Angelus News | August 16-23-30, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 28

ANGELUS
‘WE’RE HERE NOW’
LA teens set out to
build a City of Saints
August 16-23-30, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 28

Contents
Archbishop Gomez 3 The mission to teach and reach ‘digital natives’ at this year’s C3 14
World, Nation and Local News 4-6
Photos: Seven transitional deacons ordained for LA 18
LA Catholic Events 7 Inés San Martín: Argentine priests see pope’s paternal heart in new letter 20
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8 What Dorothy Day saw in ‘the worthy poor’ that society didn’t 22
Father Rolheiser 9
The story of ‘Dagger John,’ an immigrant archbishop 26
Robert Brennan: The harvest of destruction behind El Paso and Dayton 28
Quentin Tarantino goes for an existential ride in Hollywood 30
Heather King on the mini-documentary ‘Dancing at the Vatican’ 32

ON THE COVER
A teen raises her hands in worship at this year’s City of Saints conference. Held at UCLA Aug. 2-4 this year, the
gathering brought Catholic youth from around Los Angeles for a weekend of prayer, reflection, and discussion.
On Page 10, Natalie Romano hears from young people who came away from the experience ready to answer
God’s call to holiness start anew in their families, schools, workplaces, and of course, their city.
ISABEL CACHO
IMAGE: Photos posted to social media from the
City of Saints teen conference came
together to form a real-life mosaic in
the likeness of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
LUSTER

ANGELUS
August 16-23-30, 2019 | Vol.4 • No.28
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POPE WATCH
Populism and prudence
In a new interview, Pope Francis
warned of the dangers of surging nationalism
and isolationist sentiments
in the face of Europe’s immigration
crisis.
The pope’s comments came in an
interview posted Aug. 9 by Vatican
Insider, the online news supplement
to the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
“I am worried because you hear
speeches that resemble those by Hitler
in 1934. ‘Us first, We... We. ...’ ” the
Holy Father remarked. Such thinking,
he said, “is frightening.”
Asked about the dangers of “sovereignism,”
or nationalism, the pope
said it represented an attitude of
“isolation” and closure.
“A country must be sovereign, but
not closed” inside itself, said Francis,
who gave the interview on Aug. 6, the
41st anniversary of the death of St.
Pope Paul VI.
National sovereignty, he said, “must
be defended, but relations with other
countries, with the European community,
must also be protected and
promoted.”
“Sovereignism,” on the other hand,
is something that goes “too far” and
“always ends badly — it leads to war.”
When asked about populism, the
pope said it was one thing for people
to be able to express their concerns,
but quite another “to impose a populist
attitude on the people.”
“The people are sovereign,” with
their own way of thinking, feeling,
judging, and expressing themselves,
he said, “while populism leads to
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forms of sovereignism. That suffix,
‘-ism,’ is never good.”
Asked about “the right path to take
when it comes to migrants,” the pope
said, “First and foremost, never neglect
the most important right of all:
the right to life.”
“Immigrants come above all to
escape from war or hunger from the
Middle East and Africa,” he said.
When it comes to war, “we must
make an effort and fight for peace,”
and invest in Africa in ways that help
the people “resolve their problems
and thus stop the migration flows.”
Concerning immigrants already in
one’s home country, certain “criteria
must be followed,” he said.
“First, to receive, which is also a
Christian, Gospel duty. Doors should
be opened, not closed. Second, to accompany.
Third, to promote. Fourth,
to integrate” the newcomers.
“At the same time, governments
must think and act prudently, which
is a virtue of government. Those in
charge are called to think about how
many migrants can be taken in.”
If that threshold is reached, “the
situation can be resolved through dialogue
with other countries” because
some countries need people, especially
for working in agriculture or for
reviving their economy and breathing
new life into “half-empty towns” because
of low birthrates, he said.
Reporting courtesy of Catholic News
Service Rome correspondent Carol
Glatz.
Papal Prayer Intention for August: That families, through their life of prayer
and love, become ever more clearly “schools of true human growth.”
@Angelus
News
www.la-archdiocese.org
@Angelus
News
2 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
After El Paso
All week long, I’ve been praying and
reflecting on the mass shootings in
California, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.
El Paso hit me in a personal way. My
family is Mexican and American, and
we trace our roots back to the early
1800s in what is now Texas. I lived
much of my adult life there, including
my five years as Archbishop of San
Antonio.
But El Paso is more than personal.
With El Paso a line has been crossed
in our nation.
In recent years, we have seen the evil
of African Americans being targeted
in racist terror attacks, notably with
the church shooting in Charleston,
South Carolina, in 2015. With El
Paso, for the first time, a massacre
has been carried out in the name of
stopping Mexican migration.
In the 22 dead in El Paso, and the
two dozen more wounded, in the
children left with no parents, in the
shattered security of a peaceful border
town, we are left with some hard
questions about what our nation is
becoming.
If “white nationalism” is on the rise,
it is a sign of how far we have fallen
from the Christian universalism of our
nation’s founding ideals.
In Jesus Christ, there is no Mexican
or black, no Vietnamese, Chinese,
Korean or Filipino, no Russian or Italian,
African or Salvadoran, no migrant
or native-born.
In Jesus Christ, there are only
children of God, made in his image,
temples of the Holy Spirit, endowed
by their Creator with dignity and
equality and human rights that must
be protected and that no one can
violate.
The humanity of others is never
negotiable. Men and women do not
become less than human, less a child
of God because they are “undocumented.”
Yet, in our nation, it has
become common to hear migrants
talked about and treated as if they are
somehow beneath caring about.
White nationalism and domestic
terrorism are nothing new, sadly.
The killings in El Paso will take their
place alongside the crackdowns on
Japanese-Americans during World
War II, the bombings of churches in
the Jim Crow South, the lynchings of
Mexicans in Texas that continued into
the 1920s, among many other shameful
episodes from our past.
But the myth that America was
founded by and for white people is
just that — a myth.
This land was born as an encounter
of cultures, first with Native
Americans. Hispanics arrived in
Texas in 1519. Asians started arriving
in California about 50 years before
the pilgrims made it to Plymouth
Rock.
The first non-native language spoken
in this continent was Spanish, not
English. And this country has always
been renewed, again and again, by
successive waves of immigrants from
every nation on earth.
This is the truth about America. But
right now there is fear and division
because our nation is changing.
There are more and more cities, like
El Paso and Los Angeles, where racial
and ethnic minorities now outnumber
Americans of European descent.
Whites account for less than half of
the children being born in America
today.
There is genuine anxiety for the
future, as the economy continues to
change and dislocate people, driven
by the forces of globalization and
automation. Worldwide, we see the
mass migrations of poor people seeking
refuge in richer nations — people
driven from their homes by violence
and instability in their homelands.
These are the realities of the world
we live in and they will only intensify.
The question for us is how will we
respond.
Jesus calls us to find him in the poor
and the migrant, the prisoner, the
homeless, and the sick. He calls us to
love others as ourselves, to love others
as he loves us. The love we show to
those who come to us seeking a new
life is the love we show to Christ. He
does not make exceptions for only the
“deserving poor” or for those with the
proper papers.
After El Paso, it is clear that this is
our mission. We need to help our
society to see our common humanity
— that we are all children of God,
meant to live together as brothers and
sisters, no matter the color of our skin,
the language we speak, or the place
we were born.
The way we honor the lives taken at
El Paso is to live with true Christian
love — and to live for the vision of
America that their killer denied.
Pray for me this week, and I will pray
for you.
And let us implore our Blessed
Mother to intercede for us, that we
may build an America that is still a
beacon of hope for peoples of every
country, who look to this nation for
refuge, for freedom and equality
under God.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Polish bishops:
Don’t turn
‘equality’ into
ideology
Poland’s bishops are
standing their ground
and preaching against
“LGBT ideology” as
activists plan a series of
“equality parades” and
campaign for same-sex
marriage in the predominantly
Catholic
country.
LGBT rights activists
have accused bishops
of inciting violence
against demonstrators
and encouraging
discrimination by
rejecting same-sex
marriage and supporting
morality clauses
that keep LGBT
staffers from working
in Catholic schools.
But the president of
the Polish bishops’
conference said the
tough language used
by some of his brother
bishops is not about
rejecting people.
“People belonging to
milieus of the so-called
sexual minorities are
our brothers and sisters
for whom Christ gave
his life and whom he
wants also to be saved,”
said Archbishop
Stanislaw Gadecki in
an Aug. 8 statement.
“Respect for specified
individuals cannot,
however, lead to the
acceptance of an
ideology that aims to
revolutionize social
customs and interpersonal
relationships.”
The Shroud of Turin on display in 2015.
Could Shroud forgery
claims be phony?
A new study raises serious doubts about
the credibility of claims that the piece
of fabric traditionally believed to be the
burial cloth of Christ is a fake.
An international team of scientists analyzed
raw data collected in a 1988 report
based on radiocarbon tests that dated it to
between 1260 and 1390, thus implying it
was a forgery.
Their conclusion: that the 1988 carbon
dating was unreliable, as only pieces
from the edges of the cloth were tested.
One scientist said the sample studied was
from “the worst possible sample location”
An apostolic discovery
in Galilee
In A.D. 725, a Bavarian bishop wrote
about seeing the church of Peter and
his brother Andrew in Bethsaida. In the
following centuries the church was lost,
but may have just been found.
Archaeologists studying in the Bteikha
Nature Reserve by the Sea of Galilee,
where the village of Bethsaida once stood,
believe they have found the ruins of the
fabled “Church of the Apostles” where
Peter and Andrew once lived.
The remains of what appear to be a
large Byzantine-era church, with mosaic
to test, which had been damaged in a
16th-century fire.
“The tested samples are obviously heterogeneous
from many different dates,”
Tristan Casabianca, head of the research
project, told the National Catholic
Register.
“There is no guarantee that all these
samples, taken from one end of the
shroud, are representative of
the whole fabric. It is, therefore,
impossible to conclude that the
Shroud of Turin dates from the Middle
Ages.”
“New tests, with robust protocols, are
needed,” Casabianca continued. “We
have to learn from the failure of the 1988
carbon dating.”
tiles and marble fragments of a chancel
screen, have been discovered, pointing to
the site of an important Byzantine-period
Church.
The archaeologists have found nothing
to refute the historical tradition that
would place this find at the site of Peter
and Andrew’s house.
“No other churches have been found
between those two towns,” said Mordechai
Aviam, one of the archaeologists
on the project.
The church has yet to be precisely
dated, but initial signs point to a fifth-century
construction date. The church was
likely abandoned in the seventh or eighth
century.
AFP/GETTY IMAGES/MARCO BERTORELLO
4 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

