Angelus News | October 25, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 36

ANGELUS
RECLAIMING
‘DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS’
October 25, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 36

Contents
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation and Local News 4-6
LA Catholic Events 7
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
Photos: October moments at the Cathedral 20
John Allen: The surprises of the synod so far 22
Robert Brennan: Pop culture, meet forgiveness 24
Trying to tell the story of Father Ted Hesburgh 26
A documentary stirs Angeleno pride in Heather King 28

ON THE COVER
Young dancers from Ballet Folklórico Herencia Mexicana at St. Agatha in
Mid-City at the first “Día de los Muertos” celebration 2014 at Calvary Cemetery
in East LA. On Page 10, Pilar Marrero reports on how both the cultural and
religious aspects of the traditional Mexican feast of “Día de los Muertos” (“Day
of the Dead”) have created an opportunity for evangelization in Los Angeles.
On Page 14, R.W. Dellinger gives a look into the daily reality of life and death
seen through the eyes of three employees at a local Catholic cemetery.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
IMAGE: Faithful process from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
to Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in “La Placita” after the annual
Mass celebrating “el Señor de los Milagros” (“the Lord of
Miracles”) Oct. 20. The day’s events were preceded by a novena
asking for an end to the separation of immigrant families and
was attended by local immigrants from Peru, where Catholics
venerate the namesake 17th-century painting.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 1

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October 25, 2019 | Vol. 4 • No. 36
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POPE WATCH
Supreme creativity
The following is adapted from the
Holy Father’s catechesis at the morning
General Audience in St. Peter’s Square
Oct. 16.
The journey of the gospel in the
world, which St. Luke recounts in the
Acts of the Apostles, is accompanied
by the supreme creativity of God, who
manifests himself in a surprising way.
He wants his children to overcome all
“particularism” in order to be open to
the universality of salvation.
This is the aim: to overcome particularism
and open oneself to the universality
of salvation, because God wants
to save everyone. Those who are reborn
by water and the Spirit — the baptized
— are called to come out of themselves
and open themselves up to others.
The witness of this process of “fraternization”
that the Spirit wants to trigger
in history is St. Peter, protagonist in the
Acts of the Apostles together with Paul.
Peter lives an event that marks a
decisive turning point for his existence.
While he is praying, he receives a vision
that acts as a divine “provocation,” to
provoke a change of mentality in him.
He sees a large cloth descending from
above, holding various animals ... and
he hears a voice inviting him to eat
their flesh.
As a good Jew, he reacted by saying
that he had never eaten anything
impure, as required by the Law of
the Lord (cf. Leviticus 11). Then the
voice forcefully repeats: “Do not call
anything impure that God has made
clean” (Acts 10: 15).
With this fact, the Lord wants Peter
no longer to evaluate events and people
according to the categories of the pure
and the impure, but to learn to go
beyond, to look at the person and the
intentions of his heart. What makes
man impure, in fact, does not come
from outside but only from within,
from the heart (cf. Mark 7: 21). Jesus
said this clearly.
After that vision, God sends Peter to
the home of an uncircumcised stranger,
Cornelius, who was not Jewish. In that
pagan household, Peter preaches the
crucified and risen Christ and the forgiveness
of sins to whoever believes in
him. And while Peter speaks, the Holy
Spirit is poured over Cornelius and his
family. And Peter baptizes him in the
name of Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 10: 48).
This extraordinary fact becomes
known in Jerusalem, where the brothers,
scandalized by Peter’s behavior,
harshly reproach him (cf. Acts 11: 1–3).
But after the encounter with Cornelius,
Peter is more free from himself
and more in communion with God and
with others, because he has seen God’s
will in action in the Holy Spirit. He can
therefore understand that the election
of Israel is not the reward for merits,
but the sign of the gratuitous call to
mediate the divine blessing among
pagan peoples.
From the Prince of the Apostles we
learn that an evangelizer cannot be
an impediment to the creative work of
God ... but one that fosters the encounter
of hearts with the Lord. And how do
we behave with our brothers and sisters,
especially those who are not Christians?
Are we impediments to the encounter
with God?
Today we ask for the grace to allow
ourselves to be astonished by God’s
surprises, not to hinder his creativity,
but to recognize and encourage the
ever new ways in which the Risen One
pours out his Spirit into the world and
attracts hearts.
Papal Prayer Intention for October: That the breath of the Holy Spirit
engender a new missionary “spring” in the Church.
2 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
The rosary is a prayer of the heart
We are concluding this month that
the Church dedicates to the holy rosary,
and I want to encourage all of us to
go deeper in our practice of this holy
devotion.
We all need to pray more urgently,
with greater intensity. It is the only
path to take if we want to grow in our
relationship with God. For me, praying
the rosary every day has become a part
of my own life and it is a powerful help
in my own efforts to follow Jesus.
We live in a noisy, crowded world,
constantly confronted by sounds and
images, impressions, and sensations.
Our technologies and our way of life
make it hard for us to carve out time
and space just to be quiet and reflect,
to be alone with our thoughts and go
“inside ourselves.”
That is why we need the rosary. It is
a prayer of the heart, a way of contemplation.
In the rhythms and repetitions of the
rosary, we enter into a space of silence
in which we open our hearts in the
presence of God. We enter this silence
aware of our failings and sins, bringing
with us our concerns for the world, all
the burdens of our lives.
It is beautiful how the repetitions
of this prayer correspond with the
rhythms of our breathing and the beating
of our hearts.
Some people find the repetitions
of the rosary to be annoying or just
routine. But if we pray with true
piety, with true love in our hearts for
Jesus and Mary, then these patterns
of repeated words, all of them words
from the sacred Scriptures, will lead us
into the presence of God and into the
contemplation of his mysteries.
At the center of the Hail Mary that we
repeat is the name of Jesus, the name
in which we have salvation — “Blessed
is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
It is a good habit to pray the rosary
with the Gospels. St. John Paul II
recommended that we announce each
mystery and read the related Gospel
passage, contemplating the face of
Christ in the mystery and then listening
for the “word” that he wants to
speak to us through this mystery.
The mysteries of his life are the great
truths of our faith — the joy of his incarnation,
as he is “born of the Virgin
“The rosary is the
prayer of the saints,
part of the secret of
their sanctity.”
Mary”; the light that he brings with his
life “for us men and for our salvation”;
the sorrow of his passion, as “he suffered
under Pontius Pilate”; the glory of
his resurrection “on the third day”; and
his promise that “he will come again.”
Our newest saint, St. John Henry
Newman, said, “The greater power
of the rosary lies in this, that it makes
the Creed into a prayer [and] gives us
the great truths of his life and death to
meditate upon, and brings them nearer
to our hearts.”
The rosary is the prayer of the saints,
it is part of the secret of their sanctity,
their closeness to Christ.
With Mary, we remember his presence
among us, we ponder his words, his
actions. Meditating on these mysteries,
we enter day by day into his life and
gradually his life comes to penetrate
our lives. And as Mary did, we open
our lives to live in response to his
saving word: “May it be done to me
according to your word.”
The reality of our Christian lives is
that Jesus wants to be born in each of
us. He wants his life to become our
life, and he wants our life to become
his life.
The rosary is a prayer that leads to this
transformation. When we pray with
devotion, when we order our lives to
God’s will, we allow him to shape us
and form us in the image of his Son.
Through this prayer, the mysteries of
his life continue to unfold in our lives,
as God works out his loving plan for
our salvation.
The key is to pray as children, letting
our mother lead us, learning to see her
Son through her eyes.
When we do this, when the rosary
becomes a habit with us, we find that
the spirit of this prayer carries over
into our daily life and our duties at
home, at work or at school, making us
contemplatives in the world.
Pray the rosary with confidence and
you will feel peace, and begin to have
more of a supernatural outlook on
the things going on in the world and
in your life, and you will sense God’s
presence more and his Providence.
Pray for me this week, and I will be
praying for you.
And let us ask the Blessed Virgin
Mary to intercede for us and to inspire
in each of us a new experience of the
beauty and the power of the rosary.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
GAGE SKIDMORE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
‘Wonder Woman’ to play
Catholic Holocaust hero
Israeli actress Gal Gadot will be playing a different
kind of Wonder Woman.
A new film will tell the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish
Catholic woman whose actions during World War II
saved thousands of Jewish lives. Sendler will be played
by Gadot, who is also co-producing the film with her
husband.
“As producers, we want to help bring stories that have
inspired us to life,” the couple explained to entertainment
news website Deadline.
Sendler received a permit to enter the Jewish ghetto
in Warsaw during the German occupation to inspect
sanitary conditions. She used the permit to smuggle
out thousands of Jewish children, who were placed in
Christian homes or other Catholic institutions to help
keep them safe.
The film’s release date has not yet been released.
Gal Gadot (left) and Irena Sendler.
Canada mulls canceling religion class
Believers in Canada fear new legislation may dismiss
religion from Quebec schools.
A new bill presented in Quebec’s legislature Oct. 1
seeks to abolish the Ministry of Education’s Religious
Affairs Committee and remove language from the
Education Act that promises “complementary services of
spiritual animation and community engagement,” and
requires schools to “facilitate the student’s spiritual development
in order to foster his or her development.”
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education
claimed in a statement to Catholic News Service (CNS)
Vatican police chief quits
As his lead bodyguard, Domenico Giani was often seen keeping close
watch on Pope Francis in public appearances.
The pope’s longtime chief of police has resigned his post
amid leaked details of an ongoing investigation of financial
wrongdoing in the Vatican.
Domenico Giani, who served as Vatican chief of police
since 2006, announced his resignation Oct. 14. His
resignation came after Vatican police raided offices in the
Secretariat of State Oct. 1. An Italian paper published a
leaked copy of a suspension order, which included photos
of the five people prohibited from re-entering the Vatican.
Although a press statement from the Holy See said he
“bears no personal responsibility in the unfolding of the
events,” Giani told Vatican Media that he “felt shame for
what happened and for the suffering of these people.”
“Having always said I was ready to sacrifice my life to
defend the pope’s, in the same spirit I made the decision to
resign,” he said.
Days after the resignation, Pope Francis paid a visit to
Giani’s house as a sign of appreciation for the former commander’s
20 years of service to three popes.
that the committee was being eliminated because its
“opinion has not been sought since 2007.” Former committee
chair Marie-Andree Roy, who stepped down in
2013, claims that the government had been ignoring the
work of the committee for the last few years.
“The committee made a significant contribution to the
establishment of the Ethics and Religious Culture program.
It has produced various very relevant studies on issues
related to religion in schools, but was generally met
with radio silence from the ministers,” Roy told CNS.
The legislation comes months after Quebec prohibited
all public servants from wearing religious symbols during
work hours.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
4 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

