Angelus News | August 14-21-28, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 22

ANGELUS
HOPE is in the air
How the Church is taking the sacraments
outside for summer
August 14-21-28, 2020 Vol. 5 No. 22

Wo
ON THE COVER
An infant is baptized outdoors at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, or “La Placita,” near
downtown LA Aug. 1. While a July 13 order by Gov. Gavin Newsom closing churches in
California once again left Catholics disappointed, this time the mandate allowed for an important
exception: holding religious services outdoors. On Page 10, Christa Chavez reports
on what moving the sacraments outside has looked like for LA Catholics so far this summer.
IMAGE:
“Emcee” Archbishop José H. Gomez poses with young people after
Mass at this year’s City of Saints Teen Conference at St. Monica
Church in Santa Monica Aug. 1. Branded as a “live interactive
experience,” the conference was held virtually this year for the
first time due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
SARAH YAKLIC

eople after
Monica
active
for the
Contents
Pope Watch 2
Archbishop Gomez 3
World, Nation, and Local News 4-6
Scott Hahn on Scripture 8
Father Rolheiser 9
Photos: An outdoors ordination for the history books 16
How the archdiocese’s immigration office makes a difference 18
The Catholic Church’s growing woes in Nicaragua 22
How remembering mortality in a pandemic can be comforting 24
Grazie Christie on how the Church can beat Bostock 26
Could an ‘A-list formula’ make ‘Fatima’ a pandemic classic? 28
A 1940s memoir that charts a spiritual awakening for us all 32

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August 14-21-28, 2020
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2 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020
POPE WATCH
Let’s have a talk
In light of the ongoing coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic and social and
environmental crises worldwide, Pope
Francis announced he would begin a
new series of general audience talks
aimed at helping build “the future that
we need.”
“In the next few weeks, I invite you to
tackle together the pressing questions
that the pandemic has brought to the
fore, social ills above all. And we will
do it in the light of the Gospel, of the
theological virtues and of the principles
of the Church’s social doctrine,” he
said Aug. 5 during his weekly general
audience.
“We will explore together how our
Catholic social tradition can help the
human family heal this world that
suffers from serious illnesses,” the pope
said.
He began his talk with noting how
the pandemic is continuing to bring
illness and death to so many people
and “cause deep wounds, exposing our
vulnerability.”
“Many people and many families are
living in a time of uncertainty because
of socio-economic problems which
especially affect the poorest,” he said.
By keeping their focus on Christ,
Christians can find strength and
healing in the Gospel and the virtues
of faith, hope, and charity, he said.
These are gifts from God “that heal
us and that make us healers, gifts that
open us to new horizons, even while
we are navigating the difficult waters of
our time.”
The pope said people need to renew
their experience with the Gospel,
which “invites us to assume a creative
and renewed spirit. In this way, we will
be able to transform the roots of our
physical, spiritual, and social infirmities
and the destructive practices that separate
us from each other, threatening
the human family and our planet.”
Jesus offers so many examples of
healing, not just physical and individual
afflictions, but spiritual, relational,
and societal ills as well, he said.
As disciples of Jesus, “we can ask ourselves:
Today, in what way can we help
heal our world?” because his disciples
are also called to continue his work of
healing and salvation “in a physical,
social, and spiritual sense.”
The Church offers the sacraments,
concrete charity, and care, but it is “not
an expert in the prevention or the cure
of the pandemic. She helps with the
sick, but she is not an expert,” the pope
said.
Neither does the Church give specific
socio-political policies because “this is
the job of political and social leaders,”
who, however, can be guided by the
light of the Gospel, he added.
Over the centuries, the Church has
developed many social principles “that
can help us move forward in preparing
the future that we need.”
He said those main principles are:
the dignity of the person; the common
good; the preferential option for
the poor; the universal destination
of goods; solidarity; subsidiarity; and
the care for the planet, “our common
home.”
“These principles help the leaders,
those responsible for society, to foster
growth and also, as in the case of the
pandemic, the healing of the personal
and social fabric,” he said.
“It is my desire that everyone reflect
and work together, as followers of Jesus
who heals, to construct a better world,
full of hope for future generations,”
said Pope Francis.
Papal Prayer Intention for August: We pray for all those who work and live from
the sea, among them sailors, fishermen, and their families.

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Priests of the pandemic generation
On Aug. 8, Archbishop José H.
Gomez ordained eight new priests in
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ first
outdoor ordination, made necessary
because of restrictions on worship due
to the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly
70,000 people participated through the
archdiocese’s social media channels.
For photos from the ceremony, see Pages
16–17 of this issue, or visit lacatholics.
org/ordination. The following is adapted
from the archbishop’s homily.
This is a beautiful day in the life of
the family of God here in the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles.
The priesthood is so important, not
only for the Church, but also for the
whole world. Every priest is a sign of
God’s love, a sign that he is still working
in the world, still carrying out his
plan of redemption.
Today, Our Lord is sending these
men out to be messengers of his
merciful love, stewards of his holy mysteries,
and teachers of the truth about
God and the sanctity and dignity of the
human person.
Dear Filiberto, Daniel, Michael, Jonathan,
Justin, Thomas, Manuel, and
Louie: Jesus is speaking to each one of
you today, personally: “It was not you
who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit
that will remain.”
And your ordination today is historic.
My brothers, you are the first priests
of the pandemic generation. And you
will play an important role in the
Church’s healing and rebuilding of
our society in the wake of this deadly
disease that has swept away so many of
our certainties and securities.
The Church in this moment is called
to go out to the places where people
are hurting and suffering, the places
that Pope Francis calls the “existential
peripheries.”
The words of the prophet Isaiah
speak to your particular mission as
priests: “He has sent me to bring good
news to the afflicted, to bind up the
brokenhearted … to comfort all who
mourn.”
Brothers, in a special way, you must
bring hope and help to restore people’s
trust in the love of God and his mercy.
And the way we do that is by the way
we love.
Jesus tells us today in the Gospel,
“This is my commandment: love one
another as I love you. No one has
greater love than this, to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends.”
A priest should always be transparent.
People should be able to “see right
through you,” and through you, see
the love of Christ.
Brothers, before all else, you must “be
Jesus” for your people. Not only when
you proclaim his word, or celebrate
the sacred mysteries at the altar. But
in all things. Speak of his love, share
his wisdom and knowledge. Tell the
stories of his life. Try to be a living
example of his tender mercy.
Brothers, permit me to offer just two
brief words of advice as we prepare to
confer this holy sacrament upon you.
First, always seek the heart of Christ.
Our Lord’s heart is gentle and humble.
Ask him to make your hearts humble
and gentle, too. Humility is the
secret strength of the priestly ministry.
Yes, it is true, the priest has a rare and
noble duty in the family of God. As
we heard in today’s second reading,
the priest is set apart to be our “repre-
sentative before God.” But that doesn’t
mean that the priest is superior to
those he serves. Every priest is a sinner
called to holiness, just like every other
baptized believer.
So, open your heart to the heart of
Jesus, the heart that was pierced on
the cross out of love for all humanity.
Love with the heart of Jesus and carry
out your daily ministry in quiet acts of
mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
One more word of advice: Love the
holy Mass, my brothers! Make the
celebration of the Eucharist the center
of each day. Live for the Mass, and live
from the Mass!
At the altar, you are truly Christ,
standing in “persona Christi.” Never
take this for granted! Always do holy
things in a holy way, knowing that
in your hands you hold the bread of
eternal life!
Brothers, today Our Lord is calling
you to friendship — “I have called
you friends,” he says. What a beautiful
and rare gift. Give him everything
you have, all that you are. All your
thoughts and actions, your sacrifices
and sufferings. Give him your voice,
your hands, your heart.
Brothers and sisters, let’s pray for our
newly ordained, and for all our priests
in this difficult time. Let’s also pray for
vocations to the priesthood, that many
more men will hear Our Lord’s call to
follow him and to be his friends.
Brothers, my personal prayer is that
you stay close always to our Blessed
Mother Mary. Call on her as a child,
love her as your mother. I ask her
intercession now for your priesthood.
Through Mary, may you draw closer
to her Son and become ever more like
him.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
Spanish cardinal defies ‘unfair’ COVID-19 restriction
Calls for solidarity
after Beirut blasts
Cardinal Juan José Omella celebrates the Mass for COVID-19 victims at the Basílica de la Sagrada Família.
When the government of Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region announced a
10-person limit for religious events in July due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, the
timing could not have been worse: Invitations to a funeral Mass with the archbishop
of Barcelona for coronavirus victims a few days away had already been sent.
So Cardinal Juan José Omella went ahead and celebrated the July 26 Mass with
some 150 people following social distancing measures, mandatory masks, and
temperature checks.
“It is a provision that seems unfair and discriminatory to us, taking into account
that we have been very careful and respectful in maintaining the sanitary regulations
required for closed spaces,” said Cardinal Omella of the restrictions.
Cardinal Omella, who threatened to “initiate the appropriate legal actions”
against the restrictions, noted the discrepancy between allowing up to 1,000 tourists
inside the famous Basílica de la Sagrada Família, where the funeral took place,
but restricting religious services to just 10 people.
Vatican nixes collective language in baptisms
There is no “I” in “team,” but there is in baptism, according to the Vatican.
In an Aug. 6 statement, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
announced that in the baptismal rite, the formula “I baptize you in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” cannot be
replaced by “We baptize you, etc.”
The statement came in response to a question about the modified phrase
and clarified that any baptism performed without the Church-prescribed
formula is invalid.
While acknowledging the pastoral desire to recognize family, godparents,
or other community members, the congregation stressed the importance
of the words “handed down by tradition” indicating a sacramental act by
Christ, acting through an individual minister.
“No group can make itself Church,” the statement reads, “but becomes
Church in virtue of a call that cannot arise from within the assembly
itself.”
RAMON RIPOLI/ARCHDIOCESE OF BARCELONA
Maronite Catholics around the
world are calling for solidarity with the
people of Lebanon in the wake of the
massive explosion Aug. 4 that killed at
least 150 and injured thousands more
in the country’s capital.
Among the approximately 35% of
Lebanese who are Christian, most are
Maronite, an Eastern rite within the
Catholic Church.
“The Church … today finds itself
faced with a new great duty which it is
unable to assume on its own,” said Cardinal
Bechara Boutros Rai, Maronite
patriarch of Antioch, the day after the
explosion.
American Maronites, many of whom
have family ties in Lebanon, have
stressed the country’s urgent need for
help.
“It’s a devastating thing. Between the
coronavirus, and there is a very bad
economic situation there, [the explosion
is] adding insult to injury,” Joseph
Elkallassy, a parishioner at Our Lady of
Lebanon Maronite Catholic Cathedral
in Brooklyn, told Currents News. Later
this month, Our Lady of Lebanon will
host a prayer service and collection for
Lebanon.
U.S. Maronite Catholic bishops have
also expressed fears that Lebanon is on
the brink of “total collapse.”
“We pray for Lebanon,” reads an
Aug. 5 statement, “and we ask for your
support for our brothers and sisters at
this difficult time.”
Firefighters carry an injured man in Beirut Aug.
4. At least 150 people were killed and some
5,000 injured from the blasts.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/MOHAMED AZAKIR, REUTERS
4 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

