Angelus News | May 19, 2023

ANGELUS 

QUEEN OF 

HEARTS 

What Mary wants to 

do for you this May 

May 19, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 10

ANGELUS 

May 19, 2023 

Vol. 8 • No. 10 

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ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

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DAVID SCOTT 

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pkay@angelusnews.com 

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VICTOR ALEMÁN 

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RICHARD G. BEEMER 

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ON THE COVER 


Izabelle Huerta, an eighth-grader at Holy Angels School 

in Arcadia, crowns the Virgin Mary with flowers on 

Friday, May 5, at one of the many May Crowning events 

at Catholic schools around the archdiocese this month. 

On Page 10, Father Peter Cameron lays out why the 

month of May is a special chance to “take Mary into our 

care” and discover the Blessed Mother as a powerful, 

comforting companion through the trials of life. 

THIS PAGE 


Msgr. John Moretta, pastor of Resurrection Church 

in Boyle Heights, watches a tribute photo montage 

capturing memories from over the years at the end 

of a special April 30 Mass celebrating 55 years 

since his ordination to the priesthood and 40 years 

at Resurrection. The standing-room-only Mass was 

followed by an afternoon celebration that included 

mariachi performances and food. 

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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 

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CONTENTS 

Archdiocese dedicates second ‘garden of healing’ for abuse survivors 

John Allen: What Vatican’s secret Ukraine peace ‘mission’ could look like 

Charlie Camosy on the implications of a Vatican official’s euthanasia remarks 

‘Solito’ reveals the human side of our broken immigration system 

How seriously should we take the ‘Tradwife’ movement? 

Sign up for our free, daily e-newsletter 

Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

28 

30 

Robert Brennan on the slick messaging of a diabolical weekend 

Heather King reviews a Pasadena art exhibit all about food 

May 19, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

Open doors in Hungary 

When it comes to the Church 

or to society, isolationism is 

not Christian, the pope said 

in a variety of ways during his visit to 

Budapest, Hungary, April 28-30. 

Because of the 86-year-old pope’s 

mobility issues, the trip was confined 

to the capital and the official schedule 

was lighter than usual. But, as is normal 

for the pope, he used part of his 

long midday breaks and early evenings 

for private meetings. 

Flying back to Rome April 30, the 

pope confirmed that he and Russian 

Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of 

Budapest and Hungary had spoken 

about Russia’s war on Ukraine, and 

he said the Vatican has some special 

“mission” underway. 

The pope also spoke about the war 

with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, 

who, despite being a friend of Russian 

President Vladimir Putin, has condemned 

the war. But within the European 

Union, he has consistently voted 

against sanctioning Russia and against 

sending weapons to Ukraine. 

In his first speech in Hungary — to 

government and civic leaders and diplomats 

serving in Budapest — the pope 

encouraged the leaders to foster greater 

European unity. 

“More and more,” the pope said, 

“enthusiasm for building a peaceful 

and stable community of nations seems 

to be cooling, as zones of influence are 

marked out, differences accentuated, 

nationalism is on the rise and ever-harsher 

judgments and language are 

used in confronting others.” 

Ukraine is one of Hungary’s eastern 

neighbors and Hungarians have assisted 

some 2.5 million Ukrainians who 

have crossed the border since Russia’s 

war on Ukraine began in February 

2022. About 35,000 of the Ukrainian 

refugees have remained in Hungary. 

Francis repeatedly praised Hungarians 

for their hospitality to Ukrainians, 

but in several speeches and at his Mass 

April 30 in Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos 

Square, he urged them to be open to 

everyone in need. 

“How sad and painful it is to see 

closed doors,” he said in his homily. 

He cited “the closed doors of our 

selfishness with regard to others; the 

closed doors of our individualism 

amid a society of growing isolation; the 

closed doors of our indifference toward 

the underprivileged and those who 

suffer; the doors we close toward those 

who are foreign or unlike us, toward 

migrants or the poor.” 

In an April 28 meeting with Hungary’s 

bishops, priests, religious, seminarians, 

and catechists, he called Hungarian 

Catholics to embrace “prophetic 

welcome” or “prophetic receptivity” 

by “bringing the Lord’s consolation to 

situations of pain and poverty in our 

world, being close to persecuted Christians, 

to migrants seeking hospitality, 

to people of other ethnic groups and to 

anyone in need.” 

Pope Francis met with more than 

10,000 Hungarian young people in 

a sports arena April 29 and listened 

to four of them share how they have 

overcome obstacles and grown in their 

faith. 

“Each one of us should ask the 

uncomfortable question,” the pope told 

them. “What am I doing for others, 

for the Church, for society? Do I think 

only about myself?” 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome bureau chief Cindy 

Wooden. 

Papal Prayer Intentions for May: We pray that Church 

movements and groups may rediscover their mission of 

evangelization each day, placing their own charisms at the 

service of needs in the world. 

2 • ANGELUS • May 19, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

The promise of the synod 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

has a long history of participation 

by the lay faithful in the 

life and mission of the local Church. 

In 2000, my predecessor, Cardinal 

Roger Mahony, called for a synod, 

beginning a three-year process that 

concluded with the publication of a 

series of proposals and pastoral initiatives 

published in a document called 

“Gathered and Sent.” 

Day to day, the extensive collaboration 

and participation of the lay faithful 

are carried out in the workings of the 

Archdiocesan Pastoral Council and in 

the pastoral and financial councils in 

our parishes. 

In the last two years, we have deepened 

and intensified our experience 

of collaboration as we prepare for the 

synod of the world’s bishops that Pope 

Francis has called to be held in Rome, 

Oct. 4–29. 

Nearly 19,000 of our brothers and 

sisters, including many young people, 

took part in our local preparations for 

the synod, which included consultation 

and listening sessions held across 

the archdiocese. 

All told, we held more than 500 

listening sessions in 158 parishes and 

19 communities from January to April 

2022. 

These meetings were prayerful 

and fruitful, and from the hundreds 

of session reports, we delivered our 

archdiocesan report to the Vatican’s 

synod office. 

The theme of the upcoming Synod is 

“For a Synodal Church: Communion, 

Participation, and Mission.” 

And the purpose is to lead all of us 

in the Church, clergy, religious, and 

the lay faithful, to a new appreciation 

of our responsibility for the Church’s 

mission of bringing all souls to know 

Jesus Christ and his salvation. 

In these days and weeks after Easter, 

we hear the readings of the Acts of the 

Apostles. 

It is always striking to remember that 

from the very start, the Church was 

united — the mother of Jesus, the 

apostles, the first bishops and priests, 

with the deacons they appointed, and 

faithful laymen and holy women, all 

working together to spread the good 

news of Jesus. 

I love that beautiful image of the 

Church in Acts 2. In that reading we 

see the Church is like a family that 

cares for one another, providing for 

“each one’s need.” 

Then, as now, the Church is united 

by “the teaching of the apostles,” 

which we have in the word of God, 

and the “breaking of the bread,” which 

was the first name for the Eucharist. 

What we also notice in the Acts of 

the Apostles is how often the first 

Christians shared the Gospel personally, 

heart to heart. St. Peter converted 

Cornelius; St. Philip baptized the 

Ethiopian. 

It was the same with Jesus. The 

Gospel is the story of one soul after 

another meeting Jesus, and finding in 

him the true direction for their lives. 

Think of the woman at the well or 

Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree. 

The first Christians were just 11 

apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 

holy women like St. Mary Magdalene. 

The world around them was cold and 

filled with idolatry, inhumanity, and 

injustice. As St. Paul said when he was 

in Athens: the people in those times 

had many gods, they were very “spiritual.” 

But the living God, the Lord of 

heaven and earth, remained unknown 

to them. 

And yet by loving Jesus and living 

their faith in their families and in 

their workplaces and neighborhoods, 

and sharing their faith with their 

neighbors, that small group of Christians 

eventually grew and converted 

the entire Roman Empire. Without 

an army and without violence, they 

changed the world through their love. 

To me, this is the promise of what the 

Holy Father calls “the synodal path,” 

returning the Church to our original 

calling purpose, which is the mission 

of evangelization. 

The Church is alive in all of us 

— bishops and priests, deacons and 

seminarians, religious and consecrated 

men and women, laymen and laywomen 

from all walks of life. 

And we share in that same mission 

as those first Christians, to make Jesus 

known and loved, and through him to 

help our neighbors find the way that 

will lead them to eternal life and the 

love that never ends. 

This is our responsibility and opportunity, 

no matter who we are or what 

our role in the Church is. And this 

mission is so important today. 

Many people in our society, even in 

our own families, have drifted away 

from God or the Church. These 

people are waiting for a new invitation 

to meet Jesus again. They are waiting 

for that invitation from you and me. 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And let us ask Blessed Mary, mother 

of the Church, to help us grow in 

our love for her Son and our desire 

to speak of that love to everyone we 

meet. 


WORLD 

■ Synod of Bishops … 

and laity? 

At least three dozen women 

will have a voting presence at the 

upcoming Synod on Synodality in 

October. 

Pope Francis’ decision marks the 

first time that women will have a 

vote since the Synod of Bishops was 

reinstituted following the Second 

Vatican Council — although women 

have participated as nonvoting 

auditors in previous synods. 

The majority of the women will 

come from a group of 70 nonbishop 

members, picked by Francis from 

a list of 140 people nominated by 

regional groupings of bishops. The 

bishops were asked that at least 50% 

of their nominations be women, and 

that “the presence of young people 

also be emphasized.” 

Additionally, two bodies of religious 

superiors will elect five sisters or 

nuns and five priests or brothers, 

respectively, to serve as voting members. 

The pope can also appoint additional 

nonbishop voting members. 

■ An Anglican accident 

in the pope’s church 

An Anglican bishop and nearly 50 Anglican 

priests were accidentally allowed 

to celebrate an Anglican liturgy at the 

high altar of the Lateran Basilica, the 

highest-ranking basilica in the Catholic 

Church. 

Bishop Jonathan Baker and his 

accompanying Anglican priests are Anglo-Catholic, 

meaning that the group 

is in communion with the Church 

of England but hold more traditional 

views. However, Anglo-Catholics are 

not in communion with the Catholic 

Church, so the use of a Catholic 

church for their liturgy is against 

canonical norms. 

Though Pope Francis had met with 

Baker, it is unclear how they were given 

authorization for the April 18 service. 

Bishop Guerino Di Tora, vicar of the 

archpriest of the Lateran Basilica, later 

said that “the regrettable episode was 

caused by a failure in communication.” 

The Archbasilica of St. John Lateran 

in Rome is the oldest of the Roman basilicas 

and the official seat of the pope. 

