Angelus News | December 29, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 26

ANGELUS
GIVING BACK
TO GUADALUPE
An LA singer’s ‘Mañanitas’ miracle
December 29, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 26

B • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

ANGELUS
December 29, 2023
Vol. 8 • No. 26
3424 Wilshire Blvd.,
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Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
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Publisher
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Vice Chancellor for Communications
DAVID SCOTT
Editor-in-Chief
PABLO KAY
pkay@angelusnews.com
ON THE COVER
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Local journalist and musician Rosy Oros had her “Guadalupe
moment” with Our Lady at this year’s “Las Mañanitas”
celebration at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Dec. 11-12. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Theresa
Cisneros has the story of the near-death experience that
Oros believes she survived only thanks to the prayers of
the Virgin she’s held close to since childhood.
THIS PAGE
OSV NEWS/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN, REUTERS
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris inserts the relics of Sts.
Denis, Genevieve, and the relics of Christ’s crown of thorns
into the golden rooster in Paris Dec. 16, prior to its installation
at the top of the spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
The rooster symbolizes resilience amid destruction after
the devastating April 2019 fire that nearly destroyed the
church.
Associate Editor
MIKE CISNEROS
Multimedia Editor
TAMARA LONG-GARCÍA
Production Artist
ARACELI CHAVEZ
Photo Editor
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Managing Editor
RICHARD G. BEEMER
Assistant Editor
HANNAH SWENSON
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CONTENTS
Pope Watch.................................................................................................................................... 2
Archbishop Gomez..................................................................................................................... 3
World, Nation, and Local News.......................................................................................... 4-6
In Other Words............................................................................................................................. 7
Father Rolheiser............................................................................................................................ 8
Scott Hahn................................................................................................................................... 32
Events Calendar......................................................................................................................... 33
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14
16
18
20
24
26
28
30
The growing army of volunteers behind the success of ‘Adopt-a-Family’
Eighty-nine-year-old ‘Sister T’ has always had a heart for the sick
John Allen breaks down a once-mighty Vatican cardinal’s guilty verdict
Meet Finland’s new bishop and his long list of dreams
Why the manger of Christmas holds the key to Christian life
Greg Erlandson: Searching for peace when no one seems to want it
What’s a Japanese anime legend’s farewell film trying to tell us?
Heather King: How it feels to write your own obituary
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
An AI warning
All forms of artificial intelligence
should be used to alleviate
human suffering, not increase
inequality and injustice in the world,
Pope Francis said in his message for
World Peace Day 2024.
“Artificial intelligence ought to serve
our best human potential and our highest
aspirations, not compete with them,”
the pope said in his message for the Jan.
1 commemoration.
The message, “Artificial Intelligence
and Peace,” was addressed to all men
and women in the world, and in particular
to heads of state and government,
and the leaders of the different religions
and civil society. It was released Dec. 14
at a Vatican news conference.
The pope’s message highlighted the
“need to strengthen or, if necessary, to
establish bodies charged with examining
the ethical issues arising in this field
and protecting the rights of those who
employ forms of artificial intelligence or
are affected by them.”
The impact of any form of artificial
intelligence “depends not only on its
technical design, but also on the aims
and interests of its owners and developers,
and on the situations in which it
will be employed,” he said.
Positive outcomes “will only be
achieved if we show ourselves capable
of acting responsibly and respect such
fundamental human values as ‘inclusion,
transparency, security, equity, privacy,
and reliability,’ ” the pope added.
The huge advances in new information
technologies, he said, “offer
exciting opportunities and grave risks,
with serious implications for the pursuit
of justice and harmony among peoples.”
Questions must be asked, the pope
said, about the impact of these technologies
on people’s lives and on international
peace.
In his message, Francis pinpointed
specific technologies and advancements
in the world of artificial intelligence that
require urgent attention and oversight
such as: machine or deep learning;
surveillance systems; social credit or
ranking systems; and lethal autonomous
weapons systems or LAWs.
The weaponization of artificial
intelligence through LAWs, he said,
“is a cause for grave ethical concern.
Autonomous weapon systems can never
be morally responsible subjects,” and
so “it is imperative to ensure adequate,
meaningful, and consistent human
oversight of weapon systems.”
Francis also called on the global
community of nations to work together
to adopt “a binding international treaty
that regulates the development and
use of artificial intelligence in its many
forms.”
Regulation should aim not only at
preventing harmful practices but also at
encouraging best practices, he added.
Fundamentally, he said, in a world
of seemingly limitless technological
possibilities, people risk falling prey to a
“technocratic system,” which “allies the
economy with technology and privileges
the criterion of efficiency, tending to
ignore anything unrelated to its immediate
interests.”
“In an obsessive desire to control
everything, we risk losing control over
ourselves,” he said. “In the quest for an
absolute freedom, we risk falling into
the spiral of a ‘technological dictatorship.’
”
Reporting courtesy of Catholic News
Agency.
Papal Prayer Intention for December: We pray that people
living with disabilities may be at the center of attention in
society, and that institutions may offer inclusive programs
which value their active participation.
2 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Love comes down on Christmas
Merry Christmas!
On Christmas we celebrate
the Love of God who comes
down from the highest heaven to
make his home with us here on earth.
The Child, wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid tenderly in a manger
by his mother, is the Love who
created the universe, the Love who
created each one of us, and the Love
who still moves the sun and moon
and sustains everything that lives and
has breath.
Jesus is born in the dark night, in the
poverty of a stable, to a poor mother
and her husband. The only ones who
know are the simple shepherds out in
the fields who hear the angels singing
high above in the heavens.
This is more than an ancient story
that we remember once a year. It’s a
story that you and I are now a part of.
Christmas is the feast of divine love!
The Christmas mystery is the mystery
of God’s love for you and me, and for
every person.
God who is Love comes down to us
in all humility, exchanging his divinity
for a share in our humanity.
Jesus comes, just as the prophet
Isaiah promised he would, like “a
great light” breaking into this “land of
gloom.” He comes to light our path
through this world of darkness.
And in his glorious light we see our
life’s true worth. We see why we are
here, and who we are made to be!
You are precious to God! That is the
meaning of this holy day. Love came
down from heaven for you.
Jesus takes on our likeness so that he
can be near to us in our hopes and
dreams, in our joys and sorrows. He
takes on our likeness, so that we can
become like him.
Jesus is born a child of Mary, so that
we can be born again as children of
God.
This is what Christmas discloses:
that God desires you to become his
beloved sons and daughters. We
should let that truth fill our lives.
This wondrous God, whom the
prophet called “Father-Forever,” loves
you with a love that is beyond all
telling, a love that begins in his own
heart and calls you to a love that will
never end in heaven.
We need to take the spirit of Christmas
into our hearts, and accept the
beautiful gift of our Savior’s love.
The first Christians used to say, “We
have come to know and to believe in
the love God has for us.”
We too need to know and believe
in God’s love for us. He loves the
world so much, he loves you and me
so much, that he sent his only Son to
save us from our sins and free us from
death.
Jesus made his whole life a gift,
an offering of his love for you. On
Christmas day, he is born for you and
is laid in a manger. But when he is
grown, he will lay down his life for
you on a cross.
He comes to live and die and rise so
that we might have a new life through
him. This is how much your life is
worth to God.
And this wondrous love asks for an
answer from us.
We all have things in our lives that
we regret, the bitter fruits of selfishness,
sin, and weakness. God knows
our limitations. But Love has come
down for us, and now the darkness is
passing away, the true light is already
shining, showing us the way forward.
“For a Child is born to us, a Son is
given to us,” the prophet said. In the
Child we meet in the manger, our
sins are forgiven, every burden of the
past is lifted.
If we believe in his love, if we follow
in his footsteps, he will give us the
power to become children of God, to
live and love with joy!
My Christmas wish is that you will
know and believe in God’s love for
you!
Like the shepherds, let us hasten to
the manger to welcome the Child
with reverence and thanksgiving.
One of the saints used to greet the
morning this way: “Blessed be this
new day, which is Christmas for the
earth, since Jesus wants to live it in
me again.”
Jesus wants to be born in your heart
and mine, just as he was born of
Mary. Through you and through me,
he wants to meet the people of our
On Christmas day, Jesus is born for you and is
laid in a manger. But when he is grown, he will lay
down his life for you on a cross.
time, to love them and serve them
and save them. Love comes down
from heaven so that we can love and
be loved.
Pray for me and I will pray for you.
And in this holy season, surrounded
by the light of Love, let us ask the
Virgin Mary to help her Son to be
born in all of us once again.
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
■ Pope Francis won’t be buried in the Vatican
Pope Francis said he’ll be buried in the Roman Basilica of St.
Mary Major, instead of the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, in a new
interview.
Francis, who turned 87 on Dec. 18, told Mexican news outlet N+
that he’s developed a “great devotion” to the Church over the years
and that his burial place there is “already prepared.” He also said
he’s been preparing the rites for his funeral.
“We simplified them quite a bit,” he said, and jokingly added that
“I will premiere the new ritual.”
The last pope to be buried somewhere other than St. Peter’s
Basilica was Pope Leo XIII in 1903. Francis will be only the seventh
pope to be buried at St. Mary Major, and the first since Pope
Clement IX in 1669.
Pope Francis prays before the icon of Mary, “Salus Populi Romani,” in the
Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome April 1. | HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE
■ Two Gaza Christians killed by Israeli sniper
A mother and daughter were allegedly shot and killed by an Israel Defense Forces sniper at Gaza’s only Catholic parish.
According to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot while walking to a convent
at Holy Family Parish compound Dec. 16.
“One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” the patriarchate said, adding that seven more people were shot
and wounded while trying to protect others in the church compound.
The same day, the patriarchate said, an Israel tank fired at a Missionaries of Charity convent that is home to “54 disabled
persons and is part of the church compound, which was signaled as a place of worship since the beginning of the war.”
No deaths were reported, but the attack left the home “uninhabitable” and some displaced patients were without access
to respirators.
As of press time, Israeli authorities had not commented on the incidents.
Our Lady remains — A man holds a statue of Mary during a procession on the perimeter of
the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, Nov. 26, as part of traditional Immaculate
Conception celebrations. The limited procession came after Nicaragua’s government banned
street processions this year due to unspecified security concerns. | OSV NEWS/MAYNOR
VALENZUELA, REUTERS
■ Vatican issues update to
cremation guidelines
The Vatican’s chief doctrinal official appeared to
loosen restrictions on burying cremated remains.
A senior Italian cardinal had sent an inquiry to
the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith asking
whether commingling the ashes of two or more
cremated people was permissible, and whether a
portion of ashes could be kept in a personal place.
To the first question, dicastery prefect Cardinal
Víctor Manuel Fernández answered yes, provided
that they be placed in “a defined and permanent
sacred place” where the deceased’s names can be
indicated.
To the second, he said Church authorities can
grant permission to such a request under certain
conditions, including that “every type of pantheistic,
naturalistic, or nihilistic misunderstanding”
be ruled and that a “sacred place” is used.
“We can’t have urns of, say, your mother or your
grandmother being placed on the mantle in your
house, which a lot of people want to do,” Dominican
theologian Father Thomas Petri, told EWTN
News Nightly when asked about the update.
“That’s just not the Christian practice.”
4 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