NATION
Cancel culture
comes for Flannery
O’Connor
Recent controversy over the
legacy of Flannery O’Connor has
led Loyola University Maryland
to remove the 20th-century American
Catholic author’s name from
one of its residence halls in July.
Yet more than 200 scholars have
signed a letter asking Loyola to
reconsider its decision, including
a Fordham University professor
who has written a new book
critical of the American Catholic
author’s treatment of race in her
writing
“I thought it was a great teachable
moment for Loyola to have an
opportunity to talk with students
and take their time. I really don’t
understand the rush,” Angela
Alaimo O’Donnell told Catholic
News Agency Aug. 6.
Although some phrases in
O’Connor’s private correspondence
suggest racist beliefs,
O’Donnell is convinced that
O’Connor’s life and work is worth
studying rather than dismissing.
O’Donnell told Catholic News
Service she found it “ironic that
her name would be removed
from a Catholic, Jesuit university,”
given that O’Connor portrayed
America and the human
soul as deeply divided, broken
and flawed, and “much in need of
conversion and repentance.”
The sculpture of St. Damien of Molokai at the U.S. Capitol.
‘AOC’ takes heat from Catholics
Is Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known as “AOC,”
“the future of the Catholic Church”? That’s the subject of a heated debate since
a controversial July 27 op-ed from National Catholic Reporter (NCR) executive
editor Heidi Schlumpf.
Referring to a floor speech delivered July 23, Schlumpf wrote that she was
“struck by how often [Ocasio-Cortez] referenced Catholic values,” including
human dignity and respect.
A few days later, EWTN’s Gloria Purvis responded that Ocasio-Cortez’s stance
on abortion is notably un-Catholic.
“If Ocasio-Cortez is to be the future of the Catholic Church … she must broaden
her vision of life issues,” she wrote in NCR a few days later.
The debate continued when the progressive congresswoman called a statue of St.
Damien of Molokai a symbol of “patriarchy and white supremacist culture.”
Among those who were quick to disagree was Catholic University of America
professor C.C. Pecknold, who noted the years of charitable service, not oppressive
colonialism, that the Belgian missionary offered the natives of Hawaii.
“The future of the Catholic Church is not with the statue [of St. Damien], or
with AOC’s bigoted projections,” Pecknold wrote in First Things, “but with St.
Damien of Molokai. The future of the Catholic Church is Jesus Christ.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/TYLER ORSBURN
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/RICK MUSACCHIO
Fourth-graders pray during class on Aug. 6 at
St. Matthew School in Franklin, Tennessee,
where the new school year began with COV-
ID-19 protocols, including temperature checks
and face mask requirements.
US bishops: Catholic schools need government relief
As Congress was negotiating another coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency relief
package, the country’s Catholic bishops urged that it help save Catholic schools.
“We implore you to ensure that the education needs of all children are met,
including children in Catholic and other non-public schools,” read an Aug. 6
letter to congressional leaders signed by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB) president Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and four American
cardinals.
The letter asked Congress to designate 10% of emergency K-12 education funding
for scholarship aid to low-middle income private school families.
“Any direct aid to support the nonpublic school community should allow for
schools to meet the unique needs of low-income families that they serve, including
those families who need tuition assistance,” wrote the bishops.
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES
ADLA parishes close hymnals
on David Haas music
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has asked parishes to
stop using music by Catholic composer David Haas,
as they investigate claims of sexual misconduct against
him.
In a July 30 email, archdiocesan employees, parishes,
schools, and ministries were asked to “refrain from
using music composed by musician David Haas out of
respect for those who have reported sexual misconduct
by Mr. Haas.”
Since June, Haas, 63, has been accused of using his
position of professional and spiritual authority to manipulate
and abuse women sexually. The archdiocese’s
Office of Victims Assistance Ministry, which receives
reports of misconduct, had not received reports of
sexual misconduct by Haas prior to the June 2020
allegations, the July 30 email stated.
Haas is the composer of several well-known liturgical
songs, including “You are Mine,” “We are Called,” and
“Blest are They,” which appear in the popular “Gather”
hymnal published by Catholic music publisher
GIA. GIA and OCP, another hymnal publisher, have
suspended ties with Haas since the allegations first
surfaced in June.
Homeboy Industries meets Hilton
Homeboy Industries founder Father Greg Boyle, SJ, with trainees.
High school sports begins
slow return to playing field
Assistant coach Sean O’Grady (left) leads a “pod” of six St. Genevieve
football players in a conditioning drill Aug. 3.
Although the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)
has placed a hold on high school sports until December,
schools across the state are getting back to the field in preseason
practices that look a little different.
According to state guidelines released Aug. 3, student-athletes
are allowed to practice in “pods” of no more than 10
team members at a time, wearing mandatory face coverings,
and observing social distancing at a minimum of 6 feet.
“Once given the opportunity to get back out there, our
teams are excited to be given any opportunity to train,” said
David Fahey, athletic director at St. Lucy’s Priory High
School in Glendora. “But this will likely start off slowly, starting
with the safety of everyone in regards to the pandemic.”
Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles
nonprofit dedicated to helping former
inmates and gang members turn their
lives around, has been awarded the
2020 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian
Prize.
Announced Aug. 3, the $2.5 million
award will support Homeboy’s current
initiatives, including their jobs fund,
a youth re-entry center, Homeboy Art
Academy, and the Global Homeboy
Network. Homeboy also plans to expand
its transitional housing offerings
in “Hope Village,” an urban campus
that offers a safe place to those in need.
“The Prize recognizes our 32-year
journey in the service of compassion
and healing for our most vulnerable
populations in Los Angeles, and role as
a global model for change by standing
with those on the margins,” founder
Father Greg Boyle, SJ, wrote in a letter
announcing the award.
ST. GENEVIEVE HIGH SCHOOL
6 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

