Angelus News | December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019 | Vol. 3 No. 44

ANGELUS 

THE MIRACLE 

OF NAZARETH 

December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019 Vol. 3 No. 44

ON THE COVER 

“The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist” (circa 

1524–26), by Italian painter Pietro Buonaccorsi. Sandwiched 

between Christmas and the Epiphany, the late-December feast day 

offers an example of a father, mother, and child living God’s perfect 

will in very unperfect circumstances. As contributing editor Kathryn 

Lopez explains on page 10, we can not only learn from them, but ask 

for (and receive) their help, no matter our state in life. 

NEW YORK METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 

IMAGE: Vida Nueva Editor and Angelus Photo Editor Victor Alemán strikes a pose at 

“A House of Prayer for All Peoples,” a photo exhibition on display at the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels until Jan. 11. The exhibition features 

a special selection taken from the thousands of photos he’s taken at the cathedral 

since before it was built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “I have 

been very fortunate, and thank God for having been able to document 

many of the celebrations of this holy place,” said Alemán. 

RICH VILLACORTA 

Contents 

Archbishop Gomez 3 

World, Nation and Local News 4-6 

LA Catholic Events 7 

Scott Hahn on Scripture 8 

Father Rolheiser 9 

Mike Aquilina on the museum exhibit that shouts ‘Armenia!’ 12 

Pope Francis accepts LA auxiliary’s retirement request 14 

Missionaries sent across the world from South LA parish 16 

The mixed bag of Gov. Jerry Brown’s ‘enlightened’ politics 18 

What U.S. bishops can expect to hear from pope’s fiery preacher 22 

Robert Brennan on his own generation’s biggest flaw 24 

‘Welcome to Marwen’ achieves mediocrity — and little else 26 

Heather King: A trashy library exhibit that delights 28

ANGELUS 

December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019 | Vol.3 • No.44 

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POPE WATCH 

Time for ‘new Nathans’ 

In his annual address to the Vatican’s 

central administrative bureaucracy, 

Pope Francis directly addressed 

perpetrators of clerical sexual abuse, 

telling them to “convert and hand 

yourself over to human justice, and 

prepare for divine justice.” 

The Church, Francis said, is “firmly 

committed to eliminating the evil of 

abuse, which cries for vengeance to 

the Lord, to the God who is always 

mindful of the suffering experienced 

by many minors because of clerics 

and consecrated persons: abuses of 

power and conscience and sexual 

abuse.” 

The pontiff also thanked media 

personnel who’ve brought such abuses 

to light. 

“I myself would like to give heartfelt 

thanks to those media professionals 

who were honest and objective and 

sought to unmask these predators and 

to make their victims’ voices heard,” 

Francis said in the Dec. 21 speech to 

the Roman Curia. 

“Let us all remember that only 

David’s encounter with the prophet 

Nathan made him understand the 

seriousness of his sin,” Francis said, 

referring to the Old Testament figures 

of King David and the prophet 

Nathan, who denounced the king’s 

sins. 

“Today we need new Nathans to 

help so many Davids rouse themselves 

from a hypocritical and perverse life,” 

the pope said. 

“Please, let us help Holy Mother 

Church in her difficult task of 

recognizing real from false cases, 

accusations from slander, grievances 

from insinuations, gossip from 

info@ 

angelusnews.com 

www.angelusnews.com 

Angelus 

News 

FOLLOW US 

defamation. This is no easy task, since 

the guilty are capable of skillfully 

covering their tracks, to the point 

where many wives, mothers and sisters 

are unable to detect them in those 

closest to them: husbands, godfathers, 

grandfathers, uncles, brothers, 

neighbors, teachers, and the like,” the 

pope said. 

“The victims, too, carefully selected 

by their predators, often prefer silence 

and live in fear of shame and the 

terror of rejection,” he said. 

On another front, Francis also 

lamented those members of the clergy 

and consecrated life who, he said, 

“betray their vocation,” giving in to 

corruption and animosity. He did not 

specify which forms of corruption he 

had in mind, though he appeared to 

include members of the clergy who 

sow division in the Church. 

“They hide behind good intentions 

in order to stab their brothers and 

sisters in the back and to sow weeds, 

division, and bewilderment,” the 

pope said. “They always find excuses, 

including intellectual and spiritual 

excuses, to progress unperturbed on 

the path to perdition.” 

The pope clearly suggested that some 

of these corrupt and disruptive clergy 

are found among the bishops. 

“David the sinner and Judas Iscariot 

will always be present in the Church, 

since they represent the weakness that 

is part of our human condition,” the 

pope said, referring to the disciple 

in the New Testament who betrayed 

Christ. 

Reporting courtesy of Crux editor John 

L. Allen Jr. 

@Angelus 


www.la-archdiocese.org 

@Angelus 


2 • ANGELUS • December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019

’ 

NEW WORLD 

OF FAITH 

BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

God and only God 

As we move forward in our spiritual 

journey, sometimes God takes away 

things that we rely on. 

It could be the loss of a loved one, or 

maybe we lose our health. Sometimes 

we are shocked by news that we could 

have never expected, or something 

changes in our lives that we thought 

would always remain the same. 

Some of the saints speak of a “dark 

night of the soul,” feeling like God has 

left them alone. I think every one of 

us has felt this way at different times in 

our lives. 

It is hard in these moments. But 

everything in God’s creation happens 

for a reason, and God’s plan is always a 

plan of love for us. 

This is the meaning of Christmas. 

Jesus is coming to redeem us, to give us 

a new beginning and new hope. 

There is a beautiful reading we hear 

in the liturgy during this time of year. 

The prophet Zephaniah says, “He will 

rejoice over you with gladness, renew 

you in his love. He will sing joyfully 

because of you.” 

What a beautiful thought! Imagine: 

God loves you so much that he will 

sing with joy to be with you. This is 

Christmas! 

Yet for many, this time of year is 

mixed with sadness — there are loved 

ones we miss or worry about, old 

wounds that have not healed, relationships 

that still need repaired. 

Why do these feelings come to people 

at Christmastime? 

I think it is because with the Incarnation, 

the coming of Jesus Christ in our 

human flesh, we see the glory and joy 

and love that God intends for us. 

We realize at Christmas how very 

much we want the gift that Jesus comes 

to give us — the Spirit that restores 

us as God’s children, that takes away 

our shame and fear, and sets us free to 

return to our Father in confidence and 

love. 

We want this gift from God so much. 

But we are still learning, year after year, 

how to receive it. 

St. John of the Cross was one of those 

saints who lived through and wrote 

about the dark night of the soul. 

Earlier this month, the Church 

celebrated his feast day. A friend told 

me about receiving a text that day 

from one of his friends. It read: “I’ve 

been using St. John of the Cross email 

anti-virus security for years: I delete all 

attachments.” 

It was a funny message with a profound 

spiritual point. Through the 

trials in our lives, through our struggles, 

God is teaching us to “delete” our 

attachments, to let go of anything in 

our lives that is keeping us from relying 

totally and only on Jesus, only on God. 

I think of Mary and Joseph. We can 

forget that they were human like we 

are — a man and a woman expecting 

their first child, with all the anxieties 

that come with that state in life. 

Christmas is the story of their total 

trust in God. They followed God’s will 

for their lives, even though their lives 

were turned upside down by events 

beyond their control. 

First, an imperial census forces them 

on a journey that means their baby is 

born in utter poverty and uncertainty. 

Then they are forced to flee their 

home country in the midst of political 

violence and chaos caused by a ruthless 

king. 

I think of how frightened, how alone 

they must have felt. 

It is hard not to compare their plight 

to the millions of refugee families 

today who find themselves homeless, 

living in poverty and uncertainty in a 

strange land — including thousands 

this Christmas who are camped just 

beyond our country’s southern border. 

My point is not about politics. It is 

about trust. When we lose our supports, 

what do we lean on? Who do we 

turn to? 

God alone — God and only God — 

he is the answer. 

A brother bishop reminded me 

recently of this beautiful truth. He sent 

me a quote from Blessed John Henry 

Newman: “Life passes, riches fly away, 

popularity is fickle, the senses decay, 

the world changes, friends die. One 

alone is true to us; One alone can 

supply our needs.” 

God alone is enough. We can find 

the happiness he wants for us in letting 

him guide us, living always in his 

loving presence. 

We all need to better practice detachment 

— putting our lives in his hands, 

wanting only what he wants, doing 

everything only to please him. Trust in 

God’s loving will and it will be OK. 

It is not easy. It is the work of saints, 

the work of a lifetime. But each of us 

is given a lifetime to love God and to 

become the saints that he created us 

to be. 

Pray for me this week, and as we 

continue through this holy season and 

into the new year, I will be praying for 

you. 

And may the Holy Family teach all of 

us to trust totally in God. 

To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com. 

December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD 

Dear Santa: I want a travel permit 

For many Palestinian Christians who live in Gaza, 

Christmas comes with a choice — celebrate with family, 

or celebrate in Bethlehem. 

That’s due to a controversial Israeli policy that requires 

permits in order for Palestinian Christians of Gaza to 

travel to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where Bethlehem 

is located. 

However, only 500 permits were issued this year, and 

often permits don’t come for the whole family. 

“Israel is using a policy of separation between parents 

and children,” Father Mario da Silva, a parish priest in 

Gaza, told the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. “It would 

give a permit to the father but deprive the mother and the 

children of the same document. Thus, the family decides 

not to go and stay together in Gaza.” 

CLIMATE CRITICISM — Children attend a Global Campaign to 

Demand Climate Justice demonstration before the final session of 

the COP24 U.N. climate change conference in Katowice, Poland, 

Dec. 14. Demonstrators, including members of the Catholic 

Climate Movement, believe the conference’s final document could 

have better addressed the needs of “climate-vulnerable” and 

developing countries. 

Religious dialogue in 

Argentina Bergoglio-style 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/KACPER PEMPEL, REUTERS 

A Palestinian girl lights a candle in the Church of the Nativity in 

Bethlehem Dec. 15. 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/DEBBIE HILL 

Following the example of the former Cardinal Jorge 

Bergoglio, Catholic leaders in Argentina have made a 

show of unity with Jewish and Muslim leaders through a 

new interreligious document. 

While archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2005, the future 

Pope Francis signed an original document of Argentinian 

officials decrying religious violence. Now, in 

the twilight of 2018, Argentinian religious leaders have 

joined together again under the same message. 

“There’s a double scope to the document: firstly, to 

reaffirm that any invocation of violence in the name 

of religion is completely wrong,” Bishop Oscar Ojea, 

president of the Argentine bishops’ conference, said at 

the document’s signing. “Secondly, to reaffirm interreligious 

dialogue, which in our country is one of the few 

that have actually worked.” 

Ojea told Crux he hopes the document will help 

younger generations understand faith “not as a ‘no’ to 

everything … but as something that comes from the 

most genuine side of the human heart and our tradition.” 

 

Police foil Vatican bomb plot 

This year, residents of Rome can thank Italian anti-terrorism 

forces for their merry Christmas. 

