Angelus News | March 15, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 10

ANGELUS
CALLED TO SERVE
Meet Bishop-elect Alex Aclan
March 15, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 10

ON THE COVER
Bishop-elect Alex Aclan faces the cameras at a March 5 news
conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, where he was
introduced as the newest auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles. On page 10, “Father Alex” opens up about his unusual path
to the priesthood and reflects on how his Filipino roots prepared him
for this latest chapter in his ministry. On page 14, Bishop Joseph V.
Brennan sits down with Angelus editor Pablo Kay as he looks forward
to his latest assignment as the new bishop of the Diocese of Fresno.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
IMAGE: Grandmother Julie Marquez
holds her granddaughter Emma
Alarcon following Ash Wednesday
Mass at the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels March 6.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
B • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

Contents
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation and Local News 4-6
LA Catholic Events 7
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
Carpinteria youth make a clinical journey to Panama 18
Inés San Martín digs into the pope’s devotion to Saint Joseph 22
Grazie Christie: Making divine sense out of Ash Wednesday 24
How “Captain Marvel” film ignores heroine’s greatest strengths 26
Heather King: A glimpse of old-school stardom at the Paley Center 28
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 1

ANGELUS
March 15, 2019 | Vol.4 • No. 10
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2 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019
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POPE WATCH
Blessed certainty
At a time of mounting anti-Christian
persecution around the world, Pope
Francis celebrated on March 10 the
memory of nine seminarians killed
during the Spanish Civil War in the
1930s by revolutionary miners who had
occupied the city of Oviedo, Spain.
Francis noted that Angelo Cuartas
Cristóbal and eight other seminarians
were beatified (the final step before
sainthood) that same day in Orvieto,
which entitles them to be referred to as
“blessed.”
“These young aspirants to the
priesthood loved the Lord to the point
of following him on the path of the
cross,” the pope said. “May their heroic
testimony help seminarians, priests,
and bishops to remain limpid and
generous, in order to faithfully serve
the Lord and the people of God.”
Francis recognized Cuartas and his
companions as martyrs killed in “odium
fidei,” meaning “in hatred of the
faith,” in November 2018. Cuartas was
killed in 1934, the others in 1936-37.
A sainthood cause for the seminarians
was introduced in 1993.
Francis’ remarks came during his
regular noontime Angelus address on
Sunday, March 3.
Since his election to the papacy
almost six years ago, Francis has
commented frequently on the “new
martyrs,” noting that more Christians
are killed today for their faith than in
the early centuries of the Church.
Meeting with members of the Equestrian
Order of the Holy Sepulchre
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FOLLOW US
of Jerusalem in November 2018, the
pope said that “the tragic situations
of Christians who are persecuted and
killed in ever-increasing numbers”
is plain to see, even if the world “too
often turns and looks away.”
Christians face not only “martyrdom
in blood” in countries where they are
persecuted and killed for the faith, he
said, but also a “white martyrdom” in
democratic countries that try more
subtly to stifle religious freedom and
expression.
Earlier in his Angelus address, Francis
reflected on Sunday’s Gospel reading
describing the temptations of Jesus in
the desert. The pope said they “indicate
the three paths that the world
always proposes, promising great success,
three paths that deceive us”: greed
for possessions, human glory, and the
“instrumentalization of God.”
“These are the paths put in front of us,
with the illusion of being able to obtain
success and happiness,” Francis said.
“But, in reality, they’re extraneous
to God’s way of acting; indeed, they
separate us from God, because they’re
works of Satan,” the pope said.
The remedies that Jesus indicates to
us to fight these temptations, Francis
said, are “interior life, faith in God,
and the certainty of his love, that God
loves us as a father.
“With that certainty we can overcome
any trial,” he said.
Courtesy John L. Allen Jr., editor of
Crux.
Papal Prayer Intentions for March: That Christian communities, especially those
who are persecuted, feel that they are close to Christ and have their rights respected.
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News

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Mercy for the merciful
In these columns during Lent, we
are trying to return to the Gospels,
praying to be transformed into the
person we meet in those pages.
Through our prayer and reading, we
want to reflect on important aspects
of our Lord’s human personality and
how we can grow in our likeness to
him. Last week we looked at Jesus’ humility
of heart. This week we reflect
on his tender mercies and kindness to
those who have fallen.
Always, there is a transparency in
Jesus, his words and actions revealing
the depths of his heart.
We remember his gentle affection for
the woman, presumably a prostitute,
who bathed his feet with her tears of
repentance while he was at dinner in
the home of a Pharisee.
He did not push sinners away or set
up litmus tests or preconditions they
had to meet. He called to them, often
by name. Sinners came to be near
him and to hear him. And the righteous
were scandalized.
Criticized by the Pharisees and
scribes, Jesus explained himself in
parables. He tells three in a row in
chapter 15 of St. Luke’s Gospel.
A man goes out after his lost sheep
and brings it back on his shoulder. A
woman lights a lamp and searches her
dark house until she finds a lost coin.
A father sees his lost son when he is
still far off and runs out to embrace
him.
When they find what is lost, all three
celebrate with a great feast. This is a
sign of God’s joy in heaven when sinners
repent and return to him, Jesus
explains.
To be a follower of Jesus, we must
imitate his mercy and forgiveness:
“Be merciful, even as your Father is
merciful.”
There are no excuses or exceptions
to this command. If we do not show
mercy, God will not show us mercy. If
we do not forgive others, God will not
forgive us. These are the terms of our
salvation.
This principle is so important that
Jesus makes it part of the prayer that
identifies us as Christians. Every time
we pray, we promise to forgive others
as we ask God to forgive us.
Often today we see a different spirit
at work in our society, and even in
the Church. We seem to be losing
the quality of mercy, along with any
inclination to distinguish sinners from
their sins.
In every corner, we see outrage and
condemnation, people holding their
adversaries in contempt — as if they
could never be worthy of a second
chance, as if they could never be
redeemed or find pardon.
In the face of grave sins, injustices,
and crimes, this way of thinking is
understandable. But it is not the mind
of Christ.
Jesus never excused anyone’s sins.
The Samaritan woman cannot receive
the water that Jesus promises unless
she first confesses her sins. Jesus tells
the woman caught in adultery, “Neither
do I condemn you, go and do not
sin again.”
And Jesus never asks us to pretend
that the sins of others do not do real
damage.
When he tells us, “Judge not, that
you be not judged,” he is not preaching
moral relativism or indifference.
He is not telling us we should excuse
injustice or tolerate what should never
be tolerated.
He is telling us that it is not for us to
decide who is deserving of mercy.
And we cannot justify ourselves by
pointing out that those we condemn
are worse sinners than we are.
The prayer of the Pharisee — “God,
I thank thee that I am not like others,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or
even like this tax collector” — is not a
prayer at all.
The only honest prayer any of us can
make is this: “God, be merciful to me
a sinner!”
In being merciful, Jesus is being
true to who he is. In calling us to be
merciful, he is asking us to be honest
about who we are.
We are called to be witnesses and
apostles, not judges. In showing mercy
to others, we bear witness to God’s
mercy in our own lives, to the forgiveness
he has shown to us.
We have been bought with a price.
Out of love, Jesus paid in blood for
you and for me. And he died on the
cross for even the most horrible sinner.
He loved all of us while we were
still “enemies.” On the cross he was
praying for us: “Father, forgive them.”
Jesus calls us to forgive as we have
been forgiven. Not seven times, but
seventy times seven times. In other
words, every time. And we cannot be
stingy or grudging in our mercy. The
measure we give is the measure we
will get back.
As we continue in this Lenten season,
keep praying for me, and I will
keep praying for you.
And let us ask our Blessed Mother
Mary to help us to grow in mercy, that
we may become more and more like
her Son.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD Pius XII archives to open in 2012
CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
French cardinal found
guilty of abuse cover-up
The archbishop of Lyon, France, will present his
resignation to Pope Francis after being found guilty by
a French court of withholding credible accusations of
sex abuse from authorities.
The court sentenced 68-year-old Cardinal Philippe
Barbarin to a suspended six-month prison sentence,
ruling that Barbarin had chosen to “preserve the
institution to which he belongs, not to transmit them
to justice.” Barbarin’s legal team plans to appeal the
March 7 ruling.
The verdict and sentence were surprising to both
parties to the dispute, not only because the statute of
limitations had expired on his crime, but also because
five other archdiocesan officials who had appeared in
court before Barbarin were acquitted.
The case involved Father Bernard Preynat, who was
banned from leading Boy Scout groups in the ’90s
amid abuse accusations, but continued to carry out
other priestly functions. Barbarin has admitted that his
response to Preynat’s accusations was poor, but denied
withholding information when Preynat was in court in
2015.
Clockwise from upper left: CRS
workers Sintayehu Aymeku, Sara
Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu and
Mulusew Alemu.
Africa: CRS
staff killed in
plane crash
Four Catholic Relief
Services (CRS) workers
were among those
killed in a plane crash
in Africa March 10.
According to CRS,
Getnet Alemayehu,
Mulusew Alemu,
Sintayehu Aymeku,
and Sara Chalachew
worked in various
administrative positions for CRS.
All 157 passengers aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight
en route to Nairobi were killed when the brand-new
Boeing 737 MAX crashed minutes after taking off from
Addis Ababa. The cause of the crash in under investigation.
Also killed in the crash were 19 members of U.N.
staff agencies and Cedric Asiavugwa, a third-year law
student at Georgetown University and campus minister.
Pope Francis announced
on March
4 that the portions
of the Vatican
Secret Archives
covering World War
II-era Pope Pius XII
would be open to
scholars by 2020.
Stating that the
“Church isn’t
afraid of history,”
Francis’ decision
comes at a time
when many Jews
still have lingering
questions concerning
the 260th pope’s
reaction to the
Holocaust.
United States Holocaust
Memorial
Museum Director
Sara J. Bloomfield
called the decision
“important for the Pope Pius XII in 1949.
sake of historical
truth,” but said “there is moral urgency too: we owe
this to the survivor generation, which is rapidly diminishing.”
Pope Pius has historically been the subject of controversy
between Jews and Catholics, as Catholics often
tout his “secret diplomacy” and ties to the German resistance
as signs that the pope was covertly attempting
to undermine the Holocaust, while some Jews claim
the underground nature of his work was more a sign of
apathy than action.
UK launches age verification
for online porn solicitation
Websites who try to solicit pornography to UK minors
will face a hefty penalty beginning next month.
The UK’s Digital Minister Matt Hancock signed an
order that will mandate an “age wall” around internet
pornography in the country. Sites that fail to comply
can be subject to fines or could face blockage from
internet service providers.
The law prevents minors from viewing pornography
by requiring adult sites to redirect to a security page
upon access. Information from a driver’s license, passport,
or credit card will need to be entered in order to
pass onward to the site.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO
4 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