NATION
A country in
eucharistic disbelief?
According to a July 23 report from the Pew
Research Center, only half of U.S. Catholics
knew that the Church teaches that the Eucharist
actually becomes — rather than is a symbol
of — the Body and Blood of Jesus.
In a follow-up report, Pew further reported
that only one-third of Catholics believe what
the Church teaches about the Eucharist.
In synthesizing these statistics, the second report
read: “One in five Catholics (22 percent)
reject the idea of transubstantiation [the technical
term for the bread and wine becoming
the Body and Blood of Christ], even though
they know about the Church’s teaching.”
When adjusted for regular Mass attendance,
the number of Catholics who believe in
transubstantiation doubles to about six in 10
(63 percent), leaving still more than a third (37
percent) of regular Mass attendees who don’t
believe in the Church teaching of the
Eucharist.
Fund to help families
after Mississippi raids
Catholic Extension will be helping families
left without their main financial supporter in
Mississippi, where U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement arrested 680 people in raids
at various food-processing plants Aug. 7.
The Chicago-based organization said it would
begin fundraising to benefit those in need
through its “Holy Family Fund,” a program
launched earlier this year to help families left
without their main breadwinner because of
detention or deportation.
Joe Boland, vice president of mission at
Catholic Extension, said the raids cause “massive
chaos” rather than prevent it, as parents are
forcibly removed from their children.
“This is not only bad for these families and
bad for the Church, to which many of the
detainees belong, but it is especially bad for the
future of our society,” he said. “When we break
up families, no one wins.”
More information about the organization is
available at www.catholicextension.org.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
LONE STAR SORROW — Curtis Reliford kneels next to a cross Aug. 5 in
honor of Jordan Anchondo (correct spelling), one of the 22 victims of a
mass shooting two days earlier at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Anchondo
and her husband died protecting their 2-month-old son, who survived
the shooting. Since 1996, cross builder Greg Zanis of Aurora, Illinois, has
delivered free of charge more than 26,000 wooden memorials at the site
of mass murders and other tragedies across the U.S.
A Knight to remember
Kendrick Castillo (right) with his father John
at a Knights of Columbus function before his
death.
Before giving his life
to protect students during
a school shooting
in Highland Ranch,
Colorado, Kendrick
Castillo had scheduled
his official entry into
the Knights of Columbus.
During the order’s
annual gathering in
Minneapolis, that goal
became a reality.
The order’s Supreme
Council unanimously
voted to admit the 18-year-old hero into its order during its
first business session Aug. 8. Castillo is the first person to be
posthumously made a full, rather than an honorary, member
of the Knights of Columbus.
Before his death, Castillo had joined his father in more than
2,600 hours of volunteer service with the Knights of Columbus.
Castillo was also awarded the Knights of Columbus’ Caritas
Medal, the order’s second highest honor.
“Kendrick Castillo lived and died by this principle [charity],”
said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson at the award ceremony.
“There are those who say we don’t have heroes anymore.
Tonight’s recipient of our Caritas Award proved that we do
have heroes.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/CALLAGHAN O’HARE, REUTERS
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
Abortion pill bill attempts comeback
California’s bishops are joining Archbishop José H. Gomez in asking
Catholics to help stop legislation that would require state colleges and universities
to provide free access to abortion pills for students.
State Bill 24, which also invites student health centers to offer abortion
counseling services to students, was approved by the Senate Health Committee
in June and is now headed to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
“We should defeat this bill and work to find new ways to truly help
pregnant women and working mothers trying to continue their education,”
Archbishop Gomez wrote in the previous issue of Angelus.
The bill is a slightly amended version of State Bill 320, which former Gov.
Jerry Brown vetoed last year before leaving office.
“It is unnecessary and only serves to further indoctrinate the young to the
ideology of abortion,” wrote Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento of SB 24 in
a July 24 letter to faithful. “The womb should not become a tomb for any
child anywhere in our state. Women and children deserve better.”
In addition to contacting their elected representatives, both Bishop Soto
and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco asked Catholics in
their dioceses to pray an Aug. 3-11 novena for the intercession of Our Lady
of Guadalupe to stop the bill.
Pope Francis, meet
the mayor
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
discussed climate change, young
people, poverty, and immigration
with Pope Francis in a private
audience at the Vatican.
“I’m so grateful to Pope Francis
for the deep and humbling honor
of meeting with me at the Vatican
today,” Garcetti said in a statement
after the Aug. 9 meeting.
“I was moved by his inspired
words about matters that will
shape the future of our world,
and to have the chance to speak
to him about our mutual work
to save this planet and serve our
fellow human beings.”
According to Garcetti, the Holy
Father “shared greetings for the
people of Los Angeles” during
their encounter.
“We are grateful for his grace,
his prayers, and a message of
faith, love, understanding, and
cooperation that brings peace and
comfort to people everywhere,”
Garcetti said of Francis in his
statement.
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
Correction
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
RENEWED AND REBUILT — Archbishop José H. Gomez blesses parishioners with holy
water at the dedication Mass for the newly remodeled Our Lady of the Assumption Church
in Claremont Saturday, Aug. 10. A capital campaign to renovate the church had garnered
pledges of $5.1 million since 2015 under the leadership of Father Charles Ramirez, pastor.
Construction work over the last year included a new roof as well as a redesigned and
refurbished interior.
The sub-headline of R.W.
Dellinger’s article “Thank you
Guardian Angels” on Page 16
of the Aug. 2-9 issue of Angelus
incorrectly described the Circle
V Ranch Camp as belonging to
Catholic Charities. The camp
is operated by the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul, not Catholic
Charities.
6 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