NATION
Mary’s Lone Star milestone — A lighted projection of Our Lady of Guadalupe is seen
on the exterior of the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas
on her feast day, Dec. 12. This was the first celebration of the feast of Our Lady of
Guadalupe since the cathedral had been elevated to a national shrine by the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops. | OSV NEWS/MICHAEL GRESHAM, THE TEXAS CATHOLIC
■ SCOTUS passes on
conversion therapy, again
Three Catholic Supreme Court justices challenged
their court’s decision not to hear a case dealing with
how to best help minors who want to change their
sexual orientation or gender identity.
The case was filed by a faith-based Washington state
family and marriage counselor challenging his state’s
ban on what is sometimes described as “conversion
therapy.” In his dissent from the court’s decision,
Justice Clarence Thomas argued that Washington’s law
censored one side of the debate.
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation,
it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe
what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism,
religion, or other matters of opinion,” wrote Justice
Thomas. “Yet, under SB 5722, licensed counselors
cannot voice anything other than the state-approved
opinion on minors with gender dysphoria without
facing punishment.”
The challenge is the fourth to be rejected by the
courts since California’s first-in-the-nation law banning
the practice in 2014. Thomas was joined by Justice
Samuel Alito Jr. and Justice Brett Kavanaugh in voting
to hear the case.
■ The FBI’s Catholic conundrum
A recent report revealed that the FBI did not have a working definition of “Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology (RTC),”
when its Richmond field office issued a memo warning that “RTC” posed a rising domestic threat.
“The basis for the Richmond memorandum relied on a single investigation in the Richmond Field Office’s area of responsibility
in which the subject ‘self-described’ as a ‘radical-traditionalist Catholic,’ ” read a Dec. 4 report from the Select Subcommittee
on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
“However, FBI employees could not define the meaning of an RTC when preparing, editing, or reviewing the memorandum,”
the report continues. “Even so, this single investigation became the basis for an FBI-wide memorandum warning
about the dangers of ‘radical’ Catholics.”
While FBI director Christopher Wray maintains that the memo — which called for “new mitigation opportunities” to
combat traditional Catholic communities — was the product only of the Richmond office, the report continued the subcommittee’s
allegation that four offices contributed, including Los Angeles.
■ Reggaeton legend Daddy
Yankee ends career ‘for Christ’
Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee has announced he’s ending his
30-year career in order to “live for Christ.”
Born Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, Ayala has been ranked one of the top 100
global influencers, topped the charts in over 50 countries under his stage name,
and brought in an estimated $120 million on his latest tour.
“I realized something that the Bible says, what’s it worth to a man to gain the
whole world if he loses his soul,” Ayala wrote in a Dec. 4 Instagram post.
“I recognize and am not ashamed to tell the whole world: Jesus lives in me
and I will live for him,” he continued. “A new story is going to begin, a new
beginning, all the tools that I have in my possession, such as music, social media,
platforms, a microphone, everything that Jesus gave me is now for the kingdom.”
Daddy Yankee at a New Year’s 2022 performance in Puerto
Rico. | GLADYS VEGA/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISCOVER
PUERTO RICO
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
■ Unclaimed dead remembered at interfaith service
Nearly 2,000 unclaimed bodies were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles
as part of an interfaith ceremony annually put on by the LA County Board of
Supervisors.
Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes and Father Chris Ponnet, pastor at St. Camillus
Center for Spiritual Care, were among those praying at the event, remembering
1,937 people who died in 2020, but whose bodies were unclaimed, were cremated,
and laid to rest. Ponnet said the number of unclaimed dead is higher than normal,
likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The key piece is that we believe in the dignity of each person,” Ponnet said.
“That includes while they’re in the womb, and while they’re alive as well as when
they die. So this is a moment in which we as churches, but also uniquely run by
the Board of Supervisors, a government entity, that sees these people with a sense of
respect and dignity that many other entities don’t.”
Waiting for baby Jesus — The Saints Among Us ministry at St. Mel Church in Woodland Hills, which provides
accessible activities and resources for families and children with special needs, presented a Christmas pageant on Dec.
10 in its auditorium. | ST. MEL CHURCH
■ Sacramento Diocese
to file for bankruptcy
The Diocese of Sacramento announced
it would file for bankruptcy
as a measure to resolve more
than 250 sexual abuse lawsuits filed
after California passed a law allowing
victims to file claims after the
statute of limitations had ended.
In a letter Dec. 9, Bishop Jaime
Soto emphasized that only the
administrative office of the bishop
would seek bankruptcy protection,
while parishes, schools, and other
Catholic organizations affiliated
with the diocese “would be largely
unaffected.”
In an FAQ webpage about the
bankruptcy, the site said that “more
than 80 percent” of the 250-plus
claims are from the 1980s or earlier,
with only six cases occurring
after safeguards were implemented
in 2002.
“The sickening evil that was perpetrated
upon innocent children
— and the failure of church leadership
to address it appropriately —
has caused unfathomable pain that
endures,” Soto said. “It is these sins
that brought us to this place.
“The pain inflicted on them lasts
a lifetime, and so our atonement
must be a lifetime commitment.”
Y
Staff at St. Francis de Sales Catholic School in Sherman Oaks with some of the gifts
donated to help families. | YANNINA DIAZ
■ Needy families get Christmas
surprise from Sherman Oaks school
Staff and students at St. Francis de Sales Catholic School
in Sherman Oaks partnered with the HoldYou Foundation
to provide Christmas gifts for several families who have
young ones battling a life-threatening illness.
The staff sponsored a family whose 1-year-old son is
battling a rare cancer-like condition for which he is undergoing
chemotherapy. Not only were gifts provided for the
boy, but also for his five siblings. Additionally, fourth-grade
students donated gifts to two other families: one with a
baby who was in the NICU and whose mother is on dialysis,
and another with a 2-year-old who has eye cancer.
“I just think families are very deserving of being able to
care for their sick children and there’s not a system to catch
them,” said Natalie Hill, HoldYou’s founder whose husband,
Dominic Campanella, is a fourth-grade teacher at St. Francis de Sales. “So we just are that safety net support system.”
For more information and to donate, visit holdyou.org.
6 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
A catechetical moment with the ‘Gloria’
In my 17 years of priesthood, I cannot tell you how many times on
the first Sunday of Advent or Lent people would come up to me after
Mass and say, “Father, you forgot the ‘Gloria,’ OK?” I wish I would have had the
excellent article written by Mike Aquilina that I recently came across in the Dec.
15 issue of Angelus magazine.
I am so thankful for this treasure of an article as it has been a tremendous gift to
share with my parishioners this Advent season with its simple-to-follow explanation
and practical application of the “Gloria.”
I look forward to reading more such timely pieces from your publication.
— Father Tony Steinacker, pastor, Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Huntington,
Indiana
Editor’s note
Due to the holidays, the following issue of Angelus will be delivered to subscribers
the weekend of Jan. 12, 2024, and the issue after that the weekend of Jan. 19,
resuming our normal biweekly publication schedule.
Y
Continue the conversation! To submit a letter to the editor, visit AngelusNews.com/Letters-To-The-Editor
and use our online form or send an email to editorial@angelusnews.com. Please limit to 300 words. Letters
may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity.
Simbang Gabi takes off at the cathedral
“We are told over 365 times
to ‘fear not.’ That’s at least
one ‘fear not’ for every day
of the year.”
~ Anne Ortlund, in a Dec. 8 Desiring God
commentary by her daughter-in-law, Jani.
“It’s not just ‘go away for a
year’ — he’s not coming
back.”
~ Father Michael Tix, vicar general of the
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in a Dec. 15
National Catholic Register article on a U.S. shortage
of extern priests due to changing immigration rules.
“I’m a normal person, just
like you all, going through a
call from God.”
~ Leda Bergonzi, a Catholic faith healer, in a Dec.
15 Washington Post article on the thousands who
come to see her for healing in Argentina.
“You only rejoice that the
landlord is coming if you’re
all paid up on your bill.”
~ Benedictine College, in a Dec. 14 commentary on
whether people would rejoice or be prepared if Christ
came today.
Filipino Catholics had a chance to inspect one another’s colorful “parols” after the annual Simbang Gabi kickoff Mass
Dec. 15 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
View more photos
from this gallery at
AngelusNews.com/photos-videos
Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d
like to share? Please send to editorial @angelusnews.com.
“A Church increasingly
identified with Christ
supports itself only with the
power of truth, and every
time it does so using the
power of lies it will betray its
Founder.”
~ Seventy-eight-year-old Vatican journalist Luis
Badilla, in a Dec. 17 message announcing the end of
his long-running Church blog “Il Sismografo.”
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronrolheiser.com
Quiet prophecy
Christian discipleship calls all of
us to be prophetic, to be advocates
for justice, to help give
voice to the poor, and to defend truth.
But not all of us, by temperament or
by particular vocation, are called to
civil disobedience, public demonstrations,
and the picket lines, as were
Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King,
Daniel Berrigan, and other such
prophetic figures. All are asked to be
prophetic, but for some this means
more wielding a basin and towel than
wielding a placard.
There is a powerful way of being
prophetic that, while seemingly quiet
and personal, is never private. And
its rules are the same as the rules for
those who, in the name of Jesus, are
wielding placards and risking civil
disobedience. What are those rules,
rules for a Christian prophecy?
First, a prophet makes a vow of
love, not of alienation. There is a
critical distinction between stirring up
trouble and offering prophecy out of
love, a distinction between operating
out of egoism and operating out of
faith and hope. A prophet risks misunderstanding,
but never seeks it, and a
prophet seeks always to have a mellow
rather than an angry heart.
Second, a prophet draws his or her
cause from Jesus and not from an
ideology. Ideologies can carry a lot
of truth and be genuine advocates for
justice. But, people can walk away
from an ideology, seeing it precisely as
an ideology, as political correctness,
and thus justify their rejection of the
truth it carries.
Sincere people often walk away from
Greenpeace, from Feminism, or Liberation
Theology, from Critical Race
Theory, and many other ideologies,
which in fact carry a lot of truth because
those truths are wrapped inside
an ideology. Sincere people will not
walk away from Jesus. In our struggle
for justice and truth, we must be ever
vigilant that we are drawing our truth
from the Gospels and not from some
ideology.
Third, a prophet is committed to
nonviolence. A prophet is always
seeking to personally disarm rather
than to arm, to be in the words of
Daniel Berrigan, a “powerless criminal
in a time of criminal power.” A
prophet takes Jesus seriously when he
asks us, in the face of violence, to turn
the other cheek. A prophet incarnates
in his or her way of living the eschatological
truth that in heaven there will
be no guns.
Fourth, a prophet articulates God’s
voice for the poor and for the earth.
Any preaching, teaching, or political
action that is not good news for the
poor is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to bring good news to
the poor, to “widows, orphans, and
strangers” (biblical code for the most
vulnerable groups in society). As
Pastor James Forbes Jr. once famously
said, “Nobody gets into heaven
without a letter of reference from the
poor.” We are not meant to be the
church compatible.
Fifth, a prophet doesn’t foretell
the future but properly names the
present in terms of God’s vision of
things. A prophet reads where the
finger of God is within everyday life,
in function of naming our fidelity
or infidelity to God and in function
of pointing to our future in terms of
God’s plan for us. This is Jesus’ challenge
to read the signs of the times.
Sixth, a prophet speaks out of a
horizon of hope. A prophet draws
his or her vision and energy not from
wishful thinking nor from optimism,
but from hope. And Christian hope
is not based on whether the world
situation is better or worse on a given
day. Christian hope is based on God’s
promise, a promise that was fulfilled
in the resurrection of Jesus, which assures
us that we can entrust ourselves
to love, truth, and justice, even if the
world kills us for it. The stone will
always roll back from the tomb.
Seventh, a prophet’s heart and
cause are never a ghetto. Jesus
assures us that in his Father’s house
there are many rooms. Christian
prophecy must ensure that no person
or group can make God their own
tribal or national deity. God is equally
solicitous vis-à-vis all people and all
nations.
Finally, a prophet doesn’t just
speak or write about injustice, a
prophet also acts and acts with
courage, even at the cost of death. A
prophet is a wisdom figure, a Magus
or a Sophia, who will act, no matter
the cost in lost friends, lost prestige,
lost freedom, or danger to his or her
own life. A prophet has enough altruistic
love, hope, and courage to act,
no matter the cost. A prophet never
seeks martyrdom but accepts it if it
finds him or her.
This last counsel is, I believe, the
one most challenging for “quiet”
prophets. Wisdom figures are not
renowned for being on the picket
lines, but in that lies the challenge.
A prophet can discern at what time
to park the placard and bring out the
basin and towel — and at what time
to lay aside the basin and towel and
pick up the placard.
8 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

