Angelus News | June 5-12, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 17

ANGELUS
DOORS
OPENING
What will church
be like after the
pandemic?
June 5-12, 2020 Vol. 5 No. 17

Wor
ON THE COVER
Rocío Flores Mojica and her daughter, Olivia, exit the doors of Resurrection Church
in East LA, one of the nearly 300 parishes preparing for a phased reopening in
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles this month. On Page 10, priests and parish staff
from around the archdiocese talk to Tom Hoffarth about lessons learned during the
pandemic. On Page 13, Mike Aquilina offers reasons why the unified Church that
emerged from the ruins of a devastating third-century plague should give hope to
Catholics in 2020.
IMAGE:
Father Sigifredo Roque Torres (right), associate pastor of
Presentation of Mary Church in South LA, and parishioners
move boxes of food in the parish parking lot Saturday,
May 30. Parishes around the archdiocese marked Pentecost
weekend with food drives to help families impacted by
the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as outdoor
exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
DAVID AMADOR RIVERA

Contents
Pope Watch 2
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation, and Local News 4-6
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
An interview with retiring chancellor Sister Mary Elizabeth Galt 16
Latin America’s pandemic shows best and worst of church-state relations 20
Can we imitate our way to holiness? 22
The awkward apostasy of James Joyce 24
Greg Erlandson: Poe, pandemics, and lessons to be learned 28
What ‘Dads’ doesn’t get about dads 30
Heather King sees surprises at a reopened cemetery 32
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 1

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June 5-12, 2020
Vol. 5 • No. 17
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POPE WATCH
Unity in diversity
The following is adapted from the
Holy Father’s homily at the Mass of
Pentecost celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica
on Sunday, May 31.
“There are different kinds of spiritual
gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians
12:4), the apostle Paul writes to
the Corinthians.
Here St. Paul wants to tell us that the
Holy Spirit is the one who brings together
the many; and that the Church
was born this way: we are all different,
yet united by the same Holy Spirit.
The apostles were from different
backgrounds and social contexts, and
they had Hebrew and Greek names.
In terms of character, some were
meek and others were excitable; they
all had different ideas and sensibilities.
Jesus did not change them; he did
not make them into a set of pre-packaged
models. No. He left their differences
and now he unites them by
anointing them with the Holy Spirit.
With the anointing comes their
union — union in diversity. At Pentecost,
the apostles understand the
unifying power of the Spirit. They see
it with their own eyes when everyone,
though speaking in different languages,
comes together as one people: the
people of God.
We, too, have our differences, for
example: of opinions, choices, sensibilities.
But the temptation is always
to fiercely defend our ideas, believing
them to be good for everybody and
agreeing only with those who think as
we do.
This is a bad temptation that brings
division. This is a faith created in our
own image; it is not what the Spirit
wants. We might think that what unites
us are our beliefs and our morality.
But there is much more: our principle
of unity is the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit comes to us, in our differences
and difficulties, to tell us that
we have one Lord — Jesus — and one
Father, and that for this reason we are
brothers and sisters! Let us begin anew
from here; let us look at the Church
with the eyes of the Spirit and not as
the world does.
The world sees us only as on the
right or left, with one ideology or the
other; the Spirit sees us as sons and
daughters of the Father and brothers
and sisters of Jesus. The world sees
conservatives and progressives; the
Spirit sees children of God.
If we go back to the day of Pentecost,
we discover that the first task of the
Church is proclamation. Yet we also
see that the apostles devised no strategy;
when they were locked in there,
in the Upper Room, they were not
strategizing or drafting any pastoral
plan.
Let us look within and ask ourselves
what prevents us from giving ourselves.
We need the Holy Spirit, the gift
of God who heals us of narcissism,
victimhood, and pessimism.
Let us pray to him to revive in us the
memory of the gift received, to free us
from the paralysis of selfishness and
awaken in us the desire to serve, to do
good.
Even worse than this crisis is the
tragedy of squandering it by closing
in on ourselves. Come, Holy Spirit
… you always give yourself; grant us
the courage to go out of ourselves, to
love and help each other, in order to
become one family. Amen.
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Papal Prayer Intention for June: We pray that all those who suffer may find their
way in life, allowing themselves to be touched by the Heart of Jesus.
2 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
George Floyd and us
The death of George Floyd last week
was senseless and brutal and cries out
to heaven for justice.
The anger and unrest that has swept
Los Angeles and the rest of the country
since his death is a sad reminder that
racism remains real. Millions of our
brothers and sisters still today experience
humiliation, indignity, and
unequal opportunity only because of
their race or the color of their skin.
It should not be this way in America.
Racism is a blasphemy against God,
who creates all men and women
with equal dignity. It has no place in
a civilized society and no place in a
Christian heart.
When God looks at us, he sees
beyond the color of our skin, or the
countries where we come from, or the
language that we speak. God sees only
his children — beloved sons, beloved
daughters.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said that
riots are the language of the unheard.
My prayer is that we are all doing a lot
of listening right now. This time, we
should not fail to hear what people are
saying in their pain.
It is an unhappy truth that we have
tolerated racism for too long in America.
These protests tell us that it is long
past time for us to root out the racial
injustice that still infects too many
areas of American society.
But with Rev. King, we need to reject
violence in protesting for the civil
rights of our black neighbors. Nothing
is gained by violence and so much is
lost. The way forward for us is love, not
hate and not violence.
Sadly, in many places legitimate
protests have been exploited by persons
with different values and agendas. But
burning and looting communities,
ruining the livelihoods of our neighbors,
does not advance the cause of
racial equality and human dignity. In
fact, violence and property damage
only makes things worse for the poor
and minorities living in urban neighborhoods.
So, we need to keep our protests
peaceful and keep our eyes on the
prize of true and lasting change.
In these demonstrations, I have been
encouraged to see so many young
people expressing their desires to
build a society that is more just and
more fraternal, a society that expands
opportunities for everyone, no matter
what color their skin is or where they
came from.
To me, this is very hopeful because it
opens a way for the Church to speak
about the truths of the Gospel — the
dignity of the human person and God’s
vision for the meaning of our lives.
This is an important responsibility for
all of us in the Church right now. We
need to be leaders in a new conversation
about criminal justice reform and
racial and economic inequality in our
country.
Police brutality and unequal treatment
of blacks by law enforcement are
serious questions that our society needs
to address.
But we need to remember the
cruelty and violence that George
Floyd suffered does not reflect on the
majority of good men and women in
law enforcement, who carry out their
duties with honor and often live in
the neighborhoods where they serve. I
know here in Los Angeles, the police
department has worked hard for many
years now to improve how they do
things and to really know the people in
our communities.
With our society polarized and divided
in so many ways, believers must be
peacemakers as we move forward beyond
the lockdown of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) and these new protests
over race.
The peace that Jesus brings is not
the false peace of those who accept
injustice out of fear or in order to avoid
trouble or confrontation. For Jesus,
building peace is hard work, it takes
patience and the grace of God.
Practically, it means working to help
people see another point of view, the
other side of the argument. It means
always working to build trust, promote
understanding, and to encourage
forgiveness and friendship.
We need to make sure that George
Floyd did not die for no reason.
We should honor the sacrifice of his
life by removing racism and hate from
our hearts and renewing our commitment
to fulfill our nation’s sacred
promise — to be a beloved community
of life, liberty, and equality for all.
Pray for me this week, and I will pray
for you.
Let us pray together for the soul of
George Floyd, and for his family. And
let us pray for all those who are working
to put an end to racial injustice in
our society.
Let us entrust the troubles in our
world and the troubles in our lives to
Mary, who is the mother of God, the
mother of the Church, and the mother
of every one of us.
May she help us always to hear the
voice of God in our lives and to follow
the path of nonviolence and peacemaking
in this challenging moment.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Closer to sainthood: A knight and a hermit
The road to sainthood just got a
step shorter for two Catholic giants.
On May 28, Pope Francis advanced
the canonization causes of
Ven. Father Michael McGivney,
founder of the Knights of Columbus,
and Bl. Charles de Foucauld,
a French priest and missionary.
Father McGivney founded the
now sprawling Catholic fraternity
and charity in 1882. Supreme
Knight of the Knights of Columbus
Carl Anderson noted that his
witness is especially relevant today,
since he died from a virus geneti-
cally similar to the coronavirus
(COVID-19).
“He cared for the faith and
well-being of those on the
margins,” Anderson told
Crux. “He became a priest
knowing that often meant an
early death.”
Foucauld also committed
his life to serving the marginalized.
After joining the Cistercian
Trappist order in 1890, he traveled to
Syria, where he ministered to the variety
of cultural groups and took on the
impoverished life of a hermit. He was
Father Michael McGivney (left) and Charles de Foucauld.
killed by a band of men in 1916.
Father McGivney will be beatified
in his home state of Connecticut,
while Foucauld is expected to be
canonized in Rome.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Former Jesuit superior
general dies at 84
The
former
superior
general of
the Society
of Jesus, Father
Adolfo
Nicolás, SJ,
died in Tokyo,
Japan,
Father Adolfo Nicolás in 2012.
May 20, at the age of 84.
In a message to the members of the
Jesuits, his successor, Father Arturo
Sosa, remembered the order’s 30th
superior general (2008-16), as “a
person with a spirit of joyful service to
others, smiling in the middle of a job
done under pressure.”
Father Nicolás first came to Tokyo
in 1960, where he studied Japanese
and theology. He later became
Japan’s provincial superior and
afterward spent several years ministering
to Tokyo’s poor and immigrant
populations.
Representing the leadership of the
largest Catholic male religious order
in the world, Father Nicolás’ position
has often carried the nickname “the
Black Pope.” His funeral Mass took
place in Tokyo May 23.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
What if JPII had never been born?
Emilia Wojtyla had a life-threatening
pregnancy, but that did not stop
her from choosing life for her child,
who later became St. Pope John Paul
II.
In a new biography of the saint’s
parents, Milena Kindziuk reveals that
Mrs. Wojtyla’s doctor advised her to
get an abortion due to pregnancy
complications. After refusing, she
and her husband, Karol, searched for
another doctor.
“[The Wojtylas] made a bold decision
that, regardless of everything,
their conceived baby was to be born,”
writes Kindziuk.
Emilia and Karol soon found
another doctor who respected their
decision, helping them safely deliver
young Karol on May 18, 1920. Years
later, St. John Paul noted that he was
elected pope at the same time of day
as his birth.
Emilia and Karol Wojtyla have long
been renowned for their example of
marriage and faith.
Their cause for canonization was
opened in May.
HELP AT THE DOOR — Seminarian Renan Alberto Lima de Oliveira, 21, assigned to Our Lady
of Perpetual Help Church in Manaus, Brazil, delivers a protective mask to a resident in one of
the city’s slums May 21 to minimize the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/BRUNO KELLY, REUTERS
4 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

