Angelus News | February 22, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 7

ANGELUS
CAN THERE BE
WOMEN DEACONS?
Our special report examines
the historical record
February 22, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 7

C
ON THE COVER
A detail from the “Procession of Female Saints,” a Byzantine mosaic in the Basilica St. Apollinare Nuovo
in Ravenna, Italy. More than 1,000 years after disappearing from the Catholic Church’s vocabulary, the
question of female deacons, or “deaconesses,” has reemerged in the form of a study commissioned by
Pope Francis. In a special report for Angelus starting on page 10, contributing editor and Church historian
Mike Aquilina examines historical evidence outlining the roles of service taken on by women since the
primitive Church. In an exclusive interview with Angelus on page 13, respected theologian Sister Sara
Butler, MSBT, wonders whether the focus by some advocates on women’s ordination is distracting us from
the more fundamental role of women in the Church.
SHUTTERSTOCK
IMAGE: A migrant hugs Pope Francis after a Mass
Feb. 15 with migrants and members of
Italian Catholic parishes, religious orders,
organizations, and individuals who assist
migrants and refugees. The Mass was held
at the Fraterna Domus di Sacrofano, a
Catholic retreat center north of Rome.
VATICAN MEDIA

Contents
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation and Local News 4-6
LA Catholic Events 7
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
LA’s battle of vocations hits the basketball court 16
John Allen: Two cardinals’ unpopular road to sainthood 18
Gary Jansen on the ‘big’ God who can shake us up 20
The good news about bad Church leaders 22
Greg Erlandson: Will we learn from the Covington crisis? 24
Kris McGregor: A monk’s handbook on humility 26
Heather King: The house that made a California poet 28

ANGELUS
February 22, 2019 | Vol. 4 • No. 7
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POPE WATCH
Life and liturgy
(Adapted from Pope Francis’ address
to participants in the plenary of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments at the
Vatican on Thursday, Feb. 14.)
We can not forget, first of all, that the
liturgy is life that forms, not an idea to
be learned. It is useful in this regard to
remember that reality is more important
than the idea.
And it is good therefore, in the liturgy
as in other areas of ecclesial life,
not to end up favoring sterile ideological
polarizations, which often arise
when, considering our own ideas valid
for all contexts, we tend to adopt an
attitude of perennial dialectic toward
[those] who [do] not share them.
The liturgy is not “the field of do-ityourself,”
but the epiphany of ecclesial
communion.
Therefore, “we,” and not “I,”
resounds in prayers and gestures; the
real community, not the ideal subject.
When we look back to nostalgic past
tendencies or wish to impose them
again, there is the risk of placing the
part before the whole, the “I” before
the people of God, the abstract
before the concrete, ideology before
communion and, fundamentally, the
worldly before the spiritual.
Speaking of liturgical formation in
the people of God means first and
foremost being aware of the indispensable
role the liturgy holds in the
Church and for the Church.
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And then, concretely helping the
people of God to interiorize better
the prayer of the Church, to love it as
an experience of encounter with the
Lord and with brothers who, in the
light of this, rediscover its content and
observe its rites.
In order for the liturgy to fulfill its
formative and transforming function,
it is necessary that the pastors and the
laity be introduced to their meaning
and symbolic language, including art,
song, and music in the service of the
mystery celebrated, even silence. The
Catechism of the Catholic Church
itself adopts the mystagogical way
to illustrate the liturgy, valuing its
prayers and signs.
Mystagogy: this is a suitable way to
enter the mystery of the liturgy, in the
living encounter with the crucified
and risen Lord. Mystagogy means
discovering the new life we have
received in the people of God through
the sacraments, and continually rediscovering
the beauty of renewing it.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are all
called to deepen and revive our liturgical
formation. The liturgy is in fact
the main road through which Christian
life passes through every phase of
its growth.
You therefore have before you a great
and beautiful task: to work so that the
people of God may rediscover the
beauty of meeting the Lord in the
celebration of his mysteries and, by
meeting him, have life in his name.
Papal Prayer Intentions for February: For a generous welcome of the victims of
human trafficking, of enforced prostitution, and of violence.
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News
2 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Continual reform
There is growing awareness that we
are living in a time of reform and
renewal in the Catholic Church.
Yet there is also a real sense in which
all times are times of reform. This is
because, as individual believers and as
a Church, we must always be striving
to be transformed in the image of
Jesus Christ.
“Christ summons the Church to
continual reformation as she sojourns
here on earth,” the Second Vatican
Council said. “The Church is always
in need of this, insofar as she is an
institution of men and women here
on earth.”
This week in Rome, Pope Francis
hosts an unprecedented summit of
the leading bishops from every nation
to discuss the scourge of child sexual
abuse in the Church.
I am praying that this meeting will
give new urgency to the issue of
preventing abuse and helping victims
find justice and healing. I am also
hoping this meeting will focus new
attention on the need for Church
leaders to be responsible, accountable,
and transparent in our handling
of abuse allegations.
The moral failures we have seen are
symptoms of a deeper and more widespread
need for rebuilding and revitalizing
the Church — not just Church
institutions but also the “Church” that
is each one of us.
Renewal and reform are a coin with
two sides. The one side is individual,
the other is institutional. The two cannot
be separated and each depends on
the other.
No change in the Church’s institutional
organization and authority
structures will be effective unless
there is also a renewal in our hearts
and minds, unless each one of us
decides again to live our faith with
greater integrity, new devotion, and
new excitement.
Right now, we hear many voices calling
for many changes in the Church.
It seems that everyone, inside the
Church and outside, has ideas for
what the pope should do, for what the
bishops should do.
But we need to understand how authentic
change takes place historically
and how to distinguish between true
and false reform in the Church.
In that light, last week’s announcement
that Francis will canonize Blessed
Cardinal John Henry Newman
seems providential.
Among Newman’s great works was
the definitive study of how doctrine
develops in the Church.
True reform, as Newman saw it, is
not revolutionary but evolutionary,
building on the foundations and doctrines
established by Jesus and handed
on through the Church’s tradition.
Reform means returning to the
original “form” and correcting what
has “de-formed” the Church. This
means going back to Jesus Christ and
the simplicity and purity of the first
witnesses to the faith.
Dante, the great Christian humanist,
wrote in the 14th century: “The form
of the Church is nothing else than the
life of Christ in word and in deed.”
This is important to remember.
Jesus is always “the form” — the ideal
for the Church and everyone who
belongs to the Church. That means
the pope, cardinals, and bishops. That
means clergy, religious, and laity. We
are all called to take the life of Christ,
his teachings and actions, as the pattern
for our lives and ministries.
In this time, we need to keep going
back to the sources — to the Gospels
and to the witness and writings of the
saints, especially the Church Fathers.
We learn from the saints how important
it is to be united with St. Peter,
the pope, the “rock” upon which
Christ built his Church.
We cannot be faithful to Christ and
the Gospel without a loving fidelity
to his Church. We see this again and
again in the lives of the saints.
Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl lived
and ministered for nearly 20 years in
a deeply secularized French town run
by Communists.
She said that to stay faithful to Christ
in a society without God, we need to
have a strong sense of mission. But,
she added, we need an even stronger
sense of obedience and love for the
Church.
Delbrêl saw Rome as “a kind of sacrament
of Christ-Church.” And once
she made a pilgrimage there to renew
her faith.
“I arrived in Rome in the morning,”
she later wrote. “I went immediately
to the tomb of St. Peter. … I remained
there the whole day, and I left again
for Paris in the evening.”
What a beautiful and simple gesture
of love for the Church, something
we can all reflect on during this time
of renewal and reform. It is another
reminder that the Church will be reformed
as each one of us is reformed.
Pray for me this week and pray for
the Holy Father and the bishops gathering
in Rome. I will be joining you in
those prayers and I will be praying for
you and your families.
Let us pray, too, for the intercession
of the Blessed Mother. Through Mary
and with St. Peter, may all of us go
to Jesus and renew our fidelity to our
calling as his disciples.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Scandals hit
Italian Church
In a series of events analogous
to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury
Report, the United Nations has
severely reprimanded Italy for
the country’s handling of clerical
sexual abuse.
The U.N.’s Committee on the
Rights of the Child issued a
report Feb. 7 that criticized Italy’s
historical reaction to clerical sexual
abuse, and which asked the
national government to “establish
an independent and impartial
commission of inquiry to examine
all cases of sexual abuse of
children by religious personnel of
the Catholic Church.”
The committee also encouraged
the Italian government to work
with the Vatican to amend the
fourth article of the 1929 Lateran
Treaty, which has been used to
protect priests accused of sexual
abuse from being reported to
Italian authorities.
“I am very satisfied,” president of
“Rete L’abuso” (“Network ABU-
SO”), and survivor of clerical
sexual abuse, Francesco Zanardi
said to Crux. “The fact that our
complaints have been recognized
by the United Nations gives [Italy]
strength to react.”
SISTER ACT, PART 2 — Members of the Benedictine Sisters of Saint Anthony pose with
Archbishop of Spoleto-Norcia Renato Boccardo and community leaders from the town of
Norcia, Italy. The nuns finally returned Feb. 10 to their order’s ancient home, a monastery
built at the birthplace of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica, two years after an earthquake
destroyed much of the town.
‘Mindless violence’ in Kashmir
Church leaders in India condemned a deadly terrorist attack on the country’s
paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region Feb. 14 that killed
44 soldiers.
A suicide bomber rammed a car loaded with explosives into a bus carrying
the Central Reserve Force Police to Srinagar, the main city of India-administered
Kashmir.
A Pakistan-based Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the
attack.
Kashmir is a Muslim-majority region at the heart of decades of hostility
between India and Pakistan. The neighbors both rule parts of the region
while claiming the entire territory as theirs.
Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, the secretary-general of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), denounced the attack as “mindless
violence.”
VATICAN MEDIA
Report: Priest captured by ISIS still alive
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/JOHN FEISTER
Father Paolo Dall’Oglio in 2008.
A British newspaper has reported that an Italian Jesuit priest kidnapped
in Syria in 2013 is alive.
The Times reported Feb. 7 that Father Paolo Dall’Oglio and two other
Western hostages, British journalist John Cantlie and a nurse from
New Zealand, are being held by ISIS and used as “bargaining chips” in
negotiations with U.S.-backed Kurdish-Arab forces in Syria.
A week earlier, Pope Francis met the family of his fellow Jesuit Jan. 30
in his Vatican residence, in a gesture a spokesman said was intended to
show his “affection and proximity” to Dall’Oglio and his relatives.
On Feb. 13, a torchlit rally took place in front of Rome’s Basilica of
Santa Maria Maggiore as Dall’Oglio’s fellow Romans prayed for the
hostages’ safe return.
4 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

