Angelus News | February 7, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 5

ANGELUS
KOBE BRYANT
1978-2020
February 7, 2020 Vol. 5 No. 5

A Very Special 2020 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
October 26 – November 5
Walk in the Footsteps of Jesus with
Archbishop José H. Gomez & Spiritual Leaders
Bishop David O’Connell, Msgr. Antonio Cacciapuoti,
Rev. Jim Anguiano and Rev. Parker Sandoval
Under the Direction of Judy Brooks, Archbishop’s Office of Special Services
Please join us for an important
Pilgrimage Information Meeting
Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.
The Cathedral Conference Center
555 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
All are Welcome!
Garden of Gethsemane
For Information Call Mary Kay: (213) 637-7520
Travel Arrangements through Catholic Travel Centre
Church of the Holy Sepulchree
Church of the Beatitudes

ON THE COVER
Perhaps nothing in recent memory has shaken Los Angeles
like the sudden death of Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old
daughter Gianna Jan. 26, along with seven others in a
helicopter crash. His basketball talent impressed millions
around the world, but as we report on Page 10, his devout
but quiet Catholic faith made a deep impact on those who
saw it up-close here in Southern California.
IMAGE:
Students from St. Turibius near downtown LA packed sack lunches and
walked the neighborhood to distribute them to the community in need.
For more photos from Catholic Schools Week, see Pages 24-25 and check
out the complete photo gallery at AngelusNews.com/photos-videos.
COURTESY ST. TURIBIUS SCHOOL
GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
e
Contents
s
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation, and Local News 4-6
LA Catholic Events 7
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
California’s apostles visiting Rome reflect on a trip to remember 16
The U.S.’s possibly first black saint gets his own play in LA 20
Three Vatican texts to watch out for in 2020 26
Robert Brennan: Looking beyond the Dodgers’ cheating pain 28
Distorted faith and the KKK in ‘Burden’ 30
Heather King: A piece of Japanese peace in Pasadena 32

FOLLOW US
ANGELUS
www.angelusnews.com
www.la-archdiocese.org
February 7, 2020
Vol. 5 • No. 5
3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241
(213) 637-7360 • FAX (213) 637-6360 — Published
by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895.
Publisher
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Vice Chancellor for Communications
DAVID SCOTT
Editor-in-Chief
PABLO KAY
pkay@angelusnews.com
Multimedia Editor
TAMARA LONG-GARCÍA
Features Editor
R.W. DELLINGER
Photo Editor
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Managing Editor
RICHARD G. BEEMER
Assistant Editor
HANNAH SWENSON
Circulation
CHRIS KRAUSE
Advertising Manager
JIM GARCIA
jagarcia@angelusnews.com
facebook.com/AngelusNews
info@angelusnews.com
AngelusNews
@AngelusNews
@AngelusNews
ANGELUS is published weekly except
at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas
and biweekly in July and August by
The Tidings (a corporation), established
1895. Periodicals postage paid at
Los Angeles, California. One-year
subscriptions (44 issues), $30.00; single copies,
$1.00 © 2019 ANGELUS (2473-2699). No part
of this publication may be reproduced without the
written permission of the publisher. Events and
products advertised in ANGELUS do not carry the
implicit endorsement of The Tidings Corporation
or the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
ANGELUS, PO Box 306, Congers, NY 10920-0306.
For Subscription and Delivery information, please
call (844) 245-6630 (Mon - Fri, 7 am-4 pm PT).
POPE WATCH
Missionary grandparents
Grandparents can play a pivotal role
in ensuring that the faith is passed on
to their grandchildren in secularized
societies, Pope Francis said Jan. 31.
“God has a large population of
grandparents throughout the world.
… They are the indispensable link in
educating children and young people
in the faith,” the pope said.
Speaking to a Vatican conference
on pastoral care for the elderly, Pope
Francis focused his remarks on the
gifts that the elderly bring to the
Church and society today.
“Nowadays, in secularized societies
in many countries, current generations
of parents do not have, for the
most part, the Christian formation
and living faith that grandparents can
pass on to their grandchildren,” Pope
Francis said.
“The elderly person, even when he
is weak, can become an instrument of
salvation history,” he said. “They are
not only people whom we are called
to assist and protect to guard their
lives, but they can be actors in a pastoral
evangelizing ministry, privileged
witnesses of God’s faithful love.
“In the 21st century, old age has
become one of the distinctive features
of humanity. Over a period of
just a few decades, the demographic
pyramid, which once rested upon a
large number of children and young
people and had at the top just a few
elderly people, has been inverted,” the
pope said.
Pope Francis, 83, noted that as governments
learn how to deal with demographic
changes, the Church can
contribute to civil society by sharing
the dignity and meaning of old age.
“The indifference and rejection that
our societies manifest toward the elderly
demand not only of the Church,
but of all of us, a serious reflection to
learn to grasp and to appreciate the
value of old age,” the pope said.
“We need to change our pastoral
habits in order to respond to the
presence of so many older people in
families and communities,” he added.
Pope Francis addressed the Vatican
conference, “The Richness of Many
Years of Life,” on pastoral care for the
elderly, organized by the Dicastery for
Laity, Family, and Life, which took
place at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum
Jan. 29-31.
“Different seasons of life correspond
to old age: For many, it is the age
in which productive efforts cease,
strength declines and the signs of
illness, the need for help, and social
isolation appear; but for many it is the
beginning of a long period of psycho-physical
well-being and freedom
from work commitments,” Pope
Francis said.
“In the Bible, longevity is a blessing.
It confronts us with our fragility, with
our mutual dependence, with our
family and community ties, and above
all with our divine sonship. Granting
old age, God the Father gives us time
to deepen our knowledge of him, our
intimacy with him, to enter ever more
into his heart and surrender ourselves
to him,” he said.
“This is the time to prepare to deliver
our spirit into his hands, definitively,
with childlike trust,” Pope Francis
said.
Reporting courtesy of Catholic News
Agency Rome correspondent Courtney
Mares.
Papal Prayer Intention for February: We pray that the cries of our migrant
brothers and sisters, victims of criminal trafficking, may be heard and considered.
2 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Present yourself to Jesus
Adapted from the archbishop’s homily
for the feast of the Presentation of the
Lord and the annual Mass honoring
men and women religious celebrating
the jubilee anniversaries of their professions
to religious life, Feb. 2, at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
It is wonderful to be back home! As
many of you know, I’ve been in Rome
this week with my brother bishops
from California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
We were there for our “ad limina”
meetings with Pope Francis.
It was a great week for us to be together
and to pray and reflect on our
vocation as bishops. We spent three
hours in conversation with the Holy
Father, and he was very pleased to
hear about the progress we are making
in sharing the Gospel and spreading
God’s love here in the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles.
Today is the feast of the Presentation
of the Lord, and we are also celebrating
the lives of our religious jubilarians,
who have consecrated their lives
to him.
We know that in the Church there
are many paths for disciples, many
ways to follow Jesus. Consecrated life
is a special way of love, and so is the
ordained ministry of the bishop, the
priest, and the deacon.
But every one of us is called to “present
ourselves” to God, to dedicate
ourselves completely to Jesus Christ,
following him in love and seeking his
will for our lives and our world. That
is what this great feast we celebrate
today is all about.
Today’s Gospel scene is familiar to us
because it is the fourth joyful mystery
of the rosary. The holy man in the
Temple, Simeon, recognizes that
Jesus is not just any ordinary child.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he is able
to understand that Jesus is the One
whom all the world has been waiting
for, the living God and the true face
of our humanity.
The feast of the Presentation of the
Lord is another “epiphany,” another
revelation of who Jesus Christ really
is. And in the light of his presence,
once again he manifests the beautiful
possibilities of our lives as children of
God.
Our God is not someone distant who
doesn’t want to be involved in the
lives of his creatures. Our God is the
God of encounter, a God who comes
from the heavens to be close to us,
who comes down to join his life to our
life in love. This is the beautiful reality
of the Incarnation, “God with us.”
“Jesus comes to share in
our human reality, as a
brother, as a friend.”
Our second reading, from the Letter
to the Hebrews, tells us that Jesus
came to share in our “blood and
flesh,” and that he “had to become
like his brothers and sisters in every
way,” except for sin.
What a beautiful gift our God gives
to us! Jesus comes to share in our human
reality, as a brother, as a friend.
And because our human reality includes
pain, suffering, and death, Jesus
shares in those things as well.
Jesus, who is perfect God and perfect
man, loves us so much that he
suffered death to set us free from our
selfishness and sins.
Jesus comes into your life and mine;
he comes to purify our humanity,
to return our human nature to its
“essence.” He comes to make holiness
possible for us, to make it possible for
us to offer ourselves in sacrifice to the
Lord.
Our lives are made for “presentation”
to the Lord. Jesus is waiting for
us to love him as he loves us. Jesus is
calling to each one of us personally,
waiting for each one of us to offer our
life to him as a “present,” to make our
lives a gift to him, just as he gives his
life for us.
And this is a beautiful way to live.
In a practical way, it is important for
all of us to continue finding the time
in our busy lives to spend more time
with Jesus: reading the Gospels, contemplating
his life, making ourselves
ready every day to receive him in Holy
Communion and, as much as possible,
to try to live in the presence of God
all day long.
This is the real meaning of life, this
is what makes our life as beautiful as it
is supposed to be — God wants to be
with us and each one of us wants to be
with God.
So, on this beautiful feast of the
Presentation of the Lord, let us ask for
the grace to follow the example of our
religious jubilarians and to consecrate
our lives totally for Jesus, who lived
totally for us.
And may our Blessed Mother Mary
intercede for us and help us to love
Jesus and carry the light of his Gospel
into our world, into our everyday work
and relationships, that all may know
the salvation he has promised to his
people.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Pakistan: Christians released after five years behind bars
An anti-terrorism court in Lahore, Pakistan, has ordered
the release of 42 Christian men who had been imprisoned
since 2015.
“Justice prevailed and hope was restored, thank God,”
Father Qaisar Feroz told Fides News Agency.
The men had been arrested for engaging in riots after
suicide bombings hit two Lahore churches in March
2015. The attacks, which injured 70 people and killed
15, incited a stream of protests, during which two Muslim
men thought to be connected to the terrorists were
killed. The men arrested were charged with killing the
men and destroying government property.
Judicial proceedings began in 2016 and concluded with
the men’s release Jan. 29.
“The current government is demonstrating its commitment
to religious minorities in Pakistan,” Father Feroz
continued. “The 42 people freed are heads of families
and their families have suffered a lot in the past four
years.”
Faithful attend Mass on Christmas Day 2018 in Lahore, Pakistan.
ARIF ALI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A dangerous plan
for the Holy Land?
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/VATICAN MEDIA
A HELPING HAND — Pope Francis has asked Uruguayan Father Gonzalo Aemilius to be his personal
secretary. He is pictured during morning Mass with the pope Jan. 28. Father Aemilius and the pope
have known each other since 2006, when then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires called him
about his work with children living on the streets.
Vatican tries peacemaker role between U.S. and Russia
The U.S. and Russia have had nuclear
arms agreements in place since
1972. That might end next year.
The New Strategic Arms Limitation
Treaty between the nations expires
Feb. 5, 2021. In anticipation of the
cutoff, the Vatican has arranged meetings
between American and Russian
representatives to help the countries
negotiate further agreements.
“We are trying quietly to promote
dialogue,” said Archbishop Silvano
Tomasi, an official at the Vatican’s Dicastery
for Promoting Integral Human
Development.
The Holy See has been working with
nongovernmental organizations such
as Washington, D.C.-based Global
Priorities, to support the meetings.
Archbishop Tomasi hopes that by
next year the countries can agree to
eliminate 500 more warheads, and
from there “continue the process until
all the bombs are eliminated.”
President Donald Trump has called
his new peace plan in the Holy Land
“the deal of the century.” But religious
leaders aren’t convinced.
In a Jan. 29 statement, the Assembly
of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy
Land called the plan a “unilateral initiative”
that ignores Palestinian rights.
“This plan will bring no solution
but rather will create more tensions
and probably more violence and
bloodshed,” wrote the church leaders,
which consists of Catholic bishops
and patriarchs of various rites, the
Franciscan order in the Holy Land,
and one nun.
Trump’s plan includes a proposal
for an independent Palestinian state
and recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital. But the church leaders say the
plan should follow Israeli and Palestinian
agreements.
Patriarch Gregoire III Laham, former
bishop of Jerusalem, predicted such
a deal will be “fuel for the fire of anti-Semitism
and Islamophobia in the
East and West,” according to Catholic
News Service.
4 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

