Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No

ANGELUS 

February 9, 2024 Vol. 9 No. 3 

LAND OF 

MARTYRS 

How Nigeria 

became a hotbed 

of anti-Christian 

persecution

B • ANGELUS • February 9, 2024

February 9, 2024 

Vol. 9 • No. 3 

ON THE COVER 

THIS PAGE 

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Catholic worshippers recite lines during the Stations of the 

Cross prayers at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lagos, Nigeria, 

on Feb. 24, 2023. On Page 10, John Allen takes a closer 

look at the unfolding pattern of violence targeting Catholics 

there, and what it means for the universal Church. 

VICTOR ALEMÁN 

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during an unveiling on Jan. 17. The mural features 

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Pope Watch.................................................................................................................................... 2 

Archbishop Gomez..................................................................................................................... 3 

World, Nation, and Local News.......................................................................................... 4-6 

In Other Words............................................................................................................................. 7 

Father Rolheiser............................................................................................................................ 8 

Scott Hahn................................................................................................................................... 32 

Events Calendar......................................................................................................................... 33 

14 

20 

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24 

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CONTENTS 

Thousands march for the unborn, shrug off the rain at OneLife LA 

The personal story of sin and redemption behind LA’s Requiem Mass 

John Allen: As Pope Francis ages, a few Vatican figures to watch 

Embrace this year’s odd couple: Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day 

Has our divided society created a more polarized TV experience? 

Sign up for our free, daily e-newsletter 

Always Forward - newsletter.angelusnews.com 

28 

30 

50 years later, what Jack Nicholson’s ‘Chinatown’ still gets right about LA 

Heather King delves into the diaries of Carmen Hernández 

February 9, 2024 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

Blessing people, not unions 

Pope Francis insisted that an 

informal blessing of a gay or other 

unmarried couple is not a blessing 

of their union but a sign of the Catholic 

Church’s closeness to them and its 

hope that they will grow in faith. 

“The intent of ‘pastoral and spontaneous 

blessings’ is to concretely show the 

closeness of the Lord and the Church 

to all those who, finding themselves in 

different situations, ask for help to carry 

on — sometimes to begin — a journey 

of faith,” Francis said Jan. 26 at an 

annual plenary meeting with members 

of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the 

Faith. 

While Francis’ remarks to the members 

focused on their discussions about 

the sacraments, human dignity, and 

faith, particularly the centrality of evangelization, 

he also mentioned Fiducia 

Supplicans (“Supplicating Trust”) on 

“the pastoral meaning of blessings,” 

which was published by the dicastery 

and signed by Francis Dec. 18. 

Francis told dicastery members that he 

wanted to make two points about the 

document. The first, he said, was that 

“these blessings, outside of any liturgical 

context and form, do not require 

moral perfection to be received.” 

Second, he said, “when a couple spontaneously 

approaches to ask for it, one 

does not bless the union, but simply the 

people who made the request together. 

Not the union, but the people, taking 

into account, of course, the context, the 

sensitivities, the places where people 

live and the most appropriate ways to 

do it.” 

In early January, Cardinal Víctor Manuel 

Fernández, prefect of the dicastery, 

issued a note clarifying that “prudence 

and attention to the ecclesial context 

and to the local culture could allow 

for different methods of application” of 

Fiducia Supplicans. 

In his speech to dicastery members, 

Francis also mentioned a document 

on human dignity that the dicastery is 

working on. 

In an interview with the Spanish news 

agency EFE Jan. 13, Fernández said, 

“We are preparing a very important 

document on human dignity which 

includes not only social issues, but also 

a strong critique of moral issues such as 

sex change, surrogacy, gender ideologies, 

etc.” 

“As Christians, we must not tire of 

insisting on the primacy of the human 

person and the defense of his or her 

dignity beyond every circumstance,” 

the pope said, adding that he hoped 

the new document “will help us, as a 

church, to always be close to all those 

who, without fanfare, in concrete daily 

life, fight and personally pay the price 

for defending the rights of those who do 

not count.” 

As the Church prepares to celebrate 

the Holy Year 2025 and as it strives to 

preach the Gospel to a changing world, 

he said, the dicastery must lead the way 

in helping the Church “reflect again 

and with greater passion on several 

themes … especially, the centrality of 

the kerygma [“proclamation”] in the life 

and mission of the Church.” 

“For us, that which is most essential, 

most beautiful, most attractive and, at 

the same time, most necessary, is faith 

in Christ Jesus,” the pope told dicastery 

members. “All of us together, God 

willing, will solemnly renew it in the 

course of the jubilee year and each one 

of us is called to proclaim it to every 

man and woman on earth.” 

Reporting courtesy of Catholic News 

Service Rome bureau chief Cindy 

Wooden. 

Papal Prayer Intention for February: We pray that those with 

a terminal illness, and their families, receive the necessary 

physical and spiritual care and accompaniment. 

2 • ANGELUS • February 9, 2024

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

This Lent, be converted 

Lent comes early this year. In fact, 

Ash Wednesday falls on Feb. 14, 

and Lent begins. 

The Church gives us this season of 

grace each year as a privileged moment 

to concentrate on our spiritual 

lives, and to really work on making 

progress in our ongoing conversion to 

Christ. 

One of the saints said: “I have decided 

not to let this Lent go by like rain 

on stones, leaving no trace. I will let it 

soak into me, changing me. I will be 

converted, I will turn again to the Lord 

and love him as he wants to be loved.” 

That is the attitude we need, as we 

enter into this holy season. 

Let’s not miss this beautiful opportunity 

that we have to grow in our 

relationship with Jesus, to improve 

ourselves, to be converted more and 

more in the image of Jesus! 

This is what our life is meant for. We 

are here to be changed, to be transformed, 

to be converted. 

We are here to become, more and 

more, every day like Jesus — in the 

way we think and act, in the way we 

treat other people and in the priorities 

that we set for our lives. 

This is why Jesus gave his life for us 

on the cross. So that we could be set 

free. Free to follow him, and free to 

live as he intends us to live, according 

to his teachings and his example. 

We know that we are not there yet, 

that our hearts are still divided. We 

want to do good, we want to be good. 

But still we find that we are pulled in 

the opposite direction. 

So Lent gives us a new opportunity 

to be more serious about our personal 

conversion to Christ, more serious 

about becoming the people that God 

wants us to be. 

Our Christian life is a daily work 

of striving for self-mastery, striving to 

overcome our natural inclinations to 

selfishness and self-love, and to direct 

our love totally to God and to our 

neighbors. 

The traditional practices of Lent — 

fasting, prayer, penance, and almsgiving 

— are all meant to strengthen us 

in our identity as children of God and 

followers of Jesus. 

We should consider these practices 

to be the “pillars” of our daily lives as 

Catholics. 

As Catholics, we should be praying 

every day; we should be making 

sacrifices, little offerings to God; and 

we should be living with generosity, 

compassion, and mercy toward others. 

Lent also deepens our awareness that 

we are walking with Jesus. It is he who 

sets us on this path. He is the One who 

calls each of us by name to follow him, 

to be holy as he is holy. 

During Lent, we are more conscious 

that we are following Jesus on his way 

to the cross, carrying our own crosses 

along with him. 

St. Augustine famously said that if we 

think we have done enough already, 

we are lost. “Go further, keep going,” 

he said. “Don’t stay in the same place, 

don’t go back, don’t go off the road.” 

This is what Lent is all about, staying 

on the path, the way of the cross. How 

will we grow in holiness during these 

40 days, what practical measures will 

we take? 

These are good questions for us as we 

enter into this holy season. 

In addition to the pillars of prayer, 

fasting, and almsgiving, maybe you can 

try to get to Mass more often during 

the week, or to make more time to pray 

and meditate in the presence of the 

Blessed Sacrament. 

Maybe you can make more time each 

day for a prayerful reading of a passage 

of the Gospels. And of course, we 

should make at least one good confession 

during this season. 

The point is that, as Augustine said, 

we must keep moving forward. 

St. Paul used to speak of pressing on 

toward the higher calling of the Lord, 

pressing on toward holiness, or as he 

described it: “It is no longer I who live, 

but Christ who lives in me.” 

This is the glorious promise that Jesus 

makes to each one of us, so let us make 

progress toward that goal this Lent! 

As I often say, being a Catholic, a follower 

of Jesus, is the work of a lifetime, 

Let’s not miss this beautiful opportunity that we 

have to grow in our relationship with Jesus, to improve 

ourselves, to be converted more and more 

in the image of Jesus! 

and it is always a work of beginning 

and beginning again. 

So let us begin again, let us not let 

Lent go by, leaving no trace! Let us be 

converted, turning to the Lord again to 

love him as he wants us to love him. 

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

Let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary 

to help us all to have a holy Lent 

and to go further and to deepen our 

conversion to her Son, our Lord Jesus 

Christ. 


WORLD 

■ Belgian officials order 

destruction of baptismal record 

Belgian bishops are fighting requests to erase baptism 

records in a court case that could change precedent across 

Europe. 

The country’s Data Protection Authority ruled Dec. 19 

that the Diocese of Ghent must comply with an unnamed 

person’s request to have their baptismal record deleted. The 

diocese has appealed the decision and said it would continue 

its standard practice of noting requests for disaffiliation on a 

person’s baptismal record, but would not destroy the entry. 

The case follows a similar request to delete baptismal 

records for disaffiliated Catholics in Ireland, but the Irish 

Data Protection Commission ruled in favor of maintaining 

baptismal records in February 2023. 

The Church in Belgium received 5,237 requests for disaffiliation 

in 2021, a significant increase from 2020 (1,261) and 

2019 (1,800). 

Flames engulf St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville, Alberta, 

in 2021. | CNS/DIANE BURREL, SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS 

■ As Canadian churches burn, 

where are the mass graves? 

Catholic leaders in Canada are connecting a rash of arson 

and vandalism to unverified comments made by Canadian 

public leaders, as excavations into purported mass graves at 

former residential school sites come up empty. 

At least 85 Catholic churches have been burned or vandalized 

since May 27, 2021, when a news story alleged 215 unmarked 

graves near the former Church-operated Kamloops 

Indian Residential School. While no sanctioned excavations 

have been conducted at Kamloops, excavations at three other 

sites have failed to discover the reported mass gravesites. 

“The reality is when we have a continued assertion of false 

claims of mass graves and missing children or speculation in 

the absence of better evidence, much of this criminal activity 

is likely to continue,” Philip Horgan, president of the Catholic 

Civil Rights League, told The Catholic Register. 

Haitian National Police patrol in Port-au-Prince Jan. 22, days after the six nuns were 

kidnapped. | OSV NEWS/RALPH TEDY EROL, REUTERS 

■ Haitian nuns released on day of prayer 

Six Haitian nuns who were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince Jan. 

19 were set free Jan. 24, a day of prayer dedicated for their 

release. 

“God always hears the cries of the poor and frees the unfortunate 

from all his distress (Psalm 33:6–7),” read a statement 

from the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince to Aid to the Church 

in Need. “We cried unto him, he made us strong in trial, and 

he set our captives free.” 

The abductions were suspected to be the work of a gang. 

Eighty percent of the Caribbean nation’s capital is controlled 

by gangs, and clergy kidnapping has grown in regularity. 

Other passengers and the bus driver had also been abducted 

with the sisters and were likewise released. 

