Angelus News | April 5, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 7

ANGELUS 

HOPE IS 

KINDLED 

How to keep the Easter fire 

burning for 50 days 

April 5, 2024 Vol. 9 No. 7

April 5, 2024 

Vol. 9 • No. 7 

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ANGELUS 

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ON THE COVER 


Archbishop José H. Gomez lights the paschal candle in the plaza 

of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels during the 2014 Easter 

Vigil. As we begin the season of Easter, on Page 10 Father Peter 

John Cameron, OP, reflects on how the rite of the paschal fire 

transcends tradition and represents an explosion of hope worth 

celebrating for 50 days. 

THIS PAGE 


Archbishop José H. Gomez, along with 

Auxiliary Bishops Matthew Elshoff, Brian 

Nunes, and Marc Trudeau, pose with 

attendees and the scholars honored at the 

50th Annual Christian Service Awards 

Mass on March 12. 

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CONTENTS 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 

16 

20 

22 

24 

26 

28 

30 

This LA Catholic went blind. That didn’t stop him from reading during Mass 

Q&A: El Salvador’s cardinal warns country could become next Nicaragua 

John Allen: Why Pope Francis’ ‘white flag’ remarks caused a diplomatic crisis 

Could Rose Hawthorne become America’s next canonized saint? 

The tragedy of IVF: Exploitation, eugenics, and severe side effects 

Grazie Pozo Christie on Easter as the true answer to our cynicism 

A local Holocaust survivor’s gratitude — and frustration — with the Church 

Heather King: When it comes to the cross, who’s carrying whom? 

April 5, 2024 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH 

Defining virtue 

The following is adapted from the 

Holy Father’s catechesis to visitors and 

pilgrims during his weekly Wednesday 

audience in St. Peter’s Square March 13. 

The exercise of the virtues is 

the fruit of long germination, 

requiring effort and even 

suffering. The virtuous person does 

not become warped by distortion, but 

remains faithful to his own vocation, 

fully realizing himself. 

We would be off course if we thought 

that the saints were the exceptions of 

humanity: a sort of restricted circle of 

champions who live beyond the limits 

of our species. The saints are instead 

those who become themselves fully, 

who fulfill the vocation proper to every 

man or woman. 

What a happy world it would be if 

justice, respect, mutual benevolence, 

broadmindedness, and hope were the 

shared normality, and not instead a 

rare anomaly! This is why the chapter 

on virtuous action, in these dramatic 

times of ours in which we often have 

to come to terms with the worst of 

humanity, should be rediscovered and 

practiced by all. In a distorted world, 

we must remember the form in which 

we were shaped, the image of God 

that is forever imprinted upon us. 

The Catechism of the Catholic 

Church defines virtue as a “habitual 

and firm disposition to do the good” 

(no. 1803). Therefore, it is not an 

improvised or somewhat random good 

that falls from heaven sporadically. 

History shows us that even criminals, 

in moments of lucidity, have performed 

good deeds; certainly, these 

deeds are inscribed in the “book of 

God.” 

But virtue is something else. It is 

a goodness that stems from a slow 

maturation of the person, to the point 

of becoming an inner characteristic. 

Virtue is a habitus [habit] of freedom. 

If we are free in every act, and 

every time we are required to choose 

between good and evil, virtue is what 

enables us to have a tendency toward 

the right choice. 

If virtue is such a beautiful gift, a 

question immediately arises: how is 

it possible to obtain it? The answer 

to this question is not simple, it is 

complex. 

For the Christian, the first aid is 

God’s grace. Indeed, the Holy Spirit 

acts in us who have been baptized, 

working in our soul to lead it to a virtuous 

life. How many Christians have 

reached holiness through tears, finding 

they could not overcome some of their 

weaknesses! But they experienced that 

God completed that work of good that 

for them was only a sketch. Grace always 

precedes our moral commitment. 

Moreover, we must never forget the 

very rich lesson from the wisdom of 

the ancients, which tells us that virtue 

grows and can be cultivated. And for 

this to happen, the first gift to ask of 

the Spirit is precisely wisdom. The 

human being is not a free territory for 

the conquest of pleasures, emotions, 

instincts, passions, without being able 

to do anything against these forces, at 

times chaotic, that dwell within. 

A priceless gift we possess is 

open-mindedness, it is the wisdom that 

can learn from mistakes in order to 

direct life well. Then, it takes goodwill: 

the capacity to choose the good, 

to form ourselves with ascetic exercise, 

shunning excesses. 

Papal Prayer Intention for April: We pray that the dignity and 

immense value of women be recognized in every culture, 

and for the end of discrimination that they experience in 

different parts of the world. 

2 • ANGELUS • April 5, 2024

NEW WORLD OF FAITH 

ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ 

The encounter with Easter 

It was still dark in the early morning 

hours when Mary Magdalene 

returned to the tomb. 

She had been with Jesus when the 

Roman soldiers came to arrest him, 

when the Twelve and his other disciples 

ran away. 

When they crucified him, she was 

there at the foot of the cross, alongside 

Mary, his mother, and St. John, the 

only apostle who didn’t run. 

She watched him die and then with 

the other women helped prepare the 

Lord’s body to be placed in the tomb. 

And as the light began to dawn on that 

first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene 

would be the first one to see Jesus 

Christ risen from the dead. 

It is a beautiful mystery that the story 

of salvation begins with two women, 

the Blessed Virgin Mary, who carries 

the incarnate Jesus in her womb, 

and St. Elizabeth, who is the first to 

proclaim this Child as “my Lord.” 

God chose a third woman, Mary 

Magdalene, to be the first witness of his 

empty tomb, and the first to see him 

alive, and the first to proclaim the truth 

of his resurrection. 

One of the ancient prayers for Easter 

remembers the scene: 

Magdalene. The Gospel tells us she 

was possessed by seven demons and 

that Jesus set her free. In gratitude and 

love, she became one of his first and 

most devoted disciples. 

She followed him in faith and the 

journey led her to his cross and then to 

his resurrection. 

The story of her meeting with Jesus in 

the 20th chapter of St. John’s Gospel 

is filled with specific details: when she 

stood and when she bent down, the 

position of the angels where the Lord’s 

body had been; what she said to Jesus, 

and the things he told her. 

It’s as if Mary Magdalene didn’t want 

to forget a single moment of that Easter 

encounter. 

“Why are you weeping, whom do you 

seek?” The questions that Jesus asked 

her, he asks now of each one of us. 

Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize 

Jesus until he said her name. When he 

spoke, “Mary!” her eyes were opened 

and her heart understood. 

freedom in accepting the Lord’s forgiveness 

and living the new life that he has 

won for us by laying down his life on 

the cross and rising on the third day. 

Jesus said he would never leave us 

orphans, that he would be with us until 

the end of the age. On Easter, he keeps 

that promise. 

Because he has destroyed death by 

his death, the dividing wall between 

heaven and earth has been broken 

down. 

He goes with us now as a friend, 

a companion. As he shared in our 

humanity, he understands everything 

about us. 

We can speak to him of our deepest 

thoughts, our hopes and fears and 

dreams. He is with us in our joy and 

suffering. Though we do not see him, 

we know by faith that he is at our side. 

In the Eucharist he comes again and 

makes a gift of himself, in the breaking 

of the bread, he continues to draw us 

more deeply into the mystery of his 

The Risen Christ goes with us now as a friend, 

a companion. As he shared in our humanity, he 

understands everything about us. 

Tell us Mary, 

What did you see on the way? 

I saw the tomb of the living Christ 

and the glory of his rising, 

the angelic witnesses, 

the shroud and his clothes. 

Christ, my hope, has risen: 

He will go before his own into Galilee. 

In the life of Mary Magdalene, we see 

the paschal mystery unfold, the mystery 

of Our Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection, 

the mystery of his love for every 

one of us. The mystery of Easter. 

We don’t know much about Mary 

In his love, the Risen Lord now calls 

our names. If we hear his voice, and 

if we don’t harden our hearts, we will 

realize, as Mary Magdalene did, that 

long before we were a thought in our 

mother’s womb, he has known us and 

loved us and longed for our love. 

Christ is risen, he is alive! He will turn 

our every sorrow into joy. He will wipe 

away every tear from our eyes, for death 

is no more, and whatever came before 

has passed away. 

On Easter he calls us to rise up and to 

follow him away from his empty tomb. 

Like Mary Magdalene, we can find 

dying and rising. 

“Do not hold me,” Jesus said to Mary 

Magdalene, “But go to my brothers and 

tell them.” 

Jesus calls us now too, to go out and 

tell others the truth of his resurrection, 

the truth of his love. 

The encounter of Easter is a call to 

mission, a call to proclaim with Mary 

Magdalene: “I have seen the Lord!” 

In our Easter joy, pray for me and I 

will pray for you. 

And let us ask our Blessed Mother 

Mary to keep us always close to her Son 

and our Risen Lord. 


WORLD 

■ Three killed in Coptic 

monastery attack 

Three Egyptian Coptic monks were killed 

in their South African monastery March 

12, as rising levels of violence plague the 

country. 

“The Church expresses its deep anguish 

over the occurrence of such a tragic incident, 

and extends its sincere condolences to the 

families of the three monks,” the Coptic 

Orthodox Church said in a statement. “Our 

pain and sadness, no amount [of] words can 

express, but we know that they rejoice in 

paradise.” 

The motive for the attack — which killed 

Fathers Takla Moussa, Minah ava Marcus, 

and Youstos ava Marcus — are unclear, but 

police have arrested an Egyptian member of 

the church as a suspect. 

Moussa was especially loved by the country’s 

Black community, who hoped he would be 

ordained bishop. 

“This is a great loss for us. We will never 

find a father like Father Takla Moussa, who 

loved and served us unconditionally for about 

20 years since he has been in South Africa,” a 

statement from the community said. 

■ A victory for marriage, motherhood in Ireland 

Irish voters soundly rejected a pair of amendments that Catholic bishops 

warned would have undermined marriage and motherhood. 

One of the amendments voted on March 8 would have widened the definition 

of the family to include “durable relationships” as well as marriage. It 

was defeated 67.7% to 32.3%. 

The other would have removed a 1937 provision that said women should 

not be forced to take a job “to the neglect of their duties in the home” by 

economic necessity. That was rejected 73.9% to 26.1%, the largest no vote 

on a referendum 

in Irish history. 

The defeats came 

as a surprise, as 

both amendments 

were supported 

by virtually all political 

parties and 

polling showed 

that passage was 

favored. Prime 

Minister Leo 

Varadkar expressed 

disappointment 

with the results, 

but admitted: 

“We clearly got it 

wrong.” 

A person wearing a costume holds a sign March 9 opposing a referendum 

to delete wording on stay-at-home mothers in the Irish Constitution. | OSV 

NEWS/REUTERS, CLODAGH KILCOYNE 

Calling on a friend — Catholics carry a statue of St. Gauderique, patron saint of farmers, into the 

Tet River in Perpignan, in southwestern France on March 10, during a procession to pray for rain 

amidst the drought that is hitting the Pyrenees-Orientales region. | VALENTINE CHAPUIS/AFP 

VIA GETTY IMAGES 

■ Hong Kong: Could new treason 

law threaten the confessional? 

Observers are worried that a new law in Hong 

Kong threatening prison time for those who fail to 

disclose “knowledge of treason” could extend to 

the seal of confession. 

The new National Security Law, also known as 

Article 23, includes sentencing provisions of up 

to life in prison for treason, and up to 14 years for 

failure to disclose treason. 

Following the release of the draft text, 16 international 

experts on freedom of religion — including 

former chair of the U.S. Commission on International 

Religious Freedom, Nadine Maenza — 

issued a statement warning that priests may face 

prison time by upholding the confidentiality of 

confession and called on Pope Francis and other 

faith leaders to publicly oppose the law. 