On Dec. 13, Italian anti-terrorism forces arrested a 

Somali national who is accused of planning an attack 

on St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome during Christmas. The 

accused, Mohsin Ibrahim Omar, is believed by Italy’s 

special security police to have connections to the Islamic 

State. 

“The 25th is Christmas … the churches are full. Let’s 

put bombs in all the churches of Italy. Where is the 

biggest church? It’s in Rome?” Omar is alleged to have 

said according to wiretap recordings. 


NATION 

Report: Some Illinois dioceses 

failed sexual abuse victims 

A report outlining the early findings of an investigation 

of clerical sex abuse in Illinois has found that the names 

of more than 500 Catholic priests and deacons accused 

of abuse have not been publicly disclosed. 

The report, which was commissioned by the state attorney 

general in August 2018, found that though diocesan 

records found 690 priests accused of sexual abuse, only 

the names of 185 “credibly accused” clerics have been 

made public. 

The investigation claims that some dioceses didn’t 

investigate some allegations enough, and “found multiple 

examples where the Illinois dioceses failed to notify law 

enforcement or the Depart of Children and Family Services 

of allegations they received related to clergy sexual 

abuse of minors.” 

The unreported names are those of clerics who faced 

allegations that were either not substantiated or not investigated, 

the report said. 

CIVIL TALK — Father Matt Malone (right), editor-in-chief of 

America magazine and moderator of a Dec. 18 forum in New York 

City titled “Civility in America: On Campus,” poses with Princeton 

professors Robert P. George (center) and Cornel West (left) before 

the event. The two academics are known for their unlikely close 

friendship, despite often being perceived as ideological opposites. 

CIARIN FREEMAN/AMERICA MEDIA 

The church destroyed by an earthquake in 2017 in Jiutepec, 

Mexico. 

U.S. bishops help Church in Latin 

America with additional collections 

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

has awarded $4 million in grant funding to support 

pastoral work in Latin America. 

Every year, on the fourth Sunday in January, the 

USCCB’s Subcommittee on the Church in Latin 

America takes up a collection to fund grants to support 

the Church in Latin America. 

This past year, in addition to that standard collection, 

additional collections were taken up for natural 

disaster relief for earthquakes and hurricanes in the 

region, totaling nearly $800,000, according to a Dec. 

13 statement. 

“I sincerely thank the Catholics of the United States 

for their generosity to, and solidarity with, our sisters 

and brothers in Latin America and the Caribbean,” 

said Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Anchorage, 

chairman for the Committee on National Collections. 

 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/FATHER JUAN J. MOLINA 

Are ‘humanized mice’ ethical? 

Animal testing is more human than most realized, but 

the National Institutes of Health is looking to keep it 

that way despite criticism. 

Scientists met Dec. 18 to discuss the merits and 

alternatives of using human fetal tissue acquired from 

aborted remains to make mice have more “humanlike” 

immune systems. According to a report from the meeting, 

such mice “remain the ‘gold standard’ ” for testing 

and should remain. 

A USCCB statement called the practice “morally 

offensive,” and pro-life groups like Live Action were 

quick to slam the NIH and its director, Dr. Francis Collins, 

for their position on using human fetal remains. 

“Director Collins must be replaced with someone 

who recognizes that children who are killed by abortion 

should be mourned, not experimented on,” Lila 

Rose, director of Live Action, said in a Dec. 18 statement. 

 


LOCAL 

JEWISH LEARNING WORKS 

California 

scholar finishes 

Bible translation 

After 20 years, UC 

Berkeley scholar Robert 

Alter has accomplished a 

rare feat: a full translation 

of the entire Hebrew 

Bible into English — on 

his own. 

Now 83, Alter began by 

publishing his translation 

of Genesis in 1997. Since 

then, he has translated 

more books of the 

Hebrew Bible “in fits 

and starts,” the Jewish 

Dr. Robert Alter 

Telegraphic Agency 

(JTA) reported, making him “the first person to complete 

a major English-language translation of the entire 

Hebrew Bible on his own.” 

Alter’s is “the best translation of the Bible into English 

ever made,” fellow UC Berkeley professor Ron Hendel 

told JTA. “And to do it as one person is an amazing 

achievement.” 

Alter’s three-volume “The Hebrew Bible: A Translation 

With Commentary” was published this month by W.W. 

Norton & Company. 

Sacramental solidarity in Covina 

Catholics from Sacred Heart Church in Covina 

joined the East San Gabriel Coalition for the Homeless 

and the regional Beloved movement to host a 

Dec. 15 “Las Posadas” (“The Inns”) procession and 

celebration in solidarity with displaced families at the 

U.S.-Mexico border. 

After 5:30 p.m. Mass, participants processed through 

the neighborhood with the Blessed Sacrament before 

silent adoration inside the parish church. Afterward, 

guests at the parish’s winter shelter for the homeless 

were served pan dulce, champurrado, arroz con leche 

and atol — all typical menu items for a traditional 

posadas celebration. 

Guests at the shelter also made Christmas cards for 

migrant families at the border. 

Father Spencer Lewerenz serves refreshments to the homeless at 

Sacred Heart Church hall. 

DULCE RODRIGUEZ 

ST. JOSEPH CENTER 

A BLITZFUL DAY — Los Angeles Rams linebacker Micah Kiser signs autographs for St. Joseph Center staff members at the Rams’ Community 

Blitz day Dec. 18 in South LA. Four Rams players and two cheerleaders teamed up to bring Angelenos BBQ and grocery bags filled with a 

holiday feast. The event took place at the Center’s Broadway Manchester location. Founded by two Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1976, 

the Center helps thousands of poor and homeless people annually at its multiple LA locations. 


LA Catholic Events 

Items for the Calendar of events are due two weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be mailed to Angelus News (Attn: Calendar), 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241; 

emailed to calendar@angelusnews.com; or faxed to (213) 637-6360. All calendar items must include the name, date, time and address of the event, plus a phone number for additional information. 

Fri., Dec. 28 

Memorial of the Holy Innocents. Holy Cross Cemetery, 

5835 West Slauson Ave., 2 p.m. Mass at the Risen 

Christ Chapel followed by a rosary procession to 

the Shrine to the Unborn. Celebrant: Bishop Joseph 

Sartoris. Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Call 

310-670-0605. 

Sun., Dec. 30 

“O Beautiful Star” Epiphany Concert. Alemany High 

School, 11111 Alemany Dr., Mission Hills, 4 p.m. Celebrate 

the Christmas season with Bishop Joseph V. Brennan and 

Mrs. Anna Betancourt. Cost: $30/person, available at Holy 

Trinity Parish Office. Proceeds benefit Catholic Charities. 

Call Johanna Reyes at 310-872-6804. 

Thur., Jan. 3 

SEEK2019: Encounter Something More. Indianapolis 

Convention Center, 100 S. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis, 

Indiana. Five-day event (Jan. 3-7), where people from 

across the country gather to ask the big questions about 

life, love, and true happiness. Speakers include Dr. Scott 

Hahn, Emily Wilson, Chris Stefanick, and George Weigel. 

For more information, visit www.seek2019.com. 

Fri., Jan. 4 

SCRC Partially Silent Charismatic Retreat, “Walking 

in the Light.” Sacred Heart Retreat House, 920 E. 

Alhambra Rd., Alhambra. Retreat led by Father Joshua 

Lee and Father Bill Delaney, SJ, and will run Jan. 4-6. 

For room availability and commuter information, call 

SCRC at 818-771-1361, email spirit@scrc.org or visit 

scrc.org. 

Sat., Jan. 5 

Honest to God: Encountering the Psalms. St. Monica 

Church, 725 California Ave., Santa Monica. Series of 

study sessions kicks off with Dr. Paul Ford from St. 

John’s Seminary. To register, visit www.stmonica.net/ 

honest2god. 

John Paul II Foundation for the New Evangelization 

Conference. Sacred Heart Church, Biedermann 

Hall, 10800 Henderson Rd., Ventura, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Speakers include Christopher West of Theology of the 

Body, Peter Herbeck of Renewal Ministries and Sister 

Miriam James Heidland. Free event, open to the public. 

Register at parishevangelizationleaders.org. Email 

questions to events@parishevangelizationleaders.org. 

Basic Lector Formation. St. Hilary Church, 5465 

Citronell Ave., Pico Rivera, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

Cost: $60/person. Event runs on Jan. 5, 12, 19, and 

26. Register at store.la-archdiocese.org/basic-lectorfmroation-1519. 

Sun., Jan. 6 

La Befana Celebration. OLPH Hall, 23233 Lyons 

Avenue, Newhall, 12 p.m. The Italian Catholic Club 

hosts its traditional celebration for Christmas and 

Epiphany. There will be a puppeteer, accordion music, 

Italian lessons, and an Italian Santa Claus with gifts for 

children. Cost: $25/adults, $10/children 7-16. Children 

under 7 free. Includes dinner. Call Anna Riggs to RSVP 

at 661-645-7877. 

Mon., Jan. 7 

A Priest Forever: Christ and the New Testament 

Priesthood, 2019 West Coast Priest Conference. 

Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, 9700 N. Torrey Pines Rd., 

La Jolla. Join Drs. Scott Hahn and John Bergsma for 

four days of spiritual renewal Jan. 7-10. Cost: $800/ 

person and includes room and board. Limited needbased 

scholarships available. For more information and 

registration, visit stpaulcenter.com/westcoastpriests. 

Wed., Jan. 9 

ACCW Day of Prayer and Fellowship for Catholic 

Women. St. Bede the Venerable, 215 Foothill Blvd., La 

Canada Flintridge, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Speaker: David 

Fields, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul will talk 

about the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Los Angeles. 

Includes Mass and lunch. Cost: $12/person, prepaid. 

For information, call Marie Urrutia at 818-244-0547. 

Fri., Jan. 11 

Men’s Retreat. Sacred Heart Retreat Center, 507 N. 

Granada Ave., Alhambra. Fri., Jan. 11, 5 p.m. to Sun., 

Jan. 13, 12 p.m. Msgr. Morris will guide participants in 

prayer and reflection. For more information, call Suzan 

at 626-289-1353, ext. 204. 

Sat., Jan. 12 

Adopt or Foster Information Meeting. Andrew’s Plaza, 

11335 West Magnolia Blvd., Suite 2C, North Hollywood, 

10 a.m.-12 p.m. To RSVP or for more information, call 

213-342-0162 or call toll free at 800-730-3933 or 

email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org. 

Special Eucharistic Ministers. St. Hilary Church, 5465 

Citronell Ave., Pico Rivera. Ministry at Mass: 8:30-11:30 

a.m. Ministry to the sick: 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost: $15/ 

person/half-day, $25/person/full day. Register at store. 

la-archdiocese.org/emhc-training-1-12-19. 

Mon., Jan. 14 

Central America Pilgrimage Retreat with the 

Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Ten-day spiritual 

journey for bishops, priests, brothers, and deacons. 

Pilgrimage will visit the shrines of Blessed 

Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador, Bishop 

Juan Jose Gerardi and Blessed Father Stanley 

Rother in Guatemala, and more. Cost: $1,000/ 

person, plus airfare to and from Guatemala City. For 

more information, contact Claudia Velardo at 914- 

941-7636, ext. 2689 or email cvelardo@maryknoll. 

org. 

