Angelus News | December 29, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 26
On the cover: 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.
On the cover: 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.
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ANGELUS<br />
GIVING BACK<br />
TO GUADALUPE<br />
An LA singer’s ‘Mañanitas’ miracle<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> <strong>Vol</strong>. 8 <strong>No</strong>. <strong>26</strong>
B • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
ANGELUS<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>Vol</strong>. 8 • <strong>No</strong>. <strong>26</strong><br />
3424 Wilshire Blvd.,<br />
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241<br />
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Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese<br />
of Los Angeles by The Tidings<br />
(a corporation), established 1895.<br />
Publisher<br />
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ<br />
Vice Chancellor for Communications<br />
DAVID SCOTT<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
PABLO KAY<br />
pkay@angelusnews.com<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
Local journalist and musician Rosy Oros had her “Guadalupe<br />
moment” with Our Lady at this year’s “Las Mañanitas”<br />
celebration at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels<br />
Dec. 11-12. On Page 10, <strong>Angelus</strong> contributor Theresa<br />
Cisneros has the story of the near-death experience that<br />
Oros believes she survived only thanks to the prayers of<br />
the Virgin she’s held close to since childhood.<br />
THIS PAGE<br />
OSV NEWS/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN, REUTERS<br />
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris inserts the relics of Sts.<br />
Denis, Genevieve, and the relics of Christ’s crown of thorns<br />
into the golden rooster in Paris Dec. 16, prior to its installation<br />
at the top of the spire of the <strong>No</strong>tre Dame Cathedral.<br />
The rooster symbolizes resilience amid destruction after<br />
the devastating April 2019 fire that nearly destroyed the<br />
church.<br />
Associate Editor<br />
MIKE CISNEROS<br />
Multimedia Editor<br />
TAMARA LONG-GARCÍA<br />
Production Artist<br />
ARACELI CHAVEZ<br />
Photo Editor<br />
VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
Managing Editor<br />
RICHARD G. BEEMER<br />
Assistant Editor<br />
HANNAH SWENSON<br />
Advertising Manager<br />
JIM GARCIA<br />
jagarcia@angelusnews.com<br />
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CONTENTS<br />
Pope Watch.................................................................................................................................... 2<br />
Archbishop Gomez..................................................................................................................... 3<br />
World, Nation, and Local <strong>News</strong>.......................................................................................... 4-6<br />
In Other Words............................................................................................................................. 7<br />
Father Rolheiser............................................................................................................................ 8<br />
Scott Hahn................................................................................................................................... 32<br />
Events Calendar......................................................................................................................... 33<br />
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14<br />
16<br />
18<br />
20<br />
24<br />
<strong>26</strong><br />
28<br />
30<br />
The growing army of volunteers behind the success of ‘Adopt-a-Family’<br />
Eighty-nine-year-old ‘Sister T’ has always had a heart for the sick<br />
John Allen breaks down a once-mighty Vatican cardinal’s guilty verdict<br />
Meet Finland’s new bishop and his long list of dreams<br />
Why the manger of Christmas holds the key to Christian life<br />
Greg Erlandson: Searching for peace when no one seems to want it<br />
What’s a Japanese anime legend’s farewell film trying to tell us?<br />
Heather King: How it feels to write your own obituary<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 1
POPE WATCH<br />
An AI warning<br />
All forms of artificial intelligence<br />
should be used to alleviate<br />
human suffering, not increase<br />
inequality and injustice in the world,<br />
Pope Francis said in his message for<br />
World Peace Day 2024.<br />
“Artificial intelligence ought to serve<br />
our best human potential and our highest<br />
aspirations, not compete with them,”<br />
the pope said in his message for the Jan.<br />
1 commemoration.<br />
The message, “Artificial Intelligence<br />
and Peace,” was addressed to all men<br />
and women in the world, and in particular<br />
to heads of state and government,<br />
and the leaders of the different religions<br />
and civil society. It was released Dec. 14<br />
at a Vatican news conference.<br />
The pope’s message highlighted the<br />
“need to strengthen or, if necessary, to<br />
establish bodies charged with examining<br />
the ethical issues arising in this field<br />
and protecting the rights of those who<br />
employ forms of artificial intelligence or<br />
are affected by them.”<br />
The impact of any form of artificial<br />
intelligence “depends not only on its<br />
technical design, but also on the aims<br />
and interests of its owners and developers,<br />
and on the situations in which it<br />
will be employed,” he said.<br />
Positive outcomes “will only be<br />
achieved if we show ourselves capable<br />
of acting responsibly and respect such<br />
fundamental human values as ‘inclusion,<br />
transparency, security, equity, privacy,<br />
and reliability,’ ” the pope added.<br />
The huge advances in new information<br />
technologies, he said, “offer<br />
exciting opportunities and grave risks,<br />
with serious implications for the pursuit<br />
of justice and harmony among peoples.”<br />
Questions must be asked, the pope<br />
said, about the impact of these technologies<br />
on people’s lives and on international<br />
peace.<br />
In his message, Francis pinpointed<br />
specific technologies and advancements<br />
in the world of artificial intelligence that<br />
require urgent attention and oversight<br />
such as: machine or deep learning;<br />
surveillance systems; social credit or<br />
ranking systems; and lethal autonomous<br />
weapons systems or LAWs.<br />
The weaponization of artificial<br />
intelligence through LAWs, he said,<br />
“is a cause for grave ethical concern.<br />
Autonomous weapon systems can never<br />
be morally responsible subjects,” and<br />
so “it is imperative to ensure adequate,<br />
meaningful, and consistent human<br />
oversight of weapon systems.”<br />
Francis also called on the global<br />
community of nations to work together<br />
to adopt “a binding international treaty<br />
that regulates the development and<br />
use of artificial intelligence in its many<br />
forms.”<br />
Regulation should aim not only at<br />
preventing harmful practices but also at<br />
encouraging best practices, he added.<br />
Fundamentally, he said, in a world<br />
of seemingly limitless technological<br />
possibilities, people risk falling prey to a<br />
“technocratic system,” which “allies the<br />
economy with technology and privileges<br />
the criterion of efficiency, tending to<br />
ignore anything unrelated to its immediate<br />
interests.”<br />
“In an obsessive desire to control<br />
everything, we risk losing control over<br />
ourselves,” he said. “In the quest for an<br />
absolute freedom, we risk falling into<br />
the spiral of a ‘technological dictatorship.’<br />
”<br />
Reporting courtesy of Catholic <strong>News</strong><br />
Agency.<br />
Papal Prayer Intention for <strong>December</strong>: We pray that people<br />
living with disabilities may be at the center of attention in<br />
society, and that institutions may offer inclusive programs<br />
which value their active participation.<br />
2 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
NEW WORLD OF FAITH<br />
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ<br />
Love comes down on Christmas<br />
Merry Christmas!<br />
On Christmas we celebrate<br />
the Love of God who comes<br />
down from the highest heaven to<br />
make his home with us here on earth.<br />
The Child, wrapped in swaddling<br />
clothes and laid tenderly in a manger<br />
by his mother, is the Love who<br />
created the universe, the Love who<br />
created each one of us, and the Love<br />
who still moves the sun and moon<br />
and sustains everything that lives and<br />
has breath.<br />
Jesus is born in the dark night, in the<br />
poverty of a stable, to a poor mother<br />
and her husband. The only ones who<br />
know are the simple shepherds out in<br />
the fields who hear the angels singing<br />
high above in the heavens.<br />
This is more than an ancient story<br />
that we remember once a year. It’s a<br />
story that you and I are now a part of.<br />
Christmas is the feast of divine love!<br />
The Christmas mystery is the mystery<br />
of God’s love for you and me, and for<br />
every person.<br />
God who is Love comes down to us<br />
in all humility, exchanging his divinity<br />
for a share in our humanity.<br />
Jesus comes, just as the prophet<br />
Isaiah promised he would, like “a<br />
great light” breaking into this “land of<br />
gloom.” He comes to light our path<br />
through this world of darkness.<br />
And in his glorious light we see our<br />
life’s true worth. We see why we are<br />
here, and who we are made to be!<br />
You are precious to God! That is the<br />
meaning of this holy day. Love came<br />
down from heaven for you.<br />
Jesus takes on our likeness so that he<br />
can be near to us in our hopes and<br />
dreams, in our joys and sorrows. He<br />
takes on our likeness, so that we can<br />
become like him.<br />
Jesus is born a child of Mary, so that<br />
we can be born again as children of<br />
God.<br />
This is what Christmas discloses:<br />
that God desires you to become his<br />
beloved sons and daughters. We<br />
should let that truth fill our lives.<br />
This wondrous God, whom the<br />
prophet called “Father-Forever,” loves<br />
you with a love that is beyond all<br />
telling, a love that begins in his own<br />
heart and calls you to a love that will<br />
never end in heaven.<br />
We need to take the spirit of Christmas<br />
into our hearts, and accept the<br />
beautiful gift of our Savior’s love.<br />
The first Christians used to say, “We<br />
have come to know and to believe in<br />
the love God has for us.”<br />
We too need to know and believe<br />
in God’s love for us. He loves the<br />
world so much, he loves you and me<br />
so much, that he sent his only Son to<br />
save us from our sins and free us from<br />
death.<br />
Jesus made his whole life a gift,<br />
an offering of his love for you. On<br />
Christmas day, he is born for you and<br />
is laid in a manger. But when he is<br />
grown, he will lay down his life for<br />
you on a cross.<br />
He comes to live and die and rise so<br />
that we might have a new life through<br />
him. This is how much your life is<br />
worth to God.<br />
And this wondrous love asks for an<br />
answer from us.<br />
We all have things in our lives that<br />
we regret, the bitter fruits of selfishness,<br />
sin, and weakness. God knows<br />
our limitations. But Love has come<br />
down for us, and now the darkness is<br />
passing away, the true light is already<br />
shining, showing us the way forward.<br />
“For a Child is born to us, a Son is<br />
given to us,” the prophet said. In the<br />
Child we meet in the manger, our<br />
sins are forgiven, every burden of the<br />
past is lifted.<br />
If we believe in his love, if we follow<br />
in his footsteps, he will give us the<br />
power to become children of God, to<br />
live and love with joy!<br />
My Christmas wish is that you will<br />
know and believe in God’s love for<br />
you!<br />
Like the shepherds, let us hasten to<br />
the manger to welcome the Child<br />
with reverence and thanksgiving.<br />
One of the saints used to greet the<br />
morning this way: “Blessed be this<br />
new day, which is Christmas for the<br />
earth, since Jesus wants to live it in<br />
me again.”<br />
Jesus wants to be born in your heart<br />
and mine, just as he was born of<br />
Mary. Through you and through me,<br />
he wants to meet the people of our<br />
On Christmas day, Jesus is born for you and is<br />
laid in a manger. But when he is grown, he will lay<br />
down his life for you on a cross.<br />
time, to love them and serve them<br />
and save them. Love comes down<br />
from heaven so that we can love and<br />
be loved.<br />
Pray for me and I will pray for you.<br />
And in this holy season, surrounded<br />
by the light of Love, let us ask the<br />
Virgin Mary to help her Son to be<br />
born in all of us once again.<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 3
WORLD<br />
■ Pope Francis won’t be buried in the Vatican<br />
Pope Francis said he’ll be buried in the Roman Basilica of St.<br />
Mary Major, instead of the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, in a new<br />
interview.<br />
Francis, who turned 87 on Dec. 18, told Mexican news outlet N+<br />
that he’s developed a “great devotion” to the Church over the years<br />
and that his burial place there is “already prepared.” He also said<br />
he’s been preparing the rites for his funeral.<br />
“We simplified them quite a bit,” he said, and jokingly added that<br />
“I will premiere the new ritual.”<br />
The last pope to be buried somewhere other than St. Peter’s<br />
Basilica was Pope Leo XIII in 1903. Francis will be only the seventh<br />
pope to be buried at St. Mary Major, and the first since Pope<br />
Clement IX in 1669.<br />
Pope Francis prays before the icon of Mary, “Salus Populi Romani,” in the<br />
Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome April 1. | HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE<br />
■ Two Gaza Christians killed by Israeli sniper<br />
A mother and daughter were allegedly shot and killed by an Israel Defense Forces sniper at Gaza’s only Catholic parish.<br />
According to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot while walking to a convent<br />
at Holy Family Parish compound Dec. 16.<br />
“One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” the patriarchate said, adding that seven more people were shot<br />
and wounded while trying to protect others in the church compound.<br />
The same day, the patriarchate said, an Israel tank fired at a Missionaries of Charity convent that is home to “54 disabled<br />
persons and is part of the church compound, which was signaled as a place of worship since the beginning of the war.”<br />
