Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

ANGELUS
MIXED
BLESSINGS
The Vatican document
everyone’s talking about:
What does it really say?
January 12, 2024 Vol. 9 No. 1

January 12, 2024
Vol. 9 • No. 1
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ON THE COVER
SHUTTERSTOCK
The Vatican’s new document Fiducia Supplicans on blessings
for those in same-sex or “irregular” relationships has probably
left the average Catholic with more questions than answers.
What does it really say, and why is it so controversial? On Page
10, we break down the saga of the document’s reception with
a sampling of some key reactions that illustrate what’s at stake.
On Page 20, John Allen explains why the impact of Fiducia on
the global Church may be more limited than we think.
THIS PAGE
ESTEBAN HERNANDEZ
Children dressed up for their annual Christmas
play from St. John the Evangelist Church
in South LA paid a visit to Nazareth House,
a Catholic retirement home for seniors near
West LA, on Dec. 27. The kids sang Christmas
carols and performed short Nativity-related
skits for the home’s residents for the
first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

CONTENTS
Pope Watch............................................... 2
Archbishop Gomez................................. 3
World, Nation, and Local News...... 4-6
In Other Words........................................ 7
Father Rolheiser....................................... 8
Scott Hahn.............................................. 32
Events Calendar..................................... 33
16
18
20
23
26
28
30
Archbishop, faith leaders appeal to LA’s conscience to solve homeless crisis
Meet the LA youth choir that just sang for Pope Francis — twice
John Allen: After ‘clarification’ on same-sex blessings, will anything change?
Why Nicaragua’s treatment of Catholic priests has the U.S. on high alert
Grazie Pozo Christie on the complicated feelings of becoming an abuelita
In ‘Freud’s Last Session,’ the God debate makes for a surprisingly great movie
Heather King: Takeaways from a retreat for artists at an Irish abbey
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
Journalism for the forgotten
The following is adapted from the Holy
Father’s remarks at an audience with the
Association of German Catholic Journalists
Jan. 4 at the Vatican.
Communication helps to be, as
the apostle Paul says, “members
of one another” (Ephesians
4:25), called to live in communion
within a continually expanding network
of relations. This is essential in the
Church, where the bond with universality
develops and is harmonized in a
particular way through the ministry of
the Successor of Peter.
Your association proposes commitment
to ecumenism, interreligious dialogue,
and the defense of peace, freedom, and
human dignity. How many conflicts
today, instead of being extinguished
by dialogue, are fueled by false or
inflammatory statements in the media!
Therefore, it is even more important
that you, steadfast in your Christian roots
and the faith you live daily, support the
disarming of language.
The Church in Germany has undertaken
a synod path, about which I wrote
a letter in 2019, which I hope will be
better known, meditated upon, and
implemented, as it expresses two aspects
that I consider fundamental in order not
to go astray.
First of all, care for the spiritual
dimension, that is, the real and constant
adaptation to the gospel and not to
the models of the world, rediscovering
personal and community conversion
through the sacraments and prayer,
docility to the Holy Spirit and not to the
spirit of the times.
And then the universal, Catholic dimension,
so as not to conceive the life of
faith as something relative only to one’s
own cultural and national sphere. From
this point of view, participation in the
universal synodal process is good. Catholic
communicators have a valuable role
to play in such situations: providing
accurate information, they can contribute
to clarifying misunderstandings and
above all preventing them from arising,
helping mutual understanding rather
than opposition.
But it is important not to have an
introverted attitude, but rather to “go
forth” to bring the Christian message to
every sphere of life, using the media and
possibilities available today. A Church
that is occupied primarily with herself
sickens with self-absorption. Instead, the
Church is mission, and Catholic communicators
cannot but get involved and
remain, so to speak, “neutral” regarding
the message they transmit.
Dear friends, you come from a prosperous
and developed country, but even
there one finds, sometimes hidden,
more than a few hardships. I think of the
phenomenon of child poverty, of families
who are unable to pay their bills, and
of the situation of so many migrants and
refugees, whom Germany has welcomed
in large numbers. There the God
of love is waiting for the good news of
our charity: He is waiting for Christians
to come out and go to the people on the
margins. And for this there is also a need
for communicators who give prominence
to the stories and faces of those to
whom few or none pay attention.
When you communicate, therefore,
always think of the faces of the people,
especially the poor and the simple, and
start from them, from their reality, their
dramas and their hopes, even if doing
so means going against the tide, and
wearing out the soles of your shoes!
Papal Prayer Intention for January: We pray that the Holy
Spirit may help us to recognize the gift of different charisms
within the Christian community and to discover the richness
of different traditions and rituals in the Catholic Church.
2 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Living our Catholic story in 2024
Every new year marks a new
beginning, a chance to make
a fresh start. This is a hopeful
thought and a very “Catholic” thought.
Our life of faith is always a work of
beginning and beginning again.
Following Jesus, becoming the person
whom God made us to be, is the
project of a lifetime and we carry it out
in the daily struggle against selfishness
and weakness. We make mistakes,
lose focus, and make wrong turns; but
always, we begin again.
What makes it all possible is God’s
great love for us.
I thought about that a lot during the
Christmas season. I thought especially
about how as Catholics, we belong to
a great narrative of love, the story of
salvation history that gives meaning
and purpose to our lives.
In its outlines, the story goes like this:
At a moment in human history, the
living God, the Creator of life, came
down to his creation, to live among us
in Jesus, a person both fully divine and
fully human. God came as a baby and
revealed his true face as a Father who
loves every person as his own son or
daughter.
In his life, death, and rising from the
dead, Jesus showed the depths of the
Father’s love, revealing the destiny of
our human lives, that we are made to
share in God’s own divine life as he
shared in our human life.
By his teaching, Jesus set out the path
we are to follow as children of God,
and our lives are now a journey of
love in his Church that leads beyond
death to eternal life with the Father in
heaven.
This is the beautiful story that we
have inherited as Catholics and the
story that we have become a part of in
our baptism.
This story tells us who we are, what
we are here for, and how we should
live. It tells us where we came from
and where we are going. This story
tells us what we should value and what
really matters.
Our Catholic story gives our lives
“roots” in the spiritual family we call
the Church. It is the source for our
prayers and worship, our teachings,
and all that we call our Catholic tradition
and culture.
We are in a moment when the Catholic
story, and the wider Judeo-Christian
story that formed the basis for Western
civilization, is being rejected. There
are many reasons for this, but we can
see its consequences in the crisis of
meaning that is spreading throughout
society.
This is also a challenge for us as Catholics,
as it becomes more difficult for
us to tell our story and to live according
to our beliefs.
That’s why I think it’s important, as
we begin the new year, to return and
reflect on our Catholic story and to be
renewed in its truth and promises.
The story we have inherited is a beautiful
and personal love story.
God wants nothing “out of us” but
our love. He created each of us for our
own sake, simply because he loves us;
it’s as if he could not imagine the world
without us.
God does not want to control or “lord
over” us. He simply wants to live with
us and be our friend.
The promise that God makes to us is
this: If we accept his love and believe
in his love, if we love him as he loves
us, and if we love others as he loves
them, then we can become like him.
And if we follow his way of love, he
promises that we can know the joy of
what Jesus called the abundance of
life.
In this coming year, let us ask for the
grace to deepen our faith in the power
of our Catholic story, in the truth of
Jesus Christ and his love for us.
In a practical way, we can be renewed
in this story through ever deeper devotion
to the Eucharist.
In every celebration of the Eucharist,
we pray the prayers of our ancestors,
hear their stories from the Scriptures,
and listen to the words of Jesus. Every
Eucharistic prayer retells the story of
his sacrifice of love and communicates
that love to us.
So, let us resolve again this year to
make the celebration of holy Mass, and
By his teaching, Jesus set out the path we are to
follow as children of God, and our lives are now
a journey of love in his Church that leads beyond
death to eternal life with the Father in heaven.
the encounter with the living God that
we have in the bread and wine, the
heart of our lives.
Pray for me and I will pray for you.
And let us ask our Blessed Mother
Mary to help us to tell the story of
her Son with new joy, confidence,
and courage, especially to our young
people.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
■ Camino
de Santiago
draws record
number of
pilgrims
Pilgrims walk the Camino de Santiago
near Burgos, Spain, last summer. | OSV
NEWS/FELIX ORDONEZ, REUTERS
More people are
walking the famed
Camino de Santiago
than ever before,
according to
statistics released
by the official
pilgrims office.
Some 446,035 pilgrims completed the historic pilgrimage, known as the
“Way of St. James,” which leads travelers through Spain to the traditional
burial place of the apostle St. James. Nearly 200,000 of those pilgrims
were from Spain, with the U.S. coming in second at 32,063.
Once pilgrims complete their route — usually by foot (93%) but also
by bike or horse — they stop at the cathedral’s pilgrim office, where
they receive an official document, known as a compostela, proving they
completed the Way. The office also collects and publishes demographic
information from each pilgrim. Almost a quarter of last year’s pilgrims
cited no religious reason for making the pilgrimage, and less than half
cited their faith as their primary reason for the journey.
■ Nigeria: Nearly 200
Christians killed in Christmas
attacks
More than 200 Christians were killed in
attacks on more than 80 villages in the Nigerian
state of Plateau in the days before and
after Christmas.
Jihadist Islamic militants belonging to the
semi-nomadic Fulani tribe are believed to be
behind the murders. Bodies were still being
discovered the week of Jan. 1-8, declared a
week of mourning by the local government.
Nigeria has seen a recent increase in the
persecution of Christians, including a massacre
on Pentecost 2022 that left 50 Christians
dead. Christian leaders have criticized
the country’s government for inaction that
enables continuing violence. In remarks to
media, Bishop Matthew Kulah of Sokoto
called the attackers “sons of Satan.”
“We have cried enough tears,” wrote Kulah,
whose diocese is in the affected area. “We
may pretend that we are not at war, but truly,
a war is being waged against the Nigerian
state and its people.”
■ Is it too late to fix the damage
of China’s one-child policy?
Fewer than 10 million babies were born in China
in 2022, down from 16 million a decade prior.
And despite efforts by the Chinese government to
urge women to have more children, the country’s
population continues toward a potential demographic
collapse.
Since the 2015 overturn of the country’s onechild
policy, officials have pushed for a baby boom
that could counteract current projections, which
would see the country’s population from current
levels of 1.4 billion to half a billion by 2100.
A Communist Party campaign for a “birth-friendly
culture” continues to urge women to have more
children as the fertility rate has dropped to 1.09,
well below the 2.1 needed for a stable population.
“Having had one child, I think I’ve done my
duty,” Feng Chenchen, a mother of a 3-year-old
girl, told the Wall Street Journal. She tells relatives
urging her to have a second child that it would be
too expensive. “I can have another kid as long as
you give me 300,000 yuan,” she said.
Marriage itself is also in decline, with 6.8 million
couples registering marriages in 2022, only about
half the marriages reported in 2013.
The children of Bethlehem — Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for
the Service of Charity, is pictured with children living in a religious sisters-run orphanage Dec.
22, 2023, in Bethlehem. The Polish cardinal was making a charity visit to the Holy Land on
behalf of Pope Francis amid the Israel-Hamas war. | COURTESY DICASTERY FOR THE SERVICE
OF CHARITY
4 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

