Angelus News | April 8, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 7

ANGELUS
HERE COMES
THE METAVERSE
Are we ready for it?
April 8, 2022 Vol. 7 No. 7

ANGELUS
April 8, 2022
Vol. 7 • No. 7
3424 Wilshire Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241
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Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Los Angeles by The Tidings
(a corporation), established 1895.
Publisher
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Vice Chancellor for Communications
DAVID SCOTT
Editor-in-Chief
PABLO KAY
pkay@angelusnews.com
Multimedia Editor
TAMARA LONG-GARCÍA
Production Artist
DIANNE ROHKOHL
Photo Editor
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Managing Editor
RICHARD G. BEEMER
Assistant Editor
HANNAH SWENSON
Advertising Manager
JIM GARCIA
jagarcia@angelusnews.com
ON THE COVER
SHUTTERSTOCK
The notion of the “metaverse,” touted by tech executives
like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, is no longer
a far-off idea. In fact, we may be gradually entering
it through our growing reliance on gadgets and the
internet to get through daily life. On Page 12, Elise
Ureneck looks into where the metaverse wants to
take us and whether people of faith should resist or
try to shape a world that isn’t totally “real.”
THIS PAGE
RON ECHUAL
Students at Christ the King School near Hollywood hold
up handmade prayer signs to be posted on a special
peace mural for Ukraine on Friday, March 25. Christ
the King pastor Father Juan Ochoa (center) celebrated a
special school Mass to mark Pope Francis’ consecration
of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, happening
at the same time in Rome. The peace mural was
created in partnership with Scholas Occurentes USA.
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FOLLOW US
CONTENTS
Pope Watch.................................................................................................................................... 4
Archbishop Gomez..................................................................................................................... 5
World, Nation, and Local News.......................................................................................... 6-8
In Other Words............................................................................................................................. 9
Father Rolheiser......................................................................................................................... 10
Scott Hahn................................................................................................................................... 32
Events Calendar......................................................................................................................... 33
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18
20
24
26
28
30
How LA’s Catholic schools prayed with the pope for Ukraine
RE Congressgoers revel in this year’s return to in person
John Allen: Five things to know about the pope’s new government
Greg Erlandson on the unsettling comeback of nuclear fear
USC to give Guadalupe her due as queen of LA’s streets
Heather King: Caryll Houselander’s answers for our deepest suffering
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 3

POPE WATCH
At the door of Mary’s heart
TARGET LOYAL
CUSTOMERS
WHO SHARE
YOUR FAITH
On March 25, the solemnity of the
Annunciation, Pope Francis consecrated
Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. The following is adapted
from the prayer of consecration that he
asked the world’s bishops, priests, and
lay faithful to “recite … throughout that
day, in fraternal union.”
O
Mary, mother of God and our
mother, in this time of trial we
turn to you. As our mother,
you love us and know us: No concern
of our hearts is hidden from you.
Mother of Mercy, how often we have
experienced your watchful care and
your peaceful presence! You never
cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince
of Peace.
Yet we have strayed from that path of
peace. We have forgotten the lesson
learned from the tragedies of the last
century, the sacrifice of the millions
who fell in two world wars. We chose
to ignore God, to be satisfied with our
illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive,
to suppress innocent lives and to
stockpile weapons. We stopped being
our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of
our common home.
Holy mother, amid the misery of our
sinfulness, amid our struggles and
weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity
that is evil and war, you remind
us that God never abandons us, but
continues to look upon us with love,
ever ready to forgive us and raise us
up to new life.
We now turn to you and knock at
the door of your heart. We are your
beloved children. Say to us once
more: “Am I not here, I who am your
mother?” You are able to untie the
knots of our hearts and of our times.
In you we place our trust.
Therefore, O mother, hear our
prayer. Star of the Sea, do not let us
be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire
projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s
peace to the world. Eliminate hatred
and the thirst for revenge, and teach
us forgiveness. Free us from war,
protect our world from the menace of
nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize
our need to pray and to love. Queen
of the Human Family, show people
the path of fraternity. Queen of Peace,
obtain peace for our world.
Mother of God and our mother, to
your Immaculate Heart we solemnly
entrust and consecrate ourselves, the
Church and all humanity, especially
Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act
that we carry out with confidence
and love. Grant that war may end and
peace spread throughout the world.
Through your intercession, may
God’s mercy be poured out on the
earth and the gentle rhythm of peace
return to mark our days. Our Lady of
the “Fiat,” on whom the Holy Spirit
descended, restore among us the
harmony that comes from God. May
you, our “living fountain of hope,”
water the dryness of our hearts. In
your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to
foster the growth of communion. You
once trod the streets of our world; lead
us now on the paths of peace. Amen.
ANGELUS
Contact Jim Garcia at 213.637.7590
or jagarcia@angelusnews.com
Papal Prayer Intention for April: We pray for health care
workers who serve the sick and the elderly, especially in the
poorest countries; may they be adequately supported by
governments and local communities.
4 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Consecrating the world
On March 25, the solemnity of
the Annunciation, along with
my brother bishops and priests
from around the world, I joined with
the Holy Father Pope Francis in
consecrating and entrusting Russia,
Ukraine, and all of humanity to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
It was a beautiful, emotional moment.
Confronted with the senseless
violence of war, the ruin of cities, the
destruction of innocent lives, prayer
is our most powerful weapon against
evil.
An act of consecration is not “magical
thinking” or just a beautiful
idea. It is an act of courage and hope,
a call to conversion. Peace among
nations begins when there is peace in
the human heart. The world can be
changed, if we change our hearts, if
we conform our hearts to the heart of
Mary and the heart of Christ.
In making this consecration, Pope
Francis made visible the beautiful reality
that the human race — for all its
variety of peoples, all its diverse ethnicities,
religions, histories, traditions,
and ways of life — is one family.
As St. Paul said long ago, when one
member of our family is suffering, we
all suffer. And in our sufferings, in our
times of trial and trouble, it is natural
that we turn to our mother.
In uniting myself to the Holy Father
in prayer to Our Lady, I experienced,
in a new and beautiful way, the truth
that “catholic” means universal, worldwide.
I was renewed in my conviction
that the mission that Jesus gave to
his Church remains urgent today —
to draw all nations and peoples into a
single family, united in his love.
The promise of Jesus is that in his
Gospel we can know God as our Father,
and know all men and women as
our brothers and sisters. As St. Francis
of Assisi used to say, in giving birth to
Jesus, Mary “made God our brother.”
And in his final act of love, as he hung
near death on the cross, Jesus entrusted
every person to Mary. “Behold your
mother,” he said to us.
At the center of his act of consecration,
Pope Francis recalled the words of
Our Lady of Guadalupe. He prayed:
“In every age you make yourself
known to us, calling us to conversion.
At this dark hour, help us and grant
us your comfort. Say to us once more,
‘Am I not here, who am your mother.’
You are able to untie the knots of our
hearts and of our times. In you we
place our trust. We are confident that,
especially in moments of trial, you
will not be deaf to our supplication
and will come to our aid.”
This is a beautiful passage that evokes
not only Our Lady’s appearance at
Tepeyac, but also the traditional devotion
to Mary as the “undoer of knots,”
and the ancient prayer that became
the Memorare.
I urge you to read prayerfully
the entire text of the pope’s act of
consecration. It was translated and
prayed in 36 world languages, which
reminds us of the Church’s birth at
Pentecost, when people “from every
nation under heaven” were gathered
in Jerusalem, and each one heard the
apostles’ preaching “in his own native
language.”
In making this act, the pope reminds
us once again that Mary is the mother
of the Church, and the mother of
each one of us.
She was there at Our Lord’s conception
and birth. She was there to present
him in the temple, and to help
him grow from an infant to a man in
An act of consecration is not “magical thinking”
or just a beautiful idea. It is an act of courage and
hope, a call to conversion.
those hidden years at Nazareth. She
was there at the wedding in Cana, as
the one who asks him to perform his
first miracle.
The mother of Jesus was there when
her Son died, keeping her station at
the foot of his cross. Our Lady was
there at the birth of the Church,
praying with the apostles for the Holy
Spirit to come down at Pentecost.
Mary continues to guide and pray for
the Church on earth. And as St. Pope
John Paul II said, “Where she is, her
Son cannot fail to be.”
Since the early centuries of the
Church, Mary continues to bring us
to Jesus.
And as Pope Francis recognized in
this consecration, Mary’s message in
our times, as in every age, is one of
hope and mercy, and reassurance of
her motherly protection.
Pray for me, and I will pray for you.
Let us continue to pray with all our
strength for an end to this war and
every war.
May we continue to unite as one
family of God, with our Holy Father,
bringing our needs to Jesus, through
Mary our mother. Queen of Peace,
pray for us!
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 5

