Angelus News | May 7, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 9

ANGELUS 

HELP FROM ABOVE 

Mission San Gabriel is rebuilding — 

and planning its 250th jubilee 

May 7, 2021 Vol. 6 No. 9

May 7, 2021 

Vol. 6 • No. 9 

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ON THE COVER 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Mission San Gabriel historical director Terri Huerta gave 

Angelus an exclusive tour nine months after a mysterious 

fire nearly destroyed its church. On Page 10, Editor-in-Chief 

Pablo Kay reports on the progress of the mission’s careful 

rebuild ahead of the start of its 250th jubilee year and why 

some see providence at work despite what was lost in the fire. 

THIS PAGE 

CNS/CARLOS JASSO, REUTERS 

Central American migrants in Apizaco, 

Mexico, play with a ball at a Catholicrun 

shelter April 16 as they make their 

journey to the United States. 

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CONTENTS 

Pope Watch................................................ 2 

Archbishop Gomez.................................. 3 

World, Nation, and Local News....... 4-6 

In Other Words......................................... 7 

Father Rolheiser........................................ 8 

Scott Hahn.............................................. 32 

LA Catholic Events................................ 33 

14 

18 

20 

23 

26 

28 

30 

Young Catholics breathe new life into Mission San Gabriel 

Charles Collins: Papal economics and Europe’s soccer league failure 

Mike Aquilina: How St. Joseph makes hard work great again 

Bishop Barron on why the Church can’t stay woke — or stay quiet 

Grazie Christie warns about the inequalities of the Equality Act 

Ernest Hemingway, literature’s greatest bad Catholic? 

Heather King goes on a SoCal Gothic getaway 

May 7, 2021 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

‘Put on your pants!’ 

The priesthood “is not a career, it 

is a service,” Pope Francis told 

nine men just before ordaining 

them to the priesthood for the Diocese 

of Rome. 

The service to which priests are 

called must reflect the way God has 

cared and continues to care for his 

people, a “style of closeness, a style of 

compassion and a style of tenderness,” 

the pope told the men April 25 during 

his homily at the ordination Mass in 

St. Peter’s Basilica. 

The Mass marked the first time in 

more than a year that Pope Francis 

presided at a liturgy at the main altar 

in the basilica and the first time that 

more than a few hundred people were 

allowed in at the same time. Close 

to 1,000 people, mainly family and 

friends of the ordinands, sat socially 

distanced and wearing masks throughout 

the Mass. 

Rather than walking the entire length 

of the basilica, Pope Francis processed 

into the Mass from the Altar of the 

Chair, avoiding a situation where 

people would crowd together at the 

center aisle to see him up close and 

take photos. 

The new priests, who are between 

the ages of 26 and 43, include six 

Italians, a Romanian, a Colombian, 

and a Brazilian. Six studied at Rome’s 

major seminary; two prepared for the 

priesthood at the Neocatechumenal 

Way’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary 

in Rome; and one attended the Rome 

Seminary of Our Lady of Divine Love. 

On the Sunday when the Gospel 

reading is about the good shepherd 

and the Church celebrates the World 

Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope 

Francis told the new priests that they 

must never forget they were called 

from among God’s people to be shepherds. 

“Be shepherds” like Jesus, he said. 

“Shepherds of the holy, faithful people 

of God. Shepherds who go with the 

people of God — sometimes ahead of 

the flock, sometimes in the midst of it 

or behind it, but always there with the 

people of God.” 

Pope Francis said that as he had 

already mentioned to the nine in the 

sacristy before Mass, “Please, steer 

clear of the vanity, the pride of money. 

The devil enters through the pockets. 

Think about this.” 

“Be poor like the holy, faithful people 

of God are poor,” he told them. 

“Don’t be climbers” seeking some 

kind of “ecclesiastical career.” 

Priests who become “functionaries” 

or “businessmen,” he said, lose their 

contact with the people and “that poverty 

that makes them like Christ poor 

and crucified.” 

Closeness is key in the life of a priest, 

the pope said. First, they must be close 

to God in prayer. Then, close to their 

bishop, close to one another and close 

to their people. 

“I suggest you make a resolution 

today: Never speak ill of a brother 

priest,” he said. “If you have something 

against another, be a man, put 

on your pants, go and tell him to his 

face.” 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome bureau chief Cindy 

Wooden 

Papal Prayer Intention for May: Let us pray that those in 

charge of finance will work with governments to regulate 

the financial sphere and protect citizens from its dangers. 

2 • ANGELUS • May 7, 2021

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

A jubilee is a season of mercy 

God may often send us challenges, 

but he always offers us his 

mercy and grace. 

That is how I feel about this past year. 

We have suffered in so many ways under 

this pandemic. But we have also felt 

God’s mercy and love, and experienced 

so many graces. 

Now, as our society is turning the 

corner on this pandemic, I am excited 

to announce that this summer we will 

start a Jubilee Year to mark the 250th 

anniversary of Mission San Gabriel 

Arcángel, the first church founded 

in what is now the metropolis of Los 

Angeles, on Sept. 8, 1771. 

What we celebrate on this anniversary 

is the planting of the family of God 

here in Los Angeles, and the beginnings 

of his kingdom in America. 

San Gabriel Mission was our city’s 

spiritual heart from its founding. The 

mission was already 10 years old when 

the diverse band of settlers, known 

as “Los Pobladores,” processed nine 

miles from the mission to establish Los 

Angeles near present-day Olvera Street, 

on Sept. 4, 1781. 

Los Angeles was originally called “El 

Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles 

de Porciuncula” (“The Town of Our 

Lady of the Angels of Porciuncula”), 

named for the little chapel where St. 

Francis of Assisi first heard the call of 

Jesus. 

In this jubilee year, we need to reconnect 

with that original spirit of holiness 

and adventure, the spirit of that first 

generation of mystics, missionaries, and 

migrants. 

San Gabriel Mission was founded 

by a Franciscan missionary saint, St. 

Junípero Serra. 

We should know our saint’s story, his 

words, and witness. We should pray to 

have that same depth of faith and love 

that caused St. Junípero to leave his 

family and homeland behind to follow 

Jesus Christ and proclaim his Gospel in 

the new world of the Americas. 

This jubilee reminds us that in God’s 

plan of salvation, our city and state — 

this entire country — was born from 

the Christian mission. Together with 

the first peoples of this land, God intended 

his Church to grow and to build 

his kingdom in this new world. 

The first encounters between the 

Spaniards and the indigenous peoples 

of California were tense, made worse by 

the cruel contempt of Spanish soldiers 

and settlers. 

But when the Gabrieleno-Tongva 

Indians first met the Franciscans in the 

San Gabriel Valley, they were captivated 

by a painting the missionaries were 

carrying. 

In the face of this image of Our Lady 

of Sorrows holding a baby, the natives 

laid down their weapons and offered 

their hospitality and friendship. Working 

alongside the missionaries, they 

built a new culture and way of life. 

For most of the past 250 years that 

painting, “Nuestra Señora de los 

Dolores,” hung in the baptistry of the 

mission church. 

When the devastating fire swept 

through the mission last summer, by 

some miracle of grace, this painting 

survived. Weeks after the fire, on the 

feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Sept. 15, 

workers discovered it buried beneath 

the debris, largely unharmed. 

I have no doubt that this mysterious 

artwork will be fully restored as we 

inaugurate the jubilee year this September. 

Every jubilee is a season of mercy, a 

time for opening our hearts to receive 

the gift of God’s mercy, a time for 

proclaiming God’s mercy to the world, 

and for sharing his mercy with one 

another. 

My prayer is that all of us in the 

Church will seize this new moment 

that we have to share God’s love and 

salvation, and to be a light to our 

nation. 

In this divided and polarized time in 

our society, I believe the story of San 

Gabriel Mission holds a “message” for 

America. 

The first families of Los Angeles, who 

came from the mission, included men 

and women of African, Hispanic, native, 

and European descent. From this 

beginning a radiant Church was born, a 

Church that today worships and serves 

in some 40 languages. 

In this jubilee, let us commit ourselves 

again to making our Church a sign of 

God’s mercy and his intentions for the 

human family. 

Let us proclaim what the first missionaries 

proclaimed — God’s love for 

every person; the dignity and equality of 

every race and people; the truth that we 

are all God’s sons and daughters, made 

in his image and destined to share his 

glory. 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And let us entrust ourselves to the 

Queen of the Angels and Our Lady of 

Sorrows. 

Our city and nation — and all the 

Americas — were born under Mary’s 

maternal care and protection. 

In December of this jubilee year, we 

will celebrate the 490th anniversary of 

Our Lady of Guadalupe apparitions, 

which were the true spiritual founding 

of the Americas. 

Let us ask Our Lady to give us all a 

new heart for mission and mercy. 


WORLD 

People pray near a Catholic church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 12. | CNS/VALERIE BAERISWYL 

■ Haiti’s ‘descent into hell’ 

Criminal gangs in Haiti are targeting Catholic clergy for ransom kidnappings as 

political unrest grips the country. 

Five priests, two nuns, and three of their relatives were kidnapped in the town of 

Croix Les Bouquets April 11, although three of the 10 captives were released more 

than a week later. 

The country faces a constitutional crisis following the refusal of president Jovenel 

Moise to leave office on Feb. 7. Meanwhile, gang violence against Catholics has 

led to numerous ransom kidnappings. 

On April 15, bishops, priests, and faithful from across the country gathered 

together for a special “Mass for Freedom of Haiti” to pray for their country. 

“For some time now, we have been witnessing the descent into hell of Haitian 

society,” Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-Au-Prince said before the Mass. 

■ Egypt: Christian 

killed for funding 

church construction 

The Egyptian Orthodox Coptic 

Church has a new martyr. 

Nabil Habashi Khadim, 62, was killed 

with a bullet to the head by Islamic 

State militants, who posted the filmed 

execution on jihadist social media 

channels on April 19. Khadim had 

been missing since Nov. 8, when a 

group of armed men in civilian clothes 

kidnapped him in front of his house. 

Khadim’s family is considered one of 

the oldest Coptic families in his native 

city of Bir Al-Abd in northern Sinai. An 

esteemed jeweler and business owner, 

he was targeted by ISIS for funding 

the construction of the church of the 

Madonna dell’Anba Karras, the only 

Christian place of worship in his city. 

Pope Tawadros II of the Egyptian 

Coptic community praised Khadim for 

having “testified to his faith even to the 

sacrifice of blood.” 

■ UK clergy say no 

to vaccine passports 

Christian leaders in the United 

Kingdom are asking the government 

to reconsider the idea of COVID-19 

“vaccine passports.” 

More than 1,200 of the nation’s Anglican, 

Protestant, and Catholic clergy 

sent an open letter to Prime Minister 

Boris Johnson, criticizing the proposed 

policy and its implications for social 

equity. 

“People may have various reasons for 

being unable or unwilling to receive 

vaccines currently available,” the April 

letter read. “We risk creating a two-tier 

society, a medical apartheid in which 

an underclass of people who decline 

vaccination are excluded from significant 

areas of public life.” 

With respect to restricting sacraments 

and services to only the vaccinated, the 

clergy said shutting out “those deemed 

by the state to be social undesirables 

would be anathema to us and a denial 

of the truth of the Gospel.” 

■ Medieval woman 

with disabilities granted 

express canonization 

Pope Francis declared a 14th-century 

Italian woman with disabilities a 

saint April 24 using a special process 

known as “equipollent canonization.” 

