Angelus News | December 6, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 41

ANGELUS
IN HER
HANDS
December 6, 2019 Vol. 4 No. 41

Join Archbishop José H. Gomez on
PILGRIMAGE TO MEXICO AND
THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CORONATION
OF THE IMAGE OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
JULY 8-13, 2020
Our journey will be a time when we deepen our faith, give
t h a n k s for the many blessings in our lives, and pray for our
b rothers and sisters in Christ. I hope you can join us!
-Archbishop José H. Gomez
4
Presented by Catholic Travel Centre
Under the Direction of Archbishop’s Office of Special Services
Please contact Judy Brooks at (213) 637-7520 or pilgrimage@la-archidocese.org for details.
GuadalupeLa.com

ON THE COVER
ON
A woman lays her hand on a traveling missionary
image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
during a visit by the replica to St. Louis
Church in Pittsford, New York, in 2012.
Ahead of the Patroness of the Americas’
Dec. 12 feast day, on Page 10 contributing
editor Mike Aquilina tells the story of how
Our Lady of Guadalupe altered the course
of human history through her intercession
on not just one, but two continents.
IMAGE:
Faithful take to the streets of Hollywood
Saturday, Nov. 23, for a silent eucharistic
procession and an encounter with the
homeless who live there. The procession
was part of the Beloved Movement’s
special event marking the World Day
of the Poor, which included Mass at
Hollywood’s Blessed Sacrament Church.
The night’s events were open to people
of all faiths and backgrounds.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/
MIKE CRUPI, CATHOLIC COURIER
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
4
Contents
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation and Local News 4-6
LA Catholic Events 7
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
In helping dying kids, hospice workers see ‘the real miracle’ 14
Inés San Martín: Pope’s Asia trip challenges social destruction 18
Four books to consider gifting this Christmas 20-29
What makes ‘Klaus’ a worthy Christmas surprise 30
Heather King: Downtown LA’s attempt at winter magic 32
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 1

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December 6, 2019 | Vol. 4 • No. 41
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POPE WATCH
The good thief’s mission
The following is adapted from the
Holy Father’s homily on the solemnity
of Christ the King at the baseball
stadium of Nagasaki on Sunday, Nov.
24, during the pope’s apostolic journey
to Japan.
“Jesus, remember me when you
come in your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
On this last Sunday of the liturgical
year, we join our voices to that of the
criminal crucified beside Jesus, who
acknowledged and acclaimed him a
king. That thief was able to speak up
and make his profession of faith.
His were the last words Jesus heard,
and Jesus’ own words in reply were
the last he spoke before abandoning
himself to the Father: “Truly I say
to you, today you will be with me in
Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The checkered history of the thief
seems, in an instant, to take on new
meaning: He was meant to be there to
accompany the Lord’s suffering. And
that moment does nothing more than
confirm the entire meaning of Jesus’
life: always and everywhere to offer
salvation.
Today … we know too well the history
of our failures, sins, and limitations,
even as the good thief did, but we do
not want them to be what determines
or defines our present and future. We
know how readily all of us can take
the easy route of shouting out, “Save
yourself!” and choose not to think
about our responsibility to alleviate
the suffering of innocent people all
around us.
Our faith is in the God of the living.
Christ is alive and at work in our
midst, leading all of us to the fullness
of life. He is our hope.
Each day we pray: Lord, may your
kingdom come. If, as missionary
disciples, our mission is to be witnesses
and heralds of things to come, we
cannot become resigned in the face of
evil in any of its forms. Rather, we are
called to be a leaven of Christ’s kingdom
wherever we find ourselves: in
the family, at work, or in society at large.
The kingdom of heaven is our
common goal, a goal that cannot be
only about tomorrow. We have to
implore it and begin to experience
it today, amid the indifference that
so often surrounds and silences the
sick and disabled, the elderly and the
abandoned, refugees and immigrant
workers. All of them are a living sacrament
of Christ our king.
On that day at Calvary, many voices
remained silent; others jeered. Only
the thief’s voice rose to the defense of
the innocent victim of suffering. His
was a brave profession of faith. Each
of us has the same possibility: We can
choose to remain silent, to jeer, or to
prophesy.
Dear brothers and sisters, Nagasaki
bears in its soul a wound difficult to
heal, a scar born of the incomprehensible
suffering endured by so many innocent
victims of wars past and those
of the present, when a third World
War is being waged piecemeal.
Let us lift our voices here and pray
together for all those who even now
are suffering in their flesh from this
sin that cries out to heaven. May more
and more persons be like the good
thief and choose not to remain silent
and jeer, but bear prophetic witness
instead to a kingdom of truth and
justice, of holiness and grace, of love
and peace.
Papal Prayer Intention for December: That every country take the measures
necessary to prioritize the future of the very young, especially those who are
suffering.
2 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Meet Jesus again this Advent
With each Advent, it is like we begin
our Christian lives anew as we await
the coming of Jesus.
Of course, we know him and love
him, and we have been his followers
for years, trying to live by his teachings,
praying and worshipping as he
taught us to. Yet the Church gives us
this holy season every year for us to
meet him again and to encourage us
to grow deeper in our living relationship
with him.
Our lives are a mystery, hidden with
Christ in God, as St. Paul said. Advent
invites us to reflect on this mystery,
to remember that we matter more
than we could imagine, that we have
been made out of the Creator’s loving
purposes and are part of his mysterious
plan for creation.
God made each of us in his image,
out of love, to be his children. But that
image is distorted by the original sin of
Adam and Eve, which darkened in us
the glory that God intended.
This is the “why” of the Incarnation,
the meaning of his coming that we
await in Advent.
Jesus comes, sent by his Father to be
born in the likeness of our sinful humanity.
He is one with God, the image
of the invisible God, but at the same
time, he is also a man among us.
He is the “new Adam,” who shows us
who we are made to be in the beginning.
He comes as God’s Son to share
in our life and he dies to free us from
sin and give us the power to live as
sons and daughters of God.
Jesus changes everything, giving our
human lives a new direction and new
possibilities. Answering his call to
follow him, we enter into his life in
baptism, and we commit ourselves to
a life of ongoing conversion from our
old ways and old habits to become a
new creation in Christ.
By his grace in the sacraments, especially
in the Eucharist, we are slowly
being changed, “conforming” ourselves
to his image, being renewed in the
image of the One who created us.
This is the whole story. In Jesus, our
lives on earth become a way of love
and a pathway to heaven, as we share
in his promise of eternal life, following
him along with our families and loved
ones in the Church.
The challenge we have is to really
believe this when our daily lives are
taken up with so many demands and
concerns: making a living, carrying out
Our lives are a mystery, hidden with Christ in God,
and Advent invites us to reflect on this mystery.
our duties, caring for our loved ones.
This is why Advent is important.
Advent turns our eyes once again to
the true “center” of our lives: Jesus and
our living relationship with him.
The saints teach us that to grow in
that relationship, we need to meditate
on the life of Christ, so we always have
in our minds the scenes from his life,
the words of his teaching.
So, it is important for us to build time
into our daily lives to “meet” Jesus in
the Gospels. One easy way to do that is
to make a few minutes to read the Gospel
passage that the Church assigns for
each day of the year.
One option is to subscribe to the
free email service from DailyGospel.
org. What I like about this is that they
send the Gospel for each day along
with a reflection on the Gospel that is
drawn from the writings of the Church
Fathers, the saints, or the Catechism of
the Catholic Church, or other Church
teaching documents. The service is
offered in a variety of languages, and I
find that it encourages lectio divina.
That is the most important thing: to
read the Gospels with prayer, always
asking the Holy Spirit to guide you.
Read the passage slowly; pay attention
to the little details, letting our Lord’s
words and actions sink in. Meditate on
what you read. What stands out in the
reading? Is it one of the characters, a
certain word, a movement, or a sign?
Read and read again. Ask the Lord
to tell you what he wants you to hear.
Then, before concluding your reading,
just be silent, contemplate, “rest” in
the Lord.
Remember, we are not reading to try
to learn something. We are reading to
become someone. We want to know:
How does he live, how does he treat
other people, how does he think and
act and respond to situations, how does
he handle conflicts?
Our goal in reading the Gospels
every day is to imitate Jesus, to love
him more, and to have the “mind of
Christ,” seeing the world as Jesus sees,
finding him present always in our
lives.
Pray for me this week and I will pray
for you.
And let us ask the Blessed Virgin to
help us to have a new desire to meet
Jesus in the Gospels during these
weeks of Advent.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Venice churches hit with biblical flooding
Some 60 churches have been damaged in Venice as a
result of the worst flooding to hit the Italian port city in
more than a half century.
One of them, the Byzantine Basilica of St. Maria Assunta,
has been standing for nearly 1,400 years.
The famous St. Mark’s Cathedral, which is located in
one of the lowest parts of the city, was among the hardest
hit, with water from the floods seeping into the mosaic
floors and marble columns. The floods also completely
submerged the basilica’s crypt for a full 24 hours.
Though the flood waters have since been cleaned out
with fresh water, the full extent of the damage is still not
known.
“The floods have caused an aging of the cathedral of
50 years in one day,” Pierpaolo Campostrini, head of the
board for the maintenance of St. Mark’s, told The Wall
Street Journal Nov. 25.
St. Mark’s holds the relics of the church’s namesake,
making it one of the principal churches and pilgrimage
sites in Christianity.
A policeman inspects the inside of the Basilica of St. Mark, which was
flooded Nov. 15.
SIMONE PADOVANI/AWAKENING/GETTY IMAGES
China wants bishop to ‘convert’
A computer geek’s prayers from heaven
ASIANEWS.IT
A Chinese bishop who was demoted as part of a diplomatic
deal between China and the Vatican is now being
pressured to join the official Communist Party-affiliated
Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
Bishop Vincenzo Guo Xijin was one of two bishops whom
the Vatican asked to step down from ministry last year when
it recognized the authority of seven bishops appointed by
Beijing without the approval of the pope.
This controversial agreement was part of a reconciliation
effort between underground Catholic groups at the Chinese
Catholic Patriotic Association, an effort that has since
stalled.
A priest of Guo’s diocese, Father Peng Zhekang, told the
Associated Press that representatives of the Communist Party,
local government officials, and members of the religious
affairs department have
made regular visits to Guo.
“For months, the Fujian
authorities have been
exerting pressure, blackmailing
and threatening
priests to push them to sign
this accession in exchange
for government recognition
without which their ministry
is forbidden,” according to a
Bishop Vincenzo Guo Xijin report by AsiaNews.
The opinion of a team
of doctors may soon lead
to the beatification of a
teenage computer geek
from Italy.
The Medical Council
of the Congregation for
Saints’ Causes has given
its approval for a miracle
ascribed to Carlo Acutis,
an Italian youth who died
in 2006 from leukemia
at the age of 15. Acutis is
credited with a miraculous
healing of a Brazilian
boy.
“We continue to pray Carlo Acutis
that the Lord will soon glorify his servant, to encourage
the journey of holiness of the whole Church, especially
the young,” Assisi Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino told
Aleteia. Acutis’ cause now awaits the opinion of the Theological
Commission on the validity of the miracle.
Acutis was known for combining his talents as a computer
programmer and his deep devotion to the Eucharist to create
a website cataloguing the various eucharistic miracles
around the world. He was declared “Venerable” by Pope
Francis in 2018.
SAINTHOOD CAUSE OF CARLO ACUTIS
4 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