NATION
SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Wall drama ramps up in Texas diocese
Even as Catholic
leaders criticize President
Trump’s advancing plans
to build his promised wall
along the U.S.-Mexico
border, faithful in one
border town may have
cause for relief.
To the dismay of the
Diocese of Brownsville,
Texas, a federal judge
ruled Feb. 6 that the land
around the 170-year-old
La Lomita Chapel in Mission, Texas.
La Lomita Chapel located
along the U.S.-Mexico
border could be surveyed for the construction of a border wall.
However, the government funding bill expected to be signed by President
Trump Feb. 15 specifically excluded the surrounding La Lomita Park in
Mission, Texas, from funding for the wall.
On Feb. 15, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced Trump’s
plan to “circumvent” the government funding bill passed by Congress and
declare a state of emergency on the border in order to fund the wall.
“The wall first and foremost is a symbol of division and animosity between
two friendly countries,” said USCCB President Cardinal Daniel DiNardo
and Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the USCCB Committee
on Migration, in a joint statement. “We remain steadfast and resolute in the
vision articulated by Pope Francis that at this time we need to be building
bridges and not walls.”
Reordering the
sacraments
Young Catholics in Gallup will
start receiving the sacraments
the way their great-grandparents,
rather than their parents, would
have.
Gallup Bishop James Wall
announced in a Feb. 11 pastoral
letter that his diocese would be
restoring the original order of
the sacraments. Now, children,
usually around the age of 7 or 8,
will receive both confirmation
and first Holy Communion in the
same Mass.
“An alarming percentage of
our Catholic children who were
baptized and received first Holy
Communion, do not continue
their formation for the sacrament
of confirmation, and in too many
cases, never receive the sacrament,”
Bishop Wall explained.
For much of Church history,
up until the time of St. Pius X,
the sacraments of initiation were
administered in the order of
baptism, confirmation, and Holy
Communion. A handful of other
U.S. dioceses currently follow the
order.
Wanted: Catholic gas vandals
Four members of the Catholic Worker movement
were charged with property damage after attempting to
shut off pipeline valves in northern Minnesota.
The self-called “Four Necessity Valve Turners” are
accused of trespassing and attempting to turn off the
emergency shut-off valves for two pipelines operated
by a Canadian energy company.
One of the pipelines targeted had previously been the
focus of demonstrations, as it transports a particular
type of oil that emits greater amounts of greenhouse
gases.
“This small act of healing our earth is riding on the
wings of all the ancestors, angels, saints, and cloud of
witnesses who will continue these efforts by changing
hearts and minds allowing for sustainable, livable, and
just technologies for the good of all,” Michele Naar-
Obed, one of the charged, told National Catholic
Reporter.
LOOKING TO ABOVE — Faith leaders attend a memorial service
Feb. 14 to mark the first anniversary of the shooting that killed 14
students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School in Parkland, Florida.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/JOE SKIPPER, REUTERS
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
Experts to gather at
Mission San Diego
A unique gathering of history
experts will be held next month
in San Diego as part of the 250th
anniversary celebrations for California’s
oldest church.
The March 22-24 “Scholars’
Symposium” at the Mission San
Diego de Alcala will feature an
assortment of professors, archaeologists,
researchers, and other
experts on the colorful history
of the first of the 21 California
missions.
Presentations will examine
Spanish colonial life and Kumeyaay
tribal leadership, and cover
topics including the “the maritime
aspects” of the mission’s
founding in 1769, a geological
study of Old Mission Dam, the
historic mission bells, architectural
history, and the conservation of
mission art.
There also will be an opportunity
to view original documents
signed by St. Junípero Serra, who
personally founded the first nine
of California’s missions, and his
colleague and successor, Father
Fermin de Francisco Lasuen de
Arasqueta.
Loyola Marymount University
has received Mission San Diego’s
permission to allow students in its
continuing education unit to earn
credit for attending the symposium.
CELEBRATING SELFLESSNESS — The 2019 Cardinal’s Awards Dinner honorees attended
an honoree Mass and luncheon at the Church of Our Savior and the Caruso Catholic Center
Feb. 13. The event, which each year honors LA Catholics for their contributions to the local
community, will be held on Saturday, March 16, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Pictured from left
to right: David Borgatello, Paul Tosetti, Colleen Roohan, Archbishop José H. Gomez, Dorene
Dominguez, and William Simon.
NEW YEAR OF JOY — Chinese Catholics perform a “Dance of Prayer” at a service welcoming
the Lunar New Year at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco Feb. 9. Faithful marked
the annual celebration with Mass and a series of rites celebrated in English, Mandarin, and
Cantonese.
JUSTIN HORNICK/1545 MEDIA DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
LMU near top of new Fulbright list
New data shows that Loyola Marymount University
(LMU) in Westchester is among the country’s top exporters
of students earning the country’s most prestigious
scholarship.
A list published by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Feb. 10, shows that five LMU students received
Fulbright grants to study, teach English, and conduct
research abroad.
That puts the Jesuit university in the top five nationwide
among Master’s universities — the school’s designated
category in the Carnegie Classification system.
LMU students were awarded grants to Belgium, Colombia,
Laos, South Korea, and Spain.
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s
flagship international exchange program for college
students “chosen for their academic merit and leadership
potential — with the opportunity to exchange ideas and
contribute to finding solutions to shared international
concerns,” according to LMU.
6 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