Born blind and with a curved 

spine in 1287, Margaret of Costello 

was abandoned by her parents as a 

teenager at a shrine where they had 

sought a miraculous cure for her. She 

was eventually admitted as a member 

of the Third Order of St. Dominic, 

and while she remained a laywoman, 

wore a religious habit for the rest of 

her life. She later opened a religious 

school for children out of gratitude to 

local townsfolk for raising her. 

Over the years, she has been invoked 

as a patron for people with disabilities, 

including Down syndrome, 

although it is impossible to know the 

exact disability she suffered from. 

Candidates for equipollent canonization 

must be the subject of a 

long-standing cult, have a solid and 

enduring reputation for virtue, and 

must also have a long association 

with miracles. 

A statue of St. Margaret of Castello in Columbus, Ohio. 

| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 


NATION 

■ How worthy must I be to receive you? 

Whether to deny holy Communion to pro-choice Catholic 

politicians has escalated into a (sort of) public debate 

between two U.S. bishops. 

The exchange on “eucharistic coherence” was prompted 

by an April 14 essay from Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila 

in America magazine asserting that receiving Communion 

requires “a proper examination of conscience and proper 

repentance if grave sin has been committed,” including the 

sin of public support for legal abortion. 

Four days later, Archbishop Aquila published a second article 

in response to concerns raised privately by an unnamed 

bishop. 

The bishop suggested Archbishop Aquila had overlooked 

that “the Eucharist is a gift, not an entitlement” and asked 

him to clarify that the sacraments act “ex opere operato” — 

by the power of God, rather than by the righteousness of the 

participant or celebrant, a concept expressed by St. Thomas 

Aquinas. The Denver archbishop responded by acknowledging 

that he may have caused confusion, but wrote that 

he also affirms another principle of sacramental theology, 

that “right faith” is necessary “to reap properly the salvific 

benefits of the sacrament.” 

Sister, sister — Sister Francis Dominici Piscatella, a member of the Sisters of 

St. Dominic of Amityville, New York, looks on as relatives and friends gather 

outside the window of her East Williston, New York, apartment to celebrate her 

108th birthday on April 20. Pictured with her is Sister Francis Daniel Kammer, 

also an Amityville Dominican. According to searchable public data, Sister 

Piscatella is the second-oldest living religious sister in the U.S. | CNS/GREGORY 

A. SHEMITZ 

The original “When I Was Sick” sculpture on a street in Rome. 

| CNS 

■ A Catholic COVID memorial in Ohio 

An Ohio hospital will soon be the home of a statue honoring 

victims of the COVID-19 pandemic and their caretakers 

by Catholic sculptor Timothy Schmalz. 

Titled “When I Was Sick,” Schmalz’s bronze sculpture 

will be installed at Mercy Health – St. Elizabeth 

Youngstown Hospital in September. It is a replica of a 

statue originally displayed on a street in Rome. 

The memorial at the Youngstown hospital “will permanently 

observe the global pandemic and represent a tribute 

to the loved ones we lost and continue to lose,” a hospital 

spokesman said. 

Schmalz is known for numerous works, including his 

2019 tribute to migrants, “Angels Unaware,” a replica of 

which was displayed at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels last year. 

■ Bishops respond to Chauvin verdict 

Catholic bishops expressed hope that the murder conviction 

of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the 

death of George Floyd will mark a new beginning for race 

relations in the country. 

“The Catholic Church is committed to changing hearts 

and minds and to moving the conversation about race in 

this country beyond accusations and recriminations toward 

practical, nonviolent solutions to the everyday problems 

that are encountered in these communities,” the U.S. Conference 

of Catholic Bishops said in an April 20 statement. 

Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd’s neck for several 

minutes last May 20, ultimately killing him. 

“We ask [Jesus] to bring healing into our communities, 

comfort to the family of George Floyd and all who mourn, 

and satisfaction to those who thirst for justice,” said Minneapolis 

Archbishop Bernard Hebda after the verdict. 

Washington’s Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the first African-American 

cardinal, echoed the message that much 

work is left to be done to combat racism. 

“May we choose to respond with civility and respect for 

the dignity of all of our brothers and sisters, as we continue 

the work of rooting out all injustices and systemic racism in 

our society,” he said. 


LOCAL 

Beds for parentless migrants at the Long Beach Convention Center in April. The center is able to house up to 

1,000 children. | BRITTANY MURRAY/POOL 

■ SoCal welcomes migrant children 

amid border crisis 

Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America are 

arriving in Long Beach, where the city’s convention center is being used to house 

them temporarily. 

The shelter is one of several being opened by the Biden administration around 

the country. The San Diego Convention Center is being used to house teenage 

girls, and the Pomona Fairplex is also expected to host unaccompanied children 

in the near future. 

Mayor Robert Garcia said facilities like Long Beach’s are “a more humanitarian 

setting” for the children while they wait to be reunited with family or sponsors. 

“Detention centers along the border,” he said, according to the Los Angeles 

Times, are “no place for a child.” 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is in the process of making resources available 

to help the children, according to the Office of Life, Justice and Peace. Oficials 

have already expressed interest in hosting Mass for the children at the Long Beach 

shelter. 

Anyone interested in learning more about how they can help can write to immigration@la-archdiocese.org 

■ Bill seeks to expand 

assisted suicide in California 

Pro-life advocates are warning that a proposal to expand assisted suicide in 

California will remove crucial “safeguards” touted by supporters of the End of 

Life Option Act passed in 2015. 

Senate Bill 380 would cancel a scheduled review of the 2015 law legalizing 

assisted suicide in the state. It would also eliminate the mandatory 15-day “safety 

period” to receive the life-ending prescription drugs. 

“SB 380’s ‘safeguard’ elimination, these ‘safeguards’ they touted were simply a 

ruse to get the original law passed,” wrote Matt Valliere, executive director of the 

Patients Rights Action Fund, in an April 21 op-ed against the bill in the Orange 

County Register. 

The bill is currently under review and is expected to be amended again before 

it makes its way to a vote in the state senate. 

■ Guadalupe mural 

smashed in Van Nuys 

Parishioners at St. Elisabeth of Hungary 

Church in Van Nuys are asking 

for prayers after a beloved mural of Our 

Lady of Guadalupe was vandalized 

April 21. 

The parish security system caught a 

man in black smashing the tiles that 

make up Mary’s face with a sledgehammer 

several times before fleeing. Police 

are investigating. 

“I feel an unspeakable sadness,” said 

Father Antonio Fiorenza, who is in 

residence at the parish. “But I feel pity 

for the one who made this sacrilegious 

gesture. I pray for his conversion and 

for all those who show contempt to the 

Virgin Mary.” 

St. Elisabeth School students led a 

procession to pray before the damaged 

mural the day of the discovery, and the 

following Friday, pastor Father Vito 

Di Marzio led a livestreamed prayer 

service urging parishioners to ask Mary 

“to touch the heart of the person who 

did this.” 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has 

arranged for a local artist, Geo Rhodes, 

to repair the mural. 

The mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe was vandalized 

April 21. | ST. ELISABETH OF HUNGARY CHURCH 

Y 


IN OTHER WORDS... 

V 

Getting serious on homilies 

Thank you for Heather King’s column in the April 23 issue of Angelus. 

Enough of these insipid homilies that say nothing to anyone. 

This column should be required reading for all homilists. Post a 

copy of it in all of the pulpits! 

— Jorge Garcia, Simi Valley 

Küng’s life deserves a more balanced assessment 

I loved the April 23 issue: The reflections of Archbishop Gomez and the 

pope were wonderful, Father Rolheiser’s reflection on beauty was poignant, 

and Msgr. Antall’s sermon about Barabbas was very powerful. 

The one sour note in the issue was the unsigned news brief about Father 

Hans Küng. Such a remarkable man’s death should not serve as an occasion 

to drag out all the criticism of him. If such editorializing must be included 

in our diocesan magazine, perhaps it should at least lend the name of a 

specific person who holds that opinion rather than leaving it unsigned — as 

if everyone shares this view. 

— Patrick Whelan, Corpus Christi, Pacific Palisades 

A boost of faith at private Masses 

Regarding the suppression of private Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica: As an undergraduate 

resident at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, I attended many 

Masses celebrated by individual priests in the local chapel, at one or another 

of the side altars. 

For me, it was very edifying to know I could go to the chapel in the early 

morning and attend Mass before many minutes passed. As far as I know, the 

priests were unaware of people like me in attendance, but the practice helped 

to cement the faith I remain graced with 60 odd years later. 

— Francis Donohoe, St. Raphael, Santa Barbara 

Y 

Letters to the Editor 

Continue the conversation! To submit a letter to the editor, visit AngelusNews.com/Letters-To-The-Editor 

and use our online form or send an email to editorial@angelusnews.com. Please limit to 300 words. Letters 

may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity. 

Restoring the glory 

Artwork at San Gabriel Mission is seen 

behind scaffolding as the mission undergoes 

renovations following last summer’s 

fire. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

View more photos 

from this gallery at 

AngelusNews.com/photos-videos 

Do you have photos or a story from your 

parish that you’d like to share? Please 

send to editorial @angelusnews.com. 

“They believe in freedom, 

whose author is Jesus 

himself.” 

~ Father Gianni Criveller, on the sentencing of 

several pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, 

including five Catholics. 

“They’re a very brave 

bunch. The pimps got to 

the point with the nuns 

where they just left them 

alone. Because nothing 

you say or do is going to 

run them away.” 

~ Rescued sex-trafficking victim Leslie King in 

an NBC News feature story on Talitha Kum, an 

international network of Catholic nuns fighting 

human trafficking. 

“Whatever the stage of 

human life, it not only 

matters, it is sacred.” 

~ Bishop Shelton J. Fabre and Archbishop Paul S. 

Coakley of Oklahoma City, USCCB chairmen, after 

Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the death of 

George Floyd. 

“A person can have 

money. God gives it to 

him so he can administer 

it well, and this man 

administered it well.” 

~ Pope Francis on Enrique Shaw, an Argentinian 

businessman and father who died in 1962. On April 

24, the Church declared Shaw venerable. 

“Government overreach by 

the Biden administration 

continues to victimize 

women, girls, and people 

of faith by gutting their 

legal protections.” 

~ Americans Defending Freedom senior counsel 

Julie Marie Blake, representing the College of the 

Ozarks against President Biden’s executive order 

that redefines sexual discrimination. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronaldrolheiser.com. 

The origin of our conflicts and differences 

Why do sincere people so 

often find themselves at odds 

with one another? The issue 

here is not about when sincerity meets 

insincerity or plain old sin. No. The 

question is why sincere, God-fearing 

people can find themselves radically at 

odds with one another. 

There’s an interesting passage in the 

Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis’ autobiography 

that intimates far more than 

it reveals at first glance. Commenting 

on Greek mythology and the many 

conflicts there among the gods and 

goddesses, Kazantzakis writes this: 

“The heroes in ancient Greek tragedies 

were no more or less than Dionysus’s 

scattered limbs, clashing among 

themselves. They clashed because 

they were fragments. Each represented 

only one part of the deity; they were 

not an intact god. Dionysus, the intact 

god, stood invisible in the center of the 

tragedy and governed the story’s birth, 

development, and catharsis. For the 

initiated spectator, the god’s scattered 

limbs, though battling against one another, 

had already been secretly united 

and reconciled within him. They had 

composed the god’s intact body and 

formed a harmony.” 

In Greek mythology, the supreme god, 

Dionysus, was intact, containing all 

the scattered pieces of divinity that took 

particular incarnations in various gods, 

goddesses, and human persons. Inside 

Dionysus, the intact god, there was harmony, 

everything fit together, but everywhere 

else pieces of divinity wrestled 

and sparred with one another, forever 

in tension and in power struggles. 