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SUNDAY
READINGS
BY SCOTT HAHN
Is. 56:1, 6–7 / Ps. 67:2–3, 5, 6, 8 / Rom. 11:13–15, 29–32 / Mt. 15:21–28
Most of us are the foreigners,
the non-Israelites, about
whom this week’s First
Reading prophesies.
Coming to worship the
God of Israel, we stand in
the line of faith epitomized
by the Canaanite woman
in the Gospel this week.
Calling to Jesus as Lord and
Son of David, this foreigner
shows her great faith in
God’s covenant with Israel.
Jesus tests her faith three
times. He refuses to answer
her cry. Then, he tells her
his mission is only to Israelites.
Finally, he uses “dog,”
an epithet used to disparage
non-Israelites (see Matthew
7:6).
Yet she persists, believing
that he alone offers salvation.
In this family drama, we
see fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy
and the promise we sing
of in Sunday’s Psalm. In
Jesus, God makes known
among all the nations his way and his
salvation (see John 14:6).
At the start of salvation history, God
called Abraham (see Genesis 12:2).
He chose his offspring, Israel, from all
the nations on the face of the earth,
to build his covenant kingdom (see
Deuteronomy 7:6–8; Isaiah 41:8).
In God’s plan, Abraham was to be the
father of many nations (see Romans
4:16-17). Israel was to be the firstborn
of a worldwide family of God, made up
of all who believe what the Canaanite
professes — that Jesus is Lord (see
“Christ and the Canaanite Woman,” by Juan de Flandes,
1450–1519, Flemish.
Exodus 4:22–23; Romans 5:13–24).
Jesus came first to restore the kingdom
to Israel (see Acts 1:6; 13:46). But
his ultimate mission was the reconciliation
of the world, as Paul declares in
Sunday’s Epistle.
In the Mass we join all peoples in
doing him homage. As Isaiah foretold,
we come to his holy mountain, the
heavenly Jerusalem, to offer sacrifice at
his altar (see Hebrews 12:22–24, 28).
With the Canaanite, we take our place
at the Master’s table, to be fed as his
children.
Scott Scott Hahn is is founder of of the the St. St. Paul Paul Center for for Biblical Theology, stpaulcenter.com.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
8 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 16-23-30, 2020 2019

IN EXILE
BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Letting go of false fear
Recently in a radio interview, I was
asked this question: “If you were on
your deathbed, what would you want
to leave behind as your parting words?”
The question momentarily took me
aback. What would I want to leave behind
as my last words? Not having time
for much reflection, I settled on this.
I would want to say, “Don’t be afraid.
Live without fear. Don’t be afraid of
death. Most of all, don’t be afraid of
God!”
I’m a cradle Catholic, born to wonderful
parents, catechized by some very
dedicated teachers, and I’ve had the
privilege of studying theology in some
of the best classrooms in the world.
Still it took me 50 years to rid myself
of a number of crippling religious fears
and to realize that God is the one Person
of whom you need not be afraid.
It’s taken me most of my life to
believe the words that come from
God’s mouth more than 300 times in
Scripture and are the initial words out
of the mouth of Jesus whenever he
meets someone for the first time after
his resurrection: “Do not be afraid!”
It has been a 50-year journey for me
to believe that, to trust it. For most of
my life I’ve lived in a false fear of God,
and of many other things. As a young
boy, I had a particular fear of lightning
storms, which in my young mind
demonstrated how fierce and threatening
God could be.
Thunder and lightning were portents
which warned us, religiously, to be
fearful. I nursed the same fears about
death, wondering where souls went
after they died, sometimes looking at
a dark horizon after the sun had set
and wondering whether people who
had died were out there somewhere,
haunted in that endless darkness, still
suffering for what they’d not gotten
right in life. I knew that God was love,
but that love also held a fierce, frightening,
exacting justice.
Those fears went partially underground
during my teenage years. I
made my decision to enter religious
life at the age of 17 and have sometimes
wondered whether that decision
was made freely and not out of false
fear.
Looking back on it now, however,
with 50 years of hindsight, I know that
it wasn’t fear that compelled me, but a
genuine sense of being called, of knowing
from the influence of my parents
and the Ursuline nuns who catechized
me, that one’s life is not one’s own, that
one is called to serve. But religious fear
remained unhealthily strong within
me.
So, what helped me let go of that?
This doesn’t happen in a day or year; it
is the cumulative effect of 50 years of
bits and pieces conspiring together. It
started with my parents’ deaths when I
was 22.
After watching both my mother and
father die, I was no longer afraid of
death. It was the first time I wasn’t
afraid of a dead body since these bodies
were my mother and father of whom I
was not afraid. My fears of God eased
gradually every time I tried to meet
God with my soul naked in prayer and
came to realize that your hair doesn’t
turn white when you are completely
exposed before God; instead you become
unafraid.
My fears lessened, too, as I ministered
to others and learned what divine
compassion should be, as I studied and
taught theology, as two cancer diagnoses
forced me to contemplate for real
my own mortality, and as a number of
colleagues, family, and friends modeled
how one can live more freely.
Intellectually, a number of persons
particularly helped me: Theologian
John Shea helped me realize that
God is not a law to be obeyed, but an
infinitely empathic energy that wants
us to be happy; Jungian analyst Robert
Moore helped me to believe that God
is still looking on us with delight; philosopher
Charles Taylor helped me to
understand that God wants us to flourish;
the bitter anti-religious criticism
of atheists like Frederick Nietzsche
helped me see where my own concept
of God and religion needed a massive
purification; and an older brother, a
missionary priest, kept unsettling my
theology with irreverent questions like,
what kind of God would want us to be
frightened of him?
A lot of bits and pieces conspired
together.
What’s the importance of last words?
They can mean a lot or a little. My
dad’s last words to us were “Be careful,”
but he was referring to our drive home
from the hospital in snow and ice. Last
words aren’t always intended to leave a
message; they can be focused on saying
goodbye or simply be inaudible sighs
of pain and exhaustion; but sometimes
they can be your legacy.
Given the opportunity to leave family
and friends a few last words, I think
that after I first tried to say a proper
goodbye, I’d say this: “Don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid of living or of dying.
Especially don’t be afraid of God.”
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.
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 9

Father David G. Nations, CM, distributes the Eucharist
during an outdoor first Communion Mass celebration at
St. Vincent de Paul Church in Los Angeles Aug. 1.
10 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

An air of
hope
How LA parishes are taking the
sacraments outdoors due to new
coronavirus-related restrictions
BY CHRISTA CHAVEZ / ANGELUS
SUBMITTED PHOTO
your hair, Nida,” advises Father Raymond
Decipeda as a woman approaches a row
“Move
of temperature scanners outside a church
parking lot.
“Now, place your forehead in front of it,” he says. “There
you go!” Digital numbers flash green: 98.6.
The woman adjusts her face mask, rubs sanitizer into her
hands, and moves through the gated lot at St. John of God
Church in Norwalk. Inside, masked parishioners sit quietly
at picnic tables arranged around a towering stage. Candles
flicker atop an altar, a hymn plays from a loudspeaker, and
the rising sun casts shadows across the blacktop as morning
Mass begins.
The service is among the hundreds of outdoor Masses
now offered weekly throughout the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles. Churches, which were shuttered in March due to
the coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, began to celebrate
indoor Mass again in June under strict public health
guidelines.
But on July 13, indoor religious services were once again
prohibited by Gov. Gavin Newsom as coronavirus rates
spiked dramatically in Los Angeles and other California
hot spots.
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 11

The keyword in the governor’s directives this time, however,
was “indoor.” With gyms, restaurants, and other businesses
finding ways to safely (and legally) serve customers
outdoors, couldn’t churches do the same?
The same day, parishes in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa
Barbara counties received an email from the archdiocese
encouraging them to move Masses and other liturgical
services outdoors. The memo emphasized that “the risk of
coronavirus is real, and it is dangerous,” and that parishioners
must wear face coverings and practice social distancing,
even outside.
Fortunately, Father Decipeda was among a handful of
other pastors in the archdiocese who had already begun
outdoor Masses before the second closure. In May, he had
invested in picnic tables, umbrellas, canopies, a stage,
temperature scanners, cleaning supplies, and a hardwired
sound system, all part of his parish’s 20-page plan for outdoor
Masses.
“At St. John of God, our parishioners know we keep them
safe,” he said. “They appreciate that we have worked really
hard. And everyone here is coming forward to help. Everyone
wants to be part of this effort.”
Msgr. Sabato Pilato celebrates a drive-in Mass from the secondstory
breezeway of St. Anthony of Padua School in Gardena.
Father Raymond Decipeda helps his parishioners navigate new temperature
scanners before an outdoor Mass at St. John of God Church in Norwalk.
CHRISTA CHAVEZ
St. Anthony of Padua Church in Gardena also had
been offering outdoor Masses for weeks, but with a twist:
Churchgoers stay in their cars and listen to the live service
through their radios, drive-in-movie style. “We are fortunate
to have a parking lot that’s about the size of a football
field, which is rare in this area,” explained Msgr. Sabato
Pilato, pastor. “We offer weekday Mass, plus five Masses
every weekend, with up to 75 cars per Mass.”
He added that senior citizens, who are at the highest risk
for COVID-19 complications, feel especially safe at the
drive-in Mass. “The elderly feel protected because they are
enclosed in their cars,” he said. “People are coming from
all over because they prefer the drive-in format.”
Msgr. Pilato has utilized the school’s outside lunch area
for three first Communion services and one baptism. He
12 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