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., Feb. 22
Relit Evangelization Training Live. Holy Family
Church Grade School auditorium, 400 S. Louise St.,
Glendale, Fri., 6:30-9:30 p.m., Sat., 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Integrated, interactive presentations led by Michael
Dopp, founder of the New Evangelization Summit, for
theological, spiritual, and practical formation to help
you lead people to Christ. Cost: $55/person. Registration
required. Visit la-relit.eventbrite.com. To learn
more, visit parishevangelizationleaders.org.
Lenten Challenge: The Styrofoam Fast. St. Joseph
Center, Holy Family Parish, 1524 Fremont Ave., S.
Pasadena, 7 p.m. Jump-start your Lenten commitment
to creation care. Presentation by Heal the Bay
and group discussion. Wine and fair trade snacks
available. Contact hfenvironment@gmail.com.
Sat., Feb. 23
Basic Lector Formation Training Workshop. Old
Mission Santa Ines, 1760 Mission Dr., Solvang, 8:30
a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sessions run Feb. 23, March 2, 9,
and 16. Cost: $60/person. Register at http://store.
la-archdiocese.org/basic-lector-formation-22319.
Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. Old
Mission Santa Ines, 1760 Mission Dr., Solvang. Ministry
at Mass 8:30-11:30 a.m. Ministry to the sick 8:30
a.m.-2 p.m. Half day cost: $15/person. Full day: $25/
person. Register at http://store.la-archdiocese.org/
eucharistic-ministry-training-day-22319.
Magnificat — A Ministry to Catholic Women Prayer
Meal. Odyssey Restaurant, 15600 Odyssey Dr.,
Granada Hills, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Speaker: Lisa Hendey,
founder of CatholicMom.com. Cost: $31/person before
Feb. 12, $33/person after. Mail check to Magnificant,
29122 Florabunda Rd., Canyon Country, CA
91387. Online RSVP at magnificatsfv.org. Call Teri
Thompson at 805-527-3745.
“Strengthen Your Marriage and Family Unity.” Holy
Trinity Church auditorium, 209 N. Hanford Ave., San
Pedro, 2:30-5 p.m. Inspirational talk by Dr. John and
Claire Yzaguirre, Ph.D., M.F.T., therapists and co-creators
of the “Thriving Marriages” program. Free child
care available. Call 310-548-6535, ext. 317 or visit
www.holytrinitysp.org.
Merciful Companion Training. ACC Building, 3424
Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Merciful Companions are
lay people who help others heal from post-abortion
grief. Two-day training includes information on pregnancy
loss, assessing for referrals, and accompaniment
through the healing process. For more information,
call Sharon St. Pierre at 714-743-5834 or email
sharon@mercifulcompanions.com.
A Pilgrim’s Journey through Lent. Mary & Joseph
Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes,
10 a.m.-3 p.m. This workshop will give you tools to
prepare for the sacred pilgrimage of Lent, using the
Camino as a model. This is a family friendly workshop
meant to encourage people to set aside the 40 days
of Lent as a time of growing closer to God. Cost: $50/
person and includes lunch. Call Marlene Velazquez at
310-377-4867, ext. 234.
Sun., Feb. 24
Pope St. John Paul II & The New Evangelization
Luncheon Conference. St. Martin of Tours Parish
Center, 11967 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 1-5 p.m.
Guest speaker: Michael Dopp. Cost: $35/person. Registration
required; visit JP2-conference.eventbrite.
com. For more information, visit parishevangelizationleaders.org.
“Black Migration — The Music that Moved Us”
Concert. St. Brigid Church, 5214 S. Western Ave.,
Los Angeles, 3 p.m. Concert features the St. Brigid
Gospel Choir, the Resurreccion (Hispanic) Choir, the
New Generation Youth & Young Adult Choirs, the Traditional
Choir, St. Brigid (African) Drum Ministry, and
guest choral groups and artists. Admission: Freewill
offering. Call 323-292-0781.
Mon., Feb. 25
Praying for People, Praying with People. St. Louise
de Marillac Church, 1720 E. Covina Blvd., Covina,
6:30-9 p.m. Prayer connects the heart of the disciple
to the heart of Jesus, and prayer can also turn hearts
to Jesus. Come learn how to pray spontaneously and
aloud with others. Register at https://docs.google.
com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8I6ABBdXFnK-UpJGuBG-
SA4m_0M_LlJFbbrnRwDjTjCKkdbg/viewform.
Healing Mass. St. Cornelius Church, 5500 E. Wardlow
Rd., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. Presider: Father Lester
Niez.
Woman to Woman Ministry: The Value and Nurturing
of Friendship. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316
Lanai Rd., Encino, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Suggested donation:
$15/person. Please bring contribution for refreshment
table. Register by emailing jmcbroehm@
aol.com.
Wed., Feb. 27
40 Days for Life Mass. St. Rose of Lima Church, 1305
Royal Ave., Simi Valley, 5:30 p.m. Celebrant: Father
Shea. Call Leonore at 805-527-4444 or visit 40daysforlife.com/ThousandOaks.
Thur., Feb. 28
Better Half Palm Springs Excursion. Depart from
Holy Trinity Church, 1292 W. Santa Cruz St., San Pedro,
8:30 a.m. on a deluxe motor coach bus to enjoy
“Duets,” a tribute show of music icons such as Tom
Jones, Elton John, Cher, and Liza Minnelli. Includes a
stop at the Spa Casino for play or lunch at your own
expense. Return around 6 p.m. Cost: $77/person.
RSVP to Virginia Brumm at 310-832-2164.
Bosco Tech Admissions Information Night. 1151
San Gabriel Blvd., Rosemead, 5:30 p.m. Prospective
students and their families will learn about the
school’s unique college-prep, pre-engineering curriculum.
Information on shadow visits and financial
aid will be available. For details, contact Director of
Admissions John Garcia at jgarcia@boscotech.edu.
Sat., March 2
Men’s Conference: The Battle for Integrity. 507 N.
Granada Ave. Alhambra, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The task of
every man is to learn to fight for his integrity and
realize the mission entrusted to him by the Lord. Register
online at sacredheartretreathouse.com, email
sjcprogcoordinator@carmelitesistersocd.com, or call
626-289-1353, ext. 203.
“Healing the Family Tree: Praying for Our Loved
Ones, Living and Deceased.” Incarnation Church
Community Center, 214 W. Fairview Ave., Glendale,
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Bishop David O’Connell, Father Michael
Barry, SSCC, and Dominic Berardino will discuss
topics including “Healing the Harmful Effects of
Ancestral Sin” and “Breaking Bondages over Generations.”
Cost: $25/person. Bring sack lunch or eat at
restaurants. Contact SCRC at 818-771-1361 or email
spirit@scrc.org.
Lights! Camera! Action! How can Catholics hold to
faith in a media-saturated culture? Pauline Books &
Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 10 a.m.-
3:30 p.m. Retreat led by Father Richard Leonard, SJ,
author, speaker, and director of the Australian Catholic
Office for Film & Broadcasting. Donation: $30/person,
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This Week at AngelusNews.com
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• Is there theology in the old comics of Laurel and Hardy?
• Ruben Navarrette is looking for the real journos, if there are any left.
• Remember the deceased priests and deacons of our archdiocese in your prayers.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
1 Sam. 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 / Ps. 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13 / 1 Cor. 15:45-49 / Lk. 6:27-35
From a 1684 Arabic manuscript of the Gospels, copied in Egypt
by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib (likely a Coptic monk).
The story of David
and Saul in today’s First
Reading functions almost
like a parable. Showing
mercy to his deadly foe,
David gives a concrete
example of what Jesus
expects to become a way
of life for his disciples.
The new law Jesus gives
in today’s Gospel would
have us all become
“Davids” — loving our
enemies, doing good to
those who would harm
us, extending a line of
credit to those who won’t
ever repay us.
The old law required
only that the Israelites
love their fellow countrymen
(see Leviticus
19:18). The new law
Jesus brings makes us kin
to every man and woman
(see also Luke 10:29-
36). His kingdom isn’t one of tribe or
nationality. It’s a family.
As followers of Jesus, we’re to live as
he lived among us — as “children of
the Most High” (see Luke 6:35; 1:35).
As sons and daughters, we want to
walk in the ways of our heavenly
Father, to “be merciful, just as your
Father is merciful.” Grateful for his
mercy, we’re called to forgive others
their trespasses because God has
forgiven ours.
In the context of today’s liturgy, we’re
all “Sauls” — by our sinfulness and
pride we make ourselves enemies of
God. But we’ve been spared a death
we surely deserved to die because God
has loved and shown mercy to his enemies,
“the ungrateful and the wicked,”
as Jesus says.
Jesus showed us this love in his
Passion, forgiving his enemies as
they stripped him of cloak and tunic,
cursed him and struck him on the
cheek, condemned him to death on a
cross (see Luke 22:63-65; 23:34). “He
redeems your life from destruction,”
David reminds us in today’s Psalm.
That’s the promise, too, of today’s
Epistle, that we who believe in the
“last Adam,” Jesus, will rise from the
dead in his image, as today we bear
the image of the “first Adam,” who
by his sin made God an enemy and
brought death into the world (see 1
Corinthians 15:21-22).
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
8 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Celibacy: a personal apologia
As a vowed, religious celibate I’m
very conscious that today celibacy,
whether lived out in a religious commitment
or in other circumstances, is
suspect, under siege, and is offering
too little by way of a helpful apologia
to its critics. Do I believe in the value
of consecrated celibacy?
The only real answer I can give must
come from my own life. What’s my
response to a culture that, for the most
part, believes celibacy is both a naiveté
and a dualism that stands against
the goodness of sexuality, renders its
adherents less than fully human, and
lies at the root of the clerical sexual
abuse crisis within the Church? What
might I say in its defense?
First, that celibacy isn’t a basis for
pedophilia? Virtually all empirical
studies indicate that pedophilia is a
diagnosis not linked to celibacy. But
then let me acknowledge its downside:
Celibacy is not the normal state
for anyone.
When God made the first man and
woman, God said, “It is not good for
the human being to be alone.” That
isn’t just a statement about the constitutive
place of community within
our lives (though it is that); it’s a clear
reference to sexuality, its fundamental
goodness, and its God-intended place
in our lives.
From that it flows that to be a celibate,
particularly to choose to be one,
comes fraught with real dangers. Celibacy
can, and sometimes does, lead
to an unhealthy sense of one’s sexual
and relational self and to a coldness
that’s often judgmental.
It can, too, understandably, lead to
an unhealthy sexual preoccupation
within the celibate, and it provides
access to certain forms of intimacy
within which a dangerous betrayal of
trust can occur.
Less recognized, but a huge danger,
is that it can be a vehicle for
selfishness. Simply put, without the
conscriptive demands that come with
marriage and child-raising, there’s the
ever-present danger that a celibate
can, unconsciously, arrange his life
too much to suit his own needs.
Thus celibacy is not for everyone; indeed
it’s not for the many. It contains
an inherent abnormality. Consecrated
celibacy is not simply a different lifestyle.
It’s anomalous, in terms of the
unique sacrifice it asks of you, where,
like Abraham going up the mountain
to sacrifice Isaac, you’re asked to sacrifice
what’s most precious to you.
As Thomas Merton once said of his
own celibacy, “The absence of woman
is a fault in my chastity.” But, for the
celibate as for Abraham, that can have
a rich purpose and contain its own
potential for generativity.
As well, I believe that consecrated
celibacy, like music or religion, needs
to be judged by its best expressions
and not by its aberrations. Celibacy
should not be judged by those
who have not given it a wholesome
expression but by the many wonderful
women and men, saints of the
past and present, who have given it a
wholesome and generative expression.
Personally, I know many very
generative, vowed celibates whose
wholesomeness I envy and who make
celibacy credible — and attractive.
Like marriage, though in a different
way, celibacy offers a rich potential for
intimacy and generativity. As a vowed
celibate I am grateful for a vocation
that has brought me intimately into
the world of so many people.
When I left home at a young age to
enter the Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate, I confess, I didn’t want
celibacy. Nobody should. I wanted to
be a missionary and a priest and celibacy
presented itself as the stumbling
block. But once inside religious life,
almost immediately, I loved the life,
though not the celibacy part.
Twice I delayed taking final vows,
unsure about celibacy.
Eventually I made the decision, a
hard leap of trust, and took the vow for
life. Full disclosure, celibacy has been
for me singularly the hardest part of
my more than 50 years in religious life
… but at the same time, it has helped
create a special kind of entry into the
world and into others’ lives that has
wonderfully enriched my ministry.
The natural God-given desire for
sexual intimacy, for exclusivity in
affection, for the marriage bed, for
children, for grandchildren, doesn’t
leave you, and it shouldn’t. But
celibacy has helped bring into my life
a rich, consistent, deep intimacy. Reflecting
on my celibate vocation, all I
may legitimately feel is gratitude.
Celibacy isn’t for everyone. It excludes
you from the normal; it seems
brutally unfair at times; it’s fraught
with dangers ranging from serious
betrayal of trust to living a selfish life;
and it’s a fault in your very chastity —
but, if lived out in fidelity, it can be
wonderfully generative and does not
exclude you from either real intimacy
or real happiness.
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 9

