Angelus News | April 7, 2023 | Vol. 8 No 7

ANGELUS
REDEEMING
THE BROKEN
STUFF
How women are turning
pain into purpose
April 7, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 7

ANGELUS
April 7, 2023
Vol. 8 • No. 7
3424 Wilshire Blvd.,
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Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
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Publisher
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Vice Chancellor for Communications
DAVID SCOTT
Editor-in-Chief
PABLO KAY
pkay@angelusnews.com
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VICTOR ALEMÁN
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RICHARD G. BEEMER
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HANNAH SWENSON
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ON THE COVER
JACOB POPCAK
Pornography use is more commonly associated with men.
But as more evidence shows porn addiction among females
is rising, so have reports of its destructive consequences for
them: body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, depression,
and loneliness. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Elise Ureneck
takes a closer look at the largely taboo subject and at new
efforts to help women heal from the effects of porn use by
themselves or their husbands.
THIS PAGE
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Archbishop José H. Gomez checks out items
belonging to the late Bishop David O’Connell
featured in a new exhibit at the Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels that opened March
19. The chapel is open during the cathedral’s
normal operating hours. To order a special
Bishop O’Connell prayer card from Angelus,
visit LACatholics.org/honor-bishop-dave.
ANGELUS is published biweekly by The
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CONTENTS
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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
16
18
22
24
Six ‘extraordinary Catholics’ headline this year’s Cardinal’s Awards
LA Catholics bring Eucharistic Revival to streets of San Gabriel
John Allen explains the Vatican’s history of respect for China
Charlie Camosy on why Catholics shouldn’t partner with CVS
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Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com
26
30
Two Angelus film critics on Hollywood’s 2022 mood shift
Heather King: A treatise on suffering from an Indian slum
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
10-year checkup
In interviews focused on the 10th
anniversary of his election, Pope
Francis insisted “the Lord will do
the appraisal when he sees fit” regarding
his pontificate.
But he did have three words for what
he hopes for the future: “Fraternity,
tears, smiles.”
“When a person knows how to cry
and how to smile, he or she has their
feet on the ground and their gaze on
the horizon of the future,” Francis
said in a short “popecast” released by
Vatican News.
The 86-year-old pope also asked the
Vatican News interviewer, “What’s a
podcast?”
The Argentinean newspaper La
Nación asked Francis about the importance
of the Synod of Bishops on
Synodality, to which he responded that
including more voices is an ongoing
process.
In February 2021, Francis named
Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie
Becquart one of the undersecretaries
of the synod general secretariat, a post
that would make her an automatic
voting member of the assembly.
So, La Nación asked the pope if only
one woman would have a vote at the
next synod assembly.
“Everyone who participates in the
synod will vote. Those who are guests
or observers will not vote,” he said,
but whoever participates in a synod
as a member “has the right to vote.
Whether male or female. Everyone,
everyone. That word everyone for me
is key.”
On the question of Catholics who
identify as LGBT, Francis insisted to
an interviewer with Argentine weekly
newspaper Perfil that “everyone is a
child of God and each one seeks and
finds God by whatever path he or she
can.”
As for Catholic teaching that homosexual
acts are sinful, like any sexual
activity outside of marriage, Francis
said he did not think those sins would
send a person to hell.
“God only sets aside the proud, the
rest of us sinners are all in line,” he
said, and God always is reaching out to
save sinners who seek his help.
In the interviews with both La Nacion
and Perfil, Francis insisted there is a
difference between a pastoral outreach
to Catholics who identify as “LGBT”
and accepting “gender ideology,”
which, he said, “is one of the most
dangerous ideological colonizations.”
“Why is it dangerous? Because it
dilutes differences, and the richness of
men and women and of all humanity
is the tension of differences. It is to
grow through the tension of differences,”
the pope said.
A gender theory that sees being
male or female as a social construct
or choice rather than a fact related
to biological identity “is diluting the
differences and making the world the
same, all blunt, all equal,” the pope
said. “And that goes against the human
vocation.”
In each of the interviews, he spoke of
the horror of war and his concern for
the continued fighting in Ukraine.
Asked by Vatican News what he
would want as a gift for his 10th anniversary,
Francis responded: “Peace. We
need peace.”
Reporting courtesy of Catholic News
Service Rome bureau chief Cindy
Wooden.
Papal Prayer Intentions for April: We pray for the spread
of peace and nonviolence, by decreasing the use of
weapons by States and citizens.
2 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Carrying Jesus Christ with us always
On the solemnity of the Annunciation,
more than 1,000 of the
faithful joined me in a 6-mile
eucharistic procession.
We began with Mass at Mission San
Gabriel Arcángel and then made a
prayerful pilgrimage to St. Luke the
Evangelist Church in Temple City,
where we prayed some more before
returning to the mission.
The procession was another part of
our local observance of the three-yearlong
national “Eucharistic Revival”
launched by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
Excitement is building around this
revival. Thousands from across the
country and different parts of the
world “took part” in our procession
through our social media platforms. I
was touched by their comments and
prayers.
A Facebook user from Kenya declared,
“I AM not ashamed to proclaim
that Jesus is the way.”
On Instagram, a woman described
how she cried with joy while watching
our video of the procession. Another
posted, “Beautiful day with our Lord
and Church family. I saw a woman
drop to her knees on the sidewalk
when she saw the Eucharist.”
Eucharistic devotion is devotion to
Jesus Christ. The oldest of these devotions
— the eucharistic procession and
eucharistic adoration — are rooted in
the experience of those who first knew
Jesus.
In the joyful mystery of the rosary
called the Visitation, we recall how
immediately after the angel’s annunciation,
Blessed Mary went in haste to
visit her cousin, Elizabeth.
Our Blessed Mother carried Jesus in
her womb through the hill country of
Judea. We are doing something similar
when we carry the Eucharist in the
monstrance in procession through our
streets and neighborhoods.
In eucharistic adoration, we are
following the example of the Magi
who came from the East following the
Christmas star.
When they entered the house and saw
the baby Jesus with his mother, they
fell down on their knees and worshipped
him. We do the same thing when
we adore him on our knees at our
tabernacles and altars.
Through our eucharistic devotion, we
acknowledge the amazing reality that
Jesus Christ, the Word of God, out of
love for us has become flesh to dwell
among us.
The summit of our devotion is the
holy Mass, which Jesus left us as a parting
gift on his last night on earth, the
night we remember as Holy Thursday.
The Gospel accounts of his Last Supper
on Holy Thursday are filled with
tender sadness. Jesus is saying goodbye
to his loved ones. We recall the apostle
John resting his head on Jesus’ chest as
they sat at table, a gesture of profound
sorrow.
He had come down from heaven out
of love, emptying himself in humility
to share in our humanity. He had not
come as a king or a master. He came as
a servant.
On Holy Thursday, he knelt before
his apostles and washed their feet, in a
final, unforgettable image of humility
and service.
He was washing them, purifying
them, making them worthy to sit at his
table and receive the gift of himself.
Jesus had made his whole life a gift
that he offered to God out of love for
us and for the life of the world. He became
flesh in the womb of the Virgin
Mary in order to offer his flesh on the
cross.
And in this final gift, he gave his
body and blood, his soul and divinity,
present under the appearances of bread
and wine, to be our food, to nourish
and strengthen us as we make our
journey through life.
On Holy Thursday and again on
Good Friday, Jesus shows us what true
love looks like. And he shows us how
we are to worship God in spirit and
truth.
Almighty God does not want “something”
from us, because there is
nothing we could give him that he
needs. That’s why Jesus did away with
the burnt offerings and animal sacrifices
of old.
The worship that God desires is
nothing less than the gift of ourselves
— our whole lives offered completely
to God in thanksgiving for the new life
that he gives us in Jesus Christ.
In washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus
said he was giving them “a model to
follow.” The Eucharist is the path that
he calls us to follow.
The Eucharist is how we worship, and
the Eucharist is how we are called to
live.
As he gave his life for us on the cross,
and as he continues to make himself
a gift to us in the bread and wine, he
calls us now to make our own lives “a
Eucharist,” a perfect offering to him.
Pray for me and I will pray for you.
And as we enter into Holy Week, let
us ask holy Mary to help us to enter
more deeply into the amazing mystery
of her Son’s love, and his gift of himself
in the Eucharist.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
■ Germany: Final ‘Synodal Way’
votes defy Vatican warnings
The German Synodal Way concluded its four-year process by approving proposals
that would allow blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, allow lay men and
women to preach at Mass, and relax rules on clerical celibacy.
The votes in favor of altering Church practices came during a final gathering of
230 bishops and lay representatives March 9-11 in Frankfurt.
The votes follow several instances of Vatican intervention, including a Jan. 23 letter
by Vatican officials that rejected a suggestion that the German Church could
set up a Synodal Council which would limit episcopal authority.
“We must and we want to remain in dialogue with Rome, that is the express wish
that has come out of the German Bishops’ Conference,” Bishop Georg Bätzing,
president of the German Bishops’ Conference, said March 2.
■ Former nuncio: Christians in Iraq
are worse off since US invasion
Christians in Iraq are worse off today than when Saddam Hussein was still in
power, according to the Holy See’s ambassador to the country during the U.S.-led
invasion 20 years ago.
Under Hussein, Cardinal Fernando Filoni said that Christians were allowed to
practice their faith in the majority-Muslim country and that “the Church was
respected.” St. Pope John Paul II’s prediction that the invasion would give rise to
extremists was proven correct, he added.
“We suffered a lot because, after the end of the regime of Saddam Hussein, the
first to be attacked by [fundamentalist] groups were Christians and Catholics,” he
told Vatican News March 20. “Churches were destroyed, and there were many
martyrs.”
Filoni also said that the situation has improved somewhat since the apostolic visit
of Pope Francis to the country in March 2021.
When words aren’t enough — Pope Francis held a private audience at the Vatican March 24 with about 80
people, including many widows and their children, who lost loved ones in one of the two coal mine disasters in
southern Poland in late April 2022. Instead of offering them “words,” the pope said he just wanted to tell them
that “I am close to you” and was praying with them “in this very difficult and terrible situation.” | VATICAN MEDIA
The Codex Sassoon has all 24 books of the Jewish Bible
and is only missing some 12 pages. | MUSEUM OF THE
JEWISH PEOPLE
■ Buy this used Bible
for $30 million
Sotheby’s in New York announced
plans to auction an ancient Hebrew
Bible this May, with bids starting at
$30 million.
The Codex Sassoon, at approximately
1,100 years old, is one of the oldest
nearly complete Hebrew Bibles.
The manuscript is the product of a
movement in the sixth-10th centuries
to annotate the Jewish Scriptures with
instructions on how to correctly recite
words, due to Hebrew’s lack of vowels
and punctuation.
“It’s like the emergence of the biblical
text as we know it today,” Sharon
Liberman Mintz, senior Judaica specialist
at Sotheby’s, told the AP. “It’s so
foundational not only for Judaism, but
also for world culture.”
If sold for its expected price range
of $30 to $50 million, the Codex will
break the record for the most expensive
historical document ever sold: a
1787 copy of the Constitution for $43
million.
4 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

