Angelus News | December 1, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 24

ANGELUS 

LA’S CATHOLIC BOOM YEAR, 

A CENTURY LATER 

December 1, 2023 Vol. 8 No. 24

B • ANGELUS • December 1, 2023

ANGELUS 

December 1, 2023 

Vol. 8 • No. 24 

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ON THE COVER 

TIDINGS ARCHIVE 

Many of the parishes celebrating their 100th anniversary 

in 2023 are shown in historical photos. 

On Page 10, Angelus explores why 1923 was 

such a significant year for growth — a record 18 

churches that year alone — in the Archdiocese of 

Los Angeles, and how several parishes celebrated 

their century. 

THIS PAGE 

VINCENT ESCUETA 

Father Michael Wakefield, pastor at St. Francis de Sales 

Church in Sherman Oaks, blesses the new Healing 

Garden installed at the parish during a special ceremony 

on Nov. 19. With plans to have a garden in each of the 

Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ five regions, the one at St. 

Francis de Sales is the third, dedicated to victim-survivors 

of sexual abuse. 

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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 

Ancestral Mass honors Black Catholics’ past with an eye on the future 

House of Yahweh and its 90-year-old foundress are still changing lives 

John Allen explains Pope Francis’ sudden eagerness to answer ‘dubia’ 

What the U.S. bishops were thinking about in Baltimore this year 

Grazie Pozo Christie on our deep-seated longings for large families 

Sign up for our free, daily e-newsletter 

Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

28 

30 

Only Nicolas Cage could’ve played this part in ‘Dream Scenario’ 

Heather King on an Instagram account-turned-LA exhibit featuring La Virgen 

December 1, 2023 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

Advice to America’s priests 

The following is adapted from the 

Holy Father’s address to the Association 

of Hispanic Priests of the U.S. at the 

Vatican on Nov. 16. 

We must seek Jesus in Scripture 

and the Gospel, in silent 

adoration, because we have 

lost the sense of adoration a little; we 

must find the Lord in the silence of adoration. 

If I were to ask now how many 

hours you spend in worship each week, 

that would be a good test. Everyone can 

answer within themselves: No, because 

it is too much effort, because here, 

because there. If you don’t pray, if you 

don’t worship, your life is worth little. 

In the United States, a National 

Eucharistic Congress is being prepared 

for next year, and Blessed Carlo Acutis 

and St. Manuel González have been 

chosen as its patrons, both of whom 

excelled — like so many saints of the 

Church — in the art of reading this 

living book, before the Tabernacle, in 

the silent, kneeling school. 

On one occasion, St. Manuel addressed 

a group of the faithful, reflecting 

on the role of the holy women on 

Calvary, as models for every disciple 

before the Lord’s cross, then as now. 

The same helplessness, the same desire 

to act against injustice that the holy 

women experienced in those moments, 

we can experience in the face of the 

problems of immigrants, the closure of 

certain civil and religious authorities, 

the challenges of interculturality, the 

complexity of proclamation, etc. 

Faced with these difficulties, the 

saint warns us that “Jesus does not stop 

suffering.” Jesus says that he will stand 

on Calvary until the end of time, even 

though he is risen, he continues to 

stand on Calvary in the person of his 

brothers and sisters. In every Tabernacle, 

in every consecrated chalice, we 

see the cross standing, and he asks us, 

“Can we do something to relieve the 

suffering Christ today? Do it, do it as 

soon as possible,” but do it knowing 

that “the Passion will be the companion 

of the Jesus of your Tabernacles” in 

every suffering brother and sister, and 

what God asks of you is not to leave 

them alone. 

Do not leave those who suffer alone, 

do not leave the Lord of the Tabernacle 

alone, convince yourselves that you 

cannot do anything with your hands 

if you do not do it with your knees. 

Adoration, Eucharistic silence, and 

intercession before the Tabernacle. 

And then yes, service. 

Beware of settling down, do not make 

yourselves comfortable. Sometimes the 

modern world leads us to schedules, 

but please, first the people, then the 

timetable. Don’t become “employees” 

of the sacred. 

St. Manuel said that above all else, 

what a priest can do today begins with 

simple prayer, a close word, fraternal 

acceptance, and persevering work. 

Prayer, simple, close word, fraternal 

welcome, and persevering work. Do 

not spare yourselves! 

I want to mention one thing. Do 

not have dirty nails, have clean nails, 

because nails get dirty when the priest 

starts to climb. And you climb for that 

post, for that parish … and then human 

promotion surpasses the gratitude 

of proclamation. And if you lose this, 

you will become poor priests who have 

lost the joy of their lives. Always return 

to Jesus’ call to serve, at the disposal of 

others. 

Papal Prayer Intention for December: We pray that people 

living with disabilities may be at the center of attention in 

society, and that institutions may offer inclusive programs 

which value their active participation. 

2 • ANGELUS • December 1, 2023

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

The blessings of the U.S. Church 

I 

was in Baltimore Nov. 13-16 for 

the annual plenary assembly of the 

United States Catholic bishops. 

It was the first bishops’ meeting for 

our four new auxiliary bishops, who 

were ordained in September. So, it 

was a special time for me to pray and 

share with them and Auxiliary Bishop 

Marc Trudeau. 

I always come away from these gatherings 

with my brother bishops feeling 

hopeful and inspired. It becomes so 

clear that God is alive and his Spirit 

is working in the Church in so many 

beautiful ways, not only here in Los 

Angeles but across the country. 

In the United States, we are blessed 

to have good bishops leading our 

dioceses, many appointed in the last 

decade. Also, as we see with our new 

bishops here in Los Angeles, across 

the country a fine new generation of 

auxiliary bishops has been appointed 

in recent years, men of prayer who are 

alive with apostolic zeal. 

The same is true of our new American 

priests. Across the country, an 

excellent new generation is being 

ordained. These are men who are on 

fire to spread the Gospel, men who 

love Jesus and long to make Jesus 

loved by every heart. 

We see all of this here in Los Angeles, 

and in my conversations with my 

brother bishops, they see it in their 

dioceses, too. 

The American Church is doing what 

Christ commanded: we are united in 

the urgent task of proclaiming his Gospel 

of love and seeking to save souls. 

We are also striving to build Christ’s 

kingdom, spreading the social message 

of the Gospel and, through our 

charities and outreach efforts, working 

for a world that protects the sanctity 

and dignity of the human person as a 

child of God. 

We began our meeting in Baltimore 

with a Mass for Peace, praying 

especially for Ukraine, Palestine, and 

Israel. In our sessions, we reaffirmed 

our commitment to defend migrants 

and refugees and seek solutions to our 

long-broken immigration system. 

One of our most important discussions 

concerned the growing crisis of 

mental health and the bishops’ new 

National Catholic Mental Health 

Campaign, aimed at raising awareness 

and helping people find care and 

treatment. 

Looking ahead to the 2024 elections, 

we revised the introduction of our 

“Forming Consciences for Faithful 

Citizenship” document to address the 

most “grave threats to life and dignity 

of the human person,” including 

abortion, euthanasia, gun violence, 

terrorism, the death penalty, human 

trafficking, and efforts to redefine 

marriage and gender. 

We face many challenges in the 

Church in this country. But they are 

the challenges that the Church faces 

in every age and every place: How do 

we live as followers of Jesus Christ in 

a world that is hostile to the Gospel? 

How do we proclaim the Gospel and 

pass on our faith to the next generation? 

Historically, the mission of the 

American Church has always been 

distinguished by the leadership and 

participation of the lay faithful. 

And in the presentations at our meeting 

in Baltimore, it was again clear 

that laypeople are the source of so 

much creativity and apostolic energy 

in the Church. 

We are blessed with a diversity of lay 

apostolates and ministries that work in 

partnership with bishops and pastors 

to accompany and deepen the faith 

of our people, especially our young 

people and families. 

The Church here has long reflected 

what the Second Vatican Council 

called “the universal call to holiness,” 

and the collaborative vision that Pope 

Francis is calling us to in the Synod 

on Synodality. 

That is why I am so encouraged 

by the two most important apostolic 

initiatives in the Church right now, 

the Holy Father’s call for “synodality” 

in the universal Church and the U.S. 

bishops’ call for a Eucharistic revival. 

As the pope’s delegate, Apostolic 

Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, 

said in his address to the bishops, 

“Eucharistic revival and synodality go 

together.” 

Both are about the Church’s essential 

mission of evangelization, 

about bringing our people to a new 

encounter with Jesus Christ, the living 

God, the God of love who comes to 

save us and make us one family. 

This divine love is what makes all 

things new in the Church and in our 

lives. Bringing people to know this 

love is the urgent reason for everything 

we do in the Church, all our 

teaching and preaching, all our works 

of mercy and pastoral care. 

In his encouraging address, Pierre 

quoted Francis’ words in concluding 

the recent synod in Rome: “Loving 

God with our whole life and loving 

our neighbor as ourselves … that is 

the heart of everything.” 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

Let’s thank God for all the gifts 

he has bestowed on his Church in 

America. 

And let’s ask our Blessed Mother 

Mary to make the love of her Son the 

heart of everything we do. 


WORLD 

■ Thousands pray ‘living 

rosary’ for peace in Mexico 

More than 20,000 people filled a 

stadium in Mexico to participate in a 

“living rosary” for peace. 

The Nov. 5 prayer service in the city 

of León in the state of Guanajuato 

was held under the theme “The Lord 

bless us and his people with peace” 

following the highest number of homicides 

recorded in the state’s history: 

4,329 people last year. 

“When the Church was born, the 

greeting to the apostles was ‘Peace be 

with you,’ ” Father Roberto Guerrero 

Velázquez, who organized the service, 

told ACI Prensa. “And it comes from 

hope, it cannot happen without hope. 

Peace is the gift of God and we have 

to build it.” 

An almost 70-year tradition, the 

living rosary features performances for 

each mystery and is inspired by the 

Fátima apparitions. 

■ Indi Gregory dies 

following UK court ruling 

An 8-month-old British girl with a rare 

mitochondrial disease died after U.K. 

courts blocked attempts to extend life 

support and transfer care out of the 

country. 

Indi Gregory’s parents had requested 

to have the girl transferred to a hospital 

in Rome that had agreed to accept her 

for treatment funded by the Italian 

government. She was granted Italian 

citizenship on Nov. 9 to encourage the 

Indi Gregory in an undated photo before her death. | 

transfer, but the next day the U.K.’s 

COURTESY GREGORY FAMILY 

Court of Appeal sided with the National 

Health Service (NHS) decision to transfer her to hospice and remove life 

support. 

Despite additional requests to allow her to return home with her parents for 

end-of-life, Gregory was transferred to hospice Nov. 11 and died two days later. 

“The NHS and the courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life,” 

said father Dean Gregory in a statement, “but they also took away Indi’s dignity to 

pass away in the family home where she belonged.” 