Fri., Jan. 18 

Responding to Domestic Violence: Leadership 

Awareness Training. Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, registration 

8:30-9 a.m. Event 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Learn about 

domestic violence and how to respond to situations 

you may encounter in your parish, school, or ministry. 

Sponsored by the Office of Family Life. Cost: $25/ 

person and includes breakfast, lunch, and materials. 

$9 parking not included. RSVP by Jan. 11 to Jeanette 

Seneviratne at 213-637-7398. 

Sat., Jan. 19 

OneLife LA. Walk from La Placita Olvera St. to LA 

Historic Park. Youth rally starts at 10:30 a.m., walk 

starts at 12 p.m. Park event begins at 1:15 p.m. 

Family-friendly event in celebration of the beauty 

and dignity of life in all stages from conception to 

natural death. For more information, visit onelifela. 

org. 

25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer 

Breakfast. Proud Bird Restaurant, 11022 Aviation 

Blvd., Los Angeles, 8 a.m. Keynote speaker: Damien 

Goodman. Drum Major Awardees: Deacon Hosea 

Alexander and Deacon Emile Adams Jr. Cost: $50/ 

person breakfast donation. For more information, 

contact American Catholic Center at 323-777-2106. 

Lector Ministry Renewal. St. Hilary Church, 5465 

Citronell Ave., Pico Rivera, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

Cost: $15/person. Register at store.la-archdiocese. 

org/lector-ministry-renewal. 

Mon., Jan. 21 

Martin Luther King Jr. Mass. Our Lady of the Angels 

Cathedral, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 2:30 

p.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez. 

Theme: “Gathered together to encounter as one.” 

Wed., Jan. 23 

St. Paul the Apostle Senior STARS Trip to Hsi Lai 

Buddhist Temple. Cost: $15/person and includes 

tour and vegetarian lunch. Checks can be sent to 

St. Paul the Apostle Church, 10750 Ohio Ave., Los 

Angeles, CA 90024, by Jan. 16. Call Claire Gerard at 

310-474-5977 to RSVP, for parking directions, and 

further information. 

This Week at AngelusNews.com 

Visit AngelusNews.com for these stories 

and more. Your source for complete, 

up-to-the-minute coverage of local news, 

sports and events in Catholic L.A. 

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• The devil’s greatest lie, and how we can defeat him in our daily lives. 

• A tribute to Knute Rockne, 100 years after his first season at Notre Dame. 


G A T H E R E D 

T O G E T H E R 

T O 

E N C O U N T E R 

A S O N E 

Join us for a 

celebration of 

MARTIN LUTHER 

KING JR. 

Monday, January 21, 2019 

2:30pm 

Cathedral of 

Our Lady of the Angels 

555 West Temple Street 

Los Angeles, CA 90012 

Mass presided by 

Archbishop José H. Gomez 

With the participation of: 

The Transfiguration Choir 

Why did Jesus choose to 

become a baby born of 

a mother and father and 

to spend all but his last 

years living in an ordinary 

human family? In part, to 

reveal God’s plan to make 

all people live as one “holy 

family” in his Church (see 2 

Corinthians 6:16-18). 

In the Holy Family of 

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, 

God reveals our true home. 

We’re to live as his children, 

“chosen ones, holy and 

beloved,” as the First Reading 

puts it. 

The family advice we hear 

in today’s readings — for 

mothers, fathers, and children 

— is all solid and practical. 

Happy homes are the fruit of 

our faithfulness to the Lord, 

we sing in today’s Psalm. 

But the liturgy is inviting 

us to see more, to see 

how, through our family 

obligations and relationships, 

our families become heralds 

of the family of God that he 

wants to create on earth. 

Jesus shows us this in today’s Gospel. 

His obedience to his earthly parents 

flows directly from his obedience to 

the will of his heavenly Father. Joseph 

and Mary aren’t identified by name, 

but three times are called “his parents” 

and are referred to separately as his 

“mother” and “father.” 

The emphasis is all on their “familial” 

ties to Jesus. But these ties are 

emphasized only so that Jesus, in the 

first words he speaks in Luke’s Gospel, 

can point us beyond that earthly 

relationship to the Fatherhood of God. 

SUNDAY 

READINGS 

BY SCOTT HAHN 

Sir. 3:2-6, 12-14 / Ps. 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 / Col. 3:12-21 / Lk. 2:41-52 

“The Holy Family,” by Martin Schongauer (1448-1491), German. 

In what Jesus calls “My Father’s 

house,” every family finds its true 

meaning and purpose (see Ephesians 

3:15). The Temple we read about in 

the Gospel today is God’s house, his 

dwelling (see Luke 19:46). 

But it’s also an image of the family of 

God, the Church (see Ephesians 2:19- 

22; Hebrews 3:3-6; 10:21). 

In our families we’re to build up 

this household, this family, this living 

temple of God until he reveals his new 

dwelling among us, and says of every 

person: “I shall be his God and he will 

be My son” (see Revelation 21:3, 7) 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com. 


IN EXILE 

BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

The double message of Christmas 

I’ve never been happy with some 

of my activist friends who send out 

Christmas cards with messages like, 

“May the Peace of Christ Disturb 

You!” Can’t we have one day a year to 

be happy and celebrate without having 

our already unhappy selves shaken 

with more guilt? 

Isn’t Christmas a time when we can 

enjoy being children again? Moreover, 

as Karl Rahner once said, isn’t 

Christmas a time when God gives us 

permission to be happy? So why not? 

Well, it’s complex. Christmas is a time 

when God gives us permission to be 

happy, when the message from God 

speaks through the voice of Isaiah and 

says, “Comfort my people. Speak words 

of comfort!” 

But Christmas is also a time that 

points out that when God was born 

2,000 years ago there wasn’t any room 

for him to be born in all the normal 

homes and places of the day. There 

was no room for him at the inn. Peoples’ 

busy lives and expectations kept 

them from offering him a place to be 

born. That hasn’t changed. 

But first, the comfort of his birth. A 

number of years ago, I participated in 

a large diocesan synod. At one point 

the animator in charge had us divide 

into small groups, and each group was 

asked to answer the question: What’s 

the single most important thing that 

the Church should challenge the 

world with right now? 

The groups reported back and each 

group named some important spiritual 

or moral challenge: “We need to challenge 

our society toward more justice!” 

“We need to challenge the world to 

have real faith and not confuse God’s 

word with its own wishes.” “We need 

to challenge our world toward a more 

responsible sexual ethos. We’ve lost our 

way!” 

Wonderful, needed challenges, all of 

them. But no group came back and 

said, “We need to challenge the world 

to receive God’s consolation!” Granted, 

there’s a lot of injustice, violence, racism, 

sexism, greed, selfishness, sexual 

irresponsibility, and self-serving faith 

around; but most of the adults in our 

world are also living in a lot of pain, 

anxiety, disappointment, loss, depression, 

and unresolved guilt. 

Everywhere you look you see heavy 

hearts. Moreover, so many people 

living with hurt and disappointment 

do not see God, and the Church not 

as an answer to their pain but rather as 

somehow part of its cause. 

So our churches, in preaching God’s 

word, need first of all to assure the 

world of God’s love, God’s concern, 

and God’s forgiveness. Before doing 

anything else, God’s word is meant to 

comfort us; indeed, to be the ultimate 

source of all comfort. Only when the 

world knows God’s consolation will it 

accept the concomitant challenge. 

And that challenge, among others, 

is to then make room for Christ at the 

inn, that is, to open our hearts, our 

homes, and our world as places where 

Christ can come and live. 

From the safe distance of 2,000 

years we too easily make a scathing 

judgment on the people at the time 

of Jesus’ birth for not knowing what 

Mary and Joseph were carrying, for not 

making a proper place for Jesus to be 

born, and for not recognizing him as 

Messiah afterward. 

How could they be so blind? But that 

same judgment is still being made of 

us. We aren’t exactly making room in 

our own inns. 

When a new person is born into this 

world, he or she takes a space where 

before there was no one. Sometimes 

that new person is warmly welcomed 

and a cozy, loving space is instantly 

created and everyone around is happy 

for this new invasion. 

But that isn’t always the case; sometimes, 

as was the case with Jesus, there 

is no space created for the new person 

to enter the world and his or her presence 

is unwelcome. 

We see this today (and this will constitute 

a judgment on our generation) 

in the reluctance, almost all over the 

world, to welcome new immigrants, to 

make room for them at the inn. The 

United Nations estimates that there 

are 19.5 million refugees in the world 

today, persons whom no one will welcome. 

Why not? 

We are not bad people and we are capable 

most times of being wonderfully 

generous. But letting this flood of immigrants 

enter our lives would disturb 

us. Our lives would have to change. 

We would lose some of our present 

comforts, many of our old familiarities, 

and some of our securities. 

We are not bad people, and neither 

were those innkeepers 2,000 years ago 

who, not knowing what was unfolding, 

in inculpable ignorance, turned Mary 

and Joseph away. I’ve always nursed 

a secret sympathy for them. Maybe 

because I am still, unknowingly, doing 

exactly what they did. A friend of mine 

is fond of saying, “I’m against more 

immigrants being allowed in … now 

that we’re in!” 

The peace of Christ, the message 

inside of Christ’s birth, and the skewed 

circumstances of his birth, if understood, 

cannot but disturb. May they 

also bring deep consolation. 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com. 


CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ 

A woman lights a candle prior to a Divine Liturgy marking the feast of the Nativity Jan. 7, 2016, at Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church in 

Lindenhurst, New York. 

The miracle of Nazareth 

Want to know who Christ really is? Look at the Holy Family 

BY KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ / ANGELUS 

why do people go to 

church on Christmas?” 

“Daddy, 

The prompt for the 

question was a security line going 

into Christmas midnight Mass at St. 

Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan two 

years ago. As we lined up on Madison 

Avenue for an initial screening, people 

asked many other questions, mostly, “Is 

this the line for the Rockefeller Center 

Christmas tree?” 

That was only topped by the woman 

I had encountered while inside the 

church some days before Christmas. 

She stood dead center, her back to the 

altar. “Damn it! I thought you could 

see the tree from here.” If she only 

knew what she was missing! 

Mercifully, every day, unsuspecting 

tourists and commuters do stop and 

look inside. “Miracles happen,” one 

priest stationed there has told me about 

the confessions. There’s no question 

that the presence of such a striking 

and nourishing church can make for 

transformative experiences. But so can 

the family. 

No one needs to be told that we live 

in confusing times. It’s been suggested 

that we might all be suffering from 

some kind of cultural post-traumatic 

stress disorder. 

Except I’m not so sure about the 

“post” part. This has been a year of 

high-profile suicides, underscoring not 

only that worldly success isn’t necessarily 

the way to happiness, but also the 

misery that so many people live with, 

sometimes only thinly concealed. It 

can all seem a bit overwhelming. 