NATION
ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC
Beto’s church tax idea raises eyebrows
A 2020 Democratic presidential candidate is taking
heat from his own party after suggesting that religious
institutions that oppose same-sex marriage should lose
their tax-exempt status.
“There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for
anyone or any institution, any organization in America,
that denies the full human rights and the full civil
rights of every single one of us,” said former Rep. Beto
O’Rourke of Texas during an Oct. 10 CNN town hall on
“LGBTQ issues.”
Two of O’Rourke’s primary race rivals, Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Indiana Mayor
Pete Buttigieg, have criticized O’Rourke’s comments.
“If we want to talk about anti-discrimination law for a
school or an organization, absolutely, they should not
be able to discriminate,” Buttigieg told CNN Oct. 13.
“But going after the tax exemption of churches, Islamic
centers, or other religious facilities in this country, I
Florida shrine gets a promotion
As far as shrines go, the oldest Marian one in the U.S. just
got the ultimate recognition.
Established in 1609, the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche
in Florida has been elevated to a national shrine by the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, St. Augustine
Bishop Felipe Estévez announced Oct. 11.
Translated literally “Our Lady of the Milk,” the shrine
hosts a statue of the Blessed Mother nursing the infant
Jesus. It is a popular pilgrimage site, particularly for
pregnant mothers and those hoping to become pregnant.
Many faithful have attested to miracles worked as a result
of Mary’s intercession after prayers at the shrine.
The shrine sits on the site of Nombre de Dios Mission in
St. Augustine, widely known as the earliest Catholic settlement
in what is now the U.S.
The statue of Our Lady of La Leche in St. Augustine, Florida.
From left: Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Bernie
Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Beto O’Rourke at a debate in July.
think that’s just going to deepen the divisions that we’re
already experiencing.”
Vatican exonerates Texas bishop
The Vatican declared an abuse allegation made against an
auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
“manifestly unfounded” Oct. 10.
Bishop George A. Sheltz has returned to public ministry
following an investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith into an allegation of historical
sexual abuse made against him in June by an unnamed
woman upset about her pastor being reassigned.
Back in June, Sheltz’s archdiocese called the allegation
“completely false” and condemned it for “casting a shadow
on what we know is a lifetime of superb and selfless priestly
ministry.”
US becoming less religious,
Latinos less Catholic
A new study suggests religiosity in the U.S. is in sharp
decline.
So-called “nones” — those who don’t identify with any
religion — now make up more than a quarter of the population,
compared with 17% a decade ago, according to a
Pew Research Center survey released Oct. 17.
It also reports that the percentage of Hispanics who identify
as Catholic has dropped 10% in the last decade from
57% in 2009 to only 47% in 2019.
The decrease in Catholic Hispanics follows a nationwide
trend: In 2009, nearly 1 in 4 Americans identified as
Catholic, while only 1 in 5 identify as Catholic today.
JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
A Catholic megachurch in
the San Joaquin Valley?
Move over, East Coast. Soon, California will claim
bragging rights to the country’s biggest parish church.
A groundbreaking ceremony for a new Catholic church
in Visalia, California, took place Oct. 15. Expected to
open in spring 2021, St. Charles Borromeo Church
will seat more than 3,000 people, surpassing the seating
space of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and the U.S’
current largest, the Baltimore Basilica of the National
Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
Maryland, which holds about 2,000.
The new church is the result of a previous merger of
three Visalia parishes and was first envisioned by former
Bishop of Fresno John Steinbock, who died in 2010.
An artistic rendering of the inside of St. Charles Borromeo Church in
Visalia.
DIOCESE OF FRESNO/RADIAN DESIGN GROUP
DIOCESE OF OAKLAND/VATICAN NEWS
Indian priest, archbishop die in crash
A pastor in Oakland and a visiting archbishop from India
were killed in an Oct. 10 traffic accident in Northern
California.
Father Mathew Vellankal, pastor of St. Bonaventure
Church in Concord, was traveling in a Toyota Prius on
Route 20 north of Santa Rosa with Archbishop Dominica
Jala of Shillong, India, when they were hit by a tractor-trailer
truck.
Both were killed while a third passenger, also a priest
from India, was injured and taken to a local hospital in
stable condition.
“Father Vellankal’s joyous spirit and faith will be deeply
missed,” said Bishop Michael C. Barber of Oakland in a
statement. “May his soul and the soul of Archbishop Jala
rest in the peace of Christ.”
Jala had recently met Pope Francis Sept. 26 during an “ad
limina” visit to Rome by a group of Indian bishops, and
was in California visiting priest friends when the accident
happened. His remains were brought back to India and his
funeral celebrated Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Father Matthew Vellankal (left) and Archbishop Dominica Jala.
A passage toward priesthood
Candidates for the priesthood hold candles symbolizing their baptism at
the Admission to Candidacy Mass Oct. 18.
Twenty-seven seminarians, including 18 for the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles, took an important step toward the
priesthood at a special Mass Oct. 18.
The 2019 Admission to Candidacy for Holy Orders Mass
was celebrated at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo by Bishop
Edward Weisenburger of Tucson. In front of friends and
family, seminarians from LA as well as from the Dioceses
of Fresno, San Bernardino, Reno, and Orange publicly
declared their intention to complete their preparation for
holy orders at the Mass.
You can watch the full video of the liturgy on the Photo &
Video section of AngelusNews.com.
ISABEL CACHO
6 • ANGELUS • October 25, 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., Oct. 25
Rutter Requiem Concert. Holy Trinity Church, 209 N.
Hanford Ave., San Pedro, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $10/person
in advance, $15/person at door. Children 13 and
under free, 14-18: $5/person. Proceeds benefit Holy
Trinity’s music ministry. For more information on buying
tickets, call 310-548-6535 or email dbarnes@
holytrinitysp.org.
Schoenstein Pipe Organ Concert by Jelil Romano.
Our Mother of Good Counsel Church, 2060 N. Vermont
Ave., Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m. Music by Brahms,
Mulet, Vierne, Dupont, and local composers John
Biggs and Gary Bachlund. The concert will be preceded
by wine and cheese in the church courtyard at 6
p.m. Freewill offering. Call 323-664-2111, ext. 148,
for more details.
Sat., Oct. 26
Salt and Light: Church, Disability and the
Blessing of Welcome for All. Holy Family Church,
Connolly parish hall, 1527 Fremont Ave., S.
Pasadena. Continental breakfast and registration at
9 a.m. Workshop 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and includes lunch.
Workshop will offer ways to liturgically affect full
welcome and reflect that disability is a necessary
part of the whole. Free event, freewill offerings
accepted. RSVP to DeaconJay@holyfamily.org.
Annual Marian Procession and Rosary in
honor of Our Lady of Good Health. Church of the
Transfiguration, 2515 W. Martin Luther King Blvd.,
Los Angeles, 4 p.m. Mass at 5:15 p.m. For more
information, call David Thomas at 323-308-8999 or
Kathleen Charles at 323-829-8170.
5th Regional Apostolic Congress on Mercy. St.
John Chrysostom Church, 546 E. Florence Ave.,
Inglewood. Theme is “Find Hope in God’s Mercy.”
5 p.m. vigil Mass. Celebrant: Bishop Marc Trudeau.
Pre-registration is requested. Cost is $20/person.
Find details on stjohnchrysostomparish.org.
Retreat: “Love Everyone — Even My “Enemies”?
Pauline Books & Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver
City, 1-4:30 p.m. Led by Sister Patricia Shaules, FSP.
Jesus asks us to love everyone. Does he really mean
it? How can we love our enemies? Donation of $15/
person. Please RSVP by calling 310-397-8676 or
emailing culvercity@paulinemedia.com.
“Día de Los Muertos” celebration (“Day of the
Dead”). Santa Clara Cemetery, 2370 N. H St.,
Oxnard. Doors open at 11 a.m. Festivities begin at
noon with Mass presided by Bishop Alex Aclan.
Event will feature the pilgrim image of Our Lady of
Gaudalupe and a presentation about the meaning and
significance of the celebration. For more information,
visit archla.org/diadelosmuertos.
3rd Annual Alexandria House SpeakEasy and
Casino Night. St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral,
1324 Normandie Ave., Los Angeles, 7-10 p.m.
For more information, email Pam Hope at pam@
alexandriahouse.org or call 213-381-2649.
Halloween Masquerade Dinner Dance. Our Lady
of Perpetual Help Church parish hall, 23233 Lyons
Ave., Newhall, 6 p.m. The Italian Catholic Club of SCV
provides traditional Italian cuisine, live music by Duo
Domino, dancing, and a costume contest. Cost: $35/
adult, $15/Children 7-16, 7 and younger free. Call
Anna Riggs to reserve your place at 661-645-7877.
The John Paul II and The New Evangelization
Dinner Conference. St. Charles Borromeo Church,
Gallagher Hall, 10830 Moorpark St., North Hollywood,
6 p.m. A special evening with Bishop Alex Aclan. Attire
is cocktail casual. Tickets are $75/person and can be
purchased online at JP2DinnerConference.eventbrite.
com. Email events@parishevangelizationleaders.org.
St. Augustine Harvest Festival. St. Augustine
Church, 3850 Jasmine St., Culver City. Sat., 11:30
a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Come
celebrate 100 years of St. Augustine Church. Enjoy
games, delicious international food, prizes for the
kids, costume contest, live entertainment, pumpkin
carving and more with the family. Go to st-augustinechurch.org.
“Religion, Race, and Scandal: How do we sustain
Faith?” Loyola Marymount University, 9 a.m.-
12:30 p.m. Theologian LaReine-Marie Mosely, SND,
and LMU’s Dr. Kim Harris will lead an interactive
discussion on how the Church is challenged in
dealing with intense social changes that we are
living with now. RSVP online at cal.lmu.edu/event/
lmux191026.
Sun., Oct. 27
“Día de los Muertos” celebration (“Day of the
Dead”). Forest Lawn’s locations in Glendale, Cypress,
and Covina Hills, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Traditional
Mexican Day of the Dead customs come to life. Family-friendly
music, art, and more. Free to the public.
For more information, go to forestlawn.com.
3rd Annual Interfaith Solidarity March. San Fernando
Valley, 2-5 p.m. Registration 1-2 p.m. at Temple
Valley Beth Israel, 13060 W. Roscoe Blvd., Sun
Valley. The 1.4-mile march is a journey through six
faiths, with each stop offering an opportunity for brief
remarks and communal singing. This year’s march
starts at Valley Beth Israel and will stop at neighboring
St. Genevieve Church and finish at Panorama Presbyterian
Church for a dinner by the Sikh Coalition. Hindu
Diwali prayers will be offered. For more information,
visit www.interfaithsolidaritynetwork.org or email
Marsha Novak at marlynov@gmail.com.
Mon., Oct. 28
The Amazing Parish Conference. Anaheim. Pastors
and parish leaders are invited to a workshop-style
conference to learn what a real leadership team looks
like and how it best serves parishioners. Conference
runs from Oct. 28 to Oct. 30. Learn more at amazingconference.com.
Woman to Woman Ministry: Gathered in Joy and
Kinship. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd.,
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Join other women to welcome the sacred
gifts of autumn and winter. Suggested donation:
$15/person. Email jmcbroehm@aol.com with questions
and to RSVP.
Healing Mass. St. Cornelius Church, 5500 E. Wardlow
Rd., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. Celebrant: Father Bernard
Sha.
Love and Mercy: “Faustina” screening. One day
only in select theaters. For more information, contact
screenings@carmelcommunications.com.
Sat., Nov.2
St. Peter Claver Holiday Boutique Sale. St. Peter
Claver Church, 5649 Pittman St., Simi Valley, 9 a.m.-5
p.m. Vendors will sell crafts, clothing, jewelry, food,
and more. It will also occur on Sun., Nov. 3, 9 a.m.-3
p.m. If you have questions, call Liza at 805-583-0466.
“Día de los Muertos” (“Day of the Dead”). Forest
Lawn location in Cathedral City. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Traditional
Mexican Day of the Dead customs come to
life. Family-friendly music, art, and more. Free to the
public. For more information, go to forestlawn.com.
“Día de Los Muertos” celebration (“Day of the
Dead”). Calvary Cemetery and Mortuary, 4201 Whittier
Blvd., Los Angeles. Doors open at 11 a.m. Festivities
begin at noon with Mass presided by Archbishop
José H. Gomez. Event will feature the pilgrim image
of Our Lady of Gaudalupe and a presentation about
the meaning and significance of the celebration. For
more information, visit archla.org/diadelosmuertos.
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October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 7