NATION
Be my neighbor, sister
Housing is one of the many challenges single moms in
college face. Mount Mary University in Wisconsin has
come up with a novel solution: Let them live with the
nuns.
The women’s college recently announced plans to
construct an “intergenerational” residential complex for
retired nuns, senior citizens, and students who are single
mothers.
“This is important because it provides a place for single
mothers to get an education in a safe environment,”
Mount Mary president Christine Pharr told Catholic
News Agency. The complex will include a child care
facility, a clinic, and a chapel.
Pharr hopes that having the elderly sisters near the
young women and children will help them “really stay
The Knights’ not-so-secret ceremony
Joining the Knights of Columbus is no longer a closeddoor
event.
Since its founding in 1882, the national Catholic fraternity
has conducted initiations into its first, second, and third
degrees as separate ceremonies open to members only. But
starting this year, a new ceremony combining the three
degrees will be open to the Knights’ families, friends, and
fellow parishioners.
Supreme Knight Carl Anderson explained to the Tennessee
Register that the original secrecy was prompted by
anti-Catholic bigotry in 19th-century America.
“There is nothing we do that is secret or needs to be
secret,” he said. “We decided this is a way to let other
parishioners know, family members know, what the Knights
of Columbus is all about. We think that’s a good thing.”
The initiation ceremony for the fourth and highest degree
will continue to be members only.
Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
young” and find joy in campus life.
“This is just one more way in which we can continue to
empower women at all ages,” she said.
The school plans to complete the project by November
2021.
Super Bowl yanks commercial
about abortion survivors
In a culture that has been spotlighting survivor stories,
Lyric Gillet hoped that her ad featuring abortion survivors
would get a spot in the Super Bowl commercial lineup.
Those hopes were too high.
Gillet, founder of Faces of Choice, had sent storyboards
and answered questions from Fox, which aired the game
Feb. 2, since July. But on the day she was told to expect a
response, Fox did not communicate, and later Gillet learned
that the network had sold out its ad space.
Super Bowl LIV has no shortage of controversial ads, including
one featuring Donald Trump and another with drag
queens, so Gillet is disappointed that hers was ruled out at
the last minute.
“For some reason we deem survivors of abortion worthy
of being ignored into oblivion,” Gillet told the Washington
Times. “That, to me, is both ironic but also just appalling.”
MOUNT MARY UNIVERSITY/FACEBOOK
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
Supreme Knight Carl Anderson (right) and Knight of Columbus John
Moore at the 2019 March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Is life winning in America?
The pro-life movement has much to celebrate: abortion
rates are declining, abortion clinics are closing, and pro-life
legislation is spreading.
Recent data from the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention showed that the number of reported abortions
dropped 24% between 2007 and 2016. Meanwhile, the
number of independent abortion clinics plummeted from
510 in 2012 to 370 in 2018.
“When abortion clinics close, lives are saved,” said Troy
Newman, president of the pro-life group Operation Rescue,
to the Human Defense Initiative.
In 2019, more than 50 laws restricting or banning abortion
were passed in state legislatures. Several other states
are expected to bring forward similar laws this year.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
Racing for vocations
Norbertine priests and seminarians from St. Michael’s
Abbey hit the racetrack last weekend to raise awareness
for vocations.
On Jan. 26, five priests and seven seminarians participated
in the Spartan Race in Chino. They raised more
than $30,000, surpassing their goal. The money will go
to support vocations in their community.
Father Ambrose Christe placed first in his age group,
and fifth overall in the 3-mile race. Seminarian Frater
Patel Blain, who placed third in the age group, said,
“Losing to Father Ambrose is not as much fun as it
sounds, but running with and encouraging my brothers
was just like our community life.”
Priests and seminarians from St. Michael’s Abbey pose with their
medals after the Spartan Race.
PHOTO COURTESY ST. MICHAEL’S ABBEY
Study abroad time for LA principals
The school leaders traveling to Northern Ireland.
One year after a team of local
Catholic school leaders visited
Finland for an education visit, a new
group is packing their bags for a new
field trip destination.
Fifteen Catholic elementary and
high school principals, superintendents,
and university professors
from Los Angeles picked to travel to
Northern Ireland “represent Catholic
school communities from all over
the greater Los Angeles area and are
a great representation of the diversity
that exists in our LA Catholic School
system,” according to a news release.
The team hopes to bring home
lessons from the “successful efforts
of Northern Irish Catholic educators
and schools who meet the needs of
all learners” with a focus on “how
schools maintain their Catholic
identity while partnering with and
serving students from diverse schooling
backgrounds.”
The group will be traveling from
Feb. 28 until March 8. For more
information, visit LACatholics.org/
NorthernIreland.
A growing place of rest in OC
The Diocese of Orange’s brand-new
Christ Cathedral may have officially
opened last year, but there’s one
important part that’s not quite finished
yet.
Work on the first phase of expansion
on the Cathedral Memorial Gardens
cemetery on the cathedral’s campus
is expected to be completed in July
2020. It will be officially dedicated in
November on All Souls’ Day.
The cemetery was opened in 1991
by the late Rev. Robert Schuller on
the grounds of the former Crystal Ca-
thedral. It is now the only active cemetery
on Catholic church grounds in
the diocese.
Because of that, “we’re out of space.
There’s no room,” Father Christopher
Smith, rector of Christ Cathedral,
told OC Catholic Jan. 21.
There are currently more than 1,800
interred at the site and traditional
grounds space is sold. The expanded
location will increase the number of
available burial spaces by 6,300 and
will include a mausoleum, sarcophagi,
and glass and marble niches.
Cathedral Memorial Gardens.
OCCEM.ORG
6 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