Almost daily we hear new commentaries 

or news stories about the 

prevalence of loneliness. On one hand: 

Bring them on, so people know they 

are not alone! On the other: Let’s do 

something already to fix this — go to 

the peripheries, as Pope Francis says. 

He who is most in need might go 

otherwise completely unnoticed. He 

may be a member of your family, your 

neighbor you’ve never met, the person 


in the next cubicle, or the celebrity 

you’re watching on TV. When you start 

looking at people and being present, 

you begin to realize the tremendous 

power you have. 

That father that frigid Christmas Eve 

began to explain that Christmas is actually 

about Jesus. What an opportunity! 

What was probably a vacation for them 

could prompt something deeper and 

more enduring. I don’t know if it did, 

but I still pray it bears fruit. 

That question can be a prompt 

for us as we celebrate the 

Christmas season: Why do we 

go to Church on Christmas? 

Does the Incarnation change 

our lives? Are we letting it? 

One of the greatest gifts of both 

the Advent and Christmas seasons 

is the Nativity scene. Everywhere 

there is this invitation to 

consider the Holy Family. From 

Bethlehem to Nazareth, with a 

little prayerful imagination, we 

can come to know them and 

their lives. 

Every year, the days after 

Christmas Day are an underappreciated 

immersion into 

new life — with the Holy 

Family playing a starring role. 

We celebrate St. Stephen the 

martyr, the Massacre of the 

Holy Innocents, the feast of the 

Holy Family, and the solemnity 

of Mary, Mother of God, on the 

road to Epiphany. 

Holy Mother Church beckons 

us to not only look at the Christ 

Child but insert ourselves into 

the life of the Holy Family. How 

do we do that, for example, if 

you grew up without a father in the 

picture, or with an abusive father? 

Let St. Joseph be a father to you. Let 

him show you his Son. Joseph adopted 

Jesus by God’s will, as the Father 

adopts us. If you’re a single mother, Joseph 

can be an intercessory partner to 

you. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus can help 

complete what feels incomplete and be 

the opportunity for necessary healing. 

Annually, on the feast of the Holy 

Family, the Office of Readings of the 

Liturgy of the Hours, the prayer of the 

Church, includes an address from St. 

Pope Paul VI, which emphasizes this 

pivotal role of the Holy Family in our 

lives. 

“Nazareth is a kind of school where 

we may begin to discover what Christ’s 

life was like and even to understand his 

Gospel,” he says. “Here we can observe 

and ponder the simple appeal of the 

way God’s Son came to be known, 

profound yet full of hidden meaning. 

And gradually we may even learn to 

imitate him.” 

Nazareth, he explains, is where “we 

can learn to realize who Christ really 

“The Adoration of the Magi,” about 1480-1490, Georges Trubert. 

is. And here we can sense and take 

account of the conditions and circumstances 

that surrounded and affected 

his life on earth: the places, the tenor 

of the times, the culture, the language, 

religious customs, in brief everything 

which Jesus used to make himself 

known to the world. Here everything 

speaks to us, everything has meaning.” 

He outlines a model for appreciating 

that Jesus can speak to us always, in 

everything (like security lines and a 

walk back to the hotel after dinner). 

Are we aware? Are we present? 

At one point, Paul gushes, “How I 

would like to return to my childhood 

and attend the simple yet profound 

school that is Nazareth! How wonderful 

to be close to Mary, learning 

again the lesson of the true meaning 

of life, learning again God’s truths.” 

That’s the kind of love we can have 

for the Blessed Mother, a position 

from which we can come to imitate 

her receptivity to God. 

In the address from his 1964 

pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Paul 

commends to us a rare commodity 

— the silence of Nazareth. 

“If only we could once again 

appreciate its great value. We 

need this wonderful state of 

mind, beset as we are by the 

cacophony of strident protests 

and conflicting claims so characteristic 

of these turbulent 

times. 

“The silence of Nazareth 

should teach us how to meditate 

in peace and quiet, to 

reflect on the deeply spiritual, 

and to be open to the voice of 

God’s inner wisdom and the 

counsel of his true teachers. 

Nazareth can teach us the value 

of study and preparation, of 

meditation, of a well-ordered 

personal spiritual life, and of 

silent prayer that is known 

only to God.” 

He also talks about the power 

of that relationship passing by 

the security line outside St. 

Pat’s: “May Nazareth serve as 

a model of what the family 

should be. May it show us the 

family’s holy and enduring 

character and exemplifying 

its basic function in society: 

a community of love and sharing, 

beautiful for the problems it poses 

and the rewards it brings; in sum, the 

perfect setting for rearing children — 

and for this there is no substitute.” 

The solution to so many of our woes 

is right before us at this time of year: 

the Holy Family — sitting under a 

tree, on an altar, even in the most 

secular of venues. There’s so much to 

learn, showing us what might otherwise 

seem impossible. 

J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM 

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a contributing 

editor to Angelus, and editor-at-large 

of the National Review Online. 


ARMENIA! 

An ancient Christian capital rises again in a stunning New York exhibit 

BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS 

For a moment the Armenians 

were unforgotten. 

Both the Wall Street Journal 

and The New York Times gave lavish 

coverage to the “Armenia!” exhibit, 

which opened at the Metropolitan 

Museum of Art in September and 

runs till January 13. 

And both noted the importance of 

Armenia in the story of Christianity. 

On any map of historic Christian 

capitals, Armenia — like Jerusalem, 

Rome, and Constantinople — merits 

a star. Armenia’s faith is inextricable 

from its culture. It is distinctive, defiant, 

and durable. 

It was the first nation to adopt Christianity 

as its state religion, and it did so 

in A.D. 301, when the Roman Empire 

was still actively persecuting the Faith. 

Armenia is today, as it was in ancient 

times, situated at the convergence of 

many trade routes. It has served as a 

land bridge, first between the Persian 

and Roman Empires, and later between 

the Islamic world and Christendom. 

At various times it controlled 

ports on three major seas: the Mediterranean, 

Caspian, and Black. 

Such a position has been a boon 

and a bane. Armenian culture is 

uniquely cosmopolitan, drawing 

equally from influences in the Far 

“Altar Frontal,” gold thread, silver thread, and silk thread on silk, 1741. Used to cover the front of an altar, this work illustrates the founding of 

the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin as seen in St. Gregory the Illuminator’s vision. The archangel, standing by the saint and the boar-headed King 

Tridates, reveals the vision. Above is the Trinity, with God presented as an old man, the Holy Spirit as a radiant dove, and Christ as a young man 

holding the golden hammer, with which he will strike the earth to announce the location of Holy Etchmiadzin, the first Armenian church, which 

stands across from them. The Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin is depicted as it appeared when the frontal was embroidered. 

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 


East and Far West. But, like all buffer 

zones, Armenia has suffered constant 

suspicion — often escalating to 

hostility — from the gigantic powers 

beyond its borders at either side. 

The Metropolitan Museum’s exhibit 

celebrates a deeply religious culture 

that has endured and triumphed, 

despite the ravages of conquest, influence, 

persecution, enforced poverty, 

and even genocide. 

Among the items in “Armenia!” 

are “stelae,” commemorative 

stones that date from the earliest 

years of the nation’s Christianity. 

Their sculpted symbols testify to a 

piety that is Christ-centered, Trinitarian, 

biblical, and Marian. There 

are frequent allusions to Noah’s Ark, 

which, according to the Book of 

Genesis (8:4), came to rest on Mount 

Ararat, in Armenian territory. 

The other star of Armenian art is 

St. Gregory the Illuminator, the 

fourth-century monk who converted 

the pagan King Tiridates in A.D. 301. 

Tiridates had made the mistake of 

trying to seduce a Christian nun, and 

then killing her and her companions 

when they resisted him. 

His sin earned him madness and 

bodily afflictions, from which only 

Gregory could deliver him. The story 

is told repeatedly in the exhibit, in 

icons, sculptures, silks, manuscripts, 

and architectural elements. 

Armenian-American scholar 

Michael Papazian spoke to Angelus 

News about the significance of 

the Met exhibit. “This is the first 

major exhibit in a major Western 

museum devoted to the medieval art 

and culture of Armenia. It is a rare 

opportunity for someone to see so 

many important works gathered from 

collections all over the world in one 

museum gallery,” he said. 

“The curator’s aim is to give greater 

attention to Armenian culture, which 

for so long has been considered of 

lesser importance in relation to other 

Eastern Christian traditions.” 

Papazian is a professor of philosophy 

at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, 

and has translated the works of another 

Armenian Gregory — St. Gregory 

of Narek, an Armenian monk of the 

10th century, whom Pope Francis 

St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Catholic Church in Glendale, California. 

recently named a Doctor of the 

Church. 

For Papazian, visiting the exhibit was 

a surprisingly emotional moment. 

“Not only the works of sacred art but 

also the liturgical music playing in 

the gallery made it a truly spiritual 

experience,” he said. 

“I had seen the relic of the lance 

that pierced the side of Christ when 

I was in Armenia many years ago. 

At that time I was skeptical that this 

was a piece of the true lance. But for 

some reason this time, seeing it at the 

Met and reading the description, I 

trembled at the thought that this spear 

had touched the body of Christ and 

caused his blood to pour out.” 

Since the first millennium, 

Islamic conquests had reduced 

the territory and stature of the 

Armenians. It was the Ottoman Turks 

who sought to deliver a deathblow to 

the culture. Their systematic genocide 

of the Armenians (1909–1918) left 1.5 

million dead and many more exiled. 

Adolf Hitler looked to the Armenian 

genocide as a model for his campaign 

against Europe’s Jews. In one address 

he asked the rhetorical question: 

“Who, after all, speaks today of the 

annihilation of the Armenians?” 

In exile, however, the Armenians 

gathered and reconstituted communities 

that were distinctively Armenian. 

The Los Angeles area hosts the 

world’s largest population of Armenians 

outside Armenia. Armenians 

probably make up more than a third 

of the residents of Glendale. There 

are Armenian Catholic churches in 

both Glendale and Los Angeles. 

These exiles took with them a few 

family artifacts — and the memory of 

their people, now told with surprising 

boldness, and rare Christian spirit, in 

the Met’s show. 

In the Wall Street Journal, critic 

Edward Rothstein drew a lesson for 

all peoples about the relationship 

between religion and beauty. “It is 

remarkable,” he wrote, “how deeply 

rooted our greatest art museums 

are in the religious realm. Artifacts 

reflecting profound faith — even 

those once used in the most sacred 

rituals — are at the foundation of 

these institutions. 

“Removed from their origins in 

worship, these relics, illuminations, 

reliquaries and statues settle into 

an afterlife in our secular aesthetic 

temples, making it clear that for 

their creators (as for many viewers) 

the celebration of beauty is also a 

religious act.” 

The beauty of Armenian culture 

is Christian and distinct from any 

other culture on earth, drawing from 

the riches of many and synthesizing 

styles and ideas in surprising ways. 

But its beauty is hard won, at the cost 

of the lives of many martyrs. It is a 

supreme and sublime beauty made 

for the glory of God, and it surpasses 

anything produced merely for art’s 

sake. 

This is one exhibit that has earned 

its exclamation point. 