Weeks before her death, Gregory was baptized by Christian volunteers visiting 

her hospital, despite her parents not being religious. 

Sent by the ‘Lady in Blue’ — Two people take pictures with their mobile devices during an audience 

with Pope Francis at the Vatican Nov. 16 as part of a conference on Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda. 

The 17th-century Spanish Conceptionist nun was believed to have had the gift of bilocation as it was 

said she appeared to members of the Jumano tribe in central New Mexico, Tucson, and West Texas, and 

evangelized that region. The audience with the pope included members of the Conceptionist sisters and 

Indigenous peoples who trace their lineage to the Jumano tribe. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA 

■ Vatican: Catholics 

still banned from joining 

Masonic groups 

Responding to worries about a rise in 

faithful joining Masonic groups in the 

Philippines, the Vatican reiterated that 

Catholics are forbidden from joining 

such groups. 

Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of 

the Vatican’s doctrine office, cited a 1983 

declaration that states that Catholics 

who join Masonic groups are “in a state 

of grave sin and may not receive Holy 

Communion.” 

He encouraged the country’s bishops to 

develop a pastoral plan to curb Catholic 

enrollment in Freemasonry. 

Freemasonry, a global network of fraternal 

organizations oath-bound to secrecy, 

is often associated with charitable activity 

in modern times, but is based on a set of 

beliefs that relativize the faith of its members 

and rejects core Catholic teachings. 

“Christianity and Freemasonry are 

essentially irreconcilable, so that enrollment 

in one means separation from the 

other,” Pope Leo XIII wrote in 1892. 


NATION 

■ Ohio voters approve abortion measure 

Ohio voters approved a measure to codify the right to 

abortion, dealing the state’s pro-life movement a second 

loss this year. 

The approval of “Issue 1” by a 57%-43% margin on Nov. 

7 followed an Aug. 8 special election which tried to make 

amending the state Constitution more difficult. Seen by 

many as a proxy battle for abortion, that measure failed, allowing 

Issue 1 to pass in November with a simple majority. 

“Despite this outcome, we are grateful for all of you who 

prayed, educated yourselves and others, and voted NO on 

this horrific amendment,” Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis 

M. Schnurr said. 

“Moving forward … in 2024, pro-life, pro-woman coalitions 

will need to devote more resources to compassionate 

pro-life messages for women and their children, combatting 

the campaign of fear from the other side,” said Marjorie 

Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America. 

■ Brooklyn: Outrage after 

lewd filming at parish 

Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn celebrated a Mass 

of reparation at a 160-year-old church after a pop singer was 

allowed to shoot a lewd music video inside. 

The music video released Oct. 31 shows singer Sabrina 

Carpenter dancing on the altar at Annunciation of the Blessed 

Virgin Mary Church, which has long served Lithuanian 

Catholics in Brooklyn. Outrage on social media quickly 

followed, with many questioning how filming of the video 

was allowed. 

Brennan said he was “appalled” to learn of the video and 

ordered an investigation into the incident. 

“A review of the documents presented to the parish in advance 

of the production, while failing to depict the entirety 

of the scenes, clearly portray inappropriate behavior unsuitable 

for a church sanctuary,” Brennan’s statement read. 

The church’s pastor, Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, was removed 

from his role on Nov. 3. 

Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn blesses 

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church 

Nov. 4 during a Mass of Reparation. | OSV NEWS/ 

JOHN QUAGLIONE, DESALES MEDIA 

The American martyrs you’ve never heard of — Lynn Mangan, a vice postulator 

for the sainthood cause of Antonio Inija and 57 companions, signs documents 

affirming the truth and accuracy of documentation for the “Florida martyrs” at an 

Oct. 12 ceremony. The cause documents the historical accounts of the 1704 massacre 

when Inija and many other Indigenous were captured, killed and, in some 

cases tortured, by Col. James Moore, British governor of the Carolinas, and his 

Creek allies in the name of Queen Anne of England. The documents were set to 

be delivered to Rome, where they will be studied by the Dicastery for the Causes 

of Saints. | OSV NEWS/DIOCESE OF PENSACOLA-TALLAHASSEE 

■ Denver archbishop: Just say no to pot 

Seventy percent of Americans believe marijuana should 

be legal. The archbishop of Denver finds that of “pastoral 

concern.” 

“We cannot pretend that the legalization and growing 

cultural acceptance of drugs do not have disproportionate 

effects on the most vulnerable in our society,” wrote Archbishop 

Samuel Aquila in a new pastoral letter. “Not only 

that, but it is an assault on human dignity, taking advantage 

of the vulnerable for the sake of financial profit.” 

The letter focused on marijuana specifically, which 

Aquila argued is scientifically proven to cause physical and 

psychological damage that does not respect the value of 

a human life. Colorado has some of the most permissive 

cannabis laws in the U.S. 

Catholics should respond to growing support of marijuana 

use through a three-pronged approach of prevention, 

suppression, and rehabilitation, Aquila wrote. 


LOCAL 

■ 1 million meals packed for needy people worldwide 

Volunteers at American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach packed their 

millionth meal to help feed needy people in other countries during a special 

event on Nov. 10-11. 

In collaboration with Cross Catholic Outreach, American Martyrs has hosted 

food-packing events every nine months since 2021. At each event, volunteers 

would pack between 150,000 and 200,000 meals. 

“We are incredibly inspired by Father John Barry and his team of friends, families, 

and parishioners at American Martyrs Catholic Church for putting their 

faith into action and sharing the love of Christ with the poor,” said Michele 

Sagarino, president of Cross Catholic Outreach. “Packing 1 million meals for 

the poor is a tremendous accomplishment and a testament to the Church’s 

commitment to serving impoverished families.” 

Learn more about the fruits of this partnership at crosscatholic.org/martyrs. 

Volunteers celebrate the 1 millionth meal packed at American Martyrs Church on Nov. 10-11. | BOB VISTY JR. 

■ LA parishioner 

receives award for 

missionary work in Brazil 

Angel Mortel, a parishioner at 

Dolores Mission in Los Angeles, was 

awarded the 2023 Bishop John E. 

McCarthy Spirit of Mission Award 

by Maryknoll Lay Missioners for her 

work in Brazil and LA. 

With her husband, Chad Ribordy, 

Mortel joined Maryknoll Lay Missioners 

in 1997 and spent 16 years in the 

São Paulo area of Brazil organizing 

community health volunteers, coordinating 

an income generation project 

for women, and fundraising for the 

national prison ministry. 

Since returning from Brazil, Mortel 

has worked for the past five years with 

LA Voice, a nonprofit service organization 

that trains local members to 

advocate for what their communities 

need. 

“Maryknoll disrupted my life — but 

in the positive sense of shaking things 

up, waking me up to possibility, to potential, 

to a new perspective,” Mortel 

said. 

Y 

■ Archdiocese helps raise 

$200,000 for Maui fire victims 

Parishioners of parishes in the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles helped raise $200,000 during a special collection 

in August to help those affected by the Maui 

wildfires, according to the Mission Office. 

Optional second collections were made at parishes 

throughout the archdiocese on Aug. 19-20 and Aug. 

26-27 after the devastation of the Maui wildfires in 

early August. 

“I wanted to thank you for your generous support, 

help, and prayers during the time of the Maui 

wildfire,” said Bishop Larry Silva of the Diocese 

of Honolulu, which includes Maui, in a message 

shared with Angelus. “You have been wonderful in 

sending in contributions to help that community 

recover, to help their schools continue, and to help 

those who are without homes find a place to live 

and a job. I’m very grateful.” 

Donations can still be made to Catholic Foundation 

of Hawaii at tinyurl.com/MauiCatholic or 

Catholic Charities of Hawaii at catholiccharitieshawaii.org. 

Faith and film — Father Matthew Wheeler, left, administrator at Visitation Church in 

Westchester, introduces Marcela García-Romero, Ph. D., an associate professor of philosophy 

at Loyola Marymount University, during a screening and discussion of the film “Babette’s Feast,” 

at the parish on Nov. 15. The discussion centered around why the film is Pope Francis’ favorite 

and the movie’s central themes. | ROBERT CETL 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

Charity, justice, and immigration reforms 

The middle-of-the-road approach expressed by Msgr. Richard Antall 

in his article in the Nov. 17 issue, “A Crisis In Plane Sight,” is one that I 

wish was expressed more often by our leaders, both political and ecclesial. 

Unfortunately, Msgr. Antall’s claim that “charity and justice are not competing 

claims” is a hard one to grasp these days. 

I fear that the idea of a “comprehensive” reform that “fixes” our immigration system 

is unrealistic and won’t happen in our lifetimes. Meanwhile, the high volume 

of migrants being bused to major American cities from the U.S.-Mexico border 

with the tacit approval of immigration authorities can’t go on forever: There will 

need to be either a more clearly stated amnesty policy for new arrivals or a stricter 

closure of the border. 

Either of those options may not be the kind of reform that politicians tend to 

promise or that advocates may like, but it would be an honest start. 

In the meantime, Catholics should show more support and gratitude for the quiet 

work of aid agencies like Catholic Charities for our migrant brothers and sisters. 

— Dustin Paetzold, Portland, Oregon 

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. 

Mission monument 

“Satan wouldn’t go after 

what isn’t valuable, right?” 

~ Writer Scarlett Rose Ford, in a Nov. 16 Aleteia 

commentary on the nerves some get before the 

sacrament of reconciliation. 

“Dad, I am the same as 

always but dressed in 

brown.” 

~ Sister Belén de la Cruz, a Spanish Carmelite nun 

who died in 2018, in a Nov. 15 National Catholic 

Register article on her life and the purpose of 

cloistered nuns. 

“We used to laugh at those 

people in L.A. and now 

that’s what we’re seeing.” 

~ Mechele Dickerson, law professor at the 

University of Texas at Austin, in a Nov. 7 L.A. Times 

article on droves of Californians moving to Texas. 

“The school closures … at 

the start of the pandemic 

may prove to be the most 

damaging disruption in 

the history of American 

education.” 

~ The New York Times Editorial Board in a Nov. 18 

editorial titled “The Startling Evidence on Learning 

Loss is in.” 

Members of the Gabrieleño San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians helped dedicate a new Native garden space and fountain 

at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel on Nov. 19. Since the garden was sponsored by the late Bishop David O’Connell, a 

monument was placed in memory of him. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

View more photos 

from this gallery at 

AngelusNews.com/photos-videos 

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

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

“If I don’t do everything 

right, then my kid will end 

up living on my couch 

forever or be a serial killer.” 