NATION
MARNIE MCALLISTER/THE RECORD
Bishops: Racism a ‘life issue’
The U.S. bishops
called the death of
George Floyd a “wakeup
call” that needs to be
answered by Catholics
“in a spirit of determined
conversion,” as
protests and riots broke
out across the country in
outrage over his May 25
death in police custody
in Minneapolis.
In their May 29 statement
on the same day
that the police officer
who arrested Floyd was
arrested for third-degree
murder, seven U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops committee chairmen
called for an end to the wave of
violence, but also said they “stand in
passionate support of communities
that are understandably outraged.”
“As members of the Church, we
must stand for the more difficult
right and just actions instead of the
easy wrongs of indifference,” they
said. “We cannot turn a blind eye
to these atrocities and yet still try to
Protesters in Minneapolis set fire to the entrance of a police
station May 28.
profess to respect every human life.
We serve a God of love, mercy, and
justice.”
The bishops said the tragedy underscored
that the persisting problem of
racism in the U.S. “is a life issue.”
“Racism is not a thing of the past
or simply a throwaway political issue
to be bandied about when convenient,”
the bishops said. “It is a real
and present danger that must be met
head on.”
EPISODES OF SHAME — Plywood covers windows broken in the rectory of the Cathedral of
the Assumption in Louisville, Kentucky. The cathedral was attacked May 28-29 when protests
over the deaths of Louisville emergency medical worker Breonna Taylor and George Floyd of
Minneapolis turned violent. Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz lives in the rectory but was
unhurt in the attack. Catholic churches around the country have been defaced during protests,
including the Basilica of St. Mary in St. Paul, Minneapolis, where pews suffered fire damage.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/CARLOS BARRIA, REUTERS
The hidden hubs of
the coronavirus
New statistics suggest that more than
40% of the coronavirus (COVID-19)
deaths in the U.S. happened in nursing
homes and assisted living facilities.
The new report from the Foundation
for Research on Equal Opportunity
found that out of the 80,000 coronavirus
deaths reported by mid-May,
33,840, or 42%, were in such facilities.
The study’s authors, Avik Roy and
Gregg Girvan, urged authorities to
take action.
“States and localities should consider
reorienting their policy responses away
from younger and healthier people,
and toward the elderly,” they wrote,
“and especially elderly individuals
living in nursing homes and other
long-term care facilities.”
LA County officials announced last
month that 51% of coronavirus deaths
in the county up until May 11 were
from patients in “institutional settings”
like nursing homes.
Maryland: County steps
back on Communion ban
When a Maryland county approved a
policy banning eating during religious
services as part of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) safety precautions, it set
off an alarm bell for Catholic leaders.
The May 26 executive order from
Howard County, which forbade even
“food or beverage that would typically
be consumed as part of a religious service,”
would have prevented Massgoers
from consuming the body of Christ.
“For the Catholic community, the
reception of Communion is central
to our faith lives and to our public
worship,” stated the Archdiocese of
Baltimore in response.
Amid the vocal pushback, however,
the policy was reversed a day later.
Spokesperson Scott Peterson told
Catholic News Agency May 28 that
Howard County would work with faith
leaders “to provide guidelines that will
allow residents to worship safely.”
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
A graduation season unlike any other
With the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic forcing schools to finish
the academic year with distance
learning, graduation season is looking
a little different this year.
“Distance does not separate
us from the celebration of your
achievements,” Andrea Jenoff, principal
at Bishop Conaty-Our Lady of
Loretto High School, told graduates
last month. “They may take on a
different look, but the same sincere
sentiments remain.”
Schools around the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles have held drive-in
events for students to pick up “graduation
items” like caps and gowns,
awards, and yearbooks while hosting
awards ceremonies online.
At Bishop Montgomery High
School in Torrance, cars were
allowed to drop off graduates at the
A May 27 graduation-item pickup at Bishop Conaty (left) and the drive-in graduation at Bishop
Montgomery May 29.
50-yard line of the school’s football
field so that they could receive their
diploma on stage.
Other schools, including Bishop Conaty,
still hope to have a customary
in-person graduation and Baccalaureate
Mass this summer, pending
public health guidelines.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
A PRAYERFUL OFFERING — Pictured with Archbishop José H.
Gomez are Kathy Silva and Ramón Nuñez of Holy Cross Cemetery
and Mortuary in Culver City, at a Memorial Day Mass celebrated
in the mortuary’s Chapel of the Risen Christ May 25. At the
livestreamed Mass, Silva and Nuñez honored those who had been
laid to rest the week before at the archdiocese’s cemeteries and
mortuaries with white roses.
Supreme Court backs California
church restrictions
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold the state of
California’s rules on limiting the number of worshippers at
religious services as part of the coronavirus (COVID-19)
health precautions.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four Democrat-appointed
justices in the 5-4 majority May 29. The
court’s debate centered on whether religious services in
California were being treated more strictly than similar
gatherings under restrictions aimed to limit the spread of
the coronavirus.
“The precise question of when restrictions on particular
social activities should be lifted during the pandemic is a
dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable
disagreement,” Roberts wrote in his majority opinion, adding
that local officials are “actively shaping their response
to changing facts on the ground.”
The decision came in response to a lawsuit from South
Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, California,
challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order limiting churches
to 25% of their normal maximum capacity, with 100 people
maximum at any service. Those limits will be in place
for public Masses in the archdiocese this month.
6 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

Archbishop Gomez
announces guidelines for
Reopening of
Churches
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 7

SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Ex. 34:4–6, 8–9 / Dan. 3:52–56 / 2 Cor. 13:11–13 / Jn. 3:16–18
We often begin Mass with
the prayer from today’s Epistle:
“The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
We praise the God who has
revealed himself as a Trinity, a
communion of persons.
Communion with the Trinity
is the goal of our worship, and
the purpose of the salvation
history that begins in the
Bible and continues in the
Eucharist and sacraments of
the Church.
We see the beginnings of
God’s self-revelation in today’s
First Reading, as he passes
before Moses and cries out his
holy name.
Israel had sinned in worshiping
the golden calf (see
Exodus 32). But God does
not condemn them to perish.
Instead he proclaims his mercy and
faithfulness to his covenant.
God loved Israel as his firstborn son
among the nations (see Exodus 4:22).
Through Israel — heirs of his covenant
with Abraham — God planned to reveal
himself as the Father of all nations
(see Genesis 22:18).
The memory of God’s covenant
testing of Abraham, and Abraham’s
faithful obedience, lies behind today’s
Gospel.
In commanding Abraham to offer his
only beloved son (see Genesis 22:2,
12, 16), God was preparing us for the
fullest possible revelation of his love for
the world.
As Abraham was willing to offer
“Holy Trinity,” central panel from the high altar of Trinity
Church, Mosóc, Slovakia, painter unknown, 15th century.
Isaac, God did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all (see
Romans 8:32).
In this, he revealed what was only
disclosed partially to Moses, that his
kindness continues for a thousand generations,
that he forgives our sin, and
takes us back as his very own people
(see Deuteronomy 4:20; 9:29).
Jesus humbled himself to die in obedience
to God’s will. And for this, the
Spirit of God raised him from the dead
(see Romans 8:11), and gave him a
name above every name (see Philippians
2:8–10).
This is the name we glorify in today’s
Responsorial: the name of Our Lord,
the God who is Love (see 1 John 4:8,
16).
Scott
Scott
Hahn
Hahn
is
is
founder
founder
of
of
the
the
St.
St.
Paul
Paul
Center
Center
for
for
Biblical
Biblical
Theology,
Theology,
stpaulcenter.com.
stpaulcenter.com.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
8 • ANGELUS • June August 5-12, 16-23-30, 2020 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Faithful friendship
I grew up in a close family, and one
of the hardest things I ever did was to
leave home and family at the age of 17
to enter the novitiate of the Missionary
Oblates of Mary Immaculate. That
novitiate year wasn’t easy. I missed my
family intensely and stayed in touch
with them insofar as the rules and
communication of the day allowed.
I wrote a letter home every week and
my mother wrote back to me faithfully
each week. I still have and cherish
those letters. I moved to a seminary
and lived with 60 others, with people
entering and leaving throughout my
seven years there, so that by the time
I’d finished my seminary training I
had lived in close community with
more than 100 different men.
That brought its own challenges.
People you’d grown close to would
leave the community to be replaced
by others so that each year there was a
new community and new friendships.
In the years following seminary, that
pattern began to grow exponentially.
Graduate studies took me to other
countries and brought a whole series
of new persons into my life, many of
whom became close friends. In more
than 40 years of teaching I have met
with several thousand students and
made many friends among them.
Writing and lectures have brought
thousands of people into my life.
Though most of them passed through
my life without meaningful connection,
some became lifelong friends.
I share this not because I think it’s
unique, but rather because it’s typical.
Today that’s really everyone’s story.
More and more friends pass through
our lives so that at a point the ques-
tion necessarily arises: How does one
remain faithful to one’s family, to old
friends, former neighbors, former
classmates, former students, former
colleagues, and to old acquaintances?
What does fidelity to them ask for?
Occasional visits? Occasional emails,
texts, calls? Remembering birthdays
and anniversaries? Class reunions?
Attending weddings and funerals?
Obviously doing these would be
good, though that would also constitute
a full-time occupation. Something
else must be being asked of
us here, namely, a fidelity that’s not
contingent on emails, texts, calls, and
occasional visits. But what can lie
deeper than tangible human contact?
What can be more real than that?
The answer is fidelity, fidelity as the
gift of a shared moral soul, fidelity as
the gift of trust, and fidelity as remaining
true to who you were when you
were in tangible human community
and contact with those people who
are no longer part of your daily life.
It is interesting how the Christian
Scriptures define community and
fidelity. In the Acts of the Apostles we
read that before Pentecost those in
the first Christian community were
all “huddled in one room.” And here,
though physically together, ironically
they were not in real community with
one another, not really a family, and
not really faithful to one another.
Then after receiving the Holy Spirit,
they literally break out of that one
room and scatter all over the earth
so that many of them never see one
another again and now, geographically
at a distance from one another,
ironically they become real family,
become a genuine community, and
live in fidelity to one another.
At the end of the day, fidelity is not
about now often you physically connect
with someone but about living
within a shared spirit. Betrayal is not a
question of separation by distance, of
forgetting an anniversary or a birthday,
or of not being able to stay in touch
with someone you cherish.
Betrayal is moving away from the
truth and virtue you once shared with
that person you cherish. Betrayal is a
change of soul. We are unfaithful to
family and friends when we become
different morally so as to no longer
share a common spirit with them.
You can be living in the same house
with someone, share daily bread and
conversation with him or her, and not
be a faithful family member or friend;
just as you can be a faithful friend or
family member and not see that friend
or family member for 40 years.
Being faithful in remembering birthdays
is wonderful, but fidelity is more
about remembering who you were
when that birth was so special to you.
Fidelity is about maintaining moral
affinity.
To the best of my abilities, I try to
stay in contact with the family, old
friends, former neighbors, former
classmates, former students, former
colleagues, and old acquaintances.
Mostly it’s a bit beyond me.
So I put my trust in moral fidelity. I
try as best I can to commit myself to
keeping the same soul I had when I
left home as a young boy and which
characterized and defined me when I
met all those wonderful people along
the way.
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.
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 9