Traveling coach — Pope Francis, riding in an electric cart, arrives at László Papp Budapest Sports Arena in 

Budapest for a meeting with Hungarian young people April 29. The first step in training for a full and happy life, 

he told the more than 10,000 young people, is “dialogue with Jesus, who is the best of coaches. He listens to you, 

encourages you, believes in you and is able to bring out the best in you.” | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA 

Bishop Stephen Chow speaks to reporters in Beijing. 

| HKIBC ENGLISH NEWS/YOUTUBE 

■ Hong Kong bishop 

makes historic visit to 

the mainland 

The Catholic bishop of Hong Kong’s 

historic trip to mainland China was a 

big deal — but will it change anything? 

Bishop Stephen Chow, SJ, met with 

government officials and leaders from 

the state-sponsored Chinese Catholic 

Patriotic Association during his fiveday 

visit to Beijing. The trip came two 

weeks after a government-run bishops’ 

council announced the appointment 

of a new bishop of Shanghai without 

Vatican approval, a violation of the 

2018 agreement between the Vatican 

and the Chinese government. 

As bishop of Hong Kong, a special 

administrative territory of China 

with a history of freedom of worship, 

Chow has stronger ties to the Vatican 

than his brother bishops in mainland 

China, which has a government-run 

episcopal conference. 

The trip was the first time in almost 

30 years that a bishop from Hong 

Kong had visited the Chinese mainland. 

“We all have to learn to love the 

country and the Church,” Chow told 

reporters during the visit. “Everybody 

wants their country to do well. 

Nobody wants their country to be bad. 

Being patriotic is a duty.” 


NATION 

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy in 2021. | THE 

WHITE HOUSE 

■ Is religion the answer 

to America’s loneliness 

problem? 

The surgeon general has prescribed 

religion to treat America’s loneliness 

epidemic. 

“Loneliness is far more than just a 

bad feeling — it harms both individual 

and societal health,” reads a new 

report from Surgeon General Dr. 

Vivek H. Murthy. “It is associated with 

a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, 

dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, 

and premature death.” 

The report tied the drop in social 

connection, and its associated health 

risks, in part to the sharp decline in 

religious affiliation: In 1999, 70% of 

Americans said they belonged to a 

church, synagogue, or mosque. In 

2020, only 47% of Americans did so. 

And in 2018, only 16% of Americans 

reported feeling “very attached” to 

their local church community. 

“Religious or faith-based groups can 

be a source for regular social contact, 

serve as a community of support, 

provide meaning and purpose, create 

a sense of belonging around shared 

values and beliefs, and are associated 

with reduced risk-taking behaviors,” 

Murthy’s report said. 

■ Bishops support new 

processing centers for 

migrants 

The U.S. bishops welcomed a new 

Biden Administration initiative to 

counter the expected increase of 

migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico 

border following the May expiration 

of Title 42. 

The plan involves partnering with 

international organizations to set up 

new processing centers in Latin American 

countries where migrants can be 

screened and apply to enter the U.S. 

The first centers are being opened in 

Colombia and Guatemala. 

Though deportations of immigrants 

who enter illegally are expected to 

rise, the administration also announced 

it will expand legal pathways 

for entry. 

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, 

chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ 

Committee on Migration, praised 

the move, saying the bishops “look 

forward to its close coordination with 

civil society and Congress to ensure 

the successful integration of these 

newcomers.” 

■ Missionary from 

Chicago takes over at 

Vatican bishops office 

An American has officially begun 

his new job as head of the Vatican 

body that advises the pope on bishop 

appointments. 

Chicago-born Archbishop Robert 

F. Prevost, 67, was named the next 

prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops by 

Pope Francis Jan. 30, but officially took 

over April 12. He previously served as 

an Augustinian missionary and then 

bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. 

In a May 4 interview with Vatican 

News, Prevost said the process of 

vetting bishop candidates should be “a 

little more open to listening to different 

members of the community.” 

“If a candidate is not known by anyone 

among his people, it is difficult — 

not impossible, but difficult — for him 

to truly become pastor of a community, 

of a local Church,” Prevost said. 

Though the appointment of bishops 

ultimately comes from the pope, the 

Dicastery for Bishops works to identify 

and nominate new bishops or episcopal 

assignments. 

A Servant of God on the seas — Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of Dorothy Day, speaks with a news reporter 

aboard the Dorothy Day ferryboat during its maiden voyage from Staten Island, New York, to Manhattan 

April 28. The newest vessel in the Staten Island Ferry fleet is named for the co-founder of the Catholic Worker 

Movement, who was received into the Catholic Church on Staten Island, lived part of her life in that New York 

City borough and is buried in the island’s Resurrection Cemetery. Day is a candidate for sainthood and has the 

title Servant of God. | OSV NEWS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ 


LOCAL 

■ New bill would 

require foster families 

to be ‘trans-affirming’ 

California’s bishops are opposing a 

new bill that would place many of 

the state’s prospective foster families 

in a tough spot. 

State Bill 407 would require 

“welcome families” to “provide all 

services to LGBTQ+ children,” 

including unquestioned support for 

gender transition. 

In her testimony at an April 17 

hearing on the bill, California Catholic 

Conference (CCC) Executive 

Director Kathleen Buckley Domingo 

argued that “it is appropriate that 

loving families may question the 

appropriateness of certain services,” 

and that the bill would reduce the 

already-limited number of prospective 

foster homes available to 

children. 

“Making the requirement to have 

the capacity and willingness to provide 

access to all available services 

to LGBTQ+ youth is a very narrow 

understanding of what makes an 

excellent resource family,” Domingo 

said. “Why can’t there be many 

kinds of families loving children and 

providing safe, protective homes?” 

Les Petits Chanteurs de France performs at St. Sebastian Church May 4. | SUBMITTED PHOTO 

■ French-speaking parish 

welcomes boys choir from France 

Les Petits Chanteurs de France, a French boys choir consisting of nearly 20 kids 

ranging from ages 8 to 17, performed a free concert on May 4 at St. Sebastian 

Church in West LA as part of their international tour. 

Father German Sanchez, St. Sebastian’s pastor, invited the group to his parish in 

part due to the community that attends the weekly Sunday Mass in French at the 

church. Sanchez is the chaplain for the French community in the Archdiocese of 

Los Angeles. 

Sanchez said the children in the choir and accompanying adults were housed 

with families from the community, ate with parishioners during a potluck before 

the concert, and a collection was taken following the performance to help cover 

the group’s expenses. 

“The most important thing was to hear these children singing,” Sanchez said. 

“It was a beautiful performance. It was interesting to see children from ages 8-17 

singing together in a very professional way.” 

Y 

Looking within — Our Lady of Guadalupe School in East Los Angeles celebrated 

National Superhero Day on April 28 with a special assembly by High Tide Global, a 

nonprofit organization that promotes social-emotional learning. Students dressed 

as superheroes to help empower students to recognize character traits within 

themselves that help boost self-confidence and learn the skills they need to thrive. 

| SUBMITTED PHOTO 

■ LA Catholics invited to 

participate in archbishop’s 

pilgrimage to Mexico 

Catholics in the Los Angeles Archdiocese are encouraged 

to participate in a pilgrimage to Mexico to honor 

Our Lady of Guadalupe. The pilgrimage will culminate 

in a special Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H. 

Gomez on Saturday, July 8, at the Basilica of Our Lady of 

Guadalupe in Mexico City. 

Parishioners can join in a number of ways, including 

going on their own, joining a local parish’s pilgrim group, 

or submitting prayer intentions that the archbishop will 

read during the special Mass. 

While a summer pilgrimage to Mexico City had become 

an annual tradition in the archdiocese in recent years, this 

July’s will be the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

To submit a prayer intention, join a pilgrimage group, or 

learn more, visit lacatholics.org/pilgrimage. 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

On required prayer times for clerics 

In “On a song and a prayer” in the April 21 issue, Heather King wrote 

that “priests, monks, and nuns are pledged to pray the Office at several 

set ‘hours’ of the day.” 

It is my understanding that the Code of Canon Law specifies the obligation of 

clerics to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and that permanent deacons are required 

to include as part of their daily prayer those parts of the Liturgy of the Hours 

known as Morning and Evening Prayer. While ordained ministers are required to 

pray the Liturgy of the Hours, some religious communities are required to pray 

the Liturgy of the Hours as part of their constitutions or rule of life. 

— Deacon Jerry Cellner, West Hills 

Poetry and Scripture 

As a modern Catholic poet, I really appreciated Nick Ripatrazone’s review 

“Searching for Jesus’ footsteps — through poetry” in the April 21 issue. 

While studying Catholic poetry, I have discovered that nearly one-third of the 

Bible contains some sort of poetry, from songs and prose to sermons and letters. I 

especially like Ripatrazone’s quoting this passage from Angela Alaimo O’Donnell’s 

book “Holy Land”: “Ultimately, the souls ‘do what they always do, / stay here with 

us.’ ” 

Those who have passed from this world “know they are loved, / seen and 

acknowledged by their flesh and blood,” he adds. These words are a powerful 

reminder how the art of poetry connects humans throughout history. 

— Clarissa Cervantes, Los Angeles 

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. 

Crowd and crowned 

View more photos 

from this gallery at 

AngelusNews.com/photos-videos 

First-graders at St. 

Dorothy School in 

Glendora gather 

around a statue of 

the Blessed Virgin 

Mary adorned with 

a crown of flowers 

following a May 

5 May Crowning 

Mass, one of 

several celebrated 

in Catholic schools 

around the archdiocese 

this month. 

| VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d 

like to share? Please send to editorial @angelusnews.com. 

“There is no doubt that 

even within families it is 

difficult to talk positively 

about the church and 

about priesthood.” 

~ Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh, in an 

April 25 Irish Independent article on the modern 

vocations crisis in Ireland. 

“The larger issue is that 

people just don’t believe in 

sin anymore.” 

~ Journalist Russell Shaw, in an April 30 GetReligion 

article on the decrease in the number of American 

Catholics going to confession. 

“...70% of our sins come 

from not sleeping enough.” 

~ Brother Leo Mary, MFVA, of the Franciscan 

Missionaries of the Eternal Word, in a May 1 

Churchpop article on how sleep can combat sin. 

“In what other industry can 

people take a job and not 

know when they’re going to 

get paid?” 

~ Showrunner Liz Tigelaar in a May 2 LA Times 

article on explaining the Writers Guild of America 

strike. 

“At that time, we would 

never have dreamt of 

stepping inside a church 

that wasn’t a Catholic 

church.” 

~ Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, in an 

interview with U.K. magazine The Tablet recalling 

the last time a British monarch was crowned in 1953. 

Nichols and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal 

Pietro Parolin made history by attending the May 6 

coronation of King Charles III. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com 

Binding and loosing 

you bind on 

earth will be bound in 

“Whatever 

heaven, and whatever 

you loose on earth will be loosed in 

heaven.” These words of Jesus apply 

not just to those who are ordained to 

ministry and administer the sacrament 

of reconciliation, but to everyone inside 

the body of Christ. All of us have 

the power to bind and to loose. 