<strong>No</strong> deaths were reported, but the attack left the home “uninhabitable” and some displaced patients were without access<br />
to respirators.<br />
As of press time, Israeli authorities had not commented on the incidents.<br />
Our Lady remains — A man holds a statue of Mary during a procession on the perimeter of<br />
the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, <strong>No</strong>v. <strong>26</strong>, as part of traditional Immaculate<br />
Conception celebrations. The limited procession came after Nicaragua’s government banned<br />
street processions this year due to unspecified security concerns. | OSV NEWS/MAYNOR<br />
VALENZUELA, REUTERS<br />
■ Vatican issues update to<br />
cremation guidelines<br />
The Vatican’s chief doctrinal official appeared to<br />
loosen restrictions on burying cremated remains.<br />
A senior Italian cardinal had sent an inquiry to<br />
the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith asking<br />
whether commingling the ashes of two or more<br />
cremated people was permissible, and whether a<br />
portion of ashes could be kept in a personal place.<br />
To the first question, dicastery prefect Cardinal<br />
Víctor Manuel Fernández answered yes, provided<br />
that they be placed in “a defined and permanent<br />
sacred place” where the deceased’s names can be<br />
indicated.<br />
To the second, he said Church authorities can<br />
grant permission to such a request under certain<br />
conditions, including that “every type of pantheistic,<br />
naturalistic, or nihilistic misunderstanding”<br />
be ruled and that a “sacred place” is used.<br />
“We can’t have urns of, say, your mother or your<br />
grandmother being placed on the mantle in your<br />
house, which a lot of people want to do,” Dominican<br />
theologian Father Thomas Petri, told EWTN<br />
<strong>News</strong> Nightly when asked about the update.<br />
“That’s just not the Christian practice.”<br />
4 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
NATION<br />
Mary’s Lone Star milestone — A lighted projection of Our Lady of Guadalupe is seen<br />
on the exterior of the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas<br />
on her feast day, Dec. 12. This was the first celebration of the feast of Our Lady of<br />
Guadalupe since the cathedral had been elevated to a national shrine by the U.S. Conference<br />
of Catholic Bishops. | OSV NEWS/MICHAEL GRESHAM, THE TEXAS CATHOLIC<br />
■ SCOTUS passes on<br />
conversion therapy, again<br />
Three Catholic Supreme Court justices challenged<br />
their court’s decision not to hear a case dealing with<br />
how to best help minors who want to change their<br />
sexual orientation or gender identity.<br />
The case was filed by a faith-based Washington state<br />
family and marriage counselor challenging his state’s<br />
ban on what is sometimes described as “conversion<br />
therapy.” In his dissent from the court’s decision,<br />
Justice Clarence Thomas argued that Washington’s law<br />
censored one side of the debate.<br />
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation,<br />
it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe<br />
what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism,<br />
religion, or other matters of opinion,” wrote Justice<br />
Thomas. “Yet, under SB 5722, licensed counselors<br />
cannot voice anything other than the state-approved<br />
opinion on minors with gender dysphoria without<br />
facing punishment.”<br />
The challenge is the fourth to be rejected by the<br />
courts since California’s first-in-the-nation law banning<br />
the practice in 2014. Thomas was joined by Justice<br />
Samuel Alito Jr. and Justice Brett Kavanaugh in voting<br />
to hear the case.<br />
■ The FBI’s Catholic conundrum<br />
A recent report revealed that the FBI did not have a working definition of “Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology (RTC),”<br />
when its Richmond field office issued a memo warning that “RTC” posed a rising domestic threat.<br />
“The basis for the Richmond memorandum relied on a single investigation in the Richmond Field Office’s area of responsibility<br />
in which the subject ‘self-described’ as a ‘radical-traditionalist Catholic,’ ” read a Dec. 4 report from the Select Subcommittee<br />
on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.<br />
“However, FBI employees could not define the meaning of an RTC when preparing, editing, or reviewing the memorandum,”<br />
the report continues. “Even so, this single investigation became the basis for an FBI-wide memorandum warning<br />
about the dangers of ‘radical’ Catholics.”<br />
While FBI director Christopher Wray maintains that the memo — which called for “new mitigation opportunities” to<br />
combat traditional Catholic communities — was the product only of the Richmond office, the report continued the subcommittee’s<br />
allegation that four offices contributed, including Los Angeles.<br />
■ Reggaeton legend Daddy<br />
Yankee ends career ‘for Christ’<br />
Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee has announced he’s ending his<br />
30-year career in order to “live for Christ.”<br />
Born Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, Ayala has been ranked one of the top 100<br />
global influencers, topped the charts in over 50 countries under his stage name,<br />
and brought in an estimated $120 million on his latest tour.<br />
“I realized something that the Bible says, what’s it worth to a man to gain the<br />
whole world if he loses his soul,” Ayala wrote in a Dec. 4 Instagram post.<br />
“I recognize and am not ashamed to tell the whole world: Jesus lives in me<br />
and I will live for him,” he continued. “A new story is going to begin, a new<br />
beginning, all the tools that I have in my possession, such as music, social media,<br />
platforms, a microphone, everything that Jesus gave me is now for the kingdom.”<br />
Daddy Yankee at a New Year’s 2022 performance in Puerto<br />
Rico. | GLADYS VEGA/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISCOVER<br />
PUERTO RICO<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 5
LOCAL<br />
■ Unclaimed dead remembered at interfaith service<br />
Nearly 2,000 unclaimed bodies were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles<br />
as part of an interfaith ceremony annually put on by the LA County Board of<br />
Supervisors.<br />
Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes and Father Chris Ponnet, pastor at St. Camillus<br />
Center for Spiritual Care, were among those praying at the event, remembering<br />
1,937 people who died in 2020, but whose bodies were unclaimed, were cremated,<br />
and laid to rest. Ponnet said the number of unclaimed dead is higher than normal,<br />
likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />
“The key piece is that we believe in the dignity of each person,” Ponnet said.<br />
“That includes while they’re in the womb, and while they’re alive as well as when<br />
they die. So this is a moment in which we as churches, but also uniquely run by<br />
the Board of Supervisors, a government entity, that sees these people with a sense of<br />
respect and dignity that many other entities don’t.”<br />
Waiting for baby Jesus — The Saints Among Us ministry at St. Mel Church in Woodland Hills, which provides<br />
accessible activities and resources for families and children with special needs, presented a Christmas pageant on Dec.<br />
10 in its auditorium. | ST. MEL CHURCH<br />
■ Sacramento Diocese<br />
to file for bankruptcy<br />
The Diocese of Sacramento announced<br />
it would file for bankruptcy<br />
as a measure to resolve more<br />
than 250 sexual abuse lawsuits filed<br />
after California passed a law allowing<br />
victims to file claims after the<br />
statute of limitations had ended.<br />
In a letter Dec. 9, Bishop Jaime<br />
Soto emphasized that only the<br />
administrative office of the bishop<br />
would seek bankruptcy protection,<br />
while parishes, schools, and other<br />
Catholic organizations affiliated<br />
with the diocese “would be largely<br />
unaffected.”<br />
In an FAQ webpage about the<br />
bankruptcy, the site said that “more<br />
than 80 percent” of the 250-plus<br />
claims are from the 1980s or earlier,<br />
with only six cases occurring<br />
after safeguards were implemented<br />
in 2002.<br />
“The sickening evil that was perpetrated<br />
upon innocent children<br />
— and the failure of church leadership<br />
to address it appropriately —<br />
has caused unfathomable pain that<br />
endures,” Soto said. “It is these sins<br />
that brought us to this place.<br />
“The pain inflicted on them lasts<br />
a lifetime, and so our atonement<br />
must be a lifetime commitment.”<br />
Y<br />
Staff at St. Francis de Sales Catholic School in Sherman Oaks with some of the gifts<br />
donated to help families. | YANNINA DIAZ<br />
■ Needy families get Christmas<br />
surprise from Sherman Oaks school<br />
Staff and students at St. Francis de Sales Catholic School<br />
in Sherman Oaks partnered with the HoldYou Foundation<br />
to provide Christmas gifts for several families who have<br />
young ones battling a life-threatening illness.<br />
The staff sponsored a family whose 1-year-old son is<br />
battling a rare cancer-like condition for which he is undergoing<br />
chemotherapy. <strong>No</strong>t only were gifts provided for the<br />
boy, but also for his five siblings. Additionally, fourth-grade<br />
students donated gifts to two other families: one with a<br />
baby who was in the NICU and whose mother is on dialysis,<br />
and another with a 2-year-old who has eye cancer.<br />
“I just think families are very deserving of being able to<br />
care for their sick children and there’s not a system to catch<br />
them,” said Natalie Hill, HoldYou’s founder whose husband,<br />
Dominic Campanella, is a fourth-grade teacher at St. Francis de Sales. “So we just are that safety net support system.”<br />
For more information and to donate, visit holdyou.org.<br />
6 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
V<br />
IN OTHER WORDS...<br />
Letters to the Editor<br />
A catechetical moment with the ‘Gloria’<br />
In my 17 years of priesthood, I cannot tell you how many times on<br />
the first Sunday of Advent or Lent people would come up to me after<br />
Mass and say, “Father, you forgot the ‘Gloria,’ OK?” I wish I would have had the<br />
excellent article written by Mike Aquilina that I recently came across in the Dec.<br />
15 issue of <strong>Angelus</strong> magazine.<br />
I am so thankful for this treasure of an article as it has been a tremendous gift to<br />
share with my parishioners this Advent season with its simple-to-follow explanation<br />
and practical application of the “Gloria.”<br />
I look forward to reading more such timely pieces from your publication.<br />
— Father Tony Steinacker, pastor, Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Huntington,<br />
Indiana<br />
Editor’s note<br />
Due to the holidays, the following issue of <strong>Angelus</strong> will be delivered to subscribers<br />
the weekend of Jan. 12, 2024, and the issue after that the weekend of Jan. 19,<br />
resuming our normal biweekly publication schedule.<br />
Y<br />
Continue the conversation! To submit a letter to the editor, visit <strong>Angelus</strong><strong>News</strong>.com/Letters-To-The-Editor<br />
and use our online form or send an email to editorial@angelusnews.com. Please limit to 300 words. Letters<br />
may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity.<br />
Simbang Gabi takes off at the cathedral<br />
“We are told over 365 times<br />
to ‘fear not.’ That’s at least<br />
one ‘fear not’ for every day<br />
of the year.”<br />
~ Anne Ortlund, in a Dec. 8 Desiring God<br />
commentary by her daughter-in-law, Jani.<br />
“It’s not just ‘go away for a<br />
year’ — he’s not coming<br />
back.”<br />
~ Father Michael Tix, vicar general of the<br />
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in a Dec. 15<br />
National Catholic Register article on a U.S. shortage<br />
of extern priests due to changing immigration rules.<br />
“I’m a normal person, just<br />
like you all, going through a<br />
call from God.”<br />
~ Leda Bergonzi, a Catholic faith healer, in a Dec.<br />
15 Washington Post article on the thousands who<br />
come to see her for healing in Argentina.<br />
“You only rejoice that the<br />
landlord is coming if you’re<br />
all paid up on your bill.”<br />
~ Benedictine College, in a Dec. 14 commentary on<br />
whether people would rejoice or be prepared if Christ<br />
came today.<br />
Filipino Catholics had a chance to inspect one another’s colorful “parols” after the annual Simbang Gabi kickoff Mass<br />
Dec. 15 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. | VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
View more photos<br />
from this gallery at<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong><strong>News</strong>.com/photos-videos<br />
Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d<br />
like to share? Please send to editorial @angelusnews.com.<br />
“A Church increasingly<br />
identified with Christ<br />
supports itself only with the<br />
power of truth, and every<br />
time it does so using the<br />
power of lies it will betray its<br />
Founder.”<br />
~ Seventy-eight-year-old Vatican journalist Luis<br />
Badilla, in a Dec. 17 message announcing the end of<br />
his long-running Church blog “Il Sismografo.”<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 7
IN EXILE<br />
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI<br />
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father<br />
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual<br />
writer; ronrolheiser.com<br />
Quiet prophecy<br />
Christian discipleship calls all of<br />
us to be prophetic, to be advocates<br />
for justice, to help give<br />
voice to the poor, and to defend truth.<br />
But not all of us, by temperament or<br />
by particular vocation, are called to<br />
civil disobedience, public demonstrations,<br />
and the picket lines, as were<br />
Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King,<br />
Daniel Berrigan, and other such<br />
prophetic figures. All are asked to be<br />
prophetic, but for some this means<br />
more wielding a basin and towel than<br />
wielding a placard.<br />
There is a powerful way of being<br />
prophetic that, while seemingly quiet<br />
and personal, is never private. And<br />
its rules are the same as the rules for<br />
those who, in the name of Jesus, are<br />
wielding placards and risking civil<br />
disobedience. What are those rules,<br />
rules for a Christian prophecy?<br />
First, a prophet makes a vow of<br />
love, not of alienation. There is a<br />
critical distinction between stirring up<br />
trouble and offering prophecy out of<br />
love, a distinction between operating<br />
out of egoism and operating out of<br />
faith and hope. A prophet risks misunderstanding,<br />
but never seeks it, and a<br />
prophet seeks always to have a mellow<br />
rather than an angry heart.<br />
Second, a prophet draws his or her<br />
cause from Jesus and not from an<br />