SHUTTERSTOCK
A detail from the “Procession of Female Saints,” a Byzantine mosaic in the Basilica St. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy.
Is it time for women deacons?
A papal commission has finished its study of women’s
leadership in the early Church. What comes next?
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
The word “deaconess” vanished from the Church’s
vocabulary more than a thousand years ago. Now,
suddenly, in early 2019, it’s in the news.
On Jan. 15, Fordham University in Bronx,
New York, hosted an event titled “The Future of Women
Deacons.” A panel discussion there included contributions
by two members of the Commission for the Study of the
Diaconate of Women, summoned by Pope Francis in 2016,
and they were speaking publicly for the first time about the
commission’s work.
Three days later, Georgetown University’s Center for
Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) released the
result of its survey of U.S. bishops’ views on the matter.
Major coverage appeared in Catholic media, most
of it drawn from the same data, but using the data
to reach widely divergent conclusions: that the
Church should be ordaining women to the diaconate, or
that the Church should not be doing any such thing.
At the heart of the controversy are obscure questions about
ancient history.
No one denies that there were women in the early
Church called “deaconesses.” St. Paul, at the conclusion
of his Letter to the Romans, refers to Phoebe, whom he
calls “a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreae,” and asks
the Romans to “receive her in the Lord as befits the saints,
and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she
has been a helper of many and of myself as well” (Romans
16:1-2).
It is the New Testament’s only instance of the term,
though some scholars say that the role is implicitly discussed
in the First Letter to Timothy, where a discussion of
the qualifications of male deacons includes a reference to
“The women likewise …” (1 Timothy 3:11).
The term then vanishes from the documentary record for
two centuries — though many early Christian writers refer
to women fulfilling institutional roles in the Church. St.
Ignatius of Antioch and St. Polycarp of Smyrna, both writing
at the beginning of the second century, refer to consecrated
virgins and widows who are dedicated to prayer and
to active charitable work.
10 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

St. Paul himself had made reference to
virgins and widows, and some scholars
believe that he was speaking about these
women in his passage about Phoebe and
even in First Timothy.
The only other possible reference to
women deacons comes in a letter from
a pagan. Pliny the Younger, the Roman
governor of Bithynia, reports in 112
A.D. that he had arrested and tortured
two women he describes as “ministrae,”
which can be translated as deaconess.
Pliny, however, is not an entirely reliable
witness to Christian doctrine or practice.
The term made a strong resurgence in
the third and fourth centuries, as local
congregations produced “church orders,”
books containing instructions for liturgical
celebration, moral conduct, and
ecclesiastical discipline.
The third-century “Didascalia Apostolorum”
(“Teaching of the Apostles”)
refers to deaconesses and tells bishops
they should honor these women “as the
Holy Spirit is honored.” A later chapter
describes the activities of deaconesses
in some detail. They can, for example,
freely visit the homes of women who are
sick, without causing scandal.
They also played a major role in the
baptism of women. In antiquity, new
Christians were baptized naked, and
many were baptized as adult converts.
Since the clergy were male, deaconesses
safeguarded the modesty of women, taking
them into the water and completing
the anointing that had been ceremonially
begun by the bishop.
According to some ancient texts, a
screen separated the bishop from the catechumen,
and he performed his actions
by extending his hand through a small
window.
The “Didascalia” offers not Phoebe as a
model for these deaconesses, but rather
the Gospel women who “ministered to Jesus”
(Matthew 27:55). The verb used for
“ministered” in that passage is “diakonousai,”
the root of the English “deacon,” but
it commonly meant service, in a simple,
nontechnical sense.
The tasks that the “Didascalia” assigns “Woman’s shroud,” fourth century A.D., Roman Egypt, Lourvre Museum, Paris.
to deaconesses appear in other Church
orders as well, though some texts assign them not to deaconesses,
but to consecrated widows.
text of a rite used for their initiation into the role.
description of the duties of women deacons, but also the
It is the fourth-century “Apostolic Constitutions” that has Church orders such as the “Didascalia” and the “Apostolic
Constitutions” were widely translated and circulated,
proven most controversial in modern scholarship. The
document includes portions of the “Didascalia” as well and the texts often include many variants, adapting rites to
as other earlier Church orders; and it contains not only a local customs and circumstances. All of the texts originated
© 1996 MUSÉE DU LOUVRE/CHRISTIAN LARRIEU
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 11

VICTOR ALEMÁN
Archbishop José H. Gomez ordained 16 permanent deacons for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, June 9, 2018.
in the eastern churches. In the western churches, there
is no trace of any deaconesses in the first five centuries of
Christian history.
St. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote, around 375 A.D.: “There
is certainly in the Church the order of deaconesses, but
this does not exist to exercise the functions of a priest, nor
are they to have any undertaking committed to them, but
for the decency of the feminine sex at the time of baptism.”
Indeed, in the centuries afterward, the role of deaconesses
seems to have waned even in the east. The most plausible
explanation is that the need had vanished with the decline
of adult baptisms. By the turn of the millennium, the term
was hardly ever used.
The memory of deaconesses was revived in the 19th
and 20th centuries, as some Protestant churches
began to explore the possibility of ordaining women
to ministry. Lutherans began to use the term with a corresponding
office, and Anglicans followed suit.
Catholic scholars took up the question of whether the
ancient deaconesses had, like male deacons, been ordained
to a degree of holy orders — or simply blessed for service,
like lectors, acolytes, and others who assist at liturgy.
The Church’s magisterium remained silent on the matter.
From 1975 to 1994 the Vatican produced three major
documents addressing (and rejecting) the admission of
women to the priesthood: St. Pope Paul VI’s 1975 letter to
the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury; the 1976 declaration
“Inter Insigniores” (“Among the Characteristics”) from
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and St.
Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis”
(“Priestly Ordination”).
None of these documents mentioned the diaconate
— and the omission seemed to leave the door open for
discussion.
In fact, in an official commentary on “Inter Insigniores,”
the Vatican said the omission was intentional, because “it is
a question which must be taken up fully by direct study of
the texts, without preconceived ideas.”
The “direct study” was immediately engaged. Two of the
great sacramental theologians of the last century — Bishop
Aimé-Georges Martimort and Father Cipriano Vaggagini
— published lengthy examinations. But they came down
on opposite sides in their answers.
Vaggagini, relying especially on the “Apostolic Constitutions,”
concluded that the deaconess’ rite of admission was
sacramental and admitted her to holy orders. Martimort
rejected Vaggagini’s reasoning and argued that the rite was
merely a blessing and not an ordination.
The question emerged again in 2002 in the Vatican
International Theological Commission’s study on the permanent
diaconate. Reviewing the usual ancient texts, the
document concluded that the evidence is inconclusive. “It
is difficult to tackle the question on the basis of historical
12 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

018.
IMAGE VIA MSTB.ORG
Divergent
expectations
Sister Sara Butler, MSBT.
Angelus News spoke with Sister
Sara Butler, MSBT, professor emeritus
of dogmatic theology at the
University of St. Mary of the Lake,
Mundelein. A past member of the
Vatican’s International Theological
Commission, she is a consultant
to the U.S. Bishops’ Doctrine
Committee. She is author of “The
Catholic Priesthood and Women:
A Guide to the Teaching of the
Church” (Hillenbrand, 2007).
This issue has recurred in public discussion
quite often since the 1970s. Yet it’s never
resolved. Why?
In part, the ongoing discussion is driven by
the desire to give women equal access to public ministry
in the Church. Its resolution, however, depends on the
answers to certain historical evidence and theological
questions that continue to be debated.
The historical issue is whether the public ecclesial
office to which bishops admitted women (deaconesses)
in the past was the same order — diaconate — to which
men were ordained. This is the question the Holy Father
asked a commission to study.
The other issue concerns the theology of holy orders,
the sacrament by which the diaconate is conferred. Did
women at one time receive the sacrament of holy orders?
Since the diaconate is a grade or degree of holy orders,
and since a baptized male is the sacramental sign for
the priesthood and episcopate, does the unity of the
sacrament also require that the deacon be a male? Or,
because the diaconate is a “proper and permanent rank
of the hierarchy” — distinct from the priesthood — does
it allow for the ordination of women?
The media narrative seems to be about a sexist
Church that won’t acknowledge the obvious.
Reputable scholars, both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox,
disagree over whether women were ever admitted
to the same office as male deacons. Members of the
International Theological Commission (advisory to the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) have studied
this twice without coming to a clear consensus.
The commission’s 2002 historical-theological report
addressed the more fundamental question, the theology
of the diaconate, but it also identified the two issues mentioned
above concerning the admission of women.
Critics argued that this section did not take sufficient
account of current historical research, and Pope Francis
has called for the new investigation whose report has not
yet been published.
Would admitting women to the diaconate advance
the cause of women in the Church?
In my opinion it is more important to give attention to
the way all the baptized share in the priestly, prophetic,
and kingly offices of Christ. The apostolic exhortation
“Christifideles laici” (“Christ’s Faithful People”) develops
this.
Its companion document, “Mulieris dignitatem” (“A
Woman’s Dignity”), spells out the dignity and vocation
of women, and this continues to be worthy of serious
attention. In fact, the office of deaconess was eventually
assumed by women in monastic life, and its ministries
to women are carried out today by consecrated women,
especially women religious.
The renewal of women’s religious life seems to me
the better way to advance the cause of women in the
Church.
Is there any way it could hurt their cause?
In the absence of male clerics, the nonordained faithful,
including women, can “supply” many of the deacon’s
functions. In my opinion, this allows sufficiently for
women’s collaboration with the pastoral ministry of the
ordained.
Catholic women have traditionally served the Church’s
life, mission, and holiness in vocations that belong to its
charismatic rather than its hierarchical constitution. This
provides them a certain freedom and offers a complementary
witness.
Media reports seem optimistic about the coming of
ordained women deacons. Yet a majority of bishops
seems to think it’s not happening. Why?
I think the divergent expectations reflect different levels
of information about both the historical and theological
issues. Bishops are probably aware of the theological
question regarding the unity of the sacrament of holy
orders, whereas many of the faithful and persons in the
media are informed only by certain incomplete reports
regarding the historical evidence.
My own opinion relies in large part on the fact that the
few rituals we have for ordaining (“ordination” in the early
Church meant installation in office) male and female
candidates distinguish them in ways that explicitly appeal
to gender.
The rites for [male] deacons compare them to Jesus
Christ, St. Stephen, and the Levites of the Old Testament.
The rites for deaconesses compare them to Our
Lady, Phoebe, other Old and New Testament women,
and the Holy Spirit. Women in ecclesial offices are not
said to symbolize Christ.
— Mike Aquilina
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13