Mike Aquilina is the author of more 

than 50 books, including “A History 

of the Church in 100 Objects” and 

“The Fathers of the Church.” He is a 

contributing editor to Angelus. 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 


For ‘the good of the Church’ 

Pope accepts 

Auxiliary Bishop 

Alexander Salazar’s 

early retirement 

from ministry 

BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS 

Pope Francis has accepted Los 

Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Alexander 

Salazar’s request for early 

retirement, the Vatican announced 

Dec. 19. 

Citing health and other personal 

reasons, the 69-year-old bishop offered 

his retirement for “the good of 

the Church.” 

The announcement from Rome 

came two weeks after the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles released an 

updated comprehensive list of sexual 

misconduct allegations involving 

priests. 

According to the archdiocese, 

Archbishop José H. Gomez requested 

and received permission from the 

Congregation for Bishops in Rome 

for the archdiocese’s independent lay 

oversight board to review an allegation 

against Salazar of misconduct 

involving a minor dating back to the 

1990s. 

In a Dec. 19 letter to the faithful, 

Archbishop Gomez said the actions 

were taken “out of deep concern for 

the healing and reconciliation of 

abuse victims and for the good of the 

Church’s mission.” 

Salazar has consistently denied 

any misconduct or wrongdoing. 

The archdiocese confirmed that the 

allegation against Salazar was never 

prosecuted and that it knows of no 

other such allegations against him 

since his ordination to the priesthood 

in 1984. 

Born in Costa Rica in 1949, Salazar 

grew up in LA after his family moved 

to the U.S. when he was 3 years old. 

He graduated from local Catholic 

schools and after 10 years as a 

high school teacher, studied for the 

priesthood at St. John’s Seminary in 

Camarillo. 

In a 2004 interview with The Tidings 

before his episcopal ordination, 

Salazar recalled that his experience 

as an ordinary minister of the Eucharist 

while teaching at St. Albert the 

Great School in Compton, reawakened 

a childhood desire to consider 

the priesthood. 

Following his ordination to the 

priesthood, he served in several 

LA-area parishes before being named 

vice chancellor for the archdiocese 

in 2003. 

Since being ordained a bishop in 

2004, Salazar has served at different 

times as vicar for the San Pedro 

Pastoral Region, vicar for Ethnic 

Ministries, and head of the archdiocesan 

Office of Justice and Peace. 

Throughout his time as a priest, 

Salazar has been known as an advocate 

for the poor and immigrants. 

At the Sept. 7, 2004 press conference 

announcing his appointment as 

auxiliary bishop, Salazar pledged to 

work “for peace and justice, for tolerance 

and understanding, for building 

bridges and not walls, to join hands 

together in friendship and goodness.” 

Two years before being consecrated 

a bishop, Salazar had been the 

subject of an investigation by the 

Pasadena Police Department. 

An adult male had come forward to 

police alleging sexual misconduct by 

Salazar when he was a minor in the 

1990s. At the time, Salazar was serving 

as associate pastor at Assumption 

of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church 

in Pasadena. 

The Pasadena Police Department 

investigated the allegation, found 

it to be credible and recommended 

that the district attorney pursue prosecution. 

However, the DA’s office did 

not file charges in the case. 

At the time, the archdiocese was not 

notified of the investigation by either 

the Pasadena police or the DA. 

The archdiocese was informed of 

the allegation and police investigation 

in 2005 through a third party. 

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, then 

archbishop, requested a full review 

of the case with law enforcement 

officials. 

Because the allegation concerned 

a bishop, Mahony also immediately 

took the matter to the Holy See’s 

Congregation for the Doctrine of the 

Faith (CDF). The congregation conducted 

its own probe and as a result, 

“certain precautionary measures on 

the ministry of Bishop Salazar” were 

imposed, Archbishop Gomez said in 

his Dec. 19 letter. 

Archdiocesan officials told Angelus 

News that since succeeding Mahony 

in 2011, Archbishop Gomez has 

continued to follow the conditions 

imposed by the Holy See on Salazar’s 

ministry and has remained in regular 

contact with Vatican officials regarding 

his status. 

This fall, as the archdiocese prepared 

to update its “Report to the 

People of God,” which lists the 

names of priests credibly accused of 

sexual abuse or misconduct, the archbishop 

felt it was important to revisit 

the old allegation against Salazar. 

In his Dec. 19 letter, Archbishop 

Gomez explained that he asked for 

and received permission from the 

Holy See’s Congregation for Bishops 

to submit the Salazar allegation to 

the archdiocese’s independent Clergy 

Misconduct Oversight Board. 

According to the archdiocese, the 

board reviewed the allegation under 

the same standards applied to priests 

and deacons. It found the allegation 

credible and recommended that 

Salazar have no faculties to minister. 



Archbishop Gomez submitted the 

board’s findings and recommendations 

to the bishops’ congregation in 

Rome. 

The Salazar case joins two other 

recent cases involving old allegations 

against U.S. bishops that date to the 

time when they were priests. 

In the cases of New York Auxiliary 

Bishop John J. Jenik and Archbishop 

Theodore McCarrick, Rome granted 

permission to Cardinal Timothy 

Dolan to submit both cases to his 

archdiocese’s independent lay oversight 

board. Both men were accused 

of misconduct during their time as 

priests of the Archdiocese of New 

York. 

Some canon law experts told Angelus 

News these recent cases may signal 

a new moment in the way Rome 

handles allegations against bishops. 

To date, the Church’s approach has 

put metropolitan archbishops like 

Gomez and Dolan in an “impossible 

situation,” according to Catholic 

University of America canon law 

professor Kurt Martens. 

“It’s something we need to think 

about in what we do with bishops, 

too — not only priests,” Martens 

told Angelus News. “The pope is the 

only one who can make decisions 

on bishops. If you don’t have a firm 

approach there, you will always be 

left with those situations.” 

Nick Cafardi, former head of the 

U.S. bishops’ National Review 

Board, told Angelus News that 

recent cases highlight the need for 

Church leaders to clarify procedures 

in penal proceedings against 

bishops. 

“There is no real process in the 

Code for how accusations against 

a bishop are to be handled, so it 

is really an ad hoc process,” said 

Cafardi, who holds degrees in canon 

and civil law. “Certainly, Pope 

Francis’ quick actions in the cases of 

McCarrick and Jenik indicate that 

the Apostolic See understands the 

importance of not letting these cases 

languish.” 

Archbishop Gomez also expressed 

gratitude for Rome’s cooperation 

and care for victims of abuse, thanking 

Francis for his “loving concern 

for the family of God here in the 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles” in his 

Dec. 19 letter. 

Pablo Kay is the editor of Angelus. 


Bishop Alexander Salazar speaks at the Annual Celebration of Cultures Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles Sept. 19, 2015. 


Father Alan Jenkins, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church, gives a “Missionary Cross” to (from left) Maria Luisa Garcia, Karen Hunka, Matthew 

Kadavy, and Diane Yonga Dec. 9. 

God’s newest helpers 

Four commissioned from LA as Lay Mission-Helpers 

to serve in Africa, Papua New Guinea 


of the biggest mistakes 

everybody does in mission 

work is they go there “One 

to try to change the people instead 

of changing ourselves for the first 

year, and then see what we can do to 

help after that. This is a three-year 

mission, and you can blow it in the 

first three months.” 

Nebraskan Matthew Kadavy was 

BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS 

telling Angelus News about the four 

months of formation training he and 

three others — Karen Hunka from 

Pennsylvania, Maria Luisa Garcia 

from El Paso, Texas, and Diane 

Yonga from Minneapolis — were 

finishing up to be commissioned as 

Lay Mission-Helpers. 

They were following a sacred 

tradition started by Msgr. Anthony 

Brouwers here in 1955 of sending 

laymen and laywomen to toil mostly 

in Third World countries as “God’s 

Helpers.” 

“The speakers just beat that into 

our heads that you’re a guest on their 

soil,” the 55-year-old retiree went on. 

“And you need to act like that. You 

need to think like that. If you think 

you’re going over there to teach 



them how to do something, you 

better certainly learn the culture and 

everything else first. You shouldn’t 

even make a suggestion for the first 

three months. You need to speak less 

and listen more. Because you’ll never 

know what the problem is if you 

don’t.” 

Kadavy is headed to work for Bishop 

Callistus Rubaramira of the Diocese 

of Kabale in Uganda. For 32 years 

he was director of the physical plant 

at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 

Lincoln. In Africa, he’ll be working 

on a tea farm, trying to make it more 

profitable. After that he may start an 

apple orchard or catfish farm to bring 

in more income. 

“I’m 55 and I retired too young,” 

explained Kadavy. 

In 2013, Kadavy’s wife lost a battle 

with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, 

an incurable scarring of the lungs 

that doctors believed she would have 

died from five years earlier. 

“It was a blessing to be married to 

Carrie for so long. So I promised 

God that if I could help others I 

would.” 

Kadavy found out online through 

the Catholic Volunteer Network 

about the Lay Mission-Helpers Association, 

and eventually attended a 

discernment weekend retreat. 

“I felt it was really the right move,” 

he chuckled. “Now when I got here 

for formation, it was all women. 

None of the men from that weekend 

had decided to come. And that was 

a little bit concerning for a couple 

weeks. But it certainly was the right 

move, and I feel great about it now.” 

A South LA sending 

At the Dec. 9, 10 a.m. Sunday Mass 

at St. John the Evangelist Church 

in the Hyde Park neighborhood of 

South LA, Kadavy, Hunka, Garcia, 

and Yonga were asked to stand. 

Janice England, executive director 

of the Lay Mission-Helpers, declared 

she had journeyed with the four 

candidates from their discernment 

through formation: “I can attest that 

they are worthy.” 

Brother John Kiesler, OFM, a presenter 

during the formation period, 

said, “I think they will be a real 

blessing to the churches of Papua New 

Guinea, Uganda, and Ghana. But I 

also think it’s important they know 

they’ll be learning from the people 

there.” 

One by one, they were commissioned 

to be good disciples to go forth and 

tell the good news in service of the 

missionary Church. Each promised to 

serve God’s people for three years as 

well as to obey the directives of the Lay 

Mission-Helpers Association and their 

missionary bishop. 

Finally, the four received their 

missionary rings with the inscription 

inside, “For We Are God’s Helpers,” to 

loud applause. 

After the liturgy, England told 

Angelus News how the four new Lay 

Mission-Helpers showed how answering 

God’s call could happen for 

different reasons and at different stages 

of a person’s life. 

“It all depends when you feel that 

call is right for you,” she said. “Like for 

myself, I was 26 when I went to Sierra 

Leone. So that’s when I felt the call. 

With other people, it’s mid-career, like 

with Maria who is going to Papua New 

Guinea to teach, and Diane, an attorney 

and dietician headed to Ghana, 

and Karen, who is also going to Ghana 

to do accounting. While Matthew, 

who took an early retirement, simply 

felt, “I’m not done yet.” 

England also felt strongly that laymen 

and laywomen have a unique impact 

as missioners in today’s world, just as 

Brouwers believed. 