ALL EYES ON GUADALUPE
After Rosy Oros experienced near-death, the singer
credits Our Lady of Guadalupe for saving her life.
BY THERESA CISNEROS
A photo of Our Lady of Guadalupe
is displayed among the decorated
floats at the 92nd procession and
Mass at East LA College Stadium
on Dec. 3. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
Five years ago, Rosy Oros lay comatose
in a hospital bed in Mexico
— some 1,500 miles away from
home — after experiencing complications
from a medical procedure that
had taken a drastic toll on her body and
mind.
She was suffering internal and external
bleeding, her organs were damaged,
and doctors gave her only a 2% chance
of surviving.
As she lay there on the brink of death,
she finally opened her eyes and — in a
haze — saw a familiar set of brown eyes
gazing back at her, lovingly, that were
very much still alive.
Those eyes belonged to an image of
Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging just a
few feet away, at once filling her heart
with love and hope that the Virgin
Mary she’d held dear since childhood
would intercede with Jesus to help her
make it out of the clinic alive.
Oros’ healing journey came full circle
this month as she and a cadre of other
musicians sang hymns of praise and
thanksgiving to Our Lady of Guadalupe
during the annual “Las Mañanitas” celebration
at the Cathedral of Our Lady
of the Angels in honor of her feast day.
“I am so humbled and blessed to be
able to stand there and in my own
simple way give thanks to the Virgin,”
Oros said. “It may seem insignificant
but I know that she is receiving it with a
lot of love and that it makes her happy,
because she knows my heart.”
At the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, the festivities ran from the
evening of Dec. 11 into the early hours
of Guadalupe’s feast day, Dec. 12.
As in years past, the celebration
featured Aztec and Ballet Folklorico
dancers, veneration of the only relic of
St. Juan Diego’s “tilma” in the U.S., the
rosary, a musical tribute that included
“Las Mañanitas,” and ended with
midnight Mass, where Archbishop José
H. Gomez said the Guadalupe story is
a reminder that “Jesus Christ loves us so
much that he came to share our hopes
10 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

and dreams and to offer his life for us.”
“Just as she did with Juan Diego, the
most holy Mary entrusts each of us with
a task. She has a message that she needs
us to spread and she is sending us to tell
the whole world about Jesus and his
love and salvation.”
Oros aimed to do just that as she and
six other guest singers — including
Latin Grammy-nominated Graciela
Beltran — delivered individual serenades
to the Virgin backed by Mariachi
Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar.
Oros — dressed in a floor-length gown
and red shawl — carefully made her
way onto the altar, set down a bouquet
of red roses near two giant images
of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St.
Juan Diego bedecked with hundreds
of flowers, and sang two songs to the
Virgin while looking deep into the
compassionate eyes that she’s come to
know so well.
It was a moment that she had trained
for all her life.
Oros was born in Aguascalientes,
Mexico, into a family of nine that is
both musically inclined and devoutly
Catholic; one of her brothers spent six
years in the seminary, while another is
currently a Jesuit novice. She immigrated
to Santa Maria in California as a
preteen, and from a young age studied
music theory and vocalization, singing
to God and to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
At 12, she discovered a love for
Mexican “ranchera” music when her
father bought her a copy of Linda
Ronstadt’s 1987 album, “Canciones De
Mi Padre” — in which the American
singer recorded traditional mariachi
songs that were of special significance
to her family.
“I would lock myself in my room and
listen to the cassette over and over and
over again until I learned all the songs,”
she said. “I fell in love with Linda
Ronstadt, with her voice, with her
interpretation.”
Since then, Oros has remained close
to the singing world. She’s enjoyed a
long career working in TV, radio, the
recording industry, and now in publishing
as editor-in-chief of Iconos, her
own magazine highlighting music and
entertainment news.
While she’s remained mostly behind
the scenes, she has recorded jingles,
produced her own albums, and sings
when the occasion arises. While living
in New York, she had the chance to
sing on the “Late Show with David
Letterman,” for fashion designer Oscar
de la Renta, and open for Mexican
“ranchera” icon Vicente Fernández at
Madison Square Garden.
“Even though I liked to sing, for some
reason, I felt like God didn’t want me to
become a famous singer and I understood
that and I accepted it with much
love and humility,” Oros said. “And so
now when there is an opportunity for
me to sing or participate in a festival or
a special event, I do it.”
It was with that sense of humility that
Oros accepted the chance to sing during
this year’s “Mañanitas” celebration
at the cathedral, out of gratitude for the
role she said Our Lady played in saving
her life just five years ago.
In 2018, Oros went into septic shock,
and then fell into a coma, after undergoing
a medical procedure in Aguascalientes.
After
awakening, she
suffered a cerebral
thrombosis and
other complications
that worsened
her prognosis.
Drifting in and
out of consciousness,
she spent
the early days of
her recovery in
a clinic named,
aptly, for Our Lady
of Guadalupe,
where she said she
experienced the
love of Jesus for
her through Mary.
A pivotal point in
her healing, she
said, came when
she and her husband
received messages
from Mary
through a prayer
group, assuring her
Rosy Oros sings during
the annual “Las Mañanitas”
celebration at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Angels on Dec. 11. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
that Christ would save her through his
mother’s intercession.
“She said I am with you, do not be
afraid,” Oros said. “You will heal from
this but we will do this together, facing
the sanctuary. In other words, she wanted
me to get closer to her Son while
holding her by the hand.”
And that’s exactly what happened.
Today, Oros’ body and faith have
grown continually stronger. The Los
Angeles resident and her husband are
more devoted to the rosary, to Christ,
and to the Church than ever. They regularly
seek out ways to thank Mary for
her hand in the healing — including
making special pilgrimages with family
and friends to the Basilica of Guadalupe
when Oros’ work leads them to
Mexico.
“She interceded for me to live,” she
said. “We always look for the opportunity
to thank her and to be in communion
with her.”
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 11

Performing during this year’s “Las
Mañanitas” celebration at the cathedral
was Oros’ way of showing gratitude to
Our Lady, evangelizing through song,
and pledging silently to the Virgin
to become even more devoted to the
rosary going forward.
Directing her attention toward the
framed image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
on the altar, she sang “Mi Querida
Guadalupana” and “Hay Unos Ojos”
— the latter being a song from Ronstadt’s
“Canciones de Mi Padre” album
in which the songwriter gushes over the
beauty and sparkle of his beloved’s eyes.
“The song is so appropriate,” she said,
Attendees of the “Las
Mañanitas” ceremony
show reverence to the
pilgrim images of Our
Lady of Guadalupe and
St. Juan Diego. | VICTOR
ALEMÁN
“Even though
sometimes we are
like lost sheep,
she is always
looking at us with
eyes of love.”
Surviving the
near-fatal incident
has shown
Oros that Our Lady of Guadalupe is
very much alive and is there to help all
of her children, she said.
“We may not be perfect, we may be
sinners, we may fall, but in the end this
is proof of the love and mercy of Christ
through his mother. She is the key to
the door that opens to Christ and to our
salvation.”
Theresa Cisneros is a freelance journalist
with 24 years of experience in the
news industry. She is a fourth-generation
Southern California resident and lives in
Orange County with her husband and
four children.
A Filipino flow to ‘Las Mañanitas’
Since Our Lady of Guadalupe is
the patroness of the Philippines,
the Filipino community also has a
great devotion to the Virgin. So it was a
great honor for Filipino dancers and a
singer to be featured at the annual “Las
Mañanitas” celebration of Our Lady
of Guadalupe at the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels.
The only hurdle for Monette De Guzman,
the Filipina singer invited to sing
during the event? She had never sung
in Spanish before.
“I thought I’d be singing in Tagalog,
but they said it would be in Spanish,”
De Guzman said. “So without even
knowing what to sing, and wondering
will I be able to memorize in Spanish, I
just said yes, just like Mary said.”
To prepare for singing two songs —
“Ave Maria” and “Adiós, Oh Virgen”
— De Guzman found the Spanish
lyrics, then reached out to some of the
Hispanic musicians at her church for
help.
But to go even further, she translated
the lyrics into English, so she could
understand what she was singing.
“So I’d be able to put emotion,” she
said.
As she belted out both songs, swaying
with the background music provided by
mariachis, De Guzman couldn’t help
but think of her own devotion to Our
Lady of Guadalupe.
“She’s like my first mother,” De
Guzman said. “I even pray to her and
talk to her first even before I talk to my
mom because I can talk to her anytime.
She inspires me when it comes to faith
because it’s really hard to say yes to
something you’re not sure of.
“Knowing that Mary, because of her
yes, it benefitted all of us.”
A resident of Northridge and a cantor
at three churches — Our Lady of
Lourdes Church in Northridge, St. Genevieve
Church in Panorama City, and
Our Lady of Peace Church in North
Hills — De Guzman was thrilled to
Monette De Guzman | SUBMITTED PHOTO
bring the Filipino heart, soul, and spirit
into the event, but also to emphasize
the universality of Mary.
“I really feel that Mary is the mother
of everyone, not just Filipinos,” she
said. “I think it’s the start of something
really beautiful that we’re embracing
different ways of practicing our faith
and showing our love to mother Mary.”
— Mike Cisneros
12 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 13