NATION
■ US bishops spell out Church
opposition to trans procedures
A new document from the U.S. bishops’ committee on
doctrine declared that it is “not morally justified” to make
surgical or chemical interventions for sexual identity.
While technological advances have done plenty of good for
human health care, there are “moral limits to technological
manipulation of the human body,” the bishops wrote.
“Neither patients nor physicians nor researchers nor any
other persons have unlimited rights over the body; they must
respect the order and finality inscribed in the embodied
person.”
The document also highlighted a need to show “particular
care” to protect children and adolescents from surgery or
chemical puberty blockers, and acknowledged that “many
people are sincerely looking for ways to respond to real
problems and real suffering” as gender transitions become
more popular.
The statement follows the banning of gender-reassignment
surgery or hormone replacement therapy for children in
Georgia, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Utah.
The loss of a Black Catholic voice — Auxiliary Bishop Fernand (Ferd) J. Cheri
III of New Orleans died March 21 at the age of 71 following a lengthy struggle
with heart and kidney problems. Before being named auxiliary bishop in 2015,
he served as a Franciscan priest in the New Orleans area and was known as a
vocal advocate for African American Catholics — and an enthusiastic singer since
childhood. His death leaves only five active African American Catholic bishops in
the U.S. | OSV NEWS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
Mercy Sister
Rosemary Connelly.
| MATT CASHORE/
UNIVERSITY OF
NOTRE DAME
■ 92-year-old nun, champion
of people with disabilities,
wins Notre Dame Laetare Medal
Sister Rosemary Connelly, RSM, was announced as the
winner of this year’s Laetare Medal from the University of
Notre Dame for her work with people with developmental
disabilities.
Connelly, 92, is the former executive director of Misericordia,
a Chicago-based community that serves more than
600 children and adults with developmental disabilities, and
current chairwoman of the board for the Misericordia Foundation.
She will receive the award May 21 at the school’s
commencement ceremony.
“The Lord has been more than gracious to me,” Connelly
said after the March 19 announcement. “So I’m thankful to
God that we have a Misericordia. It’s a place where the children
are respected and loved and the staff is very committed
to them.”
■ Fire nearly destroys historic
Philadelphia Catholic school
A three-alarm fire left a school with ties to St. John Neumann
unusable March 21.
Our Mother of Consolation (OMC) Church School is
listed on Philadelphia’s register of historic places and was
first opened in 1862 by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The school and accompanying parish church were both
largely funded by philanthropist and Quaker-turned-Catholic
John Middleton, with the approval of St. John Neumann,
then bishop of Philadelphia.
“It was a home where kids felt loved, safe, and embraced,
and where their faith was nurtured,” Father John Fisher,
pastor of OMC, told OSV News.
An investigation is open to determine the cause of the fire,
which caused no serious injuries. Students were moved to a
remote learning system until a temporary location for classes
is found.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
■ Suspect in Bishop
O’Connell murder
pleads not guilty
The man suspected of killing Auxiliary
Bishop David O’Connell in his
Hacienda Heights home pleaded not
guilty at an arraignment hearing on
March 22.
Carlos Medina, 61, was charged with
one felony count of murder and a
special allegation that he used a firearm.
Medina was ordered to remain
in jail in lieu of $2 million bail. His
next scheduled court appearance is
May 17, when a hearing will be set to
determine whether there is sufficient
evidence to require him to stand trial.
If convicted, Medina faces up to 35
years to life in prison.
In a statement, the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles said the arraignment
“marks a next step in the legal process
with the hopes of bringing about
justice and healing from this terrible
tragedy.”
She wore many hats — Epiphany Catholic School
Principal Gabriela Negrete (right) receives a 2023
Distinguished Women of the 56th Assembly District
Award from California State Assemblywoman Lisa
Calderon (left). According to Calderon’s office,
Negrete — who also once attended the school
— was honored as she “proudly took on the role
of janitor, teacher, counselor, and support system
for all who stepped onto her campus. Her passion
knew no bounds as she cleaned restrooms and filled
in for teachers who needed time to themselves.” |
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Civil rights leader honored — Msgr. Frank Hicks (left), pastor of St. Basil Church in Koreatown, Paul Chavez,
Bishop Juan Mendez (Southern Baptist Church), LAPD Chief Michel Moore, and Rev. “J” Edgar Boyd (First AME
Church) offer an invocation at the annual LAPD César E. Chávez Appreciation Brunch on Saturday, March 18,
where civic leaders from all over the city came together to honor the great civil rights leader. | SUBMITTED PHOTO
■ LA
Catholic
high school
students
create art for
cathedral
exhibit
The faith-inspired
art of 60 students
from 12 LA Catholic
high schools is being
showcased at a special
exhibit at the Cathedral
of Our Lady of
the Angels.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez blesses the art displayed as part of
the Robert Graham Memorial Student Art Exhibit on Sunday, March 19, at
the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
The annual Robert Graham Memorial Student Art Exhibit was officially
unveiled Sunday, March 19. Each piece of art also included a short write-up
written by the students about what spirituality means to them.
The exhibit features art from students at 12 high schools in the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles: Bishop Alemany, Bishop Amat, Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary,
Flintridge Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart, La Salle College Preparatory, Louisville,
Mayfield, Notre Dame, Providence, St. Anthony, and St. Paul.
The exhibit will be displayed at the cathedral’s Art Chapel space over the next
several weeks during normal operating hours.
Y
6 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
Thank you, Bishop Dave
I highly commend Angelus for the March 24 tribute issue on Bishop
David O’Connell. It is outstanding on your comprehensive coverage of
Bishop Dave’s life as a humble Irishman and bishop in Los Angeles, covering his
witty, human, family-friendly ministry, and God- and Mary-centered life. O’Connell’s
spirit, humanity, and godliness continues to live among us.
— Sister Mary Sean Hodges, OP, Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP)
Conscience and conversion
I’m concerned that two of the three “main elements of Catholic teaching” cited
by Father Robert V. Caro, SJ, (March 24 issue) in his defense of Cardinal Robert
McElroy’s “radical inclusion” proposal could be wrongly interpreted: “priority of
conscience” and “the Eucharist as a profound grace in our conversion to discipleship.”
For Catholics, following our conscience is not merely a matter of “every man doing
whatever is right in his own eyes.” (Deut. 12:8; Prov. 12:15.) As the Catechism
teaches, conscience “must be informed,” “assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit,”
and “guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.” Wrongful acts based on
errors of conscience are excusable only if one’s ignorance is “invincible” or if he
“is not responsible for his erroneous judgment.”
The Catechism teaches that the Eucharist is a “source and nourishment” for
conversion from daily faults. But, more broadly, “conversion entails both God’s
forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church” through the sacrament of reconciliation.
“The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins — that is
proper to the sacrament of reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament
of those who are in full communion with the Church.” And as we know, “Whoever
… eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be
guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 11:27.)
— Steve Serra, St. Nicholas Church, Laguna Woods
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.
View more photos
from this gallery at
AngelusNews.com/photos-videos
Walking
with Christ
Hundreds of parishioners walk with Los
Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez and
the Blessed Sacrament during the 6-mile
eucharistic procession that went from
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to St. Luke
the Evangelist Church in Temple City, then
back to the mission. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d
like to share? Please send to editorial @angelusnews.com.
“They just straight up
dropped it like a bomb.”
~ Local mother Bartui Merchain, in a March 21 New
York Times report on the March 21-23 strike by Los
Angeles public school employees and teachers.
“Even in the institutional
restraints on those simple
human encounters, the
powerful divine mercy of
Jesus continues to make the
incarnation a redeeming
encounter with God.”
~ Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, in a March 20 OSV
News article on a pastoral visit to death row at San
Quentin State Prison.
“Though I’m deeply, deeply
committed to winning
basketball, I have no
evidence that God is.”
~ Former Methodist bishop and Duke University
faculty member Rev. Will Willimon, in a March
16 Religion News Service article on which college
basketball teams God favors during the NCAA
Tournament.
“My life has purpose, every
single day! Every diaper,
every medical appointment
— my life has purpose.”
~ Vicki Greenan of Northern Virginia, who with her
husband adopted six children from orphanages in
Ukraine, in a March 21 National Catholic Reporter
story.
“The Delta is a hard
soul for the gospel.”
~ Britt Williamson, pastor of First Baptist Church in
Rolling Fork, Mississippi, in a sermon after 25 people
were killed and dozens injured in a March 24 tornado
that struck the lower Mississippi Delta.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronrolheiser.com.
Waiting for the angel to come
The night before he died, Jesus
struggled mightily to accept
his Father’s will. The Gospels
describe him in the Garden of Gethsemane,
prostrate on the ground,
“sweating blood,” and begging his
Father to save him from the brutal
death that awaited him. Then, after
he finally surrenders his will to his
Father, an angel comes and strengthens
him.
This begs a question: where was
the angel when, seemingly, he most
needed it? Why didn’t the angel
come earlier to strengthen him?
Two stories, I believe, can be helpful
in answering this.
The first comes from Martin Luther
King Jr. In the days leading up to his
assassination, he met angry resistance
and began to receive death threats.
He was courageous, but he was also
human. At a point, those threats
got to him. Here is one of his diary
entries.
“One night towards the end of
January, I settled into bed late, after
a strenuous day. Coretta had already
fallen asleep and just as I was about
to doze off the telephone rang. An
angry voice said, ‘Listen, nig.., we’ve
taken all we want from you; before
next week you’ll be sorry you ever
came to Montgomery.’ I hung up,
but I couldn’t sleep. It seemed that
all of my fears had come down on me
at once. I had reached a saturation
point.
“I got out of bed and began to
walk the floor. Finally, I went to the
kitchen and heated a pot of coffee. I
was ready to give up. With my cup of
coffee sitting untouched before me,
I tried to think of a way to move out
of the picture without appearing a
coward.
“In this state of exhaustion, when
my courage had all but gone, I decided
to take my problem to God. With
my head in my hands, I bowed over
the kitchen table and prayed aloud.
The words I spoke to God that midnight
are still vivid in my memory.
“ ‘I am here taking a stand for what
I believe is right. Now I am afraid.
The people are looking to me for
leadership, and if I stand before them
without strength and courage, they
too will falter. I am at the end of
my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve
come to the point where I can’t face
it alone.’ At that moment I experienced
the presence of the Divine as I
had never experienced Him before”
(strive toward freedom).
Notice at what point in his struggle
the angel appears.
In her autobiography, “The Long
Loneliness,” Dorothy Day shares this
story. As a young woman, along with
the man she loved, she had been
somewhat militant in her unbelief.
Indeed, their reluctance to enter the
institution of marriage was meant
as a statement of their nonacceptance
of traditional Christian values.
Then she conceived a child, and its
birth was the beginning of a radical
conversion for her. The joy she felt
holding her baby convinced her that
there was a God and that life had a
loving purpose.
She became a Roman Catholic,
much to the chagrin of the man she
loved, the father of her child. He
gave her an ultimatum: if you have
this child baptized, our relationship
is ended. She had the child baptized
and lost that relationship (though
they continued as friends). However,
she now found herself a single mother
with no job and no real vision or
plan as to where to go now in life.
At one point, she became desperate.
She left the child in the care of others
and took a train from New York
City to the Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception in Washington, D.C. In
her autobiography, she describes how
she prayed that day, how desperate
her prayer was. Like Jesus in Gethsemane
and King in Montgomery,
her prayer was one of raw need and
helplessness, of an admission that she
no longer had the strength to go on.
Essentially, she said this to God: “I
have given up everything for you and
now I am alone and afraid. I don’t
know what to do and am lacking
strength to carry on in this commitment.”
She prayed this prayer of helplessness,
took the train back to New York,
and not long after found Peter Maurin
sitting on her doorstep, telling her
that he had heard about her and that
he had a vision of what she should
now do, namely, to start the Catholic
Worker. That set the path for the rest
of her life. The angel had come and
strengthened her.
Notice at what point in these stories
the angel makes its appearance
— when human strength is fully
exhausted. Why not earlier? Because
up to the point of exhaustion, we
don’t really let the angel in, relying
instead on our own strength. But, as
Trevor Herriot said, “Only after we
have let the desert do its full work
in us will angels finally come and
minister to us.”
8 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