NATION
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/DAVE HRBACEK, CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Minnesota martyr’s
school celebrates
Christian Brother James Miller
was shot and killed while repairing
a school wall. Now, one of the
schools he taught at is preparing
to celebrate his beatification.
“One of the things we’re in
dire need of is heroes, especially
heroes who point us to helping
each other, loving each other
and directing each other toward
God,” Frank Miley, president of
Cretin-Derham Hall High School
in St. Paul, Minnesota, told The
Catholic Spirit.
Miller, who was killed in 1982
amid the Guatemalan Civil War,
will be beatified Dec. 7 following
Pope Francis’ declaration that he
was a martyr.
Miller served at Cretin Hall for
several years, teaching Spanish,
coaching soccer, and overseeing
school maintenance.
Today, reminders like a statue,
icon, and a chapel dedicated to
Miller grace the campus. Multiple
times a day students invoke
his intercession in class: “Blessed
Brother James Miller … pray for
us!”
“He has a big footprint here,”
Miley said, “and the beatification
is making that footprint even
bigger.”
Frank Miley stands next to a bronze bust
of Brother James Miller in the courtyard of
Cretin-Derham Hall High School.
Alaska: Amazon CEO gives $5M to Catholic charity
Catholics in Alaska hope they can
make the most out of a surprising gift
from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Catholic Social Services of Anchorage
(CSS) announced it’s receiving
a grant of $5 million from Bezos’
Day 1 Families Fund, which awards
onetime grants to organizations that
are making an impact on homeless
populations.
“This grant will make an enormous
impact on our community by expanding
the work Catholic Social Services
A Louisiana surprise?
As Democratic politicians around
the country double down on abortion
rights, the reelection of a governor
in the South is getting some
unusual attention.
John Bel Edwards won his reelection
campaign in traditionally
Republican Louisiana Nov. 16 by a
40,000-vote margin. The Catholic
politician was elected into office in
2015 on a pro-life agenda, signed
a “heartbeat law” while in office,
and has tried to link other social
issues like foster care and combating
does every day to support families in
homelessness to transition to permanent
stability,” Lisa Aquino, executive
director of CSS, said Nov. 22.
“We believe that this funding will
propel us, together with our partners,
to achieve functional zero in family
homelessness in the Anchorage area.”
This year, Bezos’ fund awarded a
total of $98.5 million in grants to
32 organizations working with the
homeless population throughout the
U.S.
THANKSGIVING UNITY — New York’s Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan speaks during an interfaith
Thanksgiving prayer service Nov. 26 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Leaders of
the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faith communities of New York gathered with city and
state officials to honor the memory of the city’s homeless who lost their lives to violence this
year. They also vowed to continue their efforts to care for the homeless and all who suffer
from poverty.
human trafficking to his pro-life
platform.
“We like to think he’s the future of
the Democratic Party,” Kristen Day,
Democrats for Life executive director,
told Catholic News Agency.
“What is it saying about people like
John Bel, and like me … and all the
elected pro-life Democrats across the
country, the Democratic voters who
are pro-life?” Day added. “If there’s
a litmus test, does it apply to us, too?
That they [the Democratic Party]
don’t want our votes?”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
A space for ‘Nuestra Morenita’ and Juan Diego
A special art exhibit dedicated to
Our Lady of Guadalupe and St.
Juan Diego opened Wednesday,
Nov. 20, at the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels.
Ten pieces of specially selected
artwork by artists Lalo Garcia, Laura
Vasquez Rodriguez, Rosa Maria
Alvarez, and Rick Ortega were
installed adjacent to the chapel dedicated
to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In a statement for the opening of
the exhibit, Garcia noted the work
of each artist embodies their testimonies
about their subjects, and he
invited all who visited the exhibit
“to meditate on their own blessings
and at the same time, to enjoy the
beauty of each one of the pieces.”
The exhibit will be open to the
public until Dec. 16.
Lalo Garcia with one of his featured artworks.
PETER LOBATO
It’s that time again:
Simbang Gabi 2019
Parishes around the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles are preparing to celebrate
the Filipino Christmas tradition Simbang
Gabi this year.
Simbang Gabi begins nine nights
before Christmas Eve with a Mass
celebrated before dawn or in the
evening of each day of the novena, in
preparation for Christmas.
The 17th annual archdiocesan
celebration and Mass, with the theme
“Come and Celebrate as We Encounter
Christ; For We are One Body,” will
be held at the Cathedral of Our Lady
of the Angels on Sunday, Dec. 15, at
6:30 p.m., led by Archbishop José H.
Gomez.
For a full list and schedule of Simbang
Gabi events, visit the LA Catholics
section of AngelusNews.com.
KEEPING THE FIRE ALIVE — Members of LA’s Vietnamese community
gathered Sunday, Nov. 17, for the annual celebration honoring the
Martyrs of Vietnam at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which
included a Mass with Archbishop José H. Gomez, a veneration ritual,
and a liturgical Vietnamese dance. The 117 martyrs commemorated at
the celebration were killed (and often tortured) for the Faith during the
18th and 19th centuries and were canonized by St. Pope John Paul II in
1988.
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
AN EPISCOPAL WELCOME — Bishop Edgar Da Cunha of the Diocese
of Fall River, Massachusetts, accepts a certificate of recognition from
Artesia Mayor Tony Lima after a special Sunday, Nov. 24, Mass at Holy
Family Church honoring the contributions of the Brazilian community
in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Da Cunha is the episcopal liaison to
Brazilians in the United States and serves on the Cultural Diversity in
the Church subcommittee of the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
6 • ANGELUS • December 6, 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.
Sat., Dec. 7
Emmaus Ministry for Grieving Parents One-Day
Retreat. St. Bartholomew Church, 5100 E. Broadway,
Long Beach, 9:30 a.m.-7:15 p.m. Focusing on the
spirituality of the grieving process can help tremendously.
Cost: $25/person, $40/couple and includes
lunch and dinner. Register at emfgp.org. For more
information, call Sister Mary Dean Pfahler at 562-
438-3826, ext. 253.
Baby Jesus Birthday Party. Pauline Books & Media,
3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 1-3 p.m. A great
way to put Christ in Christmas. Meet St. Nicholas,
sing to baby Jesus, storytelling, games, and refreshments.
Free event. For more information, call 310-
397-8676 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com.
St. Denis Catholic Community: “Messiah.” 2151
S. Diamond Bar Blvd., Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 8 at
3:15 p.m. “Messiah” by G.F. Handel with 200-voice
ecumenical chorus, soloists, and orchestra, conducted
by Patrick Zubiate. Free admission. Call 909-
861-7106 or email pzubiate@stdenis.org for more
information.
Advent Silent Saturday. Holy Spirit Retreat Center,
4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. (arrive 8:30-9
a.m.) Quiet morning of Centering Prayer and silence,
including communal prayer, contemplative walk, reflection,
and journaling. All are welcome. Freewill offerings
accepted. Call Amanda Berg at 818-815-4480.
St. Mary Magdalen Church Christmas Concert.
1241 Corning St., Los Angeles, 6:30 p.m. Features
multicultural and diverse choirs and genre, the
Strong Quartet from LACHSA, and newly formed
Magdalen Choristers of boy and girl sopranos. Concert
is dedicated to students and victims of the Saugus
High School shooting. Cost: $20/person, children
are free. Will call tickets at door. Tickets will also be
sold at door. Proceeds benefit structural repairs of
the church. Call 310-652-2444 to reserve tickets,
donate, and more information.
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy (PMA) Open
House. 7851 Gardendale St., Downey, 12-2 p.m.
School tours, information on faith, academic, and
extra-curricular programs. Admissions information,
merit-based scholarships, and other affordable tuition
programs available. For more information, call
the admissions office at 562-861-2271, ext. 1040, or
email aboulahoud@piusmatthias.org.
“Beautiful Mother, Beautiful Child” — Prepare
Your Heart for Christmas. St. Angela Merici Church,
585 S. Walnut Ave., Brea, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. With Father
George Reynolds and Dominic Berardino, topics include:
How Mary’s obedience untied the knot of Eve’s
disobedience; Mary’s Immaculate Conception; and
the visions of St. Bernadette and St. Catherine Laboure.
Mass included. Cost: $20/person through Dec.
2 and includes catered chicken lunch. RSVP available
at door. Call SCRC at 818-771-1361, email spirit@
scrc.org, or register online at scrc.org.
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.
Children’s Bureau’s Magnolia Place, 1910 Magnolia
Ave., Los Angeles, or Children’s Bureau, 1529 E.
Palmdale Blvd., Ste. 219, Palmdale, 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 emailing RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.
Sun., Dec. 8
Handel’s “Messiah” Performance. Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles,
7 p.m. Performance by the Cathedral Choir
under Music Director Joseph Bazyouros, the Dream
Orchestra and Opera Chorus of Los Angeles, conducted
by Music Director Daniel Suk, soprano So
Young Park, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, tenor
Arnold Geis and bass Steve Pence. Tickets: $20-
40/person, available at eventbrite.com and dreamorchestra.org.
Gala Evening with Mary. St. Casimir Church, 2718
St. George St., Los Angeles, 3:30 p.m. Rosary, floral
offering, Mass, and dinner to celebrate the feast of