Volunteers drop off gifts for families on Dec. 16 as part of the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles’ Adopt-a-Family program that began in 1990. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
HELPING
HANDS
For this year’s
Adopt-a-Family
army of volunteers,
helping downtown
LA’s neediest
families was an
opportunity to take
Christmas more
seriously.
BY THERESA CISNEROS
Juan Manuel was just settling in with
two of his four kids after working
a graveyard shift at a local freezer
warehouse, when there was a sudden
knock at their apartment door.
At the door were Msgr. Terrance
Fleming and Auxiliary Bishop Matthew
Elshoff, with volunteers hauling
dozens of donated gifts following close
behind.
Manuel said he works long hours to
make ends meet, but after paying for
food, rent, and bills, he doesn’t have
much left for holiday purchases. Knowing
that strangers united to provide his
kids with likely the only presents they’ll
receive this year fills him with gratitude
and helps restore his faith in humanity,
he said.
“I’m very surprised that there is still
a community out there that wants to
help,” he said, “because nowadays, you
don’t see that anymore. That’s what
we all need sometimes, just that little
helping hand.”
The Manuels were one of the 456
families that received food, clothes,
toys, gift cards, household goods,
and Christmas gifts this year through
Adopt-a-Family, an outreach program
of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles
and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels that serves more than 1,000
children annually and has assisted
more than 13,000 families since its
inception.
What started as a simple toy giveaway
organized by Fleming at the Cathedral
of St. Vibiana 33 years ago has
blossomed into an annual tradition that
gives much-needed support to low-income
families living in and around the
cathedral boundaries, supported by
individuals, schools, parishes, businesses,
and other groups across the
community.
It’s an opportunity for the area’s
mother church to minister to the less
fortunate and share the love of Christ
with others, said Fleming, executive
director of the archdiocese’s Pontifical
Mission Societies.
“What better time than Christmas?”
he said. “Jesus is born, there’s new life.”
Just over 1,000 volunteers of all ages
— donning maroon T-shirts emblazoned
with “Adopt-A-Family” on the
front and white angel wings on the
back — gathered at the cathedral in
the early morning hours of Dec. 16
for a prayer service before fanning out
across downtown Los Angeles and Skid
Row to deliver the goods.
Cathedral parishioner Vincent Rod-
14 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

iguez was among those who arrived
just before dawn for the group send-off.
Rodriguez said his family received
charitable support from the church
when he was a child and sees this effort
as a way to pay it forward.
“They used to give to us and now we
get to give back,” said Rodriguez, who
has volunteered for the past 15 years.
“It’s a great blessing for us.”
While many volunteers helped
deliver the items, scores more helped
behind the scenes by interviewing prospective
participants and purchasing,
wrapping, and sorting the gifts.
Kayry Gonzalez, a volunteer for the
past 12 years, is among those who interviewed
program applicants. She said
she’s often touched by their personal
stories and feels privileged to be in a
space where they open up to her about
their lives.
Distribution day is especially exciting
for her, she said, because of the goodwill
that abounds between volunteers
and recipients.
“You kind of feel like Santa a little
bit,” she said, giggling. “Because you
feel like you have an unlimited supply
of people behind you, of gifts to give
out. It’s a good feeling.”
Timothy Grayson is among those who
helped organize donations for delivery.
Grayson, who works for Homeboy
Industries, said he’s thankful to be able
to play a role in bringing a sparkle to a
child’s eyes this Christmas.
Grayson said he was previously
incarcerated, and that through volunteerism,
he’s learning how to serve
others and pay back society for his past
transgressions.
“I get to experience a new life for
giving, instead of always taking,” he
said, gazing out over the thousands of
gifts in the cathedral parking garage
that were set to be distributed later that
morning.
Program coordinator Lydia Gamboa
said preparations for the annual gift
distribution start in mid-August, when
volunteers begin interviewing prospective
participants about their needs and
living situations.
Organizers said many of the participating
households are run by single
parents who live with multiple children
and family members in crowded
one-unit or one-bedroom quarters.
Gamboa said the program is especially
needed at this time, when many
people are still trying to get back on
their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic
and are struggling to pay for
rent or utilities. In addition, many of
this year’s recipients have experienced
the sudden loss of a parent, spouse, or
child due to illness, she said.
A rewarding part of the effort is
hearing from recipients who said they
would not have been able to celebrate
Christmas as a family had it not been
for the program’s support, she said.
“To know that we brought that to
them is very satisfying,” she said.
Many of this year’s recipients echoed
that sentiment, thanking God for their
benefactors’ generosity when Elshoff,
Fleming, and program volunteers
appeared at their doorstep bringing
Christmas tidings and donated gifts.
At one modest apartment building in
the shadow of downtown high-rises, a
mother happily accepted a shipment
of presents on behalf of her children
who were out of town visiting a sick
relative, and presented volunteers with
a bouquet of flowers as a token of her
appreciation.
A few doors down, teen Emma
Crispino beamed with pride while
posing for a photo with her parents,
five siblings, and the clergymen after
receiving presents and Christmas
blessings.
“I feel amazing because my family
can barely afford gifts and knowing
that the church gives it to us is nice,”
she said.
Back at the Manuel apartment, Juan
Manuel pointed out that while he
doesn’t have funds for a Christmas tree
or decorations this year, he is resting
easier knowing that donors are graciously
fulfilling his kids’ requests for
Spider-Man and Hello Kitty toys.
“I’m just surprised and thankful,”
Manuel said. “Everything is just so
expensive right now. This is such a
relief.”
Theresa Cisneros is a freelance journalist
with 24 years of experience in
the news industry. She is a fourth-generation
Southern California resident
and lives in Orange County with her
husband and four children.
Msgr. Terrance Fleming, center, and LA Auxiliary
Bishop Matthew Elshoff, right, pose with the Crispino
family after delivering gifts and other items as part of
the Adopt-a-Family December 29, program. 2023 • | VICTOR ANGELUS ALEMÁN • 15

A SISTER’S
HEART
For 89-year-old Sister Terrence Landini, seven
decades of caring for the sick and dying have
been a ‘dream come true.’
Sister Terrence Landini sits inside the
Centofante Family Chapel at Providence
Little Company of Mary Medical Center
in Torrance. | PROVIDENCE LCM
BY TOM HOFFARTH
In her 70 years with the Sisters of
the Little Company of Mary, Sister
Terrence Landini has focused
largely on caring for the sick and the
dying. But these days, she finds herself
dispensing more wisdom.
“Sister T,” as she is best known, is
recognized for her ability to tee up
advice, guidance, or a story for pretty
much any situation. After more than 50
years in various high-profile positions
with the Providence Little Company
of Mary Medical Center in Torrance,
she’s grateful to have a special mission
in the fast-moving health care field.
“I was just talking to a new chaplain
or a social worker recently and I told
them it always comes back to this: Your
work is sacred — our work is sacred,”
said Landini, 89. “I tell them about just
going to the chapel and asking God to
bless you. I would ask God to help me
be a positive influence to whomever
he placed in my way that day. You
become a better person experiencing
all this.”
Although she officially retired from
the hospital more than 15 years ago,
Landini dutifully carries out the
charism of the Ven. Mary Potter, foundress
of the Little Company of Mary
Catholic ministry in 1877 in England.
Since arriving at the Torrance medical
center in 1966 — six years after it
opened — Landini has been a supervising
nurse, administrator, and director
of human resources, plus sat on the
Community Ministry and Foundation
boards at the hospital. She has also
16 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

een superior of the Little Company
of Mary Convent in Torrance and a
provincial councilor.
With COVID-19 protocols still in
effect, she focuses as much on training
the next generation as she does visiting
with patient families as they wait
anxiously in the waiting rooms. She advocates
for more one-on-one care from
doctors and nurses and remains on call
for consultation with a sharp mind and
a generous heart — a fitting description
for someone who has specialized
in cardiac care.
That career began in the 1950s as
a nurse and supervisor at a Little
Company of Mary facility in Evergreen
Park, Illinois. The facility was near her
childhood home, where she grew up
known as Jean Theresa Landini on the
north side of Chicago to an Italian-Polish
family.
She said she felt a calling to religious
life in fourth grade and entered the
convent after high school. Her mother
wanted her to be a nurse, but the family
couldn’t afford to send her to school,
so she nudged her daughter that way
instead.
In Catholic elementary school,
Landini admired the Daughters of
Charity for their dedication to the sick.
In the eighth grade, she was drawn to
the Little Company of Mary order dedicated
to those suffering and dying. She
saw those sisters working at a Chicago
hospital in their white nursing gowns
and pale blue veils.
At age 18, she gravitated toward the
Little Company of Mary order in 1952
as a postulant. Less than a year later she
had her habit and name given to her.
“It’s a sacrifice that you’re willing to
make because you feel that God has
called you to a different way of life and
that you may take care of more families
and more children,” she said.
Landini said it “hit me like a bolt”
when she was transferred to Southern
California in the mid-1960s, but “it
only took about a year before I fell in
love with the place.”
Sister Terrence Landini holds
a newborn baby — one of
many miracles she’s seen
during her 70 years with the
Sisters of the Little Company
of Mary. | PROVIDENCE LCM
“It’s also a reminder: When God
asks something great of you, and you
generously say yes, it’s because he has
something greater in mind,” she said.
“My vows were about being available
and serving where the need is greatest.
As it turned out, my dream really came
true here and the Lord blessed me. I
believe this is where God wants me to
be and what he wants me to do.”
Long before Little Company of Mary
merged with the Providence Sisters in
1999, Landini’s presence in the facility
could be seen in many places.
A large oil painting of her was
commissioned in 2008 and sits at the
entrance to the hospital’s Centofante
Family Chapel — the place where
she recently had her platinum jubilee
Mass celebrated at Landini’s home
parish, St. Lawrence Martyr Church in
Redondo Beach.
In March, the Sister Terrence Landini
Therapeutic Pool was unveiled and
blessed in the Advanced Care Center.
Landini admits she uses the facility
twice a week.
Dr. Anna Mellor, a concierge physician
based in Rolling Hills Estates,
started in the medical field some 30
years ago. She considered the life of a
sister in medicine early on and leans
on Landini for showing her how to be
“an amazing role model as a woman
and as a woman of faith” for how she
combined her vocation and love of
health sciences.
“She has always been so joyful in her
interactions with people and has not
let any of her physical limitations get
in the way of visiting the sick,” said
Mellor, a parishioner at American
Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach.
“Where her work ends and life begins
are the same.”
Looking to the future, Landini
believes it’s “very important to prepare
the people who will follow you.
“Mary Potter once said we will be
small in numbers at the start but those
who join us will be part of the ‘Greater
Company of Mary,’ and would carry on
the legacy. We have to be sure we never
lose our faith-based reasons for being
here. Mary Potter would be proud of
all we have accomplished.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 17