What is this power? How do we bind 

and loose one another on earth in a 

way that engages heaven? 

One part of this allows for some 

easier explanation. Here’s an example: 

If you are a member of the body 

of Christ and you forgive someone, 

Christ forgives that person and he or 

she is loosed from sin. Likewise, if 

you, as part of the body of Christ, love 

someone and remain connected to 

him or her, that person is connected 

to the body of Christ, and through 

you (biblically) touches the hem of 

Christ’s garment, even if he or she is 

not explicitly confessing that. That is 

one of the incredible gifts given us in 

the Incarnation. 

But what about the reverse? Suppose 

I refuse to forgive someone who has 

wounded me in some way; suppose 

I hold grudges and refuse to let go of 

the wrong that another has done to 

me, am I binding that person in sin? 

Does God also refuse to forgive and 

let go because I refuse to forgive and 

let go? How does the body of Christ 

work regarding the “binding” part of 

the power that Jesus gave us? 

This is a difficult question, though a 

couple of preliminary distinctions can 

shed some light on the issue. 

To begin with, the logic of grace 

— and grace, like love, has a logic 

— only works one way. In grace, just 

as in love, you can be gifted beyond 

what you deserve, but the reverse is 

not true. The algebra of undeserved 

grace works only one way. Love can 

give you more than you deserve, but 

it cannot punish you more than you 

deserve. God gives us the power to set 

one another free, but not the same 

kind of power to keep one another in 

bondage. 

Second, in this life, as C.S. Lewis 

used to say, hell can blackmail heaven, 

but this is not true in the other 

realm. Thus, while we can hold one 

another captive, psychologically, and 

emotionally, on this side, God does 

not ratify those actions. 

When we bind one another here in 

this world by refusing to forgive one 

another, that refusal does not bind 

God to do likewise. Put more simply, 

when I hold a grudge against someone 

who has wronged me, keeping him 

constantly aware that he has done 

wrong, I am keeping that person tied 

to their sin — but God isn’t endorsing 

this. Heaven will not go along with my 

emotional blackmail. 

These distinctions, though, provide 

only an ambience for an understanding 

of this. What does it mean to bind 

a person? 

The Christian power to bind and 

loose is the power to bind and loose in 

conscience, in truth, in goodness, and 

in love. When I refuse to forgive another, 

when I hold a grudge, I am acting 

not as the body of Christ, nor as an 

agent of grace, but precisely as part of 

the very chain of sin and helplessness 

that Christ was trying to break. When 

I act this way, it is I who needs to be 

loosed from sin since I am acting contrary 

to grace. My nonforgiveness may 

well bind another person emotionally, 

keeping her bound in that way to her 

sin, but it is the very antithesis of the 

power that Christ gave us. 

Biblically, we bind one another 

when, in love, we refuse to compromise 

truth and when we refuse to give 

one another permission to take false 

liberties and make bad choices. Thus, 

for example, parents bind their children 

when they, lovingly but clearly, 

refuse to give them permission to 

ignore Christ’s teaching on marriage 

and sexuality. We bind a friend when 

we refuse to give him our approval 

to cheat in his business in order to 

make more money. A friend binds you 

when she refuses to bless your moral 

compromises. 

In Robert Bolt’s play, “A Man for All 

Seasons,” we see Henry VIII literally 

beg Thomas More to bless his marriage 

to Anne Boleyn. Henry appeals 

to their friendship, appeals to their 

shared humanity, and tries to morally 

bully Thomas by telling him that 

his refusal to approve is timidity and 

arrogance. Yet Thomas refuses to approve. 

He binds Henry in conscience 

and Henry knows he is bound. In the 

end, he kills Thomas for his refusal to 

compromise and give permission, to 

(biblically) loose him. 

Ever since God took on concrete human 

flesh, grace has a visible human 

dimension. Heaven is watching earth 

— and is letting itself be helped by 

the best of what we do down here, but 

not bound by the worst of what we do 

down here. 


Taking Mary home 

BY FATHER PETER JOHN CAMERON, OP 

Life can be challenging. 

The month of May is a 

special opportunity to let 

the Blessed Mother help 

us in our troubles. 

Samantha Valencia, a first-grader 

at St. Dorothy School in 

Glendora, participates in her 

school’s May Crowning event 

May 5. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 


One of my jobs for about the 

last 30 years has been teaching 

seminarians how to preach 

(homiletics). 

I will never forget a story a seminarian 

told one day in class during 

the practice homily he preached. 

Before entering the seminary, this 

young man had served in the Marine 

Corps. While he was deployed in Iraq, 

his mother mailed him a package 

containing, among other things, 120 

brown scapulars — the scapular that 

honors Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 

The young man distributed the 

scapulars among his fellow Marines. 

But in his unit, there was one massive, 

kind of scary, standoffish Marine. 

And the young man wondered if he 

should chance offering a scapular to 

him. But then, thinking better of it, he 

plucked up his courage, and gave him 

one. The scary Marine stared back at 

him with a steely glare … and then he ripped open his flak 

jacket. 

The Marine was wearing seven brown scapulars. 

The young man was flabbergasted. “What?” said the bruiser 

Marine. “Mary’s a mom. She’ll think it’s cute.” 

Taking Mary into our own 

The month of May traditionally in the Church is a time 

of special devotion to Mary, the mother of God. Why May? 

Maybe one reason is because it was around this time of 

year that the Beloved Disciple carried out what Christ 

commanded him from the cross: “Behold your Mother” 

(John 19:27). The Scripture goes on to say, “From that 

hour onward, the disciple took her into his own.” 

The common interpretation of that phrase is simply that 

the Beloved Disciple took Mary home to live with him. 

However, a difficulty exists in that nowhere in ancient 

Greek literature is that particular phrase employed to 

denote “taking someone into their house.” Rather, much, 

much more is implied. John the Evangelist appropriates 

this expression for an express theological purpose. 

To take Mary into our own, into our care, is to involve 

the mother of God with everything that pertains to our 

relationship with God. Every beloved disciple beholds our 

mother by receiving the mother of God into those things 

that are at the very heart of what it means to be a believer: 

into our worship; our sacrifices; our prayer and penances; 

our maturity in faith; our reading of the Bible; our struggles, 

and suffering, and sorrows; our mission as witnesses to 

the Gospel; our desires and longing; our trials, temptations, 

and desolation; our efforts at growth in holiness. 

The awesome thing about the seminarian’s story is that, 

even though the massive Marine was a man of muscle, 

valor, and might, he was someone all the same convinced 

that he still needed Mary. For him, Our Lady had to be 

VANESSA GUERRERO/CATHOPIC 

close — at the core of what life is all about. And that’s 

the conviction May Marian devotion will generate in us. 

Because life is challenging. 

Rendering the common air sweet 

There is a powerful testimony given by the author Oscar 

Wilde — who converted to Catholicism on his deathbed 

— in the memoir he composed while in prison. In his 

book “De Profundis,” Wilde wrote: 

“I remember talking once on this subject [that the secret 

of life is suffering] to one of the most beautiful personalities 

I have ever known: a woman, whose sympathy and noble 

kindness to me, both before and since the tragedy of my 

imprisonment, have been beyond power and description; 

one who has really assisted me, though she does not know 

it, to bear the burden of my troubles more than anyone 

else in the whole world has, and all through the mere fact 

of her existence, through her being what she is — partly 

an ideal and partly an influence: a suggestion of what one 

might become as well as a real help towards becoming it; a 

soul that renders the common air sweet, and makes what is 

spiritual seem as simple and natural as sunlight or the sea: 

one for whom Beauty and Sorrow walk hand in hand, and 

have the same message.” 

The month of May is the time to put before us, in a very 

intentional manner, one of the most beautiful personalities 

we have ever known — a woman whose sympathy and 

noble kindness are beyond description. 

Who of us hasn’t at times experienced feelings of “imprisonment” 

— because of anxiety, or loneliness, or addiction, 

or sin, or oppressing problems, or a dozen other agonizing 

things? Who of us doesn’t yearn for someone to really assist 

us, to bear the burden of our troubles more than anyone 

else in the whole world has … and all through the mere 

fact of her existence, through her being who she is — the 


“Virgin of Mercy,” by Lippo 

Memmi, 1291-1356, in 

Orvieto Cathedral, Italy. 

| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

mother of God? Who would turn 

down the chance to be accompanied 

by “one for whom Beauty and 

Sorrow walk hand in hand?” May is 

the month to make this happen. 

Loving communion with Mary 

St. John Henry Newman gives us encouragement to get 

us launched: “What shall give you patience and endurance 

when you are wearied out with the length of the conflict 

with evil, with the strain upon your mind, with your forlorn 

and cheerless condition, but a loving communion with 

Mary! She will comfort you in your discouragements, 

solace you in your fatigues, raise you after your falls. 

When your spirit within you is depressed, when it loses its 

balance, when it is restless and wayward, when it is sick of 

what it has, and hankers after what it has not, when your 

eye is solicited with evil and your mortal frame trembles 

under the shadow of the Tempter, what will bring you to 

yourselves, to peace and to health, but the cool breath of 

the Blessed Virgin Mary.” 

Father Peter John Cameron, OP, holds the Carl J. Peter 

Chair of Homiletics at the Pontifical North American College 

in Rome, and is the author of “Mysteries of the Virgin 

Mary” (Cluny Media LLC, $18.95). 


Finding a way back 

A second ‘Garden of Healing’ for those suffering 

from abuse and trauma was unveiled in Ventura. 

BY MIKE CISNEROS 

The first thing you hear is the 

sound of water. 

Water symbolizing purification. 

Prayer. Peace. 

That’s what visitors to the Los Angeles 

Archdiocese’s second “Garden of 

Healing” at Our Lady of the Assumption 

Church in Ventura are meant to 

find. In other words, a space where 

those suffering from abuse or trauma 

can pray, find tranquility, and perhaps 

even begin to heal. 

The latest garden was dedicated 

April 25 with a special blessing by the 

parish’s pastor, Father Leon Hutton, 

as well as the recitation of a novena 

for healing from abuse, and a presentation 

by the archdiocese’s Victims 

Assistance Ministry. 

Along with greenery and benches 

for reflection, there’s a water feature 

in the garden, a “weeping wall” 

fountain meant to evoke the sorrow 

of the abuse, but also the promise of 

renewal. 

The archdiocese designated the 

first “Garden of Healing” in October 

2022 at the St. Camillus Center for 

Spiritual Care in Los Angeles. The 

archdiocese intends to have at least 

one garden 

in each of its 

five pastoral 

regions, Archbishop 

José H. 