ideology. Ideologies can carry a lot<br />
of truth and be genuine advocates for<br />
justice. But, people can walk away<br />
from an ideology, seeing it precisely as<br />
an ideology, as political correctness,<br />
and thus justify their rejection of the<br />
truth it carries.<br />
Sincere people often walk away from<br />
Greenpeace, from Feminism, or Liberation<br />
Theology, from Critical Race<br />
Theory, and many other ideologies,<br />
which in fact carry a lot of truth because<br />
those truths are wrapped inside<br />
an ideology. Sincere people will not<br />
walk away from Jesus. In our struggle<br />
for justice and truth, we must be ever<br />
vigilant that we are drawing our truth<br />
from the Gospels and not from some<br />
ideology.<br />
Third, a prophet is committed to<br />
nonviolence. A prophet is always<br />
seeking to personally disarm rather<br />
than to arm, to be in the words of<br />
Daniel Berrigan, a “powerless criminal<br />
in a time of criminal power.” A<br />
prophet takes Jesus seriously when he<br />
asks us, in the face of violence, to turn<br />
the other cheek. A prophet incarnates<br />
in his or her way of living the eschatological<br />
truth that in heaven there will<br />
be no guns.<br />
Fourth, a prophet articulates God’s<br />
voice for the poor and for the earth.<br />
Any preaching, teaching, or political<br />
action that is not good news for the<br />
poor is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.<br />
Jesus came to bring good news to<br />
the poor, to “widows, orphans, and<br />
strangers” (biblical code for the most<br />
vulnerable groups in society). As<br />
Pastor James Forbes Jr. once famously<br />
said, “<strong>No</strong>body gets into heaven<br />
without a letter of reference from the<br />
poor.” We are not meant to be the<br />
church compatible.<br />
Fifth, a prophet doesn’t foretell<br />
the future but properly names the<br />
present in terms of God’s vision of<br />
things. A prophet reads where the<br />
finger of God is within everyday life,<br />
in function of naming our fidelity<br />
or infidelity to God and in function<br />
of pointing to our future in terms of<br />
God’s plan for us. This is Jesus’ challenge<br />
to read the signs of the times.<br />
Sixth, a prophet speaks out of a<br />
horizon of hope. A prophet draws<br />
his or her vision and energy not from<br />
wishful thinking nor from optimism,<br />
but from hope. And Christian hope<br />
is not based on whether the world<br />
situation is better or worse on a given<br />
day. Christian hope is based on God’s<br />
promise, a promise that was fulfilled<br />
in the resurrection of Jesus, which assures<br />
us that we can entrust ourselves<br />
to love, truth, and justice, even if the<br />
world kills us for it. The stone will<br />
always roll back from the tomb.<br />
Seventh, a prophet’s heart and<br />
cause are never a ghetto. Jesus<br />
assures us that in his Father’s house<br />
there are many rooms. Christian<br />
prophecy must ensure that no person<br />
or group can make God their own<br />
tribal or national deity. God is equally<br />
solicitous vis-à-vis all people and all<br />
nations.<br />
Finally, a prophet doesn’t just<br />
speak or write about injustice, a<br />
prophet also acts and acts with<br />
courage, even at the cost of death. A<br />
prophet is a wisdom figure, a Magus<br />
or a Sophia, who will act, no matter<br />
the cost in lost friends, lost prestige,<br />
lost freedom, or danger to his or her<br />
own life. A prophet has enough altruistic<br />
love, hope, and courage to act,<br />
no matter the cost. A prophet never<br />
seeks martyrdom but accepts it if it<br />
finds him or her.<br />
This last counsel is, I believe, the<br />
one most challenging for “quiet”<br />
prophets. Wisdom figures are not<br />
renowned for being on the picket<br />
lines, but in that lies the challenge.<br />
A prophet can discern at what time<br />
to park the placard and bring out the<br />
basin and towel — and at what time<br />
to lay aside the basin and towel and<br />
pick up the placard.<br />
8 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
ALL EYES ON GUADALUPE<br />
After Rosy Oros experienced near-death, the singer<br />
credits Our Lady of Guadalupe for saving her life.<br />
BY THERESA CISNEROS<br />
A photo of Our Lady of Guadalupe<br />
is displayed among the decorated<br />
floats at the 92nd procession and<br />
Mass at East LA College Stadium<br />
on Dec. 3. | VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
Five years ago, Rosy Oros lay comatose<br />
in a hospital bed in Mexico<br />
— some 1,500 miles away from<br />
home — after experiencing complications<br />
from a medical procedure that<br />
had taken a drastic toll on her body and<br />
mind.<br />
She was suffering internal and external<br />
bleeding, her organs were damaged,<br />
and doctors gave her only a 2% chance<br />
of surviving.<br />
As she lay there on the brink of death,<br />
she finally opened her eyes and — in a<br />
haze — saw a familiar set of brown eyes<br />
gazing back at her, lovingly, that were<br />
very much still alive.<br />
Those eyes belonged to an image of<br />
Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging just a<br />
few feet away, at once filling her heart<br />
with love and hope that the Virgin<br />
Mary she’d held dear since childhood<br />
would intercede with Jesus to help her<br />
make it out of the clinic alive.<br />
Oros’ healing journey came full circle<br />
this month as she and a cadre of other<br />
musicians sang hymns of praise and<br />
thanksgiving to Our Lady of Guadalupe<br />
during the annual “Las Mañanitas” celebration<br />
at the Cathedral of Our Lady<br />
of the Angels in honor of her feast day.<br />
“I am so humbled and blessed to be<br />
able to stand there and in my own<br />
simple way give thanks to the Virgin,”<br />
Oros said. “It may seem insignificant<br />
but I know that she is receiving it with a<br />
lot of love and that it makes her happy,<br />
because she knows my heart.”<br />
At the Cathedral of Our Lady of the<br />
Angels, the festivities ran from the<br />
evening of Dec. 11 into the early hours<br />
of Guadalupe’s feast day, Dec. 12.<br />
As in years past, the celebration<br />
featured Aztec and Ballet Folklorico<br />
dancers, veneration of the only relic of<br />
St. Juan Diego’s “tilma” in the U.S., the<br />
rosary, a musical tribute that included<br />
“Las Mañanitas,” and ended with<br />
midnight Mass, where Archbishop José<br />
H. Gomez said the Guadalupe story is<br />
a reminder that “Jesus Christ loves us so<br />
much that he came to share our hopes<br />
10 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
and dreams and to offer his life for us.”<br />
“Just as she did with Juan Diego, the<br />
most holy Mary entrusts each of us with<br />
a task. She has a message that she needs<br />
us to spread and she is sending us to tell<br />
the whole world about Jesus and his<br />
love and salvation.”<br />
Oros aimed to do just that as she and<br />
six other guest singers — including<br />
Latin Grammy-nominated Graciela<br />
Beltran — delivered individual serenades<br />
to the Virgin backed by Mariachi<br />
Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar.<br />
Oros — dressed in a floor-length gown<br />
and red shawl — carefully made her<br />
way onto the altar, set down a bouquet<br />
of red roses near two giant images<br />
of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St.<br />
Juan Diego bedecked with hundreds<br />
of flowers, and sang two songs to the<br />
Virgin while looking deep into the<br />
compassionate eyes that she’s come to<br />
know so well.<br />
It was a moment that she had trained<br />
for all her life.<br />
Oros was born in Aguascalientes,<br />
Mexico, into a family of nine that is<br />
both musically inclined and devoutly<br />
Catholic; one of her brothers spent six<br />
years in the seminary, while another is<br />
currently a Jesuit novice. She immigrated<br />
to Santa Maria in California as a<br />
preteen, and from a young age studied<br />
music theory and vocalization, singing<br />
to God and to Our Lady of Guadalupe.<br />
At 12, she discovered a love for<br />
Mexican “ranchera” music when her<br />
father bought her a copy of Linda<br />
Ronstadt’s 1987 album, “Canciones De<br />
Mi Padre” — in which the American<br />
singer recorded traditional mariachi<br />
songs that were of special significance<br />
to her family.<br />
“I would lock myself in my room and<br />
listen to the cassette over and over and<br />
over again until I learned all the songs,”<br />
she said. “I fell in love with Linda<br />
Ronstadt, with her voice, with her<br />
interpretation.”<br />
Since then, Oros has remained close<br />
to the singing world. She’s enjoyed a<br />
long career working in TV, radio, the<br />
recording industry, and now in publishing<br />
as editor-in-chief of Iconos, her<br />
own magazine highlighting music and<br />
entertainment news.<br />
While she’s remained mostly behind<br />
the scenes, she has recorded jingles,<br />
produced her own albums, and sings<br />
when the occasion arises. While living<br />
in New York, she had the chance to<br />
sing on the “Late Show with David<br />
Letterman,” for fashion designer Oscar<br />
de la Renta, and open for Mexican<br />
“ranchera” icon Vicente Fernández at<br />
Madison Square Garden.<br />
“Even though I liked to sing, for some<br />
reason, I felt like God didn’t want me to<br />
become a famous singer and I understood<br />
that and I accepted it with much<br />
love and humility,” Oros said. “And so<br />
now when there is an opportunity for<br />
me to sing or participate in a festival or<br />
a special event, I do it.”<br />
It was with that sense of humility that<br />
Oros accepted the chance to sing during<br />
this year’s “Mañanitas” celebration<br />
at the cathedral, out of gratitude for the<br />
role she said Our Lady played in saving<br />
her life just five years ago.<br />
In 2018, Oros went into septic shock,<br />
and then fell into a coma, after undergoing<br />
a medical procedure in Aguascalientes.<br />
After<br />
awakening, she<br />
suffered a cerebral<br />
thrombosis and<br />
other complications<br />
that worsened<br />
her prognosis.<br />
Drifting in and<br />
out of consciousness,<br />
she spent<br />
the early days of<br />
her recovery in<br />
a clinic named,<br />
aptly, for Our Lady<br />
of Guadalupe,<br />
where she said she<br />
experienced the<br />
love of Jesus for<br />
her through Mary.<br />
A pivotal point in<br />
her healing, she<br />
said, came when<br />
she and her husband<br />
received messages<br />
from Mary<br />
through a prayer<br />
group, assuring her<br />
Rosy Oros sings during<br />
the annual “Las Mañanitas”<br />
celebration at the<br />
Cathedral of Our Lady of<br />
the Angels on Dec. 11. |<br />
VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
that Christ would save her through his<br />
mother’s intercession.<br />
“She said I am with you, do not be<br />
afraid,” Oros said. “You will heal from<br />
this but we will do this together, facing<br />
the sanctuary. In other words, she wanted<br />
me to get closer to her Son while<br />
holding her by the hand.”<br />
And that’s exactly what happened.<br />
Today, Oros’ body and faith have<br />
grown continually stronger. The Los<br />
Angeles resident and her husband are<br />
more devoted to the rosary, to Christ,<br />
and to the Church than ever. They regularly<br />
seek out ways to thank Mary for<br />
her hand in the healing — including<br />
making special pilgrimages with family<br />
and friends to the Basilica of Guadalupe<br />
when Oros’ work leads them to<br />
Mexico.<br />
“She interceded for me to live,” she<br />
said. “We always look for the opportunity<br />
to thank her and to be in communion<br />
with her.”<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 11
Performing during this year’s “Las<br />
Mañanitas” celebration at the cathedral<br />
was Oros’ way of showing gratitude to<br />
Our Lady, evangelizing through song,<br />
and pledging silently to the Virgin<br />
to become even more devoted to the<br />
rosary going forward.<br />
Directing her attention toward the<br />
framed image of Our Lady of Guadalupe<br />
on the altar, she sang “Mi Querida<br />
Guadalupana” and “Hay Unos Ojos”<br />
— the latter being a song from Ronstadt’s<br />
“Canciones de Mi Padre” album<br />
in which the songwriter gushes over the<br />
beauty and sparkle of his beloved’s eyes.<br />
“The song is so appropriate,” she said,<br />
Attendees of the “Las<br />
Mañanitas” ceremony<br />
show reverence to the<br />
pilgrim images of Our<br />
Lady of Guadalupe and<br />
St. Juan Diego. | VICTOR<br />
ALEMÁN<br />
“Even though<br />
sometimes we are<br />
like lost sheep,<br />
she is always<br />
looking at us with<br />
eyes of love.”<br />
Surviving the<br />
near-fatal incident<br />
has shown<br />
Oros that Our Lady of Guadalupe is<br />
very much alive and is there to help all<br />
of her children, she said.<br />
“We may not be perfect, we may be<br />
sinners, we may fall, but in the end this<br />
is proof of the love and mercy of Christ<br />
through his mother. She is the key to<br />
the door that opens to Christ and to our<br />
salvation.”<br />
Theresa Cisneros is a freelance journalist<br />
with 24 years of experience in the<br />
news industry. She is a fourth-generation<br />
Southern California resident and lives in<br />
Orange County with her husband and<br />
four children.<br />
A Filipino flow to ‘Las Mañanitas’<br />
Since Our Lady of Guadalupe is<br />
the patroness of the Philippines,<br />
the Filipino community also has a<br />
great devotion to the Virgin. So it was a<br />
great honor for Filipino dancers and a<br />
singer to be featured at the annual “Las<br />
Mañanitas” celebration of Our Lady<br />
of Guadalupe at the Cathedral of Our<br />
Lady of the Angels.<br />
The only hurdle for Monette De Guzman,<br />
the Filipina singer invited to sing<br />
during the event? She had never sung<br />
in Spanish before.<br />
“I thought I’d be singing in Tagalog,<br />
but they said it would be in Spanish,”<br />
De Guzman said. “So without even<br />
knowing what to sing, and wondering<br />
will I be able to memorize in Spanish, I<br />
just said yes, just like Mary said.”<br />
To prepare for singing two songs —<br />
“Ave Maria” and “Adiós, Oh Virgen”<br />
— De Guzman found the Spanish<br />
lyrics, then reached out to some of the<br />
Hispanic musicians at her church for<br />
help.<br />
But to go even further, she translated<br />
the lyrics into English, so she could<br />
understand what she was singing.<br />
“So I’d be able to put emotion,” she<br />
said.<br />
As she belted out both songs, swaying<br />
with the background music provided by<br />
mariachis, De Guzman couldn’t help<br />
but think of her own devotion to Our<br />
Lady of Guadalupe.<br />
“She’s like my first mother,” De<br />
Guzman said. “I even pray to her and<br />
talk to her first even before I talk to my<br />