Justice served slowly
A Vatican tribunal has convicted a once-powerful cardinal
of financial crimes. But the drama is likely far from over.
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu walks
outside the Vatican in January
2023. | CNS/PAUL HARING
ROME — In the long-awaited denouement of the Vatican’s
“trial of the century,” a Vatican tribunal on Dec.
16 sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five
years and six months in prison for his role in various financial
crimes.
Becciu was also fined roughly $8,700 and permanently
barred from holding any public office in the Vatican City
State. An attorney representing Becciu immediately indicated
plans for an appeal.
Becciu, 75, was already the first cardinal to stand trial on
criminal charges before a Vatican civil court, and he now
becomes the first to be convicted and sentenced. Prosecutors
had asked for seven years and three months of prison time for
the cardinal.
From 2011 to 2018, Becciu held the all-important position
of “sostituto,” or “substitute,” in the Secretariat of State, making
him effectively the pope’s chief of staff.
Presiding judge Giuseppe Pignatone, a veteran Italian jurist,
read the verdicts aloud Saturday in a hall belonging to the
Vatican Museums, which was converted into a makeshift
courtroom to accommodate not only public interest, but the
sheer number of attorneys and support personnel necessary to
try such a complex case.
Stretching over 2 1/2 years, the trial featured 86 separate
hearings and heard from almost 70 witnesses, after what
amounted to almost a year of procedural squabbles before the
court ever got to the substance of the charges.
All 10 defendants denied any wrongdoing, and their attorneys
requested full exoneration. The indictments were first
handed down in July 2021.
The case pivots on a controversial $400 million land deal in
London, which began in 2014 when the Vatican’s Secretariat
of State first acquired an interest in a former Harrods warehouse
in the posh neighborhood of Chelsea. After various
twists and turns, the Vatican eventually sold the property for
$224 million, resulting in a net loss of around $150 million.
The other defendants included two Italian financiers
involved in the deal, a former aide to Becciu, two former officials
of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering watchdog, three
former officials or advisers to the Secretariat of State, a lawyer
18 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

epresenting one of the financiers, and a woman tapped by
Becciu to help with the liberation of a nun kidnapped by
Islamic militants, who allegedly used some of the ransom
money to buy luxury goods for herself.
The two financiers, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione,
received sentences of six and five years respectively, while
former Vatican official Fabrizio Tirabassi was sentenced to
seven years while Enrico Crasso, a financial adviser to the
Secretariat of State, also received a seven-year sentence.
Beyond the London affair, Becciu also faced charges on two
other fronts: the transfer of roughly $240,000 to a Catholic
charity in Sardinia run by his brother, and payouts of around
$600,000 for the liberation of a kidnapped religious sister
in Mali. According to a Vatican summary of the verdicts.
Becciu was found guilty of embezzlement for his role in the
London affair, and on the charges related to Sardinia and the
kidnapped nun.
Cecilia Marogna, a self-described security consultant who
allegedly spent part of the money for the kidnapped nun on
luxury goods for herself, was sentenced to three years.
Two former officials of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering
watchdog unit, known at the time as the Financial Information
Authority, Swiss lawyer René Brülhart and Italian
financial analyst Tomasso Di Ruzza, were acquitted on the
more serious charge of abuse of office but convicted for failing
to report the London transaction as suspicious. The only
defendant completely exonerated was Italian Msgr. Mauro
Carlino, a former aide to Becciu.
Numbers help express the staggering complexity of the trial:
Some 600 hours in total of hearings, 69 witnesses, 124,563
pages of documents generated and 2,479,062 separate files
presented by the prosecution, in addition to 20,150 pages of
documents from the defense and 48,731 from the civil parties
to the case.
Now that
verdicts are in,
attention may
shift to the larger
significance of
the trial. Some
observers believe
that by injecting
himself personally
into the case,
including issuing
four controversial
decrees at the
beginning of the
process which
granted prosecutors
broad powers
without judicial
review, Pope Francis effectively revived a sweeping conception
of the pope’s authority as a temporal sovereign that most
Catholics believed had been abandoned in the 19th century.
There are also signs the aftermath may take even longer to
play out than the trial itself.
For starters, there’s the appeals process, which Becciu’s
legal team intends to pursue. Presumably, whatever appeal
Becciu and the others may lodge will be heard by the Court
of Appeals for the Vatican City State, which is made up of
six judges, three clerics, and three laity. If the tribunal and
the appeals court reach different conclusions, then it’s also
possible that the Vatican City State’s “supreme court,” known
as the Court of Cassation, could be asked to adjudicate the
conflict.
There’s also the question of making the verdicts stick, for
which the Vatican may need international help.
In addition to the jail terms handed down Dec. 16, the
tribunal also ordered the confiscation of around $180 million
in assets and the payment of roughly $220 million in damages.
If it actually wants to see any of that money, presumably
the Vatican would need to request that its verdicts be recognized
by other states where the funds are actually deposited,
such as Switzerland and the U.K.
If the Vatican seeks recognition of its sentences in foreign
courts, that means different judges will have to review the
same evidence, possibly reaching different conclusions.
There’s also the question of whether, once all the appeals
have run out, anyone will really go to jail: Pope Benedict
XVI and Francis both granted clemency to Vatican officials
convicted in both “Vatileaks” scandals.
Finally, it seems abundantly clear that when it comes to the
Vatican’s rulings, the jury is still out in the broader court of
public opinion.
From the beginning, critics have asserted that the trial was
fatally flawed, not merely because some found the evidence
unconvincing, but because there’s no separation of powers
between the executive and the judiciary in the Vatican
system, and Francis repeatedly used his authority in ways that
critics say stacked the deck in favor of the prosecution.
Luis Badilla, a veteran Rome-based journalist who operates
the widely read
blog “Il Sismografo,”
wrote that
“the conviction
of Becciu is not
the real, central
question,” in an
editorial on the
decision.
“The problem
is a tribunal
subjugated to the
Judges of the Vatican City State court
read their verdict in the trial of several
Vatican officials on charges of financial
malfeasance Dec. 16. | VATICAN MEDIA
sovereign,” he
said.
This debate over
the legitimacy of
the Vatican’s civil
justice system
almost certainly
will continue, especially given that Francis appears committed
to what’s been dubbed the “Vaticanization” of the Holy
See, meaning making the Church’s universal government,
and its personnel, subject to the laws and judgments of the
Vatican City State.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 19

Bishop Raimo Goyarolla
exits St. Henry Cathedral
in Helsinki after
celebrating his first Mass
as a bishop Nov. 26. |
COURTESY PHOTO
A shepherd at the
end of the world
Finland’s new bishop is a 54-year-old
missionary with big dreams for one of the
world’s poorest, smallest dioceses.
BY PABLO KAY
On the border with Russia near
the Arctic Circle, Finland is
a country known for its chilly
temperatures, efficient education and
health care systems, and high quality
of life, having been ranked the world’s
happiest country by a United Nations
survey this year.
It is also home to one of the world’s
smallest, most scattered Catholic populations,
with only eight parishes and
about 30 priests to minister to some
17-18,000 Catholics. And until this
fall, its only diocese — the Diocese of
Helsinki — had been without a bishop
since 2019.
The wait ended on Sept. 29, when
Pope Francis named 54-year-old
Spaniard Father Raimo Goyarrola
Belda, a priest of Opus Dei and former
physician who was sent to Finland 17
years ago as a missionary. Last November,
he was ordained a bishop in
a Lutheran church in Helsinki (since
no Catholic church could fit all the
guests).
What’s it like being a Catholic in one
of the world’s richest countries, but
poorest dioceses? The following is a
translated version of our conversation,
edited for brevity.
Bishop, can you describe what the
Church in Finland looks like?
Finland is similar to Italy in land
area, but only has a population of 5
1/2 million. So the distances are huge.
But thanks to ecumenism, here in
Finland there’s a lot of love among us
Christians, especially the Lutheran
and Orthodox churches, which let us
use their churches to celebrate holy
Mass. That allows us to offer Mass in
non-Catholic, Christian churches at
least once a month in 25 cities where
there’s no Catholic parish.
It’s a very small church, but a church
that’s very alive, with lots of children
and baptisms. It grows. Many migrants
and refugees have been arriving here
over the years, from places like Poland
and Vietnam. From Latin America,
many have come from Cuba, Argenti-
20 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

na, and Chile. Now more are coming
from Nicaragua and Venezuela.
There’s also a wave of migration from
Africa, from countries where there’s a
lot of violence, especially Nigeria and
Cameroon.
We’re a church with a lot of “local”
baptisms but also those of migrants
and refugees. And we’re growing a lot.
We’re a very poor church. The government
doesn’t help us. The support
comes from [Mass] collections, and
our collections are very small because
the people don’t have money.
Then we need to keep the heat on
pretty much year-round, and that’s
very expensive. Yes, Finland is a rich,
developed country, but prices are very
high here.
I’m convinced that we’re the poorest
church in Europe, and perhaps one of
the poorest in the world. This diocese
is also very young. We’re growing and
I’m working toward having an actual
diocesan infrastructure, including a
chancery building, which we don’t
have! I dream of a diocesan retreat
house, of a property to have youth
camps. I dream of having a Catholic
school, which we don’t have. I dream
of a home for the elderly, one that also
offers palliative care. I have a long list
of dreams!
There’s also the war with Ukraine
Then-Father Goyarolla performs an
adult baptism at St. Henry Cathedral
in Helsinki. | COURTESY PHOTO
close by. Sharing a border with Russia,
the electricity rates have risen a lot.
Being poor has its benefits, but the
truth is that sometimes we’re pushed to
the edge.
What do you mean when you say
being poor, in the sense of a ‘poor
church,’ has its benefits in a country
like Finland?
The advantage of being a poor
church is that you have to focus on
God. Because sometimes when we
have means, when we have money,
when we build … we have the temptation
of thinking that it’s we that do
things.
You think it was you that built this
school? That built this parish? In our
“wish list” we need more parishes,
because we’re currently using 25
non-Catholic, Christian churches for
services, but in the future we’ll need
25 new Catholic church buildings.
When you don’t have money, you trust
more in God, of course!
When I went to Germany once, I was
told, “Look, we have a lot of money
here, but perhaps little faith. You in
Finland have little money, but a lot of
faith. You guys have a future!”
Poverty helps you not to get attached
to many things. When you have a lot
of money, you look for more money.
When you have little money, you realize
what’s actually necessary. You don’t
fill yourself with superfluous things.
That helps me.
How is a Catholic supposed to evangelize
in a secularized country like
Finland?
As Pope Francis says, it’s the witness
of each person, wherever one may
be. Evangelization begins with one’s
own self, giving Jesus space: one’s
own conversion and prayer life, their
sacramental life.
How do we bring Jesus to others once
he’s in us? First, be careful and be
a good Christian. The Gospel starts
wherever you are: with your husband,
your wife, your kids, your grandmother,
your parents, whoever’s in that first
circle.
Then, living as good Christians with
your neighbors, your sports buddies
or teammates on the soccer team at
school, or at work: Sometimes, the
witness you give is as simple as making
the sign of the cross before eating
lunch.
We’ve already gotten through the
COVID pandemic, but there are
other viruses here around wintertime.
Well, there’s also a virus called the
New Evangelization. It’s a contagious
virus that produces positive effects,
like joy and peace. It’s a divine virus.
And we are the “carriers” of that peace
and have to “infect” with kindness,
friendship, consolation, with the word
we give to the person next to us.
I think of the first Christians: There
was no internet or cellphones back
then, nor big projects or structures.
How did the early Church grow in a
pagan world? The families, the laity,
that one priest who went around … all
this was the Church!
How did you end up in Finland?
I got here 17 years ago. In 2005, there
was a 50th anniversary celebration for
the Diocese of Helsinki. The bishop
invited bishops from around the world,
including the prelate of Opus Dei.
He asked him to please send him a
priest, and [the prelate] answered that
he didn’t have extra priests! But the
bishop insisted, they thought of me
and I said yes.
I am in love with Finland. I’m Finn-
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 21