NATION
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY SHEMITZ
Poll: Catholics drink more
alcohol than Protestants
In the long run, the Protestant Reformation may have
resulted in more than just doctrinal differences.
According to a Pew Research Center survey that
polled drinking among different religious affiliations,
Catholics turned out to be about 10 percent more
likely than Protestants to have drunk alcohol in the
past 30 days, with Catholics weighing in at 60 percent
and Protestants 51 percent.
The poll did reveal that there are variations between
Protestant denominations, however, with white mainline
Protestants outpacing their black counterparts
on regular alcohol consumption by 66 percent to 48
percent.
But both Catholics and Protestants were outstripped
by Atheists and Agnostics, of whom 62 percent and 76
percent respectively had downed an alcoholic beverage
in the past 30 days.
A ‘higher purpose’ in Archbishop
Sheen’s beatification battle?
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s tomb in the
crypt of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The Diocese
of Peoria
appears to have
regained the
upper hand in
its dispute with
the Archdiocese
of New
York regarding
the final
resting place
of Archbishop
Fulton J.
Sheen.
A New York
appellate court
tossed out the Archdiocese of New York’s most recent
appeal of the case, calling its reasons for keeping
Sheen’s body “unavailing.”
Sheen wrote in his final will that he wanted to be
buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but the Peoria Diocese
has cited that beatification, the next step in the
sainthood process for Sheen, must take place in the
diocese where their sainthood effort began.
The court agreed with that reasoning, saying that
“...Archbishop Sheen lived with an even higher intent
and purpose in mind, namely to attain heaven and, if
at all possible, sainthood.”
Bishops
Bransfield,
Bennett
restricted
from ministry
Following a
Vatican-mandated
investigation, Archbishop
William
E. Lori of Baltimore
announced
restrictions on the
ministry of the
former bishop of
the neighboring Bishop Michael J. Bransfield in 2017.
Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.
The Vatican had announced Bishop Michael J.
Bransfield’s retirement from the diocese last September,
and Pope Francis appointed Lori as apostolic
administrator, with a mandate to investigate the
allegations of sexual and financial impropriety against
the bishop.
In addition to restrictions on Bransfield, Lori also
announced that Bishop Gordon D. Bennett had been
prohibited from exercising “any priestly or episcopal
ministry” in his archdiocese, citing a credible allegation
of sexual harassment of a young adult.
Bennett had served as auxiliary bishop of Baltimore
from 1998 to 2004, when he was appointed bishop of
Mandeville, Jamaica. In 2006, he resigned from that
post for “health reasons” at the age of 60.
Bennett has been in residence at Loyola Marymount
University for several years since his retirement, and
previously served at Loyola High School, a Jesuit-run
private Catholic school in Los Angeles.
In a March 11 statement, the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles said it was informed of an allegation of sexual
harassment involving a young adult from Baltimore
that was alleged to have taken place in 2004. At that
time, the allegation was investigated by the Jesuits and
the Vatican advised the archdiocese that Bennett could
continue to serve in “limited ministry,” the archdiocese
said.
“In fall of 2018, after an overall review of allegations
of misconduct against clergy in the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles, the Archdiocese and the Jesuits asked Bishop
Bennett to no longer minister in the Archdiocese,” the
archdiocese said. “Recently, the Congregation of Bishops
in Rome determined that Bishop Bennett should
not continue to exercise episcopal ministry.”
In a separate statement, the Jesuits West Province said
that Bennett is currently undergoing cancer treatment
and “his current priority is caring for his health.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/COLLEEN ROWAN, THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
Election season in LA
St. Timothy’s wins
big at decathlon
St. Timothy School’s academic
decathlon team won first place at
the Annual Junior High Academic
Decathlon on March 3, paving
the way to represent the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles in the state
competition in San Francisco on
April 6, 2019.
The West LA parochial school’s
students earned the top honors
while competing against about
100 Catholic schools from the
counties of Los Angeles, Ventura,
and Santa Barbara.
“Their ability to focus, work together
and collaborate as a group
has been key to their success,”
said St. Timothy principal Mrs.
Lena Randle. “They have lifted
each other up and truly embody
a team spirit. I could not be more
proud of them, both as decathletes
and as kind and humble
people.”
This will be the school’s first
time going to the state competition.
Archbishop Gomez prays with catechumens and their godparents March 10.
More than 1,500 catechumens participated in the Rite of Election ceremony
at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels March 10.
The ceremony was presided by Archbishop José H. Gomez, who assured
them of his prayers during the season of Lent.
“We are walking with you on this journey of Lent, as we seek to purify ourselves
through prayer and fasting and almsgiving,” said Archbishop Gomez.
The rite is the final step in the catechumenate leading up to baptism for
the 786 adults and 774 children who will officially be welcomed into the
Catholic Church when they are baptized at this year’s Easter Vigil in their
respective parishes across the archdiocese.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
A DOMINICAN
DOCTORATE —
Auxiliary Bishop
Robert E. Barron
of Los Angeles receives
an honorary
doctorate March 7
at Rome’s Pontifical
University of St.
Thomas Aquinas.
Immediately
afterward, Barron
delivered a lecture
to students and
faculty on “divine
generosity” (the
self-giving love from
God that asks for
nothing in return)
and the importance
of preaching the
Gospel in times of
crisis.
FATHER DOMINIK MACAK, COURTESY OF THE PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
6 • ANGELUS • March 15, 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.
Throughout Lent and Easter, artist and retreatant
Jesus Adelaida Delgado will be leading prayers,
meditation, and contemplation at St. Anthony’s
Chapel, 2511 S. C St., Oxnard. For more information,
email ladelaida65@gmail.com.
Fri., March 15
St. Clare’s Lenten Fish Fry. 19606 Calla Way,
Canyon Country, 4:30-8 p.m. Beer-battered Alaskan
cod, coleslaw, choice of fries, rice pilaf, or beans.
Fish tacos available. Dine in or take out. Cost:
$10/2-piece dinner, $11/3-piece. Call 661-252-
3353 or visit www.st-clare.org.
Sat., March 16
Children’s Liturgy of the Word Team Foundation.
Old Mission Santa Ines, 1760 Mission Dr., Solvang,
8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Cost: $15/person. Register at
http://store.la-archdiocese.org/childrens-liturgy-ofthe-word-31619.
Make Room! Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 5300
Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Led by Sue Ballotti and Ellen Mintz, the retreat will
teach you to listen to your own heart to find the
way to peace and affirmation. Cost: $55/person and
includes lunch. Call Marlene Velazquez at 310-377-
4867, ext. 234.
Foster Care and Adopt Information Meeting.
Children’s Bureau’s Magnolia Place, 1910 Magnolia
Ave., Los Angeles, or Children’s Bureau, 27200
Tourney Rd., Ste. 175, Valencia, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Discover if you have the willingness, ability and
resources to take on the challenge of helping a child
in need. RSVP or learn more at 213-342-0162 or
toll free at 800-730-3933, or email RFrecruitment@
all4kids.org.
Knights of Columbus Irish Hooley. Holy Trinity
Church auditorium, 209 N. Hanford Ave., San
Pedro, 5:30 p.m. Traditional Irish dinner, music, and
dancing. Cost: $30/person. Proceeds benefit Knights
of Columbus. To purchase, call Tony Tamalunas at
310-977-6285.
The Shack-A Cinematic Lenten Retreat. Pauline
Books & Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City,
9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Led by Sister Nancy Usselmann.
Retreatants will be led on a journey inward
using the film “The Shack” as well as scriptural
reflections, sharing, and prayer. This retreat offers
the opportunity to consider the transforming power
of grace at work even amid the pain and suffering of
life. Mass available at 4 p.m. Donation: $30/person
and includes lunch. To RSVP call 310-397-8676 or
email culvercity@paulinemedia.com.
Teen Conference “Created to Love.” St Louis of
France Church parish hall, 13935 Temple Ave.,
La Puente, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Conference open
to 12-18-year-olds, promoting purity among
teens. Donation: $12/$15/person at the door. For
information, call Josie at 562-417-6612 or email
Josefina5513@gmail.com.
Sun., March 17
3rd Annual Walk-a-Mile (or More) in Her Shoes
Walkathon. Doheny Campus of Mount St. Mary’s
University, 9 a.m. Event promotes wellness and
awareness of homelessness, poverty, and economic
injustice. Everyone is encouraged to register, start a
team, create a fundraising goal and invite friends,
family, and even strangers to sponsor your campaign.
Cost: $20/person, $10/students. Email Madison Craig
at madison@alexandriahouse.org or call 213-381-
2649.
Mon., March 18
St. Padre Pio Healing Mass. St. Anne Church, 340
10th St., Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Presider: Father Al Scott.
Call 562-537-4526.
Healing Mass. St. Linus Church, 13915 Shoemaker
Ave., Norwalk, 7:30 p.m. Presider: Father Stephen
Viblanc. Call 562-921-6649.
Tues., March 19
“Enjoying a Brain Healthy Lifestyle” Alzheimer’s
Disease and Brain Health Workshop. St. Vibiana,
926 S. Detroit St., Los Angeles, 7 p.m. Presenter:
Dr. Cordula Dick-Muehlke, 2011’s Dementia Care
Professional of the Year by the Alzheimer’s Foundation
of America. She will discuss what Alzheimer’s is, risk
factors for the disease, strategies to reduce your risk
and conclude with the opportunity for questions.
Call the parish office at 323-930-5976 for more
information.
Secular Franciscan “Come and See” Invitation.
Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 435 N. Berkeley
Ave., Claremont, 7-8:30 p.m. If you are interested
in learning about becoming a Secular Franciscan
and following the Gospel like St. Francis of Assisi,
plan on attending. To RSVP or for more information,
call Claudia Thompson at 909-576-5632 or Myrna
Kildare 909-518-9628.
Wed., March 20
Clearing Outstanding Tickets and Warrants: Free
Legal Clinic for Veterans. Bob Hope Patriotic Hall,
1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Self-help workshop, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Volunteer
attorneys will be available to provide one-on-one
assistance and consultation. RSVP required. Call
213-896-6537 or visit lacba.org/veterans.
Fri., March 22
St. Clare’s Lenten Fish Fry. 19606 Calla Way, Canyon
Country, 4:30-8 p.m. Beer-battered Alaskan cod,
coleslaw, choice of fries, rice pilaf, or beans. Fish
tacos available. Dine in or take out. Cost: $10/2-piece
dinner, $11/3-piece. Call 661-252-3353 or visit
www.st-clare.org.
2019 Southern California Regional National
Catholic High School Choral Festival. Our Savior
Church, University of Southern California, 844 West
Trinity St., Los Angeles. Morning session, 9 a.m.-12
p.m.; afternoon session, 1-4 p.m. Melanie Malinka,
guest clinician. Visit the AFPC website at www.
pcchoirs.org or email info@pcchoirs.org.
Retrouvaille Marriage Help Weekend. Retrouvaille is
a program for married couples that feel disillusioned,
frustrated, or angry in their marriage. Most don’t
know how to change the situation or how to
communicate with their spouse. Retrouvaille offers
communication tools to rediscover a loving marriage
relationship. Married couples of any faith or no faith
are welcome. This weekend runs March 22-24. For
more information or to register, make a confidential
call to 909-900-5465 or visit HelpOurMarriage.org.
Sat., March 23
American Federation Pueri Cantores Southern
California Choral Festival and Mass for Treble
Choirs, Grades 4-8. San Francisco Solano Church,
22082 Antonio Parkway, Rancho Santa Margarita, 5
p.m. Visit the AFPC website at www.pcchoirs.org or
email info@pcchoirs.org.
“The War for Your Soul.” St. Didacus Church parish
hall, 14337 Astoria St., Sylmar, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. With
Father Bob Garon and Dominic Berardino, topics
include “Let the Lord and His Mighty Power Make You
Strong” and “Putting on God’s Armor.” Day includes
Mass. Cost: $20/person (by March 18), or $25/door
and includes catered chicken lunch. Call SCRC at
818-771-1361, or email spirit@scrc.org, or visit
www.scrc.org.
12 Steps to Spiritual Awakening. Mary & Joseph
Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes,
1-5 p.m. Attendees will engage in an experiential
process of personal transformation. You will identify
sources of unhappiness and suffering, experience
resources and a process for healing, learn the skills
and actions to establish and foster a sense of wellbeing.
Cost: $20/person ($25 after March 15). Call
Marlene Velazquez at 310-377-4867, ext. 234 for
reservations or 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.
• Who’s really welcome in the pews at Mass?
• Congratulations to CIF Championship winners for winter sports!
• Mourning the loss of ‘good things’ in American politics.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 7