mom because I can talk to her anytime.<br />
She inspires me when it comes to faith<br />
because it’s really hard to say yes to<br />
something you’re not sure of.<br />
“Knowing that Mary, because of her<br />
yes, it benefitted all of us.”<br />
A resident of <strong>No</strong>rthridge and a cantor<br />
at three churches — Our Lady of<br />
Lourdes Church in <strong>No</strong>rthridge, St. Genevieve<br />
Church in Panorama City, and<br />
Our Lady of Peace Church in <strong>No</strong>rth<br />
Hills — De Guzman was thrilled to<br />
Monette De Guzman | SUBMITTED PHOTO<br />
bring the Filipino heart, soul, and spirit<br />
into the event, but also to emphasize<br />
the universality of Mary.<br />
“I really feel that Mary is the mother<br />
of everyone, not just Filipinos,” she<br />
said. “I think it’s the start of something<br />
really beautiful that we’re embracing<br />
different ways of practicing our faith<br />
and showing our love to mother Mary.”<br />
— Mike Cisneros<br />
12 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 13
<strong>Vol</strong>unteers drop off gifts for families on Dec. 16 as part of the Archdiocese of<br />
Los Angeles’ Adopt-a-Family program that began in 1990. | VICTOR ALEMÁN<br />
HELPING<br />
HANDS<br />
For this year’s<br />
Adopt-a-Family<br />
army of volunteers,<br />
helping downtown<br />
LA’s neediest<br />
families was an<br />
opportunity to take<br />
Christmas more<br />
seriously.<br />
BY THERESA CISNEROS<br />
Juan Manuel was just settling in with<br />
two of his four kids after working<br />
a graveyard shift at a local freezer<br />
warehouse, when there was a sudden<br />
knock at their apartment door.<br />
At the door were Msgr. Terrance<br />
Fleming and Auxiliary Bishop Matthew<br />
Elshoff, with volunteers hauling<br />
dozens of donated gifts following close<br />
behind.<br />
Manuel said he works long hours to<br />
make ends meet, but after paying for<br />
food, rent, and bills, he doesn’t have<br />
much left for holiday purchases. Knowing<br />
that strangers united to provide his<br />
kids with likely the only presents they’ll<br />
receive this year fills him with gratitude<br />
and helps restore his faith in humanity,<br />
he said.<br />
“I’m very surprised that there is still<br />
a community out there that wants to<br />
help,” he said, “because nowadays, you<br />
don’t see that anymore. That’s what<br />
we all need sometimes, just that little<br />
helping hand.”<br />
The Manuels were one of the 456<br />
families that received food, clothes,<br />
toys, gift cards, household goods,<br />
and Christmas gifts this year through<br />
Adopt-a-Family, an outreach program<br />
of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles<br />
and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the<br />
Angels that serves more than 1,000<br />
children annually and has assisted<br />
more than 13,000 families since its<br />
inception.<br />
What started as a simple toy giveaway<br />
organized by Fleming at the Cathedral<br />
of St. Vibiana 33 years ago has<br />
blossomed into an annual tradition that<br />
gives much-needed support to low-income<br />
families living in and around the<br />
cathedral boundaries, supported by<br />
individuals, schools, parishes, businesses,<br />
and other groups across the<br />
community.<br />
It’s an opportunity for the area’s<br />
mother church to minister to the less<br />
fortunate and share the love of Christ<br />
with others, said Fleming, executive<br />
director of the archdiocese’s Pontifical<br />
Mission Societies.<br />
“What better time than Christmas?”<br />
he said. “Jesus is born, there’s new life.”<br />
Just over 1,000 volunteers of all ages<br />
— donning maroon T-shirts emblazoned<br />
with “Adopt-A-Family” on the<br />
front and white angel wings on the<br />
back — gathered at the cathedral in<br />
the early morning hours of Dec. 16<br />
for a prayer service before fanning out<br />
across downtown Los Angeles and Skid<br />
Row to deliver the goods.<br />
Cathedral parishioner Vincent Rod-<br />
14 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
iguez was among those who arrived<br />
just before dawn for the group send-off.<br />
Rodriguez said his family received<br />
charitable support from the church<br />
when he was a child and sees this effort<br />
as a way to pay it forward.<br />
“They used to give to us and now we<br />
get to give back,” said Rodriguez, who<br />
has volunteered for the past 15 years.<br />
“It’s a great blessing for us.”<br />
While many volunteers helped<br />
deliver the items, scores more helped<br />
behind the scenes by interviewing prospective<br />
participants and purchasing,<br />
wrapping, and sorting the gifts.<br />
Kayry Gonzalez, a volunteer for the<br />
past 12 years, is among those who interviewed<br />
program applicants. She said<br />
she’s often touched by their personal<br />
stories and feels privileged to be in a<br />
space where they open up to her about<br />
their lives.<br />
Distribution day is especially exciting<br />
for her, she said, because of the goodwill<br />
that abounds between volunteers<br />
and recipients.<br />
“You kind of feel like Santa a little<br />
bit,” she said, giggling. “Because you<br />
feel like you have an unlimited supply<br />
of people behind you, of gifts to give<br />
out. It’s a good feeling.”<br />
Timothy Grayson is among those who<br />
helped organize donations for delivery.<br />
Grayson, who works for Homeboy<br />
Industries, said he’s thankful to be able<br />
to play a role in bringing a sparkle to a<br />
child’s eyes this Christmas.<br />
Grayson said he was previously<br />
incarcerated, and that through volunteerism,<br />
he’s learning how to serve<br />
others and pay back society for his past<br />
transgressions.<br />
“I get to experience a new life for<br />
giving, instead of always taking,” he<br />
said, gazing out over the thousands of<br />
gifts in the cathedral parking garage<br />
that were set to be distributed later that<br />
morning.<br />
Program coordinator Lydia Gamboa<br />
said preparations for the annual gift<br />
distribution start in mid-August, when<br />
volunteers begin interviewing prospective<br />
participants about their needs and<br />
living situations.<br />
Organizers said many of the participating<br />
households are run by single<br />
parents who live with multiple children<br />
and family members in crowded<br />
one-unit or one-bedroom quarters.<br />
Gamboa said the program is especially<br />
needed at this time, when many<br />
people are still trying to get back on<br />
their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic<br />
and are struggling to pay for<br />
rent or utilities. In addition, many of<br />
this year’s recipients have experienced<br />
the sudden loss of a parent, spouse, or<br />
child due to illness, she said.<br />
A rewarding part of the effort is<br />
hearing from recipients who said they<br />
would not have been able to celebrate<br />
Christmas as a family had it not been<br />
for the program’s support, she said.<br />
“To know that we brought that to<br />
them is very satisfying,” she said.<br />
Many of this year’s recipients echoed<br />
that sentiment, thanking God for their<br />
benefactors’ generosity when Elshoff,<br />
Fleming, and program volunteers<br />
appeared at their doorstep bringing<br />
Christmas tidings and donated gifts.<br />
At one modest apartment building in<br />
the shadow of downtown high-rises, a<br />
mother happily accepted a shipment<br />
of presents on behalf of her children<br />
who were out of town visiting a sick<br />
relative, and presented volunteers with<br />
a bouquet of flowers as a token of her<br />
appreciation.<br />
A few doors down, teen Emma<br />
Crispino beamed with pride while<br />
posing for a photo with her parents,<br />
five siblings, and the clergymen after<br />
receiving presents and Christmas<br />
blessings.<br />
“I feel amazing because my family<br />
can barely afford gifts and knowing<br />
that the church gives it to us is nice,”<br />
she said.<br />
Back at the Manuel apartment, Juan<br />
Manuel pointed out that while he<br />
doesn’t have funds for a Christmas tree<br />
or decorations this year, he is resting<br />
easier knowing that donors are graciously<br />
fulfilling his kids’ requests for<br />
Spider-Man and Hello Kitty toys.<br />
“I’m just surprised and thankful,”<br />
Manuel said. “Everything is just so<br />
expensive right now. This is such a<br />
relief.”<br />
Theresa Cisneros is a freelance journalist<br />
with 24 years of experience in<br />
the news industry. She is a fourth-generation<br />
Southern California resident<br />
and lives in Orange County with her<br />
husband and four children.<br />
Msgr. Terrance Fleming, center, and LA Auxiliary<br />
Bishop Matthew Elshoff, right, pose with the Crispino<br />
family after delivering gifts and other items as part of<br />
the Adopt-a-Family <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, program. <strong>2023</strong> • | VICTOR ANGELUS ALEMÁN • 15
A SISTER’S<br />
HEART<br />
For 89-year-old Sister Terrence Landini, seven<br />
decades of caring for the sick and dying have<br />
been a ‘dream come true.’<br />
Sister Terrence Landini sits inside the<br />
Centofante Family Chapel at Providence<br />
Little Company of Mary Medical Center<br />
in Torrance. | PROVIDENCE LCM<br />
BY TOM HOFFARTH<br />
In her 70 years with the Sisters of<br />
the Little Company of Mary, Sister<br />
Terrence Landini has focused<br />
largely on caring for the sick and the<br />
dying. But these days, she finds herself<br />
dispensing more wisdom.<br />
“Sister T,” as she is best known, is<br />
recognized for her ability to tee up<br />
advice, guidance, or a story for pretty<br />
much any situation. After more than 50<br />
years in various high-profile positions<br />
with the Providence Little Company<br />
of Mary Medical Center in Torrance,<br />
she’s grateful to have a special mission<br />
in the fast-moving health care field.<br />
“I was just talking to a new chaplain<br />
or a social worker recently and I told<br />
them it always comes back to this: Your<br />
work is sacred — our work is sacred,”<br />
said Landini, 89. “I tell them about just<br />
going to the chapel and asking God to<br />
bless you. I would ask God to help me<br />
be a positive influence to whomever<br />
he placed in my way that day. You<br />
become a better person experiencing<br />
all this.”<br />
Although she officially retired from<br />
the hospital more than 15 years ago,<br />
Landini dutifully carries out the<br />
charism of the Ven. Mary Potter, foundress<br />
of the Little Company of Mary<br />
Catholic ministry in 1877 in England.<br />
Since arriving at the Torrance medical<br />
center in 1966 — six years after it<br />
opened — Landini has been a supervising<br />
nurse, administrator, and director<br />
of human resources, plus sat on the<br />
Community Ministry and Foundation<br />
boards at the hospital. She has also<br />
16 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
een superior of the Little Company<br />
of Mary Convent in Torrance and a<br />
provincial councilor.<br />
With COVID-19 protocols still in<br />
effect, she focuses as much on training<br />
the next generation as she does visiting<br />
with patient families as they wait<br />
anxiously in the waiting rooms. She advocates<br />
for more one-on-one care from<br />
doctors and nurses and remains on call<br />
for consultation with a sharp mind and<br />
a generous heart — a fitting description<br />
for someone who has specialized<br />
in cardiac care.<br />
That career began in the 1950s as<br />
a nurse and supervisor at a Little<br />
Company of Mary facility in Evergreen<br />
Park, Illinois. The facility was near her<br />
childhood home, where she grew up<br />
known as Jean Theresa Landini on the<br />
north side of Chicago to an Italian-Polish<br />
family.<br />
She said she felt a calling to religious<br />
life in fourth grade and entered the<br />
convent after high school. Her mother<br />
wanted her to be a nurse, but the family<br />
couldn’t afford to send her to school,<br />
so she nudged her daughter that way<br />
instead.<br />
In Catholic elementary school,<br />
Landini admired the Daughters of<br />
Charity for their dedication to the sick.<br />
In the eighth grade, she was drawn to<br />
the Little Company of Mary order dedicated<br />
to those suffering and dying. She<br />
saw those sisters working at a Chicago<br />
hospital in their white nursing gowns<br />
and pale blue veils.<br />
At age 18, she gravitated toward the<br />
Little Company of Mary order in 1952<br />
as a postulant. Less than a year later she<br />
had her habit and name given to her.<br />
“It’s a sacrifice that you’re willing to<br />
make because you feel that God has<br />
called you to a different way of life and<br />
that you may take care of more families<br />
and more children,” she said.<br />
Landini said it “hit me like a bolt”<br />
when she was transferred to Southern<br />
California in the mid-1960s, but “it<br />
only took about a year before I fell in<br />
love with the place.”<br />
Sister Terrence Landini holds<br />
a newborn baby — one of<br />
many miracles she’s seen<br />
during her 70 years with the<br />
Sisters of the Little Company<br />
of Mary. | PROVIDENCE LCM<br />
“It’s also a reminder: When God<br />
asks something great of you, and you<br />
generously say yes, it’s because he has<br />
something greater in mind,” she said.<br />
“My vows were about being available<br />
and serving where the need is greatest.<br />
As it turned out, my dream really came<br />
true here and the Lord blessed me. I<br />
believe this is where God wants me to<br />
be and what he wants me to do.”<br />
Long before Little Company of Mary<br />
merged with the Providence Sisters in<br />
1999, Landini’s presence in the facility<br />
could be seen in many places.<br />
A large oil painting of her was<br />
commissioned in 2008 and sits at the<br />
entrance to the hospital’s Centofante<br />
Family Chapel — the place where<br />
she recently had her platinum jubilee<br />
Mass celebrated at Landini’s home<br />
parish, St. Lawrence Martyr Church in<br />
Redondo Beach.<br />
In March, the Sister Terrence Landini<br />
Therapeutic Pool was unveiled and<br />
blessed in the Advanced Care Center.<br />
Landini admits she uses the facility<br />
twice a week.<br />
Dr. Anna Mellor, a concierge physician<br />
based in Rolling Hills Estates,<br />
started in the medical field some 30<br />
years ago. She considered the life of a<br />
sister in medicine early on and leans<br />
on Landini for showing her how to be<br />
“an amazing role model as a woman<br />
and as a woman of faith” for how she<br />
combined her vocation and love of<br />
health sciences.<br />
“She has always been so joyful in her<br />
interactions with people and has not<br />
let any of her physical limitations get<br />
in the way of visiting the sick,” said<br />
Mellor, a parishioner at American<br />
Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach.<br />