“We call for immediate, urgent, and collective 

international action to defend freedom of religion 

or belief in Hong Kong,” the group said. 

The law is seen as consistent with efforts by mainland 

China’s Communist government to exert 

greater control on speech in Hong Kong, which is 

a semiautonomous region. 


NATION 

Padre Pio comes to PA — The sole replica of a statue of Padre Pio by famous sculptor Timothy 

Schmalz was installed in St. Mary Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania, March 9. Named “I 

Embrace You,” it shows the Italian Capuchin saint clinging to a crucifix atop a bronze globe. The 

original resides in the saint’s hometown of Pietrelcina, Italy. | SAINT PIO FOUNDATION 

■ Paulists downsize as 

membership shrinks 

The Paulist Fathers announced March 13 the 

closure of five ministries as the order consolidates 

due to a lack of vocations. 

The cuts include ending the Paulist’s 117-yearold 

presence at the University of California at 

Berkeley, which will continue to be served by 

the Diocese of Oakland. The order’s campus 

ministry at Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York 

will also end, as well as three other corporate 

apostolates. 

The change is precipitated by a halving of 

priests in active ministry — from 98 in 2004 to 

50 today. Of those priests, nearly two-thirds are 

in their 60s or older. 

“Certainly, people live longer these days, and 

many of our beloved senior priests have generously 

and selflessly continued working well into 

their 70s and beyond, but it is obvious that the 

current situation is not sustainable,” said Paulist 

Fathers president Father René Constanza in a 

statement. 

Paulist Press, Paulist Productions, and Busted 

Halo — the order’s three media ministries — 

will continue to be operated by the priests. 

■ Wisconsin court denies tax 

exemption for Catholic Charities 

In a ruling that could have implications for religious 

liberty cases around the country, Wisconsin’s 

top court ruled that the Catholic Charities Bureau 

(CCB)’s activities were not “primarily” religious, 

making them ineligible for a significant tax break. 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling 

hinged on whether CCB “operated primarily for 

religious purposes,” after the state revoked the 

group’s designation as a religious organization 

last year. By losing the designation, the group was 

forced to pay into the state-run unemployment 

system rather than using a Church-run system. 

“An objective examination of the actual activities 

of CCB and the sub-entities reveals that their 

activities are secular in nature,” the court argued, 

saying that the group “offers services that would 

be the same regardless of the motivation of the 

provider.” 

Several religious groups, including those from 

Jewish, Mormon, Sikh, and Muslim faith traditions 

had filed court briefs supporting the bureau. 

Becket, a religious liberty law firm representing 

CCB, said they will appeal the decision to the 

United States Supreme Court. 

■ Abuse 

survivor, Jesus 

actor ‘chosen’ 

to speak at CUA 

graduation 

Teresa Pitt-Green is 

the director of Spirit 

Fire, a Christian restorative 

justice initiative 

and fellowship of 

survivors of abuse in 

Teresa Pitt-Green 

the Church. She is also 

speaks to American 

a victim-survivor of sexual 

abuse by a priest, 

CNS/BOB ROLLER 

bishops in 2019. | 

and has written several 

books on the topic while advocating for abuse survivors around the 

country. 

In a surprise choice, the Catholic University of America in Washington, 

D.C., announced Pitt-Green will receive an honorary degree and 

speak at the school’s May 11 graduation ceremony along with one of 

the biggest names in TV right now: Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, 

who plays Jesus in the hit show “The Chosen.” 

Pitt-Green told OSV News that her work with survivors of abuse 

is “necessarily very private and low visibility” and that receiving the 

news was “one of the happiest moments” of her life. 


LOCAL 

■ Serra High students launch 

another experiment into space 

Students at Junipero Serra High School in Gardena held a viewing party on 

March 21 to watch another of their experiments launched to the International 

Space Station. 

On Aug. 1, 2023, Serra High students Isaiah Dunn, Christopher Holbert, Travis 

Leonard, Anderson Pecot, and Henry Toler saw their first experiment — attempting 

to get a seed to germinate and grow in space — launched on a SpaceX rocket 

as part of NASA’s International Space Station Program. 

This year’s project involved the same five students plus newcomers Keith Davie, 

Jonathan Cruz, and Sasha Leverett, and incorporated 3D printing in microgravity. 

The experiment will be 

studied at the International 

Space Station for 

a month before being 

returned to students for 

further analysis. 

According to the 

school, Serra is one of 

only nine high schools 

in the United States 

to participate in the 

space program this year 

and is one of the high 

schools competing in 

Students at Serra High’s space team were honored by LA County Supervisor 

Holly J. Mitchell’s office after the March 21 launch event. | SERRA HIGH SCHOOL 

■ Stockton pastor chosen 

for Rome synod meeting 

of priests 

A priest from the Diocese of Stockton was 

one of five priests chosen nationwide to 

travel to Rome in April to share their parish 

life experiences as part of the upcoming 

Synod of Bishops on Synodality. 

Father Luis Navarro is the pastor of St. 

George Church in Stockton. He and four 

other priests from New Mexico, Arkansas, 

Virginia, and Wisconsin were chosen by 

the U.S. bishops’ conference to represent 

the country at an international meeting of 

300 priests who will speak with Pope Francis 

during the sharings on April 28-May 2. 

The Vatican said the listening sessions 

seek “to develop ways for a more active involvement” 

of clergy in the synod process: 

“A synodal Church cannot do without 

their voices, their experiences, and their 

contribution.” 

The results of those experiences will be 

considered when the Synod meets again in 

October. 

Ready to race — A large group of some of the 114 students, teachers, parents, and supporters of Catholic 

Education Foundation of Los Angeles smile while participating in the Los Angeles Marathon weekend on 

March 16-17. Runners participated in the marathon, half-marathon, LA BIG5K, and the Kids Run 1/2K to 

raise funds to support the foundation’s tuition assistance. | CATHOLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION OF LOS 

ANGELES 

the prestigious XPrize 

competition. 

■ ADLA holds extra round 

of synod listening sessions 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles held 

two virtual synod listening sessions 

on Zoom during the Lenten season 

after U.S. dioceses were asked to stage 

additional gatherings following the first 

phase of the Synod on Synodality in 

October 2023. 

Both sessions were led by the archdiocese’s 

Vice Chancellor and Senior 

Director of Ministerial Services Father 

Parker Sandoval, with Auxiliary Bishops 

Matthew Elshoff and Slawomir Szkredka 

making appearances as well. 

During each session, participants 

were placed in conversational breakout 

groups and asked to ponder and discuss 

two questions related to the Church’s 

structures and organization and their 

successes and failures. 

Discussion points were documented 

and will be sent to the U.S. Conference 

of Catholic Bishops, where they will 

be used as part of a report presented 

during the next synod gathering in 

October. 

Y 


V 

IN OTHER WORDS... 

Letters to the Editor 

On presidential ‘embarrassment’ 

I take issue with Francis X. Maier’s dismissal of both of our presidential 

candidates as “embarrassments to our system of government” in the 

March 22 issue. 

Joe Biden is a man of faith, a family man, and a longtime legislator who has 

helped our country return to a productive nation after the pandemic, and much 

more. Though not a perfect person, he does represent many good qualities not 

evident in the other candidate. 

— Claire Marmion, Seal Beach 

More than ‘disruptor moments’ 

I was stunned to see the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis paired with the 

COVID-19 pandemic as the two of the biggest “disruptor” moments for priests in 

one of Pablo Kay’s questions to Francis X. Maier in “Confession Time for America” 

in the March 22 issue. 

Each of these events did not just “disrupt” the lives of priests. One involved serious 

crimes by priests and bishops that destroyed the lives of thousands of children, 

and the other involved a deadly virus that killed over a million Americans. One 

was purely the fault of the Catholic Church, while the latter was the fault of a 

virus and those who would not follow the advice of medical experts to avoid its 

spread. 

One should never view the crime of child sexual abuse — or a deadly pandemic 

— as just a “disruptor” moment in a priest’s life. 

— Donald Bentley, La Puente 

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. 

Passion for Palm Sunday 

Archbishop José H. Gomez blesses the throng of Massgoers who 

celebrated Palm Sunday on March 24, the first of the several annual 

Holy Week liturgies at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. | 

JOHN RUEDA 

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. 

“My secret, my great secret, 

is to pray.” 

~ Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, the oldest nun in the 

world at 115 years of age, in a March 20 Catholic 

News Agency article on her longevity. 

“The crisis at the border 

will not be solved by 

an enforcement-only 

approach nor a totalamnesty 

approach.” 

~ Jennifer Carr Allmon, director of the Texas 

Catholic Conference of Bishops, on the controversy 

over Catholic groups helping undocumented 

migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“I think that Las Vegas 

stands for intentional 

Catholicism.” 

~ Las Vegas Archbishop George Leo Thomas, in a 

March 16 Crux story on the population boom in his 

newly designated archdiocese. 

“My belief in God is 

undergirded by calculus.” 

~ Samuel Rodriguez, CEO of the National Hispanic 

Christian Leadership Conference, in a March 13 

Free Press article on Latinos flocking to evangelical 

Christianity. 

“Instead of trying to catch 

the whole world with a 

giant net, I want to catch 

one fly with one net at a 

time.” 

~ Varen Swaab, owner of ISawYou.com, in a March 

16 Guardian article on finding romance after 

“missed connections.” 


IN EXILE 

FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI 

Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father 

Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual 

writer; ronrolheiser.com 

Easter light 

The earth was dark twice. Once 

at the original creation before 

God first created light. But later 

there was an even deeper darkness, on 

Good Friday, between the sixth and 

ninth hour, when we were crucifying 

God, and as Jesus dying on the cross 

cried out, “My God, my God, why have 

you forsaken me!” Utter darkness. In 

response to that, God created the most 

staggering light of all — the resurrection. 

It is interesting to look at how Scripture 

describes the creation of original 

light. The Bible opens with these 

words: “In the beginning God created 

heaven and earth. Now the earth was 

a formless void and God breathed over 

the waters. God said, ‘Let there be light’ 

and there was light.” 

A combination of God’s breath and 

God’s word produced the first light. 

The ancients identified God’s presence 

very much with light. For them, God 

was the antithesis of all darkness and, 

indeed, the symbol of God’s fidelity was 

the rainbow, namely, refracted light, 

light broken open to reveal its spectacular 

inner beauty. 

But it got dark a second time! The 

Gospels tell us that as Jesus hung on the 

cross, though it was midday, darkness 

beset the whole land for three hours. 

We don’t know exactly what occurred 

here historically. Was the entire earth 

plunged into darkness? Perhaps. After 

all, the earth was crucifying God, and 

God is light! Irrespective of how literally 

or not we take this, what happened on 

Good Friday triggered a different kind 

of darkness, a moral one — the darkness 

of godlessness, hatred, paranoia, fear, 

misguided religion, cruelty, idolatry, 

ideology, and violence. This is the most 

blinding darkness of all. 

What was God’s response? God’s response 

to the darkness of Good Friday 

was to say a second time, “Let there be 

light!” The resurrection of Jesus is that 

new light, one which at the end of the 

day eclipses all other lights. 

It is interesting to compare how 

Scripture describes God creating the 

new light of the resurrection with how 

God created the original light at the 

origins of creation. The Gospel of John 

has a wonderfully revealing passage that 

describes Jesus’ first appearance to the 

whole community after his resurrection. 

It tells us that on the evening of Easter 

Sunday the disciples (representing here 

the Church) were gathered in a room 

with the doors locked because of fear. 