“It’s difficult to see how you can ordain women as deacons if you can’t also ordain
them as priests — unless you decide that the ordination of a male deacon is not a
sacramental action.”
data alone.”
Indeed, there are also thorny theological questions involved.
Theologians have traditionally considered deacons,
along with priests and bishops, as occupying three grades
on a single continuum.
“The Second Vatican Council treats holy orders this way,”
said Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap., a member of
the International Theological Commission. “It’s difficult to
see how you can ordain women as deacons if you can’t also
ordain them as priests — unless
you decide that the ordination
of a male deacon is not a sacramental
action.”
The hierarchy’s foremost
expert on the permanent
diaconate, Bishop W. Shawn
McKnight of Jefferson City,
Missouri, agreed. “Right now
there are significant theological
obstacles that haven’t been addressed,”
he told Angelus News.
“The proposal [to ordain women
as deacons] calls the unity
of holy orders into question.
Are bishop, priest, and deacon
essentially related and continuous
grades? Or is the diaconate
something else entirely?”
It was to address such difficulties
that Francis established
his historical commission in
2016. Among its members was
Phyllis Zagano, who teaches
religion at Hofstra University
and has written several books on
the question of women in the
diaconate.
Zagano, who advocates the
sacramental ordination of women
deacons, participated in the
January event at Fordham. She said that the commission
was not tasked with making recommendations, but simply
analyzing the ancient evidence.
She said the matter is now in the hands of Francis, and
she is confident he will know the right moment to say
something about it.
It’s possible that the academic community has already
said what it can say. Dr. Zagano noted that more than 800
studies have been published on the subject in recent times.
The ancient texts are ambiguous, and the academics are
divided on their meaning.
McKnight observed: “What we have not established is
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
Catholic scholar and author Phyllis Zagano speaks during a
symposium on the history and future of women deacons Jan.
15 at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York
City. The event was hosted by the Fordham Center on Religion
and Culture.
— Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap.
whether there were ordained female deacons in the early
Church — not just in one place, but in the whole Church
— and whether ‘deacon’ meant for them what we mean by
the word today.” McKnight is the author of “Understanding
the Diaconate: Historical, Theological, and Sociological
Foundations” (Catholic University of America Press, 2018).
For Weinandy, the answer is to be found in history, but
not ancient history. “We can tell the meaning of past actions
by the actions that came later,” he told Angelus News.
“It seems to me that, if the early
Church was actually ordaining
women deacons, the practice
would have continued. As it is,
the role ceased when the need
ceased.”
McKnight acknowledged,
however, that the Church may
need a role today like the role
played by deaconesses in the
past. “Whatever the status was
for women called ‘deacons’ in
the early Church, there may
be a need for such a role today
— to provide a more effective
bridge between the shepherds
and the flock.”
No one knows the mind of
Francis. The CARA study gives
a glimpse of the mind of the
U.S. bishops. Only a third of the
bishops (33 percent) believe the
Church should authorize sacramental
ordination of women as
deacons. Only about a quarter
(27 percent) believe that the
Church will authorize the sacramental
ordination of women as
deacons.
McKnight said, in the end, that polls and pressures are
not helpful.
“There are those who want to see women ordained
deacons right now, and there are those who do not want
women to be ordained as deacons. We need to be deliberate.
We need to let the historians and theologians do their
work. Whatever the Church decides, this needs not to be
an ideological push, but a desire of the Holy Spirit.”
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor for Angelus and
the author of many books, including “The Witness of Early
Christian Women: Mothers of the Church” (2014).
14 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

Father Andrew Chung of Team Priests drives to the basket around Team Seminarians player Daniel Gonzalez.
A VICTORY FOR VOCATIONS
Team Seminarians
prevailed in a hardfought
basketball
game that pitched LA’s
future priests against
its current ones
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS
Sporting a black Team Priests jersey
with the No. 44 — a tribute to his
favorite player, former Lakers Hall
of Famer Jerry West — Bishop Joseph
V. Brennan stood out on the basketball
court at the Chaminade College Prep
gym in Chatsworth on Friday night
accepting high fives and hugs.
Yet, after his team fell short of a
second-half comeback in a 47-32 loss
to Team Seminarians before several
hundred engaged and entertained
supporters, Bishop Brennan had a
confession to make.
“I’ve been trying to get in shape for
this, but it’s probably my swan song
considering I’m turning 65 next month
and my knees are going to tell me
tomorrow how foolish this was,” he said
with a laugh, still proud of the 15-foot
jumper he made in the third quarter.
“It was fun to be a kid again with my
brother priests and wonderful to be
with the seminarians in this context of
fun and competition. It’s a wonderful
way to introduce the seminarians about
what’s best about our camaraderie and
brotherhood in the priesthood.“
Aside from promoting awareness
of vocations in the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles, the event that brought
a team of 16 priests to play against
16 seminarians from St. John’s in
Camarillo and Queen of Angels
Center in Gardena was also a
compelling and important fundraiser.
Ticket sales and other proceeds went
to support the online Avila Institute
for Spiritual Formation’s High
Calling Program (avila-institute.org/
high-calling), which facilitates initial
discernment of human, spiritual,
pastoral, and academic formation.
DIMA OTVERTCHENKO
16 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

DIMA OTVERTCHENKO
“This was really a chance to get
together in another setting, and bring
Christ wherever we go,” said Father
Mike Perucho, the associate director
of vocations who not only coordinated
the game but also hosted on-court,
fan-related contests during timeouts
and between quarters.
“It’s not just about fellowship, but
the spirit of teamwork, integrity,
perseverance, and character — all the
things that bond us together. We have
to remind the seminarians that when
they become priests, we do all we can
to support each other on and off the
court because, in the long run, we are
all teammates.”
Added Father Sam Ward, the director
of vocations for the archdiocese who
put his sense of humor to use as the
game’s public-address announcer with
a running dialogue of the action: “Not
all men may love sports, but sports
naturally bond us — this goes back
to St. John Bosco as a diocesan priest
in Turan as he brought kids together
and created the Salesian religious
order. That spirit and fellowship was a
healthy activity, and this was designed
as a huge family affair.”
The contest, streamed live on
Facebook at LAVocations and remains
available for viewing, was also an
opportunity to expand social media
awareness for vocations, as those who
wished could put their support behind
#TeamPriests or #TeamSeminarians
in the #CatholicLAHoops event.
The takeaway for the seminarians —
aside from an MVP award for Michael
Croghan, who scored a game-high 14
points — was evident.
“We look up to the priests as big
brothers, and for them to come out
and play meant a lot to us,” said
Larry Ballesteros, from St. Ignatius of
Loyola Church in LA. “Taking the
trophy home means a lot, too.”
Mike Masteller of St. Sebastian’s
Church in Santa Paula said, “Sports
is important for me for friendship and
bonding and it was great to see priests
in this game who I had met three
years ago when I first started. I love
how they made this a great event.”
Daniel Gonzalez, from Holy Family
Church in Wilmington, grew up in
Montrose as a huge Lakers and Kobe
Bryant fan. He said that as a 28-yearold
starting out in the seminary, he
has quickly felt a sense of fraternity
and bonding with other brothers.
“I think every Christian is called
to be like an athlete for Christ in a
way,” he said. “You have to practice.
You have to set time aside with
perseverance and prayer. You’re
training yourself to be a virtuous
person, trying to serve God in the
best way possible. And you can look
at God as the ultimate coach, who
guides you.”
After the game, Gonzalez autographed
a T-shirt for a 10-year-old
named Luis.
“Here’s someone who says he’s now
thinking of joining the seminary —
how beautiful it is to see this whole
community come together,” said
Gonzalez.
Scoring
summary
PRIESTS QT SEMINARIANS
7 1Q 13
3 2Q 6
12 3Q 12
10 4Q 16
32 t 47
PRIESTS (32):
Father Fidelis Omeaku, 7;
Father Uche Onyekwelu, 5;
Father Josephraj Rymond,
4; Father Andrew Chung, 4;
Father Daniel Martinez, 4;
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan,
2; Father Edward Benioff,
2; Father Joseph Choi, 2;
Father Steve Davoren, 2;
Father Matt Murphy, 0; Father
Paola Garcia, 0; Father Tim
Klosterman, 0; Father Eleuterio
Mireles, 0; Father Gerald
Osugwu, 0; Father Tim Peters,
0; Father Matt Wheeler, 0.
Team Seminarians lift the game trophy after their 47-32 win over Team Priests.
DIMA OTVERTCHENKO
SEMINARIANS (47):
Michael Croghan, 14; Kevin
Kim, 6; Michael Masteller, 5;
Justin Oh, 4: Deacon Louis
Sung, 3; Daniel Gonzalez, 3;
Larry Ballesteros, 3; Anthony
Huynh; 3; Deacon Brian
Humphrey, 2; Emilio Carbajal,
2; Jonathan Nestico, 2; Juan
C.C. Martinez, 0; Joseph Cho,
0; John Coronel, 0; Charles
Coulombe, 0; John Paul
Simon, 0.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17