SHUTTERSTOCK
‘God can redeem the broken stuff’
Typically seen as a men’s
problem, pornography addiction
is taking an increasing toll on
women. But these Catholics say
healing is possible.
BY ELISE URENECK
Rachael Killackey, a 25-year-old wife and new mother,
was raised in a devout Catholic household by parents
who reared her with what she calls “a strong moral
code and beautiful faith life.”
As a child, Killackey experienced a few unwanted incidents
with men outside of her family, which “crossed my
boundaries and gave me a confusing lens about sexuality.”
On the cusp of puberty, Killackey stumbled upon pornographic
literature on Pinterest. “I was looking at innocent
content and it just popped up in a tab as ‘related content.’
It turned out to be erotica. I was instantly hooked.”
Looking back, she thinks that viewing pornography gave
her a sense of control over a part of her life that others had
breached.
10 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

Eventually, Killackey developed an addiction that would
plague her for a decade. While she was attending youth
group meetings at her parish, applying to Catholic colleges,
and “sincerely striving for a friendship with Jesus,” she
felt both “duplicitous and confused.”
“Growing up, at home and in church activities, pornography
was talked about as a guy’s problem,” she recalled.
“The whole time I kept thinking, ‘Can women even be
addicted to this stuff?’ ”
• • •
For 24-year-old Annie Heyen, middle school was more
than the typically awkward, tumultuous start of adolescence.
As a pre-teen, Heyen was managing three different clinically
diagnosed eating disorders. “There was this hyperfixation
on my body,” she recalled, “because I wanted to keep
up with my guy friends.” Just as she was turning the corner
in recovery, puberty hit. Her development drew a different
kind of attention from her male peers.
“I wanted to be wanted,” she said, “so I started looking up
online how to be good at that.” The internet served her up
pornography.
She wasn’t alone. “My Catholic school friends and I
would talk about porn like we talked about ‘Wizards of
Waverly Place,’ ” she said. “Looking back, I think it’s crazy
that girls’ youth ministry talks focus on emotional chastity
and things like why we shouldn’t wear crop tops. Porn is
definitely prevalent.”
Heyen began sending nude photos to classmates and uploading
similar pictures to social media sites like Instagram,
Snapchat, and OnlyFans, a subscriber-based site.
“I was in the depths of it,” she said. “Just hours and hours
a day. It was just an empty sort of place for me.”
• • •
Annie Heyen.
| MAGDALA
Four months into her marriage, Casey Allison discovered
her husband’s pornography addiction. By then, she and her
husband were serving as Protestant missionaries in Cambodia.
For the next 16 years, she searched for help. “I tried
talking with peers, regular LPC’s (licensed professional
counselors), and support groups,” she said. Despite knowing
other women in the same circumstance, no one could
help her understand what she was going through.
Allison described suffering what therapists now classify as
“betrayal trauma,” or the condition that affects the partner
of a pornography or sex-addicted spouse.
Consumption of pornography by
females is linked to higher levels
of body dissatisfaction, increased
self-objectification, and greater
acceptance of sexist beliefs.
The condition manifests itself similarly to post traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) — brain fog, sleeplessness, anger,
avoidance, and withdrawal are all commonly experienced.
However, Allison said that the trouble with comparing
betrayal trauma to PTSD is that partners who are still in
their relationships “are not post-anything.”
“They’re still in the trauma,” she said. “The inability to
make decisions, the emotional abuse, and manipulation
are still ongoing. Trying to think your way out of that,
trying to educate yourself is nearly impossible.”
• • •
Killackey, Heyen, and Allison are among tens of thousands
of women directly affected by pornography addiction,
the scale of which has driven mental health professionals
to classify it as a public health crisis.
Yet their stories rarely receive attention. The bulk of
scholarship and literature on the subject focuses on males,
who are the largest group of addicts, ranging from pre-teens
to seniors.
According to Peter Kleponis, Ph.D., a Catholic licensed
professional counselor specializing in pornography and
sex-addiction therapy who practices outside of Philadelphia,
nearly one-third of the 30,000 internet users viewing
pornography every second are women.
“Women experience a high degree of shame around it,
so they’re hesitant to get help,” he said. “We’ve come to
expect that men are going to struggle with this, but we too
easily label women all sorts of horrible things if they do.”
According to data gathered by Covenant Eyes, a program
that provides filtering and accountability services
for persons trying to recover from porn addictions, 16% of
31-49-year-old women and 4% of 50-68-year-old women
report viewing pornography at least once a month. Yet
when it comes to 18-30-year-olds, the number jumps to
76%, meaning Killackey and Heyen are part of a larger,
worrisome trend.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 11

