Chicago cardinal 

‘turned to the cross’ amid lifelong pain 

From left: Michael Heinlein, Archbishop José H. Gomez, Mary Hallan 

FioRito, former executive assistant for Cardinal George, and Stephen White 

from The Catholic Project. | OSV NEWS/RUI BARROS PHOTOGRAPHY 

Archbishop José H. Gomez praised the late Cardinal Francis 

George of Chicago as “an amazing example of how to be a 

bishop” at a Washington, D.C. panel honoring his legacy. 

The panelists joining Archbishop Gomez — including 

Michael Heinlein, author of a new biography of George, 

“Glorifying Christ” — said the lifelong physical pain George 

endured after contracting polio at 13 helped bring him visibly 

closer to Christ. 

“I think his life truly was an offering, and that’s why he continued 

to push himself every day, because it wasn’t about him,” said Heinlein at the Sept. 14 event at the Catholic University 

of America. As a result of the polio, George “turned to the cross as a way of making sense of what was happening,” he said. 

Archbishop Gomez said he first met Cardinal George in the early 1990s when he was bishop of Yakima, Washington, which 

had a large Hispanic population, and were friends until George’s death in 2015. 


LOCAL 

■ Pomona Catholic School kicks off 125th anniversary celebration with Mass 

Pomona Catholic School kicked off 

the first of its 125th anniversary celebrations 

by hosting a Mass celebrated 

by Archbishop José H. Gomez on 

Sept. 22. The Mass was attended by 

several priests, school staff, students, 

city leaders, alumni, and more, and 

was followed by a special breakfast for 

attendees. 

The Mass was part of a weekend 

celebration put on by the school to celebrate 

its 125 years, including a formal 

dinner at Pomona Valley Mining Co. 

on Sept. 23. Other anniversary events 

that will occur throughout the school 

year include Homecoming in October, 

a Friendsgiving & Food Drive in November, 

and a Casino Night fundraiser 

in February. 

Pomona Catholic School is an allgirls 

private Catholic high school, plus 

a coed middle school that boasts a 100% college acceptance rate for its students. The school opened in 1898 as Academy of 

the Holy Names then later renamed as St. Joseph High School in 1948. It became an all-girls high school in 1962 and added 

coed middle school in 2009. 

Greetings from the gala — Father Rodel Balagtas, center, pastor at Incarnation Church in Glendale, poses with 

Archbishop José H. Gomez, left, and Father Marco Durazo, right, rector and president of St. John’s Seminary. 

Balagtas was one of the awardees at the 2023 St. John’s Seminary gala, held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels’ outdoor plaza on Sept. 16. Other honorees at the event included Msgr. John Moretta, pastor at Resurrection 

Church in Boyle Heights, Diocese of Orange Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Freyer, and Catholic Community Foundation 

LA President and Executive Director Kathy Anderson. | BELLE N’ BEAU PHOTOGRAPHY 

Archbishop José H. Gomez poses with clergy, students, and staff at Pomona Catholic School — the oldest in the LA 

Archdiocese — after celebrating Mass in honor of the school’s 125th anniversary. | POMONA CATHOLIC SCHOOL 

■ Newsom vetoes 

‘gender affirmation’ bill 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued 

a surprise veto of a law that would 

have considered parents’ affirmation 

of a child’s “gender identity or gender 

expression” in custody decisions. 

Newsom, a Democrat, was widely expected 

to sign Assembly Bill 957, which 

passed the Assembly 57-16 earlier this 

month. 

Newsom said he was concerned that 

enacting the law would be an attempt 

“to dictate — in prescriptive terms that 

single out one characteristic — legal 

standards for the Judicial branch to 

apply.” 

“Other-minded elected officials, in 

California and other states, could very 

well use this strategy to diminish the 

civil rights of vulnerable communities,” 

the governor explained, adding that 

courts are already required to consider 

parental “affirmation of the child’s 

gender identity” in such decisions. 

The California Catholic Conference, 

the public policy arm of the state’s 

bishops, had opposed the bill. 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

The real Michael Ladisa 

The article in the Sept. 22 issue on chaplain Michael Ladisa gave light 

to what I consider the “whole Michael.” We got to learn more about 

him not only as a chaplain but also as a husband, father, grandfather, and friend. 

We learned things about Michael that, because of his humility, he never shared 

with us, his fellow chaplains. Like how he rented a storage unit to keep reading 

materials and clothes for those being released from the jail, or how he and Monica 

took someone in that needed a home. 

I am sure there are many more good things we will never know about Michael, 

but it’s OK because he left his mark everywhere he went. 

You brought out the real Michael, the sensitive Michael, the dedicated Michael, 

and the committed Michael in bringing Christ’s light to every individual he met. 

I was very moved with the article that I printed out several copies to pass out to 

anyone, not just chaplains. I believe his life needs to be shared and that is what 

you did for us. 

— Eve Ortiz, senior Catholic chaplain, Century Regional Detention Facility, 

Lynwood 

A lesson learned for the synod? 

In his Sept. 11 column on AngelusNews.com, “On the road to synodality,” 

Russell Shaw wrote that the minimum requirement for the Synod of Synodality 

should be “letting people say what they think rather than what someone else 

would like them to think.” 

His comment encourages me to say that had the Church leadership explored, 

incorporated, and yes, loved, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, then 

priestly vocations, religious communities, Mass attendance, belief in the Real 

Presence, transmitting faith to the youth, etc. would be a vibrant reality today. 

— Pat Esseff, Camarillo 

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. 

Saints on the move 

The Knights of Columbus process with a stole belonging to St. Junípero Serra at the start of the annual Mass 

in Recognition of All Immigrants on Sunday, Sept. 17, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Relics 

belonging to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. John Baptist Scalabrini, and St. Toribio Romo were also on display 

following the Mass. | JOHN RUEDA/ADLA 

View more photos 

from this gallery at 

AngelusNews.com/photos-videos 

Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d 

like to share? Please send to editorial @angelusnews.com. 

“If you want immortality, 

you should go to a church.” 

~ Dr. Eric Verdin, CEO of the Buck Institute for 

Research on Aging, in a Sept. 20 Time article on a 

46-year-old tech entrepreneur spending millions 

trying to live forever. 

“We should start asking 

why so many of our 

religious stories are also 

horror stories.” 

~ Brandon R. Grafius, associate professor of biblical 

studies at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, in a 

Sept. 20 Christian Century commentary on similar 

themes between horror and religion. 

“Luckily, the only geese I 

have to deal with now are 

alive.” 

~ LA City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, in 

a Sept. 22 Los Angeles Times article on geese 

replacing a homeless encampment at Echo Park 

Lake. 

“It’s like going on the plane, 

but like a luxury plane.” 

~ Louis Lappe, El Segundo Little League World Series 

champion, in a Sept. 22 Daily Breeze article on the 

team getting a ride aboard the Goodyear blimp. 

“What we have is faith built 

on persecution. Everything 

I experienced while in 

captivity is what priesthood 

entails.” 

~ Father Paul Sanogo, a priest of the Missionaries 

of Africa, after he and a seminarian were released 

by kidnappers in Nigeria following three weeks of 

captivity. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com 

A single line says it all! 

have made us for yourself, 

Lord, and our hearts are restless 

until they rest in you.” “You 

No single line, outside of Scripture, 

has ever spoken to me as powerfully, 

as persistently, and as hauntingly, 

as that line from St. Augustine. In 

essence, it’s Augustine’s life story — 

and the story of each of our own lives 

as well. 

As I read and study, I am often struck 

by a powerful line in some author 

which I immediately underline and 

copy. I have a whole booklet of quotes 

from Shakespeare, Aristotle, Plato, 

Aquinas, Teilhard, Einstein, Albert 

Camus, Steve Hawkings, Doris Lessing, 

Milan Kundera, John Steinbeck, 

Karl Rahner, John of the Cross, Ruth 

Burrows, James Hillman, Anne Frank, 

and Ivan Illich, among others. Yet, 

Augustine’s haunting line stands out 

among all these. 

What he asserts is that there is an 

incurable restlessness inside each of 

us that keeps us perpetually dis-eased. 

I have always felt this strongly in my 

own life and, while still in my 20s, 

wrote a book, “The Restless Heart,” in 

which I tried to articulate a spirituality 

for the restless (and perhaps mostly for 

myself) on the basis of this line from 

Augustine. Through the years, I have 

kept my eyes open for comparable and 

complementary expressions of Augustine’s 

famous axiom. Here are some: 

Karl Rahner, a renowned theologian 

of the late 20th century, in writing 

to a friend who feared he was missing 

out on too much in life, offered 

this counsel: “In the torment of the 

insufficiency of everything attainable, 

we learn that in this life there is no 

finished symphony.” 

The biblical author, Qoheleth, 

expresses it this way. In a passage familiar 

to most of us (“there is a season 

for everything”) he lays out for us the 

rhythm of nature as God set it up. He 

tells us there’s a beautiful rhythm to 

time and nature and that everything 

has its proper time and place. However, 

he then ends with this stunning 

statement: “God has made everything 

beautiful in its own time, but God has 

put timelessness into the human heart 

so that we are out of sync with time 

and the seasons from the beginning to 

the end.” We never peacefully fit into 

the rhythm of things because something 

inside us is outside of time. 

And who can forget the haunting 

words of Anne Frank, writing as a 

teenager locked away in an attic, 

hiding from the Nazis, jumping out 

of her skin with the restlessness of an 

adolescent and the anxiety of an artist, 

sharing that she simply can never be 

fully in the moment because, “I want 

to be everywhere all at the same time.” 

Doris Lessing, the British novelist, 

asserts that inside each of us there’s 

a powerful, relentless energy (“1,000 

volts”), which keeps us perpetually 

dis-eased. Writing outside of a faith 

perspective, she asks, what is this energy 

for? Her answer: For everything and 

for anything — creativity, love, sex, 

justice. Nobel Prize-winning writer, 

Albert Camus, also writing outside of 

any faith perspective, had this interesting 

way of understanding the human 

spirit. He compared being inside 

human nature to being a prisoner 

trapped inside a medieval prison. Medieval 

prisons were designed to break 

the prisoner’s spirit by putting him in 

a room too small for him to ever fully 

stand up or to ever fully stretch out. 