“One of the bishops we’re going to 

in Ghana, Bishop Peter Paul Angkyier 

of Damongo in northern Ghana, said 

our Lay Mission-Helpers are filling 

particular skills that they need,” she 

reported. 

“But he also wants their witness; their 

witness to his people that this is a universal 

Church. This will show people 

that people from other parts of the 

world care about them and will widen 

their vision of what Church is. 

“Lay people can witness in a different 

way,” she said. “When lay people witness, 

people in Third World countries 

say, ‘This is something I can do. I can 

have a role in the Church. It’s not just 

priests, sisters, and brothers.’ ” 

And what would Brouwers — who 

died in 1964 of multiple myeloma (a 

form of bone cancer) at the age of 52 

— think about today’s commissioning? 

“I think he’d be happy that Lay 

Mission-Helpers is still going,” said 

England with a smile. “You know, 

he died within less than 10 years of 

founding Lay Mission-Helpers. But he 

had a vision that would go on over 50 

years later. And not only that it’s still 

happening here in Los Angeles, but so 

many other people and communities 

are doing what his vision was of sending 

out lay missionaries.” 

“When lay people witness, people in Third World 

countries say, ‘This is something I can do. I can 

have a role in the Church. It’s not just priests, 

sisters, and brothers.’ ” — Janice England 

After a moment, she added with 

some gratification, “But we were 

the first Catholic laity international 

volunteers.” 

‘We are the Church’ 

Addie Coronado, almost 91, was sitting 

in a pew near the front of St. John 

the Evangelist Church during the 

commissioning. As a member of the 

second Lay Mission-Helper class, she 

got to know Brouwers and his love of 

the laity. And this was years before the 

Second Vatican Council proclaimed 

clearly how holiness was expected of 

all members of the Body of Christ — 

not just priests, women religious, and 

brothers. 

“He made us aware that we are the 

Church,” she said. 

(Continued on page 20) 


CHANGING 

AMERICA 

BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE 

Back-and-forth Brown 

What outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown’s childhood religious 

dreams did — and didn’t do — for his political legacy 

Leave it to our nation’s first and 

only Catholic president to strike 

the right balance between politics 

and the arts. 

John F. Kennedy would say, “If more 

politicians knew poetry, and more 

poets knew politics, I am convinced 

the world would be a little better place 

in which to live.” 

Blending politics and religion is even 

trickier. 

Consider the complicated tale of the 

lifelong Californian who attended a 

parochial high school and entered a 

Jesuit novice house with designs of 

becoming a Catholic priest — only to 

join the family business and following 

his father into the governor’s mansion. 

What a wild ride life has been for 

Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., the 

curves of which he could never have 

imagined in 1955 when he graduated 

from St. Ignatius High School in San 

Francisco and went on to attend Sacred 

Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos with 

the intent of entering the priesthood. 

Even as Brown progressed along in 

his formal education at Santa Clara 

University, U.C. Berkeley, and Yale 

Law School, it was not a foregone 

conclusion that he would abandon 

the practice of law and enter politics 

— the domain of his father, Edmund 

G. “Pat” Brown Sr., who served as 

governor of the Golden State from 

1959 to 1967. 

And even when the younger Brown 

entered politics in 1969 by being 

elected to the Los Angeles Community 

College Board of Trustees, he could 

not have predicted that he would one 

day carve his name into history books 

as both the youngest and oldest person 

ever elected governor of California 

and hold that office for a staggering 16 

years. 

With the 80-year-old about to end 

his final term, and likely never to seek 

elective office again, a lot has been said 

— and a good amount still remains to 

be said — about how Brown helped 

shape the world of politics, both in his 

home state and nationally, and how 

politics shaped him. 

Less has been said, and still needs 

saying, about how Catholicism and his 

early flirtations with joining the clergy 

influenced his worldview and steered 

his politics. Or didn’t. 

And this is where things get tricky. 

Most Americans understand that the 

Founding Fathers — at least one of 

whom inspired a Broadway hit — were 

“spot on” in separating church and 

state. 

Before long, Democratic elected 

officials who were Catholic were being 

pressured by Church leaders to adhere 

to a pro-life position on abortion. Many 

refused. 

That included Brown, who has always 

been pro-choice and who would never 

have been allowed to progress in the 

state Democratic Party if that were not 

the case. 

At the same time, Americans also 

expect their leaders to have values, 

and they don’t care where those values 

come from. A good chunk of voters 

believe in God and go to church, 

and they connect with those who do 

likewise. Hence, we’ve had decades 

of politicians quoting Scripture and 

posing for photos leaving church with 

Bible in hand. 

You can see how — when it comes to 

religion — our political leaders would 

get confused about what voters want 

from those who represent them. 

That’s why it is so crucial that those 

leaders have a rock-solid moral core 

that they refuse to give up or negotiate 

away, even if it alienates supporters, 

cost them votes, or ends their political 

careers. 

Brown may have had that rock-solid 

moral core in his first go-around as 

California governor, which lasted from 

1975 to 1983. As has been noted by 

many observers of California politics, 

the first Brown gubernatorial tenure 

was youthful and idealistic — almost 

to the point of being naive about how 

politics worked. 

Not so with Jerry 2.0, the gubernatorial 

mulligan that Brown took 

when he was, at 72, elected to what 

was essentially his third term in 2010, 

and re-elected four years later. By the 

time this more pragmatic chapter had 

begun, he had re-entered politics as 

mayor of Oakland (1999-2007) and 

California attorney general (2007- 

2011). 

While still vehemently pro-choice 

(Continued on page 20) 


California Gov. Jerry Brown attends the signing of the California Film and Television Job Retention Act in Hollywood, California, on Sept. 18, 2014. 

DAN HOLM/SHUTTERSTOCK 


(Continued from page 17) 

“The Church was ours — mine! 

There were so many priests and nuns 

available back then, people thought, 

‘Why do we need laymen and laywomen 

to go out to the missions?’ But he 

saw us as good examples to the people 

we would be serving in these poor 

countries. He would say you don’t have 

to be a nun or a priest to be a good 

Christian. So he was really ahead of his 

time,” she added. 

“He just expressed a real confidence 

in ordinary lay people. I know he did 

that with me. His character was so positive 

all the time. He was always saying 

when we had some personal or mission 

problem: ‘It’ll be OK. It’ll be OK.’ ” 

Coronado wound up serving three 

separate three-year stints as a Lay 

Mission-Helper. The first was as a 

29-year-old nurse to Tanganyika in late 

1957, followed by a year back in the 

U.S., then three years as a midwife in 

Kenya, and another year home before 

one final three-year assignment back in 

Kenya. 

Those nine years of service changed 

her life. She went from being an “apathetic” 

Catholic to being a eucharistic 

minister, lector, religious education 

teacher, and minister to the elderly 

at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in 

Tujunga. 

Today, she still prays to Brouwers 

whenever a life decision comes up: 

“‘OK, Monsignor, what should I do 

about this?’” 

Writer’s note: I spent most of 2003 and 

2004 researching and writing a book 

titled: “‘For We Are God’s Helpers:’ The 

Life of Monsignor Anthony Brouwers 

— Visionary of the Lay Mission 

Movement.” I tape recorded 45 interviews, 

read the weekly column, “Mission 

Chats,” which he wrote for The Tidings 

newspaper, and did archival research on 

the popular priest. 

Part of the preface to that book by 

Janice England, executive director of the 

Lay Mission-Helpers Association, and 

Elise Frederick, executive director of the 

Mission Doctors Association, which he 

also founded in 1959, states: “Those of 

us who have served are blessed as our 

experience in mission reverberates in our 

lives. Today we work to continue Msgr. 

Brouwers’ legacy — helping others to 

have this opportunity to serve by working 

with local bishops in Africa, Latin 

America, the Pacific and Asia so that 

lay people can continue to share their 

gifts, live their faith, change the world, 

and see how the world can change 

them.” 

“For We Are God’s Helpers” can be 

purchased as an e-book at Amazon.com. 

(Continued from page 19) 

on abortion, Brown had also by then 

begun to veer left on issues like the 

environment, gay rights and climate 

change while also moving to the right 

on curbing street crime and illegal 

immigration. 

It’s true that Brown established 

nation-leading targets to reduce 

greenhouse gas emissions and expand 

the use of solar energy, and that he 

may now be poised to commute 

hundreds of death row inmates in his 

final days in office. But it’s also true 

that Brown sent the National Guard 

to the U.S.-Mexico border and vetoed 

the Trust Act, a bill that would have 

limited the ability of local and state 

police officers to cooperate with federal 

immigration agents. 

Brown said he wanted to preserve 

the “discretion” of local officials who 

wanted to work with federal immigration 

authorities. He would eventually 

sign similar legislation that gave local 

governments more latitude to work 

with federal immigration officials. 

And by then, his old line of argument 

about preserving local discretion had 

been picked up by then-Attorney 

General Jeff Sessions in challenging 

California’s so-called sanctuary state 

law. 

Today, this back-and-forth between 

left and right has helped solidify 

Brown’s reputation as a moderate in a 

Democratic Party that is sprinting to 

the far left. 

In politics, flexibility and a willing to 

compromise are not bad things. Still, 

there has to be a line as to what one is 

willing to barter away. 

Brown crossed that line when, in 

2015, he signed into law a measure 

that permits physicians to prescribe 

lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. 

The euthanasia law — whose constitutionality 

recently came under fire 

by a superior court judge — made 

California one of only seven states, 

along with the District of Columbia, 

to create legal protections for assisted 

suicide. 

In the three years since Brown signed 

the law, hundreds of Californians 

have seized upon it to end their lives. 

When he describes himself, Brown 

uses one word more than any other: 

“enlightened.” He really does often 

see himself as the smartest person in 

the room. 

Indeed, one would expect that someone 

who had such enormous educational 

advantages — from the Jesuits 

to Yale Law School — and went 

on to gather valuable experiences, 

from working with Mother Teresa to 

running for president, would emerge 

from all that with a good amount of 

wisdom. 

Yet, sometimes Brown just seems 

adrift, as if he has lost his moral center 

and he is making up, as he goes along, 

major pieces of policy that impact 

millions of people in ways that may do 

more harm than good — all in service 

of ambition and the pursuit of power. 

There are words to describe this kind 

of approach to politics. But “enlightened” 

is not one of them. 

Ruben Navarrette is a contributing 

editor to Angelus and a syndicated 

columnist with The Washington Post 

Writers Group and a columnist for 

the Daily Beast. He is a radio host, a 

frequent guest analyst on cable news, 

and member of the USA Today Board 

of Contributors and host of the podcast 

“Navarrette Nation.” Among his books 

are “A Darker Shade of Crimson: 

Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano.” 

J 


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The tough love traveler 

What can U.S. 

bishops expect 

to hear from an 

84-year-old papal 

preacher at their 

January prayer 

retreat? 

BY ELISE HARRIS / ANGELUS 

For nearly 40 years, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa has preached to the pope and 

top officials of the Roman Curia. In early January, he will lead the weeklong retreat of the U.S. 

bishops. He is pictured in a 2010 photo. 