WORLD
■ Germany: Bishop appoints women baptizers
A bishop in Germany has authorized women to perform baptisms in his diocese.
Eighteen extraordinary ministers of baptism, 17 of them women, were designated
by Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen last month. The ministers received
a four-day training course and will have authority to perform baptisms for three
years. Bishop Overbeck said he plans to appoint additional lay baptismal ministers.
Though Church law names bishops, priests, and deacons the ordinary ministers
of baptism, it does allow for a bishop to designate a layperson in situations where a
priest is absent. Bishop Overbeck has cited the “pastorally difficult situation” of his
diocese’s clerical shortage as the reason to appoint lay baptismal ministers.
The announcement came a few weeks after bishops in Germany officially called
for the ordination of women priests during a session of their controversial “Synodal
Way” process.
■ Egypt mandates a church for every city
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi informed members of his government
that all newly built cities must include the construction of a church in
their plans, regardless of the size of the local Christian population.
“Where there is a mosque,” al Sisi said, “there must also be a church. And
if the church to be built will be attended by even only 100 people, it must be
built anyway. So no one will have to meet in an apartment and present that
private house as a church.”
The president’s new guidelines are meant to roll back the effect of Ottoman
legislation, known as the “10 rules,” which from 1934 until 2016 greatly restricted
where churches could be built.
In 2016, Egypt passed a law that allowed churches that had been illegally
built to be officially recognized, affecting almost 2,000 churches and ecclesiastical
buildings.
“The construction of places of worship during the era of President al Sisi
has assumed national importance and will not be forgotten in the history of
modern Egypt,” said Andrea Zaki, president of Egypt’s evangelical community.
A father’s visit — Pope Francis greets a child as he visits Ukrainian children being treated at the Vatican-owned
Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome on March 19. The next day, Pope Francis told pilgrims gathered for
the Angelus prayer that among the patients there was a child who is missing an arm and another with a head
wound as a result of the Russian bombing of Ukraine. | VATICAN MEDIA
The statue of St. Nicholas inside the basilica
in Bari, Italy. | SHUTTERSTOCK
■ Who robbed Santa
Claus?
A mysterious figure was caught on
camera stealing some treasured artifacts
from the Basilica of St. Nicholas
in the Italian city of Bari on March 22.
A hooded and masked man was seen
breaking into the church and stealing a
gold ring from a statue of St. Nicholas.
He also took a silver-encrusted book
held by the same statue, and money
from a church collection box.
Bari Archbishop Giuseppe Satiano
expects the stolen items will be difficult
for the thief to sell, due to their public
and well-cataloged nature.
“With this gesture, the raw nerves of
the faithful and culture of Bari have
been touched,” Archbishop Satriano
told TV2000, an Italian Catholic television
station.
Catholics in the port city have long
held a devotion to St. Nicholas, the
patron saint of sailors and the basis of
the figure of Santa Claus. In 1087, they
acquired the remains of the third-century
saint from Turkey and buried
them in the crypt of the basilica.
6 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

NATION
■ Texas: Supreme Court lets
pastor into execution chamber
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of a death row inmate who appealed for
permission to have his pastor pray with him during his execution.
John Ramirez was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of a convenience-store
worker in 2004. The state originally denied Ramirez’s request to have
his pastor, Dana Moore, from the Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, to be
present during his execution. Though they changed protocol to allow the pastor to
accompany him, they denied his request for the laying of hands due to perceived
security threats.
“Even the condemned have a right to get right with God,” said Eric Rassbach, vice
president and senior counsel at Becket Fund, the nonprofit law firm specializing in
religious liberty cases that has represented Ramirez.
“The Supreme Court correctly recognized that allowing clergy to minister to the
condemned in their last moments stands squarely within a history stretching back to
George Washington and before.”
■ Survey records Black Catholic experience
Black Catholics in the U.S. worship more with other races than their own,
according to a new study.
The new report from Pew Research Center on Black Catholics in America found
that only a quarter of Black Catholics in America attend a majority-Black parish,
while 80% of white Catholics and 67% of Hispanics attend parishes where their
respective race is in the majority.
The disparity also correlates with higher levels of Black Americans who were
raised Catholics leaving the Church.
“Roughly half of Black adults who were raised Catholic still identify as Catholic
(54%), compared with 61% of white adults and 68% of Hispanic adults,” the study
found.
Black Catholics reported praying more regularly than white and Hispanic Catholics,
according to the study, which also found they read Scripture outside of Mass
more frequently and have higher levels of biblical literalism.
Fighting pollution with faith — Sharon Lavigne, a retired special education teacher turned environmental
advocate, will receive this year’s prestigious Laetare Medal, the University of Notre Dame announced March
27. Lavigne is a lifelong resident of St. James Parish, Louisiana, part of a poor area heavy with petrochemical
plants and refineries and nicknamed “Cancer Alley” for the high cancer rates among local residents. | BARBARA
JOHNSTON/UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
Sister Dierdre
“Dede” Byrne in 2019.
| VICTOR ALEMÁN
■ Nurse-nun sues DC
over vaccine mandate
Sister Dierdre “Dede” Byrne, a member
of the Little Works of the Sacred
Hearts and a board certified surgeon,
was denied religious exemption from
Washington, D.C.’s COVID-19 vaccination
mandate for health care workers.
Now, she’s bringing the nation’s
capital to court.
Sister Byrne applied for a religious
exemption so she could continue her
ministry of providing free medical
service to those in need.
“All three COVID-19 vaccines
approved in the United States have
been tested, developed, or produced
with cell lines derived from abortions,
something to which Sister Dierdre has
deep and sincere religious opposition,”
Christopher Ferrara, attorney for the
Thomas More Society representing
Sister Byrne, said.
According to the lawsuit, Sister Byrne
waited nearly six months for the city to
consider her request, which included
a recognition of the sincerity of her
religious objection.
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 7

LOCAL
■ St. Bernadette’s relics to conclude US visit in LA
A U.S. tour of a French saint’s relics will end in a visit to her namesake parish
in Los Angeles this summer.
The relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous, who was visited by the Virgin Mary 18
times over six months in the town of Lourdes in 1858, will begin their tour in
Miami the first week of April. From there they are scheduled to travel to several
states including New York, Montana, and Georgia. The last stop is at St. Bernadette
Church in Baldwin Hills July 31-Aug. 4.
St. Bernadette’s body, exhumed in 1925 for her beatification, was found to
be uncorrupted. Fragments of the fifth and sixth vertebrae were removed and
reserved for veneration by the faithful.
The Vatican has granted a plenary indulgence for those who venerate the relics
during the tour.
■ California moves to make
abortion more affordable
A new California law will cut abortion costs as part of the state’s push to make
the procedure more accessible.
The bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 18 will increase
monthly insurance premiums for employers and employees in order to eliminate
co-pays and deductibles associated with abortion.
California Catholic Conference executive director Kathleen Domingo criticized
the law for prioritizing abortion costs over helping mothers and caregivers
with the burden of cost-of-living expenses. The law, she said, “tells California’s
mothers they are less valuable than those seeking abortions.”
“Where is the equitable push for services for mothers who can’t afford to take
their child to the doctor when they are sick or for increased benefits for pregnant
mothers to ensure their health and the health of their child?” she said in a
statement after the bill’s signing.
Back in service — Seniors Ava Browne of Louisville High School in Woodland Hills and Hao “Joseph” Liu of
Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino were among the 61 high school seniors honored for service to their
communities at the annual Christian Service Awards Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez on March
22 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
The tabernacle damaged by burglars at St. Monica’s.
| ST. MONICA CATHOLIC CHURCH
■ Livestream
equipment, donations
stolen from St.
Monica’s
Thieves tried to desecrate a tabernacle
and got away with an estimated
$150,000 in technology used to
livestream services from St. Monica
Church in Santa Monica.
Surveillance video showed three
people inside the church with
flashlights removing the church’s
audiovisual equipment at about 9:30
p.m. on Thursday, March 24. They
also removed four candle boxes with
donations, and tried unsuccessfully to
pry open the church’s tabernacle with
consecrated hosts inside.
Parish officials believe the burglars
may have entered the church in the
late afternoon and hid inside while the
church was being closed for the night.
St. Monica’s pastor Msgr. Lloyd
Torgerson called the failed tabernacle
break-in “an inspiring demonstration of
the power of the Eucharist.”
“They attempted to breach the
tabernacle and it was damaged, but it
held strong and protected the Blessed
Sacrament,” Msgr. Torgerson told
parishioners.
Y
8 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
Nordic bishops are right about their German brethren
Regarding the article “Nordic Catholic Bishops: German ‘Synodal
Way’ fills us with worry” featured in the “Always Forward” e-newsletter
March 12, I agree wholeheartedly with the Nordic bishops in their concerns.
Watering down the Catholic faith and the gospel, in order to satisfy the desires of
some people to be like the rest of the world, would not increase the vitality of our
parishes, but would kill any spirit of unity, hope, and faith that we have left.
I further agree that “Catholics who constitute and carry the life of our parishes
and communities ... are not necessarily the ones inclined to fill in questionnaires
or participate in group discussions.”
The purpose of the synod is not to turn the Church into a man-made institution
where we vote on which of God’s commandments and which of the apostles’
instructions we want to follow. I sincerely hope that the folly of the bishops in
Germany will not be repeated.
— Marilyn Boussaid, St. James Church, Redondo Beach
A story subject who walks the walk
The article in the March 25 issue, “Tied to a greater purpose” about Richard
Grant, was especially wonderful to read. It is a joy to learn more about fellow
Catholics who spend their lives living the faith.
— Sarah Cooney, Altadena
Y
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.
A worldwide prayer for peace
Students at schools around the archdiocese, including Christ the King School in Los Angeles (pictured), joined Pope
Francis March 25 in prayer as he consecrated the world, especially Russia and Ukraine, to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary. | RON ECHUAL
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.
“We need to talk less
about God and more with
God, and talk less about
immigrants and more with
immigrants.”
~ Cardinal Cristóbal López, archbishop of Rabat,
Morocco, at “Tribuna Joan Carrera,” a symposium of
Catholics held March 25 in Barcelona.
“A society needs more than
cheap goodies to sustain
vitality, unity, and peace.”
~ Brandon McGinley in a March 22 opinion piece in
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Marian consecration a
fitting response to Putin’s malice.”
“It is only once you’ve
known war that you start to
understand peace.”
~ “Katia,” a Ukrainian medical student in Kyiv in a
March 23 interview with Vatican News.
“I can’t imagine the type
of community created
through video games is
as effective in terms of
creating a sense of meaning
and belonging as houses of
worship.”
~ Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on
American Life, in a March 21 Deseret News article,
“The state of faith.”
“Sounds and emotions
detach us from ourselves,
whereas silence always
forces man to reflect upon
his own life.”
~ Cardinal Robert Sarah on the benefits of silence,
cited in a March 15 National Catholic Register
article, “​Social Media Noise Leaves Us Bored and
Lonely — Seek God in the Silence.”
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 9