NATION
■ Catholic women’s college reverses transgender admissions decision
St. Mary’s College, a Catholic women’s school in Indiana, will reverse a controversial decision to accept transgender
applicants.
The reversal came less than a month after the Nov. 27 email, which announced that the school’s board had approved a
new policy that would consider any applicants who “consistently live and identify as women.” The policy drew swift criticism,
including from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, where the school is located.
“We believed it affirmed our identity as an inclusive, Catholic, women’s college,” read the Dec. 21 reversal email from
Katie Conboy, president, and board chair Maureen Smith. “It is increasingly clear, however, that the position we took is not
shared by all members of our community.”
A fatherly exception — Jean-Claude Duncan, a married father of nine and
former Methodist minister, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of St. Cloud,
Minnesota, Dec. 9, thanks to a little-known Vatican provision that allows for
some converted Protestant ministers to be ordained priests. Duncan is now one
of more than 150 married priests serving in the United States. He was received
into the Catholic Church in 2016, along with his wife and children. | CENTRAL
MINNESOTA CATHOLIC
■ Pro-life pregnancy centers
could lose federal funding
Pregnancy resource centers may be cut out of federal
funds under new regulations proposed by the White House.
The proposed rule would bar Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) funds — which total about $16.5
billion a year — from being used for pregnancy counseling
or other programs that apply only after someone is already
pregnant.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has urged
Catholics to petition the Biden administration to drop the
proposed change, which is currently in a period of public
comment. Conservative leaders have criticized it as politically
motivated.
“HHS does not cite any evidence that pregnancy centers
or others receiving TANF funding under alternatives to
abortion programs are unlawfully using federal funds for
non-TANF purposes,” read a public comment letter signed
by several congressional Republicans. “This suggests HHS
is targeting pregnancy centers for their pro-life mission rather
than for any kind of misuse of federal funds.”
■ Rome asks US for one more
round of synod listening sessions
Dioceses in the U.S. are being asked to hold another round
of listening sessions this year as part of the ongoing Synod
on Synodality.
The request from synod organizers in Rome was announced
by Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, who coordinates
the U.S. bishops’ synod process, in a Jan. 2 letter to
his fellow American bishops. Flores’ team is requesting that
each diocese hold two to three listening sessions regarding
the guiding questions posed by the synod secretariat.
The first question is: “Where have I seen or experienced Bishop Daniel Flores sits next to Pope Francis at the Synod of Bishops last year. | CNS/
VATICAN MEDIA
successes — and distresses — within the Church’s structure(s)/organization/leadership/life
that encourage or hinder the mission?”
The second: “How can the structures and organization of the Church help all the baptized to respond to the call to proclaim
the Gospel and to live as a community of love and mercy in Christ?”
After the sessions are held, diocesan synod leaders will be invited to participate in a national working group to discuss the
outcomes.
“We all know time is short, but even modest efforts at the local level can bear much fruit,” wrote Flores to the bishops.
“Let us do what we can, as well as we can and trust the Lord to accomplish beyond what we can foresee.”
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
■ OneLife LA to mark 10th anniversary
OneLife LA will return to downtown LA Saturday, Jan. 20, for its 10th anniversary.
As in previous years, the annual event celebrating the dignity of life from conception
to natural death will feature live music, food, several renowned guest
speakers, and Mass. The event will kick off at 11 a.m. at the La Placita church
on Olvera Street, where attendees will then walk to nearby Los Angeles State
Historic Park for festivities. A Requiem Mass for the unborn will take place later
at 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Guest speakers include award-winning author and podcast host Katie Prejean
McGrady and Father Josh Johnson, vocations director for the Diocese of Baton
Rouge and host of the acclaimed “Ascension” podcast and video series.
Learn more, register for the event, or sign up to volunteer at onelifela.org.
■ New STEM-focused Catholic
university to launch in LA
After years of attempting to establish a Catholic university in Los Angeles
focusing on STEM teachings, Catholic Polytechnic University (CPU) was
approved by the state and will welcome its inaugural class in fall 2024.
A Los Angeles-area location for the campus has been identified but is still
being finalized. To start, the university will offer bachelor’s and master’s degree
programs in computer science, with courses of study in subjects such as cybersecurity,
technology, data science, and more. CPU is now accepting applications
for students to attend in the fall.
According to CPU, its mission is to “promote the intersection of faith and
science as seen through the lens of faithful Catholic teachings.” The university
received approval and a blessing from Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez
in January 2020.
“We’re basically starting up a Catholic Caltech or a Catholic MIT,” said Jennifer
Nolan, Ph.D., the university’s president. “That’s the vision of it.”
To get more information, apply, or donate, visit catholicpolytechnic.org.
Something beautiful growing — Father Mario Torres, pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles,
blesses the new prayer garden dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. The garden was the brainchild of the
school’s “Faith Club,” which meets weekly. | ST. THOMAS APOSTLE SCHOOL
Actor Shia LaBeouf — shown starring in the 2023
film “Padre Pio” — entered into full communion
with the Catholic Church after receiving the
sacrament of confirmation on Dec. 31, 2023. |
OSV NEWS/GRAVITAS VENTURES
■ Actor Shia LaBeouf
confirmed into the
Church in SoCal
Actor Shia LaBeouf, who recently
starred in the film about the beloved
saint, “Padre Pio,” received the
sacrament of confirmation into the
Catholic faith on New Year’s Eve,
according to social media posts by
the Capuchin Franciscans’ Western
American Province.
The posts featured several photos of
LaBeouf with the friars and Bishop
Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester,
Minnesota, who had previously interviewed
the actor through his Word on
Fire ministry.
The ceremony took place at the Old
Mission Santa Inés in Solvang, where
Bishop Barron — who previously
served as an auxiliary bishop in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Santa
Barbara region — administered the
sacrament.
The actor said he felt called to convert
to Catholicism after accepting the
role in “Padre Pio” and developing
his relationships with the friars while
researching for the movie.
Y
6 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
How the Holy Spirit works in Finland
I was very impressed with the article about Finland’s new bishop, “A
shepherd at the end of the world,” in the Dec. 29 issue of Angelus. In
fact, it’s important to realize that Father Raimo Goyarrola Belda (now Bishop) has
been in Finland for 17 years. What he has accomplished, by the grace of God, is
remarkable.
What struck me most is the ecumenical cooperation among Christian churches
in this country of few Christians. Whether Orthodox, Lutheran, Catholic, or other
denominations, the Christians there share their churches so that Mass can be said
“at least once a month in 25 cities where there’s no Catholic parish.”
Their “collections are very small because the people don’t have money.” Yet the
Church in Finland has grown from 7-8,000 Catholics (17 years ago) to 17-18,000
today.
No doubt, Bishop Raimo Goyarrola’s enthusiasm for the New Evangelization,
his love for the Finns, and his hard work had something to do with that, but it’s
obvious also that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in Finland.
Thank you for this beautiful story that captures how the energy of the Church is
spreading in the world today.
— Marilyn Boussaid, St. James Church, Redondo Beach
Y
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Bringing Christ on Christmas
“We are not Jesus for one
another if we’re looking at
our phone.”
~ Kathleen McNutt, the head of Bishop Ireton High
School, in a Jan. 2 USA Today article on banning
cellphones in schools.
“I’m living on the streets. I’m
also dying there.”
~ “Michael,” interviewed by National Catholic
Reporter for a Dec. 29 story on local efforts to help
the homeless in the North Hollywood area.
“Does my life belong to me,
or is it a gift from God?”
~ Bishop Robert Barron, in a Jan. 4 Word on Fire
commentary on euthanasia and physician-assisted
suicide.
“We’ve had more than
one suit of armor come
through, believe it or not.”
~ Bryan Owens, owner of Unclaimed Baggage Center,
in a Dec. 27 CBS News article on lost luggage finding
new life.
“We cannot live and speak
of peace if our hearts are
not turned to God, if our
lives are not truly inhabited
by his presence, if we do
not feel the need to ask for
his forgiveness.”
~ Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of
Jerusalem, at a Jan. 1 Mass for Peace celebrated amid
the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez handed out copies of “The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments” by Scott
Weeman to inmates at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles after celebrating Christmas Mass the morning of Dec. 25.
Archbishop Gomez’s visits to the jail have become a Christmas Day tradition. | 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.
“We’re like stepping into the
shoes of the dead person.”
~ Dennis Cotek, an LA County investigator, in a Jan.
4 Associated Press article on investigating unclaimed
bodies in Los Angeles.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronrolheiser.com
Our pathetic selves
When all is said and done, our
lives are not all that serene
and peaceful. In a manner
of speaking, we are always somewhat
pathetic. That shouldn’t scare us.
Pathetic is not a pejorative term. The
word comes from the Greek “pathos,”
which means pain. To be pathetic is
to live in pain, and we all do because
of the very way we are made.
You might say that doesn’t sound
right. Aren’t we made in the image
and likeness of God so that each of
us, no matter how messed up our lives
might be, carry a special dignity and
a certain godliness within us? We do
carry that special dignity. However,
despite that and largely because of it,
our lives tend to be so complex as to
be pain-filled. Why?
Godliness isn’t easy to carry. The infinite
inside us doesn’t easily fit itself
into the finite. We carry too much
divine fire inside to find much peace
in this life.
That struggle begins early in life. To
create a self-identity as a very young
child, we need to make a series of
mental contractions, which ultimately
limit our awareness. First, we need
to differentiate ourselves from others
(That’s mom — I’m me); then, we
need to differentiate between what is
living and what is not (the puppy is
alive — my doll isn’t); next, we need
to differentiate between what is physical
and what is mental (this is my
body — but I think with my mind).
Finally, and critically, as we are
doing all this, we need split off as
much of our luminosity we can
consciously handle from what is too
much to consciously handle. With
that we create a self-identity — but we
also create a shadow, namely, an area
inside us which is split off from our
consciousness.
Notice that our shadow is not first
of all a looming darkness. Rather, it’s
all the light and energy inside us that
we cannot consciously handle. Most
of us, I suspect, are familiar with the
words of Marianne Williamson made
famous by Nelson Mandela in his inauguration
speech: “Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful
beyond measure. It is our light, not
our darkness that most frightens us.”
Our light frightens us because it
is not easy to carry. It gives us great
dignity and infinite depth, but it also
makes us pathologically complex and
restless. Ruth Burrows, one of the
foremost spiritual writers of our time,
begins her autobiography with these
words: “I was born into this world
with a tortured sensitivity and my
life has not been an easy one.” You
wouldn’t expect those words from a
mystic, from someone who has been
a faithful nun for more than 75 years.
You wouldn’t expect that her struggle
in life was as much with the light
within herself as with the darkness
within and around her. That’s also
true for each of us.
There’s a famous passage in the
Book of Qoheleth where the sacred
writer tells us that God has made
everything beautiful in its own time.
However, the passage doesn’t end on
a peaceful note. It ends by telling us
that, while God has made everything
beautiful in its own time, God has put
timelessness into the human heart so
that we are congenitally out of sync
with time and the seasons from beginning
to end. Both our special dignity
and our pathological complexity take
their origins in that anomaly in our
nature. We are overcharged for life on
this planet.
St. Augustine gave this classic
expression in his famous line: “You
have made us for yourself, Lord, and
our hearts are restless until they rest
in you.” There is an entire anthropology
and spirituality in that single
line. Our dignity and our perpetual
restlessness have one and the same
source.
Thus, you need to give yourself
sacred permission for being wild of
heart, restless of heart, insatiable of
heart, complex of heart, and driven of
heart. Too often, where both psychology
and spirituality have failed you is
in giving you the impression that you
should be living without chaos and
restlessness in your life.
Admittedly, these can beset you
more acutely because of moral inadequacy,
but they will beset you no
matter how good a life you are living.
Indeed, if you are a deeply sensitive
person, you will probably feel your
complexity more acutely than if you
are less sensitive or are deadening
your sensitivity with distractions.
Karl Rahner once wrote to a friend
who had written to him complaining
that he wasn’t finding the fulfillment
he longed for in life. His
friend expressed disappointment with
himself, his marriage, and his job.
Rahner gave him this counsel: “In
the torment of the insufficiency of
everything attainable, we ultimately
learn that in this life there is no finished
symphony.”
There can be no finished symphony
in this life — not because our souls
are defective, but because they carry
godliness.
8 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