Gomez said. 

“This garden 

is a promise to 

our brothers 

and sisters: 

we will never 

Father Leon Hutton, center, 

blesses the “Garden of Healing” 

at Our Lady of the Assumption 

Church in Ventura. The garden 

is the second one in the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles and was 

designed for those suffering 

from Church abuse and trauma. 

| JOHN RUEDA 

forget, and you are never alone; we 

go with you, always,” said Archbishop 

Gomez in 2022. “We pray that in the 

silent beauty of this garden, many may 


come to hear God’s voice, to know his 

love and compassion, and his longing 

to comfort them, to strengthen them, 

and to make them whole again.” 

The inspiration for the healing 

gardens came largely from Joe Montanez, 

who was abused by a now-deceased 

priest when he was an altar 

boy at age 11 at St. Raphael Church 

in Santa Barbara. Montanez said his 

personal sanctuary to deal with his 

pain was tending to his family’s large 

garden. 

After having spent more than 36 

years teaching horticulture and 

landscape design at a middle school 

in Northridge, Montanez has lent 

his expertise in designing the two 

healing gardens in collaboration with 

the archdiocese’s Office of Victims 

Assistance Ministry. 

The gardens were designed as spaces 

for those who didn’t feel ready or 

worthy to step inside a church due to 

ongoing feelings of anger, resentment, 

shame, or other reasons. 

Montanez was asked to speak before 

the novena about his experience, 

which included years of anger, depression, 

and suicide attempts before 

finding a way back to God. 

“I kept thinking, how am I going to 

get healed?” he said. “So many of us 

that have been abused, who do we 

trust? Who do we go to? I’m lucky 

because I never lost my faith. 

“If you’re a parishioner and you’re 

confused, and you’re feeling what can 

I do to help, bring people to that garden 

and pray with them. If you know 

someone who was abused, bring them 

to that garden. It’s a healing garden.” 

For more than four years, Montanez 

has been working on his recovery 

with Heather Banis, Ph.D., coordinator 

for the Victims Assistance 

Ministry. A major step was his desire 

to do public speaking, starting in 

April 2019 when he participated in a 

“Liturgy of Lament” at St. Dorothy 

Church in Glendora. It was the first 

public disclosure of what happened 

to him. 

Back then, he was simply known as 

“Joe.” Now, he says he uses his full 

name “because I’m proud of who I 

am.” 

During the event, both Banis and 

Hutton spoke of the magnitude the 

abuse crisis has had on the Church 

and on victims and their families. 

“It’s a tragedy,” said Hutton, who 

also serves as interim episcopal 

vicar for the Santa Barbara Pastoral 

“I kept thinking, how am I going to get healed? 

So many of us that have been abused, who do 

we trust? Who do we go to?” 

Region. “Priests are supposed to be 

healers, they’re supposed to walk and 

accompany people, especially in their 

vulnerability. Not to take advantage 

of them.” 

“This wounded our Church,” Banis 

said. “This is something that happened 

in one way or another to everybody. 

The betrayals of trust. Betrayed 

by the very people we’re supposed to 

be able to trust. Those become our 

struggles too. 

“Even if I wasn’t personally abused, 

my parish, my archdiocese, my 

Church was. And we’re paying attention 

to that too. 

Efforts like the 

garden can 

speak to that.” 

Now, Banis 

hopes that 

those suffering 

from the 

trauma of that 

abuse can 

find healing 

through 

contacting the 

Joe Montanez, left, and 

Heather Banis pose in front 

of the completed “Garden of 

Healing” at Our Lady of the 

Assumption Church in Ventura. 

Montanez is a survivor 

of sexual abuse who helped 

design the gardens with help 

from Banis’ Office 

of Victims Assistance Ministry. 

| JOHN RUEDA 

Office of Victims Assistance Ministry 

to get help. 

“I know that can feel impossible to 

even imagine,” she said. “So in a way 

what I’m called to do is to awaken 

that imagination; to help someone 

see that there’s the possibility of 

healing. And if they can do that, with 

us as their companions, to whatever 

degree we can bring Church and 

faith back to them, to whatever extent 

we can share that burden, then that’s 

what the Victims Assistance Ministry 

is there to do.” 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

stands against any sexual misconduct, 

supports victim-survivors of abuse and 

encourages anyone with information 

regarding these matters to call the 

Office of Victims Assistance Ministry 

at 800-355-2545 or email protect@ 

la-archdiocese.org. 


‘Heartfelt impatience’ 

Late LA Mayor Richard Riordan was 

remembered by priests and power brokers alike 

at a Mass in the cathedral he helped build. 

BY PABLO KAY 

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard 

Riordan was remembered as 

a generous soul who “got things 

done” for the city he loved at a memorial 

Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels April 28. 

“He wasn’t afraid to say he was sorry, 

that he made a mistake. He lived the 

life of a person who understood who 

he was,” said Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson, 

Riordan’s pastor at St. Monica Church 

in Santa Monica for the last 35 years, 

in his homily at the Friday afternoon 

Mass. 

Riordan, who built a career as a lawyer, 

businessman, investment banker, 

and philanthropist in Los Angeles 

before serving as mayor, died April 19 

at the age of 92. 

A lifelong Catholic, he often credited 

his Jesuit education for helping 

shape his worldview. Before and after 

serving as mayor from 1993 to 2001, 

he established a reputation as one of 

the city’s biggest supporters of Catholic 

education. He became the founding 

president of the Catholic Education 

Foundation (CEF) in 1987 and later, 

in 2011, launched a two-year, $100 

million legacy campaign for the foundation, 

which provides scholarships for 

local Catholic school students. 

Archbishop José H. Gomez presided 

over the 2 p.m. Mass, with Cardinal 

Roger Mahony, a longtime friend of 

Riordan’s, and several other priests 

concelebrating. An ensemble student 

choir of youth from Bishop Amat, Bishop 

Conaty-Our Lady of Loretto and 

Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary high 

schools, as well as from Precious Blood 

School and the Cathedral Children’s 

Chorus, led the 

music during 

most of the 

liturgy. 

Moments after 

Riordan’s wife, 

Elizabeth, and 

other family 

members entered 

the cathedral 

in solemn 

Officers from the LAPD 

honor guard during a flag 

ceremony at the end of the 

memorial Mass for late LA 

Mayor Richard Riordan at 

the Cathedral of Our Lady 

of the Angels April 28. 

| GENARO MOLINA/LA 

TIMES/POOL PHOTO 

procession to the sound of bagpipes, LA 

Mayor Karen Bass recalled how “LA’s 

soul needed healing” when Riordan 

took office in 1993 in her welcome 

remarks. 

“During the daily work of City Hall 

and especially during some of our city’s 

most trying times, Mayor Riordan acted 

with impatience,” said Bass, reminding 

the crowd of several hundred people 

about the Republican’s accomplishments 

in helping the city recover from 

the effects of a national recession, the 

1992 Rodney King riots, and the 1994 

Northridge earthquake after being 

elected as a political outsider. 

“That is not to say that he acted without 

compassion,” Bass added. “Mayor 

Riordan acted with a healthy and heartfelt 

impatience because he felt that the 

people of Los Angeles deserved swift 

decisions and urgent action to confront 

their greatest challenges.” 

The service drew a who’s who of 


Los Angeles movers and shakers that 

included U.S. Sen. and former LA City 

Councilman Alex Padilla, former mayors 

Jim Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa, 

LAPD Chief Michel Moore, former 

Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, 

Los Angeles Police Commissioner 

Steve Soboroff, and prominent businessman 

and former mayoral candidate 

Rick Caruso. 

Those who spoke at the end of the 

service remembered Riordan as an outof-the-box 

thinker who forged unlikely 

partnerships and helped bring important 

landmarks such as the Walt Disney 

Concert Hall, Staples Center, and the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to 

Los Angeles. 

Padilla, a Democrat, served on the 

LA City Council during the last two 

years of Riordan’s term as mayor. In his 

remarks before the end of the Mass, 

he called Riordan “a Republican who 

believed he could use the government 

to help people, and he was willing to 

work with — or fight with — whoever 

it took to make it happen.” 

Padilla also pointed out Riordan’s 

commitment to education, calling him 

a “big booster for Los Angeles,” but 

especially for “children, the future of 

our city.” 

Riordan’s daughter, Mary Beth, recalled 

how after suffering the deaths of 

two of his children, he “truly believed 

From left: U.S. Sen. 

Alex Padilla, LA Mayor 

Karen Bass, former 

LA Mayors Antonio 

Villaraigosa and Jim 

Hahn sat in the front 

row at the two-hourlong 

liturgy. | GENARO 

MOLINA/LA TIMES/ 

POOL PHOTO 

Billy and Carol were guiding him, and 

smiling down on with their love and 

support.” 

“We know that dad is smiling down 

on us from his new office,” said Mary 

Beth, speaking on behalf of her sisters 

before the end of the two-hour service. 

Federal judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, 

a friend of Riordan’s who worked on 

his first mayoral campaign in the early 

1990s, noted Riordan’s time spent 

studying under Catholic philosopher 

Jacques Maritain during his time at 

Princeton. 

“Dick would speak of Maritain’s 

profound influence on his strongly held 

religious beliefs. 

First, about 

acting in life 

based on one’s 

conscience, and 

second, that we 

are all equal 

in the eyes of 

God.” 

She also 

Archbishop José H. Gomez 

processes out of the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels at the end of the 

April 28 memorial Mass for 

Richard Riordan. | GENARO 

MOLINA/LA TIMES/POOL 

PHOTO 

revealed that she and her husband first 

discussed the idea of running for mayor 

with Riordan during a trip to Rome 

for the elevation of then-Archbishop 

Mahony to the rank of cardinal by St. 

Pope John Paul II in 1991. 

In a homily sprinkled with anecdotes 

from their decades-long relationship, 

Torgerson described Riordan as a mentor, 

parishioner, and a friend. 

Along with others, he fondly recalled 

a motto Riordan was fond of repeating: 

“Ask for forgiveness, not for permission.” 

His life, he said, echoed the words of 

Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew: 

“When I was hungry, you gave me 

something to eat. When I was naked, 

you clothed me. When I was thirsty, 

you gave me something to drink. 

When I was sick or imprisoned, you 

visited me.” To that end, Torgerson 

said, Riordan “cared for the poor. He 

worked to make a difference. He loved 

Los Angeles. Loved it. Worked hard, 

especially for those who have less. That 

was his great gift.” 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 


Mystery mission 

A secret papal effort to end a Russian war? 

Don’t scoff — it’s happened before. 