■ Why Indonesia is having Ash Thursday 

Citizens in Indonesia have only a handful of hours — from 

7 a.m. and 1 p.m. — to cast their ballots on Wednesday, 

Feb. 14. To accommodate the timing, Catholic bishops are 

moving Ash Wednesday. 

Though Catholics make up just 3% of the electorate, 

Church leaders expressed a concern that Catholic voters 

attending liturgy might miss their chance at the polls, which 

will determine a new president, vice president, and 711 

members of the national assembly. 

“Both the general election and Ash Wednesday are important 

for us as Catholics and Indonesians,” said Bishop 

Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung, president of the 

Indonesian bishops’ conference. “The active involvement in 

both events are the responsibility to fulfill our duty as citizens 

and our call to repent as Christians.” 

Dioceses are accommodating the liturgical shift differently. 

Some will observe Ash Wednesday on Thursday, Feb. 15, 

while at least one other will administer ashes on the first 

Sunday of Lent, Feb. 19. 


NATION 

■ Still trending: Spiritual 

but not religious 

The religiously unaffiliated, or “nones,” now are the largest 

religious category in the U.S. at 28% of the population, 

according to a Jan. 24 Pew Research Center report. 

The majority of nones point to bad experiences with religious 

organizations or religious people for their lack of affiliation, 

and 43% say they believe organized religion does more 

harm than good. Forty-four percent say they either don’t need 

religion or don’t have time for it. 

But among those who identify with no religion, 70% still 

say they believe in God or a higher power, with roughly half 

describing themselves as “spiritual.” 

A sudden passing — Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, the fifth bishop of 

Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, passed away at age 63. He died Jan. 19 from 

complications related to recent health problems. Originally from Colombia, 

Dorsonville was named an auxiliary bishop for Washington, D.C., in 2015, before 

being named to lead the Louisiana diocese last February. From 2019 to 2022, he 

was the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ conference migration committee. A funeral 

Mass for the bishop was set for Feb. 1 at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral in Thibodauxe. 

| OSV NEWS/CNS FILE, BOB ROLLER 

■ Group of bishops to government: 

Fight poverty, not wars 

Eighteen U.S. bishops have joined a call to cut military 

spending and instead invest in fighting poverty. 

In an open letter from Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace 

organization led by Lexington Bishop John Stowe, the 

bishops called for the diversion of military funds, which were 

authorized at a record $886 billion a year in December, to 

fight food insecurity, which has risen to 12.8% of all U.S. 

households. 

“Pax Christi USA sees the U.S. military budget, especially 

the part earmarked for weapons development, as offering 

stones when so many social programs in the U.S. are underfunded, 

resulting in poor nutrition and hunger in our country,” 

Stowe said in a statement to National Catholic Reporter. 

The letter is part of a “Bread Not Stones” campaign, in 

reference to Matthew 7:9. The signatories included Cardinal 

Robert McElroy of San Diego and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of 

Newark. 

■ HHS doubles down on abortion, 

contraception access 

The Biden administration announced new rules aimed 

at expanding contraception and abortion access Jan. 22, 

the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. 

The Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS) declared its intention to expand no-cost contraceptives 

under the Affordable Care Act and for federal 

employees, issuing a letter to insurers instructing them of 

an obligation to provide these services. 

The HHS also announced a team that will enforce its 

interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and 

Labor Act, which they say requires hospitals to provide 

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a “Reproductive Freedom Campaign 

Rally” Jan. 23 in Manassas, Virginia. | ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES 

emergency abortions even in states that limit or abolish abortion. 

The changes are part of a push from the Biden administration to focus on abortion access as part of the president’s 2024 

reelection campaign. 

“Where abortion has been on the ballot, the American people have overwhelmingly voted to protect reproductive freedom,” 

Jennifer Klein, director of the White House’s Gender Policy Council, told reporters last week. 


LOCAL 

■ Thousand Oaks girls 

school to close 

La Reina High School and Middle 

School, an all-girls Catholic school in 

Thousand Oaks, announced on Jan. 24 

that it will close at the end of the school 

year. 

Due to “significant under-enrollment,” 

La Reina President Tony 

Guevara said in an email to parents that 

the school was no longer “responsibly 

sustainable.” 

“We trust you will understand that this 

decision is not an easy one,” Guevara 

said. “It was made after careful discernment 

and after multiple continued 

efforts to improve La Reina’s sustainability 

over many years.” 

Many parents and alumni were upset 

with the decision and have attempted 

to try to stop the closure, first by speaking 

at a community meeting on Jan. 

25 and by spreading the word online, 

including “Save La Reina” social media 

accounts. 

The school, sponsored by the Sisters of 

Notre Dame, was founded in 1964. 

■ Latest archdiocese healing garden opens 

at St. Bernadette 

A fourth Garden of 

Healing was unveiled by 

the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles’ Victims Assistance 

Ministry at St. Bernadette 

Church in Baldwin Hills 

with a blessing from 

Auxiliary Bishop Matthew 

Elshoff on Jan. 17. 

With plans to have 

a garden dedicated to 

victim-survivors of sexual 

abuse in each of the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles’ 

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff blesses the water feature at 

five regions, St. Bernadette the latest healing garden completed at St. Bernadette Church. | PABLO KAY 

joins St. Camillus Center 

in Los Angeles, Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ventura, and St. Francis 

de Sales Church in San Fernando. The next garden will be built in the San Pedro 

Region. 

Along with greenery and benches for reflection, there’s a water feature in each 

garden meant to evoke the sorrow of the abuse, but also the promise of renewal. 

“I pray St. Bernadette’s garden — and all the healing gardens — will be received as 

a sacred space to hold and acknowledge the pain of those impacted by sexual abuse 

in the Church, their families, or communities, while renewing their spirits and fostering 

healing,” said Victims Assistance Ministry Coordinator Heather Banis, Ph.D. 

Y 

A new LA Catholic for the Chargers — Jim Harbaugh, shown here with Pope Francis in 2017, was recently 

hired as the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh, who most recently coached the University 

of Michigan’s football team, is a well-known Catholic and spoke at last month’s March for Life event in Washington, 

D.C. | CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO 

■ Mass to mark one-year 

anniversary of Bishop 

Dave’s death 

To mark the one-year anniversary 

of his passing, there will be a memorial 

Mass for Auxiliary Bishop David 

O’Connell at Mission San Gabriel 

Arcángel on Feb. 24. 

The 10 a.m. Mass will be presided 

over by Archbishop José H. Gomez 

and will feature the blessing of a memorial 

exhibit afterward. 

A new Native garden and fountain 

were installed at Mission San Gabriel 

Arcángel in November, and since it 

had been sponsored by O’Connell, a 

monument was placed there in memory 

of him. 

O’Connell, who was the episcopal 

vicar of the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles’ San Gabriel Region, was 

killed in his Hacienda Heights home 

on Feb. 18, 2023. Carlos Medina, the 

man suspected of killing O’Connell, 

remains in jail and is awaiting trial. 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

Thankful for this characteristic of Catholic schools 

Thank you for the uplifting, faith-filled article on Atticus Maldonado 

(“The Miracle of Gardendale Street” in the Jan. 26 issue of Angelus), 

a Downey student who got cancer, and who was healed by the grace of God 

through prayers of his fellow students and their families. This story made me feel 

so happy to be Catholic. It also made me sad to think of secular public schools, 

where prayer is not permitted, and where students undergoing serious illness 

might not find this kind of prayer support, or have confidence in God’s love for 

them. 

— Marilyn Boussaid, St. James Church, Redondo Beach 

Correction: In the article “Searching in the Desert” in the Jan. 26 issue of Angelus, 

the names of Ann Koshute and Caroline Gindhart were misspelled. We regret 

the errors. 

Y 

Continue the conversation! To submit a letter to the editor, visit AngelusNews.com/Letters-To-The-Editor 

and use our online form or send an email to editorial@angelusnews.com. Please limit to 300 words. Letters 

may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity. 

Under the protection of ‘Santo Niño’ 

“You could really say the 

Ten Commandments is 

etiquette, right?” 

~ Andrea Voyer, associate professor of sociology 

at Stockholm University, in a Jan. 21 Vox article on 

who etiquette is for. 

“Kenny is a human being, 

not an experiment.” 

~ Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director 

of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, in a Jan. 25 

National Catholic Reporter article on Alabama’s 

first nitrogen gas execution. 

“Opinion is cheap. 

Reporting is expensive.” 

~ Terry Mattingly, editor of GetReligion.org, in a 

Jan. 17 Religion News Service article on his site 

shutting down after 20 years. 

“We give birth. We can 

drive trucks.” 

~ Ramona, a trucker, in a Jan. 16 Harper’s Magazine 

article on long-haul trucking and the shortage of 

truckers. 

“Compared to politics and 

advertising, hypnotists are 

amateur.” 

~ Hypnotist Gerard V, in a Jan. 25 Longreads article 

on a writer remembering being hypnotized as a 

teenager. 

Hundreds of Filipino Catholics hold up their Santo Niño statues to be blessed during the annual Feast of 

Santo Niño Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Jan. 21. | 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. 

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, 

I’m gonna go have a cookie.” 

~ Writer Drew Magary, in a Jan. 18 Men’s Health 

article on weight loss in today’s age of radical body 

positivity. 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com 

The spirituality of Eugéne de Mazenod 

During the years I have been 

writing this column, I have 

rarely mentioned the fact that 

I belong to a religious order, the Missionary 

Oblates of Mary Immaculate. 

That omission is not an evasion, since 

being an Oblate of Mary Immaculate 

is something of which I am quite 

proud. However, I rarely flag the fact 

that I am a priest and a member of a 

religious order because I believe what 

I write here and elsewhere needs to 

ground itself on things beyond titles. 

In this column, however, I want to 

speak about the founder of the Missionary 

Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 

St. Eugéne de Mazenod, because 

what he had to say about Christian 

discipleship and spirituality is something 

of value and importance for 

everyone, like the legacies that have 

been left us by other great religious 

founders like Bernard, Francis, Dominic, 

Angel Merici, Ignatius of Loyola, 

Vincent de Paul, and others. 

De Mazenod (1779-1861) was a 

French bishop of aristocratic origins 

who some popular myths identify 

as the bishop in “Les Miserables.” 

He was a man whose personality ran 

somewhat naturally in the direction of 

the stern, the introverted, the strongly 

inner-directed, the mystical, and the 

single-minded. He wasn’t the type 

of person most people would choose 

as their first choice for light dinner 

conversation, but he was the type of 

person who is often God’s first choice 

to found a religious order. 

Soren Kierkegaard once stated that 

“to be a saint is to will the one thing.” 

De Mazenod clearly did that and, in 

his case, that one thing had a number 

of aspects which, taken together, 

form the basis of a very rich, balanced 

spirituality — one that emphasizes 

some salient aspects of Christian discipleship 

that are often neglected today. 

What shaped the spirituality of de 

Mazenod and the charism he left 

behind? 

First, he emphasized community. 

For him, a good life is not just one of 

individual achievement, fidelity, or 

even greatness; it is a life that links 

itself to the power inherent within 

community. He was a firm believer 

in the axiom: what we dream alone 

remains a dream, what we dream with 

others can become a reality. 