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Jesus draws a blunt picture
in today’s Gospel.
The Pharisee’s prayer
is almost a parody of the
thanksgiving psalms (see for
example Psalms 30,118). Instead
of praising God for his
mighty works, the Pharisee
congratulates himself for his
own deeds, which he presents
to God in some detail.
The tax collector stands at a
distance, too ashamed even
to raise his eyes to God (see
Ezra 9:6). He prays with a
humble and contrite heart
(see Psalm 51:19).
He knows that before God
no one is righteous, no
one has cause to boast (see
Romans 3:10; 4:2). We see
in the liturgy today one of
Scripture’s abiding themes,
that God “knows no favorites,”
as today’s First Reading
tells us (see 2 Chronicles
19:7; Acts 10:34–35; Romans
2:11).
God cannot be bribed (see
Deuteronomy 10:17). We
cannot curry favor with him or impress
him, even with our good deeds
or our faithful observance of religious
duties such as tithing and fasting.
If we try to exalt ourselves before the
Lord, as the Pharisee does, we will be
brought low (see Luke 1:52).
This should be a warning to us:
not to take pride in our piety, not
to slip into the self-righteousness of
thinking that we’re better than others,
that we’re “not like the rest of sinful
humanity.”
If we clothe ourselves with humility
(see 1 Peter 5:5–6) and recognize that
(855.500.3345 8 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019
“Christ in Glory,” Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.
all of us are sinners in need of his
mercy, we will be exalted (see Proverbs
29:33).
The prayer of the lowly, the humble,
pierces the clouds. Paul testifies to
this in today’s Epistle, as he thanks the
Lord for giving him strength during
his imprisonment.
Paul tells us what the psalmist sings
today, that the Lord redeems the lives
of his humble servants.
We, too, must serve him willingly,
and he will hear us in our distress, deliver
us from evil, and bring us safely
to his heavenly kingdom.
Scott Hahn is founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/JOSÉ LUIZ