LA Catholic Events
Items for LA Catholic Events are due two weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be mailed to Angelus News (Attn: LA Catholic Events), 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241; emailed to
calendar@angelusnews.com; or faxed to 213-637-6360. All items must include the name, date, time, and address of the event, plus a phone number for additional information.
Fri., Aug. 16
Office of Life, Justice and Peace Bi-Annual Regional
Meeting: San Fernando. St. Mel Church, 20870
Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, parish center, 7-9 p.m.
Special guest: Bishop Alex Aclan.
Carmelite Spirituality with Father Matthias Lambrecht,
OCD. 920 E. Alhambra Rd., Alhambra. Retreat
runs Fri., Aug. 16, 5 p.m.-Sun., Aug. 18, 1 p.m. Father
Matthias will guide the retreat, which includes spiritual
conferences, the sacrament of reconciliation,
eucharistic adoration, Mass, and time for personal
reflection. This retreat is open to men and women.
Call 626-289-1353, ext. 203. Register at sacredheartretreathouse.com
or email sjcprogcoodinator@
carmelitesistersocd.com.
Sat., Aug. 17
Magnificat — A Ministry to Catholic Women Prayer
Meal. Odyssey Restaurant, 15600 Odyssey Dr.,
Granada Hills, 10 a.m. Father Aristotle Quan talks
about the Holy Land conversion that led him to the
priesthood. Cost: $33/person. Check payable to Magnificat
and mailed to 29122 Florabunda Rd., Canyon
Country, CA 91387. RSVP online at magnificatsfv.org
or call Teri Thompson at 805-527-3745.
Foster Care and Adoption 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 by calling 213-342-0162, toll free at
800-730-3933, or email RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.
ADLA Passport Workshop. San Gabriel Mission, 428
S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Open to
anyone who needs to apply for a new U.S. passport.
Participants can ask questions and apply. Trained
staff from U.S. Department of State, Bureau of
Consular Affairs (Passport Office) will be on-site to
answer questions. To set up an appointment, visit
https://thenextamerica.org/passport/. For more information,
call the Office of Life, Justice and Peace at
213-637-7632.
38th Claretian Alumni Reunion. Dominguez
Seminary, 18127 S. Alameda, Rancho Dominguez, 10
a.m.-4 p.m. Mass and BBQ honoring Class of 1969
and Father Richard DeTore. Call Bob Loera at 626-
533-0511.
The Gift of Peace in a Chaotic World: How to Proceed
from Desolation to Consolation. LMU Jesuit
Community Chapel and Garden, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Day
of reflection with Randy Roche, SJ, and Anne Hansen.
Includes lunch. RSVP ahansen@ignatianswest.org or
call 310-338-2358.
Job Workshop. St. Louis of France Church, 13935
E. Temple Ave., La Puente, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Speaker: David Salinas, MBA. Free event hosted by
Nueva Creation de Dios with interview coaching.
Feel free to bring laptop or résumé. Visit NuevaCreacionDeDios.org
or call Connie at 323-636-4720 for
more information.
Sun., Aug. 18
Summer Serenade Mass, Reception, Concert and
Dinner. Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 5300 Crest
Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 4-8 p.m. Enjoy a lovely
summer evening beginning with Mass celebrated by
Bishop Marc Trudeau. A reception follows featuring
music by the Cattus String Trio, performing classical
and contemporary compositions, followed by
an elegant dinner and dessert. Donation: $100/person.
Reservations required by Aug. 13. Call Marlene
Velazquez at 310-377-4867, ext. 234 for reservations
or information.
Mon., Aug. 19
St. Padre Pio Healing Mass. St. Anne Church,
340 10th St., Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Call 562-537-4526.
Healing Mass. St. Linus Church, 13915 Shoemaker
Ave., Norwalk, 7:30 p.m. Celebrant: Father Bill Delaney.
Mission on the Angels. Sacred Heart Chapel, 381
W. Center St., Covina. Three nights of recollection,
Aug. 19-21, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Mass, conferences, confession,
and an opportunity after one year to consecrate
oneself to his/her guardian angel. Encourage
your youth and young adults to attend. No charge or
pre-registration. Call 877-526-2151.
Tues., Aug. 20
Office of Life, Justice and Peace Bi-Annual Regional
Meeting: OLA. St. Paul the Apostle Church, 10750
Ohio Ave., Los Angeles, parish hall, 7-9 p.m.
Wed., Aug. 21
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.
Thur., Aug. 22
An Evening at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat
Center with Father Michael Fish. 700 N. Sunnyside
Ave., Sierra Madre, 6:30 p.m. Father Fish invites us
to look at the importance and power of symbol and
name and how they can offer a new, wholesome approach
to the divine, to life and harmony. Cost: $35/
person and includes a light supper. For more information
or to purchase tickets, visit https://materdolorosa.org/an-evening-with-fr-michael-fish/,
call
Jeanne Warlick at 626-355-7188, ext. 103, or email
jwarlick@materdolorosa.org.
Retreat on the Angels. Prince of Peace Abbey, 650
Benet Hill Rd., Oceanside. Retreat will be led by Father
Matthew Hincks and Father John Brohl. Retreat
offered three times: Aug. 8-11, 15-18, and 22-25,
from 4 p.m., Thur. to 1 p.m., Sun. Cost: $330/single,
$300/double and includes room and three meals per
day. For more information, call the Opus Angelorum
office at 330-969-9900. To register, visit opusangelorum.org.
Fri., Aug. 23
Men’s Silent Weekend Retreat. 920 E. Alhambra Rd.,
Alhambra. Retreat runs from Fri., Aug. 23 at 5 p.m. to
Sun., Aug. 25 at 1 p.m. Led by Father James B. Farnan,
join other men who are striving to live out heroic
virtue and grow as spiritual leaders of their families.
Limited scholarship funds available. To register visit
sacredheartretreathouse.com, call 626-289-1353,
ext. 2204, or email retreatcoordinator@carmelitesistersocd.com.
Tacji in Concert. Holy Name of Mary Church, 724 E.
Bonita Ave., San Dimas, 7 p.m. Tacji (Tatiana) Cameron,
an award-winning music artist, singer/songwriter,
inspirational speaker, life coach and mom,
will inspire and evangelize through her music and
personal testimony. Sponsored by the Sacred Hearts
Secular Branch, proceeds benefit its evangelization
efforts and charitable endeavors. Tickets available
at the door for a suggested donation of $20/person.
For more information, call Jacki at 760-956-
8620, Stephany at 909-260-2033, or email sacredheartssb@ymail.com.
Mon., Sept. 30
Junipero Serra High School: Dedication to Excellence
and Celebration of the Arts. 14830 Van Ness
Ave., Gardena, 5-8 p.m. Event honors poet, former
chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and
former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia ’69. For
more information, contact Vince Kates at 310-324-
6675 ext. 3010 or email vbkates@la-serrahs.org.
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.
• Robert Brennan on the Area 51 craze, and why rushing in might be a bad idea.
• Kathryn Lopez and Danielle Bean on principles for living as authentically
Catholic women today.
• Grazie Christie reflects on the secret to 25 years of wedded bliss.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Jer. 38:4–6, 8–10 / Ps. 40:2–4, 18 / Heb. 12:1–4 / Lk. 12:49–53
Our God is a consuming
fire, Scripture tells us
(see Heb. 12:29; Deut.
4:24).
And in this week’s Gospel,
Jesus uses the image
of fire to describe the
demands of discipleship.
The fire he has come
to cast on the earth is
the fire that he wants
to blaze in each of our
hearts. He made us from
the dust of the earth (see
Gen. 2:7), and filled us
with the fire of the Holy
Spirit in baptism (see Lk.
3:16).
We were baptized into
his death (see Rom. 6:3).
This is the baptism our
Lord speaks of in the
Gospel this week. The
baptism with which he
must be baptized is his
passion and death, by
which he accomplished
our redemption and sent
forth the fire of the Spirit on the earth
(see Acts 2:3).
The fire has been set, but it is not yet
blazing. We are called to enter deeper
into the consuming love of God. We
must examine our consciences and
our actions, submitting ourselves to
the revealing fire of God’s word (see 1
Cor. 3:13).
In our struggle against sin, we have
not yet resisted to the point of shedding
our own blood, Paul tells us
in this week’s Epistle. We have not
undergone the suffering that Jeremiah
suffers in the First Reading this week.
But this is what true discipleship
requires. To be a disciple is to be
“Christ Teaching,” artist unknown, Anglo-Saxon, maybe Canterbury,
England, circa A.D. 1,000.
inflamed with the love of God. It is
to have an unquenchable desire for
holiness and zeal for the salvation of
our brothers and sisters.
Being his disciple does not bring
peace in the false way that the world
proclaims peace (see Jer. 8:11). It
means division and hardship. It may
bring us into conflict with our own
flesh and blood.
But Christ is our peace (see Eph.
2:14). By his cross, he has lifted us up
from the mire of sin and death — as
he will rescue the prophet Jeremiah
(see Jer. 38:10).
And as we sing in the Psalm this
week, we trust in our deliverer.
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
GETTY MUSEUM
8 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Divine understanding
Years ago at a symposium on faith
and evangelization, one of the speakers
made a rather startling statement.
She, a Christian activist, ended her
presentation with words to this effect:
I work for the poor and I do it out of
my Christian faith. I’m committed to
this because of Jesus, but I can go for
three years on the streets without ever
mentioning his name because I believe
that God is mature enough that he
doesn’t demand to be the center of our
conscious attention all the time.
Like many others in the audience,
I’d never heard a spiritual writer or
preacher ever say this so bluntly. I’d
heard biblical scholars speak of God’s
self-emptying in the incarnation, of
Christ’s burying himself into anonymity,
and of God’s patience in being ignored,
but I’d never heard anyone say
so plainly that God doesn’t mind that
we don’t give him explicit attention
for long periods of time.
But is this true? Is God OK with this
kind of neglect?
There’s an important truth here,
though only if it’s sufficiently qualified.
Taken as it stands, this can
be used to justify too many things
(spiritual laziness, selfishness, excessive
self-preoccupation, culpable
resistance to deeper thought, excessive
procrastination with what’s important,
and countless other things) that are
not good.
But here’s its truth: God understands!
God is a loving parent who
understands the inattentiveness and
self-preoccupation of his children.
God has not put us into this life primarily
to see if we can keep our attention
focused on him all the time. God
intended for us to immerse ourselves
in the things of this world without
forgetting that these things are, at the
end of the day, passing and that we’re
destined for a life beyond this world.
We’re not on this earth to always
think of the eternal, though we’re not
on earth either to forget the eternal.
However, because the unexamined
life is less than human, we also need
to have moments where we try to
make God the center of our conscious
awareness. We need regular moments
of explicit prayer, of meditation, of
contemplation, of worship, of Sabbath,
of explicit acknowledgement of
God and of explicit gratitude to God.
We do need moments when we
make ourselves consciously aware that
there is a next life, an eternal one,
beyond this present one.
But, in the end, that’s not in competition
with or in contradiction to
our natural focus on the things of this
life, namely, our relationships, our
families, our work, our concerns for
health, and our natural focus on news,
sports, entertainment, and enjoyment.
These are what naturally draw our
attention and, done in goodwill and
honesty, will in the end help push our
attention toward the deeper things
and eventually toward God.
For example, the famed Italian
monk, Carlo Carretto, shares this
story: After living many years alone
as a hermit in the Sahara Desert and
spending countless hours in prayer
and meditation, he went back to Italy
to visit his mother.
She had raised a large family and
had gone through years of her life
when she was too burdened with
responsibility and duty to spend much
time in explicit prayer.
What Carretto discovered, to his
surprise, was that she was more contemplative
than he was, not because
all those hours of explicit prayer as
a monk weren’t good, but because
all those selfless tasks his mother did
in raising her family and caring for
others were very good.
And God understands this. God understands
that we’re human, spiritually
frail, busy, and instinctually geared
toward the things of this world so that
we don’t naturally move toward prayer
and church, and that even when
we are at prayer or in church, we’re
generally still distracted, tired, bored,
impatient, and longing for prayer and
church to be over with.
It’s not easy to keep God as the
center of our conscious attention,
but God both knows this and is not
unsympathetic.
Kate Bowler, a professor of the history
of Christianity, coming at this from
the Mennonite tradition, comments
on what the Church calls “Ordinary
Time,” that is, those times during the
year when, unlike the Advent, Lenten,
Christmas, or Easter seasons, there is
nothing special to celebrate.
What happens then? Well, what happens
then is that things get “ordinary”:
“There is no birth at the manger or
death on the cross, just the ponderous
pace of people singing, praying, and
keeping their kids quiet during the
sermon. The magic fades and reveals
the Church for what it is: a plain
people in a boring building who meet
until kickoff.”
Yes, most of the time that’s us, plain
people in boring buildings waiting
for the kickoff. And God understands
perfectly.
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 9