In his view, compassion only 

becomes effective when it becomes 

collective, when it issues forth from 

a group rather than from just one 

individual. He believed that alone you 

can make a splash but not a difference. 

He founded a religious order 

because he deeply believed this. 

In the face of all the issues confronting 

the world and the Church 

today, if someone were to ask him, 

“What’s the one single thing I might 

do to make a difference?” He would 

reply: Connect yourself with others 

of sincere will within community, 

around the person of Christ. Alone 

you cannot save the world. Together 

we can! 

Second, he believed that a healthy 

spirituality makes a marriage between 

contemplation and justice. Judged in 

the light of our contemporary sensitivities, 

his exact expression of this is perhaps 

linguistically awkward today, but 

his key principle is perennially valid: 

only an action that issues forth from a 

life that is rooted in prayer and deep 

interiority will be truly prophetic and 

effective. Conversely, all true prayer 

and genuine interiority will burst 

forth in action, especially in action for 

justice and the poor. 

Third, in his own life and in the 

spirituality he laid out for his religious 

community, he made a strong 

preferential option for the poor. He did 

this not because it was the politically 

correct thing to do, but because it was 

the correct thing to do; the Gospel 

demands this, and it is non-negotiable. 

His belief was simple and clear: 

as Christians, we are called to be with 

and work with those whom nobody 

else wants to be with and work with. 

For him, any teaching or action that 

is not good news for the poor cannot 

claim to be speaking for Jesus or for 

Scripture. 

Fourth, he put all of this under the 

patronage of the mother of Jesus, 

Mary, whom he saw as an advocate 

for the poor. He recognized that the 

poor turn to her, for it is she who gives 

voice to the Magnificat. 

Finally, in his own life and in the 

ideal he laid out, he brought together 

two seemingly contradictory tendencies: 

a deep love for the institutional 

Church and the capacity to prophetically 

challenge it at the same time. 

He loved the Church, believed that it 

was the noblest thing for which one 

might die; but at the same time, he 

wasn’t afraid to publicly point out the 

Church’s faults or to admit that the 

Church needs constant challenge and 

self-criticism … and he was willing to 

offer it! 

His personality was very different 

from mine. I doubt that he and I 

would spontaneously like each other. 

But that’s incidental. I’m proud of his 

legacy, proud to be one of his sons, 

and convinced enough of his spirituality 

to give my life over for it. 


UNPROTECTED WITNESSES 

The bloody campaign against Christians in Nigeria is an 

especially urgent case of a broader phenomenon. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — In light of the recent 

furor over Fiducia Supplicans 

(“Supplicating Trust”), a Dec. 

18 Vatican declaration authorizing 

nonliturgical blessings of same-sex unions, 

one might almost be forgiven for 

thinking it’s a matter of life and death. 

Of course, in truth that’s a merely 

rhetorical assertion. However important 

the doctrinal issues may be, 

nobody’s going to live or die depending 

on how they’re resolved. 

On the other hand, the same cannot 

be said for the issue currently dominating 

Catholic discussion in Nigeria, 

Africa’s most populous nation, which 

Christians hold signs as they march on the streets 

of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and 

security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. The 

Catholic bishops of Nigeria gathered faithful as well as 

other Christians and other people to pray for security 

and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by 

the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of 

kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. | KOLA SULAIMON/ 

AFP/GETTY 


isn’t the theology of same-sex relationships 

or any of the other topics that 

often loom so large in Catholic debate 

in affluent societies. 

Instead, it’s what a growing chorus 

of observers describe as a “genocide” 

directed against Christians in a country 

that has the largest mixed Muslim/ 

Christian population in the world. 

According to some estimates, Nigeria 

now accounts for almost 90% of all 

Christians martyred worldwide each 

year. 

In its latest annual report, Aid to the 

Church in Need, a papally sponsored 

foundation supporting persecuted 

Christians, reported 

that more than 7,600 Nigerian 

Christians had been 

murdered between January 

2021 and June 2022. 

Nigeria is merely an 

especially urgent case of 

a broader phenomenon. 

According to an annual 

report of “Open Doors,” 

an ecumenical watchdog 

group on anti-Christian 

persecution, more than 365 

million Christians in the 

world, that is 1 in 7, faced 

high levels of persecution 

for their faith as of late 

2023. 

The threat to Christians 

in Nigeria has been clear 

for some time, but it’s 

been driven home of late 

in the wake of Christmas 

massacres in the country’s 

Plateau State that claimed 

the lives of more than 300 

Christians. 

The assaults have continued 

into the new year. On Jan. 4, Boko 

Haram insurgents killed a pastor and 

at least 13 members of his Church, 

according to local news site Sahara 

Reporters. Pastor Elkanah Ayuba was 

the leader of a Church of Christ in 

Nations congregation. 

While the violence is sometimes 

characterized as more social and economic 

than religious, pitting members 

of the Fulani ethnic group who are 

herdsmen against Igbo and Yoruba 

farmers and pastors, religion is inevitably 

part of the picture given that the 

Fulani are largely Muslim while their 

victims are mostly Christian. 

In addition, there’s a clear pattern 

in the violence of targeting Christian 

churches, schools, residences, and 

other facilities. 

At least 52,000 Christians have been 

killed in Nigeria since 2009, according 

to the International Society for Human 

Rights and the Rule of Law (“Intersociety”), 

an international monitoring 

group tracking genocide in Nigeria. 

Last year, Fulani herdsmen were 

responsible for the deaths of at least 

3,500 Christians, the group said. 

The same report published in April 

also asserted that 18,000 Christian 

churches and 2,200 Christian schools 

have been set ablaze, and around 

34,000 moderate Muslims also have 

been killed in Islamist attacks. 

Within the same period, at least 707 

Christians were kidnapped, out of 

which the Northern Nigerian Niger 

State recorded more than 200 abductions, 

including the March 14 abduction 

of more than 100 Christians in 

Adunu. Roughly 5 million Christians 

have been displaced and forced into 

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) 

camps within Nigeria and refugee 

Flowers lie on caskets during a funeral Mass in the 

parish hall of St. Francis Xavier Church in Owo, 

Nigeria, June 17, 2022. The Mass was for some of the 

40 victims killed in a June 5 attack by gunmen during 

Mass at the church. | OSV/TEMILADE ADELAJA, 

REUTERS 

camps at regional and sub-regional 

borders, according to Intersociety. 

The director of the Christian-inspired 

human rights organization said the 

genocide of Christians in Nigeria is 

being carried out with the complicity 

of the government. 

“The government of Tinubu is part 

of the butchering machinery,” said 

Emeka Umeagbalasi, a criminologist 

and grassroots human rights and 

Democracy campaigner, referring to 

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who 

took office in late March. 

“The Fulani jihadi rose to power under 

the Buhari administration and was 

able to take control of everything,” he 

said, asserting that Tinubu is set to perpetuate 

that heritage. The reference 

was to Nigeria’s previous government 

under former President Muhammadu 

Buhari. 

Umeagbalasi said that international 

pressure should be brought to bear on 


the Tinubu administration if 

Nigerian Christians must be 

set on the way to freedom. 

“The destiny of Nigerian 

Christians lies in the hands 

of international state actors 

and nonstate actors to pile 

enough pressure on the 

government of Nigeria and 

compel the government of 

Nigeria to do the needful,” 

Umeagbalasi told Crux. 

He said one way of compelling 

the government to 

act is by tying foreign aid to 

religious freedom. Otherwise, 

he said, “the killings 

are going to continue and 

with catastrophic consequences, 

including the total 

Islamization of the Middle 

Belt.” 

Johan Viljoen, director 

of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute, 

an entity of the Southern Catholic 

Bishops’ Conference, recently said the 

Nigerian government is at fault for the 

mounting threats to Christians in the 

country and should be held accountable. 

“Any foreign assistance or investment 

to Nigeria should be made conditional 

to the strict observance of human 

rights,” Viljoen said, insisting that victims 

of anti-Christian violence should 

receive financial compensation for 

property destroyed and lives lost. 

“The Nigerian government should 

pay. It was, after all, the Nigerian government 

that failed to ensure the safety 

and security of its citizens — one of 

the prime duties of any national government,” 

he said. Viljoen blamed the 

Rebecca Agidi with her son, Oryiman, 

pictured in an undated photo in a camp for 

internally displaced persons in the Diocese 

of Makurdi, Nigeria. In September 2022, 

Agidi’s husband was killed and Oryiman 

was injured in an attack on the family’s 

village by Fulani extremists. | OSV/COUR- 

TESY ACN 

government of new Tinubu 

for doing little to change the 

situation, noting that attacks 

have continued in Nigeria’s 

Middle Belt. 

All this background, 

perhaps, makes a simple 

point for Catholics in the 

developed world, including 

the United States. 

Yes, we may have issues 

around which great passions 

can be aroused, and their 

theological and sacramental 

significance shouldn’t be underestimated. 

At the same time, however, we 

can still go to Mass on Sunday without 

taking our lives into our hands — 

and, frankly, the same cannot be said 

of Catholics everywhere, a fact that 

perhaps deserves a greater claim on 

our attention. 

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

Global hotspots of hate 

Although Nigeria may be dominating 

headlines in terms of 

anti-Christian violence as 2024 

opens, it’s hardly the only spot on the 

map where Christians face severe 

threats. 

According to Open Doors International, 

a nondenominational watchdog 

group, 365 million Christians around 

the world face high levels of persecution 

and discrimination, representing 

15% of all Christians worldwide. 

In the organization’s 2024 “World 

Watch List,” Nigeria actually ranks just 

sixth in terms of where Christians face 

the most extreme persecution. The top 

five countries are: 

1. North Korea: Tens of thousands of 

Christians are believed to be incarcerated 

in labor camps across the country, 

with the mere fact of being a Christian 

or possessing a Bible considered a criminal 

act under the country’s notorious 

“anti-reactionary thought law.” 

2. Somalia: The handful of Christians 

in the overwhelming Muslim nation 

are mostly converts from Islam, and 

are subject to immediate execution if 

detected by the militant jihadi group 

al-Shabab that operates with impunity 

in most parts of the country. 

3. Libya: Lacking any effective political 

authority, Libya is dominated by a 

competing cluster of militias and armed 

groups, most with a strong Islamic 

identity. Christians, including migrants 

from sub-Saharan Africa seeking to 

make their way to Europe, are frequent 

targets for violence, kidnapping, and 

trafficking. 

4. Eritrea: The country’s intense authoritarian 

government perceives Christians 

as a special threat to stability, and 

operates an extensive prison network. 

Many Christian inmates are held in the 

desert in metal shipping containers, 

which become extremely cold at night 

and can reach temperatures as high as 

115 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. 

5. Yemen: A strongly conservative 

Islamic society, threats to Christians in 

Yemen, especially Muslim converts, 

also have been amplified by a 10-year 

civil war. Tribal punishments for deserting 

Islam in Yemen generally prescribe 

death or banishment. 

— John L. Allen Jr. 



Thousands of marchers walked in the rain from Olvera 

Street to LA State Historical Park. The sign displays the 

theme from the event: “10 Years Together as One.” 

RIGHT 

AS RAIN 

Rather than dampen 

the enthusiasm, the 

wet weather at this 

year’s OneLife LA 

seemed to strengthen 

the resolve of 

participants from 

around California. 

BY MIKE CISNEROS / 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY 


There was no escaping the rain. 