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronaldrolheiser.com.
When did we lose respect for one another?
When did we lose it? When
did we lose that deeply
ingrained, forever-sanctioned
sense that however much we might disagree
with one another or even dislike
one another, we still need to accord
one another basic courtesy, respect,
and politeness?
We’ve lost that, at least for the most
part. From the highest levels of government
to the crassest platforms on social
media, we are witnessing the death of
respect, courtesy, and basic honesty.
Nobody, it seems, is accountable anymore
for even the most basic manners
or for honesty.
Things we used to punish our kids
for doing (name-calling, ethnic slurs,
taunting, lying, and blatant disrespect
of another) are now becoming
acceptable in the mainstream. Even
more worrisome is the fact that we feel
justified morally in doing it. To be seen
as courteous, respectful, and polite is
no longer judged as a virtue but as a
weakness. Civility has died.
What’s behind this? How did we
move from Emily Post to what happens
today on social media? Who gave us
permission, societal and sacred, to do
this?
Blaise Pascal once famously wrote
that “men never do evil so completely
and cheerfully as when they do it from
a religious conviction.” Many people
quoted that after the terrorist attacks of
9/11, as they recognized this in radical
Islamism, where mass murder was
justified and deemed as necessary in
God’s name.
No doubt, it’s easier to see this in
someone else because, as Jesus says, it’s
easier to see the speck in your brother’s
eye than the beam in your own. That
same false belief that gave Islamic
terrorists moral permission to bracket
all the rules of decency is taking root
everywhere today.
Why? Religious passion for what one
believes is right and the belief that
one may get ugly in the cause of truth
is prevalent everywhere today and is
giving us moral permission to become
disrespectful, dishonest, and discourteous
in the name of truth, goodness,
and God. This justifies itself as being
prophetic, as armoring us as warriors
for truth.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Hatred and disrespect are always
the antithesis of prophecy. A prophet,
says Father Daniel Berrigan, SJ, makes
a vow of love, not of hatred. Like Jesus,
a prophet weeps in love over any “Jerusalem”
that meets his or her prophecy
with hatred. A prophet never brackets
the non-negotiable mandate always to
be respectful and honest, no matter
the cause. No cause, societal or sacred,
grants one an exemption from the rules
of elementary human courtesy.
Many people argue against this,
pointing out that Jesus himself could
be very harsh with those who opposed
him. Harsh he was. Disrespectful and
discourteous he was not. Moreover,
underneath his challenge to those who
opposed him, there was always the
empathic yearning love of a parent for
an alienated child, not the ugliness you
see today in our government circles, in
social media, and in the stare-you-down
hatred we often see between various
ideological factions today.
The truth can be harsh and confront
us with a very strong challenge, but it
can never be disrespectful. Disrespect
is an infallible sign that one is not
right, that one does not have the moral
high ground, and that in this instance
one is not speaking for God, truth,
and goodness. To bracket the most
elementary rules of love is to be a false
prophet, caught up in self-interest and
self-serving truth.
It is not easy to keep one’s balance in
a bitter time. The temptation to slide
down the ideological roof on one side
or the other and please “one’s base”
seems humanly irresistible. However,
irrespective of which side we
slide down, right or left, there always
comes with this a prescribed rhetoric,
a prescribed discourtesy, a prescribed
disrespect, and not infrequently a
prescribed dishonesty. Along with that
slide also comes the self-same righteousness
of those who opposed Jesus
and believed that they were justified in
being disrespectful and doing violence
in God’s name.
Bitter times, a milieu of hatred and
lies, and finding ourselves on opposing
sides from one another, tempts us toward
what comes naturally: name-calling,
disrespect, lack of graciousness,
and dishonesty whenever a truth
or a lie serves us. Paradoxically, the
challenge is in the opposite direction.
Given the breakdown in civility today,
the call from truth and from God is to
be more careful, more scrupulous, and
more uncompromising than ever in
the respect, courtesy, and graciousness
we accord to others.
We hope to be spending eternity with
one another, dining at a single table.
We do not prepare ourselves or those
we disagree with to take a place at that
table by facing off with one another
with hatred, dishonesty, disrespect, and
coercion, as if that table could be taken
by power and violence.
In the end, not everyone at that table
will have liked one another this side
of eternity, but everyone will be most
gracious, respectful, and honest on the
other side.
10 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

Next stop:
the metaverse
metaverse
the
A new online
world promises
to improve every
part of our lives.
But will any good
come from it?
BY ELISE ITALIANO URENECK
STEVE JOHNSON/UNSPLASH
When Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced his
company’s name change to “Meta” late last year,
skeptics saw an attempt to deflect attention from
emerging reports claiming the company was well aware of
reports detailing how social media was harming democratic
institutions and having bad effects on mental health,
particularly for young women.
Zuckerberg responded to the controversy by claiming that
the “metaverse” is the next chapter of the internet, and his
company was refocusing its mission to build it and shape
its contours.
The metaverse, according to Zuckerberg, is a “creative
economy” that users will build together, where users can
“express ourselves and experience the world with ever
greater richness.”
12 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

TTERSTOCK
“The next platform and medium will
be even more immersive,” he remarked
at Facebook’s Connect 2021:
“... [a]n embodied experience where
you’re in the experience, not just
looking at it.”
There are a variety of opinions
among tech reporters and experts on
how far and wide the new technology
will reach into daily life. But there is
little debate that the metaverse’s arrival
is inevitable, and that it will, for better
or worse, shape work, education,
entertainment, and communication.
What seems missing, at least so far,
is any person or entity dedicated to
thinking through the moral implications
of the metaverse, or any necessary
guardrails. Few, if any, seem to be
asking the bigger question: Can any
good come from the metaverse?
What is the metaverse?
If the term “metaverse” sounds like
science fiction, that’s because it is —
or at least, that’s where it originated.
The concept was first coined by science
fiction writer Neal Stephenson
in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash.”
In an interview with Axios, Stephenson
said that his experience in computer
graphics led him to ask himself
“what would have to happen to make
… 3D graphics technology as cheap
and ubiquitous as television was at the
time”?
Soon after, other science fiction
authors took up the idea of an online
universe where people could escape
potential catastrophes on earth.
Today, the metaverse is loosely
defined as an extensive online world
comprising virtual reality and augmented
reality in which individuals
interact with one another as digital
avatars, or icons. (Virtual reality is an
immersive experience in a simulated
world, while augmented reality overlays
images and text in the real world.)
Some experiences are aimed at
replicating real-world ones, such as
being in a classroom or workplace,
while others allow users to create and
interact in fantasy worlds.
While the appetite for the metaverse
is still unclear — evidenced by the
fact that in early February 2022,
Facebook set the record for the largest
one-day drop in stock market — many
companies are betting big on its future
popularity and prevalence.
Even though the metaverse is
predicted to take a decade to roll out,
Microsoft, Unity Software, Nvidia,
Google, and Apple, among others, are
scurrying to build out the hardware
and the equipment to facilitate these
virtual experiences as fast as they can,
from goggles to glasses to graphics.
Companies have reason to believe
their investments will be profitable,
as millions of people, including
children, already spend a significant
amount of time on social media platforms
and in the gaming world.
In summer 2020, when the first wave
of the COVID-19 pandemic was in
full swing, more than three-quarters
of American children were reported
to be on Roblox, a popular gaming
“There’s a potential to preferring
[virtual technology] to traditional
life,” warns one psychologist.
universe. In fact, the company reported
that its 164 million players spent 3
billion hours on the platform that July.
This past August, pop star Ariana
Grande partnered with the video
game Fortnite to host a virtual reality
concert: 78 million players participated,
signaling to entertainers that one
virtual concert could be more profitable
than an in-person tour by a huge
margin. Professionals ranging from
artists to real estate companies are
receiving big paydays for everything
from virtual art to virtual property.
Metaverse meetings and meet-ups
Surely, not everyone will prefer digital
entertainment to live performances,
or buy up virtual real estate when
their family needs a roof over their
heads. But experts predict that certain
areas of daily life will look different.
Over the last years, the COVID pan-
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 13