LA Catholic Events
Items for LA Catholic Events are due two weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be mailed to Angelus News (Attn: LA Catholic Events), 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241; emailed to
calendar@angelusnews.com; or faxed to 213-637-6360. All items must include the name, date, time, and address of the event, plus a phone number for additional information.
Fri., Feb. 7
“Caring for the Whole Person” Conference. Cathedral
of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los
Angeles, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Hosted by ADLA Office of
Life, Justice, and Peace. Keynote speakers: Archbishop
José H. Gomez and Dr. Ira Byock. Whole Person
Care is a new statewide initiative of California bishops
and health care systems to provide community
support to families with dying loved ones. Free event
will provide resources and connections with leaders
across regions. Register at https://www.eventbrite.
com/e/caring-for-the-whole-person-launch-conference-tickets-83212882973.
2nd Annual Priests vs. Seminarians Basketball
Game. Chaminade Middle School, 10210 Oakdale
Ave., Chatsworth, 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at
archla.org/basketball20. Group rate for 15-20 people.
Free for priests, religious, and seminarians.
Sat., Feb. 8
Healing Retreat for Those Hurting After Abortion.
St. Martin of Tours Church, 11967 Sunset Blvd., Los
Angeles. Cost: $40/person, scholarships available.
Pre-register by emailing sharon@mercifulcompanions.org
or calling 213-637-7550.
Afternoon of Prayer for RCIA. St. John Baptist De
La Salle Church, 16555 Chatsworth St., Granada
Hills, 1-4 p.m. Catechumens, candidates, sponsors,
and team members will come together in prayer with
Bishop Alex Aclan. This is an opportunity to meet with
the larger Church of our region as we all journey
through Lent to Easter. For more information and to
register, call Sandy Cole at 818-368-1514 or email
dre@sjbdls.org.
Racism in America: What is Mine to Do? LMU,
University Hall, Room 1857, Los Angeles. Feb. 8,
12-5 p.m.; Feb. 9, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Workshop
will cover moving toward race reconciliation, learning
how to start and stay in race conversations, and
how to respond to racism. Free event. For more information,
call Catherine Perry at 404-386-8434
or email cperry@inwardboundcenter.org. Enroll at
https://racism_in_america_feb_8-9.eventbrite.com.
Limited slots available.
World Day of the Sick: Mass and Anointing of the
Sick. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple
St., Los Angeles, 12:30 p.m. Principal celebrant:
Archbishop José H. Gomez. Homilist: Bishop Marc
Trudeau. Sponsored by the Order of Malta Western Association.
All are welcome. For more information, email
Chuck Carroll at cecarroll@cbbank.com or Mary Ellen
Eichler at Mary.Ellen.Eichler@fourseason.com.
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.
Children’s Bureau’s Carson office, 460 East Carson
Plaza Dr., Ste. 102, Carson, or Andrew’s Plaza, 11335
West Magnolia Blvd., Ste. 2C, North Hollywood, or
Children’s Bureau, 1529 E. Palmdale Blvd., Ste. 210,
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 by emailing RFrecruitment@all4kids.org.
Mon., Feb. 10
Basic Lector Training. St. Matthias Church, 7125
Mission Place, Huntington Park. Cost: $65/person,
runs Mondays through March 2. Register at
http://store.la-archdiocese.org/basic-lector-training-st-matthias-2020.
Wed., Feb. 12
Women’s Meeting: East San Fernando District of
the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women. St.
Finbar Church, 2121 W. Olive Ave., Burbank, 9:30
a.m.-1:30 p.m. Speaker: Monique Saigon. Mass included,
and lunch for $12/person, prepaid. Make
check payable and mail to Marie Urrutia, 1351 Loreto
Dr., Glendale, CA 91207, before Thu., Feb. 6. Call Marie
Urrutia at 818-244-0547.
Fri., Feb. 14
Mass and Healing Service. Incarnation Church,
1001 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, 7 p.m. Celebrant: Father
Parker Sandoval. For information, call 818-421-
1354 or email hojprayergroup@gmail.com.
Mon., Feb. 17
St. Padre Pio Healing Mass. St. Anne Church, 340
10th St., Seal Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al
Scott. Call 562-537-4526.
Tue., Feb. 18
Healing Together Through Storytelling. San Gabriel
Mission, 428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, 6-9 p.m.
Directed by Julia Bogany, Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel
Band of Mission Indians. Special guest: Bishop
David O’Connell. Free event, snacks, and drinks provided
by ADLA Office of Native American Concerns. To
RSVP call Sylvia Mendivil Salazar at 626-755-9175
or email sylvia2018@verizon.net.
Wed., Feb. 19
A Resilient Life: Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual
Balance. The Center at Cathedral Plaza, 555 W. Temple
St., Los Angeles, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Conference
for those involved in diocesan and parish ministry,
focused on helping people become resilient in addressing
issues and challenges in their daily lives.
For more information, visit www.southdown.on.ca.
Requiem Mass for the aborted unborn. St. Rose
of Lima Church, 1305 Royal Ave., Simi Valley, 5:30
p.m. Celebrant: Father Luis Estrada. Commencement
Mass for 40 Days for Life Thousand Oaks Spring
2020 Campaign, which begins Feb. 26 and ends April
5. Call 805-527-4444 or visit 40daysforlife.com/
ThousandOaks.
Fri., Feb. 21
Religious Education Congress. Anaheim Convention
Center, 800 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim. Two-hundred
speakers will present more than 300 workshops,
entertainment, concerts, and liturgies Feb.
21-23. Register at www.RECongress.org.
Sat., Feb. 22
From Spiritual Warfare to Spiritual Blessings. St.
Didacus Church parish hall, 14325 Astoria St., Sylmar,
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Presentations include “The power
of his name,” and “From spiritual attack to spiritual
freedom.” Mass included. Cost: $20/person by Feb.
18 and includes catered chicken lunch. Registration
available at the door. Call SCRC at 818-771-1361 or
email spirit@scrc.org. Online registration at www.
scrc.org.
Foster Care and Adoption Information Meeting.
Children’s Bureau’s Magnolia Place, 1910 Magnolia
Ave., Los Angeles, or Children’s Bureau, 27200 Tourney
Rd., Ste. 175, Valencia, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Discover
if you have the willingness, ability, and resources to
take on the challenge of helping a child in need. RSVP
or learn more by calling 213-342-0162, toll free at
800-730-3933, or by emailing RFrecruitment@all-
4kids.org.
Sun., March 1
Blessed by the Cross Lenten Conference for Women.
Santa Teresita Hospital, St. Joseph’s Chapel, 819
Buena Vista St., Duarte, 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Speakers:
Bishop David O’Connell, Yolanda Rodriguez, and
musical guest artist Connie Salazar. Cost: $25/person
before Feb. 22, $35/person after. For more information,
visit wondercoach.org or call 626-615-5773.
Fri., March 6
Alan Ames Presentations. Our Lady of the Rosary
Church, 14815 Paramount Blvd., Paramount, 7 p.m.
Mass, 8 p.m. talk followed by exposition, adoration,
and healing service. March 7 at Divine Saviour
Church, 2911 Idell St., Los Angeles, 5 p.m. Mass, 6
p.m. presentation. March 8 at St. Louis de Montfort
Church, 1190 E. Clark Ave., Santa Maria, 6 p.m.
Mass, 7 p.m. presentation.
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
• On UN’s 75th anniversary, new nuncio encourages return to foundations.
• Beatitudes are our Christian ID cards, says Pope Francis.
• Check out our Saint of the Day feature!
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Is. 58:7–10 / Ps. 112:4–9 / 1 Cor. 2:1–5 / Mt. 5:13–16
Jesus came among us as
light to scatter the darkness
of a fallen world.
As his disciples, we,
too, are called to be “the
light of the world,” he
tells us in the Gospel this
Sunday (see John 1:4–4,
9; 8:12; 9:5).
All three images that
Jesus uses to describe the
Church are associated
with the identity and
vocation of Israel.
God forever aligned
his kingdom with the
kingdom of David and
his sons by a “covenant of
salt,” salt being a sign of
permanence and purity
(see 2 Chronicles 13:5,
8; Leviticus 2:13; Ezekiel
43:24).
Jerusalem was to be a
city set on a hill, high
above all others, drawing
all nations toward the
glorious light streaming
from her Temple (see Isaiah 2:2;
60:1–3).
And Israel was given the mission of
being a light to the nations, that God’s
salvation would reach to the ends of
the earth (see Isaiah 42:6; 49:6).
The liturgy shows us this week that
the Church, and every Christian, is
called to fulfill Israel’s mission.
By our faith and good works we are
to make the light of God’s life break
forth in the darkness, as we sing in this
week’s Psalm.
This week’s readings remind us that
our faith can never be a private affair,
something we can hide as if under a
“St. Paul Preaching,” a historiated initial excised from a Bible,
circa 1200s.
basket.
We are to pour ourselves out for the
afflicted, as Isaiah tells us in the First
Reading. Our light must shine as a ray
of God’s mercy for all who are poor,
hungry, naked, and enslaved.
There must be a transparent quality
to our lives. Our friends and family,
our neighbors and fellow citizens,
should see reflected in us the light of
Christ and through us be attracted to
the saving truths of the Gospel.
So let us pray that we, like St. Paul in
the Epistle, might proclaim with our
whole lives, “Christ and him crucified.”
WIKIMEDEDIA COMMONS
Scott Hahn is is founder of of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
8 • ANGELUS • February August 16-23-30, 7, 2020 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
On self-hatred and guilt
Recently on the television program
“Saturday Night Live,” a comedian
made a rather colorful wisecrack in
response to an answer that Nancy Pelosi
had given to a journalist who had
accused her of hating the president.
Pelosi had stated that, as a Roman
Catholic, she hates no one, and this
prompted the comedian to make this
quip: “As a Catholic, I know there’s
always one person you hate: yourself.”
I’m not someone who’s easily upset
by religious jokes. Humor is supposed
to have an edge and comedians play
an important archetypal role here,
that of the “court jester” whose task
it is to deflate whatever’s pompous.
Religion is often fair game.
Indeed, I appreciated the wit in this
wisecrack. Still, something bothers
me about this particular wisecrack because
it plays into a certain stereotype
that’s, unfortunately, very common
today wherein people from all kinds
of religious backgrounds (this is not
specific to Roman Catholics) blame
their religious upbringing for the
struggles they have with self-hatred
and guilt feelings.
How true is this? Is our religious
upbringing the cause of our struggles
with self-hatred and guilt feelings?
Obviously, our religious upbringing
does play some role here, but it’s far
too simplistic (and not particularly
helpful) to blame all or most of this
on our religious upbringing.
Psychologists and anthropologists
assure us that the issue of self-hatred
and guilt is infinitely more complex,
especially since we see it playing out
in people of every kind of religious
background as well as in people who
have no religious background at all.
The struggle with self-hatred and
guilt is not a particularly Roman
Catholic, Protestant, evangelical,
Jewish, or Muslim phenomenon; it’s
a universal phenomenon that makes
itself felt in every sensitive person, and
that struggle is not always unhealthy.
Any morally sensitive person, unlike
someone who’s morally calloused,
will constantly be self-assessing, often
anxious as to whether he’s being
selfish rather than good, and perennially
worrying that some of his words
and actions may have hurt others and
damaged his relationship with God.
To experience this kind of anxiety
is to be struggling with feelings of
self-hatred and guilt, but at one level
this is healthy. When we’re anxiously
self-assessing, there’s far less danger
that we will take others, the gift of life,
or the goodness of God for granted.
Moral sensitivity is a virtue and,
like aesthetic sensitivity, it keeps you
healthily fearful lest in ignorance and
insensitivity you paint a mustache on
the Mona Lisa.
Some of this, of course, is unhealthy.
As Sigmund Freud taught us, our conscience
doesn’t tell us what’s right and
what’s wrong, it only tells us how we
feel about our actions.
And when we have guilt feelings
about what we have just done or
left undone those feelings are often
powerfully influenced by the social
and moral standards that have been
put into us as children by our parents,
our teachers, our culture, and our
religious upbringing. Our religious
and moral upbringing does leave us
struggling with some false guilt.
But, that being admitted, there are
deeper causes as to why we struggle
with self-hatred and guilt and why we
never quite feel good enough.
If we could review our lives in a video,
we would see the countless times
we were, in every kind of way, told
that we’re not good, not adequate, not
lovable, not valued, not precious. We
would see the times we were shamed
in our enthusiasm; and this, I submit,
more than any other factor, lies at the
root of our self-hatred, our free-floating
feelings of guilt, and the bitterness
we so frequently feel toward others.
It starts in the highchair when, as
toddlers, in our blind energy, we eat
too enthusiastically and are told not
to eat like a pig. Likewise, as toddlers,
full of food and zest, we shout and
throw some food on the floor and are
told to stop it, to shut up, that our
natural energies aren’t healthy.
Then, as a preschooler, we are often
further shamed in our enthusiasm.
Eventually things move on to the
playground, the classroom, and into
our family circles where our uniqueness
and preciousness are not often
sufficiently recognized or valued,
where we’re frequently ignored, put
down, treated unfairly, bullied, made
aware of our inferiorities and failures,
and, in ways subtle and not-so-subtle,
told that we’re not good enough.
This sets us up for the rejections we
absorb in adulthood, for the jealousies
we feel when the lives of others look
so much richer than our own, for
the unexpressed bitterness we nurse
because of our own inadequacies,
and for the guilt we feel because of
our own betrayals. It isn’t primarily
because of our religious training that
we hate ourselves and are haunted by
a lot of free-floating guilt.
Yes, most of us Catholics do hate
ourselves. Sadly, would it were otherwise,
so too does everyone else.
Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher, award-winning author, and president of the Oblate School of Theology
in San Antonio, Texas. Find him online at www.ronrolheiser.com and www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 9

Kobe the Catholic
The Lakers legend leaves behind a complicated legacy —
and an impressive witness of quiet faith
BY TOM HOFFARTH & STEVE LOWERY / ANGELUS
Catholic imagery appeared in many of the makeshift memorials dedicated to Kobe and Gianna Bryant seen
throughout downtown Los Angeles.
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA
It is overcast and quiet as parishioners
stream into Newport Beach’s
Our Lady Queen of Angels
Church, greeted by pastor Father
Steve Sallot, both his grin and Roman
collar askew.
Though it’s the 7 a.m. Mass, the flow
of cars and people remains steady,
perhaps because it’s Super Bowl
Sunday and there are dips waiting to
be layered. Or perhaps because this
Mass, and at this parish, figures to be
forever linked to the final hours of
Kobe Bryant’s life.
In the immediate aftermath of Bryant’s
sudden death along with eight
other people, including his 13-year-old
daughter Gianna, in a helicopter crash
Jan. 26, it soon became known that
Bryant stopped by Queen of Angels,
located a couple miles from his Newport
Coast home, for a few moments
of reflection and prayer, leaving just 10
minutes after that 7 a.m. Mass started
to head to John Wayne Airport.
Father Sallot later confirmed to
various local news outlets that he had
10 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

seen Bryant after he had prayed in the
chapel.
“We shook hands, I saw that he had
blessed himself because there was a little
holy water on his forehead,” Father
Sallot said. “I was coming in the same
door as he was going out ... we called
that the backhand of grace.”
Though Bryant was well-known for
his discipline (Mamba Mentality),
cosmopolitan ways (giving interviews
in multiple languages) and, most of
all, love, admiration, and devotion for
his daughters (the trending hashtag
#GirlDad among the tributes), the fact
that Bryant took his faith so seriously
seemed to take many, including those
in the media, by surprise.
The media may have first met him as
a star in Lower Merion High School
in Pennsylvania before the Lakers
obtained him in a 1996 NBA draft
trade, but considering Bryant started
living in Milan, Italy, at age 7, since
his father, Joe, played seven seasons in
the Italian League after his own NBA
career ended in 1983, Catholicism
seems to have been as natural a part of
life as basketball.
Bryant was willing to talk about his
faith with anyone willing or wanting to
listen. It was there, he said, at both his
highest and lowest moments.
When, by his own admission, he had
allowed his life to spin completely out
of control, being accused of rape in a
Colorado hotel room, one of the first
people he turned to was a Catholic
priest, telling GQ magazine, “The one
thing that really helped me during that
process was talking to a priest.”
The day after his last NBA game, one
in which he scored 60 points, he told
an ESPN reporter that he celebrated
by rising early, drinking a cup of coffee,
and going to church.
“It was me, alone,” he said. “After
20 years, I think it’s important to give
thanks.”
In 2001, Bryant married his wife, Vanessa,
herself a Catholic, at St. Edward
the Confessor Church in Dana Point.
Father Sallot said that he and Kobe
had chatted about his desire to receive
the sacrament of confirmation in the
future.
Though all of this may have been
surprising to some, it certainly wasn’t
to those at Queen of Angels who knew
The bishops of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange hold a prayer service
after Mass at the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome Tuesday, Jan. 28. At far left is Los
Angeles native Bishop Joseph V. Brennan of Fresno.
Bryant as a consistent and enthusiastic
part of the faith community, one who
regularly attended, many times sliding
in as the procession was halfway down
the aisle, sitting in the back and leaving
before the procession came back
so as not to be a distraction.
Parishioner Dominic Picarelli said
he’d seen Bryant often over the past
16 years, at the beach, at kids’ basketball
games. He said he was perhaps
most impressed at seeing Bryant
consistently, session after session, as
his daughter Natalia and Picarelli’s
son, Ethan, went through the two-year
process of first Holy Communion.
“He was always there. Always. Always
for his kids,” Picarelli said. “You can
always gauge a man’s character by the
way he treats children. He showed
such patience when he was around
kids. I never had a chance to tell him
that; I feel bad I never did.”
During his homily, Msgr. Wilbur Davis,
known as Father Wil, talked to the
assembled, which included one man
wearing a black Bryant jersey trimmed
in gold, about the feast of the Presentation
of the Lord, when Christ was
presented at the Temple. He reminded
them that heaven is our eventual and
“essential citizenship” which, as in
Christ’s time, must be prepared for
through sacrifice and daily practice of
one’s faith.
Picarelli saw that with Bryant during
two years of commitment to his daughter’s
first Communion, attending often
out of the public eye.
“I know most people will remember
him for scoring 81 points,” Picarelli
said. “I just remember he was a great
dad.”
When the news of the tragedy
began to permeate social
media, a group of young
basketball players and their parents,
waiting at the Mamba Sports Academy
in Thousand Oaks, dropped to
their knees. Within hours, Southern
California bishops venerating at
various cathedrals in Rome heard the
swift-traveling news and offered up
their prayers.
“So very sad to hear the news of #KobeBryant’s
tragic death this morning,”
tweeted Los Angeles Archbishop José
H. Gomez within hours of the crash.
“I am praying for him and his family.
May he rest in peace and may our
Blessed Mother Mary bring comfort to
his loved ones. #KobeBryantRIP.”
Archbishop Gomez had first met
Bryant in 2011, soon after becoming
archbishop of Los Angeles, when he
was invited to a Lakers team practice
in El Segundo.
Nearly a decade later, the avid basketball
fan gathered with his brother
bishops from Los Angeles and Orange
counties for a prayer service for the
ANTHONY JOHNSON
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 11