It permeated everything: 

clothes, jackets, socks, shoes. It 

soaked everything trying to prevent it, 

from umbrellas to hats to ponchos to 

covered baby strollers. 

Signs were drenched, whether it was 

the sturdy ones handed out for the 

event, or the handmade variety that 

people brought from home. Water-logged 

signs that said things like 

“Pregnancy is not a disease, abortion 

is not a cure” or “Protect all children, 

even if they’re not yours.” 

But there was one thing the rain 

couldn’t dampen: The resolve of nearly 

7,000 to speak out for and celebrate 

the dignity of life at the 10th annual 

OneLife LA event on Jan. 20, titled 

“10 Years Together as One.” As in past 

years, it started with a rally at La Placita 

Olvera in downtown LA and made its 

way to Los Angeles State Historic Park, 

where music, activities for families, and 

a lineup of pro-life speakers awaited. 

Later, the day was capped by the annual 

Requiem for the Unborn Mass at the 

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. 

Hundreds of miles to the north, tens 

of thousands were also gathering for 

a sometimes-rainy 20th annual Walk 

for Life West Coast in San Francisco, 

while across the country in Washington, 

D.C., demonstrators braved frigid 

temperatures and snowfall for the 51st 

annual March for Life. 

“This is how dedicated we are to our 

faith,” said Cecilia Hernandez, 14, who 

attended OneLife LA with her mom, 

Rosario. “The fact that we’re out here 

in the pouring rain, it’s below 60 degrees. 

It just shows how much we care.” 

“God gives us all challenges, only to 

make us stronger,” said Buzz Wallick, 

who walked with his pregnant wife, 

Mary. “It’s just a little wet. Who cares? 

And as you can see, everyone rose to 

the occasion and rose to the challenge.” 

“As long as we can keep the baby dry, 

I’m going to go,” joked Allan Herrera, 

their friend from Holy Family Church 

in Glendale who was pushing his 

young son, Dominic, in a stroller. 

*** 

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. 

Gomez kicked off the event at the state 

park by reminding people that celebrating 

life meant treating people, no 

matter their color, class, or condition, 

with tenderness. 


Despite the rain, marchers happily 

gathered at Olvera Street for music 

and prayer before walking to LA 

State Historical Park. 

“We face many big ‘issues’ in our society,” 

said Archbishop Gomez, joined at 

the park by several other local bishops, 

including Bishop Joseph Brennan of 

Fresno. “But behind every one of these 

‘issues’ are real people, with their own 

stories, their own dreams, their own 

struggles. Every one of them is a child 

of God, and every one of them is our 

brother or our sister. 

“And we are called to love them. As 

Jesus loves them. Without exception, 

without judgment, with no conditions.” 

That sentiment was backed up by several 

of the guest speakers, who spoke 

of the importance of meeting people 

where they’re at rather than trying to 

impose their will. 

Catholic speaker and author Katie 

Prejean McGrady was prevented by 

weather from making it to LA from the 

East Coast, but sent a video message 

inviting participants to celebrate life by 

making it better for others, including 

“the perfect stranger that we see in 

the grocery store, the man begging on 

the side of the road, the woman who’s 

been unjustly accused, the immigrant 

who has been unwelcomed, the unborn 

child that has been cast aside.” 

“We’re able to give witness to the value 

and dignity and goodness of human 

life, long past an event’s end,” she said. 

Another popular pro-life speaker, 

Father Josh Johnson of the Diocese of 

Baton Rouge, spoke about the lessons 

that could be learned from his prison 

ministry, where an inmate confided 

about his initial reluctance to evangelize 

to violent prisoners, having been 

spit on, cursed at, and worse. 

“We have so many people in our 

schools, in our workplace environments, 

in our neighborhoods, even 

in our family, who are opposed to the 

gospel of life,” Johnson said. “Even 

then, we must be willing to go to them 

again and again and again. And if they 

spit on us, or curse us out, or reject 

our message, or resist this invitation 

we have for them, we must go to them 

over and over again. 

“We must not live as if we can have 

heaven without them. God wants 

them. But he wants to send us to get 

them.” 

*** 

While the event promoted the dignity 

of all life, the fight over abortion 

remained high on the priority list for 

many in the crowd. 

Despite Roe v. Wade being overturned 

by the Supreme Court in 2022, several 

in attendance expressed concern over 

pro-abortion state policies being enacted 

all over the country, and especially 

in California, where several recent laws 

have protected the right to an abortion 

in the state. 

Frida Plata, 19, a parishioner at St. 

Peter Chanel Church in Hawaiian 

The Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los 

Angeles received a $10,000 OneLife LA Service Grant 

to support its pastoral work and its Santa Teresita 

Assisted Living facility in Duarte. 


Nearly 7,000 event participants braved the 

rain to support the dignity of life and enjoy 

guest speakers, music, food, and vendors. 

Gardens, held her head high as she 

marched with a homemade anti-abortion 

sign. As someone who works with 

Vox Vitae, a pro-life nonprofit that 

works with teens and young adults, she 

was adamant that abortion was hurting 

our way of life. 

“In today’s society, we can see there’s 

a lot of wrong things going on,” Plata 

said. “Abortion. Human trafficking. 

Our babies are being affected. 

“My goal has always been to help 

women and save those children.” 

Elizabeth Macias, a parishioner at 

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in 

El Monte and one of the coordinators 

of a church group called “Prevention 

and Rescue,” was listening to speakers 

as she held her youngest daughter and 

several of her other kids ran around. As 

someone who got pregnant at age 18 

and who recently had her fifth child 10 

years later, she believes there needs to 

be a rethinking of how pregnancy and 

abortion are framed. 

“My thought is now what do I have 

to sacrifice more to be able to feed my 

fourth, fifth kid versus I’m going to 

go abort so I don’t have to sacrifice,” 

Macias said. “If you think more about 

sacrificing versus getting rid of, God 

blesses you. God doesn’t fail. He’s not 

human.” 

*** 

Others simply basked in the joy of the 

life that was brought into the world. 

Ruben and Maggie Cardenas — 

parishioners at St. Peter & St. Paul 

Church in Rancho Cucamonga — 

were taking photos of their daughter, 

Emily, holding a OneLife LA sign. 

Emily held a special place in their 

heart, being their first child after having 

spent their first 10 years of marriage 

childless. Emily is now 19 and the 

couple has four other children. 

“We prayed and asked God for a child 

and Emily is an answer,” Ruben said. 

So we’ve been in that space of wanting 

to have children and yet being around 

a society where so many people were 

aborting children.” 

“It’s easy to get caught up in the culture 

where anything goes, euthanasia 

and abortion,” Maggie said. “For us, it’s 

important to make sure our kids know 

that no matter how popular the culture 

of death is, it’s wrong.” 

For Carolina Jara, who attends Sacred 

Heart Church in Jurupa Valley, there’s 

a reason why she’s been to OneLife LA 

for all 10 years, bringing her husband 

and five kids with her: She herself was 

almost aborted. Her mother was 38, her 

family was poor, and her parents were 

already struggling with five kids. 

“My mom always mentions the story 

of when she was pregnant with me, the 

doctor told her to have an abortion,” 

Jara said. “I think that always stuck with 

me. So I’ve always been pro-life.” 

For those who argue as pro-choice and 

who see nothing wrong with abortion, 

Jara has a simple message to try and 

change their minds. 

“I think the first thing I mention is, 

hey, I wouldn’t be here if my mom 

would’ve aborted me,” Jara said. “My 

kids wouldn’t be here. It’s a huge deal 

to think about missing a person in your 

life. 

“Imagine if you didn’t exist, all the 

things you do in your life, all the people 

you share your life with. We’re all 

important members of society. Without 

that one person, there’s something 

missing.” 

As the rain welcomed the event, it also 

had the final say. As Francis Cabildo 

and friends took the stage for the final 

performance, the downpour came 

down heavily again and the concert was 

cut short for safety reasons. 

“God’s mercy is pouring on us,” 

Cabildo said. 

It was at that point the date for next 

year’s OneLife LA was announced: 

Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. 

The rain is TBD. 

Mike Cisneros is the associate editor of 

Angelus. 


PRAYERS FOR THE PREBORN 

This year’s Requiem Mass asked Catholics to 

embrace a different ‘vision’ as California moves 

to expand abortion access. 

Mass participants carry 120 white candles 

to the altar to represent the lives that were 

lost to abortion in the greater Los Angeles 

area. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

BY THERESA CISNEROS 

Maria Consuelo Carrera has dedicated her public 

— and private — life to defending the rights of 

the unborn and praying for an end to abortion. 

The 49-year-old mother of four has routinely participated 

in pro-life events since she was a teen, and remained open 

to life even after having two children with autism and 

doctors warning her that any subsequent babies could have 

special needs as well. 

On Saturday, Carrera lovingly tended to her adult son in 

his wheelchair during the Requiem for the Unborn Mass at 

the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, celebrated after 

the 10th annual OneLife LA Walk for Life Jan. 20. 

“I came here today to use my voice to speak up for the 

children who have no voice,” said Carrera, one of the 2,200 

faithful from around Southern California who attended the 

Requiem Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez. 

“If I stay quiet, if we all stay home, then who is going to 

speak up?” 

Michael Donaldson, senior director for the archdiocese’s 

Office of Life, Justice and Peace, opened the Mass by congratulating 

OneLife LA participants who braved the rain 

and pushed through fatigue that day. 

“We thank you for your willingness to accept God’s mission, 

advocating for the unborn, the most vulnerable in our 

society, the poor, the sick, the prisoner, the migrant, and 

the refugee,” he said. 

Among those at the Mass were LA’s five active auxiliary 

bishops, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Bishop Joseph Brennan 

of Fresno, leaders from various faith traditions, and deacons 

and Knights of Columbus from across Southern California. 

In his homily, Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff compared 

California’s 2022 decision to enshrine a right to 

abortion up to the point of delivery into the state Constitution 

to the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford decision, in which 

the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution did 

not guarantee the rights of American citizenship to people 

of African American descent, even if they were no longer 

slaves. 

“When you think about it, government is not supposed 

to define who is created in God’s image and likeness,” he 

said. “Government is not supposed to define who is created 

equal or not. And they are not to define who has certain in- 


alienable rights or not. Our democracy is designed to protect 

the rights of all people, and in this case, the unborn.” 

Elshoff also encouraged the faithful to keep advocating for 

life “from the womb to the tomb” even when laws don’t. 

“Let’s not be discouraged that we seem to take two steps 

forward and one step back,” he said. “Rather our goal is to 

listen, to respond, to follow God’s call, and to embrace this 

vision with our whole being, with Jesus at the center.” 

The Requiem Mass also included a witness reflection by 

Jess Echeverry — a Catholic speaker and family advocate 

who experienced healing and discovered Christ and the 

Church after undergoing an abortion 32 years ago as a 

young homeless woman. 

Echeverry — who is now married with five children and 

started a nonprofit ministry called Sofesa to help homeless 

and low-income families — said research shows that 1 in 5 

women seeking an abortion is homeless, and urged attendees 

to show empathy for those who’ve had an abortion. 

“My brothers and sisters, if we want to end abortion, 

which we all should, we need to open our hearts and our 

minds to the truths of the traumas and the life experiences 

of the women who are walking into the abortion businesses,” 

she said. “We need to recognize their dignity, seek out 

their story and relationship, and accompany them into 

God’s love and mercy.” 