Why everyone’s talking about
BLESSINGS
What to make of the various reactions and
interpretations prompted by the new Vatican
document Fiducia Supplicans.
BY ANGELUS STAFF
10 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

While it grabbed the world’s
attention when it was
released just a week before
Christmas, the rollout for Fiducia
Supplicans did not seem to go as the
Vatican planned.
With its Latin title meaning “Supplicating
Trust,” the 5,000-word document
issued by the Dicastery for the
Doctrine of the Faith with the approval
of Pope Francis was billed as a sort of
Pope Francis waves to an estimated 70,000 people
gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for his
Christmas blessing Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and the
world”) Dec. 25, 2023. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA
explainer on the “pastoral meaning of
blessings.”
Specifically, it sought to address a
thorny everyday question faced by
priests worldwide: Under what conditions
are they allowed to offer blessings
to people who are living in “irregular”
relationships outside the Church’s
teachings on marriage, especially those
who are divorced and remarried, and
same-sex couples?
While the document takes pains
to explain that it is not changing the
Church’s “perennial teaching” on marriage
and that “the Church does not
have the power to impart blessings on
unions of persons of the same sex,” that
has not stopped a firestorm of response
from Church officials and ordinary
Catholics.
Indeed, since its publication Dec.
18, Fiducia Supplicans would seem
to have raised as many questions as
it claimed to answer, provoking a
dizzying array of interpretations and
reactions on every continent.
Father James Martin, SJ, a widely
recognized advocate for homosexuals
in the Church, performed a same-sex
couple “blessing” the day after the document
was published, and invited The
New York Times to his Manhattan
residence to cover it. The Times’ frontpage
story declared: “Gay Catholics
Hear History: ‘God Bless You’.”
Other activists heralded the document
as a milestone on the road to
the Church’s ultimate acceptance of
same-sex marriage.
But others have come out against the
document on just that point, claiming
that in its willingness to entertain the
blessing of those in “irregular” situations,
it undermines Church teaching
on marriage and marks an abrupt
reversal of a 2021 statement by the
same Vatican doctrine office on the
same topic that bluntly declared: “God
cannot bless sin.”
In their responses, Catholic bishops
in parts of Africa, Asia, and Eastern
Europe rejected the new “horizon”
for such blessings outlined by Fiducia
Supplicans as incompatible with the
Church’s teaching on homosexuality
and sexual relations outside the
marriage of one man and one woman.
Some bishops’ conferences have
responded by explicitly banning the
blessing of same-sex couples, among
them the Ivory Coast and Kazakhstan.
Other critics questioned the declaration’s
length, its avoidance of terms
like “conversion” and “sin,” and the
unusual timing of its release a week
before Christmas.
More tradition-minded Protestant
voices also expressed concern.
In an open letter to Francis, the
American Black Pentecostal leader,
Rev. Eugene Rivers III, expressed
“alarm and anguish,” urging the pontiff
to withdraw the document because
it “contradicts the truths of the Holy
Bible.”
“Already,” Rivers said, the document
is “almost universally being interpreted
as approving the blessing of sexual sin;
indeed, it invites the inference that it
was meant to be interpreted thus.”
In the face of the controversy, the
doctrine office’s prefect and document
author, Cardinal Víctor Manuel
Fernández, took to media interviews
to “clarify” the document’s intentions,
at one point saying that it was meant
to respond to doctrinally questionable
same-sex blessings being pushed by
bishops and priests in Germany.
Finally, on Jan. 4, the doctrine office
was forced to publish a long statement,
nearly half as long as the original document,
explicitly denying charges that it
was “heretical” or “blasphemous.”
“The document is clear and definitive
about marriage and sexuality … ‘not
allowing any type of liturgical rite or
blessing similar to a liturgical rite that
can create confusion,’ ” the statement
insisted.
“We are talking about something that
lasts about 10 or 15 seconds,” it added.
“Does it make sense to deny these
kinds of blessings to these two people
who ask for them? Is it not more appropriate
to support their faith, whether it
be small or great, to assist them in their
weaknesses with a divine blessing, and
to channel that openness to transcendence
which could lead them to be
more faithful to the Gospel?”
The controversy is ongoing. To better
understand what it does and doesn’t
say, we encourage readers to read the
document itself at the Vatican website
(Vatican.va). Here we offer a sampling
of notable comments reflecting the
broad outlines of the debate.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 11

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández,
Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine
of the Faith
These kinds of blessings are simple
pastoral channels that help to express
people’s faith, even if those people are
great sinners.
Therefore, by giving this blessing to
two people who spontaneously come
forward to request it, one can legitimately
ask God to grant them health,
peace, prosperity — the things that we
all ask for and that a sinner can also
ask for.
At the same time, since one can think
that in the daily lives of these two
persons, not everything is sin, one can
therefore pray for them [to receive] a
spirit of dialogue, patience, and mutual
help.
But the declaration also mentions a
request for help from the Holy Spirit
so that this relationship, which is often
unknown to the priest, may be purified
of everything that does not respond to
the Gospel and the will of God, and
may mature along the lines of God’s
plan.
Obviously, when there is a text signed
by the pope, in order to interpret it
broadly the bishops must first study
it in-depth and without haste, and
allow themselves to be enlightened
and enriched by that text. Therefore,
prudence and attention to local culture
could admit different ways of application,
but not a total denial of this step
being asked of priests.
United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops
The declaration … articulated a distinction
between liturgical (sacramental)
blessings, and pastoral blessings,
which may be given to persons who
desire God’s loving grace in their lives.
The Church’s teaching on marriage
has not changed, and this declaration
affirms that, while also making an effort
to accompany people through the
imparting of pastoral blessings because
each of us needs God’s healing love
and mercy in our lives.
A man walks outside the Cathedral of St. Paul in 2013
in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Homosexual unions are not
recognized or allowed in most African countries, and
many Catholic bishops on the continent have said
that any form of blessings involving such couples will
not be implemented in their countries or dioceses. |
CNS/THIERRY GOUEGNON, REUTERS
Father James Martin, SJ,
Editor-at-Large, America Magazine
You may hear from some quarters that
“nothing has changed.” But a great
deal has in fact changed. … Today,
with some limitations, I can perform a
public blessing of a same-sex couple.
Yesterday, I could not.
Some LGBTQ people may be disappointed
that this declaration doesn’t go
as far as they might hope — that is, allowing
same-sex couples to be married
sacramentally.
As for me, I welcome this new declaration
and see it as a much-needed
pastoral response to Catholic same-sex
couples in loving, committed, and
self-sacrificing relationships who desire
God’s presence and help. And as a
priest I look forward to blessing samesex
couples, and sharing with them the
graces that God desires for everyone,
something I’ve waited years to do.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, 2012-2017
According to the Catholic faith, the
pope and the bishops can set certain
pastoral accents and creatively relate
the truth of Revelation to the new
challenges of each age … but these
innovations cannot go beyond what
was revealed to them once and for all
by the apostles as the word of God.
In fact, there are no biblical texts or
texts of the Fathers and Doctors of the
Church or previous documents of the
magisterium to support the conclusions
of [the declaration]. Moreover,
what we see is not a development but a
doctrinal leap.
In order to accept the blessing of situations
that are contrary to the Gospel,
the [declaration] proposes an original
solution: to broaden the concept of
a blessing. … That is, a new concept
of blessing is needed, one that goes
beyond sacramental blessings in order
to accompany pastorally the journey
of those who live in sin. … Notice
that not only sinful persons are blessed
here, but that by blessing the couple,
it is the sinful relationship itself that is
blessed.
The difficulty of blessing a union or
couple is especially evident in the case
of homosexuality. For in the Bible, a
blessing has to do with the order that
God has created and that he has declared
to be good. This order is based
on the sexual difference of male and
female, called to be one flesh. Blessing
a reality that is contrary to creation is
not only impossible, it is blasphemy. …
Priests should proclaim God’s love
and goodness to all people and also
help sinners and those who are weak
and have difficulty in conversion with
counsel and prayer. This is very different
from pointing out to them with
self-invented but misleading signs and
12 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