From suspicion to sainthood?
Two legendary cardinals moving closer to canonization
weren’t always in the good graces of Church leaders
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. / ANGELUS
ROME — Theologically speaking, all saints are
equal. In terms of star power, however, some are
more equal than others — and on Feb. 13, the Vatican
announced that two of the most celebrated,
and also controversial,
Catholic figures
of the 19th and
20th centuries have
moved a step closer
to a halo.
A decree from the
Vatican’s Congregation
for the Causes
of Saints approved
by Pope Francis
recognized a miracle
attributed to the
intercession of Blessed
Cardinal John
Henry Newman,
which clears the way
for the canonization
of the19th-century
theologian, essayist,
and convert from
Anglicanism.
Newman was
arguably the most
influential Catholic
writer in the English
language of his day.
In the same decree,
“heroic virtue” was
attributed to Cardinal
József Mindszenty
of Hungary, who
died in 1975 after
spending eight years
in a Communist
prison and then 15
long years living Painting of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman.
as a refugee in the
American embassy in Budapest.
Mindszenty became a global icon of Catholic resistance
to communism, and embodied the suffering of the
“Church of silence” behind the Iron Curtain.
A finding that a person exhibited heroic virtue is the first
of three hurdles that must be cleared before sainthood, and
it entitles Mindszenty to be referred to as “venerable.” The
wait is now on for
one miracle for beatification
and another
for canonization,
the formal act of
declaring someone
a saint.
In terms of the
Catholic understanding
of sainthood,
canonization
is a recognition that
someone is already
in the afterlife
enjoying the beatific
vision of God. In
other words, it does
nothing for the saint
— instead it’s for the
rest of us, lifting a
particular person up
as a role model of
holiness and a new
friend in heaven.
So, what do the examples
of Newman
and Mindszenty
have to teach?
In Newman’s case,
one compelling
aspect of his life is
how he incarnated
what Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI refers
to as the symbiosis
between reason and
faith — that reason
without faith ends
in skepticism and nihilism, while faith without reason
becomes fundamentalism and extremism.
Newman’s theological output was prolific, including
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
18 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

works such as “Apologia Pro Vita Sua” (1864) and “Grammar
of Assent” (1870). Among other things, he’s known
for his concept of the development of doctrine, meaning
that the Church’s understanding of a given doctrine can
gradually develop over time.
With Mindszenty, the lesson may well be fidelity. He was
absolutely unyielding on matters of principle, inspiring
countless believers and dissidents in the Soviet sphere.
During his trial and imprisonment, Mindszenty was
subjected to torture and humiliation, drugged and forced
to listen to obscenities,
all calculated
to elicit a confession.
Eventually
Mindszenty signed
a statement of his
crimes, but he had
the presence of
mind to add the
Latin initials “c.f.”
for “coactus feci,” or
“I was forced.”
Breaking Mindszenty
turned out to
be a Pyrrhic victory
for the Hungarian
authorities, as his
story had a huge
impact on public
opinion around the
world and revealed
the repressive nature
of the Communist
state.
However, there’s
another lesson to
be gleaned from
both Newman and
Mindszenty, one
which is less about
spirituality than ecclesiastical
politics.
In a nutshell, it’s
this: How candidates
are seen by Church
authorities in their
lifetimes isn’t necessarily
the last word
about how history
will judge them.
In Newman’s case,
he was kept at arm’s
length during the
Cardinal József Mindszenty in 1962.
papacy of Pope Pius IX, in part because of his reservations
about the dogma of papal infallibility proclaimed at the
First Vatican Council (1869-1870) — not over the content
of the dogma but the fashion in which it was declared.
He later advocated minimizing the scope of the dogma,
restricting its application to just a handful of papal pronouncements.
Legendarily, Cardinal Henry Manning, a strong proponent
of the infallibility dogma, saw Newman as suspect.
The two men also differed over the role of the laity, with
Manning upholding a staunchly clericalist view of Church
life while Newman anticipated the Second Vatican
Council (1962-65) by promoting independent lay action.
Manning actually tried to block Newman’s candidacy as a
cardinal under Leo XIII, unsuccessfully.
With Mindszenty, he was allowed to leave Hungary in
1971 as part of a
deal negotiated by
aides to St. Pope
Paul VI with the
Communist authorities,
in which a 1949
excommunication
of everyone involved
in his trial imposed
by Pope Pius XII was
lifted.
Paul VI wanted
Mindszenty to resign
as the Hungarian
primate so that new
leadership could
be imposed but he
refused, and there
was no Church law
at the time requiring
bishops to submit
resignations at a
certain age. Eventually
Paul VI stripped
Mindszenty of his
title in 1973, though
he declined to name
a replacement until
after Mindszenty
died in 1975.
Both men, in other
words, were at times
seen with suspicion
by others in power.
With the benefit
of time, however,
they’re now viewed
as exemplars of a
holy life and heroes
of the Church.
Among other
things, that lesson
probably ought to inspire a bit of caution about hasty
judgments concerning today’s renegades, envelope-pushers
and dissidents. The mere fact of being in hot water right
now doesn’t necessarily mean that history will produce a
vindication, of course — but it certainly doesn’t rule it out,
either.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19

How big is your God?
Finding a new way to put your faith in God into perspective
BY GARY JANSEN / ANGELUS
Some years ago I was having a
beer with a close friend of mine
at Croxley’s Ale House, a dimly
lit local Long Island bar known
for having 50 different brews on tap. I
was worrying out loud about the fact
that I worry too much.
In response, my friend Eric, a devout
Christian who was contemplating
converting to Catholicism, suggested
that I go on a spiritual retreat. I considered
the notion. I wasn’t overly enthusiastic
about spending a weekend
cooped up in a monastery surrounded
by people I did not know and I told
my friend so.
But Eric kept pushing and spoke to
me about his past experiences, all of
which were positive. So, after we enjoyed
a couple of rounds together, he
had persuaded me to give it a shot.
Three weeks later, I found myself
at a rather musty old mansion run by
an order of Jesuits. Forty other men
and I assembled in a brightly lit room
known as the solarium, where three
walls of floor-to-ceiling windows permitted
cascades of natural sunlight to
stream into the area.
The average age of the men present
was somewhere between 55 and 60.
At the time, I was 26. Being a shy person
by nature, I sat alone in the back
of the room and waited for the leader
of the retreat, a priest whom I didn’t
know, to welcome us and deliver his
opening remarks.
After some time, an elderly priest
shuffled into the room. He was whitehaired,
tall but hunched over, and
seemingly quite frail.
Really? I thought to myself. This is
our retreat leader? This poor guy can
barely stand up. He probably can’t
even speak. Not nice thoughts, but I
had come to this place to be inspired!
I wanted to be motivated!
After what Eric had told me I had
assumed that our retreat leader would
be some kind of jacked-up, over-caffeinated
Tony Robbins type combined
with Jesus. I remember scoping out
the exit and considering whether
anyone would notice if I bolted. And
yet, I stayed.
It seemed like it took the priest 10
minutes to traverse 20 feet of floor.
When he made it to the podium, he
just stood there looking down at the
papers he was shuffling in front of
him. The priest pulled a clean, white
handkerchief from his back pocket
and dabbed it across his mouth.
I noticed that his hand was shaking,
as if he might be suffering from
early Parkinson’s disease. He did not
make eye contact with anyone in the
audience. Then, after another long
minute or so of just standing there, he
took a deep breath, straightened up
— he seemed to grow 12 inches right
in front of our eyes — and bellowed
in such a loud voice that I nearly
fell over in my chair, “HOW BIG IS
YOUR GOD?”
The priest was no longer shaking,
but I was. The solarium, once dull,
had become vibrant and alive.
“HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?” the
priest repeated. “IS GOD A SMALL,
PETTY GOD WHO GETS MAD
20 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

AND HOLDS GRUDGES? OR
IS GOD A GOD WHO IS THE
CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, A
GOD WHO ACTS BIGGER THAN
THE WAY WE DO EVERY DAY? IS
GOD A GOD OF VENGEANCE
OR IS GOD A FORGIVING GOD?
WELL? HOW BIG IS GOD? HUH?
HOW BIG IS GOD? IS GOD A HU-
MAN GOD OR A GODLY GOD?”
Now, I have to explain that at this
point the priest wasn’t actually yelling.
His voice, however, rang out with the
timbre of a giant church bell, and I
felt as if I were sitting directly under
the steeple. Everything seemed to be
vibrating. I felt something stir within
me. I’m pretty sure that all of us in
the solarium were feeling something
similar.
What was once a quiet place filled
with a bunch of sleepy old men now
was a room full of something I can
only describe as sacred fire.
The priest suggested we meditate on
these questions for the remainder of
the day and spend our time in devotion
to God. With that, he dismissed
us. We stood and the other men made
their way out of the room.
Many were speaking excitedly to
one another, as if their tongues had
just been blessed. I thought about
the Holy Spirit descending upon the
apostles. After Christ’s death, Jesus’
followers retreated to a “large, furnished
upper room” (Luke 22:12).
There they encountered the Holy
Spirit, who blessed them with tongues
of fire that seemed to hover above
their heads. Then, as indeed now, a
small multitude of men were “amazed
and astonished” (Acts 2:7).
Afterward, the apostles were able to
go forth and perform miracles. Was
this solarium, then, a modern-day
upper room? I felt a quickening of the
flame that had been lit inside me.
I walked up to the podium, where
the priest stood shuffling his papers.
I noticed that his hands were once
again shaking and he seemed to have
returned to the same stooped, shrunken
size he had been before he rang
the bells of our awakening. I asked
him a question: “How do I get closer
to God?”
“By loving God. By praising, revering,
and serving God. Focus on God’s
presence in your life,” he replied.
“But how do you do that? When I
think about God I don’t feel anything
most of the time — just nervous,” I
confessed.
“Love God,” he said. “If God is too
out of reach, then become devoted
to part of God, to his Sacred Heart,
maybe. Become devoted to something
in the name of God. Care about
something. Adore something for God.
I don’t mean make something an idol,
but love something for God the way
God loves you.”
He paused.
“Even though I just argued that our
God should be a big God, sometimes
God can be too big. If this is how
you feel, then try some simple acts
of devotion. Pray the rosary, talk to a
saint, read the Bible, meditate on a
word, read a holy card. Offer it all up
to God.”
He looked me in the eyes and once
again seemed to grow in stature. “Go
pray,” he repeated.
Something in me shifted. “I will,” I
said, and then I went off to my room
to do just that.
And I haven’t stopped since. Every
day I ask myself the same question:
How big is my God? It is my prayer in
the morning. It is my prayer at night.
I ask you to pray with me now. How
big is your God? Well, how big?
Email me at gjans5000@gmail.com
and let me know.
Gary Jansen is the author of “MicroShifts:
Transforming Your Life
One Step at a Time” and “Station to
Station: An Ignatian Journey through
the Stations of the Cross.”
SHUTTERSTOCK
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21