The ceiling was too low and the room 

was too narrow. The intent was that 

eventually this would break a prisoner’s 

spirit. For Camus, that’s how we 

experience ourselves inside our own 

nature. The world is simply too small 

for us to ever really stand up or to ever 

really stretch out, and this wears away 

on our spirit. 

These are some poignant expressions 

of this dis-ease, but there are expressions 

of it everywhere. Hinduism 

speaks of a certain “nostalgia for the 

infinite” inside us; Plato speaks of a 

“divine madness” at the center of the 

soul; Shakespeare speaks of our “immortal 

longings.” Ruth Burrows opens 

her autobiography by confessing that 

she was “born with a pathological 

complexity which has made her 

life a struggle.” James Hillman, in a 

brilliant book, “Suicide and the Soul,” 

submits that most suicides occur 

because the soul is not being heard 

and consequently kills the body. And 

Philip Roth speaks of “the blizzard of 

details that constitute the confusion of 

human biography.” 

Literature, philosophy, poetry, art, 

psychology, biography, theology, and 

spirituality are replete with expressions 

of this insatiability inside the human 

soul, which ultimately cannot come to 

full peace with anything in this world. 

But this is as it should be. For Augustine, 

writing some 1,700 years ago, 

this restlessness, this timelessness, this 

homesickness, this divine madness, 

these 1,000 volts of energy inside us, 

this pathological complexity, and this 

confusion of human biography that 

keeps us perpetually restless, is at the 

end of the day our greatest attribute; 

it’s God’s gift to us of immortality and 

divinity as a constitutive part of our 

soul. 


PRODUCTS 

OF OUR TIMES 

New research suggests the 

‘generation wars’ are real — and 

more serious than we think. Is the 

Church paying attention? 

BY ELISE ITALIANO URENECK / 

ART BY JACOB POPCAK 

Boomers. Millennials. Generation 

Z. The names used to 

classify some of the major age 

groups of Americans come up in academic 

studies, social media posts, and 

everyday conversations — but also in 

talk of “generation wars” that try to 

explain certain divisions in society. 

To some, the differences between 

those categories — and the conflicts 

they provoke — are overblown. But to 

people like psychologist Jean Twenge, 

they define who we are more than we 

think. 

In fact, Twenge — best known for 

her work helping the public understand 

the correlation between screen 

use and mental health issues in 

younger Americans — has recently 

come to a bold conclusion. 

“When you were born has a larger 

effect on your personality and attitudes 

than the family you were raised 

in does,” writes Twenge, professor 

of Psychology at San Diego State 

University, in her latest book, “Generations: 

The Real Differences Between 

Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, 

and Silents—and What They Mean 

for America’s Future” (Atria Books, 

$32.50). 

Why is that so? Twenge believes that 

the technological developments of the 

last century have shaped recent generations 

more than cultural or political 

events, contradicting a popular view 

among scholars. 

On one hand, Twenge argues, these 

advancements have led to increased 

individualism and a slower life strategy: 

Technology has made it possible 

for people to focus more on their 

freedoms, choices, and identity. 

At the same time, it’s led people to 

have fewer children, usually later in 

life, with the expectation that they 

will grow up slowly. In other words, 

things like biology and mortality have 

become less formidable obstacles to 

shaping one’s values and priorities. 

From a religious standpoint, the data 

might seem threatening: Technology 

now has answers for human needs that 

people once turned to God for, like 

health or financial security. 

But the data suggests that today, 

mental health, materialism, and 

marriage are Americans’ greatest pain 

points, and that the advances of the 

last 100 years have increased that 

pain, rather than alleviated it. 

For people of faith — especially 

Catholics — alarmed about their 

well-being and future generations, can 

faith succeed where technology has 

failed? 

The big picture 

Take, for example, the baby boomers, 

the children of parents who lived 

through World War II at a young age 

and who, growing up in an age of remarkable 

technological progress, have 

enjoyed a quality of life never before 

seen in any prior generation. 

And yet, Twenge claims, that “for 

their entire life cycle, boomers (born 

1946-1964) have been less happy, 


have had more days of poor mental 

health, were more likely to suffer from 

mental distress, and were more likely 

to be depressed than “Silents” (the 

generation before them the same age). 

Between 2000 and 2019, the rate of 

boomer “deaths of despair” skyrocketed: 

fatal drug overdoses increased 

by a factor of 10, deaths from alcohol 

abuse rose by 42%, and suicide by 

60%. 

Boomers’ struggles could be related 

to economic issues, like the disappearance 

of manufacturing jobs, the rise 

of income inequality, and the expectation 

that jobs should be personally 

fulfilling, Twenge acknowledges in 

“Generations.” 

But another theory is possible. While 

mid-20th-century innovations like 

television and birth control opened 

up new possibilities and furthered 

the civil rights movements, they also 

ushered in a type of individualism 

which Twenge says brought “less 

stable relationships and the tendency 

to expect that self-fulfillment [would] 

bring happiness.” 

In short, boomers’ sharp inward turn 

has left them feeling alone and unsatisfied, 

which also extended into their 

married lives. 

Twenge notes that boomers expected 

marriage “to go beyond duty to satisfy 

the highest of expectations for sexual 

pleasure as well as companionship.” 

For that reason and others, they 

divorced in droves. The only reason 

the divorce rate has slowed since is 

because fewer people are getting 

married in the first place. 

Today, more than twice as many 

boomers are divorced than their 

parents were at their same age. 

Because boomer men were less likely 

to remarry than both their female 

peers and their parents, the number of 

older men living alone has increased. 

This group plays a major role in the 

“epidemic of loneliness,” which now 

plagues the U.S. 

How are younger generations faring? 

While Generation Xers (born 1965- 

1979) have been characterized as 

cynical, pessimistic, depressed, and 

distrustful, they have demonstrated 

one sign of hope, which is a higher 

birthrate than their parents’: despite 

marrying later than any previous generation, 

having premarital sex earlier, 

and uncoupling childbearing from 

marriage, Gen X women had between 

three and four children on average. 

But their personal lives have not 

always been focused on others. “Since 

they were small children, Gen X 

learned from their Silent and Boomer 

parents that the self came first,” 

Twenge writes. 

As the first generation to grow up 

with television and reach young adulthood 

during a period of economic 

growth, they were influenced by materialism 

in a way previous generations 

had not been. 

Twenge notes that 

college-educated 

Gen Xers were 

more likely to pick 

career paths based 

on extrinsic rather 

than intrinsic values. 

In other words, they 

were motivated 

more by making a 

lot of money than 

“developing a meaningful 

philosophy of 

life.” 

While their rates 

of adult suicide are 

lower than boomers, 

the premium they’ve 

put on material 

goods and wealth 

has yielded high 

levels of self-reported 

depression and 

dissatisfaction. 

The next cohort, 

millennials (born 

1980-1994), were 

very happy as children 

and teens but 

report high levels of 

depression as adults. 

“Born in an era of 

reliable birth control 

and legal abortions, 

to mostly Boomer 

parents, Millennials were the most 

planned and wanted generation in 

American history to date,” Twenge 

writes. “Raised in a time of optimism, 

they had high expectations for themselves.” 

Their development from childhood 

to adolescence was marked by 

economic growth and a focus on their 

enrichment and self-esteem. Their 

maturation also coincided with the 

Now more than ever, the Catholic Church has 

social science on its side to back up what it has 

long preached. 

adoption of the internet, the move to 

online shopping, and the proliferation 

of social media and streaming. 

While millennials were the most 

educated in American history, two 


downstream effects of all 

that schooling were delayed 

marriage and childbearing. 

Millennials report that they 

are waiting to marry and 

have a family until they 

have the resources they feel 

they need to support them. 

Paying off school debt, 

building financial stability, 

and acquiring assets have 

become precursors to settling 

down. 

They also report that their 

desire for independence, 

leisure time, and the ability 

to focus on themselves is 

preeminent. Children are 

viewed as competition for 

fulfillment, rather than a 

source of it. 

Twenge notes that even 

cohabitation among 

millennials is down, and 

that today, 1 in 5 millennial 

women will likely not 

marry, with that number 

inching closer to 1 in 4. 

While most millennials 

escaped adolescence without 

social media, the consumerism it 

urges plagues their adulthood: “Social 

media and TV showcase those at the 

very top of the income distribution 

(or at least those who appear to be at 

the very top), giving a skewed view 

of others’ income,” Twenge writes. 

“The result is called relative deprivation 

— a feeling you’re not doing well 

compared to others even if, objectively, 

you are.” 

A lonelier future 

Finally, social scientists are beginning 

to consider millennials’ depression 

in light of their disaffiliation from 

religion. Religious practice has been 

linked to higher rates of happiness, 

given that it provides a sense of meaning 

and belonging. 

While many hoped millennials 

would return to religious practice 

when they began raising children, 

they have not. Sadly, many are discovering 

that friends and coworkers 

do not provide the same loyalty and 

stability that marriage and religious 

communities do. 

Isolated and stuck on an earning-potential 

treadmill, millennials are 

running out of steam. 

The final generation that Twenge 

examines in depth, Generation Z 

(born 1995-2012), stands downstream 

of all of these generational changes 

that came before them. Their saturation 

by technology and individualism 

is manifesting itself in previously 

unimaginable ways. 

Twenge says that Gen Z’s generational 

personality is best understood 

by the common parlance they use — 

language which is “tech-infused with 

notes of gender fluidity and anxiety.” 

Twenge said that most Gen Zers she 

interviewed for her previous book in 

2015 were skeptical about transgenderism, 

chalking the burgeoning idea 

up to confusion. But eight years later, 

Gen Z has embraced a new philosophy 

about gender — and 

has coaxed older generations 

along with them. 

As of 2022, the number of 

Gen Z Americans identifying 

as either transgender or 

nonbinary was more than 

the population of Phoenix. 

Like other social scientists, 

Twenge is confident this is 

not a result of greater social 

acceptance of a naturally 

occurring phenomenon, 

but part of a generational 

shift marked by “rising 

individualism.” 

“If people are all unique 

individuals, then it follows 

that gender identity 

is a choice — and people 

should not be restricted to 

two choices,” Twenge says. 

“People should be able to 

decide which gender group 

they identify with — or 

even reject the notion of a 

gender binary completely.” 