words that God is not so demanding
about sin, thus hiding the fact that sin
in thought, word, and deed distances
us from God.
There is no blessing, not only in public
but also in private, for sinful living
conditions that objectively contradict
God’s holy will.
Zambia Conference of
Catholic Bishops (Africa)
Based on sacred Scripture, which presents
homosexual acts as acts of grave
depravity (Genesis 19:1–29; Romans
1:24–27; 1 Corinthians 6:10; 1 Timothy
1:10), the conference reaffirms
the traditional teaching of the Church,
which declares “homosexual acts to be
intrinsically disordered and contrary
to natural law.” Hence, “under no
circumstances can they be approved”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no. 2357).
In order to avoid any pastoral confusion
and ambiguity … and while listening
to our cultural heritage, which
does not accept same-sex relationships,
the conference guides that the
declaration … be taken as for further
reflection and not for implementation
in Zambia.
The conference would like to earnestly
invite all those engaged in samesex
unions to embark on the path of
conversion with greater trust in God’s
mercy and love.
Bishop Erik Varden, OSCO,
Bishop of Trondheim (Norway)
Can believers who live in irregular
situations be blessed? They can, of
course. It is a long-established custom
in our Church that, at the moment of
holy Communion, those who for one
reason or another cannot receive the
sacrament approach the priest and ask
for a blessing: this is never withheld
unless the supplicant, God forbid,
manifests a sacrilegious attitude.
It is edifying and touching to see a
brother or sister in the faith, a person
dear to us, acknowledge: “Here and
now, the circumstances of my life are
such that I cannot receive the sacraments;
still, I believe in God and trust
that God believes in me, so I invoke his
blessing and declare my will to remain
a part of this community of faith.”
There is sincerity, humility, and
strength in such a posture. Where
those three qualities are present, grace
can work.
What is the difference between an
“ecclesial” and a “pastoral” blessing?
An “ecclesial” act takes place publicly,
following a ritual approved by the
Church; a “pastoral” act is personal, intimate,
pertaining to the inner forum.
Here, then, we have a criterion for
the application of Fiducia Supplicans:
If couples living in irregular circumstances
request a “pastoral” blessing,
the appropriate setting is away from
The exterior of the headquarters of the Dicastery
for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican in 2022. |
CNS/PAUL HARING
the public eye, following the example
of the Lord in the Gospel who, when
approached by a blind man begging to
touch him, took the man “by the hand
and led him out of the village” (Mark
8:23), there to lay his hands on him,
that the healing of divine grace might
touch that in him which was broken,
without the brokenness becoming a
public spectacle.
A second criterion concerns the intention
of couples asking to be blessed. …
Presupposed is a will to conversion and
an attitude of faith by virtue of which
they “acknowledge themselves humbly
as sinners.” There is to be, so Fiducia
Supplicans declares, “no intention to
legitimize anything, but rather to open
one’s life to God, to ask for his help to
live better.”
Archbishop Eamon Martin,
Primate of All Ireland
At a practical level as a priest, I
welcome the clarity in this document.
The pope is very clear that these
pastoral blessings are not a kind of a
liturgical or ritual acknowledgment
that these unions are equivalent or in
any way analogous to the marriage
between a man or a woman.
At the same time, it shows that the
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 13

issues and the hurts experienced by
people identifying as LGBT+ have
certainly been heard very loudly
within the Church. I do hope that
people who may have felt excluded
in the past, will see this as some step
toward them with the love and mercy
of Christ.
The pope is very much exercising his
pastoral role in accompanying people.
One of the great gifts of the priesthood
is being able to offer people a blessing.
These informal, pastoral, but beautiful
moments, where you are able to bless
someone where they are at, is something
we do every day as a priest.
This particular declaration makes
somebody like me or any priest a little
bit more comfortable that they can do
this without feeling, “Am I contradicting
the teaching of the Church?” So,
there is a clarity here, which I think
will help pastors on the ground.
Bishop José Ignacio Munilla,
Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain
I would have expected another way
of approaching the subject. I believe
that a mistake has been made by not
consulting the entire episcopate,
especially when pastoral reasons are
alleged in the declaration.
It’s surprising that they did not
proceed in a synodal manner, in line
Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern
Ireland, blesses delegates during a prayer walk at a
pre-synodal assembly in the sixth-century monastic
site of Clonmacnoise in Ireland June 18, 2022. |
CNS/CLODAGH KILCOYNE, REUTERS
with the ecclesiology of the Second
Vatican Council. We would have
been spared the dissenting reactions
of episcopal conferences that we are
witnessing, for example.
There would be no problem in performing
a blessing, carried out in the
privacy of pastoral accompaniment,
with a formulation along the following
lines:
“Lord, bless your children N. and N.,
and grant them to continue walking
in humility, so that at the same time
that they recognize your gifts, they
also recognize that their union is not
in accordance with your design. Pour
out upon them your grace, for them to
become coherent in their lives and accept
with courage and determination
your call to conversion. Amen.”
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop
of Bologna and President of the
Bishops’ Conference of Italy
Some things you can say after you
have made people feel at home again.
So it will be possible to learn the rules
— beautiful — of a home from which
you were estranged, which you think
you do not understand and which is
not understood.
The Church communicates the love
that explains the rule and makes it
alive, and this is done by reestablishing
a relationship with everyone. The
world is not black and white and requires
listening, discernment, acceptance.
Someone may think: this way
you lose the truth. In contrast, no, this
is how you rediscover it: by living, by
encountering, by talking about Jesus.
And you discover that Christianity has
deeper roots than you think.
The altar is draped with a rainbow flag during the
blessing service “Love Wins” in the Church of St.
Martin in Geldern, Germany, in 2021. For the last
several years, many Catholic leaders in the country
have been pushing the Vatican to change its teaching
on marriage and sexuality to be more open to samesex
couples. | CNS/RUDOLF WICHERT, KNA
14 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 15

Archdiocesan interfaith officer Rt.
Rev. Alexei Smith helps Archbishop
José H. Gomez light a candle in
remembrance of the homeless who
have died on LA’s streets at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Dec. 21. Smith is the pastor of St.
Andrew Russian Greek-Catholic
Church in El Segundo.
‘NEW EYES’ NEEDED
On the longest night of the year, local faith
leaders prayed for the homeless victims of a
crisis with no end in sight.
BY PABLO KAY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN
Archbishop José H. Gomez called
on Angelenos to look at those
suffering on the streets with “new
eyes” at an interreligious prayer service
remembering the city’s homeless dead.
“We need to bear one another’s burdens;
we need to lift up our neighbors
when they’ve fallen, bind their wounds,
and find them a place to live,” said
Archbishop Gomez in his reflection at
the second annual Homeless Persons’
Interreligious Memorial Dec. 21.
“When one of us is suffering, we all
suffer.”
More than 200 people attended the
memorial, symbolically timed to coincide
with the date of the winter solstice,
the longest night of the year. As rain fell
outside, the lights inside the Cathedral
of Our Lady of the Angels were dimmer
than usual as a delegation of local
interreligious representatives, led by
Archbishop Gomez, began the service
processing in to the sound of “Amazing
Grace.”
Set near the cathedral altar were 1,665
battery-charged candles, bearing the
names of each of the people identified
by the LA County Coroner’s Office as
having died on the streets from December
2022 through Nov. 3, 2023. Each
name was also printed in the night’s
program, a detail noted by Lutheran
Bishop Brenda Bos, who was the first to
speak at the event.
“Every one of those people was a
prophet, was a witness, was an angel
among us … who had a story, who had
a family, who had a life,” said Bos, who
leads the Southwest California Synod
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of America. “I’m so glad that we could
honor them and we can thank God for
their presence in our midst.”
Other interreligious delegates at the
service included representatives of
Orthodox, Bahá’í, Hindu, Jewish, and
Mormon faith traditions. Speakers
invoked the importance of recognizing
our common humanity as they
appealed to the city’s conscience.
Swami Mahayogananda of Hollywood’s
Vedanta Center lamented how
“we are able to let our own brothers and
sisters die on the streets of our city, unloved,
uncared for, cold and hungry.”
Death may be a certainty of life, the
Hindu monk said, “but surely we all
deserve death with dignity.”
Rabbi Beaumont Shapiro of the Skirball
Cultural Center near Brentwood
admitted he’d considered trying some-
16 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

thing “sacrilegious” that night to get his
message across: What would happen,
he asked, if he were to take scissors and
cut out every verse in the Hebrew Bible
that speaks of the moral obligation to
help the poor, needy, and powerless?
“The entire section of the prophets
would be decimated, the psalms ripped
to shreds, and much of Leviticus and
Deuteronomy torn to pieces,” said
Shapiro.
Not only are the Scriptures filled
with the themes of homelessness and
wandering, Shapiro said, but they
command readers to care for the most
vulnerable “more often than any other
commandment.”
In his reflection, Archbishop Gomez
said the prayer service was a call “to
reach across the boundaries that separate
us from our neighbors, to recognize
in each person the spark of the divine,
to see everyone as a child of God.”
“Jesus asks us tonight to see with ‘new
eyes,’ ” said Archbishop Gomez after
the Gospel passage of the parable of the
Good Samaritan was proclaimed. “He
asks us to look at the ‘other’ and see a
brother or a sister. Whatever the color
of their skin, whatever their nationality,
their language, or religion. Whatever
their condition or their worldly status.”
According to official statistics, Los
Angeles had an estimated homeless
population of 41,980 in 2022, making
it the city with the largest homeless
population in the country that year
(that number grew to 46,260 in 2023).
The number of homeless
deaths in LA counted for
2023’s memorial was over
200 more than the same
time period in 2022, a
grim sign that the situation
isn’t improving. Visitors
to the cathedral that night
agreed.
“I think it is getting
worse,” said Ray Salazar,
who came to the cathedral
with his 8-year-old daughter
Rebecca. His wife, Susana,
works for the Society
of St. Vincent de Paul and
was one of the volunteers
at the memorial.
“There are a lot of problems
with people getting mental illness.
I see more drugs in the streets, and
everybody knows it, but nobody talks
about it.”
Volunteers from the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul Society and the local
nonprofit organization SOFESA —
which both helped organize the vigil
— were on hand to welcome guests
and distribute programs and memorial
candles. Students from several Catholic
high schools showed up to help, too,
including Mayfield Senior School in
Pasadena and Crespi High School in
Encino.
Before the service’s end, the local
religious leaders took turns lighting
candles in honor of the homeless dead.
Afterward, visitors were encouraged to
Rabbi Beaumont Shapiro of the Skirball Cultural
Center speaks at the second annual Homeless
Persons’ Interreligious Memorial Dec. 21.
take the small, battery-charged candles
home and pray for the men and women
named on them. They were also shown
a QR code linking to an Amazon Wish
List, where blankets, sleeping bags, and
socks could be purchased as donations.
Several community donation drives
were held around the archdiocese
leading up to the memorial, like
“Hearts & Hats,” organized by the
Los Angeles Archdiocesan Council of
Catholic Women. Before the service
started, council member Karen Akana
came with her husband, Jim, to drop
off boxes of hats and scarves collected
during the drive.
“It’s just remarkable that we have that
many people on the streets who have
passed away,” said Akana, a parishioner
at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in
Students from Crespi,
Bishop Alemany, Cathedral,
Immaculate Heart, and
Incarnation high schools,
as well as Mayfield Senior
School, were among the
volunteers at the 2023
Homeless Memorial.
Northridge. “It’s
hard to believe
that even tonight
somebody
is probably dying
because it’s
so cold outside.
So we came
down to pray for
them.”
During the
service, Akana said her mind turned to
the big picture of the city’s “worsening”
homelessness crisis, one whose solution
has evaded leaders so far.
“I was praying in there, saying, ‘What
do we do?’ ” said Akana. “We have to
have an answer to this.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 17