Not just sitting around
How to heal a broken world? Teens at this year’s City of Saints
came away with a few answers and a lot of encouragement
BY NATALIE ROMANO / ANGELUS
In a room aglow with candles and
images of the saints, Michael
Weaver kneeled before a monstrance
and gazed upon it with
awe. It was a moment that the 16-yearold
sparked a profound realization
about his faith.
“I found that love is truly the message
of Catholicism,” said Weaver, a
parishioner of St. Joseph Church in
Long Beach. “The same God that
died for our sins
and rose again
humbled himself
into a small monstrance
standing
in front of a
thousand sinners
simply because
of his love.”
It was one of
many sacred
moments experienced
at the
fifth annual City
of Saints Teen
Conference held
Aug. 2-4, where
more than 1,000
young people
from around the
Archdiocese of
Los Angeles converged on the campus
of UCLA to participate in the sacraments
of the Eucharist and reconciliation,
gather together in praise and
worship, and hear from an all-star
lineup of Catholic speakers.
The event, hosted by the archdiocese’s
Office of Religious Education,
was first conceived by Archbishop
José H. Gomez as a moment to help
local teenage Catholics deepen their
relationship with Christ. The idea of
living as saints was one of the themes
of the archbishop’s homily for the
Saturday night vigil Mass.
“My dear young friends, he is calling
each of you to be saints, to love with
all your heart and help your family
and friends to know God and his
mercy,” Archbishop Gomez told the
youths gathered inside UCLA’s Royce
Hall.
“And he is calling you to make this
world a ‘city of saints,’ to work with
all your strength and to use all your
Teens discuss the challenges of living a faithful life in today’s secular world with Archbishop José
H. Gomez at City of Saints’ “A conversation with young people” event Saturday, Aug. 3.
gifts to serve our brothers and sisters,
especially the poor.”
The day before, the archbishop also
celebrated the conference’s opening
Mass before leading a winding eucharistic
procession around the UCLA
campus concluding in eucharistic adoration.
His continued presence was
enjoyed in both informal and formal
activities throughout the weekend.
Standing on the main stage Friday
night, Archbishop Gomez was greeted
with shouts of “I love you!” from the
audience.
“As Pope Francis has said, you are
not the future, you are the present of
the Church,” Archbishop Gomez told
them, drawing boisterous “Amens”
and cheers.
This year’s gathering of Gen Zers,
those born between 1995 and 2015,
told Angelus News they’re active
parishioners ready to contribute more.
Take 18-year-old Grace Gasper from
St. Monica Church in Santa Monica.
“We’re not
just going to sit
around,” said
Gasper emphatically.
“We’re
volunteering at
our Thanksgiving
dinners for the
homeless, we’re
peer leaders in
our confirmation
groups. We’re
here now.”
But, she admitted,
that doesn’t
ISABEL CACHO
mean teens have
all the answers.
“You’re growing
up and you’re
still trying to figure
out ‘Do I believe
all of it? Am I a bad Catholic if
I don’t believe all of it?’ The speakers
here at City of Saints help us answer
some of those difficult questions.”
Chris Padgett, one of the keynote
speakers, tries to assist others by using
both humor and hope. The husband
and father of nine has spent the last
decade lecturing across the country
with his Gospel-centered message.
Padgett said he connects with teens
because painful memories of his own
childhood are still fresh.
“When I’m speaking to kids, I’m
10 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

Archbishop Gomez leads teens in a eucharistic procession through the campus of UCLA.
Teens kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass Saturday, Aug. 3.
VICTOR ALEMÁN VICTOR ALEMÁN
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 11

This year’s event included moments for praise and worship.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Keynote speaker Doug Tooke.
ISABEL CACHO
oftentimes speaking to that young me
that’s potentially in the audience,”
said Padgett. “I just want them to know
God sees them, cares about them, and
that they haven’t gone too far.”
Keynote speakers Katie Prejean
McGrady, Brian Greenfield, and
Doug Tooke also took to the stage to
impart words of encouragement. It
was the latter who gave 16-year-old
Sophia Lopez a lot to chew on.
“[Tooke] talked about how instead of
trying to fall in love with the experience
and feeling of worship, fall in
love with the reality of the tangible
Christ,” explained Lopez, also of St.
Joseph’s in Long Beach.
While Tooke had the teens talking,
Ike Ndolo had them rocking.
“We’re fixin’ to get rowdy!” shouted
the Christian singer as he launched
into one of his performances over
the weekend. Ndolo played in a rock
arena-like atmosphere complete with
flashing lights and a dance cam. (In
a “saintly” touch, the youths donned
illuminated halos.)
However, the upbeat mood of the
conference was interrupted Saturday
amid news of a mass shooting inside a
Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Archbishop
Gomez dedicated Saturday night’s
Mass to those impacted by the recent
violence. He then urged everyone
to pray for the victims and society at
large.
“I think we should also pray especially
for peace,” said Archbishop Gomez.
“Peace in the world, peace in our
country, that people may understand
that God wants to give us the gift of
peace and that we are open to that
special grace.”
Just hours later, there was news of
more carnage in another gun massacre
in Dayton, Ohio.
Isaac Plancarte, 16, believes faith can
stop the bloodshed.
“Our generation can hopefully
expand our Christianity to other people.
Hopefully this expansion could
resolve violence on the streets, that we
could go to God instead of resorting to
violence,” said Plancarte, who attends
All Souls Church in Alhambra.
Plancarte later spent time in the
Sacred Space, an area for quiet reflection
and reading.
Prayer walls gave teens the opportunity
to write down their hopes and
fears. Priests from around the archdiocese
were on hand for confession.
Plancarte said he confessed to be
closer to God.
“I felt more like God’s son, since
I think of him as wanting us to be
loving and joyful toward ourselves and
others.”
Plancarte wasn’t the only one wanting
to spread a positive vibe. Members
of a Hacienda Heights youth group
came wearing matching t-shirts and
“Free hugs” signs.
“We feel that our youth right now
need to support each other — no
judgment,” explained 17-year-old
Alexis Plata of St. John Vianney
Church. “Through hugging each
other we feel that love and support.”
Because sometimes, the teen acknowledged,
it’s hard to be a Catholic kid.
“It’s not necessarily cool to be Catholic
all the time because it means
that we’re called to love our enemies
— that’s not cool. We’re called to be
chaste — that’s not cool,” said Gasper,
“It’s kind of nerdy to say I love Jesus.”
Not to this crowd, which included
some who are considering religious
vocations.
“I think I would like to be a youth
minister or maybe enter the sisterhood,”
said 16-year-old Norah Kelley,
who attends St. Euphrasia Church
in Granada Hills. “I try to be open to
whatever the Lord is calling me for.”
Of course, not all were thinking
about religious life. Many came to the
conference with the concerns of daily
life. Sixteen-year-old Jaylene Andrade
wants more harmony at home.
“I feel like I’m going to take home
a lot of love for my family,” said the
parishioner of St. Elizabeth Ann
Seton Church in Rowland Heights.
“My brother and I are arguing, so I
feel like I’m going to be able to talk to
him now.”
This kind of growth is proof that God
is real, said Father Mike Perucho,
associate director of vocations for the
archdiocese. It shows that Jesus is
working through these young people.
“In many ways they [teens] become
12 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

that witness to all of us who are struggling
or finding it hard to believe,”
explained Perucho.
“If we can journey with them and
hear their stories, especially after this
weekend in many ways, we will be
truly moved.”
Perucho had the honor of placing
the last picture inside the City of
Saints selfie mosaic. All weekend,
teens were invited to post their photos
on Twitter. Those pictures were then
printed and turned into a colorful
Our Lady of Guadalupe. Faith-related
questions and the teen’s responses
were online as well.
Also new this year was a surprise
thank you to the nearly 60 participating
parishes in the form of those
saint icons in the Sacred Space,
which were handed out at the closing
ceremony.
“They were full of the Holy Spirit.
They were so pumped up,” said conference
coordinator Melinda Evangelista
of the attendees she saw leave
the gathering. “I’m overjoyed so many
young people from so many different
parishes were happy they attended
City of Saints.”
Fifteen-year-old Sandra Lopez was
one of them.
“It’s not just building my faith but
my character, who I am,” said Lopez,
who is a parishioner at St. Anthony
Church in San Gabriel. “I can respect
myself more.”
Andrade didn’t hesitate about returning
next year.
“I loved it, loved the worship. Definitely
will come back.”
Natalie Romano is a freelance writer
for Angelus and the Inland Catholic
Byte, the news website of the Diocese of
San Bernardino.
Teens from St. John Vianney Church in Hacienda Heights pose with Archbishop Gomez at the City
of Saints photo booth.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13

Bridging the digital gap
This year’s C3 focused on new ways to help Catholic
educators reach the ‘digital natives’ in their classrooms
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS
C3 attendees check out an iPad following a session with EdTechTeam’s Amanda Taylor.
JOHN MICHAEL FILIPPONE
Really, do you think you’re smarter
than a seventh-grader?
When Derek Brown, Sprint
telecommunications’ wireless solutions
engineering director, asked that
rhetorical question as the launching
point of his Aug. 6 keynote address
for the C3 Catholic Communication
Collaboration (C3CON19),
the hundreds of teachers, principals,
and administrators from around the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles inside the
Bishop Alemany High School gym listening
may have been wired to agree
with that premise.
Technically, there’s a catch.
Because of the variety of ways children
today have grown up absorbing
information from screens and devices
that impact the ways they learn, the
archdiocese’s ongoing initiative to expand
the use and access of high-tech
resources for 21st-century education
continues to be a vital part of sharing
information about best teaching
practices.
To kick off the three-day workshop
(where applications and scheduling
was 100 percent paperless), Archbishop
José H. Gomez said during his
morning prayer that “the C3 conference
is one of my priorities in the
archdiocese. It is important for us to
be there for the evangelization of the
digital continent.”
C3 project manager Paul Hernandez
said the event’s theme of “Bridge The
Gap” wasn’t meant to imply there is
any sort of large disconnect between
teachers and learners in today’s environment.
He said the goal of the event is not
simply to impart more knowledge
about how technology interfaces with
current teaching methods, but also
14 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