COURTESY MSGR. SABATO PILATO
even created a drive-in space dedicated to adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament. “We have a window next to a parking
lot on our northeast corner,” he explained. “So I thought:
Why not place the Blessed Sacrament there, behind the
window?” He sanded down two tables, found an extra tabernacle,
and lit a red vigil lamp. Every day he sees people
praying there from inside their cars.
“Did you ever think we’d be doing this?” Msgr. Pilato
said with a chuckle. “But it’s a lot better than being in the
catacombs.”
At Our Lady of Refuge Church in Long Beach, Father
Gerard O’Brien recently launched a fundraising effort for
outdoor Masses. The pastor, who during the shutdown had
been livestreaming and filming Masses for his parishioners,
was happy to finally celebrate public indoor Masses for
a few weeks. Now, like many other pastors tasked with moving
outdoors, he needed new equipment to hold Mass in
the church parking lot.
“Within a week, our parishioners came together and
raised enough money for what we needed — tents and a
new sound system,” he said. “The people of this parish are
very generous. God always provides.”
Father O’Brien, who grew up in County Kerry, Ireland,
said outdoor Masses are very common in his home country.
“I love outdoor Masses — they are just beautiful,” he
said. On Sunday, Aug. 2, the parish was able to celebrate its
first Mass in the church parking lot. “People were so happy
and content. Everyone really enjoyed it,” he added.
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, at the Cathedral
of Our Lady of the Angels, outdoor Masses are now offered
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 13

Massgoers pray the Our Father during outdoor Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Sunday, Aug. 2.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
010820_CUA_BishBarron_Angelus_8-14_1-2pH.indd 1
8/8/20 8:23 PM

every Sunday on the Plaza in both English and Spanish.
Tucked under the colonnade, and sitting at umbrella-covered
tables borrowed from the adjacent cafe, Massgoers are
sheltered from the summer heat as well as the noise from
the 101 Freeway.
Father David Gallardo, the cathedral’s pastor, said many
attendees have expressed gratitude for the outdoor Masses.
“Last Sunday, a man approached me who had driven to the
cathedral all the way from the Inland Empire,” Father Gallardo
said. “He told me, ‘Thank you for this Mass. Thank
you for the opportunity to receive the Eucharist.’ ”
Maribel Ramirez, a lector and parishioner at St. John
of God Church, also was deeply grateful for her parish’s
efforts to bring Mass outdoors. “For me, it was very hard
not being at Mass,” she said. “I was watching it online, but
it felt like something was missing.”
Ramirez said that, when she finally was able to attend
Mass and receive the Eucharist, tears came to her eyes.
“It had been so long — I don’t have words to describe the
feeling,” she said. “I just prayed: Here I am. I am with you.
I want part of you in my soul.”
It’s an experience many Los Angeles Catholics can relate
to.
“This is all new for everybody,” said Msgr. Pilato. “But our
faith is much more than a building. It is based on Our Lord
Jesus Christ. He will provide us the light. He will help us
overcome all darkness.”
For more information about attending an outdoor Mass,
visit your parish’s website for site-specific hygiene protocols
and capacity limitations.
Christa Chavez is a freelance writer and a parishioner at
Our Lady of Refuge Church in Long Beach.
Love in the time of COVID-19
When Amanda Valenzuela and Stephen Osborn
became engaged last November, they planned to
marry at the newly renovated St. Lawrence Martyr
Church in Redondo Beach. “It is a breathtaking church,”
Valenzuela said. “There is no church more beautiful than
that one.”
But when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the coronavirus
(COVID-19) closures in March that included churches,
Valenzuela and Osborn started getting nervous. “We hoped
everything would be resolved by summer, so I just kept praying
and trusting God,” she said.
Months passed, and Valenzuela and Osborn found themselves
doing their Engagement Encounter on Zoom with
dozens of other couples.
Meanwhile, Msgr. Paul Dotson, St. Lawrence Martyr’s
pastor, was busy creating a backup plan on their behalf. He
scouted the perfect outdoor spot behind the parish center,
which had a shade tree, flowers, and a cross.
He was ready for an outdoor wedding if that became their
only option.
When the governor ordered the second shutdown in mid-July,
the couple knew their July 25 wedding would be very
different from what they had imagined.
“Stephen and I have known each other for 17 years. We
didn’t care if we had to wear a mask or not — we were going
to get married,” Valenzuela said. “Nothing should stop you
from marrying the one you love.”
On Saturday, July 25, in the presence of some 50 guests seated
at a social distance, Msgr. Dotson presided at the outdoor
ceremony for the couple. When the time came to exchange
vows, Msgr. Dotson allowed them to remove their masks.
“Then they asked, ‘Can we kiss, Father?’ And I replied: ‘Yes,
I believe you can!’ ” Msgr. Dotson recalled.
Amanda Valenzuela and Stephen Osborn are married at an outdoor ceremony,
with Msgr. Paul Dotson presiding, at St. Lawrence Martyr Church
in Redondo Beach July 25.
Just two days later, Valenzuela started her first day as a
registered nurse at St. Bernardine Medical Center in San
Bernardino. Her assignment? “The unit for COVID-positive
patients,” she said.
Valenzuela, however, was unphased. “If you would have
told me eight months ago that I would be getting married
outside wearing a face mask, then two days later caring for
patients in the middle of a pandemic, I would have said you
were crazy,” she said, laughing.
“But I feel fulfilled in this journey. God keeps me going,
and he has given me the gift of being part of the solution.
I see everything that has happened as a blessing. I’m very
grateful for it.”
— Christa Chavez
COURTESY JESSICA SMITH
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 15

In the middle of it all
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles' eight newly ordained priests with Archbishop José H. Gomez after the Aug. 8 ordination Mass celebrated in the
plaza of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
New priests are always sent out to
meet the challenges of an uncertain
world. But on Saturday,
Aug. 8, it seemed fitting the eight men
being ordained to the priesthood for
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles were
sent out from a platform beset on all
sides by freeway traffic, church bells,
police helicopters, and plenty of COV-
ID-19 sanitary pandemic protocols.
In-person attendance was limited at
the ordination Mass presided by Archbishop
José H. Gomez in the plaza
of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, but an estimated 70,000 online
users followed the liturgy via livestream.
Visit AngelusNews.com for our
full coverage of the historic moment,
including video and more photos.
The eight men lay prostrate in prayer during the singing of the Litany of the Saints.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
16 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

l
VICTOR ALEMÁN
ISABEL CACHO
ISABEL CACHO
Father Daniel Garcia gives a first blessing to
his parents at the ordination Mass.
Archbishop Gomez anoints the hands of Father
Manuel Ramos with chrism oil.
Father Jonathan Nestico and his classmates
give first blessings to the bishops present at
the ordination Mass.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Archbishop Gomez lays hands on Father Justin
Oh during the rite of ordination.
SARAH YAKLIC
Father Louie Reyes gives a first blessing to
Father Mike Perucho, associate director of
Vocations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Father Filiberto Cortez gives a first blessing to
his brother, a religious brother.
ISABEL CACHO
Father Thomas Park is presented with the paten and chalice by Archbishop
Gomez during the ordination Mass.
ISABEL CACHO
Father Michael Mesa promises obedience to his ordinary, Archbishop
Gomez, during the rite of ordination.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 17

Welcoming the stranger
How a small office at the Archdiocese of LA offers a ‘first step of
accompaniment’ for the local immigrant community
BY TOM HOFFARTH / ANGELUS
A banner is carried into the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels during the annual Mass in Recognition of all Immigrants on June 24, 2018.
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Long before he came to the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles as
its director of Immigration and
Public Affairs, Isaac Cuevas had his
own immigrant’s story.
At the age of 2, he found himself
leaving a small town about three hours
north of Mexico City to come to the
United States with his mother. Having
grown up in a Catholic family, his
mother felt shunned as a single parent
and wanted to start a new life.
Isaac Cuevas
ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES
They arrived with a tourist visa, overstayed,
and became undocumented
for many years. During the Reagan
administration, as new legal pathways
for citizenship were created, Cuevas
was able to apply and become a U.S.
citizen.
Then, as he grew up in an evangelical
church, he converted to Catholicism
when he married 19 years ago.
At this point in his journey, Cuevas,
who has been with the archdiocese’s
18 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

