Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2
On the cover: High school student Atticus Maldonado smiles between classes at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Steve Lowery has the incredible story of how Maldonado’s school community rallied behind him in prayer — and why his unlikely recovery from a rare cancer may not even be the story’s biggest miracle.
On the cover: High school student Atticus Maldonado smiles between classes at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Steve Lowery has the incredible story of how Maldonado’s school community rallied behind him in prayer — and why his unlikely recovery from a rare cancer may not even be the story’s biggest miracle.
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SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
SEARCHING IN THE DESERT<br />
Infertility isn’t a<br />
Catholic problem. But<br />
as it becomes more<br />
common, a growing<br />
number of couples are<br />
turning to the Church<br />
for help.<br />
BY ELISE URENECK<br />
Cassie Taylor and her husband,<br />
Michael, were married in<br />
2016. She was 27 and in the<br />
midst of a reversion to the faith; her<br />
husband, 31, had discerned out of<br />
religious life because he felt a strong<br />
desire to be a husband and father.<br />
Two years into marriage, Cassie was<br />
diagnosed with ovarian and uterine<br />
cancer and had to undergo a hysterectomy.<br />
“From the time we found out I was<br />
sick to the time of the surgery, it was<br />
only three months,” Cassie remembered.<br />
“We had to come to terms very<br />
quickly with the reality that we were<br />
never going to have our own biological<br />
children.”<br />
Her oncologist proposed getting a<br />
surrogate. Friends asked if she wanted<br />
to freeze her eggs. Cassie wanted to explain<br />
her commitment to the Church’s<br />
position against the use of technology<br />
which separates procreation from<br />
sexual intercourse and endangers<br />
embryonic life, but the pressure to find<br />
any solution was palpable.<br />
“There’s only so much you can do to<br />
defend the faith from the exam table,”<br />
she laughed. Then her tone turned<br />
somber. “At that point, I just wanted a<br />
place to talk about my grief.”<br />
***<br />
“Like every young Catholic couple<br />
… we thought we were going to look at<br />
each other and get pregnant,” Matthew<br />
Marcolini shared in a video reflection<br />
for the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.<br />
20 • ANGELUS • <strong>January</strong> <strong>26</strong>, <strong>2024</strong>
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