VICTOR ALEMÁN
to look at how to spread that information
through their schools on various
levels.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t
include the word ‘Tech’ in ‘Bridge
The Gap’ because technology is here
and it’s already happening, and we
don’t have to emphasize or focus just
on that anymore,” said Hernandez.
“Also, when you say ‘tech’ in this
instance, a principal might say, ‘Let
me send my tech director or computer
teacher.’ We want to take all those
walls down. This is for everyone in the
archdiocese.”
This year’s C3 drove that point home
by unveiling a new multipurpose
van available for use starting this fall
with elementary schools. The Maker
Vehicle will be able to tow a trailer
carrying a 3D printer, machines that
do heat transfers, and projects with
building blocks.
Archbishop Gomez blessed the van
after Tuesday’s keynote address, sprinkling
it with holy water, after which
Hernandez gleefully brought out a
bottle of champagne to spray it down
in celebration.
Archbishop José H. Gomez blesses the new Maker Vehicle.
Dozens of sessions were offered at
the eighth incarnation of C3, which
due to expanded participation this
year moved from the campus of Loyola
Marymount University to the new
site in the San Fernando Valley.
Some were as elementary as how
to fill out a school profile and create
a student-parent handbook on the
archdiocesan website. Others taught
advanced use of the Online Learning
Academy at the archdiocese, how
Participants in a session hosted by Paulette Donnellon of LEGO Education work on a project.
to use WorkSpace, STAR resources,
the Google Applied Digital Skills
curriculum and Microsoft Innovative
Educator. Interactive sessions focused
on how to make STEAM come alive
with the use of LEGO blocks.
During a presentation called “Teachers
Using Technology to Reach the
Digital Native,” Sherry Hayes-Peirce,
a Redondo Beach-based Catholic
social media strategist at ChurchSocialTips.com
and CatholicMom.com,
opted to start her panel discussion in a
very low-tech way.
Hayes-Peirce had each person take
a blank white sheet of paper and gave
them simple instructions on how
to fold it several times in half and
diagonally, tear off a corner, then
show their finished product. Only one
person in the classroom did it as it was
intended by her direction.
“This is why technology has to be
a part of your teaching curriculum,
because the kids of today don’t do well
with just listening to lectures,” said
Hayes-Peirce, who was participating in
her third year at C3.
“I know for some of you it’s scary. But
what does our faith tell us about sharing
the good news? We have to meet
people where they are. Our young
people are in technology.”
A better overall understanding about
the effects of technology were just as
important to delve into.
Alessandro Disanto, a Chicago-based
University of Notre Dame graduate
who left a Wall Street job to co-found
the Catholic prayer-based app Hallow
less than a year ago, explained during
Hayes-Peirce’s session about how he
has seen young people suffer stress
from technology addiction.
Even so, they trust that technology
can help pull them out of bad
situations, even if the inclination of
the instructor or parent is to take that
wireless appendage away from them.
“They’re used to consuming information
with digital, so it feels like a trusted
source,” Disanto said. “This app
is still the meet-them-where-they-are
model. If you are going to have your
phone every day, and we’re called to
pray without ceasing, you might as
well have a resource on there to do
what you’re supposed to be doing.
“The idea that seeps in with the
digital native is, God is with you all
the time and wants to be with you. To
do that really drives home the point.
He wants to love you all the time and
his invitation for grace is always there.
The smartphone app model really
benefits us.”
The C3 program has been funded
with resources by Sprint under the
JOHN MICHAEL FILIPPONE
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 15

JOHN MICHAEL FILIPPONE
Dave Moore speaks at C3.
archdiocese’s Educational Broadband
Service (EBS) spectrum, licensed to
the archdiocese by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC).
C3 has become the umbrella for
education and ministry technology
since pilot programs started with
select schools in 2009, and led to
a program in 2015 in which smartphones
were given to all clergy.
16 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019
As Sprint’s Brown explained in
his keynote speech, the history of
advanced technology in the archdiocese
goes back to hiring Dave Moore
in 1965 to implement television in
the classroom at a time when TV was
considered the “advanced technology”
more than 50 years ago.
Moore remains on the archdiocese’s
staff today as its director of telecommunications
and a coordinator for
the Sprint partnership.
Sprint’s 5G application with
expanded bandwidth and speed
frequency will soon come to Los
Angeles, as it is being tested in
various other cities. The concept
of IoT (Internet of Things) will be
second nature as well to today’s
seventh-grader who only knows a life
where technology and cellphones are
a resource.
Sprint also gave everyone in
attendance a new BBC micro:bit, a
programmable pocket-sized mini-computer
students can connect to
a smartphone or iPad.
The BBC micro:bit has motion
detection, a built-in compass, and
Bluetooth technology, which when it
was developed was given free to every
child in the seventh grade or equivalent
across the UK in 2016.
Karina Mendez, principal at St.
Turibius School in downtown Los
Angeles, said she loved hearing her
teachers talk about the fun they had
in the creative spaces and were already
discussing ways to engage their
students with the new apps.
“Every session was not only an
opportunity to get out of our comfort
zone and try a new tech tool, app,
or creative approach to learning or
thinking, but most importantly we
walked away with great applicable
ideas to equip and empower our students
in a fun way,” Mendez added.
“I walked away feeling excited and
empowered myself, but now that
I have a micro:bit, I really want to
brush up on my coding skills, so maybe
then I can say that I feel smarter
than a seventh-grader. I am up for the
challenge.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.

August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17

Auxiliary Bishop Marc V. Trudeau preaches at the diaconate ordination Mass Aug. 10.
New workers for the harvest
PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN
Two clerics assist in vesting newly ordained Deacon Jonathan Nestico for the first time.
On Saturday, Aug.
10, Auxiliary
Bishop Marc V.
Trudeau ordained
seven men as transitional
deacons at the Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels.
The men have completed
several years of formation
at St. John’s Seminary in
Camarillo in preparation
for the diaconate. They are
expected to be ordained to
the priesthood in June of
next year.
Their ordination date
coincided with the feast day
of St. Lawrence, the patron
saint of deacons.
18 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

Bishop Trudeau imposes hands on Daniel Garcia during the Rite of
Ordination.
Transitional diaconate candidates lay prostrate during the Rite of
Ordination.
Left to right, wearing black: Thomas Park, Justin Oh, Louie Reyes, Jonathan Nestico, Michael Mesa, Filiberto Cortez, and Daniel Garcia with Archbishop
José H. Gomez and Father Mike Perucho (left) and Father Sam Ward (right) of the Office of Vocations after a Mass with seminarians Aug. 9.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO / LA CIVITA CATTOLICA
Pope Francis poses for a photo with Jesuit priests and lay people in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2017.
‘Light in hard times’
Clergy in Pope Francis’ native Argentina say his
new letter to priests has the ‘flavor of a father’
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
SALTA, Argentina — Marking the 160th anniversary of
the death of St. John Maria Vianney, patron saint of parish
priests, Pope Francis published a letter encouraging and
supporting priests from around the world, while thanking
them for their daily service accompanying the people of
God.
The letter has widely been described as spiritual and
fraternal, penned by the pope and not his assessors, as many
papal documents often are. Proof of this is the fact that it
was written in Spanish, the pontiff’s native language.
For a man who’s often been labeled as being too critical
of his own priests, denouncing clericalism, laziness, and
corruption, the letter released the first weekend of August
saw none of that. Instead, the document draws heavily on
Scripture and Francis’ own teachings, and it can be read in
the context of the Vatican’s ongoing response to the abuse
crisis.
Most notably, of the 37 references found in the letter, there
are three that don’t belong to Scripture or papal teaching,
and two of them are attributed to Argentine priests Francis is
known to have appreciated when they were still alive: Father
Lucio Gera and Father Amelio Luis Calori.
The former, in particular, is a well-known figure in the
Argentine Church, as he’s considered one of the fathers of
the country’s main theological movement, the Theology of
the People, known as a response to liberation theology.
“Truly significant is that he quoted Gera, Argentinian theologian,
member of the Vatican’s first International Theological
Commission,” said Father Fabian Baez of Buenos Aires.
“The fact that he quoted him is a deserved recognition of
this ‘master of priestly life.’ ”
Gera is also the mastermind behind the yearly youth
pilgrimage to Lujan, which convokes a million people every
first Sunday of October for a 40-mile walk from Buenos
20 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

TONY GENTILE/CNS, REUTERS
Aires to the country’s most well-known Marian shrine.
Francis, when he was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio,
archbishop of Buenos Aires, attended every year.
“Personally, I felt like I was sitting next to him, hearing
him speak to us, priests,” said Baez. The former parish priest
of the shrine of San Cayetano — another place Bergoglio
was known to love — Baez became famous in 2014 when
the pope saw him in St. Peter’s Square and stopped the
popemobile to give him a ride before the Wednesday audience.
Francis’ letter to priests has a lengthy section that is dedicated
to the pain caused by the clerical sexual abuse scandals,
with priests feeling “themselves attacked and blamed
for crimes they did not commit.”
“I welcomed the letter as a gift from God,” Baez told
Angelus News. “Light in hard times. I was comforted by its
hopeful reading and the certainty it gives of God’s hand in
these difficult times for the Church.”
Father Máximo Jurcinovic, from San Isidro, in the outskirts
of Buenos Aires, said that the letter was a “wave of support”
in a difficult moment when the Church is, “understandably,”
seen through “its weaknesses, due to the process of
purification it’s going through.”
“It brings me joy and consolation that the pope is setting
his eyes on the many priests who every day work for the
kingdom of God, with the rights and wrongs, but working
with honesty to care for the flock that was entrusted to
them,” Jurcinovic said.
Pope Francis embraces Father Fabian Baez of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in
St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in 2014.
The letter, Jurcinovic noted, is not only addressed to
clerics but to the whole Church, inviting the faithful to contemplate
how to better accompany priests, to pray for them
and to find the best way to evangelize during difficult times.
“The Holy Father has always asked us not to deny the horrors
that we’re living and that occur in our Church, but it’s
good that he’s invited us to also look toward the priests who
remain firm by their people, visiting the infirm, aiding the
poor, working in their communities, and who are respected
“Always, but especially in times
of trial, we need to return to those
luminous moments when we experienced
the Lord’s call to devote
our lives to his service.”
— Pope Francis, quoting Argentinian priest
Father Lucio Gera in his letter to priests.
by the people of God,” Jurcinovic told Angelus News.
Bishop Daniel Fernandez of Jujuy, in northern Argentina,
also welcomed the letter, calling it an “unexpected gift.”
By dedicating his missive to the pain that the Church, including
survivors but particularly priests, have experienced
due to the abuse crisis, Fernandez said that the pope is
telling priests that “also in this I’m next to you. When others
look at us with distrust, we mustn’t cease to give thanks to
God for the immense majority of priests who fulfil their
mission.”
Fernandez is the president of the Argentine bishops’ conference
commission for ministries. He said that the letter
was a response to the pope’s feeling that priests around the
world needed to “experience his paternity and through him,
God’s paternity.”
Baez said that he was particularly moved by the “missionary
spirit” of the letter, its “pastoral courage and its spiritual
wisdom that leaves one with the flavor of a father who’s
speaking to the heart and from the heart.”
“Brave, realistic, faithful, and hopeful, it’s indispensable
for walking with faith and hope during these times of crisis,”
Baez said.
In his letter, Francis wrote that the Catholic Church is
“firmly committed” to carry out the reforms needed to encourage
from the outset “a culture of pastoral care, so that
the culture of abuse will have no room to develop, much
less continue.”
“This task is neither quick nor easy: it demands commitment
on the part of all,” the pope continued in the letter.
“If in the past, omission may itself have been a kind of
response, today we desire conversion, transparency, sincerity
and solidarity with victims to become our concrete way of
moving forward. This in turn will help make us all the more
attentive to every form of human suffering.”
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian journalist and Rome
bureau chief for Crux.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21