the Immaculate Conception. RSVP required for dinner.
Call 323-530-7652.
Knights of Peter Claver and the Ladies Auxiliary
Awards Luncheon. Proud Bird Restaurant, 11022
Aviation Blvd., Los Angeles, 1 p.m. Honorees: Bishop
Joseph Brennan, Sister Oralisa Martin, Father
Kenneth Templin, Sister Kathleen Bryant. Cost: $75/
person.
Thu., Dec. 12
Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Holy Trinity
Church, 1292 W. Santa Cruz St., 5:30 a.m. mariachis
and procession with roses, 6 a.m. Mass, 7 a.m. reception.
Sponsored by Guadalupanas.
Cabrini Literary Guild Luncheon. Oakmont Country
Club, 3100 Country Club Dr., Glendale, 11 a.m.-2
p.m. Special guest: Alex Acevedo Trio. Cost: $38/person.
Call Mary Andrade at 818-422-2941.
Sat., Dec. 14
Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration. Pauline Books
& Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 1-3 p.m.
Celebrate the feast of La Virgen de Guadalupe with
prayer and songs before the Prayer Garden shrine of
Our Lady. Crafts for children, music, games, refreshments.
Free event. For more information, call 310-
397-8676 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com.
He Is Born! A Christmas Concert with the Daughters
of St. Paul Choir. Robert Frost Auditorium, Culver
City High School, 4401 Elenda St., Culver City,
6 p.m. Tickets at pauline.org/LAconcert, or call the
Pauline Books & Media Center at 310-397-8676.
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.
Andrew’s Plaza, 11335 W. Magnolia Blvd., Ste. 2C,
North Hollywood, or Children’s Bureau, 27200 Tourney
Rd., Ste. 175, Valencia, or Children’s Bureau’s
Carson office, 460 E. Carson Plaza Dr., Ste. 102, Carson,
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
emailing RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.
7th Annual Our Savior Church Anniversary Mass
and Christmas Tree Lighting. USC Caruso Catholic
Center, 844 W. 32nd St., Los Angeles, 4:30 p.m.
Mass celebrated by Father Richard Sunwoo, followed
by tree lighting, In-N-Out trucks, holiday tunes by
Westside6, an appearance by Santa, and more. Free,
family-friendly event. RSVP online and learn more at
catholictrojan.org.
Sun., Dec. 15
Simbang Gabi 2019. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 6:30 p.m.
Procession of carols and eucharistic liturgy. Celebrant:
Archbishop José H. Gomez. Full schedule for
nine-day novena at AngelusNews.com. Call Raymond
De Guzman at 818-634-8664 or email rdeguzman1317@verizon.net,
or call Patty Santiago at 818-
472-4288 or email piesan@hotmail.com.
Mon., Dec. 16
St. Padre Pio Healing Mass. St. Anne Church, 340
10th St., Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Call 562-537-4526.
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.
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.
This Week at AngelusNews.com
• Teresa Peterson on answering the call to minister through music.
• Finding echoes of pagan Rome in the modern world.
• Check out our Saint of the Day feature!
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Is. 11:1–10 / Ps. 72:1–2, 7–8, 12–13, 17 / Rom. 15:4–9 / Mt. 3:1–12
“The kingdom
of heaven is
at hand,” St.
John the Baptist
proclaims. And
the liturgy today
paints us a vivid
portrait of our
new King and
the shape of the
kingdom he has
come to bring.
The Lord
whom John prepares
the way for
in today’s Gospel
is the righteous
King prophesied
in today’s First
Reading and
Psalm. He is the
king’s son, the son of David, a shoot
from the root of Jesse, David’s father
(see Ruth 4:17).
He will be the Messiah, anointed
with the Holy Spirit (see 2 Samuel
23:1; 1 Kings 1:39; Psalm 2:2), endowed
with the seven gifts of the Spirit:
wisdom, understanding, counsel,
strength, knowledge, piety, and fear of
the Lord.
He will rule with justice, saving the
poor from the ruthless and wicked.
His rule will be not only over Israel,
but will extend from sea to sea, to the
ends of the Earth. He will be a light,
a signal to all nations. And they will
seek him and pay him homage.
In him, all the tribes of the Earth will
find blessing. The covenant promise
to Abraham (see Genesis 12:3),
renewed in God’s oath to David (see
Psalm 89:4, 28), will be fulfilled in his
“St. John the Baptist Preaching,” by Luca Giordano, 1634-1705, Italian.
dynasty. And his name will be blessed
forever.
In Christ, God confirms his oath
to Israel’s patriarchs, Paul tells us in
today’s Epistle. But no longer are
God’s promises reserved solely for the
children of Abraham. The Gentiles,
too, will glorify God for his mercy.
Once strangers, in Christ they will
be included in “the covenants of
promise” (see Ephesians 2:12). John
delivers this same message in the
Gospel. Once God’s chosen people
were hewn from the rock of Abraham
(see Isaiah 51:1–2). Now, God will
raise up living stones (see 1 Peter 2:5):
children of Abraham born not of flesh
and blood but of the Spirit.
This is the meaning of the fiery
baptism he brings, making us royal
heirs of the kingdom of heaven, the
Church.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Scott
Scott
Hahn
Hahn
is
is
founder
founder
of
of
the
the
St.
St.
Paul
Paul
Center
Center
for
for
Biblical
Biblical
Theology,
Theology,
stpaulcenter.com.
stpaulcenter.com.
8 • ANGELUS • December August 16-23-30, 6, 2019
2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Saints for a new situation
Everywhere in church circles today
you hear a lament: Our churches
are emptying. We’ve lost our youth.
This generation no longer knows or
understands the classical theological
language. We need to announce Jesus
again, as if for the first time, but how?
The Church is becoming evermore
marginalized.
That’s the situation pretty much
everywhere within the secularized
world today. Why is this happening?
Faith as a spent project? Secularity’s
adolescent grandiosity before the
parent who gave it birth, Judeo-Christianity?
The “buffered self” that
philosopher Charles Taylor describes?
Affluence?
Or is the problem mainly with the
churches themselves? Sexual abuse?
Cover-up? Poor liturgies? Poor preaching?
Churches too liberal? Churches
too conservative?
I suspect it’s some combination of all
of these, but single out one to highlight:
affluence. Jesus said it’s difficult
(impossible, he says) for a rich person
to enter the kingdom of heaven.
No doubt, that’s a huge part of our
present struggle. We’re good at being
Christians when we’re poor, less-educated,
and on the margins of mainstream
society. We’ve had centuries of
practice at this. What we haven’t had
any practice at, and aren’t any good
at, is how to be Christians when we’re
affluent, sophisticated, and constitute
the cultural mainstream.
So, I’m suggesting that what we need
today is not so much a new pastoral
approach as a new kind of saint, an
individual man or woman who can
model for us practically what it means
to live out the gospel in a context of
affluence and secularity. Why this?
One of the lessons of history is that
often genuine religious renewal,
the type that actually reshapes the
religious imagination, does not come
from think tanks, conferences, and
church synods, but from graced individuals:
saints, wild men and women
who, like St. Augustine, St. Francis,
St. Clare, St. Dominic, St. Ignatius,
or other such religious figures can
reshape our religious imagination.
They show us that the new lies elsewhere,
that what needs fixing in the
Church will not be mended simply by
patching the old. What’s needed is a
new religious and ecclesial imagination.
Taylor, in his highly respected
study of secularity, suggests that what
we’re undergoing today is not so much
a crisis of faith as a crisis of imagination.
No Christians before us have
ever lived within this kind of world.
What will this new kind of saint, this
new St. Francis, look like? I honestly
don’t know. Neither, it seems, does
anyone else. We have no answer yet,
at least not one that’s been able to
bear much fruit in the culture.
That’s not surprising. The type of
imagination that reshapes history isn’t
easily found. In the meantime, we’ve
come about as far as we can along the
road that used to take us there, but
which for many of our children no
longer does.
Here’s our quandary: We’re better
at knowing what to do once we get
people into a church than we are at
knowing how to get them there. Why?
Our weakness, I believe, lies not in
our theological imagination where
we have rich theological and biblical
insights aplenty.
What we lack are saints on the
ground, men and women who, in
a passion and fidelity that’s at once
radically faithful to God and fiercely
empathic to our secular world, can incarnate
their faith into a way of living
that can show us, practically, how we
can be poor and humble disciples of
Jesus even as we walk in an affluent
and highly secularized world.
And such new persons will appear.
We’ve been at this spot before and
have always found our way forward.
Every time the world believes it has
buried Christ, the stone rolls back
from the tomb; every time the cultural
ethos declares that the churches
are on a downward slide, the Spirit
intervenes and there’s soon an aboutface;
every time we despair, thinking
that our age can no longer produce
saints and prophets, some Augustine
or Francis comes along and shows that
our age, like times of old, can, too,
produce its saints; and every time our
imaginations run dry, as they have
now, we find that our Scriptures are
still full of fresh insight. We may lack
imagination, but we don’t lack hope.
Christ promised we will not be
orphaned, and that promise is sure.
God is still with us and our age will
produce its own prophets and saints.
What’s asked of us in the moment is
biblical patience, to wait on God.
Christianity may look tired, tried,
and spent to a culture within which
affluence and sophistication are its
current gods, but hope is already
beginning to show its face: As secularization,
with its affluence and
sophistication, marches unswervingly
forward, we’re already beginning to
see a number of men and women who
have found ways to become post-affluent
and post-sophisticated.
These will be the new religious
leaders who will teach us, and our
children, how to live as Christians in
this new situation.
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual writer, www.ronrolheiser.com.
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 9