Twenge says that the 

increase in transgender 

identification between 2020 

and 2021 alone “suggests the change 

is accelerating.” 

Despite rising numbers of Gen Zers 

identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual 

(including preteens), Gen Z is significantly 

less sexually active than older 

generations. While the prevalence of 

pornography could have a role in this, 

Twenge thinks the shift from in-person 

socialization to online interaction 

could also have a big role. 

While Twenge’s previous research 

delved into the data on how smartphone 

and screen time has left Gen Z 

Data suggests that mental health, materialism, 

and marriage are Americans’ greatest pain points, 

and that the advances of the last 100 years have 

increased that pain, not alleviated it. 

delaying adulthood, concerned with 

physical and emotional safety (including 

restricting speech which they find 

offensive), and underprepared to read 

social or emotional cues, social scientists 

now have the data to connect 


screen time to skyrocketing rates of 

depression, anxiety, and suicide. 

Gen Z’s abysmal mental health has 

been making headlines since before 

the COVID-19 pandemic. Most 

alarming to social scientists and others 

is their rate of self-harm and hospitalization, 

including preteens. 

While Gen Z is gaining attention for 

their activism around issues like gun 

violence, climate change, and racism, 

Twenge isn’t sure they’re capable of 

provoking vast social change like the 

boomers did. It’s possible that their 

pessimism, nihilism, and general 

hopelessness about their prospects in 

the world may dampen their effectiveness 

and stamina. 

As a generation that is reporting the 

highest levels of disinterest in marriage 

and childbearing and the lowest 

recorded rates for both, what comes 

after them is anyone’s guess. 

A ‘come to Jesus’ moment? 

Of what use is this research to the 

Catholic Church, which is experiencing 

a generational crisis of its own 

right now? 

For the last two years, Pope Francis 

has overseen the ongoing “Synod on 

Synodality” — a worldwide listening 

exercise aimed at fostering a 

more collaborative approach 

to church governance and 

evangelization between clergy 

and laity. This October, 

bishops and other synod 

delegates gather for a monthlong, 

closed-door meeting 

in Rome to be followed by a 

final one next October that 

will put concrete proposals 

before the pope. Francis is 

expected to respond with an 

apostolic exhortation sometime 

thereafter. 

However, the input from 

the synodal process so far 

has been largely subjective. 

Could it also benefit from 

acknowledging findings like 

Twenge’s, which offer an 

objective look at the generational 

trends shaping 

society and might illuminate 

opportunities and sharpen 

priorities for evangelization 

efforts? 

The Church has long promoted the 

antidotes to the worrisome trends 

Twenge outlines: It is better to give 

than to receive; you should love your 

neighbor as yourself; a man should 

leave his father and mother and cling 

to his wife — and they should be 

fruitful and multiply. A meaningful, 

happy life is one which is given away 

in service to one’s family or vocation 

and typically oriented toward eternal 

salvation. 

Now more than ever, the Catholic 

Church has social science on its side 

to back up what it has long preached. 

When addressing the mental health 

crisis, clergy and laity should boldly 

unmask the false promises of individualism. 

While Catholics should 

champion civil rights and promote 

and protect the dignity of the human 

person, attention must also be paid to 

the communal aspect of the human 

experience. Parishes, schools, and social 

services should lean into the work 

of developing communities in which 

people know one another’s names and 

needs. 

Psychologists are better understanding 

how our culture’s emphasis on 

constant self-reflection — how we are 

feeling, what people think of us, who 

we are and how we present ourselves 

— is directly related to increased rates 

of anxiety and depression. The loop of 

self-analysis and need for feedback is 

taking a toll. 

“Happiness scholar” Arthur Brooks 

of Harvard University has suggested 

removing or limiting the literal and 

figurative mirrors in our lives, including 

social media, to help get our 

mind off of ourselves and onto others. 

Besides being a spiritual truism, thinking 

about other people and outside of 

ourselves is also a mood lifter. 

As for materialism, the Church has 

no shortage of wisdom and saintly examples 

which reveal how detachment 

from wealth, sharing with the less 

advantaged, and prioritizing eternal 

matters produce happier and healthier 

individuals and societies. 

But perhaps most importantly, 

research like Twenge’s confirms the 

need for Catholic laity — and clergy 

— to encourage young men and 

women to get married, and find ways 

to better accompany them throughout 

their married life. 

Studies led by Harvard epidemiologist 

Tyler J. VanderWeele have found 

that marriage yields lower levels of 

loneliness, higher levels of meaning 

and purpose, higher levels of 

affective happiness, and lower 

mortality — all reminders 

that encouraging and accompanying 

men and women in 

married life is some of the 

Church’s most important 

work ahead. 

If secular experts like 

Twenge are right, and things 

like our birth year and what 

devices we use shape who we 

are, then their findings also 

prove that advances in technology 

and personal freedom 

haven’t made us happier. 

For an institution that’s 

been helping people find 

the meaning of life for 2,000 

years, that suggests our 

21st-century “generation 

wars” could prove to be the 

ultimate blessing in disguise. 

Elise Italiano Ureneck is a 

contributor to Angelus writing 

from Rhode Island. 


RYAN'S SACRIFICE 

Together with his family, parishioners 

at the Santa Clarita parish where 

Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer grew 

up are grieving his murder. 

BY STEVE LOWERY 

There are few places where the 

pain and sadness that followed 

the Sept. 16 murder of Deputy 

Sheriff Ryan Clinkunbroomer were 

felt harder than at St. Kateri Tekakwitha 

Church in Santa Clarita. 

It was here that Clinkunbroomer received 

his sacraments, like first Communion 

and confirmation, and began 

a life dedicated to serving others. 

“It really strikes home here and it 

hurts,” Father Vaughn Winters, pastor 

at St. Kateri, told Angelus. “We have 

so many law enforcement and firefighters 

in the parish, this has affected 

so many of them. A lot of people know 

Ryan and remember him. The news 

rippled through our community, it’s so 

Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer grew 

up at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church 

in Santa Clarita. | COURTESY LA 

COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT 

shocking and senseless.” 

Clinkunbroomer’s name made 

national headlines after he was shot 

and killed in his patrol car just steps 

from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s 

headquarters in Palmdale the evening 

of Sept. 16. A few days later, 29-yearold 

Kevin Salazar of Palmdale was 

arrested and charged in the murder. 

The sense of anguish has only deepened 

after reports emerged that just 

a few days before his death, Clinkunbroomer 

had become engaged to Brittany 

Lindsey and was excited about 

the life they would make together. 

Just 30 years old, he had devoted 

virtually all of his adult life to the 

service of others. He became a training 

officer at a young age, a valued 

position requiring rigorous testing and 

a high level of expertise. He has been 

described by colleagues as a “deputy’s 

deputy.” 

His proficiency and devotion to his 

profession and those it served grew 

from the young man who attended 

St. Kateri, who not only learned 

lessons about service and family but 

lived them. He was a third generation 

deputy; both his father, Mike, and 

his father’s father had been deputies 

themselves. 

When the family released its first 

statement about Clinkunbroomer’s 

murder — read by Sheriff Robert 

Luna — they spoke not only of their 

son’s sacrifice but referred to his colleagues 

in terms of family. 

“Our son Ryan was a dedicated, 

hardworking deputy sheriff who 

enjoyed working here at the Palmdale 

station. He was proud to work alongside 

his partners that he considered 

brothers and sisters, as he sacrificed 

daily to better the community that 

he served. Ryan made the ultimate 

sacrifice in doing so.” 

That someone who seemed to embody 

that which is the best in us could 

be taken so horribly quickly fueled the 

considerable grief around his passing, 

certainly at St. Kateri’s. 

Established 25 years ago, Winters 

said St. Kateri was and remains 

a “young, vibrant community.” 

Clinkunbroomer’s grandparents, Al 

and Mary Lou Etzel, were founding 

members of the faith community. 

They spoke with Winters just days 

after their grandson’s murder. Winters 

described their faith as “very strong. 

They’re reaching out in faith for 

something that really doesn’t have any 

explanation, other than human sin. 

They’re really leaning on the Lord, 

really exhibiting their faith.” 

Clinkunbroomer’s funeral Mass 

will be held the morning of Thursday, 

Oct. 5, at the Cathedral of Our 

Lady of the Angels, with hundreds of 

fellow deputies, family members, and 

well-wishers expected. 

In the meantime, it has fallen to 


Winters to help bring consolation to a 

grieving community. 

“This one action has caused so much 

destruction, left such a gaping hole 

that affects the whole community,” he 

said. 

In Santa Clarita that included the 

likes of Alison Hunsaker, who taught 

at West Ranch High School where 

Clinkunbroomer ran track and cross 

country and participated in several 

extracurricular activities. Hunsaker, 

who was Clinkunbroomer's English 

teacher, told NBC4 News that she 

“so wants his mom to know about 

the people he touched. His life is still 

resonating with them. Just about the 

kindness, the friendship, and the comradery 

that he shared with so many 

people. When we talk about the kind 

of law enforcement officers we want 

in our country, Ryan was that guy.” 

Winters acknowledged a tragedy like 

this one can cause some to not only 

question God but, “push away in anger.” 

He knows that he will be talking 

to many parishioners struggling with 

Clinkunbroomer’s passing, struggling 

to make sense out of the senseless. 

“For someone suffering through this, 

I’ll want them to know it’s OK to be 

angry, in fact, it’s understandable,” 

Winters said. “But it’s important not 

to nurture it, not allow it to take us 

over. Pushing God away is not going 

to help. This is why we have faith, for 

moments like this.” 

A fund to assist the family of Sheriff’s 

Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was set 

up by the Association for Los Angeles 

Deputy Sheriffs. To learn more, visit 

alads.org/donate 

Steve Lowery is a veteran journalist 

who has written for the Los Angeles 

Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, 

the Press-Telegram, New Times LA, 

the District, Long Beach Post, and OC 

Weekly. 

The family of slain Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer stands behind Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón 

at a Sept. 20 press conference announcing the arrest of murder suspect Kevin Salazar. | COURTESY LA COUNTY 

DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE 


THE RIGHT RECEPTION 

Who was that man surprising a newly arrived 

migrant mom and her newborn? Just an LA 

priest on his day off. 