Finding the
worthy poor
At a time when disregard for society’s weakest
was public policy, Dorothy Day’s emphasis on
the human dignity of all was radical
BY GRACE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
A
progressive town known for
its impressive institutions
devoted to philanthropy
and intellectual development,
the city of Philadelphia made a
surprising move in 1879 when it cut
all city funding for the poor, leaving
the city’s neediest to depend solely on
institutions.
The reason? The Philadelphia Society
for Organizing Charity believed
that charity should not extend beyond
institutional work; giving money
or food to the poor directly was too
risky. Anything that wasn’t carefully
monitored, the thinking went, simply
encouraged the poor to be lazy.
Unfortunately, this was not a passing
trend. The idea that charity, and by
extension, the poor, were a drain on
public resources became popular
across America, and continued well
into the 20th century.
Cities reworked their charitable programs
to take away any autonomy the
poor had. Intellectuals fussed over the
fecundity of the poor that threatened
to outnumber the white upper class.
Politicians worked to pass immigration
legislation that would keep out
everyone except who they saw as the
most desirable.
In 1922, an article by John C. Duvall
in The Birth Control Review decried
support for the poor, arguing that they
should be treated like livestock: “This
situation prevails chiefly because of a
sentimental refusal to interfere with
the course of nature and apply to
mankind our knowledge of the same
biological laws which have allowed
us to produce grafted fruits, prize
bulldogs, and a superior quality of
roast pork.”
The was the society that a woman
named Dorothy Day grew up in. A
political radical in her young adult
years, she worked as a journalist for
a socialist paper in New York City,
writing on the problems the working
class faced.
She participated in a suffragette hunger
strike. In her 20s, she converted to
Catholicism, co-founded a Catholic
newspaper devoted to labor issues,
worked as a social activist, and lived
a life of voluntary poverty among the
poor. Today, the Catholic Church is
considering her cause for sainthood.
One of her most radical ideas was
one that might seem very simple to us
now. Day believed that every person
was worthy of love and assistance,
with no exceptions. In a country that
largely regarded the poor as biologically
inferior, this was revolutionary
and countercultural.
Intellectual circles at the time were
dominated by the so-called “scientific
charity” and eugenics movements.
These fostered the belief that, as social
historian Brent Ruswick said, “the
pauper could not be rehabilitated,
only suppressed.” Charity work, then,
became a matter of figuring out who
was “worthy” of relief, a question of
“science” rather than of love.
When Day was born in 1897, scientific
charity workers sought to find an
objective, analytical way to distinguish
between those who were impoverished
because of bad fortune, and
those who were a part of a “degenerate”
class and therefore “unworthy” of
charitable relief. Their method relied
on the personal judgment of charity
workers and skewed statistics.
As Day was coming of age, the
conclusions morphed into the new
eugenics movement. A pseudoscience
based on the belief in a “degenerate”
class, eugenicists theorized that almost
all character traits are inherited, and
that a person’s success was the result
of good genes rather than environment
or resources.
22 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

People gather outside the Catholic Worker’s St.
Joseph House in New York City Dec. 4, 2018.
GREGORY A. SHEMITZ/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
The poor, therefore, were impossible
to help, as their genes dictated their
situation.
The newest fad adopted by a surprisingly
diverse coalition of scientists
and intellectuals, progressives, and
conservatives, as well as doctors and
even charity workers, eugenics would
become an incredibly strong force in
American politics, spawning anti-immigration
legislation and statutes
that allowed the state to forcibly
sterilize people they deemed “unfit.”
Disregard for the poor was becoming
policy.
In Day’s time, then, Americans
were more likely to see the poor as a
nuisance to be tolerated rather than
people to be helped, to be institutionalized
rather than assisted. “Too
often the attitude is that these are
the ‘unworthy’ poor,” she wrote in
the Catholic Worker in 1937. “The
attitude is ‘You can’t do anything with
them, so why feed them?’ ”
Degeneracy theory and eugenic ideas,
as strange as they seem to modern
readers, were part of the air that Day
breathed. A college textbook published
in 1918, the year she turned 21,
stressed the importance of “the need
for as perfect a correlation as possible
between income and eugenic worth.”
It also instructed the reader that
“the idea of giving every man a wage
sufficient to support a family can not
be considered eugenic. … Eugenically,
teaching methods of birth control
to the married unskilled laborer is a
sounder way of solving his problems
than subsidizing him so he can support
a family.”
For Day, poverty had been treated as
a fault as long as she could remember.
Day wrote in her autobiography,
“The Long Loneliness”: “From my
earliest remembrance the destitute
were always looked upon as the
shiftless, the worthless, those without
talent of any kind. … They were that
way because of their own fault. They
chose their lot. They drank. They
were the prodigal sons who were
eating the swines’ husks only because
they had squandered their inheritance.”
Her words here are carefully chosen.
“Shiftlessness” was a pet diagnosis for
eugenicists, a catchall term to help
diagnose the degenerate.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 23

A pseudoscience based on the belief in a
“degenerate” class, eugenicists theorized that
almost all character traits are inherited, and
that a person’s success was the result of good
genes rather than environment or resources.
In his book “War Against the Weak,”
journalist Edwin Black writes that eugenicists
understood “shiftlessness” as
“the genetic defect of being worthless
and unattached to life,” and quotes
one eugenics textbook that defined
the word “shiftless” as a “genuine
genetic trait.”
It was a lot easier to blame bad
conditions on the “shiftlessness” of the
poor than it was to fix the conditions
themselves, conditions that were,
more often than not, the fault of a
society that catered to the rich and
successful.
Clearly, charity organizers and
eugenicists weren’t thinking in terms
of charity or even social responsibility.
They were looking at poor individuals
from a “scientific” perspective, and
their language about the poor reflected
that. Many charity organizers used
metaphors implying that the poor
were a disease or parasite leeching off
government assistance.
Oscar McCulloch, one of the leaders
of the scientific charity movement, described
a “pauper” as someone whose
“self-help has given place to a parasitic
life” and who, even worse, might
beget “children who are after his own
kind, recruiting armies of vice.”
Day didn’t buy any of this. She saw
these categories and statistics for what
they were — excuses that upper-class
people made so they could control the
symptoms of poverty while ignoring
the causes. And she understood what
scientific charity advocates and eugenicists
could never figure out: that she
was able to stay afloat in hard times,
“because of my friends, my background,
my education, my privilege.”
Even before she converted, Day
never dehumanized the poor, instead
always recognizing that they were
people in need of assistance. After
her conversion, she wondered to
herself: “Where were the saints to try
to change the social order, not just
minister to the slaves but to do away
with slavery?”
Day explains in “The Long Loneliness”
that she ended up joining the
Catholic Church not because she had
been swayed by theological arguments
or even by its social teachings (which
she was unaware of at the time), but
because it was where she felt the
poor were: “It was the great mass of
the poor, the workers, who were the
Catholics in the country, and this fact
in itself drew me to the Church.”
Joining the Church didn’t give Day
immediate or easy answers to her
questions.
She was often frustrated with her
feeling that Catholics tended to be
content defending the status quo. But
she prayed that God would show her
how to use her talents for “my fellow
workers, for the poor.”
God answered her prayer by showing
her that the virtue of charity did not
have to be a systematic decision about
the worthiness of a person. It didn’t
have to be a grudging handout to a
“degenerate.”
Instead, she was realizing, charity is a
recognition of both a person’s dignity
and the personal response that this
dignity should inspire.
Hers was also a recognition that the
world needed more than political
action. It needed a true understanding
of charity, from which personal
responsibility for the entire human
family would flow. “[W]e must act
personally, at a personal sacrifice …
to combat the growing tendency to let
the State take the job which Our Lord
Himself gave us to do,” she wrote.
Now she could love each person as
an individual. She could advocate for
them and also live her everyday life
for them. Without Catholicism, she
24 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

had never understood how to live out
a love so radical. Now that she was
one with the poor, she was able to
experience authentic charity, charity
that was personal rather than en
masse.
She could understand charity,
because she did not see the poor as
genetic defects, weakening the race
by reproducing. She didn’t see them
as leeches on the government or a
disease to society.
Instead, she saw persons. She saw the
infinite, unique, complex reasons why
these individuals were in situations
where they needed help.
She saw the workers who couldn’t
make enough to support families.
She saw those on welfare who were
patronized and pitied. She saw those
with disabilities struggling to get by
in a society that acted like they didn’t
exist.
She saw the women struggling to
keep jobs in workplaces that ignored
the demands of pregnancy and childbirth.
She saw those who just needed
some extra help to get back on their
A mural depicting social activist and sainthood candidate Dorothy Day in a park near the Church
of the Nativity in New York City Dec. 4, 2018.
feet. She saw those who were never
going to change their ways.
She saw that all people deserve love
and care, simply because they are a
part of the human family. No one is
degenerate, no one is unworthy.
Today, talk about seeing the dignity
of every person no longer seems so
radical. Perhaps that is, in part, thanks
to people like Dorothy Day who
worked so quietly but effectively to
transform the culture. May we follow
in her footsteps, and continue to serve
all, regardless of their perceived worthiness
or utility.
Grace Aquilina lives in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
GREGORY A. SHEMITZ/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25