This painting by artist Rick Ortega is part of an exhibit in honor of Our Lady
of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
in Los Angeles that will be open to the public until Dec. 16. St. Juan Diego’s
feast day is Dec. 9, and Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast day is Dec. 12.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES
10 • 10 ANGELUS • ANGELUS • • December 6, 2019 6, 2019

The roses and the rosaries
How Our Lady of Guadalupe saved both the New World and the Old
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
When Europe met Mexico,
the consequences for the
Mexicans were devastating in
many ways. By far the most devastating
consequence was something no one
could have predicted: Mexicans had no
immunity to many European diseases.
Smallpox was a nuisance to Europeans.
It killed a certain small percentage
of them, but most survived because
their ancestors had been among the
survivors of the first smallpox epidemics.
Mexicans had never been exposed
to the disease, and whole civilizations
could be practically wiped out by it.
Diseases were nobody’s fault. No
one in the world had the knowledge
in those days to prevent them from
spreading through vulnerable populations.
But we can certainly blame
some of the Europeans for their greed
and cruelty. It may not have been most
of them, but it was enough of them to
inflict entirely preventable catastrophes
on the Mexican population.
Meanwhile, the missionaries were doing
their best to convert their Mexican
neighbors. But why would the Mexicans
want to accept the religion of the
people who treated them so badly?
A number of them did accept it. They
saw the difference between the friars,
who devoted their lives to the welfare
of the Mexicans, and the conquerors,
who saw them as slaves to be exploited.
But still, it was an uphill battle for the
friars. Unless something changed, it
would be hard to imagine Christianizing
the vast population of New Spain.
Doubtless they asked Mary for help.
And she was about to come through for
them.
JUAN DIEGO’S TILMA
Every Mexican knows the story by
heart. There was a man named Juan
Diego — that was the name he had
taken at baptism — who had been
born before the Spanish arrived in
Mexico, and had become a faithful
convert to the Catholic faith. He used
to walk over to the mission frequently
for Mass and religious instruction. He
was middle-aged and poor.
One day as he walked to the mission
he heard heavenly music coming from
the top of a hill. When he looked
toward the sound, the music stopped,
and a voice called his name. He
walked up the hill and found a beautiful
lady surrounded by light.
She was the mother of God, she said,
and she had a simple request for him to
take to the bishop: She would like him
to build her a chapel where the people
of Mexico could pray for her help.
Juan Diego delivered the message to
the bishop, who told him to come back
some other time. Faithful Juan Diego
reappeared the next day right after
Mass. This time the bishop told him to
ask Our Lady for a sign.
So Juan Diego went back and asked
Mary for a sign, and she told him to
come back for it the next morning.
But when Juan Diego got home, he
found his uncle very sick. He sat at his
bedside while the uncle got worse, and
missed his appointment with the lady
on the hill.
Juan Diego did all he could, but after
two days it was clear that his uncle was
dying. There was nothing left to do but
go for a priest to hear his last confession.
He was ashamed for missing his
meeting with the lady, so he went by a
different route. She found him anyway.
Juan Diego stammered out the story
of his uncle, but the lady was not cross
with him. She simply asked why he
hadn’t asked for her help. “I’m your
mother. Wasn’t I here for you?”
His uncle was doing much better,
she said, and he should stop worrying
about him. (And, in fact, when Juan
Diego got home later, he found his
uncle completely recovered.) As for the
thing the bishop asked for, he should
go up the hill to the place where they
had met and collect flowers.
This seemed unreasonable; it was
December. But Juan Diego did as he
was told, and at the top of the hill, he
found the meeting spot covered with
roses and other flowers. He started
picking them, and in a short time had
far more than he could carry.
So he took off his tilma.
A tilma, or “tilmatli” in the Nahuatl
language that Juan Diego spoke, is a
simple burlap cloak, like a poncho.
Juan Diego had too many flowers to
carry in his hands, so he wrapped them
up in his tilma.
Then he walked to the bishop’s
residence, and after waiting to see the
important man he finally was able to
bring in the large bouquet. This, he
told the bishop, was the sign Our Lady
had given him, and he emptied his
tilma.
And the bishop fell on his knees.
When the flowers fell out of the tilma,
they had left behind a perfect image of
the beautiful lady Juan Diego had met.
Almost immediately the story spread,
and people started coming to see the
tilma. The bishop built that chapel the
lady had requested, and Juan Diego’s
tilma was enshrined in it.
People might come to see it out of
curiosity, but many of them left as
Christians. Every detail of the image
was perfectly imagined to appeal to the
Mexican people. They could see the
truth of Christianity written in it. The
lady was dressed as royalty, but she was
meekly bowing in prayer.
There had been nothing meek about
Aztec royalty, but this lady was pow-
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 11

erful and important, and yet humble.
She had divine attributes — she wore
the heavens like a garment — but
instead of looking stern or horrible
like an Aztec divinity, she looked kind
and loving. And she was inviting the
people of Mexico to come to her for
protection.
This was the message the missionary
friars could not get across
by themselves, no matter how hard
they worked. But this image on Juan
Diego’s tilma said everything they had
been trying to say. You have someone
unimaginably glorious on your side,
someone who loves you and humbly
leads you to the real God.
The conversions started coming in
by the dozens, then the hundreds,
then the thousands. Ultimately it was
millions. It was the largest mass conversion
in history. And it was because the
Mexicans knew they weren’t converting
to the Spanish conquerors’ religion.
They were coming home to their own
Church, led by their own mother.
And what was her name?
She revealed it when Juan Diego
asked her. Some scholars believe that
Our Lady spoke a word in Nahuatl that
was misinterpreted by the Spanish as
“Guadalupe,” the name of a village in
Extremadura, Spain, where Mary had
appeared at the beginning of the 14th
century.
The perceived connection between
the Old World Guadalupe and the
New World Guadalupe would soon
bear surprising fruit.
Ceiling fresco of the Battle of Lepanto showing Pope Pius V praying for victory, circa 1739, by Johann
Baptist Zimmermann at the Church of the Assumption in Bavaria, Germany.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
LEPANTO
It was the age of Europe’s glory and
Europe’s shame. European voyagers
circled the earth, but religious wars
had Christians fighting Christians. It
was also the age of Europe’s danger.
The Turks, who had finally conquered
the last vestiges of the Roman Empire
in the East in the middle 1400s, were
strong and in a mood for expanding.
Not since the great Islamic conquests
of the 600s had Europe felt so
threatened. One by one the Christian
islands in the eastern Mediterranean
had fallen to the Turks. Now the Turks
had conquered Cyprus, until then a
Venetian territory, and they seemed
to be able to do what they liked in the
whole Mediterranean Sea. They were
thinking that maybe Venice and Rome
might be next.
What would happen to the rest of
Europe after that?
Pope St. Pius V had tried to bring all
of Europe together in a Holy League to
fight the Turks.
But Europe was difficult to bring
together. Much of the northern half
of the continent had gone Protestant
and was not about to do business with
the pope. France was still Catholic,
but France might be happy to see her
European rivals take a beating from
the Turks.
Spain — well, Spain could spare a
few dozen ships and the king’s brother.
Venice, of course, was in all the way,
as were Genoa and some of the other
Italian city-states.
But Spain, it turned out, had given
two of her greatest gifts to the effort.
12 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

Archbishop José H. Gomez kicks off the annual Guadalupe procession in East LA by placing a bouquet of roses before her image on Dec. 3, 2017.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
First, the king’s half-brother, Don John
of Austria, turned out to be a brilliant
leader.
Spain’s other gift was Our Lady of
Guadalupe. Years earlier, Don John
had made a pilgrimage to see the
Spanish shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
the one from which the Mexican
image takes its name. It seems to have
left him with a lifelong devotion.
Then the archbishop of Mexico sent
a copy of the image on Juan Diego’s
cloak. It had been touched to the original,
and it was reverently placed in the
flagship of the fleet.
Meanwhile, the fleet sailed off to
confront the Turks, and the pope led
the assault on heaven.
Convinced that he needed supernatural
help, the pope had rosaries distributed
in all the ships. All the monks and
nuns in Rome got orders to pray the
rosary. The pope himself marched in
rosary processions around the city. He
was very ill at the time, but the battle
was on, and he wasn’t going to miss it.
Over and over, thousands of people
went around praying the rosary and
started again, praying for the deliverance
of Europe. The men prayed on
the ships. The people marched and
prayed in Rome. The monks and nuns
prayed in their cloisters. The rosaries
never cooled off.
And all the time the ships were rowing
toward the Turks.
On Oct. 7, 1571, the pope suddenly
stood up from a business meeting with
his treasurer.
“Wait! This isn’t the time for business!
It’s time to thank God! Just this
moment our fleet has won the victory
over the Turks!”
We can imagine the treasurer looking
very confused. No messenger had
come into the room, and news from
the East would take days to reach
Rome.
But the expression on the pope’s face
conveyed absolute certainty. And he
was right.
The greatest naval battle since ancient
times had just been fought. Outnumbered
by the Turkish fleet, the Holy
League had nevertheless managed a
tremendous victory. In the process,
something like 10,000 slaves were freed
from Turkish galleys.
As for the copy of the miraculous
Mexican image, it came home with
the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria. It
can still be seen in Genoa to remind
us of the time Europe was saved by the
rosary — and by Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor
to Angelus and the author of many
books, including “How Christianity
Saved Civilization … And Must Do
So Again” (Sophia Institute Press,
$18.95).
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13

From left: Luke, Larissa, Matt, and Layla Sonnen at Layla’s second birthday party in 2017 at their home in Redondo Beach.
SONNEN FAMILY
14 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

‘The real miracle’
In-home hospice care for dying adults is challenging enough. Providing
it for children requires a special approach: a sense of mission
BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS
SONNEN FAMILY
Born April 9, 2015, at Lenox Hill
Hospital in New York City, Larissa
and Matt Sonnen named her
Layla Paige, Layla after Eric Clapton’s
hit, a golden-oldie favorite of theirs.
The 5-pound, 6.8-ounce baby girl
passed all her newborn tests. Her parents
were overjoyed. Layla was going to
be the perfect sibling for her 2-year-old
brother, Luke.
But at her three-month checkup,
their pediatrician discovered something
called hip dysplasia. Her right hip joint
was partially dislocated, and her left
was not completely formed in its socket,
either. Layla had to seek immediate
treatment from an orthopedist at New
York Presbyterian Hospital.
To complicate matters, that very weekend
the Sonnens were moving back to
Southern California, where they would
be closer to family and friends. So they
were referred to another orthopedist
at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles,
who they saw the same day they arrived
here, for further hip treatments.
Two weeks later, on Oct. 26, the
Sonnens brought her home.
“I just remember it was five in the
morning, you could hear her breathing
really rapidly,” Larissa told Angelus
News. “These short quick little breaths.
And I looked over at her, and her little
fists were right in front of her face. And
she was really rigid, and her eyes were
darting back and forth, back and forth.”
The ensuing 911 call started off a
chain of events: a new pediatrician,
ultrasounds, MRI and EEG scans, all
of which led to a devastating diagnosis.
Even in the moments when their
daughter looked so calm just lying
there, doctors informed Larissa that
Layla was, in fact, having multiple
silent seizures called infantile spasms.
“Right now, do not look these words
up on the internet,” Larissa remembered
a doctor telling her the moment
they came to deliver the news. “You
just start asking for prayers.”
LOOKING FOR MIRACLES
Layla spent the last four weeks of her
life under the watch of Torrance-based
TrinityKids Care, a program of Providence
St. Joseph Health.
When asked how children’s hospice
differed from that of adults, clinical
supervisor Margaret Servin explained
that those in the program have to
approach patients’ loved ones with a
different mindset.
“The parents don’t want to hear ‘hospice,’
” Servin said during an interview
with four TrinityKids Care workers at
the program’s headquarters in Torrance.
“There’s a miracle that’s going to
happen. So for our staff, it gives them
more challenges, because we know
what’s happening, but the parents
sometimes don’t want to talk about it.
You’re not allowed to go there, because
it’s not going to happen to their child.”
The program’s chaplain, Gustavo
Lopez, said the real miracle is when
those parents understand.
“It’s helping the parents achieve
peace, so they can enjoy those moments
with their dying kid,” Lopez
said. “We all see the difference when
a family comes to that point of accepting
their child is dying. But it’s much
tougher when they don’t.”
When it comes to miracles, nurse
Elba Roach recalls being struck seven
years ago going to a home in the San
Fernando Valley with the hospice
team.
The doctor said to the mother of a
dying child, “You know, we as parents
pray for a miracle, but we’re praying for
a miracle that we want. But that miracle
isn’t probably going to take place
here on earth. It may. But the miracle
may be granted up in heaven.”
One of the most heart-wrenching
parts of the job is when, and whether,
to tell their patients that they’re dying.
Of course, the younger ones didn’t
know, and wouldn’t be told. For adoles-
From left: Ilce Salgado, LVN; Elba Roach, RN; Roxana Avila; and chaplain Gustavo Lopez.
R.W. DELLINGER
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 15