~ Karen Benjamin Guzzo, sociologist and director 

of the Carolina Population Center, in a Nov. 3 

Washington Post article on why millennials aren’t 

having children. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com 

Helplessness as fruitful 

Sometimes we are the most helpful and life-giving at 

the very times when we are most helpless. We’ve all 

been there. We’re at a funeral and there’s nothing to 

say that will ease the heartache of someone who has lost a 

loved one. We feel awkward and helpless. We’d like to say 

or do something, but there’s nothing to be said or done, 

other than to be there, embrace the one nursing the grief, 

and share our helplessness. Passing is strange, but it is our 

very helplessness that’s most helpful and generative in that 

situation. Our passivity is more fruitful and generative than 

if we were doing something. 

We see an example of this in Jesus. He gave both his 

life and his death for us — but in separate moments. He 

gave his life for us through his activity and his death for us 

through his passivity, that is, through what he absorbed in 

helplessness. Indeed, we can divide each of the Gospels into 

two clear parts. 

Up until his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is 

the active one: he teaches, he heals, he performs miracles, 

he feeds people. Then, after he is arrested, he doesn’t do 

anything: he is handcuffed, led away, put on trial, scourged, 

and crucified. Yet, and this is the mystery, we believe that 

he gave us more during that time when he couldn’t do 

anything than during all those times he was active. We 

are saved more through his passivity and helplessness than 

through his powerful actions during his ministry. How 

does this work? How can helplessness and passivity be so 

generative? 

Partly this is mystery, though partly we grasp some of it 

through experience. For example, a loving mother dying in 

hospice, in a coma, unable to speak, can sometimes in that 

condition change the hearts of her children more powerfully 

than she ever could during all the years when she did so 

much for them. What’s the logic here? By what metaphysics 

does this work? 

Let me begin abstractly and circle this question before venturing 

to an answer. The atheistic thinkers of the Enlightenment 

(Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Marx, and others) offer a very 

powerful critique of religion and of religious experience. 

In their view, all religious experience is simply subjective 

projection, nothing more. 

For them, in our faith and religious practices, we are 

forever creating a god in our own image and likeness, to 

serve our self-interest (the very antithesis of what Christians 

believe). For Nietzsche, for instance, there is no divine 

revelation coming from outside us, no God in heaven 

revealing divine truth to us. Everything is us, projecting our 

needs and creating a god to serve those needs. All religion is 

self-serving, human projection. 

How true is this? One of the most influential professors I’ve 

studied under, Jesuit Michael Buckley, says this in face of 

that criticism: “These thinkers are 90% correct. But they’re 

10% wrong — and that 10% makes all the difference.” 

Buckley made this comment while teaching what John of 

the Cross calls a dark night of the soul. What is a dark night 

of the soul? It’s an experience where we can no longer sense 

God imaginatively or feel God effectively, when the very 

sense of God’s existence dries up inside us and we are left 

in an agnostic darkness, helpless (in head, heart, and gut) to 

conjure up any sense of God. 

However, and this is the point, precisely because we are 

helpless and unable to conjure up any imaginative concepts 

or affective feelings about God, God can now flow into us 

purely, without us being able to color or contaminate that 

experience. When all our efforts are useless, grace can finally 

take over and flow into us in purity. Indeed, that’s how 

all authentic revelation enters our world. When human 

helplessness renders us incapable of making God serve 

our self-interest, God can then flow into our lives without 

contamination. 

Now, this is also true for human love. So much of our love 

for each other, no matter our sincerity, is colored by self-interest 

and is at some point self-serving. In some fashion, 

we inevitably form those we love into our own image and 

likeness. However, as is the case with Buckley’s critique of 

the atheistic thinkers of the Enlightenment, this isn’t always 

the case. 

There are certain situations when we can’t in any way taint 

love and make it self-serving. What are those situations? 

Precisely those in which we find ourselves completely helpless, 

mute, stammering, unable to say or do anything that’s 

helpful. In these particular “dark nights of the soul,” when 

we are completely helpless to shape the experience, love 

and grace can flow in purely and powerfully. 

In his classic work “The Divine Milieu,” Father Pierre 

Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, challenges us to help others both 

through our activity and through our passivity. He’s right. 

We can be generative through what we actively do for others, 

and we can be particularly generative when we stand 

passively with them in helplessness. 


A HEAVENLY HUNDRED 

As parishes celebrate 

their 100th anniversary, 

the history behind why a 

record 18 churches were 

established in 1923. 

BY MIKE CISNEROS 

Los Angeles Archbishop José 

H. Gomez presents a certificate 

to Msgr. John Moretta, the 

pastor at Resurrection Church 

in Boyle Heights, during the 

parish’s centennial Mass on 

10 Oct. • 15. ANGELUS | VICTOR ALEMÁN • December 1, 2023

In 1923, a sign was placed in the 

hills above Los Angeles hoping to 

attract buyers to a new real estate 

development. Though the sign was 

only meant to be temporary, 100 years 

later it has become a symbol of both 

a bygone era and a representation of 

something that has endured through 

constantly changing times. 

That was the Hollywood sign. 

This year, many LA-area landmarks 

and institutions are turning 100: the 

Hollywood sign, the LA Memorial 

Coliseum, the Biltmore hotel, El 

Cholo restaurant. 

Also 100 years ago: The then-Diocese 

of Los Angeles-San Diego established 

18 parishes — the most of any year 

before or since. 

So what was happening in the Los 

Angeles area in the early 1920s that 

not only brought these historic landmarks, 

but also necessitated then-Bishop 

John Cantwell to establish a 

whopping 18 parishes? 

In short, LA was growing by leaps and 

bounds. 

In 1920, Los Angeles had overtaken 

San Francisco to be the most populated 

city in California. In 1916, there 

were 49,107 Catholics residing in the 

city, according to federal census data. 

By 1926, that number jumped 132% 

to 114,211 Catholics in Los Angeles 

alone, not counting surrounding areas. 

There were two major reasons for 

this, according to Father Michael 

Engh, SJ, chancellor at Loyola Marymount 

University and a former history 

professor. The first was LA and its 

Chamber of Commerce were heavily 

promoting the area for its sunny 

weather, affordable land, and plentiful 

jobs. 

Entire industries were flocking to the 

region or being created. Movies. Oil. 

Parishioners at Our Lady 

of Guadalupe (Hammel) 

in Los Angeles sing 

during the parish’s 50th 

anniversary in 1973. | 

TIDINGS ARCHIVES 

Aerospace. 

With more 

jobs came 

more people. 

With more 

people came 

new construction. 

With new construction came 

more infrastructure. 

“It’s the American dream,” Engh 

said. “Get a job, get a home, raise your 

families here. Great environment, 

great weather.” 

The second reason was the Mexican 

Revolution. With strife, battles, and 

chaos waging south of the border, 

many Mexican citizens poured into 

LA dreaming of a better life of better-paying 

jobs, housing, and education 

for their children. 

With anti-Catholic sentiment also 

raging in Mexico, streams of priests, 

nuns, and religious also fled to the 


Msgr. Daniel Sullivan, left, who was pastor 

at Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly 

Hills for 24 years, speaks to parishioners and 

students in 1972. | TIDINGS ARCHIVES 

U.S., with many ending up in Los 

Angeles. 

So with an increasing Spanish-speaking 

population, and priests and nuns 

available to serve that community, that 

also required more churches. 

“So economic growth, enormous influx 

of people, railroad transportation,” 

Engh said. “And then this great flood 

from Mexico coming up as well. So 

the diocese was growing by leaps and 

bounds along with Los Angeles and 

Southern California.” 

Then Engh exclaimed, “I had 

forgotten just how dynamic the period 

actually was.” 

Celebrating100 

For several of the 18 parishes celebrating 

their centennial this year, the 

festivities came in all manners and 

measures. 

At Mother of Sorrows Church in 

South Los Angeles, the commemoration 

actually began last year, with a different 

celebration each month. Those 

events included a Mass with Archbishop 

José H. Gomez, a centennial logo 

contest, and raffles of religious articles. 

For Father Brian Chung, the pastor 

at Mother of Sorrows, the blessings 

have come for a parish he said is poor 

financially, but rich in spirit. 

“Despite all our struggles, in many 

ways we’re never shy about expressing 

our faith,” Chung said. 

At St. Bernard Church in Bellflower, 

the parish didn’t know the exact date 

when it was established, so it set its big 

celebration for Aug. 20, the feast day 

for its namesake saint. The problem 

is that day turned out to be the exact 

time the historic Hurricane Hilary 

was set to touch down in Southern 

California. 

Thankfully, the outdoor event went 

on windy and wet, but with canopies 

and hearts full of grace. 

“Everybody enjoyed it,” said St. Bernard 

pastor Father Toribio Gutierrez. 

“It was a lot of people out in the rain. 

We enjoyed a lot of food, music, and 

dance.” 

As part of its 100th anniversary, St. 

Bernard is also planning a door-to-door 

ministry to welcome the neighborhood 

to the parish with an upcoming town 

hall in December. 

“We are going to start going door to 

door for all the neighbors to come 

and to know our community and to 

let them know that we are here and 

all the ministries for serving them,” 

Gutierrez said. 

As the only Catholic parish in Inglewood, 

St. John Chrysostom Church 

kept things simple by having one big 

reception following Mass with the 

archbishop, replete with mariachis, 

food, and a packed house with about 

1,000 parishioners. 

“To me, it was important to not only 

celebrate as a parish, but to celebrate 

as a parish community,” said Father 

Alexis Ibarra, administrator at St. John 

Chrysostom. “We had a whole ministry 

fair. We figured what better moment 

than our anniversary to invite more 

people to join the ministries and to 

serve the community in a larger sense.” 


For Father Peter Irving III, who has 

been the pastor at Holy Innocents 

Church in Long Beach for 17 years, 

he knows a thing or two about longevity. 

So when it came time to celebrate 

Holy Innocents’ 100th anniversary, the 

parish tried to commemorate all the 

things that make it special. 

First, they honored the Carmelite 

Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los 

Angeles — and especially its foundress, 

Venerable Maria Luisa Josefa, 

who escaped Mexico as part of the 

Cristero War and later taught at Holy 

Innocents — with several talks and 

book signings about the order’s history. 

The parish also had several Eucharistic 

processions, including one that 

led to an abortion clinic, which falls 

in line with the church’s pro-life work. 

Since 2008, as part of its expectant 

mothers outreach and providing 

material and spiritual support, Irving 

estimated they’ve saved 1,603 babies. 

Holy Innocents is taking its celebrations 

all the way to the absolute end of 

2023, with a special Mass on its feast 

day, Dec. 28, followed by a grand gala 

on Dec. 29. 

“I take zero credit for all of that because 

it’s all a gift,” Irving said. “Also, 

we have really good people. Very 

generous, wonderful people.” 

At Church of the Good Shepherd in 

Beverly Hills, its centennial celebration 

came with another piece of good 

news: The parish was designated as 

a historical landmark by the City 

Council. 

Along with a huge Mass and gala 

celebrated on Aug. 13 and attended 

by the mayor, police chief, council 

members and former California Gov. 

Gray Davis, parishioners received a 

commemorative book highlighting the 

parish’s rich history. 