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Grieving as a spiritual exercise
In a remarkable book, “The Inner
Voice of Love,” written while he was in
a deep emotional depression, theologian
Father Henri Nouwen shares these
words:
“The great challenge is living your
wounds through instead of thinking
them through. It is better to cry than
to worry, better to feel your wounds
deeply than to try to understand them,
better to let them enter into your
silence than to talk about them. The
choice you face constantly is whether
you are taking your hurts to your head
or to your heart.
“In your head you analyze them, find
their causes and consequences, and
coin words to speak and write about
them. But no final healing is likely to
come from that source. You need to
let your wounds go down into your
heart. Then you can live them through
and discover that they will not destroy
you. Your heart is greater than your
wounds.”
He’s right: Your heart is greater than
your wounds, though it needs caution
in dealing with them. Wounds can soften
your heart, but they can also harden
your heart and freeze it in bitterness.
So what’s the path here? What leads to
warmth and what leads to coldness?
In a remarkable essay, “The Drama of
the Gifted Child,” Swiss psychologist
Alice Miller tells us what hardens the
heart and what softens it. She does so
by outlining a particular drama that
commonly unfolds in many lives. For
her, giftedness does not refer to intellectual
prowess but to sensitivity.
The gifted child is the sensitive child.
But that gift, sensitivity, is a mixed
blessing. Positively, it lets you feel
things more deeply so that the joys of
living will mean more to you than to
someone who is more callous. That’s
its upside.
Conversely, however, if you are
sensitive you will habitually fear disappointing
others and will forever fear not
measuring up. And your inadequacy
to always measure up will habitually
trigger feelings of anxiety and guilt
within you.
As well, if you are extraordinarily sensitive,
you will tend to be self-effacing
to a fault, letting others have their way
while you swallow hard as your own
needs aren’t met and then absorb the
consequences.
Not least, if you feel things deeply you
will also feel hurt more deeply. That’s
the downside of sensitivity and makes
for the drama that Miller calls the
“drama of the gifted child,” the drama
of the sensitive person.
Further, in her view, for many of us
that drama will only begin to really play
itself out in our middle and later years,
constellating in frustration, disappointment,
anger, and bitterness, as the
wounds of our childhood and early
adulthood begin to break through and
overpower the inner mechanisms we
have set up to resist them.
In midlife and beyond, our wounds
will make themselves heard so strongly
that our habitual ways of denial and
coping no longer work. In midlife, you
realize that your mother did love your
sister better than you, that your father
in fact didn’t care much about you, and
that all those hurts you absorbed because
you swallowed hard and played
the stoic are still gnawing away bitterly
inside you.
That’s how the drama eventually
culminates in a heart that’s angry.
So where does that leave us? For
Miller, the answer lies in grieving.
Our wounds are real and there is
nothing we can do about them, pure
and simple. The clock can’t be turned
back. We cannot relive our lives so as to
provide ourselves with different parents,
different childhood friends, different experiences
on the playground, different
choices, and a different temperament.
We can only move forward so as to
live beyond our wounds, and we do
that by grieving. Miller submits that
the entire psychological and spiritual
task of midlife and beyond is that of
grieving, mourning our wounds until
the very foundations of our lives shake
enough so that there can be transformation.
A deep psychological scar is the same
as having some part of your body permanently
damaged in an accident. You
will never be whole again and nothing
can change that. But you can be happy
again; perhaps more happy than ever
before. But that loss of wholeness must
be grieved or it will manifest itself in
anger, bitterness, and jealous regrets.
The music composer and spiritual
writer, Father Roc O’Connor, SJ,
makes the same point, with the added
comment that the grieving process also
calls for a long patience within which
we need to wait long enough so that
the healing can occur according to its
own natural rhythms.
We need, he says, to embrace our
wounded humanity and not act out.
What’s helpful, he suggests, is to grieve
our human limitations. Then we can
endure hunger, emptiness, disappointment,
and humiliation without looking
for a quick fix, or for a fix at all. We
should not try to fill our emptiness too
quickly without sufficient waiting.
And we won’t ever make peace with
our wounds without sufficient grieving.
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 9

Parishioners from St.
Charles Borromeo Church
in North Hollywood built
a community prayer altar
at Calvary Cemetery this
year for migrant children
who lost their lives
crossing the U.S.-Mexico
border.
PILAR MARRERO
10 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

A feast for the departed
How a Mexican cultural tradition has become a way to bring
Angelenos closer to God
BY PILAR MARRERO / ANGELUS
PILAR MARRERO
For the second year in a row,
28-year-old Jeannette Vasquez,
her siblings, mother, and other
family members will come together at
Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard to
create a traditional Day of the Dead
altar in honor of her father, Rafael,
who died Oct. 2, 2015.
On the altar,
along with
pictures of
their loved
one, they will
place the traditional
sugar
skulls, several
pieces of
special sweet
bread or “pan
de muerto”
(“bread of
the dead”),
bottles of
the Mexican
soda he loved
and the exact
brand of hot
chiles he preferred
to eat.
A few weeks
ago, they had
a Mass in his
honor to mark
the anniversary
of his passing.
For this Southern California family
of Mexican origin, the point of the
Day of the Dead (more commonly
known as “Día de los Muertos” in
Spanish) celebration is to honor the
memory of their loved one. But now
that they’ve immersed themselves in
the altar-making as well as joined other
families doing the same at Calvary
Cemetery in East LA, they feel they
are also celebrating his life.
“We knew of this tradition, but we
had never physically created an altar
for anyone,” Vasquez said. “We did it
last year and loved the event so much
we decided to do it again. It is true
that there is sadness in this remembrance,
but this allows us to also feel
the happiness.”
ingrained in Mexican culture, and to
a lesser extent, in those of other Latin
American countries.
According to Ernesto Vega, who oversees
Adult Faith Formation in Spanish
for the archdiocese, the version of the
Day of the Dead celebrated in Southern
California and all over Mexico
has its roots
in pre-Hispanic
cultural
traditions
blended with
the traditional
Catholic festivities
of All
Saints’ Day
(Nov. 1) and
All Souls’ Day
(Nov. 2).
“For the
Anahuac
(pre-Hispanic)
cultures,
the indigenous
had a
concept of life
after death in
Accompanied by her children, a woman visits the grave at Calvary Cemetery of the great-aunt who raised her.
Like the Vasquez family, thousands
of others are expected to participate
in the Day of the Dead celebrations
in two Catholic cemeteries in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Oct. 26
at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard,
and Nov. 2 at Calvary Cemetery in
East LA.
It’s only the sixth year that “Día de
los Muertos”-themed events are taking
place in LA’s Catholic cemeteries.
But they draw from traditions deeply
which fulfillment
depends
on the virtues
you have
practiced
during your
physical life. The level or degree of
light you will have in the afterlife
would be according to the goodness
and the integrity that you practiced,”
explained Vega.
“That concept is not different from
the Catholic-Christian belief that
a person will manifest their faith
through good deeds and virtues that
will be practiced in the image of Jesus
Christ. These will represent the fullness
of life once resurrected.”
PILAR MARRERO
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 11

Bishop David O’Connell leads a “Día de los Muertos” celebration at Calvary Cemetery in East LA Nov. 1, 2015.
In Mexico, and in the homes of
Mexican immigrants in Southern
California, the cultural traditions of
the Day of the Dead have always been
celebrated along with the religious.
“The celebration did take place in
the Church in parishes, prayer groups,
youth groups, and Latino families,
but there was no official archdiocesan
celebration before,” said Vega. “But
I remember that when I was in the
seminary in the 1990s here in Los
Angeles, we would be asked to bring
portraits of relatives and we would
make altars around All Souls’ Day.”
The altars are particular to the
Mexican celebration, but other Latin
American Catholics have their own
way of remembering the departed.
Wilmer Perez said that in Guatemala,
many attend Mass Nov. 2 and visit the
cemeteries where their loved ones are
buried.
Roberto Rodríguez, from El Salvador,
said that in his region of the
country people get together around
the tomb of the loved one to share a
meal he or she would have liked, and
to tell stories about that person.
Altars are not part of the traditions
of their respective countries, but both
Central American men, who live in
Los Angeles, participated this year in
building one.
Together with other Spanish-speaking
parishioners from St. Charles
Borromeo in North Hollywood, they
built an altar to remember the Central
American children who have died
crossing the desert into the United
States or while in federal detention.
The altar is one of more than 50 that
will be on display at Calvary Cemetery
Nov. 2 in East Los Angeles for the Day
of the Dead celebrations. In this case,
the altar tradition is used to depict
a painful reality, to educate other
community members, and to honor
the children, said Carlos Castillo, a
Guatemalan immigrant who is part of
a group of 15 faithful that created it.
In the lyrics of a “corrido” (a Mexican-style
narrative ballad) co-written
by Castillo and musician Prudencio
Perez (also from Guatemala), Castillo
prays for the children who have
died but also those in detention, and
expresses hope for immigration reform
“to keep these tragedies from happening.”
In this context, the celebration serves
as a collective prayer by immigrants
from several countries to address an
issue of interest to the community.
Sandra Martinez, a Mexican
immigrant who attends St. Charles
Borromeo Church, explained that she
has always seen this tradition as a mix
of the cultural and the religious. “It
is a combination of all the elements,”
she said during a recent interview at
Calvary.
12 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