Kobe and Gianna Bryant at a game in Las Vegas July 27, 2019.
victims of the crash in the Blessed
Sacrament chapel of the Papal Basilica
of St. John Lateran.
“Had we been in Los Angeles or
Orange, we would’ve probably been
at some prayer services,” explained
Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Freyer of
Orange. “We wanted to let our people
know, especially the families of the
victims, that they are in our hearts. We
thought to gather together and have
a prayer service would hopefully be a
way to give some consolation during
the difficult time.”
Bishop Freyer found out about the
crash Sunday night in Rome from
a flurry of messages and e-mails on
the eve of a week of meetings in the
Vatican.
Priests assigned to that parish over the
years had shared with Bishop Freyer
how they’ve been inspired by Kobe’s
humility.
“He would frequently wait until the
entrance procession got at least part of
the way down the aisle and he would
just come in and go into one of the
back pews so that he wouldn’t distract
the people,” said Bishop Freyer in
an interview at the Pontifical North
American College in Rome. “He
wanted people to focus on Christ’s
presence, not his presence.”
Bishop Freyer believes Bryant
deserves credit for having the same extreme
determination he showed on the
basketball court in “giving everything
he could to save his marriage.”
“The practice of
the faith wasn’t
just to save the
marriage,” said
Bishop Freyer. “I
think it was also
a way for him
to draw closer
to Christ, and
hopefully anybody
in any state,
whether it’s in
a state of grace,
whether it’s in a
state of problems,
discouragement,
family troubles,
sin, that they, too,
would follow his
example and turn
to the Church
and throw themselves at the feet of
Christ.”
Those at the Pauline Center for
Media Studies in Culver City
had a special moment to reflect
upon. Sister Rose Pacatte posted a
short story on Pauline.org about the
day in 2004 when Bryant visited:
“I wish I had been home that day. …
He was looking for a special rosary for
his wife, Vanessa. As the sister who was
there tells the story, the other shoppers
stopped and looked in awe as he
moved quietly
around the shop.”
The sisters recall
that the visit
came soon after
the dismissal of
his rape accusation
case in Colorado.
He and his
accuser would
later settle a civil
case out of court
that included a
public apology
from Bryant.
“Bryant eventually
purchased
two very nice
rosaries that day,”
the sister wrote.
“As he turned
to leave, a small
grandmotherly-looking
lady
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE, USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS
walked up to him and tilted her head
up, way up.
“ ‘Mr. Bryant?’
“ ‘Yes, ma’am?’ he replied as he
looked down to meet her gaze.
“ ‘I just want you to know,’ she said
solemnly, ‘I pray for you.’
“He paused a moment and said,
‘Thank you, ma’am.’ ”
Sister Nancy Usselmann, a Daughter
of St. Paul who is a director at the
Pauline Center, said stories posted on
social media during a time like this can
be beneficial on many levels.
“I think it is significant when a
celebrity such as Kobe connects deeply
to their Catholicism and what an
influence for good that can have on a
culture that often emphasizes the negative
and sensational about celebrities’
lives,” she said.
“This story and all the social media
stories that are coming forward show
a man humble enough to know that
having all the fame and fortune of this
life is never enough when it comes
to humanity’s deepest yearnings and
desires,” she added. “We long for more.
That’s how we are made. We ultimately
and unconditionally long for God,
whether we pay attention to that inner
hunger or not.
“Kobe’s expressed Catholicism makes
that clear in a world that tries to push
down that hunger, social media can be
Archbishop José H. Gomez was invited to a Lakers team practice soon
after his arrival to Los Angeles in 2011.
TODD TAMBERG/THE TIDINGS FILE PHOTO
C
C
12 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

that outlet that sends this message out
quickly.”
Sister Usselmann believes that such
a loss can help people face the fear of
death more honestly.
“It is hard to grasp the ‘why’ in such
a tragic death of a celebrity, but we believe
that in this, too, God has a plan,”
Sister Usselmann told Angelus News.
“The fact that he was at church not
long before that flight is a great consolation
that even in our mistakes of our
past, God reaches out to us, longing to
have us to himself and will take every
opportunity for us to draw close to him.
We just need to listen. Thankfully,
Kobe listened.”
Social media posts also flashed back
to interviews Bryant did over his
20-year playing career.
One was a clip of him in 2006 being
interviewed by ESPN host Stephen A.
Smith, who asked him what he had
learned from the sexual assault accusation
episode.
“God is great,” Bryant said.
“Is it that simple?” Smith pressed him. Kobe Bryant grabs a rebound during an NBA Finals game against the Boston Celtics June 17, 2010.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/ROBERT HANASHIRO, USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS
Archbishop José H. Gomez invites you to join him
Archbishop José July H. 8-13 Gomez in Mexico invites City you to join him
July 8-13 in Mexico City
Come experience one of the most beautiful of shrines with Archbishop Gomez & Monsignor Jim Halley, Vicar for Clergy
Come experience one Our of visit the most will include beautiful the of Nation shrines Museum with Archbishop of Anthropology, Gomez Excursion & Monsignor to Puebla, Jim Halley, Vicar for Clergy
Our visit Tulpetlac will include and the Coyoacan, Nation Shrine Museum of Fr. of Anthropology, Miguel Pro, Xochimilco, Excursion to Puebla,
Tulpetlac the Metropolitan and Coyoacan, Cathedral Shrine and of Our Fr. Lady Miguel of Guadalupe. Pro, Xochimilco,
Under the the direction Metropolitan of Judy Cathedral Brooks, Archbishop’s and Our Lady Office of of Guadalupe. Special Services
Under the direction of Judy Brooks, Archbishop’s Office of Special Services
Call Judy or Mary Kay Delsohn at (213) 637-7520
Pilgrimage Call Travel Judy planned or Mary by our Kay friends Delsohn at Catholic (213) Travel 637-7520 Centre, Burbank
Pilgrimage Travel planned by our friends at Catholic Travel Centre, Burbank

A poster distributed by one fan had
a photo of Kobe and Gianna Bryant
with the Scripture verse from John
11:25: “I am the resurrection and the
Life. The one who believes in me,
even if he dies, will Live.”
Lee Zeidman, president of Staples
Center, L.A. Live and Microsoft
Theater, said Bryant’s wife, Vanessa,
reached out and asked if the family
could have the items. Zeidman said
they would be catalogued and shipped
to them after they were collected
Sunday night, Feb. 2.
One fan taking in the whole event
said he couldn’t help but think of a
passage from Matthew 25.
“So, Kobe was the GOAT (Greatest
of all Time), right?” he said. “There is
that Bible verse about how some day
we will all be separated, sheeps from
goats. Sheeps go to heaven, right?
… But if Kobe was the GOAT, hey,
maybe they can make a special case
for him.”
Editor-in-Chief Pablo Kay also contributed
to this story.
TOM HOFFARTH
E
m
R
A poster left at the makeshift memorial in the
L.A. Live plaza across from Staples Center
includes the Bible verse from John 11:25.
“God is great. Don’t get no simpler
than that, bro,” he replied, pursing his
lips.
“Everybody knows that,” Smith
responded, “but the way you know
it now, did you know it before that
incident took place?”
Bryant cocked his back in something
of an assured confidence.
“You can know it all you want,” he
said, “But until you got to pick up that
cross that you can’t carry, and he picks
it up for you and carries you and the
cross, then you know.”
Appropriately, crosses were among
the most common items left at the
makeshift memorial in the L.A. Live
plaza across from Staples Center that
seemed to expand by the day, with
flowers, balloons, basketballs, stuffed
animals, illustrations, and even personal
messages scrawled on the plaza
floor tiles.
The Catholic-themed icons included
large jar candles with images of
Jesus, St. Joseph with Jesus, or the
Virgin of Guadalupe. Rosaries were
draped on Bryant family photos.
One white-beaded rosary glistened as
if it was lit up by the sunlight hitting
it.
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan played on Team Priests at last year’s inaugural vocations basketball
game wearing number 44 in honor of Lakers legend Jerry West.
A Catholic tribute from the
‘Kobe generation’
The second annual charity basketball game, hosted by the Office
of Vocations of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, featuring a team
of priests against one made up of seminarians, takes place at the
Chaminade Prep gym in Chatsworth on Friday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. Doors
open at 6 p.m. with presale tickets available.
The game takes place just five miles north of the helicopter crash site.
This event has many goals to generate awareness for those who may be
considering the priesthood or religious life. It will be streamed live at
https://lacatholics.org/catholic-hoops/.
This year it will take on added significance as many of the priests and
seminarians grew up fans of Bryant and want to honor him by wearing
his number. Organizers are planning to honor Bryant at the game.
“The world sees Kobe for his greatness as an athlete, and those closest
to him see him for his love as a husband, father, and friend,” said Father
Mike Perucho, associate director of vocations. “We the Church see him
as both, but most especially as a faithful son of God who has gone home
to the Father. ‘Requiescat in pace.’ ”
DIMA OTVERTCHENKO
In
In
o
14 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020
S
S

Enhance Enhance your your
marriage marriage with with
Relevant Relevant Radio Radio ® ® !
In a 2019 survey, 21% of listeners said their marriage
In
or someone
2019 survey,
they
21%
know
of
had
listeners
their marriage
said their
saved
marriage
or
or someone
strengthened
they
by
know
listening
had their
to Relevant
marriage
Radio.
saved or
strengthened by listening to Relevant Radio.
Source: 2019 Relevant Radio survey
Source: 2019 Relevant Radio survey
930AM 930AM
Prayer Line: 888-577-5443 • Donor/Listener Line: 877-291-0123
Studio Prayer Line: Line: 888-914-9149 888-577-5443 • www.relevantradio.com • Donor/Listener Line: • 877-291-0123
FREE mobile app!
Studio Line: 888-914-9149 • www.relevantradio.com • FREE mobile app!