cents and teenagers, however, it was a
family-by-family decision.
Nurse Ilce Salgado said it’s especially
difficult when a patient directly asks
her if they are dying, but the parents
had said not to. She spoke about an
18-year-old dying boy who just weeks
ago wanted to know just that.
“He said to me, ‘I know the changes
I’m having are different from other
times. I know it. I’m getting worse. But
I wish somebody could just be straight
with me and tell me the truth,” Salgado
recalled, wiping an eye.
“But his mom was standing up right
behind us, and she had told me not to
tell him. Facing him, it was so hard for
me to just stay quiet. But then I asked
him how would you feel if it’s true this
time was different.
“He said, ‘That’s OK. I would deal
with it.’ So he was hopeful, but he
wanted to know the truth, and I
couldn’t really tell him. And that was
the last visit. It was hard.”
Sitting beside her, Roach tried to offer
a different perspective. The joys, she assured,
“are so many and so incredible.
“Being there when the patient is
dying is actively transitioning … it’s
such a sacred space for the family to let
you in and walk beside them on this
journey. I mean, that’s a privilege. Not
everybody gets to do that.”
Later Servin pointed out that none
of the program’s chaplains are priests.
Still, local parish priests provide
whatever sacramental needs (Holy
Communion, confession, last rites) a
Catholic patient might have.
Servin also stressed how the work was
truly a ministry. “It’s a calling for sure,”
she explained. “If they are not called to
do this, they don’t last very long.”
TASO PAPADAKIS / PROVIDENCE TRINITYCARE HOSPICE FOUNDATION
TrinityKids Care medical director Dr. Glen Komatsu with a child patient.
ACCOMPANIED TO THE END
Results from tests showed that Layla’s
brain never fully developed, although
her eyes, ears, and nearly everything
else did. But her undeveloped brain
could not interpret messages from
them. There were brief moments, her
mother said, when her brain did quiet
down, and she could actually see and
hear.
Still, there was no prognosis of how
much longer she would survive.
During her first year, she was in and
out of Children’s Hospital for one seizure
after another. At one point, Layla
had a team of 19 doctors and therapists,
which required additional visits
to UCLA and USC. And whenever
she had another convulsive attack, any
cerebral development she’d made was
erased. “It was like two steps forward,
eight steps back,” recalled Larissa.
They started calling Layla their “Little
Warrior Princess” because of how hard
she fought, and all the therapies she
endured: physical therapy, occupational
therapy, vision therapy, hearing
therapy, and multidisability therapy.
“It wasn’t very easy because she had a
tube to be fed from a pump most of the
hours [of] a day,” the mother added.
“And she was getting medication
every two hours through another tube
through her stomach. Plus, there was
the IV pole and carriage.”
The big question concerning Layla
was now about pain. Was she suffering
during the seizures? Larissa believed
she was. She looked like she had her
finger in an electrical outlet and would
scream at the top of her lungs. Before
her second birthday, she seemed
uncomfortable most of the time. She
wasn’t sleeping and cried out at night.
Hospice care had been suggested
before for Layla. Like so many parents
put in her position, Larissa felt that
path was giving up hope. She just
couldn’t do that as her mother. And
even when Layla’s health was obviously
getting worse, she kept pushing back
on the idea, thinking, “No, she’s strong.
She’ll get through this. This is just a
phase.”
But after she had exhausted every
possible hope, and her baby girl’s
health kept declining, Larissa relented.
She agreed to talk to somebody from
a Catholic hospital children’s hospice
program called TrinityKids Care.
Eventually, she found herself
around her dining-room table with
the program’s medical director, Dr.
Glen Komatsu, along with two social
workers, two chaplains, and two nurses
to discuss what the last days of her
daughter’s life were going to be like.
At this point, members of the team
explained, it was really a question of
pain management.
A grief counselor later visited the
home. Layla was in her mother’s arms
when Larissa was asked three questions:
“Do you feel Layla is safe right
now?” “Do you feel she’s safe where
she’s going?” And finally the hardest:
“Have you given her permission to go?”
That evening, after kissing Layla
goodnight, her mother finally said out
loud to her daughter, “Layla, if you
need to go, it’s OK. Mommy loves you.
But if you need to go, I understand.
But I love you.” Matt repeated those
same words.
No more than 20 minutes later, their
daughter let out a huge breath while in
her mother’s arms. Layla Paige Sonnen
died on July 8, 2017. She was almost 2
16 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

1/2 years old.
A chaplain from TrinityKids Care
spent time consoling Layla’s older
brother, and members of the team
made a point of giving daily comfort to
his parents.
“Dr. Komatsu helped my husband as
the father seeing things in a different
way than me,” Larissa pointed out.
“And the team helped me being the
mom whose husband travels a lot. So
I felt that I had to be the strength, the
pillar for everybody. But when that
team came in, all of a sudden I could
just crumble and just cry and just say, ‘I
am so scared.’
“We had the support of this huge
team,” she stressed. “It wasn’t just one
person. Somebody contacted us every
day. If it wasn’t a phone call, they
would come out to our home. They
were just amazing. I’m so grateful, I’m
so thankful. I can tell you we would
not be doing as well today as we are, if
it wasn’t for them.”
R.W. Dellinger is the features editor of
Angelus.
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The sisters behind Providence
Today’s Providence network of 50
hospitals, 829 clinics, plus many
other community-based health
care programs stretches from Alaska
and Montana to Texas, New
Mexico, and California.
It traces its roots back to 1856,
the year that five members of
the Sisters of Providence began
founding hospitals, schools, and
orphanages across the western
United States.
Over the years, Dominican
Sisters, Charity of Leavenworth
Sisters, and other religious communities
of women have run the
hospital ministry at different times.
Still, the children’s hospice
program TrinityKids Care remains
grounded in the sacred mission of
caring that was fostered by those
five Providence women religious
163 years ago: “Through our healing
presence, we accompany those
who suffer.”
— R.W. Dellinger
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People wait outside as Pope Francis meets with medical personnel at St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok Nov. 21.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
Healing wounds
The pope’s words during his trip to Thailand and
Japan denounced more than one form of destruction
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
ROME — Pope Francis is back
in the Eternal City after his
Nov. 20-26 trip to Thailand
and Japan, a foray that, despite the
tiny Catholic communities in both
countries, in many ways represented a
weeklong summary of his pontificate,
touching on both the religious and
social issues that are high up on his list
of pastoral priorities.
In Thailand, Francis focused much
of his attention, and eight speeches,
to talk about the dignity of the human
person and the universality of the
Catholic Church, calling on the local
hierarchy and the religious men and
women to continue their efforts to
further “inculturate” the faith and the
gospel.
Speaking in a country world-famous
for its sex tourism, Francis denounced
the exploitation of women and
children who are forced into prostitution
as well as those who fall prey
to human trafficking networks, those
exploited by the fishing industry,
and those forced into begging on the
streets, saying that all of them “are our
mothers, brothers, and sisters,” and
they, too, deserve “the balm of God’s
love that heals all wounds.”
In Japan, a country he dreamed of
being a missionary in once upon a
time when he first joined the Jesuits,
Francis honored the memory of the
thousands of Christian martyrs who
gave their lives rather than renounce
their faith, and delivered a strong
message against both the deployment
and possession of weapons of mass
destruction.
Speaking with journalists during the
flight back from Japan, he even went
a step further than he had during his
remarks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
He said that it is not only “immoral” to
own or use bombs such as the atomic
bombs dropped by the United States
toward the end of World War II, but
that the “Catechism of the Catholic
Church” needs to be modified to
18 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

eflect this.
“No one can turn a deaf ear to the
plea of our brothers and sisters in
need,” he said. “No one can turn a
blind eye to the ruin caused by a culture
incapable of dialogue.”
The fact that money is “squandered”
and fortunes are made through the
“manufacture, upgrading, maintenance,
and sale” of destructive
weapons as millions of children and
families live in inhumane conditions,
Francis said, represents “an affront
crying out to heaven.”
“Here in this city, which witnessed
the catastrophic humanitarian and
environmental consequences of a
nuclear attack, our attempts to speak
out against the arms race will never
be enough,” he said. “The arms race
wastes precious resources that could
be better used to benefit the integral
development of peoples and to protect
the natural environment.”
The pontiff argued that “the fear
of mutual destruction, or the threat
of total annihilation” amounts to
defending stability and peace through
a “false sense of security” sustained by
a mentality “that ends up poisoning
relationships between peoples and
obstructing any form of dialogue.”
That same day, also in Nagasaki,
during a visit to the monument to the
martyrs of Japan, he praised them for
their courage while noting that there
are Christians throughout the world
who, “in our day, suffer martyrdom for
the faith.”
“They are martyrs of the 21st century,
and their witness summons us to set
out with courage on the path of the
beatitudes,” he said. “Let us pray with
them and for them. Let us speak out
and insist that religious freedom must
be guaranteed for everyone in every
part of our world.”
Some estimate that more than 200
million Christians around the world
face the daily threat of harassment,
persecution, arrest, torture, and even
death on account of their faith.
Francis’ trip to Japan began with an
address to the bishops of the country,
where he listed several of the challenges
of Japanese society in which the
Catholic community can be a beacon
of hope, being present in the lives of
many that are marked by loneliness,
despair, and isolation, with increasing
“suicide rates, bullying, and various
kinds of neediness” that create “new
forms of alienation and spiritual disorientation.”
Suicide is the largest cause of death
among young people in this country,
Pope Francis embraces a young man as he meets with victims of the 2011 “triple disaster” (earthquake,
tsunami, and nuclear power plant meltdown) at Bellesalle Hanzomon, Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 25.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
and the Japanese suicide rate is the
sixth highest in the world.
Francis also told the bishops that
the numbers of their flock “must not
diminish your commitment to evangelization.
In your particular situation,
the strongest and clearest word you
can speak is that of a humble, daily
witness, and openness to dialogue with
other religious traditions.”
Late in the afternoon he heard the
testimony of two atomic bomb survivors,
one of whom called the post-blast
moments a “scene from hell.”
Answering them, Francis said that
humanity will be judged for its failure
to reduce the weapons arsenal, saying
that future generations will condemn
“our failure if we spoke of peace but
did not act to bring it about among the
peoples of the earth.”
“How can we speak of peace even as
we build terrifying new weapons of
war?” he asked. “How can we speak
about peace even as we justify illegitimate
actions by speeches filled with
discrimination and hate?”
A secure society, Francis argued, can
only be built if we “let weapons fall
from our hands.”
“How can we propose peace if we
constantly invoke the threat of nuclear
war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution
of conflicts?” he asked. “May
the abyss of pain endured here remind
us of boundaries that must never be
crossed.
“On behalf of all the victims of atomic
bombings and experiments, and of
all conflicts, let us cry out together:
Never again war, never again the clash
of arms, never again so much suffering!
May peace come in our time and
to our world.”
After a busy year that saw the Argentine
pontiff take seven international
trips, his tour to Thailand and Japan
marks the end of his traveling, at least
until the new year. Although there
are rumors as to where he wants to go
next (including war-torn South Sudan,
which Francis has made no secret
of wanting to visit), no trip has been
announced as of yet.
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian
journalist and Rome bureau chief for
Crux. She is a frequent contributor to
Angelus.
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19