immigration office for the last three
years, admitted to having a little bit of
an identity crisis.
“Sometimes I feel that because I
didn’t grow up Catholic, I’m not
‘Catholic enough’ for this role,” said
the 43-year-old, who grew up in the
San Fernando Valley and went to Cal
State University Long Beach. He and
his family are parishioners at Holy
Angels Church in Arcadia.
“And since I spent almost all my life
here, I don’t feel like an immigrant,
but there are many immigrants who
come here and say they don’t feel
‘American enough.’ They may have
citizenship, but they could have an accent
or a language barrier that inhibits
them from feeling more ‘American.’
“The irony in all this, I think, is that
it’s one thing who we are, and it’s
another how we feel.”
Archbishop José H. Gomez, who was
born in Monterrey, Mexico, and became
a U.S. citizen in 1995, identifies
closely with the work done by Cuevas’
department, part of the archdiocese’s
Office of Life, Justice and Peace. It
states its mission to address and advocate
for “the concerns of immigrants
… as the Gospel calls us to welcome
the stranger among us.”
“As an immigrant himself, Archbishop
Gomez sees how impactful these
people are to the fabric of our society,
and his goal has always been comprehensive
immigration reform,” said
Cuevas, who left his previous career as
a studio executive at Warner Brothers
specializing in entertainment marketing
for a chance to bring his communication
skills and personal background
to focus on immigration campaigns.
“Archbishop Gomez has been a voice
of leadership and support, and the
understanding of accompaniment,
and I like to think of our office as the
first step of accompaniment — the
immigration equivalent of a 411 call
when people don’t know where to start
or what to do next.”
More of a community resource center
than an actual service provider, Cuevas
said his office has been able to provide
education and advocacy to thousands
in Southern California from one-onone
help through the expansion of
larger workshops.
Among the key tools available to help
is the possibility of some financial assistance
through the Cardinal McIntyre
Fund for Charity, which counts among
its beneficiaries those in the application
process of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
started by the Obama administration
The Arredondo family was reunited after being separated for more than 1 1/2 years. The reunion
was made possible through joint efforts from the Interdiocesan Southern California Task Force on
Immigration, church volunteers, and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) in Los Angeles.
JOHN MCCOY
Linda Dakin-Grimm
in 2012.
As new information needs to be
researched and synthesized, the
immigration office counts on the help
of people like Vivan Kambe, a student
volunteer going into her senior year at
Regis University in Denver as a peace
and justice major. Kambe, who calls
St. Bede The Venerable Church in La
Cañada Flintridge her home parish,
said she was drawn to the opportunity
at Cuevas’ office this summer after
having formed bonds with college
classmates with DACA status.
“Growing up in my community, I
didn’t know that many people who
were immigrants,” said Kambe. “It’s
one thing to hear their experiences and
then compare them to what I experienced,
hearing about things they worry
about that would never register in my
mind.
“I’m learning more and more how
this is integrated in our Catholic faith.
There is so much more that can be
done now. I don’t think we can ever
have enough advocates for this cause.”
Cuevas’ office also works closely with
the Immigration Task Force (ITF),
which brings together the efforts of the
Catholic Church in Los Angeles, Orange,
San Bernardino, and San Diego
counties. The task force is chaired by
Msgr. Jarlath Cunnane, pastor at St.
Cornelius Church in Long Beach,
and includes Auxiliary Bishop David
O’Connell of the San Gabriel Pastoral
Region.
Through the ITF, another valuable
SUBMITTED PHOTO
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 19

Sixteen-year-old Lucas Ruiz and his father, Pedro, arriving in the U.S.
COURTESY THE RUIZ FAMILY
Lucas Ruiz poses with his diploma from Cathedral High School.
COURTESY THE RUIZ FAMILY
resource is access to a group of probono
lawyers active in pushing for
immigration reform.
Attorney Linda Dakin-Grimm, part
of the task force since 2013, recently
helped reunite Guatemalan asylum-seeker
Fernando Arrendondo
with his wife and three daughters last
January.
Most recently, Dakin-Grimm was
instrumental in facilitating a case
involving Lucas Ruiz, who arrived in
the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor
from his native Guatemala in 2016 and
graduated last month from Cathedral
High School. He awaits his green card
with a goal to join the U.S. Army.
Dakin-Grimm discovered Ruiz’s case
could be addressed by a seldom-used
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a
U.S. law since 1990 that applies to children
abandoned, abused, or neglected
by parents in their home country. His
case was referred to her through Kids
In Need of Defense (KIND), which
partners with the archdiocese.
“There are a million documented
people living in the Los Angeles area,
and maybe 90% have no current way
20 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020
to normalize their situation,” said
Dakin-Grimm, whose book, “Dignity
& Justice: Welcoming The Stranger at
Our Border” (Orbis Publishing, $24),
comes out in September.
Dakin-Grimm agrees that while there
are many confusing messages about
how immigration in the U.S. works,
DACA remains only a policy that can
be changed, and Temporary Protective
Status (TPS) is a law that could
be helpful to others, her objective is
focused on the bigger picture that the
Immigration Task Force can address.
“The immigration office isn’t a
single-issue mission; one policy or
law doesn’t have more merit than the
other,” said Dakin-Grimm. “Over the
last decade, this issue has grown into
something bigger. The coronavirus
(COVID-19) crisis has already impacted
people of color hard, but perhaps
the undocumented community has
been hit harder because it doesn’t
have the same level of resources than
others.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
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August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 21

In an impossible
position
Nicaragua’s government has
mishandled the coronavirus pandemic
while fueling hostility against Catholics
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
A priest and nun pray in the Blood of Christ Chapel at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, July 31, after the chapel was destroyed in
an arson attack.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/OSWALDO RIVAS, REUTERS
ROSARIO, Argentina — The
people of Nicaragua are facing
an increasingly challenging
situation, from the nightmare of the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,
which the government has resisted
acknowledging even exists, to an active
oppression of the Catholic Church,
today the strongest voice sounding the
alarm against the virus in the country.
It doesn’t help that the country’s
government has fueled hostility against
Catholics by either not preventing or,
even worse, favoring recent attacks
against churches: Many Catholics have
told Angelus that as a result, they are
afraid of going to church to pray.
The latest of these attacks came on
July 31, when a Molotov cocktail was
thrown inside a chapel within the
cathedral of Managua, Nicaragua’s
capital city. A hooded man came in
and, after shouting “I come for the
blood of Christ,” threw the homemade
explosive device at an image of Christ
crucified that has been venerated in
this Central American country for
centuries.
Vice president Rosario Murillo, wife
of President Daniel Ortega, said only
two hours later that the image had
burned due to several votive candles
nearby lit by the faithful, and denied
the presence of an assailant. That
contradicts the account of two women
who witnessed the attack while taking
part in eucharistic adoration. The
following day, they were arrested and
the government stood by the idea of an
accidental fire.
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, archbishop
of Managua, said the attack
was “terrorist in nature” and that
the destruction of the chapel, which
included the wooden carved image as
well as the Blessed Sacrament, was the
result of a “criminal act.”
Pope Francis prayed for Nicaragua on
the Sunday following the attack against
the cathedral, and sent a handwritten
note to Cardinal Brenes, who read it
during a livestreamed Mass he led that
same day, as part of a “Day of Silence
and Prayer.”
The opposition coalition, called
“Alianza Civica” (“Civic Alliance”),
also came to the support of the Nicaraguan
bishops, saying that prelates have
been “an example worthy of morality
and dedication for Nicaraguan
families, accompanying us in the most
difficult moments.”
Nicaragua has been on edge since
protests erupted in spring 2018
demanding Ortega leave office and
allow early elections. Ortega officials
consider such demands tantamount to
an attempted coup led by the Catholic
hierarchy.
Various international human rights
organizations have denounced the
government of Ortega, labeling it a
“dictatorship” that has oppressed many
freedoms: from religious freedom to
freedom of speech. In fact, even being
seen in public with the Nicaraguan
national flag is considered a crime.
As one Nicaraguan bishop put it to
Angelus, Catholics in Nicaragua today
see “constant violations of their human
rights,” and that the government is
increasing its oppression against Catholics
because the bishops wouldn’t keep
silent about the seriousness of the
22 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/OSWALDO RIVAS, REUTERS
COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are prisoners of a government
that has eliminated fundamental freedoms,”
the bishop said via WhatsApp.
“We are prisoners of a government that
continues to fuel hostility toward the
Church and does not prevent, indeed
mostly favors, attacks against us.”
The government denies the spread of
the coronavirus in Nicaragua, home to
some 6.5 million inhabitants. According
to official numbers, 100 people
have died as a direct result of the virus.
However, the Independent Citizen
Observatory COVID-19, a network of
doctors and volunteers, have reported
more than 2,500 deaths of people who
had the symptoms of the virus. Yet due
to the lack of testing kits, most people
die without a diagnosis.
Ortega leads one of a handful of
countries that hasn’t canceled schools
to stop the spread of the pandemic, and
during the first months after the first
cases were reported, there were government-backed
flyers claiming that the
people of Nicaragua were stronger than
the COVID-19 and that life should go
on as usual, because “God will spare
the country.”
Several Catholic bishops, including
Cardinal Brenes and Bishop Rolando
José Alvarez of Matagalpa, opened
Church-run centers to tend to patients
with COVID-19 symptoms only to see
them closed soon after by the government.
A man prays over the coffin of Jose Ugarte in Masa, Nicaragua, Dec. 2,
2019. Local media said Ugarte, who opposed Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega's government, was shot dead during a police operation.
In the words of a priest who’s received
several death threats in recent months
for being an outspoken opponent of
Ortega, the people of Nicaragua today
“are experiencing an increasingly difficult
situation, a nightmare from which
I fear we might not wake up.”
Meanwhile, the government denies
knowledge of the attacks against the
Church. Many have occurred in the
past month, with several other attacks
peacefully stopped by the faithful.
There have even been reports of a secret
plan to have a “Nicaragua without
Catholic Churches.”
These are just but a handful of
examples of how the government is
trying to put a muzzle on the Catholic
hierarchy, not only for their role in protecting
the protesters oppressed with
military tanks back in 2018, but for
warning the population of the danger
of the pandemic. Though school has
continued, Masses with the presence of
the faithful have been suspended.
As the ashes of the blood of Christ
were still warm, there was an attempt
to steal a widely revered image of St.
Dominic de Guzman, who is celebrated
during a 10-day festival that
explodes in the streets of Managua
every year.
The Spanish saint is to religious Nicaraguans
more or less what St. Patrick
is to the Irish: The saint’s likeness is
tattooed on their bodies, graffitied in
public spaces, and adored as “Minguito”
during
the festival in his
honor.
Even though an
estimated 70%
of Nicaragua’s
population are
Catholics, many
in the country
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/OSWALDO RIVAS, REUTERS
today nevertheless
believe that
being Catholic
and aligned with
the bishops is
virtually synonymous
with being
a criminal, or, at
the very least, a
potential enemy
of the state.
The relationship
between the
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes prays as he concelebrates
Mass in 2018 at Divine Mercy Catholic
Church in Managua, Nicaragua. The Mass was
celebrated to pray for protesters who took refuge
in the church after coming under gunfire
from armed pro-government supporters.
Catholic Church in Nicaragua and the
government is a complicated one. In
the 1970s, many priests allied themselves
with the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN) — and
Ortega — to bring down the Somoza
dynasty, which ruled the country for six
decades.
But the case today is different. The
institutional Church in Nicaragua is
not allied to anyone, yet denounces
the injustice of those who are suffering
and being oppressed, in the hopes of
fostering reconciliation.
At a time in history when confrontation
seems to be the default approach
to any challenge, the bishops of Nicaragua,
one prelate told Angelus, are
calling on Catholics to follow the Gospel
in the most radical of ways: “Turn
the other cheek; forgive your enemy
seven times seventy; and blessed are
those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.”
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian journalist
and Rome bureau chief for Crux.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/OSWALDO RIVAS, REUTERS
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 23