Surprises in
a shutdown
As parishes start to reopen this
month, priests and church staff
reflect on the lessons learned
from the coronavirus pandemic
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS
Msgr. John Barry has been
alive for almost 83 years,
been a priest for 59 years,
and served as pastor at American
Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach
for the last 37 of them.
And after surviving a recent bout
with the coronavirus (COVID-19), he
has a confession to make.
“I took for granted celebrating Mass,
and reconciliation, and visiting the
sick,” Msgr. Barry said. Now, he’s
quick to add, “I won’t do that again.”
Msgr. Barry came down with the
coronavirus in March, but after a
brief hospitalization and a virtual
prayer campaign by parishioners, he
returned to celebrating Mass in time
for Holy Week. If there’s one thing
he’s learned, it’s not to take his health
for granted.
“This disease is insidious and I didn’t
think it would ever touch me until I
got it, and I wouldn’t want anyone to
get it,” said Msgr. Barry, who turns 83
in late June.
Now, with churches able to open
as early as the first week of June after
nearly three months of being closed,
priests like Msgr. Barry and parish staff
around the archdiocese have had time
to take stock of a few of the pandemic’s
blessings in disguise.
“At the beginning of all this, it was
very depressing, and people were
asking all the time when they could
come back to church,” said Maria
Elena Burgos, who heads the confirmation
program and works in the
office at Christ the King Church near
Hollywood.
Burgos and her husband, Rene, who
is in his third year of the permanent
diaconate program, have been parishioners
nearly 35 years.
“What we’ve been trying our best
to do is give our parishioners hope,”
Burgos told Angelus.
Among the parish’s Spanish-speaking
faithful, families have had to deal with
lost jobs and many children at home.
For its Filipino community, the time
of pandemic has provoked a slew of
prayer requests for sons and daughters
working as doctors and nurses on the
front lines of the coronavirus.
“Even if it’s just someone calling us
and telling us they’re running short on
toilet paper, we have someone to minister
to that,” said Burgos. “Whatever
we can do to let everyone know we are
there for you, and keep our sense of
community.”
When the stay-at-home orders
began in March, Father
Matthew Elshoff, OFM
Cap., could count on parishioners at
10 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

St. Lawrence of Brindisi
Church's Father Matthew
Elshoff, left, with Father
Joseph Dederick during a
procession of the Blessed
Sacrament on the streets
of Watts March 29.
ST. LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI
St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in
Watts to follow livestreamed Mass on
Facebook. But he realized the most
efficacious way to help his parishioners
experience the grace of the
sacraments was to bring it to them as
best he could.
So, joined by his fellow Capuchin
priests in their brown robes, he started
going outside with a large crucifix
leading a procession of the holy
Eucharist.
“Walking the Blessed Sacrament
through the streets was often an emotional
experience, both for me personally
as well as those who encountered
it,” said Father Elshoff. “The concept
of walking might seem unique, but it
brings you close to the people. The
Mexican/Hispanic people identify
with the person who walks. It puts that
person in touch with their reality.”
The pastor at St. Lawrence of Brindisi
since 2018, Father Elshoff said
their mission allowed the priests to
“come to know our people in a totally
different way.”
“We could see mothers and fathers
bring their children to us, kneeling
in their driveway, devoutly in prayer,
as if they were making their first holy
Communion. It was not lost on me
how they were often separated by a
chain-link fence.
“But also people cried as they knelt
in the streets and gutters, sobbing out
their prayers of gratitude. You could
not help but see how they were suffering
for the Bread of Life.”
Father Elshoff said such experiences
have deepened his faith and strengthened
his belief in the goodness of his
community.
“Even those who were not Catholic,
often African Americans, would call
out to us, ‘Praise be Jesus!’ or ‘Bless
you for coming by,’ ” Father Elshoff
recalled.
The takeaway for Father Elshoff?
That “the faith of Jesus Christ is alive
and well in Watts — there are no
atheists in foxholes.”
When St. John Vianney
Church in Hacienda
Heights burned down eight
years ago at the hands of an arsonist,
Masses moved to the parish hall next
door.
But during this spring’s pandemic
“shutdown,” associate pastor Father
Egren Gomez saw how “the power of
evangelization was made very clear,”
in moving Masses to the parish hall’s
virtual equivalent.
Ordained a priest two years ago, Father
Gomez helped not only launch a
regular prayer service for the pandemic
called “Otium Sanctum” (“Rest
for your Soul”), but ended up as its
camera director. There are now more
than 2,000 subscribers on the parish’s
YouTube channel, complementing its
expanding Instagram reach.
Father Gomez said he doesn’t see
such technology replacing in-person
Mass, but as a member of “Gen X,” he
can see its benefits in times like these,
even though some wonder if Catholics
will get too comfortable with
staying home for Mass.
“Maybe it took this pandemic to give
it the push we needed to get more
comfortable with it and lead to a new
way of becoming a mission Church,”
said Father Gomez, who even got
feedback on the parish’s digital outreach
from a friend in Africa.
In South Pasadena, the pandemic
has given Holy Family Church’s
30-year-old on-campus media studio a
new sense of purpose, having helped
the parish livestream four Masses
each weekend to an estimated 10,000
viewers in recent weeks.
The church’s website has also been
revamped to “make it pandemic-friendly
with new spiritual resources
and daily emails of comfort as we
pray together as we are apart,” said
parish life director Cambria Tortorelli.
“We have so much more ability now
to gather remotely with meetings and
webinars and formation. I think it’s
been a game changer at our church.
We miss the dynamics of getting
together and we need social interaction,
but this can increase the flow of
communication.”
Father Brian Humphrey, associate
pastor at St. Mary Magdalen Church
in Camarillo since his ordination to
the priesthood last year, came into
religious life after a career in the Hollywood
music industry.
While he thinks the pandemic has
emphasized the need for parishes to
have an online presence, perhaps by
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 11

elying on the help of a digital art
director or team, livestreamed Masses
should ultimately be something reserved
for the sick or homebound.
“I am glad we as a Church are
getting better at using the new media
to create spaces for spiritual communion,
but I think we have to be careful
not to promote a disembodied faith,”
said Father Humphrey. “As Catholics,
we believe in the Incarnation. This
includes all five senses, not just two.”
Bandwidth in the human form
led Manuel Pacheco, the maintenance
foreman at St. Paul
the Apostle Church in Westwood, to
ask pastor Father Gil Martinez, CSP,
what it would take for a long overdue
refresh of the church exterior as well
as the rectory.
“I’ve only been here two years,” said
Father Martinez, “and this is something
they’ve talked about here the
last 15 years.”
An outsourced bid was submitted for
more than $70,000 for the church and
$30,000 for the rectory. But Pacheco
decided he and his crew could figure
it out themselves, starting with renting
a 150-foot forklift.
“Our No. 1 priority was to keep
everyone working,” said Father Martinez.
“We did not want him sitting at
home unemployed. This has been a
godsend to us. Manuel and his team
have been our essential workers, to
borrow a term.”
Father Martinez himself used the
time to work on upgrading light fixtures
and keeping up with gardening.
The effort has saved the parish tens of
thousands of dollars.
“It’s a snapshot of how much people
really care about the church and the
community. It’s been a real sign of
hope and it will bring a new wave of
energy and excitement when we all
come back,” said Father Martinez.
At the same time, he said the community
has been coping with the coronavirus
deaths of both a husband and
wife who passed away a week from
each other, after coming home from a
trip to Europe.
Their graveside funeral with limited
mourners was “stark, and it felt like
a mystical experience,” said Father
Martinez. “There are many profound
From left: Workers Concepcion Martinez, Pedro Fuentes, and maintenance foreman Manuel
Pacheco inside St. Paul the Apostle Church during repairs.
things happening this way nowadays.”
So how have the experiences of
the last three months prepared
the Church in Los Angeles for
what’s next?
For Msgr. Barry, one of the potential
positives of the pandemic is “the
discovery of the disconnect people felt
with no access to a sacramental life
and to the Eucharist. That will open
up a further realization of what we
have in our faith.”
Msgr. Barry also praised Los Angeles
Archbishop José H. Gomez’s
“sensible steps” to keep people as safe
as possible during the height of the
pandemic.
Father Humphrey agreed on both
counts, saying his parishioners’
“intense hunger for the Eucharist”
has been a source of hope for him as
a priest.
“Some have shared with me the
hurt, and even sense of betrayal, they
have felt by the Church’s response
to the pandemic,” Father Humphrey
said. “But they say their desire for the
Eucharist will help maintain unity.”
Ultimately, Father Humphrey believes,
now is a time to “rally behind
our shepherd, Archbishop Gomez,”
especially with difficult times ahead.
“I have no doubt he and his team are
going to move with the Holy Spirit
to bring even more good out of this
difficult situation,” Father Humphrey
said.
Holy Family’s Tortorelli believes the
experience has also been a reminder
that “parts of the body suffer in many
ways that affect us all,” especially with
respect to those suffering in solitude
from mental health issues, isolation,
or abuse.
“In some respects this COVID is a
great equalizer. We are all at risk, from
the highest level down to the most
humble. We just have to keep recognizing
that we’re not really in charge
of what happens next.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
VANESSA REYES SMITH
12 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