Father Filiberto Cortez, associate pastor at 

St. Columbkille and Nativity Churches in 

South LA, is among a group of LA priests 

who have been welcoming migrants bused 

from Texas this summer. | JOHN RUEDA 

BY STEVE LOWERY 

As the passengers of bus nine 

from Brownsville disembarked 

at St. Anthony’s Croatian 

Catholic Church in Chinatown, there 

was the usual mix of emotions; some 

happy to see relatives there to meet 

them, others confused or suspicious of 

the strangers moving toward them. 

That was understandable, since it 

was strangers who placed them on the 

bus in Texas on Aug. 20, sending them 

on a near 30-hour trek to Los Angeles 

where they arrived on Aug. 21. 

But the people who met them at St. 

Anthony’s — mostly affiliated with either 

the Archdiocese of Los Angeles or 

the Coalition for Humane Immigrant 

Rights (CHIRLA) — were welcoming, 

offering food, clothing and, in one 

case, balloons and flowers. 

The bearer of both balloons and 

flowers was Filiberto Cortez, or rather, 

Father Filiberto Cortez, a fact lost on 

many that evening. After all, that particular 

day was the priest’s day off, and 

he wasn’t wearing his usual Roman 

collar. Instead, “Father Fili,” as he’s 

known among his brother priests, was 

wearing his civilian duds and looked 

very much like “a guy who was going 

to a Dodger game,” recalled Yannina 

Diaz of the archdiocese’s media 

relations team. 

When Isaac Cuevas, of the archdiocese’s 

Office of Life, Justice, and 

Peace saw “a youngish, fit guy with 

a good head of hair,” moving single-mindedly 

toward a young mother 

and her 3-week-old infant daughter, 

he assumed he was either husband or 

fiancé making “a grand gesture.” 

Diaz said she and others around her 

had already begun to speculate what 

was about to happen. 

“I mean, he’s holding this ginormous 

balloon in the shape of a heart that 

says ‘I Love You’ along with flowers. 

We were all looking and saying, ‘Are 


we going to have a proposal?’ ” 

What was happening, of course, is 

what Cuevas called “a sweet act of 

simple kindness.” Cortez, an associate 

pastor at St. Columbkille and Nativity 

Churches in South LA, said that 

when he found out there was a young 

mother traveling alone with such a 

young infant, he felt compelled to do 

something to “let her know we are 

joyful for her and her child.” 

The balloons, he said, were for the 

child, the flowers for the mother. 

When the mother finally processed 

what was happening — yes, she too 

was initially thrown by what Cortez 

was wearing — he said she told him, 

“I’m a single mother, I’ve done all this 

for her,” pointing at her daughter. 

“She was in tears about this little gesture,” 

said Cortez. “I think it meant 

so much to her because these people 

have been made to feel as if no one 

cares about or wants them around. 

Seeing her reaction completely 

brought to mind what Jesus said about 

‘I was a foreigner and you took me in.’ ” 

Cortez knew about the young 

mother because the group that meets 

the buses has become “a very efficient 

operation,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera 

of CHIRLA. “At most, we get 24 hours 

notice that the buses are coming. 

We’ve gotten very good at quickly 

making arrangements to meet them at 

schools or houses of worship. Those 

are human beings coming on those 

buses, brothers and sisters, moms and 

dads, and we want them to know that 

there are human beings here for them 

who they can trust.” 

It is not Texas state officials who tell 

them of the bus departures; instead 

the information comes from contacts 

the consortium has developed 

in Texas, contacts who not only tell 

them when buses are leaving but who 

is on them. Bus nine contained 37 

people, including 16 families with 14 

children, the youngest of which was 3 

weeks old. 

There is, of course, always special 

concern when children are on the 

buses — and they usually are. That 

concern was ramped up this time 

since bus nine was headed toward 

Southern California just as Hurricane 

Hilary was. Also, less than two weeks 

before, a 3-year-old child had died on 

a bus en route from Texas to Chicago. 

“A trip like that is hard on anyone, 

let alone a child, let alone a 3-weekold 

baby,” Diaz said. 

Diaz said she could see the exhaustion 

in the young mother as she tried 

to eat with one hand and hold her 

baby with the other. 

“I went up to her and asked if I could 

hold her baby while she ate,” Diaz 

said. “She told me the other women 

on the bus had held the baby for her 

as well, so she could rest. She was 

so young, it broke my heart when I 

found out she was alone.” 

Upon learning that information 

himself, Cortez immediately began 

calling around to see if he could 

arrange for someone to take the young 

woman and her child in. Eventually, 

he did. 

“It’s impossible to see that child and 

her mother and not think of Mother 

Mary,” Cortez said. “I mean, that was 

Mary and I’m not talking about a 

story, this was real, this was happening 

right now, a call from God to act.” 

It is a call to action that brings many 

to meet the buses time after time. A 

call to action that, no matter what one 

is wearing, can at times be heartbreaking 

though ultimately soul nourishing. 

“I can tell you, when I see these immigrants 

each time getting off the bus, 

I see Jesus coming to us,” Cortez said. 

“When I see these immigrants each time getting 

off the bus, I see Jesus coming to us,” said Father 

Filiberto Cortez. 

Officials and volunteers deliver diapers, supplies, and toys for migrants 

to St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church near Chinatown 

earlier this year. | DAVID SWANSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES 

“And, again, I’m not talking about 

metaphors or symbols, I mean Jesus is 

literally there. I’ve never had a feeling, 

an epiphany like this, to feel what the 

saints must have felt, to serve Jesus, to 

recognize it is him you are receiving.” 

Steve Lowery is a veteran journalist 

who has written for the Los Angeles 

Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, the 

Press-Telegram, New Times LA, the District, 

Long Beach Post, and OC Weekly. 


Visitors peruse through archives and keepsakes at a 

historical exhibit at the RSHM Provincial Center in 

Montebello celebrating the religious order’s 100 years in 

California and Mexico. | TOM HOFFARTH 

THE DREAM 

CONTINUES 

After 100 years in California, the 

Religious of the Sacred Heart of 

Mary still consider LA mission 

territory. 

BY TOM HOFFARTH 

History comes with a great deal of duty, responsibility, 

and fulfillment for Sister Margaret McKenna. 

Her digital camera was ready to document all the 

history-in-the-making possible when more than 300 people 

gathered in Montebello Sept. 9 to mark the culmination 

of the yearlong 100th anniversary celebration for her order, 

the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Western America 

Area (RSHM). 

“Studying history is a strong part of my life because it 

is always about people trying to live within their existing 

conditions,” said McKenna, who received a history degree at 

Marymount College and, since 1974, has been a visual arts 

teacher at Marymount High School in Westwood, currently 

serving as its yearbook adviser. 

Both educational facilities were founded by RSHM. 

“Our RSHM story continues, our individual stories 

continue, our partnerships continue to grow, and together, 

history continues to be made,” remarked McKenna. “I am 

so humbled by the fact that I can record these times as well 

as being a participant in them. Giving and receiving life is a 

great way to live.” 

It goes back to 1923, when Bishop John Cantwell invited 

the RSHM to what was then the Diocese of Los Angeles-San 

Diego, asking them to replicate schools that the 

order established in Tarrytown, New York, in the quickly 

growing SoCal diocese. It started with Marymount School 

at 28th Street in Los Angeles, then a junior college eight 

years later. In 1948, the four-year Marymount College 

arrived. 

In 1942, Sacred Heart of Mary School in Montebello was 

founded and today continues its mission since merging with 

Cantwell High School in the early 1990s, right next door to 

the order’s Area Administration Center. 

While education was the order’s initial mission focus, it has 

expanded in other ways in LA. Two prominent examples: 

South Central LAMP (Los Angeles Ministry Project) and 

A Place Called Home, founded with support from RSHM 

leadership following the 1992 LA riots, are both marking 

their 30th anniversaries this year. 

LAMP is a nonprofit focused on empowering mothers to 

be more self-reliant through parenting programs. Today 


Sister Mary Genino, one of its founders, and fellow RSHM 

Sister Cathy Garcia continue the project’s mission. 

“We would not be here without the Religious of the Sacred 

Heart of Mary,” said South Central LAMP Development 

Director Nicole Cosand Burcham. “Having Sister Mary on 

the board has brought the RSHM charism, guided in education, 

compassion, and justice. She is extremely humble, 

purposeful, and we are incredibly blessed to work with her 

so closely.” 

Sister Patricia Connor, a former RSHM provincial superior 

and general superior, remains on the board of A Place 

Called Home, created to support South LA youth programs. 

Mary Agnes Erlandson, director of Catholic Charities’ 

St. Margaret Center in Lennox, was there on the warm 

Saturday afternoon to honor Sister Evelyn Joyce, who has 

been teaching ESL at the center for 12 years. Joyce arrived 

at a time when adult education funding in California was 

decimated and the center had relied on local adult schools 

to provide teachers. 

“We would have had to eliminate our adult ESL class if 

not for Sister Evelyn,” said Erlandson. “She has become part 

of our SMC family, delighting all staff, volunteers, and students 

with her infectious and joyous spirit — and teaching 

primarily Latino adults to write and speak English with the 

slightest Irish brogue!” 

Fifty years ago, Marymount College officially merged with 

Loyola University in Westchester to form Loyola Marymount 

University 

(LMU). Father 

Tom Rausch, SJ, 

the emeritus professor 

of theology 

at LMU, attended 

the celebration 

as a way to 

thank the sisters 

he calls “dedicated, 

intelligent, 

and progressive” 

in helping forge 

the merger. 

Retired LMU 

professor and 

alumni chaplain 

Father Robert 

Caro, SJ, said he 

remains impressed 

with how 

despite the dwindling 

number of 

RSHM sisters, 

“the values they 

have espoused 

have remained with their commitment to evangelical 

justice.” 

Cecilia Brizuela, who with her husband, Byron, helped 

curate the exhibit that remains open to the public through 

October, noted that the RSHM Western American Area 

currently has 35 sisters, eight of whom live at the Montebello 

campus. One is the order’s official archivist, Sister Mary 

Leah Plante, who received a history teaching degree at 

Marymount College. 

