Angelus News | September 23, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 19

ANGELUS 

THE CATECHISM 

CHALLENGE 

On its 30th 

anniversary, 

why this is 

the book 

for today 

September 23, 2022 Vol. 7 No. 19

ANGELUS 

September 23, 2022 

Vol. 7 • No. 19 

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ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

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ON THE COVER 

USCCB/SHUTTERSTOCK 

The logo used for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 

published in 1992, is adapted from an image found in the 

Catacombs of Domitilla in Rome thought to symbolize “the 

rest and the happiness that the soul of the departed finds in 

eternal life.” Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the catechism’s 

release next month, Russell Shaw explains on Page 10 what 

prompted the Church to undertake such an immense project. 

On Page 26, Greg Erlandson offers a perspective on the text’s 

relevance to ordinary Catholics — like his own mother. 

THIS PAGE 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Archbishop José H. Gomez joined staff and 

parishioners at St. Genevieve in Panorama 

City Sept. 1 to break ground on a new Parish 

Education Center and Performing Arts Center, 

expected to be completed by January 2024. 

The two buildings are part of the parish’s 

“Inspiration Building Project” and will include 

new meeting rooms, office, and an outdoor 

courtyard for community events. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Events Calendar......................................................................................................................... 33 

14 

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CONTENTS 

At jubilee close, Mission San Gabriel rallies back from a ‘double punch’ 

Twenty years later, LA’s cathedral feels like home 

John Allen: What Queen Elizabeth II and the popes have in common 

‘The Smiling Pope’ takes the final step before sainthood 

Russell Shaw: Three things to shape the U.S. bishops’ agenda this fall 

Sign up for our free, daily e-newsletter 

Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

28 

30 

Amazon struggles to wield the ‘Rings of Power’ 

Heather King: A musicologist with no fear of the sounds of death 

September 23, 2022 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

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Hearing when God speaks 

The following is adapted from a 

catechesis on discernment by the Holy 

Father given during his weekly General 

Audience on Wednesday, Sept. 7. 

One of the most instructive 

examples on discernment is 

offered to us by St. Ignatius of 

Loyola. He is at home convalescing, 

after injuring a leg in battle. To dispel 

the boredom, he asks for something 

to read. He loves tales of chivalry, but 

unfortunately only the lives of saints 

can be found at home. 

In the course of reading, he begins to 

discover another world, a world that 

conquers him and seems to compete 

with that of knights. He is fascinated by 

the figures of St. Francis and St. Dominic, 

and feels the desire to imitate 

them. But the world of chivalry also 

continues to exert its fascination on 

him. And so, within himself he feels 

this alternation of thoughts — those 

of chivalry and those of the saints — 

which seem to equate to one another. 

St. Ignatius, however, also begins 

to perceive some differences. In his 

autobiography (written in the third 

person), he writes: “When he thought 

of worldly things, it gave him great 

pleasure, but afterward he found himself 

dry and sad. But when he thought 

of journeying to Jerusalem, and of 

living only on herbs and practicing 

austerities, he found pleasure not only 

while thinking of them, but also when 

he had ceased.” 

There is a history that precedes one 

who discerns. Because discernment 

is not a sort of oracle or fatalism, or 

something from a laboratory, like 

casting one’s lot on two possibilities. 

The great questions arise when we 

have already traveled a stretch of the 

road in life, and it is to that journey we 

must return to understand what we are 

looking for. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola had his first 

experience of God by listening to 

his own heart, which presented him 

with a curious reversal: things that 

were attractive at first sight left him 

disillusioned, whereas in others, less 

dazzling, he found lasting peace. We 

too have this experience; very often 

we begin to think about something, 

and we stay there, and then we end 

up disappointed. Instead, if we … do 

something good and feel something 

of happiness, it is an experience that is 

entirely our own. 

This is what we must learn: to know 

what is happening, what decision 

to make, to make a judgment on a 

situation, one must listen to one’s own 

heart. 

Another important aspect of discernment 

is the apparent randomness in 

the events of life: everything seems to 

arise from a banal mishap. 

God works through unplannable 

events that happen by chance, but by 

chance this happened to me, and by 

chance I met this person, by chance 

I saw this film. It was not planned 

but God works through unplannable 

events, and also through mishaps. In 

a mishap, what is God saying to you? 

What is life telling you there? He who 

says to you: “But I wasn’t expecting 

this.” Is it life speaking to you, is it the 

Lord speaking to you, or is it the devil? 

Discernment is the aid in recognizing 

the signals with which the Lord makes 

himself known in unexpected, even 

unpleasant situations. … May the 

Lord help us to hear our hearts and see 

when it is he who acts and when it is 

not, and it is something else. 

Papal Prayer Intention for September: We pray that the 

death penalty, which attacks the dignity of the human 

person, may be legally abolished in every country. 

2 • ANGELUS • September 23, 2022

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

Why read the Catechism? 

Thirty years ago, on Oct. 11, 

1992, the Catechism of the 

Catholic Church was published. 

If the catechism is just a book on the 

shelf, take it down and open it up. 

You will be surprised. 

The Church’s doctrines, teachings, 

all the norms of our faith, are presented 

clearly and with authority. But 

this is much more than a collection 

of rules. 

In these pages, you hear the voices 

of the Church down through the 

ages — prophets, apostles, Church 

Fathers, saints, popes, and Church 

councils. You hear echoes from ancient 

prayers and liturgies. 

The Church’s teachings are like a 

symphony, St. Pope John Paul II liked 

to say. Each teaching is essential to 

the whole, united in a single revelation 

from God about who he is, and 

who he created us to be. 

What we believe is intended to lead 

us to follow and worship the One we 

believe in, and to make his teaching 

the way and the truth for our lives. 

At the heart of the catechism is Jesus 

Christ. 

“It is Christ alone who teaches,” 

we read. “Anyone else teaches to the 

extent that he is Christ’s spokesman, 

enabling Christ to teach with his lips” 

(CCC 427). 

These are words that should be 

prayed and reflected on every day by 

every teacher and catechist. 

Every paragraph in the catechism is 

filled with citations and words from 

Scripture. 

If you read this book with your 

Bible, looking up the context for 

these citations, if you follow the many 

cross-references found in almost every 

paragraph, the catechism becomes 

spiritual reading. 

You are swept up in the mystery of 

salvation history: “From the liturgical 

poem of the first creation to the canticles 

of the heavenly Jerusalem, the 

inspired authors proclaim the plan of 

salvation as one vast divine blessing” 

(CCC 1079). 

There are beautiful summaries of 

the meaning of our lives: “God put us 

in the world to know, to love and to 

serve him, and so to come to paradise” 

(CCC 1721). 

Another: “The vocation of humanity 

is to show forth the image of God and 

to be transformed into the image of 

the Father’s only Son” (CCC 1877). 

This is one of the most powerful 

sentences in the catechism. It is interesting 

that it begins a section on “the 

human community.” 

The catechism reminds us that 

God’s plan, and the Church’s mission, 

are not only for the salvation 

of souls. The Gospel speaks to every 

aspect of human life, including the 

way we organize our economy and 

government. 

The catechism’s sections on society’s 

purpose (CCC 1877–1948) and 

what makes for social justice (CCC 

2419–2449) help us to understand 

that a deeper spiritual meaning underlies 

the events in our world. 

The catechism is a rich source of 

wisdom and practical advice. 

You can learn how to develop the 

habits of virtue, and get personal 

spiritual direction from a fourth-century 

saint, Gregory of Nyssa: “The 

goal of the virtuous life is to become 

like God” (CCC 1803). 

There are “mission statements” 

and “marching orders” for moms 

and dads: “Parents have the first 

responsibility for the education of 

their children. They bear witness to 

this responsibility first by creating a 

home where tenderness, forgiveness, 

respect, fidelity, and disinterested 

service are the rule” (CCC 2223). 

If you are a priest preparing a 

homily, you can gain insights on the 

Gospel by looking up how the text is 

used in the catechism. You’ll find references 

to almost every chapter and 

verse of the Gospels in the index. 

And the catechism’s inspiring section 

on holy orders concludes with 

two beautiful quotes from saints that 

will remind you why you fell in love 

with Jesus and became a priest in the 

first place (CCC 1589). 

The final section of the catechism 

is a masterpiece of spiritual writing 

about how to pray. 

Read the section on the passage 

of the Lord’s prayer, “Give us this 

day our daily bread.” It should be 

a powerful inspiration in this time 

of the Eucharistic Revival (CCC 

2828–2837). 

And St. Justin Martyr’s long description 

of how the Mass was celebrated 

in the year A.D. 155 will help you 

understand why we call it “the Mass 

of all ages” (CCC 1345). 

For me, the catechism is a great 

witness to our hope in Jesus Christ. 

“Hope, O my soul, hope,” we hear 

from St. Teresa of Ávila. “The more 

you prove the love that you bear your 

God, the more you will rejoice one 

day with your Beloved, in a happiness 

that can never end” (CCC 1821). 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And may our Blessed Mother Mary 

help all of us in the Church to 

remember that “the whole concern 

of doctrine and its teaching must be 

directed to the love that never ends” 

(CCC 25). 

On 

ken 

mo 


WORLD 

■ Pope announces restructuring of Order of Malta 

In an unprecedented papal decree, Pope Francis issued a broad restructuring 

of the Sovereign Order of Malta to conclude as a result of a five-year renewal 

process. 

The pope replaced the order’s governing Sovereign Council with a provisional 

council, appointed four new high officeholders, and called for the election of a 

new grandmaster next January. The pope’s changes bypassed the order’s internal 

gridlock that have stalled reform measures since 2017. 

The Order of Malta is a lay religious order founded in 11th-century Jerusalem 

that conducts humanitarian and charity work around the world. Despite not 

having a physical territory, it is a sovereign state with diplomatic relationships with 

more than 100 countries. 

Some have criticized the decree for infringing on the order’s sovereignty. But as 

a religious order, the pope stated in his decree, the Knights of Malta are dependent 

upon the Holy See and their sovereignty is “intimately connected” to that 

relationship. 

The head of the provisional Sovereign Council, Canadian Fra’ John T. Dunlap, 

said the order welcomed the pope’s “paternal actions,” saying the pope’s decree 

determines “a path forward that promises to ensure the order's future, both as a 

religious institute and a sovereign entity.” 

■ American sister released in Burkina Faso 

Sister Suellen Tennyson, a missionary ministering in Burkina Faso, was recovered 

safely after five months in captivity, her community confirmed on Aug. 30. 

“She is safe,” Sister Ann Lavour, congregational leader of the Marianites of Holy 

Cross, told the Clarion Herald, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. 

“We have spoken to her. She eventually will get back to the United States.” 

Sister Tennyson was abducted — reportedly without shoes, glasses, or blood pressure 

medication — by unidentified armed men who invaded the home of three 

Marianite sisters on April 5. Sister Tennyson was the sole member of her community 

abducted in the attack. 

A former international leader of her congregation, Sister Tennyson moved to a 

missionary outpost in the country in 2011. 