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Standing next to her, Candelaria
Castillo explained that at their parish,
the small group of Latino parishioners
“build an altar and we bring our family
photos, and we pray the rosary for
the unborn and all the children who
have died.”
The Day of the Dead is much more
than a colorful cultural expression,
said Vega.
“In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is
very spiritual,” he explained. “People
go to the cemeteries, attend Mass.”
Thanks to the recent Disney film
“Coco,” there’s been a broader popular
understanding in the U.S. of the
feast as a celebration, Vega said. Still,
“in the indigenous areas you can see
there is more of a solemnity to it, a
spiritual practice with the rosary, the
candles, and the celebration of Mass.”
Throughout the rest of Latin America,
it is very common to see families
visiting the cemetery year-round
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A WORKSHOP FOR CATECHISTS AND PCLs WHO WORK
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This is a continuing education opportunity offered by the Office of Religious
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DivineMercySunday_pilgrimage_Angelus_Rect.indd 10/16/19 1 8:23 PM
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Online registration is required, and deadline is November 5th.
The cost for this workshop is $10 per person and registration is now open in the ADLA Store.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019
English: Our Lady of Grace Encino (9 am to 12 noon)
English: St. Andrew Pasadena; (6 pm to 9:00 pm)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2019
Spanish: Holy Cross, Los Angeles; (9 am to 12 noon)
Spanish: St. Anthony Long Beach; (6 pm to 8:30 pm)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2019
English: St John Chrisostom, Inglewood; (9 am - 12 noon)
Spanish: Santa Rosa, San Fernando; (4 pm to 7:00 pm)
For more information, please contact:
Douglas E. Zuniga (213) 637-7410 ~ dezuniga@la-archdiocese.org
Neira Sánchez-García (213) 637-7580 ~ nsanchez-garcia@la-archdiocese.org
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13
091019_ADLA_SpecialNeedsWrkshp_Angelus_1-3pgHor.indd 1
10/18/19 7:50 AM

G
during any significant dates of the
departed.
At Calvary Cemetery on a recent
weekday morning, several groups of
A grave decorated for fall at Calvary Cemetery.
PILAR MARRERO
families sat around cleaning the tombstone
of their family member, placing
flowers or simply chatting among
themselves.
Several tombs were adorned with balloons,
flowers, and plastic decorations
to celebrate a birthday, or the arrival of
fall, even a giant teddy bear to remember
someone who passed young.
Families will start building altars and
adorning their family plots in ways that
aren’t common during regular times
of the year, said Brian McMahon, director
of outreach for the archdiocese’s
Catholic Cemeteries department.
“I love to see the families planning
their altars,” said McMahon.
“It’s nice to have a celebration where
people can express themselves in ways
that are special. From our first celebration,
the reaction has been extremely
positive.”
McMahon enjoys seeing visitors
place pictures of their loved ones on
the community altar throughout the
day and driving families in a golf cart
to their cars when the day ends.
“That way I can hear them say how
much they enjoyed it,” he added. “It’s
something I love personally.”
A few days before the main event,
about 200 third- and fourth-graders
from local Catholic schools are
invited to the cemetery grounds for
a catechetical day and to build their
own altar.
“We talk to them about it from the
Catholic context and the cultural one,
but their presence in the mausoleum
chapel lets them know it’s cool to be
in the cemetery; it’s not a ghoulish
place but a solemn one,” said McMahon.
“It’s very important to have students
involved, to learn the true meaning
of the tradition,” said archdiocesan
Chief Communications Officer
Carolina Guevara, who spearheaded
the creation of the celebration several
years ago. “It is really a celebration of
life.”
Pilar Marrero is a journalist who for
25 years has extensively covered the
areas of city government, immigration,
and state and national politics.
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14 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019
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ALL SOULS DAY
MASS
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Bishop David O'Connell
Resurrection Cemetery
Rosemead
10:00 a.m.
Bishop Robert Barron
Calvary Cemetery
Santa Barbara
10:00 a.m.
Fr. Hieu Chi Tran
Good Shepherd Cemetery
Lancaster
10:00 a.m.
Cardinal Roger Mahony
All Souls Cemetery & Mortuary
Long Beach
10:00 a.m.
Bishop Thomas Curry
Queen of Heaven Cemetery & Mortuary
Rowland Heights
10:00 a.m.
Fr. Joel Henson
Holy Cross Cemetery & Mortuary
Culver City
10:00 a.m.
Fr. Marco Ortiz
Santa Clara Cemetery & Mortuary
Oxnard
10:00 a.m.
Bishop Alejandro Aclan
Assumption Cemetery
Simi Valley
10:00 a.m.
Bishop Gerald Wilkerson
San Fernando Mission Cemetery
Mission Hills Catholic Mortuary
Mission Hills
10:00 a.m.
Fr. Alberto Arreola
Holy Cross Cemetery
Pomona
10:00 a.m.
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 15

The entrance building at All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary in Long Beach.
‘Everyone has a mission’
Why burying the dead is no ‘regular job’ for these cemetery employees
With its white stucco exterior,
red tile roof, and expansive
green lawns behind it, the
entrance building of All Souls Cemetery
and Mortuary in Long Beach
might easily be mistaken for a golf
course clubhouse.
After all, a golf cart was grounds
supervisor David Morales’ mode of
transportation for taking a ride around
the cemetery’s 47 acres on a recent
September morning.
“There’s a sacredness about working
here,” observed Morales. “It’s like an
honor and ministry. I feel like I’m
serving my community, serving the
families. It’s not like a regular job —
100 percent.”
Helping families bury a relative is
part of the 48-year-old’s job description.
He tries not to stick out while
standing in the back during graveside
services. But his work clothes, a blue
shirt with his name stitched on the
front and darker pants, usually give
him away.
When it’s over, he or another worker
climbs up on a yellow backhoe to
cover the casket with dirt unearthed
earlier and then packs it back down.
When he steps down from the vehicle,
he sometimes gets a chance to console
BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS
David Morales is the grounds supervisor at All Souls, which covers 47 acres.
a lingering member of the family.
“It’s not like digging a hole, right?”
Morales said as he steered the golf
cart with one hand while motioning
with the other. “No, to me it’s very
important to be respectful. I try to
encourage my coworkers to be the
same, because we’re seeing a family
going through the death of their mom
or dad, son or daughter. I want to give
R.W. DELLINGER VICTOR ALEMÁN
16 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

the family 100 percent when they do
the interment.”
Having to regularly confront the
reality of death for a living has given
the 48-year-old a special perspective
on life.
“I mean, when God calls you, you’ve
done your mission here on earth,” he
said. “It can be for 80 years, 18 years
or six months. But everyone has a
mission. I’m here to tell the families,
‘You can go in peace. Your family
member, he’s resting in peace, in the
right place, the right way.’ ”
He waved to the driver of a backhoe
coming back from scooping out a
grave. Later, on the far side of the
grassy grounds with the visitor, the
golf cart stopped to check out private
family plots. A row of them have
cinder-block walls on three sides with
a wrought-iron gate in front.
Morales, whose own family belongs
to St. Philip Neri Church in Lynwood,
said he feels the same way
about respecting grieving families
when he’s cutting the grass, keeping
up the gardens, or trimming flat-lying
markers.
But the main task he does is digging
graves, 4 feet down for a single
interment, 7 1/2 for a double. The
standard width is 40 inches for both,
however, because with a two-body internment,
one is stacked on the other.
Depending on the soil, it usually takes
a team 30 to 45 minutes to dig a grave.
“You see life different,” the grounds
supervisor mused later, after the ride.
“That’s why I don’t change my job
for nothing. Every day it’s different
— different cases, different cultures.
You see how the families are going
through these bad moments, so you
try to do the best job you can because
it’s a ministry.
“Because my work is connected to
my faith,” he added. “It’s very important
for me and my family.”
to really help people? The thought
led her to enroll in a local community
college mortuary science program.
“Once I got on the path, I knew
where I belonged,” she recalled.
As the embalmer and director of All
Souls Mortuary “care center,” the
place where bodies are brought and
prepared, Sault also sees her role as
a ministry.
“I feel strongly about that, and
that’s how I run the care center. I believe
it’s giving them to God in the
best light that you can,” she said.
“Everything from birth to death is
transition to eternity. So everything
being handled and honored is imperative
for a decedent.”
Struggling to find the right words,
she continued, “Everything about
them — the life they lived — I
mean, it’s way bigger than I am. It
really is.”
Specifically, Sault’s job entails embalming
bodies for burial, a role that
required a two-year internship before
she could get an embalmer’s license.
The first year was at a small mortuary
in Covina. She met with families
as an arrangement counselor, acted
as a funeral director and did many
other jobs in the field. Sault said she
loved them all, but it was during her
second intern year at All Souls that
she settled on the area she wanted to
specialize in.
“It’s a very fragile balance in embalming,”
Sault pointed out. “Every
decedent is different. And high levels
of medications can affect the embalming
process. Also different types
of chemotherapy. And if they had
liver failure or jaundice, it’s difficult
to embalm. With more chemicals
in the body, they can have different
consequences with reactions during
the process.”
At times, the four embalmers on staff
at All Souls also have to act as detectives.
They often don’t know the exact
cause of death or the medications and
medical procedures associated with
the deceased persons leading up to
their deaths.
“But with experience, you can tell
what a person died of just by looking
at him, generally,” Sault said. “Not all
cases. But we always have to determine
what type of chemicals we’re
going to use. So we’re always judging
the possible cause of death so we can
formulate our chemicals.
“After a while,” she added, “you get
really good at assessing.”
Kristi Sault worked for a law firm
and a bank, but didn’t feel like
she was helping others in any
significant way.
Eventually, she realized that helping
people during the hardest time of
their lives — dealing with the death
of a loved one — was one sure way to
change that. What better place for her
Kristi Sault supervises the care center at All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17