Bishops attend Pope Francis’
celebration of the
opening Mass of the Synod
on Young People, the Faith,
and Vocational Discernment
at the Vatican Oct. 3, 2018.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
God’s unworthy partners
How the sins of her leaders can help us
understand what the Church is really all about
BY THOMAS D. WILLIAMS / ANGELUS
The German historian Ludwig
von Pastor, in the midst
of research for his monumental
16-volume “History
of the Popes,” is famously said to have
exclaimed that any institution that
could survive such eminently unsuitable
leadership must necessarily be of
divine origin.
Throughout the 2,000-year history
of the Catholic Church, we have had
our share of bad popes, bad bishops,
and bad priests, to say nothing of the
laity.
In our own times, clerical sexual
abuse, ecclesiastical mismanagement,
and an often conspicuous lack of
inspired leadership have led many to
wonder aloud why they still affiliate
with an institution whose flaws are so
apparent. Some, indeed, have chosen
to leave, either joining other denominations
or abandoning their Christian
faith altogether.
I am convinced that this is a sad
mistake.
This topic is of more than academic
interest to me, since I am a public sinner
who has been part of the problem.
Having fathered a child while still a
priest 17 years ago, I have given my
share of scandal and have hurt countless
people, beginning with my own
22 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

family, through my bad choices.
If I am writing this essay now, it is because
I believe in redemption and the
power of God’s grace, as well as his
willingness to make use of damaged
and thoroughly inadequate instruments
to further his designs.
And where to start, if not at the beginning?
During his public ministry,
Jesus spent an entire night in prayer
with his Father before choosing his
Twelve Apostles, the first bishops and
the pillars of the Church he sought
to found. How is it that our Lord,
who knew what was in the heart of
every man, selected such manifestly
incompetent and defective men as his
closest collaborators?
St. Peter, the first pope, denied knowing
Jesus when questioned by a serving
girl. Judas, entrusted by Jesus with
the common purse, was a thief and
eventually sold his Lord and master
for 30 pieces of silver. In the garden
of Gethsemane, when the chips were
down, all the apostles turned tail and
fled, leaving Christ to face his Passion
alone.
I would suggest that, at least in part,
Christ’s choice was meant to ensure
that the Church could never claim
that her greatness stemmed from the
moral excellence of her leaders, but
only from the one who fills her with
his divine life.
Had the Church been founded pure
and untainted by human weakness
and only later been corrupted by sin
and vice, people could have reasonably
hypothesized that this was no
longer the Church that Christ had
willed. This is clearly not the case.
This is why the Church is “semper
reformanda,” always in need of
reform.
And this is why the Church ever
proclaims that “our help is in the
Lord, our God,” and why the prophet
Jeremiah insisted, “Cursed is the man
who trusts in human beings, who
makes flesh his strength. … Blessed
are those who trust in the Lord; the
Lord will be their trust” (Jeremiah
17:5, 7).
And yet, perhaps paradoxically, Jesus
loves this Church as his bride and
willed her as the universal sacrament
of salvation. He wanted to partner
with frail human beings and engage
them as co-workers in his vineyard,
making us responsible for one another
and instruments of his grace.
Catholics have always struggled with
the need to approach sinful men as
conduits of God’s grace. Why receive
the Eucharist from the hands of a
priest who is a sinner? Why confess
my sins to a man who is probably as
bad as I am, or perhaps even worse?
Already in the fourth century, a
group of North African Christians
known as Donatists argued that Christian
clergy must be faultless in order
for their ministry to be effective and
their sacraments to be valid.
This notion was resurrected again
during the Protestant Reformation
and the French Revolution in order
to discredit the clergy and weaken
the witness of the Church and her
sacraments.
Responding to the Donatists, St.
Augustine famously explained why the
sacrament of baptism retained all its
efficacy even when administered by
a sinner. “When Peter baptizes, it is
Christ who baptizes,” he said. “When
Paul baptizes, it is Christ who baptizes.
When Judas baptizes, it is Christ
who baptizes.”
Building on Augustine’s teaching,
the Church proclaims one of the most
consoling principles in her doctrinal
toolkit under the title “ex opere
operato,” meaning that the sacraments
do not derive their power from the
holiness of the minister, but from the
holiness of Christ who instituted them
and continues to act in his Church.
This does not mean that the holiness
of priests is irrelevant — it can and
does affect the fruitfulness of their
ministry. It does, however, assure the
faithful that whenever they approach
the sacraments in good faith, Christ
guarantees their effectiveness.
None of this should suggest that real,
personal holiness is lacking in the
Church, either, and this fact should
comfort us as well. In the age of the
internet, we learn of bad news immediately
and insistently, and it can seem
overwhelming.
But what of the hundreds and thousands
of holy priests, bishops, religious
sisters, and lay people who humbly
go about their lives in relative silence,
never making the front pages of the
news? Faithful people doing their job
well don’t make the news, but they
do contribute to the sanctity of the
Church, building her up day by day
in holiness.
Great saints often arise when and
where we would least expect them.
Some of the most notable sainted
bishops, for example, came to the fore
during pontificates that were not particularly
stellar, such as the case of St.
Athanasius, St. Ambrose, St. Charles
Borromeo, and St. Robert Bellarmine,
to name just a few.
When effective Church leadership
is lacking, holy priests, religious, and
lay people often pick up the slack,
rallying the faithful and providing the
“Catholics have always struggled with the need to
approach sinful men as conduits of God’s grace.”
example and motivations necessary to
push forward and renew the Church’s
evangelizing mission. The Holy Spirit
is ever active, busy wherever we turn.
For those of us who have been
delinquent in our duties, theological
hope springs eternal as well. As Jesus
foretold Peter of his approaching denials,
he also offered him the hope of
redemption and future fruitfulness.
“Simon, Satan, you must know, has
got his wish to sift you all like wheat,
but I have prayed for you, Simon, and
when you have recovered, you in turn
must strengthen your brethren” (Luke
22:31-32). It was as if our Lord were
saying to Peter: “You have been part of
the problem, now you must become
part of the solution.”
That’s a message all of us need to
hear.
Thomas D. Williams is an American
theologian living in Rome, and author
of 15 books, including “The Sacred
Heart for Lent: Daily Meditations”
and “Who Is My Neighbor? Personalism
and the Foundations of Human
Rights.”
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 23

INTERSECTIONS
BY GREG ERLANDSON
When our eyes deceive us
SHUTTERSTOCK
Some “fake news” from the
earliest days of the cinema
recounted that when the first
motion pictures were shown of
a train heading toward the camera, the
viewers panicked and fled the theater,
thinking it was a real train heading
toward them.
This story has been debunked long
ago. For one thing, those first moving
images were pretty lousy and in black
and white. That the story was found to
be believable may have been because
it made a lot of people feel like they
were much more sophisticated than
that apparently naïve audience.
Alas, to paraphrase Pogo, we have
met the real naïfs, and they are us.
Social media is making us all look
like turn-of-the-century rubes. We are
still falling for moving pictures, but
they are on social media now. We get
suckered in by fake news sites. We fire
off opinions thinking we know all the
facts because we saw a video or read a
news clip.
There are a million examples of this,
maybe a whole election’s worth. But
it’s not just Democrats in Georgia
or Republicans in Florida who are
falling for this stuff. A lot of Catholics
got snookered a month ago and it has
some lessons for us we would do well
to pay attention to.
A video posted on Instagram and
then tweeted by the @2020fight
account appeared to show some
Catholic kids behaving badly.
The video, taken after the March
for Life last Jan. 18, featured a group
of white students from Covington
Catholic High School in Kentucky
who had attended the march in
Washington, D.C. They were filmed
wearing MAGA hats and apparently
confronting a Native American beat-
ing a drum.
The outrage flowed like lava. Criticisms
and disavowals, followed by
hateful messages and death threats.
Their school back in Kentucky canceled
classes as demonstrators gathered
outside. It also issued a statement
condemning the students’ actions and
apologizing to the drummer, Nathan
Phillips. The president of the March
for Life and some Church leaders
criticized the students as well.
Twenty-four hours later, which is a
lifetime in Twitter years, a different
picture emerged.
Different moving pictures, in fact.
There was another group called the
Black Hebrew Israelites, a cockamamie
collection of folks claiming
that African-Americans are the true
Hebrew descendants.
A few of these people had been
yelling hateful and vile things at
the kids. In a television interview,
Phillips himself compared them to
the Westboro Baptists, a disreputable
group that protests at the funerals of
military veterans and most recently
outside Thousand Oaks High School,
claiming that God hates gays and is
punishing America for its tolerance of
homosexuality.
In other words, pretty scary stuff
for a bunch of kids from Kentucky.
How Phillips ended up in the
middle of these two groups is
debatable, but what is clear is
that the situation was a lot more
complicated than that first
video suggested.
Within three days, Twitter suspended
the original account that
had posted the video for violating its
policy against “fake and misleading
24 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

accounts.” While no one is sure who
was behind it, it apparently had a reputation
for inflammatory and divisive
posts.
There is much about the incident
that may be further explained in
the investigations that have been
launched, as well as the possible
lawsuits, but this much is clear: Once
again we were duped.
Like a primitive tribe in awe at the
magic of a radio, we are entranced by
what streams across our screens. And
we respond as if everything we see
and read is true and demands some
immediate comment.
Jaron Lanier, in his provocative book
“Ten Arguments for Deleting Your
Social Media Accounts Right Now,”
argues that “social media is undermining
truth.” He blames the very conscious
and deliberate manipulation
of human beings by tech companies,
and the almost Pavlovian response
they engender in us.
John Green, the renowned young
adult author and vlogger recently announced
he is giving up social media
for a year, explaining that in effect social
media was controlling him rather
than the other way around.
His conclusion, however, is sobering:
“The internet is not ultimately the
problem. My internet is the problem.
For my internet to change, I need to
change.” In other words, the fault is
not in the stars, but in ourselves.
Pope Francis has been warning
Catholics about fake news and the
abuse of social media.
It might be time for the Church to
respond to the pope by taking the subject
of social media education more
seriously and systematically. For what
the Covington High School event
showed is that there are people who
seek to divide us, and it isn’t hard. Our
own fragmentation and distrust of one
another, in fact, makes it pretty easy.
The poisonous reflexes of social
media are a new temptation that we
have to confront, but the anger, envy,
and hatred they inspire are very old
sins indeed.
Greg Erlandson is the president
and editor-in-chief of Catholic News
Service.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25