Led by Our Lady — Religious sisters of the Missionaries of Charity take part in the annual procession of Our 

Lady of Charity — the patron saint of Cuba — in Havana on Sept. 8. | CNS/ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI, REUTERS 

Therese Coffey in 2017. | UK PARLIAMENT 

■ United Kingdom: 

Catholic health secretary 

defends pro-life record 

A Catholic member of the U.K. 

Parliament took heat for her pro-life 

views after being appointed deputy 

prime minister and secretary of state 

for health. 

Before accepting her nomination 

by new Prime Minister Liz Truss on 

Sept. 6, Therese Coffey had voted 

against making at-home abortion 

pills permanently available. She has 

also voted against assisted suicide and 

liberalizing the abortion laws. 

“To have a health secretary who 

would place their personal beliefs 

above expert clinical guidance is 

deeply concerning,” Clare Murphy, 

chief executive of the British Pregnancy 

Advisory Service, told the BBC. 

Coffey told Sky News Sept. 7 that 

she was “not seeking to undo any 

aspects of abortion law,” because they 

had already been decided by Parliament. 

“I’m a great believer in live and 

let live, and not condemning other 

people for choices they make or for 

approaches they take,” Coffey said in 

an interview last year. 


NATION 

■ Catholic Charities 

helping families, 

distributing water 

in Jackson 

Catholic Charities is working with 

federal officials to distribute drinking 

water to residents affected by Jackson, 

Mississippi’s failing water system. 

The city’s local water plant has struggled 

to deliver clean, safe water for 

years, and the recent flooding of the 

nearby Pearl River has made the crisis 

worse. In response, Catholic Charities 

has been helping displaced families 

and is offering its Jackson office to 

become a water bottle distribution 

center. 

Since President Joe Biden declared 

an emergency for the city on Aug. 31, 

the Catholic agency has been working 

with state and federal officials, including 

the National Guard. 

“We pray for long-term solutions to 

this problem, and a swift response to 

get water flowing back into all Jackson 

homes and businesses,” said Bishop 

Joseph Kopacz of Jackson on Sept. 1. 

Support from the Midwestern homefront — Parents, children, and supporters of the Ukrainian Catholic community 

gathered Aug. 23 at St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Warren, Michigan, during a prayer vigil to 

commemorate six months of the Russian-Ukrainian War and the 31st anniversary of Ukrainian independence. 

An anonymous donor pledged $50,000 in matching funds to support refugee students attending a nearby local 

Ukrainian Catholic school after reading a news story in the Archdiocese of Detroit’s newspaper, Detroit Catholic. 

| CNS/DANIEL MELOY, DETROIT CATHOLIC 

■ Indiana court sides with 

Catholic school over firing 

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld a Catholic school’s 

decision to fire a teacher in a same-sex marriage in an Aug. 

31 ruling. 

“[The] Constitution encompasses the right of religious 

institutions to decide for themselves, free from state interference, 

in matters of church government as well as those of 

faith and doctrine,” the court’s 4-0 decision, written by Judge 

Geoffry G. Slaughter, read. 

In 2019, Cathedral High School fired Joshua Payne-Elliott, 

a social studies and world languages teacher, after the Archdiocese 

of Indianapolis announced a policy that mandated 

all Catholic schools enforce a morality clause that barred 

employees in same-sex marriages. 

Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson has argued 

that as “ministers of the Church,” archdiocesan employees 

— including teachers — “are bound to live out” Catholic 

principles. 

The archdiocese has since stripped Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory 

School of its Catholic status for refusing to fire 

Payne-Elliott’s partner, Layton Payne-Elliott, who they 

employ. A canonical suit against the archdiocese’s decision is 

still awaiting a decision from the Vatican. 

■ Concern about anti-Catholic 

discrimination in Connecticut 

A video of an elementary school faculty member from 

Greenwich, Connecticut, has caused statewide investigations 

into hiring practices purported to discriminate against 

Catholics. 

Jeremy Boland, assistant principal at Cos Cob Elementary 

School, was secretly recorded by an unidentified reporter 

from Project Veritas. In the recording, Boland said he 

would not hire Catholics, conservatives, or older applicants. 

“Because if someone is raised hardcore Catholic, it’s like 

they’re brainwashed,” he said. “You can never change their 

mindset.” 

Boland was quickly placed on leave after the revelations, 

which drew swift criticism from a range of figures, including 

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont. The local school 

board, the state Department of Education, and the state 

attorney general’s office all announced investigations into 

Boland. 

Christopher Healy, executive director of the Connecticut 

Catholic Conference, called the remarks “extremely disturbing,” 

saying they “should be treated as a serious breach 

of the public trust and state laws.” 


LOCAL 

The pilgrim image of Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos at Our Lady of the Rosary 

Church in Paramount. | SUBMITTED PHOTO 

■ Marian image from 

Mexico returns to LA 

The pilgrim image of Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos 

made its first stop in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at Our 

Lady of the Rosary Church in Paramount on Sept. 9-12. 

The Marian image comes from the shrine of San Juan de 

Los Lagos in Jalisco, Mexico, which draws some 6 million 

visitors each year. This year marks its first time back in LA 

since 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The image will be in LA through Oct. 2, making stops at 

Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights, St. Francis Xavier 

Church in Pico Rivera, and San Francisco Church in East 

LA. 

For more details and a full schedule, visit AngelusNews. 

com/OurLadyofSanJuan2022. 

■ Hannon Foundation announces 

grants to Catholic schools 

Several Catholic schools and organizations are among the 

recipients of grants awarded by the William H. Hannon 

Foundation this year. 

The foundation, which has supported educational programs 

and Catholic schools since its founding nearly 40 

years ago, announced more than $218,000 in grants to help 

17 education institutes and organizations in the LA area, 

and will help fund art programs, retreats, and scholarships. 

“It is a gift to be able to impact the lives of California’s 

youth with these grants,” said President Kathleen Hannon 

Aikenhead. “We hope these grants enable young people to 

better afford school and take advantage of programs outside 

the classroom.” 

One of the grant recipients, St. Genevieve School in Panorama 

City, is receiving $50,000 to build new science labs. 

Other recipients include St. Raphael School in South LA, 

the Catholic Education Foundation of Los Angeles, and 

Dolores Mission School in East LA. 

■ Historic farmworker march 

gets bishops’ blessing 

California farmworkers completed a 335-mile march from 

the town of Delano to Sacramento this summer, urging 

Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill to allow them to choose 

how they vote in union elections. 

Thousands arrived in Sacramento Aug. 26 to conclude 

the 23-day march. Bishop Joseph Brennan of Fresno blessed 

the marchers and joined a portion of the march through 

the San Joaquin Valley, which was organized by the United 

Farm Workers. 

The bill would allow workers to vote via mail-in ballot, a 

measure that would let them vote without fear of retaliation 

from performance supervisors or farm owners, supporters 

say. 

The California Conference of Catholic Bishops has also 

said it “strongly supports” the bill and last month urged 

Gov. Newsom to sign it “with haste.” 

Bishop Gerald Wilkerson. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

■ Bishop Wilkerson named interim 

vicar for San Fernando Region 

Bishop Gerald Wilkerson will serve as interim episcopal 

vicar for the San Fernando Pastoral Region, Archbishop José 

H. Gomez announced on Sept. 8. 

The appointment comes as the region’s auxiliary bishop, 

Alex D. Aclan, remains under the care of doctors after suffering 

a stroke last month. 

The 82-year old bishop is no stranger to the job: he served 

as the region’s auxiliary bishop from 1998 until his retirement 

in 2015. As episcopal vicar, Bishop Wilkerson will 

oversee the region’s administrative duties on a temporary 

basis. He told Angelus his priority is to be present to the region’s 

people, including its priests, and help carry out Bishop 

Aclan’s pastoral vision while he recovers. 

“I would like to continue to do his work, so that when he 

comes back he’ll be able to step right back without missing a 

beat,” said Bishop Wilkerson. 

Y 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

A call to fewer arms 

I often disagree with Father Ron Rolheiser’s columns, but I thought 

“Disarmed and Dangerous,” in the Sept. 9 issue, was exceptionally good. 

I feel strongly that it isn’t compatible with Christianity to carry weapons. I’m not 

even sure that it’s suitable for Christians to fight in wars, even with “just war” theory. 

I realize this is a difficult problem, and there is no perfect answer. 

I am horrified that a couple of my friends own guns. I’m more horrified at the 

number of self-righteous people stocking assault weapons, with the intent of taking 

over the government. The worst are those who still insist that the “right to bear 

arms” means that every nutcase, every emotionally volatile teenager who wants 

to own a deadly weapon has the right to do so. It’s not very likely the Founding 

Fathers of this country would have foreseen such madness. 

— Marilyn Boussaid, St. James Church, Redondo Beach 

Even Giants fans can appreciate Vin’s faith 

I appreciated the wonderful cover story on the life and Catholic faith of Vin 

Scully in the Aug. 26 issue. 

I live with about 70 other Jesuits from around the western U.S. at the Sacred 

Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, in the Bay Area. Obviously, many 

of us are San Francisco Giants fans (there are some Dodgers fans, too). Tom Hoffarth’s 

article was truly magnificent and brought him to life. We truly enjoyed it. 

Bravo on a job very well done, and many blessings to you and your work. 

— Carlos A. Sevilla, S.J., bishop emeritus of Yakima, Los Gatos 

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 new start in San Gabriel 

“It’s hard to even speak of 

Thea in the past tense.” 

~ Father Maurice Nutt, associate producer and 

biographer of Sister Thea Bowman, subject of the 

new biography “Going Home Like a Shooting Star: 

Thea Bowman's Journey to Sainthood.” 

“We should be caring for 

people, not killing them.” 

~ Anthony Horan, director of Scotland’s Catholic 

Parliamentary Office, criticizing an assisted suicide 

bill being considered by the Scottish Parliament. 

“Unlimited access to 

pornography on the internet 

is causing a public health 

crisis for our children.” 

~ Laurie Schlegel, legislator in the Louisiana 

House of Representatives, in a Sept. 5 American 

Conservative article “Big Tech or Little Kids?” 

“Elizabeth II, more than 

any other monarch, 

has embodied the title 

‘defender of the faith.’ ” 

~ British religious historian Catherine Pepinster in 

the National Catholic Reporter Sept. 8 on how the 

late monarch made the U.K. “more tolerant of all 

Christian denominations.” 

Volunteers prepare the altar at San Gabriel Mission during the Sept. 10 “Forward in Mission” jubilee closing Mass. The 

Mass was the first to be held in the restored church since a July 2020 arson fire nearly destroyed it. | 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. 

“Health care professionals 

shouldn’t have to live in fear 

of government punishment 

when they’re living 

according to their beliefs.” 

~ Kevin Theriot, senior counsel for the faith-based 

legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom 

(ADF), who defended California doctors with faith 

objections to the state’s End of Life Option Act. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronaldrolheiser.com. 

The Magnificat 

A 

wise old Augustinian priest once 

shared this in class. There are 

days in my life when everything 

from the pressures of my work, to tiredness, 

to depression, to distraction, to 

flat-out laziness make it difficult for me 

to pray. But, no matter what, I always 

try to pray at least one sincere, focused 

Our Father every day. 