Jesus comes to them, passing right 

through their locked doors, and stands 

in the middle of their huddled fearful 

circle and says to them, “Peace be with 

you!” And after saying this, he breathes 

on them and says, “Receive the Holy 

Spirit.” 

Note the parallels to the original 

creation story. For the writer of John’s 

Gospel, this huddling in fear behind 

locked doors is the darkness of Good 

Friday, a moral “formless void.” And 

Jesus brings light to that darkness in 

the same way light was brought to the 

original creation, through God’s word 

and God’s breath. 

Jesus’ words, “Peace be with you!” are 

the resurrected Jesus’ way of saying, 

“Let there be light!” Then, just as at the 

original creation, God’s breath begins 

to order the physical chaos, Jesus’ 

breath, the Holy Spirit, begins to order 

the moral chaos, continually turning 

darkness into light — hatred into love, 

bitterness into graciousness, fear into 

trust, false religion into true worship, 

ideology into truth, and vengeance into 

forgiveness. 

The staggering new light that Jesus 

brings into our world in the resurrection 

is also one of the things that our 

Christian creed refers to in its stunning 

phrase that, in the darkness of Good 

Friday, Jesus “descended into hell.” 

What’s meant by this? Into what hell 

did he descend? 

Simply put, the new light of the Resurrection 

(unlike natural light that can 

be blocked out) can go through every 

locked door, every blocked entrance, 

every impenetrable cell, every circle of 

hatred, every suicidal depression, every 

paralyzing anger, every kind of darkness 

of the soul, and even through sin itself, 

and breathe out peace. This light can 

penetrate into hell itself. 

Good Friday was bad long before 

it was good. We crucified God and 

plunged the world into darkness at 

midday. But God created light a second 

time, a light that cannot be extinguished 

even if we crucify God — and 

we have never really stopped doing 

that! Good Friday still happens every 

day. But, beyond wishful thinking and 

natural optimism, we live in hope because 

we now know God’s response to 

any moral darkness, God can generate 

resurrection, the creation of new light, 

life beyond death. 

The renowned mystic Julian of 

Norwich coined the famous phrase, “In 

the end, all will be well, and all will be 

well, and every manner of being will 

be well.” To which Oscar Wilde added, 

“And if it isn’t well, then it is still not 

the end.” The resurrection of Jesus has 

brought a new light into the world, 

one that proclaims against all counter 

claims that light still triumphs over 

darkness, love over hatred, order over 

chaos, and heaven over hell. 


FUEL FOR THE 

EASTER FIRE 

For Catholics, the joy of Easter 

can’t be fit into one day. Here’s 

why they need 50. 

BY FATHER PETER JOHN CAMERON, OP 

Even if you are not a big J.R.R. 

Tolkien fan, if you have ever 

watched the film “The Lord of 

the Rings: The Return of the King,” 

you were probably moved by one powerful 

scene. 

At the instigation of the wizard Gandalf, 

the hobbit Pippin secretly climbs 

up a tower in order to light the signal 

beacon that will summon the allies of 

a far-distant kingdom to come to the 

military aid of their own. The beacon 

erupts in a blaze. Mere seconds later, 

on a distant mountain peak, another 

beacon fire suddenly alights…and then 

another and another and another, covering 

a massive geographical span. 

At the sight of the flaming beacon, 

Gandalf quietly declares, “Hope is 

kindled.” 

Dispelling the darkness 

Such is the power of fire. The Church 

knows this. The Church’s genius shines 

in her Easter Vigil liturgy which begins 

with the Lucernarium — the blessing 

of the Easter fire and the preparation of 

the paschal candle. As the priest blesses 

the new fire, he prays that we may 

be “inflamed with heavenly desires.” 

Then, having lit the paschal candle 

from the new fire, the priest prays: 

“May the light of Christ rising in glory 

dispel the darkness of our hearts and 

minds.” 

With that, the people of God, carrying 

Archbishop José H. Gomez lights the Easter 

candle during last year’s Holy Saturday Vigil 

Mass. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

lighted candles, follow the paschal 

candle in procession into the church, 

where the priest or deacon sings the 

Easter Proclamation, the Exsultet, once 

known as the “Praise of the Candle” 

(Laus Cerei). Why do Catholics sing to 

a candle? 

Because this candle represents the 

risen Son of God, “the one Morning 

Star who never sets,” who, “coming 

back from death’s domain, has shed his 

peaceful light on humanity.” 

But most wondrous of all, the Church 

begs that this “pillar,” which is “a torch 


so precious,” may throughout the whole 

of the night “persevere undimmed to 

overcome the darkness of this night. 

May this flame be found still burning 

by the Morning Star: Christ your Son” 

on Easter morning. Because we all 

need a beacon. We all need a fire that 

enkindles our hope. 

The great Cistercian abbot Bl. Guerric 

of Igny (+1157) seems to be speaking 

for us today when he writes in an Easter 

homily: 

“For myself, when I looked upon 

the dead Jesus I was overwhelmed by 

despairing grief. My heart was sorrowing 

for him as slain, but now that he is 

risen, not only my heart but my flesh 

also rejoices in the confident hope of 

my own resurrection and immortality.” 

His best expression of this rejoicing 

alludes to light: 

“As the new sun rises from below, the 

grace of the Resurrection already casts 

its radiance over the whole world, a 

radiance reflected in the eyes of those 

who have watched for him since daybreak, 

a dawn that ushers in the day of 

eternity. This is the day that knows no 

evening, the day whose sun will never 

set again.” 

The Via Lucis 

During these 50 days of Easter, we 

do not want to return to the darkness 

again. How can we keep the sun from 

setting? 

The Church comes to our aid with an 

apt devotional practice recently developed 

— the Via Lucis. The Church’s 

“Directory for Popular Piety” describes 

the Via Lucis this way: 

“Following the model of the Via 

Crucis, the faithful process while 

meditating on the various appearances 

of Jesus — from his Resurrection to 

his Ascension…. Through the Via 

Lucis, the faithful recall the central 

event of the Faith — the Resurrection 

of Christ — and their discipleship in 

virtue of Baptism…. The Via Lucis … 

can effectively convey a living understanding 

to the faithful of the second 

moment of the Pascal event, namely 

the Lord’s Resurrection…. Using the 

The season of Easter allows for the mystery of 

Christ’s resurrection to take hold of us, especially 

where we are most prone to anxiety, hopelessness, 

or sorrow. 

metaphor of a journey, the Via Lucis 

moves from the experience of suffering 

… to the hope of arriving at man’s true 

end: liberation, joy, and peace which 

are essentially Paschal values” (#153). 

As we follow the beacon of the Via Lucis, 

moving from Easter event to Easter 

event, the mystery of Christ’s resurrection 

will take hold of us, especially 

where we are most prone to anxiety, 

hopelessness, or sorrow. 

In the words of Servant of God Luigi 

Giussani: 

“Unless you recognize the presence 

of Mystery, night advances, confusion 

abounds and — when it touches 

your freedom — rebellion erupts, or 

disappointment is so overwhelming that 

you’ll wait for nothing more and live 

desiring nothing more. From the mystery 

of Christ’s Resurrection a new light 

floods the world, fighting for territory, 

inch by inch, pushing back the night.” 

Altarpiece depicting the resurrection 

of Christ in the Cathedral of St. Martin 

in Lucca, Italy. | SHUTTERSTOCK 


Pushing back the night 

Let’s push back the night, taking to 

heart Pope Benedict XVI’s awesome 

assurance: 

“Where there is light, life is born, 

chaos can be transformed. The Resurrection 

of Jesus is an eruption of light. 

This Light alone — Jesus Christ — is 

the true light, something more than 

the physical phenomenon of light. 

Let us pray to the Lord that the fragile 

flame of the candle he has lit in us, the 

delicate light of his word and his love 

amid the confusions of this age, will not 

be extinguished in us, but will become 

ever stronger and brighter, so that we, 

with him, can be people of the day, 

bright stars lighting up our time.” 

Or in the words of a 6-year-old student 

of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd 

meditating on the light of the 

risen Christ radiating from the paschal 

candle: “It isn’t light; it’s goodness.” 

Father Peter John Cameron, OP, is the 

Carl J. Peter Chair of Homiletics at the 

Pontifical North American College in 

Rome. 

Spitting at the devil: 

A cherished Easter tradition 

“For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the 

west, so will be the coming of the Son of man” (Matthew 24:27). 

In ancient times, Christians took that verse quite literally, and so 

they built churches so that the worshiping congregation always 

faced east. The Church buried its dead so that their rising bodies 

would behold Jesus when he returned. 

If the direction of Christ was the East, they reasoned, the devil 

must symbolically come from the west. 

In the fourth century St. Cyril of Jerusalem instructed those who 

were newly baptized and explained the rite of renunciation. It was 

“necessary,” he said, for them to “stand facing to the west.” They 

did this because “the West is the region of sensible darkness” — 

the place where the sun sets. Thus, Satan, “being darkness, has his 

dominion also in darkness.” 

These soon-to-be Christians were confessing their former bondage 

to the devil, and renouncing him “to his face,” as St. Ambrose 

put it. 

They were to reject Satan “and all his works, and all his pomps.” 

And then, in some places they would enact their renunciation by 

spitting westward, in the devil’s direction. 

The practice endures in churches of some Eastern rites. 

— Mike Aquilina 


A SIGHT TO 

BEHOLD 

After a Norwalk youth went blind due to a 

rare cancer, he gained a new kind of vision. 

BY NATALIE ROMANO 

When a lector finishes the 

reading in Mass, parishioners 

don’t typically clap or cry. 

Then again, Ryan Rohrich isn’t your 

typical lector. 

Because while the 29-year-old may be 

sharing Scripture, he can’t actually see 

Ryan Rohrich, who lost his 

sight after being diagnosed 

with a rare cancerous tumor, 

recites a reading using braille 

during a recent Mass at St. 

John of God Church in Norwalk. 

| VICTOR ALEMÁN 

it. He’s blind. 

“I’m grateful to be proclaiming the 

word of God,” said Rohrich, a parishioner 

of St. John of God Church in 

Norwalk. “In those moments I feel his 

presence with me. 

“I am more than my disability.” 

Rohrich wasn’t born blind but lost his 

sight due to a cancerous brain tumor 

a decade ago. But that hasn’t dampened 

his desire to serve his parish and 

beyond. Every day, he dons his dark 

sunglasses, grabs his cane, and goes 

where “God leads.” 

At a recent Youth Mass at St. John of 

God, Rohrich’s presence at the ambo 

took some parishioners by surprise, but 

that quickly gave way to admiration. 

Father Nitesh Gomez saw the transformation 

ripple through the crowd. 

“It was really amazing,” said Gomez, 

associate pastor at St. John of God. 

“Everyone was paying more attention. 

They were looking at him like he was 

achieving something great and he is. 

We all have these abilities, we can see, 

but we hesitate to do something like 

Ryan did.” 

Instead of ordering braille Scripture, 

Rohrich makes his own. Before 

Mass, he listens to the readings on his 

cellphone and then transcribes it with 

a braille typewriter. During Mass, he 

uses a cane to navigate out of the pews 

and to the ambo. Finally, he grazes 

his fingers over the embossed text and 

shares the word. 

“I would be less nervous if I read 

braille faster,” Rohrich chuckled as he 

often does. “But I’ve been told over and 

over again the whole point of proclaiming 

is to read slowly and I can do that!” 

The Norwalk native said he’s needed 

his trademark sense of humor, especially 

when his life took a dramatic turn 

at age 18. On a family outing to Lake 

Elsinore, Rohrich noticed his vision 

was “grainy” and he was never hungry 

but constantly thirsty. An eventual CT 

scan revealed a tumor had formed 

behind his right eye and was destroying 

the optic nerves and pituitary gland. 