FROM PASADENA
TO ST. PETER’S
The choir of singers from St. Andrew Church in
Pasadena and Pueri Cantores San Gabriel Valley
pose in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, where they
performed for Pope Francis. | SUBMITTED PHOTO
A local youth choir spent the holiday break
on a Italian tour — with a few performances
for Pope Francis included.
BY MIKE CISNEROS
In the vast space of St. Peter’s
Basilica, Alejandro Quintero saw
Pope Francis moving toward him
and knew he had to get closer. The
11-year-old student scooted past others
in the crowd and inched his way so
close to the pope that he could almost
touch him.
Just before a smiling Francis moved
past Quintero in his wheelchair, he
saw him, reached out, and shook his
hand.
“It felt great because almost everyone
in the world knows him and a bunch
of people from the other side of the
world come to see him,” Quintero
said. “Because he’s like the closest one
to God.”
But Quintero wasn’t in Rome simply
to get a glimpse of Francis. He was
there to perform for the pope, along
with 14 other young singers who
are part of the children’s choir at St.
Andrew Church in Pasadena or Pueri
Cantores San Gabriel Valley.
The group and several members
of their families participated in a
whirlwind tour of Italy, with the choir
performing for the pope twice in
addition to concerts at places such as
Santi Apostoli and the Basilica of St.
Francis in Assisi.
For Patrick Flahive, the music teacher
and choir director at St. Andrew
plus the artistic director and founder
of Pueri Cantores San Gabriel Valley,
18 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

this trip marked the 30th anniversary
of the first time he brought a choir to
sing for the pope.
“It’s just a tremendous experience
to have such beautiful life-changing
events,” Flahive said. “These people,
kids and adults, can share an experience
they can recall and still be
inspired by.”
The choir had been rehearsing twice
a week since September to prepare,
but the logistics for a trip like this
has been years in the making: music
purchased by Flahive; hotel rooms
booked and organized by Flahive’s
wife; choir robes bought by St.
Andrew pastor Father Marcos Gonzalez;
rehearsal space arranged by St.
Andrew Catholic School Principal Jae
Kim.
“All those things where they didn’t
think twice,” Flahive said. “Absolutely
supportive in every way.”
The choir’s first performance in Italy
was a historic one on New Year’s Eve
with the pope singing vespers evening
prayer at St. Peter’s Basilica. Flahive
doesn’t believe an American children’s
choir has ever been invited to
do that.
The students sat side by side with the
Sistine Chapel Choir — labeled the
oldest choir in the world — and sang
responses in Latin and Italian.
For Arturo Hernandez III, 13, an
eighth-grader at St. Andrew who’s
never traveled internationally before,
the moment was an emotional one.
“I was feeling pretty excited,”
Hernandez said. “And then when it
finally happened, like when the music
started playing, it’s just like a whole
different emotion went over me. Like
‘I am doing this right now.’
“Not many people get to sing for the
pope, so I feel pretty special that I was
able to even be there at the Vatican.”
On New Year’s Day, the choir performed
again at St. Peter’s Basilica,
this time at a noontime Mass for the
feast of Mary, Mother of God, where
they sang more traditional holiday
songs like “O Come, All Ye Faithful,”
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and
the Italian “Gesù Bambino.”
In addition to performing in Assisi
and at the Santi Apostoli in Rome, the
choir concluded its trip by singing at
the Epiphany Mass on Jan. 6, again
for Pope Francis.
“He’s such a brilliantly positive presence,”
Flahive said of the pope. “The
children obviously enliven him and
are dear to him. That’s really meaningful
to me.”
For the students, many of whom
have never been outside of California,
seeing the historic landscape of Italy
was eye-opening.
“It’s great,” Hernandez said. “Stuff
over in California isn’t really that old.
Over here, there’s stuff everywhere
that’s thousands of years old and you
can touch it.”
“It’s been exciting,” Quintero
said. “Seeing stuff that’s
been on TV, like the Colosseum.
It’s cool being in Italy.”
Overall, Flahive was
impressed with the way the
students handled the rigor
of the trip and stepped up to
meet the moment.
“Everything is completely
unknown territory for them,
and I love the fact that they’re
not really fearful,” he said.
“They’re just going into these
things with such courage and
such enthusiasm, and then
such delight when they realize that
these magnificent events and magnificent
places are actually occurring and
they’re a very integral part.”
The experience can only broaden
the students’ faith — and ours —
Flahive said.
“They’re getting a real experience
of the universe, of their faith, and
a real experience of friendship,” he
said. “You know, brotherhood and
sisterhood with the other kids who
can’t even speak the same language.
But they’re obviously sharing the same
thing.
“The singing of the children brings
all of us closer to God. Because it’s
the beauty of it, of their voices, the
beauty of their spirit and the beauty
of the sacred texts that they sing are
all just powerful and overwhelmingly
delightful.”
Mike Cisneros is the associate editor
of Angelus.
Pope Francis is wheeled into St. Peter’s
Basilica to greet the performers who
helped pray vespers on New Year’s Eve. |
SUBMITTED PHOTO
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 19

Cardinal Víctor Manuel
Fernández, prefect of the
Dicastery for the Doctrine
of the Faith, participates in
the first working session of
the assembly of the Synod of
Bishops in the Vatican’s Paul VI
Audience Hall Oct. 4, 2023. |
CNS/LOLA GOMEZ
EXPLAINING TO DO
The Vatican spent the holidays clarifying its clarification on blessings for
those in ‘irregular’ relationships. But will anything actually change?
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME — During the peak of
the Watergate scandal in the
early 1970s, President Richard
Nixon became infamous for prefacing
his rambling efforts at self-defense
with the line, “Let me make one thing
perfectly clear.”
Observers soon learned that when
those words passed Nixon’s lips, whatever
followed might be many things,
but clarity was unlikely to be among
them.
The memory comes to mind in light
of the various efforts at clarification
being issued these days by Argentine
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández,
Pope Francis’ doctrinal czar, regarding
the Dec. 18 declaration Fiducia
Supplicans (“Supplicating Trust”),
authorizing Catholic priests to offer
nonliturgical blessings of same-sex
couples.
The latest such attempt to clear
things up came Jan. 4, in the form of
a press release from Fernández and
his top deputy, Italian Msgr. Armando
Matteo, regarding reception of the
declaration. Perhaps the first thing to
note is that at 2,200 words, the press
release is half as long as the document
it seeks to clarify — mathematically,
anyway, suggesting that after a mere
fortnight’s frenzied reaction, virtually
every other word in the original text
needed some sort of explanation.
Certainly, it’s hard to remember the
20 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

last time a prefect of what was once
known as the “Holy Office,” and
which is historically the successor to
the Roman Inquisition, felt compelled
to issue a public statement denying
that his previous declaration contained
anything “heretical, contrary
to the tradition of the Church or
blasphemous.”
The press release capped what had
been a spiraling series of media interviews
by Fernández, including a Jan. 3
interview with the German newspaper
Die Tagespost, in which he called the
document a “clear answer” to Germany’s
effort to codify formal liturgical
blessing ceremonies for same-sex
couples.
That interview seemed to create yet
another bit of confusion: If the point
was to deliver a verdict on a single
nation, why did the Vatican choose to
speak to the entire universal Church,
publishing the first formal declaration
from the Holy Office since Dominus
Iesus (“The Lord Jesus”) in 2000,
almost a quarter-century ago?
Of all the unanswered questions
about Fiducia Supplicans, however,
perhaps this most basic one is the following:
Does any of this really matter?
Or, are we witnessing the latest Catholic
cycle of sound and fury signifying
relatively little?
It’s a well-documented fact of Catholic
life that sometimes we argue over
It’s a well-documented fact of Catholic life that
sometimes we argue over things that seem to
have a great deal of symbolic importance, but
which, over time, are revealed as less sweeping or
monumental than we originally thought.
things that seem to have a great deal
of symbolic importance, but which,
over time, are revealed as less sweeping
or monumental than we originally
thought.
To take one example, Anglophone
Catholics of a certain age will recall
the titanic battles fought in the 1990s
and 2000s over the new English translation
of texts used in the Mass, known
collectively as the “liturgy wars.”
Oceans of ink were spilled arguing
over matters such as “dynamic equivalence,”
and whether it’s appropriate
to use relatively obscure terms such as
“consubstantial” and “oblation” in the
people’s parts of the prayers.
Supporters of the new translation
predicted it would stir a liturgical renaissance
of deeper and more reverent
celebration. Critics forecast a liturgical
exodus, as people would be so
alienated by the remote and unnatural
language they would vote with their
feet against it.
Participants attend a meeting of the third Synodal
Assembly in Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 4, 2021. Cardinal
Fernández has said Fiducia Supplicans was a response
to the German Church’s efforts to codify formal
liturgical blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. |
CNS/JULIA STEINBRECHT, KNA
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 21