Pope Francis meets with Region XI bishops from California, Hawaii, and Nevada during their "ad limina" visit to the Vatican Jan. 27.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/VATICAN MEDIA
AMONG
BROTHERS
Their weeklong 'ad
limina' visit to Rome
was a chance for
California’s bishops to
experience the ‘Francis
effect’ up-close
BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS
If the bishops of California, Nevada,
and Hawaii were hoping
their recent trip to Rome would
save the best for last, they were in for
a disappointment.
The highlight of the “ad limina ad
apostolorum” (“to the thresholds of
the apostles”) trip to the Eternal City
required of Catholic bishops every
few years (officially five, but in the
case of the U.S. bishops, it had been
seven since the last one) is typically
the audience with the successor of
Peter himself.
Since Pope Francis became pope
nearly seven years ago, pilgrim bish-
ops have described the encounter as
less formal and more freewheeling
than in the past, with prelates encouraged
to ask questions and speak their
minds.
The meeting on Monday, Jan. 27,
the first day of the tri-state Region XI
bishops’ five-day visit, was no different.
“He’s such a free man,” remarked
incoming San Bernardino Coadjutor
Bishop Alberto Rojas after the meeting.
“He answers all the questions
and he doesn’t give you just a little
answer. He gives you an answer that
quotes the Bible, quotes the Fathers
of the Church, it has personal experiences
that he has lived. That in itself
is really worth the whole trip.”
The 55-year-old Mexican native
spoke from the peculiar place of
having just made the same pilgrimage
last month as an auxiliary bishop of
the Archdiocese of Chicago, where
he has served since 2011.
On Dec. 2, Pope Francis named
him the next coadjutor bishop of San
Bernardino. But until he is officially
installed Feb. 24, his duties are split
16 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, left, incoming San Bernardino Coadjutor
Bishop Alberto Rojas, and Bishop Joseph V. Brennan of Fresno concelebrate Mass at the Basilica
of St. Paul Outside the Walls Jan. 31.
between Chicago and preparing for
his move to the Inland Empire.
The papal audience can fall on any
of the five days of the week, depending
on the pope’s calendar. In the
case of the Illinois bishops’ visit, it
came on a Thursday. And while the
December audience — held on the
fourth day of the Illinois bishops’ visit,
rather than the first — was about
two hours, 20 minutes, Bishop Rojas
noted that this one clocked in at just
over three hours, a fact that impressed
the bishops.
“I was struck by how intensely he
listened to us,” said Los Angeles
Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau. “In
his responses, I think he was also
thinking about questions that other
[U.S. bishops] groups had made to
him, so he gave us longer answers to
our questions.”
“He told us we need to be close
to four things: God, our priests, the
people, and each other [bishops],”
reported LA Auxiliary Bishop Alex
Aclan, among the newest bishops of
the Region XI group.
“I was even impressed in the very
beginning by the fact that he said
this is a conversation among brothers,”
added Bishop David O’Connell
during a group interview with four of
LA’s active auxiliaries at the Pontifical
North American College in Rome,
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, center, and bishops from Region XI pray at the Tomb of
St. Peter after concelebrating Mass in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica Jan. 27.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
where the bishops stayed. “I can’t imagine
me and him, being here. You’re
a brother of the pope!”
Other bishops said the range of
topics covered in the audience with
Pope Francis included youth ministry,
evangelization and proselytism,
political engagement, the scandal of
clerical sex abuse, the importance of
sacramental life, and even troubling
modern trends like suicide among
young people.
Archbishop José H. Gomez said
migration was also an issue that was
discussed, with the pope telling them
“how it’s important for all of us in
the church to be open and welcome
immigrants.”
The pope, he said, “gave us some
ideas on how to continue helping
people to understand the reality of
immigration,” but also spoke about
how increasing polarization on the
issue is found not only in the United
States but in many parts of the world.
“He insisted to us that it is important
to see the need for dialogue between
people and to understand that we
all are children of God,” Archbishop
Gomez told Catholic News Service.
Throughout the long conversation,
the bishops said, the 83-year-old pontiff’s
energy never seemed to flag.
“He never seemed to get tired,”
recalled LA Auxiliary Bishop Robert
Barron. “His translator got tired, we
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/STEFANO DAL POZZOLO
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 17

were kind of uncomfortable in the
chairs after a while, but he seemed
to be completely at ease the whole
time.”
The audience with Pope Francis
that morning came right after
Mass at the Tomb of St. Peter
beneath the main altar of St. Peter’s
Basilica, the first of the four customary
“ad limina” Masses celebrated at
each of Rome’s papal basilicas.
In his homily, Archbishop Gomez
told his brother bishops that the tomb
is a reminder that “the apostles were
ordinary men.”
“As men, they had the privilege to
know Jesus Christ and to be called
personally by him, just in the same
way we have been called to follow
Jesus Christ, and we thank God for
that grace today,” the archbishop
said. “We come here to Peter, to be
strengthened, to be supported, to
renew our identity as apostles, as
bishops and priests.”
The literal purpose of the “ad
limina” visits is to pray at the tombs
of Sts. Peter and Paul, the pillars of
the Church of Rome. The Region XI
bishops agreed the Masses celebrated
at St. Peter’s and the Basilica of St.
Paul Outside the Walls were the most
moving and memorable for them.
“People keep talking about us here
as the successors of the apostles,
which is first of all pretty daunting,”
Bishop O’Connell reflected. “But
when you trace it back, Peter was so
human in many ways. We can believe
that the Scriptures are authentic
because they don’t give an idealized
picture of Peter. Filled with flaws, impetuous,
his anger, his cowardice, and
so you kind of get connected back to
very human figures.”
Auxiliary Bishop Tim Freyer of the
Diocese of Orange called the visits “a
great consolation.”
“It’s still hard for me to imagine that
God has chosen me,” Bishop Freyer
said. “A couple of us bishops were
talking that what gives us comfort
and consolation is when you read the
Gospels and realize that these men,
when they were first called, weren’t
saints either.
“That they had their disagreements,
and their struggles, and their challenges.
And God in his mercy has
chosen them so that his glory can be
manifested.”
After St. Peter’s on Monday, the
bishops celebrated morning Masses
at the Basilica of St. John Lateran
on Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Basilica of
St. Mary Major on Thursday, and
finally at St. Paul Outside the Walls
on Friday.
Bishops from California, Hawaii, and Nevada gather for a group photo at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome Jan. 28.
ANTHONY JOHNSON
18 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

+PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT,
HOLY LAND & JORDAN
JUNE 15-28, 2020
Chaplain: Fr. Raphael Ddamba
Price
Double Occupancy $3,999
+PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA,
SHRINES OF SPAIN, LOURDES,
PADRE PIO, ROME
OCTOBER 10-23, 2020
Chaplain: Fr. Rubén Ruiz
ANTHONY JOHNSON
Archbishop José H. Gomez shares a laugh after Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major with Father
Bao Nguyen (left) and Father Jonathon Meyer (right), two priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles
currently studying in Rome.
“For some reason, it grabbed me, to
kneel there by the Tomb of St. Paul,”
said Bishop Barron. “The meetings
were fine, but I found that very powerful
and very rich, spiritually.”
Less exciting, Bishop Barron and
his brothers agreed, were the
visits to the different congregations
and offices of the Roman Curia,
intended to keep diocesan bishops
and Vatican officials updated on one
another’s efforts.
Like the audience with the Holy
Father, the style of those meetings has
also changed.
“You talk to the old-timers, the ones
who’ve been through a number of
these ‘ad liminas,’ and they often felt
like they were just being lectured to at
these meetings,” said Bishop Barron.
“And we never felt that way.”
Bishop Barron described all of the
meetings as “very positive” and recalled
that the curial officials seemed
interested in hearing from the West
Coast bishops.
As a bishop for less than a year,
Bishop Aclan said he was struck by
the challenge the Holy See must face
in trying to keep track of everything
happening in the universal Church.
“We have enough trouble in LA, and
that’s a small, small part of the United
States!”
Bishops Trudeau and Barron said
they were perhaps most “energized”
by their meeting with officials at the
Pontifical Council for Promoting
New Evangelization.
“I found there was a real respect on
their part for what we’re doing,” said
Bishop Trudeau. “And a willingness
and promise that they want to work
with us for the betterment of the
Church, for the advancement of the
Gospel.”
As they prepared to head back to
Southern California, the bishops said
they were also grateful for the time
spent together not only in meetings,
but at Mass, in the bus, and in the
dining room.
“It just cemented the bonds that
we are supposed to have,” explained
Bishop Aclan, who said that bishops
he met for the first time on the trip
made him feel like he’d known them
for years.
“I think when you travel with somebody,
you notice the fraternity when
you’re on a pilgrimage,” said Bishop
Trudeau. “This really was a pilgrimage.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus. Additional reporting courtesy
of Catholic News Service.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
Price
Double Occupancy $3,799
Price includes: Round Trip Airfare from LAX,
Hotel Accommodations, Breakfast & Dinner,
Entrance Fees, Tour Escorts, Transfers
& Sightseeing in Private Motor Coach.
CONTACT TOUR HOST:
Estrella & Angel Mijares
ADRIATIC PILGRIMAGES
Phone: (562) 972-5675
Email: angelstar73@earthlink.net
03012020_HolyNameOfMary_Pilgrimage_Angelus_2x4-9.indd 1/23/20 5:381
PM
ADVERTISE
HERE
ANGELUS
Target those who share
your faith and values to
build a loyal customer base.
Contact Jim Garcia at
213.637.7590 or
jagarcia@angelusnews.com
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 19

The call
of ‘Good
Father Gus’
Play about first
African American
priest Augustus Tolton
comes to LA
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS
James Coleman as Father Augustus Tolton in “Tolton: From Slave to Priest.”
SAINT LUKE PRODUCTIONS
Leonardo Defilippis, the president
and founder of Saint
Luke Productions in the state
of Washington, remembers when
he had a chance a few years ago to
approach Archbishop José H. Gomez
to discuss a play he had recently
completed and had been touring.
“Tolton: From Slave to Priest”
chronicles the life and times of
Father Augustus Tolton, born into
slavery in 1854 before becoming the
first African American Roman Catholic
priest. Since Defilippis wrote and
directed it, it has been presented
more than 100 times since it debuted
in 2017.
“When I told him about this, he
looked at me and said, ‘I love Father
Tolton,’ ” Defilippis said of Gomez.
“That really touched me. I’ve been
wanting to bring this to Los Angeles
ever since. Finally, that door is
opened. It’s very exciting.”
During the heart of Black History
Month, and less than a year after
Father Tolton was venerated by a
Pope Francis decree to move forward
in the process of sainthood, this
one-man, multimedia presentation
channeled through actor James Coleman
has at least four public shows set
this month.
Performances have been scheduled
at St. Martin of Tours Church in
Brentwood (Feb. 10), St. Andrews
Church in Pasadena (Feb. 12), American
Martyrs Church in Manhattan
Beach (Feb. 13) and St. Monica
Church in Santa Monica (Feb. 15),
plus a private show at St. John’s
Seminary in Camarillo was added for
Feb. 18. More public shows may be
forthcoming.
Anderson Shaw, director of the African
American Catholic Center for
Evangelization (AACCE), became
an important driver in helping Defilippis’
efforts to put together an LA
run of shows with parishes and facilities
that had the space and financial
resources to make it happen.
Shaw, a recipient of the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’ Cardinal Award from
Archbishop Gomez in 2018, said
he first caught a flavor for the play
during a presentation at the National
Black Catholic Congress about
a year ago. He had been asked by
Archbishop Gomez to participate on
a team developing a pastoral plan for
the African American community in
the United States.
“I knew the archbishop admired
him and was taken by the adversity
he overcame,” said Shaw, whose
AACCE group is also sponsoring
the 15th annual Black History Mass
at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels Feb. 15 at 5 p.m.
“For me, Black History Month is
always a time that emphasizes encouragement.
We need to put things
out there for folks that are positive in
a time when so many negative things
may be flying around. That’s where
I come from. This isn’t about black,
brown, yellow, green, or whatever.
It’s about how we show the face of
Jesus in those we encounter. There
are so many ways to show them God
is here for you as well.”
In August 2006, a rather unassuming
255-page book written by Sister
20 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