demic has forced many sectors that
privileged face-to-face interaction to
embrace virtual communication and
community. As a result, workplaces
have changed the way they carry on
business when people are not able
to meet in person. In many respects,
the pandemic paved the way for it to
be more socially acceptable — and
in some cases, cheaper and more
practical — to “virtually connect.” But
instead of having meetings on Zoom
mediated through a screen, developers
want to create virtual meetings that
“feel” like ones in the real world.
Modern technology has a history
of creating accidental problems,
one Catholic technology
scholar says. “But in this case, it’s
distinctive how deliberate the
developers have been.”
Others predict that industries which
used to rely on in-person meetings or
hands-on training will shift to virtual
and augmented reality.
While this type of technology is
already used in the military, health
care, and law-enforcement fields for
training, forecasters predict that any
industry that requires training on
sophisticated or dangerous equipment
could utilize it.
Others see educational opportunities.
If organizing a field trip is too difficult
or cost-prohibitive, teachers could opt
for a virtual tour. Destinations could
include any place in the world — and
beyond to the solar system.
In lieu of showing students films or
footage of a historical event, educators
could simulate the event itself and
have students “experience” it firsthand.
(That would raise the issue of
interacting with avatars of dead people,
the implications of which have
yet to be considered in full.)
The metaverse is also expected to
create new jobs and industries. Presently,
companies working on building
the metaverse are engaging with engineers,
graphic artists, data scientists,
and hardware developers. But just as
with the dawn of the internet and the
smartphone, new job sectors yet to
be imagined will emerge in its wake.
How they might affect brick-and-mortar
industries and employees serving
real world needs has yet to be seen.
Emerging issues
While the tech companies developing
the metaverse are mostly
focused on gauging market interest
and removing barriers to entry, those
reporting on its development have
already identified ethical, legal, and
social issues ripe for consideration.
In the Meta rollout, Zuckerberg
pointedly said that privacy and
security will have to be built into the
metaverse, but he stopped short of
saying how that would be done.
Jerry Bautista, Ph.D., who had been
leading an augmented reality project
at Intel, told The New York Times,
“We can build amazing things. The
hardware is not the hard part. The
business models are not the hard part.
Finding ways these devices can be
used is not the hard part. The hard
part is: What happens if the data leaks
out?”
Others have concerns about how
addictive social media and screens already
are, and some worry about people
preferring virtual reality so much
that they neglect their real-world
duties and relationships.
“There’s a potential to preferring it to
traditional life,” said Rachel Kowert,
an Ontario, Canada-based psychologist
who has studied the mental health
of gamers.
Social media, gaming, and screen
time already affect juvenile and adolescent
development. “Their primary
learning about how to behave and
engage with the world is through their
peers and social interaction,” Kowert
has said. “It’s a critical component of
how we learn to be people.”
Social scientists have come to the
14 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

consensus that there is a correlation
between screen use and increased
depression, anxiety, and isolation. Psychologists
Jean Twenge and Jonathan
Haight have written extensively on the
relationship between the ubiquity of
the smartphone and skyrocketing rates
of self-harm.
Given the profitability of the pornography
and video game industries,
it is not unreasonable to predict that
“immersive experiences” in highly
sexualized or violent scenarios will be
developed — and what kind of regulation
might be put in place is unclear.
The consequences in the real world
could be significant, given that sexual
dysfunction and increased aggression
are already linked to these media.
Last, there is some concern about
what effect this will have in a hyper-polarized
society. While Zuckerberg
pledged that Meta is in the
business of connecting people, he also
said that in the metaverse, users can
be highly selective about who they
engage.
In an age of fractured news media
and divisive algorithms, questions will
surely emerge about how this will heal
or harm existing divisions.
Can faith be found in the metaverse?
How Christians should approach the
metaverse is up for debate.
In a recent op-ed in The New York
Times, columnist Tish Harrison Warren,
an Anglican priest, argued that at
this point in the pandemic, churches
should stop streaming their services,
because “people need embodied
community.”
“We believe God became flesh, lived
in a human body, and remains mysteriously
in a human body,” she wrote.
“Our worship is centered not on
simply thinking about certain ideas,
but on eating and drinking bread and
wine during communion.”
On the one hand, the sacramental
and incarnational nature of Christianity
lends itself to the idea that entering
deeper into virtual reality runs counter
to the imperative to encounter one
another in the flesh, particularly the
“least of these” who very well could
be excluded from a virtual economy.
On the other hand, Christians have
been encouraged to evangelize the
“digital continent” and bring Christ
to the “digital peripheries.” Wherever
human beings are, they need the good
news.
So, should Catholics engage or resist
the metaverse? According to Michael
Hanby, Ph.D., associate professor of
religion and philosophy of science at
the Pontifical John Paul II Institute
for Marriage and Family in Washington,
D.C., we likely won’t have much
of a choice in the matter.
“Think of what it would mean, for
example, to ‘resist’ electricity. It’s not
just a decision about whether to use
a certain tool, but about whether to
be visible as a person in the virtual
public square that has replaced the
real one. For most young people,
the decision about whether to be on
social media is often really a decision
about whether to have a social life
with friends.”
“Internet technologies have become
a regime of necessity for us,” he said.
“There will be no easy solution to
this, but the first step, I think, is a
much deeper understanding of the
meaning of these technologies and
the role they play in our lives even
now.”
For Hanby, that means understanding
that “modern technology projects
human power beyond a human scale
— metaverse technology does this in
part by obliterating time and space —
and so their downstream effects elude
our control almost by definition.”
Luis Vera, Ph.D., assistant professor
of technology at Mount Saint Mary’s
University in Emmitsburg, Maryland,
has been giving a lot of thought to
these downstream effects.
“There are lots of instances in which
a modern technology creates problems
which are accidental,” he said.
“But in this case, it’s distinctive how
deliberate the developers have been.
They have created a cortisol and
dopamine loop to comfort us or anger
us, in order to learn more about us,
gather more data about our lives, and
predict or nudge our behavior.”
Vera, who writes about fundamental
moral theology, technological
ethics, and Catholic social teaching,
speculates that even though we know
developers have what he calls a “lab
rat” anthropology — prodding and
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 15

manipulating users without reference
to their good — the metaverse is
going make its way into our lives because
of the shift to remote work and
the popularity of the gaming universe,
resulting in an even more expansive
commercialization of our data.
While Catholics might worry about
materially cooperating with a system
that is increasingly evil, Vera said
that the deeper question is, “Can I
hack these platforms in a way so that
it doesn’t affect the rest of my life?
Can I engage it in a way that breaks
the deeper rules of behavior that the
Tech companies like Microsoft,
Google, and Apple are betting
big on the future popularity of
the metaverse.
platform is presenting to me?”
For guidance on doing this, Vera
points students and readers to Pope
Francis’ 2014 Message for World
Communications Day, in which he
compares the “digital highways” to the
road that the man was left on, beaten
and broken, in the parable of the good
Samaritan.
“First-century roads were dangerous
places,” Vera said. “Precisely because
[it’s] a bad place, we need to be there.”
Vera wonders whether participating
in the metaverse can itself be a “form
of resistance.”
“We should be thinking less about
evangelizing through media and more
evangelizing because of media.”
The signs of the times seem to
indicate that people are going to need
help putting virtual and augmented
reality in their rightly ordered place
and will need guardrails to help cultivate
silence and practice charity.
In the age of the metaverse, this
might be the most important work the
Church has ahead of her yet.
Elise Italiano Ureneck is a communications
consultant writing from Boston.

St. Joseph’s School students and staff gathered at their outdoor Fátima shrine to pray
the rosary and recite the prayer of consecration March 25. | ST. JOSEPH’S LA PUENTE
TOGETHER WITH MARY
Schools around the archdiocese made the most of favorable timing
from the pope to join in a historic prayer for Ukraine and Russia.
BY PABLO KAY
When it came to following the
historic March 25 consecration
of the world, especially
Russia and Ukraine, by Pope Francis
to the Immaculate Heart of the
Virgin Mary, the time difference with
Rome worked out particularly well for
Catholic schools on the West Coast.
The 5 p.m. local start time of the
pope’s Lenten penance service at St.
Peter’s Basilica (9 a.m. in Los Angeles)
gave Catholic schools in Southern
California a variety of options for
school-wide participation.
For many schools, the timing
coincided with weekly school Mass,
often held on Friday mornings. At St.
Anthony of Padua School in Gardena,
After Friday morning
Mass, students at St.
Anthony of Padua
School in Gardena
gathered to watch the
livestream of the pope’s
consecration in St.
Peter’s Basilica.
| PABLO KAY
18 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