An accountability
gap in marriage?
A
2017 study from the Institute for Family
Studies found that among dating, engaged,
and married couples, the number of women
who reported that their partner was not using
pornography was “notably higher than the number
of men reporting no use in the corresponding
relationship commitment type.”
Mary-Rose and Ryan Verret, founders of the
Catholic marriage prep program Witness to Love,
said that they see this tendency to conceal pornography
use by one partner from the other when
engaged couples fill out inventories, or questionnaires,
on a variety of topics.
“Almost 100% of the time, the woman is one point
off when it comes to her fiance’s porn use,” Mary-
Rose said, meaning that she might report “rarely
uses,” when he self-reports “regularly uses.”
“Many men tend to treat the opportunity like a
confession, hoping that the priest will help him to
finally address it with his fiancee,” she said.
Thankfully, they do see couples work through the
issue. “It takes accountability and accompaniment
for a man to overcome his addiction for himself
and his marriage,” Ryan said. “Men need good,
lifelong friends who are going to walk with them. It
can’t be the spouse who’s doing that.”
— Elise Ureneck
SHUTTERSTOCK
“This is largely accepted among teens as something
normal,” Kleponis said, “in part because it’s so accessible.”
He added that today’s pornography is some of the most
addictive ever produced. “The type of material out there is
more addictive than crack cocaine,” he said. “There’s no
gateway drug. It’s just devastating.”
Kleponis, who is the founder of Integrity Restored, a
Catholic organization that supports individuals, couples,
and families affected by pornography, said that both boys
and girls are typically exposed at around 8 or 9 years old,
either accidentally or out of curiosity.
“I cringe when I see parents give their 10-year-old a
smartphone,” he said. “We have these safe environment
programs in place in our churches and schools, but parents
have no idea who their kids are interacting with online.”
Kleponis said that women typically become addicted to
the romantic or relational aspect of pornography, some
meeting up in person with people they have been anonymously
communicating with online.
Researchers said that increased consumption of pornography
by females is linked to higher levels of body dissatisfaction,
increased self-objectification, and greater acceptance
of sexist beliefs, including sex-based violence. Experts say
it is also correlated with depression, loneliness, and lower
relationship satisfaction.
The data is equally grim when it comes to women who
discover their partners’ pornography use. The Institute for
Family Studies reported that in the general population,
nearly one-third of engaged and married women view
pornography as a form of marital infidelity, while a “sizable
portion of men and women” agree that it “objectifies and
degrades.”
• • •
When it comes to women and pornography, the consensus
is that the Church’s understanding of the issue and
pastoral efforts are wanting. Some American Catholics are
trying to change that.
After he began to educate parents of high school students
on the problem of pornography, Father Sean Kilcawley,
director of the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of
Lincoln, Nebraska, and the theological adviser for Integrity
Restored, started getting regularly approached by wives
who had discovered their husband’s addiction.
“They were trying to go through it themselves,” he said,
noting that they wouldn’t tell their families or members of
their women’s groups so as not to alienate their husbands.
“This is the most neglected population in the Church
when it comes to pornography. They suffer in silence.”
In his quest to alleviate their suffering, Kilcawley discovered
Bloom for Women, an online resource founded by
Kevin Skinner, LMFT, which educates women on betrayal
trauma and provides resources to jumpstart their healing
process. Kilcawley partnered with Skinner to produce
a Catholic version of the resource, known as Bloom for
Catholic Women.
That website turned everything around for Allison and
12 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

Rachael Killackey.
| MAGDALA
her family. Just as her desperation was at its max, Allison
stumbled upon Kilcawley’s videos.
“It was the first time I’d ever heard that if sexual intimacy
wasn’t unitive, it wasn’t healthy,” Allison said. Soon after,
she converted to Catholicism and found the courage to get
professional help for herself and her nine children. Her
husband also found support to begin his own recovery.
While she said that Bloom is “an invaluable first step”
in educating betrayed spouses on what they are going
through, healing “takes a village” — including certified
sex addiction therapists, friends, family members, parish
support groups, and physicians.
“If your house is on fire, you don’t
need to do the laundry. This is
serious, and you deserve help. “
Today, Allison works as a betrayal trauma specialist with
the Association of Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists,
where she does one-on-one coaching with clients and
runs support groups, two of which are Catholic.
When asked what advice she’d give to a woman who has
discovered her husband’s porn addiction, she said, “If your
house is on fire, you don’t need to do the laundry. This is
serious, and you deserve help. Your children deserve help.”
Killackey and Heyen both attribute their recovery to God’s
grace and particular conversion moments during their
college years. “Once I realized Jesus went all in for me, I
knew I had to do the same for him,” Heyen said.
They said that understanding the root causes of their
addictions as well as their triggers has been essential in
staying sober.
“Pornography addictions are intimacy disorders,” Kleponis
noted. “Women in particular need those intimacy wounds
healed to break free from the addiction.”
“The problem is that many people, especially in the
Church, view this as a moral failure more than a disease,”
he said. “We need to follow the example of what Alcoholics
Anonymous did and educate people on what this actually
is.”
One place Killackey and Heyen insist the Church can
do better is in confession. “I’ve had mixed reactions from
priests,” Killackey said. “I’ve had a priest ask me if I was
cursed, because ‘women your age don’t get involved in this
stuff,’ but I’ve also had priests speak to my heart and tell me
how much I’m a beloved daughter of God.”
Telling their story to other young women on college
campuses and in youth ministry work has also helped their
healing process. After giving a series of talks on her addiction
during college, Killackey had dozens of female peers
approach her, usually covertly, to share their own stories.
While still an undergraduate at Ave Maria University in
Ave Maria, Florida, she founded Magdala ministries, a firstof-its-kind
Catholic program for female addicts.
Magdala’s curriculum and support groups have reached
1,000 women in 25 countries and are expanding on college
campuses across the country. Because the demand is so
great, she left her job to commit to the work full time.
After hearing Killackey talk about Magdala on a podcast
hosted by Matt Fradd, a well-known Catholic personality
who addresses porn addictions, Heyen called Killackey,
told her her story, and offered her help. In addition to
working as a youth minister with Damascus Catholic
Mission in Ohio, Heyen serves as Magdala’s administrative
coordinator.
Marriage and motherhood have helped free Killackey
from the guilt and shame she carried for so long. She said
that her addiction “feels so small compared to the glory of
what God has done for me.”
As for Heyen, she’s decided to turn her pain into purpose.
“I became a registered dietician, and now I accompany
young women who are trying to break free from porn,” she
said. “So yeah, God can redeem even the broken stuff.”
But she insisted that the Church has a long way to go.
“We have got to bring this topic into the light and talk
about it openly,” she insisted. “Satan loves darkness and
isolation. He can’t stand the light.”
Elise Italiano Ureneck is a communications consultant
writing from Rhode Island.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 13

From left: Dr. Nabil El Sayad, Deacon Kevin McCardle, Josie Hull, Archbishop José H. Gomez, Siena Dancsecs, Mike Smith, and Tim Smith. | BELLE N’ BEAU PHOTOGRAPHY
Gifts to the community
This year’s Cardinal’s Awards recipients included a recently ordained
deacon and the event’s youngest-ever honorees.
BY TOM HOFFARTH
Six people were honored as “extraordinary
Catholics” in front of more
than 600 guests at the 33rd annual
Cardinal’s Awards Dinner at the Beverly
Hilton Hotel March 11.
Deacon Kevin McCardle (St. Monica
Church in Santa Monica) and Dr.
Nabil El Sayad (St. Lawrence Martyr
Church in Redondo Beach) were
recognized together with two pairs of
parishioners from St. Bede the Venerable
Church in La Cañada Flintridge:
Brothers Mike and Tim Smith, and
close friends Josie Hull and Siena
Dancsecs.
The night also included a video tribute
to Bishop David O’Connell produced
by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’
Digital Team. “Bishop Dave,” who was
killed last February at his home, served
as the host of the Cardinal’s Awards in
2020 when Archbishop Gomez was
unable to attend due to illness.
Funds raised from the 2023 event
benefitted two charities dedicated to
helping women and children dealing
with homelessness and healing from
domestic violence: Catholic Charities of
LA’s Good Shepherd Shelter and Good
Shepherd Center for Homeless Women
and Children, both located near LA’s
Echo Park area.
Kevin McCardle has served St.
Monica as a permanent deacon since
his ordination last summer. But many
already knew him as president of the
reimagined St. Monica Preparatory, as
St. Monica this school year combined
its elementary and high school to form
a TK-12th grade school.
McCardle took the role after retiring
as director of UCLA’s Anderson School
of Business MBA program. He has
served on the financial advisory board
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
Los Angeles Province and the board
of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo.
For the last 14 years, McCardle has
16 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

also been board chair (and a volunteer)
for the nonprofit St. Joseph Center
in Venice, one of the most prolific
outreach facilities in the country for
homeless issues.
“He is a man of integrity, with a great
mind for education and a heart for the
Lord,” said St. Monica pastor Msgr.
Lloyd Torgerson. “When you get that
combination in a person, it’s an incredible
gift to the community.”
Dr. Nabil El Sayad is a native of
Egypt who can testify that witnessing
the vision of the Virgin Mary over the
dome of the Coptic Orthodox Church
of St. Mary near Cairo with thousands
of others in 1968 profoundly changed
his life as a 20-year-old.
In 1998, 13 years after arriving in
Southern California from New York
with his medical degree, El Sayad
launched his nonprofit St. Mary’s
Foundation in Lomita, near his two
practice facilities. His first outreach was
with the Sts. Peter and Paul Poverty
Program in Wilmington. Lately, it has
supported the move of the Juan Diego
House for priestly formation to the
renamed Queen of Angels Center in
Torrance.
In between, his foundation has
worked with Sister Ena Maguire and
the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny to
find opportunities for assistance as far
away as Africa, Romania, and India.
“Wherever God sends us, we go,” said
El Sayad. “I think it is a message from
God to be aware of how people live,
and the help they need.”
Mike and Tim Smith followed in the
footsteps of their father, local car sales
legend Bob Smith Jr., who received
the Cardinal’s Award in 1991, and their
oldest brother, Rob, who received it in
1998.
Turning 79 this August, Mike’s successes
are noted in his work on the St.
Francis High School board, fundraising
for the Dolores Mission Church in
East LA, and integrating his business
with the Verbum Dei Jesuit High
School student work program, and the
delight he has in serving Communion
to the homebound.
Younger brother Tim, who just turned
77, had a near-decade-long run as the
chair of the Catholic Education Foundation.
He has also sat on the boards
for Holy Family Adoption Services, his
alma mater at Santa Clara University
and the parish council at St. Bede the
Venerable Church, his home parish.
“The messages in our family life were
consistent with what we were taught
at all levels,” said Tim, who along
with Mike graduated from Loyola
High School of LA. “That education,
having a foundation of moral thinking,
remained throughout. Doing things for
others was strong all the way through.”
Josie Hull and Siena Dancsecs: In
2014, when they were both 12 years
old, the pair enlisted their parents to
create a nonprofit called Once Upon
A Room, dedicated to decorating
hospital rooms and lift the spirits of
young patients facing long-term illness.
Their work has stressed the importance
of recognizing beneficiaries for who
they are rather than simply for their
diagnoses.
Hull and her twin sister, Teresa, came
from Guatemala to the U.S. in 2002
as 1-year-olds conjoined at the head.
A 23-hour surgery at UCLA separated
them, but the two needed to stay in
LA for long-term treatment and were
adopted by two families in La Cañada
and Valencia.
Dancsecs, now a junior at Texas
Christian University, has been friends
with Hull since age 5. The project has
expanded from Southern California to
more than two dozen hospitals around
the country, with more than 5,000
rooms decorated.
At 21 years old, they are the youngest-ever
Cardinal’s Award recipients.
“They can be like young girls we
have seen in the Church over the
century — St. Clelia Barbieri, St.
Agatha of Sicily — who were willing
to sacrifice for Christ, Msgr. Antonio
Cacciapuoti, their longtime pastor
at St. Bede and now the pastor at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
“We see the ability of Josie and Siena
to allow Christ to be among us.”
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 17