If that wasn’t enough, the tumor was 

potentially cancerous. His parents and 

five siblings grappled with the news the 

only way they knew how — through 

prayer. His dad immediately went to 

the hospital chapel and placed his hand 

on the Bible. 

“I said to the Lord, I need you. I don’t 

know what to do. I don’t even understand 

what’s happening,” said Ryan’s 

father, Paul. “Please help me.” 

There were long waits for appointments 

and an even longer wait to find a 

skilled enough surgeon to perform the 


delicate biopsy. All the while, Rohrich’s 

vision was getting worse until one day 

he awoke in total darkness. That’s when 

panic set in. 

“It felt like the world closed on me,” 

Rohrich said. “I felt extremely claustrophobic. 

I had to feel the sheets, feel the 

wall. … I thought, OK, I can’t see the 

world, but the world is still here.” 

Doctors at City of Hope Cancer 

Center in Duarte eventually performed 

the biopsy and determined the tumor 

was a germinoma, a rare but largely 

curable cancer that strikes young people. 

The radiation and chemotherapy 

that followed were tough on Rohrich 

and tough on his family to witness. 

Rohrich lost his strength, his hair, and 

even some of his hearing, but never lost 

his trust in God. 

“Ryan was squirming in bed from the 

pain,” Paul said. “I could hear him 

giving his pain to the Lord, offering 

up his suffering for the other children 

going through chemotherapy at the 

hospital. Not one time do I recall him 

ever questioning or calling out to God 

‘Why did you do this?’ ” 

Four-and-a-half grueling months later, 

the cancer was gone. While relieved 

he didn’t die, Rohrich now had a new 

challenge: How to live blind. 

Through a state-funded program, 

Rohrich attended the Orientation 

Center for the Blind in the Bay Area. 

For more than a year, he lived 

at the residential school to learn 

skills he would need, like reading 

braille and how to walk with a 

white cane. Guide Dogs for the 

Blind also provided Rohrich 

with Twain, an English Labrador 

Retriever. 

Once Rohrich returned to 

Norwalk, he attended Cerritos 

College, where he developed 

a passion for pottery. Using his 

sense of touch and visual memory, 

Rohrich makes clay bowls, 

vases, and sculptures. He starts 

each piece with a prayer. 

“Lord, as I center this clay, may 

I be continually reminded how 

important it is that you are the 

center of my life,” Rohrich said. 

“I, as the clay, and you as my 

potter.” 

Rohrich feels God is molding 

him into something more. He 

Despite being blind, Ryan 

Rohrich finds ways to serve 

God and others and is 

considering religious life. | 


said he experienced an internal “vision” 

where Mary appeared before him and 

revealed the crucified Jesus. 

Rohrich believes the answer is a 

vocation, perhaps as a religious brother. 

The idea is something he’s considered 

before thanks to the example of Capuchin 

friars Father Peter Mary Banks and 

personal friend Father Victor Taglianetti, 

who performs Catholic rap music 

under the moniker “Bro Vic.” 

Rohrich said blindness may make it 

harder to pursue a vocation, but it may 

also make him better suited. 

“All your prejudice about people goes 

away when you can’t see them and 

you get to experience a person for their 

character and not their appearance,” 

Rohrich said. “I am able to give more 

generously, share more generously. The 

virtues that I’ve developed through this 

redemptive suffering have allowed me 

to have a greater capacity for love.” 

At St. John of God, members of the 

Serviam Men’s Group said they’re not 

surprised that Rohrich may enter religious 

life. Each month when they feed 

the homeless in Long Beach, Rohrich 

acts as the group’s unofficial “Prayer 

Master” and spends time with those 

seeking spiritual comfort. 

“Just to hear the way Ryan prayed over 

people, the words, the emotion, the 

affection … he considers all of them 

children of 

Twain, an English God,” said 

Labrador Retriever Rick Ochoa, 

and Ryan Rohrich’s leader of St. 

guide dog, lounges 

John of God’s 

with him outside of 

the City of Hope Cancer 

Center in Duarte | Men’s Group. 

Serviam 

PAUL ROHRICH “Ryan is a 

very humble 

servant.” 

As Rohrich continues to discern 

and volunteer, he hopes his 

journey is a reminder that even 

during dark times God keeps his 

promises. 

“No matter the state of your 

life, as long as you give God your 

yes, he’ll walk with you on the 

pathway to heaven,” he said. 

Natalie Romano is a freelance 

writer for Angelus and the Inland 

Catholic Byte, the news website of 

the Diocese of San Bernardino. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUE PEACE 

Cardinal Gregorio 

Rosa Chávez greets 

parishioners after Mass at 

St. Marcellinus Church in 

Commerce March 18. | 


El Salvador’s cardinal 

on his message to 

LA, his country’s 

controversial 

president, and the 

‘pornographic’ 

situation in Nicaragua. 

BY PABLO KAY 

At the age of 81, Cardinal Gregorio 

Rosa Chávez remains the 

best-known champion of the legacy 

of his friend and mentor St. Óscar 

Romero, who was killed 44 years ago 

during El Salvador’s civil war and today 

is considered an icon of the Catholic 

Church’s social justice advocacy. 

In 2017, Pope Francis surprised observers 

by making Rosa Chávez the first 

cardinal in El Salvador’s history, despite 

only being an auxiliary bishop. A year 

later he declared Romero a saint, the 

culmination of a long, difficult effort 

led by Rosa Chávez. 

Much has changed in El Salvador 

since then. In 2019, the country elected 

as president outsider politician Nayib 

Bukele, who has used heavy-handed 

tactics to bring sweeping changes to the 

country once known as the “murder 

capital of the world.” The most well 

known is the “state of exception” 

declared by Bukele, which has given 

the government emergency powers to 

arrest and imprison tens of thousands of 

suspected gang members without due 

process. 

The result is a country almost unrecognizable 

compared to just a few 

years ago. Homicide rates have plummeted, 

tourism has risen, and there 

have been small signs of improvement 

in the country’s economy — all factors 

that contributed to Bukele’s reelection 

in February. 


But Rosa Chávez has since emerged 

as the Catholic Church in El Salvador’s 

leading critic of Bukele’s measures, 

arguing that the means do not justify 

the ends: not only the damage to the 

country’s judicial system, but also the 

potential imprisonment of thousands of 

innocent young men. 

Rosa Chávez visited Los Angeles in 

the days leading up to Romero’s March 

24 feast day, where he visited several 

parishes — including St. Thomas the 

Apostle Church in Pico-Union and St. 

John the Baptist Church in Baldwin 

Park — to spend time with the local 

Salvadoran community. 

He sat down to speak with Angelus 

before Mass with parishioners at St. 

Marcellinus Church in Commerce 

March 18. 

Your Eminence, what brought you to 

Los Angeles this time? 

For me, this city is very important in 

the history of our country. 

Today it’s considered the 

second largest city of El 

Salvador, because it has 

the largest population of 

Salvadorans outside of San 

Salvador. 

So I wanted to be here with 

the people close to the feast 

day of our beloved St. Óscar 

Romero, March 24. I was 

here in 2018 for the Religious 

Education Congress 

in Anaheim and it was great 

to be with everyone there. 

We’ve always been grateful 

to the help we’ve received 

from the Church here. 

I was reminded of 1986, 

when a large [magnitude 

5.7] earthquake struck El 

Salvador and a plane full of 

aid supplies arrived to help. 

We will never forget that. 

According to you, what 

would St. Óscar Romero 

have to say about the situation 

of El Salvador — and 

of the Church there — 

right now? 

Let me tell you an anecdote 

to explain what is going 

on right now. 

Last year, the archbishop 

of San Salvador, José Luis Alas, asked 

me to celebrate the March 24 Mass for 

Romero’s feast day. “You do it, I can’t,” 

he said. 

And I thought: “This means I have 

to preach. What am I going to say at 

that Mass?” It cost me a lot to give that 

homily, and I suffered a lot giving it. 

A quote from Romero came to my 

mind: “The shepherd has to be where 

the suffering is.” I ended the homily 

with that quote. That’s the part that 

didn’t make the international headlines. 

I paid deeply for that homily, because 

there was a terrible attack against me as 

a result. But I didn’t say anything more 

than what I thought. 

So, I had the same question: What 

would Romero say in this moment? 

That’s a subversive and demanding 

question, but if one doesn’t ask himself 

that question, he’s not a shepherd, he’s 

just taking the easy way out. 

And being here, I also thought: What 

am I going to say in LA? At Mass last 

Sunday, March 17, at St. Thomas the 

Apostle Church, I talked about three 

countries: the El Salvador we have, the 

one that we want, and the one we used 

to hope for, the one that Archbishop 

Romero gave his life for. 

How is El Salvador doing? You’ll get 

a different answer depending on who 

you ask. We have a great image from 

the outside of what El Salvador is like: 

that being there feels nice, feels safe. 

And on this, we all agree that this is the 

El Salvador we want: a country with 

justice, where everyone can fulfill their 

full potential, that has health care, education, 

employment, shelter. A country 

where you can have dreams, plans, feel 

at peace … we all want that right now. 

Now, which country did Archbishop 

Romero want? What was his utopia of a 

country? He used to say: a country after 

God’s own heart. A country of brothers. 

And we’re not that country right now. 

We’re not a country where 

we’re all God’s children. 

I use the image of a rainbow, 

which features seven 

primary colors, or that of the 

guacamaya bird [macaw] 

to explain that peace is 

composed of many colors, 

where we all fit together. If 

not, there’s no peace. That’s 

why it’s important to have 

dialogue, for each one to 

be able to share their own 

proposals, to walk together 

toward a common goal. This 

is how peace is built. 

Cardinal Rosa Chávez speaks to Angelus 

at St. Marcellinus Church in Commerce. | 


Until now that hasn’t 

been possible, because we 

have a polarized country, 

where there’s practically a 

pensamiento unico, a single 

line of thought. And the one 

who dissents ends up badly. 

That’s not how you build 

peace! 

I dream of a country where 

the people are truly a people. 

There’s a famous line that 

says, “God wants to save us 


as a people. God doesn’t want a mass 

of people. What’s a mass of people? It’s 

just a bunch of persons, and the more 

alienated they are, the better. 

And what is a people? It’s an organized 

community that looks for the common 

good. That’s what Archbishop Romero 

worked for. And he would tell people 

what was going on in the country, what 

needed to be thought about, what 

should be done … that’s what a critical, 

proactive laity does, it dreams of a world 

of justice and truth. 

If you read Archbishop Romero’s last 

homily the day he was killed, he ends 

saying exactly this: to give your life to 

suffering, as Christ did, so that we may 

have a country where peace and justice 

reign. That was his dream. And that’s 

what we don’t have right now. So we 

need to work to make that possible in 

this country that’s suffering so much 

right now. 

Some would say that in these last few 

years, peace has finally come to El 

Salvador. But others would argue that 

this peace has come at the expense of 

justice. Is it possible to have both in 

El Salvador? 

Those who visit El Salvador feel happy 

to be able to walk the streets without 

Detainees in 2023 at the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison in 

Tecoluca, El Salvador. | HANDOUT PHOTO 

fear, to see the beaches, the airport … 

and it’s true, there are reasons to feel 

good. 

But I say this: Do any of you have the 

deeper life, the truth of God? Because 

God conquers all. 

There are more than 70,000 people 

imprisoned [in El Salvador] under this 

“state of exception” from these last two 

years. Let’s estimate that each one has 

10 people in their lives who love them: 

parents, family, friends. What’s 70,000 

times 10? In a country of about 7 1/2 

million people, that means that about 

10% of the population don’t have freedom. 