pastor Msgr. Sal Pilato led students
in the prayer of consecration sent by
Pope Francis to bishops and priests after
Communion at the school’s 8 a.m.
Mass. Afterward, students gathered in
the school hall to watch the livestream
of the consecration at St. Peter’s
Basilica.
At St. Joseph’s School in La Puente,
students and staff participated in the
consecration before Friday morning
Mass, gathering around the school’s
outdoor Fátima shrine to pray the
rosary and recite the prayer of consecration.
Each
student left a
yellow flower at
the foot of the
statue of Mary,
which is accompanied
by statues
of the three Portuguese
shepherd
children who
witnessed the
Fátima apparitions
in 1917.
St. Joseph’s
principal Roger
Ranney said he
was moved by the
students’ reverence
during the
service.
“It was evident
our students
understood the
solemn nature of
the prayer service
and its special purpose,” he said.
At Christ the King School in Los
Angeles, students attended a 9:15
a.m. Mass before participating in a
candle-lighting ceremony for peace.
Students also presented a special mural
where they could add their prayers
for peace, created in partnership with
Scholas Occurrentes USA. As in many
other parishes, church bells rang 29
times to mark the number of days
since the start of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“It breaks my heart into a million
pieces,” read one of the students’
prayers posted to the mural. “Let the
people pray and let Ukraine know we
are here to help them out and doing
everything we can do.”
At St. Charles Borromeo School in
North Hollywood, the consecration
was done at the beginning of the
school’s previously scheduled Stations
of the Cross, also at 9:15 a.m.
“It was a humbling and unifying
experience for us to take part in a
simultaneous prayer with Catholics
around the world,” said principal John
E. Genova. “I am proud of our students
for the way they led our school
community in prayer.”
At All Souls World Language School
in Alhambra, some 400 students gathered
in the school parking lot Friday
Students at All Souls World Language School in Alhambra prayed in three languages at their outdoor consecration
service. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
morning to pray the consecration.
Since the school offers two dual-track
immersion programs in Spanish and
Mandarin, prayers were recited in
English, Spanish, and Mandarin.
Back at St. Anthony of Padua, the
idea of consecrating themselves and
their world felt familiar to students.
The March 25 consecration fell on
the ninth day of their school-wide consecration
to Mary, an annual tradition
started three years ago and timed to
culminate around the feast day of Our
Lady of Fátima on May 13.
Such timing, said St. Anthony principal
Angela Grey, was “a beautiful
coincidence” for her school.
“The ones in junior high really have
a closer connection [to the consecration],
but everybody understands
what’s happening,” said Grey, as
students attentively watched the pope’s
penance service with help from simultaneous
translation on EWTN.
In his homily at the school Mass,
Msgr. Pilato explained the historical
significance of the pope’s special gesture,
which also fell on the solemnity
of the Annunciation, and the story of
Our Lady of Fátima. A teacher from
his time before entering the seminary,
he remembered watching the television
broadcast of St. Pope John Paul
II’s consecration in 1984. But he never
imagined he’d be
a part of a similar
act of consecration
years later.
“I always tell
the kids that their
prayers are much
more powerful
than those of
adults,” he said.
St. Anthony
eighth-grader
Gianna Rubalcava
said she
was struck by the
text of the pope’s
consecration
prayer for a world
threatened by so
much suffering.
“It made you
realize how
much people
have fallen away
from God, and
how there’s a need for people to come
together to realize that,” said Rubalcava.
“There’s a need for peace.”
Sister Tao Pham, a sister of the
Lovers of the Holy Cross Los Angeles
and a religion teacher at St. Anthony,
noted to her students that Ukraine and
Russia are two countries with a historic
love for the Blessed Mother.
This act of consecration, she believes,
was a powerful reminder of Jesus’ call
to love one’s enemies.
“We offer love, we don’t offer war or
anything like that,” said Sister Tao.
“To be able to invoke our mother is
a great gift we can offer to those who
might harm us.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 19

Taking a leap of faith
After a challenging two years, being together
again made all the difference for participants
at RE Congress.
BY TOM HOFFARTH / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN
Archbishop José H. Gomez at the start of the 2022 Religious Education Congress closing Mass on Sunday, March 20.
their home in Wexford, Pennsylvania,
just north of Pittsburgh.
Kernion experienced a difficult bout
with COVID-19 in March 2020. But
with vaccinations and boosters, she
felt safe and never hesitated to make
the trip to this year’s Congress, held
March 18-21.
“Those who are here will look you in
the eye and ask ‘How are you doing?’
and they really want to know,” said
Kernion, adding she felt a similar
experience doing a live workshop Saturday
based on her book, “Spiritual
Practices of the Brain: Caring for
Mind, Body and Soul” (Loyola Press,
$14.99).
Of the estimated 5,000 registered
participants who attended the
Congress mindful of COVID safety
protocols still in effect, there was a
prayerful purpose to go this route
versus signing up for a virtual attendance
pass.
“I felt called by the Holy Spirit to
change up what we are doing, trust
in making some radical change, and
renovate all our programs, and when I
found [the] Congress, I told the pastor
we needed to go to California,” said
Barbara Serrano, a youth minister
and DRE at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Chuch in Pickerington, Ohio.
Serrano said it took “a leap of faith”
for her to come to REC for the first
time and book plane tickets two
months ago for her, pastor Father Leo
Knowing the right words to use at
the right moments is how Anne
Kertz Kernion built her inspirational
hand-calligraphy greeting card
business over the last four decades. At
last weekend’s Los Angeles Religious
Education Congress (REC), attendees
could find plenty of words — and devotional
designs — at her booth at the
Anaheim Convention Center Exhibit
Hall to express the joy of being back
together again.
“There is a sense of tenderness and
an acknowledgement this has been
hard for all of us, and the vibe I feel is
deep gratitude, just to be able to see
people face-to-face and give each other
hugs,” said Kertz Kernion, an REC
vendor for more than 25 years who
traveled with her husband, Jack, from
Archbishop Gomez presided over Mass on Thursday, March 17, for RE Congress Youth Day.
20 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

Connolly, and RCIA director Tina
Bowie.
As part of a group of 12 from the St.
Thomas More Catholic Newman
Center at the University of Arizona in
Tucson, Nicole Traicoff was another
first-time attendee.
“We were all in,” said Traicoff. “We
soon realized being here in person is
an awesome opportunity. The experience
has been beautiful. Sometimes
in the pandemic, it feels so isolated
in your parish with little socialization.
But this reminds us the Church really
is universal and there really is physicality
to our faith.”
Jason Sharp, who with his wife,
Bridget, have been the adult leaders
since 2011 of an ecumenical youth
group, “Rooted,” in Kearney, Nebraska,
had been to REC eight times before,
and participated in the all-virtual
Congress last year.
“Doing things virtually is wonderful
for information,” said Sharp, “but
Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron with young people at Youth Day, on March 17.
Speakers at a panel discussion on homelessness in LA with Archbishop Gomez on Saturday, March 19. The panel was moderated by Michael Donaldson (far right), senior director of
the archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice, and Peace.
when it comes to feeling and emotion,
that’s what can be lacking. There
is so much energy and a common
sharing of our faith that comes alive
when you are here.”
Sharp said attending Bishop Robert
Barron’s Friday morning presentation,
“Looking at the Cross of Jesus with
Fresh Eyes,” confirmed his decision to
come in person. So did Anh Duong,
director of Vietnamese Religious
Education at Holy Family Catholic
Church in San Diego.
“I wish all the people who wanted
to could have come to listen to that,”
said Duong, who made a 90-minute
drive back and forth between days
to attend in person. “Since last year
I’ve been trying to get back to see
people from all around the world that
come here. I feel blessed to be able to
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 21

The number of booths and participants in the RE Congress exhibit hall was less than previous years due to COVID-19
restrictions.
come.”
Bishop Barron, whose Word on Fire
evangelization ministry reaches millions
around the world through video
and social media, smiled as he tried
to make his way from the convention
center arena to the exhibit hall after
his talk, but he kept getting stopped
by people excited to meet him in
person.
He agreed that this year’s REC
“might be a little muted from the
past.” But Bishop Barron, who has attended
the Congress for more than 25
years, said he found renewed energy
speaking at Thursday’s Youth Day to
about 400 high school students about
religion and science.
“This room here to me is a symbol
of the Church, because here is
everybody — left, right, center,” he
said, pointing toward the exhibit hall.
“I always get a kick out of that. So yes,
I still feel a buzz, even if it’s just at a
lower level.”
Arena workshops by Congress
favorites such as Bishop Barron,
Father Tony Ricard of New Orleans,
and Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy
Industries may not have filled the
7,000-seat space as in years past. But
a reminder of the pandemic reality
struck before Father Boyle’s presentation
on Saturday afternoon: It
was supposed to include Homeboy
CEO Thomas Vozzo talking about
his new book, “The Homeboy Way:
A Radical Approach In Business and
Life” (Loyola Press, $26.99). But as
it started, Father Boyle announced
that Vozzo tested positive for COVID
hours before and couldn’t attend.
Participants who signed up for
virtual access have only a choice of
about 35 recorded workshops different
from those in Anaheim, available
until May 17. Virtual access also
included livestreamed arena events
and Masses.
Workshops in both formats included
presentations for parish ministry
leaders, teachers, and administrators
on topics including faith enrichment,
mental health, spiritual healing, synodality,
effective social media expansion,
and how to discuss racism. So
were various aspects on the subject of
immigration — a main theme of the
work of Catholic painter and native
Angeleno Lalo Garcia.
“You know what, I just needed to be
here,” said Garcia, who has had an
REC booth for 12 years but missed
the last two. “I know it won’t be huge
on the business side, but I’m thrilled
to reencounter Congress. It’s been a
reunion.”
One of the featured events was a Saturday
morning panel discussion with
Archbishop José H. Gomez on the
issue of homelessness in Los Angeles.
Joining him were Msgr. Gregory Cox,
executive director of Catholic Charities
LA, Sister Maria Goretti, a sister
of the Poor of Jesus Christ, a religious
order ministering on Skid Row, and
Susana Santana of the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul in LA.
Archbishop Gomez thanked his
fellow panelists for the work done
by their organizations. But he also
reminded the audience of the quiet,
often unpublicized local outreach
work done at the parish level around
the archdiocese.
When he was asked about what the
Church’s call to action in addressing
homelessness should look like, Archbishop
Gomez said everything starts
with the individuals taking action.
“It is clear to all of us that if we
want to go deeper into understanding
the social teaching of the Church,
we have to see it in each person’s
growth,” said Archbishop Gomez,
now in the final year of his three-year
term as USCCB president. “Sometimes
we think of social teaching
as just a social action or a political
action, but it really is a personal call.
We are all called to do things in different
ways, to reflect what God says
for us to do to improve this situation.”
In his homily at the event’s closing
Mass the next day, Archbishop
Gomez gave a shout-out to the
“beautiful witness” given by Catholics
during the COVID pandemic since
the last time Congressgoers had seen
one another two years ago.
“Thanks to your efforts, and the
grace of God, you have helped
people keep their faith and grow,” he
remarked.
He then showed a wrist bracelet he
was given on Thursday’s Youth Day
and read aloud the words that spelled
out the theme, “Let God Take the
Wheel.”
“Sounds good, huh?” he said. “It was
beautiful to see [the young people]
full of hope. We should have that
same excitement and same energy.
I hope that each one of us feels that
urgency of growing in our personal
relationship with Our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
22 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