Caroline Hemsath for Ignatius Press
titled “From Slave to Priest: A Biography
of the Reverend Augustine Tolton
(1854-1897): First Black American
Priest of the United States,” was
for many the first real knowledge of
what Tolton endured.
St. Katharine Drexel, the second
American-born saint canonized by
the Catholic Church, was one of
those interviewed by Hemsath before
her 1955 death to talk about her
interactions with Father Tolton.
The book begins with the telling of
the story of someone born in Brush
Creek, Missouri, with a baptismal
record that simply reads: “A colored
child born April 1, 1854, son of Peter
Tolton and Martha Chisley, property
of Stephen Elliott.”
After his father went to fight for the
Union Army and was presumed dead
in the Civil War, his mother took her
three children and crossed the Mississippi
River about 100 miles north
of St. Louis, on a boat with just one
oar, dodging Confederate bullets.
They escaped to Quincy, Illinois, a
free state.
Baptized Catholic, which was the
Faith of his family’s owners, and also
raised in the Faith, Tolton would be
convinced that God was calling him
to be a priest. But already cast out of
a Catholic school because of racial
prejudice, and unable to find a U.S.
seminary that would admit him, he
went to Rome, where in Italy, a man
of his color was far more accepted.
Ordained at age 31 on April 24,
1886, at the Basilica of St. John
Lateran, his intentions of going to
Africa as a missionary were changed;
he would return to Illinois to become
a parish priest.
Hemsath’s book tells about a
conversation Father Tolton had with
another cleric shortly before departing,
in which he wondered whether
America deserved being called by
many the world’s most enlightened
nation.
“If America has not yet seen a black
priest,” Tolton said, “it must see one
now.”
The news of his charismatic
sermons raised jealousy with other
Catholic priests as well as Protestant
black ministers who thought he was
stealing congregants.
Transferred to the other side of
the state in Chicago, Father Tolton,
known as “Good Father Gus,” established
a parish that met in the basement
of the Old St. Mary’s Church,
while he built St. Monica Church,
named for the African mother of St.
Augustine.
If one cares to make the analogy
that Father Tolton was something of
a Jackie Robinson of his profession,
it may be fitting to note that Father
Tolton became a priest almost exactly
50 years before Robinson broke the
Major League Baseball color barrier
in 1947.
At age 43, Father Tolton died on
July 9, 1897, after years of exhaustive
travel across the country to evangelize.
He is buried in Quincy, Illinois,
and Catholic leaders in the area are
trying to establish a shrine to Father
Tolton at the now-closed Quincy
church.
The Diocese of
Springfield, Illinois,
where Father Tolton
ministered to the
poor at the time of
his death, had been
trying to work on
his canonization
since 2003.
It wasn’t until
2010 when Chicago-based
Cardinal
Francis E. George
began a four-year
process to nominate
Father Tolton for
sainthood. After
Cardinal George’s
passing, African
American Bishop
Joseph N. Perry,
also of Chicago, was
named postulator
for Father Tolton’s
case of canonization.
“The broader
African American
community relishes
the stories of people
who got through
enormous odds and
did it in a Christian
way,” Bishop Perry
SAINT LUKE PRODUCTIONS
Father Augustus Tolton
said in 2014.
Then again, it was not until June
2019, when Pope Francis designated
Father Tolton as venerable for his
“heroic virtue,” putting him two steps
away from possible canonization.
The education that an intimate
play such as “Tolton: From Slave to
Priest” can help in bringing more
awareness of the canonization process
isn’t lost on Defilippis.
“In exposing this story for the first
time to so many people, it’s profound
to think we can help the movement,”
said Defilippis, who worked both
with Cardinal George and Bishop
Perry in extracting historic research
about Father Tolton’s life.
Defilippis, whose current touring
dramas for Saint Luke Productions
have focused on St. John Vianney,
St. Faustina, St. Maximilian, and
St. Augustine, said years ago he had
been given a copy of the Hemsath
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 21

185
SAINT LUKE PRODUCTIONS
James Coleman as Father Augustus Tolton in “Tolton: From Slave to Priest.”
SEEK TRUTH. SERVE SERVE OTHERS. OTHERS.
www.fsha.org
440 St. St. Katherine Drive Drive
La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011CA 91011
• •
626-685-8500
book from a parish priest in the
Diocese of Springfield, and it has
been on a shelf in his office. When
contemplating his next project,
Defilippis said he noticed the gaze of
Father Tolton’s eyes off the cover of
Hemsath’s book.
“I said to myself, ‘I think I’m being
called to do him,’ ” said Defilippis.
“I didn’t know anything about him
either at that time. The look in his
eyes gave me a whole new energy to
expose someone who, to many, is still
totally unknown.”
Coleman, a 58-year-old Florida-based
actor known for his commercial
work as well as a recurring
role of Roger Parker on the Nickel-
Flintridge Sacred Heart Heart Academy, Academy, odeon show “My Brother and Me,”
grew up Baptist in an all-black section
of Dallas, the son of a minister,
a Catholic, Dominican, Dominican,
who knew little to nothing about the
independent, college-preparatory,
Catholic religion growing up.
He simply calls playing Father Tol-
day and and boarding school, school, ton life-changing.
“Having been in this business some
educates young young women women 30 years, I’ve never been moved or
touched in the way I have with this
for for a life a of life of performance,” said Coleman, who
started performing this role in Janu-
faith, integrity and truth. and truth.
ary 2018.
“I pray to Father Tolton and ask
him to intervene, to come and speak
through me. The first time, I had no
expectations of it actually happening.
But it has. He speaks through me and
I’m overwhelmed by the emotions.
“It has nothing so much to do with
the words of the play, it has to do
with him telling his story and painting
a picture and bringing people in
22 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020
to see his life. I feel I’m just a vessel
for that. I truly feel his presence. I’m
no longer there.”
Coleman said Father Tolton has
taught him that “we are truly all one
and we have to celebrate our divine
likeness because we are all one in
Christ. As a black man in America,
this story still resonates with me. We
think about the progression over the
years, but in reality, they may have
integrated schools in the 1860s, but
it still took the Brown v. Board of Education
law in 1954 to become a law.
And it feels today we’re living almost
in the same times. This separation of
the country today, I feel it.
“Doing this as a play, I feel people
are engaged immediately and the
story touches their heart so much
more than a movie or television
show. Once you see this, and live
his life and walk that path with him,
hear the hate and discord thrown at
him and yet see him maintain a spirit
of peace and harmony, it’s just being
there, you are part of it.
“I have seen so many tears. At
seminaries, some students say they
may have been at the verge of giving
up but saw the show and know this is
a path they must take. When I think
about it, I think of him taking a path
when there was no path and he created
a path and his legacy continues to
create a path for so many.
“I feel blessed and humbled to be a
part of this play.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
I
Matt
Ob
10
He
Stra
Ob
LAX

1854
April 1, 1854
Born to Martha and
Peter Tolton, in Brush
Creek, Missouri
1861-
1865
About 1862
Escape to freedom
in Quincy, Illinois
1878 Enrolled in St.
Francis College, now
Quincy University
April 24, 1886
Ordination at St. John
Lateran Basilica, Rome
April 25, 1886 First
Mass at St. Peter’s
Basilica, Rome
July 18, 1886 First
Mass in Quincy, Illinois
at St. Boniface Church
Jan. 14, 1894
Dedication of
St. Monica Church
in Chicago
Feb. 24, 2011
Cause for sainthood
opened under Cardinal
Francis George of the
Archdiocese of Chicago
1862 1870 1878 1880 1886 1889 1894 1897 2011 2012
1861-1865
Civil War
1870 (age 16)
Confirmation and First
Communion at St. Peter
Church, Quincy, Illinois
Feb. 15, 1880
Departure for
seminary in Rome
Dec. 19, 1889
July 9, 1897
Began ministry Died at Mercy Hospital
in Chicago in Chicago from heat
stroke, age 43; interred
July 13, 1897, Quincy,
Springfield Diocese
cemetery, per his request
Feb. 13, 2012
Declared Servant
of God
Canonization prayer for Father Tolton
O
God, we give you thanks for
your servant and priest, Father
Augustus Tolton, who labored
among us in times of contradiction, times
that were both beautiful and paradoxical.
His ministry helped lay the foundation
for a truly Catholic gathering in faith in
our time. We stand in the shadow of his
ministry. May his life continue to inspire
us and imbue us with that confidence
and hope that will forge a new
evangelization for the Church we love.
Father in heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering
service sheds light upon our sorrows;
we see them through the prism of your
Son’s passion and death. If it be your will,
O God, glorify your servant, Father Tolton,
by granting the favor I now request
through his intercession (mention your request),
so that all may know the goodness
of this priest whose memory looms large
in the Church he loved.
Complete what you have begun in us
that we might work for the fulfillment of
your kingdom. Not to us the glory, but
glory to you, O God, through Jesus Christ
your Son and our Lord; Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, you are our God, living and
reigning forever and ever. Amen.
© 2010 Bishop Joseph N. Perry
Increase your Faith Journey Through Pilgrimage
Holy Land Pilgrimage w/ Petra, Jordan
12 days May 20 - 31, 2020 ~ Fr. John Vianney
Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Cana, Capernaum, Via Dolorosa
Dead Sea, Masada. And including Red-Rose city of Petra, Jordan
LAX air, 4* hotels, meals, sightseeing, Daily Mass
Oberammergau Passion Play
July 20 - Aug 2, 2020 ~ Limited Seating, Call Today!
Italian Lake Como, Bellagio - Milan (Last Supper), Italy; Lugano & Zermatt, Switzerland (Matterhorn);
Magnificent Scenery in the Italian, Austrian, Swiss and Bavarian Alps (land tour)
Matterhorn, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Salzburg, Austria & Munich, Germany LAX air, 4* hotels, meals - Fr Larry Sanders
Oberammergau Passion Play (every 10 yrs)
10 days Sept. 17 - 26, 2020 ~ Fr Jim Gehl
Heidelberg & Black Forest, Germany; (land tour)
Strasbourg, France; Innsbruck and Salzburg, Austria;
Oberammergau, Germany ~ Oktoberfest, Munich.
LAX, 4* hotels, meals- Reserve Oberammergau Today!!
15 day Grand European - Viking River Cruise
Budapest to Amsterdam ~ Oct 23, 2020
Hungary, Germany, Austria & Netherlands
Includes 12 Tours, wine, beer, soda w/ meals
Air promo from most major cities (subj chg)
Sail the Danube, Rhine & Main Rivers.
Several other dates available. Call Us Today!
Planning Spiritual Journeys since 1979.
Visit Our Website: www.AdorationTours.com cst# 2045478-40
While Religious Tours is our specialty, do you know we also offer many other CRUISE and TOUR SPECIALS!!
Adoration Tours (818) 368-6545 or Toll Free (800) 580-7040

Schools of the so
National Catholic Schools
Week was celebrated Jan. 26
to Feb. 1 in classrooms and
on campuses around the country.
In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,
more than 73,000 students, from
transitional kindergarten (TK) to
12th grade, in 266 schools across the
tri-county archdiocese (Los Angeles,
Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties)
marked the annual event with special
Masses as well as open houses highlighting
unique programs, offerings,
and special events.
Students at St. Catherine of Siena School in Reseda show off the blankets
they made for the homeless.
Every year, St. Bernard School principal Aaron
De Loera kicks off open house with a daring
challenge.
Students at St. Turibius School, a STEM Network school in Downtown Los Angeles, hosted a schoolwide service
project, making hundreds of sack lunches to distribute to the homeless and needy in their communities.
24 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

e soul
At Holy Spirit STEM
Academy, first- and
second-grade students
learned about the Laws
of Motions and Simple
Machines by creating
their own roller coasters.
They showed off
their creations at the
school’s open house
on Sat., Feb. 1.
On Community Day, a St. Joseph the Worker School parent and a California Highway Patrol officer stopped by the school to
talk about safety with TK-8 students and faculty.
olwide sermmunities.
St. Joseph the Worker School student Knights of the Altar with the school’s pastor, Father Alberto “Beto” Villanueva.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 25