In the Gospels, Jesus leaves us the 

Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. This 

is the most precious of all Christian 

prayers. However, the Gospels also 

leave us another precious Christian 

prayer, one that is not nearly as well 

known or practiced as is the Lord’s 

Prayer. This is the prayer the Gospels 

place inside the mouth of Mary, the 

mother of Jesus. Known as the Magnificat 

it is, for me, the most precious 

Christian prayer we have after the 

Lord’s Prayer. 

The Gospel of Luke paints the scene. 

Mary, pregnant with Jesus, goes to visit 

her cousin, Elizabeth, who is pregnant 

with John the Baptist. Traditionally 

we call this “The Visitation” and what 

transpires between these two women is 

much more than what first meets the 

eye. This is no simple gender-reveal 

party. 

Written more than 80 years after the 

event itself took place, it is a post-Resurrection 

reflection on the world-altering 

significance of what each of these 

women was carrying in her womb. As 

well, the words that they speak to each 

other also speak of a post-Resurrection 

reality. It is in this context that the 

Gospels have Mary speak the words of 

the Magnificat. What are those words? 

They are words that thank and praise 

God for having taken the side of the 

poor, the humble, the hungry, and the 

oppressed in this world, having lifted 

them up and given them victory, even 

as he toppled the powerful off their 

thrones and humbled them. However, 

her prayer puts this all into the past 

tense, as if it was already an accomplished 

fact, already a reality in our 

world. 

However, as the cartoon character, 

Ziggy, once reminded God in a prayer, 

“The poor are still getting clobbered 

down here!” For the large part, this 

seems so. Looking at our world, we see 

that the gap between rich and poor 

is widening, hundreds of millions of 

people go to bed hungry every night, 

corruption and crime are everywhere, 

and the powerful seemingly can simply 

take whatever they want without 

repercussions. 

We have nearly 100 million refugees 

on our borders around the world, and 

women and children are still victims 

of violence of all kinds everywhere. 

Worse still, it would seem things are 

getting worse, not better. So where do 

we see that “God has hast cast down 

the mighty from their thrones, lifted 

up the lowly, filled the hungry with 

good things, and sent the rich away 

empty?” 

We see it in the resurrection of Jesus 

and the vision of hope given us in 

that reality. What Mary affirms in the 

Magnificat is a deep truth we can only 

grasp in the faith and hope, namely, 

that even though at present injustice, 

corruption, and exploitation of the 

poor seem to reign, there will be a 

last day when that oppressive stone 

will roll back from the tomb and the 

powerful will topple. The Magnificat is 

the ultimate prayer of hope — and the 

ultimate prayer for the poor. 

Maybe it is my age, maybe it is the 

discouragement I feel most evenings 

as I watch the news, or maybe it is 

both, but, as I grow older, two prayers 

(outside of the Eucharist) are most 

precious to me, the Lord’s Prayer and 

the Magnificat. Like my old Augustinian 

mentor, I now make sure no 

day goes by where pressure, tiredness, 

distraction, or laziness keep me from 

praying at least two prayers with focus 

and attention, the Our Father and the 

Magnificat. 

That hasn’t always been the case. 

For years, I looked at the Magnificat 

and saw there only the exultation of 

the Mary of piety, all the litanies and 

praises of Mary bunched into one. Not 

that there is anything wrong with that 

since the Mary of piety is someone 

to whom millions upon millions, not 

least the poor, turn to in need, seeking 

the guidance, comfort, and sympathy 

of a mother. Few would argue against 

the goodness of this since it constitutes 

a rich mysticism of the poor, and of the 

poor in spirit. 

However, the Magnificat is not so 

much about Mary’s personal exultation 

as it is about the exaltation of the poor. 

In this prayer, she gives voice to how 

God ultimately responds to the powerlessness 

and oppression of the poor. 

Father Henri Nouwen once wrote that 

watching the evening news and seeing 

the suffering in our world can leave 

us feeling depressed and powerless; 

depressed because of the injustice we 

see, powerless because it seems there is 

nothing we can do about it. 

What can we do about it? We can 

pray the Magnificat each day giving 

voice to how God ultimately responds 

to the powerlessness of the poor. 


MORE THAN TEACHING 

What exactly do 

Catholics believe 

in? Thirty years ago, 

the Church gave an 

answer that deserves 

another look. 

BY RUSSELL SHAW 

Dorothy Day put her finger on 

the problem. The co-founder 

of the Catholic Worker Movement, 

whose orthodox faith existed 

side by side with radical social views, 

said she didn’t want to be called a saint 

because then people would stop paying 

attention to what she said. (It’s hard to 

tell what Day would say now, when her 

canonization cause is underway and 

she has the title Servant of God.) 

Obviously, the situation is very 

different with the Catechism of the 

Catholic Church — not a person but 

a book, and therefore not a candidate 

for sainthood. Yet 30 years after it was 

published, the catechism may be at risk 

of becoming the literary equivalent of 

a saint — an object of respect and veneration 

that holds an esteemed place in 

the Church but doesn’t receive nearly 

the attention it deserves from many of 

the faithful. 

If that is so, it’s a great loss, although 

not so much for the catechism as for 

the people who don’t read it. In three 

decades this volume has aged remarkably 

well, and, though not exactly what 

you’d call a good read, is a book that, 

read slowly and thoughtfully, is capable 

of engaging attention, uplifting minds, 

and now and then even warming hearts 

— perennially timely precisely because 

of its timelessness. 

“This catechism is conceived as an 

organic presentation of the Catholic 

faith in its entirety,” the text boldly 

announces at the start. Today, just like 

30 years ago, that is a dauntingly ambitious 

goal that it succeeds remarkably 

well in reaching. 

Here some history is in order. 

In January 1985, St. Pope John Paul 

II convened an “extraordinary general 

assembly” of the World Synod of Bishops 

to discuss successes and failures 

in implementing the Second Vatican 

Council in the preceding two decades 

since it ended. Well up among the 

CNS/USCCB 

problems of those times was the rise of 

public dissent — and, with it, public 

confusion — in regard to the teaching 

of the Church. 

Now, 400 years after the Catechism of 

the Council of Trent, wasn’t the time 

ripe for a new universal catechism that 


would set out Catholic doctrine in 

light of Vatican II as its predecessor had 

done after Trent? 

The synod’s answer was a resounding 

yes. The pope readily agreed. Conceptually, 

at least, the Catechism of the 

Catholic Church had been born. 

A commission of 12 cardinals chaired 

by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect 

of the Congregation for the Doctrine 

of the Faith, was established to draft the 

text, assisted by a committee of seven 

diocesan bishops. Looking back many 

years later, Cardinal Ratzinger — now 

known to the world as Pope Benedict 

XVI — called it “a miracle … that this 

project was ultimately successful.” 

One obvious reason for his surprise 

was the sheer magnitude of the project. 

The synod participants had asked 

for “a catechism or compendium of 

all Catholic doctrine regarding both 

faith and morals” to serve as a point of 

reference for national catechisms. The 

presentation of doctrine, they said, had 

to be “biblical and liturgical” as well 

as “suited to the present life of Christians.” 

That would have been asking a lot 

in the best of circumstances, and the 

circumstances surrounding the writing 

of the catechism were far from best. In 

fact, not everyone welcomed the idea 

of a universal catechism, especially 

those who found doctrinal dissent and 

confusion congenial to their purposes 

and were happy to have it continue. 

Looked at from that perspective, an 

authorized text setting out the faith of 

the Church in black and white would 

only get in the way. 

Despite the opposition, however, 

over the next seven years Cardinal 

Ratzinger’s “miracle” moved steadily 

ahead. Written in French, nine separate 

drafts were prepared. The commission 

of cardinals sent a preliminary 

text to the world’s bishops seeking their 

comments, and soon the responses 

were pouring in. While reaction to 

the text was generally positive, 24,000 

separate comments arrived proposing 

additions, subtractions, and changes. 

The approved text was finally published 

on Oct. 11, 1992 — significantly, 

the 30th anniversary of the opening 

of Vatican Council II — together with 

an “apostolic constitution” by Pope 

John Paul titled “Fidei Depositum” 

(“The Deposit of Faith”). 

Just as St. Pope John XXIII had 

convened the council with the aim 

of safeguarding the body of doctrine 

entrusted to the Church and making 

it more accessible, so also, Pope John 

Paul said, the Catechism of the Catholic 

Church now stood as “a sure norm 

for teaching the faith and thus a valid 

and legitimate instrument for ecclesial 

communion.” 

Citing the first letter of St. Peter, the 

pope said the catechism was intended 

for the Church’s pastors in their capacity 

as teachers, for lay Catholics seeking 

to deepen their faith, and for anyone 

looking for “an account of the hope 

that is in us … who wants to know 

what the Catholic Church believes.” 

Adopting the same structure as the 

Catechism of the Council of Trent, 

the text organizes its 2,865 numbered 

paragraphs in four major sections 

(“pillars”): the creed, the liturgy and 

sacraments, the Christian way of life 

considered according to the order of 

the Ten Commandments, and prayer 

discussed in reference to the petitions 

of the Our Father. 

In presenting the catechism, Pope 

John Paul 

St. Pope John Paul II 

tasked Cardinal Joseph 

Ratzinger, the future 

Pope Benedict XVI, with 

overseeing the drafting of 

the catechism during the 

1980s. Pope Benedict later 

called the completion 

of the seven-year process 

a “miracle.” | CNS/ 

CATHOLIC PRESS 

emphasized 

the Christ-centered 

nature of 

this structure: 

“Having died and 

risen, Christ is 

always present 

in his Church, 

especially in the 

sacraments; he is 

the source of our 

faith, the model 

of Christian 

conduct, and the 

teacher of our prayer.” 

While doctrinal formulations are 

the heart of the catechism, the text 

includes a lot else besides. One of the 

features of the catechism is its extensive 

use of material drawn from sources that 

include the Old and New Testaments, 

the Fathers and doctors of the Church, 

ecumenical councils, papal documents, 

and canon law. In this way the 

reader comes in touch with the lived 

faith as it has been transmitted over the 

centuries and expressed by persons as 

diverse as St. Augustine and St. Thomas 

Aquinas, St. Teresa of Ávila and St. 

Thérèse of Lisieux. 

But for readers who don’t want quite 

so many words, the Vatican in 2005 

published a Compendium of the 

Catechism of the Catholic Church 

described by Pope Benedict XVI as 

a “faithful and sure synthesis” of the 

older, longer work. Organized on the 

same plan as the catechism, he said, it 

states the elements of Catholic belief 


more briefly with the aim of making 

the catechism “more widely known 

and more deeply understood.” 

The fourth section of the catechism, 

a treatment of prayer based on the Our 

Father, concludes with a prayer by the 

fourth-century doctor of the church St. 

Cyril of Jerusalem. 

Thirty years later, the great doctor’s 

words provide a fitting conclusion to 

this remarkable work: “Then, after the 

prayer is over you say ‘Amen,’ which 

means ‘So be it,’ thus ratifying with our 

‘Amen’ what is contained in the prayer 

that God has taught us.” 

The interior of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. | SHUTTERSTOCK 

Russell Shaw is a writer from Washington, 

D.C. He is the author of more 

than 20 books, and previously served as 

secretary for public affairs of the National 

Conference of Catholic Bishops/ 

United States Catholic Conference 

from 1969 to 1987. 