Pope Francis arrives for an audience to exchange Christmas greetings with members of the Roman Curia in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on Dec. 23, 2021. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA
A Church in motion
Five takeaways from Pope Francis’
long-awaited overhaul of the Roman Curia.
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME — Nine years in the
making, the fruit of at least 40
meetings of the pope’s special
Council of Cardinals from around the
world, intended to represent the local
church of every continent, not to
mention countless hours of consultations,
a sweeping new constitution
for the Roman Curia, meaning the
central governing bureaucracy in the
Vatican, finally saw the light of day on
March 19.
“Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach
the Gospel”) is described as an effort
to provide a mission-oriented framework
on everything about the Roman
Curia in the Vatican. It replaces “Pastor
Bonus” (“Good Shepherd”), which
St. Pope John Paul II promulgated
on June 28, 1988, and takes effect on
June 5, the feast of the Pentecost.
For all the buildup and anticipation
surrounding the document, its release
was surprisingly anticlimactic.
The 23,000-word text was released
Saturday by the Vatican Press Office
with no accompanying commentary,
normally customary for such a major
text, and only in Italian, with a press
conference to present it not scheduled
until the following Monday — all of
which suggests that, despite months
of labor, the endgame wasn’t really
considered until, well, the very end.
Herewith, five main takeaways from
the pope’s overhaul.
1. Power to the laity
In terms of news value, the big head-
24 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

line from the new apostolic constitution
was Pope Francis opening the
door for a layperson, thus including
a laywoman, to head any department
of the Roman Curia. The key line
comes in chapter two, section five, in
which the constitution states that “any
baptized person can preside over a
dicastery or organism, depending on
their competence, power of governance,
and function.”
In effect, “Praedicate Evangelium”
settles a long-running debate about
the Roman Curia. Since the heads of
many Vatican departments exercise
what is known as “vicarious authority”
in the name of the pope, meaning
the ability to make decisions in the
pope’s name, some canon lawyers and
theologians have argued that the person
wielding that authority must be
in holy orders. That’s ordinarily how
vicarious authority is transmitted,
and the question heretofore has never
been officially settled.
Now, Pope Francis appears to have
settled it.
2. Mum on money
One point “Praedicate Evangelium”
does not address, however, is the
matter of a just wage for lay Vatican
employees. Salaries in the Vatican are
notoriously low, and, although jobs
are generally secure, working conditions
can be a bit dismal.
If the Vatican is to attract the sort
of high-level, internationally qualified
laity who would be required to
head major departments, will they be
willing to put their money where their
mouth is, especially in an era of declining
income and annual financial
crises?
One not-so-encouraging development
in that regard was a recent
decision to expand the period of
parental leave for new fathers in the
Vatican — from a surreal one day, to
an almost equally paltry three.
3. Meet the new boss, same as the
old boss
Nine years ago, at the dawn of the
Pope Francis reform, it was widely
believed that one cornerstone would
be clipping the wings of the Secretariat
of State.
The view was that the Vatican’s most
important department had become
too big, too powerful, and too controlling.
Pope Francis took one critical step
in that direction early on by creating
a new Secretariat for the Economy,
effectively taking away the power of
the purse.
That “reform” didn’t last long,
however, and now, in “Praedicate
Evangelium,” it is specified that the
Secretariat of State, “since it’s the
papal Secretariat, aids the Roman
Pontiff in a close way in the exercise
of his supreme mission.”
In other words, we started by
wanting to trim down the Secretariat
of State as the Vatican’s 800-pound
gorilla. In the end, it’s become more
akin to the 1,600-pound gorilla of the
place.
4. A new home for anti-abuse efforts
Another important move contained
in “Praedicate Evangelium” is making
the Pontifical Commission for the
Protection of Minors, created by Pope
Francis in 2014 to be the “tip of the
spear” in terms of the Vatican’s efforts
to respond to the clerical sexual abuse
scandals, a part of the newly minted
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the
Faith.
In effect, the move gives the commission
a home inside the Vatican.
Up to this point, it’s been essentially
an entity unto itself, reporting only to
the pope.
For fans of the decision, it upgrades
the status of the Pontifical Commission
by making it part of one of the
Vatican’s most important departments.
“Linking the commission more
closely with the work of the new
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the
Faith represents a significant move
forward in upgrading the place and
mandate of the commission, which
can only lead to a stronger culture of
safeguarding throughout the Curia
and the entire Church,” said Cardinal
Sean O’Malley of Boston, president of
the commission since its inception.
Critics, however, see it as swapping
the commission’s independence and
critical edge for submission to the
corporate Vatican line.
“When I was on the commission,
we got a lot of resistance to our work
from the (doctrinal congregation)
… they basically felt that we were
interfering. And that, I believe, is the
norm in the Vatican — they really
do not like anyone who are seen as
outsiders coming in,” renowned abuse
survivor Marie Collins told The Irish
Catholic.
On Twitter, Collins was blunter:
“The Commission has now officially
lost even a semblance of independence,”
she wrote.
5. Term limits
The new constitution also establishes
that for clerics and religious serving
in the Roman Curia, they’ve got five
years, a mandate that can be renewed
for a second five-year term. After that,
however, they’re supposed to return to
their dioceses or religious orders.
“As a rule, after five years, clerical
Officials and members of Institutes
of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life who have served in
curial institutions and offices return
to pastoral care in their diocese/parish,
or in the Institutes or Societies to
which they belong,” it says.
“Should the Superiors of the Roman
Curia deem it opportune, the service
may be extended for another period of
five years.”
To some extent, this merely codifies
existing practice, although heretofore
it was never explicitly stated that
clergy working in the Vatican have to
leave after a maximum of 10 years.
To those who find the move positive,
it’s seen as a blow to careerism and an
important statement about the importance
of the local church. To detractors,
usually somebody is just starting
to figure the Vatican out after five
years, and so this isn’t so much about
fresh blood as needlessly getting rid
of anyone with real experience and
perspective — which, among other
things, likely strengthens the internal
control by the Secretariat of State
even further.
As ever, we’ll see how things play out
in practice. At this stage, what can be
said with confidence is that after Pope
Francis, the Roman Curia will never
be the same.
John L. Allen is the editor of Crux.
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 25

INTERSECTIONS
GREG ERLANDSON
Recalling nuclear nightmares
Is the unthinkable
becoming thinkable
again?
It has been 76 years
since atomic bombs
exploded over Hiroshima
An atomic bomb detonates over
Nagasaki, Japan, Aug. 9, 1945. | CNS/
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL FILES,
USA TODAY NETWORK VIA REUTERS
and Nagasaki. The number of people alive who experienced
those two terrible events is shrinking daily.
Even we baby boomers who grew up with take-cover drills
in our classrooms and backyard bomb shelters are a minority
now. Our historical memory grows fainter.
I remember huddling under my desk at Visitation Elementary
School in Westchester, and imagining what might
happen when the windows in our classroom shattered
from the initial shock wave. The testing of air raid sirens
occurred regularly.
During the Cuban missile crisis, our neighbors were
stockpiling canned foods in their bedroom. The best my
busy mom had time for was buying a few gallons of water
to keep in the garage. Even as a kid, I was unconvinced
they would be of much help, but growing up a few miles
from LAX suggested our survival odds weren’t too great
anyway should the ICBMs take flight.
As a kid, I read a lot about nuclear war. My favorite Armageddon
novel was “Alas, Babylon,” by Pat Frank. It was a
kind of Swiss Family Robinson meets the apocalypse.
“Alas, Babylon” was a look at how isolated U.S. communities
might survive an all-out nuclear war, living by their
wits as the social order broke down. “The law of the jungle
reigned, but in the wreckage a few courageous survivors,
men and women with the guts to have hope, were determined
to build a new and better world on the ruins of the
old,” the jacket copy read.
Being a kid at the dawn of the nuclear age meant anxiety
permeated us like Strontium-90. We couldn’t escape it.
Another best-selling novel and movie was “Fail-Safe.” It described
a scenario where all the safeguards break down and
both the Soviet Union and the United States are trapped
by their distrust and their commitment to Mutual Assured
Destruction, the underpinning of our nuclear strategy, and
one of the most appropriate military acronyms ever. “Dr.
Strangelove” was a bitter comic take on the same theme.
But the Soviet Union collapsed. Sam Nunn and Dick
Lugar were statesmen-politicians who led efforts to reduce
the insane number of nuclear weapons in both arsenals to
just moderately crazy levels. Kids raised since the 1990s
had other catastrophes to fantasize about such as climate
change and international terrorism. The threat of a radioactive
holocaust receded.
But the world never got any safer. Arms control treaties
have been allowed to expire. New nuclear powers like
North Korea bring fresh crazy to the table. And now the
heir of the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal is publicly threatening
its use should anyone try to stop his slaughter of his
“brother Slavs” in Ukraine.
A few weeks ago, my son’s in-laws sent his family Potassium
Iodide tablets, meant to protect the thyroid from
radiation exposure. A friend of mine wants to pack a go-bag
in case a quick exit away from incoming ICBMs is called
26 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

Greg Erlandson is the president and
editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service.
for. The possibility of the unthinkable becoming thinkable
once again has unleashed a stream of memories for those
of us who still remember our past dread.
Is it possible that human beings can keep themselves from
using the unthinkable? Syria unleashed chemical gas attacks
against its opponents, and Russia used banned nerve
agents to take out enemies that Vladimir Putin wanted
killed. Such weapons are banned by international conventions,
yet the world barely blinked. Would it be so hard to
imagine that nuclear weapons won’t be used again?
Are we like children near a hot stove, needing to burn
our fingers again and again in order to remember that it
shouldn’t be done? Do we need to lose Kyiv or London or
Los Angeles to a nuclear nightmare so that for another 75
years our fingers stop edging toward the button?
It’s a horrid thought, yet the masters of war may in fact
be strategizing the End Times now. Some evangelists like
Pat Robertson and Greg Laurie seem to relish the idea. “I
believe we’re living in the last days,” Laurie said. “I believe
Christ could come back at any moment.”
Pope Francis sounds distinctly less enthusiastic. In a
recent speech he recalled Noah and the great flood rather
than any triumphant descent of Jesus upon the radioactive
remains of his creation: A nuclear war would “destroy
everything” and the survivors would have “to start again
from scratch,” he said.
The pope has called often for nuclear disarmament,
saying that “true peace cannot be built on the threat of a
possible total annihilation of humanity.”
“These weapons do not only foster a climate of fear,
suspicion, and hostility. They also destroy hope,” he said in
2020.
Hope is huddled under its desk right now, waiting to see
who thinks first.