Good Shepherd’s pastor, Father Ed 

Benioff, said that while the parish has 

a history with entertainers and being 

located in a wealthy city, the church is 

for everyone. 

“Our first 50 years, we had a lot of 

entertainers here so it was truly the 

parish of the entertainment stars,” 

Benioff said. “But I would say [in] the 

last 50 years, entertainment people 

now have multiple homes and they 

don’t necessarily live in Beverly Hills 

anymore. It’s kind of just more of the 

common person. 

“I think the misconception would 

be just a bunch of rich well-dressed 

snobs. That’s not the case. People are 

very down to earth. Very warm and 

friendly.” 

The next 100 years? 

As celebrations for the 18 parishes 

come to a close, several of the pastors 

couldn’t help but think about what the 

next 100 years might bring, both for 

their parishes and the overall Church. 

“I hope the parish will be alive and 

will also be useful,” said St. Bernard 

pastor Gutierrez. “Not just a parish to 

give the parishioners maintenance, 

but to make them disciples and send 

them out to talk about the good news 

to other people.” 

Gutierrez is proud of the improvements 

made to his parish that he 

hopes will endure for another century. 

“There are a lot of changes and 

improvements that the community 

considered to be needed in order to 

make the church look alive, not only 

to be alive,” Gutierrez said. 

Ascension Church in Los Angeles celebrates 

Mass in 1990. | TIDINGS ARCHIVES 


Father Chung, the pastor at Mother 

of Sorrows, pointed to his parish’s 

weekly food distribution and helping 

those less fortunate as where he’d like 

the Church to head going forward. 

“We try to be something not just 

for ourselves, but for other people as 

well,” Chung said. 

“So hopefully in the next 100 years, 

we maintain who we are as Catholics, 

but yet reach out to our more vulnerable 

brothers and sisters so that we can 

be a place of hope and faith toward 

people.” 

For Father Alexis Ibarra, administrator 

at St. John Chrysostom, it’s 

important to remember the individual 

moments of faith that have occurred 

at each parish over the past 100 years, 

and to focus on creating many more in 

the next century. 

“We must leave it better than we 

found it,” Ibarra said. “We’re building 

on the first 100 years, so for the next 

100 years to continue that tradition of 

Catholic values, family values, upholding 

the dignity of human life, and keep 

spreading the Gospel. 

“Archbishop says to imagine how 

many baptisms and how many first 

Communions, how many first reconciliations, 

how many confirmations, 

weddings, how many funerals, how 

many people have received the Eucharist 

week after week, day after day in 

those 100 years, and then those to 

come. That to me is not only historic, 

but that’s the grace, that’s the blessing.” 

Nativity Church in El Monte is 

pictured during its 75th anniversary 

in 1998. | TIDINGS ARCHIVES 

Mike Cisneros is the associate editor 

of Angelus. 

Centennial celebrations 

Here are the 18 parishes celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2023: 

• Ascension Church in South Los Angeles 

• Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights 

• Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills • Santa Teresita Church in Northeast LA 

• Holy Innocents Church in Long Beach 

• St. Agatha Church in Jefferson Park 

• Mother of Sorrows Church in South Los Angeles • St. Bernard Church in Bellflower 

• Nativity Church in El Monte 

• St. Gregory Nazianzen Church in Koreatown 

• Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Northeast LA • St. John Chrysostom Church in Inglewood 

• Our Lady of Guadalupe (Hammel) in East Los Angeles • St. Kevin Church in Los Angeles 

• Our Lady of Mount Lebanon in Los Angeles 

• St. Mark Church in Venice 

• Precious Blood Church in Los Angeles 

• Church of the Transfiguration in Leimert Park 



HONORING OUR 

ANCESTORS 

Candles featuring the photos of a deceased community 

member were placed on the altar at St. Odilia 

Church during the 14th annual African American 

Ancestral Mass on Nov. 11. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Faithful from around the archdiocese marked Black Catholic History 

Month by commemorating the past while looking to the future. 

BY NATALIE ROMANO 

As the Procession of Ancestors 

made its way down the center 

aisle at St. Odilia Church in 

Los Angeles, volunteers walked with 

candles illuminating the photo of a 

departed community member. 

One by one the soul’s names were 

called out, each punctuated by the 

ringing of a bell. Tearful family 

members watched as the candles were 

placed on the altar. 

This solemn march was the signature 

moment of the 14th annual African 

American Ancestral Mass held Nov. 

11. The event celebrates the contributions 

of Black Catholics, their triumphs 

over adversity, and the sacred connection 

between generations. 

“It was beautiful,” said Lisa Baxter, 

the daughter of “modern ancestor” 

John Coleman II, as she came with 

her husband and son. “My father was 

a man of faith, a man of virtue. He was 

definitely God’s disciple. … I wanted 

my son to understand he comes from a 

legacy of love.” 

The other honorees were Lola Loudd, 

Sister Marianna Halsmer, SSS, and 

Stanley LeSassier. All were recognized 

for their work in ministry and dedication 

to their community. 

The Mass, hosted by the African 

American Catholic Center for Evangelization 

(AACCFE) and partnering 

with the Knights of Peter Claver and 

Ladies Auxiliary, occurs every November 

during Black Catholic History 

Month. 

Monica Lewis, a second cousin of 

LeSassier, was galvanized by the event. 

She came to the Mass for the celebration 

but left with a mission. 

“That means to me to continue to 

fight the good fight, to fight for a seat 

at the table,” said Lewis, co-chair of 

African American Cultural Awareness 

Ministry at Holy Name of Jesus. 

“There’s been a shift toward multiculturalism, 

but Black Catholics tend to 

get lost in that concept. 

“I believe we have a place here in the 

archdiocese and in our parishes.” 

During the Ancestral Mass, a portrait 

of St. Peter Claver, “Apostle of Slaves,” 


was gifted to the church by the AAC- 

CFE. The Knights of St. Peter Claver 

was launched in 1909 when other 

Catholic apostolic groups didn’t accept 

Black members. 

St. Odilia parishioners like the late 

Julius Pratt Sr. are credited for bringing 

the service order to California. 

Members were a strong presence at 

the Mass featuring pews full of men 

in black suits with blue sashes and 

women in white suits with matching 

fezzes. Pratt’s relatives — including his 

grandson, who is the current Grand 

Knight of Council 87 — were also in 

attendance. 

“There’s a little bit of pressure because 

of the weight his name carries in 

the organization,” said Ryan Pratt. “I 

knew him as a wonderful loving grandfather. 

… He never judged anyone or 

had a harsh word. He tried to see the 

best in people.” 

Black-and-white photos of mid-century 

parishioners were on display near 

the altar. Many of them were familiar 

faces to Cheryl Burnett, who recalled 

for Massgoers the days when St. Odilia 

was a hub for the Black Catholic 

community. 

“It was a vibrant atmosphere, a lot of 

zeal and enthusiasm about building 

the Church, building the faith. I’ll never 

forget that,” Burnett said. “We had 

fashion shows, teas, and talent shows. 

Everybody had something to do in 

this parish, adults and children alike. I 

hope those ancestors are smiling down 

on what we’re doing.” 

Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of St. Peter 

Claver pose in front of the altar. The Knights 

organization helped put on the event along 

with the AACCFE. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

Before St. Odilia was 

founded in 1926, church 

life was not always so 

pleasant, said AACCFE 

Director Anderson Shaw. 

An influx of Black Southerners 

came West during 

the 1920s and found themselves 

unwelcome in some 

Catholic parishes. 

“In many cases, they 

were forced to sit in the 

choir loft or the back of 

the church,” Shaw said. 

“They could not receive 

Communion before any 

white person. 

“When St. Odilia was 

established as the ‘Negro 

National Church,’ people 

came from as far as San 

Bernardino and San Diego 

counties so they could worship 

in their own way while still being 

authentically Catholic.” 

That comfort and support is still 

the goal of the AACCFE today. The 

organization serves 22 parishes in 

the archdiocese with predominantly 

African American and native African 

parishioners. While advancements 

have been made, Shaw acknowledged 

America’s 3 million Black Catholics 

still encounter racism. 

A report released from the first session 

of the Synod of Bishops suggests the 

same. The report said “systems within 

the Church that create or maintain 

racial injustices need to be identified” 

A portrait of St. Peter Claver, “Apostle of Slaves,” was gifted to St. Odilia 

Church by the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization. | 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

and all Catholics should work to “eradicate 

the sin of racism.” 

To further bolster the community, 

congregants would like to see the Black 

Catholics known as the “Holy Six” 

become saints. Venerables Pierre Toussaint, 

Henriette Delille, Augustus Tolton, 

and Servants of God Mary Lange, 

Julia Greeley, and Thea Bowman are 

still being considered for canonization. 

In honor of Black Catholic History 

Month, Holy Name of Jesus Church 

in Los Angeles is praying the Black 

Catholic History Rosary each week, 

which follows the traditional method of 

prayer but the Mysteries are dedicated 

to those up for sainthood. 

At the close of the Ancestral Mass, the 

AACCFE Choir led a rousing version 

of “When The Saints Go Marching 

In.” Parishioners then attended 

a luncheon allowing old friends to 

catch up. Lola McAlpin-Grant and 

Sir Knight Elmer Pratt were part of 

the first graduating class of St. Odilia 

Catholic School and reminisced about 

class picnics and parties. 

“With all those wonderful fond 

memories, I had to be here today,” said 

McAlpin-Grant with a wide grin. “This 

Mass is so special.” 

Natalie Romano is a freelance writer 

for Angelus and the Inland Catholic 

Byte, the news website of the Diocese of 

San Bernardino. 


ONE MIRACLE 

AFTER ANOTHER 

Four decades later, an 

LA religious sister’s 

vision for the Lawndalebased 

House of Yahweh 

is still taking shape. 

BY TOM HOFFARTH 

Founder Sister Michele Morris (right) with 

House of Yahweh staff. | TOM HOFFARTH 

After 40 years worth of creating, 

growing, and reinventing the 

House of Yahweh in Lawndale, 

you would think Sister Michele Marie 

Morris had an iron-clad template for 

how the nonprofit can continue its 

success for the next four decades. 

But the 90-year-old doesn’t operate 

that way. Neither does reality, she 

believes. 

“I only work in the present with the 

light I get from God at that moment,” 

she said, eyes gleaming as she sat at a 

meeting-room table in the organization’s 

office trailer recently. “I don’t 

plan ahead. You go step by step and 

things just evolve, one miracle after 

another.” 

That’s been a motto of sorts for 

Morris, who founded the House of 

Yahweh in 1982 to help residents in 

the South Bay who experience food 

insecurity, lack of clothing, and difficulty 

in applying for vital services. 

In the words of its mission statement, 

House of Yahweh seeks “to serve the 

economically disadvantaged, especially 

women and children, so they can 

attain greater fullness of life.” 