DENIS
and the
MENACES
How a third-century
bishop helped the
Church find a ‘peace
beyond expectation’
after a devastating
plague
BY MIKE AQUILINA /
ANGELUS
It was the great misfortune of St.
Denis to serve as bishop of Alexandria,
Egypt, in the years A.D.
248-264.
They were the worst of times. Everyone
agreed on that point. They were
years of simultaneous pandemic, war,
economic collapse, and persecution.
The Roman Empire was in disarray,
and government at every level was
unstable. In just one year of St. Denis’
episcopacy, two Roman emperors
were murdered by their own troops.
To top it off, the earth was suffering
sudden, disruptive climate change,
which had a ruinous effect on crops.
But St. Denis managed to thrive
in the midst of it all — every crisis,
calamity, and catastrophe. For this,
history remembers him as Denis (or
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Pope Dionysius the Great.
Dionysius) the Great, and he earned
the title.
Alexandria, St. Denis’ birthplace,
was the second city and intellectual
capital of the empire. It was home
to antiquity’s greatest library. It was
a center of scientific research and
technological innovation. As a harbor
city, it was also a commercial hub and
strategic military position.
St. Denis was born there, around
190, to a family that observed the traditional
religion, worshiping an array
of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian gods.
Their city was especially devoted to
the god Serapis and the goddess Isis.
St. Denis converted to Christianity as
a young man and studied in Alexandria’s
renowned catechetical school.
His teacher was Origen, one of the
great Scripture scholars of the ancient
world.
When Origen was forced to flee the
city in 216, a man named Heraclas
took over the school. When Heraclas
was elected bishop, St. Denis assumed
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 13

"Last Communion and Martyrdom of St. Denis," by Henri Bellechose, 1416.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
leadership, and he continued in that
office even after he himself succeeded
Heraclas as bishop in 248.
Within a year after St. Denis became
bishop, hell broke loose upon his
corner of the earth.
Always prone to riots, the city’s mobs
turned to lynching Christians and
invading their homes. Many believers
died rather than utter blasphemies
against Jesus Christ. The practice of
Christianity had been illegal since the
first century (though rarely punished),
and the local authorities considered
the Faith a nuisance at best, and so
the mobs went unpunished.
During that first calamity, others
arose.
It’s likely that the climate fluctuations
came first. There was, throughout
Europe and the Middle East,
widespread cooling in temperatures,
which brought about drought and
crop failures. For several years the
Nile River failed to flood, leaving
farmers’ fields infertile throughout
Egypt.
The strange weather had no known
precedent. Some people feared that
the earth was entering its decrepit
old age. “The summer sun burns less
bright over the fields of grain,” wrote
one observer. “The temperance of
spring is no longer for rejoicing, and
the ripening fruit does not hang from
autumn trees.”
For St. Denis’ already struggling
congregation, the economic fallout
was ruinous.
What’s more, this global cooling —
with resulting malnutrition — may
have been the necessary precondition
for the next great catastrophe to hit
Alexandria: the pandemic of 250.
Historians debate the viral cause of
the plague that year. It was likely a
novel influenza virus or hemorrhagic
fever. It spread rapidly through the
empire and quickly reduced the population
of the known world by a third.
The equivalent number of deaths
today would be 2.5 billion.
Densely populated Alexandria was
hit particularly hard.
In dire circumstances, people tended
to blame their leaders. Their leaders
in turn looked for scapegoats. The Roman
Emperor Decius focused all the
blame in the world upon the Christian
Church and its members.
The natural disasters, he explained,
represented the vengeance of the old
gods. The idols were angered because,
with the growth of Christianity, so few
people offered them sacrifice. So in
January 250 Decius issued an edict
requiring every citizen of the empire
to offer sacrifice to the old gods.
The edict renewed the rage of the
persecution already in progress in
Alexandria. Its enforcement was swift.
St. Denis lamented that the number
14 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
"Plague in Rome," by Jules-Élie Delaunay, 1869.
of Alexandrian martyrs included “men
and women, both young men and old,
both maidens and aged matrons, both
soldiers and private citizens — every
class and every age.”
But not every Christian showed
courage. Alongside his account of
the martyrs, St. Denis reported that
he had also seen crowds of believers
racing to abandon the faith, running
“eagerly towards the altars, affirming
by their forwardness that they had not
been Christians.”
Yet the disease continued to spread,
which drove the persecutors to greater
fury.
After all the defections and executions
— and the pandemic and
famine — the Church in Alexandria
found itself with drastically reduced
congregations and almost no clergy.
In the great city St. Denis presided
with four remaining priests.
And the little flock soon began again
to attract new converts. The medical
historian William McNeill argued
that the pandemic played to the
Church’s strength.
He wrote: “One advantage Christians
had over their pagan contemporaries
was that care of the sick, even in time
of pestilence, was for them a recognized
religious duty. When all normal
services break down, quite elementary
nursing will greatly reduce mortality.
Simple provision of food and water,
for instance, will allow persons who
are temporarily too weak to cope
for themselves to recover instead of
perishing miserably. Moreover, those
who survived with the help of such
nursing were likely to feel gratitude
and a warm sense of solidarity with
those who had saved their lives.”
McNeill concluded: “The effect of
[the] disastrous epidemic, therefore,
was to strengthen Christian churches
at a time when most other institutions
were being discredited.”
In a similar way the martyrs, by their
steadfastness, gave public testimony to
the value of life in Jesus Christ. That
was what they desired more than anything
else on earth, even bodily life.
St. Denis managed to outlive the
worst of the pandemic. He also outlived
Emperor Decius. And he even
enjoyed a brief respite from persecution
at the beginning of the reign of
Emperor Valerian. In time, the Nile
returned to its cycle of flooding, and
the land responded with abundant
produce.
Yet the old bishop knew that any
Books on the thirdcentury
crises
William H. McNeill, “Plagues and
Peoples” (Anchor Books, 1976, $17).
J. Stevenson (Rev. W.H.C. Frend),
“A New Eusebius: Documents Illustrating
the History of the Church to
A.D. 337” (Baker Academic, 1987,
$50).
Kyle Harper, “The Fate of Rome:
Climate, Disease, and the End of an
Empire” (Princeton University Press,
2019, $35).
peace in this world would be temporary.
Nonetheless, he expressed hope
for his Church. And he held on to
hope because he saw that Christians
everywhere had been purified by the
crises. For a while at least they had
drawn together in common efforts,
and shown what a unified Church
could accomplish.
He wrote: “But know now, my brethren,
that all the churches throughout
the East and beyond, which formerly
were divided, have become united.
And all the bishops everywhere are
of one mind, and rejoice greatly in
the peace which has come beyond
expectation.”
Now in 2020, as we enter our “new
normal,” can we, too, hope to see a
peace beyond our expectations? History
suggests we can.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing
editor to Angelus and the author of
many books, including “How Christianity
Saved Civilization … And Must
Do So Again” (Sophia Institute Press,
$18.95).
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 15

Sister Mary Elizabeth
Galt with a religious
sister at the 2015
Religious Jubilarians
Mass at the Cathedral
of Our Lady of
the Angels.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
‘Blessed unbelievably’
As she prepares for retirement as chancellor of the
archdiocese, Sister Mary Elizabeth Galt looks back on
56 years of ministry in the City of Angels
BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS
All Sister Mary Elizabeth Galt,
BVM, ever really wanted to
be was a grade-school teacher.
She honed her first tutorial skills not
by practicing teaching in college or
graduate school, but by looking for the
nearest pupil she could find.
“I used to harass my poor little sister,
Kathy, trying to teach her. Poor little
thing!” chuckled Sister Mary Elizabeth
in an interview with Angelus.
“I had three older sisters and a
brother, but she was the only one who
would let me teach her. So I bugged
her all the time.”
“But,” the lifelong teacher was quick
to add, “she was well prepared for
school!”
Entering religious life was also always
in the back of her mind. She had two
books about the lives of the saints —
one for canonized men, the other for
canonized women — and would read
them over and over until the edges of
their pages were frayed.
“I thought naively I was going to be a
saint when I grew up,” she said with a
chuckle.
Those were the first steps in a journey
that eventually brought Sister Mary
Elizabeth to serve as chancellor of the
largest Catholic diocese in the country.
And now, after more than a half-century
of service in the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles, she is ready for the next
chapter.
“In July I’ll be 79, and that’s why it’s
time to retire,” Sister Mary Elizabeth
said. “The thing that I would honestly
say is I have been totally blessed with
a career, a profession — whatever you
want to call it — in the archdiocese. I
16 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