Now that we’ve been living with the
new texts for more than a decade, it
seems abundantly clear neither the
best-case nor the nightmare scenarios
have materialized. In fact, the
towering lesson seems to be instead
that translation, while undeniably
important, just isn’t the heart of the
liturgical experience.
Where a worship community is
welcoming, music is stirring and
preaching is gripping, the liturgy will
come alive no matter what translation
is used; conversely, where a community
is cold, music banal and preaching
uninspired, no translation will make
much difference. We argue over translation
because it’s the sort of thing that
can be settled by committee, but the
real difference-makers in the liturgy
are all retail.
To come to Fiducia Supplicans,
there’s a reasonable case to be made
that it’s another case of tremendous
sizzle without a great deal of steak.
To begin with, the document doesn’t
prohibit or require anything. It simply
authorizes priests to make case-bycase
determinations as to whether a
blessing is appropriate in a given set
of circumstances. Bishops and pastors
inclined to say yes probably were
already doing so, albeit perhaps more
quietly and circumspectly, while those
disposed to say “no” aren’t being compelled
to change their tune.
Indeed, Fernández himself has
more or less endorsed the positions of
several African bishops’ conferences
in concluding that such blessings are
inappropriate in their contexts, as long
as such discretion doesn’t imply “a
total or definitive denial” of the document’s
teaching.
It’s also reasonable to wonder how
much pent-up demand for such blessings
there actually is. While there’s
a sizable “LGBT community” in the
Catholic world, a healthy percentage
of those folks don’t go to church.
Many of those who do have already
found a home, often in sympathetic
parishes where the pastor was already
known for finding creative ways to
offer a blessing on their lives well
before Francis, Fernández, or Fiducia
Supplicans came along. In addition, at
least some of those practicing Catholics
who identify as LGBT may not
even want such a blessing, feeling that
despite the best of intentions, it still
falls short of the full marriage equality
they seek from the Church.
In other words, no matter how much
dust it may throw up on social media
and in op/ed pieces, the extent to
which Fiducia Supplicans actually
will change the situation in the
trenches remains to be seen. It may
well be that for most meat-and-potatoes
Catholics, it’ll be another case of
something that caused great consternation
at the time but is actually hard
to remember a year or so after the fact.
In the end, the answer to the question
of how much will really change
is something that only time, and not
repeated explanations from authority,
is likely to make “perfectly clear.”
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.

Parishioners pray at the Metropolitan
Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, last
March amid the suspension of diplomatic
ties between Nicaragua and the Vatican. |
OSV NEWS/REUTERS
NO PLACE TO TURN
As Nicaragua’s violent crackdown on Catholics worsens,
the US may be considering new ways to help them.
BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
ROME — Following the arrests
of a second bishop and
several priests, the U.S. State
Department has once again included
Nicaragua in its list of “Countries of
Particular Concern.”
In a statement released Jan. 4, U.S.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken
said the countries on the list “engaged
in or tolerated particularly severe
violations of religious freedom.”
“Governments must end abuses such
as attacks on members of religious minority
communities and their places
of worship, communal violence, and
lengthy imprisonment for peaceful
expression, transnational repression,
and calls to violence against religious
communities, among other violations
that occur in too many places around
the world,” Blinken said.
According to the Reuters news agency,
Nicaraguan police arrested four
priests — Msgr. Miguel Mantica, and
Fathers Mikel Monterrey, Gerardo
Rodriguez, and Raul Zamora — in
their homes Dec. 30.
Their arrests, along with the Dec.
21 arrest of Bishop Isidoro Mora of
Siuna, were made after they publicly
expressed support for Bishop Rolando
José Álvarez of Matagalpa, who was
handed a 26-year prison sentence for
his public opposition to the government
of President Daniel Ortega
and his wife, Vice President Rosario
Murillo.
In a Jan. 5 op-ed published in the
Spanish newspaper El Pais, U.S.
Ambassador-at-Large for International
Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain,
said the Ortega government’s “heavy
hand extends beyond the Catholic
Church” and evangelical communities
have “faced similar wrath.”
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 23

He also expressed the United States’
commitment in helping “Nicaraguans
as they work to (re)gain protection
of and respect for their human rights
and fundamental freedoms, and to
reaffirm their democracy.”
Nicaraguans, Hussain said, “deserve
full restoration of their freedoms, and
Bishop Álvarez deserves the opportunity
to resume his ministry.”
A senior state department official
told Angelus that U.S. officials are
figuring out how best to mitigate the
government’s suppression of religious
freedom.
Blinken’s statement was released the
same day the United States Commission
on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF)
expressed its “outrage”
over the “brutal
crackdown on members
of the Catholic
Church.”
“It has become
increasingly clear
that President Daniel
Ortega and Vice
President Rosario
Murillo are intent on
silencing the voice
of any individual
peacefully following
the dictates of their
conscience,” said
USCIRF Vice Chair
Fredrick A. Davie.
The USCIRF also
condemned the Dec.
24 sentencing of six
former Caritas employees
in the country
“to six years imprisonment on dubious
money laundering charges.”
USCIRF Commissioner Frank Wolf
called on Congress to hold Ortega’s
government responsible by passing the
“Restoring Sovereignty and Human
Rights in Nicaragua Act of 2023,”
a bill that would impose sanctions
against Ortega’s government.
The bill cited Ortega’s persecution of
the Catholic Church, the arrest and
torture of citizens, and expressed concern
over his support of Russia and its
invasion of Ukraine, which “poses a
significant threat to global peace and
stability in the Western Hemisphere.”
Florida Republican Sen. Marco
A recent photo released by the Nicaraguan government shows Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa
receiving medical attention from a prison doctor. | X/ARTURO MCFIELDS YESCAS
Rubio, who introduced the bill to
Congress in June, also wrote a letter
to Pope Francis Dec. 13 urging him
to call for Álvarez’s release, citing
recently revealed evidence “that
strongly suggest that Bishop Álvarez
has endured torture at the hands of
the Ortega regime.”
The Nicaraguan government released
images of Álvarez receiving a
medical examination in an apparent
attempt to counter reports of the prelate’s
mistreatment while incarcerated.
Nevertheless, the images caused
concern for the health of the bishop,
who seemed much thinner dressed in
a pink shirt and gray slacks.
Father Edwing Román, a Nicaraguan
priest residing in Florida who
fled following threats against his life,
tweeted that the government, which
he called a “Sandinista dictatorship,”
was flaunting the “physical deterioration”
of the “unjustly condemned”
bishop.
He also condemned the arrests of
Mora and the clergymen, exclaiming
“¡Libertad!” (“Freedom!”)
Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez
of Managua, who was exiled to the
United States, also took to X (formerly
known as Twitter) to condemn the
Nicaraguan government for the “cynical
and disrespectful” photos which
he called an attempt at “cleaning up
their crime.”
“Understand that no one believes
you! The only just thing is for Bishop
Álvarez to be freed, along with Bishop
Mora, his seminarians, and the other
priests,” Báez tweeted.
Báez, who also resides in Florida,
visited Los Angeles over the weekend
where he celebrated a Mass for the
feast of Epiphany Jan. 6 at St. Vincent
De Paul Church, along with Román.
In his Angelus address Jan. 1, Francis
expressed “deep concern” for the
Catholic Church in the country
“where bishops and priests have been
deprived of their freedom.”
“I also invite all of you present here,
and all the people of God, to pray insistently;
meanwhile
I hope that we will
always seek the path
of dialogue to overcome
difficulties. Let
us pray for Nicaragua
today,” the pope told
pilgrims gathered in
St. Peter’s Square.
In an interview with
the Spanish-language
news site Infobae
in March 2023, the
pope issued a much
stronger condemnation,
calling Ortega
“unstable” and comparing
the current
government to “the
communist dictatorship
of 1917 or the
Hitler dictatorship of
1935.”
Nicaraguans took
to the streets in 2018 after the government
announced changes to the
nation’s social security system. The
protests turned deadly as Ortega’s government
sought to suppress growing
calls for his ouster.
Since then, the Catholic Church in
the country, which offered refuge in
its parishes to protesters attacked by
police and paramilitary groups, drew
the president’s ire and led to a wave
of arrests against clergy as well as the
closure or exile of religious communities
in the country.
Junno Arocho Esteves is a freelance
journalist based in Italy and Sweden.
24 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

Managua auxiliary bishop, exiled
priest visit LA parish for Epiphany
Exiled prelate Bishop Silvio Báez encouraged
LA-area Nicaraguans to seek the Lord while
“fighting for peace, liberty, and justice without
ever losing hope or giving up” during a visit to
St. Vincent de Paul Church in Exposition Park on
Epiphany weekend.
“We Nicaraguans know well that in our history as
a people we’ve lived through very dark periods in
which terrible errors have been committed,” Báez
said before hundreds at a Saturday, Jan. 6 Mass.
“But we should never forget that, despite these
failures, it’s always possible to start over and keep
walking. In our history, God has always put new
shining stars in our path for us to follow.”
After the liturgy, hundreds of attendees greeted
Báez and fellow exile Father Edwing Román of
Managua for photos, autographs, and blessings at
a reception in St. Vincent’s school auditorium,
complete with traditional Nicaraguan food and
music.
To read more about Báez’s visit to Southern California,
visit AngelusNews.com.
— Theresa Cisneros
Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez, at right in the background, and Father Edwing Román, foreground
center, both of the Archdiocese of Managua in Nicaragua, process into St. Vincent de Paul Church
in Exposition Park for Mass on Jan. 6. | VICTOR ALEMÁN