Since retiring five years ago, the Sister 

of St. Joseph of Carondelet Los Angeles 

has left much of the heavy lifting 

these days to Donna Quirk, executive 

director, who first joined House of 

Yahweh in 2015 to lead its transitional 

housing program. She took over as 

executive director in 2018. 

“And I’ve been in this pair of roller 

skates ever since,” said Quirk, who 

first met Morris when the two were 

parishioners at St. Raymond Church 

in Downey and happened to have 

a common interest in animal care. 

Today, she leads a staff of seven. 

Morris still remembers a renewal 

weekend retreat more than 40 years 

ago at St. Catherine Laboure Church 

in Torrance. The pastor came across 

a homeless person sleeping where 

the program took place, something 

she described as “the spark” for the 

program’s genesis. 

“That was a wake-up call, and I was 

the one to wake ’em up,” said Morris, 

who was working at St. Catherine 

at the time. She recruited the local 

deacon and two others to start brainstorming 

through the parish council. 

“Those renewal weekends were intense, 

but it was the perfect moment. 

You’re irresponsible if you try to wake 

the people up without giving them 

something to do.” 


Through her connections at various 

local parishes going back to her 

teaching days in the 1960s, Morris was 

able to start a 501c3 nonprofit named 

“South Bay Outreach Center.” 

But its permanent name came from 

another spark — a moment when 

Morris and her assistant, Lyndon 

Reid, were praying with a Jerusalem 

Bible translation of Psalm 23. The last 

line read: “My home, the House of 

Yahweh, forever.” 

“The spirit moved me to name it 

right then and there,” said Morris, 

who soon came across a graphic artist 

who created a burning-bush logo to 

represent the inspiration. 

She went fundraising and soon 

found property across the street from 

Lawndale City Hall, left behind by 

another nonprofit that had moved. 

She launched a soup kitchen and a 

makeshift thrift store. 

One of the guests who regularly 

came by for hot meals worked at a 

trailer park a few blocks away and 

had empty spaces. An appeal in local 

Catholic parish bulletins asked for 

donated trailers to be used as temporary 

shelters. They ended up with 10 

spaces. 

Today, House of Yahweh sits off of 

Marine Avenue near the 405 Freeway, 

about a mile from its original location. 

Since Sister Michele’s retirement, its 

operations have been streamlined. 

One notable change: its thrift store 

is housed in a 5,000-square foot 

Sister Morris with 

current House of Yahweh 

Director Donna Quirk. | 

TOM HOFFARTH 

portable structure, 

managed 

by Denys San 

Martin. Clothes, 

shoes, blankets, 

and hygiene kits 

go out to more 

than 125 people 

a month. The 

food distribution, 

run by longtime 

employee Mirna 

Anaya, has some 

400 local families 

registered for pickups. A permanent 

mailing address is being provided for 

more than 150 homeless guests. 

But through a steady pool of donors 

and income from fundraisers, as well 

as a volunteer base that has come 

back stronger after the pandemic, 

Quirk said she has been delighted to 

see the operations thrive on a Monday-through-Saturday 

basis, welcoming 

visitors whose needs sometimes 

even include help with asylum 

applications. 

“I’m always surprised by people 

who are afraid to ask for help,” said 

Quirk, who now attends St. Gregory 

the Great Church in Whittier. “It just 

seems they’re afraid and don’t know 

how. You call us, make an appointment, 

and we will give you 

an hour of uninterrupted 

time to work with you on 

your needs.” 

Bob Breen, an American 

Martyrs Church volunteer, 

said he responded to a bulletin 

request looking for a 

driver for homebound food 

delivery on Tuesdays and 

Thursdays. That led to him 

helping in the thrift store as 

a fill-in cashier. 

“It’s a wonderful mission 

for those in need from 

Bob Breen of American Martyrs Church 

in Manhattan Beach volunteers at 

House of Yahweh as a fill-in cashier. | 

TOM HOFFARTH 

our own neighborhood,” said Breen, 

whose son, Tim, was recently ordained 

a Jesuit priest. 

“I see people who come into the 

store able to buy almost everything 

and some who just have 25 cents in 

their hands, but we adjust and make 

sure they get what they need.” 

The organization’s 41st year of operations 

kicked off Nov. 1, with plans 

ramping up for its annual distribution 

of Thanksgiving turkeys, hams, and 

gift cards. It then moves to collecting 

toys in the month of December to distribute 

in the days before Christmas. 

Morris still visits the House of Yahweh 

facility every Monday to visit with 

guests and pick up donations that she 

takes back to South Gate, where she’s 

lived since the 1980s. 

She also gathers donut donations 

to bring back to fellow Sisters of St. 

Joseph of Carondelet who live in 

assisted living in Santa Monica. 

Morris credits the one-to-one relationships 

formed with guests, some 

that go back to its opening 40 years 

ago, with the organization’s longevity. 

“This is God’s house, it doesn’t belong 

to me — it’s not mine,” she said. 

“It is where you have to be a listener. 

That’s how you honor someone. 

It’s unconditional love. We can get 

caught up in the doing and miss just 

being. And each day is a new adventure. 

I think that’s what keeps House 

of Yahweh going.” 

Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning 

journalist based in Los Angeles. 


KEEPING UP WITH 

THE ‘DUBIA’ 

For years, Pope Francis steered clear of answering questions 

on thorny doctrinal matters. Not anymore. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández 

comments on changes in the Dicastery for 

the Doctrine of the Faith, where he serves 

as prefect. | CNS/LOLA GOMEZ 

ROME — Once upon a time, being pope meant 

never having to say you’re sorry. St. Pope John Paul 

II shattered that precedent, apologizing more than 

100 times over the course of his papacy for past sins of the 

Church, including a massive “Day of Pardon” ceremony in 

St. Peter’s Square during the Great Jubilee Year of 2000. 

More recently, being pope has meant never having to 

explain yourself, at least to your most determined critics. 

Famously, Pope Francis received a set of five “dubia,” 

or theological doubts, from four conservative cardinals, 


Cardinal Gerhard Müller. | 

CNS/MATT CASHORE 

including American Cardinal Raymond Burke, in 2016, 

regarding his controversial document “Amoris Laetitia” 

(“The Joy of Love”), which appeared to open a cautious 

door to reception of Communion by divorced and civilly 

remarried Catholics. 

For almost seven years the pontiff never directly responded 

to those “dubia,” preferring to allow others to do so in 

his name. Occasionally, he would appear to endorse one 

or another reply, but always in a way that never directly left 

his fingerprints on the content. In an interview the same 

year, the pope said he doesn’t “lose any sleep” over the 

reactions of his critics, seemingly ratifying the principle of 

the nonanswer. 

Yet of late, it almost seems the Vatican under Francis can’t 

see “dubia” anymore; it doesn’t want 

to answer right away. 

To begin with, another group of 

conservative cardinals, also including 

Burke, submitted a new set of “dubia” 

to Francis in July, ahead of his Oct. 

4-29 Synod of Bishops on Synodality, 

and announced that they actually received 

a response the very next day — 

which, let’s face it, sets a new standard 

of rapid response for an institution 

whose usual modus operandi is, “Talk 

to me on Wednesday, and I’ll get back 

to you in 300 years.” 

However, the cardinals declared 

that since the pope’s responses didn’t 

follow the traditional yes-or-no format 

in such matters, they reformulated 

the “dubia” and resubmitted them in 

late August. They concerned several 

matters, including the perennially 

contentious issues of the blessing of 

same-sex unions and the ordination 

of women clergy. 

On Oct. 2, just before the curtain 

went up on the synod, the Vatican’s 

Dicastery for the Doctrine of the 

Faith published the pope’s replies, 

which appeared to boil down to a 

cautious yes on the blessings issue, 

as long as it doesn’t court confusion 

with the sacrament of marriage, and 

a basic no to women clergy, while 

allowing that it can be the object of 

further study. 

Not only did doing so break with 

the practice from 2016, but it also 

stunned some observers that Francis 

essentially took those issues off the table during the synod, 

whose members had been preparing to discuss them for 2 

1/2 years. 

The very next day, the dicastery released another response 

to a set of “dubia” submitted by Cardinal Dominik Duka 

of the Czech Republic, regarding Communion for the divorced 

and remarried. In this case, the responses came not 

from the pope but from Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel 

Fernández, the new head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office. 

In case there was any doubt about the face value reading 

of the pope’s original ruling, Fernandez was clear: “The 

apostolic exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’ of Francis opens the 

possibility of access to the sacraments of reconciliation and 

the Eucharist when, in a given case, there are limitations 

Cardinal Luis Ladaria. | 

CNS/PAUL HARING 


that accentuate responsibility and guilt.” 

More recently, the dicastery also published a set of 

responses to six “dubia” submitted by a bishop in Brazil regarding 

the eligibility of transsexuals for various acts in the 

Church, including baptism, serving as godparents, having 

their own children baptized, and acting as witnesses to a 

church wedding. 

In every case, the replies given both by Francis and 

Fernández amount to another cautious yes, though always 

with the proviso that allowing transsexuals to play these 

roles must not create “public scandal” or “disorientation 

among the faithful.” 

Exactly what might constitute either of those conditions 

was not spelled out in the response, leaving a great deal, 

in the eyes of most observers, up to the discretion of local 

pastors and bishops. 

The basic question all this raises is: After a long span in 

which “dubia” basically ended up in the Vatican’s dead letter 

office, why now are they responding with such alacrity? 

Three answers suggest themselves. 

First, with Fernández in the Holy Office, Francis likely 

feels a higher degree of certainty that the answers it may 

give to nettlesome questions will reflect his own outlook. 

First under German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, and then 

under Spanish Cardinal (and fellow Jesuit) Luis Ladaria, 

the pope may not have felt the same absolute confidence. 

Second, the answers that are now on the record are classics 

of the Francis approach to contested issues: At least at 

face value, they don’t change Church teaching, but they 

do clearly encourage moderates and progressives seeking 

the most generous possible interpretation of that teaching. 

Perhaps it’s simply that since 2016, Francis has become 

more confident in that approach, and thus less hesitant 

about saying so out loud. 

Third, there’s also the fact that Francis will turn 87 next 

month, and that since his discretion in 2016, he’s been 

hospitalized three times and undergone two surgeries. He’s 

already the oldest reigning pope in the Catholic Church 

since 1903, and anyone in his position would have to hear 

time’s winged chariot hurrying near. 

In that light, perhaps he’s simply less willing to allow 

difficult questions to dangle, feeling that if he truly wants to 

cement his legacy, now is the time. 

However one explains it, the fact of the matter seems 

clear. For bishops across the Catholic world, the new rule 

of thumb has to be, if you don’t want the answer, don’t ask 

the question — because odds now are, an answer is precisely 

what you’re going to get. 