A photo from “Dignity” depicting two men who appear to be “flying” in Hunts Point, the Bronx.
CHRIS ARNADE VIA AMAZON
Returning to reality
As the holiday season approaches, Chris Arnade’s ‘Dignity’
is a worthy reflection on our ‘obligation to listen’
BY KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ / ANGELUS
Chris Arnade had me at his
opening paragraph in the new
book “Dignity: Seeking Respect
in Back Row America.” Here it is:
“I first walked into the Hunts Point
neighborhood of the Bronx because
I was told not to. I was told it was too
dangerous, too poor, and that I was too
white. I was told ‘nobody goes there for
anything other than drugs and prostitutes.’
“The people directly telling me this
were my colleagues (other bankers),
my neighbors (other wealthy Brooklynites),
and my friends (other academics).
All, like me, successful, well-educated
people who had opinions on the
Bronx but had never really been there.”
Incidentally, I found myself in that
Chris Arnade
SCREENSHOT VIA YOUTUBE
20 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

CHRIS ARNADE VIA AMAZON
same area about a year ago, but not fully
appreciating where I was. I noticed
not a lot of people around and some
of the people around seemed to be
operating in slow motion.
I did become aware that I felt and
looked a little out of place. When you
find yourself in these situations, you realize
there are so many people with stories
that ought to be told. But the tendency
to go back to your usual routes
and routines is too strong. Instead, you
only encounter desperate poverty and
addiction when it confronts you on a
street corner or at a traffic stop.
As Heather King wrote in an Angelus
column earlier this fall, Arnade
not only went where he was told not
to, but made a point of seeking these
places out. He got to know people and
became a part of their lives. He helped
when he could, and still helps now:
“The book is about them, and so is all
the money it makes in sales.”
Arnade was a Wall Street trader
who started taking long walks, first to
alleviate stress around the time of the
financial crisis in 2008.
“Along the walk I talked to whoever
talked to me, and I let their suggestions,
not my instincts and maps,
navigate me. I also used my camera
to take portraits of those I met, and I
became more and more drawn to the
stories people inevitably want to share
about their life.”
He learned about their lives from
them. “What I started seeing, and
learning, was just how cloistered and
privileged my world was and how narrow
and selfish I was. Not just in how I
lived but in what and how I thought.”
He knew he was privileged. He had
a doctorate in theoretical physics and
worked as a bond trader, living in an
upscale part of Brooklyn.
“I sent my kids to private school. But
like most successful and well-educated
people, especially those in NYC, I considered
myself open-minded, considerate,
and reflective about my privilege.
I read three papers daily, I watched
documentaries on our social problems,
and I voted for and supported policies
I felt recognized and addressed my
privilege.
“I gave money and time to charities
that focused on poverty and justice. I
understood I was selfish, but I rationalized.
Aren’t we all selfish? Besides, I
am far less selfish than others, look at
how I vote (progressive), what I believe
in (equality), and who my colleagues
are (people of all races from all places).”
But in truth, Arnade says, he “had
removed [himself] from the realities of
the majority of Americans.”
“I was sitting in my expensive club,
one requiring an elite education to enter.
I was sitting in my expensive home,
in my exclusive neighborhood, forming
opinions and casting judgments about
what was best for others largely from
what I read.”
A year after he started his long walks,
he started becoming a little more part
of the community. He would eventually
leave his job in banking, thanks in
part to the luxury of not needing a new
job immediately.
And so, the problems of the people
in Hunt’s Point became his problems.
He went from buying McDonald’s or
sliding someone $20 to “driving Shelly
to detox, or visiting Sarah in Rikers,
or finding out where Tiny was in the
system, or seeing which hospital Mille
ended up in, or taking Takeesha to
the hospital, or getting someone out
of the hospital. ... I would wake each
morning to texts for help or walk into
requests the minute I got to Hunts
Point.”
He would also buy Xanax at inflated
prices off the streets there. He had
some common ground in addiction
with some of the people he got to
know.
Now a freelance journalist and
photographer, the book is his report
on poverty beyond Hunt’s Point too:
in Alabama, California, Maine, and
Nevada.
It’s not a religious book, though
Arnade grows in respect for religion
and sees what hope it brings to people
who might otherwise have none. But
it’s often brutal, and Arnade doesn’t
sugarcoat anything (be prepared for
raw testimony and language).
And he doesn’t propose some grand
strategy for upending poverty and
addiction. In the end, he concludes
that “our nation’s problems are just
too big, too structural, and too deep to
be solved by legislation out of Washington.
We need everyone — those in
the back row, those in the front row
— to listen to one another and try to
understand one another and understand
what they value and try to be less
judgmental.”
We can’t all plant ourselves in a
McDonald’s like Arnade did. But in his
documentation, he demonstrates what
Pope Francis means when he talks
about going to the peripheries.
He may not have set out to be a Christian
missionary living the beatitudes,
but because of his journeys, he points
us to who we should and what we
should be doing: loving people more
in the mess of life, as overwhelming as
it can be.
Arnade does a beautiful thing in
this book, highlighting our common
humanity and the outsized responsibility
of everyone with some power in the
world. As we enter the holiday season
during which so many will suffer
alone, we would all do well to rethink
our attitude toward the back row.
If there’s one takeaway for Catholics
reading this book, it’s that the Church
really does need to become what Francis
describes as a field hospital: looking
beyond the comfort of our parishes to
touch the sufferings of those living on
the peripheries, whether it be in Hunts
Point, the Hamptons, or Hollywood.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at
the National Review Institute, editor-at-large
of National Review magazine,
and author of the new book, “A
Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom
for Daily Living” (Tan Books, $44.95).
CHRIS ARNADE VIA AMAZON
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 21

Like Sister de Lourdes and Sister Florence
Kruczek (right), 91, some 30,000 senior
Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order
priests have spent their lives doing the Lord’s
work. Most served for little or no pay, and now
their religious communities do not have enough
retirement savings. Your gift to the Retirement
Fund for Religious offers vital support for
necessities, such as medications and nursing
care. Please be generous.
Roughly 94 percent of donations
directly aid senior religious.
“ Live with good humor
and just do the Lord’s
work,” says Franciscan
Sister de Lourdes
Okoniewski (left), 87.
Retirement Fund
for Religious
Please give to those who have given a lifetime.
Please give at your local parish
December 7–8.
To donate by mail:
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Attn: Office of Vicar for Women Religious
3424 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90010-2241
Make check payable to Archdiocese of Los Angeles/RFR.
retiredreligious.org
©2019 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved.
Photo: Jim Judkis
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Back to the future
What a book on early Christian history
tells us about what’s next for the Church
BY STEFANO REBEGGIANI / ANGELUS
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“St. Athanasius overcoming Arius,” by Peter Paul Rubens, 1620.
In the middle of the third century
A.D., a catastrophic plague swept
the Roman Empire, claiming as
much as one-third of the population in
some regions.
“All were shuddering, fleeing, shunning
the contagion, impiously throwing
out their own friends … there were
bodies lying all over the city … well,
not bodies anymore, but carcasses,
demanding the pity of passers-by the
contemplation of a fate that would
soon be theirs,” is how a contemporary
witness described it.
While everyone was running from
the disease, the members of a relatively
small and persecuted sect were not.
At the orders of their bishop, Cyprian,
Christians in northern Africa went
into the streets to look for the sick,
without regard for the religion or social
status of the stricken. They could
not cure the disease; in fact, most of
the time, they contracted it and died
themselves.
And yet, their actions changed the
course of history.
Before and during the plague, Christians
in the vast Roman Empire had
been persecuted. But after the plague,
the Church’s numbers grew exponentially:
the plague had shown that
Christians could do what no one else
could. Not only were they not terrified
by death, but they were ready to give
up their lives for their persecutors.
These and other scenes are explored
in Mike Aquilina’s new book, “The
Church and the Roman Empire (301–
490),” part of his series “Reclaiming
Catholic History.” As Aquilina puts it
in the book’s introduction, every age
24 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