The rehabilitation
of ‘Dagger John’
How the life and struggles of New York’s first
archbishop mirror the conflicts in our society today
BY MSGR. RICHARD ANTALL / ANGELUS
In the midst of the continuing controversy about family
separations of undocumented people at our borders,
our bishop in Cleveland sent a message reproving the
practice. The wording, I thought, was mild, especially
when comparing it to the statements by other persons and
organizations.
A woman in my parish, however,
was upset. Why was the bishop
entering into legal and policy questions,
she wondered, where there
were partisan politics involved?
I could not help but wonder what
she would have thought of Archbishop
John Hughes, whose biography
by John Loughery was recently
published, entitled “Dagger John:
Archbishop John Hughes and the
Making of Irish America” (Three
Hills, $16).
As someone who had immigrated
to the United States as a young
man, the archbishop was in the
center of tremendous social and
political conflict about his fellow
Irish immigrants.
The “dagger” in his sobriquet
came from his custom of signing his
name with a cross symbolizing his
episcopal vocation. His pugnacious
character made him enemies, and
they saw the cross as a dagger.
Loughery is not sure the archbishop
said what he reportedly asserted Archbishop John Hughes
to the mayor of New York when
asked about whether he feared for Catholic churches in
New York City because nativists had burned Catholic
churches and convents in Philadelphia.
Supposedly the archbishop said he was not afraid because
if nativist Protestants touched Catholic churches in New
York, it would become “another Moscow.” That city had
been burned down as Napoleon’s Grande Armée was at the
gates in 1812. The careful biographer is not sure Hughes
said it.
Hughes’ life was a parable of immigrant aspiration, determination,
and achievement. He discerned his vocation
while working as a gardener at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary
in Emmitsburg, Maryland. His first
rector refused him admission until
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton advocated
for the young laborer.
Later, Hughes succeeded that
rector as bishop of New York, in one
of the many twists and turns of the
life of this remarkable man.
Although his most famous project,
St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York
City, was not finished when he died
in 1864, it is a great symbol of his
contribution to Catholic American
history.
He claimed a place for his immigrant
community and his Church in
the national consciousness, and as
embattled as that position was when
death came to the archbishop, “his
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
accomplishment,” says Loughery,
was “to have set in motion a process
that bore remarkable fruit for the
better part of a century.” He lost
some battles but not the war.
The military metaphor is not
amiss, given his times: the anti-Catholic
and anti-immigrant
rioting in American cities; and the
acrimony of his opponents and
enemies in the conflictive political issues, domestic and
international (he was bishop of New York during the Great
Famine in Ireland that sent hundreds of thousands of Irish
to our shores).
He had to face the question of Protestant proselytizing in
the public schools of New York; the anger of the federal
government about the Irish resistance to the Civil War
26 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

draft and — God bless him — about certain problems he
had with the IRS; and the disdain of so many intellectuals
(he was fiercely criticized by famous writers like Walt
Whitman and Orestes Brownson) and of not-so-intellectual
hacks of the popular press and even pulp novels that characterized
him as duplicitous and malicious.
If you add to his life as a public figure his struggle with
finances as he founded Fordham University and St. Joseph
Seminary at Dunwoodie, various orphanages, and innumerable
parishes, schools, and institutions (his sister, a
Charity nun, founded New York’s first Catholic hospital);
his conflicts with recalcitrant parish trustees and rebellious
priests; and his friction with other bishops and even with
the Catholic press, you can understand why the man who
preached his eulogy chose as a text St. Paul’s Second Letter
to Timothy, chapter four: “I have fought the good fight, I
have finished my course.”
The biography of “Dagger John” is a portrait of a man
living in turbulent times, but it is also a depiction of a time
in Catholic American history that is well worth our study
because of relevant echoes in our society.
Loughery sees special relevance in the story of Hughes
on such topical themes as the nature of community in our
society, the “utility of any form of identity politics” and
the issues surrounding “our national embrace of — and,
in some quarters now, new skepticism about — multiple
cultural identities.”
Like bishops today, Hughes had to work out the pastoral
care of the immigrant community; the precarious financial
structure of our parishes; the crucial factor of seminary formation
and Catholic education in general; the scarcity and
fallibility of priests and their lack of sensibility, cultural, intellectual
and moral; the problems of women religious and
Catholic charitable institutions; the great political divide in
our nation; and the divisions “ad intra” (“at the interior”) of
our Church.
Loughery recounts the sad decline of Hughes’ last years,
his frustrations with his many projects, especially with St.
Patrick’s, and his anguish about the Civil War.
He had been sent by William Seward, Lincoln’s secretary
of state, to Europe to speak unofficially for the Union cause
in Paris, London, and Rome, but then was critical of the
management of the war and especially the draft, which allowed
the rich special treatment and sent many Irish young
men to their death on the battlefield.
The Irish rioted against the draft in New York in 1863 and
havoc reigned for three days in the city. Herman Melville
said, “The rats have taken over the city.”
Hughes was condemned for not doing enough to stop the
riots and then for being too understanding of the resentments
of the Irish, who burned government buildings and
even an orphanage for African American children. It was
the worst of times for the archbishop.
Loughery seems to have a good deal of sympathy for
the archbishop. The scene of the old and infirm bishop
speaking at length from a balcony of his house at a crowd
of thousands of Irish immigrants about his vision of integration
in American society without an assimilation that
meant deracination is moving.
Archbishop John Hughes commenced the building of St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York City on Aug. 15, 1858.
“Dagger John” held the audience by the intensity of his
speech, but apparently it was his last important public
address. He would not see his people free of the stigma
the riots had caused, nor ever again engage his opponents
in the rhetorical battles that made him the most famous
Catholic in America.
“History is the tutor of life,” said Cicero, and the life and
death of Hughes gives us much to reflect on.
An archbishop who was an immigrant, and as such,
a great success story, embattled in a score of conflicts,
leading a divided community in a divided society, armed
with only an indomitable faith in God and his Church and
a love for country but also for his homeland, with critics
aplenty within and without the Catholic community trying
to reform, strengthen, and unify is worthy of our meditation.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge taught something apropos of
what I am trying to express: “If men could learn from history,
what lessons it might teach! But passion and party blind
our eyes and the light which experience gives is a lantern
on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us.”
Msgr. Richard Antall is pastor of Holy Name Church in
Cleveland, Ohio, and author of the new book “The Wedding”
(Lambing Press, $16.95).
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 27

AD REM
BY ROBERT BRENNAN
Healing our crisis of destruction
The saddest thing about writing
about the most recent
demonstration of evil in our
country is that it is not going
to be the last example of it. It was Texas
and Ohio last week. It could very
well be Los Angeles next time. So I do
not run the risk of writing something
with an expired shelf life.
The time it takes for a stupendously
awful evil act to be transformed into
political fodder by political alchemists
takes about the same amount of time
for a quark to travel within a proton,
which is about 99.995 percent of the
speed of light. I looked it up.
Maybe something will be done in a
politically bipartisan manner, maybe
it won’t. What is sure, regardless of
any laws that are passed, or constitutional
amendments amended or even
done away with in toto, is that it will
happen again. The reason I can be so
sure it will happen again is because
the problem, at its very foundations,
seems to be spiritual in nature.
That came through loud and clear
on Facebook in the immediate aftermath
of the twin mass shootings. I saw
a meme on this social media megalith
with a line drawn through the words
“thoughts and prayers.”
I’ve heard that sentiment before in
the aftermath of other mass shootings.
On one level I can understand people
feeling that it represents “cheap”
grace, and an easy out for those who
just don’t want to consider more
concrete, politically volatile responses
to this crisis.
Sorry to disappoint, but I have no
solution to this crisis either. Maybe
tighter controls on guns will help. All
rights, even the right to keep and bear
Mourners take part in a vigil near the border fence between Mexico and the U.S. after a mass
shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3.
arms, are never without some form of
regulation and constriction.
Guns are certainly a problem now,
but they can’t be the only problem.
In the 1950s, high school students
in ROTC programs were required to
bring their guns to school. Into the
1970s, nearly 100 high schools in
New York State still had gun clubs.
It’s not that guns are not a problem,
but that they represent one of a lot of
problems that result in the growing list
of mass shootings. It’s not one thing.
It’s a lot of things.
One of those that no one wants
to talk too much about, at least in
mainstream media or outside pro-life
circles, is the role abortion plays in
this. How are they connected? Broken
down to its bare-knuckled essence,
abortion is using violence to solve a
problem.
The internet is also a major player
in this crisis. In the “good” old days,
if you wanted to access pornography
you had to go to a bookstore that sold
pornographic magazines, or you had
to go to a movie theater that featured
CARLOS SANCHEZ/REUTERS, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
28 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

pornographic movies.
You might be seen by a friend or
neighbor, and it probably kept more
than a few people away from pornography.
Not the most modern or enlightened
social-control mechanism,
but it worked.
The same was true for rabid political
movements. If someone was harboring
racial animus, the problem of going
to a public Klan rally or Neo-Nazi
parade was that they were “public.” I
think this also explains why the opposite
side of the same hatred coin, the
“antifa” movement, has almost all of
its marchers hiding being bandanas or
ski masks. It makes people a lot braver.
Today, people access all the pornography
and all the racial hatred their
brains can absorb while they sit in the
dark recesses of their rooms, as computer
monitors flicker away with bad
images and bad ideas that take hold,
take root, and bear bitter fruit.
But the main puzzle piece, and this
is where the people who are unjustifiably
offended by sentiments about
thoughts and prayers comes in, is
that we have a spiritual problem. And
it’s not just the growing number of
“nones” — those with no religious
affiliation.
A lot of church-going people have
managed to compartmentalize their
public and private lives and turned
religious practice into an a la carte
menu, where they pick and choose
what they like and pass over what is
difficult or out of vogue in the popular
culture.
One of the founding fathers, a group
of religious guys who knew how to use
guns, said the only way the American
experiment works is if we had the
most secular government as possible
and the most religiously devout people
as possible.
We have the secular government
part down pat. But we’ve removed the
religiously devout part of the equation,
and that resulting imbalance has
created a harvest of destruction — and
only prayer and spiritually minded
hearts can restore the equilibrium.
Robert Brennan is director of communications
at The Salvation Army
California South Division in Van
Nuys, California.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29