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


Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu prays Nov. 14 during 

a session of the USCCB’s fall general assembly 

in Baltimore. | OSV NEWS/BOB ROLLER 

WAYS TO WALK TOGETHER 

A look at the top 

storylines from the 

US bishops’ annual 

November gathering 

in Baltimore. 

BY PABLO KAY 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic 

Bishops’ annual fall meeting 

in Baltimore this year didn’t 

feature the intense public debates or 

closely watched leadership elections 

we’ve come to expect in recent years. 

Instead, the Nov. 13-16 gathering 

featured the presence of a recently 

deposed Texas bishop steps away from 

the meeting’s venue, an apparent difference 

of opinion between the USCCB 

president and the pope’s ambassador to 

the U.S., and a surprisingly lively public 

discussion of the Church’s role in 

responding to the mental health crisis. 

A bishop deposed 

The case of Bishop Joseph Strickland 

took a dramatic turn two days before 

the meeting started when the Vatican 

announced that Pope Francis had 

removed him as bishop of Tyler, Texas, 

and appointed Bishop Joe Vasquez of 

the nearby Austin Diocese as “apostolic 

administrator” until a permanent 

replacement is named. 

Strickland has been a leading critic of 

the pope, particularly in his warnings 

of Francis’ alleged lack of clarity on 

Church teachings related to sexuality 

and gender. Last May, he accused the 

pope of “undermining the deposit of 

faith” in a post on the social media 

platform Twitter (now known as X). 

Days before he was deposed, Strickland 

read a letter describing the pope as “an 

usurper of Peter’s chair” at a gathering 

of conservative Catholics in Rome. 

The Vatican asked Strickland to 

resign and, after he refused, quickly 

removed him Nov. 11. 

But if what happened in Baltimore 

is any sign of things to come, the 

65-year-old Strickland won’t be going 

quietly. After reportedly being asked by 

Apostolic Nuncio Cardinal Christophe 

Pierre, the pope’s delegate to the U.S., 

not to participate in the bishops’ meeting, 

Strickland traveled to Baltimore 

anyway with the stated intention of 

praying outside the Waterfront Marriott 

Hotel. 

After his final prayer rally outside the 

bishops’ hotel, Strickland was asked by 

the National Catholic Reporter if he 

was trying to draw attention to himself. 

“It’s about Jesus Christ, and his truth 

has to be proclaimed,” he answered. 

Synodality in America 

While controversy stirred outside the 

assembly, Strickland’s name was not 

mentioned as the bishops’ briskly pursued 

a largely administrative agenda. 

In his first address to the bishops since 

being elevated to the rank of cardinal 

in September, Pierre recalled the 

Gospel story of Jesus’ Easter encounter 

with his disciples on the road to 

Emmaus to link the Vatican’s ongoing 

Synod on Synodality with the bishops’ 

National Eucharistic Revival initiative. 

“I believe that we will have true 

Eucharistic revival when we experience 

the Eucharist as the sacrament of 

Christ’s incarnation: as the Lord walking 

with us together on the way,” said 

Pierre, echoing the “walking together” 

slogan of the synod. 

Moments later, U.S. bishops’ president 

Archbishop Timothy Broglio 

praised “the many synodal realities 

that already exist in the Church in the 

United States” in his opening address. 


Bishop Joseph E. Strickland led more than 100 people 

in the recitation of the rosary Nov. 15 outside the site 

of the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly. At the end, 

he blessed the crowd with a relic of St. Pope Pius X (in 

a reliquary seen at the bottom left). | OSV NEWS/BOB 

ROLLER 

Broglio’s speech was interpreted by 

some as a gentle rebuttal to more 

controversial remarks that Pierre had 

made in an America magazine story 

published days earlier. In the interview, 

Pierre expressed concerns that some 

American bishops and priests were not 

fully supportive of the pope’s synodal 

initiatives. In his talk, Broglio thanked 

“those who instill vibrancy, commitment, 

and renewal into our faith communities,” 

and made a point of praising 

American priests “on the front lines” 

for being “on fire with the Gospel.” 

In a press conference later, he said 

that he had spoken to Pierre about his 

interview. 

“At least the way America magazine 

characterized Archbishop Pierre’s 

reflections, I don’t think that really 

reflects the Church in the United 

States,” he said. 

A mental health epidemic 

Most of the meeting’s action items 

prompted little to no debate or discussion 

from the bishops, with one notable 

exception: the conference’s new 

“National Catholic Mental Health 

Campaign.” 

In the longest public floor discussion 

of the assembly, nearly 20 bishops rose 

to address the initiative with input on 

ways the Church in the U.S. can confront 

the mental health crisis. 

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston 

lamented the shortage 

of psychiatrists in his archdiocese, 

and urged the Church to find ways to 

encourage more young people in medicine 

to seek careers in the field. 

“The lack of such help is very, very 

disturbing in the United States,” he 

said. 

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of 

Kansas City, Kansas, brought attention 

to the breakdown of family life and 

the pornography industry’s targeting 

of young people; Archbishop Gustavo 

Notes from the 2023 agenda 

Here are a few of the other notable developments from the U.S. bishops’ annual plenary assembly: 

• The USCCB’s liturgy committee asked the bishops 

for their feedback on the idea of establishing national 

guidelines on the use of technology in liturgy, with an 

emphasis on screens. The bishops were asked to discuss 

the item at their tables and pass on their thoughts 

to the committee. 

• In a 225-11 vote, the conference approved supplement 

materials for its “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” 

teaching documents stating that the threat of 

abortion remains a “preeminent priority” among others 

important for Catholic voters. 

• A vote on a pastoral framework for Indigenous ministry 

was pulled by the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Native 

American Affairs and postponed to next year after bishops 

proposed several amendments to the document in 

Baltimore. 

• The bishops elected Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of 

Oklahoma City as the conference’s secretary-elect, 

as well as chairman-elect for six USCCB standing 

committees. Among them are Auxiliary Bishop James 

Massa of Brooklyn for the Committee on Doctrine; 

Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, 

for the Committee on Communications; and Bishop 

David M. O’Connell of Trenton, New Jersey, for the 

Committee on Catholic Education. Those elected will 

begin their terms next November. 

24 • ANGELUS • December 1, 2023

Garcia-Siller of San Antonio worried 

about the crisis’ relation with the 

nationwide increase in gun-related and 

domestic violence. 

Several bishops spoke of initiatives 

in their own dioceses to address what 

they described as a mental health 

“epidemic,” including healing Masses, 

introducing therapists in Catholic 

schools, and parish-based mental 

health ministries. 

2024 on the horizon 

Overall, this year’s meeting impressed 

some observers as a reflection of the 

new “synodal” style that the pope is 

calling for in the universal Church, 

with the bishops spending more time in 

prayer and private “fraternal dialogues” 

than in earlier years. 

In his public presentation, synod delegate 

Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, 

Texas, suggested that the synod’s 

discussion of potential reforms of the 

Church’s leadership structures would 

have to respect “doctrinal principles.” 

“Structure alone, of course, cannot ensure 

a Christian way of life and mission 

shared and promoted in common; for 

without the Spirit, the letter is dead,” 

said Flores, who also announced that 

the synod’s “interim report” would be 

discussed at the bishops’ next meeting 

in June 2024 ahead of the synod’s 

second session next October. 

Meanwhile, the bishops also heard 

an update on preparations for next 

year’s National Eucharistic Congress 

in Indianapolis (July 17-21). Lead 

organizer Bishop Andrew Cozzens of 

Crookston, Minnesota, emphasized the 

pilgrimage aspect of the event, which 

he said is intended to be “a moment of 

great renewal and great revival for our 

Church” that will “spur evangelization” 

in the U.S. 

Ultimately, if there’s one takeaway 

from the bishops’ week in Baltimore, 

it’s that the outcomes of moments like 

the Eucharistic Congress, and the 

concrete steps taken to address crises 

like the mental health epidemic or 

the decline in faith and practice in the 

U.S., will tell us much more about the 

state of the Church in the U.S. than 

sound bites from ecclesial leaders. 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 


WITH GRACE 

DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE 

In defense of the big family 

The Cabrera family poses outside of their 

home in Camby, Indiana. They are, from left, 

Daniel, Maria, Fatima Lucia, Joseph, Daniel, 

Gianna, David, and Sarah. | OSV/NATALIE 

HOEFER, THE CRITERION 

When you have five children, 

you become accustomed to 

the spontaneous comments 

from strangers when they see your 

offspring spilling out of your minivan. 

“What, you and your husband didn’t 

own a TV?” is one that got old rather 

quickly, but having been raised to be 

unfailingly polite, I always respond 

with a chuckle. Over the years, 

however, I’ve noticed that reactions 

have tended to become more positive, 

admiring, even wistful: “Wow, you are 

a champ!” and “Oh, I also wanted a 

large family, but we just couldn’t.” 

This is my anecdotal experience, but 

it tracks nicely with the results of a recent 

Gallup poll which found that the 

percentage of Americans that think 

the ideal family should include three 

or more children is as high as it was in 

1950. Today, almost half believe this, 

compared to a third in 2003. 

Sadly, those desires for a large family 

are not matched with their fulfillment. 

The American birth rate is dangerously 

low at 1.6 births per woman, 

well beneath the replacement rate of 

2.1 (the statistical number of children 

each woman would have to have in 

order to keep the population stable). 

Much has been written about this 

widening mismatch, with thinkers and 

experts offering ideas on how to help 

Americans have more children, as 

they seem to want. There’s little question 

that larger families are a positive 

good for the country, as a demograph- 

ically top-heavy society (with more old 

people, and fewer younger ones) presents 

all kinds of problems, beginning 

with economic ones (see Japan). 

Some researchers suggest that 

boosting the marriage rate or encouraging 

couples to get married earlier 

in life could help. Others point to 

inflation, housing shortages, and the 

stratospheric cost of higher education 

as root causes that could be curbed. 

The Brookings Institution calculated 

the cost of raising a child to adulthood 

today at $310,000, not including education. 

Gulp. 

I’ll leave possible solutions for these 

existential problems to the experts. I’m 

more interested in why larger families 

have become aspirational, even as the 

material obstacles multiply. 

I would like to think that, as modern 

and increasingly removed from all 

things “earthy” as we are, something 

about our ancestors’ conviction that 

sons and daughters are like flowers in 

a well-tended garden, or “arrows in a 

soldier’s quiver,” still rings true for us. 

An older wisdom held that children 

were a net-positive: they were bearers 

of joy and excitement, prudent 

safeguards against the loneliness and 

dependency of old age, and fitting, 

happy workers in the family vineyard. 

The man with sons could pass on his 

wisdom and craft, as his father had to 

him. A woman with daughters had a 

web of female connections, a strong 

safety net stretched out under the 

precariousness of life. 


Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five 

who practices radiology in the Miami area. 

“Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine, in 

the innermost parts of thy house; thy 

children like olive plants about thy 

table,“ the psalmist says. “Behold, thus 

shall the man be blessed that fears 

God” (Psalm 128:3). 

We are, most of us, far away from 

vineyards and olive plants, but our 

lives are marked by the same desire 

for the blessings of connection. Something 

tells us that some are better 

than none, and so more must be even 

better. One child giggling and glad to 

see us when we come home harried 

after a long day is only topped by two 

children at the door and a cooing, 

messy-faced baby in a highchair. 

And when those sons and daughters 

grow up, they become our special 

friends, the ones that will be there to 

care for us when our days of need inevitably 

arrive. The trappings of modern 

life may protect us from much, 

but they can’t protect us from the iron 

wheel of life, which sweeps us up and 

then inexorably down, down. Thank 

God for our children who are there to 

catch us. 

A large family is an act of prudence 

in a hard and often joyless world. 

It’s also a great yes to the question of 

existence. It’s a vote of confidence in 

the essential goodness of God’s plan of 

salvation and a sign of our ready cooperation 

with his strategy. Christianity 

teaches that conceiving a child is an 

extraordinary act of co-creation with 

God and that we, the flawed vessels 

we are, participate in the crowning of 

his spectacular design. 

If any of these thoughts and longings 

sound familiar, that’s a great sign. 

It means that we are just as human 

today as we were when the psalmists 

sang of the joy of generation. And that 

we are just as able to understand the 

principle behind the ancient belief: 

“Children are a gift from the Lord; 

they are a reward from him.” 


NOW PLAYING DREAM SCENARIO 

Nicolas Cage plays Paul Matthews in the 

film “Dream Scenario.” | IMDB 

A RELUCTANT INFLUENCER 

Actor Nicolas Cage 

reminds younger 

generations he’s more 

than a meme in a 

new Oscar-worthy 

performance. 

BY JOSEPH JOYCE 

On a recent (and very bachelor) 

Sunday afternoon I watched a 

Criterion Collection documentary 

called “The Love Goddesses” 

(1965), which analyzes movie starlets 

from the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s and 

tries to decipher what made them so 

alluring. (The film reaches the critical 

conclusion that it was likely their drop 

dead looks and extensive gams that 

did the trick.) 

The most interesting segment 

looked at Norma Jeane Mortenson, 

a winsome brunette from Van Nuys. 

Through a succession of photos, we 

see how this girl next door was gradually 

built into Marilyn Monroe while 

Norma Jeane was entombed inside 

like some pharaoh slave. Despite 

creating half the conversation and 

controversy of the 1950s, we sense that 

Norma was as much a spectator as the 

rest of us. 

It reminds me of the story told about 

Charlie Chaplin, who placed fifth 

in his own lookalike contest. Fame 

creates the illusion of intimacy, but 

we only know the iconography and 

not the person. In other words, famous 

people aren’t actually famous: they 

just play one on TV. 

In his new film “Dream Scenario,” 

Paul Matthews (played by Nicolas 

Cage) learns this lesson the hard way. 

Paul is a mild-mannered evolutionary 

biology professor who soon notices 

complete strangers eying him on the 

street with a sense of déjà vu. Paul 

goes on to discover he’s been appearing 

in the dreams of people he’s never 

met from around the world. Paul 

becomes the world’s most famous man 

overnight through no effort of his own, 

which hardly surprises in the influencer 

age. 

It’s a miracle this is even happening, 

doubly so because Paul himself is 

thoroughly unexceptional. He’s the 

type that leaves no lasting impression, 

and even when remembered appears 

in your mind’s eye as blurry as every 

photograph of Bigfoot. His students 

and children don’t respect him, and 

marriage seems more familiar than 

affectionate. We only tolerate Clark 

Kent because he becomes Superman, 

but when Paul Matthews runs into a 

phone booth he just exits a quarter 

poorer. 


This is Paul’s first taste of being 

noticed, and he responds with all the 

dignity of a toddler getting laughs 

by shouting a dirty word. He’s done 

nothing to earn this newfound fame 

yet still tries to claim the spoils. But 

soon the dreams become nightmares, 

and Paul’s life follows suit. He is now 

blamed for the nothing he was taking 

credit for, people holding him personally 

accountable for reverie violations 

he has no control over. Earlier in the 

film he lectures on how the zebra’s 

stripes only confuse predators when 

they stick to the herd. Paul forgets 

his own lesson and separates himself, 

learning a lion will only eat you if you 

make yourself the daily special. 

It is an exceptional performance by 

Cage, one that should be remembered 

come Oscar season. It could 

be played by no one but Cage at this 

point in his career, for he understands 

better than anyone the double-edged 

sword of celebrity. After early critical 

success and a lucrative action movie 

run, a series of unwise land investments 

required Cage to accept any 

job if the check cleared. His already 

expressionistic acting style was now 

servicing scripts that didn’t deserve his 

effort — much to the glee of the early 

A scene from the film 

“Dream Scenario.” | IMDB 

internet. Line readings were clipped 

without context and often went viral, 

forming the bedrock lexicon of most 

reaction GIFs today. (No one under 

the age of 30 has said “bees” without 

trying his inflection at least once.) 

Cage was once an Oscar winner, now 

he was reduced to a meme. 

And yet, that very meme status has 

preserved Cage’s career beyond those 

of other actors of his class. No one 

envies the caveman who falls into 

the glacier, but he’s the one who gets 

thawed out millennia later. Moreover, 

in a world of corporate memes 

and manufactured virality, Cage had 

grandfathered authenticity. Those 

same abstracted images that once 

made him the object of quiet pity 

have since made him the internet’s 

folk hero, or at least its wacky uncle. 

Positive or negative, the attention 

remains divorced from the actual 

person of Nicolas Cage. It has been 

since the beginning, for like Norma 

No one understands the double-edged sword of 

celebrity better than Nicolas Cage. 

Jeane before him Cage changed his 

surname from Coppola (yes, he is related 

to those Coppolas.) This split is 

somewhat explored in his recent film 

“The Unbearable Weight of Massive 

Talent,” where he plays himself in a 

fictional plot. There is an amusing yet 

heartbreaking anecdote from the set, 

which unlike Chaplin’s was confirmed 

by Cage himself. 

The director instructed Cage to 

“just play himself,” only to call cut 

after a few subdued takes from Cage. 

The director was confused, and Cage 

explained that “himself” was a pretty 

quiet guy. It soon became clear that 

the director wanted him to act as the 

public saw him, not how he actually 

was. Cage complied to typically wonderful 

effect, but the Cage on screen 

was no closer to the real man than 

Paul Matthews or Cameron Poe or 

Benjamin Franklin Gates before him. 

The brand proved more valuable than 

the soul. 

Like most constructs, celebrity only 

has power from the power we willfully 

cede to it. Cage didn’t become a 

better or worse actor throughout his 

career, the audience’s attitude simply 

evolved. 

Paul sows his own downfall by investing 

his self-worth in his newfound 

notoriety; it’s his own fault when it 

fluctuates like bitcoin. 

The only consistency with humanity 

is that we are a fickle lot, and heaven 

help you if we are allowed to dictate 

who you are and whether you matter. 

I always empathized with the man 

who built his house on sand instead of 

rock: beachfront property is wonderful, 

at least until it suddenly isn’t. 

Joseph Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance 

critic based in Sherman Oaks. 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

A love letter to LA’s La Virgen 

Photograph of “Virgen de Guadalupe Mural in Mariachi 

Plaza,” by Nydya Mora, 2020. | COURTESY IMAGE 

LA is rich in museums. Here’s one 

you may have missed: the Forest 

Lawn Museum, billed as “a 

small museum at a cemetery featuring 

changing exhibits focused on religious 

& historical art.” 

From Oct. 19 to Feb. 11, 2024, you 

can check out an exhibit there called 

“La Reina de Los Angeles.” 

That the Queen of LA would be the 

Virgin of Guadalupe, patroness of the 

Americas and revered throughout the 

Mexican community and beyond, is 

only fitting. 

The exhibit features the work of 

Nydya Mora, 34, a native Angelena 

and youth librarian with a background 

in urban planning who also possesses a 

fierce love for her family and her city. 

Since 2012, she’s been taking 

informal photos of the innumerable incarnations 

of the Virgin of Guadalupe 

that dot the neighborhoods of LA. 

She grew up surrounded by such images. 

The living room of her mother’s 

home still features a large shrine to the 

Virgen de Guadalupe — “It’s bedazzling!” 

laughs Mora. 

In fact, the whole idea of collecting 

images arose from her initial vision 

of a kind of coffee-table book that she 

hoped would please her mother. 

Why is the Virgin of Guadalupe so 

universally loved? 

“I think she represents many things 

for many people. She instills a sense 

of hope, especially in immigrant or 

historically marginalized communities 

where people don’t feel empowered 

or emboldened to reach out to official 

forms of protection, or who don’t 

have the financial means to buy, for 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

l in Mariachi 

TESY IMAGE 

example, security cameras: mom-andpop 

businesses, tucked-away residential 

communities. In that sense, she’s a 

beacon of hope and protection.” 

“For me, she represents my culture. 

She represents cultural and social 

pride, my upbringing.” 

Thus, she appears on Gomez Appliances 

in South Central LA, on Lupita’s 

Market on E. Hubbard Street in East 

LA, surrounded by a phalanx of guitars 

in Mariachi Plaza. 

The Freeway Virgin, visible from the 

101, adorns a spot on the north wall of 

the downtown cathedral. She shows up 

in taquerias, carnicerias, tattoo parlors, 

food trucks, and chop shops. She takes 

up residence on school windows, beside 

back doors, behind security fences, 

beneath wooden lattices, on walls of 

cinderblock, stucco, corrugated tin, 

and glazed tile. 

Some images are painted in full-on 

color, with blue-green, star-speckled 

robes. Others are mere suggestions, 

a haloed outline in black and white. 

Statues are draped with string lights, or 

bedecked with votive candles, tinsel, 

and garlands. Murals stand lonely sentinel 

on an inner-city street corner. 

You can see many of the images on 

Mora’s Instagram page, Virgens de Los 

Angeles, @virgensdela. The account’s 

followers number over 13,000. Mora 

also provides a Google map of her 

Virgin of Guadalupe captures. 

She calls herself a documentarian 

rather than a photographer. 

Most of the images are snapped on 

her phone, and the whole DIY, on-therun, 

informal, down-home approach 

perfectly matches the spirit of the 

works themselves. 

She considers the project her love 

letter to LA. 

“It’s always been a very intimate project 

for me. It started on my phone. It’s 

still my phone. It’s all so happenstance. 

‘Oh! There she is!’ ” 

These are works of true folk art. Each 

homage to La Virgen is a unique 

expression. Each is a small urban 

memento, witness, treasure. Each is an 

emblem, somehow, of exuberant hope. 