ish already, it’s in my heart, my head,
and my passport. This is my country
and I want to live and die here.
What made you fall in love with such
a cold country, where the Church is
so materially poor?
I arrived on a sunny day, it was 73
degrees. Everything was green, the sea
looked beautiful. That helped me.
Then I met the Finns, and I made
many friends
quickly. I felt welcomed,
I loved
the language
and I started
learning it. Finns
are honorable,
hard-working,
and simple
people.
There were
Bishop Goyarrola with
high-schoolers at a summer
camp. He has served
as a school chaplain and
teacher during his time
in Finland. | COURTESY
PHOTO
about 7-8,000 Catholics when I got
here, now we’re about 17-18,000. I fell
in love with the possibility of building
up the Church here, in a big country
at the end of the world: in Spanish,
“Fin-landia” basically means “the end
of the world,” and I saw myself like the
first Christians who traveled very far,
“to the ends of the world.”
And I did fall in love with the circumstances.
It’s true that in my case, when
God calls you, God also helps you.
I see how God has given me many
graces to live in this country and love
it with all my heart.
Starting this new year 2024, what do
you see ahead as the future of the
church in Finland?
I see a young church, dynamic, growing,
and missionary, that’s responsible
for bringing the Word of God to all of
Finland.
That means bringing Jesus in the sacrament,
too. I dream of having Masses
all over the country where people
can be fed by the body of Christ. At
the end of the day, it’s about bringing
Jesus to the whole world, so that in any
corner of this country where there’s
a Catholic, the Word of God and the
Eucharist may be offered. That’s my
dream as a shepherd.
I was with Pope Francis a few weeks
ago before my episcopal ordination.
He often says that he likes shepherds
who smell like their sheep. I told him
that in my case, there’s no sheep here,
but there are reindeer. I told him I
want to be a shepherd who smells like
reindeer, and he laughed quite a bit.
That’s my mission: to bring Jesus to
Catholics so they can have Jesus, so
they can bring Jesus to others. The
Church is an unbreakable chain!
What can the universal Church learn
from the experience of the Church in
Finland?
First of all, I’d say the responsibility
of each Catholic. In many schools
here, there are kids who are the only
Catholic students in the school. It’s the
same for many who work.
It’s an adventure, something positive,
because if I’m the only Catholic here,
I have that personal responsibility
to announce the Gospel. The other
option is to be camouflaged, “low
profile,” so that no one finds out you’re
Catholic. No! If you’re Catholic here,
you’re the only one, and what you
don’t do, no one else will do, either.
The second thing that Finland offers
is ecumenism. Here there’s a trust, a
friendship, a love among Christians
and we want to evangelize together.
We want to become one so that the
world may believe, as Jesus says in the
Last Supper (John 17:21).
In such a secularized society, it’s
necessary that we be one. That’s why
I believe ecumenism is the key to the
future of humanity. Perhaps America is
not moving as quickly away from God,
but here in Europe, the Christian
spirit is dying — and at an incredible
pace.
St. Pope John Paul II said that the
third millennium would either be
Christian or not Christian. He was a
prophet in a lot of things, and I truly
believe that in this third millennium
we Christians all have a marvelous
mission to bring Jesus to the world. Because
if not, this world is going to end.
Although the dynamic is quite
different, it’s interesting that the
Diocese of Helsinki has something in
common with the Archdiocese of LA:
they’re both churches of immigrants.
What role do Catholic immigrants
have in Finland?
That’s an important and difficult
question. There are now more than
100 different nationalities represented
in Finland. For the Catholic Church,
I think diversity of culture and
language is a richness because we’re
the “Catholic” (meaning “universal”)
Church.
We’re called to all peoples, all
22 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

cultures, all languages. So the key is:
What’s authentic Catholicism look
like in this sea of diversity? I think that
what unites is Catholic, what separates
isn’t Catholic. If an activity, or a
thought, or something we do is going
to unite peoples of other races, languages,
and cultures, that’s Catholic. If
it’s Catholic, it lasts.
First, one who comes from outside
contributes their own culture. They
also contribute a different vision of life.
For example, African culture cherishes
family, life, and that breathes air into
European culture, where individualism
is king: Me, me, and then me.
That leaves no room for the family!
I think other cultures can enrich Finland’s
culture. It’s true that Finnish is
very difficult. In fact, many immigrant
refugees prefer Germany or Sweden
because the Finnish language is so
complicated, and that’s an obstacle for
older people. So what happens? Older
people arrive with their children, and
the children who learn Finnish end
up integrating. They become Finns.
I think Catholics in general integrate
well in society, at work, with friends,
in school. So that second generation is
already Finnish.
So the challenge is that first generation
that arrives. And when they arrive,
many are fleeing wars, persecution …
so it’s a beautiful social work.
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden,
imposes hands on Father Goyarrola during his Nov.
25 Ordination Mass in St. John’s Church, a Lutheran
church in Helsinki. | PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 23

OUR CHRISTMAS STORY
“The Nativity,” by Lorenzo Monaco, 1370–1425,
Italian. | METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
What does it
actually mean to
make room for Jesus
in the ‘manger’ of
our heart?
BY FATHER PETER JOHN
CAMERON, OP
The Blessed Virgin Mary gave
birth to her Son “and laid him
in a manger because there was
no room for them” (Luke 2:7). How
many emotions surge up in us when
we read that verse? It may even trigger
feelings of misery, anguish, and rejection
that have hampered our own life.
Horrible words
A harrowing scene in the film
“Schindler’s List” depicts a Jewish
woman desperately dodging capture
by the Nazis on Kristallnacht. She
races to the ingenious hiding place
of a prescient friend. But once there,
the friend, now hysterical with fear,
bars her from entering, sputtering the
horrible words, “There is not enough
room for you.” Then the hatch slams
shut, leaving the hunted woman
stranded in her peril.
Acknowledging a Presence
Fear makes us shut out people. And
yet, what we ourselves dread more
than anything else in life is being left
utterly alone and abandoned — the
24 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

punishment of solitary confinement.
We crave a Presence in our life that
can free us and embrace us. It is faith
that enables us to respond to that
need, for the essence of faith, according
to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is
something that “meets me which is
greater than anything we can think of
for ourselves.” Faith is acknowledging
a Presence that changes us.
A manger is the poorest of beds.
Making room for Jesus in the manger
of our heart begins by confronting the
reality of our own poverty. “There’s
something worse than being needy:
it’s being alone with our self-sufficiency.
Our needy heart is the principal
instrument that has been given to
us to recognize Jesus” (Father Julián
Carrón).
It’s our neediness, our poverty, even
our panic that ultimately moves us to
welcome Christ in … to surrender to
this Presence that knocks at our door.
“When I awake, nothing interests me
but my desire for God’s Presence —
this is poverty” (Servant of God Luigi
Giussani).
A heroic Protestant pastor, Martin
Niemöller, preached stunning
sermons while imprisoned in the
Dachau concentration camp. He says
in a Christmas sermon:
“God, the eternally almighty God,
enters into the most extreme human
poverty imaginable. No person is so
weak and helpless that God does not
come to them in Jesus Christ, right
in the midst of our human need; and
no person is so forsaken and homeless
in this world that God does not
seek them in the midst of our human
distress.”
Go and make room
It is the experience of our forsakenness
and distress that convinces us
of the lavishness of God’s mercy in
singling us out. A heart transformed
by the Presence of Jesus remains on
the lookout for him in the suffering
of others, ready to make room for him.
After my mother died in 2016, I
discovered among her personal effects
a newspaper clipping from the 1970s
she had saved from our local paper.
The title: “Life Tied To Mechanical
Kidneys.” It’s about two hemodialysis
patients who participated in the
mechanical process of having their
blood cleansed at the town’s hospital
three times a week. The first patient
mentioned was my father, who battled
kidney disease for 10 years before he
died at age 49 on Christmas Eve.
I didn’t know such a newspaper
story even existed. It includes quotes
from my father; one mentions how he
would use his free time “organizing
the unit’s patient self-help group.”
That would be just like him.
To make room for Jesus in the
manger of our heart means refusing to
be ruled by rejection. Some months
after my father died, my brother Tim
told me an astonishing story about
my father. Apparently on the hemodialysis
unit worked a disagreeable
orderly, deeply unhappy with life,
who took out his displeasure on the
people around him. He was surly and
rude, going out of his way to make the
patients’ already miserable lives even
more so.
As Christmas approached, my father
asked my brother Tim to take a ride
with him. On the front seat of the car
was a Christmas present with a gift
tag bearing a name my brother didn’t
recognize. It was this orderly’s. My
father had found out where the young
man lived, and had decided to personally
deliver a gift to him. I don’t know
what that Christmas present was, but
this is what it meant: No matter how
you may treat me, I want you in my
life. And I want the love of the One
who has come into my life to change
your life as well. I want to give you his
love. There is enough room for you
here.”
We want to make room for Jesus in
the manger of our heart, not just at
Christmas, but all throughout the
liturgical year. The night before he
dies, Jesus directs his disciples to
prepare the Passover supper for them
all: a “man will show you an upstairs
room. It is there you are to prepare”
(Luke 22:12). A manger is a place for
animals to feed; the Upper Room is
the place of the Last Supper. This preparing
of the Eucharist room symbolizes
the whole work of our Christian
life: to make ourselves ready to receive
Jesus Christ. We say with the French
poet Patrice de La Tour du Pin:
Come back to me:
in my heart there is room for two…
Who speaks this, me or my God?
May it be my voice answering his!
Father Peter John Cameron, OP,
holds the Carl J. Peter Chair of Homiletics
at the Pontifical North American
College in Rome, and is the author of
“Mysteries of the Virgin Mary” (Cluny,
$18.95).
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 25