“King Stefan I Báthory at Pskov,” by Jan Matejko, 

1838-1893, Polish. Father Antonio Possevino is the 

black-robed Jesuit at the center, blessing the offerings. 

| THE ROYAL CASTLE IN WARSAW MUSEUM 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — Russia, led by a strongman 

with an unsavory reputation, 

invades a central European state, 

seeking to reassert control over lands 

it’s long-considered part of its sphere of 

influence. Despite expectations of rapid 

success, Russian forces become bogged 

down facing stiff local resistance and a 

strong international coalition, suggesting 

a longer and bloodier war. 

In that context, the pope steps forward 

and launches a secret peace mission, 

hoping to succeed where secular mediators 

and diplomats have failed. 

That, of course, could be a nutshell 

version of the recent big Catholic news 

flash, which was a cryptic suggestion by 

Pope Francis that a previously undisclosed 

Vatican mission is underway 

regarding the war in Ukraine. 

In fact, however, those paragraphs 

refer to the 16th century, when Russia 

under Ivan the Terrible invaded what 

was then known as “Livonia,” territory 

that includes present-day Latvia and 

Estonia, triggering a bloody conflict 

with Poland and Sweden. 

Combat waxed and waned for 25 years 

until Pope Gregory VIII, through Jesuit 

Father Antonio Possevino, a skilled 

troubleshooter acting on behalf of the 

Vatican, negotiated a peace treaty on 

Jan. 15, 1582, effectively ending the 

war. In gratitude, the Polish king gave 

the Jesuits territory in Livonia confiscated 

from Protestants, helping to cement 

Catholicism’s presence in the Baltic 

regions. 

For all those who scoff at the idea that 

the pope might be able to broker an 

end to a Russian invasion of central 

Europe, therefore, it’s important to stipulate 

that it’s actually happened before 

— and, for historical bonus points, with 

a Jesuit connection. 

Indeed, no office in world history 

arguably has a longer or more distinguished 

track record in ending war than 

the papacy. 

In the fifth century, Pope Leo the 

Great persuaded Attila the Hun to spare 

Rome from devastation; in the 13th 

century, Pope Boniface VIII brought 

the 100 Years’ War to a peaceful end; 


in the 15th century, Pope Martin V 

mediated between France and England 

and restored peace to Europe; in the 

19th century, Pope Leo XIII avoided a 

conflict between Germany and Spain 

over the Caroline Islands; and in the 

20th century, St. Pope John Paul II 

pulled off a similar feat by preventing a 

war between Argentina and Chile over 

the Beagle Islands. 

(On the subject of Pope Leo XIII, 

he also helped to avoid a conflict in 

the Philippines by settling the “friars 

question” in a manner favorable to 

the United States, among other things 

enjoining all Catholics in the country, 

including Spanish religious, to obedience 

to American colonial authorities 

in 1903.) 

In other words, in principle there’s 

nothing pie-in-the-sky about the idea 

of the pope and his Vatican emissaries 

conducting peace missions which, potentially, 

can prevent or end bloodshed. 

During the Middle Ages there was 

even a concept known as the “Peace 

of God” (“Pax Dei”), through which 

popes curbed warfare through the use 

of ecclesiastical sanctions. 

Granted, there is a case for skepticism 

about Francis’ enigmatic half-announcement, 

delivered Sunday during 

his return flight from a weekend trip to 

Hungary. 

Here’s exactly what the pope said: “I’m 

willing, I’m willing to do everything 

that must be done. Also, now there’s 

Pope Francis meets with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary, the former head of external 

relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, in the Vatican nunciature in Budapest April 29. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA 

a mission underway, but it’s not yet 

public, let’s see. … When it’s public, 

I’ll talk about it.” 

The language was so vague, so devoid 

of detail, that some even wondered 

if Francis was simply floating a trial 

balloon, trying to gauge what reaction 

might be to a Vatican initiative rather 

than describing something that’s 

already on the table. 

Skeptics have also noted that the 21st 

century is not the 16th, and the idea 

that a “secret” mission is even possible 

in the era of 24/7 news cycles and social 

media may strain credibility. 

In addition, the principals to whom 

such a mission presumably would be 

directed have disavowed any knowledge 

of it. A Ukrainian official told CNN 

they’re in the dark. 

“President Zelensky has not consented 

to any such discussions on Ukraine’s behalf,” 

the source was quoted as saying, 

adding, “If talks are happening, they are 

happening without our knowledge or 

our blessing.” 

Likewise, the Russian news agency 

TASS quoted the press secretary of the 

President of the Russian Federation, 

Dmitry Peskov, who, when asked during 

a press briefing if he was aware of 

the Vatican’s peacemaking plans, said, 

“No, nothing is known.” 

The first Vatican official to eventually 

confirm the mission isn’t even actually 

on the Vatican payroll anymore: Italian 

economist and layman Stefano Zamagni, 

who stepped down on March 31 as 

president of the Pontifical Academy of 

Social Sciences. 

In an interview with the Italian newspaper 

Il Fatto Quotidiano, Zamagni 

said the pope has been working on 

something for around eight months, 

and the next few weeks will tell if it 

proceeds or hits a red light. Zamagni 

did not provide any details, other than 

saying that he’d prepared a seven-point 

peace plan back in September, and also 

adding that any solution has to involve 

both the U.S. and China. 

A few days later, Vatican Secretary of 

State Cardinal Pietro Parolin also confirmed 

a “peacekeeping mission” was 

underway and claimed to be surprised 

by Russia and Ukraine’s denials. 

It may not be entirely coincidental 

that three days after Francis hinted at 

a Vatican role as a mediator, Metropolitan 

Anthony of Volokolamsk, the 

No. 2 official in the Russian Orthodox 

Church, met in the Vatican with Archbishop 

Claudio Gugerotti, head of the 

Dicastery for Eastern Churches. 

For the sake of completeness, however, 

it’s also important to note that for 

every papal peace mission that’s succeeded, 

there are probably a half-dozen 

that failed. 

In October 1965, for instance, St. 

Pope Paul VI met U.S. President 

Lyndon Johnson in New York’s Waldorf 

Astoria Hotel to offer the Vatican’s 

services toward a negotiated end to the 

war in Vietnam. In the event the war 

ground on for another eight years, and 

when it finally ended, the papacy was a 

nonfactor. 

To take another recent example, John 

Paul dispatched emissaries to both 

Baghdad and Washington in March 

2003 in a last-ditch effort to avoid an 

American invasion. Despite those 

efforts, the war went ahead, with all the 

devastating consequences, which are 

now sadly familiar. 

Still, for anyone interested in global 

diplomacy and geopolitics, what history 

suggests is a sort of “E.F. Hutton” lesson: 

When a pope talks about a peace 

mission, even a secret one, it’s a good 

idea for people to listen. 

It may or may not work, but it almost 

always matters. 

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


Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president 

of the Pontifical Academy for Life, speaks 

during an interview in his office at the 

Vatican in 2018. | CNS/PAUL HARING 

Open to interpretation 

Controversial comments by a Vatican official beg the question: On 

assisted suicide, how much room is there for ‘prudential judgment’? 

BY CHARLIE CAMOSY 

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president 

of the Pontifical Academy 

for Life, has sparked a firestorm 

of reaction since appearing to suggest 

that he supports legalizing physician-assisted 

killing in certain circumstances. 

The blowback to the Italian prelate’s 

words was understandable, given the 

energy and effort many of us have 

spent fighting this evil, especially on 

behalf of those with disabilities. 

There have been some losses, such as 

in California, but just last week deep 

blue Connecticut fended off physician-assisted 

killing for yet another 

year. David Albert Jones, who has been 

a leader in the successful ongoing resistance 

to physician-assisted killing in 

the United Kingdom, believes Paglia’s 

words will have consequences in these 

battles and may even “cost lives.” 

During a speech delivered at a 

journalism conference in Italy, Paglia 

brought up the ongoing legal and 

political battle over a court decision 

that ruled blanket prohibitions of 

physician-assisted killing are unconstitutional. 

Here is an English translation 

of the remarks in question: 

“In this context, it cannot be excluded 

that in our society a legal mediation 

is feasible which allows assisted 

suicide in the conditions specified by 

the Constitutional Court’s Judgment 

242/2019: the person must be ‘kept 

alive by life-support treatments and 

affected by an irreversible pathology, 

a source of physical or psychological 

suffering that she deems intolerable, 

but fully capable of making free and 

informed decisions.’… Personally I 

would not practice assisted suicide, 


esident 

ife, speaks 

at the 

ARING 

but I understand that legal mediation 

can constitute the greatest common 

good that is concretely possible in the 

conditions in which we find ourselves.” 

Such language is open to different 

interpretations. 

First interpretation: Though the 

Pontifical Academy for Life attempted 

to clarify that these remarks are “in full 

conformity with the Church’s magisterium,” 

the academy under Paglia’s 

leadership has moved to develop the 

Church’s moral theology in ways that 

challenge the very idea of a strict prohibition 

or exceptionless moral norm. 

Though much attention has been 

paid to contraception in this regard, 

there have been explicit calls within 

Paglia’s academy to revisit the idea of 

care for the sick 

and disabled as 

understood in the 

Church’s teaching 

in “Samaritanus 

Bonus,” 

a 2020 Vatican 

document on 

care for the terminally 

ill. 

This interpretation 

benefits 

from the opening 

lines of Paglia’s 

talk in which 

he says that “the 

Catholic Church 

does not have a 

package of ‘prêtà-porter’ 

[‘ready 

to wear’] truths, 

prepackaged, 

as if it were a 

dispenser of pills 

of truth.” 

He is at pains to emphasize, right 

from the beginning of his remarks, 

that the Church has much to learn 

from the culture and that the Church’s 

teaching develops in a dialogue of 

mutual enrichment. This points to an 

ongoing attempt to move the Church’s 

teaching away from the idea that it is 

always wrong to aim at the death of an 

innocent person — of which physician-assisted 

killing is an increasingly 

popular example — and listen to the 

“experiences” of those in the broader 

culture with quite different perspectives. 

An alternative interpretation 

focuses on Paglia’s loyalty to Pope 

Francis and the fact that he is speaking 

into a very particular Italian context. 

The Holy Father, of course, has been 

an outspoken critic of movements in 

Europe to legalize physician-assisted 

killing as examples of throwaway culture, 

arguing that the norm against it 

“applies to everyone, not just Christians 

or believers.” For Francis, the 

stakes in these legal battles could not 

be higher: “The dignity of human life 

is at stake. The dignity of the medical 

vocation is at stake.” 

Furthermore, while the Holy Father 

has tried to incorporate a new balance 

on life issues, he is quite comfortable 

teaching exceptionless moral norms. 