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Church Keyboard Center celebrates the
beautiful new Rodgers organ at
St. John Vianney Catholic
Church, Hacienda Heights
Msgr. Tim Nichols, Pastor
Michael Gribschaw,
Director of Music / Organist
Christine Leong Brydges, Choral Director
In today’s Gospel, we go up to
the mountain with Peter, John,
and James. There we see Jesus
“transfigured,” speaking with
Moses and Elijah about his
“exodus.”
The Greek word “exodus”
means “departure.” But the
word is chosen deliberately
here to stir our remembrance
of the Israelites’ flight from
Egypt. By his death and
resurrection, Jesus will lead a
new exodus — liberating not
only Israel but every race and
people; not from bondage to
Pharaoh, but from slavery to
sin and death.
He will lead all mankind, not
to the territory promised to
Abraham in today’s First Reading,
but to the heavenly commonwealth
that Paul describes
in today’s Epistle. Moses, the
giver of God’s law, and the
great prophet Elijah, were the
only Old Testament figures to
hear the voice and see the glory
of God atop a mountain (see Exodus
24:15–18; 1 Kings 19:8–18).
Today’s scene closely resembles
God’s revelation to Moses, who also
brought along three companions and
whose face also shone brilliantly (see
Exodus 24:1; 34:29). But when the
divine cloud departs in today’s Gospel,
Moses and Elijah are gone. Only
Jesus remains.
He has revealed the glory of the
Trinity — the voice of the Father, the
glorified Son, and the Spirit in the
shining cloud. Jesus fulfills all that
Moses and the prophets had come
to teach and show us about God (see
SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Gen. 15:5–12, 17–18 / Ps. 27:1, 7–9, 13–14 / Phil. 3:17–4:1 / Lk. 9:28–36
“The Transfiguration,” artist unknown, Byzantine, Turkey, late
13th century.
Luke 24:27).
He is the “chosen One” promised by
Isaiah (see Isaiah 42:1; Luke 23:35),
the “prophet like me” that Moses had
promised (see Deuteronomy 18:15;
Acts 3:22–23; 7:37). Far and above
that, he is the Son of God
(see Psalm 2:7; Luke 3:21–23).
”Listen to Him,” the Voice tells us
from the cloud. If, like Abraham, we
put our faith in his words, one day
we, too, will be delivered into “the
land of the living” that we sing of in
today’s Psalm. We will share in his
Resurrection, as Paul promises, our
lowly bodies glorified like his.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
www.churchkeyboard.com
Nelson Dodge, President
8 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
8 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Unfinished relationships
A colleague of mine, a clinical therapist,
shares this story: A woman came
to him in considerable distress. Her
husband had recently died of a heart
attack. His death had been sudden
and at a most inept time. They’d been
happily married for 30 years and,
during all those years, had never had a
major crisis in their relationship.
On the day her husband died, they
had gotten into an argument about
something very insignificant and it
had escalated to where they began to
hurl some mean and cutting words at
each other. At a point, agitated and
angry, her husband stomped out of the
room, told her he was going shopping,
then died of a heart attack before he
got to the car.
Understandably, the woman was
devastated by the sudden death of her
spouse, but also by that last exchange.
“All these years,” she lamented, “we
had this loving relationship and then
we have this useless argument over
nothing and it ends up being our last
conversation!”
The therapist led off with something
meant partially in humor. He said,
“How horrible of him to do that to
you! To die just then!” Obviously the
man hadn’t intended his death, but its
timing was, in fact, awfully unfair to
his wife, as it left her holding a guilt
that was seemingly permanent with no
apparent avenue for resolution.
However, after that opening, the
therapist followed by asking her, “If
you had your husband back for five
minutes what would you say to him?”
Without hesitation, she answered, “I’d
tell him how much I loved him, how
good he was to me for all these years,
and how our little moment of anger at
the end was a meaningless second that
means nothing in terms of our love.”
The therapist then said: “You’re a
woman of faith, you believe in the
communion of saints; well, your
husband is alive still and present to
you now, so why don’t you just say all
those things to him right now. It’s not
too late to express that to him!”
He’s right. It’s never too late! It’s never
too late to tell our deceased loved
ones how we really feel about them.
It’s never too late to apologize for the
ways we might have hurt them.
It’s never too late to ask their forgiveness
for our negligence in the
relationship, and it’s never too late to
speak the words of appreciation, affirmation,
and gratitude that we should
have spoken to them while they were
alive. As Christians, we have the great
consolation of knowing that death
isn’t final, that it’s never too late.
And we desperately need that particular
consolation … and that second
chance. No matter who we are, we’re
always inadequate in our relationships.
We can’t always be present to our
loved ones as we should, we sometimes
say things in anger and bitterness
that leave deep scars, we betray
trust in all kinds of ways, and we
mostly lack the maturity and self-confidence
to express the affirmation
we should be conveying to our loved
ones.
None of us ever fully measures up.
When Karl Rahner says that none of
us ever experience the “full symphony”
in this life, he isn’t just referring
to the fact that we never fully realize
our dreams, he’s also referring to the
fact that in all of our most important
relationships none of us ever fully
measures up.
At the end of the day, all of us lose
loved ones in ways similar to how
that woman lost her husband, with
unfinished business, with bad timing.
There are always things that should
have been said and weren’t and there
are always things that shouldn’t have
been said and were.
But that’s where our Christian faith
comes in. We aren’t the only ones
who come up short. At the moment
of Jesus’ death, virtually all of his
disciples had deserted him.
The timing here was also very bad.
Good Friday was bad long before it
was good. But, and this is the point, as
Christians, we don’t believe there will
always be happy endings in this life,
nor that we will always be adequate
in life.
Rather we believe that the fullness
of life and happiness will come to
us through the redemption of what
has gone wrong, not least with what
has gone wrong because of our own
inadequacies and weakness.
G.K. Chesterton said that Christianity
is special because in its belief in
the communion of saints, “even the
dead get a vote.” They get more than a
vote. They still get to hear what we’re
saying to them.
So … if you’ve lost a loved one in a
situation where there was still something
unresolved, where there was still
a tension that needed easing, where
you should have been more attentive,
or where you feel badly because you
never adequately expressed the affirmation
and affection that you might
have, know it’s not too late. It can all
still be done!
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 9

Welcome, bishop-el
Pope Francis taps former computer programmer and proud
immigrant Msgr. Alex Aclan to be LA’s newest auxiliary
BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS
10 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