True religion by the book 

comes from a Greek word meaning “instruction,” and 

such religious education has always been part of the Church’s life. 

“Catechism” 

St. Luke wrote his Gospel so “that you may know the truth concerning 

the things about which you have been instructed (katēchēthēs)” (Luke 1:4). 

In the early Church most teaching was done out loud. There was no way to 

mass-produce books, and most people could not read anyway. Possession of 

Christian books was, moreover, a crime punishable by death. 

Toward the end of the Roman Persecution (around A.D. 305), an African 

Christian named Lactantius composed the first summary exposition of Christian 

doctrine in his Divine Institutes. 

Not until the fourth century, when the faith was legalized, did the first true catechism 

appear. It was the Great Catechism composed by St. Gregory of Nyssa 

around A.D. 385. It was intended for instructors, and it served the purpose of a 

modern curriculum. 

In the Middle Ages, similar books emerged, usually built around the Apostle’s 

Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and other numbered lists 

Icon of St. Gregory of Nyssa. | SHUTTERSTOCK 

(works of mercy, deadly sins, virtues, sacraments, etc.). 

With the invention of the printing press, around 1440, mass literacy — and 

mass instruction — became possible for the first time. There was great demand for religious books. 

In the 1500s, with the Reformation, came the need to define true religion from false. In 1529, Martin Luther defined 

his religion against the Catholic Church’s doctrine, and he published his tenets in simple form in his bestselling Small 

Catechism. 

Catholics soon countered Luther’s claims in their own catechisms. St. Peter Canisius produced one in 1555, and the 

Council of Trent promulgated the Roman Catechism in 1566. 

The centuries that followed brought an explosion of literacy — and an explosion of catechisms. In 1885 the Baltimore 

Catechism first appeared in the United States, and it ushered in an unprecedented period of religious literacy in the 

Church. In England, the Penny Catechism had a similar effect. 

— Mike Aquilina 


The Sept. 10 jubilee year closing Mass with Archbishop Gomez was the first liturgy celebrated inside Mission San Gabriel in more than two years. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

The mission continues 

Mission San Gabriel closed a historic jubilee year — and opened a 

restored church — with a tribute to its past and prayers for its future. 

BY PABLO KAY & NATALIE ROMANO 

Two years ago, Mission San 

Gabriel Arcángel was hit with 

what pastor Father John Molyneux, 

CMF, calls “a double punch”: 

First, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic 

in early 2020 that kept faithful 

away from the sacraments — and 

one another — for months; then, a 

mysterious fire that gutted the mission 

church, Christianity’s oldest outpost 

in what is now the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles. 

But on Sept. 10, providence answered 

back with a double punch of 

its own: an animated conclusion to 

a special jubilee year celebrating the 

mission’s 250 years, and a reopening 

(of sorts) of the restored church, a 

gleaming tribute to the mission’s rich 

artistic legacy with an assist from stateof-the-art 

technology. 

“I never thought it would look that 

good,” said Father Molyneux after 

the “Forward in Mission” Jubilee 

Year closing Mass celebrated by Los 

Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez. 

“It was a big relief.” 

It had taken $6.7 million and more 

than two years of research and labor to 

get to this moment. For those involved, 

it was more than just a job. 

“Everyone on the team is so invested 

… and has put their heartfelt emotion 

into it,” said Terri Huerta, director of 

Mission Development and Communications, 

days before the Mass. “We 

really brought back the humility of 

what is Mission San Gabriel and its 

beginnings. … I hope the public can 

see it, feel it.” 

The public got its first opportunity 

to do so on a muggy Saturday morning 

in San Gabriel, at the tail end of 

a rare September rainstorm hitting 

Southern California. 


Before the Mass, Archbishop Gomez 

led a brief prayer ceremony outside 

the Chapel of the Annunciation next 

to the mission church. Members of 

the Gabrieleño San Gabriel Band of 

Mission Indians burned sage, honoring 

their ancestors who built the 

mission and are buried on its grounds 

with songs of healing and remembrance. 

After Archbishop Gomez closed the 

chapel’s jubilee Holy Door, priests, 

religious sisters, San Gabriel parishioners, 

and visitors from around the 

archdiocese followed him into the 

restored church for Mass. An overflow 

crowd followed the trilingual liturgy 

(English, Spanish, and Vietnamese) 

via livestream in the Chapel of the 

Annunciation. 

In his homily, Archbishop Gomez 

reminded them that the mission was 

“where the faith began in Southern 

California,” and that “we walk now 

in the company of a great cloud of 

witnesses. Angels and saints, our 

ancestors and loved ones, in heaven 

and on earth.” 

“Today, we especially ask St. Junípero 

Serra, and we ask the first peoples who 

built this mission to pray for us, to give 

us the strength to continue the work 

they started,” he said. 

The damage from the four-alarm 

fire back in July 2020 was extensive; 

it ravaged the 230-year 

old roof, the ceiling, and the walls. 

The intense heat twisted steel beams 

designed to withstand earthquakes, 

while smoke and soot marred statues 

and furniture in the church and 

artifacts in the museum. The firefight 

itself caused flooding and subsequent 

damage to the baptistry and sacristy 

floors. 

Now, the renovation that started 

with the ceiling and worked its way 

down to the tiles, is nearly complete. 

The team leading the project, which 

includes Huerta, Father Molyneux, 

structural engineer Mel Green and 

archdiocesan construction consultant 

Jill Short, said the overall design was 

guided by major eras in the mission’s 

history and its primary purpose of 

inspiring faith and worship. 

“Beauty helps bring people to 

Christ,” said Short. “So when we 

were making decisions like should we 

replace the glass with just plain glass 

or should we find some beautiful glass 

to put in, I’m all about we’ve got to 

find some beautiful glass to put in … 

because beauty I think, really helps 

elevate the soul.” 

In Father Molyneux’s view, the most 

significant — and beautiful — aspect 

of the renovation was the new ceiling 

made of redwood beams left in their 

natural color. Other surfaces in the 

mission were painted with carefully 

chosen hues. Short explained that 

after the fire, bits of previous paint 

were exposed, so they sent samples to 

a lab for analysis. This gave the team 

insight on how to choose a historically 

accurate color scheme like white on 

Before the closing of the jubilee Holy Door, members of the Gabrieleño San Gabriel 

Band of Mission Indians honored their ancestors who built the mission and are 

buried on its grounds with songs of healing and remembrance. | ISABEL CACHO 


Archbishop Gomez closed the jubilee year Holy Door at the Chapel of the Annunciation, the larger, newer church on 

the mission grounds. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

But for Father Molyneux, who 

arrived in San Gabriel in 2018, the 

biggest miracle was how so many 

people came together so quickly to 

rebuild the mission in time for the 

jubilee year. 

“I’m kind of new to this mission, to 

California,” said the Claretian priest. 

“I didn’t understand before what this 

mission meant to people.” 

As his parish — like so many others 

— works to invite people back to Mass 

coming out of the pandemic, Father 

Molyneux’s hope is that “we come 

back stronger” with a renewed church 

to call home. 

So far, the mission has raised 

$400,000 in donations to its restoration 

fund. That money has covered 

the walls and sepia on the window 

sashes. 

Some of the mission’s most historical 

pieces — the pulpit, the altar, and the 

reredos (the decorative piece behind 

the altar) are still a work in progress. 

While they’ve undergone some cleaning 

and patching, the more intensive 

work can only be done in a dust-free 

environment. It will have to wait until 

all other projects are completed first. 

As a result, visiting hours and Masses 

in the mission church are not expected 

to resume until sometime around 

the end of the year. 

Prior to the fire and in preparation 

for the jubilee, the mission was 

undergoing a more modest renovation. 

That meant many paintings and 

religious artifacts were safe in storage 

when the arsonist struck. However, 

three statues of saints, including the 

mission’s namesake, were still inside. 

They sustained smoke and heat damage 

but have now been cleaned by art 

preservationists. 

When asked about any miracles 

they’d witnessed in the restoration 

process, Huerta and Father Molyneux 

both recalled the discovery of a treasured 

painting of Our Lady of Sorrows, 

discovered two months into the fire 

cleanup on her feast day no less, with 

burn holes and blistering. 

“She’s fully restored,” said Huerta 

with a smile. “She looks more beautiful 

now than she did before the fire.” 

The mission's restoration team was so impressed by the color of the redwood beams in 

the mission's new ceiling that they decided not to paint over the wood. | SIMON KIM 


Concelebrating the closing Mass were Auxiliary Bishops David O'Connell and Marc Trudeau, as well as more than a dozen priests. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

upgrades that insurance would not. 

They include better lighting, hearing 

aids for visitors, and an enhanced 

security system. 

The fact that this was the first Mass 

for the mission and the last Mass 

of the jubilee, whose festivities 

were delayed a year because of the 

COVID-19 pandemic, was not lost 

on Short. “God’s timing is always 

perfect,” said Short. “We might not always 

understand it, but he reveals his 

truth in time. I think this is another 

beautiful example of that.” 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 

Natalie Romano is a freelance writer 

for Angelus and the Inland Catholic 

Byte, the news website of the Diocese of 

San Bernardino.

A downtown magnet to Christ 

Twenty years after its dedication, the Cathedral of 

Our Lady of the Angels feels like home. 

BY PABLO KAY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN 

For some, it’s the saint tapestries 

that hang on either side of the 

nave. For others, it’s the mausoleum 

or the Guadalupe tilma relic. 

Some say the Blessed Sacrament chapel, 

or the crypt of St. Vibiana. 

Ask the Los Angeles-area Catholics 

you know about that favorite spot, that 

go-to place they return to every time 

they visit the Cathedral of Our Lady 

of the Angels, and you can get a wide 

range of answers. But 20 years after 

it opened in 2002, parishioners and 

regular visitors will agree on one thing 

about the cathedral. 

“It’s home,” said Father Guillermo 

“Memo” Alonso, who found his 

vocation attending the cathedral as a 

teenager. “Not only to me, but I think 

anyone who comes here, regardless of 

where they come from or who they are, 

can get that sense, that feeling that this 

is their home as well.” 

On Friday, Sept. 2, the 27-year-old 

priest was among the several hundred 

people celebrating the milestone 

anniversary of the cathedral’s dedication 

at a noon Mass with Archbishop 

José H. Gomez. In the crowd were 

parishioners, benefactors, and clergy 

who have served at the cathedral, and 

even a couple of first-time visitors to 

what is now considered a downtown 

LA landmark. 

Although 

Archbishop 

Gomez was a 

young auxiliary 

bishop in 

Denver when 

the cathedral first opened its doors, 

Faithful pray during the 20th 

anniversary Mass for the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels on Friday, Sept. 2. 

he’d heard stories about the afternoon 

of Sept. 2, 2002: How thousands of 

people with tickets endured scorching 

heat outside, waiting for the cathedral’s 

doors to be officially blessed before 

they could enter for the dedication 

Mass. 

As fate would have it, this year’s anniversary 

Mass coincided with another 

historically hot day, marking the start 


of a brutal weeklong heat wave. 