Tarantino arrives
Do the existential adventures of ‘Once Upon a Time ... in
Hollywood’ mean its director is a changed filmmaker?
BY ROBERT INCHAUSTI / ANGELUS
Quentin Tarantino
makes movies out of
other movies, remastering
the techniques
and cinematography of
various genre films for
their shock, tease, and
titillation. He has directed 10 such
movies, from his masterpiece “Pulp
Fiction” (1994) to lesser grindhouse
fare such as “Death Proof” (2007),
and “The Hateful Eight” (2015).
Tarantino’s cineverse is populated
by characters from B films and ’70s
exploitation movies as lovingly seen
through the eyes of a teenager with an
affection for Bruce Lee, rock ’n’ roll,
Playboy, and fast cars. (He was born
in 1963.)
Add to this a melodramatic view of
history gleaned from such television
shows as “Combat,” “Rawhide,” and
“Honey West,” and you have the
rough ingredients of his approach to
cinema.
Who better to write, direct, and
produce a movie about the Manson
murders in Los Angeles in the
summer of 1969? Let the carnage and
chaos begin.
And yet in “Once Upon a Time ... in
Hollywood,” Tarantino explicitly turns
away from any “excess for excesses’
sake” to make explicit what has always
been implicit in all his films: that the
cinematic language of exploitation
films can be used to humanize characters,
not just demean them.
Its tricks and tropes, bits and routines,
slo-mo explosions, drone
shots, car crashes, and wide-cam
close-ups can — with a little humor,
intelligence, and skill — express the
sublime.
We know this is possible now because
Tarantino has done it. And as odd as
it may sound to say it, “Once Upon a
Time ... in Hollywood,” ostensibly a
ANDREW COOPER/© SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT VIA IMDB
Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Quentin Tarantino on
the set of the film “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”
30 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

film about the Tate-La Bianca murders,
turns out to be a veritable ode to
joy, striking a blow against our collective
cynicism at the very moment we
need it most.
The film takes place at a time when
America was not exactly innocent but
not yet hopelessly ideological, a time
before cigarettes and tanning butter
had revealed their cancerous sting.
It follows the life of Hollywood actor
Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo Di-
Caprio) and his stunt man Cliff Booth
(Brad Pitt) during the week before the
killings in the summer of 1969.
Dalton and Booth come to represent
a split in our culture between
the “performers” who pretend to be
heroes, and those who live heroic,
unseen lives while doing all the real
work. Dalton is the self-absorbed
movie star prone to fits of weeping
whose career is on the skids, while
Booth does all the dangerous scenes
and serves as Dalton’s driver and
handyman.
We spend the week getting to know
these two contrasting characters until
an unexpected twist of fate puts Booth
at the center of one of the turning
points in American cultural history.
Semi-spoiler alert: The climax provides
symbolic therapeutic redemption
50 years after the fact. Through a
startling, unexpected reversal of karma
do-over, aided by Booth’s charming
pitbull and one rather strongly
attached lamp sconce, the past, and
subsequently our future, takes a radically
different turn.
Friends of mine often complain of
the violence in Tarantino’s movies.
Yes, there is some extreme violence
here. But it is stylized in the spirit
of the fairy tale he has concocted.
So, when the woodman’s axe comes
down on Tarantino’s big bad wolf, it is
cathartic, but not as triggering as the
realism seen in such films as “Schindler’s
List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”
Besides, scenes of violence are few
and far between in this nearly threehour
film, which focuses almost entirely
on the adventures of Dalton and
Booth living out their everyday lives in
the wilds of a bygone Los Angeles.
Instead, this movie is a cornucopia of
cinematic delights.
For one thing, it is visually beautiful,
Margaret Qualley and Brad Pitt in “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.”
and the cinematography of Robert
Richardson and the editing of Fred
Raskin are inspired.
For example, their mock cigarette
commercial alone (playing at the
end credits) condenses more than 30
years of congressional hearings and
corporate lies into a 30-second farce,
revealing the joy and confidence of
those times as part and parcel of their
idiocy and innocence.
Freed up from all the rage and
conspiracy theories, it reveals those
commercials for what they truly were:
expressions of naked stupidity.
And moments like that are happening
all the time in this film.
Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate is as
complex as her portrayal of Tonya
Harding in “I, Tonya,” but with a
small fraction of the lines.
Without hardly speaking, she portrays
Tate as the guileless girl of our
dreams, whether watching herself in a
Matt Helm movie and then over her
shoulder to see the reactions of the audience,
or back home in her bedroom
listening to a Paul Revere and the
Raiders record.
And through it all, we grow in our
understanding of DiCaprio’s brilliant
character, whose life has become a series
of scenes, scenarios, and set pieces
while Pitt’s, as Booth, experiences
his own set of existential adventures,
unfolding Tarantino’s virtue ethic bit
by bit until the final reveal.
Tarantino’s movie needs no literary
justifications, but it may soothe the
ruffles of certain skeptics to note
that no less a figure than Nathaniel
Hawthorne built his reputation by
retelling American history as fairy tale
and allegory.
Hawthorne called his stories romances,
not fables, yet they served the
same function as Tarantino’s movies:
reimagining the past as prologue to
show us who we really are.
It also remains to be seen if Tarantino
(or anyone else) recognizes exactly
what he has accomplished here or
sees clearly the Hawthorne-esque turn
his work has taken. But, for this viewer,
“Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood”
marks a clear turn in his body
of work toward an explicit aesthetic of
redemption.
If I am right, then all his earlier films
— “Inglorious Basterds,” “Django
Unchained,” and even “Jackie Brown”
and “Pulp Fiction” — will all have
to be reconsidered in the light of this
progression.
After a series of false starts, half hits
and near misses, Tarantino seems to
have at last found the hidden virtue
of his improvised, all-inclusive, pop
iconography. The new freedom and
expanse of “Once Upon a Time ...
in Hollywood” suggests he has at last
seen through pop culture’s sensational
surfaces to its inspired core.
Robert Inchausti is an author of several
books and professor of English at
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. His latest
book is “Hard to be a Saint in the City:
The Spiritual Vision of the Beats”
(Shambhala, 2018, $16.95).
IMDB
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 31

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
Charles Sabine and Dilia Oviedo Guillén hug each other.
PIER PAOLO LISARELLI/DANCING AT THE VATICAN
Hidden no more
Documentary brings plight of Huntington’s disease patients to the Vatican
at the Vatican,”
a 38-minute
documentary directed
“Dancing
by Brian Moore
and produced by Amanda Spencer,
showcases the plight of those suffering
from Huntington’s disease (HD), a
progressive neurological disorder. A
parent with HD has a 50/50 chance of
passing it on to his or her offspring.
The film is narrated by Emmy
award-winning former NBC-TV foreign
correspondent Charles Sabine,
an asymptomatic HD carrier whose
two beautiful young daughters accompany
him to Rome.
HD causes progressive degeneration
of nerve cells in the brain. Its symptoms
include uncontrolled movements
(the accompanying jerking and
twitching is known as chorea), emotional
problems, and loss of cognition.
The disorder is genetic and it is fatal.
HD can strike anyone and anywhere:
Folk singer Woody Guthrie purportedly
died of it. But in an even crueler
twist of fate, it concentrates in certain
places around the globe, and they are
mostly poor.
Barranquitas, Venezuela, in the
32 • ANGELUS • August 16-23-30, 2019

Lake Maracaibo region, is one such
place. Chile and Peru also have dense
clusters of HD. Dilia Oviedo Guillén,
from a village in Colombia, watched
her husband and five children die of
the disease. She now devotes her life,
24 hours a day, to nursing four more
adult children who suffer from HD.
The muscular degeneration means
that patients eventually lose even the
use of their hands. Thus she lovingly
bathes, dresses, and spoons food into
their mouths as they lie in bed.
Fifteen-year-old Brenda lives in a
suburb of Buenos Aires and suffers
from juvenile HD, which progresses
faster than the more common adult
onset (in which symptoms generally
begin in patients’ 30s or 40s). The
mother wasn’t up to providing the
care Brenda needed so her aunt,
Norma Lara, stepped up to the plate.
“What else would I have done?” is her
basic approach.
Villagers often erroneously believe
HD to be contagious, and shun sufferers
and their families as if they were
leprous. Children who don’t have the
disease themselves but come from an
HD family are often bullied at school.
Resources are scant in Latin America,
but for a precious few, HD is a
passion: Ignacio “Nacho” Muñoz-Sanjuan,
a neuroscientist who, along with
Dr. Claudia Perandones, founded
Factor-H, a charity that helps HD
sufferers in Latin America; and Elena
Cattaneo, HD geneticist, a professor
at the University of Milan, and lifetime
senator in her native Italy.
Together with those they care for,
and other HD activists, a few years ago
they hatched a scheme to appeal to
the Vatican.
Thus the biggest event in the history
of HD was launched: Pope Francis’
special audience with the Huntington’s
disease community in solidarity
with South America.
The process was arduous, with reams
of red tape and the always precarious
health of the HD patients threatening
to derail the plan.
The courageous transcontinental
journey was undertaken by many
who had never left their village, never
mind their country. Some lacked
even a birth certificate. But on May
18, 2017, 1,700 scientists, patients,
doctors, caretakers, family, and friends
converged upon the Vatican.
Brenda was chosen as a representative
of all HD families to present a
plaque to Pope Francis, the first Latin
American ever to hold the office, and
a clear crowd favorite.
The pope read a statement acknowledging
the stigma, isolation, and
abandonment of HD. Then he added,
“Occulta nunca mas!” (“Hide no
more!”). He was the first global leader
ever to utter the words “Huntington’s
disease.”
The film is worth watching alone for
the ardor with which the children approach
and embrace him, clutching
his white-clad form for dear life with
tears in their eyes.
Anyervi Prieto, whose father suffers
from the disease, got a football signed
by Brazilian soccer great Neymar
Junior. Brenda got to meet and hold
hands with her idol, Argentine romantic
pop star Axel.
Against all Vatican protocol, Sabine
led a little dance on the stage from
which the pope had just departed,
while the Swiss guard, as he put it,
“have kittens.”
The film hopes to raise awareness
about HD and the desperate plight of
many HD families in Latin America.
To that end, my one complaint was
that the film was too short.
I would love to have heard more
from Guillén, clearly a living saint, for
example, about the faith that sustains
her.
“They’re my children,” she said of
the four with HD she cares for, “so I
feel as if I have their illness.” Or from
Lara, Brenda’s caretaker, who has
nursed three generations of her family
through HD.
I would love to have asked some of
the parents with HD about the source
of the trust and hope that allows them
to bring children into the world,
knowing that the children may suffer
from the disease, too.
I can’t remotely presume to know,
but in one of the many short videos
available on the “Dancing at the Vatican”
website, Lara says, “My thinking
is that you have to give them a lot
of love and support, I don’t know if
that’s the right answer. … The family
needs to be very close and to love that
person a lot.”
And after watching this lovely film,
I did think of Matthew 11:25: “I give
praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, for although you have
hidden these things from the wise and
the learned you have revealed them to
the childlike.”
Pope Francis’ special audience with the Huntington’s disease community in solidarity with South
America.
PIER PAOLO LISARELLI/DANCING AT THE VATICAN
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.
August 16-23-30, 2019 • ANGELUS • 33