-elect!
d proud Filipino
iliary
they call you from the
Vatican?”
“Did
“Were you in Rome or
the Philippines?”
“Does the pope know where you
are?”
The ladies of the Cursillo group at
Holy Family Church in Artesia may
not have been wearing press badges,
but they had pressing questions for
Bishop-elect Alex Aclan at the March
5 press conference introducing him
as a newly named auxiliary bishop for
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
As soon as Imelda Mayhew saw the
news about “Father Alex” on her
Facebook timeline that morning, she
picked up the phone to call her fellow
Cursillistas. Within an hour, they
were all in Mayhew’s car, on their
way to the Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Angels in the middle of rush-hour
traffic.
“We have to support him, we have to
see this!” Mayhew told her friends on
the phone. The drive from Cerritos
took them an hour and a half.
“He is pretty revered in our group
because he’s so humble, so honest, so
down-to-earth,” Mayhew explained.
“You can approach him any time.”
Hours earlier, the Vatican had
announced that Pope Francis had
named the 68-year-old Filipino-born
priest an auxiliary bishop for the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where
Msgr. Aclan has served as a priest for
25 years.
Aclan’s nomination makes him the
second Filipino-American priest to be
named bishop in the U.S. The first
was Bishop Oscar Solis, who served
as an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles
from 2004 until 2017, before Francis
named him Bishop of Salt Lake City.
The Los Angeles area is home to the
largest Filipino immigrant community
in the United States.
Aclan served most recently as the
archdiocese’s vicar for clergy before
taking a sabbatical last summer.
Bishop-elect Alex Aclan greets former
colleagues from the archdiocese’s
Vicar for Clergy office after his March
5 introductory news conference at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Aclan was born Feb. 9, 1951, in
Pasay, Philippines, the third of
eight children born to Geronimo
and Emerenciana Aclan. His
father had been a pilot in the Philippine
Army Air Corps when Japanese
forces attacked the Philippines days
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 11

after the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec.
7, 1941.
Geronimo was revered as a war hero
among his countrymen for being
among the handful of pilots who
fought in several dogfights against
invading Japanese warplanes during
the first days of the invasion.
He was later captured by the Japanese,
escaped the infamous Bataan
death march, and was briefly sent to
the United States for training before
the Philippines was liberated by Allied
forces. After the war, Geronimo flew
as a captain for Philippine Airlines.
In the Philippines, his father’s World
War II service is considered the stuff
of legend, even after his death from
cancer in 1984. But Aclan is most
thankful to his father for being a living
example of a different kind of service.
“He was the go-to person for people
who had financial needs, people who
needed to find a job,” Aclan recalled.
“But even when people had family
problems, my father would be the one
to intervene.”
The bishop-elect remembers that
his home was always open to hosting
visitors, whether they were family,
friends, or people who just needed a
place to stay while in the Manila area.
When his family moved to Makati
during Aclan’s high school years, they
lived in a house that shared a fence
with the Catholic parish next door.
“Having priests and women religious
around us was kind of something
normal for us,” he said.
But Aclan said “the first seeds” of his
vocation were planted — not by the
witness of priests and religious — but
by the way he saw his parents treat
other people.
Thoughts of the priesthood first began
to stir during high school, where
Aclan was taught by the Salesians and
was first exposed to seminary life.
“The visits to a Salesian seminary
and time spent with their seminarians
in high school left a deep impression
in me that never really went away,” he
remembered.
As devout as his parents were, young
Alejandro, or “Alex,” never felt pressured
to pursue a religious vocation.
He doesn’t remember anyone even
asking him to consider the possibility.
Instead, Aclan had plans to become a
doctor, as his father had once planned
to.
“I seemed to be the one following in
my father’s footsteps as far as educational
achievement was concerned,
and so that was kind of an unspoken
expectation. I was trying to set out to
do what my father never completed,
but it never worked out for me either!”
he said with a laugh.
Aclan intended to study medicine
at the University of Santo Tomas in
Manila. He graduated instead with a
degree in medical technology in 1971.
After staying at the university as an
instructor, he changed course and
pursued a career in electronic data
processing, a precursor to what is
known today as information technology.
Beginning as a programmer and
systems analyst, Aclan eventually rose
up the ranks and worked in middle-management
positions for San
Bishop-elect Aclan’s father Geronimo as a lieutenant in the Philippine Army Air Corps in the 1940s
(left) and as a captain for Philippine Airlines decades later.
ALEX ACLAN
Miguel Corp. and Citibank in his
native country.
In 1982, the elder Aclan retired from
Philippine Airlines. Aclan left the
Philippines with Geronimo and two
younger sisters and moved to Covina,
outside Los Angeles, to join Emerenciana
and another sister, who had
already migrated there.
Aclan found work as a project manager
for Union Bank in Los Angeles,
while he and his family attended
Sacred Heart Church in Covina.
It wasn’t until Aclan was 35 years old
when somebody first asked him the
question, “Have you ever thought of
becoming a priest?”
It was while praying at a RENEW
retreat with fellow parishioners that he
felt God was calling him to something
different.
“From that moment on, the parishioners
of the parish just did not let up
on me,” Aclan recalled.
Over the next four years, Aclan
discerned his vocation, contacting the
archdiocese’s vocations office before
finally deciding to give up the security
of his career and enter St. John’s Seminary
in Camarillo in 1988. Five years
later, he was ordained by Cardinal
Roger Mahony.
Aclan served as associate pastor at
St. Finbar Church in Burbank and
St. John of God Church in Norwalk
before being named pastor of St. Madeleine
Church in Pomona in 2001,
where he served for 11 years.
In 2011, he was named associate
vicar for clergy, and in 2014 became
vicar for clergy.
Throughout his 25 years as a priest,
Aclan served a variety of other ministries
in the archdiocese. He spent
three years as the archdiocese’s vocations
director for teenagers and later
was the regional vocations director for
the San Gabriel Pastoral Region.
He also served as secretary-treasurer
of the Council of Priests, spiritual
director to the Filipino Cursillo, and
archdiocesan liaison to the Filipino
Charismatic Prayer Groups at different
times.
Former seminary classmate and longtime
friend Father Roberto Jaranilla
said that throughout his priesthood,
Aclan has shown a special ability to
handle stress.
12 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

Msgr. Alex Aclan with a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy after administering the anointing
of the sick.
“One of the things he would tell
me from time to time is, ‘Put things
in the context of eternity,’ ” recalled
Jaranilla, pastor of Nativity Church in
El Monte.
Looking back at 25 years of priesthood,
the bishop-elect said he is
still following the example that
his parents set while he was growing
up.
“The best part of being a priest is the
ability to serve just like I saw my mom
and dad doing growing up,” shared
Aclan. “The service is key for me, and
that’s what’s most enjoyable, because
you are able to alleviate people’s conditions,
and get people closer to God.”
Aclan finds ministering to the sick to
be especially rewarding. But he is also
aware that in an era of secularization
and crisis within the Church, his mission
as bishop must also include never
giving up on those who have fallen
away from the faith.
“It’s really hard,” he replied when
asked how the Church can call back
the “lost sheep.”
“First of all, what I’ve discovered
is that it’s important to listen to the
people,” he said. “And based on what
you hear, proceed with whatever it is
you think can help them. If they’ve
lost faith, we need to help them regain
what was lost.”
Starting during his time at St. Finbar
Church, Aclan saw the importance of
helping immigrants preserve the cultural
Catholic identity they brought
with them. So, he went to work helping
local Filipino Catholics organize
into officially recognized groups in
parishes.
These groups “help keep the devotional
practices of the people coming
from various parts of the world, and
keep the faith of those people who are
not originally from here strong and
flowing,” he explained, adding, “Their
expression of faith in the archdiocese
Msgr. Alex Aclan and Archbishop José H. Gomez
at Aclan’s formal elevation to the rank of “Prelate
of Honor,” or monsignor, on Sept. 3, 2017.
ALEX ACLAN VICTOR ALEMÁN
is very strong, it’s very palpable. As a
priest, you can sense it, you can feel
it.”
Filipino Catholics in Los Angeles got
a boost when Saint Pope John Paul
II named Father Oscar Solis as an
auxiliary bishop in 2003, making him
the first Filipino-American bishop in
the U.S.
At the time, Aclan saw up close what
a shot in the arm the appointment
gave to the local community.
“Bishop Solis was the glue that
bound us Filipino priests together
in the archdiocese,” said the bishop-elect.
“And the Filipino community
here in the archdiocese found
greater unity here thanks to him. He
was a unifying force for us.”
Now, Aclan will follow Solis as the
second Filipino-born Catholic bishop
in the United States.
And LA Archbishop José H. Gomez
is looking to Aclan to carry on the
mission to Filipino Catholics in the
archdiocese.
Calling him a “proud son of our
vibrant Filipino community,” Archbishop
Gomez said in a March 5
statement, “Bishop-elect Aclan is a
man of prayer and he has a true heart
for Jesus — and a deep concern for
the people he is called to serve. And
I know he will be a voice for Filipino
Catholics, who are a beautiful sign of
growth and renewal in our Church
here in Los Angeles and throughout
the country.”
Because he’s only seen bishops do
their “work” at a distance up until
now, Aclan expects he’ll have a lot
to learn, especially in an archdiocese
with four other active auxiliary bishops
assisting Archbishop Gomez.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,
but it’s an opportunity to learn
again. And I’m eager to learn,” said
Aclan with a smile.
And he knows he won’t be alone.
“I know for a fact that there’s a lot of
people praying for me,” said Aclan,
who said he is assured of the constant
prayers of at least two prayer groups,
and, most importantly, “my mother
and father in heaven.”
“With that, I know that whatever
challenges are sent my way, with
God’s grace, I should be able to handle
them.”
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13

‘I want to get into the fields’
Auxiliary Bishop Robert V. Brennan reflects on his new
assignment as the next leader of the Diocese of Fresno
BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS
When he was told that Pope
Francis had appointed him
to be the next bishop of the
Fresno Diocese, Los Angeles Auxiliary
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan was
surprised.
He shouldn’t have been.
The son of a San Fernando Valley
grocer and the ninth of 10 children,
he speaks fluent Spanish, and has
a twin brother living in the diocese
he will lead — a 35,000 squaremile
territory with about 1.2 million
Catholics situated in the heart of
California’s agriculture-rich San
Joaquin Valley, known as America’s
“salad bowl” and the “food basket for
the world.”
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan
speaks to Angelus editor
Pablo Kay at the Archdiocesan
Catholic Center in Los Angeles.
14 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019
PABLO KAY