eally have been blessed.”
Sister Mary Elizabeth’s calling to
the classroom and her vocation to
religious life were both nurtured
at St. Brendan’s School in the Hancock
Park-area of Los Angeles, which was
staffed by the Sisters of Charity of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM).
“They really seemed to care about the
kids, the students,” she said of the nuns
who educated her. “They would be on
the playground at recess time. I found
that they really liked us. And they were
fun. They just seemed to always be
there and enjoyed it.
“And they were good teachers, I’ll tell
you,” she stressed. “Excellent teachers.”
After graduating from St. Mary’s Academy
in South LA (the campus moved
to its present location in Inglewood a
few years later), she entered religious
life right out of high school. The
religious order she chose to enter was
none other than the “BVMs.” Later she
went off to study at Mundelein College
in Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor
of Arts in 1964.
Upon returning to Los Angeles
that same year, she started teaching
sixth-graders at Our Lady of Lourdes
School in Tujunga. After three years,
it was on to St. Philip’s School in
Pasadena teaching other grades. Her
favorite was first grade, however, where
learning to read was the No. 1 lesson.
“Think about it,” said Sister Mary
Elizabeth. “A child goes into first grade
and learns those squiggly marks on a
paper really mean something. It’s a
little like magic. And they learn the joy
of reading. And I was determined to
help them.”
After St. Philip’s, she spent a total
of 13 years at St. Robert Bellarmine
School in Burbank, first as a teacher,
then as principal for the last six years.
“I told you I can’t keep a job,” she
quipped while recounting her employment
history.
Next came a one-year international
fellowship at the University of Nottingham
in England studying curriculum
development and comparative
education from 1982 to 1983. There,
something about the country’s educational
system really surprised her, and
it wasn’t how the residents believed
in the legend of Robin Hood stealing
from the rich to give to the poor.
“Their educational philosophy was
so different,” she recalled. “It wasn’t
the teacher’s job to teach reading or
whatever. It was the child’s job to learn.
The responsibility was put on the
child. And I found that amazing. So if
the student didn’t learn to read, that’s
too bad. Here we would make sure the
students in our schools would learn.”
Sister Mary Elizabeth Galt as a child.
SR. MARY ELIZABETH GALT
Upon returning from England,
the classroom and administration
veteran expected she’d be
tasked with another assignment as a
principal at a Catholic school. But she
was offered a post as an elementary
school supervisor in the San Fernando
Pastoral Region of the archdiocese. She
accepted, and worked there for eight
years.
In 1991, she became associate superintendent
of all elementary Catholic
schools in the archdiocese, and in 2000
was named superintendent of elementary
schools.
But three years later, the religious
sister was confronted with a radical
ministerial shift when then-Archbishop
Cardinal Roger Mahony’s vicar general
at the time, Msgr. Royale Vadakin,
asked her to become the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’ second woman chancellor,
replacing Sister Cecilia Louise
Moore.
“Well, I was in shock,” she recalled
when asked about her reaction to the
offer. “You have to remember, Sister
CL, as she was called, had a Ph.D. in
chemistry. I taught first grade. Just a
little difference there.”
Instead, Sister Mary Elizabeth gave
Msgr. Vadakin a list of the names of the
women she thought he should choose
from.
Msgr. Vadakin responded by asking
her to talk to Sister Moore.
‘She was very good, very helpful in
changing my mind,” remembered
Sister Mary Elizabeth. “She said, ‘No,
at this time you’re the right person.’ So
I accepted.”
That was back in 2003, at the height
of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, a
moment that Sister Mary Elizabeth
described as “a horrifying time.”
“There were so many decisions that
had to be made. That was a terrible
time.”
Sister Mary Elizabeth credits prayer
and the advice of coworkers for helping
her embrace the “tremendous pressure”
on the archdiocese at the time
to bolster its child protection policies.
That included coordinating its
response and ensuring its compliance
with regular audits from the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB).
As chancellor, she was also responsible
for collecting all the necessary data
from around the archdiocese, including
from departments like the Vicar
for Clergy’s office, the Department of
Catholic Schools, and the Office of
Religious Education.
Today, she strongly believes that
children in local Catholic schools and
parishes are safer than ever before. The
last time the auditors made an on-site
visit to Los Angeles, they paid the
“highest compliment” to the archdiocese,
reporting something that really
struck her.
“They said they had never seen in
any archdiocese or diocese here in the
United States departments and ministries
work so well together to develop
and carry out a comprehensive plan to
protect youth from being abused,” said
Sister Mary Elizabeth. “And that made
me proud.”
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 17

As the second female chancellor
in the archdiocese, Sister Mary
Elizabeth believes that women
bring a different, more maternal
perspective to the job. Today, she looks
back with gratitude, saying it’s an opportunity
she’s very glad to have had.
“I have always felt respected as a
woman religious,” she pointed out.
“When I was a principal, I felt the
pastor respected me. And I felt that
even when I was a school supervisor
and went out to different schools. And
I have to say, I’ve always felt respected
certainly by Cardinal Mahony and
now Archbishop Gomez. They always
respected my opinion.”
When she started as a sixth-grade
teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes
School, Sister Mary Elizabeth said she
“never, never” imagined she would
one day end up retiring from this
position. She’s most grateful for the
“wonderful people” she’s worked with,
especially her assistant, Gerri Spray,
who has worked with her since she
took on the job.
Stopping to gather her thoughts,
Sister Mary Elizabeth looked for something
to say that could sum up her 56
years serving the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles.
“I’ve been blessed unbelievably.”
R.W. Dellinger is the features editor of
Angelus.
St. Pope John Paul II greets Sister Mary Elizabeth Galt during a visit to Rome with Cardinal Roger
Mahony in 2004.
Sister Mary Elizabeth Galt and the late Msgr. Royale Vadakin, then the vicar general for the archdiocese,
process into the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels with Archbishop Jose H. Gomez'
coat of arms at his Mass of Installation in 2011.
VICTOR ALEMÁN VICTOR ALEMÁN
18 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

A new chancellor
for LA Catholics
A member of the Sisters of Notre
Dame (SND), Sister Mary Anncarla
Costello is no stranger to the archdiocese,
having served as the Vicar for
Women Religious from 2004 to 2011.
After teaching at high schools in the
LA and Ventura Counties, Sister Mary
Anncarla spent six years in community
administration at the congregational
level at the SND Motherhouse in
Rome, Italy.
“My experience in the archdiocese
gave me a glimpse into the life of
our local Church,” she told Angelus.
“My time in Rome at the heart of the
congregation and the Church gave me
a broader vision into the world beyond
Los Angeles, beyond California, and
beyond the United States.”
Sister Mary Anncarla said she is
thankful for Archbishop José H.
Gomez’s trust in her.
“I view this new ministry as a privilege
to minister with him, my coworkers at
the Archdiocesan Catholic Center and
my sisters and brothers in the archdiocese,”
she said.
She also had words of gratitude for
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me for the years we worked together.”
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done, but for her support as I continue
in her footsteps.”
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Vulnerable continent
The pandemic’s
spread in
Latin America
highlights the
best and worst
of church-state
relations
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN
/ ANGELUS
A man wearing a scarf to protect
from the coronavirus (COVID-19)
walks past a mural of Pope Francis
on Easter, April 12, in Buenos
Aires, Argentina.
CNS PHOTO/MATIAS BAGLIETTO, REUTERS
ROSARIO, Argentina — As most
of Europe and some places in
the United States start to reemerge
from the coronavirus (COV-
ID-19) pandemic lockdowns, most of
Latin America is only now seeing the
numbers grow. As the crisis worsens,
it’s also put a spotlight on church-state
relations in the world’s most heavily
Catholic region, for both good and ill.
Latin America recently surpassed Europe
in the daily number of reported
coronavirus cases, putting the region at
the center of the global outbreak.
To date, Brazil has confirmed nearly
375,000 cases, second only to the
United States, with more than 24,000
deaths from the coronavirus as of May
26, according to a Johns Hopkins
University tally. Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro has been openly hostile
toward coronavirus restrictions, calling
the virus “a little flu.”
Yet this country is far from being
the only one in Latin America where
numbers are growing. The pandemic
is rapidly escalating in Peru, Chile,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua,
and even in Argentina, despite strong
restrictions put in place back in March
20, just 17 days after the first case and
when there were fewer than 250 people
infected at the time.
Coronavirus clusters are still spreading
in Latin America, fueling a spike
in deaths, swamping already-precarious
hospitals and threatening to ravage
slumping economies.
In addition, living in conditions of
poverty makes the virus four times
more deadly than being more than 65
years old. This is a concerning statistic
in a continent where the average age
is lower than in Europe, but that has
31.8% of the population currently poor
and 11.5% living in extreme poverty.
In Pope Francis’ country, this statistic
is no longer a warning but a reality:
90% of total cases are in the Buenos
Aires metropolitan area, and of those,
40% from the slums that are both the
beating heart and the outskirts of the
capital city.
Governments in the region have
responded quite differently. Representing
one extreme is President Daniel
Ortega of Nicaragua, who has refused
to close schools and even advised
people to go out, claiming that the
country is stronger than the virus. He
has openly challenged the Catholic
Church, closing down initiatives by individual
bishops of setting up makeshift
isolation centers.
The relationship between church and
state has long been a strained one in
this country, but has worsened since a
civil uprising in 2018 that saw Catholic
churches across the country becoming
literal “field hospitals” to tend to the
hundreds wounded during clashes
between young people protesting a
reform to the social system, the army,
and government-funded militias.
Nicaragua is the second poorest
country in the Americas, with more
than 6 million people, most of whom
live under the poverty line. But in the
words of Bishop Silvio Baez, auxiliary
of Managua forced into exile due to
the threats to his life, it’s also a nation
20 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

where the Catholic Church is strongly
sacramental and “traditionalist,” but
also extremely close to the people,
with a voice considered relevant and
respected.
During the protests, the Church
found itself in a complex situation,
Bishop Baez argued, with more than
400 dead, thousands disappeared, and
others tortured in prison, with even
more people forced into exile.
“Those who were being attacked and
murdered were people of our parishes,
of our communities, and they came
looking for our support, for words of
comfort, and above all, for protection,”
he said. “We opened the churches, and
we tried to tend to those wounded.”
At the same time, Ortega asked the
Church to mediate in an effort at
national dialogue, so the bishops found
themselves “in a very uncomfortable
position: as pastors of our people, but
also called to be impartial.”
This froze the relationship between
the government and the Church, and
according to Bishop Baez, the time
since saw “the aggression, the persecution,
the injurious attacks against the
Church” continue.
This complicated relationship, worsened
by Ortega’s unwillingness to acknowledge
the danger of the new virus,
has left the local church as an outsider
when it comes to trying to help flatten
the curve and address the social and
economic crisis product of the epidemic,
visible even in this country with no
mandatory lockdown.
On the other extreme is President
Alberto Fernandez of Argentina, who
closed the country very early on —
three days after Italy — and who has
extended the quarantine until June 8,
despite the country being once again
on the brink of default. The original
quarantine was set to buy the chronically
underfunded health system as
much time as possible to try to make
the peak of the curve manageable.
The efforts largely have been successful,
with the country having one of the
lowest rates of contagion in the region.
However, the extension of the lockdown
is leading to social unrest. Even if
the lockdown ends by June 8, which is
not expected, Argentina will have had
the longest quarantine in the world.
But Argentina represents the other
extreme from Nicaragua not only in
terms of the reaction to the pandemic,
but also in the relationship between
the government and the local bishops.
Though there are many differences
between the bishops and the Fernandez
government, especially on social
issues like the legalization of abortion,
Church leaders have echoed the president’s
argument that lives are more
important than the economy.
“A life lost is lost forever, but the
economy can bounce back,” is the
Fernandez argument, which has been
discussed ad nauseum by economics
and TV commentators. Yet in the
words of Cardinal Mario Poli, archbishop
of Buenos Aires, on May 25, “We all
know that defending the people means
an economic meltdown. It would be
sad if we opted for the opposite.”
As the slums of Buenos Aires are the
worst hit both by the raising number
of coronavirus cases and hunger,
Bishop Gustavo Carrara, known as a
“slum bishop” because he lives in the
deprived areas of the capital, believes
collaboration among parishes, social
organizations, and government officials
is more necessary than ever.
“I believe that as a country, we’ve put
our focus on caring for the most vulnerable
ones, and we have to continue
doing so,” the bishop said.
“This pandemic has made everything
we were lacking visible, particularly in
the poorest sectors,” he said. “I believe
that once this is over, we cannot continue
organizing the city, the country,
the world, as we have been doing
thus far, leaving the most vulnerable
behind.”
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian
journalist and Rome bureau chief for
Crux. She is a frequent contributor to
Angelus.
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4:58 PM