Echeverry’s remarks were followed by a ceremony of light, 

in which Mass participants carried 120 tall, white candles 

up to the sanctuary and placed them side-by-side on the 

altar, representing the lives that were lost to abortion that 

day in the greater Los Angeles area. As in years past, the 

candles will be placed in the windows of the cathedral colonnade 

for the coming week, visible from the 101 freeway 

below. Those who attended Saturday’s Requiem Mass said 

they did so to stand up for life, and to pass faith traditions 

onto their children. 

Karina Salas, of St. Hedwig Church in Los Alamitos, has 

attended OneLife LA with her family every year since its 

inception. She said she was particularly touched by this 

year’s personal testimonies. 

“It’s always good to put faces to stories and know that real 

people are impacted by the awful reality of what abortion 

is,” she said. “It’s not just something that you can just brush 

away, a one-and-done thing. It follows you your entire life 

and it impacts everyone, it impacts generations.” 

Minh Hoang, of Annunciation Byzantine Church in Anaheim, 

said he attended the Requiem Mass and OneLife 

LA to be a witness to the pro-life position. He said he was 

inspired by the sense of community that he found being 

among thousands of like-minded Catholics. 

“To see so many college students gives me a lot of joy,” 

said Hoang, 21. 

Attending the Requiem Mass and placing candles in the 

cathedral colonnade has become a tradition for the Angeles 

family, of St. Edward Church in Corona. 

Reirich Angeles said it allows him and his wife, Maggie, 

to pass down the faith to their four children. 

“I’m happy to see that they participate in Mass, that they 

are engaged in their Catholic faith, and that they are intrigued 

and that they ask questions,” he said. 

Watching the crowd disperse, Carrera said she plans to attend 

next year’s Requiem Mass and OneLife LA event even 

though she’s moved from Cudahy to San Bernardino. 

“It’s important that we stay united in prayer for an end to 

abortion,” she said, “and that we don’t lose faith that one 

day it will end.” 

Theresa Cisneros is a freelance journalist with 24 years of 

experience in the news industry. She is a fourth-generation 

Southern California resident and lives in Orange County 

with her husband and four children. 

The Mass was presided over by Archbishop José 

H. Gomez, along with LA’s five active auxiliary 

bishops, Cardinal Roger Mahony, and Bishop 

Joseph Brennan of Fresno. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 


NOTES OF 

REDEMPTION 

How a local composer’s experience of sin 

and forgiveness gave birth to the Requiem 

for the Unborn. 

Local composer John Bonaduce leads the choir 

at the annual Requiem for the Unborn Mass at 

the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Jan. 20. | 


BY ANN RODGERS 

For a generation, Catholics from 

the Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

have sung, prayed, lit candles, 

and wept each January during the 

Requiem Mass for the Unborn. 

Offered at the Cathedral of Our Lady 

of the Angels for two decades, and in 

parishes before that, the Mass mourns 

every unborn child killed by abortion 

during a single day in the greater Los 

Angeles area. It began as a memorial 

to one of those children — the son 

or daughter of its composer, John 

Bonaduce. 

Now 72, Bonaduce is a church musician 

known for combining traditional 

and contemporary styles in a way that is 

both reverent and unabashedly joyful. 

After an early career in Hollywood, he 

entered liturgical music fulltime in 

1990. 

The turning point of his faith journey 

had come decades earlier, when at the 

age of 26 he paid for his girlfriend to 

have an abortion. 

By that time, he had unthinkingly 

slipped away from his Catholic roots. It 

never occurred to him that an abortion 

took a child’s life. His friends assured 

him it was the best decision. 

When he realized that there had been 

a child, “my conscience was seared,” 

he said. 

That night he rushed to a church in 

Santa Monica and pounded on the 

rectory door. When a priest answered, 

Bonaduce begged to make a confession 

then and there. 

“He was very good to me,” Bonaduce 

recalled. 

“It was genuine. I had come to it on 

my own — that this was a bad thing 

I had invested in. It’s 135 bucks for 

an abortion to get me out of a jam. A 

terrible, terrible idea. But embracing it 

is powerful. And God is your friend on 

a whole new level after you’ve acquired 

this level of self-knowledge.” 


Bonaduce sings at St. Bernardine of Siena 

School in Woodland Hills’ weekly school 

Mass. | PETER LOBATO 

His return to the Church took three 

years. He wrote “Requiem for the 

Unborn” with support and input from 

his wife, Eileen. 

Some of the musical settings came to 

him almost instantly, while others took 

years to compose. It debuted in 1995. 

The heart of the Mass — which was 

offered this year on Jan. 20 — is a 

candle-lighting ritual. Parishioners in 

the darkened cathedral carry forward 

large votive candles, each representing 

a child who died in an abortion that 

day in greater Los Angeles. 

Two decades ago, there were more 

than 450 candles. This year there were 

120, though part of the reduction 

is due to increased use of abortion 

pills that aren’t registered in surgical 

statistics. 

Bonaduce considers those candles the 

heart of the “Requiem.” 

“That is the power of this piece. It is 

not the music,” he said. 

He wants others like himself, people 

who bear responsibility for an abortion, 

to share with him in mourning and 

repentance — as well as forgiveness 

and renewal. 

“I want them to embrace what we’ve 

done,” he said. “We’ve sinned on a 

magnificent scale.” 

He believes that music can reach people 

who have tried to close off communication 

on this difficult subject. 

The use of music for the Requiem 

Mass means that “I don’t have to 

explain my opposition to abortion in 

political or theological terms,” he said. 

Katy Kruska, who has sung the 

“Requiem” since its debut, has seen its 

impact. 

“People love that music and they 

come year after year because it is so 

touching,” said Kruska, the principal 

at St. Bernardine of Siena School in 

Woodland Hills, where Bonaduce 

directs a renowned Sunday evening 

parish choir. 

“It is preaching pro-life and it is 

against abortion, but in a very quiet, 

tactful, meaningful prayerful way,” 

Kruska said. “You’re not just out there 

with picket signs, but you’re bringing 

up a candle that symbolizes a loss to 

abortion that very day. You’re watching 

that one baby’s life come down the 

aisle.” 

Alicia Laski, who sings and plays 

bass guitar in Bonaduce’s choir at St. 

Bernardine, has sung the “Requiem for 

the Unborn” since 1996 — as has her 

mother — and her two adult children 

have participated as well. 

The “Requiem” carried a special 

meaning for Laski, who gave up a child 

for adoption when she was in her midteens. 

She had fallen away from church 

after confirmation. As a 21-year-old 

newlywed, she resolved to return and 

joined the choir at St. Bernadine’s to 

help her keep that commitment. 

“The music of the ‘Requiem’ really 

brought out something inside of me,” 

she said. “It makes people feel like it’s 

a relatable subject and they can come 

forward and get the support or help 

that they need, whether it’s something 

happening now or some past trauma. 

It opens conversations that people are 

afraid to have.” 

That’s because singing “gets the faith 

inside you,” Bonaduce said. “You don’t 

have to think about it. You are it.” 

Although he is best known for his 

“Requiem for the Unborn,” the word 

he uses to describe his work is “joy.” 

“That’s my job description,” he said. 

“You show kids that you can be an 

adult man, who’s still alive after seven 

decades, and you find life joyful. I don’t 

need much of a mission statement, and 

that will do it.” 

Ann Rodgers is a longtime religion reporter 

and freelance writer whose awards 

include the William A. Reed Lifetime 

Achievement Award from the Religion 

News Association. 

Bonaduce being interviewed 

for an LA Catholics story by 

the Archdiocese of LA’s Digital 

Team. To watch the video story, 

visit AngelusNews.com/video. 


CARRYING THE LOAD 

A brief guide to some of the Vatican figures poised to take on more 

visible roles in this stage of Pope Francis’ pontificate. 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — In many ways, Pope Francis sailed through 

the demanding holiday season with flying colors. 

Despite a series of health scares throughout 2023, 

and despite, at 87, now being the oldest reigning pontiff in 

120 years, he seemed remarkably strong, engaged and in 

command, even delivering a 45-minute speech to diplomats 

Jan. 8 with gusto. 

In a recent interview, Francis confirmed plans to travel to 

Belgium this year and dangled the prospect of additional 

outings to Polynesia and his native Argentina, and of late he’s 

been taking planning meetings for the Great Jubilee of 2025 

— none of which necessarily suggests a pope who’s winding 

down. 

Yet, of course, time and the tides stop for no one. 

Inevitably, in 2024 the combination of age and health will 

impose increasing restraints on the pontiff, perhaps limiting 

his mobility and energy and forcing him increasingly to focus 

on the essentials. More and more, that reality will mean 

that much routine administration of the Vatican and the 

papacy will be handled by people around the pope, acting in 

his name and with his approval. 

Some of the people called upon to carry an increasing 

share of the load are already well-known figures, others personalities 

whose profile seems destined to rise. 

Herewith, then, a brief guide to figures on the Vatican 

scene likely to become steadily more visible and consequential. 

Msgr. Paolo Luca Braida 

Originally from Lodi in northern Italy, the 59-year-old 

Braida enjoyed a brief run in the spotlight in late November 

and early December, when Francis’ bronchitis rendered him 

short of breath and unable to read his public addresses, so he 

turned to Braida to become his voice. 

It’s a role that can signify bigger things to come. In 2003- 

2004, for instance, then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, at the 

time the sostituto, or “substitute,” in the Vatican’s Secretariat 

of State, sometimes was called upon to read St. Pope John 

Paul II’s speeches in public when the ailing pontiff couldn’t 

do it for himself. 

Pope Francis leads a livestreamed recitation of the Angelus last November with the help 

of Msgr. Paolo Braida, who read the pope’s commentary on the Sunday Gospel for him. 

22 Francis • ANGELUS was suffering • from February a lung infection 9, 2024at the time. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA

Sandri later went on to become a cardinal, the prefect of 

the Congregation for Eastern Churches, and vice-dean of 

the College of Cardinals. 

Braida heads a team in the Secretariat of State responsible 

for producing drafts of the pope’s public remarks, making 

him effectively Francis’ ghostwriter. In his free time, Braida 

occasionally has published collections of his own spiritual 

poetry, and he’s also close to an Italian movement for pastoral 

care for the blind, a group for which a priest-relative has 

worked from the beginning. 

Maximino Caballero Ledo 

A Spanish economist and 

a former executive with 

Baxter Healthcare Inc. in the 

United States, Caballero was 

named the new prefect of 

the Vatican’s Secretariat for 

the Economy in November 

2022, replacing his childhood 

friend, Father Juan Antonio 

Guerrero Alves, SJ. 

Caballero thereby became 

the second layperson to head 

a Vatican department, after 

veteran Italian journalist Paolo 

Ruffini at the Dicastery for Communication. 

Given the importance of Vatican finances to the pontiff’s 

overall reform campaign, Caballero occupies a key role in 

trying to bring those reforms in for a landing, in a moment 

in which the pope’s capacity to oversee those efforts personally 

is destined to be in decline. 

Sister Raffaella Petrini 

A Franciscan Sister of the 

Eucharist and a sociologist 

by training, Petrini, 55, is 

arguably the single most powerful 

woman in the Francis 

papacy. A former professor 

of economics and sociology 

at the Dominican-sponsored 

University of St. Thomas in 

Rome, she also has experience 

in the U.S. as a graduate 

of the Barney School of 

Business at the University of 

Hartford. 