A spectacle on the streets
Archbishop Gomez led more than 1,000 Catholics in bringing their love
for the Eucharist to the streets of the San Gabriel Valley.
BY NATALIE ROMANO / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN
Archbishop José H. Gomez incenses the monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament during
eucharistic adoration outside St. Luke Church in Temple City. More than 1,000 people processed
six miles from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to the parish and back March 25.
With the Blessed Sacrament held high, Archbishop
José H. Gomez led more than 1,000 Catholics
carrying flags, rosaries, and an abundance of spirit
out of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and onto the streets
of the San Gabriel Valley March 25.
The Saturday morning event was unlike any other in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ history, planned as part of the
National Eucharistic Revival underway at the prompting of
the country’s bishops.
“Hey, Christ is alive!” called out Teodora Magluyan, a
parishioner of St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Temple
City. “The power of God is so amazing. … This is my
opportunity to tell the world.”
Dozens of priests, sisters, and seminarians helped lead the
procession, which traveled 3 miles east to St. Luke The
Evangelist Church in Temple City and then back to the
historic mission. Among them was Auxiliary Bishop Marc
Trudeau of the San Pedro Pastoral Region.
Along the tree-lined streets of the San Gabriel Valley,
walkers trailed the monstrance that was transported on a
trailer filled with white and yellow roses. A second trailer
carried musicians who led the crowd in song. Residents
came outside to peek at the spectacle; some waved, some
prayed, some just stared. And that’s exactly what organizers
wanted.
“Many people are going to see us that don’t come to
church, that may not be Catholic, that don’t know anything
about this,” said Father Juan Ochoa, director of the
Office for Divine Worship for the archdiocese, before the
event. “Hopefully that will create a curiosity … what are
they doing?”
The day, which coincided with the annual feast of the An-
18 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

The Blessed Sacrament was carried on a trailer filled with roses during
most of the procession through the streets of San Gabriel and Temple City.
nunciation, started with Mass in the mission chapel. The
crowd was so large, some worshippers had to stand outside.
During his homily, Archbishop Gomez noted that it was
Mary who made the first eucharistic procession when she
carried Jesus in her womb. An event like today’s, he told
the crowd, was an opportunity to renew their “amazement”
at the extraordinary gift of the holy Eucharist.
“Let us give our lives to Jesus, as he gave his life for us,”
said Archbishop Gomez. “And as he changes the bread and
wine into his body and blood, let us allow Jesus to change
our hearts and to give us new zeal to announce him to
people of our times.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops began to plan
the three-year-long revival following concern about a 2019
Pew Research Study that found that most Catholics don’t
believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the host and
wine used in the Eucharist. Additionally, the bishops recognized
that COVID-19 closures left some Catholics feeling
disconnected from their church. Israel Miranda was one of
them.
“During the pandemic, I kind of lost my faith since
everything was closed down,” acknowledged Miranda, a
parishioner of St. Clare of Assisi Church in Santa Clarita.
“After the world opened back up, I realized how much we
needed Christ in our everyday lives, so I wanted to come
out and celebrate that.
“The revival has brought my faith to a higher level,” he
added.
Also being celebrated at the event was the late Bishop
David O’Connell, who helped oversee this part of the
archdiocese for seven years until he was killed in his Hacienda
Heights home last month. Staff from his San Gabriel
Pastoral Region office carried a banner with his picture as
they walked through the region he once oversaw. Nancy
Juarez, the bishop’s receptionist of more than six years, said
the procession would have made him happy.
“This was his passion,” explained Juarez as she touched
the memorial button on her shirt. “He loved Our Lord and
he loved being in front of the Blessed Sacrament. … I’m
sure he’s smiling up in heaven.”
During the stop at St. Luke, the Blessed Sacrament was
exposed as the pilgrims knelt, prayed, and sang in the
A man kneels before the Blessed Sacrament outside
St. Luke Church in Temple City March 25.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 19

parish parking lot. Some in the crowd participated in perpetual
adoration, taking turns during the day and night at
their respective parishes to adore the Eucharist. For Ruben
Lopez, the practice has become the source of his faith —
and his sobriety.
“Something was always pushing me to get closer and
closer to the Lord,” said Lopez with his daughter Yeraldi
translating. “By focusing on the Eucharist I was able to
let go of my drinking problem … I built my faith on the
Eucharist and that’s why I’m here.”
For Mayra Rodarte, the day was about giving her daughter
something she herself never had growing up: a strong
Local members of the Nocturnal Adoration
Society walked at the front of the procession.
religious foundation. The pair, dressed in matching outfits,
became Catholics within the last few years.
“I didn’t grow up in a faith like this and I want to make
sure she does,” said Rodarte, a parishioner at St. Joseph
Church in Hawthorne. “I want her to have hope and purpose
… so many young people don’t.”
The event signals the wind down of the revival’s first year,
which officially ends in June. Father Ochoa said its results
have been “mixed”: Those who attended events were “happy
and spiritually nourished,” but he’d like to see wider
participation.
While the first year of the initiative emphasizes participation
at the diocesan level, the second focuses on the parish.
The Office for Divine Worship is asking every church in
the archdiocese to hold a eucharistic procession for the
feast of Corpus Christi on June 8. The third and final year
concludes with a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis,
Indiana.
When the procession and Benediction were over, volunteers
at St. Luke packed up leftover bottles of water and
sliced oranges. Luis Valdez, confirmation coordinator at
the parish, felt invigorated about the goals of the revival.
“It makes me want to go out and tell other Catholics …
this is not make-believe! It’s the actual body and blood of
Christ and it’s the center of our faith.”
Natalie Romano is a freelance writer for Angelus and the
Inland Catholic Byte, the news website of the Diocese of
San Bernardino.

A poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping hangs next to a crucifix
on the wall of the house of a Tibetan Catholic in China’s Yunnan
province in 2018. | CNS/TYRONE SIU, REUTERS
How Rome sees Beijing
A sensitive approach to the world’s most populous country runs
deep in the Vatican’s diplomatic DNA.
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME — Though it really
shouldn’t, it seems to have
surprised some observers that
Vatican officials recently had positive
things to say about China, despite
concerns over religious freedom, human
rights, and President Xi Jinping’s
ever cozier relationship with Vladimir
Putin.
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
the Vatican’s secretary of state, told
reporters March 14 that Rome looks at
Sino-Vatican ties with “an attitude of
hope” regarding a dialogue that “both
sides want to continue.”
Meanwhile, British Archbishop Paul
Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister,
recently told EWTN that despite
difficulties with a controversial deal
regarding the appointment of Catholic
bishops in the country, he’s optimistic
about a “greater understanding, a greater
respect between the two parties.”
At the same time Western officials
were expressing alarm over Jinping’s
summit with Putin, coverage in the
Vatican’s state-owned media was
neutral to positive, stressing hope that a
Chinese peace plan for Ukraine might
lead to talks for a negotiated settlement.
While the process certainly has accelerated
under Pope Francis, improving
ties with Beijing has been a diplomatic
priority for every pope since the Communist
takeover of the country in 1949.
It was under Pope John Paul II, for
instance, that Cardinal Angelo Sodano,
then the secretary of state, famously
declared the Vatican would close its
embassy in Taiwan “not tomorrow
but today” if Beijing would consent to
diplomatic relations.
This pro-China push in the Vatican
has deep roots.
First, history matters. To this day,
many in the Vatican feel regret for
the Chinese rites controversy in the
17th and 18th centuries, seeing it as
a missed opportunity to forge a truly
Chinese expression of Catholicism.
22 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