WITH GRACE
DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE
My abuelita moment
SHUTTERSTOCK
Abuelita Lalita, my father’s mother, would give my
sister and me a great treat every summer when we
visited Miami from Mexico.
On Saturday mornings when she was not working at the
jean factory, she would take us downtown — a trip that
consisted of two bus rides preceded and followed by long
walks and waits in the melting heat. Our destination was the
Sears department store, a veritable wonder-house of goods in
which a person could buy anything — if they only had the
money.
Abuelita Lalita would make a modest purchase, something
she had thought long and hard about, invariably accompanied
by a carefully folded advertisement from the Nuevo
Herald announcing a special low price that she pulled out of
her purse. After that came our great moment: a hot dog and
soda lunch at the counter of the adjacent Five and Ten. It
was a treat we found glorious.
Abuelita Lalita has been on my mind a lot lately. My son’s
wife is expecting the very first child of the next generation of
our family in March: a little girl who is making something
new out of each of us — father, mother, uncle, abuelita.
These are total transformations, like the ones that nature
accomplishes every time a swimmy tadpole becomes a
landlocked frog. It may be most remarkable in the case of
the new mother and father, but my own “becoming abuelita”
feels just as momentous to me. The child is granting
me a whole new identity, in the proper sense of the word. I
am taking on a novel role, forming a new, permanent bond,
moving up a generation, acquiring, even, a fresh title. I am
receiving at her little hands a whole new set of duties and
responsibilities.
It has made me reconsider the whole concept of identity,
which we hear about constantly, usually attached to broad
categories like sex, race, and nationality. This entirely misses
the real source of identity, which is relational, and its nature,
which is distinct. Human beings are not simply interchangeable
members of a particular affinity group like checkers
shifted around a board. We are unique persons who manifest
26 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five
who practices radiology in the Miami area.
our individuality more fully with each personal bond we
make, whether chosen or unchosen.
We are, each of us, the unrepeatable center of a vast web of
human connections, and in each strand, properly acknowledged
and lived, is the source not only of individuality but
of real fulfillment and meaning. We know this, instinctively.
When asked who we are, we respond: I am so and so’s wife,
or that person’s father, or my sister’s sister. If we go to the
deepest, most fundamental source of our identity, we can
each answer, in truth: I am an irreplaceable child of God.
As he exists in a relationship of three persons creating eternally
together, and as we are made in his image, we flourish
exactly in the measure in which we love and are loved. This
is why the saddest person imaginable is one who loves no
one and is unaware of the great love God has for him or her.
That kind of loneliness is not compatible with life.
The rugged individualist who will not be beholden to
anyone, the cynic who considers all human dealings transactional,
the armchair Darwinist who sees others chiefly
as opponents in the struggle for existence — these are all
the types who deny the relational essence of man. Perhaps,
at bottom, is a rejection of the burdens that each human
connection lays upon us. To love someone is to act on their
claims on us: for companionship, tenderness, encouragement,
correction, material assistance — the list goes on. And
their claims cannot be set aside for being inconvenient or
ill-timed, or even for requiring some great sacrifice from us.
I can’t tell for sure what claims upon her Abuelita Lalita
was fulfilling when she took two little girls with her to Sears
on those hot Saturday mornings. Maybe she was helping my
mother a little by taking two of her children for a few hours.
Perhaps she knew how hard it was for my sister and I to be
all day in her little government apartment where it wasn’t
safe to play outside. I imagine she found our joy at the lunch
counter with its red revolving stools infectious, and that the
joy sustained her on our weary return journey.
What I do know for certain is that she was the irreplaceable
— and unforgettable — center of a complex web of loving
relationships. And that is exactly what I’m hoping to be, too,
when I become an abuelita.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 27

NOW PLAYING FREUD’S LAST SESSION
LEAVING THE
‘GOD QUESTION’ OPEN
An imaginary conversation between an unlikely
pair of 20th-century thinkers may have made for
the smartest film of 2023.
BY STEFANO REBEGGIANI
Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud and Matthew
Goode as C.S. Lewis star in a scene from
the movie “Freud’s Last Session.” | OSV NEWS/
SABRINA LANTOS, COURTESY SONY PICTURES
CLASSICS
In 1939, on the eve of World War II,
a Jewish psychiatrist named Sigmund
Freud moved to London to escape
the Nazi persecution in his native
Vienna. Three weeks before his death,
the famed inventor of psychoanalysis
met with an unidentified Oxford professor
in his apartment and conversed with
him at length. To this day, we still do
not know the identity of his visitor.
American playwright Mark St.
Germain wrote a play imagining that
the professor was C.S. Lewis –– the
famous scholar, philosopher, Christian
apologist, and author of “The Chronicles
of Narnia.” The script has been
adapted for the new feature “Freud’s
Last Session,” which opened in theaters
Dec. 22.
The most pressing topic in this fictional
chat is, of course, the existence
of God.
In the film, Lewis has recently
returned to Christianity under the
influence of his friend J.R.R. Tolkien,
while Freud has emerged as one of
society’s most ardent atheists, claiming
that religion is a figment of people’s
imagination, a projection of their desire
for protection and guidance, and a
reflection of their relationship with
their fathers.
The conversation is set against a dramatic
backdrop: London is preparing
for airstrikes, trains full of children are
being evacuated. Meanwhile, Freud
is terminally ill with cancer and has
already given his doctor instructions for
his eventual euthanasia.
In the hands of lesser talent, this
project could easily have been a
disaster. But fortunately for us, the great
Anthony Hopkins doesn’t try to give us
an impression of Freud — his Freud is
a man, not a mask. Matthew Goode’s
elegant, sharp portrayal of Lewis is just
as effective at bringing out the humanity
of his character (ironically, Hopkins
played Lewis 30 years ago in the classic
film “Shadowlands”).
The film’s premise is attractive but
28 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

also dangerous, inviting at least three
significant risks.
The first would have been to reduce
an exceptionally complex intellectual
debate into some sort of rhetorical
showdown; the second would have
been to take sides between the two
men, turning the movie into an apology
of one side or the other. The third
would have been to make an impossibly
boring film: philosophical debates
make for great university classes, but
for a movie one needs action, plot, and
character.
Somehow, “Last Session” manages to
avoid all three. It is a film that does not
tell you what to think about God — it
tells you how to think about him. In
other words, it shows what elements
should be put into the equation required
to solve the “God problem.”
The characters’ discussion of God
(and many other subjects) is not just
an exchange of learned opinions, but
features flashbacks and references to
their own lives. Freud, for example,
tackles the problem of suffering (a
theme Lewis dedicated entire books to)
by recalling the premature death of his
daughter and grandson. The issue of
paternity and the father-son relationship
is discussed with reference to the two
characters’ fathers, and to Freud’s own
relationship with his daughter, Anna.
The result demonstrates an important
truth: that the question of God
is inextricably linked with how we
interpret the facts, the events of our
lives. As Lewis suggests at the end of the
film, God is everywhere, the world is
crowded with him, yet he is incognito.
We can recognize his presence or be
completely blind to it, depending on
our disposition.
In this “Last Session,” both characters
get to play the role of the analyst, and
both recline on Freud’s famous couch
as patients. Both are faced with the discrepancies
between what they preach
and how they live, and the film does
not shy away from the most controversial
aspects of their lives.
At the time, Lewis lived with a much
older woman, the mother of a friend
deceased in World War I. Questioned
by Freud about this relationship, Lewis
refuses to provide a definitive answer,
but the film seems to imply they were
lovers (a topic of disagreement among
Lewis’ biographers).
The film is merciless in its portrayal of
Freud’s dysfunctional relationship with
his last daughter, Anna, who followed
in his footsteps to become a major
figure in child psychoanalysis. Her
relationship with him, as Freud himself
admits to Lewis, is at the root of her
lesbianism, of which Freud disapproves.
He blocks the advancement of her
career, keeps her away from relationships
with both men and women, and
tyrannically demands her constant
presence and attention.
It does not take a Dr. Freud to understand
she needs a break from him, but
Freud selfishly denies her the freedom
his treatment is supposed to provide.
But the most important element in the
equation arrives when the discussion
shifts to the topic of Freud’s impending
death. “You believe you can outthink
your fear by hiding behind your desk in
your den of gods. But the truth is you
are terrified,” Lewis attacks.
But Freud reminds Lewis of his terror
in front of death in a previous scene,
when the two took refuge in a bomb
shelter during what turned out to be
a false air-raid alarm.
You did not seem too
eager to meet your
creator then, Freud
adds.
“Because you know
beyond all your fairy
tales that he does not
exist,” Freud tells him.
“You see, you bury
your doubts, your
memories of the war,
but at the core of your
being, you are a coward.
We are all cowards
before death.”
Thankfully, this film
will be a disappointment
to those who
wanted to see Lewis
destroy Freud and his
arguments (or vice
versa). If there’s one
takeaway from “Last
Session,” it’s that it is imperative for
each man to question himself about the
existence of God — and that finding
the answer is not easy.
As Freud understood, we are all
conditioned by our desires, traumas,
and complex personal histories, and
tempted to fashion a god with the attributes
of our earthly fathers. Lewis, for
example, grew up with an absentee father,
leading him to search for a father
in heaven to replace his missing one.
But the same preconditioning, the
film suggests, goes in the opposite
direction. Freud’s hatred of his father
compelled him to deny the existence
of God no less than Lewis’ desire for a
father figure prompted him to imagine
a divine one.
By the end of the film, Freud admits
that “it was madness to think that we
could solve the greatest mystery of all
times.” “There is a greater madness,”
Lewis replies, “not to think of it at all.”
“The real trouble” he adds, “is to
come awake, to stay awake” to the possibility
of his existence. This intelligent
film can help with this endeavor.
Stefano Rebeggiani is an associate
professor of classics at the University of
Southern California.
Sigmund Freud in
1921. | WIKIMEDIA
COMMONS/MAX
HALBERSTADT
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
Our vocation is love
Volunteers drop off Christmas gifts and other items
for needy families last month as part of the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’ Adopt-a-Family program. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
“We, though many, are one Body in
Christ and individually parts of one
another. Since we have gifts that differ
according to the grace given to us, let us
exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion
to the faith; if ministry, in ministering;
if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one
exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes,
in generosity; if one is over others, with
diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with
cheerfulness.” — Romans 12:5–8
Last summer I gave a retreat entitled
“The Vocation of the Artist”
at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara,
Ireland.
The retreatants varied in age, nationality,
demographic, and religious orientation.
Some but not all were working artists.
One young American woman was
painting a series of Irish holy wells.
Another, from Dublin, had designed
stamps for An Post, the Irish postal
service. One man, a Joycean scholar,
wrote for The Irish Times. A 36-year-old
woman taught at an inner-city Dublin
school.
Our credo was a quote from Russian
playwright and short-story writer Anton
Chekhov: “If you want to work on your
art, work on your life.”
I introduced some of the members of
what I call my Personal Communion of
Saints: fiber artist Judith Scott, born with
Down syndrome; Butoh dancer Kazuo
Ohno, self-taught marine biologist
Maud Delap from County Donegal
who bred jellyfish, the first person to do
so anywhere in the world, in the family
bathtub.
The grounds of Kylemore (“Big
Wood”) comprise the former estate
of Mitchell Henry (1826-1910), an
English financier and politician who
planted over 300,000 trees. His castle,
now open to the public, is situated on a
rise that looks down on a mile-plus-long
freshwater lake (Lough Pollucapal) and
across to some of the majestic Connemara
Hills.
The opposite end of the estate boasts a
showcase Victorian walled garden.
Kylemore is also a working abbey of
30 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
Benedictine nuns, founded in 1920,
whose lives are anchored in prayer.
Three times a day they gather in the
monastic church: for morning prayer,
noon Mass, and vespers.
I, for one, was thrilled when Sister
Máire, well into her 80s, trained in
classics at Oxford, and a former abbess,
asked if she could join some of our
sessions. “Are you kidding?” I screeched.
“We’d be honored.”
We gave her the best, most comfortable
seat. In her black habit, Sister
Máire didn’t speak often but when
she did speak, we instinctively leaned
forward to hear every word. She was intelligent,
articulate, honest, and utterly
original. She didn’t ask the predictable
question. She didn’t draw the predictable
conclusion.
At one point we fell into a discussion
about untapped gifts; about allowing
ourselves to feel the deepest desires of
our hearts.
As we went around the circle, people
spoke of having jobs that paid well but
did not necessarily address the hunger of
their souls. One person spoke of gardening,
another of poetry, a third held forth
passionately on the theater. I offered
that my own life is ordered to writing:
physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Then it was Sister Máire’s turn. “I’m
not good at any of the wonderful things
that have been mentioned,” she said.
“I’m not a gardener. I have no aptitude
for drawing or painting. I don’t shine at
writing. I’m not even much of a cook.”
She paused.
“I think what I’ve tried to do, what I’ve
developed over the years, is simply a
desire to contribute as best I can to the
community. To our small community
of nuns.”
She believes that effort avails. She
believes that contribution goes out, not
only to the Benedictine community at
Kylemore, but to the whole world.
Immediately I thought of St. Thérèse
of Lisieux, who searched in vain for
her own place in the Church and in
the world. She came upon the passage
where St. Paul observes that we are
members of the body, each performing
our own particular part.
But I have so few practical skills, so
little education. I’m not the legs, she
thought, not the hands, not even the
heart. At last it occurred to her to ask,
What force moves the legs, the arms,
the heart, the brain? Love! she realized.
My vocation is love!
The love-based effort to sustain and
foster community, of various kinds, is
possibly the most important vocation
we can have on earth — and possibly
the least flashy, the least likely to garner
praise.
To that end, this might be a good way
of taking our spiritual temperature as
the year begins: How am I contributing
to and participating with the people in
my household, my parish, my neighborhood,
my social circle, the Church?
As a 4th-century desert father observed,
“If a man settles in a certain place and
does not bring forth the fruit of that
place, the place itself casts him out, as
one who has not borne its fruit.”
And as Sister Máire reminds us,
however noble the vocation of the artist,
there is no art higher than to love the
Lord God with our whole heart, our
whole soul, our whole strength, our
whole mind — and to try to love our
neighbor, wherever we may be planted,
as ourselves.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 31