Mourners hold a picture of Piergiorgio Welby during his funeral in Rome in this 2006 file photo. Welby, who suffered 

from advanced muscular dystrophy, died after his doctor switched off his life-support system. On Feb. 15, 2022, 

Italy’s Constitutional Court blocked a national referendum on legalizing euthanasia, saying it would violate constitutional 

protections of human life. | CNS/MAX ROSSI 

As an example, though a previous 

version of the Catechism allowed for 

exceptions (though “very rare, if practically 

nonexistent”) in which the death 

penalty could be administered, Francis 

moved to change Church teaching 

such that “the death penalty is inadmissible” 

and the Church “works with 

determination for its abolition worldwide.” 

It is also unlikely that Paglia wishes to 

undermine the Church’s teaching that 

acts like torture and sexual violence are 

always and without exception wrong. 

On this interpretation he is focused 

instead on making a difficult prudential 

judgment about a very particular 

situation in Italy. With the court there 

insisting that some physician-assisted 

killing must be legal, there is a case to 

be made for voting for more restrictive 

law in order to avoid a worse law. 

Making this kind of prudential 

judgment about policy is very much in 

line with Catholic teaching. Indeed, 

St. Pope John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical, 

“Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of 

Life”) explicitly allows for supporting 

certain laws that permit some abortion 

in order to avoid worse laws that permit 

much more abortion, for instance. 

But Jones is right to worry about the 

extreme dangers of opening the door to 

physician-assisted 

killing. Small 

exceptions often 

grow into general 

acceptance. 

Common-sense 

safeguards give 

way to individual 

autonomy and 

freedom. 

Unintended 

consequences 

are the norm — 

especially when 

it comes to structurally 

coercing 

the disabled and 

of the economically 

vulnerable 

into ‘choosing’ 

physician-assisted 

killing. One need 

look no further 

than Canada over 

the last couple of 

years to see this horrific dynamic in action. 

So, even if one takes the second 

interpretation of Paglia’s words, the 

Church should follow Jones’ instance 

that we be 100% clear that “every 

suicide, whether assisted or unassisted, 

is a tragedy.” 

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. 


An unaccompanied minor migrant from El Salvador 

is questioned by the Border Patrol in Roma, Texas, 

after crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico 

April 27, 2021. | CNS/GO NAKAMURA, REUTERS 

A trip made ‘Solito’ 

The experiences of fear, loneliness, and 

forgiveness in a young immigrant’s account of his 

journey to the US have something to teach us. 

BY MSGR. RICHARD ANTALL 

One of the most painful aspects 

of our country’s ongoing border 

crisis is the sheer number 

of children who are detained without 

their parents. While many Catholic 

bishops describe our immigration 

system as “broken,” I don’t think the 

trauma hidden in it is sufficiently 

addressed. 

Why are children found at the 

border without their parents? For me, 

Salvadoran American poet and activist 

Javier Zamora’s book “Solito” (Hogarth, 

$19.95), “Alone” in English, or 

given the diminutive, perhaps better 

translated as “All Alone,” offered some 

important insights. 

Officially described as a memoir, 

it is more of an autobiographical 

novel. Zamora’s eloquent account of 

his nine-week journey to the United 

States at the age of 9 years old was 

written with the help of a therapist 

who helped him to remember details 

of the experience. The text bears signs 

that we are dealing with a kind of 

recovered memory process, which is 

not without certain problems. 

The author confesses that he still 

faces some effects of the trauma 

surrounding his undocumented entry 

into Mexico and the United States. 

The account of his path through the 

desert of Sonora is especially harrowing 

by itself. But as the story of a child 

traveling with strangers to reunite 

with his parents in California, it is an 

Odyssey-like epic of memories both 

Javier Zamora. | GERARDO DEL VALLE 

poignant and painful. 

Zamora’s experience is a key to 

understanding the problem of the undocumented 

immigration of minors. 

His parents were in the United States 

for several years and wanted their son 

with them. He was being raised in a 

small fishing village on the Pacific 

coast of El Salvador by his grandparents 

and aunts. For years he heard that 


one day he would make a “trip” to the 

United States. 

His attempts to get a visa from the 

U.S. Embassy failed. Then came 

talk of traveling under an assumed 

name and passport. Finally, his family 

turned to “Don Dago,” (pronounced 

“Dahgo”) a “coyote,” someone who 

arranges undocumented entry into the 

United States. 

All this makes for an intense reading 

experience, one that may make you 

feel, as I did, that you have entered 

the mind of a 9-year-old child as he 

faces the strangeness and painful hope 

of getting to his parents in the land of 

his dreams. 

His idea of the United States, or “La 

Usa,” was quite different from the 

reality. Zamora was so traumatized by 

the experience of being a “mojado” (a 

commonly used term that means “wet 

one,” perhaps a reference to those 

who crossed the Rio Grande River 

without papers) that he still questions 

whether the trip was worth it. In his 

acknowledgements at the end of the 

book, he assures his parents that he 

has “already” forgiven them. This was 

necessary, perhaps, because he said 

they never knew some of the details 

of his experience until the book was 

published. 

Again, this book is a reconstruction 

of his journey. A narrative of events 

can never be completely accurate. But 

the book is convincing, and reminds 

me of something Nobel Prize winner 

Mario Vargas Llosa said in his book 

“La Verdad de las Mentiras” (“The 

Truth of Lies”) (Alfaguara, Spanish, 

$21.88), about how fiction, although 

sometimes a form of lying, speaks the 

truth. 

Some years before writing “Solito,” 

Zamora published a book of poems 

called “Unaccompanied” (Copper 

Canyon Press, $15.99) about his experience. 

There are some contradictions 

between the poems and the narrative 

of “Solito.” 

In the prose work, little Javier meets 

up with a mother, Patricia, her daughter, 

Carla, and their friend, a man 

called “Chino” (a common nickname 

in El Salvador). They become 

his family during the difficult travel 

by bus, boat, vans, and foot. Chino 

carries Zamora for part of the trek in 

the desert. At the end of “Solito,” the 

author says he has no idea of where 

Chino is presently. He also claims to 

have no memory of the man calling 

his parents when Zamora first arrived 

in California. 

But in “Unaccompanied,” a poem 

dedicated “to Chino,” explains that he 

was killed in Virginia by a rival gang 

from El Salvador. In the “memoir,” it 

says Chino has a tattoo but nothing 

else; in the poem the tattoo denotes 

affiliation with the notorious street 

gang MS-13. 

Obviously, you can decide to leave 

out information in the sometimes-exhausting 

catalog of sights, sounds, and 

smells experienced during a twomonth, 

3,000-mile journey. However, 

if Chino was a gang member, it would 

make his nobility with Javier more 

outstanding and his personality more 

interesting. 

So, did the poem or the memoir tell 

the truth about the man, or just partially 

or neither? Readers may never 

be sure, but perhaps that’s part of the 

point here: “Solito” is a window to the 

experience of millions of people who 

now live in our society. 

Zamora expresses so much that we 

should be aware of: their desperate 

hope; the lonely longing for home 

and family; the dangers; the hunger, 

thirst, and frightening encounters with 

the soldiers and law enforcement; the 

clandestine hideouts and jails; the fear 

of dogs and guns and helicopters; the 

friendship their common fate engenders 

and the corruption and deception 

they are exposed to; and the aching 

fear of being caught or even dying on 

the way. 

All of these human aspects lie 

underneath real political, social, and 

economic issues. They demand our 

recognition and sympathy. Reading 

“Solito” was an emotional gauntlet 

that at times shocked me, made me 

laugh and tear up, and even want to 

pray as I turned the pages. 

“Solito” should be required reading, 

at least for priests in “La Usa” — not 

only to better understand the crisis at 

the border, but also in light of a new 

Pew Research study showing a 24% 

drop in identification with the Catholic 

Church among U.S. Hispanics. We 

are losing our own. 

AMAZON 

Msgr. Richard Antall is pastor of 

Holy Name Church in Cleveland, 

Ohio, and the author of several books. 

He served as a missionary priest in 

El Salvador for more than 20 years 

and was named a “Noble Friend of 

El Salvador” in 2011 by the country’s 

National Assembly. 


SHUTTERSTOCK 

Here come the ‘Tradwives’ 

Some women on social media are embracing a return to more 

traditional gender roles. Are they immature, or onto something? 

BY ELISE ITALIANO URENECK 

For the good of my mental health 

and in an effort to be more 

present to my children, I’ve 

dialed back my use of social media. I 

may miss more cultural references as a 

result, but I’ve made my peace with the 

trade-off. 

However, on one of my recent, rarer 

visits to Twitter, I stumbled across a 

piece from NBC’s Today on the socalled 

“Tradwife” phenomenon. As 

a married, stay-at-home mom whose 

professional ambitions are simmering 

while I care for my young children, I 

took the bait, thinking that mine might 

be the type of profile being detailed. 

For those like me who are just getting 

caught up, the “Tradwife” movement 

centers around a growing number of 

millennial and Gen Z women who 

post content on TikTok and other 

social media platforms promoting a 

mid-century aesthetic and lifestyle. 

Their videos and resources celebrate 

traditional gender roles, homemaking, 

and the care of children. Many of these 

young women don clothing, makeup, 

and hairstyles emblematic of the 1950s. 

“Tradwives” informally self-report 

high levels of marital satisfaction. 

Some attribute this to their husbands’ 

esteem for domestic and caregiving 

work, which they feel is vastly undervalued 

today, both culturally and economically. 

Others consciously traded 

corporate burnout for more freedom 

and peace, a trend that the COVID-19 

pandemic accelerated. 

Twenty-five-year-old Estee Williams, a 

prominent face of the movement who 

left college to get married and pursue 

homemaking, says that her chaotic 

upbringing by an overworked, single 

mother left her craving stability in her 

own adult life. 

“She worked all these jobs and then 

she would come home and try her 

best to make us really good food, have 


the house clean,” she remembers. 

“I saw the stress and burnout and I 

always knew that I did not want that.” 

Williams has embraced a posture of 

deference to her husband on most 

of their marital decisions, asking for 

permission to engage in social activities 

and to make purchases that cost more 

than $100. 

After taking a closer look, I can say 

with certainty that I am not a “Tradwife.” 

For one, I am disenchanted 

by my generation’s need to cultivate 

and project a highly curated, personal 

“brand.” After almost 20 years on social 

media, we have become accustomed 

to arranging our lives according to how 

they will be perceived online. Life feels 

like performance art. 

Second, the Catholic tradition has 

taken great pains to communicate 

an anthropology in which a woman’s 

agency is understood, acknowledged, 

and respected. Yes, marital happiness is 

marked by compromise, and even mutual 

submission, for those courageous 

enough to engage Ephesians 5. But 

near-total deference seems to be a way 

of side-stepping decision-making and 

responsibility, key markers of adulthood. 

At best it’s a sign of immaturity; 

at worst, infantilization. The intellect 

and will are signature aspects of the 

“Imago Dei” (“Image of God”). We are 

expected to use them well. 