That image is a fertile metaphor 

shedding light on many things. Among 

other things, it can help us understand 

what’s at the root of many of the conflicts 

between sincere people and why 

we have a lot of religious differences. 

What is the root cause when people 

are at odds with one another and there 

is no insincerity or sin involved, when 

both parties are honest and God-fearing? 

Today we speak of ideological differences, 

historical differences, political 

differences, and personal history as to 

why sincere people often see the world 

differently and are at odds with one 

another. We have a language for that. 

However, I’m not sure our current 

language (for all its sophistication) 

captures the heart of this as clearly as 

does that particular metaphor inside 

Greek mythology. In the end, aren’t we 

all grabbing our own piece of God and 

making it the be all and end all, without 

accepting that those we are fighting 

also have a piece of God, and we have 

divinity fighting divinity? 

Boiled down to its root, isn’t that what 

lies at the base of the tension between 

“conservative” and “liberal,” between 

soul and spirit, between head and heart, 

between young and old, between body 

and soul, and between the other binaries 

that divide us? Haven’t each of us 

grabbed an authentic piece of divinity 

and (because we don’t have a vision of 

the intact God) let our piece of divinity 

become the prism through which 

everything else must be seen? 

We are not an “initiated spectator” 

who, as Kazantzakis puts it, has enough 

of a vision of the intact God to see how 

all the pieces ultimately fit in harmony. 

So we continue in our disharmony. 

Much, too, can be gleaned from this 

image in terms of how we view other 

religions. Writing around the year A.D. 

200, St. Clement of Alexandria wrote a 

book entitled (in Greek), “Stromata,” a 

word that means “being strewn about.” 

His concept (carefully nuanced 

through his Christian lens) was that 

God, while revealed normatively in 

Jesus Christ, is also “strewn” (in pieces) 

in other religions and in nature itself. In 

essence, what he is saying is that there 

are pieces of God lying around everywhere, 

though St. Clement doesn’t 

elaborate on how these discrete pieces 

of divinity often fight with one another. 

More recently, Father Raimundo 

Panikkar (1918-2010), one of the major 

Christian commentators on world 

religions, again picked up this concept 

of God as “strewn” and applied it to 

world religions. For him, what Christianity 

sees as contained in the Trinity 

is experienced in pieces by people in 

other faiths. 

For example, certain faiths, like 

Buddhism, make central the experience 

of contingency, awe, dependence, 

and self-effacement in the face of what 

they believe to be “God.” For Father 

Panikkar, these are religions of “God 

the Father.” Some other faiths, particularly 

Christianity but also Judaism and 

Islam, strongly emphasize “God, the 

Father,” but their scriptures and other 

beliefs have an incarnational principle, 

a “Christ.” Certain other religions such 

as Taoism and Hinduism focus much 

more on the experience of spirit, the 

“Holy Spirit.” Since we each emphasize 

one particular aspect of God, it is 

no surprise that, despite sincerity on all 

sides, we often don’t get along. 

And so we are often at odds with one 

another; but it’s helpful to know (and 

acknowledge) that an “intact” God 

stands invisible in the center of our 

conflicts and watches us fight with 

“his scattered limbs,” knowing that in 

the end all these strewn pieces will be 

united again in harmony. 



A MISSION’S 

NEW MISSION 

Could last summer’s devastating fire at Mission San Gabriel have 

been part of a divine plan to wake up LA’s ‘sleeping giant’? 

BY PABLO KAY 


Behind those peeling layers of 

plaster, for example, workers have 

discovered painted walls with colorful 

designs that historians never knew 

existed. Beneath the sunken floors of 

the mission’s sacristy and tiny baptistery 

— crushed by the 150,000 gallons 

of water firefighters used to extinguish 

the blaze and save the mission 

from total destruction — previously 

unknown layers of old brick and slabs 

of stone mined from the San Gabriel 

Mountains have been unearthed. 

The interior of the fire-damaged Mission San Gabriel 

after new steel beams were installed to begin construction 

of a new roof. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Nine months after a mysterious 

fire ripped through Mission 

San Gabriel Arcángel, the 

historic church is still a mess. 

The fire-blackened sanctuary walls 

hide behind layers of scaffolding. 

Pieces of peeling plaster remain. 

A temporary timber roof protects 

the 200-year-old interior from the 

elements, while a pair of scissor lifts 

shuffle around over the makeshift 

particle-board floors. Outside, contractors 

mill around the parish parking 

lot while the structure’s warped steel 

beams wait to be hauled away after 

being carefully unlodged over the 

course of weeks. 

When the four-alarm fire struck in 

the predawn hours of July 11, 2020, 

destroying the mission’s roof and 

damaging most of its interior, mission 

officials and the local community 

were devastated. 

But now, as the mission prepares for 

its 250th anniversary, silver linings 

from the fire perhaps more valuable 

than the millions of dollars in damage 

it caused are starting to emerge. 

Discoveries like these are handy 

tools to help historians understand the 

mission’s spotty past. 

For Terri Huerta, the mission’s historical 

director, the hidden blessings 

of last summer’s fire are becoming 

clearer every day. 

“Mission San Gabriel has kind of 

been a sleeping giant,” she explained 

during a recent visit to San Gabriel. 

“It’s been here, but no one’s really had 

the opportunity, like we do now, to tell 

its story.” 

In other words, the fire may turn out 

to be just the providential sign that 

LA’s oldest Catholic outpost needed 

to reconnect with its historical and 

missionary identity — and right in 

time to kickoff a “jubilee year” that 

Archbishop José H. Gomez is planning 

to mark its 250th birthday. 

Telling the mission’s story has 

always been a challenge. The 

founding Spanish Franciscan 

missionaries were meticulous 

record-keepers — keeping track of 

everything from baptisms and weddings 

to crop yields — but after they 

were expelled in the 1830s, the newly 

privatized mission largely fell into 

decay under Mexican rule. Although 

it became a popular visitor attraction 

in the second half of the 1800s, its 

subsequent inhabitants did not always 

do a great job of keeping records. 

As Huerta admitted, the mission “has 


The thousands of gallons of water used to put out the fire last July caused the floor of the mission’s sacristy to sink, revealing layers of stone and brick used to first build the church. 

No human remains have been found in excavations since the fire. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

The story of a son of San Gabriel 

David Charlebois being filmed for “LA 

Catholic Stories.” | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

David Charlebois’ connection with 

Mission San Gabriel spans a lifetime. 

As a child, he visited the mission for 

his fourth-grade mission report. Years 

later, he and his wife were married 

there. And just two weeks before the 

July 2020 fire, he had completed restoration 

work on its interior. 

Now, the next chapter in his relationship 

with the mission is being written. 

A historical art restoration contractor 

in Southern California for more than 

60 years, he has worked on landmarks 

from the Angels Flight railway in 

downtown LA to Griffith Observatory 

and famed architect Frank Lloyd 

Wright’s textile block houses. But his 

favorite project is the restoration of his 

beloved mission, all while maintaining 

the integrity of the labor, the lives, and 

the efforts of those who first laid its 

foundations. 

For Charlebois, helping rebuild the 

place that nurtured his faith is more 

than a job. He credits that faith with 

“seeing him through” many trials in 

life, including a bout with cancer, the 

loss of his daughter as a child, and 

serving in the Vietnam War. 

Earlier this year, Charlebois was 

profiled for a new monthly video series 

produced by the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles’ digital team. The project aims 

to shed a light on the unique faith testimonies 

of Los Angeles-area Catholics 

who have leaned on their faith to guide 

their personal and professional lives. 

To watch Charlebois’ story and others, 

go to lacatholics.org/stories and follow 

#LACatholicStories on social media. 


never really had a verifiable narrative.” 

Few in this close-knit mission 

parish have taken the tragic fire more 

personally than Huerta. Since the 

’70s, Huerta’s family has celebrated 

baptisms, weddings, confirmations, 

and anniversaries here. Her brother is 

buried in the cemetery on the mission 

grounds. 

But now she is a first-person witness 

to how last summer’s fire is providing 

key insights into mysteries like what 

the church’s interior design first 

looked like, or how its design evolved 

over the centuries. 

“We have learned so much about this 

building from the fire,” said Huerta. 

While researchers have long thought 

the structure was built with adobe 

bricks, the blaze has revealed that the 

natives and missionaries who worked 

together to build the mission actually 

used fired brick and mortar. 

Six wooden statues and a painting 

with a miraculous reputation damaged 

by the fire are in the process of 

professional restoration. The church’s 

original reredos and altar, which 

firefighters were able to save during 

the early morning firefight, also need 

to be cleaned and repainted. 

The façade of Mission San Gabriel survived 

the July 2020 fire. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

UC Riverside historian Steven Hackell 

is the chairperson of the mission’s 

Museum Committee. By forcing the 

removal of all of its surviving artifacts 

from the mission, the fire means his 

team can now develop a full inventory 

of those items, which include 

paintings, sculptures, books, and even 

liturgical vestments — and decide 

how and where to best preserve them. 

Like Huerta, he sees the work ahead 

as a special opportunity. 

“If you went through your attic and 

cleaned it up one day, you wouldn’t 

just put everything back where it was 

once the floors are dusted and the 

windows are clean,” Hackell explained 

in an interview. “You’d make 

decisions.” 

The mission church’s steel beams were warped by the 

intense fire. They had to be carefully removed and 

replaced by new ones last month. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Huerta hopes that some of those decisions 

will be formed by an advisory 

panel with art experts from LACMA 

and the Getty to guide the repainting 

of the church’s interior. 

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us 

to be a little more methodical about 

deciding what the mission is going to 

look like after we’re done, and what 

educational opportunities we have to 

share with the public,” said Huerta. 

Both Huerta and Hackell see the 

events of the last year as a much-needed 

jumpstart to the task of restoring 

the mission for future generations to 

behold. 


‘Sanctitas’ leads the way in 

San Gabriel’s spiritual renewal 

Sister Maria Goretti’s assigned 

ministry is among 

the homeless, but every 

fourth Friday she helps 

young adults at Mission 

San Gabriel to satisfy a 

very different hunger for 

eucharistic adoration. 

With Mass limited or 

inaccessible for months 

on end, “we had a lot of 

young people saying, ‘I 

wish there was a place I 

could go for adoration 

and confession,” said the 

Franciscan Sister of the 

Poor of Jesus Christ. 

She teamed up with 

Father Matthew Wheeler, 

associate pastor of 

St. Anthony Church in 

San Gabriel and vocations 

director for the 

San Gabriel Pastoral 

Region. With support 

from Jennifer Havey, 

regional coordinator of 

spiritual renewal, they 

launched “Sanctitas” for 

young adults to engage in 

adoration, reflection, and 

confession at 7 p.m. on 

fourth Fridays inside the 

parish church next door 

to the historic mission. 

The music is contemporary, the 

spiritual practices timeless. 

There is exposition of the Blessed 

Sacrament, some music, some silence, 

and a priest offers a short meditation. 

After more silence, there is an examination 

of conscience and an opportunity 

for confession. Singing is limited 

due to COVID-19 — and precautions 

such as masking, social distancing, 

and signing in for contact tracing are 

rigorously observed. 

Although Father Matt works in vocations, 

Sanctitas is not about considering 

holy orders or consecrated life. 

“Sanctitas came about to help people 

who are trying to discern God’s will in 

Young people attend a “Sanctitas” adoration service earlier this year. 

a general way, to help them in their 

relationship with Christ and to try to 

get them connected with other young 

people who are Christ-centered as 

well,” he said. 

Attendance has averaged about 70 — 

and as high as 100. At least two other 

parishes offer a similar ministry on 

other Fridays. 

Four priests are available for confessions. 

They stay busy, often with 

people who haven’t been to confession 

for years. 