A few of the images are iconic: Paul 

Botello’s “Virgin’s Seed,” for example, 

painted in 1991. “That one’s in East 

LA. She looks like she’s on fire and 

glowing. It’s really impressive.” 

But for the most part no one knows 

who created the mural or sculpture 

or painting. Some are signed with a 

phone number that generally culminates 

in a dead end: the number’s been 

changed or the phone’s been disconnected. 

The images are one-of-a-kind and 

they’re also ephemeral. They get painted 

over, knocked down, washed away, 

destroyed. 

Always, however, Our Lady resurrects, 

popping up in new forms. When Mora 

started out, the finds were mostly serendipitous. 

Now people often send her 

tips, so her image searches are a little 

more intentional. 

“I started actively going out, taking 

surface streets instead of freeways. I’ve 

been driving up and down LA ever 

since I had a car. Sometimes I’ll just 

take Rosecrans up from Paramount, 

where I grew up and still have family.” 

One thing’s for sure. She’s never 

going to run out. The images are 

everywhere. 

Since the Instagram page took off, 

lots of Our Lady lovers have reached 

out. “People will say, ‘Hey, there’s one 

here’ and ‘There’s one at my neighbor’s 

house.’ It’s been really phenomenal to 

have this supportive community.” 

Forest Lawn also reached out through 

Instagram: “Hey, are you interested? 

We think your content would be perfect 

for an exhibit.” Mora was thrilled. 

So was her mother. 

Her photography is somehow of a 

piece with her work as an outreach 

librarian for the LA Public Library. “I 

go to community events to connect 

community members who can’t access 

the library for one reason or another. 

We help to bring the library services 

and resources to them.” 

Like the library, the Virgin of Guadalupe 

is for everyone. Mora has followers 

from all over the world: Brazil, 

Japan. Under that blue mantle, Our 

Lady harbors all of humanity. 

But let’s face it: she has a special heart 

for LA. 

“La Virgen creates a place for the 

culture. And the culture creates a place 

for her.” 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

A new Eve for a new creation 

Jesus said to her, ‘O woman, what have you to 

do with me? My hour has not yet come’ ” (John 

“And 

2:4). 

Sometimes Jesus says something that seems very odd. This 

is one of those times. 

Why would he talk to his mother that way? 

Well, there are many possible reasons. But the main reason, 

I believe, is that he wanted to echo other biblical uses of the 

title “woman” — one from the past and one from the near 

future. 

For in just a few years Jesus would again address Mary as 

“woman.” When he hung dying on the cross, he called her 

“woman” as he gave her as mother to his beloved disciple, 

John (John 19:26). 

But his use of the word also echoes the first book of the 

Bible. There, “woman” is the name Adam gives to Eve 

(Genesis 2:23). Jesus, then, is addressing Mary as Eve to 

the New Adam — which heightens the significance of the 

wedding feast they’re attending, whose historical bride and 

groom are never named. 

“Woman” redefines not only Mary’s relationship with Jesus, 

“Wedding Feast at Cana,” by Michael Damaskinos, 1530- 

1593, Cretan. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

but also with all believers. When Jesus gave her over to his 

“beloved disciple,” in effect he gave her to all his beloved 

disciples of all time. Like Eve, whom Genesis (3:20) calls 

“mother of all living,” Mary is mother to all who have new 

life in baptism. 

At Cana, then, the New Eve radically reversed the fatal decision 

of the first Eve. It was “woman” who led the old Adam 

to his first evil act in the garden. It was “woman” who led the 

New Adam to his first public miracle. 

The figure of Eve reappears still later in the New Testament, 

in the Book of Revelation, which is also attributed to 

John. There, in chapter 12, we encounter “a woman clothed 

with the sun,” who confronts “the ancient serpent, who is 

called the devil.” These images hark back to Genesis, where 

Eve faced the demonic serpent in the Garden of Eden, and 

where God cursed the serpent, promising to “put enmity” 

between him and “the woman … and her seed” (Genesis 

3:15). Yet the images of Revelation also evoke the New Eve 

— who gave birth to a “male child” (v. 5) who would “rule 

all the nations.” That child could only be Jesus; and so the 

“woman” in Revelation could only be Jesus’ mother. 

In Revelation, however, the New 

Eve prevails over evil, unlike her 

long-ago “type” in the Garden of 

Eden. 

Both the old Eve and the New 

were created without sin. But only 

Mary remained sinless and kept 

God’s commands. 

The early Church Fathers spoke 

with one voice of Mary as the New 

Eve. The Church carried on its 

reflection on Mary’s sinlessness over 

almost two millennia before the 

dogma was promulgated. 

The medieval poets summed up 

the matter neatly by pointing out 

that the Angel Gabriel’s “Ave” (the 

Latin greeting) reversed the name 

of Eva. So also did it reverse the 

rebellious inclination Eve left to 

her children — and replace it with 

the readiness to obey, which Mary 

wants to teach us when she says: 

“Do whatever he tells you.” 


■ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25 

The Life Beyond the Veil of Death. St. Denis Church, 2151 

S. Diamond Bar Blvd., Diamond Bar, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. With 

Dominic Berardino. Topics include: “What Happens When 

We Die?” and “Examining Near Death Experiences.” Cost: 

$20/person through Nov. 20, $25 at the door. To register, 

visit events.scrc.org or email spirit@scrc.org or call 818- 

771-1361. 

■ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26 

Installation Mass: Bishop Slawomir Szkredka. San 

Buenaventura Basilica, 211 E. Main St., Ventura , 3 p.m. 

Archbishop José H. Gomez will celebrate Szkredka’s Installation 

Mass for the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region. 

■ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 

Virtual Advent “Cinema Divina” Retreat. Fri., Dec. 1 and 

Sat., Dec. 2, Zoom, 5 p.m. Participants will use Scripture 

and film in the form of “lectio divina” as a way of praying 

with movies. “The Miracle Club” and “Thirteen Lives” will 

be watched on one’s own, followed by “cinema divina” 

sharing via Zoom each day. Zoom link and film guides 

will be emailed upon registration. Cost: $25/person. Visit 

bemediamindful.org/cinemadivina. 

■ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 

In-Person Advent “Cinema Divina” Retreat. Pauline Books 

& Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 

One-day retreat using Scripture and film leads participants 

on the journey of hope and new beginnings as we reflect on 

“The Miracle Club” and “Thirteen Lives.” Cost: $60/person, 

includes breakfast and lunch. Register at bemediamindful. 

org/cinemadivina. 

Christmas Boutique. St. Timothy Church, 10425 W. Pico 

Blvd., Los Angeles, 2-6 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Hosted 

by St. Timothy’s Women Club. 

“Best Birthday Party Ever.” Pauline Books & Media, 3908 

Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 1-3 p.m. Children are invited 

to play games, blow out candles on Jesus’ birthday cake, 

photos with St. Nicholas, stories, and more. Free event. Call 

310-397-8678 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com. 

■ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 

92nd Annual Procession and Mass in honor of Our Lady 

of Guadalupe. Our Lady of Solitude Church, 4561 E. Cesar 

Chavez, Los Angeles, 10:30 a.m. procession begins. 1 p.m. 

Mass at East Los Angeles College, 1301 Cesar Chavez Ave., 

Monterey Park, presided by Archbishop José H. Gomez. 

For more information, visit lacatholics.org/guadalupe. 

Holy Silence Contemplative Prayer Group. St. Andrew 

Russian Greek Catholic Church, 538 Concord St., El Segundo, 

12-1:30 p.m. Call 310-322-1892. 

Loyola High School Open House. Loyola High School, 

1901 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, 1-4 p.m. Open to all 6th- 

8th-grade boys and their families. Visit loyolahs.schooladminonline.com/portal/new_inquiry. 

St. Agatha Annual Christmas Craft Fair. St. Agatha 

Church, 2646 S. Mansfield Ave., Los Angeles, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Holiday raffle, handcrafted gifts, and bake sale. Proceeds go 

to S.H.A.R.E. Christmas Day dinner and Saturday distribution 

programs. Call Margie Nickleberry at 323-935-8127 

for more information. 

“Anima Mundi/Soul of the World” Outdoor Multimedia 

Show. LMU Sacred Heart Chapel, 1 LMU Dr., Los Angeles, 

7 p.m. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the merger of 

Loyola University and Marymount College, this animated 

display set to live music is free and open to the public. Runs 

Dec. 3-5. For more information, visit mission.lmu.edu/acti/. 

■ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5 

Las Rosas Gala. Sherwood Country Club, 320 W. Stafford 

Rd., Thousand Oaks. Catholic Charities of Ventura County 

will honor Father Thomas Elewaut. For more information, 

contact Juliue Cariani at 805-643-4694, ext. 308, or email 

jcariani@ccharities.org. 


Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience. Our Lady of 

Refuge Church, 5195 E. Stearns St., Long Beach, 4-6 p.m. 

The next best thing to visiting Lourdes itself is a pilgrimage 

journey without the travel! Free event, donations welcomed. 

Call 562-498-6641. 

■ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9 

Catholic Maker Advent Market. St. Francis de Sales 

Church, 13360 Valleyheart Dr., Sherman Oaks, 9 a.m.-8 

p.m. Market features Catholic artisan and author booths, 

live music, speakers on faith and liturgical living, seasonal 

and festive food vendors, activities for kids, Meet a Saint 

story hour, film screening and Q&A. For more information, 

email info@catholicmaker.com. 

Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Pauline Books & 

Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 1-3 p.m. Families 

are invited for prayers, songs, food, crafts, and more. Free 

event. Call 310-397-8678 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com. 

■ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12 

Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San 

Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 11 a.m. Mass is 

virtual and not open to the public. Livestream available at 

catholiccm.org or facebook.com/lacatholics. 

LACBA Unlawful Detainer Answer Clinic. LA Law 

Library, 301 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, 12-3 p.m. Providing 

limited assistance with reviewing unlawful detainer complaints, 

jury demands, fee waiver requests, and more. Open 

to the disabled veteran community in Los Angeles County. 

Spanish assistance available. RSVP to 213-896-6536 or 

email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. 

■ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13 

Young Adult Rosary. Morgan Park, 4100 Baldwin Park 

Blvd., Baldwin Park, 6 p.m. Rosary for young adults and 

youth groups. Meets on the 13th of every month through 

December. Wear your ministry uniform and bring a flag or 

banner. 

St. Padre Pio Mass. St. Anne Church, 340 10th St., Seal 

Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al Baca. For more information, 

call 562-537-4526. 


Simbang Gabi Celebration. Cathedral of Our Lady of 

the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 6:30 p.m. 

Celebrant: Archbishop José H. Gomez. Parade of Parols 

will precede the liturgy to kick off Simbang Gabi. For a full 

schedule of Simbang Gabi Masses, visit angelusnews.com. 

■ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17 

Advent Vespers and Harp Concert. Holy Spirit Retreat 

Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 7 p.m. For more information, 

visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480. 

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 | December 1, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 24

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