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING 

ROME — When bishops 

from the United States meet 

in January to reflect on the 

clerical sexual abuse crisis ravaging 

the American Church, they will 

likely get a very potent, yet scriptural 

message on the issue from Father 

Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap., 

who will lead their weeklong retreat. 

Cantalamessa, 84, has served as 

preacher to the papal household 

for nearly 40 years and was recently 

invited to lead the Jan. 2-8 retreat, 

which will take place at Mundelein 

Seminary near Chicago. Some hope 

that the event will give U.S. bishops 

a chance to study and formulate a 

response to the clerical sexual abuse 

crisis, which since the summer has 

plagued the American Church. 

After what some have called the 

“summer of scandal” for the U.S. following 

the release of the Pennsylvania 

Grand Jury report and revelations 

that ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick 

had been credibly accused of 

abusing minors and has exercised 

years of sexual misconduct against 

young priests and seminarians, Pope 

Francis in September suggested that 

the U.S. bishops scrap the agenda 


for their fall assembly in November, 

and hold a weeklong spiritual retreat 

instead. 

Due to the tight schedule, the 

bishops opted to hold the retreat in 

January, focusing on the theme, “The 

mission of the apostles and of their 

successors,” which draws on the passage 

in the Gospel of Mark that says 

Jesus “appointed 12 — whom he also 

named apostles — that they might 

be with him and he might send them 

forth to preach.” 

Cantalamessa, born in Ascoli 

Piceno, Italy, in 1934, is known for 

his lengthy, yet meaty homilies, often 

containing strong messages with 

numerous scriptural passages and 

anecdotes for his curial audience to 

meditate on. 

A former professor of the history of 

ancient Christianity and a member 

of the International Theological 

Commission from 1975 to 1981, the 

friar has a doctoral degree in classic 

literature and, after resigning from his 

teaching positions in 1979, was tapped 

by St. Pope John Paul II in 1980 as 

preacher to the papal household. 

In the role, he is responsible for 

preaching weekly meditations to 

members of the papal household, 

members of the Roman Curia and 

general superiors of religious orders 

on Fridays during Advent and Lent. 

He is also responsible for preaching 

the homily on Good Friday, marking 

the only sermon not given by the pope 

himself during Holy Week. 

Pope Paul IV first created the position 

of papal preacher in the mid- 

1500s, and his successors have all kept 

the tradition. 

Around the year 1743, Pope Benedict 

XIV issued a brief reserving the role 

of preacher of the papal household 

exclusively to Capuchin friars due to 

“the example of Christian piety and 

religious perfection, the splendor 

of doctrine and the Apostolic Zeal” 

found in the order. 

So far in his tenure as papal preacher, 

Cantalamessa has given some 300 

talks and homilies to three popes: 

John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. 

When he is not preaching to the 

pope, he travels the world giving talks, 

writing books, and leading retreats. 

Cantalamessa also has a long history 

of ties with the Catholic charismatic 

community, having served for 12 

years as a member of the Catholic 

delegation for the Joint International 

Commission for Catholic-Pentecostal 

Dialogue. 

U.S. bishops are likely in for an intense 

start to the new year as they take 

Father Raniero Cantalamessa’s lead 

in confronting the sex abuse crisis. 

He has continued to work closely 

with the charismatic community, and 

in October, shortly after being named 

as preacher for the U.S. bishops’ 

January retreat, he was tapped as ecclesiastical 

assistant for the new body 

overseeing charismatic movements in 

the Church, Charis, which went into 

effect Dec. 8. 

Charis will assume the roles previously 

played by the International 

Catholic Charismatic Renewal 

Service and the Catholic Fraternity of 

Charismatic Covenant Communities 

and Fellowships, which will cease 

to exist as of June 9, on the feast of 

Pentecost. 

Known for the boldness of his 

preaching, Cantalamessa has tackled 

the issue of clerical sexual abuse 

before, delivering an Advent meditation 

to Benedict in December 

2006 suggesting that a day of fasting 

and penance be held for the crimes 

of child sexual abuse committed by 

Catholic clergy. 

Now a common trend in many places 

around the world, at the time the 

idea was a novelty for a Church barely 

starting to cope with the depth and 

gravity of the issue. 

Four years later, in his 2010 Good 

Friday sermon, Cantalamessa returned 

to the topic, implying that the 

widespread media criticism of the 

Catholic Church due to the abuse 

crisis was a form of anti-Catholicism, 

which he said could be compared to 

“more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” 

When the comments led to backlash, 

prompting a statement from the 

then-Vatican spokesman Father Federico 

Lombardi, SJ, to say the preacher 

was not speaking as an official representative 

of the Vatican, Cantalamessa 

insisted he was quoting a letter sent to 

him from a Jewish friend. 

Under the Francis papacy, he has 

been equally outspoken on issues 

such as corruption, both in society 

and in the Church. 

With many prelates ready to strap 

on their seatbelts whenever Cantalamessa 

takes the mic, U.S. bishops 

are likely in for an intense start to the 

new year as they take Cantalamessa’s 

lead in diving into one of the biggest 

issues plaguing modern global Catholicism. 

 

Elise Harris is the senior correspondent 

for Crux in Rome. 


AD REM 

BY ROBERT BRENNAN 

The time at hand 

It’s that time of year when we are 

supposed to look back and bid 

a fond adieu to the year in the 

rearview mirror. There will be tribute 

montages on Turner Classic Movies 

remembering the stars we lost in 

2018 and cable news outlets will be 

well populated with year-in-review 

specials. 

But, due to some large golden anniversary 

dates in 2019, it will also be a 

year with a lot of looking backward. 

It’s due in no small 

part to the number 

of pop culture and 

even historically 

profound incidents 

that were part of 

1969. 

The 50th anniversary 

of 1968 had 

its fill of monumentally 

joyful as 

well as catastrophic 

events and 1969 is 

no different — as if 

God had decided to 

let the tumultuous 

1960s go out with 

a fitting bang to get 

our attention. 

The question that 

is always asked, 

but never satisfactorily 

answered, is 

whether he did get our attention, and 

whether we learned anything from 

the past. Sometimes we obviously 

do … I mean, the ill-advised global 

strategy of starting land wars in Asia 

seems to have made a lasting impression 

on us … so far. But other lessons 

we should have learned back in 1969 

remain just as unlearned now as they 

were then. 

In 1969 we put a man on the moon. 

The “scientifically” based contrarianism 

about manned space flight recently 

demonstrated by certain NBA 

basketball players aside, it is safe 

to stipulate the United States beat 

the Soviet Union in the great space 

race of the 1960s and completed the 

promise John F. Kennedy made earlier 

that we would put a man on the 

Teenagers on their way to the Woodstock music festival on Aug. 18, 1969. 

moon before the decade expired. 

We seem to be relearning that 

lesson as NASA has announced plans 

to finally return to the moon after 

abandoning it in the early 1970s. 

There will also be grim recollections 

next year about the year that 

was, 50 years ago. It will be the 50th 

anniversary (if you can call it that) 

of the Manson Murders. There are a 

host of lessons to keep in mind with 

this story. It was the sick underbelly 

of the steady diet of free love and free 

“thinking” and free everything else 

that society was force-fed during this 

decade. 

And, as so many great thinkers, 

whether Catholic theologians or just 

men and women with common sense 

have always warned, when people 

stop believing in 

God they will seek 

out other things to 

fill that void. 

Charles Manson 

was a master void 

filler. And when 

people go “all in” 

with a personality, 

things almost always 

go sideways. Did we 

learn? Based on the 

carnage of later decades 

from the likes 

of the Jonestown 

and Branch Davidian 

mass suicide 

cults, it appears not. 

No generation 

has learned less in 

50 years than the baby-boom 

generation. 

As a card-carrying 

member of said population group, I 

think I have a certain expertise in this 

field. Or at least as much expertise to 

comment on boomers as guys who 

dunk basketballs for a living have for 

making blanket authoritative pontifications 

on aerospace science. 

The baby-boom generation is the 

RIC MANNING/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 


only generation that still believes 

what they believed when they were 

18. Not exactly the definition of 

wisdom, but this pampered and indulged 

generation will be out in full 

force, or as full force as their walkers 

and canes and wheelchairs will allow 

to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 

Woodstock. 

There is even talk of a Woodstock 

reunion concert. Who would come? 

The Who is down two original members 

with their drummer and bassist 

having died before they got old. And 

many of the other acts have either 

been visited by the Grim Reaper 

themselves or have been relegated 

to nostalgia acts on the county fair 

circuit. 

Strange that the memory of a 

drug-fueled, self-indulgent pop concert 

makes me think of the Divine 

… but it does. It’s the way old years 

go out and new years are anticipated 

that seem to magnify our shackles to 

time. As one year is going out and a 

new year is coming in, our imprisonment 

by time becomes acute. 

We are never more aware of being 

prisoners of it when we look hopefully 

to an unknowable future or with 

nostalgic happiness to a past that 

never really was as good or bad as we 

imagine. 

But at every Mass, Jesus draws a line 

right down the middle of that “circle 

of life” and it points in one direction 

unbound by any constraints. 

Time-bonded elements like wine and 

bread are transformed and we get a 

glimpse of the real future God has in 

store for us … and that future is now 

and forever. 

This Christmas Season, 

give the gift of a lifetime. 

Sign up your loved one or yourself, 

to walk through the pages of the Bible, 

visit the Marian Shrines or 

the footsteps of the Saints. 

March 18-29, 2019: Shrines of Italy - Rome 

(Papal audience), Pompeii, San Giovani Rotondo 

(Padre Pio), Grotto of St Michael, Lanciano, Loreto, 

Assisi, La Verna, Siena, Florence, Padua & Venice 

April 23- May 5, 2019: Marian Shrines & Rome 

(5 countries) Fatima (Portugal), Avila (Spain), 

Lourdes, Nice (France), Rome (Italy), Loreto, Ancona 

& Medjugorje (Croatia). 

May 23 – 30, 2019: French Polynesia Luxury Retreat 

Sep 3-8, 2019: Pilgrimage to Our Lady of 

Guadalupe Mexico City, Pyramids of Teotihuacan, 

Ocotlan, Tlaxcala, Xotchimilco 

Sep 23 – Oct 4: Scandinavian tour with cruise 

Nov 3-15, 2019: Pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine 

in Europe - 5 countries: Fatima (Portugal), Avila 

(Spain), Lourdes, Nice (France), Rome (Italy), 

Loreto, Ancona & Medjugorje (Croatia). 

Nov 23 – Dec 4: Experience walking through 

the pages of the Bible - Holy Land & Jordan 

2020 Oberammergau PASSION PLAY in Germany 

with Switzerland and Eastern Europe combo, other 

departures with Marian Shrines combo. 

Please call/text for information 

and details:1-323-875-8818 

or email ruby@kri8tours.com 

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL. 

GOD BLESS EVERYONE. 

December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25 

Kri8_Tours_Angelus__Rect_2x4-9_bw.indd 1 

12/18/18 4:48 PM

A scene from the movie “Welcome to Marwen.” 