“When I was younger and there were older sisters around 

me, they would love to tell stories and I’m so glad I bothered 

to listen,” said Plante, who just turned 80 and celebrated her 

60th year of religious life in 2022. “This is all a reminder of 

the importance of remembering who worked years ago and 

to follow them because it is who we are today.” 

Sister Joan Treacy, a former provincial superior, entered 

the RSHMs in 1961 and was assigned to California three 

years later. Since then, she said, the order’s mission remains 

“to know God and make God known, and to love God and 

make God loved,” but “has moved from just being in the 

classroom to finding ways to focus on social justice and the 

marginalized in all sorts of capacities.” 

As McKenna assessed the wide-ranging multimedia exhibit 

chronicling the sisters’ impact in California, Mexico, and 

Honduras, she said her work includes telling the RSHM 

story to generations to come. The RSHM YouTube channel 

with archived interviews featuring the sisters’ stories is 

another aspect of documentation. 

“In looking through the photos and stories, I am drawn 

once again to the heroic women of the past who had a 

dream and made it happen,” said McKenna, who designed 

the celebration’s 100th anniversary logo. “The dream was 

based on making God’s love for people known, by working 

in ministries that 

are life-giving, 

and by helping 

people discover 

their gifts so 

they live a life of 

purpose.” 

What’s next for 

her order? That’s 

anyone’s guess, 

but she does have 

some historical 

reference. 

“Historically, 

various forms 

of spiritual life 

have existed 

and evolved in 

time, and we 

see vocations 

coming from new 

countries such 

as Africa and 

Japan,” she said. 

“Will Los Angeles 

be considered 

a place where they come to serve? Time is in the hand of 

God as is the ministry of religious women. I live in faith and 

know that God is working.” 

Members of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Western America Area in a recent photo. | SUBMITTED PHOTO 

Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning journalist based in Los 

Angeles. 


PRIME TIME FOR SYNODALITY 

Four storylines to watch during 

this month’s historic synod 

gathering in Rome. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — Although the “Miracle on Ice,” the U.S. 

hockey team’s improbable win over the Soviets in the 

1980 Olympics, is known as one of the greatest sports 

moments of all time, the irony is that no one in America 

actually saw it happen in real time. 

Broadcaster ABC opted for a tape delay in order to broadcast 

the game during prime time. Thus, when viewers 

heard Al Michaels exclaim as the seconds ticked down, 

“Do you believe in miracles?!,” the outcome had already 

been decided hours before. 

While it’s not yet clear if Pope Francis’ Synod of Bishops 

on Synodality, which opens Oct. 4, will produce any such 

miracles, it could resemble that fabled 1980 hockey game 

in one important respect: to a great extent, we’re not going 

to be watching the synod live either. 

Reports suggest that Francis is considering imposing pontifical 

secrecy on synod deliberations, effectively barring 

participants from talking about what’s happening. As a 

result, it’s difficult to offer a viewer’s guide for the synod 

because, honestly, it’s hard to say what there will be to view. 

With that warning, here nevertheless are four storylines 

likely to help shape the drama of the impending synod. 

‘The Rhine Flows into the Tiber’ … and meets the Congo 

A well-known history of the Second Vatican Council 

was entitled “The Rhine Flows into the Tiber,” reflecting 

the influence of German prelates and theologians. In this 

synod too, there’s likely to be a strong German imprint, 

since the controversial “synodal path” in Germany blazed 

a progressive trail through several issues expected to surface 

in Rome too, including married priests, women clergy, and 

the blessing of same-sex unions. 

One difference between 1965 and 2023, however, is the 

20 • ANGELUS • October 6, 2023

Bishops attend a session 

of the Synod of Bishops on 

Young People, the Faith, 

and Vocational Discernment 

at the Vatican in 

October 2018. | CNS/PAUL 

HARING 

presence of a 

much stronger 

and more vocal 

African contingent 

in this 

synod, expected 

to represent an 

alternative on 

many of those 

contested issues. 

For instance, Archbishop Martin 

Kivuva Musonde of Mombasa in 

Kenya is set to take part in the synod, 

having recently blasted his country’s 

Supreme Court for authorizing the 

registration of an LGBTQ+ advocacy 

group, saying, “If you legalize something, 

it means you are promoting it.” 

Kivuva will be joined by Bishop 

Sanctus Lino Wanok of Lira in 

Uganda, who has publicly denounced 

pressures for blessing same-sex relationships. 

Of course, there will be multiple exceptions 

to this binary. German Cardinal 

Gerhard Müller, the Vatican’s 

former doctrinal chief and a papal appointee 

to the synod, certainly won’t 

be echoing the conclusions of his 

country’s synodal path, and doubtless 

there will be Africans striking different 

notes too. 

Still, how the delicate balance 

between doctrinal firmness and pastoral flexibility is struck 

in the synod may well pivot on the results of the collision 

between these two great rivers of thought and energy. 

Context is king 

Although synod organizers have produced documents to 

guide discussions among participants, the assembly won’t 

be taking place in a vacuum. Other things will be going on 

in and around Rome at the same time. 

The Vatican’s “trial of the century” resumes in late September 

with summations from civil parties to the sprawling 

financial fraud case, and then throughout the month of 

October. Defense attorneys, including the lawyers representing 

Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, will not only be 

making the case for their clients’ innocence, but also that 

the entire process has been flawed from the beginning by 

an inadequate separation between executive and judicial 

powers, violating basic modern standards of due process. If 

that argument gains momentum during October, the question 

of the protection of rights in the Church could emerge 

as a synod talking point too. 

The synod also will unfold against the backdrop of the 

ongoing fallout from the clerical sexual abuse scandals, 

most recently focused on the case of Father Marko Rupnik, 

who was expelled from the Jesuit order in July over charges 

that he abused at least 20 women over a 30-year span, but 

whose Roman base of operations, the Centro Aletti, recently 

drew a clean bill of health from the Diocese of Rome. 

The apparent incongruities in the Rupnik case, and others, 

make it likely that the abuse crisis will surface during synod 

conversations. 

Not so little women 

In a striking novelty, 54 women will be full voting members 

of the synod assembly, and the question of women’s 

roles and ministries in the Church is expected to loom 

large. The same issues will figure even more vocally in 

parallel events being staged in Rome during October, 

including a prayer vigil and a walk through Rome being 

organized by Women’s Ordination Worldwide. 

Conscious of the optics of the situation, it’s probable that 

the men in the synod hall will tend to defer to the women 

when talk turns to women’s issues. 

That likelihood makes the role of those 54 women, especially 

those who occupy the most visible and influential positions, 

very critical. Two figures to keep an eye on in that 

regard are delegates Sister Maria De Los Dolores Palencia, 

CSJ, of Mexico and Momoko Nishimura, a consecrated 

laywoman from Japan. French Sister Nathalie Becquart, 

XMCJ, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, is another 

key female player from whom many participants may well 

take their cues. 

Listening, but to whom? 

The Synod of Bishops on Synodality has been touted as 

the “biggest consultation exercise in human history,” but 

statistics on actual participation tell a somewhat different 

story. 

In the United States, roughly 700,000 people participated 

in the diocesan phase of consultations, out of a total Catholic 

population close to 70 million, thus representing about 

1%. Data from other parts of the world are roughly similar, 

indicating that only a tiny share of the world’s 1.3 billion 

Catholics actually contributed. 

Whatever the synod’s results, those disappointed with 

them might be tempted to suggest that the outcome reflects 

the agenda of a narrow cadre of activists rather than true 

majority sentiment. One question that will figure prominently 

is how to manage the process between now and next 

October to ensure that whatever is eventually decided, at 

least in some rough sense, represents a genuine consensus. 

In ecclesiological argot, the term for this process is “reception.” 

Medieval theologians and canonists established as a 

basic principle that for a law to be effective in the Church, 

it had to be “received,” i.e., accepted, by the faithful. The 

corollary is that if a law clearly isn’t received, then de facto 

it can be abrogated. 

Participants in this synod, therefore, will face the challenge 

of coming up with ways of promoting such a process 

as a reception, even if they’re not necessarily proposing 

new law. Otherwise, there’s a risk that the results of the 

next synod could be effectively abrogated before they’re 

even reached. 

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


THE STORY OF SYNODS 

As Rome prepares for a gathering unlike any 

other in history, here’s a primer on what synods 

are and where they come from. 

BY JAMES L. PAPANDREA 

A 12th-century fresco from St. Nicholas Church in 

Myra, Turkey, shows bishops and an emperor at a type 

of synod known as an ecumenical council. This one 

possibly depicts the sixth ecumenical council at Constantinople 

in A.D. 680. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ 

DOSSEMAN 

The first crisis of the Church 

took place when Christianity 

was not even two decades old. 

There had already been disagreements, 

and even controversies, but 

this crisis was an issue that got to the 

very heart of the definition of Christianity 

itself: Would membership in the 

Church require adherence to the laws 

of Judaism? 

To answer the question, the apostles 

convened the first synod, or council, 

of the Church, in about A.D. 50 (Acts 

15). 

We know that as the Church spread 

and grew, the very unity of the 

Church was invested in the bishops. 

Whenever it was necessary to oppose 

some heresy or meet some challenge, 

the bishops of a particular region 

would gather to sort out the problem 

and keep everyone on the same 

page. But the decisions of these local 

synods would only be binding on the 

region of the Church represented by 

the bishops at the meeting, and they 

would not be binding on the whole 

Church. 

As it turned out, the practice of convening 

synods never became a regular 

pattern. Synods in the early Church 

were convened on an ad hoc basis, 

and always reactionary, in the sense 

that they were always responding to 

a crisis in the Church. They don’t 

necessarily overlap or function as continuations 

of the previous councils, so 

they should not be seen as a series of 

councils, per se. 

For the most part, each synod is a 

stand-alone event — which means 

that as an arm of the magisterium, 

a synod is an exception to the rule, 

something that is done because it is 

necessary in the moment, but out 

of the ordinary. It is never meant to 

be an ongoing or regularly repeating 

source of authority (we have the regular 

magisterium for that). 

The region of North Africa is an 

example of a place where they 


experimented with regularly scheduled 

synods. What they found is that 

meeting too often in councils led to a 

politicizing of the Church, including 

ongoing lobbying, in which metropolitan 

bishops could manipulate the 

voting by creating more dioceses in 

their areas, so that they could create 

more bishops, so that their area would 

have more voting power. 