VICTOR ALEMÁN
At-need funeral counselor Sunny Smith says constant prayer is key to her job.
Embalming is surgical. Blood and
other bodily fluids are removed to be
replaced with formaldehyde-based
chemical solutions. If the body has
minimal complications, the whole
embalming process takes about two
hours.
But for those who died from different
traumas, like car accidents, gunshots,
and drowning, it can be much longer,
ranging anywhere from five hours to
days.
Often, accidental deaths bring up
the question of a public or private
viewing.
When a body comes in with severe
trauma, workers at the care center do
a head-to-toe assessment of its condition.
A report is written up for the
funeral counselor before he or she
meets with the family. Sometimes it
reads, “Viewing not recommended.”
But if the family is adamant about
seeing the deceased one last time,
they must sign a waiver.
“We do everything we can to try to
make them look the best we can,” she
said.
“Sometimes we’ll just have the hands
showing. If there’s nothing we can do,
the family can come in and hold their
hand. What I recommend and tell
counselors is that perhaps you have
one chosen family member to go in
and see them first. And they make the
determination whether the rest of the
family should view.”
Sault has been at All Souls since
2001, and said she has no plans of
changing careers. “It’s very rewarding,”
said the embalmer and manager.
“And I’m really glad that I do what I
do.”
“My job is to try to make
what’s probably your
worst day in life the
easiest,” said Sunny Smith, an at-need
funeral counselor at All Souls. “That’s
how I look at it, because I don’t want
anyone to feel like I’m just business.
I want you to know that I care about
you, and I care about who you just
lost. Once I gain that relationship,
everything just flows. And, really, it’s
honestly day by day, case by case.”
The counselor usually meets with
three or four families every workday,
sometimes five during busy periods.
She makes all the arrangements,
including going over pricing, selecting
the casket or urn, designing the
headstone, as well as preparation for
interment. A lot of her time is spent
just listening to families share memories
about their dead relative.
“You connect with these people, and
they let you into their lives, and you
cherish it,” Smith said. “I know this
was one of the worst days in their life.
I know that, and I want to make them
laugh if I can. That’s my way to help
them get through it. For me — without
sounding silly — I do think that
God has given me the gift of empathy
and humor. I don’t know, but it seems
to work.”
Not all the time, however. A baby’s
or child’s death can be especially devastating
to a family, with the mother
or father simply shutting down, not
wanting to talk to anybody.
Gang funerals can be especially hard
to break through to parents, who are
grieving and angry at the same time.
Smith said part of the job is making
the family understand that she’s not
judging them for their tattoos, lack of
money, or limited English. In short,
gaining their trust.
Like the other workers Angelus News
spoke to, Smith believes there’s a fundamental
difference between Catholic
cemeteries and secular ones.
“There’s a sacred, spiritual aspect
that exists, and people know that,” she
said. “They feel more comfortable
when the place involves their faith.
And you don’t even have to be Catholic.
You just have to have a Catholic
connection like a husband or wife.
We would never separate them.
“Before I walk into a room and know
it’s a really tragic case like a child, I
pray to have the right words to say,”
she added.
“And it’s intimidating to walk into a
room like that. Here I am, a stranger.
And I’m going to start charging them
for this and that, which we have to do,
but you can do it in a certain way. I’m
able to absorb their emotion. That’s
the empathy part, which is wonderful
sometimes and horrible other times.”
Smith emphasized that the most fundamental
part of her job is praying.
“I’m constantly praying because
I need faith and strength to get me
through every day. And I’m always
praying for the families. Always. ‘Jesus,
take care of the mom whose baby
died. She’s not making it. She needs
you.’ I’ll say that in my head, and I’ve
seen it work.”
R.W. Dellinger is the features editor
of Angelus.
18 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19

Communion
at the cathedral
Moments from some of the liturgies
celebrated at the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels this month
Archbishop José H. Gomez greets a mini-Massgoer after the Catholic Foster
Family Appreciation Day Mass Oct. 13. After Mass, families headed to the
Catholics Love Foster picnic and festival at Los Angeles State Historic Park,
organized by the Archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice and Peace.
Above and top right: Members of several faiths and traditions attended the Oct. 15 Red Mass in honor of federal and state judges, public officials, and legal
professionals.
20 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

Above and below: More than 3,000 students from Catholic schools around the archdiocese packed the cathedral for the Missionary Childhood Association
Mass Oct. 16. The schools represented were honored for raising more than $30,000 to help those affected by the earthquake that struck Indonesia last
year. The Mass was presided by Archbishop Gomez and organized by the archdiocese’s Mission Office.
Check out our new website and view photos and videos from recent events and
liturgies in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at AngelusNews.com/Photos-Videos.
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21

Synodal
surprises
How the Synod
on the Amazon is
producing an unlikely
cast of star players
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. /
ANGELUS
ROME — To be honest, Synods
of Bishops in the Vatican aren’t
generally the stuff of high drama.
Participants are often selected because
they support the agenda of the pontiff
who convened the meeting, and synod
staff are generally adept at guiding
things toward the desired conclusions.
Yet because these affairs involve
human beings, many of whom, to be
clear, are alpha personalities accustomed
to doing things their way, there
are always surprises along the way, and
that’s certainly true at the midway point
of the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops for
the Pan-Amazon region in the Vatican.
Herewith, a sampling of noteworthy
twists and turns.
First, it’s striking that at a Synod of
Bishops, at least in the early stages,
most of the stars of the show haven’t
been prelates at all. In fact, you could
make the argument that the two figures
who’ve made the deepest impression
aren’t even human.
That’s because the most memorable
moment so far remains something that
actually happened two days before the
synod’s formal opening.
On Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis
of Assisi, the pope participated in an
indigenous ceremony in the Vatican
gardens in which people knelt and
prayed before two images of semi-naked
pregnant women, causing no small
amount of consternation in traditionalist
Catholic circles, who suspected
some sort of pagan ritual.
Pope Francis and Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes in front of a statue representing “Pachamama”
(“Mother Earth”) at the Vatican Gardens Oct. 4.
Two weeks later, Vatican spokesmen
were still attempting to put out the fire.
Paolo Ruffini, the Vatican’s communications
czar, told reporters Oct. 16
that he took the statues to simply be
representations of life with no special
spiritual significance, and that “looking
for pagan symbols is seeking evil where
there’s no evil.”
Beyond that minifracas, participants
in the synod will tell you that the
speeches which have stirred the most
reaction have come from the representatives
of the roughly 400 indigenous
communities in the Amazon
rainforest.
PHOTO BY GIULIO ORIGLIA/GETTY IMAGES
22 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

Other protagonists at the Vatican’s
daily briefings have included luminaries
from outside the Catholic Church,
such as the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, (and
a non-Catholic, whose father is an
Anglican priest), and Brazilian scientist
Carlos Afonso Nobre, who won the
2007 Nobel Prize for his work on the
IPCC report on climate change.
In all, there are just about 170 bishops
among the full body of roughly 260
synod participants, suggesting this is
less a Synod “of” Bishops than a meeting
“with” bishops.
For a second surprise, despite early
attempts to project strong consensus,
it’s become clear there is actually disagreement
on at least one point: the ordination
of married men to solve priest
shortages in isolated rural communities
in the Amazon.
The synod began with its relator, or
chairman, Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio
Hummes, putting the married priests
debate squarely on the table, saying the
request came from many indigenous
communities during the consultation
phase.
At an early news briefing, Brazilian
Bishop Erwin Kräutler said “twothirds”
of the prelates in the hall are
favorable to ordaining the so-called
“viri probati,” meaning tested married
men.
Yet as things have unfolded, some
discordant notes have been struck.
At an Oct. 16 briefing, for instance,
Bishop Wellington Tadeu de Queiroz
Vieira of Cristalândia in Brazil said
that, in his opinion, the problem with
attracting new priests in the Amazon
isn’t the celibacy requirement but
scandals and poor behavior by some
priests, so the antidote isn’t marriage
but deeper holiness.
Queiroz also claimed to not be alone
in feeling that way: “I think there are
many who share my views,” he said.
It remains to be seen how the synod
will handle the issue in its concluding
document, but there seemed to be
a growing sense at the halfway point
that “specific problems,” such as the
married priests debate, shouldn’t mar a
broad consensus on other matters.
It’s noteworthy that despite being a
synod about the Amazon, many of the
loudest voices in and around it aren’t
native to the Amazon.
For example, there have been complaints
from women’s activist groups
about the fact that no women have
the right to vote in the synod, with
the public faces of those complaints
coming mostly from Europe and North
America.
A news conference at Rome’s Foreign
Press Club just before the synod,
staged by a group called Voices of
Faith, featured a strong turnout of nuns
from a convent in Switzerland, but no
actual Amazonians.
Meanwhile, several counterevents
organized by more conservative and
traditionalist groups have featured wellknown
pundits from Italy, the United
States, and other first-world settings,
but few figures from the Amazon itself.
Even inside the synod, it’s often
striking how many of the bishops and
other figures playing lead roles are
foreign missionaries, descendants of
foreign-born ancestors with roots in
Europe, or who’ve had their formation
and studies in Europe.
Bishop Carlo Verzeletti of Castanhal,
Brazil, who’s spoken in favor of married
priests, was actually born in Trenzano,
Italy, in 1950, and was ordained
in Brescia before going to the Amazon
as a Donum Fidei priest in 1982.
Kräutler himself was born in Austria
and headed to Brazil as a missionary
in 1965, the year the Second Vatican
Council ended.
Bishop Eugenio Coter of Pando,
Brazil, who’s spoken in favor of deeper
inculturation and giving an “Amazonian”
face to the liturgy, was born
in 1957 in Brescia in Italy, the home
region of St. Pope John XXIII.
In other words, the Synod on the
Amazon is another case in which the
local and the universal are colliding,
with results yet to be determined.
No matter how the synod ends,
it won’t be the final word. A synod
is merely an advisory exercise, so
everything depends on what Pope
Francis decides to do with what he
hears, and given this maverick pope’s
reputation for upsetting the apple cart,
that may be a prescription for more,
and bigger, surprises still to come.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
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October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 23
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 23