How does this make the people 

suffer? 

Then there are those who were 

removed from workplaces in the city 

center of the capital [San Salvador]: 

more than 10,000. And if one speaks, 

there’s fear that 

they could be put 

in jail. That is not 

peace. That is the 

peace of the cemetery, 

in a sense. 

That’s why I am 

working patiently 

on proposals so 

that people don’t 

feel alone, so that 

they know they 

are listened to, 

because it’s about 

accompanying 

them. That’s 

the role of the 

Church, the role 

of Jesus, and that 

was Romero’s 

role. There’s an 

inspiration in people who want to do so 

much, even if in silence, discreetly, so 

that people can have hope. 

Pope Francis, the Catholic Church, 

and much of the world has been 

Cardinal Rosa Chávez concelebrated Sunday Mass with 

Archbishop José H. Gomez at the Cathedral of Our Lady 

of the Angels March 17. | VICTOR ALEMÁN 

following the situation in Nicaragua, 

where the Church is threatened in a 

very direct way, with a lot of concern. 

In that kind of situation, where do 

you start to look for this justice and 

peace? 

I’ll tell you the story of Bishop Rolando 

[Álvarez]. He was going to leave 

[Nicaragua] on a plane with several 

others to the United States. And he decided 

not to get on the plane, he chose 

to stay with the people. He spent more 

than a year in prison. 

I have known Bishop Rolando since 

he was a young priest. His gesture was 

marvelous: to stay with the people, to 

risk for the people. 

But what is happening in that country? 

The Church is not respected there. 

Everything is decided by the presidential 

couple. And they do truly absurd 

things, like confiscating the Church’s 

material goods, and not allowing those 

who leave the country to reenter. 

This is the reality, and it’s all totally 

in the hands of whatever those two 

people decide. This can also happen 

in El Salvador: the government has all 

the power, and no one has anyone to 

defend them. The way decisions are 

made there is almost pornographic. But 

in reality, they [the people of Nicaragua] 

need to feel accompanied by our 

prayer, that they may feel that they’re 

not alone, and that God will do the rest 

in his time. 

Right now, Nicaragua is going through 

a Good Friday. Let us hope that the 

Resurrection comes soon. 

Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of 

Angelus. 



A NEW WAR 

OF WORDS 

The pope’s controversial ‘white flag’ comments 

on Ukraine and Russia reveal a shift in how the 

Vatican views the West. 

A Ukrainian flag waves in the crowd 

gathered as Pope Francis recites the 

rosary with young people at the Shrine 

of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal, Aug. 

5, 2023. | CNS/LOLA GOMEZ 

BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR. 

ROME — Generally speaking, 

waving a white flag is how one 

ends combat, not starts it. Yet by 

invoking the idea of Ukraine raising a 

white flag in its conflict with Russia, 

Pope Francis has managed to start a war 

of words that shows few signs of abating, 

despite multiple Vatican attempts to 

walk things back. 

While the chorus of protest from 

Ukraine and its Western allies, including 

the president of the United States, 

has been nearly unanimous, the incident 

may well be little more than another 

reminder that Francis simply does 

not see himself as a Western leader, nor 

the Vatican over which he presides as a 

Western institution. 

The papal utterance came in an 

interview with Radio Télévision Suisse 

(RTS), which was only broadcast in 

its entirety on March 20, but which is 

already a sensation because of advance 

portions released March 9. 

Interviewer Lorenzo Buccella asked 

the pope: “In Ukraine, some call for the 

courage of surrender, of the white flag. 

But others say that this would legitimize 

the stronger party. What do you think?” 

Here’s Francis’ reply, in an English 

translation provided by Vatican News: 

“That is one interpretation. But I 

believe that the stronger one is the one 

who sees the situation, who thinks of 

the people, who has the courage of the 

white flag, to negotiate. And today, negotiations 

are possible with the help of 

international powers. The word ‘negotiate’ 

is a courageous word. When you 

see that you are defeated, that things are 

not going well, it is necessary to have 

the courage to negotiate. You may feel 

ashamed, but with how many deaths 

will it end? Negotiate in time; look for 

some country that can mediate. Today, 

for example in the war in Ukraine, 

there are many who want to mediate. 

Turkey has offered itself for this. And 

others. Do not be ashamed to negotiate 

before things get worse.” 

Aside from the white flag imagery, 

which in the popular mind signifies 

capitulation and surrender rather than 

simply a willingness to negotiate, it was 

also the pontiff’s apparent suggestion 

that Ukraine has been defeated that 

stirred blowback. 

Quickly, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav 

Shevchuk responded that “Ukraine is 

wounded, but not conquered! Ukraine 

is exhausted, but it stands and will 

stand!” The bishops of the Greek 

Catholic Church in Ukraine later put 

out a joint statement indicating that 

Ukraine cannot surrender because Putin’s 

objective isn’t simply some tactical 

gain, but the annihilation of Ukraine’s 

culture, history, and identity. 

The German bishops’ conference also 


eleased a statement calling the pope’s 

formula “unfortunate,” and indicating 

that it must be up to Ukraine — and, 

by implication, not the pope or anyone 

else — to decide when the moment has 

come for a negotiated settlement. 

Negative reaction, however, has hardly 

been confined to the ecclesiastical 

universe. 

As of this writing, U.S. President 

Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf 

Scholz, NATO Secretary General Jens 

Stoltenberg, EU Ambassador Alexandra 

Valkenburg, Lithuanian President Edgars 

Rinkevics, Polish Foreign Minister 

Radoslaw Sikorski, and naturally, both 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and 

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, all 

have voiced dissent from the pope’s 

statements, either in their own voice or 

through spokespersons. 

That’s the very dictionary definition of 

a diplomatic crisis, which explains why 

the Vatican twice now has attempted to 

tamp down the controversy, first with 

a statement from spokesman Matteo 

Bruni the night the advance portion of 

the interview was released, and again 

March 12 with comments from Secretary 

of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin 

to the Italian newspaper Corriere della 

Sera, to the effect that Russia should be 

the first party to cease firing, calling it 

the “aggressor” and the war “unjust.” 

While that language likely will go 

some ways toward restoring calm, it 

won’t quell the underlying question of 

why Francis spoke as he did in the first 

place. 

It’s worth recalling that this isn’t the 

first time the pope has irked Ukraine 

and its supporters. Early on, he quoted 

an unnamed Latin American ambassador 

as suggesting that NATO’s “barking 

at Russia’s door” was partly responsible 

for triggering the conflict. Later, the 

pope praised “great Mother Russia” in 

a video session with Russian Catholic 

youth, paying tribute to Peter the 

Great and Catherine II as leaders of a 

“great, enlightened Russian empire,” in 

language critics found uncomfortably 

close to the Kremlin’s own rhetoric. 

Such comments might be unthinkable 

escaping the lips of the leader of a 

NATO nation — other, perhaps, than 

President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey — 

but that’s just another way of saying that 

Francis represents the definitive end of 

the Cold War era in Catholic history, in 

which Pope Pius XII once was dubbed 

the “Chaplain of NATO” because of 

the Vatican’s hardline anti-Communist 

stance. 

Instead, Francis is repositioning the 

Vatican, at least informally, as part of 

the “Non-Aligned Movement,” which 

is a forum of 120 nations that consider 

themselves independent of any major 

power bloc, meaning in practice they’re 

usually just as skeptical of the U.S. and 

West as they are of, say, Russia, China, 

and Iran. 

For Russia’s victims, both present and 

past, it can be a bitter pill to swallow. 

Recently, Polish Dominican Father 

Pawel Guzynski, a former Solidarity 

activist who’s gone on to become a 

progressive thorn in the side of his 

country’s conservative hierarchy, said 

the white flag episode has made him 

miss St. Pope John Paul II for the first 

time in his life, because the Polish pontiff 

“never would have said something 

like this.” 

“Pope Francis 

absorbed suspicion 

towards the 

United States and 

the European colonizers 

of South 

America almost 

from his mother’s 

milk. He totally 

refuses to be the 

pope of NATO 

and the Western 

states,” Guzynski 

said. 

“For this reason, 

he seems to 

idealize Russia’s 

aspirations as 

stifled by the 

West. And so, the 

pope’s statements 

appear closer to 

Pro-Russian troops move 

along a road in the southern 

port city of Mariupol, 

Ukraine, April 21, 2022. | 

CNS/CHINGIS KONDAROV, 

REUTERS 

the Kremlin’s rhetoric,” he said. 

Whether that evaluation is entirely 

fair, few would dispute that it contains 

a strong dose of truth. It’s striking that 

one of the few government officials to 

actually praise Francis’ remarks was 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman 

Maria Zakharova, who said the pope 

correctly was “asking the West to put 

aside its ambitions and admit that it was 

wrong.” 

(Guzynski added that Poles today 

liken Francis’ line to that of Pope 

Gregory XVI, who condemned an 1830 

uprising in partitioned Poland against 

the Russian Empire, despite the fact 

the insurrection was led by Catholic 

laymen and supported by Catholic clergy 

and bishops. Guzynski’s point is that 

from the perspective of peoples who’ve 

been occupied by Russia over the years, 

this isn’t the first time a pope has been 

on the wrong side of history.) 

To be clear, however, Francis’ refusal 

to follow the Western anti-Russian 

script isn’t just a personal idiosyncrasy. 

Instead, it’s more akin to a reflection of 

Catholic demography: Two-thirds of 

the 1.3 billion Catholics in the world 

today live outside the West, a share that 

will be three-quarters by mid-century, 

and many of those Catholics share 

a robustly nonaligned perspective, 

including a refusal to demonize Russia 

or to idealize the West. 

To return to where we began, therefore, 

the white flag invoked by Francis 

would not appear to signal the end of 

conflict over the Vatican’s geopolitical 

perspective. Instead, it’s another 

reminder that the tectonic plates of 

Church history are shifting, in ways that 

Catholics and non-Catholics alike in 

the NATO sphere may not always find 

entirely comfortable. 

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


Rose Hawthorne, daughter of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, 

in a photo before her work with cancer patients. 

| OSV NEWS/COURTESY HAWTHORNE DOMINICANS 

THE LIFE OF AN 

AMERICAN ROSE 

Rose Hawthorne endured poverty, the death 

of a child, and a broken marriage. Now the 

daughter of a literary icon is a step closer to 

sainthood. 

Losing a young child. Struggling 

in a troubled marriage with an 

alcoholic husband. Separating, 

starting a nursing career in midlife, 

downsizing to a rental apartment, and 

becoming a widow. 

And now, moving one step closer to 

sainthood. 

On March 14, Pope Francis authorized 

the Dicastery for the Causes of 

Saints to decree as “venerable” Mother 

Mary Alphonsa Hawthorne — also 

BY GINA CHRISTIAN / OSV NEWS 

known as Rose Hawthorne, the daughter 

of an American literary icon and 

founder of the Congregation of the 

Dominican Sisters of St. Rose of Lima. 

Her extraordinary journey from 

19th-century U.S. and European literary 

circles to religious life and caring for 

the critically ill poor is “very relevant” 

to the faithful today, Mother Marie 

Edward Deutsch, superior general of 

the Hawthorne Dominicans, told OSV 

News. 

Born in 1851 in Massachusetts as the 

third child of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne 

and his wife, Sophia Peabody, 

Rose Hawthorne enjoyed a comfortable 

life as her father gained literary 

acclaim. She grew up in England, 

where her father had been appointed 

U.S. consul in 1853, and during their 

travels through Europe, the Protestant 

Hawthorne family encountered Catholicism. 