“They are all good confessions. God 

is at work, bringing people back,” 

Father Matt said. 

One of the regulars at Sanctitas is 

Marisol Valencia, 27, 

a medical assistant in 

San Gabriel. 

“Sanctitas has 

been like a breath of 

fresh air. It’s been so 

rough at the clinic, 

just seeing so many 

people struggling with 

the pandemic, with 

missing their family 

members, with depression 

and anxiety, 

so Sanctitas has really 

been a blessing for 

me,” she said. 

She had always 

attended Mass, but 

began to grow deeper 

in faith in the year 

before the pandemic, 

going to daily 

Mass and joining 

Sister Maria Goretti 

in outreach to the 

homeless. The closing 

of churches was a 

shock that made her 

appreciate the Eucharist 

even more. She 

went to adoration at a 

church that offered it 

through a window. 

While adoration had 

once felt awkward, 

she said, it has become awesome. 

“A friend of mine told me, ‘You 

know, parents who have a new baby 

sometimes just stare at that baby. They 

aren’t saying anything, but do you 

think they are talking to each other?’ 

Their hearts are speaking to each other 

and that is what you do when you 

are in front of the Eucharist,” she said. 

“Sanctitas is a place for a soul to find 

healing. A place for our hearts to find 

rest. But more importantly, it’s a place 

to adore Jesus, to console his wounded 

heart, to love him and to trust that 

he is all we need. Nothing else, only 

him.” 

— Ann Rodgers 


“We have this really unparalleled 

opportunity to not just restore the 

mission itself, but to more fully understand 

the material culture of the 

mission, which was so crucial,” said 

Hackell. 

Meanwhile, the mission is working 

on submitting remodeling plans to the 

City of San Gabriel, which include 

modern electrical and HVAC systems. 

The timeline for the restoration is 

still unfolding. Mission officials hope 

to have the new roof and ceiling fully 

installed by the time Archbishop 

Gomez celebrates the inaugural Mass 

for the jubilee, slated for Sept. 11, 

and expect the mission to be “fully 

functional” by the end of the jubilee a 

year later. 

For Father Parker Sandoval, 

the San Gabriel fire and the 

devastating consequences of the 

COVID-19 pandemic on parishes are 

signs that the church in Los Angeles is 

being called to a “new beginning.” It 

is why, in Father Sandoval’s words, the 

timing of the mission’s 250th jubilee 

this year is nothing short of “providential.” 

“I think the state of San Gabriel 

Mission right now is how the whole 

Church feels,” said Father Sandoval, 

vice chancellor for Ministerial 

Services for the archdiocese. “This 

has been a traumatic year. And I 

think that image of the church under 

reconstruction following a disaster is 

an appropriate image of the whole 

Church right now.” 

The idea of a “Jubilee Year” originally 

comes from the Book of Leviticus, 

in which God commanded Israel to 

observe every 50th year as a time of 

mercy — when debts were forgiven, 

people in bondage were set free, and 

lands were returned to their original 

owners. 

Since the 14th century, the Church 

has celebrated jubilees at regular 

intervals. The pope can also proclaim 

“extraordinary jubilees” to mark special 

events or anniversaries or to fulfill 

a special need (the last was in 2000, 

Last year’s fire has exposed brick patterns and paint 

in the walls of San Gabriel Mission. | PABLO KAY 

celebrated as “The Great Jubilee,” 

marking the beginning of the third 

millennium since the birth of Jesus). 

To each jubilee the Church attaches 

certain indulgences, which are opportunities 

for grace and mercy. They 

may involve pilgrimages, prayers, or 

charitable works. 

Here in Los Angeles, the San 

Gabriel jubilee year is being organized 

around both senses of the word 

“mission”: Special events, parish initiatives, 

and pilgrimage opportunities 

are being planned, with the intention 

of educating Catholics about the 

mission’s past while forming them to 

evangelize in the future. 

“The hope for this jubilee year is not 

simply to celebrate the past, but to 

raise up a new generation of missionaries 

for our time and place,” said 

Father Sandoval, who is overseeing 

planning for the special year under 


08042021_C 

the tagline “Forward in Mission” — 

an adaptation of Mission San Gabriel 

founder St. Junípero Serra’s famous 

motto, “Always Forward!” 

The year will kick off on Sept. 8 with 

an opening prayer service at San Gabriel 

Mission, followed by 40 consecutive 

hours of eucharistic adoration 

at 22 parishes around the archdiocese 

designated as jubilee pilgrimage sites 

(one in each of the archdiocese’s 

20 deaneries, plus St. Catherine of 

Alexandria on Catalina Island and La 

Placita near downtown LA). 

An opening Mass for the jubilee 

will be held either at the mission or 

the cathedral on Saturday, Sept. 11, 

and a closing Mass on Sept. 10 of the 

following year. 

In between, the archdiocese will 

be promoting “pilgrimage walks” 

between missions, parish retreats, a 

historical exhibit on the mission at the 

cathedral, and a curriculum on local 

church history and evangelization for 

use in Catholic schools. 

For Huerta, the educational element 

of the jubilee year is especially important 

in the wake of recent attacks on 

statues of St. Junípero, Mission San 

Gabriel’s founder, fueled by narratives 

that depict the evangelization of California 

as an act of oppression. 

“We have an opportunity to change 

the narrative,” said Huerta. One component 

of the mission’s renewal will 

be the creation and dedication of an 

outdoor sacred space on the mission 

grounds designed by local descendants 

of Tongva natives. 

Both Huerta and Father Sandoval 

believe there is little use in clamoring 

for the past, when the opportunities 

for the mission’s renewal going forward 

are so obvious. 

“We do not want to return to normal. 

A worker is seen through the gap between the 

mission church’s damaged walls and its temporary 

roof. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

We want to return to the Gospel, 

which calls us to better than normal, 

because normal was decline,” said 

Father Sandoval. “We can’t simply 

revert to business-as-usual, maintenance 

mode. This is the moment to 

be intentionally missionary.” 

“Even in these circumstances, even 

in this disaster zone, we find something 

new.” 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 

To donate to the mission’s Fire Restoration 

Fund, visit parish.sangabrielmissionchurch.org. 

Donations will go toward 

restoration work not covered by insurance. 

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Regarding FEMA COVID-19 Funeral Assistance 

We write to you today with the joy of Easter in our hearts and a positive 

message for you to share. Although COVID-19 continues to affect our 

Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries, we see a slight decline in our services 

need. With God’s grace, our staff continues to work diligently with our 

grieving families through this challenging process. 

Today, we wanted to bring some vital information to your attention. 

FEMA has begun offering assistance and relief for funeral and burial 

costs for families who have suffered the passing of a loved one due to 

COVID-19. You may already be aware of this program through print 

and news media, but we felt we should highlight some important 

information for you. 

FEMA began accepting applications for COVID-19 funeral 

assistance on April 12, 2021. 

Applications are being accepted by phone through the 

dedicated FEMA toll-free hotline at 844-684-6333. 

No online applications will be accepted. Funeral homes, 

cemeteries, and other third parties are not eligible to apply 

on behalf of a family. Catholic Cemeteries & Mortuaries will 

make every effort to assist those Patrons requiring copies 

of documentation related to services provided by our facilities. 

It is important to note that FEMA has issued a fraud alert 

advising of possible scammers reaching out to the vulnerable. 

All must be aware that FEMA will not directly contact 

individuals and does not send individual notifications. 

We encourage those affected or anyone with questions, 

to visit the FEMA website at 

https://www.fema.gov/disasters/coronavirus/economic/funeral-assistance/faq 

For additional questions and to begin the application process, 

please contact the FEMA toll-free hotline at 844-684-6333. 

May 7, 2021 • ANGELUS • 17 

08042021_CCM_May_COVID_FP_bleed_app.indd 1 

4/20/21 7:15 PM

The dream 

lives on 

Could the quick collapse of an 

ambitious European soccer ‘money 

grab’ be an encouraging sign for 

the pope’s economic vision? 

BY CHARLES COLLINS 

LEICESTER, England — It was 

the strangest two days in world 

sports. Late on Sunday, April 

18, 12 of the biggest soccer teams in 

Europe announced they were forming 

a “Super League” and would compete 

against one another — and a few select 

other elite teams — every year. 

By Tuesday, the whole thing had 

collapsed. 

Although such a format would be 

familiar to most Americans — it is how 

all professional leagues work in the 

United States — it would have turned 

European soccer upside down. 

Soccer is based on promotion and 

relegation. Each nation has a league 

Fans of Chelsea Football Club protest against the 

European Super League April 20 in London. | ROB 

PINNEY/GETTY 

pyramid, and the worst performing 

teams drop a level after each season, 

replaced by the best performing teams 

from the lower-placed league. It would 

be like if, depending on their performance, 

the Columbus Clippers and 

Sacramento River Cats had the chance 

of replacing the Texas Rangers and 

Pittsburgh Pirates in baseball’s American 

and National Leagues. 

What that means — at least in theory, 

let’s say — is that a team playing in 

the equivalent of a Class AA baseball 

league could win the World Series in 

three years. 

In the current format, the best performing 

soccer teams in each European 

league then play one another the 

next year in the Champions League, 

considered the most competitive annual 

soccer tournament in the world. 

What these dozen teams decided to 

do was leave this system behind — 

they wouldn’t have to qualify to enter 

the European tournament anymore, 

because they couldn’t be relegated 

from the Super League. 

The teams were England’s Manchester 

United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Totten- 


ham Hotspur, Manchester City, and 

Chelsea; Spain’s Real Madrid, Barcelona, 

and Atlético Madrid; and Italy’s 

Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan. 

Their argument was that their names 

were what drew television viewers, so 

their brands were what mattered, not 

their sporting merits. 

The soccer fans of Europe revolted, 

and in the face of nearly universal 

condemnation, the Super League 

collapsed after less than 48 hours. 

One wonders what noted soccer 

devotee Pope Francis thought about 

it, since the events seemed to perfectly 

intertwine two of his favorite talking 

points: The current economic system 

is enriching the few at the expense of 

the many, and the power of the people 

— he uses the term “populism” — to 

shape their societies. 

He outlined this vision in his recently 

released interview book “Let Us 

Dream: The Path to a Better Future.” 

If you want an example of broken 

economics, just look at the idea of the 

Super League. The top soccer teams 

in Europe make exponentially more 

money than those further down the 

food chain. However, they also lose 

more money than they make. A lot 

more. 

In the aftermath of the league’s 

implosion, several fingers have pointed 

at the American billionaires (among 

them the LA Rams’ Stan Kroenke) that 

owned several of the breakaway teams, 

many bought in leveraged buyouts 

that ruined the balance sheets. The 

new league itself was to be financed by 

debt, with a firm belief that its appeal 

would lead to huge TV contracts. 

Given the fact that several television 

deals have broken down in the last few 

years because media companies just 

haven’t been able to recoup their costs, 

the infrastructure of the new league 

may have been built on toothpicks. 

And so, while it is easy to imagine 

the pontiff shaking his head at hearing 

the news of the perceived money grab 

by these giant clubs at the expense of 

poorer clubs, his heart was probably 

gladdened at the response of the fans. 

No one wanted the new league, not 

even the fans of the clubs involved. 

(Cynically, these fans — those who 

live in the cities in which the teams 

play, and actually attend matches 

— are referred to as “legacy fans,” as 

opposed to the real target audience in 

the living rooms of Shanghai, Kuala 

Lumpur, and Los Angeles.) 