“Where her work ends and life begins<br />
are the same.”<br />
Looking to the future, Landini<br />
believes it’s “very important to prepare<br />
the people who will follow you.<br />
“Mary Potter once said we will be<br />
small in numbers at the start but those<br />
who join us will be part of the ‘Greater<br />
Company of Mary,’ and would carry on<br />
the legacy. We have to be sure we never<br />
lose our faith-based reasons for being<br />
here. Mary Potter would be proud of<br />
all we have accomplished.”<br />
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning<br />
journalist based in Los Angeles.<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 17
Justice served slowly<br />
A Vatican tribunal has convicted a once-powerful cardinal<br />
of financial crimes. But the drama is likely far from over.<br />
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.<br />
Cardinal Angelo Becciu walks<br />
outside the Vatican in January<br />
<strong>2023</strong>. | CNS/PAUL HARING<br />
ROME — In the long-awaited denouement of the Vatican’s<br />
“trial of the century,” a Vatican tribunal on Dec.<br />
16 sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five<br />
years and six months in prison for his role in various financial<br />
crimes.<br />
Becciu was also fined roughly $8,700 and permanently<br />
barred from holding any public office in the Vatican City<br />
State. An attorney representing Becciu immediately indicated<br />
plans for an appeal.<br />
Becciu, 75, was already the first cardinal to stand trial on<br />
criminal charges before a Vatican civil court, and he now<br />
becomes the first to be convicted and sentenced. Prosecutors<br />
had asked for seven years and three months of prison time for<br />
the cardinal.<br />
From 2011 to 2018, Becciu held the all-important position<br />
of “sostituto,” or “substitute,” in the Secretariat of State, making<br />
him effectively the pope’s chief of staff.<br />
Presiding judge Giuseppe Pignatone, a veteran Italian jurist,<br />
read the verdicts aloud Saturday in a hall belonging to the<br />
Vatican Museums, which was converted into a makeshift<br />
courtroom to accommodate not only public interest, but the<br />
sheer number of attorneys and support personnel necessary to<br />
try such a complex case.<br />
Stretching over 2 1/2 years, the trial featured 86 separate<br />
hearings and heard from almost 70 witnesses, after what<br />
amounted to almost a year of procedural squabbles before the<br />
court ever got to the substance of the charges.<br />
All 10 defendants denied any wrongdoing, and their attorneys<br />
requested full exoneration. The indictments were first<br />
handed down in July 2021.<br />
The case pivots on a controversial $400 million land deal in<br />
London, which began in 2014 when the Vatican’s Secretariat<br />
of State first acquired an interest in a former Harrods warehouse<br />
in the posh neighborhood of Chelsea. After various<br />
twists and turns, the Vatican eventually sold the property for<br />
$224 million, resulting in a net loss of around $150 million.<br />
The other defendants included two Italian financiers<br />
involved in the deal, a former aide to Becciu, two former officials<br />
of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering watchdog, three<br />
former officials or advisers to the Secretariat of State, a lawyer<br />
18 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
epresenting one of the financiers, and a woman tapped by<br />
Becciu to help with the liberation of a nun kidnapped by<br />
Islamic militants, who allegedly used some of the ransom<br />
money to buy luxury goods for herself.<br />
The two financiers, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione,<br />
received sentences of six and five years respectively, while<br />
former Vatican official Fabrizio Tirabassi was sentenced to<br />
seven years while Enrico Crasso, a financial adviser to the<br />
Secretariat of State, also received a seven-year sentence.<br />
Beyond the London affair, Becciu also faced charges on two<br />
other fronts: the transfer of roughly $240,000 to a Catholic<br />
charity in Sardinia run by his brother, and payouts of around<br />
$600,000 for the liberation of a kidnapped religious sister<br />
in Mali. According to a Vatican summary of the verdicts.<br />
Becciu was found guilty of embezzlement for his role in the<br />
London affair, and on the charges related to Sardinia and the<br />
kidnapped nun.<br />
Cecilia Marogna, a self-described security consultant who<br />
allegedly spent part of the money for the kidnapped nun on<br />
luxury goods for herself, was sentenced to three years.<br />
Two former officials of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering<br />
watchdog unit, known at the time as the Financial Information<br />
Authority, Swiss lawyer René Brülhart and Italian<br />
financial analyst Tomasso Di Ruzza, were acquitted on the<br />
more serious charge of abuse of office but convicted for failing<br />
to report the London transaction as suspicious. The only<br />
defendant completely exonerated was Italian Msgr. Mauro<br />
Carlino, a former aide to Becciu.<br />
Numbers help express the staggering complexity of the trial:<br />
Some 600 hours in total of hearings, 69 witnesses, 124,563<br />
pages of documents generated and 2,479,062 separate files<br />
presented by the prosecution, in addition to 20,150 pages of<br />
documents from the defense and 48,731 from the civil parties<br />
to the case.<br />
<strong>No</strong>w that<br />
verdicts are in,<br />
attention may<br />
shift to the larger<br />
significance of<br />
the trial. Some<br />
observers believe<br />
that by injecting<br />
himself personally<br />
into the case,<br />
including issuing<br />
four controversial<br />
decrees at the<br />
beginning of the<br />
process which<br />
granted prosecutors<br />
broad powers<br />
without judicial<br />
review, Pope Francis effectively revived a sweeping conception<br />
of the pope’s authority as a temporal sovereign that most<br />
Catholics believed had been abandoned in the 19th century.<br />
There are also signs the aftermath may take even longer to<br />
play out than the trial itself.<br />
For starters, there’s the appeals process, which Becciu’s<br />
legal team intends to pursue. Presumably, whatever appeal<br />
Becciu and the others may lodge will be heard by the Court<br />
of Appeals for the Vatican City State, which is made up of<br />
six judges, three clerics, and three laity. If the tribunal and<br />
the appeals court reach different conclusions, then it’s also<br />
possible that the Vatican City State’s “supreme court,” known<br />
as the Court of Cassation, could be asked to adjudicate the<br />
conflict.<br />
There’s also the question of making the verdicts stick, for<br />
which the Vatican may need international help.<br />
In addition to the jail terms handed down Dec. 16, the<br />
tribunal also ordered the confiscation of around $180 million<br />
in assets and the payment of roughly $220 million in damages.<br />
If it actually wants to see any of that money, presumably<br />
the Vatican would need to request that its verdicts be recognized<br />
by other states where the funds are actually deposited,<br />
such as Switzerland and the U.K.<br />
If the Vatican seeks recognition of its sentences in foreign<br />
courts, that means different judges will have to review the<br />
same evidence, possibly reaching different conclusions.<br />
There’s also the question of whether, once all the appeals<br />
have run out, anyone will really go to jail: Pope Benedict<br />
XVI and Francis both granted clemency to Vatican officials<br />
convicted in both “Vatileaks” scandals.<br />
Finally, it seems abundantly clear that when it comes to the<br />
Vatican’s rulings, the jury is still out in the broader court of<br />
public opinion.<br />
From the beginning, critics have asserted that the trial was<br />
fatally flawed, not merely because some found the evidence<br />
unconvincing, but because there’s no separation of powers<br />
between the executive and the judiciary in the Vatican<br />
system, and Francis repeatedly used his authority in ways that<br />
critics say stacked the deck in favor of the prosecution.<br />
Luis Badilla, a veteran Rome-based journalist who operates<br />
the widely read<br />
blog “Il Sismografo,”<br />
wrote that<br />
“the conviction<br />
of Becciu is not<br />
the real, central<br />
question,” in an<br />
editorial on the<br />
decision.<br />
“The problem<br />
is a tribunal<br />
subjugated to the<br />
Judges of the Vatican City State court<br />
read their verdict in the trial of several<br />
Vatican officials on charges of financial<br />
malfeasance Dec. 16. | VATICAN MEDIA<br />
sovereign,” he<br />
said.<br />
This debate over<br />
the legitimacy of<br />
the Vatican’s civil<br />
justice system<br />
almost certainly<br />
will continue, especially given that Francis appears committed<br />
to what’s been dubbed the “Vaticanization” of the Holy<br />
See, meaning making the Church’s universal government,<br />
and its personnel, subject to the laws and judgments of the<br />
Vatican City State.<br />
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 19
Bishop Raimo Goyarolla<br />
exits St. Henry Cathedral<br />
in Helsinki after<br />
celebrating his first Mass<br />
as a bishop <strong>No</strong>v. <strong>26</strong>. |<br />
COURTESY PHOTO<br />
A shepherd at the<br />
end of the world<br />
Finland’s new bishop is a 54-year-old<br />
missionary with big dreams for one of the<br />
world’s poorest, smallest dioceses.<br />
BY PABLO KAY<br />
On the border with Russia near<br />
the Arctic Circle, Finland is<br />
a country known for its chilly<br />
temperatures, efficient education and<br />
health care systems, and high quality<br />
of life, having been ranked the world’s<br />
happiest country by a United Nations<br />
survey this year.<br />
It is also home to one of the world’s<br />
smallest, most scattered Catholic populations,<br />
with only eight parishes and<br />
about 30 priests to minister to some<br />
17-18,000 Catholics. And until this<br />
fall, its only diocese — the Diocese of<br />
Helsinki — had been without a bishop<br />
since 2019.<br />
The wait ended on Sept. <strong>29</strong>, when<br />
Pope Francis named 54-year-old<br />
Spaniard Father Raimo Goyarrola<br />
Belda, a priest of Opus Dei and former<br />
physician who was sent to Finland 17<br />
years ago as a missionary. Last <strong>No</strong>vember,<br />
he was ordained a bishop in<br />
a Lutheran church in Helsinki (since<br />
no Catholic church could fit all the<br />
guests).<br />
What’s it like being a Catholic in one<br />
of the world’s richest countries, but<br />
poorest dioceses? The following is a<br />
translated version of our conversation,<br />
edited for brevity.<br />
Bishop, can you describe what the<br />
Church in Finland looks like?<br />
Finland is similar to Italy in land<br />
area, but only has a population of 5<br />
1/2 million. So the distances are huge.<br />
But thanks to ecumenism, here in<br />
Finland there’s a lot of love among us<br />
Christians, especially the Lutheran<br />
and Orthodox churches, which let us<br />
use their churches to celebrate holy<br />
Mass. That allows us to offer Mass in<br />
non-Catholic, Christian churches at<br />
least once a month in 25 cities where<br />
there’s no Catholic parish.<br />
It’s a very small church, but a church<br />
that’s very alive, with lots of children<br />
and baptisms. It grows. Many migrants<br />
and refugees have been arriving here<br />
over the years, from places like Poland<br />
and Vietnam. From Latin America,<br />
many have come from Cuba, Argenti-<br />
20 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
na, and Chile. <strong>No</strong>w more are coming<br />
from Nicaragua and Venezuela.<br />
There’s also a wave of migration from<br />
Africa, from countries where there’s a<br />
lot of violence, especially Nigeria and<br />
Cameroon.<br />
We’re a church with a lot of “local”<br />
baptisms but also those of migrants<br />
and refugees. And we’re growing a lot.<br />
We’re a very poor church. The government<br />
doesn’t help us. The support<br />
comes from [Mass] collections, and<br />
our collections are very small because<br />
the people don’t have money.<br />
Then we need to keep the heat on<br />
pretty much year-round, and that’s<br />
very expensive. Yes, Finland is a rich,<br />
developed country, but prices are very<br />
high here.<br />
I’m convinced that we’re the poorest<br />
church in Europe, and perhaps one of<br />
the poorest in the world. This diocese<br />
is also very young. We’re growing and<br />
I’m working toward having an actual<br />
diocesan infrastructure, including a<br />
chancery building, which we don’t<br />
have! I dream of a diocesan retreat<br />
house, of a property to have youth<br />
camps. I dream of having a Catholic<br />
school, which we don’t have. I dream<br />
of a home for the elderly, one that also<br />
offers palliative care. I have a long list<br />
of dreams!<br />
There’s also the war with Ukraine<br />
Then-Father Goyarolla performs an<br />
adult baptism at St. Henry Cathedral<br />
in Helsinki. | COURTESY PHOTO<br />
close by. Sharing a border with Russia,<br />
the electricity rates have risen a lot.<br />
Being poor has its benefits, but the<br />
truth is that sometimes we’re pushed to<br />
the edge.<br />
What do you mean when you say<br />
being poor, in the sense of a ‘poor<br />
church,’ has its benefits in a country<br />
like Finland?<br />
The advantage of being a poor<br />
church is that you have to focus on<br />
God. Because sometimes when we<br />
have means, when we have money,<br />
when we build … we have the temptation<br />
of thinking that it’s we that do<br />
things.<br />
You think it was you that built this<br />
school? That built this parish? In our<br />
“wish list” we need more parishes,<br />
because we’re currently using 25<br />
non-Catholic, Christian churches for<br />
services, but in the future we’ll need<br />
25 new Catholic church buildings.<br />
When you don’t have money, you trust<br />
more in God, of course!<br />
When I went to Germany once, I was<br />
told, “Look, we have a lot of money<br />
here, but perhaps little faith. You in<br />
Finland have little money, but a lot of<br />
faith. You guys have a future!”<br />
Poverty helps you not to get attached<br />
to many things. When you have a lot<br />
of money, you look for more money.<br />
When you have little money, you realize<br />
what’s actually necessary. You don’t<br />
fill yourself with superfluous things.<br />
That helps me.<br />
How is a Catholic supposed to evangelize<br />
in a secularized country like<br />
Finland?<br />
As Pope Francis says, it’s the witness<br />
of each person, wherever one may<br />
be. Evangelization begins with one’s<br />
own self, giving Jesus space: one’s<br />
own conversion and prayer life, their<br />
sacramental life.<br />
How do we bring Jesus to others once<br />