The Hawthornes returned to the U.S. 

in 1860, but four years after Nathaniel’s 

death in 1864, Sophia moved the 

family to Germany to conserve finances 

amid New England’s high cost of living. 

In Dresden, Rose met fellow American 

expat, George Parsons Lathrop, an aspiring 

writer from a prominent family. 

The Hawthornes returned to England, 

followed by Lathrop. Shortly after her 

mother’s death in 1871, Rose — over 

the objections of her family — married 

Lathrop in the Anglican Church. 

The couple struggled with financial 

difficulties and with the loss of their 

5-year-old son Francis (“Francie”) to 

diphtheria in 1881. 

Over the subsequent decade, Rose and 

George pursued their literary careers, 

but the latter’s depression and alcoholism 

began to strain their union. 

Returning to the U.S., the Lathrops 

settled in Connecticut and, to the 

shock of many friends, converted to 

Catholicism. 

The husband and wife founded the 

Catholic Summer School Movement 

in Connecticut and New York, and 

co-wrote a history of the Georgetown 

Visitation convent. 

However, the Lathrops’ marriage 

foundered due to George’s alcoholism, 

and Rose sought Church permission for 

a permanent separation in 1895. 

She then focused on a life of charity 

and service, training as a nurse at age 45 

to serve the poor, especially those with 

cancer — and she was at the bedside 

of her former husband when he died of 

kidney and heart disease in 1898. 

Following George’s death, she 

established St. Rose’s Free Home for 

Incurable Cancer, dedicated to St. 


Rose of Lima, in New York. In 1900, 

she received official Church approval 

to found her order, now known as the 

Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Congregation 

of St. Rose of Lima. 

Hawthorne died in 1926, and her 

cause for canonization was opened in 

2003 by the late Cardinal Edward M. 

Egan of New York, and submitted to 

the Vatican in 2013. 

Today, the order has 47 sisters and 

cares for “around 45 to 50” incurably 

ill patients between its two facilities in 

Hawthorne, New York, and Atlanta, 

Mother Marie Edward said, adding that 

the charism of their foundress continues 

to infuse the sisters’ day-to-day 

ministry. 

“We’ve always known her to be a 

saint,” Marie Edward said. “She could 

not have done what she did without 

having heroic virtue.” 

Marie Edward said once Hawthorne 

accepted the Catholic faith, “she just 

kind of ran with it.” 

“Her growth in sanctity was astounding 

at certain parts of her life, because 

I think she was hungering so much 

for God,” Marie Edward said. She 

noted that the Catholic faith enabled 

Hawthorne to navigate “the loss of her 

child when he was so young and [her] 

marriage [which was] a tremendous 

frustration.” 

“I think that the fulfillment came as 

soon as she received the grace of baptism 

and the knowledge of the richness 

of the Catholic Church,” said Marie 

Edward, who announced the news to 

her fellow sisters over the Hawthorne 

community’s public address system and 

alerted their sisters in Atlanta. 

Marie Edward said the beauty of Hawthorne’s 

charism was “her dependence 

upon the providence of God.” 

“[That] has carried over to this day 

where we still do not take any payment 

— Medicare, Medicaid, insurance, 

anything — for the patient’s care in 

the order’s homes,” she said. “It’s all 

[funded] by the benefactors that have 

been so generous to us over these ... 

123 years.” 

Following the pope’s announcement, 

the community is mulling a request to 

Hawthorne’s postulator in Rome for the 

transfer of their foundress’ remains to 

their chapel in Hawthorne, New York, 

Marie Edward added. 

Marie Edward said she could not 

speak regarding any possible canonization 

miracles that may have been 

effected through Hawthorne’s intercession 

— but noted that she and her 

fellow sisters have an “intuition” any 

such miracle might be “related to a 

child,” since Francie’s death at age 5 

“broke her heart.” 

She said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan 

of New York, who extended congratulations 

to the order, told her, “If it weren’t 

Lent, I would say ‘Alleluia.’ ” 

Marie Edward’s response was even 

more succinct. 

“Our dear mother,” she said. 

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter 

for OSV News. 

A patient is pictured in a file photo 

chatting with Dominican Sister 

Catherine Marie at Rosary Hill 

Home, a Dominican-run facility 

in Hawthorne, New York, that 

provides palliative care to people 

with incurable cancer and are in 

financial need. Rosary Hill was 

founded by Rose Hawthorne, 

later known as Mother Mary 

Alphonsa. She also founded 

the Dominican Sisters 

of Hawthorne. | 

OSV NEWS/GREGORY 

A. SHEMITZ 


IVF UNDER THE 

MICROSCOPE 

Eugenics, sacrificed kids, 

and scary side effects: 

The ugly scientific truth 

behind in vitro fertilization. 

Embryologist Ric Ross 

removes a vial of frozen 

embryos from a storage 

tank at the Smotrich IVF 

Clinic in La Jolla, California, 

in this 2007 file photo. | 

CNA/SANDY HUFFAKER 

BY KATIE BRECKENRIDGE 

The panic that ensued in the news media 

after a court in Alabama recognized 

embryos as persons centered on the 

ruling’s threat to a practice that is widely seen 

as a modern technological miracle: in vitro 

fertilization (IVF). As a result, state lawmakers 

moved quickly to pass legislation granting immunity 

to patients and clinics associated with 

the practice. 

Why are clinics concerned that deeming embryos 

“persons” will harm their businesses? 

Because the Feb. 16 decision reveals an uncomfortable 

truth about the process: that the 

experimenting on and discarding of human 

embryonic lives is a necessary part of IVF. As 

a result of this commodification of embryonic 

persons, only 7% of all lab-created children are 

born alive. 

The ugly truth behind IVF is not easy to 

digest. For many couples struggling with 

infertility, the procedure offers a convenient — 

albeit expensive — answer to their suffering, 

and is widely seen as a moral good. 

But the moral problems with IVF run deeper 

than many of us would like to admit. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church exposes 

its most basic flaw: that in separating the 

sexual act from its procreative dimension, procedures 

like IVF entrust “the life and identity 

of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists 

and establishes the domination of technology over 

the origin and destiny of the human person” (CCC 2377). 

The Church’s teaching on assisted reproduction is 

based not on weary, outmoded legalism, but rather on 

an essential moral truth. As the Vatican’s 2008 bioethics 

document Dignitas Personae (“The Dignity of the Person”) 

states: “Behind every ‘no’ in the difficult task of discerning 

between good and evil, there shines a great ‘yes’ to the recognition 

of the dignity and inalienable value of every single 

and unique human being called into existence.” 

How does IVF work? 

IVF begins with injecting follicle stimulating hormones 

into a woman’s ovaries in order to hyperstimulate them and 

produce several eggs at once rather than the one egg that is 

naturally released to the fallopian tubes each month. These 

injections can cause severe side effects, one of which is 

ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can cause pulmonary 

issues, stroke, blood clots, kidney dysfunction, loss 

of fertility, premature menopause, and even death. 

The extracted eggs are fertilized in a petri dish by injecting 

one sperm into the egg through a needle, or by allowing 


sperm and eggs to mix “naturally” in the dish. These babies 

are made in glass, or in vitro, rather than in the mysterious 

secret sanctuary of their mothers’ wombs. 

IVF often involves the preimplantation screening of 

blastocysts (early embryos), to not only determine the 

likelihood of implantation success, but also to screen for 

chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, and 

inherited genetic anomalies, such as cystic fibrosis and spinal 

muscular atrophy. After these blastocysts are screened, 

only the ones determined “genetically healthy and normal” 

are transferred — with merely the hope of implantation. 

This eugenic practice opens the door to the elimination of 

“defective” children. 

Researchers have found, however, that embryos with 

abnormal cells have the ability to self-correct, or push the 

abnormal cells out and replace them with normal cells. 

Eliminating these early embryos, of course, destroys a vast 

number of developing human beings that might have later 

been designated as “good quality.” 

Untransferred embryos are then frozen, destroyed, or donated, 

and ultimately destroyed through scientific research. 

If it’s decided for any reason that too many embryos have 

implanted, the babies are deemed to be of the undesired 

sex, or they are not developing as the parents desire, often 

abortions are performed until only the desired number and 

quality remain (a common clause in surrogacy contracts, 

for example). 

The human toll of low ‘success’ rates 

IVF intentionally plays a reproductive gaming wheel of 

chance, bringing human life into existence with the knowledge 

that not all of the lives will make it — if any. 

Consider this: If 20 embryos are created through IVF, six 

will be discarded outright for not passing preimplantation 

screenings, eight won’t survive the transfer process, and 

five will be discarded or frozen. And all 20 will have been 

dehumanized and considered expendable from the first 

A medical lab technologist operates an embryo 

vitrification during an intra cytoplasmic sperm 

injection process at a laboratory in 2019. | OSV 

NEWS/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN, REUTERS 

moment of the IVF process. 

It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where a parent would 

willingly sacrifice one of their children to save another one, 

and yet, this is what occurs through the experimentation 

of the IVF process. The sacrificing of children is so readily 

agreed upon by IVF pursuers because many view blastocysts 

as mere “clumps of cells” as opposed to the unique, 

unrepeatable persons that they are. But the Catholic 

Church teaches otherwise: “Human life must be respected 

and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,” 

the Catechism states. 

If you add up the numbers of embryos who are disposed 

of, do not survive the thawing process, or are donated to research, 

IVF eliminates millions of human beings. In 2012, 

it was found that since 1991, 3.5 million embryos had 

been created and that only 235,480 had been successfully 

implanted, 1.7 million having been discarded, with 23,480 

being destroyed after their removal from storage. 

It doesn’t end there. After the first IVF cycle, less than 

30% of women have a live birth, and there’s a paltry 45% 

success rate after three full cycles of IVF. Two-thirds of 

patients will be successful only after six or more cycles. 

How many little lives are being lost through this extensive 

trial-and-error transfer process? 

Abandoned responsibility 

Rather than generously create new life, the IVF process 

asks that children involuntarily be sacrificed to death for 

the desires of those who should be their greatest protectors: 

their parents. 

IVF depends on exploitation and possession to fulfill 

adult satisfaction: in the initial genetic screenings; in the 

trial-and-error process of determining which transferred 

embryos will implant; in the destruction and disposal of 

embryos through scientific research; and by the indefinite 

cryopreservation that is already the fate of more than a 

million embryonic persons. 

From a Christian perspective, destroying 

innocent human life — and calling it 

“good” — doesn’t let us become who we 

are meant to be in God’s eyes. 

From the standpoint of basic morality, 

the truth about IVF is even clearer: it’s all 

part of an ever-expanding, money-hungry, 

child-commodifying multibillion dollar 

fertility industry that profits off of the 

creation and destruction of embryonic 

human beings — and one that continues 

to get a free pass from politicians, mass 

media, and often, well-intentioned but 

ill-informed citizens. 

Katie Breckenridge works for the children’s 

rights organization “Them Before 

Us” and has written for several publications 

on beginning and end-of-life issues. 

She holds a master’s degree in mental 

health and wellness and is working toward 

a second master’s in bioethics. 


WITH GRACE 

DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE 

A day that defeats our disbelief 

“Initial A: The Women at the Tomb,” by Bartolomeo 

Rigossi da Gallarate (active about 1460-1480), Italian. | 

J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM 

Now, on Easter, is the cause of 

a Christian’s joy made manifest 

— the resurrection of Our 

Lord! 

If Jesus Christ really defeated death by 

rising from a dank tomb, as he promised, 

then it is possible for Christians to 

live in steady joy. Even during the recurring 

seasons of sadness and perplexity, 

the resurrection miracle preserves 

room in our hearts for gladness, or at 

least the glow of its near promise. 

But the resurrection of Christ also has 

something special to say to the cynicism 

that seems to have taken hold of our 

society. 

