Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2

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THE MIRACLE ON GARDENDALE STREET A year ago, Atticus Maldonado was facing stage 4 cancer and low odds of survival. Then his school community’s ‘prayer force’ stepped in. BY STEVE LOWERY Atticus Maldonado with St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy president Christian De Larkin (left) and school principal Claudia Rodarte during his first week back at school this month since his cancer diagnosis. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 10 • ANGELUS • January 26, 2024
Miracles are nice but, truth be told, all Atticus Maldonado really wanted for Christmas was to be just another kid. Though it’s wonderful to know he’s been on so many people’s minds — and in their prayers — now all he wants is to blend back into the St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy (PMA) community that helped to sustain him and his family for more than a year. “I’m good with not being in the spotlight,” he said. “I’d like to be just a regular student again.” In December 2022, Maldonado was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and unusually aggressive form of cancer of the soft tissue. What was more, and worse, doctors told him that he was at stage 4 of the disease, a stage with about a 20% rate of survival. The news of his illness spread quickly through the tightknit community of St. Pius X-St. Matthias in Downey. Masses were offered for his health. Friends made visits. Gifts were given. And an unknowable amount of time was spent thinking about him, his family, and what their struggle meant for the rest of us. In that time, he went from the sweet kid who loved baseball, Hot Wheels, and being an altar server, to a young man a whole lot of people were praying for, rooting for, and shedding tears for. His fight was theirs now. “There were moments when I was so angry about why this happened to my child, that I couldn’t pray,” his mother Evelyn Ochoa said. “And when I couldn’t pray for my own child, they did. This tribe that came together for us. I birthed him but, through that time, he was ours.” Anna Granados, in many ways the leader of that tribe, said that whenever the prayer group she helped found would turn their attention to Maldonado, “he became everybody’s kid.” Fitting since, before his diagnosis, Maldonado was as typical a Catholic kid as one could imagine — save for an exceptionally developed level of faith. Evelyn admitted her son’s faith has “always been greater than mine,” and said that when informed of his cancer diagnosis “it felt like my whole world came tumbling down. All I had was questions, no answers. You know, why? Why my kid? He’s such a good kid.” And yet, moments after the diagnosis, she looked at her son to find him smiling, seemingly as unconcerned as if he’d just been diagnosed with a cold. Confused, she asked him how he was feeling to which he replied, “OK. God loves me.” Around the same time, Granados had helped start the Parents in Prayer group Maldonado works during class. | VICTOR ALEMÁN at PMA, having felt a calling from the Blessed Virgin Mary to do so. “These times are hard for kids, for our families,” she said. “The rosary is a weapon for these times. Our youth is going through so much and we felt the need to help out, especially because we are so close here.” With a student population that hovers around 500, PMA is the kind of place where students know not just one another, but one another’s families, too. Many arrive in packs from local parishes and have known one another since they were young children. Not only is Maldonado friends with Anna’s kids, but her husband, Jaime, coached him in sports at a local park. The prayer group would always dedicate the first mystery of the rosary to Maldonado. Anna, whose own mother was battling cancer, was always there, rain or shine, along with about 17 core members of the group. Sometimes they were joined by Evelyn, who found herself both strengthened and overwhelmed by the group’s devotion to her son and family. “Many of these women were just people I’d said hello to and now they had become a force, a prayer force,” she said. “Praying for my son like it was their son.” None of which surprised PMA’s president, Christian De Larkin. Along with Parents in Prayer, a student campaign to send Maldonado direct messages got underway so that he knew he had not been forgotten. When it was mentioned how much he missed baseball, he was invited to sit in the dugout during a PMA game. When it was discovered that he was a serious collector of Hot Wheel cars, Christine Godoy, part of the prayer force and whose daughter Eva is a classmate of Maldonado, mentioned that her husband actually worked for Hot Wheels. “So he put together this really cool collection of limited edition cars and we took it over to Atticus and when he saw what it was he almost burst into tears,” De Larkin said. “This is what January 26, 2024 • ANGELUS • 11
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Page 5 and 6: NEW WORLD OF FAITH ARCHBISHOP JOS
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Page 20 and 21: FREE BUT IN EXILE In a surprise dev
Page 22 and 23: SHUTTERSTOCK SEARCHING IN THE DESER
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Page 26 and 27: OF WOMBS AND WOUNDS Pope Francis’
Page 28 and 29: AD REM ROBERT BRENNAN Why don’t
Page 30 and 31: NOW PLAYING POOR THINGS BELLA’S
Page 32 and 33: DESIRE LINES HEATHER KING Large an
Page 34 and 35: LETTER AND SPIRIT SCOTT HAHN Scott

Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2

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