© 2018 UNIVERSAL PICTURES 

Now leaving Marwen 

Messy storyline and style make it hard to 

take the film’s fantasy world seriously 

BY CARL KOZLOWSKI / ANGELUS 

The human mind is a fragile 

construct, a maze of nerves and 

tissue that controls every tiny 

aspect of our bodies and holds the 

memories we accrue over a lifetime of 

experiences. Losing those memories, 

and the basic abilities to function, 

after trauma would have to be one of 

the most harrowing things a person 

can go through. 

That is exactly what happened to 

Mark Hogancamp, a man from upstate 

New York. On April 8, 2000, five 

men beat him nearly to death after he 

told them he was a cross-dresser. He 

spent nine days in a coma and 40 days 

in a hospital, emerging with brain 

damage that left him little memory of 

his previous life. 

Hogancamp brought himself back 

to some semblance of sanity by 

creating a 1/6-scale model of a World 

War II-era Belgian town he named 

Marwencol. He filled the town with 

dolls, depicting himself, his friends, 

and even his attackers. He then 

created elaborate fantasies in which 

his doll, nicknamed “Hogie,” was an 

American fighter pilot and an array of 

female friends were a ruthless fighting 

force providing him backup in battles 

against Nazi dolls, representing the 

men who brutalized him. 

After setting up precisely positioned 

scenarios, Hogancamp photographs 

them, resulting in intricately detailed 

adventures that have become the 

focus of galleries worldwide, a terrific 

coffee-table book and a stunning 2010 

documentary called “Marwencol.” 

Now his unlikely story is the focus 

of a new narrative feature film called 

“Welcome to Marwen,” in which 

Oscar-nominated actor Steve Carell 

plays Hogancamp amid a big-budget 

effects extravaganza helmed by the 

visionary director Robert Zemeckis 

(“Forrest Gump,” “Back to the Future”). 

That dynamic duo should have 

been able to craft a superb movie that 

would compete strongly for this year’s 

Academy Awards. Unfortunately, their 

take on Hogancamp’s story has resulted 

in a disappointing failure: a loud, 

tonally jarring, emotionally manipulative 

and poorly paced exercise in 

mediocrity that has little of the magic 

found in his photographs. 

The film opens with Hogancamp’s 

heroic alter ego Hogie on a daring 

run in his bomber, as it is about to 

crash-land in a forest. What should be 


a sequence of slam-bang excitement 

is so artificially rendered that it’s hard 

for viewers to absorb themselves, and 

when the plane crashes and we see 

Hogancamp in the real world photographing 

the results, a major qualitative 

problem presents itself. 

From those opening moments 

throughout the rest of the film, 

Zemeckis and his normally ace 

co-screenwriter Caroline Thompson 

(“Edward Scissorhands,” “The 

Nightmare Before Christmas”) have 

utterly slack pacing in the real-world 

scenes that ruins any sense of magic 

momentum that might come across in 

the fantasy sequences. 

They also have incredibly 

heavy-handed expository dialogue 

throughout that wouldn’t have passed 

muster in a Screenwriting 101 class at 

a community college. 

Hogancamp struggles in his relations 

with other people, but he has 

a particularly hard time dealing 

with the women in his life. One is a 

co-worker at the bar in which he was 

beaten, another runs the hobby shop 

where he purchases all his dolls and 

art supplies, yet another is the physical 

therapist who taught him to walk 

again, after his beating resulted in the 

amputation of his leg. 

But there are two other women 

whose dolls come to prominence in 

the film’s storyline: one representing 

the cute, sweet woman named Nicol 

(Leslie Mann) who moves in across 

the street after escaping an abusive 

boyfriend, and the other a fantasy figure 

he calls Deja, whom he believes is 

a witch sent to interfere and ruin any 

and all attempts at relationships. 

As he tries to forge a relationship 

with Nicol, Hogancamp also has to 

face the impending court date in 

which his attorney has asked him to 

appear and testify against his attackers 

Steve Carell in “Welcome to Marwen.” 

to ensure their prison sentences are 

severe — yet he is so traumatized he 

may not be able to appear at all. 

“Welcome to Marwen” wears its 

heart on its sleeve, and clearly wants 

to be a heartwarming classic along the 

lines of Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump.” 

But with its storytelling and stylistic 

approaches a mess, it is nearly impossible 

to take seriously. 

Quietly emotional real-world moments 

give way to noisy, scream-filled 

sequences of Nazi attacks made by 

dolls, and the sight of Carell in an 

array of high heels as he starts to confidently 

embrace his desire to explore 

his feminine side is truly bizarre to 

behold throughout. 

“Marwen” comes close to being bad 

enough to laugh at, without quite 

reaching that ignoble status. The doll 

effects are admittedly stunning, with 

the film on the Academy’s shortlist of 

the 10 movies of 2018 that are eligible 

for a Best Visual Effects nomination. 

But add in a cloyingly sappy score, 

poor writing, a hysterical (in all the 

wrong ways) performance by Carell 

and a near-complete lack of control 

by Zemeckis, and you’ll be looking 

to leave “Marwen” as quickly as 

possible. 

IMDB 


THE CRUX 

BY HEATHER KING 

Another man’s treasure 

Whether it’s gum wrappers, erasers, or tiny bowls, Central 

Library’s exhibit proves we’re all holding on to something 

At the LA Central Public Library 

through Jan. 27 is an engrossing 

(and free!) exhibit called “21 

Collections: Every Object Has a Story.” 

Dominating the central space is a 

life-size elephant — now there’s an 

attention grab! — made entirely of 

unshelled walnuts. 

Along with 550 jars of fruit, 200 

pounds of honey, and 450 plants and 

trees, this was the Golden State’s 

proud contribution to the Chicago 

World’s Fair of 1893. The idea was 

to sell Southern California as a land 

of prosperity, wealth, and leisure, an 

effort that might technically be classed 

as boasting rather than collecting. Still, 

let’s face it, we are kind of great. So the 

walnut elephant gets a pass. 

Grandma “Tressa” Prisbrey (1896- 

1988) had a thing for pencils. After 

amassing upward of 17,000, she 

decided at the age of 60 to build a shed 

on her Simi Valley property to house 

them. Lumber being a bit of a luxury, 

she started combing the area dumps 

for discarded glass bottles. 

The eventual result was 16 separate 

houses and innumerable folk art 

assemblages that have come to be 

known as “Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle 

Village,” and is on the National 

Register of Historic Places. 

The accompanying video of 

Grandma in her heyday is worth 

watching, if for no other reason than 

her hilariously spirited account of 

being stopped by the cops in an 

unregistered, uninsured, rattrap of a 

motor vehicle. 

A passerby apparently once asked, 

“Are you the crazy woman who built 

this house?” “I guess so,” she replied, 

“ain’t nobody else here.” On view 

are some of her pencils, unseen for 

decades, and arranged in whimsical 

neo-expressionistic squares, circles, and 

wheels. 

Karen Collins, a Compton 

elementary school teacher, began 

building shadow box dioramas after 

sinking into a depression following the 

167-year sentence handed down to her 

son Eddie on gang-related charges. 

Her vignettes — among them 

Ghana’s medieval Elmina Castle, 

former Dutch trading outpost and 

“slave factory”; Madame C.J. Walker 

(née Sarah Breedlove, 1867-1919), 

“hair culturist” and the first black 

woman millionaire; and Martin 

Luther King Jr., wiping the sweat from 

his brow and preaching to a packed 

church, are painstakingly detailed, 

deeply researched, lovingly crafted, 

and altogether captivating. 

Collins travels the city with her 

African American Museum of 

Miniatures hoping to introduce a new 

generation to this rich history. 

Artist Vincent Ramos has created an 

assemblage entitled “Venice Archive 

Fragment as Venice Altar Study, 1936- 

2018.” Vintage real estate brochures, 

newspaper clippings, magazine ads, 

family ephemera, posters, photos, 

and found objects combine to create 

a kind of visual history shrine to the 

Venice neighborhood of LA where, 

pre-gentrification, Ramos’ grandfather 

lived along one of the canals and made 

his living as a trashman. 

Saskia Wilson-Brown, fascinated by 

perfumery and scents, is the founding 

director of the Chinatown-based 

Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO). 

Petrichor — rain on dry dirt — always 

an especially welcome whiff here in 

LA, is a recognized fragrance, turns 

out, in the world of smells. IAO’s 

version is a combination of Texas 

cedar, geosmin, and rose oxide. 

Los Angeles Unified School District 

Spanish teacher George B. Smith 

amassed a collection of bullfighting 

memorabilia in his Westlake 

apartment, then in the 1980s donated 

it to the library. The posters, books, 

photographs, magazine covers, and 

flyers comprising the Biblioteca 

Taurina afford a bird’s-eye view 

into a unique Southern California 

subculture. 

There’s much, much more: Tom 

Hanks’ collection of stylish vintage 

typewriters; Clare Graham’s settee 

and end table fashioned from soda 

can pop-tops; Darlene Lace’s “Candy 

Wrapper Museum” (remember 

Jujyfruits, Bit-O-Honey, and candy 

cigarettes?); Morgyn Owens-Celli and 

his American Museum of Straw Art; 

bird eggs — Ventura County’s Western 

Foundation for Vertebrate Zoology has 

28 • ANGELUS • December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019

“Bird Eggs and Nest,” Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. 

CENTRAL LIBRARY GETTY GALLERY 

“Pencil Collage,” Grandma Prisbrey’s “Bottle Village.” 


“Typewriter,” Tom Hanks. 


“Straw Horse,” Morgyn Owens-Celli of the American Museum of 

Straw Art. 


more than a million of them — and 

nests. 

Paper airplanes, most of which were 

found by collector Harry Smith on the 

streets of New York City; chunks of 

road tar from Dr. Victor G. Gordon’s 

World Famous Asphalt Museum; an 

intriguing photo genre, collected by 

Alyse Emdur, which consists of shots 

taken of prison inmates against painted 

fantasy backdrops of tropical paradises, 

seascapes, or snow-capped mountains; 

Olive Percival, the Miniature Milliner 

(the hats, not Olive) of the (Pasadena) 

Arroyo. “It is true,” she observed, 

“and I do not apologize — that to me 

domestic duties are ‘fine’ arts.” 

Perhaps our attraction to collecting 

is some atavistic leftover from millions 

of years ago when humans were still 

insects, or wasps, or birds. I personally 

am drawn by wee, and I do mean wee, 

bowls. 

I took a pottery class a few years ago 

and after eight weeks had produced 

about 60 misshapen vessels capable of 

holding, say, one used teabag, three 

paper clips, or a single beak-full of 

pollen. My whole being thrilled to see 

these tiny, nest-like objects, thereby 

strengthening my conviction that in a 

past life I flew the earth as an Anna’s 

Hummingbird. 

While you’re at the Central Library, 

grab a book, visit the café, sit in the 

courtyard. Look around. Think about 

starting your own collection: cigarette 

butts, discarded pieces of gum, fallen 

olive tree leaves. The sky’s the limit. 

Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.

Angelus News | December 28, 2018 - January 4, 2019 | Vol. 3 No. 44

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