Modern secular man’s great despair, 

whose fruits we see all around us in the 

dysfunction and hopelessness of too 

many people in our society, may be 

attributed to his disbelief in miracles. 

This man is taught from childhood to 

consider the natural, material world the 

entire sum of existence. When his life 

is just a series of natural occurrences, 

he is unable to look higher and think 

about life very seriously. 

This man is unable to embrace a 

supernatural outlook, in which the natural 

world is only a part of an open sys- 

tem, a system in which things operate 

by natural law most of the time but are 

interrupted and redirected by the hand 

of God. These interruptions are called 

miracles. And the greatest miracle is the 

empty tomb in the garden of Golgotha. 

We can’t blame people for not believing 

in miracles. Even the Christian 

establishment and its teachers have, 

for some time, been poo-pooing them, 

perhaps maintaining a belief in the 

Resurrection or the True Presence but 

putting forth psychological/material 

explanations for “minor” phenomena. 

There are those, for example, who give 

sermons about the Gospel accounts 

of Jesus feeding 5,000 people that 

slide right past the simple divine act of 

multiplication, suggesting instead that 

the only miracle was that the Sermon 

on the Mount inspired a kind of radical 

sharing. 

This downgrading of belief has had 

a pernicious effect. The gift of Christianity, 

with all the firm happiness 

and peace that it implies, calls us to 

embrace the whole gamut of Christian 

beliefs. And God, especially in the person 

of Jesus, performed miracle upon 

miracle, astounding and amazing the 

people who witnessed them. 

They were not, as some have postulated, 

ignorant and superstitious, ready to 

believe where educated modern man is 

skeptical. They knew that lepers didn’t 

recover, and that Lazarus had been 

long enough in the tomb to warn there 

would be a stench of rotting flesh when 

the rock was rolled back. Perhaps, in 

fact, they were more in touch with the 

natural world and its laws than we are, 

removed as we are by modern conveni- 


Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five 

who practices radiology in the Miami area. 

ences and man-made elaborations. 

But these people believed because 

they saw — and then they soon forgot. 

The palm-laying, adoring crowds of 

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem are very 

quickly transformed into the jeering, 

jabbering throngs along the uphill Via 

Dolorosa. Having seen him make the 

leper’s skin as pure as that of an infant 

and seen him return a living son to the 

widow of Nain, still they turn on him 

and the joy of having seen the mercy 

of God. On the day of his passion the 

moments of compassion are so rare 

that they are described in loving detail: 

Veronica’s tender wiping of dripping 

sweat and blood, the crying of a group 

of women of Jerusalem. 

It’s not as though we are not surrounded 

by miracles, confronted by miracles, 

bathed in miracles. We are just jaded 

and cynical, tired and grumpy, and we 

soon forget. Jesus turned water into 

wine at Cana, and we say, well, I’d sure 

like to see that! But, as St. Augustine 

pointed out, “We take for granted the 

slow miracle whereby water in the irrigation 

of a vineyard becomes wine. It is 

only when Christ turns water into wine, 

in a quick motion, as it were, that we 

stand amazed.” Yes, the water on God’s 

good earth turns into wine, and the 

breast milk turns into tender flesh on 

your beloved infant, and the ordinary 

love of a man and his wife generates an 

immortal soul. 

The empty tomb in the garden of 

Golgotha. The defeat of the great dread 

of our lives, the demolishing of the 

giant obstacle between despair and joy 

is the miracle of miracles. It is God with 

one decisive, majestic hand turning the 

whole sad saga of each human life into 

a tale of romance and adventure, in 

which the happy ending is assured. 

The cause of our joy, indeed. 


FROM LOURDES TO LA 

A local Holocaust survivor’s memoir is a testament 

to the miracles that can happen amid murder and hate. 

BY MSGR. RICHARD ANTALL 

In 1994, I visited the Holy Land with a tour connected to 

Providence College. One of the stops was the port city of 

Jaffa. It is not one of the area’s most common tourist sites, 

despite being mentioned in Maccabees and in the Acts of 

the Apostles, which recount that St. Peter lived there for a 

time. 

While there, one of the young coeds wanted to pick up a 

souvenir, and since 

no one else was 

interested, I accompanied 

her to a little 

store. We were the 

only customers, and 

it seemed that the 

proprietor was staring 

at us. I thought 

he was admiring 

the student, but he 

wanted to talk to me. 

Eventually, in 

broken English, 

he asked if I was a 

Catholic priest. He 

was originally from 

France and it turned 

out that a French 

priest had saved him 

from death by hiding 

him and others in a 

basement. He could 

not recall the priest’s 

name, but he said he 

would never forget 

what he had done 

for him. Neither do 

I recall the man’s 

name, but I haven’t 

forgotten him. It was 

a grace so unexpected 

it seemed 

accidental. 

I have been thinking about that encounter lately, since 

reading “Adieu,” a memoir by Alfred Lakritz, a lawyer in 

Southern California whose father died in the Majdanek concentration 

camp in Poland after being arrested in France and 

moved several times around Europe (one of his stops was 

Drancy, outside of Parish, where the Jewish-Catholic poet 

Max Jacob died). The rest of the family managed to escape 

and eventually settle in California. 

The book recounts the vicissitudes of the family, especially 

of the mother and his brother. It is carefully, at times very 

movingly, written and dedicated to his parents and to all 

who helped his family escape the Nazi Holocaust. Those 

included a community of nuns in Lourdes, who had an 

“orphanage” that was really a shelter for Jewish children. 

Lakritz considers it 

“miraculous”’ that 

he, his mother, and 

his brother survived. 

For me, it was another 

example of Our 

Lady of Lourdes’ 

power to work miracles. 

The period covered 

by the heart of the 

book was when the 

author was between 

8 and 10. I think 

that should be 

considered in understanding 

some of 

Lakritz’s memories. 

For example, he recounts 

that peasants 

in southern France 

were taught by the 

priests that matzo 

bread was made with 

the blood of human 

victims. (I am sure 

he heard that ancient 

and terrible lie, 

but I doubt it was 

from priests.) There 

Alfred Lakritz. | AMAZON 

are hints of ambivalence 

in his attitude 

toward the Church, 

even though he 

speaks warmly of a priest in Lourdes and of the nuns who 

protected him. I also doubt that he was told to receive Communion 

at Mass, which he said he refused to do. 

Like so many of us, Lakritz has some contradictory 

thoughts. He remembers the boys at the orphanage playing 

in snowball fights with the German soldiers, but in another 

passage writes that he was (and still is) disgusted because 


many of the soldiers attended Mass on Sunday. He calls 

them “hypocrites, murderers, pigs.” 

His take on them is, “They were murderers.” I am not so 

sure. Those soldiers, like many in the Nazi military, may 

have been forcibly recruited and many probably were praying 

just to survive the war. They might not have known that 

the boys they engaged in snowball fights were Jewish, but 

they indicated something of their own boyishness in playing 

games. 

Could these common 

soldiers ever be 

forgiven? “If they were 

entitled to such forgiveness,” 

Lakritz writes, 

“what was the Catholic 

Church and its clerics, 

bishops, cardinals, and 

the Pope doing for their 

victims?” 

The myth of the 

all-powerful Catholic 

Church survives 

despite all evidence to 

the contrary. In what 

country of Europe was 

the Church politically 

strong? In Fascist 

Italy? In Nazi Germany, 

whose ideology was 

frankly anti-Catholic, as 

he admits, saying that 

crucifixes were taken 

down and replaced with 

swastikas? What exactly could the pope do that would not 

have provoked wholesale persecution from the German regime? 

The pope did things quietly, saving lives that he could. 

He lived in Axis territory, with the Gestapo at his gates for 

almost a year during the German occupation of Rome. 

Years later, Lakritz reached out to the Archdiocese of Los 

Angeles in order to ascertain which group of religious had 

saved him and his brother. Sister Mary Jean Meier, a Mercy 

Sister who was the director of the archdiocese’s Office of 

Special Services, did a great deal of research and found out 

that they were sisters of St. Bernadette’s community based in 

Nevers, France. Lakritz arranged a meeting with the superior 

of the community to thank her, “for everything that was done 

for me — how the nuns hid me from the German military, 

fed me, clothed me, and showed me love and compassion.” 

Nevertheless, he told Meier back in LA that he “was angry 

with Pope Pius XII that he didn’t do anything for the Jews, 

and that many Catholics colluded with the Nazis and the 

Church described the Jews as Christ killers.” 

Lakritz says Meier listened in silence and then said, “You 

must never forget, but you must also forgive.” This is one of 

the themes of the greatest of memoirs about the darkness of 

the genocide, finding transcendent goodness in life and in 

people, “in spite of everything,” as Anne Frank wrote in her 

diary. 

Reading “Adieu” made me pick up a book published in 

the 1950s, “Why I Became A Catholic” by Eugenio Zolli. 

He was a tremendous Jewish scholar and the chief rabbi 

of Rome. When the Allies liberated Rome, he became a 

Catholic. 

It would be hard to imagine two books by European Jewish 

Holocaust survivors more different than these two. But I see 

a resemblance between the two men; both Jews who left 

Poland for the broader world; both passionately identified 

with their heritage; both 

extremely attached to 

their mothers who were 

“saints”; both very sensitive; 

both honest about 

their faults. 

I think that both men 

could say what the rabbi 

said of himself, that 

he was better at loving 

than of making himself 

loved. Lakritz was 

intense from childhood. 

He still regrets his 

grandfather’s laughing 

at his new suspenders 

when he was 4 years 

old. 

Both books are worth 

reading. Lakritz is much easier than the theological and 

mystical broodings of the unusual Christian rabbi, who 

never forgot his 

love for the book 

“The Zohar,” 

the Kabbalistic 

book. But both 

are windows to 

another world 

and an inspiration 

to faith. Both 

deal with the 

miracles of God’s 

providence. 

Msgr. Richard 

Antall is pastor 

of Holy Name 

Church in 

Cleveland, Ohio, 

and the author 

of several books. 

His latest novel is 

“The X-mas Files” 

(Atmosphere 

Press, $17.99). 

Alfred Lakritz with his parents and 

baby brother at the beach in Kiel, 

Germany, in an undated family 

photo. | ALFREDJLAKRITZ.COM 

AMAZON 


DESIRE LINES 

HEATHER KING 

Those who carry 

“Christ Carrying the Cross,” 

by Jan Gossart, 1478–1532, 

Netherlandish. | METRO- 

POLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 

One recent morning, I found 

myself in downtown LA hanging 

out in front of the Superior 

Courthouse’s Grand Avenue entrance. 

I was sipping a Starbucks, idly thinking, 

watching the parade of humanity 

pass by. Kids hefting backpacks, fashionistas 

with crossbody bags, young 

guys on bikes, languidly weaving in 

and out of pedestrian traffic with plastic 

bags dangling from the handlebars. 

Lawyers schlepping briefcases, couriers 

humping banker’s boxes of files, 

mothers-to-be carrying babies in their 

wombs, fathers carrying babies in the 

crooks of their arms. 

Homeless people pushing impossibly 

heavy carts. Everybody carrying a 

phone. 

I myself had a purse as well as a tote 

bag with snacks, water, and a book. 

Everybody, in other words, was 

carrying something. Incarnate beings 

that we are, from the time we’re born 

practically till the day we die, we’re 

carrying loads of some sort. At first 

rattles, dolls, toy trains. Later, the 

groceries, the laundry, tool kits. 

Our breviaries, our missalettes, our 

rosaries, our prayer cards. The ushers 

carry the offertory, the altar server 

carries the water and wine, the priest 

lifts the chalice. 