he’s in us? First, be careful and be<br />
a good Christian. The Gospel starts<br />
wherever you are: with your husband,<br />
your wife, your kids, your grandmother,<br />
your parents, whoever’s in that first<br />
circle.<br />
Then, living as good Christians with<br />
your neighbors, your sports buddies<br />
or teammates on the soccer team at<br />
school, or at work: Sometimes, the<br />
witness you give is as simple as making<br />
the sign of the cross before eating<br />
lunch.<br />
We’ve already gotten through the<br />
COVID pandemic, but there are<br />
other viruses here around wintertime.<br />
Well, there’s also a virus called the<br />
New Evangelization. It’s a contagious<br />
virus that produces positive effects,<br />
like joy and peace. It’s a divine virus.<br />
And we are the “carriers” of that peace<br />
and have to “infect” with kindness,<br />
friendship, consolation, with the word<br />
we give to the person next to us.<br />
I think of the first Christians: There<br />
was no internet or cellphones back<br />
then, nor big projects or structures.<br />
How did the early Church grow in a<br />
pagan world? The families, the laity,<br />
that one priest who went around … all<br />
this was the Church!<br />
How did you end up in Finland?<br />
I got here 17 years ago. In 2005, there<br />
was a 50th anniversary celebration for<br />
the Diocese of Helsinki. The bishop<br />
invited bishops from around the world,<br />
including the prelate of Opus Dei.<br />
He asked him to please send him a<br />
priest, and [the prelate] answered that<br />
he didn’t have extra priests! But the<br />
bishop insisted, they thought of me<br />
and I said yes.<br />
I am in love with Finland. I’m Finn-<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 21
ish already, it’s in my heart, my head,<br />
and my passport. This is my country<br />
and I want to live and die here.<br />
What made you fall in love with such<br />
a cold country, where the Church is<br />
so materially poor?<br />
I arrived on a sunny day, it was 73<br />
degrees. Everything was green, the sea<br />
looked beautiful. That helped me.<br />
Then I met the Finns, and I made<br />
many friends<br />
quickly. I felt welcomed,<br />
I loved<br />
the language<br />
and I started<br />
learning it. Finns<br />
are honorable,<br />
hard-working,<br />
and simple<br />
people.<br />
There were<br />
Bishop Goyarrola with<br />
high-schoolers at a summer<br />
camp. He has served<br />
as a school chaplain and<br />
teacher during his time<br />
in Finland. | COURTESY<br />
PHOTO<br />
about 7-8,000 Catholics when I got<br />
here, now we’re about 17-18,000. I fell<br />
in love with the possibility of building<br />
up the Church here, in a big country<br />
at the end of the world: in Spanish,<br />
“Fin-landia” basically means “the end<br />
of the world,” and I saw myself like the<br />
first Christians who traveled very far,<br />
“to the ends of the world.”<br />
And I did fall in love with the circumstances.<br />
It’s true that in my case, when<br />
God calls you, God also helps you.<br />
I see how God has given me many<br />
graces to live in this country and love<br />
it with all my heart.<br />
Starting this new year 2024, what do<br />
you see ahead as the future of the<br />
church in Finland?<br />
I see a young church, dynamic, growing,<br />
and missionary, that’s responsible<br />
for bringing the Word of God to all of<br />
Finland.<br />
That means bringing Jesus in the sacrament,<br />
too. I dream of having Masses<br />
all over the country where people<br />
can be fed by the body of Christ. At<br />
the end of the day, it’s about bringing<br />
Jesus to the whole world, so that in any<br />
corner of this country where there’s<br />
a Catholic, the Word of God and the<br />
Eucharist may be offered. That’s my<br />
dream as a shepherd.<br />
I was with Pope Francis a few weeks<br />
ago before my episcopal ordination.<br />
He often says that he likes shepherds<br />
who smell like their sheep. I told him<br />
that in my case, there’s no sheep here,<br />
but there are reindeer. I told him I<br />
want to be a shepherd who smells like<br />
reindeer, and he laughed quite a bit.<br />
That’s my mission: to bring Jesus to<br />
Catholics so they can have Jesus, so<br />
they can bring Jesus to others. The<br />
Church is an unbreakable chain!<br />
What can the universal Church learn<br />
from the experience of the Church in<br />
Finland?<br />
First of all, I’d say the responsibility<br />
of each Catholic. In many schools<br />
here, there are kids who are the only<br />
Catholic students in the school. It’s the<br />
same for many who work.<br />
It’s an adventure, something positive,<br />
because if I’m the only Catholic here,<br />
I have that personal responsibility<br />
to announce the Gospel. The other<br />
option is to be camouflaged, “low<br />
profile,” so that no one finds out you’re<br />
Catholic. <strong>No</strong>! If you’re Catholic here,<br />
you’re the only one, and what you<br />
don’t do, no one else will do, either.<br />
The second thing that Finland offers<br />
is ecumenism. Here there’s a trust, a<br />
friendship, a love among Christians<br />
and we want to evangelize together.<br />
We want to become one so that the<br />
world may believe, as Jesus says in the<br />
Last Supper (John 17:21).<br />
In such a secularized society, it’s<br />
necessary that we be one. That’s why<br />
I believe ecumenism is the key to the<br />
future of humanity. Perhaps America is<br />
not moving as quickly away from God,<br />
but here in Europe, the Christian<br />
spirit is dying — and at an incredible<br />
pace.<br />
St. Pope John Paul II said that the<br />
third millennium would either be<br />
Christian or not Christian. He was a<br />
prophet in a lot of things, and I truly<br />
believe that in this third millennium<br />
we Christians all have a marvelous<br />
mission to bring Jesus to the world. Because<br />
if not, this world is going to end.<br />
Although the dynamic is quite<br />
different, it’s interesting that the<br />
Diocese of Helsinki has something in<br />
common with the Archdiocese of LA:<br />
they’re both churches of immigrants.<br />
What role do Catholic immigrants<br />
have in Finland?<br />
That’s an important and difficult<br />
question. There are now more than<br />
100 different nationalities represented<br />
in Finland. For the Catholic Church,<br />
I think diversity of culture and<br />
language is a richness because we’re<br />
the “Catholic” (meaning “universal”)<br />
Church.<br />
We’re called to all peoples, all<br />
22 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
cultures, all languages. So the key is:<br />
What’s authentic Catholicism look<br />
like in this sea of diversity? I think that<br />
what unites is Catholic, what separates<br />
isn’t Catholic. If an activity, or a<br />
thought, or something we do is going<br />
to unite peoples of other races, languages,<br />
and cultures, that’s Catholic. If<br />
it’s Catholic, it lasts.<br />
First, one who comes from outside<br />
contributes their own culture. They<br />
also contribute a different vision of life.<br />
For example, African culture cherishes<br />
family, life, and that breathes air into<br />
European culture, where individualism<br />
is king: Me, me, and then me.<br />
That leaves no room for the family!<br />
I think other cultures can enrich Finland’s<br />
culture. It’s true that Finnish is<br />
very difficult. In fact, many immigrant<br />
refugees prefer Germany or Sweden<br />
because the Finnish language is so<br />
complicated, and that’s an obstacle for<br />
older people. So what happens? Older<br />
people arrive with their children, and<br />
the children who learn Finnish end<br />
up integrating. They become Finns.<br />
I think Catholics in general integrate<br />
well in society, at work, with friends,<br />
in school. So that second generation is<br />
already Finnish.<br />
So the challenge is that first generation<br />
that arrives. And when they arrive,<br />
many are fleeing wars, persecution …<br />
so it’s a beautiful social work.<br />
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong>.<br />
Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden,<br />
imposes hands on Father Goyarrola during his <strong>No</strong>v.<br />
25 Ordination Mass in St. John’s Church, a Lutheran<br />
church in Helsinki. | PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 23
OUR CHRISTMAS STORY<br />
“The Nativity,” by Lorenzo Monaco, 1370–1425,<br />
Italian. | METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART<br />
What does it<br />
actually mean to<br />
make room for Jesus<br />
in the ‘manger’ of<br />
our heart?<br />
BY FATHER PETER JOHN<br />
CAMERON, OP<br />
The Blessed Virgin Mary gave<br />
birth to her Son “and laid him<br />
in a manger because there was<br />
no room for them” (Luke 2:7). How<br />
many emotions surge up in us when<br />
we read that verse? It may even trigger<br />
feelings of misery, anguish, and rejection<br />
that have hampered our own life.<br />
Horrible words<br />
A harrowing scene in the film<br />
“Schindler’s List” depicts a Jewish<br />
woman desperately dodging capture<br />
by the Nazis on Kristallnacht. She<br />
races to the ingenious hiding place<br />
of a prescient friend. But once there,<br />
the friend, now hysterical with fear,<br />
bars her from entering, sputtering the<br />
horrible words, “There is not enough<br />
room for you.” Then the hatch slams<br />
shut, leaving the hunted woman<br />
stranded in her peril.<br />
Acknowledging a Presence<br />
Fear makes us shut out people. And<br />
yet, what we ourselves dread more<br />
than anything else in life is being left<br />
utterly alone and abandoned — the<br />
24 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
punishment of solitary confinement.<br />
We crave a Presence in our life that<br />
can free us and embrace us. It is faith<br />
that enables us to respond to that<br />
need, for the essence of faith, according<br />
to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is<br />
something that “meets me which is<br />
greater than anything we can think of<br />
for ourselves.” Faith is acknowledging<br />
a Presence that changes us.<br />
A manger is the poorest of beds.<br />
Making room for Jesus in the manger<br />
of our heart begins by confronting the<br />
reality of our own poverty. “There’s<br />
something worse than being needy:<br />
it’s being alone with our self-sufficiency.<br />
Our needy heart is the principal<br />
instrument that has been given to<br />
us to recognize Jesus” (Father Julián<br />
Carrón).<br />
It’s our neediness, our poverty, even<br />
our panic that ultimately moves us to<br />
welcome Christ in … to surrender to<br />
this Presence that knocks at our door.<br />
“When I awake, nothing interests me<br />
but my desire for God’s Presence —<br />
this is poverty” (Servant of God Luigi<br />
Giussani).<br />
A heroic Protestant pastor, Martin<br />
Niemöller, preached stunning<br />
sermons while imprisoned in the<br />
Dachau concentration camp. He says<br />
in a Christmas sermon:<br />
“God, the eternally almighty God,<br />
enters into the most extreme human<br />
poverty imaginable. <strong>No</strong> person is so<br />
weak and helpless that God does not<br />
come to them in Jesus Christ, right<br />
in the midst of our human need; and<br />
no person is so forsaken and homeless<br />
in this world that God does not<br />
seek them in the midst of our human<br />
distress.”<br />
Go and make room<br />
It is the experience of our forsakenness<br />
and distress that convinces us<br />
of the lavishness of God’s mercy in<br />
singling us out. A heart transformed<br />
by the Presence of Jesus remains on<br />
the lookout for him in the suffering<br />
of others, ready to make room for him.<br />
After my mother died in 2016, I<br />
discovered among her personal effects<br />
a newspaper clipping from the 1970s<br />
she had saved from our local paper.<br />
The title: “Life Tied To Mechanical<br />
Kidneys.” It’s about two hemodialysis<br />
patients who participated in the<br />
mechanical process of having their<br />
blood cleansed at the town’s hospital<br />
three times a week. The first patient<br />
mentioned was my father, who battled<br />
kidney disease for 10 years before he<br />
died at age 49 on Christmas Eve.<br />
I didn’t know such a newspaper<br />
story even existed. It includes quotes<br />
from my father; one mentions how he<br />
would use his free time “organizing<br />
the unit’s patient self-help group.”<br />
That would be just like him.<br />
To make room for Jesus in the<br />
manger of our heart means refusing to<br />
be ruled by rejection. Some months<br />
after my father died, my brother Tim<br />
told me an astonishing story about<br />
my father. Apparently on the hemodialysis<br />
unit worked a disagreeable<br />
orderly, deeply unhappy with life,<br />
who took out his displeasure on the<br />
people around him. He was surly and<br />
rude, going out of his way to make the<br />
patients’ already miserable lives even<br />
more so.<br />
As Christmas approached, my father<br />
asked my brother Tim to take a ride<br />
with him. On the front seat of the car<br />
was a Christmas present with a gift<br />
tag bearing a name my brother didn’t<br />
recognize. It was this orderly’s. My<br />
father had found out where the young<br />
man lived, and had decided to personally<br />
deliver a gift to him. I don’t know<br />
what that Christmas present was, but<br />
this is what it meant: <strong>No</strong> matter how<br />
you may treat me, I want you in my<br />
life. And I want the love of the One<br />
who has come into my life to change<br />
your life as well. I want to give you his<br />
love. There is enough room for you<br />
here.”<br />
We want to make room for Jesus in<br />
the manger of our heart, not just at<br />
Christmas, but all throughout the<br />
liturgical year. The night before he<br />
dies, Jesus directs his disciples to<br />
prepare the Passover supper for them<br />
all: a “man will show you an upstairs<br />
room. It is there you are to prepare”<br />
(Luke 22:12). A manger is a place for<br />
animals to feed; the Upper Room is<br />
the place of the Last Supper. This preparing<br />
of the Eucharist room symbolizes<br />
the whole work of our Christian<br />
life: to make ourselves ready to receive<br />
Jesus Christ. We say with the French<br />
poet Patrice de La Tour du Pin:<br />
Come back to me:<br />
in my heart there is room for two…<br />
Who speaks this, me or my God?<br />
May it be my voice answering his!<br />
Father Peter John Cameron, OP,<br />
holds the Carl J. Peter Chair of Homiletics<br />
at the Pontifical <strong>No</strong>rth American<br />
College in Rome, and is the author of<br />
“Mysteries of the Virgin Mary” (Cluny,<br />
$18.95).<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 25
INTERSECTIONS<br />
GREG ERLANDSON<br />
Who really wants peace?<br />
It seems a bitter irony that during<br />
this season of angelic proclamations<br />
of “peace on earth and goodwill<br />