Brennan served in several parishes
around the archdiocese and as vicar
general before Francis named him
an auxiliary bishop for Los Angeles in
2015, together with Bishops Robert E.
Barron and David G. O’Connell — a
trio reportedly referred to by Francis
as “the triplets.”
Brennan’s appointment to Fresno
was announced March 5 in Rome.
The 64-year-old Brennan will succeed
retiring Bishop Armando X. Ochoa, a
former Los Angeles auxiliary bishop
who has shepherded the Fresno Diocese
since 2012.
His appointment coincided with
the announcement that Francis had
named Msgr. Alex D. Aclan as LA’s
newest auxiliary bishop.
A few days before the Vatican’s
official announcement, Brennan sat
down for an exclusive interview.
He spoke of growing up in a
“Catholic bubble,” his vocation to
the priesthood, and what Catholics
in the Diocese of Fresno can expect
from him. The following is an edited
transcript of our conversation.
in infamy (laughs). Another one of
those moments that’s etched in your
heart forever.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre
(the apostolic nuncio to the United
States) had been trying to get in touch
with me.
When I finally got through to him,
he said, “Well, you’re hard to find.”
“Well, yes, I am, Archbishop, I’m a
I’ve said this to other people, I’ve
said it before: I’d do anything for him,
including being vicar general again,
even though I was hoping he’d never
ask me to do that again. But if he
asked, I would do it. I wouldn’t do it
for anybody else, but I would do it for
him.
So that’s how it happens; you get a
phone call and it does change your life.
Tell me a little bit about where you
come from.
I grew up in Van Nuys, here in the
San Fernando Valley. I have six brothers
and three sisters.
I’m number nine out of 10, so,
yeah, I’m almost the baby. I have a
twin brother, Terrence, and then a
younger brother, and we were known
in the family as the three little boys.
They still call us the three little boys,
even though we’re not little, or boys,
anymore.
My twin is married, with kids and
grandkids. Actually, he lives in the
very southern part of the Diocese of
Fresno. I can’t wait to tell him I’m
going to be his boss.
Did the pope know that when he
named you?
The pope did not know that. I don’t
know if the pope knows me — if he
did, he probably wouldn’t have made
this decision!
How did you find out about the
recent appointment to Fresno?
Well, it was on President’s Day, Feb.
18, 2019, a day which shall go down
A young Joseph Brennan (center) with his younger brother and Angelus columnist Robert Brennan
(lower left) and twin brother Terrence (lower right) during a yearly camping trip to Sequoia National
Park. Holding the Sequoia banner is his cousin Eileen (upper left) and sister Helen Mary (upper
right). The park is part of the Diocese of Fresno.
busy guy — not as busy as you,” I said.
And we had a little laugh, and then
he said, well, you’re going to Fresno.
It hit me like a ton of bricks, because
it’s life-altering, it’s life-changing. And
I had to hold it together during the
phone call, which I managed.
You didn’t expect it at all?
No, not at all. Honestly, I fully
expected to end my days in the San
Fernando Valley where I was born and
raised. I’ve been the regional bishop
there for three years, and I love, I
love “El Jefe.” I do. I love Archbishop
Gomez. You can put that in writing.
Pope Francis has made one of the
themes of his pontificate to go out
to the peripheries. Now he’s sending
you to Fresno, which comprises a
big geographical territory, with lots
of agriculture, lots of towns, long
distances, and a large migrant population.
What do you see your mission
as in these “peripheries”?
Well, I’m going to put tons of mileage
on whatever vehicle they give me,
or I have to buy — I don’t even know
how that works in Fresno. I’ll find out.
I want to get into the fields. Fresno itself
has homeless and has immigrants
— all looking for a better life.
ROBERT BRENNAN
PABLO KAY
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 15

Father Joseph Brennan dances with his mother,
Helen, at a wedding.
ROBERT BRENNAN
Do you think the Church has a role
to play in those issues?
Absolutely, because they impact the
daily life of our people. Farmers need
lots of water, and water quality, fair
and equitable use, the distribution of
those resources — those are questions
of fairness, equity, justice.
It’s going to be 3 1/2 years since you
were named a bishop. You chose as
your motto “Caritas Christi Urget
Nos” (“For the love of Christ impels
us…”). How has that motto guided
you in the last three years in San
Fernando, and what does it mean for
your new assignment?
Well, it’s absolutely that: It’s the love
of Christ that impels us. There are
different translations for that; the love
of Christ urges us, I guess literally,
“urget nos.”
And for me, it’s personal in this way,
as I was sharing with you, I sometimes
end up in places I wouldn’t have gone
otherwise, that I would never have
chosen for myself. So sometimes,
once in a while in my life, I need to
be impelled, I need to be urged.
I’m not exactly a reluctant shepherd,
but I do need to be encouraged. And
sometimes urged into areas where I
would have some fear and trepidation.
So that motto guides my life.
It seems like any talk about the
Church nowadays is clouded by the
sexual abuse crisis. How do you see
your mission as a bishop in these
difficult times?
Victim-survivors have to be our
focus. And that also in a context of
I want to get into the fields for
lots of reasons. I think migrant
workers need lots of support, they
need spiritual sustenance. The San
Joaquin Valley practically feeds the
world in many ways.
I don’t want to forget the growers.
I wonder, I don’t know if there’s a
Catholic growers association, but if
there isn’t, I’d like to start one. And
build bridges between their workers,
upon whom we depend and they
depend.
I have some roots, agriculturally
speaking. You can say that I’m
involved in all phases in my family
history: My grandpa was a farmer
in Arkansas, so that’s production.
And then my dad was a grocer, so
distribution. My sister Kathy, my
oldest sister in heaven, followed in
my father’s footsteps as a grocer, and
being involved in that business.
And then I’m in the consumption
business, so all three ends are taken
care of by the Brennan family —
and I do my part (laughs).
The people who work, the people
who produce, the ones who take the
risk of ownership and administration
too, that’s immense. And we have
huge issues with water supply, water
quality, land use in the Central Valley,
and in all of California. Those
are huge issues, and I’m not up to
speed at all on those.
Archbishop José H. Gomez imposes hands on Bishop-elect Joseph V. Brennan at his episcopal
ordination on Sept. 8, 2015.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
16 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

Bishop Brennan speaks at a March 5 news conference at St. Anne’s Chapel in Fresno. At far left is retiring Bishop of Fresno Armando X. Ochoa.
CROSS-MEDIA SERVICES, DIOCESE OF FRESNO
perpetual vigilance and perpetual
care. Care for those who’ve been on
the receiving end of such heinous,
horrific behavior; those who’ve been
on the receiving end of crimes,
spiritual and physical.
So, on an episcopal level, as a bishop,
continuing the crafting up and
the implementation of, I think, real
and concrete protocols that apply to
everyone, bishops included.
This recent gathering in Rome
by the presidents of conferences of
bishops from all over the world gave
us what I was hoping it would give us,
and that’s a green light for what we
[the U.S. Catholic bishops] were hoping
to do in November [at the bishops’
annual meeting in Baltimore].
But looking back on it, as disappointed
as we all were at what happened
in November, that in a sense we were
asked to put on the brakes and were
told by Rome “not so fast” — there’s
wisdom in the pope’s decision, because
it’s given us time to hone and to
really craft, even better, some of those
recommendations. And they’ll be
proposed and voted on in June.
But if any bishop thinks that somehow
this situation, this crisis, is somehow
behind us — they’re wrong. Because
maybe as humans, and I think,
maybe even bishops have this disease
more than others, we sometimes want
to put things in our rearview mirror
that don’t belong there, as if to say,
“Well, phew, that’s behind us now,
that’s done, that’s solved.”
No, this is nothing that you can
solve. It’s only something you can
work through and live through and
do your best to prevent, because even
one instance is one too many, anywhere
in the world.
So we’ve got to be careful about patting
ourselves on the back. We can’t
compare ourselves to other people.
We have to compare ourselves to
Christ, because when we compare
ourselves to other people and other
institutions, we’ll either come out
looking pretty good in our own estimation,
or, say, “Well, I’m not as bad
as he or she is.”
That’s not a good moral compass;
the moral compass needs to be much
more challenging than that. I think
my role as bishop is to hold myself
accountable to that, and to hold that
up for the people I hope to serve and
shepherd.
Editor’s Note: Bishop Brennan
will be formally installed as the new
bishop of the Diocese of Fresno May
2. For the full interview with Bishop
Brennan, visit the Catholic LA section
of AngelusNews.com.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17

JERRY CELIO
Diana Manriquez, Aranzazu Herrera, Vicki Frausto, and Gabe Perez take residents of the care facility to a concert in the park in downtown Bocas del Toro.
From Carpinteria to the Caribbean
A group of local Catholic
youth recount how a
mission trip to a remote
Panamanian archipelago
changed their lives
BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS
Carpinteria High School senior Virginia “Vicky”
Frausto has a 4.5 GPA with four honors and AP
classes apiece on her growing résumé. She’s taken
dual enrollment college credit courses while logging hundreds
of hours of community service. And she’s a leader in
her high school’s Youth Wellness Connection club.
So it was no surprise when on Jan. 26, the Carpinteria
Valley Chamber of Commerce named her “Junior Carpinterian”
of the year, an honor that came with a $5,000
scholarship.
But it is Frausto’s local Catholic parish, not her school,
that she thanks for the résumé entry that she believes has
made the biggest difference so far.
Dr. Ben La Brot and his wife, Karine.
In a weeklong mission trip last August organized by local
St. Joseph Church, she and seven other high school and
college students traveled to a chain of remote islands in
the Caribbean Sea off of Panama to work eight-hour days
serving indigenous Ngabe people with basic, chronic, and
critical health needs. The trip was to help a group called
“Floating Doctors.”
JERRY CELIO
18 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