AD REM
BY ROBERT BRENNAN
When grace beats guilt
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/TOM FOX POOL VIA REUTERS
Brandt Jean hugs former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger.
Guilty pleasures still make us
guilty. The Liam Neeson “Taken”
franchise is such a form
of entertainment I have dabbled in.
Guilty. From the rash of sequels at least
I’m not alone. Why do movies like this
attract us?
Maybe it’s because watching Neeson
track down all those bad guys who kidnapped
his daughter — or whichever
family member this guy seems to have
such a difficult time keeping track of
— gives us a false sense of justice.
Movies have no monopoly doling out
desensitizing product that taps into our
baser selves. Television has been doing
it for decades. We may be passively
watching in our living rooms, but we
participate when we shrug and grab a
snack after watching some TV reporter
thrust a microphone in front of a grieving
mother to ask how she feels after
her child was hit by a car.
If it’s a particularly awful story about
a child being hurt and the culprit is
still on the loose, television helps fan
the outrage flames and we become
like the mobs in old monster movies
with torches and pitchforks demanding
“justice.”
What we are really demanding is
vengeance. It’s the same emotion we
entertain ourselves with in all those
Neeson movies where he hunts bad
guys and does unspeakable things to
them. It makes us feel good, in the
most superficial and fleeting way.
None of this is television’s or the movie
industry’s problem. Just as long as
people keep walking to the box office
or buy the products advertised on our
favorite television shows, all is good in
the pop culture universe.
24 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

But if God can make something good
out of the foibles and faults of King David
or the adulteress, he can certainly
pluck grace out of something as banal
as popular culture. This past week he
did that in a most massive way.
I had heard of the story; remember I
watch too much TV. It played in the
background of daily life: A policewoman
in Dallas somehow stumbled into
her neighbor’s apartment, thought she
was in her own apartment, and shot the
neighbor thinking he was an intruder.
The policewoman, Amber Guyger,
was white; the neighbor, Botham Jean,
dead on his own floor in his own apartment,
was black.
Television pounced.
The story had law enforcement, racial
bias, murder, everything that makes a
story “good.” The facts of the trial are
unimportant. They are unimportant
because unless you were a juror or a
member of the Texas public who sat in
that courtroom every day for the entirety
of the trial, you really don’t have an
informed opinion.
Here is what we all know for sure.
The police officer was convicted of
second-degree murder and the judge
sentenced her to 10 years in prison.
Those who wanted the officer to be
acquitted were unhappy; those who
wanted her to be convicted of first-degree
murder were outraged.
Television, as it is apt to do, fixated on
the drama of it all, but was unprepared
for what happened next. It was time for
that most wrenching of criminal trial
rituals: the victim impact statements.
This is where family members describe
how much pain they are living through
because of the actions of a perpetrator.
Guyger was weeping, alone, and
friendless in the world, when Brandt
Jean, the brother of the murder victim
got his chance to speak. He wanted
Guyger to know he forgave her and
hoped she would let Jesus into her
heart, then he asked the judge if he
could hug Guyger.
They met in the middle of the courtroom,
penitent and forgiver. Guyger
hugged Jean like her life depended on
it. Maybe it did. If this was a Neeson
“Taken” movie, the “justice” would
have been quick and brutal. But as
fleeting as that artificial nod to our broken
need for vengeance is, witnessing
the most profound and important act a
Christian can perform is lasting.
You could not find another person
with more pain and justifiable anger in
this case than the brother of someone
who was so senselessly murdered. Yet,
only his forgiveness could ever give
Guyger the spark that just might lead
to that journey with Jesus that Jean
sincerely hopes she takes.
News cycles will rotate on and the
story will be forgotten, but anyone who
claims to be a follower of Jesus should
commit the sight of Jean and Guyger
hugging to their frontal cortex. The
day may come to us when we will be
in one position or the other. And even
if TV cameras aren’t present to intrude
on the scene, let’s pray we are all up to
the task.
Robert Brennan is director of communications
at The Salvation Army
California South Division in Van Nuys,
California.
Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries invites you to celebrate
DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS
OCTOBER 26, 2019
Santa Clara Cemetery — 2370 N. H St, Oxnard, CA 93036
NOVEMBER 2, 2019
Calvary Cemetery — 4201 Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90023
11:00 am
archla.org/diadelosmuertos
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25

Who was
Father Ted?
Two new biographies take
on the different sides of the
longtime Notre Dame president’s
complicated legacy
BY EVAN HOLGUIN / ANGELUS
“I So begins a scratchy recording at the start of
think one should remember that this is something
coming from memory.”
“Hesburgh,” the documentary film that takes its name from
Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC.
The 2019 film chronicles the life of the 35-year president
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
of the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana,
using mostly excerpts from his own autobiographical writings
as the basis for the narrative.
Its portrayal of Hesburgh as heroic and stately is based
on the memories of its subject and those who knew him:
friends, family, confreres, and allies. It is spectacular, beautiful,
and compelling, yet, importantly, one should remember
that it is coming from memory.
“I can recall my father always telling my mother that she
‘piled it,’ tended to exaggerate things,” the recording continues.
“And I may have inherited some of that Irish trait.”
If the quasi-autobiographical “Hesburgh” can be accused of
piling it, then its confrere, “American Priest: The Ambitious
Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted
Hesburgh,” by Father Wilson D. Miscamble, CSC, aims for
a more balanced take.
Miscamble portrays Hesburgh as a man in conflict with
himself, totally dedicated to his priesthood but trying to
balance his Catholic faith with the desire to be a protagonist
in the civil rights movement while elevating the school’s
academic prestige.
Through interviews, books, historical records, and some of
his own memories of his coreligionist, Miscamble drafts an
honest and nuanced narrative that at times conflicts with the
narrative in “Hesburgh.”
According to Miscamble, Hesburgh’s public version of
his relationships with St. Pope Paul VI, Presidents John F.
Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and even successor Father
Edward “Monk” Malloy, CSC, were rose-colored compared
to reality.
There was hurt and loss between the broken relationship
of Hesburgh and the pope, anger at Kennedy for distancing
himself from his Catholic roots, and distaste when Nixon
championed Hesburgh’s “15-minute policy” to fight campus
protests, and, most importantly for the priest who dedicated
his life to Notre Dame, hurt at being left out of decisions
made after his 35-year presidency had ended.
For all its historical nuance, Miscamble’s work is clearly the
superior of the two, filled with more accurate scholarship
than the largely autobiographical film, and thus recording
more honest nuance. And yet, Miscamble’s work still suffers
from a slight bias and cynicism of which he warns the reader
from the beginning:
“I began to think about writing of Father Ted and Notre
Dame out of a presentist concern to understand for myself
and, I hope, to explain to others how events had come to
pass that Notre Dame’s mission as a Catholic university had
become so contested,” Miscamble writes in his introduction.
“Readers must be aware of this perspective at the outset
because it still operates and unquestionably it influences the
perspective of this book.”
Anyone familiar with Miscamble’s work, not merely as a
historian but as an activist for Catholic education, knows
that Notre Dame’s invitation of President Barack Obama for
its 2009 commencement address is a sticking point for the
biographer in terms of Notre Dame’s Catholic identity.
Miscamble, like many others who protested and disavowed
the invitation, was aghast at the decision by the country’s
most well-known Catholic school to award a politician who
26 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