Pope Francis attends the final session of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region at the Vatican Oct. 26, 2019.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
All eyes on Rome
A look at the three Vatican documents expected
to shake up the global Church this year
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
ROME — While there haven’t
been many slow periods for
Catholic news junkies since the
beginning of Pope Francis’ pontificate
in 2013, the release of three major
documents expected in the first half of
2020 suggests that this year, the Vatican
news cycle is getting ready to kick into
an even higher gear.
While very different in nature, the
documents all reflect Pope Francis’
desire to reform the Church in three
key areas: the Church’s missionary outreach,
its response to the clerical abuse
crisis, and the reform of its central
bureaucracy in the Vatican, the Roman
Curia.
The title is still to be determined,
but first up should be Pope Francis’
post-synodal apostolic exhortation
on the Amazon region. It will be the
pope’s own written conclusion to a process
centered on the three-week meeting
of bishops in Rome last October.
As had been the case during the
2014/2015 Synods of Bishops on the
Family, much of the discussion, both
inside and outside the synod hall,
turned around “hot-button issues.”
Then, it was access to the sacraments
by divorced and civilly remarried
Catholics. Last fall, it was the question
of ordaining “married men of proven
virtue” into the priesthood and the possibility
of ordaining female deacons.
Though the publication date for the
document remains unknown — possibly
as soon as this month — sources
say it has already been signed by Pope
Francis, who had originally expressed
hopes of being able to finish it before
the end of 2019.
Trying to guess who “won” each
debate is a fool’s errand at this point,
not to mention a direct challenge to
the pope. In his final, and off-the-cuff,
remarks during the Oct. 6-27 Synod of
Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region,
Pope Francis called on Catholics not to
be bogged down by “intraecclesiastical”
debates.
26 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
There are some “elite” Catholics,
he said, who will focus on the “little
things,” failing to see the forest for the
trees, focusing on “disciplinary things”
that though important, are not at the
core of the synod.
Instead, he urged Catholics to focus
on the four diagnoses the synod made:
cultural, social, pastoral and ecological.
Pope Francis was also openly critical
of the synod’s final document, which is
a series of suggestions made by participants
to the pope, saying that it “falls
short” when it comes to the role of
women in the transmission of the faith.
“We haven’t yet comprehended what
women mean for the Church and
we stay on the functional side,” he
said, in terms of their merits to be on
commissions and other positions in the
Church.
“The role of women in the Church
goes much further than functionality,”
he said.
The second highly anticipated document
is the “McCarrick report,” a dossier
expected to draw on documentation
from the Holy See of former American
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s rise
through the ranks of the Catholic hierarchy
and its internal response to abuse
accusations dating back multiple decades.
The report is not being prepared
by Pope Francis, but at his request by
several Vatican offices.
Considered a key player both in the
U.S. and global Church, the disgraced
man was removed from the priesthood
last year after being found guilty of,
among other crimes, sexually abusing
minors.
During their recent “ad limina” pilgrimages
to Rome (from the Latin “ad
limina apostolorum,” which means “to
the threshold of the apostles”), several
U.S. bishops who met with the pope
and other Vatican officials brought
up the report, and acknowledged the
importance of publishing it and doing
so in full.
Presenting a “summary” of the
findings would most likely backfire on
the Holy See, as too many people were
involved in collecting evidence, and a
leak would occur sooner or later.
Expected to be a bombshell since several
heavy hitters, including Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, the secretary of state
under St. Pope John Paul II, and the
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 27
late pope’s personal secretary, Polish
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who have
long been accused of covering up for
McCarrick, the report will either be a
turning point in how the Church deals
with the abuse crisis or a black mark on
this pontificate.
The result will depend on the extent
of the information released and what is
done with those found guilty of protecting
McCarrick as he went up the ranks.
Expected to be the last of these
documents to be released, but not the
least important, is the Vatican’s new
constitution, which was written by the
council of cardinals that has advised
the pope since the beginning of the
pontificate, including Boston Archbishop
Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
Titled “Praedicate Evangelium,”
meaning “Preach the Gospel,” the draft
of the constitution, which replaces the
one approved by Pope John Paul in
1988, was finalized last year, and sent
to all the national bishops’ conferences
for feedback.
The consultation took longer than
expected, and thousands of suggestions
A Powerhouse Law Firm with Over 35 Years of Experience
Thon Beck Vanni Callahan & Powell
We are a premier personal injury and wrongful death firm committed
to the highest quality of vigorous legal representation of our clients
while maintaining an unparalleled reputation for honesty, integrity
and accessibility.
- WE WIN - No Recovery, No Fee
626.795.8333
1100 E. Green St., Pasadena
California
were made leading to the delay in its
publication.
The council of cardinals is meeting
later in February, and they are expected
to give a final green light to the document
then.
In scattered interviews throughout
2019, some of the members of the C6
(Council of Cardinals) have hinted at
its content, with two elements being
particularly newsworthy: the creation of
a “mega dicastery” for evangelization,
which would take a place of primacy
even over the historic Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith; and a Roman
Curia that is more at the service of the
local churches.
The impact of these three documents
remains to be seen, but the buzz they
are generating even with “to be determined”
titles is not without merit: All
three could leave a permanent imprint
on the reform that began when the
College of Cardinals elected an Argentine
as pope.
Inés San Martín is Rome Bureau chief
for Crux.
Hablamos Espanol.
Please call for a free consultation
in our office or your home.

AD REM
BY ROBERT BRENNAN
A new year for baseball
Logo of the Los
Angeles Dodgers
on the wall of the
Dodger Stadium.
SHUTTERSTOCK
The late and equally parts funny
and offensive comedian George
Carlin had a great routine
about the difference between baseball
and football. I can do it no justice
trying to recreate his pitch, timing,
and verbal brilliance by trying to recall
it in its totality. But it is worth looking
up. It is comic brilliance and a joy to
watch him draw a line of demarcation
between the two sports.
To Carlin, in a very stern, authoritative
voice, “Football was played on
a rigidly laid out gridiron where the
objective was to penetrate your opponent’s
territory and score with offensive
might.” Then he would counter
in his hippy, peace-love-and-understanding
voice that “baseball was
played in a park and the objective was
to go home.”
He further mused how football
was mercilessly timed at 15-minute
integrals and included phrases like
“sudden death,” but baseball had no
time limit. “We don’t know when it’s
going to end!” Carlin would exclaim
with glee. I think I’ve been to a few of
those Dodgers games when it felt like
it was never going to end.
​Carlin was more right than he knew
that baseball reflects more about real
life than other sports. That point rings
uncomfortably true with the exposé of
the Houston Astros and their cheating
their way to a World Series championship.
Point of order: I do not think for a
moment the Dodgers deserve the title.
They didn’t win. But if I were the king
of the commissioners, I would certainly
advocate the vacating of the Astros’
championship status, but I might be
biased.
​Baseball does not have a monopoly
on cheating (see: New England
Patriots), but cheating in baseball has
a much longer and ingrained history.
Cheating is part of baseball lore,
unlike any other sport.
The 1951 Giants (not that I’m bitter
over something that took place well
before I was born) apparently cheated
the Dodgers (I see a pattern here)
when they placed a spy, in the literal
sense, in the outfield armed with a
telescope and a rotary phone.
Sounds quaint by today’s standards,
but it was state-of-the-art technology
the Giants employed to steal the
Dodgers’ pitching signs and relay
them to their dugout.
In 1961, Detroit Tigers player Norm
Cash batted 361 with 41 home runs
and drove in 132 runs. And he did it
with a corked bat. How do we know
this? Norm Cash admitted it. “I owe
my success to expansion pitching, a
short right-field fence, and my hollow
bat.”
Cash was worried he would be
found out and stopped using his hollowed-out
bat the following year. His
batting average dropped 118 points.
Many Houston Astros had similar
28 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

fluctuations in their batting averages
during their 2017 post-season baseball
games.
Two examples are particularly noteworthy.
In nine post-season games in
2017, Astro Jose Altuve hit 143 on the
road and a whopping 472 at home.
His teammate Alex Bregman, in the
same set of games, took a road batting
average of 211 and bumped it up
almost 120 points at home. Remember,
I am not bitter, but the cheating
evidence against this team is pretty
much open and shut.
Cheating is about cutting corners,
and we all want to cut corners sometimes.
God encountered this human
penchant with a certain couple in the
Garden of Eden. There is a reason
God felt compelled to have specific
proscriptions against such things
carved in stone.
Not sure if what the Astros did was
a mortal sin or not. That’s up to
either the Catechism of the Catholic
Church or the Baseball Almanac
of 2017 to determine. But if Carlin
hadn’t jettisoned his Catholic faith
with such gusto (God bless him), he
might have seen another corollary
with baseball.
It always begins in the spring, hovering
nonregimentally around the
Easter season. And what is that other
than the ultimate “next year” finally
coming to pass for us all. Every new
baseball season is another rebirth and
our teams are given talents and abilities.
How they use them to get to the
final objective is up to them.
And how they react to challenges,
like slumps, injuries, and the occasional
snakes in the grass, determines
their ultimate outcomes, kind of like
life.
So, as we look at the calendar and
see that pitchers and catchers will be
showing up in Arizona for the Cactus
League in just a few weeks, we can
hope the Dodgers make it to baseball’s
promised land, while at the same time
check our calendars and see that the
Easter season approaches as well and
“next year” is already here.
Robert Brennan is director of communications
at The Salvation Army
California South Division in Van
Nuys, California.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 29
LITURGICAL APOSTOLATE CENTER
Visit our Catholic Gift Shop...Free Parking!
Sisters Disciples of the Divine Master
501 N. Beaudry Ave Los Angeles, CA.90012
Tel: 213-250-7962 | Email: 90012lacla@gmail.com
Discover how students are inspired to love, learn, and lead
through our Catholic and Marianist traditions of a living
faith, academic excellence, and moral responsibility.
CALL TODAY TO SCHEDULE A
CAMPUS TOUR
MIDDLE SCHOOL
818.363.8127
HIGH SCHOOL
818.347.8300
Accepting applications as space becomes available.
chaminade.org
A WCEA/WASC accredited school.
Supplies to make
your liturgy beautiful.
Vestments, Sacred Vessels
and Religious Articles
Chapel is open to Public
during Center Hours.
Conference Facilities Available for:
Meetings Day Retreats
Prayer Service
Hours: Monday-Friday: 9am - 4:45pm — Saturday: 9am - 4pm
Angelus AD Jan 2020.indd 1
1/31/2020 4:38:44 PM