JERRY CELIO
“Going to our first day working at the actual clinic, I
thought I really wasn’t going to do anything,” she told
Angelus News.
“Maybe I’ll have to walk around and socialize? Or I’ll be
in charge of cleaning something. But since the majority of
us on the trip spoke Spanish, we are bilingual, we became
translators for intake — asking about how patients are feeling
and what about their health problem, and taking their
vital signs like temperature and blood pressure, and height
and weight.”
The 17-year-old sat in a crammed parish center office
with five other students who made the journey to Panama’s
Bocas del Toro Archipelago with her. After school hours
on a recent Wednesday, they shared their experiences of
the trip while sitting in a quarter circle along with Msgr.
Richard Martini, pastor of St. Joseph.
He and three other adults accompanied the youth to
Panama’s province, made up of part of the mainland and
nine larger islands.
Because of its banana plantations, Bocas del Toro is called
the “Oro Verde,” or green gold of Central America. But
the jungle-covered mountainous islands have not shared in
this wealth, and most of their inhabitants have no electricity
— never mind native doctors or nurses.
But Floating Doctors — started in 2009 by Dr. Benjamin
La Brot, who grew up in Topanga Canyon in Southern
California — has established 17 clinics across the archipelago.
The students from St. Joseph worked mostly on two at
Isla Popa.
Once she arrived, she realized that when it came to
translating pharmaceutical technology, the Spanish
used by island people known as the Ngabe was a bit
different than what she had learned in school.
“I was upset,” Frausto admitted.
That drew laughs — knowing ones — from other students,
who still remember well their own tribulations as
translators. But the problem was quickly solved because the
children of patients knew regular Spanish along with their
native dialect. Most of the volunteer doctors and nurses
spoke neither.
“But it was definitely an eye-opening experience,” Frausto
said, her tone serious now. “Being able to see what we take
for granted and seeing them so desperately in need of. Like
pain relievers. We can go buy them at our local drugstore
for $4, and over there it’s crucial for them.”
Juan Gomez, 18, was the next to speak. The freshman
at Westmont College said they all were just happy to be
in Panama after the grueling trip. “Some of us have never
been outside of the country or out of the state, so it was
really a big deal for us,” he said.
“And it was an honor for all of us. Just seeing the lifestyle
that people were living there was really impacting. If they
had electricity in their home, that’s a really big deal for
them.”
Next to him sat Gabriel Perez. The 16-year-old junior at
Carpinteria High School, who had never even been on a
plane, didn’t really know anything about the indigenous
inhabitants of these isolated mangrove island mazes. All he
knew is that he wanted to help them any way he could.
“Oh, wow!” he exclaimed. “This was nothing near what I
expected. Seeing all the kids super happy. I was surprised
considering what they had in their daily lives, like, almost
close to nothing.”
The first day at an island clinic, a Sunday, Avanzazu Herrera,
youngest in the group at 16, could hardly believe her
own eyes. She was with the only surgeon that day, who was
examining pregnant women.
“Actually, teenagers,” she said, with a tone of lingering
disbelief. “In our culture, it’s frowned on. But in their
culture, it’s a normal thing to be pregnant at 14, 15. And to
have a life and be married so soon.”
“And here it’s the opposite,” she pointed out. “Like, I’m in
college. So, it’s a completely different culture and environment
to see.”
Alondra Campusano and Gabe Perez visiting a woman at a care facility for
the abandoned in Bocas del Toro.
The ride out to Isla Popa in a narrow open boat with
an outdoor motor on the back took more than an
hour. Whoever was sitting in the bow got drenched,
which, in the stifling heat, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In 1502, Christopher Columbus and his crew visited the
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, which borders Costa Rica to
the west. They were searching for a passage to the Pacific
Ocean, which, of course, they never found. As of 2010, the
Panama province’s population was 125,461, spread across
1,798 square miles.
When pressed on what it was really like there, the monsignor
spoke up. “There was no electricity or sanitation
system,” he said. “All of a sudden this spray of water started
coming out below a house, and I said, ‘Well, we now know
where the bathroom is.’
“On one island where there was a school, they were
playing baseball. They literally had a stick that was maybe
2 1/2-feet long and an inch in diameter. I mean, with a
tennis ball they had created a whole baseball game.”
Alondra Campuzano, 20, said the experience reminded
her of her early years living in Mexico, where she was born.
JERRY CELIO
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19

Left to right: Diana Manriquez, Alondra Campusano, Aranzazu Herrera, Vicki Frausto, Gabe Perez, and Juan Gomez, with Msgr. Richard Martini (standing) at
St. Joseph’s in Carpinteria.
R.W. DELLINGER
“I grew up in a place where they didn’t have as many
shoes, or toys to play with. Then we moved here when
I was 9, and it’s been so different. When I was young in
Mexico, there were doctors who would come that we
would go to. So, going to Popa kind of brought me back
versus now that I have so much. So, it was great to just give
back.”
Diana Manriquez agreed. “It really impacted me, the
poverty,” she observed. “Like everybody said, just taking
things for granted. Just seeing the kids playing with bottle
caps with big smiles on their faces.”
Between 200,000 and 250,000 Ngabe still live in present-day
Panama and Costa Rica. Ngabe simply means
“people,” and their territory once extended from the Pacific
Ocean to the Caribbean Sea.
Spanish conquistadors, cattle ranchers, and the development
of banana plantations (in that order) drove them into
the less desirable mountainous regions. The Panamanian
government, after years of struggle, granted the Ngabe a
“Comarca,” or semi-autonomous area, in the early 1970s,
which is where most still live.
The sea provides a living for many of the coastal-living
people on the Bocas del Toro islands today. But one estimate
puts that more than 90 percent live in poverty. Before
La Brot brought his Floating Doctors to the archipelago,
health care was practically nonexistent. Conditions remain
“Third World.”
“I
think each one of us came home with a different
perspective, a different outlook on life itself,” said
Frausto, glancing around at the other Floating Doctors’
volunteers, who were nodding in agreement.
“Being there you saw how minimal stuff they had, but
they’re still so happy with what they have. Over there it is
normal for them,” she said.
“But then you come back here, and you see people who
are almost in the same situation. Like our local homeless.
So, I think we’re more compelled to help. I mean, I started
going more often to our homeless shelter and the soup
kitchen — just helping out the homeless there.”
The Carpinteria High School senior and newly named
“Junior Carpinterian” also decided on a career during her
Caribbean mission — being a doctor who starts her own
nonprofit to serve the disadvantaged, like a certain La Brot.
Martini was asked what he thought about what his fellow
sojourners to Bocas del Toro had just shared.
First came a smile. Then, “I’m delighted. I didn’t know
all this because I was in the front of the clinic. My job was
to find their files when the local people would sign in.
But at one point I stopped. I turned around and I looked.
And everyone of our young people were engaged. And I
thought, ‘They’re acting older than the doctors.’ ”
Before the students stopped cracking up, he said, “And I
just felt so proud of these young people that they could just
blend right in and they could take up this responsibility.
Here’s someone taking blood pressures, another taking
blood. Others were coping with the pain of somebody
getting their tooth pulled out.”
After a moment Martini added, “And Dr. Ben probably
was impressed, too, by the maturity of our young people.
So, we already have a date this summer for our next immersion
mission trip with a new group.”
And the pastor couldn’t help but see the changed expressions
of the six high school and college students. “OK,
we’d like the vets to go back maybe a week before. We just
have to raise the money.”
Pa
Chic
Dr. S
Mise
Knig
Univ
Kevi
Milw
Jerom
Ann
Kath
20 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

Save the Date
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Immaculate Heart Media
Christ Brings Hope
AWARD DINNER
R.W. DELLINGER
Christ Brings Hope Honoree
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
6:00 PM Reception, 7:00 PM Dinner
Millennium Biltmore
506 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Special Guests
Rev. Francis J.
Hoffman, “Fr. Rocky”
Executive Director/CEO
of Relevant Radio ®
Patrick Madrid
Host of The Patrick
Madrid Show
Online registration and sponsorship opportunities available. Limited seating.
Visit RelevantRadio.com California Events or contact Joseph Nesta
at (209) 598-8371 or email jnesta@relevantradio.com.
Past Christ Brings Hope Award Recipients
Chicago: (2018) Shirley and Frank Schilling, (2017) The Most Rev. R. Daniel Conlon, (2016) The Little Sisters of the Poor, (2015)
Dr. Scott and Kimberly Hahn, (2014) Msgr. Michael M. Boland, (2013) Sr. Rosemary Connelly, RSM, and the Executive Team of
Misericordia Home, (2012) The Most Rev. Robert Barron, STD, (2011) His Eminence Francis Cardinal George • Austin: (2018)
Knights of Columbus Texas State Council, (2016) St. John Paul II, LIFE Center, (2015) Alan Graham • Madison: (2018) St. Paul
University Catholic Center, (2015) The Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino • Providence: (2016) The Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, (2014)
Kevin and Nancy McDevitt • Green Bay: (2016) Rev. Alfred A. McBride, O. Praem., (2014) The Most Rev. David L. Ricken •
Milwaukee: (2017) Men of Christ and Women of Christ Organizations, (2015) The Most Rev. Donald J. Hying, (2013) The Most Rev.
Jerome E. Listecki • La Crosse: (2017) His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke • Twin Cities: (2018) Gordon DeMarais, (2017) Mary
Ann Kuharski, (2016) Mary Jo Copeland, (2015) Jeff Cavins, (2014) Matt Birk, (2013) Rev. Monsignor Aloysius R. Callaghan, (2012)
Kathleen Laird • New York/Newark: (2016) Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21