Promotional image for the “Guadalupe: Holy Art in the Streets of Los Angeles” event at the USC Fisher Museum of Art.
The queen of LA’s streets
A special event at USC studies how Our Lady of
Guadalupe captured a city’s imagination.
BY FATHER DORIAN LLYWELYN, SJ
St. Ignatius of Loyola urged people
to “seek and find God’s will
in everything.” That means being
open to surprise as God reveals himself
in unsuspected places and ways.
About 15 hours of my work week is
spent behind the wheel, as I travel
from appointment to appointment.
As I drive, I take in the fabric of our
city, and often find myself praying
spontaneously. It’s not only the Instagram-worthy
sunsets over the Pacific
or snow capping the San Gabriel
Mountains where I recognize God.
In fact, God tends to show himself to
me more in glimpses of unexpected
beauty in the grittier parts and harsher
realities of our city.
The street art of Los Angeles is one
such place where God can be found.
In his beautiful photo book, “The
Virgin of the American Dream: Guadalupe
on the Walls of Los Angeles”
Sam Quinones. | SAMQUINONES.COM
(39 West Press, $25), journalist Sam
Quinones documents the ubiquitous
presence of Our Lady of Guadalupe
in our urban landscape.
The ancient Christian city of Constantinople
was so full of images of
the Virgin Mary that its inhabitants
thought of it as “Theotokoupolis” —
the City of the Mother of God. It’s
not too fanciful to suggest that it’s the
virgin’s presence — on the walls of
launderettes, corner stores, gyms, and
auto-repair shops — that makes LA
into the City of Nuestra Señora de
Guadalupe.
The abiding presence of the “La
Morenita” is, however, part of
something larger — the Catholic
imagination at play on the streets of
our city and region. When Catholic
imagery — the Sacred Heart, crucifixes,
the rosary — shows up not only
in churches, schools, and homes, but
in public places (many of them in
grittier areas), it opens a window into
the abiding presence of God among
his people.
Often those windows to heaven open
up in unexpected places.
Behind a nondescript storefront on a
28 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

usy boulevard in the heart of East LA
something extraordinary — and in its
own way, sacred — is going on. In an
art studio, color explodes from large
canvases. As students huddle around
computers, elegant digital graphics
that will eventually become community
murals come together on their
screens. Artists work at wooden easels,
intensely focused on their craft. The
atmosphere is calm and recollected.
At the center of it all is Fabian
Debora. A former gang member, he is
a prominent muralist and a collected
artist whose work is full of the imagery
of Catholic spirituality. From the outside
of apartment buildings in South
LA to Catholic schools in Orange
County and street corners in Boyle
Heights, Debora’s art is a part of the
fabric of our communities.
An El Paso, Texas, native who grew
up in Boyle Heights, Debora overcame
a troubled early life marred by
drugs and incarceration. He’s now the
executive director of the Homeboy Art
Academy, a division of Father Greg
Boyle’s Homeboy Industries. The
academy provides art education and
training to formerly gang-involved and
previously incarcerated children and
adults.
As a child, Debora was heavily influenced
by his mother and grandmother,
deeply devout in their Catholic
faith and reverence for Our Lady of
Guadalupe. He first discovered art
amid the strife of his family home
childhood, discovering that drawing
offered an escape from tension, anxiety,
and occasional violence.
“I’d create my own realities,” he said.
“Art became a part of me — it was
something no one could take away.”
As the years passed, sketches in his
notebooks turned into graffiti tags
on freeway signs and watercolors in
his jail cell, using ground-up M&Ms
and Skittles for his paint. After a deep
spiritual experience in the depths of
his personal despair, his passion for
graffiti turned into an intense focus on
telling the stories of his community
through murals, paintings, and prints.
As an educator and mentor to young
adults facing the same temptations
and challenges he once did, Debora
encourages artists to discover their
unique inner voices. “Paint what you
Fabian Debora. | IMAGE VIA FACEBOOK
believe,” Debora recently said to a
student struggling with a piece of art.
Spirituality is central to his work. For
Debora, the Blessed Mother is an important
symbol of faith and hope, and
she figures prominently in his images.
An articulate man, he speaks thoughtfully
of “urban Catholicism.”
Looking at his community inspires
him, as he discovers God’s beauty at
play in everyday urban life — a mother
sitting with her two young children
on a bus bench or an unhoused man
sleeping on a sidewalk. This is art that,
even when it is not explicitly religious,
reveals the dignity of humans, as
images and likenesses of God.
“I look for God in all people,” Debora
said. “They say that art is the closest
you can get to God. In that case, I’m
doing God’s work.”
I have no doubt that he’s right.
Fabian Debora and Sam Quinones
will speak at “Guadalupe: Holy Art in
the Streets of Los Angeles,” a free event
at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 10, at the
USC Fisher Museum of Art. The event
is hosted by the Institute for Advanced
Catholic Studies at USC. Readers can
learn more and RSVP at iacs.usc.edu/
holyart.
Father Dorian Llywelyn, SJ, is
president of the Institute for Advanced
Catholic Studies, an independent research
center located at the University
of Southern California.
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
Diagnosing a ‘disease of the soul’
Caryll Houselander. | IMAGE VIA CNS
Caryll Houselander (1901-1954) was a British mystic
and writer who wore a pair of big round tortoiseshell
glasses, lived in London during the Blitz, and
until she died at 53 from breast cancer, apparently barely
slept or ate. A friend observed: “She used to cover her face
with some abominable chalky-white substance which gave
it quite often the tragic look one associates with clowns and
great comedians.”
“Caryll Houselander: That Divine Eccentric,” Maisie
Ward’s fine biography, charts Houselander’s difficult
childhood, her reversion to the Church in 1925, and her
unrequited love for a British spy who would be the model
for Ian Fleming’s “James Bond.” She had an eclectic circle
of friends and was utterly devoted to Christ. She never
married.
Houselander suffered greatly during her own life: from
poverty, from frail health, from neuroses. She had a lifelong
and especially deep and tender bond with traumatized
children, and loved teaching them how to draw, paint, and
carve small animals out of wood.
She became a prolific and popular spiritual writer. Her
most well-known works include “The Reed of God”
(1944), “A Rocking-Horse Catholic” (1955), and “The
Risen Christ” (1959).
She wrote another book, lesser-known and especially
apropos for Lent: “Guilt” (1951).
“The most striking characteristic of the age in which we
are living is psychological suffering,” she begins. “I have
named this ego-neurosis. Ego-neurosis is a disease of the
soul, a spiritual rather than a psychological ailment.”
Usually such people, Houselander continues, “suffer consciously
merely from a vague and persistent unhappiness,
an inexplicable sense of guilt about everything they do or
don’t do, a shrinking from effort, especially mental effort, a
certain sense of frustration and a hidden stirring of shame
because they feel inadequate before life — they suffer continually
from embarrassment … and always from anxiety in
some form or other.”
“That’s ego-neurosis?” was my reaction. I thought everyone
felt that way!
All kidding aside, Houselander goes on to discuss the
existential guilt arising from our fallen nature, our shared
responsibility for the suffering of the world, and the strange
phenomenon of people who feel neurotically guilty for
trifles while totally overlooking huge sins of commission
or omission for which they really should feel guilty: lack
of charity, for example, or a tendency toward pathological
lying, or murder.
The book contains passages on the mental suffering,
among others, of serial killer Peter Kürten (“The Monster
of Düsseldorf”), Hans Christian Andersen, the French poet
Arthur Rimbaud, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Speaking of guilt, The Times Literary Supplement recently
ran a piece by Regina Reni, Canada research chair in
philosophy of moral and social cognition at York University
in Toronto, called “Libelling the dead?: Anne Frank’s
informer and ethics.”
Turns out that researchers purport to have found the
30 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
man who ratted out the hiding place
of Anne Frank and her family to the
Nazis. The evidence, though fairly
strong, is circumstantial. His name
was publicly released.
So Reni poses the question to her
ethics class: If the supposed informer
— long dead — was innocent, has a
moral wrong been done to him?
The students “tend to split into
camps who find the other’s view bizarre.
Some say it is obvious that your
life can be made worse by undiscovered
calumnies. Others think it’s just
as obvious that what you don’t know
can’t hurt you. … It’s an elemental
question about the worth of human
life: are we ultimately only the sum
of our experiences, or do we extend
tendrils of value into our unmonitored
relationships?”
“[T]he latter view … implies we go
on, in some sense, even after death.
So long as we are remembered there
is still something of us in the world,
something our loved ones can honour
and tend — not out of duty to the
historical record but out of duty to
us. Perhaps ‘gone but not forgotten’
means not yet truly gone.”
We Catholics would agree completely.
We can still do good on Earth
when we are “gone.” Harm can still
be done to us when we are gone.
And our actions here on Earth follow
us into eternity.
In the end, says Houselander, guilt
is in the roots of our being, “compelling
us to lifelong conflict within
ourselves. … Our human nature, inherited
from [Adam], is fallen human
nature, therefore suffering human
nature. … We share with all other
human creatures … the obligation
to shoulder our share of the burden
consequent upon it, and as individual
AMAZON
sinners we have an obligation to wrestle
unceasingly with ourselves.”
Trying to flee our guilt through false
religions, addictions, and various forms of
self-punishment avail us nothing.
Is there no way out? Is there no remedy for
this crushing, unavoidable burden?
Yes, concludes Houselander: repentance
and the sacrament of penance.
“In that stuffy, dark little box we call the
confessional, every one of the ceaseless drift
of human beings of every kind and description
who kneel uncomfortably, listening to
the whispered words of absolution, is one
with God.”
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 31