“Today is the same weather, but we 

are inside!” Archbishop Gomez said to 

laughs at the start of his homily. 

But as Archbishop Gomez went on to 

note, the anniversary was an occasion 

to give thanks to those “who worked 

hard and sacrificed to help build this 

beautiful temple to the living God in 

the heart of this great city.” 

One of those “builders” was Msgr. 

Terrance Fleming, rector of St. Vibiana’s 

Cathedral when the Northridge 

Earthquake heavily damaged it in 

1994. When then-Archbishop Cardinal 

Roger Mahony began to explore 

options for a replacement, he tasked 

Msgr. Fleming with helping find a 

location for a new cathedral — and an 

architect to build it. 

Msgr. Fleming likes to describe the 

“miracles” that followed: how a surplus 

lot owned by the county across the 

101 Freeway from LA’s historic center 

became available, and how just 90 days 

later the archdiocese owned it. 

“There was some kind of impulse 

to just snap it up,” recalled Msgr. 

Fleming, currently the episcopal vicar 

for the Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral 

Region, where the cathedral is located. 

Then there was the “fascinating” 

process that led to the selection of 

Spanish architect Rafael Moneo to 

build the cathedral. Naturally, none of 

the candidates considered had built a 

cathedral before. But Msgr. Fleming 

believes Moneo “got the feel of Los 

Angeles,” drawing on history to build 

“the first mission of the 21st century” 

in California, using adobe for the 

concrete and including a cemetery 

(the mausoleum), a garden, and even 

a stable (“we call it a garage,” quipped 

Msgr. Fleming). 

The dedication Mass was, in Msgr. 

Fleming’s memory, not just on the hottest 

day of the summer, but also “the 

hottest ticket in town”: Benefactors, 

clergy, religious, and only a couple 

representatives from each parish in the 

archdiocese were among those who 

made the list. Msgr. Fleming remembered 

the requests from friends and 

even brother priests “who wanted to 

bring their mothers.” 

“If I had sold tickets, I’d be a millionaire 

today,” joked Msgr. Fleming, who 

was vicar general of the archdiocese at 

the time. 

At the time of its dedication, Cardinal 

Mahony famously envisioned the 

cathedral as an ongoing project, one 

that would grow under the leadership 

of his successors. In the 20 years since, 

additions have included a Marian tapestry 

behind the altar; chapels to Our 

Lady of Guadalupe, St. Pope John Paul 

II, and Mother Teresa; and a popular 

bronze statue of St. Joseph and the 

Christ Child. 

Cathedral parishioner Maria Elena 

Catalan remembered being impressed 

by the cathedral for the first time during 

a trip from her native Philippines 

nearly 20 years ago. She later emigrated 

to Vancouver, Canada, and eventually 

ended up in Los Angeles three 

years ago. Since then, she has made a 

point of choosing to live close to the 

cathedral, even when her job has taken 

her as far as Glendale and Gardena. 

“I’ve always preferred to come here,” 

said Catalan after the anniversary 

Mass. “There’s so much to see, so 

many places to pray or visit.” 

After 10 a.m. Sunday Mass (her 

favorite, because of the choir), Catalan 

said she’s made a habit of praying in 

the Blessed Sacrament chapel and 

lighting a candle. 

And beyond the dozens of major 

events it hosts and the thousands of 

visitors it draws every year, perhaps it is 

the experiences of people like Father 

Alonso’s that speak the most. The 

recently ordained 

priest 

and alumnus 

of nearby 

Cathedral 

High School 

remembered 

Cardinal Roger Mahony 

incenses the altar during 

the dedication Mass of the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels on Sept. 2, 2002. 

attending the first Chrism Mass at the 

new cathedral as a 7-year-old with his 

parish priest at the time. They both 

arrived late and sat in the back during 

the Mass. 

“Memo: One day you’re going to be 

altar-serving there,” he remembered 

the priest telling him. 

The prophecy was accurate, but 

perhaps fell a little short. Years later, it 

was priests serving at the cathedral who 

mentored him and helped him discern 

the priesthood. This past June, he was 

ordained a priest there. And through 

his years at St. John’s Seminary, he 

was the “cathedral seminarian.” That 

meant frequently assisting at special 

Masses on Sunday afternoons once or 

twice a month that brought faithful 

together from different parts of the 

archdiocese. 

“It’s always gonna be home,” said Father 

Alonso. “I mean, it’s my love. I’m 

truly grateful for being able to fall in 

love more with the archdiocese, seeing 

how the cathedral is a magnet that 

brings all of us together to love Christ.” 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 

September 23, 2022 • ANGELUS • 19

On the throne 

of soft power 

Both Queen Elizabeth 

II and modern popes 

illustrate the punch 

of a different kind of 

authority. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — As the world mourns 

the loss of Queen Elizabeth 

II, there’s a grand irony about 

the reaction, which carries important 

lessons for all other potentates, up 

to and including popes: The respect 

and love people felt for Elizabeth was 

almost inversely proportional to the 

amount of hard power she actually 

wielded. 

Yes, technically power in the United 

Kingdom is exercised in the name of 

Her Majesty’s government, and yes, 

technically, Elizabeth also reigned as 

the sovereign in 14 other states that 

are part of the Commonwealth of 

Nations. 

Yet as early as the Magna Carta in 

1215, the real power of the British 

monarchy has been progressively 

limited, to the point where today 

it’s almost entirely symbolic and 

ceremonial. For her 70 years on the 

throne, Elizabeth never had to make 

a controversial choice on tax policy, 

never had to decide whether or not to 

go to war, never sentenced anyone to 

prison, and never decided whether to 

join, or to exit, the European Union. 

All those choices were made by officials 

invested Queen Elizabeth II and her 

with what Harvard 

political 2015. | SHUTTERSTOCK 

husband, Prince Philip, in 

scientist Joseph 

Nye famously 

called “hard 

power,” meaning the power of the 

state to coerce compliance, while 

Elizabeth’s stock in trade was “soft 

power” — the moral authority that 

comes from representing ideals, values, 

and principles, from projecting 

personal dignity rather than realpolitik. 

It’s intriguing to compare the spontaneous 

outpouring of grief at the death 

of Elizabeth to the somewhat more 

muted reaction to the loss of former 

Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev 

10 days earlier. 

Inside Russia, Gorbachev’s reputa- 


tion is decidedly mixed, with many 

nationalists blaming him for essentially 

surrendering the Soviet empire. 

In the West, where Gorbachev’s stock 

always was higher — he even won the 

ultimate secular symbol of soft power, 

the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1990 — 

historians and politicians still give 

him mixed reviews. 

Relatively little such ambivalence 

runs through the tributes now flowing 

in for Queen Elizabeth, because 

her legacy is largely unsullied by the 

inevitably compromised, and divisive, 

application of hard power. 

Of course, this lesson also applies to 

the Vatican. 

While English monarchs had become 

largely paper tigers by the 19th 

century, popes were still wielding 

absolute authority over their own dominion 

in the Papal States. There was 

a lay administration that took care of 

the nuts and bolts, but in practice life 

in the Papal States was determined by 

what disgruntled denizens referred to 

as “government by the priests.” 

(As a footnote, it was the policy of 

the British government in the 19th 

century to support Italy’s unification 

drive, which would mean the collapse 

of the Papal States, but to do so only 

indirectly for fear of antagonizing the 

Catholic subjects of the United Kingdom. 

Including the populations of 

Ireland, Canada, Australia and Malta, 

Queen Victoria actually reigned over 

a Catholic empire far larger than the 

pope’s own.) 

All that ended on Sept. 20, 1870, 

when Republican forces under King 

Emmanuel II poured through the 

Porta Pia, one of Rome’s traditional 

gates, and seized the city. When the 

dust settled, 49 Republican soldiers 

and 19 papal troops died that day, but 

the biggest casualty was the temporal 

power of the papacy. 

Yet the truth is that the popes of the 

152 years since have never been more 

internationally relevant, or popularly 

beloved. Despite possessing no real 

hard power, St. Pope John Paul II, for 

example, still managed to tower over 

his times — certainly the late Mikhail 

Gorbachev could have attested to the 

point. 

Today, Pope Francis is a global icon 

and perhaps the world’s premier 

voice of conscience, for Catholics 

and non-Catholics alike, especially 

in defense of the poor, migrants, and 

refugees, and other marginalized 

groups. 

In 1970, on the 100th anniversary of 

the breach of Porta Pia, St. Pope Paul 

VI gave a talk marking the occasion 

in which he called the loss of the 

papacy’s hard power “providential,” 

because it freed every pope since to 

play a more universal and humanitarian 

role in global affairs. 

Indeed, a sure source of heartburn 

for any pope now is whenever they’re 

perceived to be trying to raise the 

ghosts of the Papal States. 

Part of why the Vatican’s current 

“trial of the century” for financial 

corruption has proved so controversial, 

for example, is precisely because 

it seems a strange vestigial hangover 

from the past. In the Vatican’s system 

of civil justice even today, the pontiff 

exercises both supreme executive and 

judicial authority, in ways seemingly 

incompatible with modern standards 

of due process — not to mention, of 

course, the Catholic Church’s own 

social teaching. 

Queen Elizabeth rarely made that 

mistake, exercising supreme discretion 

about anything that could 

be read as a political stance. When 

she did make 

St. Pope John Paul II 

greets Soviet leader 

Mikhail Gorbachev at 

the Vatican on Nov. 18, 

1990. | CNS/LUCIANO 

MELLACE, REUTERS 

statements, it 

was generally by 

example, such 

as the famous 

occasion in 1998 

when Elizabeth 

unexpectedly 

drove Saudi 

Crown Prince 

Abdulla around her Scottish estate at 

a time when women weren’t allowed 

to drive in his own country. 

One enduring lesson from Queen 

Elizabeth, therefore, is perhaps that 

the less hard power you possess, the 

more soft power you can amass. It’s 

a point the modern papacy began to 

assimilate a century and a half ago — 

even if it learned that lesson the hard 

way, literally down the barrel of a 

gun, and even if, in some particulars, 

it remains a work in progress. 

John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux. 


God’s mailman 

This month’s beatification 

of John Paul I celebrated 

the simplicity of a pope 

who ‘embodied 

the poverty of 

the disciple.’ 

BY CAROL GLATZ 

Blessed John Paul I, known as "the smiling pope." 

| CNS/L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO 

Beatifying Blessed John Paul I, 

Pope Francis praised the late 

pope for showing the world 

God’s goodness and for living the 

Gospel without compromise. 

“Our new blessed lived that way: in 

the joy of the Gospel, without compromises, 

loving to the very end,” the pope 

said. 

“He embodied the poverty of the 

disciple, which is not only detachment 

from material goods, but also victory 

over the temptation to put oneself at 

the center, to seek one’s own glory” as 

he followed the example of Jesus and 

was “a meek and humble pastor,” he 

said. 

The pope spoke during a homily in 

St. Peter’s Square at a Sept. 4 Mass 

attended by an estimated 25,000 people 

under dark skies and rain, with an 

occasional roll of thunder and clap of 

lightning. 