These fans live on local rivalries — 

London alone has six teams in the 

Premier League, although one of 

them, Fulham, looks to be relegated 

at the end of the season. These fans 

Players from Spanish team Getafe wearing t-shirts 

reading “Soccer is for the fans” to protest against 

the Super League greet Barcelona star Lionel Messi 

after a match April 22. | LLUIS GENE/AFP VIA GETTY 

also love to dream: London has six 

other professional teams in the lower 

leagues, all of which dream of one day 

playing in the top tier, and maybe even 

possibly winning England’s coveted 

Premier League championship. 

I live in Leicester, home to Leicester 

City, which proved the dream is possible. 

In 2008, the team was playing in 

the third tier of the English pyramid. 

In 2016, to the world’s astonishment, it 

won the Premier League. 

It currently sits third in the Premier 

League, and on Sunday — the day the 

Super League was announced — it 

won its FA Cup semifinal game. 

Teams like Leicester — which are 

knocking on the door of being a “big 

club” — would find that door bolted 

shut by the Super League. 

However, because of a 48-hour upswell 

of “popularism,” we in Leicester 

are allowed to continue to dream. 

Pope Francis has to be smiling. 

Charles Collins is an American journalist 

currently living in the United Kingdom, 

and is Crux’s managing editor. 

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07082020_24-Hr Insurance_Angelus_Rect.indd 15/28/20 3:27 PM

The fruits 

of his 

labor 

In celebrating 

‘St. Joseph the 

Worker,’ Christians 

commemorate his 

surprising discovery: 

that sweat and toil 

can be divine 

BY MIKE AQUILINA 

St. Joseph is the one person the 

Church calls “the Worker” — 

even dedicating a day of the year 

(May 1) to honor him as such. It’s a 

strange title — generic, suggestive of 

an infinity of trades. 

And yet it’s unique. St. Joseph is the 

only one who bears it. 

The New Testament tells us, in 

Greek, that St. Joseph was a “tekton.” 

And that, too, is a generic word, 

although somewhat more specific. 

“Tekton” is Greek for “craftsman” or 

“artisan.” 

So St. Joseph is known for manual 

labor. His work was not philosophy or 

theology. 

He was a “tekton,” and that meant he 

was a skilled laborer, obviously known 

for his work. It’s the name his neighbors 

remembered him by. 

St. Joseph lived in good times for men 

of his trade. His region was undergoing 

a building boom. Herod the Great 

ruled the Holy Land for more than 30 

“St. Joseph the Worker,” by Georges 

De LA Tour, 1640s, Louvre Museum 

in Paris. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 


Georges 

Museum 

MONS 

years, and more than any other king in 

antiquity he was known for his architectural 

skill. 

He commanded the construction of 

harbors, amphitheaters, marketplaces, 

racetracks, boulevards, and public 

baths. Still today, he holds several 

world records for his building projects. 

The whole nation prospered, and the 

other Judean aristocrats were eager to 

raise up signs of their prosperity. They 

wanted mansions and monuments, 

symbols of their high status and great 

wealth. 

So builders and artisans were in demand, 

and the future looked endlessly 

bright. Some of Herod’s projects promised 

to go on for decades, continuing 

into the reign of his heirs. From childhood 

onward, St. 

Joseph probably 

worked with 

crews of men, 

who commuted 

together to such 

worksites. 

An ancient tradition 

tells us that 

St. Joseph’s craft 

was carpentry, a 

trade in which he 

apprenticed his 

son Jesus. When 

people were astonished 

at Jesus’ 

teaching, they 

asked, “Isn’t this 

the carpenter’s 

son?” (Matthew 

13:55). 

And all of this is fitting. Spiritual 

writers since the fourth century have 

pointed out that Jesus’ earthly father 

shared two titles with his heavenly 

Father. Both St. Joseph and God are 

known as fathers and builders. 

As a builder, St. Joseph was godlike. 

But that divine quality would have 

been his if he had practiced any other 

honest trade. Work is part of our basic 

human vocation and identity; and St. 

Joseph knew this not because of an 

angel’s message, but because he knew 

Scripture. 

Some years ago, Pope Francis spoke 

of the meaning of human labor, and 

he drew his teaching from the Book of 

Genesis: “It is clear from the very first 

pages of the Bible that work is an essential 

part of human dignity; there we 

read that ‘the Lord God took the man 

and put him in the garden of Eden to 

till it and keep it’ (Genesis 2:15). Man 

is presented as a laborer who works 

the earth [and] harnesses the forces of 

nature.” 

The Book of Genesis introduces God 

as a worker (Genesis 2:2) and man, 

furthermore, as someone made in the 

image and likeness of God (Genesis 

1:26). Humanity was made to have 

dominion over all the creatures of 

the earth, and sea, and sky. Adam was 

told to “fill the earth and subdue it” 

(1:26–28), to “till it and keep it” (2:15). 

That’s work. 

Thus human beings were created 

with work as a basic part of their 

nature. All of this happened before the 

original sin. Work was seen as something 

good. 

In fact, it was holy. We see this in 

the way the story is told. Adam is 

commanded to “till” and “keep” the 

garden. The original Hebrew verbs 

are “abodah” and “shamar,” which are 

elsewhere used to describe the work of 

priests as they tended the sacred rites of 

the tabernacle. 

So, at the moment of his creation, 

Adam was given a sacred and priestly 

task. The entirety of the earth was to be 

his altar and his offering, and his labor 

was to be his act of sacrifice. 

That moment is the true “big bang” 

in any biblical understanding of work. 

The event remains like background 

radiation through the rest of salvation 

history, informing the way labor and 

laborers are portrayed in the religion of 

Israel — and how they’re protected and 

regulated in Israel’s law. 

That doesn’t mean that work is easy. 

After Adam sinned, God confronted 

him with the consequences of his 

actions, and most of them would 

affect his work: “Cursed is the ground 

because of you; in toil you shall eat 

of it all the days of your life; thorns 

and thistles it shall bring forth to you” 

(3:17–18). 

Work itself was not a punishment for 

sin or a consequence of sin. Because 

of sin, however, work became troublesome 

and frustrating. Nonetheless, 

from the beginning, it was holy and 

good. 

And so it was in 

the life of Jesus, 

whom St. Paul 

calls the “New 

Adam.” In his 

“Christ in the House of 

His Parents,” by John 

Everett Millais, 1849. 


young life, Jesus 

reconsecrated labor 

as he assisted 

St. Joseph in his 

workshop. 

In time, Jesus 

took up the work 

of craftsmen, draftsmen, builders, 

teachers, and physicians — and he 

restored it all to its original goodness, 

lifting it up to his Father in heaven. 

Later in life, he sailed with fishermen 

and sanctified their trade. At the wedding 

feast of Cana he even came to the 

assistance of bartenders. 

In all of the tasks he took up, he 

established a model for that kind of 

work. He earned the title that went 

with his trade. When he was a carpenter, 

people called him “the carpenter,” 

as if it was his name. Later on, when he 

was an itinerant teacher, he was “the 

teacher,” as if he exemplified the job 

done at peak performance. 

The early Christians delighted when 

they shared in work that Jesus had 


done with his hands. So 

you can see the symbols 

of all trades inscribed 

along with the names of 

Christians throughout the 

burial chambers in the 

catacombs. 

Jesus learned his approach 

to work from his 

father, St. Joseph — who 

learned it surely from the 

Book of Genesis. The 

biblical understanding 

of labor — as something 

positive, honorable, and 

holy — was uniquely 

Jewish. It did not come 

naturally to other peoples. 

The Greeks, in fact, disdained 

manual laborers 

and tried to minimize 

their participation in 

democracy. Socrates 

held that full citizenship 

should be granted only 

to the leisured classes 

— and, in fact, citizens 

should be forbidden “to 

exercise any mechanical 

craft at all.” Aristotle 

agreed, adding, “No man can practice 

virtue who is living the life of a mechanic 

or laborer.” 

The Greek historian Herodotus observed 

that this attitude toward laborers 

was universal. “I know that in Thrace 

and Scythia and Persia and Lydia and 

nearly all foreign countries, those who 

learn trades are held in less esteem 

than the rest of the people, and those 

who have least to do with artisans’ work 

… are highly honored.” 

Yet the Jews never looked at work that 

way. We read in the Talmud that “A 

man has a duty to teach his son a trade. 

… Anyone who does not teach his 

son a trade, teaches him to steal.” And 

elsewhere the rabbis said, “Seven years 

lasted the famine, but it came not to 

the craftsman’s door.” 

Jews — and later Christians — saw 

profound dignity in workers and their 

works. The synagogues and churches 

in antiquity were filled with laborers, 

who worshiped a Laborer and whose 

Scriptures preserved not the arguments 

of philosophers, but the stories of 

people who got work done. Abel was 

a herdsman. Noah was a sailor. Jacob 

leaned into a plow. St. Peter and St. 

John were fishermen. St. Paul made 

tents and canopies. 

These men got dirty and sweaty every 

day. And so the tradition-minded 

Greeks and Romans could dismiss 

them as ignoble. 

The idea that ordinary labor had 

dignity — the idea that ordinary work 

could be something divine — this was 

one of those crazy Christian ideas that 

scandalized the pagan world. It was 

like the idea of a crucified God, or of 

ordinary people eating God at Mass. 

Pagans mocked them. But Christians 

seemed to revel in every insult. The 

Church Fathers didn’t hesitate to 

portray Jesus working at various trades. 

And everyone recognized this as a 

radical idea. 

The pagan gods were projections of 

the upper classes, and the Greek and 

Roman myths were narratives of the 

horrible mischief of a leisurely life. 

But the God of the New Testament 

was a carpenter, whose earthly father 

was a carpenter, and 

whose Father in heaven 

was not drinking and 

womanizing, but always 

toiling. Jesus told his 

opponents, “My Father 

is working still, and I am 

working” (John 5:17). 

A 16th-century illustration of St. 

Clement of Alexandria by French 

Franciscan explorer and writer 

André Thevet. 


The lesson was not lost 

on the early Christians. 

St. Clement of Alexandria, 

writing around 

A.D. 190, reminded new 

converts that there was 

no need for them to quit 

their jobs: “Tend to your 

farming if you’re a farmer; 

but know God while you 

labor in the fields. Sail if 

navigation is your profession, 

but invoke always 

the celestial pilot.” 

And such preaching was effective. It 

converted people in every walk of life. 

St. Clement’s contemporary, Tertullian 

of Carthage, boasted of the Church’s 

explosive growth. “We emerged only 

yesterday, and we have filled every 

place among you — cities, islands, 

fortresses, towns, marketplaces, military 

camps, tribes, companies, palace, senate, 

forum. We have left nothing to you 

but the temples of your gods.” 

In the world, Christians were as omnipresent 

as God; and, like their God, 

they were working still. The new Christian 

faith led them not to abandon 

their duties, but to excel in them. And 

this distinguished Christianity from 

other world religions. 

Their work was holy. They learned 

this from Jesus, who had learned 

it from his father — St. Joseph the 

Worker. 

Mike Aquilina is the author of many 

books, including “St. Joseph and His 

World” (Scepter, $11.48). He is a contributing 

editor for Angelus News. 


THE ONES WITH THE ANSWERS 

On matters of social justice, some want the Catholic Church 

to be quiet, others to be more ‘woke.’ Bishop Robert Barron 

agrees with neither proposition 

BY PABLO KAY 

What does the Catholic 

Church have to say about 

this? Or that? 

For the last 2,000 years, the answers 

have often come from figures like 

popes and cardinals, but also more 

ordinary men and women now recognized 

as saints. 

Lately, the subjects of those questions 

are often more complicated — and 

their answers more controversial. In 

an age marked by reawakened racial 

tensions, artificial intelligence, movements 

of mass immigration, shifting 

views on identity, gender, and sex, the 

proliferation of piecemeal wars, and 

the specter of a post-pandemic global 

“Great Reset,” what are ordinary 

Catholics supposed to think? 