COURTESY MIKE AQUILINA
Mike Aquilina
is pivotal, in the sense that it marks a
transition into something else.
But this age was marked by the two
single most momentous transformations
in the ancient world, namely the
Church’s transition from negligible
sect into the religion of the Roman
Empire, and the decline and eventual
fall of the Western Roman Empire
(476 B.C.)
It is a terrific book: fast, engaging, suspenseful,
interspersed with novel-like
dramatic sections and fact-checking
boxes to debunk common myths about
the early Church. Aquilina zooms
in and out of Church history with
remarkable ability for synthesis and a
style that is both simple and direct.
Along this exciting journey we meet
the likes of Constantine, the emperor
who first granted Christians freedom
to worship, and the great Church
Fathers Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, and
Augustine.
We witness the world’s astonished reaction
to the sack of Rome (410 B.C.)
and we wonder about the mysterious
words used by Pope Leo to persuade
Attila, the leader of the Huns, not to
attack the city of Rome.
All that may sound like a nice sequence
of interesting historical details.
But, when it comes to ancient Church
history, why should we care?
In his famous 1997 book “Salt of
the Earth” (Ignatius Press), the future
Pope Benedict XVI memorably captured
the similar historical transition
that the Church is experiencing in this
generation.
“Maybe we are facing a new and different
kind of epoch in the Church’s
history, where Christianity will again
be characterized more by the mustard
seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly
insignificant groups that nonetheless
live an intense struggle against
evil and bring good into the world,”
then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said.
In other words, Ratzinger prophesied,
the Church is on its way back to precisely
the period that Aquilina chose to
cover in “The Church and the Roman
Empire.”
During the age of Constantine, the
Church moved from being small,
persecuted, and perceived as essentially
incompatible with the political
order of the Roman Empire to becoming
the empire’s religion. Today,
we witness the reverse: the Church’s
relevance in the world of culture and
politics fades, numbers dwindle, and
persecution looms on the horizon.
That’s why Aquilina’s book is not
only a treat for history buffs, but an
important resource for even the most
ordinary Catholics to think more deeply
about where the Church is today
and where it may end up tomorrow.
Take the Arian controversy, which
Aquilina addresses in the book’s third
chapter. This powerful heresy basically
tore the universal Church apart for
nearly two centuries.
As Benedict XVI described it, the heretic
Arius “threatened authentic faith
in Christ, declaring that the Logos was
not a true God but a created God, a
creature ‘halfway’ between God and
man who hence remained forever
inaccessible to us.”
The doctrinal battle between supporters
and opposers of Arius climaxed in
the great showdown of the Council of
Nicaea, in which Arius was trashed by
St. Athanasius (we owe to this council
the Nicene Creed, the one recited
every Sunday at Mass).
It’s a controversy that may seem
abstract and pedantic, the kind of
hair-splitting that interests theologians
and no one else, but Aquilina draws
attention to an interesting theory.
The idea that the one and only God,
eternal, perfect, and inaccessible, became
man was inconceivable to philosophical
pagans. “Arianism gave the
pagans a kind of Christianity Lite, easy
to accept without changing ingrained
habits of thoughts,” Aquilina argues.
The parallels to today’s Church are
hard to ignore. The Church today is
once again torn by doctrinal controversies,
and it is not hard to see that
attempts to change Catholic teaching
very often stem from a desire to make
Catholicism more acceptable to our
contemporaries.
The Church of the third century converted
the masses to its teachings by
showing that Christians could do what
no one else could. The Christians of
Africa showed that they could love
those who persecuted them, even at
the risk of death.
This is what “The Church and the
Roman Empire” ultimately invites
the reader of faith to reflect upon: that
the Church best performs its mission
of shining a light in the world when
such radical love and charity is seen in
Christians.
Aquilina’s book can help us look at
the great challenges of today’s world
and of the contemporary Church
with the confidence that God has not
abandoned his little flock, and that his
plan will prevail.
Stefano Rebeggiani is an assistant
professor of Classics at the University of
Southern California.
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 25

WITH GRACE
BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/TAN BOOKS
Life on the other
side of prayer
Look around any crowded place
and you’re likely to find that
most people are staring at their
phones, immersed in entertainment.
Whether watching a movie, playing
a game, or swiping through other people’s
lives on Instagram, modern man
lives a kind of collective anesthesia, or
perhaps more accurately, a willing suspension
of souls and minds, much like
an ancient insect is frozen in amber.
This deep mind-freeze of modern
culture stands poles apart from the
spiritual life and is its photographic
negative.
The person immersed in prayer
appears quiet and still, but inside his
intellect and soul are striving, groaning,
and climbing. Prayer can be frantic
questioning and listening intently
for answers, and also the inner, joyous
hallelujah that only the Giver of best
gifts can hear.
Prayer is also abandonment, experienced
as a drop into terrifying nothingness,
followed by the rescuing embrace
of the Lover who sweetens and
transforms even the worst suffering.
Prayer is the only way toward personal
perfection, toward the person
our Creator envisioned when he first
thought each of us into being, and
away from the crabby, bitter versions
we’ve made of ourselves.
Perhaps we moderns are the cohort of
humanity least prepared to truly pray,
even before the advent of our phones.
Entertainment, news, work, exercise,
hobbies, vacations, crowds, constant
din and noise; they have long been
keeping us away from that better, elevating
thing. And too many of us don’t
even know where to start.
Luckily for us Christians, we have
a rich thousands-year-old tradition to
learn from, of men and women who
severed the ties that bound their own
souls to material concerns, enabling
them to fly to heaven. When we find
the silent place to pray and fix the
time, we can use their wisdom and
experience to help us achieve the great
possibilities of prayer.
Access then becomes the problem.
We are, most of us, unschooled on this
topic. Perhaps we’ve heard of some of
the great mystics like St. Teresa of Ávila
or St. John of the Cross, or modern
spiritual masters like Urs von Balthasar
and St. Maximilian Kolbe, but we
don’t know much more than their
names.
A new and beautiful book by Kathryn
Jean Lopez is the answer to this
dilemma. It’s called “A Year with the
Mystics,” and it will open for your soul
a world of possibilities.
The book is elegantly bound — a
family keepsake and a worthy gift —
with supple covers and delicately tinted
paper. And on each of the 365 pages
is a perfect gem from a giant of the
faith, spanning more than 2,000 years
of shining wisdom and illuminating
thought.
Collated and arranged to strike deep
chords and inspire humble, awe-filled
contemplation, it is a gem itself, from a
woman who evidently knows what our
anesthetized minds need to jolt them
Kathryn Jean Lopez, a senior fellow at the
National Review Institute and editor-at-large of
National Review Online, is the author of “A Year
With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily
Living.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/TAN BOOKS
26 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

into the attitude of prayer.
“To suffer gladly when we must for the
love of others is indeed not only the closest
imitation of Christ, it is the essence
of our own Christhood.”
“Resign yourself on [God] with loving
trust and remain buried in him, forgetting
yourself and losing yourself quite
completely, not as to your spirit but as
to your sensuality and the possession of
your body and soul.”
“To wake up in Love, move about in
Love, fall asleep in Love, my soul in
his soul, my heart in his heart, my eyes
within his eyes, so that by my contact
with him, he will purify me and free me
from my wretchedness.”
“[God] wants you to become a living
force for all mankind, lights shining in
the world … bathed in the glory of him
who is light of heaven.”
“If you experience struggle in your
flesh, if means you have not surrendered.
… If you have no struggle at all,
rather be afraid and question yourself.”
These are a few quotes from the masters
of prayer in the pages of “A Year
with the Mystics.” Let them whet your
appetite for more. Let them incite you
to live the deep and full life of one who
unites himself daily with the source of
life himself.
Take this lovely book to your place of
silence, in front of the tabernacle perhaps,
or in the shining presence of the
Sacrament. Take it slowly, one page at
a time, and reflect.
You will perhaps start to wonder how
you let yourself live for so long in a
state of suspended animation, when all
this glorious existence was waiting on
the other side of prayer.
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie grew up in
Guadalajara, Mexico, coming to the
U.S. at the age of 11. She has written
for USA TODAY, National Review, The
Washington Post, and The New York
Times, and has appeared on CNN,
Telemundo, Fox News, and EWTN. She
practices radiology in the Miami area,
where she lives with her husband and
five children.
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INSIDE
THE PAGES
By KRIS MCGREGOR
The spirit of St. Nicholas
How did we get from the third-century bishop of Myra to the
Coca-Cola Santa Claus that dominates our holiday?
We all know the beloved
Coca-Cola Santa Claus: the
rosy cheeks, the twinkling
eyes, the plump stomach. But where
did we get this figure of gift-giving and
holiday cheer?
In “The Saint Who Would Be Santa
Claus: The True Life and Trials of
Nicholas of Myra,” (Baylor University
Press, $16), Adam C. English dives
into the stories of the true Santa,
separating fact from fiction to give us
the saint whose generosity and Christian
virtue has inspired a worldwide
tradition.
Kris McGregor: Where would we
find the original St. Nicholas?
Adam English: St. Nicholas of Myra
was born in the late third century
on what is now the southern coast of
Turkey. Christianity was a persecuted
minority religion when he was born,
but when he died, around the year
335, Christianity was not only legalized,
but it was the favored faith of
the empire. He witnessed this huge
transformation.
Icon of St. Nicholas by Jaroslav Čermák.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Holiday advertisement for Coca-Cola.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
McGregor: How did you find St.
Nicholas in authentic history?
English: I spent some time in Mari,
Italy, which has an archive library
where all these Greek and Latin documents
are housed. I found evidence in
all sorts of scattered documents for the
existence of St. Nicholas, but what’s
28 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