Later, in the East, even the famous 

St. Basil the Great gave in to the 

temptation to make his brother and 

friend bishops just so they could support 

him and his projects. In actual 

practice, synods of the early Church 

could be as uneventful as a routine 

office or parish meeting, or they could 

be full of drama, complete with shouting 

matches and fistfights. 

As time went on, new crises resulted 

in new synods. In the second century, 

a controversy over how to calculate 

the date for Easter resulted in synods 

in Rome and in other cities. In the 

third century, a controversy over the 

sacrament of reconciliation resulted 

in synods in Rome and Carthage. In 

the fourth century, the question of 

clergy celibacy (among other things) 

resulted in a synod in Elvira, Spain, 

but because the Church was illegal 

and persecuted, travel was difficult. 

And being regional synods, their decisions 

were technically only binding 

on that region (although the synods 

of Rome would come to have more 

weight, since the bishop of Rome, the 

pope, ratified their decisions). 

When the emperor Constantine 

legalized Christianity, he also gave 

Christian bishops the right to use the 

Roman transit system, which was until 

this time reserved for government 

officials (those government officials 

would soon complain that there were 

so many Christian bishops traveling to 

synods that they found it hard to get a 

seat in the wagon!). 

The first synod attended by the 

emperor was the Synod of Arles in 

A.D. 314. But this, too, was a regional 

synod, and it quickly became clear to 

everyone that what was really needed 

to face the current crises (not least 

would be the heresy of Arianism), was 

a worldwide council — one where 

every bishop in the world was invited, 

and the decisions would be binding 

on the whole Church. This was the 

Council of Nicaea, in the year A.D. 

325. It would come to be called the 

first “ecumenical” (or worldwide) 

council. 

Incidentally, Nicaea was the last time 

(for a long time) that laypeople were 

invited. They became a distraction, in 

part by treating the living saints like 

“The Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon,” by Vasily 

Surikov, 1848-1916, Russian. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

rock stars (hermits came in from the 

desert for the council, people who 

had been tortured in the last round 

of persecutions showed up with their 

scars, and the famous St. Nicholas was 

there). After 325, councils would be 

limited to bishops and their assistants. 

The Council of Nicaea clarified the 

doctrine of the Trinity in opposition 

to the Arian heresy, and wrote the 

first draft of the Nicene Creed. The 

Second Ecumenical Council, the 

Council of Constantinople in A.D. 

381, added to the creed, especially in 

the paragraph about the Holy Spirit. 

This gave us (essentially) the Nicene 

Creed that we recite in Mass every 

week. 

In the early centuries of the Church, 

sometimes a council was convened by 

an emperor, but not without the sanction 

of the pope, who would generally 

determine who chaired the council. 

Sometimes the pope couldn’t attend, 

but he was always represented by a 

delegation from Rome. When the 

Rome delegation read Pope St. Leo’s 

statement at the Council of Chalcedon 

in A.D. 451, it was reported that 

the assembled bishops cheered, “Leo 

speaks for Peter!” That may be a bit of 

an exaggeration, but the point is that 

the voice of the pope carried great 

weight at a council, even when he was 

not physically there. 

In fact, one of the times that people 

tried to convene a council without the 

sanction of the pope, and where the 

pope’s statement was rejected — this 

council was determined to be invalid, 

and is now referred to as “The Robber 

Synod” (A.D. 449). 

So although the words “synod” and 

“council” are basically synonymous, 

we can make a distinction between 

regional synods or councils and a 

general (or ecumenical) council, 

which is universal — that is, every 

bishop in the worldwide Church is 

invited, and the canons (resolutions) 

will be binding on the whole Church. 

In actual practice, the pope has a kind 

of de facto line-item veto, even of the 

canons of the ecumenical councils. 

For example, popes rejected individual 

canons from the Councils of 

Constantinople and Chalcedon. 

Historically, the impact of any 

council — especially an ecumenical 


council like Vatican II — can take 

generations to have its full effect on 

the Church. Having a general council 

too often, the Church seems to have 

learned, would create an overlapping 

effect where the full impact of one 

council had not 

been realized before 

another one 

was convened. 

It is also true 

that the ecumenical 

councils of 

the early Church 

did significant 

work that could 

A 17th-century painting 

of the Second Council 

of Nicaea (A.D. 787) in 

Novodevichy Convent 

in Moscow, Russia. | 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

never be undone, or even improved 

upon. For example, they literally 

defined what Christianity is by clarifying 

the doctrine of the Trinity and 

orthodox christology in opposition to 

heresies. Their conclusions are treated 

as being as authoritative as Scripture, 

because they were defining the authoritative 

interpretation of Scripture. 

Once the Church faced permanent 

schism, the concept of an ecumenical 

council is a matter of point of 

view — what we as Catholics call 

ecumenical councils would not all be 

considered so by the Orthodox, and 

what we agree with the Orthodox are 

ecumenical councils would not all be 

accepted by the Oriental Orthodox, 

who split from the Church after the 

Council of Chalcedon. The point 

is that a council is not authoritative 

because it’s a general council — it is 

a general “augustcouncil” because 

it is authoritative, and that authority 

is determined by the approval of the 

pope and by its canons standing the 

test of time. 

And so with regard to general 

councils, there is an aspect of them in 

which their work is done. Doctrines 

are defined as well as they ever will 

be. Christianity has been defined, and 

no one alive today or in the future can 

redefine (or reimagine) it. The historical 

fact of the debates, controversies, 

Pope Francis with cardinals and 

bishops from around the world at the 

Synod of Bishops for the Amazon in 

2019. | CNS/PAUL HARING 

and crises do not at all diminish the 

authoritative teaching of the Church, 

in fact they confirm it, since the work 

of clarification has been done. 

From the beginning, and even when 

there were new situations to address, 

the role of a council was always to 

determine what clarification of belief, 

or what course of action, was most 

consistent with received tradition. 

With regard to synods, or nongeneral 

councils, it is possible that new crises 

can create the need for new synods. 

But unless a council is declared to 

be a general council, its decisions 

could only be binding on the whole 

Church if the pope were to ratify 

them as such, which would amount to 

a new infallible pronouncement, “ex 

cathedra.” 

If future synods are to be faithful 

to their historical counterparts, they 

would be convened in the recognition 

that they are an extraordinary measure 

meant to deal with a certain crisis, 

which may be new, but that their task 

is to determine the resolution of the 

crisis that is most consistent with the 

faith handed down from the apostles. 

James L. Papandrea is the author 

of “Reading the Church Fathers: A 

History of the Early Church and the 

Development of Doctrine” (Sophia 

Institute Press, $21.95). 


INTERSECTIONS 

GREG ERLANDSON 

A retreat on wheels 

I’m not the kind of guy who keeps 

a long bucket list of vacation goals 

or life-threatening challenges. But 

for the past few years I’ve talked about 

riding my bike from the outskirts of 

Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., a 

335-mile ride that includes a long, 

steady incline up one side of the Eastern 

Continental Divide and down the 

other. This summer, I finally made 

the trip. 

You could call it a working vacation 

of sorts. I thought of it as a retreat with 

mileage. 

Almost the entire route was away 

from cars and away from cities. Most 

of the time and most of the miles 

were on gravel paths often strewn with 

potholes, tree roots, and the occasional 

mud puddle. Riding on the Great 

Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail and the 

Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal 

trail, we passed through small towns 

that once played big roles in U.S. history. 

Towns like Hancock, Maryland, 

whose residents fought off a siege 

by General Stonewall Jackson, and 

Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, where 

John Brown failed to inspire a slave 

uprising in 1859 but lit the fuse that 

became the Civil War. 

Gravel provided its own soundtrack 

to the trip. At times it crackled and 

crunched under our tires, like popcorn 

muffled in the microwave. But 

patches of dirt or dried mud introduced 

a quiet note, so that the crunch 

gave way to silence for brief moments. 

No doubt the wildlife in the area 

were well alerted to our presence, 

but deer, rabbits, hawks, blue herons, 

a black snake, and one enormous 

and rather surly snapping turtle still 

crossed our path. Or more accurately, 

we crossed theirs. 

The trail took us along three rivers: 

The author on a mountain 

trail in southern 

Pennsylvania during his 

335-mile bike ride from 

Pittsburgh to Washington, 

D.C., this summer. | 

SUBMITTED PHOTO 

the Youghiogheny, 

the 

Casselman, 

and the majestic 

Potomac. 

Rivers were the 

lifeblood of our 

young country. 

Towns grew 

up along their banks. Goods were 

transported on them. The C&O 

Canal started as the brainchild of 

George Washington, who sought a 

way to bypass the falls and rapids of 

the Potomac and bring goods west. It 

was dug by 35,000 workers, mostly immigrants, 

but its utility was challenged 

even as it was being built by the arrival 

of the railroad. We would occasionally 

hear a train roaring west on tracks 

paralleling the canal, the clatter of 

wheels on rails a taunting reminder of 

who won that race. 

What was most memorable, however, 

was simply being immersed in nature 

for hours at a time. The rhythm of the 

pedals and the crunch of the gravel 

provided a soundtrack to the canopy 

of trees and the lush microclimates 

that we rode through. There was 

beauty everywhere. Sunlight streaming 

through the trees, wild flowers 

growing on the banks of the canals. 

The rivers — changeable, moody, 

sparkling one minute and then seething 

and tumultuous the next. 

The Japanese have a term: “Shinrin-yoku,” 

or “forest bathing.” It describes 

that peace which comes from 

simply being quiet amid the trees, like 

walking the garden paths of a monastery. 

There is a peace that settled over 

me riding down those trails. I was in 

the moment, legs and bike pushing 

forward in a steady rhythm that said, 

“be where you’re at; do what you’re 


Greg Erlandson is the former president and 

editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service. 

doing.” It is motion that is conducive 

to prayer, but particularly the type of 

prayers we often overlook: those of 

praise and thanksgiving. 

As the miles mounted and the days 

passed, the beauty drove out other 

concerns. I may be a news junkie, but 

for a week I kicked the habit. Looking 

at my news feeds didn’t interest me. I 

ignored news channels on television. I 

stopped prowling my emails. 