For Bishop Robert Barron, the 

answers are out there, but it helps 

to know where to look. On April 

21, Bishop Barron participated in a 

wide-ranging Reddit “Ask Me Anything” 

session that drew skepticism 

and praise on social media for his 

thoughts on modern trends like critical 

race theory and “wokeism.” 

The controversy comes amid the release 

of the latest volume in the Word 

on Fire Classics series, the “Catholic 

Social Teaching Collection” (Word on 

Fire, $29.95), that asks readers to consider 

wisdom from popes and saints 

past and present. 

Angelus spoke to Bishop Barron, who 

oversees the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ 

Santa Barbara Pastoral Region 

as an auxiliary bishop, about what the 

collection’s excerpts have to say to the 

troubles roiling our society. 

Bishop Robert Barron at the 

ordination of a Josephite 

seminarian to the diaconate 

in January. | WORD ON FIRE 

Bishop, what gave you the idea to 

compile this book, and why release 

it now? 

I have long been passionate about 

Catholic Social Teaching (CST). 


St. Pope John Paul II greets the future Pope Francis, then-Cardinal 

Jorge Bergoglio, at his elevation to the rank of cardinal in 2001. 

Writings from both popes are included in Word on Fire’s new 

“Catholic Social Teaching Collection.” | FRANCO ORIGLIA/GETTY 

Catholics sympathetic to the aims of 

today’s social justice movement. Do 

you see the text on CST compiled in 

your book as an antidote to the legacy 

of Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault 

in Western culture today? 

Yes! The advocates of the so-called 

“woke” ideology today have not been 

shy about articulating the philosophical 

underpinnings of their perspective. 

They do indeed find inspiration in 

Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre, Derrida, and 

Foucault, among others. 

From these modern and postmodern 

thinkers, they derive a number of 

principles. 

First, they advocate a deeply antagonistic 

social theory, whereby the world 

is divided sharply into the two classes 

For many years, I offered a course at 

Mundelein Seminary on this subject, 

and I paid special attention to 

the social doctrine articulated by the 

popes of the past 120 years. I feel that 

the Church’s social doctrine, like the 

documents of Vatican II, is still largely 

unknown to huge numbers of Catholics. 

I wanted this text to serve as a 

useful introduction to this tradition. 

In the introduction to the book, 

you write that “the idea that the 

Church shouldn’t have a social 

teaching is simply repugnant to the 

Catholic view of God.” Where do 

you see that view being expressed 

right now? 

I would like to first explain what I 

mean by this. For classical Catholic 

theology, God is not one being 

among many, but rather the sheer act 

of “to-be itself,” “ipsum esse” in the 

language of St. Thomas Aquinas. This 

means that God is intimately present 

to all of creation and to every aspect 

of life, very much including the social 

and political order. 

We ought, therefore, never to think 

of economics and politics as secular, if 

by that term we mean divorced from 

God and God’s purposes. I think there 

is, within some quarters of the Catholic 

world, a tendency to bifurcate the 

secular and the spiritual too radically. 

One inclusion that surprised me 

was that of “Sublimis Deus,” Pope 

Paul III’s encyclical condemning 

the enslavement of American natives 

centuries before the major world 

powers — and later the U.S. — ended 

slavery. It doesn’t sound like it 

would have been the most popular 

thing for the pope to say at the time. 

Do you see any parallels with the 

Church’s teachings on any of today’s 

“hot-button” social issues? 

I love that text, and I have enormous 

admiration for Bartolomé de las Casas, 

the Dominican friar and advocate of 

the native peoples, who played a key 

role in its development. 

You’re right. Long before the European 

powers moved to end slavery, the 

Church condemned the practice, 

and in so doing contributed mightily 

to what would eventually emerge as 

a movement on behalf of universal 

human rights. To be sure, there were 

many violations of this teaching within 

the Church in the centuries following 

this declaration, but it certainly 

represented a crucial turning point. 

When the Church speaks out today 

on behalf of migrants, the poor, those 

who are discriminated against because 

of their race, etc., it is continuing 

in the tradition of Las Casas and his 

colleagues. 

You’ve talked and written a bit 

lately about the problems with 

“wokeism,” to the chagrin of some 

Friedrich 

Nietzsche. 

| WIKIMEDIA 

Jean-Paul Sartre. 

| WIKIMEDIA 


of oppressors and oppressed. 

Second, they relativize moral value 

and see classical morality as an attempt 

by the ruling class to maintain 

itself in power. 

Third, they focus not so much on 

the individual as on racial and ethnic 

categories, and hence they endorse 

the idea of collective guilt and recommend 

a sort of reverse discrimination 

to address the injustices of the past. 

Fourth, they tend to demonize the 

market economy and the institutions 

of democracy as part of a superstructure 

defending the privileged. 

Fifth, they push toward equity of outcome 

throughout the society, rather 

than equality of opportunity. 

And finally, “wokeism” employs 

divisive and aggressive strategies of 

accusation that are contrary to the 

Gospel demand to love our enemies. 

Suffice it to say that Catholic Social 

Teaching stands athwart all of this. 

It wants social justice, of course, but 

not on “woke” terms. Its heroes are 

not Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault, 

but rather Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, 

Jesus the Lord, Ambrose, Aquinas, and 

Teresa of Calcutta. 

I fear that a lot of Catholics, legitimately 

concerned about societal 

injustice and eager to do something 

about it, will turn, not to our biblically 

based and deeply wise social teaching 

tradition, but rather to the philosophy 

that’s currently in the air. That’s a 

main reason I wanted to bring this 

collection out. 

Couldn’t the argument be made 

that Catholics included in the second 

half of the book — figures like 

Dorothy Day and saints like Teresa 

of Calcutta and Oscar Romero — 

were “woke” in their own right? 

No! I mean, if you want to define 

“woke” as simply being alert to social 

injustice and passionate about addressing 

it, then sure, they were “woke.” 

But the term, as I clarified above, has 

a much more definite meaning, and 

those great figures would not be the 

least bit sympathetic with contemporary 

“wokeism,” it seems to me. For 

one thing, all three of them believed 

deeply in God and in the objectivity 

of moral values, and all three of them 

advocated a cooperative social theory. 

Mother Teresa 

of Calcutta. 

| CNS 

Dorothy Day. 

| WIKIPEDIA 

And none of them believed in programs 

of collective guilt. 

In an April 15 address to the 

Minnesota Catholic Conference, 

Archbishop José H. Gomez said that 

“in the Catholic vision, social justice 

is not about personal identity, or 

group power, or getting more material 

goods.” Is there a “contributor” to 

this book that you find elaborates on 

that view particularly well? 

In saying that, Archbishop Gomez is 

echoing the voices of Leo XIII, Pius 

XI, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, 

Benedict XVI, and Francis, the present 

Bishop of Rome — all of whom 

are represented in our book. 

In the excerpt from “Evangelium 

Vitae” included in the collection, 

John Paul II acknowledges the 

difficulty in mounting “an effective 

legal defense of life in pluralistic 

democracies, because of the presence 

of strong cultural currents with 

differing outlooks.” Today it seems 

the Church is praised in mainstream 

culture when she speaks out on 

issues like the death penalty and 

racism, but less on the fundamental 

right to human life. What is the best 

way to do that in 2021? 

When it comes to matters of intrinsic 

evil that seriously compromise the 

common good, the Church must 

speak strongly and clearly. 

As Pope John Paul II often reminded 

us, the Church never imposes, only 

proposes. So, even as we acknowledge 

the difficulty of persuading people of 

our point of view, we are obliged to 

make cogent public arguments about 

all of the great life issues: abortion, 

capital punishment, euthanasia, 

racism, etc. 

Depending on the question, of 

course, we will be more popular with 

the left or the right within our American 

context. So be it. Our job is not to 

please any political party. It is to speak 

for Gospel values in the public square. 

Your apostolate, Word on Fire, has 

tried to reach people where they 

seem to spend a lot of time nowadays 

— online. So what’s the idea behind 

releasing this Word on Fire Classics 

series in print? 

I certainly believe in the importance 

of using the new media in evangelization, 

but I have always been, deep 

down, a book person. And Word on 

Fire, from the beginning, has been a 

publishing enterprise. 

Last year, we brought out the first 

volume of our Word on Fire Bible, 

which we envision to be a seven-volume 

project, and just a few weeks 

ago we published a book containing 

the four constitutions of the Second 

Vatican Council, accompanied by 

commentary by the post-conciliar 

popes. So I’m delighted when people 

watch my videos, but I also want them 

to read! 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 


WITH GRACE 

DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE 

The inequalities of the Equality Act 

It is customary and politically 

expedient to name bills in such 

a way that anyone who opposes 

their passage risks being regarded a 

moral leper. Look no further than the 

“Equality Act,” a bill passed by the 

House and awaiting its turn in the 

Senate. 

Where is the red-blooded, patriotic 

American who could stand against 

“equality,” that shining ideal that puts 

the callused working man and the 

rich lounger on the level field of our 

national imagination? Let’s pray there 

are lots of them in the Senate, because 

the word “equality” appears in 

the title, but the concept is smashed 

to pieces in the substance of the bill. 

The Equality Act comprises 31 

pages of social engineering designed 

to transform countless aspects of 

American lives, including the most 

private and intimate. Its tremendous 

reach is made possible by its central 

conceit — that the simple fact, understood 

by toddlers everywhere, that 

humans (like all mammals) come in 

two sexes, male and female, can be 

changed by government fiat. 

Instead of the clarity of sex, it 

proposes a jumble of jargon and 

wishful thinking about the power of 

self-definition and the exaltation of 

sexual proclivity over everything we 

used to hold sacred, like the innocence 

of children and the protection 

of women. 

Purporting to bar discrimination 

against persons with same-sex attraction 

and those who prefer to present 

socially as a member of the opposite 

sex, the bill in fact would create vast 

mountains of discrimination if made 

into law. 

The first to feel the impact would 

be women and girls. It is our female 

sex that makes us women especially 

vulnerable to unscrupulous men who 

would physically or sexually abuse us, 

and also what makes the possibility of 

a fair physical contest between a man 

and a woman impossible. 

The Equality Act, if made law, 

would enable any male, by simply 

declaring himself a woman, to enter 

private female-only spaces at will, like 

changing rooms, jails, shelters, and 

dormitories. Women’s sports, a relatively 

new historical phenomenon, 

would cease to exist as soon as males 

(even those taking estrogen) with 

their years of testosterone-enhanced 

muscular and skeletal development 

could enter women’s contests. 

The Equality Act would also make 

religious Americans a lot less equal 

than they are now. It specifically 

exempts itself from the Religious 

Freedom Restoration Act and the protections 

it affords Americans of faith. 

Parochial schools would no longer 

have the right to teach students scientific 

facts about sex differences — not 

to mention the ages-old biblical concepts 

of human creation and the right 

ordering of sexual relations toward 

procreation and unity in marriage. 

How long before seminaries could 

be sued for refusing to admit women 

who identify as men seminarians? For 

private citizens, the danger of attacks 

by today’s “cancel culture” are bound 

to become greater and graver, if the 

Equality Act becomes law. 

In medicine, both patients and doctors 

would find “equality” a source of 

trouble. Here is a nugget buried in 

one of the 31 pages: The refusal to 

perform or support abortions would 

be considered “pregnancy discrimination.” 

If a physician like me, who 

considers her unborn patients as 

dignified and worthy as their mothers 

and fathers, could not refer them for 

destruction at the hands of an abortionist, 

she would be guilty of discrimination 

under the Equality Act. 


Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a 

mother of five who practices 

radiology in the Miami area. 

Here is another: As other countries 

start to rethink allowing the “transitioning” 

of children because of the 

damage caused by puberty blocking 

and cross-sex hormones, the Equality 

Act would make transition the only 

option for American children. 

A therapist or psychiatrist would 

have to immediately send a child 

with gender dysphoria down the 

transition chute toward a lifetime of 

physical and psychological dysfunction. 

This is especially tragic when 

we know that more than 80% of 

minors with dysphoria grow out of 

their self-rejection with appropriate 

support. It would be illegal to offer 

that support, even if the patient and 

her parents desired it. 

As for adults, surgeons would have 

no choice but to remove healthy 

uteruses, genitals, and breasts, at 

the behest of patients suffering 

from psychological dysfunction, not 

disease. The Equality Act discriminates 

against health care workers and 

their professional judgment, as well 

as their vocation to cure disease, not 

cause it. 

These are only a few of the ways the 

proposed bill discriminates against 

ordinary Americans — it would take 

a book to enumerate them all. It is 

shocking to think that the Equality 

Act passed the House of Representatives 

when a cursory reading is 

enough to show that it ought to be 

named the Inequality Act. Perhaps 

those who voted for the Equality Act 

only got as far as the noble-sounding 

title. Let us hope that the senators 

can get past the title and into the 

meat of the so-called Equality Act, 

and reject discrimination, even when 

it is portrayed in happy colors. 


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5/6/20 3:32 PM

Ernest Hemingway writing 

while at his campsite 

in Kenya, circa 1953. 

| LOOK MAGAZINE/ 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

Hemingway’s haunted Catholicism 

A new PBS documentary on the writer’s life largely 

skips over its most overlooked component 

BY ROBERT INCHAUSTI 

“I have never wanted to be known as 

a Catholic writer because I know the 

importance of setting an example — 

and I have never set a good example.” 

— Ernest Hemingway to Father 

Vincent Donavan, in an unpublished 

letter dated December 1927. 

Among the many surprises in 

Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s 

six-hour documentary on 

Ernest Hemingway are the accounts of 

Hemingway’s two adult conversions to 

Catholicism. 

Most literary scholars do not take 

either of these conversions very seriously 

and see them as pressed upon 

Hemingway by family, friends, and 

circumstances. The conventional view 

is that Hemingway’s true “religion” 

— insofar as he can be said to have 

one at all — is his famous “Code”: the 

idea made explicit in his interviews 

that in order to give meaning to life, 

one had to live by some set of ethical 

principles. 

It could be “the code of the hunter,” 

or “the code of the bullfighter,” or 

even “the code of the sea.” It didn’t 

matter what code one chose — just as 

long as it provided rules for living a life 

of rectitude and dignity in an otherwise 

meaningless universe. 

But if Hemingway’s conversions were 

sincere — and there is little reason to 

think they were not — then his “code” 

is not based on the agnosticism of a 

disillusioned existentialist, but rather 

on the comprehensive, universal affirmation 

of Christianity. 

Burns and Novick do not look very 

deeply into this possibility, even 

though they quote Hemingway himself 

as saying as much. Instead, they take 

Hemingway for the stoic adventurer 

and icon of American machismo that 

everybody else does. 

Still, the fact that they bring up 

Hemingway’s Catholicism at all confirmed 

my own suspicions of a deeper, 

clear-eyed spiritual sensibility lurking 

behind all of Hemingway’s naturalistic 

plots — forcing me to reconsider 

everything I had previously thought 

about the man. That led me to two 

books: H.R. Stoneback’s groundbreaking 

work “In the Nominal Country of 

the Bogus: Hemingway’s Catholicism 

and the Biographers” (1991), and 

Matthew Nickel’s more recent “Hem- 


ingway’s Dark Night” (New Street 

Communications, LLC, $22.95). 

Both see Catholicism as playing a 

central role in Hemingway’s literary 

vision and moral landscape. And yet 

despite Burns’ penchant for pitting 

rival experts against one another to 

round out his analysis of complex subjects 

and people, neither Stoneback 

nor Nickel are cited or mentioned in 

his latest documentary. 

This is an unfortunate omission, for 

part one of “Hemingway” promised a 

deep dive into Hemingway’s “invention” 

of the modern novel, which it 

never delivered. The episode instead 

turned away from the religious clues 

in his work to focus on his public 

image, war exploits, and psychological 

instability — all while missing that singularly 

under-reported and significant 

aspect of Hemingway’s life as a writer: 

his Catholicism. 

Hemingway was raised in a Congregationalist 

Protestant home, and 

his first conversion to Catholicism 

occurred when he was a 19-year-old 

and volunteer ambulance driver in 

Italy during World War I. Two weeks 

into the job, he was delivering candy 

to soldiers on the frontlines when he 

was hit by machine-gun fire and more 

than 200 metal fragments from an exploding 

mortar round. An Italian priest 

recovered his body, baptized him right 

on the battlefield and gave him the last 

rites. 

Hemingway later described what happened 

this way: “A big Austrian trench 

mortar bomb of the type that used to 

be called ash cans, exploded in the 

darkness. I died then. I felt my soul or 

something come right out of my body, 

like you’d pull a silk handkerchief 

out of a pocket by one corner. It flew 

around and then came back and went 

in again and I wasn’t dead anymore.” 

After having been anointed, Hemingway 

described himself as having 

become a “Super-Catholic.” It was a 

near-death experience that changed 

the course of his life. After the war, 

he went to work as a foreign correspondent 

in Paris. And eight years later 

— after his first marriage failed — he 

undertook a second, more formal 

conversion process in preparation for 

marriage to his second wife, devout 

Catholic Pauline Pfieffer. 

It was at this time that Hemingway 

changed the title of his unpublished 

first novel, tentatively titled “Lost Generation,” 

to “The Sun Also Rises.” And 

writing to another friend, he declared, 

“If I am anything I am a Catholic ... 

I cannot imagine taking any other 

religion seriously.” 

He attended Mass (albeit irregularly) 

for the rest of his life and went on 

pilgrimages, received confession, had 

Masses said for friends and relatives, 

and raised his three sons as Catholics. 

Most of his novels are set in Catholic 

countries, and his last great hero (Santiago 

of “The Old Man and the Sea”) 

was a devout suffering servant, much 

in the cruciform mold of most of his 

heroes. When he won the Nobel Prize 

for Literature in 1954, he gave away 

the medal as a votive offering to “Our 

Lady of Cobre” in Havana. 

Unfortunately, his subsequent divorces 

and additional marriages, drunken 

brawling, domestic abuse, poison pen 

letters, paranoia, megalomania, and 

habitual womanizing tarnished his 

youthful sense of himself as a “super-Catholic.” 

Hemingway never wanted 

to be known as a “Catholic writer” 

because he simply felt he couldn’t live 

up to the responsibility. 

In a letter to his friend Father Vincent 

Donavan in 1927 just before he 

married his second wife, Hemingway 

wrote, “I have always had more faith 

than intelligence or knowledge and I 

have never wanted to be known as a 

Catholic writer because I know the importance 

of setting an example — and 

I have never set a good example.” 

Unlike James Joyce, Hemingway 

didn’t renounce his faith; and unlike 

Flannery O’Connor, he never promoted 

it. He thought of himself, like 

many of his protagonists (Nick Adams, 

Jake Barns, Robert Jordan, Francis 

McComber and Santiago), as a man 

struggling to live with grace and die a 

good death in a violent, unforgiving 

world where all of us must suffer. 

The first time I read Hemingway’s 

books, I found an irrepressible piety 

and sense of the sacred permeating 

all his naturalistic plots. Had I known 

then about his Catholicism, it would 

have clarified things — and made the 

books better. 

Think of the ending to “For Whom 

the Bell Tolls” — described so movingly 

by the late John McCain in the 

documentary — or even the parody of 

the Lord’s Prayer in the story “A Clear, 

Well-Lighted Place” — only this time 

knowing that the author of these works 

knew the Bible, prayed every day, and 

had studied St. John of the Cross in 

an original Spanish edition. It changes 

everything. 

And although Hemingway never 

related to the surface aspects of American 

Catholic life, he wrote at least one 

work explicitly about Christ, “Today is 

Friday,” a dialogue between three Roman 

soldiers present at the crucifixion 

discussing how well Jesus had died and 

the grace he showed under pressure. 

Unlike James Joyce, Hemingway didn’t 

renounce his faith; and unlike Flannery 

O’Connor, he never promoted it. 

Knowing these things does not explain 

away all the troubling aspects of 

Hemingway’s egocentric personal life 

— his public inebriations, domestic 

abuse, womanizing, and suicide, but 

it helps me to understand the kinds 

of people Hemingway admired, their 

motivations and ideals, and the brave, 

virtuous person he was attempting to 

become. 

The Trappist monk Thomas Merton 

wrote a poem the day after Hemingway 

killed himself titled “An Elegy for 

Ernest Hemingway.” It contains the 

lines: “You pass briefly through our 

midst. Your books and writings have 

not been consulted.” In other words, 

as I read it, the gifts he gave us are, for 

the most part, still unreceived. 

Robert Inchausti is professor emeritus 

of English at Cal Poly, San Luis 

Obispo, and the author of several books, 

including “Thomas Merton’s American 

Prophecy,” and “Subversive Orthodoxy.” 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

Judson Studios: “Stained Glass from Gothic to Street Style” exhibit is open at Forest Lawn Museum through Sept. 12. | COURTESY FOREST LAWN MUSEUM 

A taste of California Gothic 

Forest Lawn Museum takes its stained-glass collection seriously. 

After a year of being closed, it hopes Angelenos will, too 

Everyone knows that Forest Lawn is a giant cemetery off 

the 134 in Glendale. 

But do we all know of the Forest Lawn Museum? 

James Fishburne, Ph.D., Forest Lawn Museum director and 

exhibition curator, says, “We’re a hidden gem and I want to 

make us a visible, widely known gem. Forest Lawn is a whole 

institution. Art is part of our DNA.” 

“There’s the outdoor statuary, of course. And the buildings 

themselves are works of art: stained glass, mosaics, paintings.” 

The Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection, for example, houses 

the largest religious painting in the Western Hemisphere: 

Jan Styka’s “The Crucifixion” from the 1890s. Robert Clark’s 

“The Resurrection” (1965), also massive, literally slides on a 

track. 

“The building itself is really incredible, a loose recreation on 

the outside of the cathedral in Orvieto, Italy, a kind of Gothic 

Renaissance. Then you step inside and it’s French Gothic, 

and you step in farther and the style becomes reminiscent 

of a mid-century movie palace. It’s a neat mashup, sort of an 

‘only in LA’ type of thing.” 

The museum, free and open to the public, launched in 

1952. A permanent gallery houses more traditional, 19th- to 

20th-century European and American painting and sculpture. 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

Two other full galleries are devoted to rotating exhibitions. 

Often, but not always, LA-based, these have ranged from 

“GOOOOL! The World Cup’s Greatest Moments” to “The 

Elevated Eye: Aerial Photography Past and Present” to the 

current exhibit, “Judson Studios: Stained Glass from Gothic 

to Street Style.” 

Judson Studios, “Designers and Craftsmen Since 1897,” is 

a world-renowned LA institution and the oldest family-run 

stained-glass studio in America. The W.H. Judson Art Glass 

Company, founded by William Lees Judson, was headquartered 

in downtown LA until 1920, when it relocated to 

Highland Park’s Garvanza District. Fifth-generation David 

Judson now serves as director. 

Even apart from the exhibition, Forest Lawn’s is among the 

largest stained-glass collections in the United States, with 

pieces dating from the Middle Ages all the way up to the 

present spread throughout the park. 