“With a smile, Pope John Paul managed 

to communicate the goodness of 

the Lord. How beautiful is a church 

with a happy, serene and smiling face, 

a church that never closes doors, never 

hardens hearts, never complains or harbors 

resentment, does not grow angry 


or impatient, does not look dour or 

suffer nostalgia for the past,” the pope 

said. 

During the beatification ceremony, 

which took place at the beginning of 

the Mass, an image of the new blessed 

was unveiled on a huge tapestry affixed 

to the facade of the basilica. The image 

was a reproduction of an oil painting, 

“The Smiling Pope,” created by Zhang 

Yan, a Chinese artist whose work combines 

Eastern and Western painting 

techniques. 

The relic, carried by 

Lina Petri, the niece 

of the late pope, was 

a piece of paper, yellowed 

with age, upon 

which the pope had 

written an outline for 

a spiritual reflection 

on the three theological 

virtues — faith, 

hope, and charity — 

the themes of three of 

his only four audience 

talks. 

In his homily, Pope 

Francis connected the 

day’s Gospel reading 

to the humble and 

Christ-centered way 

Blessed John Paul 

lived his life and to 

how Christians today 

are called to live their lives. 

The pope said Jesus attracted large 

crowds with his teachings, but he did 

not exploit this popularity the way 

some teachers or leaders do when they 

see people look to them as a source of 

hope for the future. 

God, Pope Francis said, “does not exploit 

our needs or use our vulnerability 

for his own aggrandizement. He does 

not want to seduce us with deceptive 

promises or to distribute cheap favors; 

he is not interested in huge crowds. He 

is not obsessed with numbers; he does 

not seek approval; he does not idolize 

personal success.” 

Among the family members and 

devotees who carried candles to place 

before the relic was Sister Margherita 

Marin, a member of the Congregation 

of the Sisters of the Child Mary, who 

assisted in the papal apartments and 

was one of the sisters who found the 

deceased pope on Sept. 28, 1978. 

Sister Margherita Marin, who served Pope John Paul I, 

and Lina Petri, niece of Pope John Paul, attend a news 

conference on Sept. 2. | CNS/PAUL HARING 

Candela Giarda, the young Argentine 

woman whose miracle cleared the path 

for Blessed John Paul’s beatification, 

was unable to come to Rome because 

of a fractured foot from playing sports. 

She was 11 years old when she developed 

a severe case of acute encephalitis, 

experienced uncontrollable and 

life-threatening brain seizures, and 

eventually entered septic shock. 

After doctors told family members her 

death was “imminent,” Father Juan 

José Dabusti, who attended the beatification 

ceremony, encouraged the 

family, nurses, and others to pray to the 

late pope for his intercession. In 2011, 

a panel of experts studying the cause 

determined there was no scientific 

explanation for her complete recovery 

and that it could be attributed to the 

late pope’s intercession. 

Blessed John Paul, an Italian who was 

born Albino Luciani, served only 33 

days as pontiff; he died just three weeks 

shy of his 66th birthday, shocking the 

world and a Church that had just 

mourned the death of St. Pope Paul 

VI. 

Elected on Aug. 26, 1978, he brought 

the quick quips and a storytelling form 

of preaching with him to Rome as 

pope, making an immediate impact 

on and heartfelt connection with his 

listeners. 

He never picked up the papal tiara 

and he finally dropped the “royal We,” 

speaking directly in the first person 

with the endearing air of chatting with 

a friend. At his first Angelus address, 

he began simply, “Yesterday morning I 

went to the Sistine Chapel to vote tranquilly. 

Never could I have imagined 

what was about to happen!” 

It wasn’t just the everyday Catholic 

who was touched by his familiarity, 

gentleness, and deep love for God and 

his Gospel. 

His priests, family members, fellow 

bishops, and cardinals were all 

similarly struck, especially by his 

ability to be kind, firm 

and demanding, as 

evidenced in another 

new book, “Il Postino 

di Dio” (“God’s Mailman”), 

illustrating the 

way he saw himself as 

a “carrier” of God’s 

word to the faithful. 

This book collects 

the testimonies of 

several cardinals, including 

retired Pope 

Benedict XVI, who 

was one of the 111 

cardinals who elected 

Italian Cardinal Albino 

Luciani as Pope 

John Paul I. 

“Personally, I am 

totally convinced that 

he was a saint, because 

of his great goodness, simplicity, 

humanity, and courage,” then-Cardinal 

Joseph Ratzinger said in an interview 

in 2003. 

“Let us treasure his example, committing 

ourselves to cultivating the same 

kind of humility that made him able to 

speak to everyone,” Pope Benedict said 

at his Angelus on Sept. 28, 2008, the 

30th anniversary of his predecessor’s 

death. 

At this month’s beatification Mass 

Pope Francis said, “Let us pray to him, 

our father and our brother, and ask 

him to obtain for us ‘the smile of the 

soul’ ” that is “transparent, that does 

not deceive.” 

“Let us pray, in his own words, ‘Lord 

take me as I am, with my defects, 

with my shortcomings, but make me 

become what you want me to be.’ ” 

Carol Glatz is a Rome correspondent 

for Catholic News Service. 

September 23, 2022 • ANGELUS • 23

THE WAY OF THE LORD JESUS 

RUSSELL SHAW 

An agenda for the U.S. bishops 

Bishops attend a session 

of the fall general assembly 

of the U.S. Conference of 

Catholic Bishops in Baltimore 

in 2021. | CNS/BOB ROLLER 

In mid-November the American 

bishops, gathered in general 

assembly, will choose a successor 

to Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los 

Angeles to serve a three-year term as 

president of the U.S. Conference of 

Catholic Bishops. A new vice president 

and chairmen of several conference 

committees also will be elected 

during the meeting. 

Except by the bishops themselves 

plus a handful of habitual bishop-watchers, 

the USCCB elections 

will probably not be much noted. But 

there are several issues of major importance 

for the future of the Church that 

need to be on the bishops’ agenda, and 

the results of the upcoming vote could 

go a long way to determining whether 

they make it there. 

Three issues in particular stand out. 

First, giving new direction to the 

Church’s involvement in pro-life 

issues in the wake of the Supreme 

Court decision last June overturning 

the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. 

While the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson 

Women’s Health Organization was a 

huge pro-life victory, but far from being 

the end of the struggle, it marked 

the start of a new phase for which the 

pro-life movement was apparently not 

well prepared. 

What now? Fifty years ago the bishops 

adopted a Pastoral Plan for Pro-life 

Activities that provided guidance to 

dioceses in advancing the pro-life 

cause while hoping for what Dobbs 

has now accomplished — returning 

the abortion issue to the states. 

In the post-Dobbs world the Church’s 

response needs to be comprehensively 

pro-life, including support for women 

with problems in pregnancy, tax relief, 

and other assistance for struggling families, 

rational gun control, immigration 

reform, abortion laws that have broad 

public support, and educational efforts 

that counter pro-abortion propaganda 

with attractive, fact-based messaging. 

Second, exploring and explaining 

the meaning of synodality in a synodal 

Church. 

Writing in America magazine, Father 

Louis J. Cameli, a coordinator of the 

synod process in Chicago, cited the 

“immense formational task” required 

to prepare people for this new ecclesial 

environment. 


Russell Shaw is a Catholic author and the 

former information director of the NCCB/ 

USCC and the Knights of Columbus. 

He couldn’t be more right. Many 

lay Catholics aren’t ready for the role 

abruptly being thrust on them by the 

Church’s current movement toward 

synodality. Without serious remedial 

action, it’s possible that — as seems 

already to have happened in Germany 

— synodality will fall prey to a minority 

eager to manipulate the process on 

behalf of their agenda. 

Third, sketching elements of a master 

plan for allocating institutional and 

human resources in the new era of 

closures and contraction in which the 

Catholic Church, like other churches 

and religious groups, now finds itself. 

Over the past half-century, the bishops’ 

conference has issued innumerable 

statements about all manner of 

political and social issues, but it has yet 

to address the crisis now confronting 

the Church. Indeed, it was almost a 

novelty for the bishops two years ago to 

launch a “Eucharistic Revival” project 

to address the decline in faith in and 

appreciation for the Blessed Sacrament 

(a problem that polling had already 

identified a full 30 years earlier). 

Now American Catholicism is in a 

multidimensional crisis that includes 

steep declines in priests, students in 

Catholic schools and religious education, 

couples entering Catholic 

marriages, and infant baptisms, the 

slow-motion disappearance of most 

women’s religious communities, and 

much else besides. Cold comfort 

indeed that non-Catholic churches in 

America face similar issues. 

I don’t expect the USCCB to wave a 

magic wand and solve these problems. 

For canonical reasons, many can only 

be addressed at the diocesan level. But 

the episcopal conference has a role to 

play in information sharing, planning, 

and coordination. November would be 

a good time to start. 

It was 2020, and the world suddenly 

lost its bustle. Isolated from the 

workplace and other social contact, 

we were left with ourselves, and none 

of our distractions seemed adequate to 

the task of amusing us. We were ready 

to learn how to think. 

It was 2020, and the world suddenly 

lost its bustle. Isolated from the 

workplace and other social contact, 

we were left with ourselves, and none 

of our distractions seemed adequate to 

the task of amusing us. We were ready 

to learn how to think. 

Mike Aquilina is a contributing 

editor to Angelus and author of many 

books, most recently “Friendship and 

the Fathers: How the Early Church 

Evangelized” (Emmaus Road Publishing, 

$22.95). 


INTERSECTIONS 

GREG ERLANDSON 

A pope saint’s lasting gift to the Church 

St. Pope John Paul II greets the World Youth Day crowd in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1992. | CNS FILE PHOTO 

“Do we still believe in purgatory?” 

It was a question my mom 

asked me a few years after I started 

working as a Catholic journalist. My 

mom had been well formed in the 

faith. She lived for a time in a lay 

Christian community long before the 

Second Vatican Council, and she was 

a part of the English liturgy movement, 

also before the council. 

Yet her question, for me, was an 

example of the confusion that did exist 

in that period of upheaval and change 

that followed the council (and that 

simultaneously was taking place in 

much of the rest of the world.) Vatican 

II was a gift of the Holy Spirit. If there 

had been no council, I firmly believe, 

the Church would have been in much 

worse shape in the tumultuous years 

that followed. But for many Catholics, 

the changes, both superficial and significant, 

were dizzying. 

When I think about why St. Pope 

John Paul II wanted to create the Catechism 

of the Catholic Church, I think 

of my mom’s question. Two decades 

after the council, there was a felt need 

among Church leaders for an authoritative 

compendium of what the Church 

taught. But the catechism itself reflected 

the spirit of the council. It drew 

heavily on the Fathers of the Church 

and Scripture as well as Church documents. 

It sought to communicate not 

just the breadth and depth, but also the 

beauty of the Church’s teachings. 

For those who have a distant memory 

of rote learning as typified by the 

Baltimore Catechism, the Catechism 

of the Catholic Church was a surprise. 

One friend of mine, upon reading it 

for the first time, called it “lyrical.” 