Quite obviously, she has the 

Maximino Caballero Ledo. | VATICAN 

NEWS 

Sister Rafaella Petrini. | FRANCISCAN 

SISTERS OF THE EUCHARIST 

favor of the current pope. She was appointed in November 

2021 as the secretary general, meaning the No. 2 position of 

the Vatican City State, making her by some order of magnitude 

the most powerful woman in the Vatican system. 

Then, in July 2022, Francis made Petrini a member of the 

Dicastery for Bishops, and in October he also made her a 

member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic 

See, which is basically the Vatican’s central bank. 

In other words, Petrini is positioned to play a key role in 

what might arguably be called the three essential elements 

of the Francis reform: the administration of the Vatican, 

the appointment of bishops, and the management of the 

Vatican’s financial resources. 

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti 

A member of the conventual 

Franciscans, Gambetti, 58, is 

inextricably associated with 

Assisi and the charism of St. 

Francis. Between 2013 and 

2021, he was the general custodian 

of the Basilica of the 

Sacred Convent of St. Francis 

in Assisi, with responsibility 

for administering the various 

Franciscan sites in the city. 

In October 2020, Pope Francis 

made Gambetti a cardinal, 

the first time since the 19th 

century that a member of the 

conventual Franciscans received the honor. At the time it 

was considered anomalous, since there was already a prelate 

in Assisi, Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, who was now 

outranked by Gambetti. 

In February 2021, Francis resolved the anomaly by naming 

Gambetti vicar general for the Vatican City State and also 

archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter, and head of the administration 

of the basilica, effectively making him one of the 

Vatican officials with the most direct access to the pope. 

In June 2023, Francis also named Gambetti a judge of 

the Court of Cassation, in effect the supreme court of the 

Vatican City State. 

Archbishop Edgar Peña 

Parra 

A 63-year-old Venezuelan, 

Peña Parra is the sostituto 

(“substitute”) in the Vatican’s 

Secretariat of State, making 

him effectively the pope’s 

chief of staff. He’s the second 

Latin American to hold the 

role, after Sandri. 

In some ways, Peña Parra’s 

status under Francis was 

called into question by the 

part he played in the fiasco 

of the failed $400 million 

London property deal, which 

ended in convictions by a Vatican tribunal for nine defendants, 

including Peña Parra’s predecessor, Italian Cardinal 

Angelo Becciu. 

On the other hand, Peña Parra remains in his position, 

and, as the pope ages and becomes increasingly reliant on 

others to carry the ball, the fact of serving as the sostituto by 

definition means that Peña Parra will become an increasingly 

influential fixture on the Vatican scene as time goes on. 

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

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. | CNS/LOLA 

GOMEZ 

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra. | CNS/ 

PAUL HARING 


Dried palms are placed in a fire at the 

conclusion of a Mardi Gras evening 

prayer service. Ashes from the fire 

are used on Ash Wednesday. | CNS/ 

GREGORY A. SHEMITZ 

Lent is for lovers 

BY FATHER PETER JOHN CAMERON, OP 

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same day 

this year — and they’re trying to tell us the same thing. 

This also occurred a few years 

back: in 2018, Ash Wednesday 

fell on Valentine’s Day (and 

previously to that, in 1945). A Dominican 

parish in Cincinnati decided to 

make hay of it by sponsoring a special 

spiritual series for the season titled 

“Lent Is for Lovers.” Provocative but 

brilliant! 

Everybody knows that Valentine’s 

Day is a holiday celebrating the joys 

of romantic love, but the whole of the 

liturgical season of Lent is dedicated 

to celebrating the greatest of all loves: 

“There is no greater love than this: to 

lay down one’s life for one’s friends” 

— words spoken by Jesus as he entered 

into his Passion (John 15:13). 

St. Valentine and God’s friendship 

This co-incidence of celebrations is 

not coincidental. Valentine, after all, 

was a saint who was also a martyr. His 

whole existence was about laying down 

his life for his Beloved. St. Valentine’s 

witness offers the perfect way to commence 

our Lent on Ash Wednesday. 

According to the 13th- century 

classic lives of the saints “The Golden 

Legend,” the emperor Claudius one 

day confronted the venerable priest 

Valentine with these words: “Why do 

you not win our friendship by adoring 


our gods and abandoning your vain 

superstitions?” St. Valentine replied: 

“If you but knew the grace of God, you 

would turn your mind away from idols 

and adore the God who is in heaven.” 

Whereupon, St. Valentine was tortured 

and beheaded. 

That is exactly what we want to do 

during Lent: to know the overwhelming 

grace of God, to turn our mind 

away from idols, and to adore the God 

of heaven precisely in order to live in 

his friendship. As ashes are placed on 

our forehead this Ash Wednesday, the 

priest will say to us: “Remember that 

you are dust, and to dust you shall 

return.” 

Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, 

Norway, explained the spiritual significance 

of this: 

“When I remember I am dust I also 

recall that I was destined to be more. 

To say, on these terms, that I am dust is 

not degrading. It is God who degrades 

himself for love, stooping down from 

celestial realms to re-shape and re-inspirit 

humble matter.” 

In other words, those ashes are the 

best of valentines. 

The perfect valentine 

Who doesn’t want to get a valentine? 

But we crave a love that surpasses the 

A newly engaged couple kisses after a 

blessing at the Shrine of St. Valentine 

in Dublin in 2019. | CNS/CLODAGH 

KILCOYNE, REUTERS 

sentimental. We want an ultimate love 

… and infinite love. And it has to be 

comprised of three things. 

It has to be a love that comes to us 

as a gift. If instead it is something 

we need to “earn,” then it’s nothing 

but compensation — not real love. 

God loves us because he is good, not 

because we are. Ash Wednesday is the 

time to begin our begging for this gift. 

In the words of the 14th- century mystic 

Walter Hilton, “the lover of God is 

his friend, not because he has deserved 

to be, but because God in his merciful 

goodness has made him so by a very 

real pact.” Namely, the cross. 

Second, it has to be a love that keeps 

declaring to us, It is necessary that you 

exist! In the short story “Sine, Cosine, 

Tangent” by American author Don 

DeLillo, the agnostic main character 

decides one Ash Wednesday to present 

himself for ashes. It becomes for him 

an occasion of powerful grace, for 

through it he knows himself to be 

wanted, chosen: 

“I went to the altar rail and knelt, the 

priest approached and made his mark, 

a splotch of holy ash thumb-printed to 

my forehead. Dust you are. …” 

The man begins to realize: “My parents 

were not Catholic. I didn’t know 

what we were. We were eat and sleep. 

We were Take Daddy’s Suit to the dry 

cleaner.” Yet that sacred impression to 

his forehead continues to impress him: 

“But the robed priest and the small 

grinding action of his thumb implanting 

the ash. And unto dust you shall 

return. … I didn’t know what this was. 

… I wanted the stain to last for days 

and weeks.” 

And third, the love has to be a love 

that is indestructible. However, that 

love comes to us through the destruction 

of God’s Son on the cross … and 

through his resurrection. The reason 

we mortify ourselves during Lent is to 

predispose ourselves, more and more, 

to be able to receive and hold fast to 

this indestructible love. For love is 

what penance is all about. “Every penance 

that increases love is good; any 

penance that narrows and preoccupies 

the soul is harmful” (Von Balthasar). 

Ash Wednesday calls us to recommit 

ourselves to our only real priority, especially 

by doing away with the doubt 

that derails us. St. John of Ávila expresses 

it in a prayer we would do well to 

offer often this Lent: 

“O God who are Love itself, how we 

wound you if we do not trust in you 

with all our hearts! If, after the favors 

you have shown us, and after having 

died for us, we do not feel confidence 

in you, we must be worse than very 

brutes. In the times that we offended 

you, you cherished us. You followed 

after us when we fled from you. You 

drew us to yourself. Please keep us 

from ever distrusting you or questioning 

whether you do love us and intend 

to save us.” 

Being a valentine 

Let’s start our Lent this Ash Wednesday 

giving others a lasting valentine 

— the miracle of Divine Love made 

possible through the Paschal Mystery: 

“The ultimate miracle of Divine 

Love is this, that the life of the Risen 

Lord is given to us to give to one another. 

It is given to us through our own 

human loves” (Caryll Houselander). 

After all, Lent is for lovers. 

Father Peter John Cameron, OP, is 

the former editor-in-chief of Magnificat 

and the author of 10 books. He is now 

engaged in itinerant teaching, giving 

parish missions and retreats. 


INTERSECTIONS 

GREG ERLANDSON 

Splintered screen: 

Our fractured television landscape 

If you are of a certain age, it is 

most likely you can still remember 

certain major TV events: 

When the Beatles first appeared 

on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” The 

last episode of “M*A*S*H.” When 

Sammy Davis Jr. planted a wet one 

on Archie in “All in the Family.” 

You can recall favorite episodes of 

“The Twilight Zone,” and if you 

only mention the theme (“To Serve 

Humans”), your friends of a similar 

age will know it. 

Network television, even when 

it was being critiqued as a “vast 

wasteland,” was one of the ties 

that bound us together as a nation. 

From the cultured to the crass, its 

programming was watched by huge 

percentages of the population, and 

back when we gathered around 

water coolers, it was relatively easy 

to predict what shows we were going 

to be talking about on Monday 

morning. 

No more. What now streams over not 

just our TV sets but our laptops and 

phones is an endless flood of visual 

treats and distractions: From YouTube 

and TikTok to burgeoning streaming 

services like Netflix and Hulu to 

traditional cable and, for the fewer and 

fewer of us who still watch it, network 

television as well. 

There is in fact a new conversation 

ritual. At some point the talk turns to 

inquiring what we might be watching 

in common, be it “The Golden 

Bachelor,” “Shetland,” or “Game of 

Thrones.” We use these conversations 

as a kind of geolocator for where this 

friend or potential friend might fall in 

terms of cultural interests, the same 

way we use Fox or CNN or MSNBC to 

geolocate their political leanings. 

This plethora of entertainment — 

some of it of high quality and increasingly 

international in nature — is one 

reason this is being labeled the “golden 

age” of television. 

But Robert David Sullivan begs to 

differ. In a fascinating commentary in 

the January issue of America magazine, 

Sullivan takes issue with the assertion. 

He argues that the fragmentation of 

channels, this multiverse of platforms, 

is perhaps both cause and symptom 

of our increasing fragmentation as a 

society. 

“Entertainment and culture, like 

politics, has become as balkanized as 

supermarkets with dozens of brands of 

bottled water,” he wrote. 

SHUTTERSTOCK 

He particularly focuses on “prestige 

TV,” often trendy HBO shows like 

“The Sopranos” and “Succession,” that 

featured, in his words, “narcissistic and 

even psychotic men ruining the lives 

of everyone around them.” Many other 

prestige shows come to mind in this 

category: “House of Cards.” “Dexter.” 

“Breaking Bad.” 

One symptom of this trend was the 

“self-segregation of elitist viewers,” Sullivan 

said. Elites were not finding their 

“prestige television” in a network-aired 

play or a Leonard Bernstein concert, 

but “terrible-people” melodramas. 