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
Mid-month at the oasis
St. Anthony of Egypt was not the first monk, but he’s often
called the Father of Monasticism. He set an example that
people saw and wanted to imitate. And I mean many
people. It’s often said that he turned the desert into a city.
Anthony, whose feast we
celebrate on Jan. 17, led a
fascinating life. He lived in
tombs and for a while in
an abandoned fort. He did
spiritual combat with squadrons
of demons sent from hell
to drag him down.
But I’m most fascinated with
the quiet beginning of his
story. It all started at Mass,
during the reading of the
Gospel.
St. Athanasius knew
Anthony and wrote his first
biography. He tells us that
Anthony was a young man
when he lost both parents and
inherited his family’s substantial
farmlands. Then, “not six
months after the death of his
parents, he went according to
custom to the Lord’s house. ...
He entered the church, and
it happened the Gospel was
being read, and he heard the
Lord saying to the rich man,
‘If you would be perfect, go,
sell what you possess and give
to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven’ (Matthew
19:21). Anthony, ... as if the
passage had been read on his
account, went out immediately
from the church, and gave
the possessions of his forefathers
to the villagers.”
It happened just like that. He heard the Gospel at Mass, and
it changed him. I should say that he listened to the Gospel at
Mass. And then he went off to lead a solitary life.
It was an ordinary Mass in a rural village. I’m sure the priest
“St. Anthony of Egypt holding a rosary and a staff, with an angel — miniature from
the Book of Hours of Simon de Varie,” by Getijdenboek van Simon de Varie, Master
of Jean Rolin II, 15th century, French. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
or deacon who recited the Gospel was an ordinary clergyman
and there was nothing special about his delivery.
But the proclamation re-echoed for centuries. Anthony went
off, and hundreds followed him. Athanasius wrote a bestselling
book about Anthony’s life,
so that even after his death
— and long after his death
— thousands followed him.
Within a century of its first
publication, Athanasius’ “Life
of Anthony” had influenced
Augustine, Jerome, Rufinus,
Evagrius, and many others.
Such is the power of sacred
Scripture when it’s proclaimed
in the Mass. The church is the
normal place for the delivery
of the word of God. And Mass
is the ordinary time. It’s a
graced moment.
In Anthony’s world, few people
could read, and only the
wealthiest could own books.
They encountered the inspired
word as they encountered the
incarnate Word, when they attended
the liturgy on Sunday.
The Church’s liturgy — its
public, ritual worship — was
and remains the natural and
supernatural habitat of the
Church’s Scriptures.
When that simple parish
priest read aloud from St. Matthew’s
Gospel, he changed the
course of history. He enriched
millions of lives. And he almost
certainly never knew the
effect during his earthly life.
I don’t think that was a
unique event. I don’t even
think it was unusual. In every Mass you and I attend, God is
shaping the future through the Gospel proclamation of the
covenant renewed in the Eucharist.
We need to listen.
32 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024

■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 13
30th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast.
Proud Bird Restaurant, 11022 Aviation Blvd., Los Angeles,
8-11 a.m. Organized by the African American Catholic
Center for Evangelization. Keynote speaker: professor
Michael Howard, Black Catholic program, LMU. Cost: $50/
donation. Visit aaccfe.org.
Christian Coaching: Prospering the Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30
a.m.-3:30 p.m. For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or
call 818-815-4480.
■ SUNDAY, JANUARY 14
Diaconate Virtual Information Day. 2-4 p.m. Open to all
those interested in joining the diaconate program. Email
your name, parish, and pastor’s name to dmz2011@la-archdiocese.org.
■ MONDAY, JANUARY 15
End of Life Preparation. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree
Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP to
Cathy by Jan. 10 at 562-631-8844.
■ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17
Healing Garden Blessing and Dedication. St. Bernadette
Church, 3825 Don Felipe Dr., Los Angeles, 8:45 a.m. dedication.
Mass will be celebrated at 8 a.m. The Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’ Victims Assistance Ministry will dedicate
the fourth healing garden for LA Catholics.
LACBA CFJ Veterans Record Clearing Clinic. Virtual,
5-8 p.m. Assisting with clearing California traffic tickets,
expunging criminal records, and felony reductions. Open
to Southern California veterans. Registration required. Call
213-896-6537 or email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org.
■ THURSDAY, JANUARY 18
Children’s Bureau: Foster Care Zoom Orientation. 4-5
p.m. Children’s Bureau is now offering two virtual ways for
individuals and couples to learn how to help children in
foster care while reunifying with birth families or how to
provide legal permanency by adoption. A live Zoom orientation
will be hosted by a Children’s Bureau team member
and a foster parent. For those who want to learn at their
own pace about becoming a foster and/or fost-adopt parent,
an online orientation presentation is available. To RSVP
for the live orientation or to request the online orientation,
email rfrecruitment@all4kids.org.
■ FRIDAY, JANUARY 19
Praise and Worship Mass and Healing Prayers. St. Frances
of Rome Church, 501 E. Foothill Blvd., Azusa, 6 p.m. Celebrant:
Father Parker Sandoval. Music by Clarissa Martinez.
OneLife LA Holy Hour. St. Teresa of Avila Church, 2216
Fargo St., Los Angeles, 7-8 p.m. Visit onelifela.org/holy-hour
for more.
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 20
Alleluia Dance Theatre: Embracing All There Is. Holy
Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
For more information, visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-
4480.
Embracing the Winter of Life: Aging to Saging. Mary & Joseph
Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes,
9 a.m.-12 p.m. Workshop will help connect with your inner
sage to the divine to help you age in comfort and health.
Areas covered include spirituality, mental, geographical,
financial wellness, and more. Email MarkMitchellSpeaks@
gmail.com.
100th Celebration. St. Sebastian Church, 1453 Federal
Ave., Los Angeles, 10 a.m. Mass. Celebrant: Bishop Matthew
Elshoff. Reception to follow. Email stsebastianoffice@
gmail.com.
OneLife LA. LA State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St., Los
Angeles, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Join Archbishop José H. Gomez on
a walk for life through downtown Los Angeles, followed by
a festival with speakers, music, and food. Theme: “10 Years
Together As One.” For more information, visit onelifela.org.
Requiem Mass for the Unborn. Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 5 p.m. Archbishop
José H. Gomez will celebrate the annual Mass for the
Unborn to end OneLife LA.
■ SUNDAY, JANUARY 21
Feast of Santo Niño Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 3 p.m. procession,
3:30 p.m. Mass. Principal celebrant: Bishop Brian Nunes.
Hosted by the Santo Niño Cruzada (SNCU) organization.
Bring statues of Santo Niño for a special blessing.
■ MONDAY, JANUARY 22
Mass and Healing Service. St. Rose of Lima Church, 1305
Royal Ave., Simi Valley, 7 p.m. Celebrant: Father Michael
Barry, with Deacon Pete Wilson. Call 805-526-1732.
■ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24
LACBA Family Law Clinic. Virtual, 2-5 p.m. Covers child
support, custody, divorce, and spousal support. Open to LA
County veterans. Registration required. Call 213-896-6537
or email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org.
■ SATURDAY, JANUARY 27
The Indwelling Wholeness of the Trinity. St. Andrew
Church, 538 Concord St., El Segundo, 9:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
Retreat focuses on a contemplative experience to prayerfully
enter the inner sanctum of the heart in the art of attention.
Cost: $25/offering, includes continental breakfast
and lunch salad bar. RSVP by Jan. 20. Contact nbstjames@
gmail.com.
■ SUNDAY, JANUARY 28
Mass Honoring Sisters of Mercy. St. Pius X School, 10855
S. Pioneer Blvd., Santa Fe Springs, 10 a.m. St. Pius X parish
and school will celebrate 33 years of service by the Sisters
of Mercy with a special Mass and dedication. Call 562-234-
1165.
■ MONDAY, JANUARY 29
End of Life Preparation. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree
Rd., Whittier, 9-10:30 a.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP to
Cathy by Jan. 10 at 562-631-8844.
■ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2
Ethical Leadership Lunch. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m.-1:30
p.m. Event brings together Catholic leaders from the business
world to discuss how ethical practices positively impact
our community. For more, visit lacatholics.org/events.
■ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3
Nun Run, 5K, 1-Mile, and Community Service Fair. La
Reina High School, 106 W. Janss Rd., Thousand Oaks,
8 a.m. 10th annual Nun Run, hosted by Sisters of Notre
Dame, will raise proceeds for local and global outreach.
Visit nun.run.
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.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 33