Even the Russian stranniks — wandering 

pilgrims endlessly reciting the 

Jesus Prayer — carried a hunk of black 

bread, some salt, and a copy of the 

Gospels. 

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the 

rosary is The Carrying of the Cross. In 

his book “The Rosary of Our Lady,” 

theologian Romano Guardini observes: 

“In the last analysis everything is 

a ‘burden,’ not because it is painful 

instead of joyous, but because sin has 

stamped it with the curse of hardship. 

Man seeks to escape it. He will not 

take it upon his shoulders and persevere 

beneath it. Indolence, cowardice, 

resistance against the hardships of life, 

all mean here for Christ the obligation 

to carry a weight that is beyond His 

strength.” 

Our body is our first cross and the 

one we carry all our lives. In youth, 

we suffer its lust, hunger, and ambition. 

In old age, we begin to collapse 

beneath its weight, its aches, and 

pains, the psychic suffering carried for 


Heather King is an award-winning 

author, speaker, and workshop leader. 

decades in our nervous systems, our 

minds, our hearts. 

That we are going to age (if we live 

that long) and die is our biggest cross. 

The carrying of the cross put Christ 

in eternal solidarity not only with all 

of humanity but, though he died at 

33, with the aging, the old, the dying. 

Like an elderly person, he was debilitated 

and diminished. He could no 

longer carry the load by himself. He 

had to accept help. 

“Truly, truly, I say to you,” he had 

already told Peter, “when you were 

young, you used to dress yourself and 

walk wherever you wanted, but when 

you are old, you will stretch out your 

hands, and another will dress you and 

carry you where you do not want to 

go” (John 21:18). 

The Apostles’ Creed we pray at the 

beginning of every rosary ends, “I 

believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy 

catholic Church, the communion 

of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the 

resurrection of the body, and life 

everlasting.” 

The resurrection of the body. This 

body that has carried us all our lives, 

that is our joy and our torment, 

that we are with 24/7 and still don’t 

understand or know, to which we are 

nailed as surely as Christ is nailed to 

the cross. 

But as with Christ, the instrument of 

our torture and death will also be the 

instrument of our redemption. 

As we age and mature in faith, for example, 

perhaps we’re freed from some 

of our psychic and spiritual burdens. 

Perhaps we then devote our lives to 

atoning for the sins of the world — 

ours, always, but the sins of others as 

well: those we love; those we’ll never 

meet; those who have no one to pray 

for them, and never will. 

The “Pange lingua,” a medieval 

Latin hymn written by St. Thomas 

Aquinas, runs: 

April 5, 2024 • ANGELUS • 31 

Sweet the wood 

Sweet the nails 

Sweet the weight they bear. 

Do we carry our bodies, or do our 

bodies carry us? 

Did Christ carry the cross, or did the 

cross carry him? 

Anna Kamienska (1920-1986), a 

more contemporary poet beloved in 

her native Poland, lived through both 

the Nazi and Communist eras. 

In “Those Who Carry,” she writes of 

the men and women of the streets of 

Warsaw — but she could just as well 

be speaking of the young mothers, the 

guys bringing takeout to their grannies, 

the homeless of downtown LA. 

As we ache for Easter morning, she 

could just as well be speaking of all of 

us. 

Those who carry grand pianos 

to the tenth floor wardrobes and 

coffins 

the old man with a bundle of wood 

hobbling toward the horizon 

the lady with a hump of nettles 

the madwoman pushing her baby 

carriage 

full of empty vodka bottles 

they all will be raised up 

like a seagull’s feather like a dry leaf 

like an eggshell a scrap of newspaper 

on the street 

Blessed are those who carry 

for they will be raised. 

Good. Clean. Fun. 

Live Standup Comedy 

with a Catholic Twist 

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2/23/24 5:31 PM

LETTER AND SPIRIT 

SCOTT HAHN 

Scott Hahn is founder of the 

St. Paul Center for Biblical 

Theology; stpaulcenter.com. 

Amazed by Easter 

In 1986, I experienced the first Lent I ever lived intentionally. 

Still a Protestant, I knew I could not remain as I 

was, but I felt I should not — yet — become a Catholic. 

It was a true Lent, but there had been a Lenten quality to 

my life in the years just before. I spent those years “giving 

things up.” I gave up my Presbyterian ministry. I gave up 

my teaching and administrative posts at Protestant schools. 

But in 1986 my most painful sacrifice was my deferral of 

the sacraments, which I had promised for my wife Kimberly’s 

sake. She opposed 

my conversion and 

grieved over the possibility. 

Not long into Lent, 

however, I realized 

I could not bear the 

strain of waiting the 

four more years I 

had promised her. I 

begged her to release 

me from my promise, 

and she did. 

At the time I was a 

doctoral student in 

theology at Marquette 

University. I held a 

master’s degree from 

Gordon-Conwell 

Seminary. I had 

intensively studied 

the Scriptures, the 

Fathers, and the 

tradition. I felt I knew 

enough to make an 

informed decision; 

I felt I was ready; 

and the pastor at the 

parish agreed. 

Still today I believe 

I was ready. But now 

I also have to admit: 

I didn’t know what I 

didn’t know. 

At Easter Vigil, 

Msgr. Bruskewitz gave 

“The Resurrection 

of Jesus Christ,” by 

Paolo Veronese, 

1528-1588, Italian. 

| WIKIMEDIA 

COMMONS 

me the sacramental “grand slam” of conditional baptism, 

holy Communion, and confirmation. And afterward, I saw 

things differently. Now the hard sayings of Jesus — about 

baptismal regeneration, about his real presence, about 

sacramental absolution — began to make sense deep down 

in my soul, in my mind, and in my bones. 

I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but I was undergoing 

what the ancient Fathers called mystagogy — the unveiling 

of the mysteries — and it is proper to the season of Easter. 

I am now beginning 

to realize that mystagogy 

is a phase that 

lasts the whole of a 

lifetime. I realize now 

that I still don’t know 

what I don’t yet know. 

I still don’t know what 

I’ve yet to learn. I am 

ready to be amazed by 

what God has yet to 

show me, through the 

ordinary sacramental 

life of the Church. 

I could not know, 

during Lent of 1986, 

that Easter Vigil 

would bring a decisive 

turn in the road, not 

just for me, but also 

for Kimberly. Though 

she grieved that night 

and even called it 

the worst night of her 

life, she also began 

to notice just how 

profoundly biblical 

were the rites of the 

Catholic Church. In 

a few more years, she 

would undergo those 

rites herself. 

We do not know, you 

and I, what marvels 

God has in store for 

us. 


■ FRIDAY, MARCH 29 

Passion of Our Lord. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 

555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. 

■ SATURDAY, MARCH 30 

Easter Vigil Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 

555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. Vigil will be bilingual 

(English/Spanish), beginning with the blessing of the fire on 

the Easter Fire Hearth on the Cathedral Plaza. 

■ SUNDAY, MARCH 31 

Easter Sunday Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 

555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles. English Masses: 7:30 and 

10 a.m., Spanish Mass: 12:30 p.m. 

Easter Sunday Breakfast. Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 

5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

Reservations required by March 25. Cost: $35/person, $15/ 

children 4-12, children under 4 free. Visit maryjoseph.org/ 

event. 

■ TUESDAY, APRIL 9 

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. 

■ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 

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

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

call 562-537-4526. 

■ SATURDAY, APRIL 13 

Along the Way: A Pilgrim Walk. Mary & Joseph Retreat 

Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos Verdes, 7 a.m.-1 p.m. 

4.8-mile walk through the streets and trails of Palos Verdes 

to the sacred grounds of the retreat center. All ages and 

faiths welcome. Cost: $40/person, $60/family, includes 

picnic lunch. Visit maryjoseph.org/event. 

Introduction to Bible Study Leadership. Zoom, 9-10:30 

a.m. Information session will explain the Catholic Bible Institute’s 

three-year process of studying Scripture. Registration 

not required. For more, visit lacatholics.org/catholic-laevents. 

Les Petits Chanteurs de France Choir Performance. St. 

Bede the Venerable Church, 215 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada 

Flintridge, 7 p.m. Internationally renowned French boys’ 

choir will perform Handel’s “Messiah” and other well-known 

pieces. Free concert, open to all. 

■ SUNDAY, APRIL 14 

Diaconate Virtual Information Day. Zoom, 2-4 p.m. Email 

Deacon Melecio Zamora at dm2011@la-archdiocese.org. 

“Le Nouve Musiche: The Baroque Revolution” Concert. 

St. Andrew Church, 311 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 7:30 

p.m. Performed by world renowned musicians Jordi Savall 

and Hesperion XXI. For more information, visit standrewpasadena.org/concerts. 

■ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 

Shower of Roses: Cloistered Carmelite Nuns Auxiliary 

Annual Benefit Luncheon. San Gabriel Country Club, 350 

E. Hermosa Dr., San Gabriel, 10:30 a.m. social hour, raffle, 

silent auction, 12 p.m. luncheon and fashion show. Benefit 

celebrates 100 years of service for the Cloistered Carmelite 

Nuns. Cost: $75/person. RSVP to Kathy Cardoza at 

626-570-9012 by April 15, 2024. Send checks payable to 

Cloistered Carmelite Nuns Auxiliary to 710 Lindaraxa Drive 

South, Alhambra, CA 91801. 

■ TUESDAY, MAY 7 

South Bay Catholic Jewish Women’s Dialogue Conference. 

St. Lawrence Martyr Church, 1940 S. Prospect Ave., 

Redondo Beach, 8:30 a.m. “Are You There, God? It’s Me. My 

Relationship with God”: Rabbi Rebeccah Yussman and Anne 

Hansen discuss. Visit sbcjwd.com to register. Cost: $25/ 

person, includes continental breakfast and lunch. 

■ WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 



call 562-537-4526. 

■ TUESDAY, MAY 14 


Mission Blvd., Mission Hills. 11 a.m. Mass is virtual and 



■ FRIDAY, MAY 17 

Ethical Leadership Lunch. Cathedral of Our Lady of the 

Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 

p.m. Event brings together Catholic leaders from the business 

world to discuss how ethical practices positively impact 

our community. For more, visit lacatholics.org/events. 

■ SATURDAY, MAY 18 

Fresh Fire of God’s Spirit: Pentecost Rally. St. John the 

Baptist Church, 3883 Baldwin Park Blvd., Baldwin Park, 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Teachings, prayer, and Pentecost vigil Mass. 

Presenters include Father Ismael Robles, Elizabeth Kim, 

and Dominic Berardino. Free event. For more, call 818-771- 

1361, email spirit@scrc.org, or visit events.scrc.org. 

■ SATURDAY, MAY 25 

“Don Pasquale” Opera. Cathedral High Theater, 1253 

Bishops Rd., Los Angeles, 2 p.m. Full orchestra performance. 

Adult ticket includes complimentary glass of wine and 

hors d’oeuvres. Call or text 213-248-2510 or email info@ 

operaitaliala.com. 

■ TUESDAY, JUNE 11 


Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 11 a.m. Mass is virtual and 



■ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12 



call 562-537-4526. 

■ MONDAY, JUNE 24 

Summer Bible Sessions. Holy Family Church, 209 E. Lomita 

Ave., Glendale, 7-8:30 p.m. Immersion into the Gospels 

runs June 24-27. For more information, visit lacatholics.org/ 

events. 

■ SATURDAY, JUNE 29 

Summer Bible Retreat. Holy Family Church, 209 E. Lomita 

Ave., Glendale, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Free event, registration 

required. For more information, visit lacatholics.org/events. 

■ TUESDAY, JULY 9 


Mission Blvd., Mission Hills. 11 a.m. Mass is virtual and 



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 | April 5, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 7

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