The resulting sense that the Church’s
approach must be more deferential and
respectful of China’s cultural identity
is powerful — all the more so under a
Jesuit pope who recently declared Matteo
Ricci “venerable,” and for whom
the legacy of the great Jesuit missionary
to China can’t help but condition his
outlook.
Second, the Vatican’s China policy is
also about realpolitik.
The Vatican takes its unique status as
a sovereign state extremely seriously,
seeing it as key to its ability to act as a
voice of conscience in global affairs. If
the Vatican wants to move the diplomatic
ball, it cannot afford to ignore or
alienate the emerging superpower of
the 21st century, a country which, all
by itself, represents almost one-fifth of
the human population.
It’s one thing to take a critical line toward
the religious freedom and human
rights policies in say, North Korea or
Eritrea, and quite another to condemn
a country which already has the world’s
largest military and soon will have the
world’s largest economy.
Third, the Vatican is among the
world’s smallest sovereign states, with
only a nominal standing army in the
Swiss Guard and no real economy to
speak of. By definition, if it is to matter
internationally, it can only do so in a
multilateral world.
As a result, the Vatican has a comfort
level regarding the rise of Beijing as
a rival to Washington, D.C., which
other traditionally Western powers and
allies don’t necessarily share. When
Putin was told that “China will work
with Russia to uphold true multilateralism,
promote a multipolar world,
and greater democracy in international
relations,” it’s the sort of rhetoric that
plays well in Vatican circles. That’s
especially so under history’s first pope
from the developing world, for whom
multilateralism is both a geopolitical
and a biographical imperative.
Fourth, the Vatican’s diplomatic freedom
of movement is more constrained
than, say, the United States, for the
simple reason that President Joe Biden
doesn’t have to worry about a large
population of Americans living inside
Chinese borders. Counting expats and
immigrants, there are maybe 100,000
Americans in China today, most of
whom probably could be evacuated if
push ever came to shove.
By way of contrast, there are roughly
13 million Catholics in China, who
aren’t going anywhere. A pope therefore
always has to consider what the
fallout from his words or deeds may be
for those vulnerable members of his
own flock.
Fifth, the Vatican has always been
alarmed about the split between an
official Church in China tolerated by
the government and an underground
community, because it creates the
prospect of schism. The breakaway
faction includes illicitly, yet validly,
ordained Catholic bishops — meaning
clergy Rome is constrained by its own
theology to recognize as real bishops,
even if they lack the pope’s permission
to act as such.
Almost nothing stirs Vatican nightmares
like schism, and any pope would
feel compelled to bend over backward
to try to end it.
Sixth and finally, the Vatican also
faces evangelical considerations.
Experts in religious demography today
say China is the last great missionary
frontier on earth, with a burgeoning
population, a deep spiritual hunger
after 70 years of state-imposed atheism,
and no dominant religious tradition.
Some calculations are that the 13 million
Catholics in China could easily
become 130 million within a generation
if there were an opening.
Religious orders and Catholic movements
periodically hold closed-door
conferences in Rome to strategize for
the “evangelization of China,” just
waiting for a political deal that would
clear the ground, and the Vatican
would be hesitant to set back that
prospect.
In sum, while Francis has dialed
up the Vatican’s policy of outreach
to Beijing, he didn’t invent it, and it
almost certainly won’t end with him.
It’s part of the physiognomy of Vatican
diplomacy, which doesn’t seem likely
to mutate anytime soon.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 23

Time to
do better
It’s time for Catholics
to take a hard look at
who they partner with
in post-Roe v. Wade
America.
BY CHARLIE CAMOSY
Well over half of abortions
in the United States now
take place via RU-486, the
so-called abortion pill. This percentage
was likely to increase before the Dobbs
decision, but with many states now
doing more to protect prenatal justice
by restricting abortion, the turn toward
abortion-via-pill will almost certainly
become even more dramatic. And
sinister.
An October 2022 Washington Post
story reported on the underground networks
forming to get women abortion
pills with little-or-no medical oversight.
One “abortion doula,” for instance, apparently
uses text messages to counsel
women who are sent these dangerous
drugs via such networks on how to take
them.
One physician’s testimony, as recently
quoted by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier
Institute, is particularly haunting:
“I’ve performed at least a dozen
surgeries on women who experienced
complications when the abortion pills
failed. I’ve cared for several women
who took mifepristone and misoprostol
and required blood transfusions or
treatment for severe infections, and I’ve
counseled women who experienced
significant emotional distress after
viewing the body of their easily identifiable
child in the toilet.”
These networks often distribute the
abortion pill several weeks after the
FDA limit of 10 weeks of gestation,
making the fact that a baby is killed in
this process harder for more women
to ignore. As even an abortion doula
quoted in the Post story acknowledged,
“I try to emotionally prepare them and
say, ‘It’s going to look like a baby.’ ”
Significantly, because such abortions
are now illegal in some states, women
using these services must “figure out
SHUTTERSTOCK
how to surreptitiously dispose of the
remains.” The abortion doula said she
“often sends a small amount of acid
so the client can dissolve some of the
fetus, and bury whatever is left.”
Some pharmacies, like Walgreens,
will offer the abortion pill in some
states — but will not in other states
where it is illegal or otherwise unwelcome.
That has provoked a significant
backlash, including from Gov. Gavin
Newsom of California, who has vowed
not to renew the state’s $54 million
contract with Walgreens. “California is
on track to be the fourth largest economy
in the world,” Newsom said, “and
we will leverage our market power to
defend the right to choose.”
But CVS, the country’s largest
pharmacy chain, has not made such
a pledge. That raises questions about
whether they have caved (or will cave)
to financial pressure from abortion
extremists.
This itself should be enough for
pro-life organizations to reconsider
their relationships with companies like
CVS/Caremark. But it’s not an isolated
episode.
In 2018, the company also decided to
use the disturbing “Quality-Adjusted
Life Year” (QALY) metric for rationing
their drugs, saying they “allow clients
24 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

to exclude any drug launched at a
price greater than $100,000 per QALY
from their plan.” So if a drug, in their
estimation, would only give a patient
one more year of “perfect” quality of
life, and it cost more than $100,000, it
would be denied.
And this is even worse than it sounds
— for the “quality adjusted” part
means that whoever has power here
can decide that a disabled life is worth
less. Perhaps the person in need of the
drug has Down syndrome or a massive
head injury that has affected quality of
life. The person in power could decide
that this would be cause to deny such
people drugs based on cost as well.
Say a “normal” person would likely
live five more years with a particular
drug — if that person were instead
considerably disabled, then they could
multiply those five years by, say, 0.2
(reflecting only 20% quality of life) and
they would only get one “quality-adjusted”
year into the system.
These horrific assaults on human dignity
and fundamental human equality
are such that any Catholic person or
organization has a duty to cease formal
relationships with CVS/Caremark if
other options are reasonably available.
Many Catholic institutions, for
instance, use them as their Pharmacy
Benefits Manager — an unacceptably
formal and intimate relationship. Sure,
CVS does more than dispense the
abortion pill and deny disabled people
drugs. But Planned Parenthood does
more than perform abortions and provide
contraception — and Catholics
would rightly never allow a formal and
intimate relationship with them.
There are other options and organizations
like the Catholic Benefits
Association (in addition to helping protect
the religious freedom of Catholic
organizations more generally) that can
help one find cost-effective access to
benefits that avoid unacceptable moral
entanglements.
Catholic organizations can do better.
We must do better.
Charlie Camosy is professor of
Medical Humanities at the Creighton
University School of Medicine. In addition,
he holds the Monsignor Curran
Fellowship in Moral Theology at St.
Joseph Seminary in New York.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 25

Hollywood gets anxious
With awards season over, two film geeks break down last year’s most
important movies into philosophical double features.
BY HANNAH LONG AND JOSEPH JOYCE
Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in “The
Banshees of Inisherin.” | ROTTEN TOMATOES
The biggest films of 2022 share
little aesthetic continuity
— there were candy-bright
superhero epics and whimsical black
comedies, and desaturated war movies
— but as we were considering them
collectively, we were struck by common
themes.
These are stories about a civilizational
crisis of confidence, a gnawing worry
that greatness is nothing more than a
tool for bullies, that parents can pass
nothing to their children. While some
films offer hope that icons can be
humbled and come through it more
human and heroic, others are haunted
by specters, prompting the biggest
question: How do we use our time
here? To that end, we decided to look
at films in pairs, seeing what light they
shed on each other.
‘RRR’ / ‘Black Panther: Wakanda
Forever’
Hannah Long: “RRR” is a movie for
people who think “The Patriot” was too
nice to the British and could have used
more musical numbers. The movie
never lets pesky little things like historical
accuracy or the laws of physics
interfere with spectacle and emotion.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
sounds similar to the Tollywood epic
on paper: heroes fight colonial oppressors
through CGI-enhanced superfeats.
But there’s a sharp contrast between
“RRR’s” bonkers overconfidence and
uncomplicated ambition and “Black
Panther’s” clutter of characters mired
in grief, self-doubt, and vengefulness.
The latter franchise can’t avoid the
fact that it’s devoted to mourning its
late leading man (Chadwick Boseman,
who died of cancer in 2020), but the
uncertainty of heroic succession at the
end of the story leaves us unsettled.
Anxiety over power — the use of it,
the abuse of it, the conveying or surrendering
of it — permeates this year’s
slate of films. Consider the “en vogue”
eat-the-rich genre.
‘Triangle of Sadness’ / ‘The Menu’
Joseph Joyce: Oscar nominee “Tri-
26 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