INSIDE
THE PAGES
By KRIS MCGREGOR
Climbing the ladder to God
A monk makes the Benedictine
Rule accessible for kids facing the
challenges of today’s world
disclosure: I don’t
believe in self-esteem,”
says Father Augustine
“Full
Wetta, a monk of
St. Louis Abbey. As the director of
chaplaincy at St. Louis Priory School,
where he also teaches and coaches
rugby, Wetta sees a lot of teens whose
heads have been filled with cliches
designed to build self-esteem, such
as “Follow your dreams” and “You’re
perfect just the way you are.”
“This sort of empty nonsense is likely
to turn our teenagers into empty-headed
narcissists rather than self-confident
achievers,” Wetta said. In his
book “Humility Rules: St. Benedict’s
Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine
Self-Esteem” (Ignatius Press, $15),
he’s out to set things straight for kids
who are trying to live the Gospel.
Kris McGregor: This book wouldn’t
be Benedictine if it didn’t have illuminated
manuscripts, but you put a
particular spin on each picture.
Father Augustine Wetta: My mother
is kind of a famous artist, so if there
were bad art in the book, I’d never
live it down. One of the kids taught
me how to use Photoshop, so I went
through old manuscripts and illustrations
and Photoshopped little skateboards
and iPods into the pictures to
make it a little more accessible.
IMAGES VIA AUGUSTINEWETTA.COM
McGregor: Why is humility so
important?
Father Wetta: We live in such a
tumultuous world, and it seems more
and more aggressive and outrageous
by the day. But if you’re grounded, if
you know who you are, it’s rather easy
to encounter that world.
I teach a junior class on sexual ethics,
and on the last day, they asked me
why I taught it, because the class is
rough sometimes. But I told them the
image I had: The Church is like this
26 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

mountain, and the kids are all flying
around in this kind of tornado of
influences, and I feel sometimes like
I’ve got one hand on the mountain,
and I’m trying to grab kids and pull
them in. That’s what it’s all about,
finding that rock — the Rock.
McGregor: Can you explain the
steps up the ladder that you use in
your book?
Father Wetta: St. Benedict talks
about his rule
as a “little rule
for beginners.”
Originally, my
book was written
for kids, but it’s
had even more
success with
adults.
The ladder
itself, Benedict
says, is the same
ladder they talk
about the angels
ascending and
descending. He
says that the
higher you climb
on this ladder,
the lower you
get. Each step is
a way of littling
yourself, but also
getting higher
and closer to
God.
If you listen to some of the saints,
like Teresa of Ávila, she talks about
how awful she is, and you think —
No, you’re not, you’re a saint! But the
closer you get to God, the less holy
you feel.
McGregor: At the beginning of the
book, you have a rung about having
a fear of God. Not just for teens, but
their parents and everyone in the
world, there’s a great fear. You can’t
even go to school now and not be
afraid. When we hear the term “fear
of God,” can we connect it with that
kind of fear?
Father Wetta: It’s not as though God
is out to get us. He’s not sitting in
heaven, ready to hit that smite button.
I don’t think being afraid of God is
the goal, or even a high step. But it’s
somewhere to start. Hell is what we
fear, or God’s justice.
One of the old monks told me, if
you don’t know where you’re going, at
least it helps to know where you want
to avoid. So that fear of hell or fear of
judgment is a good start. The goal is a
perfect love that drives out fear.
McGregor: What about the rung of
self-denial? That’s so countercultural,
because the world’s goal is to be able
to get as much as
you want.
Father Wetta:
We love to follow
the rules so long
as they don’t
really challenge
us. But self-denial
is what keeps
us grounded.
It frees us from
being slaves to
our appetites.
My friend had
an opportunity
to be a famous
artist. She was
friends with
Andy Warhol,
and part of his
scene, and she
left it to teach
herself how to
draw again. As a
result, her career
kind of tanked
for a while, but she said — and I’ve
carried this with me all my life — “I
would have been a fool to sacrifice joy
for the sake of fun.”
McGregor: Near the top of the
ladder is prudence, and that’s discernment
too, isn’t it? It’s knowing that
just because you can doesn’t mean
you should.
Father Wetta: I think we’re becoming
perpetual teenagers: Let’s break
the rules and see what happens. I tell
my students if you want to really be
rebellious, if you want to go against
the tide and cause a stir, be obedient.
Tell people you’re Catholic. Do what
your religion dictates.
Kris McGregor is the founder of Discerninghearts.com.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 27

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
‘In favor of the boundless whole’
Cold comfort in the
beauty and asceticism
of a California poet
who craved isolation
Hawk Tower, Carmel, California, in 2008.
In his day, Robinson Jeffers (1887-
1962) was one of the nation’s
best-loved poets.
He was known mainly for his
epic Greek-style poems, modern-day
tragedies based on California’s central
coast.
He toiled in obscurity, then hit it big
around the age of 37, when “Tamar
and Other Poems” became a best-seller.
Six years later, he was on the cover
of Time.
He and his wife, Una, came to
Carmel in 1914. After their twin sons
were born in 1916, they bought land
on an isolated, wind-swept promontory.
There were no paved roads, no
trees, no neighbors.
Jeffers began hauling stones up the
hill from the beach by hand. With no
written plans and no formal training
in architecture or construction, he
built an English garden-style cottage
(later expanded) and, from 1920-1924,
an adjacent tower of granite.
Tor House he called it, “tor” being a
Celtic word meaning “outcropping of
rock.”
Today you can take a docent-led
tour of Tor House and Hawk Tower
on Fridays or Saturdays, reservations
required.
Here, you can learn all about the
Jeffers’ backstory, which began with a
scandal (Una was married when they
met; her ex-husband, an LA lawyer,
CELESTE DAVISON/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
28 • ANGELUS • February 22, 2019

ended up building his own stone
house right down the street).
Neither of the Jeffers were “religious,”
but rather “spiritual.” Una, for
example, was drawn to unicorns. Wikipedia
notes that Jeffers’ philosophy of
“inhumanism” was based on the belief
that “transcending conflict required
human concerns to be de-emphasized
in favor of the boundless
whole.”
The front garden sets
the tone. Friends brought
“items of interest” from
all over the world, and
the Jeffers incorporated
them into the house and
grounds. A slab of granite
from the underside of the
officers’ billiard table at
Fort Ord has been fashioned
into a bench.
A child’s grave marker,
stones from Una’s family
farm in Michigan, and
shards of green glazed
tile from the Temple of
Heaven in Beijing are set
into pathways, walls, and
cornices.
Inside, all the furniture
and fixtures are original.
The Jeffers were hardy
folk. For years, the living
room — Oriental rugs,
wood floors, Steinway
piano — was also the
dining room. Its smallish
fireplace sufficed to heat
the whole house. The
place didn’t have electricity
until 1948.
They were also, mostly by necessity,
frugal. The guest room, directly off the
living room, is small. The windows
overlook the ocean. Guests shared the
one bathroom with the Jeffers.
The kitchen, featuring a spinning
wheel that belonged to Una’s mother,
was added in 1935. Even so, Una
cooked on a propane stove. The stone
walls and clay-tiled floor exuded
a penetrating cold and damp on a
January day.
Jeffers wrote each morning from nine
till noon. (What eventually became
the family’s upstairs living quarters,
Robinson Jeffers in 1937.
with his workspace and desk, are
off-limits to visitors).Then he took
lunch and did hard physical labor for
several hours.
I consider myself fairly spry, but
climbing the stone steps to Hawk Tower
I practically had to hoist my legs by
hand from step to high, winding step.
The view and the Old World, handcrafted
space were worth it.
Una had a tiny aerie, high above,
where she could remove herself from
the fray, have tea with her girlfriends,
and no doubt give thanks for such an
artistically creative spouse.
Around 1948 Una got sick. They
moved her to the downstairs bedroom,
where she died in 1950. Jeffers never
slept upstairs again.
He, too, died in the guest-room
bed, a conscious choice. Thirty years
before, he’d written “The Bed by the
Window.”
The poem begins:
“I chose the bed downstairs by the
sea-window for a good death-bed
When we built the house, it is ready
waiting,
Unused unless by some guest in a
twelvemonth, who hardly suspects
Its latter purpose.”
I tremendously admire Jeffers’ asceticism,
tireless labor, and
love for solitude, beauty,
and the land. And yet,
the whole left me a little
cold.
He once said he’d
rather kill a man than a
hawk. And though anyone
who’s ever, say, contended
with LA traffic
knows what he means,
there is a chill, a mania
for control at the center
of his life and work that
perhaps prevented him
from becoming a truly
great poet.
His work fell out of
favor in the early ’50s,
when personal, confessional
poetry became
popular.
And his splendid
CARL VAN VECHTEN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
isolation was not to last.
He was purportedly
crushed when in 1951
the showpiece “Butterfly
House” — all steel and
glass — was built just
below Hawk Tower. Multimillion-dollar
homes,
in a jumble of styles, sit
cheek-by-jowl now, all
the way up Ocean View Avenue.
He’d turn over in his grave if he
could take a stroll through downtown
Carmel, lousy with boutiques hawking
makeup and jewelry, high-end
restaurants, and dogs whose monthly
grooming bill would probably have
kept the Jeffers in food for a year.
Still, the house and tower stand,
monuments to the indomitable
spirit of this giant of a man. “[T]he
heart-breaking beauty [of nature] will
remain,” he wrote, “when there is no
heart to break for it.”
Oh — but there always will be.
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.
February 22, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29