Divided into four parts, its pillars were 

the profession of faith, the sacraments, 

the moral teachings, and prayer. That 

fourth section on prayer was particularly 

pastoral and meditative. “Prayer is 

the life of the new heart,” one section 

begins, and quotes St. Gregory of 

Nazianzus: “We must remember God 

more often than we draw breath.” But it 

then adds, “we cannot pray ‘at all times’ 

if we do not pray at specific times,” 

launching a presentation on types of 

prayer. 

It’s a sizable book, about 900 pages, 

with paragraphs numbered for reference 

and a glossary as well. One flaw is 

a maddeningly inadequate index, still 

not fixed after 30 years. 

The publication of the catechism was 

not immediately embraced by everyone. 

After all, the debates that spawned 

the need for such a book did not end 

with its arrival. In the world of religious 

education, the U.S. bishops waged 

a steady pressure campaign to root 

religious instruction in the catechism. 

They demanded it be a well-utilized 

reference, not placed forgotten on a 

shelf. 

Today, every significant religious 

education program in this country has 

gone through a “conformity process” of 

review and correction, a collaboration 

that engaged the bishops’ conference, 

experts, and publishers. This was a 

monumental accomplishment. 


Greg Erlandson is the president and 

editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service. 

The original intention of Rome was 

for the catechism to be for professional 

use, such as when the bishops worked 

with catechetical publishers. Local 

bishops’ conferences were encouraged 

to create more user-friendly versions, as 

ours did with the United States Catholic 

Catechism for Adults. A significant 

contributor to that popular volume 

was the late Father Alfred McBride, O. 

Praem., a gifted catechist and author 

who incorporated story into the text 

along with meditations and discussion 

questions. 

But the original Catechism of the 

Catholic Church has remained a 

best-seller and is itself utilized in many 

parishes, and not just as a reference 

book. 

Some years ago, I participated in a 

three-year review of the catechism for 

parish leaders and other interested parishioners. 

Developed by Father James 

Shafer, a remarkable pastor in Fort 

Wayne, Indiana, it was so successful 

that he repeated it for another threeyear 

cycle. The impact was dramatic, 

giving parishioners a new confidence 

in their knowledge of their faith. 

Intended by Pope John Paul to be 

a “systematic presentation,” it is a resource 

and a support but not the faith 

frozen in amber. In fact, in the most 

recent edition, the teaching on the 

permissibility of the death penalty was 

changed from “very rare if not practi- 

cally non-existent” to “inadmissible.” 

It also is not a checklist substitute for 

the encounter with Christ and the experience 

of divine love that is the heart 

of the Christian faith. “The primary object 

of our faith is not a proposition but 

a person,” St. Thomas Aquinas said. 

The catechism is not a club to beat 

one another with, though we do seem 

to do a good job at that these days. 

Rather, in the words of the Roman 

Catechism, it accomplishes its purpose 

if “anyone can see that all the works 

of perfect Christian virtue spring from 

love and have no other objective than 

to arrive at love.” 

And yes, mom, we still believe in 

purgatory. It’s paragraph 1030.

NOW PLAYING RINGS OF POWER 

TOYING WITH TOLKIEN? 

The beauty of Amazon’s ‘Rings of Power’ 

captivates, but its philosophy does not. 

BY STEFANO REBEGGIANI 

Morfydd Clark as the elven 

queen Galadriel in “The Rings 

of Power.” | COURTESY 

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 

Christopher Tolkien died in 

2020. He was the son of J.R.R. 

Tolkien, the author of “The 

Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” 

A longtime collaborator of his father’s 

and editor of many of his posthumously 

published works, he lived to be 96, 

long enough to see the production of 

Peter Jackson’s blockbuster “The Lord 

of the Rings” trilogy. His reaction to 

the New Zealander’s phenomenally 

successful adaptation of his father’s 

oeuvre was not favorable. 

“The chasm between the beauty and 

seriousness of the work, and what it 

has become, has gone too far for me,” 

he told French newspaper Le Monde 

in 2012. “Such commercialization has 

reduced the aesthetic and philosophical 

impact of this creation to nothing. 

There is only one solution for me: 

turning my head away.” 

A decade after that stinging review, 

another Tolkien-inspired production 

has arrived: Amazon Prime Video’s 

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of 

Power,” available on streaming Sept. 2. 

The series brings to screens for the 

first time the heroic legends of the 

Second Age of Middle-earth, set 

thousands of years before the events of 

“The Lord of the Rings”: a time that 

saw the rise and fall of the great island 

kingdom of Numenor, the return and 

first defeat of the evil Lord Sauron, 

and the forging of the titular Rings of 

Power. 

This monumental production (with 

a $715 million price tag, according to 

The Wall Street Journal) is garnering 

lots of attention, along with scorching 

criticism from Tolkien experts and 

diehards. Should we turn our heads 

away? 

I previewed the first two episodes of 

“The Rings of Power.” It is visually 

impressive, with gorgeous scenery; 

the soundtrack is almost at the level 

of Howard Shore’s legendary score for 

the Peter Jackson trilogy, and the story 

is told with an engaging script. 

How close is the show to Tolkien’s 

original writing? That’s impossible to 

say. The history of the Second Age is 

sketched out briefly in the appendices 

to “The Lord of the Rings,” and some 

additional elements from the era are 

supplied by a few other of Tolkien’s 

works. 

That gave Amazon plenty of blanks to 

fill, and filled them it has. While the 

bare bones of the story and some of its 

core characters (including the “Rings” 

trilogy’s Galadriel, Elrond, Sauron) 

are Tolkien’s, the rest is all up for 

invention: events, individual plotlines, 


and many more characters. 

So, how do you make audiences believe 

they are watching Tolkien? First, 

the show is kept entirely consistent 

with Peter Jackson’s movies. The visuals, 

scenery, costumes, the soundtrack: 

everything feels like a spinoff from the 

earlier cinematic adaptation. 

Second, the authors have copy and 

pasted some ideas, themes, and characters 

from the works of Tolkien. We 

encounter a young Harfoot girl who, 

unlike the rest of her people, is curious 

and wants to see the world — much 

like Frodo and Bilbo of “The Lord of 

the Rings.” There is conflicted love 

between an elf and a human — much 

like Arwen and Aragorn from “The 

Lord of the Rings.” You get the idea. 

Still, there appears to be little of 

Tolkien’s “aesthetic and philosophical 

impact,” at least judging from its first 

two episodes. 

The show tries to convey Tolkienian 

themes here and there, like the notion 

that things do not happen to people by 

chance, or that true bravery consists 

in responding to a call that manifests 

itself through concrete people and 

events. But these Tolkienian ideas feel 

somewhat watered down, domesticated, 

often reduced to feel-good platitudes 

(“follow the light,” etc.). 

What is missing is what makes Tolkien 

history’s greatest fantasy writer: the 

mark of his own original “philosophy.” 

Not Tolkien’s own philosophical ideas, 

but rather the eternal truths about 

human beings and their destiny that 

are expressed through his stories. 

The events that lead to the forging 

of the rings, which are created to 

wield power, are crucial to Tolkien’s 

worldview. Men want power to ward 

off death. Through the rings, the 

Numenorean kings of the Second Age 

seek to make themselves immortal. 

The elves, on the other hand, want to 

use power to block the progression of 

history. Their goal is to keep Middle-earth 

as it is, a beautiful garden 

in which they can preserve what they 

love and enjoy their creations. 

This longing to safeguard what exists 

is what motivates the elven queen Galadriel’s 

actions in Tolkien’s original 

design — in the Amazon show, she is 

merely seeking revenge for the death 

of her brother. Ultimately, however, 

these attempts to control time and 

death are misguided. In their desire to 

arrest the decline that is inherent in 

the passing of time, the elves are, in 

Tolkien’s words, “oppressed by sadness 

and nostalgia,” for to refuse change is 

to go against the design of God. 

In “The Lord of the Rings,” Gandalf, 

Galadriel, and Elrond, who originally 

possessed the three elvish rings, are 

faced with the opportunity to seize the 

one ring and use it for good, but all of 

them renounce it. Why? They have 

realized that using power to preserve 

what is one’s own eventually produces 

only solitude and death. 

They understand that the mysterious 

force that ultimately governs 

the course of history has an entirely 

different plan, one in which power is 

defeated by weakness. In this plan, renouncing 

power and the urge to keep 

everything for oneself bears a fruit of 

life and love that beats the passing of 

time. None of these concerns seem 

to have left the 

faintest trace 

on the Amazon 

show. 

The parallels 

between the 

events of Tolkien’s 

Second 

Age and those 

of our times are 

too obvious to 

be ignored: the 

conflict between 

good and evil, 

the seductive 

force of power afflicting 

good and 

bad alike; a long 

A scene from “The Rings 

of Power.” | COURTESY 

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 

time of relative 

peace giving way 

to conflict and 

uncertainty. 

One would 

hope that the 

Amazon series will convey what 

Tolkien would have suggested in these 

times: that power will be defeated by 

weakness, not by force, that the humble 

will triumph, that God has a plan 

for salvation invisible to the eye of the 

mighty, and that renouncing oneself 

and letting the light shine on others 

bears a fruit for eternity. 

Instead, I fear, we will get plenty of 

entertainment — but in the end, little 

more than that. 

Stefano Rebeggiani is an associate 

professor of classics at the University of 

Southern California. 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

Making music to die for 

Elaine Stratton Hild. | COURTESY IMAGE 

When Elaine Stratton Hild, 

Ph.D., was only 18 years old 

and a music conservatory 

student, she was volunteering at a local 

hospital, playing the viola. One day 

she was directed to the room of a particular 

woman who was very ill. She 

started playing “Amazing Grace” and 

in the course of the song, the woman 

died. 

“Did I do something wrong?” she 

asked the hospital staff. “No,” she was 

told. “You didn’t do anything wrong. 

That woman rode your hymn right up 

to heaven.” 

She went on to earn a bachelor’s 

degree in music in viola performance 

from the Cleveland Institute of Music. 

Then, poised for a career with orchestras 

and chamber music ensembles, 

she was diagnosed with a rare neurological 

condition. Continuing to 

play professionally would have meant 

possible paralysis in her left hand. 

As difficult as it was to change course, 

the diagnosis allowed Hild to embark 

on a more academic career. She 

earned both a master’s degree and a 

Ph.D. in musicology from the Univer- 

sity of Colorado at Boulder. 

And in 2018, she was a Distinguished 

Fellow at the University of Notre 

Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study, a 

semester-long fellowship during which 

she conducted full-time research on 

a fascinating and specialized area: the 

chants sung for the dying during the 

Middle Ages. 

She currently serves as a musicologist 

with Corpus Monodicum, a long-term 

research project housed at the Universität 

Würzburg (Germany) focused on 

historically significant monophonic 

church and secular music of the European 

Middle Ages. 

“There’s an entire repertory of 

plainchant that historians haven’t 

dealt with: a collection of works that 

were meant to be sung, in community, 

around the bedside of a person who’s 

about to leave this world.” 

Studying archival music in Europe allowed 

Hild to see the deathbed not so 

much as an end but an opening — a 

sacred time during which music could 

play a beautiful and important part. 

A forthcoming book has the working 

title “Song At the Moment of Death: 

Chants and Medieval Rituals for the 

End of Life.” And she runs a small 

business, Palliative Music, dedicated 

to providing comfort music for people 

in the Fort Collins, Colorado, area 

experiencing difficult medical circumstances 

and end-of-life care. 