Last, I find a conservatism steeped in 

nostalgia as problematic as a rigid progressivism 

that pursues future justice at 

all costs. 

“Sufficient for today is its own evil,” 

Jesus tells us (Matthew 6:34). Idolizing 

the past or obsessing over the future 

means missing God’s activity in the 

present moment. For all of today’s troubles, 

our God is still the God of history, 

including our own. 

Yet for all of my hesitations about the 

phenomenon, I have genuine sympathy 

for these young women. Reactionary 

movements don’t come out of 

nowhere. They seem to be imposing 

on themselves the order they crave 

but do not see in the wider culture. 

Any therapist will tell you that too 

much freedom is paralyzing. We need 

rules, maps, and guardrails — perhaps 

women even more so, as the mounting 

evidence of female unhappiness would 

suggest. 

Even though women in the Western 

world have more social, political, and 

economic opportunities than ever before, 

they are reporting lower levels of 

happiness — not only relative to other 

women but to men as well. This is 

what two researchers dubbed the “Paradox 

of Declining Female Happiness” 

in 2009. New data suggests that young, 

liberal women are among those whose 

mental health is suffering the worst. 

Legal scholar Helen Alvaré saw that 

the train was headed here five years 

ago when she wrote, “Now would be a 

good time to declare that the essence 

of the sexual revolution — unlinking 

sex from even the ideas of children, 

marriage or even ‘tomorrow’ — has 

been a failed experiment.” 

SHUTTERSTOCK 

She’s not alone. A number of feminist 

scholars of all political backgrounds 

are sounding the alarm. Consider 

these recent titles: “Feminism Against 

Progress,” by Mary Harrington; “The 

Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A 

New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century,” 

by Louise Perry; “Rethinking Sex: 

A Provocation,” by Christine Emba. 

These authors examine how consensual 

but relationship-less sex, trading 

children for the C-suite, and having no 

ties to people or place have left the majority 

of women more miserable than 

ever. According to Harrington, they 

only materially benefit a small number 

of women at the top of the economic 

echelon. 

And a recent study conducted by 

Brendan Case, Th.D., of Harvard 

University, confirmed that married 

women continue to fare better than 

their unmarried peers. They had better 

health outcomes overall, including “a 

lower risk of cardiovascular disease, less 

depression and loneliness,” greater happiness, 

and “a greater sense of purpose 

and hope.” 

So in that sense, the “Tradwives” are 

onto something. Marriage and motherhood 

still provide women with meaning, 

purpose, and satisfaction, even 

if they are characterized as outdated 

or retrograde. And domestic work has 

immense value, in that raising children 

well pays dividends for family life and 

the common good. To discover that 

early on in life is a beautiful thing. 

But my wish for these women is to 

understand something explored by 

the philosopher Josef Pieper — that 

tradition is not the same as “traditionalism,” 

or a longing for and recreation 

of the past. Someone who is traditional 

faces today’s questions and concerns 

head on, applying wisdom from the 

past as well as knowledge gained in the 

present. 

For modern women dissatisfied with 

the path they’re on, such an approach 

seems more likely to inspire curiosity 

and even hope, with the help of peers 

and mentors who, instead of fleeing, 

can say to them, “Let’s find our way 

through this mess together.” 

Elise Italiano Ureneck is a contributor 

to Angelus writing from Rhode Island. 


AD REM 

ROBERT BRENNAN 

The devil in the details 

Following the appearance of 

a possible Satanic rite on a 

nationally televised awards show 

and at least two new films featuring 

the evil one, people might get the 

wrong impression the devil is making 

a comeback. As we know, Lucifer and 

his fellow demons have never left us. 

From the rebellion against God, to 

his work in the Garden of Eden and 

right up to today, demons continue to 

interact in our world with the purpose 

of pulling the spiritual thread from the 

fabric designed by our loving Creator. 

How many demons are there? We do 

not know. The answer Jesus got to this 

inquiry was “legion.” 

With more people dropping from the 

roster of believers 

in God with 

every passing day, 

it only makes 

sense that belief 

in the devil is 

likewise waning. 

“There are 

two equal and 

Protesters pray outside 

of the Boston hotel 

where the Satanic Temple 

held SatanCon on April 

28 in Boston, Massachusetts. 

| SPENCER PLATT/ 

GETTY IMAGES 

opposite errors into which our race 

can fall about the devils,” C.S. Lewis 

once wrote. “One is to disbelieve in 

their existence. The other is to believe, 

and to feel an excessive and unhealthy 

interest in them.” 

Those who reject the divine relegate 

the devil to the shadows, that place 

where he and his legion tend to have 

the most success. The devil is not 

fussy, but rather happy to have people 

believe or disbelieve whatever they 

choose as long as it fits his ends. 

He is powerless without human cooperation, 

which explains why he has 

molded himself into myriad human 

constructs, whether it be the worship 

of Baal or Moloch in ancient times 

or our modern and more antiseptic 

version of infanticide in the form of 

the abortion industrial complex. 

The devil probably does not mind the 

current attention he is getting in popular 

culture these days with the recent 

releases of a big budget Hollywood 

production and a low budget, more 

intimate film where demons are the 

device from which both plots revolve. 

At the end of last month, the second 

part of C.S. Lewis’ warning was on 

full display in the city of Boston. That 

is where SatanCon, a convention for 

satanists everywhere to mix, mingle, go 

to lectures, attend a gala, and celebrate 

the devil himself took place this year. 

My guess is that some attendees 

might argue they are not displaying 

Lewis’ “excessive and unhealthy interest” 

in demons. Rather, they might 

argue, their delusional pursuit of “satanism” 

represents a kind of defanged 

God-less ethics system with the intent 

to unshackle the human spirit from 

religious oppression. 

Just as people want Christ without 

the cross, the Satanic Temple, which 

is the sponsor of SatanCon, wants 

the license of the devil without the 

consequences. 

The Satanic Temple has no commandments. 

It does have seven tenets 

spilling over with benign and even 

positive words like “compassion,” 

“justice,” and “wisdom,” all concepts 

the devil has been using since he was 


Robert Brennan writes from Los Angeles, where 

he has worked in the entertainment industry, 

Catholic journalism, and the nonprofit sector. 

East and West of Eden. 

The devil can only work with the creation 

God left behind, and since God 

saw it and said it was good, the devil 

must pervert the good and turn it on 

its head. Christ is the Paschal Lamb, 

so the Satanic Temple has a goat. God 

has Ten Commandments, the devil, 

through his spokesperson at the Satanic 

Temple, has only seven tenets. 

We Christians sometimes want God 

on our terms, God more in our image 

than we in his — especially when his 

love and his teachings seem hard. In 

response, the Satanic Temple offers a 

long weekend event marketed much 

like a New Age self-help seminar. 

Most of the events and lectures 

people attended at the SatanCon 

“festival,” which, by the way, was sold 

out, cannot be reprinted here out of a 

sense of propriety. But there was one 

seminar that seemed to accurately 

sum up all the others: Judas Marduk’s 

presentation “Deconstructing your 

Religious Upbringing.” 

As with everything demonic, symbols 

of good or the divine are turned 

on their head. They have a “black” 

mass to counter the holiest thing that 

occurs on earth. They turn the cross 

upside down. According to the Satanic 

Temple’s website, they are really just 

about encouraging “benevolence and 

empathy among all people, rejecting 

tyrannical authority.” Sounds like a 

Shriner’s convention — until you 

consider the source. 

If my mom was alive — and I 

stipulate she did not have the same 

theological expertise as C.S. Lewis 

— she would have given attendees of 

SatanCon some beneficial advice to 

heed: The road to hell is paved with 

good intentions.

DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

Bowing before the laborers 

“Saint Thomas of Villanueva Giving 

Alms to the Poor,” by Bartolomé-Esteban 

Murillo, 1617-1682, Spanish. | THE 

NORTON SIMON FOUNDATION 

Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food,” 

a current exhibit at Pasadena’s Norton Simon 

“All 

Museum, features 60 paintings, prints, photographs, 

and sculptures spanning the years 1500-1900. How 

did artists during those four centuries respond to and shape 

food cultures? 

In the first two galleries, food-based art is addressed through 

the themes of “Hunger,” “Excess,” and “Sustenance.” “Hunger” 

explores various facets of food deprivation. “Excess” 

features opulence and eroticism around food. “Sustenance” 

regards food through the lens of agricultural landscapes, 

labor, and commerce. 

The idea is to present actions and dynamics that give food 

profound social meaning. 

“Excess,” for example, “explores depictions of morally questionable 

consumption, which were shaped by historically 

specific attitudes about gender, class, and race.” 

I perused the works with an eye toward curiosity and 

enjoyment, rather than trying to imbue them with identity 

politics, and thoroughly enjoyed the range of styles, eras, and 

attitudes toward the production and consumption of food. 

“Saint Thomas of Villanueva Giving Alms to the Poor” 

(1665-1670), by the Spanish painter Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo, 

depicts the Augustinian friar piously distributing coins 

to the hungry while an angelic mother figure hovers above. 

Other more raucous scenes from that time show the ways 

those coins may have been spent: Adriaen van Ostade’s “Carousing 

Peasants,” Rembrandt’s “The Pancake Woman,” Jan 

Steen’s “Wine is a Mocker,” and William Hogarth’s satirical 

“Gin Lane,” in which an inebriated female with sores on her 

legs swills from a bottle as her neglected tot hurtles headlong 

over the banister of a steep set of steps. 

On the other end of the spectrum, 17th-century Dutch and 

Flemish paintings depict almost insanely sybaritic opulence. 

In Frans Snyders’ 8½-foot-wide “Still Life with Fruit and 

Vegetables,” (1625-1635), wicker baskets are piled high, 

bowls burst, and platters flow over with grapes, figs, peaches, 

cherries, melons, plums, and chestnuts. That all this bounty 

would not have ripened in a single season only adds to the 

sense of extravagance. 

“Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit,” a mid-18th-century 

piece by François-Hubert Drouais, spells out the metaphor. 

One breast provocatively exposed, the girl in question holds 

up a bunch of dewy grapes, her expression telegraphing that 

there’s fruit — and then there’s fruit. 

“The Poultry Market at Pontoise” (1882) by Camille 

Pissarro, presented as a protest against capitalism and mass 

production, struck me instead as a celebration of earthy, 

vivid agrarian life. 

The peasant seller, clearly in her element, stands hand 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

casually on hip, the doyenne of her wares, while an elegantly 

dressed urban shopper shyly eyes the chickens and 

eggs. That’s just how I feel 150 years later at, say, the Sunday 

morning Hollywood Farmers Market: grateful to and slightly 

in awe of the people who live with their hands in the dirt. 