angle of Sadness” and “The Menu”
are an easy pair. As Hannah pointed
out, the most common theme this year
was “eat the rich,” and these two were
flagships of that particular fleet. Thankfully,
that theme was not as literal as
the latter’s title implies. The films both
even finish on remote islands, where
the themes have the legroom to stretch
and get as broad as possible. But while
similar, they differ on exactly who to
blame.
“Triangle of Sadness” sees our
current class caste as primal instinct.
When given a chance to start over, the
shipwrecked crew instead recreates
the system. The totem pole has been
restacked, but the same base greed
stacks us just the same.
“The Menu” also gives a flinty squint
at the rich but keeps the blame closer
to home. Ralph Fiennes’ temperamental
chef impugns his wealthy clientele
for corrupting his art, but knows it’s his
own fault for trying to impress those
without taste. Fat cats are always going
to be fat, but it doesn’t mean you have
to rub their belly.
‘Tár’ / ‘Banshees of Inisherin’
Hannah Long: The emotional fallout
of isolation and rejection within a
community can be devastating, and
it’s represented by these films in a
ghoulish, deathly fashion — ghosts
and banshees. “Cancel culture,” like
“wokeness,” has become a bit of a
content-free term these days.
Films like “Tár” and “Banshees” are
about “cancellations” of a sort, but by
putting flesh on the bones of allegory,
they help us push beyond stale partisan
debates to bigger questions, like: Can
a striving for greatness ever leave the
“little people” unscathed? Can we
ever banish the ghosts of our unloved
neighbors?
‘The Batman’ / ‘Decision to Leave’
Joseph Joyce: In a world of Marvel
cinematic overload, there are more
obvious films to compare with “The
Batman.” But Park Chan-wook’s eerie
romance thriller makes for an odd
but effective pairing: It’s like fish with
white wine, or pineapple on pizza.
Both feature detectives (one dressed
slightly less like a bat) who are abstracted
from the crime they solve. Robert
Pattinson’s Batman is more interested
in vengeance than justice, while for
homicide Detective Jang Hae-joon,
solving the case is primarily about
satisfying his ego. They see themselves
as above sin, which makes them good
at their jobs but not necessarily good at
humanity.
It takes a literal dalliance with the
criminal element to bring them back
down to earth. Batman’s schoolboy
crush on Catwoman invests him in her
own quest for revenge. But by gazing
into this vengeful mirror, he can’t
help but see the beam in his own eye.
Everyone has suffered, and merely
punishing those responsible won’t salve
or solve anything.
Detective Jang is finally put on the
backfoot when he starts to fall in love
with a murder suspect, and his neat
line between good and evil is smeared
irrevocably. This new empathy helps
him solve more cases, but such success
is more pyrrhic when you now understand
the love that makes people ruin
their lives. Love is the great leveler for
both of our detectives. Sometimes the
only way to be a part of a solution is
to remember that you are part of the
problem, that problem being humanity.
‘The Fabelmans’ / ‘Nope’
Hannah Long: “You do what your
heart says you have to. Because you
don’t owe anyone your life.” So says
Steven Spielberg’s mom, fictionalized
here as “Mitzi Fabelman.” She’s not
Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, and Ke
Huy Quan in “Everything Everywhere
All At Once.” | ROTTEN TOMATOES
blind to the wreckage that this creed
will make of their family life, but the
call of the 1960s — just around the
corner — is too strong to resist.
What’s interesting about “The Fabelmans,”
though, is its ambivalence
about following your dreams. Mitzi is
the more charismatic parent, but her
solid husband, Burt, gets to voice a
message just as important: “You can’t
just love something. You also have to
take care of it.”
Similarly, “Nope,” Jordan Peele’s
latest offering, treats artistic ambition,
and the obsessive control it demands,
with leeriness. Cameras are enchanted
pools, sucking us in through our desire
for fame and power. Wisdom is in
looking away, much like Indiana Jones
advises Marion Ravenwood. Reverence
for the uncontrollable is the only way
to survive.
‘Ambulance’ / ‘Broker’
Joseph Joyce: Perhaps the only way to
test auteur theory is to give two directors
the same script and see how they
diverge. That nearly happens with Michael
Bay’s “Ambulance” and Hirokazu
Kore-eda’s “Broker.” Each involves
a crime gone wrong, a bank robbery in
the former and human trafficking in
the latter. And each has the police in
hot pursuit most of the time.
Bay dresses the plot in a firework show
of explosions and carnage, proverbially
known as “Bay-hem.” It’s spectacular
entertainment, with drone shots plunging
off Los Angeles skyscrapers. It’s like
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 27

getting punched in the stomach in the
best way possible.
But “Broker” is more daring in that it
takes a crackerjack thriller premise and
turns into something far more humanistic.
The motley crew of human
traffickers soon fall in love with the
baby they’re trying to sell on the black
market, and their fleeing from the
authorities takes on the languid pace of
a family road trip. Neither interpretation
is wrong, that’s just the breadth of
cinema.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ / ‘Everything
Everywhere All at Once’
Hannah Long: The two biggest films
of the year are about aging mentors
having midlife crises, but offer drastically
divergent eschatological visions.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
uses the device of a “multiverse” to envision
a meaningless world of infinite
chance. A young woman’s frightened
rebellion against this emptiness is answered
by her parents’ message to “be
kind” and “cherish these few specks of
time” when “any of this actually makes
sense.” The good news has arrived and
it is “we can do whatever we want.
Nothing matters.”
“Top Gun: Maverick” is also a world
of repetition and cycles, but it is more
like “Groundhog Day” — purgatorial
time loops instead of infinite possibilities.
Even if Pete “Maverick” Mitchell
isn’t, according to the Sonny Bunch
theory (a reference to the popular
Washington Post film critic), dead
from the first scene of the movie and
working his way to heaven, mortality
dominates his life. He is told plainly
that his time is over. However, this
is a film of ecstatic hope: Maverick
recovers his self-respect and passes
on his lessons to the next generation,
urging them to abandon safetyism for
calculated risk.
• • •
As we asked at the beginning, what
exactly is the best use of our time on
Earth? We concluded that, at least for
the two of us, it was to watch a lot of
movies that did the pondering for us.
Hannah Long is an Appalachian
writer based in New York City. Joseph
Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance
critic based in Sherman Oaks.
28 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
A suffering scribe
in the slums
A slum near the walls of
Mumbai International Airport.
| SHUTTERSTOCK
journalist” Katherine
Boo is a staff writer for The
“Immersion
New Yorker. Her series about
group homes for the intellectually
disabled won the Washington Post the
2000 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
She has been awarded a MacArthur
“genius” grant.
She has also suffered from rheumatoid
arthritis since childhood. Her
health is frail. Still, she felt moved
to spend four years quietly walking
among, standing beside, and observing
the people of Annawadi, a Mumbai
slum hard by an international airport
and a sewage lake.
Her 2012 book, “Behind the Beautiful
Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope
in a Mumbai Undercity” (Random
House, $23.02), won the National
Book Award, the Los Angeles Times
Book Prize, and many others. A decade
after publication, it’s still the best
account I know of an author evincing
true solidarity with the poor, love for
our neighbor, and “activism” without a
scintilla of politics or ideology.
New York magazine noted that the
book is “reported like Watergate,
written like ‘Great Expectations,’ and
handily the best international nonfiction
in years.” It’s been called “a tour
de force of social justice reportage,” “a
literary masterpiece,” and an “interview-based
narrative in which the
interviewer never appears.”
It begins like this:
“Midnight was
closing in, the onelegged
woman was
grievously burned,
and the Mumbai
A slum near the walls
of Mumbai International
Airport.
| SHUTTERSTOCK
police were coming for Abdul and his
father. In a slum hut by the international
airport, Abdul’s parents came to
a decision with the uncharacteristic
economy of words. The father, a sick
man, would wait inside the trashstrewn,
tin-floored shack where the
family of 11 resided. He’d go quietly
when arrested. Abdul, the household
earner, was the one who had to flee.”
Boo is tender without sentimentality.
She is realistic without despair. This is
30 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
how the slum-dwellers made a living:
“Every morning, thousands of
waste-pickers fanned out across the
airport area in search of vendible
excess—a few pounds of the eight
thousand tons of garbage that Mumbai
was extruding daily. These scavengers
darted after crumpled cigarette
packs tossed from cars with tinted
windows. They dredged sewers and
raided dumpsters
for empty bottles
of water and beer.
Each evening, they
returned down the
slum road with
gunny sacks of
Katherine Boo.
| HELEEN WELVAART
VIA LYCEUM AGENCY
garbage on their backs, like a procession
of broken-toothed, profit-minded
Santas.”
Out of those thousands of waste-pickers,
Boo picks one, a smart, hard-working,
and almost comically resourceful
boy named Abdul around whom the
book’s central drama unfolds.
“When I settle into a place, listening
and watching,” says Boo, “I don’t try
to fool myself that the stories of the
individuals are themselves arguments.
I just believe that better arguments,
maybe even better policies, get formulated
when we know more about
ordinary lives.”
As Abdul makes his rounds, scavenging,
bargaining, weighing scrap metal,
he ponders the morality of slum life
and the mystery of existence:
“Water and ice were made from the
same thing. He thought most people
were made of the same thing, too. He
himself was probably little different,
constitutionally, from the cynical,
corrupt people around him — the
police officers and the special executive
officer and the morgue doctor who
fixed Kalu’s death. If he has to sort all
humanity by this material essence, he
thought he would probably end up
with a single gigantic pile. But here
was the interesting thing. Ice was
distinct from — and in his view, better
than — what he was made of.”
“He wanted to be better than he was
made of. In Mumbai’s dirty water, he
wanted to be ice.”
From reviewer Amrit Dhillon:
“The most astonishing feature of this
Promethean work of reporting by the
American journalist Katherine Boo
is the sound of poor Indian voices
that comes through every page. Their
thoughts about their mothers and
fathers, homes, neighbours, work, children
and dreams are not often heard
in a country where the poor are seen
everywhere but are usually silent.”
“In the first few weeks, Boo is treated
as a circus freak by the slum-dwellers
who, assuming she has lost her way to
a nearby hotel, shout ‘Hyatt!’ or ‘Intercontinental!’
When she is still around,
months later, recording conversations,
conduct and incidents, she finally becomes
a part not of the furniture (there
is no furniture in these hovels) but of
the landscape: the piles of rubbish, the
excrement-caked pigs and goats, the
alcoholics and the sewage lake.”
The Guardian asked, “Was she never
scared of the rats, whose bites marked
the children’s bodies and sometimes
exploded in worms?” Boo replied,
“I’m not squeamish. Tuberculosis was
a concern: there were many people
I spent time with whose stories were
that they got sicker and sicker and then
they died. But if you’re really curious,
you don’t dwell on it that much.”
Boo is firmly enshrined in my personal
communion of saints, a subset of
which is “Writers Who Are Catholic
Without Being Catholic.” Would that
more of us wrote with Boo’s curiosity,
excellence, intelligence, willingness to
suffer, and heart.
“We try so many things,” as one
Annawadi girl put it, “but the world
doesn’t move in our favor.”
In 2021, Boo was elected as co-chair
of the Pulitzer Prize board. She is
currently working on her next book,
“an exploration of social mobility
in low-income families that draws
on years of intimate reporting from
African American neighborhoods in
Washington, D.C.”
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 31