The burden of faith
Historical drama about
former KKK member
shows the power of
love over hate
BY SOPHIA MARTINSON / ANGELUS
A scene from the film "Burden."
IMDB
It’s a scar on our nation’s history,
a painful memory that makes
audiences everywhere wince: the
Ku Klux Klan. Even more painful is
the thought that this memory is not
just a relic of the distant past.
We might remember it as a spooky
story from the post-Civil War era or
as an unsettling yet faded photograph
from the Civil Rights era. But as
recent as the late 1990s, the KKK
was alive and active in a small South
Carolina town.
This is the story that Andrew Heckler’s
“Burden” splashes on screen.
In a gripping drama based on a true
story, “Burden” compels audiences to
grapple with a notoriously unsettling
piece of history and consider the web
of human flaws that make up racial
discrimination.
The film won the Sundance Film
Festival’s Audience Award for best
U.S. dramatic film in 2018, and it’s
no surprise: It sends a powerful message
that can resonate with audiences
on both a societal and personal level.
The story focuses on Michael Bur-
den (Garrett Hedlund), a committed
Klansman who falls in love with a
woman who stirs in him a change of
heart.
The opening scene presents Burden
and friends smashing walls and clearing
space in an abandoned movie
theater, which they then convert into
a museum celebrating the KKK. In
response, the local African American
minister, the Rev. Kennedy (Forest
Whitaker), calls his congregation
to prayer and peaceful protest. But
tensions rise as the groups — and
particularly as Burden and the reverend
— interact.
Through its variety of intriguing
and multilayered characters, “Burden”
deftly avoids descending into
a politically charged statement or a
simplistic “us versus them” narrative.
Instead, it exposes the ugliness of
blind hatred while also revealing the
complexities and struggles of people
on all sides of the issue.
One key strategy Heckler employs
is to highlight various characters’ relationship
with faith, which encompasses
their search for belonging and
purpose. In each of their experiences,
the message is clear: True faith, the
kind that brings peace and fulfillment,
is anything but easy.
Early on, the film presents the
warped faith that the KKK members
hold on to. Through a slew of intense
and disturbing scenes, Heckler
thrusts the viewer into the world and
mindset of white supremacy. The
Klan members gather around a cross
and invoke God as they set it on fire,
proclaiming themselves to be a chosen
race called to protect the purity
of their people and nation.
Heckler is careful to intertwine
moments of the group’s camaraderie.
For instance, Klan leader Tom
Griffin (Tom Wilkinson) often speaks
of Burden as his son, alongside the
bitterness, indecency, and violence
they inflict on black people.
This combination emphasizes that
the KKK members’ sense of faith
and companionship is rooted in
fear, insecurity, and ignorance. The
nuanced portrayal also helps hint at
30 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

how Burden’s fierce loyalty to the
Klan might have crystallized, and
how leaving it required an upheaval
in the course of his life.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Kennedy
preaches a gospel of love from his
pulpit. But notably, he and his family
soon find that loving one’s enemies
becomes much more difficult when
it becomes personal.
When the reverend finds Burden,
his girlfriend Judy, and her son
Franklin homeless and desperate, he
must decide whether to believe their
story that Burden has left the Klan
and now faces ruin as a result. And
when the Rev. Kennedy decides to
bring them home, his family must
face the challenge of welcoming as
a guest a man who has beaten and
mocked their friends.
The natural hesitation, fear, and
even anger the reverend and his
family members release at various
moments in the film shape them
into profound characters with real
human struggles, which is far more
compelling than a cast of simple,
easily saintlike churchgoers would
be. Those emotions also make their
decision to act with charity all the
more powerful.
While Burden is the main focus
of the film, he is not the only one
who experiences conversion. Both
he and the reverend, as well as their
families, rediscover and deepen their
faith throughout the film. In every
circumstance, the primary vehicle
Tom Wilkinson and Forest Whitaker in "Burden."
for this kind of transformation is a
loving human relationship.
Neither the characters nor their
circumstances are perfect, as their
mistakes and problems readily show.
Burden has a quick temper. Judy is a
single mother, and her son’s father is
never spoken of. The Rev. Kennedy
wrestles with doubt and fear, while
some in his congregation want to
respond to the KKK with violence.
These struggles make the characters’
faith journeys raw and realistic;
they make the extreme circumstances
of their lives ones that can speak to
viewers’ daily, ordinary struggles.
What’s more, the characters’ many
stumbles along the way also make the
persistence of loving relationships
stand out as a signal of hope. They
reaffirm the message that although
faith is difficult, it leaves no one
beyond redemption.
“Burden” is a powerful story of how
faith can change hearts, but only
alongside an unwavering spirit of
prayer, compassion, and hope in the
goodness of people.
It challenges viewers to love their
enemies not just in an abstract way
but concretely, every day, with their
next-door neighbor. This makes the
movie hard to watch, but important
to see.
“Burden” is scheduled for widespread
release Feb. 28.
Sophia Martinson is a writer living
in New York City.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 31
IMDB
We invite you to join us in our
Spiritual Journey of 2020.
Experience a life changing journey.
TRAVEL NOW, PAY LATER.
April 23-May 3, 2020:
The Holy Land and Jordan
June 5-16, 2020:
Oberammergau , Germany-Vienna, Austria-Prague,
Czech Republic-Zagreb, Coratia-Medjugorji, Bosnia
June 23-July 4, 2020:
Oberammergau, Swangua, Germany-Zurich,
Switzerland-Salzburg, Austria-Prague,
Czech Republic-Krakow-Warsaw, Poland
Sep 5-16, 2020:
Oberammergau, Germany-Zurich, Switzerland-
Salzburg, Austria-Prague,
Czech Republic-Krakow-Warsaw, Poland
Sep 20-Oct 2, 2020:
Lisbon-Fatima, Portugal - Our Lady of
Penafrancia-Salamanca, Spain-Lourdes-Nevers,
France-Geneva, Switzerland-Milan-Rome-Santa Rita,
Cascia- Padre Pio, San Giovanni Retondo &
Monte Sant’Angelo
Nov 5-15, 2020:
The Holy Land & Jordan
Dec 5-10, 2020:
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico
Please call/text for information
and details:1-323-875-8818
or email ruby@kri8tours.com
051219_Kri8_Tours_Angelus__01-10-20_Rect_2x4-9_bw.indd 12/20/19 10:441
AM
Come & Join Our Divine
Mercy Lenten Retreat!
Theme
“Divine Mercy & The Family
in this Challenging Time”
March 14, 2020
Saturday, 9am to 4pm
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Cavanagh Hall
344 W. Workman St.
Covina, CA 91723
Registration Starts at 8am
Featured Speakers
FR. Robert Spitzer, SJ, PH. D
FR. Ed Broom, OMV
FR. Lou Cerulli
Donna Lee
Contact
Estrella Mijares - (562) 972.5675
angelstar73@earthlink.net
Ruby Gonzales (626) 482.1284
Lourdes Garrison - (714) 585.9579
Pre-registration Fee of $25 must be received by
February 29, 2020. Check payable to Holy Name of
Mary, and mail to Divine Mercy Ministry,
321 Vallejo St., La Habra, CA 90631. On-site registration
is $35, if available. Lunch included but
NO special diet. Seats are limited, REGISTER EARLY!!

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
Seeking shadows
Pasadena’s Japanese
Garden is an
invitation to rest
Located at 270 Arlington Dr. in
Pasadena and comprising two
acres, the Storrier Stearns Japanese
Garden is a hidden LA treasure.
The pond-style stroll garden was
created in the 1930s by Japanese immigrant
Kinzuchi Fujii for his patrons
Charles and Ellamae Storrier Stearns.
After their deaths, most of the property
was sold off, Caltrans seized part of
it by eminent domain in the 1970s,
and by 1985, when Jim Haddad and
his wife, Connie, inherited it, the
remainder was in severe decline.
Their concerted efforts, along with
the heroic contribution of Takeo Uesigi,
one of the country’s leading experts
on Japanese garden design, led to the
garden’s restoration.
In 2005, the Storrier Stearns was
listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. It claims the distinction
of being the only intact example of a
major Japanese-style garden created
before World War II for a residence in
Southern California.
This is not the place if you’re looking
for vivid and splashy. The garden,
like most things Japanese, is subtle:
a single pink azalea bloom against a
background of moss tones; the flash of
an orange koi fish gliding through the
soft green-gray pond water. Patience,
quiet observation, and attention to
A view of the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden in Pasadena.
detail yield results.
In fact, before going, you might want
to read “In Praise of Shadows,” the
1933 classic essay on Japanese aesthetics
by Japanese author and novelist
Jun’ichirō Tanizaki:
“[W]e Orientals tend to seek our
satisfactions in whatever surroundings
we happen to find ourselves … and
so darkness causes us no discontent,
we resign ourselves to it as inevitable.
… But the progressive Westerner is
determined always to better his lot.
From candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to
gaslight, gaslight to electric light —
his quest for a brighter light never
ceases, he spares no pains to eradicate
even the minutest shadow.”
You’ll find a small display of lacquered
parasols, as well as Japanese
snacks, stickers, and postcards on
the front patio. Inside, the gallery is
currently running the exhibit “Nature
in the Art of Japan.”
This, too, is a respite from the bigger,
louder museums we may be used to:
LACMA, MOCA, The Broad. Here,
the eye is invited to calm down and
© STORRIER STEARNS JAPANESE GARDEN
32 • ANGELUS • February 7, 2020

spend a little time with 12 to 15 pieces
(many of which are for sale): a fan of
ivory silk embroidered with a purple
iris; a print entitled “Moon of the
Southern Sea” by celebrated artist of
the Meiji period (1868-1912) Tsukioka
Yoshitoshi.
All of which was a beautiful entree
to the garden itself. Make sure to read
the brochure, as it describes many
features that, clunking around trying
to take it all in one big, greedy Westernized
gulp, you might miss.
The Hiroshima Camellia, for example,
is descended from one of the 170
trees that survived the U.S. bombing
in 1945. The Zig Zag Bridge, the purpose
of which is to slow the gait of the
walker, was constructed of granite imported
from Japan in the late 1930s.
The Waiting Bench is a traditional
Japanese attribute that invites guests to
rest for a bit and enjoy the surroundings
before being welcomed into the
teahouse for a ceremonial serving of
tea.
Kinzuchi Fujii, master landscaper-designer, spent a year designing,
planning, and preparing before construction began on the Storrier
Stearns Japanese Garden.
An interior view of the authentic Niko-An (Abode at Two Ponds) Teahouse, the highlight of the
garden.
If you’re not up for removing your
shoes, you can easily peek into the
Niko-An (Abode at Two Ponds)
Teahouse from the surrounding stone
steps: plain tatami mats, soothing
shades of celadon green, wheat, iron
gray.
Again, Tanazaki’s
essay comes
to mind:
“We [Japanese]
find it hard to be
really at home
with things that
shine and glitter.
The Westerner
uses silver and
steel and nickel
hardware, and
polishes it to a
high brilliance,
but we object
to the practice.
While we do
sometimes
indeed use silver
for teakettles,
© STORRIER STEARNS JAPANESE GARDEN
decanters or sake
cups, we prefer
not to polish it.
On the contrary
we begin to enjoy
it only when
the lustre has
worn off, when it
has begun to take
on a dark, smoky
patina.”
Heather King is a blogger, speaker, and the author of several books.
You’ll find restrooms tucked into
the back part of the garden, as well
as a small gift shop with an enticing
window display of kimono, shawls,
chopsticks, glazed trays, notepaper,
and teas. “Opened on Request” reads
the sign, which turns out to mean
Sundays. So visit then if you want to
peruse this delightful, one-of-a-kind
collection.
You can also picnic, set up your
easel, or plan your meeting and
retreat here for up to 32 people.
Members have access to every-othermonth
breakfasts and four-personmax
workshops that include Onigiri
(Rice Ball) Making, Compost 101,
and Hinamatsuri or Girls Festival, in
which Jeanne Heilman, the garden’s
“creative docent,” will teach how to
make beautiful dolls “to celebrate our
daughters’ happiness, good health,
and growth.”
But back to the garden itself, which
is a lovely spot to spend a couple of
secluded, quiet hours. The very feel
and sense of the place invites contemplation.
The Storrier Stearns was landscape
architect Fujii’s single great commission.
He worked on the garden
through 1942, when he was sent to
a Japanese internment camp. That’s
a shadow not easily dispelled by the
brightest of lights.
In the shade of the sycamores say
a prayer for him, and all like him,
before you leave.
February 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 33
© STORRIER STEARNS JAPANESE GARDEN

l
Dental Insurance
Get the dental care you deserve with dental insurance from Physicians
Mutual Insurance Company. It can help cover the services you’re most
likely to use —
Cleanings X-rays Fillings Crowns Dentures
Preventive care starts right away
Helps cover over 350 services
Go to any dentist you want – but save more
with one in our network
No deductible, no annual maximum
Call now to get this FREE
Information Kit!
1-877-460-1567
dental50plus.com/angelus
Here’s the information
you requested on Dental insurance
FIRST-CLASS MAIL
Product not available in all states. Includes the Participating Providers and Preventive
Benefits Rider. Acceptance guaranteed for one insurance policy/certificate of this type.
Contact us for complete details about this insurance solicitation. This specific offer is not
available in CO, NY; call 1-888-799-4433 or respond for similar offer. Certificate C250A
(ID: C250E; PA: C250Q); Insurance Policy P150 (GA: P150GA; NY: P150NY; OK: P150OK;
TN: P150TN). Rider kinds B438/B439.
6154-0120