Holy unoriginal
Saintliness takes divine
assistance, but having
models to imitate is
important, too
BY JESSICA HOOTEN
WILSON / ANGELUS
"The Baptism of St. Augustine," by Giovanni Battista Speranza, 18th century, in the Basilica di
Sant Agostino, Rome.
SHUTTERSTOCK
If we are honest with ourselves, we
fear Jesus’ command to be perfect as
our heavenly Father is perfect. We
fear it because we know it is not in our
power.
Still, we long for self-improvement.
We make resolutions every New Year’s
about losing weight, reading the Bible
more, finally learning Spanish. We
perceive, even if through a glass darkly,
that we are not as we should be. In
our effort to rectify these frustrating
maladies, we turn to self-love, selfcare,
or self-help. But our efforts don’t
work, not for our lack of trying, but
because of who we are, how we have
been made, and from where our help
comes.
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve,
we have been experiencing this disintegrated
self, this war of two wills, as St.
Augustine describes it in his “Confessions.”
St. Augustine opens the “Confessions”
with a prayer: “In yourself, you rouse
us, giving us delight in glorifying you,
because you made us with yourself as
our goal, and our heart is restless until
it rests in you.”
In one sentence, St. Augustine simplifies
our entire restlessness.
We are all called to be saints. “The
only real sadness, the only real failure,
the only great tragedy in life, is not to
become a saint,” French novelist Léon
Bloy famously wrote. Holiness is a call
to be not of this world, but to be set
apart for the next one.
God has called his people to be holy,
as overwhelming as it might seem. But
we should find it reassuring that our
sanctification does not occur under our
direction. Holiness is not a list of tasks
for us to accomplish; it is God’s work.
Our perfection depends, not on us, but
22 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

on God. His grace refines our nature,
calling us to convert our desires into
his, to change our likeness to reflect
his.
Colleen Carroll Campbell subtitled
her recent book on holiness, “How the
Saints Taught Me to Trade My Dream
of Perfect for God’s.” She writes,
“Christian perfection is not just different
from perfectionism. It’s diametrically
opposed.”
We are not responsible for perfecting
ourselves, so we need not stock our
shelves with self-improvement books
in this endless and disquieting quest
to make ourselves into who we think
God wants us to be. Sanctification is
when God works on us. We cannot
fake it or check enough boxes to make
it happen.
The truth is that we are not the first
human beings to attempt to be holy,
nor will we be the last. The call to
sanctity is meant for all of us, and we
can be uplifted by stories of others who
lived and died faithfully. St. Paul writes
in Romans, “We can be encouraged by
the faithfulness we find in each other,
both your faithfulness and mine.”
While “all God’s children are his
saints,” the theologian James William
McClendon writes, in the sainthood
we share through Jesus Christ, “we
are to be strengthened by one another’s
faith.” Reading others’ stories will
increase our faith by surrounding us
with a community of faithful followers,
what the Letter to the Hebrews calls
the “great cloud of witnesses.”
“Following” is the main directive
that Jesus gives to us in this journey
to perfection. When the rich young
man asks him what else he should do
in addition to adhering to all of the
commandments of God’s law, Jesus
replies: “If you want to be perfect …
follow me.” Rather than a sequel to
the Ten Commandments, the New
Testament offers Christians the story of
how Jesus embodied obedience to God
and invites us to imitate his life.
When Jesus commands, “Follow me!”
he is saying “both what you should do
and how you should do it,” according
to the biblical scholar N.T. Wright.
Here Jesus extends far beyond the
Pharisees’ legalism or Aristotle’s virtuous
road to happiness.
“Jesus is challenging the young
man to a transformation of character,”
Wright explains, adding, “You can
divide theories about human behavior
into two: either you obey rules imposed
from the outside, or you discover the
deepest longings of your own heart and
try to go with them.”
On the one hand, legalism. On the
other hand, Disney’s “follow your
dream.” What Jesus is commanding is
something radically different: to follow
him.
While our knowledge of who Christ is
should come first from the Bible, most
of us received our faith from persons in
our lives who live out the Gospel and
shared it with us. Our sanctification
happens within the Church, the living
body of Christ. We imitate those lives
that surround us, so our sanctification
may be encouraged by the company
we keep, the models we choose to
follow.
While the hair on our neck may
prickle at the notion of “imitating,” we
have never done anything but imitate.
The idea of absolute originality
is a lie. Think of how you learned a
language (rather than invent one), how
you decide what foods you like, what
college football team you support, what
you enjoy wearing or what hobbies you
take up.
The reality is that we all have models,
whether or not we realize it. To draw
on the philosophy of the French historian
René Girard, human beings are
“mimetic” creatures. Girard discovered
this idea of mimesis by reading
SHUTTERSTOCK
novels, but his idea is biblical. If we do
not choose whom to imitate, we will
slavishly follow someone or something
without recognizing it.
Every culture has heroes; every culture
chooses whom to remember and
whom to revere. In 21st-century America,
we exalt political leaders, even
sometimes to the point of worship. We
read more stories about celebrities we
will never meet and whose ethics are
as loosely defined as the majority of the
secular world.
Each year, we gorge on films meant
to make us feel for the victories or defeats
of superheroes, without reflecting
on whether these figures display eternal
verities.
If the Church decides not to uplift
saints, its members will worship the
alternative heroes offered by culture.
Our impulse to exalt or imitate others
will not be lessened, even if we choose
to neglect the saints. Either we model
saints, or we will unwittingly imitate
the substitutes offered by this world.
That is because imitation is written
into reality, and it has been since God
created us as a reflection of his image.
In Genesis, we read, “God created
human beings in his image.” The dust
that was fashioned into our humanity
was crafted according to a particular
mold.
After the fall, when this shape becomes
distorted, God descends as Jesus
Christ to show us our rightful image.
The incarnate God asks us to follow
him, to do what he does, to live like he
lives. His disciples imitate him, which
is what makes them disciples.
We cannot concoct holiness on our
own, decide what it looks like without
examples, or try to become holy
without other people. The goal, as the
saints know, is to be remade into his
likeness.
Rather than work without success to
be wholly original, we should practice
becoming what we were always meant
to be — holy unoriginal — in imitation
of the God who is our origin and
will ever be our end.
Jessica Hooten Wilson teaches
literature at John Brown University
in Arkansas. Her most recent book is
“Reading Walker Percy’s Novels” (LSU
Press, $27).
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 23

In full Bloomsday
He may have disavowed being a Catholic, but
there’s plenty of evidence James Joyce never
stopped thinking like one
BY MIKE AQUILINA / ANGELUS
EVERETT HISTORICAL/SHUTTERSTOCK
June 16 is Bloomsday, the day when all the
action takes place in James Joyce’s novel
“Ulysses.” It’s observed especially in Dublin,
Ireland, but also in Irish pubs around the
world. The holiday is named for the novel’s
protagonist, Leopold Bloom.
Among certain Catholics and literary
scholars an argument will arise, as it does
every year: Was he or wasn’t he?
Since the death of James Joyce in
1941, scholars have contended fiercely
over the state of his soul. Anyone who’s
read his work knows that it’s suffused
with Catholic ritual, philosophy,
doctrine, and culture. But why? Was
Joyce writing as a Catholic? Or an
anti-Catholic?
The poet T.S. Eliot held that
Joyce’s work was “penetrated
with Christian feeling.” And
on Eliot’s side of the question
stand media theorist Marshall
McLuhan, novelist Anthony
Burgess, critic Hugh Kenner,
psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, and
other cultural luminaries.
Joyce’s close friend, the writer and
social critic Mary Colum, wrote that
she had “never known anyone with a
mind so fundamentally Catholic in
structure as Joyce’s own, or one on
whom the Church, its ceremonies,
symbols, and theological declarations
had made such an impress. ... The
Scholastic was the only philosophy he
had ever considered seriously.”
Joyce himself boasted, in a
poem, that his mind had been
“steeled in the school of old
Aquinas.” He wept every
year during the Holy Week
liturgies. And the poet William
Carlos Williams James Joyce in 1922.
once
24 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

SHUTTERSTOCK
A reenactment of a scene from James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” by the Joycestagers in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland, on Bloomsday, June 16, 2016.
saw him gravely refuse to lift his glass
when a wag proposed a toast “to sin.”
And yet Joyce did declare himself
apostate. To Nora Barnacle, the woman
he would later marry, he wrote in
1904:
“Six years ago I left the Catholic
church, hating it most fervently. I
found it impossible for me to remain
in it on account of the impulses of
my nature. I made secret war upon it
when I was a student and declined to
accept the positions it offered me. By
doing this I made myself a beggar, but
I retained my pride. Now I make open
war upon it by what I write and say
and do.”
These words seem to undermine
the case put forth by Eliot and others.
And there is ample material in Joyce’s
works to make the case that his “open
war” raged on for decades. Though
Colum believed the novel “Ulysses”
to be “one of the most Catholic
books ever written,” many Catholics
condemned it as blasphemous and
pornographic.
Now comes to the discussion Father
Colum Power, a many-degreed
scholar and priest of the Servants of
the Home of the Mother. For readers
of Joyce he has written an invaluable
book: “James Joyce’s Catholic Categories”
(Wiseblood Books, $50).
Wisely, Father Power has chosen
to limit the question to what can be
known. He does not place bets on
whether Joyce wrote as a Catholic
or whether he died in the state of
grace. Indeed, he begins his study by
acknowledging Joyce’s apostasy.
Joyce, baptized and educated as a
Catholic, became an apostate. The
goal is not to reclaim him for Catholicism,
but to discover what kind of
an apostate he became, how far his
apostasy from Catholicism took him
from religious belief. When faith is
lost, how does Catholicism survive?
How does it manifest its lingering
influence? Joyce was confoundingly
capable of intense aversion and vehement
diatribe toward the Catholic
Church, and, almost simultaneously,
of a nuanced and favorable disposition
toward the historical Catholic
contribution.
The subsequent discussion is substantial.
Father Power’s book runs just
shy of 400 pages, and it provides rich
historical and biographical context for
an informed reading of Joyce’s stories.
Father Power engages the relevant arguments
about Joyce’s aesthetics. Was
he a realist or a relativist? Do his unconventional
narratives depict a world
devoid of meaning and coherence, or
a world so rich that it overflows the
devices of conventional narrative?
Joyce’s most extensive reflections
on art appear in his novel “A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man.” They
belong to the novel’s protagonist,
Stephen Dedalus, and it is at least
debatable whether Joyce would claim
them as his own.
It is fascinating, however, that Dedalus
works out his aesthetics in the
language of Thomism, the Christian
philosophy Joyce had learned from
the Jesuits at prep school. St. Thomas
Aquinas himself composed no sustained
treatment of aesthetics, so what
Joyce places in the mouth of Dedalus
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 25