Why Francis
goes to Joseph
The pope’s life and pontificate
have been marked with a
special devotion to Saint
Joseph, whose feast day the
Church celebrates March19
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
ROME — Wednesday, March 13, marked the sixth
anniversary of the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio
as the successor of Saint Peter. He was installed as
Pope Francis five days later, on March 19, 2013, which also
happened to be the day on which the Catholic Church
honors Saint Joseph.
In reality, it probably wasn’t a coincidence.
The Argentine pontiff is known to have a strong devotion
for Jesus’ earthly father, to the point that he has a statue of
a sleeping Joseph in his room. Under it, there’s a “mattress
of notes” the pope has left for the saint’s attention, containing
problems and challenges he faces and doesn’t know
how to resolve.
The pontiff has tremendous confidence, telling a group
of Oblates of St. Joseph last August that he’s put his needs
before the saint for decades and “never, ever has he told
me no.
“For more than 40 years, I’ve been praying a prayer that I
found in an old French missal which says of Saint Joseph
— ‘dont la puissance sait rendre possibles les choses
impossibles’ (‘whose power makes possible things that are
impossible’),” Francis told the Oblates, adding that Joseph
has never let him down.
Francis has long had the image of the sleeping Joseph, depicting
him being warned by God about the danger posed
by King Herod.
According to the biblical narrative, it was in a dream that
Joseph accepted his role as the foster father of Jesus and
mankind, a “yes” that would turn him into the archetypal
figure of “protector” of Mary and Jesus and the whole
Church, as Francis said during his first homily in 2013.
“Saint Joseph does not look for friends to vent or ask for
suggestions, he does not go to the psychiatrist to interpret
the dream ... no: he believed,” Francis said in 2017. “He
Pope Francis shows the sleeping posture of a statue of Saint Joseph he
keeps on his desk while giving a talk during a meeting with families in the
Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines, in 2015. The pope spoke about
his devotion to Joseph, foster father of Jesus, and his practice of writing
prayers on pieces of paper and slipping them under the statue so Joseph
could sleep on them.
moved forward. He handled the situation.” In a 2018
tweet, Francis hailed Joseph as a “man of dreams, but not a
dreamer.”
The newly elected pope used that image of Joseph as a
call to action in his installation homily six years ago.
“Let us be ‘protectors’ of creation, protectors of God’s plan
inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the
environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and
death to accompany the advance of this world!” the new
pope said.
Since then, much of his pontificate can be summarized in
what he said that day to 200,000 faithful who had gathered
in St. Peter’s Square: “Let us never forget that authentic
power is service, and that the pope too, when exercising
power, must enter ever more fully into that service which
has its radiant culmination on the cross.”
The successor of Peter, Francis continued, “must be
inspired by the lowly, concrete and faithful service which
marked Saint Joseph and, like him, he must open his arms
to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender
affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
22 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

weakest, the least important.”
A pope who believes gestures are stronger than words,
Francis has tried to live this ideal of Joseph opening his
arms to protect God’s people. Think of Francis embracing
men and women disfigured by illness, for instance, reaching
out to migrants, giving the homeless VIP access to the
Sistine Chapel, and assigning prisoners a place of honor
during the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Francis has also praised Joseph as a figure who accepted
God’s will that he raise Jesus to manhood, doing so “in
silence, without judging, without speaking poorly of others,
and without gossiping” — all qualities the pontiff frequently
extols.
“[Saint Joseph] silently let [Jesus] grow,” Francis said
during an impromptu morning homily on Dec. 18, 2018.
“This idea could help us immensely, we who by nature always
want to stick our noses in everything, especially in the
lives of others. … And we start gossiping, talking. … But
he let him grow, silently watching over him and helping
him.”
No doubt, Francis also draws consolation from Joseph in
moments when his papacy seems an uphill climb, with internal
lacerations as well as scandals involving sex, money,
and often both.
In the past 12 months alone, the Church had to face what
the pope himself has called “an unprecedented crisis” due
to the wrongdoings of some of its members, either because
they abused minors or because they covered up for the
crime.
Though the roots of the problem are complex and impossible
to sum up in a quick phrase, one cause and one consequence
are evident: In its flawed imitation of Joseph, the
Church failed to protect children and vulnerable adults.
During that first homily, Francis said that “whenever human
beings fail to live up to this responsibility, whenever
we fail to care for creation and for our brothers and sisters,
the way is opened to destruction and hearts are hardened.”
He also said that in “every period of history there are
‘Herods’ ” who “wreak havoc and mar the countenance of
men and women.” In facing those Herods, this devotee of
Joseph will no doubt call upon the saint’s protection and
assistance early and often.
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian journalist and Rome
bureau chief for Crux. She is a frequent contributor to the
print edition of Angelus and, through an exclusive content-sharing
arrangement with Crux, provides news and
analysis to Angelus News.
“Joseph’s Dream,” by Toros Roslin, 1262.
WALTERS ART MUSEUM/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 23

WITH GRACE
Ashes and the
truth we need
BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE
This Ash Wednesday I went
to the 8 a.m. Mass, as I do
every weekday. The usual
congregants were present — pious
businessmen on their way to the office,
fresh-faced moms towing their littlest
still in pajamas, and those who are
lucky to work from home like I do.
But on this day we were joined by
throngs of Sunday Mass-only Catholics,
and some I suspect who only find
their way to church on Easter, or for
weddings and baptisms. At least I have
rarely seen them.
This phenomenon, which I’m
certain was repeated at every Catholic
Church across the country, is fascinating.
It goes against all the things we
think we know about evangelizing the
fallen-away and the unengaged.
Rousing sermons, happy music,
persistent optimism, promises of peace
and prosperity, and never, ever the
suggestion that some lifestyle choice
may be wrong — these are the things
we think will fill our pews. Instead,
and unaccountably, they are filled on
somber Ash Wednesdays.
It seems that these modern men and
women whose lives are all busyness
and bustle — as though to silence
the awful truth that “as for man, his
days are like grass, like a flower of the
field...” — find a need to come each
year and remember their mortality.
With eyes opened wide they strain
to hear the quiet murmur of the priest
who paints their foreheads with the
sign of death, and reminds them that
their physical self is as evanescent
as the ash that falls off the tip of a
cigarette.
In a culture where reminders of
death have been banished to the outer
darkness, and funerals have been
replaced by “celebrations of life,” these
thirsty souls relish the hymns that are
nothing less than plaintive dirges.
If it is surprising that these kinds of
persons interrupt their lives to reflect
on inexorable death, it’s even more
astonishing that they come to acknowledge
wrongdoing. “Thoroughly
wash me from my guilt and from my
sin cleanse me,” is the phrase that
sounded from the ambo, and from the
pews the response was a heartfelt, “Be
merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”
That word sin is a strange anachronism,
for the modern person steeped
in moral relativism is sure that sin, like
beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,
and therefore nowhere.
The inner logic runs like this: What’s
wrong for me is simply that, and anyway,
I can’t be held responsible for the
painful way things have turned out,
when my very happiness depended on
my acting just the way that I did.
The golden rule that oriented us
outward and away from the incessant
demands of our ego has been definitively
superseded by a directive to
pamper the self, and now reads: “Do
Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in dow
unto others what you must do, that
you may live.”
And yet. And yet.
They come streaming up the aisle on
Ash Wednesdays, year after year. They
hold up their foreheads to the damp
and gritty finger of the priest who
traces the mark of Cain on their clean
skin, and perhaps they feel a rush of
relief.
For these few hours while the smudge
holds, the long inner battle against the
demands of the conscience can rest.
For all the while that they have lived
in the therapeutic vision that enjoins
guilt-free surrender to the claims of
the self, the truth has been bubbling
24 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles on March 6.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
just under the surface. There was a
moment in each personal failure when
bravery, selflessness, love of neighbor
— or just a little patience — could
have carried the day.
Though the ship might still have
sunk, or the temporal battle might
still have been lost, they could have
emerged triumphant — because they
had been noble, not mean, generous,
not greedy, heroic, not cowardly.
To feel the humid smear of ashes on
the brow is to rest in the consciousness
of that truth, and welcome the
remorse that cleanses and relieves the
spirit. Yes, I loved my comfort more
than I loved her, or him, and I’m so
very, very sorry.
We daily Massgoers are no better, of
course, than our brothers and sisters
who join us on Ash Wednesdays. We
are just more fortunate, for we know
that the sweet cleansing and relief of
repentance is available every day of
the year, and it is answered by inexhaustible
mercy.
As for the consciousness of death, a
daily reminder to forgive quickly and
love better, lest this be our last day on
earth, is built into the holy Eucharist.
I know that the Ash Wednesday
Massgoers stepped out into the world
with a visible sign and a deep, invisible
happiness. Perhaps this is the right
way to reignite the flickering flame of
the dispirited and disengaged: through
consciousness of those old nuisances,
death and sin.
I know it doesn’t make human sense,
but it must make divine sense.
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie grew up in
Guadalajara, Mexico, coming to the
U.S. at the age of 11. She has written
for USA TODAY, National Review,
The Washington Post, and The New
York Times, and has appeared on
CNN, Telemundo, Fox News and
EWTN. She practices radiology in the
Miami area, where she lives with her
husband and five children.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25