“Holidays and vacations can help to 

balance activity with contemplation, 

haste with more natural rhythms, 

noise with the heralding silence of 

peace.” St. Pope John Paul II said that. 

He was an outdoorsman, a skier, a hiker, 

a swimmer. I think he would have 

appreciated my ride and understood 

its impact. 

Activity and contemplation. Haste 

with natural rhythms. Noise with 

peace. The whirr of the wheels. The 

smells and sights of nature. Feeling 

for a short while like I’m one with the 

bike and one with the nature that I 

am spinning through and a part of. 

There were nine others on the trip 

with me. We had all signed up with 

Wilderness Voyageurs, a company 

that specializes in multi-day bike trips 

around the country. Strangers when 

we set out, we all counted ourselves 

friends at the end. Each of us had his 

or her own reason for coming. Yet we 

bonded in the experience, hearing 

one another’s stories as we rode the 

trail or shared a meal. 

Certain themes stood out: the challenge 

of friendships; the demands of 

work; the questions that come with 

retirement. In a sense, it felt like we 

were all finding our way, our path. 

But for six days, our quest was simply 

to be, and to savor the goodness of the 

Lord’s creation. 


TIME TO THINK ABOUT ROME 

Why a bewildering social media trend makes 

more sense than you think. 

BY PHILLIP CAMPBELL 

Roman soldier reenactors demonstrate their 

drill last year at a festival marking the 1,900th 

anniversary of the building of the first phase of 

Hadrian’s Wall. | IAN FORSYTH/GETTY IMAGES 

For a few days this September, a 

surprising topic went viral on social 

media: the enduring legacy 

of ancient Rome. 

The frenzy was apparently sparked 

by a TikTok video in which a woman 

asked her husband how often he 

thought about the Roman Empire. 

She was confused — and even 

stunned — when he reported that 

Rome was on his mind every day. 

As it turns out, this was not an 

isolated case. Women on social media 

proceeded to ask the men in their 

lives the same question and have been 

shocked to discover that, in many 

cases, it is quite frequently. The fad 

even caught the attention of the Washington 

Post, which reported that many 

men surveyed reported thinking about 

Rome at least once daily, if not more. 

One can certainly sympathize with 

the confusion of women trying to 

understand why their husbands devote 

headspace to the politics of Augustus 

or the victories of Trajan. 

But as a history nerd myself, I think it 

is exceptionally fitting to think about 

Rome. If anything, we don’t think 

about it enough. So, here are a few 

reasons why you should think more 

about the Roman Empire. 

1. Architecture 

The Romans were intrepid builders, 

developing some of the most enduring 

architecture in human history. They 

are known for the innovative use of the 

arch, as well as being the first builders 

in history to utilize domes on a monumental 

scale. Many Roman domed 

structures are still with us today, like 

the Pantheon in the city of Rome. 

Because of their beauty, strength, 

and grandeur, Roman architectural 

styles have been adopted all over the 

Western world as exemplifying law 

and order. This is why our Founding 

Fathers adopted the Roman style for 

our federal buildings and monuments. 

The Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials 

are virtual duplicates of Roman temples. 

To this day, Roman architectural 

elements are employed in buildings 

of great social importance, such as 

courts, libraries, and government 

buildings. 

In fact, in 2020 the federal government 

mandated that all new federal 

buildings in Washington D.C., be 

built in the classical (i.e., Roman) 

style. From Pennsylvania Avenue to 

Main Street, U.S.A., Roman architecture 

is everywhere. 

2. A legal legacy 

The Romans were also known for 

their contributions to modern jurisprudence. 

Forged during the republican 

era (509-27 B.C.), their legal institutions 

created a stable framework for a 

government that combined elements 

of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. 

After the Roman Republic became 

the Roman Empire, the Romans 

brought their laws to the far-flung 

corners of their domain, from the frontiers 

of Scotland to the Nile Delta. 

The most amazing thing about Roman 

law is its longevity, as it continued 

to be used long after the empire 

fell. Many medieval kingdoms used 

Emperor Justinian’s legal collection, 

“Corpus Iuris Civilis,” and the Catho- 


lic Church also developed its Canon 

Law based on this work. 

In the U.S., the Founding Fathers 

were all versed in Roman law, and 

the Roman legal principles would go 

on to be cited by the Supreme Court 

numerous times. 

Today, the principles at the heart of 

most Western legal systems today are 

derived from Roman law. 

3. Linguistic patrimony 

Thinking about Rome every time you 

pray might be a bit much, but here’s a 

thought: 

As the Romans spread over the 

Mediterranean world, they brought 

Latin with them, making it a language 

of unification. It became the language 

of the educated, the powerful, and the 

cultured. The precision and logic of 

Latin made it an ideal vehicle to communicate 

complex ideas — whether in 

law, theology, or literature. 

As the Roman Empire dissolved in 

more sophisticated our vocabulary, the 

more “Latinized” our speech becomes. 

Latin was, of course, also preserved 

as the ecclesiastical language of the 

Catholic Church in the Latin Rite. 

When it comes to how we communicate 

and worship, Rome still lives. 

4. Masters of engineering 

The Romans were some of history’s 

great problem-solvers. Becoming master 

engineers, they constructed durable 

roads to connect their sprawling empire. 

In fact, modern road construction 

still uses the methods pioneered by the 

Romans — land surveys followed by 

careful preparation of the subsurface. 

Their engineering genius still yields 

surprises today: In 2017, analysis of 

Roman marine concrete revealed the 

secret of how the Romans could build 

durable underwater structures. Their 

concrete was made of lime and volcanic 

ash, which, when exposed to water, 

hardened while curing. Rather than 

be eroded by 

the water, the 

Roman marine 

concrete 

actually got 

harder as time 

went by. 

well to consider Rome a cautionary 

tale. The Roman experience may yet 

be relevant to our own. 

6. It’s just entertaining 

Perhaps the best reason to think about 

Rome is that its history can keep you 

endlessly entertained. 

The sacrificial death of Marcus Atilius 

Regulus is one of the most moving 

historical deaths you will ever read 

(enough to make even St. Augustine 

marvel). The drama of Hannibal and 

the Second Punic War was like the 

World War II of the ancient world. And 

the tactics of Julius Caesar at the Battle 

of Alesia are more exciting than any 

Hollywood movie. Don’t know what 

any of these references refer to? Study 

ancient Rome. You won’t regret it. 

Phillip Campbell is a history teacher 

for Homeschool Connections and 

author of “The Story of Civilization” 

four-volume series (TAN Books) and 

other historical works. 

the west, Latin became the basis of 

the “Romance” languages (Italian, 

Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, 

etc.) Though not a Romance 

language, 60% of English comes from 

words borrowed from Latin — and the 

5. Rome as 

a cautionary 

tale 

Like the 

U.S., Rome 

threw off its 

monarchy 

to adopt a 

representative 

government, 

expanded 

rapidly to 

become a regional 

power, 

competed 

with other 

superpowers 

for total 

dominance, 

endured a 

civil war, and dealt with crises relating 

to war, immigration, slavery, inflation, 

and corruption. 

While history doesn’t repeat itself, it 

does rhyme, and those interested in 

the fate of our own republic would do 

A Sept. 15 post from popular X (formerly Twitter) humor account “Daily Roman Updates,” 

sharing a news report from NBC’s Today Show about the the Roman Empire’s social media 

moment. | SCREENSHOT/X.COM 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

A modern-day pilgrim’s progress 

The author’s view from her pilgrimage in Ards 

Franciscan Friary in Ireland. | HEATHER KING 

People are often taken aback when 

I tell them I’m, say, spending 

three months in Europe, alone, 

as I’ve done this summer. 

“You’re going by yourself?” they ask. 

“Oh heavens, yes. I could never travel 

with another person.” 

Nor, I might add, could another 

person possibly travel with me. 

Partly this is because for me, travel is 

pilgrimage. Travel is in the best sense 

of the word penance. 

Travel for me is not holding my 

phone aloft to capture “the moment” 

on film instead of actually experiencing 

it. Travel is growth, enlargement, 

giving myself to whatever place I’m in 

and receiving whatever the place might 

give to me. 

For that, I have to be awake. 

Thus I eat sparingly, walk as much as 

possible, and spend as much time as I 

can in prayer. 

It’s a lot to carry, being a pilgrim. 

Sometimes it’s all too much and I have 

to take to bed with a bag of candy and 

watch three Joan Crawford movies in 

a row. 

But for the most part I thrive on time 

alone. In fact, after rattling around for 

seven weeks in the County Galway 

village of Oughterard, I signed up for a 

four-day silent retreat at Ards Franciscan 

Friary, about as far north in Ireland 

as you can go. 

I was almost completely incoherent 

as I babbled the first day to my poor 

spiritual director — what am I struggling 

with? What do I desire? 

Finally I stammered out, “To order 

my life more closely and more completely 

to prayer.” 

Carel, my sainted spiritual director, 

seemed to understand completely. She 

reminded me of Romans 8:26: “We 

do not know how to pray as we ought, 

but the Spirit itself intercedes with 

inexpressible groanings.” 

In the friar’s chapel, with its worn, 

well-loved breviaries, we attended 

12:15 Mass, and showed up each 

evening at 8 p.m. for adoration, when 

the doors of the plain wooden tabernacle 

were opened to reveal inner copper 

panels embossed with sheaves of 

wheat, and an illuminated monstrance. 

The Donegal coastline is magnificent. 

Aquamarine water, cliffs russet with 

heather, blue-misted mountains, water 

crashing against barnacled rocks and 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

breaking in long, low waves. Pastures of 

grazing sheep. Wild blackberries. Hidden 

beaches. Sun filtering through the 

impossibly high branches of ancient 

oaks and elms. 

A stupendous gift: the freedom not to 

have to talk for several days. With the 

window open, I could look upon the 

water through the trees. Birds softly 

calling. 

One plus of traveling alone is being 

forced to depend upon the kindness of 

strangers. Always there is someone to 

point to the right gate, queue, bathroom, 

dining hall, confessional. 

Father Maurice Zundel, Swiss mystic, 

poet, and philosopher, observed: 

“What a mysterious baptism are these 

tears we can hardly hold back when 

we see a loving face, revealing to us 

a world we possibly believe to have 

been abolished, and to which we, in 

all the sinews of our being, now feel we 

belong: the world of the spirit and of 

quality of silence and of light.” 