to men,” we seem so terribly far<br />
from that sentiment. War and rumors<br />
of war fill the air, and there are no<br />
good stories and no happy endings in<br />
sight.<br />
Ukraine is about to complete the<br />
second year of its desperate resistance<br />
to the Russian invasion. <strong>No</strong>t only is it<br />
locked in a bloody stalemate with a<br />
remorseless and cruel opponent, but it<br />
must also worry if its allies are growing<br />
weary of the fight. One marvels at how<br />
soon America forgets what happens<br />
when one seeks to appease and excuse<br />
A girl lights a candle as people<br />
gather for a vigil in Tel Aviv, Israel,<br />
<strong>No</strong>v. 7, to mark the one-month<br />
anniversary of the deadly attack by<br />
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas<br />
on Israel. | OSV NEWS/EVELYN<br />
HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS<br />
dictators bent on conquest. But then,<br />
history has never been our strong suit.<br />
The bloody war in Eastern Europe<br />
has resulted in hundreds of thousands<br />
of casualties. Many thousands<br />
of children have been kidnapped by<br />
Russian troops. Civilians and civilian<br />
infrastructure have been targeted for<br />
bombardment and cities obliterated.<br />
Thousands of cases of war crimes<br />
allegedly committed by Russian troops<br />
are being documented. The Ukrainian<br />
Greek Catholic Church is now<br />
being banned in the region held by<br />
Russia, as are the Knights of Columbus<br />
and the Catholic aid organization<br />
Caritas, a foretaste of what the future<br />
will look like for Ukraine’s Catholics<br />
should Russia triumph.<br />
Yet U.S. politicians procrastinate<br />
on providing further aid for Ukraine,<br />
while the West is distracted by the horrors<br />
of October 7 and its aftermath.<br />
The slaughter of Israeli citizens that<br />
dark day reveals an evil intentionally<br />
unleashed upon the land. The assault<br />
by Hamas seems horrifyingly personal<br />
in its cruelty, slaughtering parents<br />
before their children’s eyes and<br />
raping women. The attackers carried<br />
phrase books that told them how to<br />
pronounce phrases like “take off your<br />
pants” in Hebrew.<br />
Yet the Israeli counterattack on<br />
Gaza and the skyrocketing numbers<br />
of civilian dead have muted international<br />
support for Israel as they exact<br />
a brutal revenge on the cities hiding<br />
Hamas’ soldiers. The reprisal seems<br />
as impersonal in its administration as<br />
the Oct. 7 attack was personal. Whole<br />
neighborhoods have been leveled<br />
like wheat before a thresher. Multiple<br />
generations of entire families wiped<br />
out from thousands of feet above.<br />
“They say that we are living in the<br />
Holy Land but instead it feels like we<br />
are living in the land of hatred and<br />
violence,” a butcher in Ramallah told<br />
The New York Times.<br />
In both conflicts, Pope Francis has<br />
called for peace and sought to remind<br />
the world of the innocent lives at<br />
stake. “Let us think about and pray for<br />
populations suffering from war,” he<br />
said at one audience. “Do not forget<br />
the tormented Ukraine and think of<br />
the Palestinian and Israeli people.<br />
May the Lord bring about a just<br />
peace.”<br />
Then he added: “They are suffering<br />
so much,” he said. “Children are<br />
suffering. The sick are suffering. The<br />
<strong>26</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
Greg Erlandson is the former president and<br />
editor-in-chief of Catholic <strong>News</strong> Service.<br />
elderly suffer. And many young people<br />
are dying. War is always a defeat.”<br />
War is always a defeat. Cardinal<br />
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin<br />
patriarch of Jerusalem, bemoans the<br />
consequences of this truth.<br />
In speaking about the Israeli-Hamas<br />
conflict, the cardinal said, “The war<br />
will end sooner or later, but the consequences<br />
of this war will be terrible.<br />
You see, there are two issues that seem<br />
particularly worrisome to me. The<br />
first is that both sides seem to lack a<br />
strategic vision that goes beyond the<br />
annihilation of the other. … There is<br />
no exit strategy.”<br />
The second issue, he said, is the<br />
difficulty Israelis and Palestinians<br />
have of “distancing themselves, even<br />
emotionally, from the heavy past of<br />
both peoples, the Holocaust and the<br />
‘Nakba,’ which was evoked on Oct. 7,”<br />
when Hamas militants entered Israel<br />
and went on their killing and kidnapping<br />
rampage. “Nakba” refers to the<br />
mass displacement of Palestinians<br />
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.<br />
The same holds true in Eastern<br />
Europe. Russia is hypnotized by the<br />
dream of restoring a lost empire,<br />
looking not just to Ukraine but also<br />
the Baltic States and more. Ukraine<br />
cannot forget its past, the 1932-33<br />
genocide known as the “Holodomor,”<br />
when millions of Ukrainians were<br />
starved to death by Stalin’s regime.<br />
Like an unstaunched artery, the past<br />
bleeds out on the shattered battlefields<br />
of Eastern Ukraine.<br />
How does one make peace when no<br />
one wants peace right now? We are<br />
imprisoned by the crimes of history,<br />
and with each turn of history’s grim<br />
wheel, humanity relives its horrors<br />
again.<br />
A famous icon sets the Nativity in<br />
a cave beneath Golgotha’s hill. The<br />
Child’s shelter becomes the Man’s<br />
tomb. This Christmas, the innocent<br />
joy in the baby Jesus’ birth is necessarily<br />
set against the horror of Good<br />
Friday. For so many of us, we are left<br />
only with prayer and the desperate<br />
trust that death has been defeated.<br />
The Savior has triumphed. Yet how<br />
long must we wait for the promise of<br />
peace on earth to be fulfilled?<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 27
NOW PLAYING THE BOY AND THE HERON<br />
LIVING FOR THE AFTERLIFE<br />
A legendary Japanese animator’s farewell film<br />
ponders our need to leave behind a legacy.<br />
Promotional image for “The Boy and<br />
the Heron.” | ROTTEN TOMATOES/<br />
COURTESY STUDIO GHIBLI<br />
BY JOSEPH JOYCE<br />
The worst part of making art is<br />
being an artist. It’s a thankless<br />
position in life and often only<br />
remunerative after death. Those<br />
lucky exceptions to the rule are then<br />
rewarded with a whole other fresh hell<br />
to accomplish: the final statement. An<br />
artist’s last piece is humbly expected<br />
not only to encapsulate their entire<br />
body of work, but also mine some<br />
eternal truth from the rubble of the<br />
human condition. If they find the<br />
time.<br />
One last problem to the pile is that<br />
lifespans are expanding at an alarming<br />
rate. Back in the good old days, an<br />
artist would cough into a handkerchief,<br />
see blood, and know he had to wrap<br />
things up by age 23. The curse of<br />
statins means we just keep on trucking,<br />
so a director over 80 might have as<br />
many as four final films left in him.<br />
We’ve seen this with Scorsese and<br />
Eastwood, as we wave tearful goodbyes<br />
to each only to find we are all parked<br />
the same block over.<br />
Legendary Japanese animator and<br />
filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki already<br />
had his swan song with the elegiac<br />
“The Wind Rises” in 2013. A decade<br />
later, he has replaced that swan with a<br />
different bird entirely.<br />
“The Boy and the Heron,” released<br />
in theaters Dec. 8, is a fitting salute<br />
to Miyazaki’s career, something of a<br />
jukebox musical of all his greatest hits.<br />
All the stars are here: dead parents,<br />
scrumptious food, moss-strewn ruins,<br />
even bulbous little spirits waddling<br />
about. There’s nothing you haven’t<br />
seen before, but when you accompany<br />
a man through the summation of his<br />
successes and regrets, that goes with<br />
the territory.<br />
The film is set in Miyazaki’s own<br />
boyhood, Japan in the thick of World<br />
War II. (“Heron” and “Godzilla Minus<br />
Zero,” the top two movies at the box<br />
office the week of its premiere, each<br />
present the war from a Japanese<br />
perspective — perhaps their own small<br />
revenge for the success of “Oppenheimer”<br />
this year.) Twelve-year-old<br />
Mahito has recently lost his mother in<br />
a fire and is further unmoored when<br />
his father moves them from Tokyo to<br />
his mother’s sister’s countryside estate.<br />
That he is also marrying her doesn’t<br />
help.<br />
His aunt is no wicked stepmother, she<br />
genuinely loves her nephew and wants<br />
to honor her sister’s memory in raising<br />
him. But it’s this closeness, in role and<br />
even looks, that drives Mahito away.<br />
He’s too young to see her as anything<br />
but a copy of his mother, and frankly<br />
28 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
he’d prefer the real deal. He seems to<br />
treat all women as varying degrees off<br />
from his idealized mother, holding the<br />
aunt and the household old women<br />
with polite scorn.<br />
So when a magical heron starts<br />
swooping about, telling him his real<br />
mother is still alive and that he just<br />
needs to follow him to that totally innocent<br />
creepy tower off in<br />
the garden, Mahito is<br />
suspicious but reluctant<br />
to resist. The heron<br />
kidnapping his aunt<br />
forces him to pursue,<br />
but she seems more<br />
like an excuse than the<br />
quest itself.<br />
Miyazaki has always<br />
been preoccupied with<br />
liminality, the blurred<br />
boundary between<br />
separate worlds. His<br />
heroes are always children<br />
on the threshold<br />
of adulthood and his<br />
settings the pockets of<br />
overlap between the<br />
wilds and civilization,<br />
the supernatural, and<br />
the mundane. Mahito’s<br />
father runs a munitions<br />
factory, but his men<br />
are still forced to lug<br />
the machines by hand<br />
up the cracked stone<br />
steps of the house. Here<br />
the gateway is a tower<br />
carved from a meteorite,<br />
which struck the land<br />
just before the Meiji<br />
Restoration, when Japan<br />
opened its borders<br />
after centuries of isolation. The family<br />
and the country may have modernized,<br />
but the tower lurks enigmatically in the<br />
corner of the garden, posing questions<br />
and despising answers.<br />
Mahito follows the heron into an<br />
alternate world of murderous birds,<br />
the heron himself the least of his<br />
worries. Here Miyazaki reminds us that<br />
dinosaurs never really went away, they<br />
just grew too small and adorable to eat<br />
us as they still desire. In the parlance of<br />
The Beatles there is a different sort of<br />
violent bird here, represented by several<br />
awesome women who accomplish<br />
most of Mahito’s quest for him. One<br />
of these is Mahito’s mother, who years<br />
ago entered the tower herself. Time<br />
moves differently in this world, so<br />
Mahito knows soon she must inevitably<br />
leave to birth him and die in flames.<br />
The world through the looking glass<br />
isn’t the afterlife (as in Miyazaki’s most<br />
famous work “Spirited Away” in 2001),<br />
but the dreamscape of a mere mortal.<br />
Mahito’s top-hatted great-great uncle<br />
walked through the tower years ago<br />
and now rules the world like the Wizard<br />
of Oz, only this time with powers.<br />
Oz is perhaps the perfect analogy, for if<br />
Oz was just CTE nightmares of a concussed<br />
Dorothy, the dream world here<br />
is the exposed ID of Miyazaki himself.<br />
Hence the familiar sights aren’t mere<br />
references or recyclings, but a man<br />
poking and prodding about his own<br />
psyche.<br />
Like Miyazaki, the wizard is nearing<br />
his end and looking for his successor.<br />
Succession has been the prevalent<br />
theme of the 2010s,<br />
even the name of one of<br />
its more popular shows.<br />
The media merely<br />
reflects our own world,<br />
run by a puttering<br />
gerontocracy unwilling<br />
to trust the generation it<br />
raised to take the reins.<br />
Those shows tend to<br />
agree, the likes of Logan<br />
Roy and Eli Gemstone<br />
finding no one up to<br />
the task of holding their<br />
kingdoms together.<br />
Where Miyazaki differs<br />
is his ambivalence<br />
to his own legacy. His<br />
fantasies have comforted<br />
audiences on both<br />
sides of the Pacific, but<br />
he recognizes that fantasy,<br />
and indeed comfort,<br />
are as much escape as<br />
balms.<br />
When offered the keys<br />
to his kingdom, both<br />
Mahito and his mother<br />
choose instead to return<br />
to their world, despite<br />
the pain and even death<br />
that awaits them. The<br />
film’s Japanese title is<br />
“How Do You Live?,” a<br />
question pondered by philosophers and<br />
LeAnn Rimes throughout history. It is<br />
perhaps the only question, the tower’s<br />
primary riddle with no answer.<br />
But if this is Miyazaki’s parting message<br />
in the face of death, he takes the<br />
best guess I’ve heard yet. How do you<br />
live? By living.<br />
Hayao Miyazaki in 2012. |<br />
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
Joseph Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance<br />
critic based in Sherman Oaks.<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>29</strong>
DESIRE LINES<br />
HEATHER KING<br />
Write your own obituary<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Recently I read a book called<br />
“God of Surprises” (Wm. B.<br />
Eerdmans Publishing Co,<br />
$22.99), in which author Gerard W.<br />
Hughes suggests, as a spiritual exercise,<br />
writing your own obituary.<br />
In a 2022 column, Father Ron<br />
Rolheiser makes a similar suggestion,<br />
pointing out, “There comes a time<br />
in life when it’s time to stop writing<br />
your résumé and begin to write your<br />
obituary.”<br />
I’m always at my best in the early<br />
morning after a lengthy time alone<br />
with Jesus and two cups of strong<br />
coffee, which, happily, was the state<br />
in which I came upon the passage in<br />
“God of Surprises.”<br />
So I seized my pen and notebook<br />
and with zero forethought wrote, “She<br />
lived life to the fullest, every moment!<br />
She struggled, sought, suffered,<br />
pondered, stretched herself. She asked<br />
Christ to restore her sight. She made<br />
a beautiful home, wherever she was.<br />
She loved flowers, trees, birds, the sky,<br />
the sea. She loved walking, reading,<br />
playing the piano, and she ordered her<br />
life so as to allow maximum time to<br />
enjoy and praise those things. She was<br />
lively. She had a sense of humor and a<br />
spirit of fun. She had many character<br />
defects — hardness of heart, impatience,<br />
quickness to judge — but she<br />
worked on them and asked constantly<br />
for them to be removed. She”…<br />
Just then, someone called who needed<br />