INSIDE
THE PAGES
By KRIS MCGREGOR
Dropping the mask on mortality
In the middle of a pandemic that has no end
in sight, what hope has God given us?
A man holding a Bible prays at a cemetery in Lima, Peru, May 27, during a burial for a person who died from COVID-19.
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/SEBASTIAN CASTANEDA, REUTERS
If we’ve learned anything from
months of isolation, fear, and
uncertainty during the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic, it’s that life as
we know it is fragile. The lives we led
in 2019 look nothing like what we are
living now, and many of us are mourning
the changes. But Deacon James
Keating, the director of theological
formation for the Institute for Priestly
Formation in Omaha, Nebraska, has
some thoughts on why this reminder
is not only necessary, but actually a
blessing.
Kris McGregor: As a spiritual guide,
you’ve always made a point to remind
people to live in the present moment,
where you are in this moment. But
this moment is a mystery.
Deacon James Keating: The common
experience right now is anxiety
24 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

and vertigo, even spiritual vertigo. All
of our idols are being confirmed as
empty, and everything we cling to is
being taken from us. We cling to the
comfort of ordinary expectation — we
all expect to get up in the morning
and go from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the
way we expect it to be. Even our
ordinary routine, which is comforting
and gives us a sense of peace, that’s not
guaranteed.
The wisdom of the saints comes
back to us again and again. Of course,
in good times, we never listen to the
saints, because we’ve got this. And in
bad times, we’re suffering so much
that they can’t get their wisdom
through to us because of our pain.
But the wisdom of the saints is this:
Throughout our life, no matter what
we’re experiencing, the suffering or
enjoying, we should be seeking holy
Communion.
The saints would counsel us that
when this horrible virus passes, if we
could just remember not to go back
to being normal Americans, but to go
back to Jesus, and get our interior life
set, so that when the next reminder
that everything on this planet is not
forever comes, we’ll have less panic
and more peace.
McGregor: What kind of communion
are we called to, when so many of
us still can’t receive the Eucharist?
Keating: A lot of human beings live
this way — in isolation and loneliness.
There’s a sense here that maybe the
Holy Spirit wants us to grow in empathy
for those who are always living in
a state of only experiencing spiritual
Communion.
We are spoiled, to some extent, with
the physicality and availability of our
own sacraments. But during this time
of isolation, we may want to ask the
Holy Spirit to deepen our gratitude for
that. Maybe we can come out of this
with a deeper gratitude for the availability
of priests and the sacraments in
our country.
McGregor: What would you say to
people who feel like this is the End
Times?
Keating: That feeling comes from,
perhaps, an unmoored fear. It’s the
normal state of being Catholic to be in
holy Communion. It reassures us that
nothing can separate us from the love
of God, and so we live more deeply
out of this peace.
All the horrendous things in our
history, and this current one, where so
many people are dying and suffering,
it’s none of our business to discern the
End Times. But this comes up when
terrible things happen to us because
we finally let ourselves experience our
mortality.
Normally, we shield our mortality
with our routine and with the expectations
that come. But in times like
this, where there is no schedule and
things are uncommon, we touch our
Deacon James Keating speaks during a
conference for permanent deacons and their
wives at the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra
Minerva in Rome in 2016.
mortality. That makes us afraid, if we
are not in holy Communion.
But this pandemic is not a clear sign
that the end is coming. It could simply
be a clear sign that we were never as
deeply involved with the Holy Trinity
as we thought we were, and now we’re
scared.
McGregor: We always talk about
encountering Christ, going to find
Christ, but he’s always been in us. Is
this an opportunity to come to a greater
understanding of what that means?
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING
Keating: Another thing we take for
granted is that we’re part of the body of
Christ, the community of Christ. Let’s
hope that when this ends, we might
gather together with a new resolve to
actually be with one another in faith,
to share our faith with one another, to
pray together more deeply, to actually
give testimony to one another as
Catholics.
McGregor: There’s an underlying
fear in this pandemic because death is
truly possible, illness is possible, harm
can come to us and our loved ones.
How does that change our reflections?
Keating: Everything is preparing us
for this moment of dying, when there
are no more trappings to cling to, and
we must confront the holy and the
sacred and the divine. God is trying to
gently give us this opportunity to be
ready for death when it comes, so that
we don’t run from it and try again in a
puny, almost comical way, to cling to
idols.
The reason there’s so much fear is
because we are acknowledging that
death is real. Most of our popular
culture is a mask keeping us from ever
thinking about that. And now, all these
masks have dropped. Death comes to
the fore.
The deeper our friendship grows
with Jesus Christ, the more we can
confront death in peace, without
panic, without fear. Of course, there’ll
be sadness, there’ll be mourning, but
the sadness and mourning is over the
good things of life. The panic and fear
is over that which we have created in
ourselves, which is a habitual stance of
isolation from God.
God is trying to say to us, “This death
has always been here. Your limit and
your finitude has always been part of
your life. Stop masking it. Let’s look
at real life. That’s why I came, so that
you could not be alone.”
When you look at it, that’s what we
call salvation. You’re looking at it from
the stance of communion with him.
That’s how the saints die in joy and
peace.
Kris McGregor is the founder of Discerninghearts.com,
an online resource
for the best in contemporary Catholic
spirituality.
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 25

WITH GRACE
BY DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE
A battle
we know
how to
win
A rally outside the Supreme Court Oct. 8, 2019, as arguments are heard for Bostock v. Clayton.
SHUTTERSTOCK
The recent U.S. Supreme Court
decision in Bostock v. Clayton
was an earthquake, a legal and
cultural temblor of a magnitude in the
range of that of Roe v. Wade.
It may, in fact, have consequences
even graver than Roe’s normalizing
of abortion. By legally changing the
definition of “sex” to include gender
identity, the court in Bostock struck a
blow at all the ways our society exalts,
protects, and promotes the natural
family.
Even worse, it struck at the root of a
science-based concept of the human
person. It did away with the commonsense
understanding (shared by every
culture in every age) that human
beings are either male or female. And
this in a scientific age that has cracked
the DNA code of the human genome,
in which our Y and X chromosomes
are visibly at work to make each of us
men or women from head to toe.
As Catholics, our first reaction may
be fear, as we wonder how long we
will have the liberty to educate our
children and run our hospitals and
parishes in a way that promotes a sane
human anthropology.
But instead of fear, we should
look at this latest development with
confidence: After spending the last
2,000 years successfully beating back
errors and heresies with aplomb, the
Church is well equipped to rise above
this newest iteration in triumph.
It’s all in Church history. Whether
meeting the hedonism of pagan
Greece, the pessimism of the Manicheans,
the false reasonableness of
Arius, or the lethal simplification of
Islam, the Church has always found
its voice and then stood firm.
It has never been a simple process, or
instantaneous. It’s taken decades (or
centuries) of long study, meetings of
sage heads in councils, and vigorous
argument so that the Church could,
over two millennia, successfully confront
every fad that threatened man’s
understanding of God and of man as
God’s creature.
It does this armed with that precious
weapon called truth, clarified and
sharpened through battle with error.
When it was necessary, the Church
even took up arms against the darkness,
as in the Crusades, in which
Christians of every walk of life flocked
to beat back Islam when it was close
to exterminating Christendom.
The Catholic Church in the U.S.
continued the tradition after Roe. The
first Christians had astounded the
pagans with their concern for infants,
and the way they resisted the entirely
accepted custom of exposure and
direct killing of “useless” offspring.
Hundreds of years later our Western
societies had learned to automatically
grant personhood to infants, born and
unborn. Roe suddenly yanked that
concept away, replacing it with the
absolute right of the mother to end
her child’s life according to her needs
or desires. What was needed was a
counterattack to the reborn heresy
that infant lives don’t matter.
The Church (especially the lay
faithful) responded to the battle call.
Decades later, there is not a single
Catholic that has not heard, and been
made to understand, that human life,
26 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