INTERSECTIONS
GREG ERLANDSON
Who really wants peace?
It seems a bitter irony that during
this season of angelic proclamations
of “peace on earth and goodwill
to men,” we seem so terribly far
from that sentiment. War and rumors
of war fill the air, and there are no
good stories and no happy endings in
sight.
Ukraine is about to complete the
second year of its desperate resistance
to the Russian invasion. Not only is it
locked in a bloody stalemate with a
remorseless and cruel opponent, but it
must also worry if its allies are growing
weary of the fight. One marvels at how
soon America forgets what happens
when one seeks to appease and excuse
A girl lights a candle as people
gather for a vigil in Tel Aviv, Israel,
Nov. 7, to mark the one-month
anniversary of the deadly attack by
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas
on Israel. | OSV NEWS/EVELYN
HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS
dictators bent on conquest. But then,
history has never been our strong suit.
The bloody war in Eastern Europe
has resulted in hundreds of thousands
of casualties. Many thousands
of children have been kidnapped by
Russian troops. Civilians and civilian
infrastructure have been targeted for
bombardment and cities obliterated.
Thousands of cases of war crimes
allegedly committed by Russian troops
are being documented. The Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church is now
being banned in the region held by
Russia, as are the Knights of Columbus
and the Catholic aid organization
Caritas, a foretaste of what the future
will look like for Ukraine’s Catholics
should Russia triumph.
Yet U.S. politicians procrastinate
on providing further aid for Ukraine,
while the West is distracted by the horrors
of October 7 and its aftermath.
The slaughter of Israeli citizens that
dark day reveals an evil intentionally
unleashed upon the land. The assault
by Hamas seems horrifyingly personal
in its cruelty, slaughtering parents
before their children’s eyes and
raping women. The attackers carried
phrase books that told them how to
pronounce phrases like “take off your
pants” in Hebrew.
Yet the Israeli counterattack on
Gaza and the skyrocketing numbers
of civilian dead have muted international
support for Israel as they exact
a brutal revenge on the cities hiding
Hamas’ soldiers. The reprisal seems
as impersonal in its administration as
the Oct. 7 attack was personal. Whole
neighborhoods have been leveled
like wheat before a thresher. Multiple
generations of entire families wiped
out from thousands of feet above.
“They say that we are living in the
Holy Land but instead it feels like we
are living in the land of hatred and
violence,” a butcher in Ramallah told
The New York Times.
In both conflicts, Pope Francis has
called for peace and sought to remind
the world of the innocent lives at
stake. “Let us think about and pray for
populations suffering from war,” he
said at one audience. “Do not forget
the tormented Ukraine and think of
the Palestinian and Israeli people.
May the Lord bring about a just
peace.”
Then he added: “They are suffering
so much,” he said. “Children are
suffering. The sick are suffering. The
26 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

Greg Erlandson is the former president and
editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service.
elderly suffer. And many young people
are dying. War is always a defeat.”
War is always a defeat. Cardinal
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin
patriarch of Jerusalem, bemoans the
consequences of this truth.
In speaking about the Israeli-Hamas
conflict, the cardinal said, “The war
will end sooner or later, but the consequences
of this war will be terrible.
You see, there are two issues that seem
particularly worrisome to me. The
first is that both sides seem to lack a
strategic vision that goes beyond the
annihilation of the other. … There is
no exit strategy.”
The second issue, he said, is the
difficulty Israelis and Palestinians
have of “distancing themselves, even
emotionally, from the heavy past of
both peoples, the Holocaust and the
‘Nakba,’ which was evoked on Oct. 7,”
when Hamas militants entered Israel
and went on their killing and kidnapping
rampage. “Nakba” refers to the
mass displacement of Palestinians
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The same holds true in Eastern
Europe. Russia is hypnotized by the
dream of restoring a lost empire,
looking not just to Ukraine but also
the Baltic States and more. Ukraine
cannot forget its past, the 1932-33
genocide known as the “Holodomor,”
when millions of Ukrainians were
starved to death by Stalin’s regime.
Like an unstaunched artery, the past
bleeds out on the shattered battlefields
of Eastern Ukraine.
How does one make peace when no
one wants peace right now? We are
imprisoned by the crimes of history,
and with each turn of history’s grim
wheel, humanity relives its horrors
again.
A famous icon sets the Nativity in
a cave beneath Golgotha’s hill. The
Child’s shelter becomes the Man’s
tomb. This Christmas, the innocent
joy in the baby Jesus’ birth is necessarily
set against the horror of Good
Friday. For so many of us, we are left
only with prayer and the desperate
trust that death has been defeated.
The Savior has triumphed. Yet how
long must we wait for the promise of
peace on earth to be fulfilled?
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 27

NOW PLAYING THE BOY AND THE HERON
LIVING FOR THE AFTERLIFE
A legendary Japanese animator’s farewell film
ponders our need to leave behind a legacy.
Promotional image for “The Boy and
the Heron.” | ROTTEN TOMATOES/
COURTESY STUDIO GHIBLI
BY JOSEPH JOYCE
The worst part of making art is
being an artist. It’s a thankless
position in life and often only
remunerative after death. Those
lucky exceptions to the rule are then
rewarded with a whole other fresh hell
to accomplish: the final statement. An
artist’s last piece is humbly expected
not only to encapsulate their entire
body of work, but also mine some
eternal truth from the rubble of the
human condition. If they find the
time.
One last problem to the pile is that
lifespans are expanding at an alarming
rate. Back in the good old days, an
artist would cough into a handkerchief,
see blood, and know he had to wrap
things up by age 23. The curse of
statins means we just keep on trucking,
so a director over 80 might have as
many as four final films left in him.
We’ve seen this with Scorsese and
Eastwood, as we wave tearful goodbyes
to each only to find we are all parked
the same block over.
Legendary Japanese animator and
filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki already
had his swan song with the elegiac
“The Wind Rises” in 2013. A decade
later, he has replaced that swan with a
different bird entirely.
“The Boy and the Heron,” released
in theaters Dec. 8, is a fitting salute
to Miyazaki’s career, something of a
jukebox musical of all his greatest hits.
All the stars are here: dead parents,
scrumptious food, moss-strewn ruins,
even bulbous little spirits waddling
about. There’s nothing you haven’t
seen before, but when you accompany
a man through the summation of his
successes and regrets, that goes with
the territory.
The film is set in Miyazaki’s own
boyhood, Japan in the thick of World
War II. (“Heron” and “Godzilla Minus
Zero,” the top two movies at the box
office the week of its premiere, each
present the war from a Japanese
perspective — perhaps their own small
revenge for the success of “Oppenheimer”
this year.) Twelve-year-old
Mahito has recently lost his mother in
a fire and is further unmoored when
his father moves them from Tokyo to
his mother’s sister’s countryside estate.
That he is also marrying her doesn’t
help.
His aunt is no wicked stepmother, she
genuinely loves her nephew and wants
to honor her sister’s memory in raising
him. But it’s this closeness, in role and
even looks, that drives Mahito away.
He’s too young to see her as anything
but a copy of his mother, and frankly
28 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

he’d prefer the real deal. He seems to
treat all women as varying degrees off
from his idealized mother, holding the
aunt and the household old women
with polite scorn.
So when a magical heron starts
swooping about, telling him his real
mother is still alive and that he just
needs to follow him to that totally innocent
creepy tower off in
the garden, Mahito is
suspicious but reluctant
to resist. The heron
kidnapping his aunt
forces him to pursue,
but she seems more
like an excuse than the
quest itself.
Miyazaki has always
been preoccupied with
liminality, the blurred
boundary between
separate worlds. His
heroes are always children
on the threshold
of adulthood and his
settings the pockets of
overlap between the
wilds and civilization,
the supernatural, and
the mundane. Mahito’s
father runs a munitions
factory, but his men
are still forced to lug
the machines by hand
up the cracked stone
steps of the house. Here
the gateway is a tower
carved from a meteorite,
which struck the land
just before the Meiji
Restoration, when Japan
opened its borders
after centuries of isolation. The family
and the country may have modernized,
but the tower lurks enigmatically in the
corner of the garden, posing questions
and despising answers.
Mahito follows the heron into an
alternate world of murderous birds,
the heron himself the least of his
worries. Here Miyazaki reminds us that
dinosaurs never really went away, they
just grew too small and adorable to eat
us as they still desire. In the parlance of
The Beatles there is a different sort of
violent bird here, represented by several
awesome women who accomplish
most of Mahito’s quest for him. One
of these is Mahito’s mother, who years
ago entered the tower herself. Time
moves differently in this world, so
Mahito knows soon she must inevitably
leave to birth him and die in flames.
The world through the looking glass
isn’t the afterlife (as in Miyazaki’s most
famous work “Spirited Away” in 2001),
but the dreamscape of a mere mortal.
Mahito’s top-hatted great-great uncle
walked through the tower years ago
and now rules the world like the Wizard
of Oz, only this time with powers.
Oz is perhaps the perfect analogy, for if
Oz was just CTE nightmares of a concussed
Dorothy, the dream world here
is the exposed ID of Miyazaki himself.
Hence the familiar sights aren’t mere
references or recyclings, but a man
poking and prodding about his own
psyche.
Like Miyazaki, the wizard is nearing
his end and looking for his successor.
Succession has been the prevalent
theme of the 2010s,
even the name of one of
its more popular shows.
The media merely
reflects our own world,
run by a puttering
gerontocracy unwilling
to trust the generation it
raised to take the reins.
Those shows tend to
agree, the likes of Logan
Roy and Eli Gemstone
finding no one up to
the task of holding their
kingdoms together.
Where Miyazaki differs
is his ambivalence
to his own legacy. His
fantasies have comforted
audiences on both
sides of the Pacific, but
he recognizes that fantasy,
and indeed comfort,
are as much escape as
balms.
When offered the keys
to his kingdom, both
Mahito and his mother
choose instead to return
to their world, despite
the pain and even death
that awaits them. The
film’s Japanese title is
“How Do You Live?,” a
question pondered by philosophers and
LeAnn Rimes throughout history. It is
perhaps the only question, the tower’s
primary riddle with no answer.
But if this is Miyazaki’s parting message
in the face of death, he takes the
best guess I’ve heard yet. How do you
live? By living.
Hayao Miyazaki in 2012. |
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Joseph Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance
critic based in Sherman Oaks.
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
Write your own obituary
SHUTTERSTOCK
Recently I read a book called
“God of Surprises” (Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co,
$22.99), in which author Gerard W.
Hughes suggests, as a spiritual exercise,
writing your own obituary.
In a 2022 column, Father Ron
Rolheiser makes a similar suggestion,
pointing out, “There comes a time
in life when it’s time to stop writing
your résumé and begin to write your
obituary.”
I’m always at my best in the early
morning after a lengthy time alone
with Jesus and two cups of strong
coffee, which, happily, was the state
in which I came upon the passage in
“God of Surprises.”
So I seized my pen and notebook
and with zero forethought wrote, “She
lived life to the fullest, every moment!
She struggled, sought, suffered,
pondered, stretched herself. She asked
Christ to restore her sight. She made
a beautiful home, wherever she was.
She loved flowers, trees, birds, the sky,
the sea. She loved walking, reading,
playing the piano, and she ordered her
life so as to allow maximum time to
enjoy and praise those things. She was
lively. She had a sense of humor and a
spirit of fun. She had many character
defects — hardness of heart, impatience,
quickness to judge — but she
worked on them and asked constantly
for them to be removed. She”…
Just then, someone called who needed
my help and I broke off.
So far, I haven’t gone back to complete
my obituary. (Father Rolheiser
suggests that we review and rewrite it
each year).
But afterward I was struck that what
came out so spontaneously wasn’t,
“She spent 20 years of her life on a bar
stool and committed many egregious
sins during and after that time,” nor
“She was mean to her mother while in
adolescence and has bitterly regretted
the meanness ever since,” nor “Her
severe narcissistic wound led her to
take everything personally, hog the
conversation, and demand love and
attention far beyond her share.”
Nor on the other hand did I write,
“She was valedictorian of her eighthgrade
class, seventh in her class of
more than 300 her first year of law
school, and has won several awards for
her writing.”
I didn’t even put down, “She quit her
high-paying job as a lawyer to pursue
her vocation of writing,” or “She’s
been sober 36 years,” or “She converted
to Catholicism in 1996 and it has
been the crown and glory of her life.”
30 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
I wrote what fills me with daily
joy. I wrote the things for which I’m
grateful.
“Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy
house and the place where Thy glory
dwelleth” (Psalm 28:6).
I didn’t even have time to get to my
siblings, my friends, my companions
in recovery, my fellow members of the
Mystical Body, the angels, martyrs,
saints, and unsung heroes who shore
me up, light the way, and demonstrate
every minute of my life that, as St.
Catherine of Siena said, “All the way
to heaven is heaven.”
Speaking of heaven, the Advent and
Christmas seasons are simultaneously
exhausting and strangely exhilarating.
All kinds of bustling activity lead up to
the birth of a baby — and then we’re
invited to turn inward, taking stock of
the previous 12 months and contemplating
the 12 months ahead.
A wonderful passage in “The Way of
the Disciple” (Ignatius Press, $14.95),
a short book by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis
(now known as Father Simeon, a
Trappist monk at St. Joseph’s Abbey in
Spencer, Massachusetts) captures the
paradox:
“True, Jesus ‘gives us rest.’ But we
must be clear that such ‘rest’ is totally
different from ‘resting up’ in order to
get back to the daily toils of life, different,
too, from recreation or distraction
or vacationing, all of which are ordered
to getting back to the ‘serious’ part of
life. It seems to me that this ‘rest for
our souls’ is intended by Jesus to be a
real and genuine state of life, the natural
condition in which a child of God
habitually exists, and not just a passing
phase of recovery. It is a deep condition
of soul that is quite compatible
with all the ordinary, exterior activities
and efforts of human life. The one who
truly becomes God’s child, like Jesus,
enjoys such rest as the very element of
existence in which he swims.”
Left to my own devices, I tend to veer
between frenetic activity and physical-emotional
collapse.
Still, that I was able to regard the
sweep of my life and write so freely
that recent morning is perhaps a sign
of having been granted a certain “rest
for my soul.” Beneath the surface anxiety,
could it be that all those years of
struggling, stretching, and praying had
resulted in a strange kind of underlying
peace as a state of life?
I hardly dare voice such a thought, as
we all know what happens next: an utterly
trifling occurrence — a banking
snafu, a tire with low air — will throw
me completely off course.
Still, I say: Enjoy those moments of
peace when they come!
So as we enter 2024, let’s try writing
our own obituary. Then let’s keep
on living, as fully and as long as we
possibly can.
SHUTTERSTOCK