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
Jesus made known to us
In both the ancient and modern Church, Easter is the
season of mystagogy — instruction in the mysteries. It’s
the time when new converts are led to learn the meaning
of the sacraments that they have just received.
The moment is established in St. Luke’s Gospel. On the
morning of the first Easter Sunday, two disciples made a
journey from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus.
Early in their journey, the disciples were joined by an
unknown companion who led them to an understanding
of the ancient pattern in God’s plan — a pattern that had
been newly fulfilled in the passion of Jesus.
The stranger was Jesus, of course, and he guided the disciples
first by interpreting “all the Scriptures” for them. But
the definitive part of the illumination was pure grace.
At the decisive moment, when the disciples came to own
the knowledge of Jesus as the summit of God’s plan, the
Gospel describes the process with a passive verb form: “He
was known to them [or ‘was made known to them’] in the
breaking of the bread.” It was Jesus’ eucharistic action that
brought about the disciples’ recognition.
What St. Paul calls “the plan of the mystery hidden for
ages” was now revealed to the disciples, though not in a
way they could see with their eyes. For immediately, Jesus
“vanished out of their sight.” The mysteries of Christ’s life
had fulfilled the signs of the Old Testament.
This fulfillment did not lead the disciples immediately
into the heavenly vision. It led them to a reprise of Jesus’
covenant meal. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus “took
“Supper at Emmaus,”
by Jacopo Pontormo,
1494-1557, Italian.
| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
bread … broke it and gave it” to his
apostles, saying, “This is my body
which is given for you” (Luke 22:19).
His physical body they did not recognize;
but after he had prepared them
by interpreting the Scriptures, he “was
known to them” — by faith, not sight
— in the breaking of the bread.
This is mystagogy. Christ’s life had fulfilled the types in
a sacrifice that was “once for all” (Hebrews 9:26). But the
hidden mysteries of his life were now extended in time
through the sacraments. After his resurrection, the ordinary
way the disciples came to know the mysteries of Jesus was
through the breaking of the bread.
This is borne out in the rest of the New Testament. Large
swaths of 1 Corinthians are explicitly mystagogical, describing
the Mass and baptism, but also tracing their antecedents
in the Old Testament.
In the sacraments, Jesus “was made known” to his disciples,
but it was more than a knowledge of doctrine and
facts.
The New Testament refers to the encounter as a “koinonia”
— a communion. That’s the term used in Acts (2:42)
to describe the Church’s eucharistic fellowship. Paul uses
the same word, twice, to describe the Christian’s reception
of the eucharistic body and blood (1 Corinthians 10:16).
The events of Christ’s life pass over into the mysteries,
where they are continued in our lives.
That’s why every Mass conforms to the pattern established
at Easter: the opening of the Scriptures followed by the
breaking of the bread.
32 • ANGELUS • April 7, 2023

■ FRIDAY, MARCH 31
St. Clare’s Fish Fry. 19606 Calla Way, Canyon Country,
4:30-8 p.m. Two or three pieces of beer- battered cod,
coleslaw, and choice of two sides (fries, rice, or beans). Fish
tacos available with rice and beans. Dine in or take out.
Cost: $15/2-piece dinner or tacos, $16/3-piece. Family
pack available for $55. For more information, call 661-252-
3353 or visit st-clare.org.
Torrance Fish Fry. Nativity Annex, 1415 Engracia Ave.,
Torrance, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Knights of Columbus Council
#4919. Baked or fried fish, baked potato or fries, coleslaw,
roll, and cake. Dine in or take out. Cost: $12/adults, $10/
seniors, $7/children under 12.
Stations of the Cross, Mass, and Fish Fry. St. Barnabas
Church, 3955 Orange Ave., Long Beach, 5:30 p.m. stations,
6 p.m. Mass, 6:15-8 p.m. fish fry. Visit stbarnabaslb.org or
call 562-424-8595.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 1
Sacred Collage: Broken, Brave, Bold, and Beautiful. Holy
Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30 a.m.-
3:30 p.m. With Chantel Zimmerman. Visit hsrcenter.com or
call 818-784-4515.
The Unshakable Hope of the Holy Spirit. St. Finbar
Church parish hall, 2010 W. Olive Ave., Burbank, 12-4
p.m. Uplifting time of praise and worship, teaching, healing
prayer, and Palm Sunday vigil Mass. Special presentations
by Father Ethan Southard, Father Bill Delaney, SJ, Deacon
Barry Harper, and Maria Velasquez, LMFT. For more information,
visit events.scrc.org or call 818-771-1361.
Bereavement Support Group. St. Bruno Church, 15740
Citrustree Rd., Whittier, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. RSVP by March 27
to Cathy at 562-631-8844.
■ SUNDAY, APRIL 2
Palm Sunday Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 West Temple St., Los Angeles, 10:00 a.m. Mass will
begin on the Plaza with the Blessing of the Palms before
proceeding inside. Livestream available at lacatholics.org/
holyweek.
Holy Week Retreat: Women Who Surrounded Jesus.
Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino. Retreat
runs through April 9. With Sister Chris Machado, SSS, and
Sister Marie Lindemann, SSS. Visit hsrcenter.com or call
818-784-4515.
Reenactment of the Passion of Christ. Calvary Cemetery,
4201 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles, 2 p.m. Presented by Resurrection
Church. For more information, visit CatholicCM.
org/stations or call 323-261-3106.
Stations of the Cross. Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier
Blvd., Los Angeles, 2 p.m. Stations will be held each Sunday
of Lent. For more information, visit CatholicCM.org/stations
or call 323-261-3106.
■ MONDAY, APRIL 3
Chrism Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555
W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 7 p.m. Livestream available at
lacatholics.org/holyweek.
■ THURSDAY, APRIL 6
Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 7 p.m. Celebrant:
Archbishop José H. Gomez. Livestream available at lacatholics.org/holyweek.
■ FRIDAY, APRIL 7
Passion of the Lord. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Livestream for the 12 p.m. Mass available at lacatholics.org/
holyweek.
Good Friday Live Passion Play. St. Barnabas Church, 3955
Orange Ave., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. Free live reenactment
of Christ’s passion. Visit stbarnabaslb.org or call 562-424-
8595.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 8
Easter Vigil. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W.
Temple St., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. Celebrant: Archbishop José
H. Gomez. Livestream available at lacatholics.org/holyweek.
■ SUNDAY, APRIL 9
Easter Sunday Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels,
555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 12:30 p.m. (Spanish) Celebrant:
Archbishop José H. Gomez. Livestream available at
lacatholics.org/holyweek.
■ TUESDAY, APRIL 11
Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San Fernando
Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 11 a.m. Mass is virtual and
not open to the public. Livestream available at catholiccm.
org or facebook.com/lacatholics.
■ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
St. Padre Pio Mass. St. Anne Church, 340 10th St., Seal
Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al Baca. For more information,
call 562-537-4526.
Good Grief Bereavement Support Group. St. Bede the Venerable
Church, 215 Foothill Blvd., parish center, second floor,
La Cañada Flintridge, 6:30 p.m. Free six-week bereavement
support group for those who have lost a loved one. Sessions
meet on Wednesdays. Call 626-840-7478 to register.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 15
The Art and Soul of Journaling. Holy Spirit Retreat Center,
4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. With Ella Weiss,
MFT. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515.
■ THURSDAY, APRIL 20
Children’s Bureau: Foster Care Zoom Orientation. 4-5
p.m. Children’s Bureau is now offering two virtual ways for
individuals and couples to learn how to help children in
foster care while reunifying with birth families or how to
provide legal permanency by adoption. A live Zoom orientation
will be hosted by a Children’s Bureau team member
and a foster parent. For those who want to learn at their own
pace about becoming a foster and/or fost-adopt parent, an
online orientation presentation is available. To RSVP for the
live orientation or to request the online orientation, email
rfrecruitment@all4kids.org.
■ SATURDAY, APRIL 22
Bereavement Ministry. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree
Rd., Whitter, 9 a.m. Information meeting for parishes
interested in starting or growing their bereavement ministry.
RSVP to Cathy at 562-631-8844 by April 17.
Earth Day: Entering the Heart! Nature as Spiritual Practice.
LMU, 1 LMU Dr., University Hall, Los Angeles, 9:30 a.m.
This three-hour event includes meditation, journaling, and
experiences of garden and wildflowers. The goal is to create
a better relationship with nature and God and to have a
plan for eco stress and climate change. Email markmitchellspeaks@gmail.com
or call 310-822-7979 for more information.
Items for the calendar of events are due four weeks prior to the date of the event. They may be emailed to calendar@angelusnews.com.
All calendar items must include the name, date, time, address of the event, and a phone number for additional information.
April 7, 2023 • ANGELUS • 33