and worth, begins at conception.
Through catechesis, lay organizations
devoted to promoting the “right
to life,” and acts of physical presence
like marching and picketing, the line
has been drawn by Catholics. We
may live in a country where abortion
is legal, but as a Church we testify
confidently and openly to the great
truth that every abortion is a tragedy
in which a child of God is sacrificed.
One day, God willing, Roe will be
no more, and our laws will once again
reflect the only decent answer to the
question that is every human life:
“Welcome, brother.”
We can, and must, do it again. The
Church already has a deeply rooted,
complex philosophical tradition to
confront the heresy of gender ideology.
It is grounded in natural law,
and informed by the revelation of
God’s intentions, and it triumphantly
exalts the distinct genius of man and
woman.
Co-equal in dignity and worth, they
are yet utterly different and capable of
tremendous feats reserved to one or
the other. Erasing the lines between
them creates a smudged and muddy
picture, and not the vivid clarity of the
divine vision.
Worse, it creates a bitter unhappiness
in every person that ceases to understand
themselves in all their glorious
coherence of soul and sinew, part and
purpose.
The Church can, and will, do it
again, as we’ve done it so many times
before. We will collect our wits, read
and study, collect and pray. Then we
will set out to meet the needs of the
world anew, this time with the beautiful
truth of male and female and the
tremendous creative and settling force
of their mutual complementarity.
As the moderns say: We’ve got this.
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August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 27

Stephanie Gil in "Fatima."
IMDB
The MAKING of a MIRACLE
For the makers of ‘Fatima,’ securing an A-list cast and
crew aimed at reaching mainstream audiences was
hard enough. Then came a global pandemic
BY SOPHIA MARTINSON / ANGELUS
28 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

IMDB
One day in early 2016, Dick Lyles and Natasha Howes
received bad news: The feature film “Fatima,”
which they and their colleagues had been working
on for almost 10 years, would not be ready in time for a
2017 release.
The goal had been to launch the movie, a historical drama
based on the 1917 reported Marian apparitions to three
young Portuguese shepherds, during the event’s 100th anniversary
year. But to the team’s dismay, production financing
was not yet enough to bring the project to the finish line by
then. The future of the project was a hazy one at best.
Still, they would not give up hope. “Every time we
encountered a delay,” Lyles, one of the producers, told Angelus
in a phone interview, “we would get on our knees and
say, ‘OK, [Lord], this is it: Do you really want us to continue
with this? Do you want us to go forward?’ And then our
prayers would be answered in some
really profound and miraculous way.”
Now, three years later — and after
two more delayed releases due to the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
— an answer to those prayers seems
to be on the horizon, as “Fatima” is
finally approaching widespread release
this month.
The story of the Virgin Mary’s monthly
apparitions to 10-year-old Lúcia
Santos and her two younger cousins
has been adapted into countless books,
children’s videos, art pieces, and documentaries
over the last century. But
unlike previous adaptations, “Fatima”
aims to be more than a spiritual or
instructional aid.
“The whole purpose of the new
Fátima movie was to work with what
we call an A-list formula,” producer
Howes told Angelus in a phone
interview, ... “to be able to push the
meaning and message of Fátima into
the mainstream audience.”
That formula involved approaching
prominent actors and filmmakers
whose experience stretched far beyond
the faith-based media world, backed by a budget of more
than $17 million. With recognizable names such as Harvey
Keitel (“The Piano,” “The Irishman”), Joaquim de Almeida
(“Queen of the South”), and Marco Pontecorvo (“Pa-rada,”
“Game of Thrones”) on its credits list, it appears the
formula had some effect.
Director Marco Pontecorvo introduces
the film at the Los Angeles screening.
IN SEARCH OF A ‘PHENOMENAL STORY’
When James Volk founded Origin Entertainment in 2007,
he did so with the intention of bringing something entirely
new to the movie scene.
“We want our audiences to be transformed,” said Lyles,
the production company’s CEO who has been working
alongside Volk since the founding. “And so we decided that
the best way to do that was to focus on stories of the good,
the true, and the beautiful — stories of true heroism and
courage that inspire.”
With this goal in mind, all that remained was to find the
right story to tell. Soon after the founding of Origin, Volk
and Lyles met Natasha Howes, an expert on Fátima, and the
idea of a feature film quickly arose.
“We chose Fátima [as a subject] because it was a recipe
for all of those [elements],” said Lyles. “It’s a phenomenal
story.”
Howes had been working on the historical film “The 13th
Day,” also based on the famous apparitions. “I’d spent quite
a bit of time at Fátima,” she told Angelus. “I got to know
the key authorities very well and became kind of a trusted
persona within this Fátima environment to work with this
authenticated message.”
Even though Howes had just finished a Fátima project, she
jumped at the idea of joining Volk and Lyles in creating a
feature film on the subject. Unlike “The 13th Day,” which
was tailored to a Catholic audience, the idea behind “Fatima”
was to reach people of all backgrounds.
To do so, the film’s creators knew they had to think big.
Once a first draft of the script was completed in 2009, they
started approaching big-name actors and directors.
Not surprisingly, many turned the offer down, uninterested
in a story they saw as too faith-based.
But not everyone responded in this way. “[Some] saw a
great script, a great story, [and] great potential to make a
positive difference in the world,” said Lyles.
Much to the Origin team’s delight, such was the reaction
of Marco Pontecorvo, who became the film’s director.
“I just have to say this movie was made for Marco, and
AMY GRAVES
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 29

Marco was made for the movie,” said Lyles.
Besides his professed love for the story, Pontecorvo’s
professional background made him a perfect fit. The cinematographer
and director, who contributed to the smash
hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” comes from a family of
filmmakers, and importantly, had on-set experience working
with children.
In addition, Origin needed someone with experience and
an eye for filming on a grand scale. “[We were] shooting
big,” continued Howes. “Multiple locations, set builds ...
[often in] remote areas. We took over a village and rebuilt it
in the north of Portugal.”
The scenes of Our Lady’s apparitions to the children, for
instance, were shot in a provincial park north of Lisbon.
Besides building olive groves, wheat fields, and swimming
pools to create artificial rain, the crew had to ward off wild
boar and deer in the area and manage costume changes for
thousands of extras.
With Pontecorvo, Origin got not only a seasoned director,
but also a host of seasoned crew members who worked with
him. Among the dozens of Italian filmmakers who headed
various production departments for the film, many of them
had years of experience and award-winning accomplishments,
from costume designer Daniela Ciancio to production
designer Cristina Onori.
‘THE HUMAN STORY BEHIND THE STORY’
Another part of the strategy to make “Fatima” a mainstream
movie was to tell the characters’ stories in a way that
audiences of any or no faith background could relate to.
While working with representatives at the Shrine of Fátima
to maintain accuracy, the production team focused on creating
what Howes called “the human story behind the story
of the apparitions.”
One of the key strategies for nourishing this human
element was to tell the story through the eyes of Lúcia, the
determined child who stands at the heart of the event.
For Stephanie Gil, the 14-year-old Spanish actress who
plays Lúcia, assuming the role meant learning as much
about her world as possible.
“The time period in which she [Lúcia] lived in is so different
[from] this time period, of course,” Gil told Angelus,
“and I had to learn how she walks, how she talks, how she
plays her games, her way of socializing even, with adults or
even with her own cousins.”
Gil also found plenty of human qualities to admire in her
character, who died in 2005 and was declared “Servant of
God” by Pope Francis 12 years later in 2017 at the centenary
celebration of the apparitions.
“[Lúcia] has a lot of inside life,” she said. “She’s got this
way of always going somewhere out, sitting down, and thinking
about what’s going on. ... And she is really, really strong
and super brave and will not stop until people believe her.”
While the filmmakers strove to humanize Lúcia, they
wanted to add nuance to supporting characters as well. By
highlighting the backdrop of World War I and the aggressiveness
of Portugal’s anti-clerical, secularist government, for
instance, they aimed to convey in what a troubled moment
the apparitions took place.
“The [children’s] parents were really afraid that what was
going to happen was they were all going to get persecuted
and maybe put in jail — or worse — because of what the
kids were saying,” said Lyles.
DEALING WITH DELAYS
On top of the task of executing an A-list formula, the
“Fatima” production and distribution teams faced multiple
obstacles that have pushed back the film’s release.
The producers chose to shoot everything in Portugal in
order to maintain as much historical authenticity as possi-
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/REUTERS
Sts. Jacinta and Francisco Marto in a colorized image with their
cousin, Lúcia dos Santos (right), in a file photo taken around the time
of the 1917 apparitions of Mary at Fátima, Portugal.
Jorge Lamelas, Alejandra Howard, and Stephanie Gil star in "Fatima."
©2020 PICTUREHOUSE
30 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