is an original contribution, a synthesis
that would be engaged by later philosophers,
including Umberto Eco.
Joyce consistently appropriated the
language of Catholicism — most
famously, the word epiphany — to
express his ideas about art. He spoke
about the artist as “priest of the eternal
imagination.”
In the course of his analysis, Father
Power provides a close and sensitive
reading of Joyce’s works; and in doing
so he reminds us why we should care
in the first place. Joyce’s stories and
novels are heartbreakingly beautiful
works of art.
His first book, “Dubliners,” was a
collection of short fiction. Most of
the stories are compact, the narratives
spare, and every detail counts.
Every detail signifies. Father Power
has a genius for noticing the details
and conveying their significance. He
remarks, for example, on an easily
glossed-over, quite common verb in
the last sentence of “A Painful Case”
— “He felt that he was alone.”
In the word felt, Father Power detects
a final note of hope in a story most
readers judge to be despairing. The
protagonist, a man unfeeling, loveless,
and atheist, is aware of his emotions
for the first time.
To understand Joyce properly — and
especially his relation to the Church
— we must, says Father Power,
understand Ireland at that particular
moment in history. After the devastation
of the Potato Famine, the country
rebounded with a nationalist movement,
which emphasized Catholic
identity — but a kind of Catholicism
that looked like Victorian Protestant
respectability.
It was a dour hybrid, keen on self-denial
and suspicious of pleasure. Father
Power refers to this form of religion
as “agape without eros” — a devotion
that is sacrificial, but joyless.
The Irish Church was also sick with
clericalism, a disordered exaltation
of the status of priests. According to
Father Power, “The clericalist distortion
of Christianity” led to “religious
aristocratism,” much to the detriment
of lay spirituality.
This leads Father Power to make a
crucial distinction between anti-Catholicism
and anticlericalism. Joyce,
he says, “was deeply anticlerical
because he disliked the institutional
form taken by Catholicism in the Ireland
of his youth.” Yet “he remained
haunted by the essences of the religion
he only seemed to flout.”
When a close friend, a French
Catholic named Marie Jolas, took
offense at one of Joyce’s remarks,
he explained: “Ah, it’s different in
France. In Ireland Catholicism is
black magic.”
In leaving Ireland, Joyce exiled
himself from his native country — yet
went on to write about nothing but
Dublin. He rejected the Irish Church
and yet he was able to express himself
only in “Catholic categories.”
Joyce’s brother Stanislaus, an atheist,
acknowledged this, saying that James,
to the end, “considered Catholic
philosophy to be the most coherent
attempt to establish … intellectual
and material stability.”
In a surprising turn, Father Power
identifies a kindred spirit for Joyce in
Saint Josemaría Escrivá. The Spanish
priest was roughly Joyce’s contemporary,
and he shared Joyce’s horror
of clericalism as well as his desire to
epiphanize the faith in material ways
and in ordinary life.
In synthesizing the thought of these
two men, Father Power concludes the
book by proposing “a Christian aesthetic
of the ordinary.” The stunning
example of this comes in a climactic
scene in Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist,”
when Dedalus is moved to ecstasy by
the sight of a young woman playing at
the beach:
“He was alone. He was unheeded,
happy and near to the wild heart of
life. ... Heavenly God! cried Stephen’s
soul, in an outburst of profane joy.”
For Dedalus, as for St. Josemaría,
there is no inherent contradiction between
the sacred (“Heavenly God!”)
and such pure and “profane joy”
experienced in the world.
“James Joyce’s Catholic Categories”
is not the first book to explore Joyce’s
relationship to Catholicism. Hugh
Kenner did it in “Dublin’s Joyce.”
William T. Noon, SJ, did it in “Joyce
and Aquinas.” Kevin Sullivan did it in
“Joyce Among the Jesuits.” Mary and
Padraic Colum set out to do it in their
memoir. Anthony Burgess did it most
memorably, though briefly, in his
wildly entertaining study “Re Joyce.”
But no one has taken up the task
as systematically and thoroughly as
Father Power. His book has flaws. It
began, as many literary investigations
do, as a doctoral dissertation, and
it still bears the telltale marks: the
cumbersome apparatus, the numbered
outline played out in subheads
(“III.4.4.2: The End”), and the occasional
repetitions and redundancies.
The book’s most glaring fault is its
omission of any discussion of “Finnegans
Wake,” Joyce’s last novel (if it can
be called a novel), which he spent 16
years writing. “Finnegans Wake” is
experimental and essentially different
from Joyce’s other works; so its omission
is understandable, but its absence
calls for a word of explanation.
This is, even so, the book that some
of us have wanted for decades. It
marks Father Power’s debut as an
author. I confess I’m eager to buy his
next book.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor
to Angelus and the author of many
books, including “How Christianity
Saved Civilization … And Must Do
So Again” (Sophia Institute Press,
$18.95).
26 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

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INTERSECTIONS
BY GREG ERLANDSON
Regina Weaver
of Fort Smith,
Arkansas, waits
in line to file for
unemployment
April 6 during
the coronavirus
(COVID-19)
pandemic.
Avoiding a return to normal
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/NICK OXFORD, REUTERS
As we ricochet between tragedy
and farce in this time of pandemic,
perhaps we need a bit of
the gothic as well.
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The
Masque of the Red Death,” seems
appropriate. It tells the tale of Prince
Prospero, whose country is being
ravaged by a hideous plague called
the “Red Death.” Prospero rounds up
his posse of “hale and light-hearted
friends” and retreats to a remote palace
to “part-ay” and “chillax” as we might
explain it today.
The prince orders the doors welded
shut so no one can enter or leave. Poe
tells us: “With such precautions the
courtiers might bid defiance to contagion.
The external world could take
care of itself.” As one might expect with
Poe, all does not end well.
I thought of Poe’s story when reading
of a recent study reporting that wealthy
New Yorkers got out of town once the
coronavirus (COVID-19) hit. Between
March 1 and May 1, 5% of New Yorkers
left the city, but 40 percent of those
living in wealthy neighborhoods like
the upper west and east sides fled.
While the city was ravaged by the
coronavirus, those with means vamoosed
to the Hamptons, letting “the
external world take care of itself.”
Unlike the partygoers in Poe’s tale,
the New York elite may come out
of all this just fine, with both their
health and their portfolios relatively
unscathed. But all around them, the
land of Prince Prospero has suffered a
grievous wound.
The pandemic has exposed a host of
our weaknesses.
It exposed our educational divide.
While wealthy school districts were
able to transition to remote learning
with relative ease, poor schools already
suffering from scarce resources were
incapable of adequately teaching
children whose families literally and
figuratively do not have the bandwidth
needed.
An estimated 42 million Americans
still have little or no access to the
internet. One of my daughters, who
teaches English as a Second Language,
estimates she is reaching only 10% of
her students during this time of remote
learning. Families cannot provide what
they do not have, and those without
fall further behind.
It exposed our health care divide,
where millions who lost their jobs
also lost their health insurance. Now
rural communities, which have been
suffering from a scarcity of health care
resources for decades, are in the path
of the pandemic. The courage of our
health care workers and the prowess
of our research community are being
offset by a system in which our most
vulnerable are left exposed outside our
gates, incentivized or threatened to
work even when sick.
Likewise, the pandemic has exposed
our racial and age divides, with African
Americans, Native Americans and
Hispanics suffering disproportionately
from the ravages of the virus. Our
elderly citizens also have paid a higher
price, as well as the often poorly paid
workers who care for them.
28 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

We shall see how this all plays out,
but as with other crises, those already
blessed may flourish, while those with
less will suffer more and the divide between
them will grow. If the jobs and
the tax dollars are slow to come back,
the next temptation will be to “tighten
belts,” code for cutting benefits and
social services to further hurt those
communities already most hurt by the
disease.
A gloomy March 15 New York Times
article predicted that the pandemic
was likely to “widen the socioeconomic
divides that are thought to be
major drivers of right-wing populism,
racial animosity and deaths of despair
— those resulting from alcoholism,
suicide, or drug overdoses.”
It’s a driver of left-wing populism as
well. As one Italian factory worker was
quoted as saying, “Who cares about
the workers’ health while the rich run
away?”
All of this sad chronicle is reason to
hope that we do not run away from the
lessons to be learned from this crisis,
that we do not too quickly return to a
socially dysfunctional “normal.”
What is needed instead is a new
national commitment to the common
good, and a rejection of the “every man
for himself” ethos that has pitted states
against states and communities against
communities during this crisis.
Pope Francis in “The Joy of the
Gospel” wrote that a commitment to
the common good means “acting as
committed and responsible citizens,
not as a mob swayed by the powers that
be.” And Catholics are called to support
those programs that “best respond
to the dignity of each person and the
common good.”
For the pope, there is an opportunity
in this tragedy: “May the difficulties of
this time make us discover communion
among us, the unity that is always
superior to every division,” he prayed
recently.
In Poe’s ending, “Darkness and Decay
and the Red Death held illimitable
dominion over all.” Our tale can have
a different conclusion, but that will be
an ending only we can write.
Greg Erlandson is president and editor-in-chief
of Catholic News Service.
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 29
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5/6/20 3:32 PM