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
The signs and the signified
And so we begin
our great Passover.
We enter
Holy Week and then the
Sacred Triduum — the
three-day memorial that
culminates in Easter.
We begin in the Upper
Room with Jesus as he
makes his self-offering
at the seder meal. There
he presents the mystery
that we re-present in
every Mass.
We remain with him
when the disciples fall
asleep. And yet the next
day we recognize ourselves
in the crowd that
cries, “Crucify him!”
We make the Way of
the Cross with him. We
stand at the cross with
Mary. In the stark liturgy
of Good Friday we enter a terrible silence.
And we remain there until the brilliance of the Easter Vigil
— a veritable explosion of light and sound. All the elements
of the cosmos seem to conspire in praise: fire and water, air
and voices.
Our sorrow is brought sacramentally to an end. It vanishes
into joy, as our Lenten austerities vanish into the Church’s
definitive moment of glory: the Lord’s resurrection.
In the early Church this was the moment that proved a
preacher’s mettle. Now began the season of mystagogy. The
word means, literally, teaching about the mysteries. It was
used to describe the first sermons preached in the Easter
season — sermons describing and defining the sacraments.
Newly baptized Christians sat stunned by the rituals they
had just undergone, and the clergy began the gradual task
of explaining the rites — beginning with the signs and the
symbols and proceeding to the divine realities they signify.
Great voices resounded in those years: Ambrose in Milan,
Cyril in Jerusalem, John Chrysostom in Constantinople, Augustine
in Africa. They left no soul unsure and no Christian
unclear about what had just happened.
“The Last Supper,” by Pieter Pourbus, 1523/1524-
1584, Flemish. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Egeria the
Pilgrim testified
that Jerusalem resounded
with the
applause of the
newly baptized
believers as they
listened to their
bishop preach the
Paschal Mysteries.
That, dear
friends, is what
St. Pope John
Paul II meant
by the phrase
“eucharistic
amazement.” And
that is what we
need to restore
to the Church in
our time.
What we need
to do — in
everything we do
— is mystagogy,
after the ancient
models.
We want to hear full churches resound with praise for the
divine mysteries, the sacraments instituted by Christ and
entrusted to the Church.
Our own times, however, are a bit different from the time
of the early Church. In the fourth century, mystagogy was
aimed directly at new Christians. Today we need to turn our
attention to people who have long been warming our pews.
Surveys show that a minority of churchgoing Catholics do
not believe what Catholics have always believed about the
Mass. We need to evangelize our coreligionists, and mystagogy,
I believe, is the way.
Mystagogy inspires wonder about our last reception of the
sacraments — and it carries us forward to the next. It doesn’t
matter how long we’ve been Catholic. The power of the
sacraments never diminishes.
Our Triduum is beautiful, but we do not linger there. It is a
beginning, and from there we go on from glory to glory.
32 • ANGELUS • April 8, 2022

■ FRIDAY, APRIL 1
Fish Fry. Nativity Annex, 1415 Engracia Ave., Torrance,
5-7 p.m. Fish fry, hosted by Knights of Columbus council
#4919, will be held every Friday in Lent through April 8.
Baked or deep-fried fish, baked potato or french fries,
coleslaw, roll, and cake. Cost: $12/adults, $10/seniors,
$7/children under 12. Limited seating. Masks optional.
Takeout service is also available.
Stations of the Cross & Mass. St. Barnabas Church,
3955 Orange Ave., Long Beach, 5:30 p.m. Stations of the
Cross and 6 p.m. Mass will be held every Friday during
Lent. Immediately after Mass, the Knights of Columbus
Fish Fry will be held, 6:15-8:30 p.m. at the parish hall. For
more information, visit stbarnabaslb.org.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 2
Camino: A Walk with Jesus. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel,
8 a.m. Ten-mile spiritual pilgrimage starts at Mission
San Gabriel with prayer and visit to the first church in Los
Angeles, and ends at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels with rest and water stops along the way. Prayer
service will be held at the cathedral, 2:30-3 p.m. Lunch
will be provided at Cathedral High School. Shuttles available
from cathedral to mission. For more information,
visit lacatholics.org/event/camino-a-walk-with-jesus/.
■ SUNDAY, APRIL 3
Stations of the Cross. Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier
Blvd., Los Angeles, 2 p.m. Stations will be held each Sunday
of Lent. Special reenactment of the Passion of Christ
on April 10, presented by Resurrection Church. For more
information, visit http://CatholicCM.org/stations or call
323-261-3106.
■ FRIDAY, APRIL 8
Knights of Columbus #1990 Fish Fry. 214 Ave. I,
Redondo Beach, 5-8 p.m. Hosted by Knights of Columbus
Council #1990, dinner includes baked or fried fish,
french fries or roasted potatoes, dinner roll, green salad,
ice tea, beverages, and dessert. Full sports bar, takeout,
dine in, and online ordering available. Cost: $15/adults,
$10/children, two or more: $7. Proceeds benefit the pregnancy
help center, Special Olympics, and St. Lawrence
Martyr Church’s food pantry. Visit KOFC1990.org.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 9
“Heal Us, Oh Lord!” St. Finbar Church, 2010 W. Olive
Ave., Burbank, 11:45 a.m.-4 p.m. An uplifting time of
healing prayer for the harmful events of the pandemic.
Special presentations by Father Marinello Saguin, Dr.
Elizabeth Kim, Father Ethan Southard, Maria Velasquez,
LMFT, and Father Charles Lueras, CRIC. Healing service
led by Father Patrick Crowley, SSCC. Palm Sunday vigil
Mass celebrated by Father Bill Delaney, SJ. For more
information, email spirit@scrc.org.
■ MONDAY, APRIL 11
Chrism Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
■ TUESDAY, APRIL 12
Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San
Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 11 a.m. Mass is
virtual and not open to the public. Livestream available
at CatholicCM.org or Facebook.com/lacatholics.
■ THURSDAY, APRIL 14
Holy Thursday Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 7 p.m.
■ FRIDAY, APRIL 15
Passion of Our Lord. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. (English),
7 p.m. (Spanish).
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 16
Easter Vigil. St. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 8 p.m.
■ SUNDAY, APRIL 17
Easter Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. (English),
12 p.m. (Spanish).
■ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
Virtual Record Clearing Clinic for Veterans. Legal team will
help with traffic tickets, quality of life citations, and expungement
of criminal convictions, 3-6 p.m. Free clinic is open to
all Southern California veterans who have eligible cases in a
California State Superior Court. Participants can call in or join
online via Zoom. Registration required. Call 213-896-6537 or
email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. For more information, visit
lacba.org/veterans.
■ THURSDAY, APRIL 21
Children’s Bureau: Foster Care Zoom Orientation. 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, 4-5p.m. A live Zoom orientation will
be hosted 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.
■ FRIDAY, APRIL 22
Beginning Experience Weekend: A Retreat for Widowed, Divorced
and Separated. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, Encino. Retreat
for people who have suffered the end of a spousal relationship
through death, divorce, or separation will run from Friday,
April 22 to Sunday, April 24. Cost: $275/person, $75 deposit.
For more information, call Maria at 909-592-0009 (English and
Spanish) or Brenda at 818-352-5265, or email beginningexp.
losangeles@gmail.com, or visit beginningexperience.org.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 23
Compelled by Love: A Jubilee Retreat. St. Joseph the Worker
Church, 19808 Cantlay St., Winnetka, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Come
renew your discipleship of Jesus and hear his summons to join
him on mission. Presenters: Ana De Anda, Eddie Perez, Father
Parker Sandoval, Katie Tassinari, Bobby Vidal. Free event. For
more information, email Alicia Hernandez at ahernandez@
la-archdiocese.org or call 213-637-7542.
Finding Hope in His Wounds: A Jubilee Young Adult Gathering.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St.,
Los Angeles, 6-9 p.m. Join Archbishop José H. Gomez for an
evening of prayer and fellowship during the Forward in Mission
Jubilee Year. Includes self-guided tours of the cathedral, witness
talks, adoration, confession, and fellowship.
■ THURSDAY, APRIL 28
Free Mammograms. St. Mary’s Academy, 701 Grace Ave., Inglewood,
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Hosted by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,
Inc. Open to all uninsured women over 40 years old who have
not had a previous mammogram in the past year. To schedule,
visit assuredimaging.com/AKA or call 888-233-6121. Masks
required.
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.
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 33