Meanwhile, other parts of the audience 

drifted off to one of the endless shows 

produced by Dick Wolf, usually involving 

formulaic plots, terse dialogue, and 

body counts. Or they turn to “reality 


Greg Erlandson is the former president and 

editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service. 

shows,” which are anything but. 

High culture has been relegated to 

public broadcasting, where another 

sliver of the population can still find 

operas, plays, and serious documentaries. 

Yet this audience is a fraction of 

the one that watched Margot Fonteyn 

and Rudolph Nureyev on a variety 

show like “Ed Sullivan,” the same show 

that also introduced us to The Beatles. 

Sullivan concedes that television has 

gotten more diverse. We’ve grown beyond 

“The Jeffersons” and “The Cosby 

Show,” and that is a good thing. At the 

same time, lacking a shared viewing 

space, shows featuring this diversity are 

less likely to reach very far beyond their 

target ethnic audience. 

“For just about anyone,” Sullivan 

wrote, “there are now more shows on 

television that reflect your own life; the 

trade-off may be that there is nothing 

that reflects our common life, or addresses 

our common concerns.” 

Perhaps this fragmentation of television 

audiences simply reflects our 

own fragmentation. Perhaps it reflects 

trends in marketing, in which ad agencies 

want a specific demographic slice, 

and are willing to pay handsomely for 

that slice. 

There may be one other corrosive 

trend at work: that playing to our fears, 

our cynicism, and our baser instincts 

is more profitable and easier to attract 

audiences with short attention spans 

and a distrust of almost everything. 

Shadowy conspiracies, corrupt higher-ups, 

remorseless villains deserving of 

a remorseless response (all exemplified 

in Prime Video’s hit “Reacher” series) 

feed our cynicism. 

In fact, our public square, our shared 

space, is larded with cynicism. We 

have fewer heroes and more villains, 

dupes, and lone rangers who, in 

Wayne LaPierre’s cynical motto, see 

themselves as a good guy with a gun 

stopping loads of bad guys with guns. 

This may be all that functions as our 

“common conversation” today, both 

reflecting our fractured and distrustful 

culture and feeding it. I can only hope 

that we will soon weary of this darkness 

and seek to recover a shared digital 

space that will speak to our better 

angels. 


NOW PLAYING CHINATOWN 

THE PERFECT 

LA FILM? 

Los Angeles still suffers from the same identity issues 

diagnosed in ‘Chinatown’ 50 years ago. 

Jack Nicholson in “Chinatown.” 

| IMDB 

BY JOSEPH JOYCE 

To explain his theory of relativity, 

Albert Einstein pointed out that 

sitting on a hot stove for five 

minutes feels like an hour, but sitting 

next to a pretty girl for an hour feels 

like five minutes. Los Angeles suffers 

from the same time dilation. My three 

years in the city have been more like 

one extended summer vacation, and 

any native will tell you that any car 

trip, no matter how short, invariably 

takes at least 20 minutes. 

The Southern California time warp 

comes to mind this year, 50 years 

since the release of “Chinatown,” a 

neo-noir that survived the years so well 

that it’s now simply considered noir. 

Set in 1937 and released in 1974, we 

are now further along from its release 

date than the film was from its period 

piece. 

But that’s the odd thing about LA; 

it’s not just that time moves differently 

here, it’s that it hardly moves at all. 

The same evils of the 1930s were echoed 

in the 1970s and echo still now. 

If an echo lasts for that long, you may 

have to wonder if it’s not an echo at 

all but a deity screaming in your ear. 

The protagonist of “Chinatown” is 

Jake Gittes (a never better Jack Nicholson), 

a private investigator, who 

like most of the shamus trade mainly 

snaps pictures of adulterous spouses. 

One such woman scorned, a Mrs. 

Mulwray, tasks him with catching her 

husband in the act. 

Jake knows him by his more respectable 

reputation, as chief engineer for 

the Department of Water. You would 

think he had bigger concerns seeing 

the city is in a drought, but men 

always seem to find the time. Time 

moves differently for them too. 

Jake does indeed spy Mulwray visiting 

a young woman, but also him inspecting 

several sluices as water spills 

out. But if there’s water to waste, then 

why is there a drought? And if there’s 

no drought, why are the farmers of the 

San Fernando Valley getting dried out 

and forced to sell their land? 

Then Mulwray is found drowned in 

a freshwater reservoir with saltwater 

in his lungs, and then the real Mrs. 

Mulwray (Catholic convert Faye 

Dunaway) arrives demanding answers, 

and I think it’s fair for the film itself to 

answer them. 

This is my third year in Los Angeles, 

or more technically my third year in 

the San Fernando Valley. In those 

three years I’ve learned that depending 

on the angle of the upturned nose, 

I may have never been in LA at all. I 

like the Valley for the same reasons 

others dismiss it; it’s nice to have a 

little quiet and an option other than 

parallel parking. 


But that elbow room came at a cost. 

This is land that once belonged to 

Native Americans, until they found 

that Spain came to them. Then it was 

taken from the Mexicans, who found 

that America came to them. LA finally 

came for the farmers, forced out so 

the city fathers could build swaths of 

ranch houses, In-N-Outs, and a secretly 

better airport. 

I eat the fruits (and burgers) of such 

evil labors, while perpetuating them 

for the next generation. Chinatown 

remains relevant because LA’s original 

sin is hardly original at all. Locals are 

still forced out for their land, this time 

for clout rather than water. We watch 

helplessly as the fashionable neighborhoods 

creep east, like a swarm of 

locusts hungry for cheap rent and 

leaving behind nothing but stalks and 

Erewhon grocery stores. Even San 

Bernardino has begun constructing 

fortifications for the encroaching 

hipster caravan. 

Though hard to remember during an 

El Niño winter, I moved down here 

in a drought (a real drought, with all 

respect to “Chinatown”). LA already 

takes most of its water from the 

Colorado River. When the river ran 

low on water to borrow, city officials 

gingerly requested we cut back on our 

shower times. We, of course, refused 

with a patriot’s dignity and were bailed 

out with these last few years of storms. 

But ask any football team, even the 

Chargers, if Fullerton won’t return 

your calls: punting isn’t a solution. 

A final lesson from “Chinatown” is 

that geography molds a people. I am 

from the Pacific Northwest, a land of 

beautiful people at icy remove. We 

take our cue from Mt. Rainier, who 

looms over us like an emotionally 

distant mother. My time in LA has 

made me a bit sunnier in disposition, 

if no less beautiful. 

The characters in “Chinatown” are 

irrevocably “LA.” The heroes are a 

desperate sort, unbearably present 

in the moment because they know 

there’s no backup plan. When you’re 

at the terminus of the rail line, you 

fight back because your back is to the 

ocean and you can’t drink a drop. 

The villains are modern conquistadors, 

forging kingdoms out of the raw 

material of the desert. Their evil is 

strong enough to mold the geography, 

the land withering even further like 

an Oedipal blight. 

A modern landscape image of 

Los Angeles. | SHUTTERSTOCK 

If there is an agreement between 

the two, it’s that LA should not exist. 

Its continued survival is either an act 

of ingenuity, hubris, or malice, often 

all at the same time. For the evil that 

existentialism is a license to remake 

the world in their image. For an unlucky 

few that is a call to purpose, to 

bring justice to a land without much 

interest. 

On the 405 the other day, just cresting 

the hills, I saw the graffiti “WE 

ARE ALL ALONE” spray-painted on 

the side of a cliff. It couldn’t help but 

remind me of a line from Nicholson’s 

character, who when asked if he was 

alone, quips, “Aren’t we all?” 

The curse and blessing of Los Angeles 

is that it just isn’t true. We’re all 

stuck here together in a land beyond 

time, loving and killing and sinking 

deeper as we fight for footing in the 

muck. Fitting for a city with a tar pit 

at its heart. 

Joseph Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance 

critic based in Sherman Oaks. 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

What Carmen left behind 

Servant of God Carmen Hernández, who 

died in 2016, with Kiko Argüello in 1984. 

They are known as the “co-initiators” of 

the Neocatechumenal Way, an itinerary 

of post-baptismal Christian formation 

present in more than 130 countries worldwide. 

| NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY 

Servant of God Carmen Hernández, 

along with Kiko Argüello, 

co-initiated what is known as the 

Neocatechumenal Way. 

The charism grew out of the Second 

Vatican Council, took root in Madrid 

and Rome, and has spread throughout 

the world in innumerable communities, 

attracting a multitude of catechumens. 

The Way describes itself as “an 

itinerary of rediscovery of baptism 

and ongoing formation in the faith”; a 

proposition “to the faithful who wish 

to rekindle in their lives the richness 

of the Christian initiation” and live 

lives marked by humility, simplicity, 

and praise. 

Meant to be lived in parishes and 

small communities comprising people 

from varying demographics, ages, and 

social groups, the aim is to gradually 

lead the faithful “to intimacy with 

Jesus Christ and transform them into 

active members in the Church and 

credible witnesses of the Good News. 

It is an instrument for the Christian 

initiation of adults preparing to receive 

baptism.” 

Hernández (1930-2016) left 30 years 

of diaries, which are being transcribed 

bit by bit. The first three years are now 

available: “Diaries: 1979-1981” (Gondolin 

Press, $24), with a foreword by 

Cardinal Séan O’Malley of Boston 

and a preface by Cardinal Ricardo 

Blásquez Pérez, archbishop emeritus 

of Valladolid, Spain. 

As Blasquez notes, “Kiko was the 

catechist who always spoke and Carmen 

almost always listened, at times 

praying, at other times with restlessness 

and sometimes intervening with 

a pertinent reflection.” 

Nonetheless, he says, we must 

assume that the development of the 

content of the catecheses, the “steps” 

and “rites,” and the organization of 

the evangelization was due to their 

combined work. 

“Each one contributed the gifts 

received by God.” 

Argüello (born 1939, still going 

strong at 85) is an extrovert who 

thrives in the limelight, an artist 

whose personality was especially difficult 

for Hernández. Her itinerant missionary 

lifestyle over 50 years required 

constant travel, crowds, and uprootedness. 

She never had a permanent 

place to lay her head, nor the silence 

and solitude that her contemplative 

spirit craved. 

Her diaries are marked by an anguish 

that might be almost comical in its 

repetition, except for the genuine 

suffering that permeates almost every 

entry. 

“I will fight against the ghosts of 

darkness. I will not dialogue with 

them, I will not let them rope me 

in. Away with you, Satan! The risen 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

Lord… Gladden me Lord, fight at my 

side, invigorate and enliven my bones. 

Come, Lord. The Pope [John Paul II] 

is in Turin” (April 12-13, 1980). 

“Nighttime crisis. Crisis on top of 

crisis. The stinginess of my heart. The 

pain of money, of life. My father. The 

impossible. Here, wildly spending unearned 

money. My Jesus, architects, 

lawyers, the languages, the Arabs…the 

deceit…My Jesus, to escape…where 

to? All your land seems like hell…” 

(Jerusalem, Feb. 11, 1981). 

“Restlessness…itinerants, communities, 

pastors, Bishops. The Church, 

my Jesus, and the world, all is terror, 

terrorism, terror, terror, powerlessness, 

impossibility, distrust. My Jesus, my 

Jesus, if I had faith in You, if my feet 

were on your holy rock… But I don’t 

see your face, I don’t see anything, 

I suffer, I suffer, and I suffer in the 

helplessness of death and in a visceral 

silence. My Jesus, I lament… I cry out 

to You, answer me. Have mercy on 

me in this unbelief of death” (Rome, 

May 21, 1981). 