The third gallery features photographs by Edward Weston 

(American, 1886-1958) and Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexican, 

1902-2002). 

Weston’s vineyards and ranches depict the vast sweep of 

California food production. In “Lettuce Ranch, Salinas 

Valley” (1935), row upon row of plowed and planted earth 

form a telescoped triangle converging toward the apex in 

a grouping of farmhouses and shade trees. A cloudless sky 

looms above. Mountains shimmer in the distance. The 

scene is eerily devoid of humans: the legions of workers who 

dig, plant, harvest, and the owners who 

reap the monetary rewards. 

Álvarez Bravo, by contrast, is known 

for his photographs of Mexican street 

life, including day-to-day encounters 

with food and drink. “The countryside, 

the daily life of the street is so 

much richer than doing portraits, than 

doing nudes,” he observed. 

In “Los agachados” (“The Crouched 

Ones,” 1934), five working-class 

men, back to the camera, sit on stools 

wolfing down their lunch beneath the 

half-closed metal shutter of a momand-pop 

café. One wears paint-splattered 

overalls, another cradles a beatup 

shoeshine box between his feet. 

The stools are chained together and 

to the counter. The men’s anonymous 

shoulders and heads are shrouded in 

shadow. They could almost be kneeling 

at the Communion rail. 

This is how those who work with 

their hands eat: hurriedly, almost 

furtively, forever poised to bolt. The 

artist explained the piece’s title by 

noting that his fellow country people 

“can fold their body and soul into this 

humble position and still retain their 

pride and integrity.” 

Looking at the photo again, I thought of my late father, 

a New Hampshire bricklayer with eight kids who went off 

to work every morning with a battered red-and-white Igloo 

cooler. Thus he might have crouched on a half-finished wall 

over his bologna sandwich lunch or sat on a barstool for a 

quick beer with the guys after work before coming home to 

… us. 

If I were to play “Separated at Birth” with the pieces in the 

exhibit, I’d pair “Los agachados” with a dreamy 1650s oil 

painting by Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch) called “Evening in the 

Meadows,” in which a sturdy peasant maiden, also with her 

back to the viewer, crouches to milk a cow. 

I don’t see the people who make our lives possible — those 

who pick the broccoli, build the houses, tend the yards — as 

victims. I bow before them. 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

Mary and the Holy Spirit 

Saints since the first generation have pondered the close 

relationship of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy 

Spirit. St. Luke began his Gospel by showing us Mary 

overshadowed by the Spirit as she conceived the divine 

Son (Luke 1:35). He began his second book, the Acts of the 

Apostles, by showing us Mary praying with the Church, 

calling upon the Holy Spirit to arrive in power (Acts 1:14). 

Closer to our own day, St. Maximilian Kolbe spoke of 

the special relationship between the Holy Spirit and Mary. 

“They share,” he wrote, “a single motherhood: the divine 

Maternity of love.” 

I am no saint, but I do discuss this relationship at length in 

one of my own books, “First Comes Love.” 

Thus I cannot describe the joy I felt in 2018 when Pope 

Francis instituted a new feast day — the Memorial of the 

Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church — to be observed 

on the Monday following Pentecost … the very day 

after the great feast of the Holy Spirit. 

This is a beautiful development, the crown of a long 

tradition. The Eastern Churches honor Mary as both an 

“icon of the Church” and an “icon of the Spirit.” Mary’s 

motherhood is mystically one with that of the Church and 

the Spirit. 

As once she conceived Jesus and mothered him, so she 

mothers us children of the Church today. By the power of 

the Holy Spirit, which we received in our baptism, we share 

the life of Jesus; we share his home (heaven); we share his 

table (the Mass); and we share his mother (Mary). We are 

brothers and sisters of her only Son, and so we are her “other 

offspring” revealed in the Book of Revelation (12:17). 

This feast couldn’t have come at a better moment in my 

own life. Five years before, I had made my first Marian 

consecration with my family. I renewed it in 2018 on Jan. 1. 

And the trend continues and intensifies for me, still today. 

As I grow older, I recognize more keenly my dependence 

on others, but especially on our mother and especially on 

the Holy Spirit, the very bond of my consecration. 

The honor we give Mary detracts nothing from God. Said 

the Second Vatican Council: “The maternal duty of Mary 

toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique 

mediation of Christ, but rather shows his power.” Mary is 

Jesus’ most awesome work. She is the Spirit’s great manifestation. 

We need this feast. Can anyone really doubt that? We are 

experiencing many crises in our society and in our Church. 

Motherhood is in crisis. The family 

is in crisis. And good people are feeling 

dispirited. An increasingly unchurched 

generation finds itself not 

liberated, but rather shackled to the 

deck of a ship that is storm-tossed by 

waves of opinion and swamped by 

rumors of phony science. 

We need Mary, mother of the 

“Virgin and Child 

Enthroned,” by Master 

of Frankfurt (perhaps 

Hendrik van Wueluwe), 

c. 1460-c. 1533, Flemish. 

| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

Church. When we go to her we gain the Spirit — and all 

the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. “Where the Spirit of the 

Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). 


■ SATURDAY, MAY 13 

Mother’s Rosary Prayer Service. All Catholic Cemeteries 

and Mortuaries locations, 2 p.m. Also available online at 

catholiccm.org or facebook.com/lacatholics. 

Conscious Aging, Death Makes Life Possible. Holy Spirit 

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

With Deborah Lorentz, SSS. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 

818-784-4515. 

■ MONDAY MAY 15 

Catechesis for Youth and Adults. St. John the Evangelist 

Church, 6028 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles. 7:30 p.m. every 

Monday and Thursday in Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel 

(Entrance through parking lot on 60th St.) Catechesis of 

the Neocatechumenal Way in English. Are you looking for 

an answer to suffering? Or do you want to deepen your 

faith? All are welcome. For more information call 310-531- 

0635. 

■ WEDNESDAY MAY 17 

Mass/Healing Services with Father Mike Barry. St. John 

Eudes Church, 9901 Mason Ave., Chatsworth, 6 p.m. The 

healing service will begin immediately following the Mass. 

For additional information, please call Bea at 818-314- 

5179. 

■ THURSDAY, MAY 18 

“Spiritual and Pastoral Care: Promoting Mental Wellness 

in our World Today.” Bishop Alemany High School, 

11111 North Alemany Dr., Mission Hills, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. 

This discussion will include resources and ministry-based 

practices to accompany individuals and families on their 

journey to wellness and hope. Speaker: Deacon Ed Shoener. 

For more information, visit lifejusticeandpeace.lacatholics. 

org/catholic-healthcare. 

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. 


36th Annual Walk for Life South Bay. Veterans Park, 309 

Esplanade, Redondo Beach, 8-11 a.m. A fun family event 

which includes: food, music, kids’ booth, photo booth, 

raffle, and more. Register at supportphctorrance.org by 

April 24 for $45/person to be guaranteed a T-shirt. On-site 

registration at 7:30 a.m. Proceeds go toward providing free 

pregnancy services to clients of the Pregnancy Help Center 

in Torrance. For more information, call 424-263-4855. 

■ SUNDAY, MAY 21 

Kontrapunktus Presents: “The Begotten Son: Carl 

Philipp Emanuel Bach.” St. Andrew Church, 311 N. 

Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 7:30 p.m. Led by Hannah White, 

Kontrapunktus commemorates the artistry of Carl Philipp 

Emanuel Bach, which features Aubree Oliverson as violin 

soloist. Visit www.kontrapunktus.com for more information 

and tickets. 

Diverse Voices in Verse: Music Inspired by Poetry. St. 

Francis de Sales Church, 13370 Valleyheart Dr., Sherman 

Oaks, 7 p.m. The Wagner Ensemble program includes both 

longtime favorites and some surprises, exploring the universality 

of themes in different cultural origins and regions. For 

more information, email kyrian.corona@gmail.com. 

■ THURSDAY, MAY 25 

St. Padre Pio Birthday Mass and Healing Service. St. 

Dorothy Church, 241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 6 p.m. 

Celebrant: Father Michael Barry and Father Ron Clark. Relic 

with St. Pio’s glove will be present. Livestream available at 

stdorothy.org. 


Transitional Diaconate Ordination. Cathedral of Our 

Lady of the Angels, 555 West Temple St., Los Angeles, 

9 a.m. Thirteen men will be ordained to the transitional 

diaconate. Livestream will be available at lacatholics.org/ 

ordination2023. 

In-person Called and Gifted. Our Lady of Grace Church, 

5011 White Oak Ave., Encino, May 27 and May 28, 9 a.m.-5 

p.m. God is calling you to a work of love that will fill your life 

with purpose and joy. This three-step process will help you 

to discern your charisms or spiritual gifts. For more information, 

visit lacatholics.org/events. 

The Gifts & Healing Power of the Holy Spirit. St. John Vianney 

Church, O’Callaghan Hall, 1345 Turnbull Canyon Rd., 

Hacienda Heights, 12 p.m. Pentecost vigil event includes an 

afternoon of inspired presentations and healing prayer, uplifting 

praise and worship by Spirit of Praise, and a Pentecost 

vigil Mass with Father Bill Delany, SJ. Call 818-771-1361 or 

email spirit@scrc.org for more information. 

Kontrapunktus Presents: “The Begotten Son: Carl 

Philipp Emanuel Bach.” Our Lady Queen of the Angels 

Church, 2046 Mar Vista Dr., Newport Beach, 7:30 p.m. Visit 

www.kontrapunktus.com for more information and tickets. 

■ MONDAY, MAY 29 

Memorial Day Mass. All Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries 

locations, 10 a.m. Archbishop José H. Gomez will 

celebrate Mass at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery. 

Available online at www.catholiccm.org or facebook.com/ 

lacatholics. 

■ WEDNESDAY, MAY 31 

LACBA Family Law Clinic. 2-5 p.m. Zoom clinic will cover 

child support, child custody, divorce, and spousal support. 

Open to Los Angeles County veterans. Registration required. 

Contact 213-896-6537 or email inquiries-veterans@ 

lacba.org. 

■ THURSDAY, JUNE 1 

Housing/Tenants’ Rights Virtual Legal Clinic for Disabled 

Veterans. 5-8 p.m. Zoom clinic will help disabled veterans 

in LA County with an income level at or below 75% of 

HUD’s low-income limit. Registration required. Visit https:// 

tinyurl.com/56ypsrzc. 

■ SATURDAY, JUNE 3 

Ordination to the Priesthood. Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels, 555 West Temple St., Los Angeles, 9 a.m. Eight 

transitional deacons will be ordained as priests. Tickets 

required. Livestream available at lacatholics.org/ordination. 

■ TUESDAY, JUNE 13 

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. 

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

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

Angelus News | May 19, 2023 | Vol. 8 No

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