Not sure
about dad
New Apple TV+
film struggles
to capture the
real meaning
and worth of
fatherhood
BY SOPHIA
MARTINSON /
ANGELUS
Bryce Dallas Howard, director of "Dads" and her father, Ron Howard.
IMDB
the following sentence:
A father is…”
“Finish
In the upcoming Apple
TV+ documentary “Dads,” the responses
to this challenge vary widely.
“My compass,” says one celebrity dad.
“A hero?” proposes another. And with a
nervous laugh, a third responds, “Who
knows?”
These answers, along with many
others in the film, offer a snapshot of
mainstream culture’s understanding of
fatherhood, one with several kernels of
truth, but also plenty of confusion.
Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of
Academy Award-winning director
Ron Howard (“Apollo 13,” “A Beautiful
Mind”), directs this 87-minute
documentary scheduled for release
on Father's Day weekend. In a film
composed almost entirely of interviews
with dads (including her own father
and grandfather), Howard presents
firsthand fatherhood experiences, from
celebrities to stay-at-home dads.
From the outset, the film acknowledges
the elephant in the room: In today’s
society, the definition of fatherhood is
fluid, evasive, and sometimes controversial.
But we still celebrate Father’s
Day, and Howard is determined to
find out what true fatherhood means.
While the film does highlight some
great dads, it fails to reach that central
goal.
This hardly comes as a surprise.
After all, Howard seeks an answer that
today’s culture cannot give.
To be fair, the film is not entirely at a
loss about the essence of fatherhood.
Throughout, the conversations portray
human fatherhood as something more
profound than mere biological reproduction.
Rather, an instinctive love
and commitment awakens in men who
have brought children into the world.
Regardless of background or belief,
every father in the film has a deep
sense of responsibility. Will Smith
recalls how he drove home from the
hospital with his wife and first child
with extreme caution. Jimmy Fallon
describes how the birth of his daughter
transformed his sense of identity:
“I’m no longer Jimmy Fallon — I’m
Winnie’s dad.”
Countless others express how with the
birth of their children, they suddenly
realized that life is no longer about
them, and that they would willingly
sacrifice anything to help their children
thrive. For all of them, to even
think of abandoning their post would
be catastrophic, both for their children
and themselves.
However, this natural sense of fatherly
responsibility can only take us so far,
and as a result, this film fails to capture
three essential aspects of fatherhood:
a gift to humanity, a gift to men, and a
gift to marriage.
First, although “Dads” recognizes
that human fatherhood has a special
nobility, it cannot explain why. As secularization
has seeped into our society, it
has triggered a widespread rejection of
the faith that reminds us of our Father
in heaven, who gives us life and the
ability to beget life in his image and
likeness.
St. Pope John Paul II discusses this
gift in his encyclical on the family,
“Familiaris Consortio” (“The Fellowship
of the Family”). “When they
30 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

Howard.
IMDB
become parents, spouses receive from
God the gift of a new responsibility,”
he writes. “Their parental love is called
to become for the children the visible
sign of the very love of God.”
Several interviewees do express
a sense of awe, unworthiness, and
gratitude for their fatherhood. But
often, this sense of gift disintegrates.
As the film hints on several occasions,
modern technology now allows for
reproduction through artificial means,
such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.
These technologies, which several
featured dads have used, encourage a
mindset in which children are not so
much as received as they are obtained.
The removal of the appreciation for
this gift is a severe blow to the dignity
of fatherhood, which was designed
and bestowed in a way that we neither
chose nor deserved.
Second, “Dads” trades in a reverence
for fatherhood as manhood for a vague,
neutral sense of parenthood. Indeed,
one might wonder whether the film
could be called “Male Parents” rather
than “Dads.”
At no point does anyone suggest that
what dads offer kids might differ from
what moms offer. One dad even makes
the point, “Other than pregnancy,
birth, and breastfeeding, a man can
do everything else.” This could very
well be true, but without any acknowledgement
of unique virtues that great
fathers manifest, the film gives the
impression that men and women are
interchangeable.
What would have been even more
enlightening would be to note how
men in particular can help their
children in a way that women cannot
automatically replace. Dr. Jeffrey
Shears, a professor in the Department
of Social Work at the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro,
has researched the importance of
fatherhood throughout his career. In
a 2015 lecture at Princeton University,
Shears described the impacts
that fathers have on the lives of their
children.
“Fathers offer something unique,”
he said. For example, they tend to be
more involved in physical, “rough
and tumble” play with their children
than mothers are. Often, he noted,
when a father walks into the living
room where his toddler is playing
quietly, he will scoop the child up
and toss him or her into the air.
Unfortunately, our culture’s newfound
aversion to celebrating the
difference between men and women
prevents the film from paying tribute
to these fatherly qualities. As a result,
it dilutes the singular value of fatherhood
as its own parental role.
Finally, “Dads” sadly misses the fact
that fatherhood is a gift to marriage.
In some moments, interviewees mention
the importance of parents working
as a team. But overall, the film
dedicates a disproportionate amount
of time to father figures who are not
A father holds his daughter during Mass at St. Stanislaus Church in Langlade, Wisconsin, in 2018.
BRAD BIRKHOLZ/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
in a committed marital relationship
with their children’s mother, including
an unmarried dad and a gay couple.
While these examples present
affectionate and selfless men, they also
reinforce the film’s message that fatherhood
can be analyzed in a vacuum.
In the same Princeton lecture, Shears
echoed extensive research showing that
in order to have the best impact on his
children, a good father must have a
strong relationship with their mother.
A healthy relationship between mom
and dad is crucial, he said, because
“women internalize how they will be
treated, how they see the world, based
on not necessarily how you treat them,
but how you treat their mother.”
Shears acknowledged that good
fathers can and do exist outside of
marriage — as several examples in the
film reflect — but ultimately, the ideal
for both the parents and the children is
marriage.
Of course, we live in a world in which
many families do not have that ideal.
This does not prevent countless men
from being excellent fathers, but to
regard marriage and the mother-father
relationship as completely unrelated
to quality fatherhood is a disappointing
oversight.
In a culture that tends to avoid conversations
about gender, family values,
and parenting for fear of offending
others, “Dads” sets out on the noble
mission of honoring and analyzing that
still more noble title of “Dad.”
But apart from a few heartwarming
examples of fatherly devotion, the
film provides no more than a hesitant,
bland idea of fatherhood itself.
As a result, it creates more questions
than answers. It leaves the audience
wondering, “What even is a father?”
“How are fathers any different from
mothers?” “How much do kids really
need fathers?” But since these crucial
questions are too dicey for our culture
to discuss, “Dads” cannot or will not
answer them.
Families need more than that — and
fathers deserve more than that.
“Dads” will be available for streaming
June 19.
Sophia Martinson is a writer living in
New York City.
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 31

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
What we’re made for
In a pandemic, reopened cemeteries reveal the beauty
of being around other people in prayer
Resurrection Cemetery in Rosemead.
JOHNMICHAEL FILIPPONE
Death has been much on everyone’s
minds lately. Our own,
possibly; the deaths of those
who have fallen to the coronavirus
(COVID-19); death in general.
Cemeteries were one of the first public
places upon which restrictions were
lifted. As of mid-May, the archdiocese’s
11 Catholic cemeteries were open for
visitation Monday through Saturday
from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays
from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The news came as a comfort to many.
And since the communion of saints —
the spiritual union of the members of
the Christian Church, living and dead
— is about as close to Mass as we can
get now, last week I thought to visit
Resurrection Cemetery in Rosemead.
Which, if you’ve never been there, is
a massive green space of rolling hills
in the middle of the city, with views
of the San Gabriel Valley and Mountains
to the north. It has shade trees,
benches and statues of saints. It has
tucked-away sections and a mausoleum
and a visitor’s center, and enough
paved road so you can take an actual
hourlong walk.
I don’t know anyone who’s buried
there, but that didn’t matter.
People often ask me to pray for them.
I take such requests seriously, and if at
all possible, I try to go a teeny bit out
of my way. I’ll walk the half-hour to a
nearby church and pray a rosary in the
32 • ANGELUS • June 5-12, 2020

A woman tends to flowers at a grave in Resurrection Cemetery May 27.
JOHNMICHAEL FILIPPONE
semead.
JOHNMICHAEL FILIPPONE
Mary grotto there, for example, or the
Stations of the Cross.
So that’s what I did at Resurrection
Cemetery.
I walked, and I prayed the Glorious
Mysteries for the suffering of the
world, and I checked out the people.
Thirstily, I checked out the people! I
hadn’t been among that many human
beings, in the flesh, for weeks.
A man in work boots, his skin weathered
by the sun, tenderly clipped the
grass around a gravestone. Women
unwrapped snacks, corralled kids,
smoothed blankets on the grass. A
father, mother, and little daughter
had set up shop beneath an umbrella,
ranchera music playing softly from
their car radio.
Strolling along in the sun, pesky mask
in place, I waved at anyone whose
eye I could catch, or said “Hey,” and
failing that, greeted everyone silently.
A group of teens, one with bright
blue hair, streamed across the lawn
with pots of pink azaleas. A couple of
guys on lowrider motorcycles tooled
in. A few minutes later I saw them,
helmets off, heads bowed over a stone,
discussing how to place their several
bouquets of flowers.
All around, people knelt by the graves
of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters,
uncles, aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers,
and friends.
I thought back to the first Mass I’d
attended as a sincere seeker, a worshipper.
It was a weekday noon Mass, in the
mid-1990s, at St. Basil’s in Koreatown.
I’d been raised Protestant. But to see
people of all ages, races, and demographics
kneeling, before an altar, in
the middle of a bustling city and the
middle of the day, was that first time a
shocking sight. The intimacy was such
that I almost thought I should turn my
head.
The hushed silence, the smell of
incense and wax, the shafts of light
filtering high above through stained
glass, the bowed heads: all spoke of the
intersection of time and eternity.
That sense of consecrated time and
space eventually led me to convert.
That sense of consecrated time and
space is what I’ve missed most during
lockdown.
We’ve all suited up, showed up,
soldiered on. “It’s not that bad,” we’ve
told ourselves. “I can do this.” I, for
one, have found the livestream Masses
a lifeline. Daily from my room I thank
the many people who go into putting
them on, from the priest on down.
But the fact is a livestream Mass is
not a real Mass, not by a long shot.
The fact is we are not made for
masks, and shields, and gloves, and a
life lived in front of a laptop.
We’re made for the smell of grass,
and sharing food with friends, and
kneeling on the consecrated ground
beneath which a person we love has
been buried.
We’re made for breathing the same
air, and looking one another in the
eye, and the real body and real blood
of Our Lord.
And it took walking through a
cemetery, among his people, for me to
realize how incredibly deeply I have
missed him.
Before leaving, I got to use a public
restroom for the first time in two
months. That, too, was a thrill; a sign
of normalcy. We’re together again. The
world is getting back to the business
of life.
“And after this, our exile, show unto us
the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin
Mary.
Pray for us O Holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.”
Heather King is a blogger, speaker, and the author of several books.
June 5-12, 2020 • ANGELUS • 33

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