Father Theodore Hesburgh, CSC, left, with Martin Luther King Jr., and Msgr.
Robert J. Hagarty of Chicago, right, in 1964 at the Illinois Rally for Civil
Rights in Chicago’s Soldier Field.
supports abortion with an honorary doctorate.
Miscamble’s discussion of Hesburgh’s position on abortion
is what most jarringly smacks of cynicism throughout
the book. Though his historical investigation questions at
time the extent of Hesburgh’s impact on certain causes, his
criticism of Hesburgh’s lack of pro-life activism betray the
author’s opinion into the university president’s legacy.
At multiple points, Miscamble criticizes Hesburgh for what
he chronicles as largely a pragmatic decision. According to
Miscamble’s argument, Hesburgh’s cause of choice was civil
rights, and through a flawed rationale Hesburgh decided that
abortion issues were a distraction he could not afford.
There are times when this criticism makes sense; for example,
when recounting Hesburgh’s decision to move away
from pro-life rhetoric after Yale students hissed at him during
a Terry lecture in which he included defense for the unborn
among civil rights issues.
However, at other points, Miscamble seems to tack
Hesburgh’s life-issues ambivalence to unrelated legacies.
As a result, Miscamble beleaguers the reader with this non
sequitur while still failing to completely address Hesburgh’s
failed legacy in life issues.
“Hesburgh” also brings up the 2009 invitation of Obama,
even though the contentious event did not include Hesburgh
as president, largely just to make two points: that the
president cited Hesburgh for his work on the civil rights
commission as essential for his election, and that Hesburgh
confirmed his much-criticized successor in his decision to
invite the pro-choice president.
In making these two points, the movie ironically supports
the view of the Hesburgh legacy that Miscamble much maligns,
in claiming the presidential commencement address
as a win for Hesburgh’s civil rights campaign, it conveniently
avoids acknowledging basic Catholic teaching on abortion.
Though Miscamble criticizes Hesburgh’s pro-life stance at
inappropriate times, “Hesburgh” does show that the priest’s
legacy is flawed because he wouldn’t address life issues
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
publicly. As a result, the issue continues to be sidestepped or
ignored, even during appropriate times to criticize abortion
and Hesburgh’s lack of action against it.
There is a sense that these two works need each other —
the explicit hagiography of “Hesburgh” with the nuanced, if
at times cynical, analysis of “American Priest.”
The topics these works cover, civil rights, anti-Catholic
prejudice, and the role of the Church in education, are far
from settled, and the victories which Father Ted helped win
have made way for new controversies to divide the nation.
“It’s impossible to have a complete and honest human story
if one doesn’t speak of human failings as well as human
successes,” the recording at the beginning of “Hesburgh”
concludes.
Combined, these two biographies offer a complete and
honest human story, one prominently displaying the human
successes while the other honestly chronicles the human
failings. Read and watch them soon.
Evan Holguin is a graduate of the University of Notre
Dame. Originally from Santa Clarita, he now lives in New
Haven, Connecticut. His work has been featured on the
website Aleteia.com and on Ultramontane: A Catholic News
Podcast.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY OCP MEDIA
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 27

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
Sounding it out
A USC alum’s nine-year
project looks at what it takes
for films to reach our ears
COURTESY OF “MAKING WAVES”
Bernie Krause recording at Point Reyes.
Midge Costin’s documentary,
“Making Waves: The Art
of Cinematic Sound,” is a
fascinating and instructive peek into a
world hitherto unknown to most of us.
The film traces the history of sound in
film, examines the ways directors and
sound designers work together, and
features the latest discoveries and advances
in sound technology, all while
managing to remain warm, lively, and
human.
Director-producer Costin is a graduate
of USC Film School, a veteran,
award-winning feature film sound editor
in Hollywood, and the holder of the
Kay Rose Endowed Chair in the Art of
Sound Editing at the USC School of
Cinematic Arts given by George Lucas
in 2005. Producers-writers Bobette
Buster and Karen Johnson round out
the team.
SIOBHAN LEACHMAN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Midge Costin at the New Zealand International
Film Festival Aug. 10.
Costin came out of USC as a picture
editor. Sound was the last thing she
thought of doing: too technical, she
thought; a tangential element unrelated
to story and character.
By chance she happened into a sound
editing job. “I didn’t care for being on
the set: noise, chaos, big personalities.
But I could definitely be alone in a
dark room and hyper-focus.”
She discovered that sound brings
emotion to the picture, often in very
subtle ways. She fell in love with it,
and with her colleagues. By 1987, her
career was off and running.
Over time, her USC network grew.
So did her appreciation of sound in
the world and her life: people’s voices,
breathing. Passing that awareness on to
her students is deeply fulfilling.
“I’m a teacher in the end. Early on in
the class I’ll play clips and ask them,
‘What do you hear? What are you feeling?’
Maybe they’ll hear the sound of
the wind and that will bring them back
to a certain time in their lives. Sound
evokes visual memories, and that’s
when you can start thinking about
28 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019

linking sound with pictures.
“I tell them, my students, ‘Show up
on time, do what you say you’re going
to do, be a good collaborator.’ And if
you’re not really passionate about film
then I would say, ‘Get out while you
can.’ Thank God for unions. But the
hours are crazy.”
Costin wanted to showcase some of
the people “below the line.”
“Above the line in the credits are the
producers, director, actors, production
designer, composer. Sound editors end
up below the line with the crafts-service
people, not that we’re not grateful
to them, too. But I feel that in post-production,
we’re filmmakers as well,
each with our own area of expertise. I
hope the film shows how much effort,
artistry, creativity, and detail go into the
work.”
She also hopes “Making Waves”
names in sound. Walter Murch, called
by Roger Ebert “the most respected
film editor and sound designer in the
modern cinema,” describes literally
orchestrating the groundbreaking,
six-speaker surround sound on “Apocalypse
Now.”
Ben Burtt, who says he got his first
jobs because Murch wasn’t available,
acknowledges having a nervous
breakdown after his early, huge success
on “Star Wars.” The experience made
him realize that he loved his work, but
family came first.
“I put that in because we become
really close to one another in this
business,” says Costin. “We eat our
meals together. We know who’s got a
kid who needs special attention or a
sick parent.”
Gary Rydstrom (“Terminator 2: Judgment
Day,” “Jurassic Park,” “Titanic”)
By the end, you’re proud to be an
Angeleno, grateful for the people
“below the line,” and cognizant on a
whole new level the depth to which
sound in American film has burrowed
into your bloodstream. Tarzan’s jungle
cry. Lauren Bacall’s “You know how to
whistle, don’t you, Steve?” The rushing
water in “A River Runs Through It.”
I didn’t think a documentary about
sound editing could bring me to tears,
but “Making Waves” managed the task.
Maybe it was Oscar-nominated
rerecording mixer Anna Behlmer
(“Braveheart”) who got to me, sitting at
her console and saying exuberantly of
her life’s work: “When you feel those
goosebumps, you know you’ve got it
right. … I pinch myself every day.”
“Making Waves,” recently nominated
for Critics Choice Awards for First Doc
Feature, comes to theaters nationwide
COURTESY OF “MAKING WAVES”
Anna Behlmer at a mixing console.
breaks through the stereotype that
women can’t cut sound effects. “My
students are so diverse, and from all
over the world, so it was important
to me to show diversity in the film as
well.”
The documentary was nine years in
the making and features, among other
notable directors, Steven Spielberg,
George Lucas, David Lynch, and Sofia
Coppola.
It also includes some of the biggest
laughs that he got his first jobs because
Burtt wasn’t available. His love for the
craft and respect for his fellow sound
pioneers is palpable.
There are plenty of women as well:
Cece Hall (“Top Gun”), Lora Hirschberg
(“The Avengers”), Ai Ling-Lee
(“Deadpool”), Bobbi Banks (“Selma”),
Kay Rose, the first woman to win an
Oscar for sound for 1984’s “The River,”
and her daughter, sound editor Victoria
Rose Sampson.
and to various Arclight theaters around
town Oct. 25. It premieres Saturday,
Oct. 26, at 3 p.m., at Beverly Hills’
Ahrya Fine Arts. A panel Q&A will
follow with, among others, Murch,
Rydstrom, Costin, Buster, and Johnson.
Costin winds up: “My blood family’s
back in Boston but my family here in
LA is my sound family. This is a passion
project for me and I’m over
the moon that it’s getting out to the
world.”
Heather King is a blogger, speaker and the author of several books.
October 25, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29

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FR. SERAPHIM MICHALENKO, MIC
Fr. Seraphim has been a priest for
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FR. ED BROOM, OMV
He is a member of the Oblates of
the Virgin Mary and was ordained
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