my help and I broke off.<br />
So far, I haven’t gone back to complete<br />
my obituary. (Father Rolheiser<br />
suggests that we review and rewrite it<br />
each year).<br />
But afterward I was struck that what<br />
came out so spontaneously wasn’t,<br />
“She spent 20 years of her life on a bar<br />
stool and committed many egregious<br />
sins during and after that time,” nor<br />
“She was mean to her mother while in<br />
adolescence and has bitterly regretted<br />
the meanness ever since,” nor “Her<br />
severe narcissistic wound led her to<br />
take everything personally, hog the<br />
conversation, and demand love and<br />
attention far beyond her share.”<br />
<strong>No</strong>r on the other hand did I write,<br />
“She was valedictorian of her eighthgrade<br />
class, seventh in her class of<br />
more than 300 her first year of law<br />
school, and has won several awards for<br />
her writing.”<br />
I didn’t even put down, “She quit her<br />
high-paying job as a lawyer to pursue<br />
her vocation of writing,” or “She’s<br />
been sober 36 years,” or “She converted<br />
to Catholicism in 1996 and it has<br />
been the crown and glory of her life.”<br />
30 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
Heather King is an award-winning<br />
author, speaker, and workshop leader.<br />
I wrote what fills me with daily<br />
joy. I wrote the things for which I’m<br />
grateful.<br />
“Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy<br />
house and the place where Thy glory<br />
dwelleth” (Psalm 28:6).<br />
I didn’t even have time to get to my<br />
siblings, my friends, my companions<br />
in recovery, my fellow members of the<br />
Mystical Body, the angels, martyrs,<br />
saints, and unsung heroes who shore<br />
me up, light the way, and demonstrate<br />
every minute of my life that, as St.<br />
Catherine of Siena said, “All the way<br />
to heaven is heaven.”<br />
Speaking of heaven, the Advent and<br />
Christmas seasons are simultaneously<br />
exhausting and strangely exhilarating.<br />
All kinds of bustling activity lead up to<br />
the birth of a baby — and then we’re<br />
invited to turn inward, taking stock of<br />
the previous 12 months and contemplating<br />
the 12 months ahead.<br />
A wonderful passage in “The Way of<br />
the Disciple” (Ignatius Press, $14.95),<br />
a short book by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis<br />
(now known as Father Simeon, a<br />
Trappist monk at St. Joseph’s Abbey in<br />
Spencer, Massachusetts) captures the<br />
paradox:<br />
“True, Jesus ‘gives us rest.’ But we<br />
must be clear that such ‘rest’ is totally<br />
different from ‘resting up’ in order to<br />
get back to the daily toils of life, different,<br />
too, from recreation or distraction<br />
or vacationing, all of which are ordered<br />
to getting back to the ‘serious’ part of<br />
life. It seems to me that this ‘rest for<br />
our souls’ is intended by Jesus to be a<br />
real and genuine state of life, the natural<br />
condition in which a child of God<br />
habitually exists, and not just a passing<br />
phase of recovery. It is a deep condition<br />
of soul that is quite compatible<br />
with all the ordinary, exterior activities<br />
and efforts of human life. The one who<br />
truly becomes God’s child, like Jesus,<br />
enjoys such rest as the very element of<br />
existence in which he swims.”<br />
Left to my own devices, I tend to veer<br />
between frenetic activity and physical-emotional<br />
collapse.<br />
Still, that I was able to regard the<br />
sweep of my life and write so freely<br />
that recent morning is perhaps a sign<br />
of having been granted a certain “rest<br />
for my soul.” Beneath the surface anxiety,<br />
could it be that all those years of<br />
struggling, stretching, and praying had<br />
resulted in a strange kind of underlying<br />
peace as a state of life?<br />
I hardly dare voice such a thought, as<br />
we all know what happens next: an utterly<br />
trifling occurrence — a banking<br />
snafu, a tire with low air — will throw<br />
me completely off course.<br />
Still, I say: Enjoy those moments of<br />
peace when they come!<br />
So as we enter 2024, let’s try writing<br />
our own obituary. Then let’s keep<br />
on living, as fully and as long as we<br />
possibly can.<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK
LETTER AND SPIRIT<br />
SCOTT HAHN<br />
Scott Hahn is founder of the<br />
St. Paul Center for Biblical<br />
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.<br />
The hero is the family<br />
When I wrote my book “Joy to the World,” I made<br />
a novel claim. I argued that the Christmas story<br />
seemed to lack a hero, at least in any conventional<br />
literary sense of the term.<br />
Hear me out.<br />
We tend to read the Gospel narrative through 2,000 years<br />
of tradition, and so it seems obvious to us that the hero is<br />
Jesus. He’s the “reason for the season.” He’s the Christ we<br />
strive to keep in Christ-mas. It’s his story we hear — and<br />
“The Holy Family with Mary Magdalen,” by El Greco,<br />
1541-1614, Greek. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
then go out to “tell it on the mountain.”<br />
But baby Jesus doesn’t fit the classical model of a hero.<br />
He’s passive: nursed and placed to sleep in a manger, found<br />
on his mother’s lap by the Magi, carried away in flight to<br />
Egypt. Like any baby, he exercises a powerful attraction —<br />
drawing love from those who draw near. Yet he is visible<br />
only because other arms are holding him.<br />
The Christmas story actually has an unconventional hero<br />
— not a warrior, not a worldly conqueror, not an individual<br />
at all, but rather a family. The details of the story always<br />
lead us back to that fact. We see the swaddling bands and<br />
know they’re for a baby; but someone had to do the swaddling.<br />
So we have a mother and child. We have a father.<br />
We have a household. We hear tell of the manger-crib<br />
where he lay; but someone needed to place him there. We<br />
read of the child’s exile in Egypt; but someone had to take<br />
him there — someone had to protect him from brigands<br />
along the desert roads — and someone had to work hard to<br />
support the mother and baby in a foreign land.<br />
The scenes of Christmas are dramatic precisely because<br />
they involve the intersection of so many individual lives.<br />
Indeed, the other details of the story derive their meaning<br />
from the Gospel’s primary focus on the family. Herod,<br />
for example, is clearly anti-family and anti-child. History<br />
tells us that King Herod slaughtered his own sons; and the<br />
Gospel shows him commanding his soldiers to turn their<br />
swords upon the children of Bethlehem.<br />
The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key<br />
to Christianity. The family is a key to everything. St. Pope<br />
John Paul II noted that everything good — history, humanity,<br />
salvation — “passes by way of the family.”<br />
One of the most profound implications of the Christmas<br />
story is this: that God had made his dwelling place among<br />
men, women, and children, and he called them to become<br />
his family, his holy household.<br />
And so we find ourselves again at the center of the drama.<br />
We live in families that have their struggles. We find ourselves,<br />
as a society, facing anti-life, anti-family forces that<br />
seem unbeatable.<br />
We must never despair. We must remember Christmas<br />
and press on toward Bethlehem. The Holy Family enjoyed<br />
the protection of heaven, and now we are Jesus’ holy family.<br />
We are his household on earth. God will empower us<br />
to accomplish his will for our time. Christmas is our proof.<br />
Christmas is our assurance.<br />
32 • ANGELUS • <strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong>
■ MONDAY, DECEMBER 25<br />
Classical Midnight Mass. St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church,<br />
15520 Ventura Blvd., Encino, 12 a.m. Full choir, soloists,<br />
and chamber orchestra will perform Christmas Mass. Service<br />
is preceded by hymns and carols at 11:30 p.m.<br />
■ FRIDAY, DECEMBER <strong>29</strong><br />
“God’s GPS: The Road Less Traveled” New Year’s Retreat.<br />
Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino. Retreat<br />
runs Friday, 2 p.m.-Sunday, 12 p.m. For more information,<br />
visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.<br />
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 6<br />
La Befana Celebration. Our Lady of Perpetual Help<br />
Church, 23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall, 12 p.m. Hosted by<br />
the Italian Catholic Club of SCV, includes Italian dinner,<br />
puppeteer, dancing, and Italian Santa Claus with gifts for<br />
children. Cost: $25/adults, $10/children 7-16, under 7 free.<br />
RSVP to Anna Riggs at 661-645-7877.<br />
Mass for the Intention of Father Aloysius’ Beatification<br />
and Canonization. San Gabriel Mission, 425 S. Junipero<br />
Serra Dr., San Gabriel, 7:30 a.m. rosary, 8 a.m. Mass. Mass<br />
to pray for the canonization of Father Aloysius will take<br />
place on the first Saturday of every month.<br />
■ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10<br />
St. Padre Pio Mass. St. Anne Church, 340 10th St., Seal<br />
Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al Baca. For more information,<br />
call 562-537-45<strong>26</strong>.<br />
Changing Seasons: Ordinary Time. Zoom, 7-8:30 p.m.<br />
Class led by Father Juan Ochoa will explore the Bible readings<br />
for Ordinary Time. Visit lacatholics.org/events.<br />
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 13<br />
Bereavement Retreat. St. Raymond Church, 12348 Paramount<br />
Blvd., #3538, Downey, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Find help and<br />
healing in grief. Day includes 5 p.m. Mass. Cost: $50/person,<br />
includes continental breakfast, lunch, and all materials.<br />
Payment can be made to St. Raymond Church or through<br />
Zelle to 562-631-8844. RSVP by Jan. 2 to bereavement.<br />
ministry@yahoo.com.<br />
Christian Coaching: Prospering the Body, Soul, and Spirit.<br />
Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30<br />
a.m.-3:30 p.m. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or<br />
call 818-815-4480.<br />
30th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast.<br />
Proud Bird Restaurant, 11022 Aviation Blvd., Los Angeles,<br />
8-11 a.m. Organized by the African American Catholic<br />
Center for Evangelization. Keynote speaker: Professor<br />
Michael Howard, Black Catholic program, LMU. Cost: $50/<br />
donation. Visit aaccfe.org.<br />
■ SUNDAY, JANUARY 14<br />
Diaconate Virtual Information Day. 2-4 p.m. Open to all<br />
those interested in joining the diaconate program. Email<br />
your name, parish, and pastor’s name to dmz2011@la-archdiocese.org.<br />
■ MONDAY, JANUARY 15<br />
End of Life Preparation. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree<br />
Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP to<br />
Cathy by Jan. 10 at 562-631-8844.<br />
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 20<br />
OneLife LA. LA State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St., Los<br />
Angeles, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Join Archbishop José H. Gomez on<br />
a walk for life through downtown Los Angeles, followed by<br />
a festival with speakers, music, and food. Theme: “10 Years<br />
Together As One.” For more information, visit onelifela.org.<br />
Alleluia Dance Theatre: Embracing All There Is. Holy Spirit<br />
Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. For<br />
more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.<br />
100th Celebration. St. Sebastian Church, 1453 Federal<br />
Ave., Los Angeles, 10 a.m. Mass. Celebrant: Bishop Matthew<br />
Elshoff. Reception to follow. Email stsebastianoffice@<br />
gmail.com.<br />
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 27<br />
The Indwelling Wholeness of the Trinity. St. Andrew<br />
Church, 538 Concord St., El Segundo, 9:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m.<br />
Retreat focuses on a contemplative experience to prayerfully<br />
enter the inner sanctum of the heart in the art of attention.<br />
Cost: $25/offering, includes continental breakfast<br />
and lunch salad bar. RSVP by Jan. 20. Contact nbstjames@<br />
gmail.com.<br />
■ MONDAY, JANUARY <strong>29</strong><br />
End of Life Preparation. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree<br />
Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP to<br />
Cathy by Jan. 10 at 562-631-8844.<br />
■ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2<br />
Ethical Leadership Lunch. Cathedral of Our Lady of the<br />
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m.-1:30<br />
p.m. Event brings together Catholic leaders from the<br />
business world to discuss how ethical practices positively<br />
impact our community. For more, visit lacatholics.org/<br />
events.<br />
■ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3<br />
Nun Run, 5K, 1-Mile, and Community Service Fair. La<br />
Reina High School, 106 W. Janss Rd., Thousand Oaks,<br />
8 a.m. 10th annual Nun Run, hosted by Sisters of <strong>No</strong>tre<br />
Dame, will raise proceeds for local and global outreach.<br />
Visit nun.run.<br />
■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7<br />
Changing Seasons: Lent to Palm Sunday. Zoom, 7-8:30<br />
p.m. Class led by Father Felix Just, SJ, will explore Bible<br />
readings for Lent to Palm Sunday. Visit lacatholics.org/<br />
events.<br />
■ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10<br />
Valentine’s Dinner. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church,<br />
23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall, 12 p.m. Hosted by the Italian<br />
Catholic Club of SCV, includes complimentary glass of<br />
wine. Cost: $45/person. RSVP to Anna Riggs at 661-645-<br />
7877 by Feb. 5.<br />
■ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15<br />
Youth Day: RECongress. Anaheim Convention Center,<br />
200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Young<br />
people will enjoy a general session, keynote speech, two<br />
workshops, and Eucharistic liturgy. Speakers include Baby<br />
Angel, Chris Estrella, and Maggie Craig. Cost: $40/person.<br />
Register at recongress.org.<br />
■ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16<br />
Religious Education Congress. Anaheim Convention<br />
Center, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim. Events run Feb.<br />
16-18, and include speakers, sacraments, films, and<br />
workshops. Keynote speaker: Jessica Sarowitz, founder of<br />
Miraflores Films. Cost: $75/person until Jan. 15, $85 after.<br />
For more information, visit recongress.org.<br />
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.<br />
All calendar items must include the name, date, time, address of the event, and a phone number for additional information.<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2023</strong> • ANGELUS • 33