In search of real girl power
‘Captain Marvel’ tries to portray feminine heroism but focuses
more on the punches than the person
BY SOPHIA BUONO / ANGELUS
Brie Larson in a scene from the movie “Captain Marvel.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/WALT DISNEY PICTURES
In the final battle scene of “Captain
Marvel,” two aliens aboard a spaceship
watch in shock as their fleet,
hurtling toward earth for an attack, is
suddenly obstructed and destroyed in
a tremendous midair explosion. They
back away, and the leader remarks
that they must return to capture that
powerful thing.
“The weapon?” asks his companion.
“The woman,” the leader responds.
He’s referring to the figure rocketing
through the air, with glowing eyes
and flaming fists, who has foiled their
attack. A threatening glare and pound
from one fist into her palm is enough
to send the remaining alien ships back
into the far galaxy. It is a tremendous
display of power, and it is all centered
on one individual: the woman.
This mighty moment follows an
entire storyline dedicated to portraying
an emblem of female strength. And
while the mixture of special effects,
decent acting, and plenty of combat
scenes make for an overall entertaining
show, the central mission of the
Marvel Studios’ first female-led superhero
film — to make the protagonist a
truly memorable heroine — falls short
of its goal.
We first meet Captain Marvel (Brie
Larson) as Vers, a Starforce soldier living
on the planet Hala, who struggles
with recurring nightmares about an
older woman and an aircraft crash. In
the midst of an ongoing war, she is to
be sent on a team mission to rescue a
lost agent.
Along the way, Vers finds her way
to planet C-53 (known to its natives
as “earth”) and discovers that her
nightmares are actually flashbacks to
her life there. She encounters friends
she had forgotten since the crash and
learns her true name, Carol Danvers.
In an instant, our heroine’s entire
understanding of her world and
mission turn inside out. Once proud
to proclaim that she hailed from a
race of “heroes — warrior heroes,” she
realizes that she must step up as a singular
hero. She must become Captain
Marvel.
From the beginning, directors Anna
Boden and Ryan Fleck make clear
what they think the basic framework is
for a show-stopping heroine: an attractive,
snarky woman who knows a thing
or two about throwing a punch. And
Brie Larson pulls it off quite well.
From the scene in which she asks her
mentor with a cool glance, “Wanna
26 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

fight?”, to when she single-handedly
knocks out a team of aliens and then
stands over their bodies with mild
amusement at her own skill, Larson’s
performance proclaims loud and clear,
Don’t mess with me.
But is that enough to be a truly heroic
woman?
The film’s most redeeming moment
is when, at least ostensibly, it admits
that no, it’s not. When Marvel reconnects
with Maria Lambeau, her former
fellow pilot laments the fact that she
has forgotten her sense of human
connection.
“What’s hard is that I’ve lost my best
friend,” says Lambeau. This is the case
not just because Marvel has forgotten
Lambeau since the crash, but also
because she has defined herself by her
superpowers; she sees them as what
makes her “fierce.”
Moreover, it is another exchange
with Lambeau that helps Marvel grapple
with her sense of true identity. It
is only through her friend, who knows
and loves her deeply, that Marvel can
learn that her greatest strengths have
always been her loyalty and willingness
to risk her life for justice.
Such conversations marked the high
points of the film’s portrayal of female
strength, because they acknowledged
the most fundamental aspect of that
idea: personal relationship.
But while that crucial aspect was acknowledged,
it didn’t truly impact the
development of Marvel’s character.
Marvel clearly values her friends,
and she shows some compassion for
the people who need her help. But
ultimately, the bonds of love and
friendship never become the bedrock
of her strength and her mission.
This central message comes through
in the climactic battle scene between
Marvel and her greatest enemy.
Knocked to the ground, she has flashbacks
to all the times she has fallen
down in life. Then comes the crucial
turning point: Marvel regains her
strength by remembering how after
each fall, she herself picked herself
back up.
The moment offers some healthy
affirmation that perseverance leads
to victory, but it also reinforces the
questionable notion that Marvel can
win the battle alone. What helps her
unleash her full power as a superhero
is not interpersonal love but solitary
independence.
Because that is the foundation of her
heroism, the movie lacks moments of
true self-gift. Once Marvel has made
her flashiest display as a strong and
independent woman, she wins the
battle with ease.
Her powerful fists save the day, and
by the end of the movie, our heroine
has hardly developed beyond the sassy,
kick-butt captain she was when we
first met her. She gave a cordial nod
to companionship and affection, but it
neither transformed nor defined her.
Admittedly, such an impersonal
model of female heroism is hardly
surprising. Hollywood, riding the tide
of pop culture, hesitates to highlight
compassion, tenderness, and self-sacrifice
as heroic traits.
Why? The answer is simple: Those
are the signature qualities of motherhood,
which today is far more often
equated with weakness than heroism.
To be considered “strong,” women
are expected to suppress their emotions
— as Marvel is instructed to do
throughout the film — and cultivate
an ambition for self-promotion and
public accomplishment.
To be taken seriously, they are encouraged
to match masculine strength,
rather than embrace their unique
capacity as women to give, nurture,
and protect life.
Indeed, that standard of emotionless
prowess is the model of “strength” that
Captain Marvel embodies. The most
emotional vulnerability we see from
her is a single tear that trickles down
her face right in the middle of her
most intense battle.
The challenge of the female superhero
movie is both to present an action-packed
plot with impressive stunts
from the protagonist and to distinguish
that protagonist from any other male
superhero who could have pulled off
the same physical feats.
The only way to do that is to celebrate
the woman’s signature qualities
as woman. And those qualities stem
“Ultimately, the bonds of love and friendship
never become the bedrock of Captain
Marvel’s strength and her mission.”
from her biological and psychological
knack for forging personal, life-giving,
and life-saving bonds.
It’s a tricky feat, but not impossible.
We’ve seen it before in a handful of
dazzling performances, from Miranda
Otto’s Éowyn in “The Lord of the
Rings” to Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince in
“Wonder Woman.”
Those characters had to learn that
their feminine genius was actually
their greatest asset to their heroism, not
a hindrance. Their ability to serve others
through both combative skill and
tender compassion made them stand
out as not just heroes who happened
to be women but as heroic women.
“Captain Marvel” is certainly an example
of flashy female toughness, but
if you’re looking for a model of actual
girl power, look elsewhere.
Sophia Buono is a writer living in
Arlington, Virginia.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 27

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
A well-deserved standing ovation
At the Paley, beloved old TV stars and shows come back to life
From a recent email sent by my little brother Joe:
“Hey aged relative — do you have [our brother] Ross’
address? I bought Allen [our nephew] a signed 8-by-
10 glossy of Martin Milner from ‘Adam-12.’ I know he likes
the show.”
Me: “Who’s Martin Milner?”
Joe: “Martin Milner? Are you tripping? Pete Malloy from
Adam-12? The greatest cop show in the history of TV? Late
’60s, early ’70s? It was produced by Jack Webb, so there’s all
sorts of killer episodes of stoned hippy parents who beat their
children to death or let them drown while they’re smoking
marijuana cigarettes. Funny as hell.”
My own TV watching came to a screeching halt right
around the time “Mr. Ed” completed its run. Still, I dearly
wish my brother (who heads up a punk band called The
Queers) lived in LA.
For here’s a fun thing to do on the Westside: The Paley
Center for Media, smack in the middle of Beverly Hills.
Good news: The Paley has free parking (look sharp and
enter on Little Santa Monica, just west of Beverly) and is
itself free (suggested donation $10).
The minute you step up to the desk, one of the welcoming
ladies there will usher you over to a camera, shove a mic in
your hand, and snap a promote-the-Paley pic.
It’s Black History Month at the Paley. You could hang out
in the spacious lobby, chock-full of exhibits and accompanying
screens documenting the history of African Americans
on television: Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams
in “Amos ’n’ Andy,” Jackie Robinson, Cicely Tyson, Oprah
Winfrey. You could learn that 2019 marks the 60th anniversary
of the founding of Motown.
You could duck into the ground-level theater and watch a
documentary about the wildly popular-in-its-day TV show
“Soul Train” — which ran for 35 years, from 1971 to 2006,
and claimed to be the “longest running first-run, nationally
syndicated program in American television history” until
“Wheel of Fortune” caught up in 2018.
The Paley is a happening place. Along with its counterpart
in New York City, it “leads the discussion about the
cultural, creative, and social significance of television,
radio, and emerging platforms for the professional community
and media-interested public.”
The John H. Mitchell Theater is “ideal for screenings,
press conferences, seminars, and award shows.” The Grant
28 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019

Angelus contributor Heather King in her “promote-the-Paley” picture.
COURTESY HEATHER KING
The Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles.
© GRANT MUDFORD
A. Tinker Board Room is “a great location for board meetings,
small events, staff retreats, and off-site meetings.”
There are screenings, kids’ events, and the upcoming Paley-
Fest LA: “See TV’s Hottest Stars In Person March 15-24 at
the Dolby Theater!” This includes a “Parks and Recreation
Reunion,” “An Evening with Stephen Colbert,” “The Marvelous
Mrs. Maisel,” and “Star Trek: Discovery.”
But what you really want to do is go upstairs to the library,
which houses 160,000 old TV shows, movies, documentaries,
newscasts, after-school specials, Olympic finals, and
Lord knows what else.
Here you will approach Martin, a guide whose name is spoken
in hushed tones around the Center and who apparently
knows everything. He will lead you past the Al Hirschfeld
drawings of “celebrity legends” that line the walls, usher you
to the viewing area, set you up at a console, point out the
headphones and the volume, and leave you on your own.
Fittingly for Black History Month, the particular show I’d
come to watch was a 1992 A&E documentary called “We
Sing and We Dance,” about the Nicholas Brothers. I’d
stumbled upon this spectacular duo the week before while
watching a trailer for “Stormy Weather” (1943) with Lena
Horne.
I learned that Fayard (1914-2006) and Howard (1921-2000)
Nicholas came from a Philadelphia family of musicians, entertainers,
and vaudevillians. Neither had any formal dance
training. They started making a splash as kids, were courted
as young adults by Hollywood, and ended up touring the
U.S. and later Europe for years.
Gene Kelly, Michael Jackson, Georges Balanchine, and
Mikhail Baryshnikov issued the highest accolades. “Genius,”
the brothers were called, and “pure class.” Members of
today’s black dance community averred: “They inspired us.”
“They were the link in the chain.”
They were also shamefully and systematically discriminated
against. Doors that would have been thrown open for whites
were slammed in their faces. Opportunities that, in light of
their stupendous talent, might otherwise have made them
household words, wilted on the vine and died.
Fred Astaire himself once called the Nicholas Brothers’
Jumpin’ Jive routine from “Stormy Weather” the greatest
dance number ever filmed. In elegant black tails, they tap
dance across the band’s music stands, leapfrog each other
down a set of stairs, landing each time in a split, leap to their
feet (“No hands, Ma!”), and in general combine tap, ballet,
gymnastics, acrobatics, ballroom dancing, jazz, and a fillip of
circus into a “genre” that far transcends any mere label like
“flash dancing.”
As Maurice Hines observed: “Anyone’s who’s got any emotion
and truth in themselves will respond and give them the
standing ovation they deserve.”
Amen, brother.
Plus, I noted with satisfaction before leaving, the Paley
Center has several episodes of “Adam-12.”
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.
March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29

30 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019