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
The hero is the family
When I wrote my book “Joy to the World,” I made
a novel claim. I argued that the Christmas story
seemed to lack a hero, at least in any conventional
literary sense of the term.
Hear me out.
We tend to read the Gospel narrative through 2,000 years
of tradition, and so it seems obvious to us that the hero is
Jesus. He’s the “reason for the season.” He’s the Christ we
strive to keep in Christ-mas. It’s his story we hear — and
“The Holy Family with Mary Magdalen,” by El Greco,
1541-1614, Greek. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
then go out to “tell it on the mountain.”
But baby Jesus doesn’t fit the classical model of a hero.
He’s passive: nursed and placed to sleep in a manger, found
on his mother’s lap by the Magi, carried away in flight to
Egypt. Like any baby, he exercises a powerful attraction —
drawing love from those who draw near. Yet he is visible
only because other arms are holding him.
The Christmas story actually has an unconventional hero
— not a warrior, not a worldly conqueror, not an individual
at all, but rather a family. The details of the story always
lead us back to that fact. We see the swaddling bands and
know they’re for a baby; but someone had to do the swaddling.
So we have a mother and child. We have a father.
We have a household. We hear tell of the manger-crib
where he lay; but someone needed to place him there. We
read of the child’s exile in Egypt; but someone had to take
him there — someone had to protect him from brigands
along the desert roads — and someone had to work hard to
support the mother and baby in a foreign land.
The scenes of Christmas are dramatic precisely because
they involve the intersection of so many individual lives.
Indeed, the other details of the story derive their meaning
from the Gospel’s primary focus on the family. Herod,
for example, is clearly anti-family and anti-child. History
tells us that King Herod slaughtered his own sons; and the
Gospel shows him commanding his soldiers to turn their
swords upon the children of Bethlehem.
The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key
to Christianity. The family is a key to everything. St. Pope
John Paul II noted that everything good — history, humanity,
salvation — “passes by way of the family.”
One of the most profound implications of the Christmas
story is this: that God had made his dwelling place among
men, women, and children, and he called them to become
his family, his holy household.
And so we find ourselves again at the center of the drama.
We live in families that have their struggles. We find ourselves,
as a society, facing anti-life, anti-family forces that
seem unbeatable.
We must never despair. We must remember Christmas
and press on toward Bethlehem. The Holy Family enjoyed
the protection of heaven, and now we are Jesus’ holy family.
We are his household on earth. God will empower us
to accomplish his will for our time. Christmas is our proof.
Christmas is our assurance.
32 • ANGELUS • December 29, 2023

■ MONDAY, DECEMBER 25
Classical Midnight Mass. St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church,
15520 Ventura Blvd., Encino, 12 a.m. Full choir, soloists,
and chamber orchestra will perform Christmas Mass. Service
is preceded by hymns and carols at 11:30 p.m.
■ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29
“God’s GPS: The Road Less Traveled” New Year’s Retreat.
Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino. Retreat
runs Friday, 2 p.m.-Sunday, 12 p.m. For more information,
visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 6
La Befana Celebration. Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Church, 23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall, 12 p.m. Hosted by
the Italian Catholic Club of SCV, includes Italian dinner,
puppeteer, dancing, and Italian Santa Claus with gifts for
children. Cost: $25/adults, $10/children 7-16, under 7 free.
RSVP to Anna Riggs at 661-645-7877.
Mass for the Intention of Father Aloysius’ Beatification
and Canonization. San Gabriel Mission, 425 S. Junipero
Serra Dr., San Gabriel, 7:30 a.m. rosary, 8 a.m. Mass. Mass
to pray for the canonization of Father Aloysius will take
place on the first Saturday of every month.
■ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10
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.
Changing Seasons: Ordinary Time. Zoom, 7-8:30 p.m.
Class led by Father Juan Ochoa will explore the Bible readings
for Ordinary Time. Visit lacatholics.org/events.
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 13
Bereavement Retreat. St. Raymond Church, 12348 Paramount
Blvd., #3538, Downey, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Find help and
healing in grief. Day includes 5 p.m. Mass. Cost: $50/person,
includes continental breakfast, lunch, and all materials.
Payment can be made to St. Raymond Church or through
Zelle to 562-631-8844. RSVP by Jan. 2 to bereavement.
ministry@yahoo.com.
Christian Coaching: Prospering the Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30
a.m.-3:30 p.m. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or
call 818-815-4480.
30th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast.
Proud Bird Restaurant, 11022 Aviation Blvd., Los Angeles,
8-11 a.m. Organized by the African American Catholic
Center for Evangelization. Keynote speaker: Professor
Michael Howard, Black Catholic program, LMU. Cost: $50/
donation. Visit aaccfe.org.
■ SUNDAY, JANUARY 14
Diaconate Virtual Information Day. 2-4 p.m. Open to all
those interested in joining the diaconate program. Email
your name, parish, and pastor’s name to dmz2011@la-archdiocese.org.
■ MONDAY, JANUARY 15
End of Life Preparation. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree
Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP to
Cathy by Jan. 10 at 562-631-8844.
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 20
OneLife LA. LA State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St., Los
Angeles, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Join Archbishop José H. Gomez on
a walk for life through downtown Los Angeles, followed by
a festival with speakers, music, and food. Theme: “10 Years
Together As One.” For more information, visit onelifela.org.
Alleluia Dance Theatre: Embracing All There Is. Holy Spirit
Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. For
more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.
100th Celebration. St. Sebastian Church, 1453 Federal
Ave., Los Angeles, 10 a.m. Mass. Celebrant: Bishop Matthew
Elshoff. Reception to follow. Email stsebastianoffice@
gmail.com.
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 27
The Indwelling Wholeness of the Trinity. St. Andrew
Church, 538 Concord St., El Segundo, 9:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
Retreat focuses on a contemplative experience to prayerfully
enter the inner sanctum of the heart in the art of attention.
Cost: $25/offering, includes continental breakfast
and lunch salad bar. RSVP by Jan. 20. Contact nbstjames@
gmail.com.
■ MONDAY, JANUARY 29
End of Life Preparation. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree
Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP to
Cathy by Jan. 10 at 562-631-8844.
■ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2
Ethical Leadership Lunch. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m.-1:30
p.m. Event brings together Catholic leaders from the
business world to discuss how ethical practices positively
impact our community. For more, visit lacatholics.org/
events.
■ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3
Nun Run, 5K, 1-Mile, and Community Service Fair. La
Reina High School, 106 W. Janss Rd., Thousand Oaks,
8 a.m. 10th annual Nun Run, hosted by Sisters of Notre
Dame, will raise proceeds for local and global outreach.
Visit nun.run.
■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7
Changing Seasons: Lent to Palm Sunday. Zoom, 7-8:30
p.m. Class led by Father Felix Just, SJ, will explore Bible
readings for Lent to Palm Sunday. Visit lacatholics.org/
events.
■ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Valentine’s Dinner. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church,
23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall, 12 p.m. Hosted by the Italian
Catholic Club of SCV, includes complimentary glass of
wine. Cost: $45/person. RSVP to Anna Riggs at 661-645-
7877 by Feb. 5.
■ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15
Youth Day: RECongress. Anaheim Convention Center,
200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Young
people will enjoy a general session, keynote speech, two
workshops, and Eucharistic liturgy. Speakers include Baby
Angel, Chris Estrella, and Maggie Craig. Cost: $40/person.
Register at recongress.org.
■ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16
Religious Education Congress. Anaheim Convention
Center, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim. Events run Feb.
16-18, and include speakers, sacraments, films, and
workshops. Keynote speaker: Jessica Sarowitz, founder of
Miraflores Films. Cost: $75/person until Jan. 15, $85 after.
For more information, visit recongress.org.
Items for the calendar of events are due four weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be emailed to calendar@angelusnews.com.
All calendar items must include the name, date, time, address of the event, and a phone number for additional information.
December 29, 2023 • ANGELUS • 33