“The mystery of suffering and grief. 

People overwhelm me. I want to escape. 

Kiko terrifies me with his crazy 

prayers. My Jesus, the mountains: 

ghosts of the Gran Madre di Dio, the 

accusations… 

“Finally, peace. Incredible freedom…My 

Jesus, sweet company. 

These things that St. Teresa speaks 

about, we have sweetly lived for so 

many years. Come, accompany me. I 

love you. Say it to me. Come, Jesus” 

(Rome, May 31, 1981). 

During the next several months, she 

suffers insomnia, dentist crises, hospital 

stays, dissatisfaction, “groggy from 

smoking, fighting, yelling, my Jesus.” 

Darkness, terrible thoughts, sadnesses, 

the terror, the trial. 

Occasionally, she enjoys a brief 

reprieve: “Blessed are you. I am in 

grace” (Madrid, Oct. 27, 1981). 

Then, once again, she’s plunged 

into darkness: “I’m dead tired. Kiko is 

impossible. Help me, Jesus” (Madrid, 

Dec. 5, 1981). 

The odd-couple pairing brings to 

mind Servant of God Dorothy Day 

and Peter Maurin who, together and 

in spite of very different sensibilities, 

founded the lay Catholic Worker 

movement. 

These platonic friendship-collaborations, 

it seems, each resembling 

an incredibly difficult marriage, bore 

fruit only because both partners — 

from love of God — stuck it out till 

the end. 

I have no personal experience of the 

Neocatechumenal Way. Like most 

lay movements, it has its passionate 

adherents and its detractors. 

But the Lord works in mysterious 

ways, his wonders to perform. That 

the Way grew out of such agony, on 

Hernández’s part; that in a way it 

should not have worked, but did — is 

perhaps the real takeaway. 

And let’s not forget, there are 27 

more years of diaries to come! 

In the meantime, what struggling 

human being can’t relate? 

“Vatican. My Jesus, Fr. Maximino, 

itinerants, nothing consoles me. Nausea, 

terror, fear. My Jesus, where can I 

escape? Serenity. 

“Firenze [Florence, Italy]. My Jesus, 

it’s incredible that on the same day 

one can feel so differently about 

things, from fear to serenity, from difficulty 

to indifference. My Jesus, how 

mysterious the human psyche is. Help 

me” (Rome, May 27, 1981). 


LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

Lenten back to basics 

I 

love Lent. 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I take pleasure in 

fasting. And I don’t enjoy “giving stuff up” any more 

than the next guy. In my devotional life I can be a typical 

spoiled American. 

But Lent, for me, is always a hopeful time. It’s my annual 

reminder that change is possible. More than that, I’m reminded 

that God wants me 

to change and wills me to 

change. So he’ll give me the 

grace I need to put away vice 

and put on virtue. All the 

readings at Mass reinforce 

those lessons. God calls 

Israel to repent — to cease 

its sinning — and to grow by 

means of prayer, fasting, and 

almsgiving. 

I usually mark the season 

with a silent retreat, so that I 

can get back to the basics of 

the spiritual life. I’ll usually 

take a book with me; and 

I want to tell you about a 

book I took along a Lent or 

two ago. It’s “Knowing the 

Love of God: Lessons from a 

Spiritual Master” (St. Joseph 

Communications, $14.95), 

by Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, 

OP. 

This author defined “the 

basics of the spiritual life” 

for me, way back when I 

was a new Catholic. Garrigou-Lagrange 

was perhaps the 

most celebrated Catholic 

theologian of his lifetime 

(1877-1964). He taught for 

many years at Rome’s Pontifical University of Saint Thomas 

Aquinas (the Angelicum), and among his illustrious 

students was a young Polish priest named Karol Wojtyla. 

Father Wojtyla (whom we now know as St. Pope John Paul 

II) completed his doctoral dissertation under the direction 

of Friar Reginald. 

He is best known, however, for his foundational work of 

spiritual theology, “The Three Ages of the Interior Life” 

(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, $25), 

which he wrote when he was young. That title, too, bears 

careful reading and re-reading. I cannot name — and can’t 

even imagine — a book more justly influential on the 

practice of spiritual direction. 

But “Knowing the Love of 

God” is an even better way 

Father Reginald 

Garrigou-Lagrange. | 

FLICKR 

to pass your Lenten days. 

It is Father Garrigou-Lagrange’s 

most mature work 

— his last writings, produced 

in the midst of much 

suffering. In fact, its chapters 

are mostly the notes for meditations 

that he preached at 

retreats for his fellow friars. 

Garrigou-Lagrange anticipated 

what St. Pope John 

XXIII called the greatest 

teaching of the Second Vatican 

Council: the universal 

call to holiness. Garrigou-Lagrange 

believed that 

ordinary Christians, by virtue 

of their baptism, were called 

to the mystical life and empowered 

for it. This doesn’t 

mean we’ll all be visionaries 

or prophets; in fact, it seems 

that God calls very few to 

experience such dramatic 

phenomena. 

But we’re all called to enjoy 

a life of profound, prayerful, 

and intimate union with 

God. We’re called to be 

God’s children, and to know 

his Fatherhood in an ever more powerful way. This is the 

ordinary vocation of Christians. 

It’s my vocation and yours, and we can certainly live it 

better. If you can’t join me on retreat this year, please join 

me at least in the pages of this book, which is now available 

again after many years out of print. 


■ 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. Tenth annual Nun Run, hosted by Sisters of Notre 

Dame, will raise proceeds for local and global outreach. 

Visit nun.run. 

■ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 

Rite of Election. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 

W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 3 p.m. The Rite of Election is 

the final required step for anyone preparing to receive the 

sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and the holy Eucharist 

on the Easter Vigil. Email Leticia Perez at LPerez@ 

la-archdiocese.org. 

Choral Evening Prayer. Church of the Good Shepherd, 504 

N. Roxbury Dr., Beverly Hills, 7:30 p.m. Candlelight service 

of ecumenical choral and organ music will be offered in 

observance of the 15th anniversary of the blessing of the 

organ. All are welcome. Call 310-285-5425. 

■ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 

Wellness Evening. St. Christopher Church, 629 S. Glendora 

Ave., West Covina, 7-8:30 p.m. Topic: “Good communication 

is crucial to any relationship.” Presented by Cynthia 

Holmes, LMFT, hosted by the Father Kolbe Missionaries 

of the Immaculate. Call Jillian Cooke at 626-917-0040 or 

email FKMministry@gmail.com. 

■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7 

Changing Seasons: Lent to Palm Sunday. Zoom, 7-8:30 

p.m. Class led by Father Felix Just, SJ, will explore Bible readings 

for Lent to Palm Sunday. Visit lacatholics.org/events. 


Citizenship Workshop for Permanent Residents. Our 

Lady of Grace Church, 5011 White Oak Ave., Encino, 9 

a.m.-1 p.m. Event includes free application preparation 

and form completion for eligible residents, as well as free 

citizenship classes. Call 818-342-4686 or email BeACitizenNow@gmail.com. 

Marian Retreat: Blessed are you among women! Father 

Kolbe Missionaries Center, 531 E. Merced Ave., West Covina, 

9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Email FKMministry@gmail.com. 

Valentine’s Dinner. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 

23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall, 12 p.m. Hosted by the Italian 

Catholic Club of SCV, includes complimentary glass of 

wine. Cost: $45/person. RSVP to Anna Riggs at 661-645- 

7877 by Feb. 5. 

World Day of the Sick Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 12:30 p.m. Hosted 

by the Western Association of the Order of Malta, all are 

welcome, especially those who are suffering in body or spirit. 

Blessing and anointing of the sick will be administered. 

22nd Annual Black History Mass: “Walk Together 

Children.” Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. 

Temple St., Los Angeles, 5 p.m. Sponsored by the African 

American Catholic Center for Evangelization. Celebrant: 

Archbishop José H. Gomez. Keeper of the Flame award will 

be presented by Archbishop Gomez. For more information, 

visit aaccfe.org. 


Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San 

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

virtual and not open to the public. Livestream available at 

CatholicCM.org or Facebook.com/lacatholics. 

■ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 

Youth Day: RECongress. Anaheim Convention Center, 

200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Young 

people will enjoy a general session, keynote speech, two 

workshops, and Eucharistic liturgy. Speakers include Baby 

Angel, Chris Estrella, and Maggie Craig. Cost: $40/person. 

Register at recongress.org. 

LACBA CFJ Eviction Response Clinic. LA Law Library, 

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

with eviction court summons and complaints. Open 

to LA County tenants with disabilities and limited incomes. 

Spanish assistance available. RSVP required. Call 213-896- 

6536 or email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. 

■ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16 

Religious Education Congress. Anaheim Convention 

Center, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim. Events run Feb. 

16-18, and include speakers, sacraments, films, and 

workshops. Keynote speaker: Jessica Sarowitz, founder of 

Miraflores Films. Cost: $75/person until Jan. 15, $85/person 

after. For more information, visit recongress.org. 

Retrouvaille Marriage Retreat: Spanish. San Fernando. 

Retreat runs Feb. 16-18. Call Adolfo and Dora Rubio at 

818-367-4198 or Salvador and Maria Acosta at 626-934- 

7452 for more information or to register. 

Fish Fry. St. Clare Church, 19606 Calla Way, Canyon Country, 

4:30-8 p.m. Includes two-three pieces of beer-battered 

cod, coleslaw, choice of side, or fish tacos with rice and 

beans. Dine in or take out. Cost: $15/person, two-piece 

dinner or two tacos, $16/person, three-piece dinner. Family 

pack available for $55. Call 661-252-3353 or visit st-clare. 

org. 


Lenten Retreat. St. James Church, 415 Vincent St., Redondo 

Beach, 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Hosted by the Catholic Daughters 

of America Court of Our Lady of Victory, this free retreat 

led by Msgr. Timothy Nichols invites men and women to 

get their spiritual house in order before Easter. Includes 

Mass and complimentary continental breakfast. Theme: 

“On the Road with Jesus and Mary.” Call Mary Costello at 

310-316-0768 or email mmcostello1@verizon.net. 

“Don’t Get Robbed by Satan’s Scams” Conference. St. 

Didacus Church, 14325 Astoria St., Selma, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Led by Father Bob Garon and Dominic Berardino. Topics 

include “Old Lies of the New Age” and “God’s Remedies 

for the Devil’s Poisons.” Mass and catered lunch included. 

Register at events.scrc.org, call 818-771-1361 or email 

spirit@scrc.org. 


Career Fair. Holy Cross Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., 

Culver City, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Open positions in the Archdiocese 

of Los Angeles for embalmers, funeral service assistants, 

and more. Bring résumé for on-the-spot interviews. 

For more information, visit lacatholics.org/event/career-fair. 

■ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 

Record Clearing Virtual Clinic for Veterans. 5-8 p.m. 

Legal team will help with traffic tickets, quality of life citations, 

and expungement of criminal convictions. Free clinic 

is open to all Southern California veterans. Registration 

required. Call 213-896-6537 or email inquiries-veterans@ 

lacba.org. 

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

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

Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No

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