In her work with the suffering and dying, 

Hild plays the viola and the harp. 

She also sings. “The more fragile, the 

closer to death, the more gentle the 

sounds have to be. Sometimes the 

human voice is the simplest instrument. 

So sometimes that feels most 

appropriate.” 

Her fervent wish is that we might all 

come to play music, chant, or sing 

around the bedside of our loved ones 

at such moments. 

“Interestingly, the historic material 

I study was not for professionals. It’s 

made very clear that the chant was 

for the community. I’m all in favor of 

medical resources and experts. But 

death is a human experience, not just 

a medical experience.” 

So maybe one thing these chants are 

telling us is that a deathbed is not the 

place for the professionals. “Maybe it’s 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

time for us to come, to gather family, 

friends, and neighbors, whoever was 

beloved. And realize that our voices 

are not only sufficient, but probably 

the voices that person wants to hear 

the most.” 

We’re very good nowadays at controlling 

physical pain, Hild notes. But 

music can draw families together. It 

can be a moment with a lot of love. 

“Music is one of the last forms of beauty 

we’re able to take in. We’re bringing 

to the person who is dying the peace 

that passes all understanding.” 

“In the Middle Ages they sang not 

only as a way to channel their grief 

but to regulate time together, to bring 

order to the disorientation and chaos 

that surrounds death. When we sing 

together, we breathe together. It joins 

the community together and gives so 

much meaning and profundity to that 

moment.” 

One chant she worked with was from 

a 12th-century manuscript from St. 

Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican that included 

a setting of Christ’s final words 

on the Cross: “Into Thy hands, Lord, I 

commend my spirit.” 

“That’s the Christian salvation narrative 

in a nutshell, so to sing that at 

a person’s deathbed is very powerful. 

You’re in some way identifying that 

person’s death with the crucifixion.” 

One of the oldest chants seen in 

the historic manuscripts was used for 

centuries and centuries at the moment 

of death. “I can see why. It’s hard to 

imagine anything better.” 

It starts out like a compressed litany: 

“Advance, saints of God. / Run, angels 

of the Lord. / Taking her soul, / Offering 

it in the sight of the most High.” 

There’s an offering up of the person’s 

soul, a plea for mercy, and a final 

blessing to be sung at the last breath. 

The Requiem “Aeternum” — “Rest 

eternal give them, Lord, and may light 

perpetual shine upon them” — is a 

later addition to that chant complex. 

“By saying ‘them,’ you’ve incorporated 

that person into the community of 

the deceased. It’s a very beautiful way 

of delivering those we love into the 

communion of saints.”

LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

The sense of the ‘Psalter’ 

Fourth in a series on 

the Book of Psalms. 

As we have it today, the Book of 

Psalms falls into five segments 

or “books.” Book 1 includes 

Psalms 1–41; Book 2, Psalms 42–72; 

Book 3, Psalms 73–89; Book 4, Psalms 

90–106; and Book 5, Psalms 107–150. 

The ancient rabbis believed that the 

“Psalter’s” division 

reflected the division 

of the Torah, 

the first five books of 

the Bible. Says the 

“Midrash Tehillim,” 

the oldest surviving 

commentary on the 

psalms: “Moses gave 

Israel the five books 

[of the Law], and 

David gave Israel 

the five books of 

the Psalms.” As the 

Law represented 

God’s covenant 

with Moses, so the 

songs represented 

God’s covenant with 

David. 

Each book of the 

“Psalter” ends with 

a doxology, a brief 

verse or two blessing the Lord. Book 1 

concludes with, “Blessed be the Lord, 

the God of Israel, from everlasting 

to everlasting! Amen and Amen!” 

(Psalm 41:13). Each succeeding book 

closes with similar words (see Psalm 

72:18–19; 89:52; 106:48). Psalm 150, 

which is six verses long, serves as a 

more expansive doxology to the fifth 

book and the entire “Psalter,” but, if 

that’s not expansive enough, some 

commentators have seen the final 

five psalms (146–150) as the book’s 

concluding doxology. 

The five-part division makes for a 

neat symmetry between the “Psalter” 

and the Torah; yet it does not tell us 

the story within the “Psalter.” Nor 

does it tell us how the individual 

psalms found their way into one book 

or another. For the compiler (or 

compilers) did not arrange the psalms 

by author; David’s compositions, for 

example, are spread throughout all 

five books. The Psalms of the Sons 

of Korah appear in Books 2 and 3 — 

but interspersed with those by other 

authors. Scholars of Hebrew point out 

that Books 2 and 3 are also marked 

by a tendency to address God by his 

generic name, Elohim (God), rather 

than his personal name, Yahweh. 

Nor can we say that the compiler 

separated the psalms according to 

liturgical purpose or literary form. 

Most of the psalms bear titles (inscriptions) 

that include technical terms for 

their particular poetic forms: miktam, 

shiggaion, maskil, and others. (The 

exact meaning of the terms is unknown 

to us today, so they are usually 

left untranslated.) Yet these forms, too, 

are dispersed throughout the “Psalter” 

in no particular order. 

An open Torah scroll. | 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

What, then, is the 

story within the “Psalter”? 

The question 

has occupied some 

of the best minds and 

souls in the history 

of biblical exegesis. 

Ancient and medieval 

Christians proposed 

an array of possible 

answers. 

Through much of 

the 20th century, 

however, the question 

itself fell out of 

fashion, as scholars 

focused their attention 

on smaller and smaller portions of 

text. In psalms scholarship, literary 

form was for many years the rage. 

Now the question has arisen again 

in academic circles, especially among 

scholars influenced by canonical criticism, 

which emphasizes the study of 

texts within their traditional context. 

In the weeks to come, we’ll look at 

some of the storylines that scholars 

and saints have come to discern within 

the “Psalter.” 


■ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 

Day in Recognition of All Immigrants Procession and 

Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple 

St., Los Angeles, 3 p.m. Archbishop José H. Gomez will 

celebrate a special Mass at 3:30 p.m., which will be in 

person and livestreamed via Facebook.com/lacatholics and 

lacatholics.org/immigration. 

International Thomas Merton Society Chapter Meeting. 

Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 2-4 p.m. 

Hosted by Sister Chris Machado, SSS. For more information, 

visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 

An Afternoon of Sacred Music. St. Peter Italian Church, 

1039 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 11 a.m. High Mass, 

followed by Sacred Music Concert, 12-12:30 p.m. Refreshments 

to follow. Presented by the St. Peter Sacred 

Singers Choir and Opera Italia LA, songs and chants sung 

in Spanish, English, Italian, and Latin. Free event, donations 

accepted for the St. Peter Outreach Program. For more information, 

visit stpeteritalianchurchla.org, call 213-248-2510, 

or email info@operaitaliala.com. 

■ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 

Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Cathedral of 

Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 

6:30-9 a.m. 

■ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 

Record Clearing Virtual Clinic for Veterans. Legal team 

will help with traffic tickets, quality of life citations, and 

expungement of criminal convictions, 2-5 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. 

“What Catholics Believe” weekly series. St. Dorothy 

Church, 241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 7-8:30 p.m. 

Series runs Wednesdays through April 26, 2023. Deepen 

your understanding of the Catholic faith through dynamic 

DVD presentations by Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Edward 

Sri, Dr. Brant Pitre, and Dr. Michael Barber. Free event, no 

reservations required. Call 626-335-2811 or visit the Adult 

Faith Development ministry page at www.stdorothy.org for 

more information. 

■ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 

Virtual Centering Prayer. Zoom, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. with Sister 

Linda Snow, CSJ, Marilyn Nobori and the Contemplative 

Outreach Team, or 7-8 p.m. with Pippa Currey, CSD. Meets 

every Thursday. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or 

call 818-815-4480. 

■ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 

St. Padre Pio Feast Day Celebration. St. Dorothy Church, 

241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 6 p.m. exposition of 

the Blessed Sacrament and rosary, 7 p.m. Mass and healing 

service, celebrated by Father Michael Barry. First-class 

relic glove of St. Pio will be present. Livestream available at 

StDorothy.org. 

■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 

St. Padre Pio: God’s Healing Power for a Suffering World. 

St. John Eudes Church, 9901 Mason Ave., Chatsworth, 10 

a.m. Topics include: A Modern-day Manifestation of the 

Saving Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ; Healings, Miracles, 

and Spiritual Battle in St. Padre Pio’s Life; and St. Padre Pio 

and the Holy Angels. Day includes a special relic display and 

a blessing with St. Padre Pio’s glove. Attendees are welcome 

to stay for 5 p.m. vigil Mass. Cost: $25/early registration 

through Sept. 19, $35/regular registration. Bring sack lunch 

or eat at nearby restaurants. For more information, email 

spirit@scrc.org. 

Nativity Torrance Knights of Columbus Spaghetti Dinner. 

Nativity Church Annex, 1415 Engracia Ave., Torrance, 5-7 

p.m. Cost: $10/adults, $9/seniors, $6 children under 12, 

includes spaghetti, meatballs, salad, garlic bread, punch, 

coffee, tea, desserts. Indoor dining. Masks optional. Profits 

support the Knights’ charitable causes. Cash, check, and 

credit card accepted. 

■ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 

St. Catherine Laboure Church Jubilee Celebration. St. 

Catherine Laboure Church, 3846 Redondo Beach Blvd., 

Torrance, 11 a.m. Join the parish in celebrating its 75th 

anniversary with a Jubilee Mass celebrated by Archbishop 

Gomez, followed by catered lunch and history display. 

Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop. Holy Spirit Retreat 

Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. With 

Pippa Currey and the Contemplative Outreach Team. For 

more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480. 


The Miracle of Our Lady of Fátima: It means more than 

you may think! St. Edward the Confessor School gym, 

33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point, 10 a.m. Hosted by 

Father Bob Garon and Dominic Berardino. Topics include: 

Mary vs. Lucifer and St. John Paul II and Fátima. Mass will 

be celebrated. Cost: $25/early registration through Oct. 3, 

$35/regular registration, includes catered chicken lunch. For 

more information, email spirit@scrc.org. 

■ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11 

Memorial Mass. St. Barnabas Church, 3955 Orange Ave., 

Long Beach, 10 a.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. 

Women at the Well. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai 

Rd., Encino, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. With Sister Chris Machado, 

SSS. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818- 

784-4515. 

■ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14 

Marriage Encounter Weekend. Mater Dolorosa Passionist 

Retreat Center, 700 N. Sunnyside Ave., Sierra Madre, 7 p.m. 

Weekend runs until 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 16. Couples stay at 

the Retreat Center for the entire weekend. This retreat is for 

spouses who wish to rediscover the person they first fell in 

love with. For more information and to apply, visit sacramentallove.org, 

or call 909-938-2682. 


Alleluia Dance Theatre, Trust in the Lord! Holy Spirit Retreat 

Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. With 

Stella Matsuda, Marti Ryan, and Emmalyn Moreno. For 

more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 

■ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16 

International Thomas Merton Society Chapter Meeting. 

Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 2-4 p.m. 

Hosted by Sister Chris Machado, SSS. For more information, 

visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515. 

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 | September 23, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 19

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