Another plus is that both your strong 

and weak points are revealed. I didn’t 

know I could be this patient. I didn’t 

know that what I call “discipline” 

is sometimes more like a mania for 

control. 

Do I really need to instantly respond 

to every text, e-mail, or comment, so 

as to “keep my desk clear.” Do I really 

need quite so often to bookmark, save, 

reserve at the library, put in a shopping 

cart? 

“The great challenge is living your 

wounds through instead of thinking 

them through,” wrote Henri Nouwen. 

“It is better to cry than to worry, better 

to feel your wounds deeply than to understand 

them, better to let them enter 

into your silence than to talk about 

them. … You need to let your wounds 

go down into your heart. Then you can 

live them through and discover that 

they will not destroy you. Your heart is 

greater than your wounds.” 

I have a hard time accepting human 

limitations, especially my own. 

My last two assigned readings were 

perfect: 

“Jesus did not deem equality with 

God something to be grasped at” (Phil. 

2:6). 

“For his sake I have accepted the loss 

of all things and I consider them so 

much rubbish, that I may gain Christ” 

(Phil. 3:8). 

I left Ards praying: Help me to trust, 

to wait, to have reasonable expectations 

of myself and others. 

People for the most part have been 

incredibly kind, but there are always a 

few who can’t help slamming the U.S., 

and California in particular. 

As my trip progresses, I find myself 

thinking of the mating seals near San 

Simeon, and of Joshua Tree National 

Park, and of the Blessed Sacrament 

Chapel at Our Lady of the Angels 

Cathedral. 

I think of how you can buy all the 

used books you want on eBay, and of 

Silverlake Ramen, and of watching 

the sun set over downtown as you’re 

driving west on the 10. 

“Oh I don’t know,” I’ll say. “The 

States are pretty great, in their way.” 

Next stop: Bruges. Contemplating a 

bus, a flight, a train, and a cab ride, 

I find myself thinking of the 17th-century 

Japanese haiku master Basho: 

“None to accompany me on this path: 

Nightfall in autumn.” 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

Friendship: A closer Luke 

What I know about film can fit comfortably in a 

single frame. I am neither Siskel nor Ebert. 

But I know a thing or two about the New Testament, 

and I was deeply moved by the 2018 film “Paul, 

Apostle of Christ.” It made me aware of something that 

should have been obvious to me — something hidden in 

plain sight in every Bible. 

The movie made me see the colossal importance of Paul’s 

friendship with Luke (whose feast we’ll celebrate on Oct. 

18). 

Their relationship is different. It first appears in the New 

Testament in the Acts of the Apostles, and it emerges in a 

subtle way. Luke, the author of Acts, simply begins to use 

the first-person plural pronoun, we, in his narration, because 

now he’s traveling with Paul. It’s subtle, but stunning 

in its subtlety. It’s the clear marker of the beginning of a 

friendship. 

Paul, for his part, mentions Luke often. Perhaps the 

earliest mention, chronologically, is in the apostle’s Letter 

to Philemon, which ends with a name-drop of Luke among 

Paul’s “fellow workers.” 

In his Letter to 

the Colossians 

Paul takes it up a 

notch, referring 

to Luke as his 

“dear friend” and 

“doctor.” 

In the second 

of Paul’s letters 

to Timothy, 

after naming 

those who have 

deserted him, he 

says poignantly, 

“Luke alone 

is with me” (2 

Timothy 4:11). 

Paul’s relationship 

with Luke 

was unique. He 

refers to Timothy 

and Titus as 

“St. Paul,” by Anthony van Dyke, 1599-1641, Flemish. | sons (1 Timothy 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

1:18; Titus 1:4). 

But Luke 

is a friend, 

beloved and 

loyal. He is 

the other 

half of “we.” 

He alone 

remains. 

Together 

they accomplished 

what 

no man 

could do 

alone. Luke 

wrote the two 

longest books 

in the New 

Testament, 

the third 

“St. Luke the Evangelist,” by Vladimir Borovikovsky, 1757- 

1825, Russian. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Paul wrote more New 

Testament books than anyone else — 13 or 14, depending 

on how you count. 

Luke’s Gospel weighs in at 19,482 words, and Acts at 

18,451 words, for a total of 37,933 words. Paul’s 13 letters 

total 32,407 words (if you add Hebrews, the count goes up 

to 37,460). 

Thus, Paul and Luke together wrote at least 70,340 out of 

the 138,020 words in the New Testament. 

Together they wrote more than half of this book that the 

Church has designated to be inspired by God. 

And we should never doubt that theirs was a true collaboration. 

Since the early Church, readers have referred to 

Luke’s Gospel as “Paul’s,” because the narrative so perfectly 

enacts the theology we find in his letters. 

The friendship of Luke and Paul was the dynamo that 

powered the Church’s growth in its first generation. That 

was God’s providential purpose in bringing them together: 

because Paul and Luke together accomplished what they 

could never have done separately. 

This is the power of friendship in God’s plan. This is why 

Jesus called his apostles “friends” (John 15:15). This is why 

the early Christians used “the friends” as a synonym for the 

Church (3 John 1:15). 

What apostolic wonders is God waiting to work through 

your friendships and mine? 


■ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church Fiesta BBQ. Our Lady 

of Perpetual Help Church, 23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall, 

6-11 p.m., Saturday, 4-11 p.m., Sunday, 2-8 p.m. ICC booth 

will feature specialty sausage and pepper sandwiches, pizza, 

pasta, cannoli, and espresso coffee. For more information 

or donations, call Anna Riggs at 661-645-7877. 

St. Michael the Archangel Feast Day Celebration. St. 

Michael Catholic School, 1016 W. Manchester Ave., Los 

Angeles, 8:30 a.m. Mass, 9:30 a.m. breakfast, 10:15 a.m.-12 

p.m. program and open house. For more information, visit 

stmichaelguardians.org. RSVP by calling 310-367-7626 or 

email cconsola@stmichaelguardians.org. 

■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 

The Blessing of Balance: Sacred Collage and Your Seasonal 

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

Encino, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. With Chantel Zimmerman. For more 

information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480. 

■ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 

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. 

■ MONDAY, OCTOBER 2 

Catechesis for Youth and Adults. St. John the Evangelist 

Church, 6028 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m. every 

Monday and Thursday in Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel 

(entrance through parking lot on 60th Street). Catechesis of 

the Neocatechumenal Way in English. Are you looking for 

an answer to suffering? Or want to deepen your faith? All 

are welcome. For more information call 310-531-0635. 

■ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4 

“Holy is his Name” Weekly Series. St. Dorothy Church, 

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

every Wednesday through May 22, 2024. Deepen your 

understanding of the Catholic faith through dynamic DVD 

presentations by Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Edward Sri, 

Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Dr. Brant Pitre, and Dr. Scott 

Hahn. Free, no reservation required. Call 626-335-2811 or 

visit the Adult Faith Development ministry page at www. 

stdorothy.org for more information. 

■ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 

San Pedro Regional Congress 2023. St. Joseph High 

School, 5825 Woodruff Ave., Lakewood. For more information, 

visit lacatholics.org/catholic-la-events. 

God’s Healing Power for Your Family Tree. St. John the 

Baptist Church, 3883 Baldwin Park Blvd., Baldwin Park, 10 

a.m.-4 p.m. With Father Mike Barry, SSCC, and Dominic 

Berardino. Topics include: Prayer for Breaking Family Bondages, 

and Freedom and Deliverance through the Eucharist. 

Cost: $20/person through Sept. 28, $25/person after. For 

more information, email spirit@scrc.org. 

Lay Mission Helpers’ Rose Gala. Luminarias Restaurant, 

3500 W. Ramona Blvd., Monterey Park, 4-8 p.m. Guest 

speaker: Father Eugen Nkardzedze, Ph.D. Art and Ruth Munoz 

will receive the Ernst Ophuls Award and Cheryl Fabien 

will receive the St. Thérèse of Lisieux Award. Includes silent 

auction. Cost: $100/person. To purchase, call 213-368- 

1870 or visit Mission House, 6102 S. Victoria Ave. 

■ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 

Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San 

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

virtual and not open to the public. Livestream available at 

catholiccm.org or facebook.com/lacatholics. 

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, OCTOBER 11 

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. 

■ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 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. 

Priests vs. Seminarians Basketball Game. Cathedral High 

School, 1253 Bishops Rd., Los Angeles, 7-10 p.m. Cost: 

$10/person. For more information, visit https://lacatholics. 

org/catholic-la-events/. 


Virtual Regional Congress 2023. San Fernando and 

Our Lady of the Angels regions are teaming up for “We 

Encounter, We Rejoice, We Go!” virtual Congress. For more 

information, visit lacatholics.org/catholic-la-events. 

As Spiritual Warfare Intensifies: God is Sending Us 

Reinforcements! St. Edward the Confessor Church, 33926 

Calle La Primavera, Dana Point, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. With Father 

Bob Garon and Dominic Berardino. Topics include: St. Michael 

and the Mighty Holy Angels and Lessons from Prayer 

Warrior Saints. Cost: $25/person through Oct. 9, $30/ 

person after, includes lunch. For more information, email 

spirit@scrc.org. 

■ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 

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

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

■ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 

Missionary Childhood Association Mass. Cathedral of 

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

10 a.m.-1 p.m. 2023 theme: “Hearts on fire, feet on the 

move.” For more information, visit lacatholics.org/catholicla-events. 

■ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 

Cloistered Carmelites Auxiliary Holiday Luncheon. Holy 

Family Church Msgr. Connolly Hall, 1501 Fremont Ave., 

South Pasadena, 10:30 a.m. boutique and social hour, 

12 p.m. luncheon. Includes treasure sale, nuns specialty 

breads, candy nuts, handmade items, plants, and holiday 

gift items. Cost: $35 donation/person. RSVP to Kathy 

Cardoza at 626-570-9012 by Oct. 10. Send checks to Cloistered 

Carmelite Nuns Auxiliary, 710 Lindaraxa Park South, 

Alhambra, CA, 91801. 


San Gabriel Regional Congress 2023. Bishop Amat High 

School, 14301 Fairgrove Ave., La Puente. For more information, 

visit lacatholics.org/catholic-la-events. 

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 | October 6, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 20

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