Harvey Keitel, known for his roles in movies like "Pulp Fiction" and
"Reservoir Dogs," portrays a skeptical scholar in "Fatima."
ble. But at the time production began, Portugal had no tax
credit available to filmmakers, placing a major financial
burden on the project.
Howes’ team successfully worked with Portuguese authorities
to launch the tax credit, but the long process — and a
lack of funding — led to the disappointing realization that a
100th anniversary release in 2017 was not possible.
But Lyles and Howes ended up seeing every setback as
providential. Just one week after they learned of the 2017
postponement, the team found out that Andrea Bocelli had
agreed to sing the film’s theme song. “If we hadn't had the
delay, that wouldn’t have happened,” recalled Lyles. “So it’s
just an amazing journey, filled with miracles and challenges
from beginning to end.”
More recently, the COVID-19 outbreak has imposed more
delays. Due to the pandemic, which resulted in widespread
social distancing regulations and movie theater closures, the
April 24 release date was pushed back, first to Aug. 14, and
now to Aug. 28.
Amid these delays, the film’s distribution company, Picturehouse,
launched an expanded digital marketing campaign
on social media, as well as private drive-in premiere
screenings across the country.
After all the logistical, financial, and scheduling challenges
that dogged the filmmaking process, Howes said seeing the
finished product leaves him in awe.
“I always think a movie is a miracle in the making,” she
said. “To actually create, to have a movie that’s complete
and ready to launch is nothing short of a miracle.”
LAUNCHING A PEACE PLAN
In a video address played at the “Fatima” screening in Los
Angeles, Archbishop José H. Gomez said the film’s message
is a reminder “that the mother of God has a tender love for
each one of us and that she continues to be at the heart of
God’s plan of redemption.”
For those who worked on the film, it was a message that
IMDB
ensured this was no ordinary job.
The majority of the crew was Portuguese, and Fátima
meant something to all of them. According to Howes, many
crew members had a grandparent or great-grandparent who
stood among the crowd on Oct. 13, 1917, the day of the
reported Miracle of the Sun attributed to the Virgin Mary.
“There’s three major exports out of Portugal: football, fado,
and Fátima,” Howes remarked. “So it’s part of their bloodlines.”
The personal impact of the themes of faith and hope extended
beyond the Portuguese crew members as well.
“Marco Pontecorvo and Harvey Keitel spent a fair amount
of time on the set reading the Book of Job and discussing
their faith because they got into so many discussions about
faith based on what was happening in the movie,” noted
Lyles.
Overall, he added, whether or not the cast and crew
members had faith, “People just had a sense of real, devoted
commitment to making this story as reverent and as respectful
as it should be.”
Gil hopes the example of her character can help inspire
the same kind of reaction in audiences.
“I feel like it’s really important that everyone learns the
story of Lúcia — an intelligent girl, brave, and she just goes
through every obstacle for what she believes in,” she said.
“And I feel like everyone should learn and experience …
how hope and faith are so important in the world, and how
you should fight until the end.”
The July 19 drive-in premiere of "Fatima" at the Hollywood Palladium
featured a socially distanced "red carpet."
Amid a global pandemic and a year of political unrest,
Howes sees providence behind the altered timing of the
film’s release.
“I think we can all actually look back and see that actually
now is the right time for this story of faith, hope, and
love,” she concluded, “and a peace plan that we’re about to
launch into the world.”
“Fatima” is scheduled to open in theaters and streaming on
demand throughout North America on Aug. 28.
Sophia Martinson is a writer living in New York City.
AMY GRAVES
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 31

THE CRUX
BY HEATHER KING
A letter to God for all of us
Little Locksmith,” a
singular and mysterious
“The
memoir, was published in
1943 by a woman named Katharine
Butler Hathaway.
The New York Times reported, “It is
the kind of book that cannot come into
being without great living and great
suffering and a rare spirit behind it.”
Hathaway herself called the book a
“story of the liberation of a human
being.”
Born in Baltimore in 1890, she spent
the better part of her youth in Salem,
Massachusetts. At the age of 5, she developed
spinal tuberculosis. In an effort
to avert kyphosis (colloquially, hunchback),
her doctors strapped her for the
next 10 years to a bed pulley-rigged
with iron weights.
It was here that, unable to move her
body or head, she honed the interior
life of the imagination that would
nourish and validate her later calling to
be a writer.
Her family was cultured, loving,
and creative (although, typically New
England-ish, they were also extremely
emotionally closed down, to the point
that nobody once, ever, referred to her
condition or uttered the word “hunchback”).
She developed a deep inner life of the
imagination, encompassing both beauty
and terror, that paved the way for her
slow, painful, yet somehow sublime
spiritual awakening.
Upon release from her bed, she was
kyphotic anyway, deformed though
mobile, deeply sensitive, deeply intelligent.
That she could feel passionately
about an idea came, at 15, with the
force of revelation. “Something had
blazed in me, and from the blaze I
discovered a new element in myself,
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
"Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine," by Fitz Henry Lane.
32 • ANGELUS • August 14-21-28, 2020

a combustible something that would
always blaze again in defense of the
mystery and sacredness in things, and
against the queer, blind, blaspheming
streak in human nature which instead
of adoring, must vulgarize and exploit
and insult life.”
She was a “special student” for three
years at Radcliffe, showed promise as
a writer, underwent a kind of mental
breakdown under the torment of unfulfilled
romantic love, and in her early
30s bought a house in the seacoast
town of Castine, Maine.
It was a grand house, not at all the
gnome-sized “thimble” she’d envisioned
for someone of her size (she
never grew taller than a 10-year-old).
But from the second she laid eyes on
it, she saw in the house her destiny.
She directed the workmen to clear
the overgrown brick paths of weeds,
reinstall the beautifully carved old
mantelpieces, switch out the “modern”
three-paned windows to the traditional
ten-paned variety, and repaint the original
door a soft blue-green to match the
shutters.
Her goal was to turn the house into a
magical place where she could write,
invite her nieces and nephews to draw,
paint, dream, and play, and transform
the upstairs into a kind of mystic’s bordello,
where men and women could
come and, surrounded by tranquillity
and beauty, indulge freely in the physical
love she feared that, by virtue of her
deformity, would be denied her.
The first goal at least was realized.
She took writing as her vocation and
devoted herself to it with monastic devotion,
though year after year she had
virtually nothing published.
She described Penobscot Bay, the
light, the trees, the changing of the
seasons with a poet’s eye.
“During the summers of my life,” she
wrote, “it was my close-fitting, protecting
shell which held only me alone.
… Towards a sanctuary of this kind, or,
I suppose toward any sanctuary which
shelters the spirit and allows it to be
free, a love develops which has a quality
of deep and intimate gratitude.”
Off-page, she fell in love, married,
and after 10 years left the enchanted
house in Castine and moved to
another in nearby Blue Hill, almost as
beloved.
But “The Little Locksmith” is really
the story of a conversion. Hathaway
was never able to write two planned
sequels.
But in the epilogue, she charted the
sequence of a spiritual awakening: First
you look, and see beauty. Then you admire,
which leads to gratitude, which
leads to humility, which naturally leads
to “a feeling of wonder and adoration
toward the source of these miracles, the
God who made them and put them
there.”
Prayer “is the natural expression of
those who are not so stupid and so rude
as to have forgotten that they are guests.
Those naïve, medieval people — and
they exist always in every generation,
usually obscure, unknown, and even
ignorant — who begin and end each
day in that most beautiful instinctive
human attitude, the attitude of the sensitive,
courteous guest of God, on their
knees with the head bent down before
an ever-present God toward whom
their hearts open like drooping flowers
or like radiant flowers — they are the
only people who really understand
admiration and gratitude.”
This is a memoir for people who have
felt they might die of loneliness, or
who sense that they are in some way
mutilated, or who love the world but
can’t quite seem to find a place in it. In
other words, this is a book for all of us.
Hathaway died on Christmas Eve in
1942. “The Little Locksmith,” which
she called her “bread and butter letter
to God,” was published the following
year. It was her only book.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
First edition of
"The Little Locksmith."
Katharine Butler Hathaway
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Heather King is an award-winning author, speaker, and workshop leader. For more, visit heather-king.com.
August 14-21-28, 2020 • ANGELUS • 33

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