more important is that
I was able to separate
this St. Nicholas from
another Nicholas.
Through the ages,
their stories have been
blurred and merged
together, so when you
hear popular accounts
of the life of St.
Nicholas, it’s typically
the story of these two
men.
McGregor: What’s
so significant about
St. Nicholas’ name?
English: Nicholas means “the victory
of the people,” “the people’s victor.”
In the name itself, there’s hope and
promise, and he really lived out that
kind of life. We think of him connected
with gift-giving and generosity, but
he was more than that. Nicholas was a
businessman, a patron of the people.
He acted as lawyer, judge, arbitrator, a
civil servant for the people, in addition
to being a wonderful Christian pastor
and bishop.
McGregor: How did we get from St.
Nicholas to Santa Claus?
English: It really goes back to the early
19th-century New York. Around that
time there are a number of influential
men connected with the New York
Historical Society who are trying to
establish new traditions and reconnect
with their Dutch heritage.
Part of what it meant to be Dutch was
to have “Sinterklaas,” or St. Nicholas,
traditions. If you gave St. Nicholas gifts,
or baked St. Nicholas cookies, you
were celebrating your Dutch traditions.
When this catches on, there’s this
whole movement toward creating these
new, richly European traditions with
St. Nicholas.
Ultimately, as these traditions start
to morph and change, the idea of
Santa Claus became the creation of
the pictures of Thomas Nast, Norman
Rockwell, and Haddon Sundblom,
all people who were trying to depict
a saint who is warm, friendly, and
lovable.
McGregor: What do you think St.
Nicholas would have to say about
Santa Claus, and our
veneration of him, as we
now have Santa as such
an integral part of our
Christian holy day?
English: My parents
definitely struggled with
the interaction between
Santa Claus and Christmas.
They wanted us to
remember that Jesus is
the reason for the season,
and at the same time,
they wanted us to enjoy
finding presents under
the tree on Christmas
morning, and hearing “The Night
Before Christmas.”
I think this is where St. Nicholas can
be of such value, because we don’t
have to say no to Santa Claus. We can
say yes to St. Nicholas. Here’s a man
who is a model of gift-giving, but also
of Christian virtue. Instead of kicking
Santa Claus out of the house, we can
invite St. Nicholas in.
Bringing St. Nicholas into the holiday
season will force you to look outside
your own home. I’m not at all against
the Christmas enjoyment of gift-giving
— it’s a very family-oriented day —
but St. Nicholas’ life is a testimony to
giving outside your own home, giving
back to your community, and looking
out for those in the greatest need.
The stories of St. Nicholas’ generosity
were shocking even in their own day.
They’re still inspiring to us today, but
in a time when people lived scarce
lives, and they went day-to-day wondering
where their next meal might come
from, here’s the story of St. Nicholas,
who is providing for their needs and
looking out for them.
They’re ordinary people who have no
other champion but St. Nicholas.
Even by the early 1100s in France,
you have nuns making little toys and
leaving them on the doorsteps of
children, and signing them “from St.
Nicholas.” Anyone can do this. His
actions are inspiring in that sort of
ordinary way.
Kris McGregor is the founder of Discerninghearts.com,
an online resource
for the best in contemporary Catholic
spirituality.
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29
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Netflix’s Christmas gift
NETFLIX
In ‘Klaus,’ the streaming giant’s first animated
feature dares to try something different
BY SOPHIA BUONO / ANGELUS
December is upon us, which
means it’s time to start making
your Christmas movie
watchlist (unless you’re a true fanatic,
in which case you’re already halfway
through).
Whether you’re a traditionalist who
loves watching the classics annually
or an adventurer seeking something
new each year, Netflix’s recently
released “Klaus” deserves a spot on
your list: The streaming giant’s debut
feature-length animated film delivers
a refreshingly profound message
on Christmas wrapped in beautiful
animation that the whole family can
enjoy.
The film opens on Jesper (Jason
Schwartzman), the spoiled son of a
wealthy businessman who owns a
postal service company. Fed up with
his son’s laziness and overreliance
on the family fortune, Jesper’s father
assigns him to a postal position on
the remote northern island of Smeerensburg,
where he must deliver 6,000
letters in a year, or else face being cut off.
As if the long, grueling journey
wasn’t punishment enough, Jesper
finds that Smeerensburg is a bitter
town besieged by family feuds, and no
one cares to send mail of any kind.
No one, that is, until Jesper encounters
a certain old man with a white
beard who enjoys secretly delivering
toys to children.
Such a setup might strike one as a
cross between Disney’s “The Emperor’s
New Groove” and the 1970
Christmas special “Santa Claus is
Comin’ to Town.” But what makes
“Klaus” stand out is that through a
narrative of secular holiday folklore,
it actually undoes the materialist
mindset of shopping-mall Santas and
makes an earnest attempt to capture
the true spirit of Christmas.
The key to this paradox begins with
Jesper. As he and Klaus (that aptly
named old man with the white beard,
powerfully voiced by J.K. Simmons)
haul presents back and forth to the
Smeerensburg children, the postman
pinpoints what any skeptic of the
Santa Claus tradition might observe:
Aren’t these kids just in it for themselves?
How could their good behavior
really be genuine when they know it
will be rewarded with a gift?
But when Jesper observes the effects
of their deliveries, he gradually discovers
the joy that can’t help but spring
from quiet generosity that does not
30 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

NETFLIX
seek recognition.
Through a neatly packaged plot
that unfolds in a simple, organic way,
“Klaus” reveals how a good deed once
done for personal gain can, through
the pure wonder and gratitude that
flows from the hearts of children, rapidly
become a deed done as a personal
gift.
As if these hopeful elements weren’t
enough, the film expresses Christian
undertones that reinforce the message
and make it even more satisfying.
For one thing, it is clear that while
“Klaus” is an origin story of Santa
Claus, it is not an origin story of
Christmas, and never claims to be.
On the contrary, the characters
acknowledge Christmas as an established,
special holiday quite separate
from Klaus and Jesper’s unseen toy
deliveries. In fact, the benevolence
that their gift-giving spreads ends
up helping the villagers prepare for
Christmas better, with more warmth
and cheerfulness than ever before.
And while Jesus isn’t mentioned by
name, the hymn “Silent Night” floats
through the air as the holiday preparations
light up the Smeerensburg
streets.
“Klaus” is a true family movie not
only because it celebrates childlike
wonder and gratitude within the
context of Christmas, but also because
it reveres the beauty of self-giving love
within the context of marriage and
family.
Rarely do films seem to highlight
the joyful anticipation (rather than
burden) of many children, or the pain
(rather than liberation) of infertility,
but this film does so in an amazingly
natural, moving way. Once again, the
film proves itself as much more than a
tale about why children write to Santa
Claus.
No good family movie is complete
without an appropriate dose of fun,
and “Klaus” does not fail to provide it.
Thanks to a lively script (written by
Zach Lewis, Jim Mahoney, and director
Sergio Pablos) delivered by solid
voice acting (especially Schwartzman
and Joan Cusak, who hilariously
portrays one of Smeerensburg’s
feuding elders), the film has enough
lighthearted moments that will spark
laughs just as much as the touching
moments will invoke tears.
What’s more, the beautifully crafted
2D animation blends old-school
charm with modern sleekness, making
the slapstick as well as the sentimental
moments refreshing for audiences
both young and old.
One almost wishes “Klaus” were
longer so that we could learn a bit
more about the old toymaker’s past,
hear a few more curmudgeonly lines
from Cusak’s Mrs. Krum, and see a
smidge more of the deepening bond
between Jesper and his unlikely new
friends.
Still, the film offers a lot in just 96
minutes: silliness and fun, wonder
and hope, and overall a lesson in true
charity without even proclaiming itself
moral teacher. In fact, it is very much
like the spirit of St. Nicholas himself:
subtle and unassuming, yet bearing a
sack full of delights. And that makes it
96 minutes well-spent.
Sophia Buono is a writer living in
Arlington, Virginia.
Church Keyboard Center celebrates the
beautiful new Rodgers organ at
Holy Angels Catholic
Church, Arcadia
Rev. Kevin Rettig, Pastor
Jerry Jaco, Director, Music Ministries
www.churchkeyboard.com
Nelson Dodge, President
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December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 31
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 31

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
A little ice in LA
An aerial view of the Bai Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square on opening day.
© 2019 HOLIDAY ICE RINK DOWNTOWN LA
The Bai Holiday Ice Rink Pershing
Square has returned for its
22nd anniversary season.
I know because I attended the grand
opening, which took place from 11 to
noon on Thursday, Nov. 14.
From top to bottom, the event, atmosphere,
and zeitgeist were quintessential
LA.
The setting: a balmy 67 degrees. The
rink, at 532 S. Olive St.: surrounded by
palm trees and skyscrapers. The main
sponsor: Bai, an antioxidant infusion
drink. Another sponsor: the North
American tour of Disney’s “Frozen:
The Broadway Musical.”
A chorus from Grand Arts High
School, right down the street, gave us
“Jingle Bells.”
We heard the “Star Spangled Banner,”
presumably putting out of our
minds that, in Washington, D.C.,
presidential impeachment proceedings
were taking place.
Cornell Freney, four-time U.S.
national champion on the German
Wheel (a gymnastic contraption
consisting of two hoops connected by
six spokes), emerged on the ice in a
purple, spangled top and did his thing
to a catchy tune that as best I could
decipher was called “Grandpa’s Rule.”
City workers in orange vests stopped to
gawp and smirk from the sidelines.
Anthony-Paul Diaz, chief of staff
of the LA Department of Parks and
Recreation, took the podium in stylish
sunglasses and called for a moment
of silence for the high school students
who had been killed the day before at
Saugus High School in Santa Clarita.
He reminded us that Pershing Square
32 • ANGELUS • December 6, 2019

is one of LA’s oldest plazas and,
smack in the middle of downtown, is
a throwback to the Colonial Era. (It’s
also undergone many iterations and is
named after John J. Pershing, a World
War I general who made his name on
the Western Front).
I’d never considered that the reason
the square block doesn’t have a bank
building or corporate headquarters
of some kind sitting on it is because
it’s actually a public park. “This will remain
a park forever,” Diaz assured us,
“dedicated to the citizens of LA.”
It’s also underlain, perhaps inevitably,
by a large parking garage.
Alexa and Chris Knierim, 2018
Olympic team bronze medalists and
two-time U.S. national champions,
then took to the ice. They were
everything a figure-skating couple
should be: Alexa with a dimpled smile
and upswept blond hair; Chris tall and
slim; the two of them, skating to Etta
James’ “At Last,” lithe, graceful, classy.
For a minute you could forget the
sirens and shootings. For a second you
could imagine we really were in some
enchanted kingdom. I snuck a look
around the crowd and even the hardened
photographers and print hacks
looked a little misty-eyed.
Sophia Piña-Cortez, assistant general
manager of the Department of Parks
and Recreation’s Special Operations
Branch, gave us the rink’s particulars.
Starting Dec. 4, free concerts are
held Wednesday and Friday nights
(excluding Christmas week) throughout
the month from 8 to 9:30 p.m. On
Dec. 7, there’s a Holiday Festival of
family activities, including 100 tons of
snow and visits with Santa. The rink is
open seven days a week through Jan.
20 and costs $14 per hour; $9 if you
bring your own skates.
“Frozen” star Alyssa Fox sang a tune
that began: “The snow glows white on
the mountain tonight,” while, under
the heat of the noonday LA sun, I shed
my sweater.
Behind her on the rink, a quintet of
female skaters in white dresses with slit
skirts twirled, leapt, and glided.
Snoopy from Knott’s Berry Farm took
a turn around the ice, accompanied
by a charming young woman in plaid
muffler and fur-topped white boots.
Diaz and Piña-Cortez took up rubber
mallets and smashed the ice sculpture,
a ritual that each year marks the
official opening of the rink.
The MC reported that for over 22
years, more than 100 marriage proposals
have taken place on this very sheet
of ice.
Then the gates opened and the “Underserved
Area School Children” from
Grand Arts took shakily to the rink. I
was standing beside one of the mothers
as her dewy young daughter, with elaborate
eye makeup, tottered over and
said, “Ma, hold my phone, OK?”
Somehow watching the kids gamely
inch along clutching the handrails,
floundering and crashing, just as I
would had I the courage to don skates,
was the best part of the whole show.
In one especially lovely moment, a
willowy young girl, tottering on her
blades, laughingly held out her hand
for ballast to the nearest guy. He
gallantly grabbed it and together, even
managing to glide for a second, they
made their way to the safety of the rail.
The sun shone. The ice glistened. I
thought of St. Lawrence of the Resurrection,
who one fateful winter had
seen a tree stripped of its leaves, and
reflected that flowers and fruit would
appear in the spring, and in a flash
“understood,” and devoted every second
for the rest of his life to Christ.
© 2019 HOLIDAY ICE RINK DOWNTOWN LA
Visitors enjoy the holiday ice rink in downtown Los Angeles.
Heather King is a blogger, speaker, and the author of several books.
December 6, 2019 • ANGELUS • 33

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