Thus the pairing with Judson Studios is inspired. “It’s wonderful 

to see a 600-year-old window next to a 90-year-old window 

from Judson,” says Fishburne. “The front gallery features 

the more historical items, and you can see how Judson carries 

on this medieval tradition so well.” 

Colored glass is an ancient craft; both the Egyptians and 

the Romans made small objects such as beads. Stained glass 

became a Christian art form around the fourth century with 

the advent of church-building. 

But don’t make the mistake of associating stained glass only 

with churches. “The second gallery is the new, hip, cutting-edge 

pieces that are really exciting.” 

“If you love traditional stained glass, there’s plenty of it and 

you can get up close. If you like graffiti and street art, conceptual 

art, sci-fi — come and check out the second gallery. This 

is stained glass like you’ve never seen it before.” 

One contributor, Shay Bredimus, is both a fine artist and 

a tattoo artist. Other featured contemporary figures include 

painter and street muralist David Flores, fine art-graffiti artist 

Miles MacGregor, better known as EL MAC, mixed media 

artist Marco Zamora, and sculptor Jane Brucker. 

The companion book — “JUDSON: Innovation in Stained 

Glass,” by David Judson and Steffie Nelson and available 

from Angel City Press ($45.49) — tells the history and range 

of this great institution. 

In the Foreword, “The Endurance of Craft,” historian William 

F. Deverell describes his first visit to the studio: 

“I guess I would characterize the response as awe and 

wonder fused. … A working stained-glass studio … sprawled 

throughout the many rooms of the building. Design, fabrication, 

kilns, drawings, cubbies filled with bigger and smaller 

plates and pieces of glass, frames, furnaces, books, desks, here 

and there tools, old and new. Humming with quiet attention 

to detail and design. Reverent, really. I think I knew enough 

that first visit to know that the work of stained glass is hot, 

long, hard, and sharp.” 

“David Judson is able at the same time to preserve the tradition 

and also to innovate, evolve, 

Tim Carey and Judson Studios, 

“Kobe,” 2017. Fused glass, 

40 by 40 inches. | COURTESY 

JUDSON STUDIOS 

and stretch,” continues Fishburne. 

“From the beginning, the studio 

could do the most traditional 

Gothic, liturgical style. In the ’20s 

and ’30s, they did stained glass in 

the arts and crafts style that was so 

popular in the Pasadena area. They 

collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright. They did 2,000 panels 

in the historic chapel, the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel 

in Colorado Springs, like a space-age version of a Gothic 

cathedral. Today, they’re working with street muralists and 

conceptual artists. 

“The book tells an incredible story. The photography is stunning. 

Then you get to come to the exhibition and stand a foot 

away. It’s great to see them lit up. It brings the book to life.” 

The exhibit runs through Sept. 12, and includes nearly 100 

original stained-glass artworks, preparatory drawings, watercolors, 

and archival photographs, some of which are being 

shown here for the first time. 

Another cause for celebration: Its opening coincides with 

the reopening of the Forest Lawn Museum, which has been 

closed for more than a year. 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

The month of Mary in the year of Joseph 

On May 1, 2013, Pope Francis made a beautiful 

declaration of devotion. He decreed that the name 

of St. Joseph should be inserted into Eucharistic 

Prayers II, III, and IV. 

Since Pope Francis promulgated the decree just a few 

weeks into his papacy, it’s likely that the development had 

been “in the works” for years. Indeed, this simple action 

had a long history. St. Pope John XXIII had added the holy 

patriarch to the First Eucharistic Prayer in 1962. 

The formula the Holy Father provided is simple, beautiful 

— and striking, for those who are paying attention. 

“Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the Blessed Virgin 

Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her Spouse 

... we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life. …” 

Note that Joseph is recognized 

specifically as the spouse of Mary. 

The prayer does not speak of him 

as her former spouse, or earthly 

spouse, or with any other qualifications. 

He is simply “her spouse.” 

With the voice of the Church 

those prayers are spoken — and 

“The Holy Family,” 

anonymous, 1520, 

Netherlandish. 


they’re true, even though we know also the words of Jesus: 

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given 

in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 

22:30). 

Somehow, this couple — of all the couples in history — 

remain spouses in heaven. They remain a family, not only 

in the historical record, but in present fact. 

This seems to confirm the claims of visionaries — like 

the shepherd children of Fátima — who have reported 

apparitions of the Holy Family. This marriage, for providential 

purposes, is forever. The household of Nazareth is 

a fully functional family. They are our family. 

This is especially striking because, in the early Church, 

some Christians rejected the very idea that Mary and 

Joseph could be truly married. You’ll see this in legendary 

and apocryphal texts. They’re so anxious to emphasize the 

bodily celibacy of Mary and Joseph that they avoid spousal 

language altogether. 

The great St. Augustine put an end to such quibbling 

over titles. Joseph, he said, was not less of a husband and 

father because of his chastity and continence. He was 

more. St. Augustine drew upon St. Paul’s counsels for 

couples who practice abstinence: they do not cease to be 

spouses when they abstain. Nor, he noted, do fornicators 

become spouses just because of their physical activity. 

Mary and Joseph consented to a spousal “union of 

hearts,” and in our Eucharistic Prayers we acknowledge 

that their union is forever. So is their family relation to Jesus. 

There is nothing second-rate or second-class about the 

bonds of the Holy Family. And we are privileged to share 

in their family life, because in baptism we are brothers and 

sisters of Jesus. 

The month of May is traditionally dedicated to the Virgin 

Mary, but it begins with the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. 

Thus, they are united even on the calendar. 

The month of May is especially blessed this year because 

the Holy Father has declared 2021 to be the Year of St. 

Joseph. 

The message of this month, this year, is that we are 

members of the Holy Family — a family founded on the 

permanent “union of hearts” in Mary and Joseph. 


■ AVAILABLE ONLINE 24/7 

“Walking with Jesus in Difficult Times” SCRC virtual event. Available to view online 24/7 for free. Event 

includes teachings by Father Bill Delaney, SJ, Sister Regina Marie Gorman, OCD, and Patti Mansfield, with a 

special video tribute to the late Father John H. Hampsch, CMF. Register for free at events.scrc.org. 

■ TUESDAY, MAY 4 

South Bay Catholic Jewish Women’s Virtual 

Conference: Faith Rituals and Celebrations: A 

Woman’s Significance. Via Zoom, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. 

Keynote speakers: Janet Sullivan Whitaker, music 

minister for the Diocese of Oakland and Rabbi Cassie 

Kail of Temple Beth El San Pedro. Conference includes 

small group discussions. Cost: $20/person. For more 

information, visit sbcjwd.com or email sbcjwd@gmail. 

com. 

■ SATURDAY, MAY 8 

Encountering Christ in Harmony: Virtual Workshop. 

Hosted by the Office of Ethnic Ministry, 10 a.m.-12 

p.m., this virtual workshop with Father Linh N. Hoang 

will focus on the recent letter from the U.S. bishops 

on Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Catholic Church 

in America. To register, visit https://la-archdiocese. 

zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwlcuitqDItGdON_ 

IgZ4Uxgz01aCTcKP6JF. 

■ SUNDAY, MAY 9 

Mother’s Day Virtual Rosary. The Archdiocese of 

Los Angeles and Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries 

will host a special prayer of thanksgiving for Mother’s 

Day weekend at 2 p.m. Rosary will be livestreamed at 

facebook.com/lacatholics and catholiccm.org. 

■ TUESDAY, MAY 11 

Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries Memorial Mass. 

San Fernando Mission Rey de España, 11 a.m. Mass will 

be livestreamed on LA Catholics social media channels 

and will not be open to the public. 

■ THURSDAY, MAY 13 

USC Graduating Student Mass. USC Caruso Center, 

844 W. 32nd St., 10 a.m. Mass for graduating students 

will be celebrated in person and livestreamed on the 

Caruso Center website. Students are invited to wear 

their graduation robes and bring parents or friends to 

celebrate. RSVP required for in-person Mass. 

Workshop: “Uncovering the Healing Power of 

Dreamwork” with Father James Clarke. The LMU 

Center for Religion and Spirituality will host an online 

workshop with Father Clarke, chair of the Spirituality 

Commission of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, from 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Workshop will offer basic guidelines 

on how to interpret and work with dreams. Cost: $35/ 

person. Register at https://cal.lmu.edu/event/power-ofdreamwork. 

■ SUNDAY, MAY 16 

“Pueblo Amante de Maria” Virtual Procession, 

Rosary, and Tagalog Mass. Incarnation Church of 

Glendale will host a virtual procession and rosary at 

1:15 p.m. to celebrate 500 years of Christianity in 

the Philippines. Tagalog Mass to follow. To join on 

livestream, visit the Incarnation Church Facebook page. 

For details, call 818-242-2579. 

■ THURSDAY, MAY 20 

Children’s Bureau: Foster Care Zoom Orientation. The 

Children’s Bureau is now offering two virtual ways for 

individuals and couples to learn how to help children in foster 

care while reunifying with birth families or how to provide 

legal permanency by adoption. A live Zoom orientation will 

be hosted from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. by a Children’s Bureau team 

member and a foster parent. For those who want to learn at 

their own pace about becoming a foster and/or fost-adopt 

parent, an online orientation presentation is available. To RSVP 

for the live orientation or to request the online orientation, 

email rfrecruitment@all4kids.org. 

■ SATURDAY, MAY 29 

Transitional Diaconate Ordination. Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels, 9 a.m. Mass will be livestreamed at lacatholics.org/ 

ordination2021. 

■ MONDAY, MAY 31 

Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries Memorial Day Mass. 

Chapel of the Risen Christ at Holy Cross Cemetery and 

Mortuary, 10 a.m. Celebrant: Archbishop José H. Gomez. Mass 

will be livestreamed and will not be open to the public. 

■ SATURDAY, JUNE 5 

Priesthood Ordination. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 9 

a.m. Mass will be livestreamed at lacatholics.org/ordination. 

■ TUESDAY, JUNE 8 

Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries Memorial Mass. 

San Fernando Mission Rey de España, 11 a.m. Mass will be 

livestreamed on LA Catholics social media channels and will not 

be open to the public. 

■ SUNDAY, JUNE 13 

Five-Day Silent, Directed Retreat. Mary & Joseph Retreat 

Center, 5300 Crest Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, June 13, 6 

p.m.-June 18, 1:30 p.m. Retreat led by spiritual directors Sister 

Pascazia Kinkuhaire, DMJ, Father Joseph Miller, SVD, and Sue 

Ballotti offers a unique, contemplative opportunity to commune 

with God in the solitude of our hearts. Cost: Single room: $600/ 

person, commuter: $425/person. Call Jose Salas at 310-377- 

4867, ext. 250, for reservations or information. 

■ SUNDAY, JUNE 20 

Father’s Day Virtual Rosary. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

and Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries will host a special 

prayer of thanksgiving for Father’s Day weekend at 2 p.m. 

Rosary will be livestreamed at facebook.com/lacatholics and 

catholiccm.org. 

“Pueblo Amante de Maria” Virtual Procession, Rosary, and 

Tagalog Mass. Incarnation Church of Glendale will host a virtual 

procession and rosary at 1:15 p.m. to celebrate 500 years of 

Christianity in the Philippines. Tagalog Mass to follow. To join 

on livestream, visit the Incarnation Church Facebook page. For 

details, call 818-242-2579. 

Items for the calendar of events are due four weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be emailed to calendar@angelusnews.com. 

All calendar items must include the name, date, time, address of the event, and a phone number for additional information.

Angelus News | May 7, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 9

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