Angelus News | September 20, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 19

ANGELUS
MYSTERIES OF
ST. MICHAEL
Why history’s great angel
wins over so many believers
September 20, 2024 Vol. 9 No. 19

September 20, 2024
Vol. 9 • No. 19
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ON THE COVER
SHUTTERSTOCK
An icon of St. Michael the Archangel, circa 1550-1580,
from the wooden church of St. Demetrius in Rovne,
Slovakia. Many Catholics know the great archangel
from a prayer sometimes said at Mass, or as a mythical
figure associated with distant battles. But on Page 10,
Mike Aquilina looks at the early Christian (and Jewish)
sources making the case for why, since the beginning of
salvation history, St. Michael has been there all along.
THIS PAGE
VICTOR ALEMÁN
Representatives of nearly 40 ethnic communities in
the Archdiocese of LA joined priests and bishops for
a picture after the 20th-anniversary Mass of “One
Mother, Many Peoples,” a celebration of cultures in
honor of LA’s patroness, Our Lady of the Angels. The
Sept. 7 Mass was celebrated by Archbishop José H.
Gomez in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
following a rosary.
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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
18
20
22
26
28
30
Bishop’s West Covina hospital visit plays up ‘spiritual care’ of patients
From LA to Rome, late hotel mogul’s support for sisters keeps growing
The kiss that said it all during Pope Francis’ stop in Indonesia
Charlie Camosy on the deeper implications of the IVF debate
Liz Lev on the 250th birthday of a forgotten Christian painter
Grazie Christie: When politics threatens to divide families
In ‘Unsung Hero,’ faith vs. financial hardship is something we can relate to
Heather King on letting leisure be leisure, not obsession
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
The devil likes mediocrity
The following is adapted from the
Holy Father’s homily at Mass with
100,000 people Sept. 5 inside Jakarta’s
Gelora Bung Karno Stadium during
his Sept. 2-13 apostolic voyage to Indonesia,
Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste,
and Singapore.
The encounter with Jesus calls us
to live out two fundamental attitudes
that enable us to become
his disciples. The first attitude is listening
to the word, because everything
comes from listening, from opening
ourselves to him, welcoming the
precious gift of his friendship. Then it
is important to live the word we have
received, so as not to listen in vain and
deceive ourselves (cf. James 1:22).
The scene in which many people
flocked to Jesus and “the crowd was
pressing in on him to hear the word
of God” tells us that the human
heart is always searching for a truth
that can feed and satisfy its desire for
happiness. We cannot be satisfied by
human words alone, the thinking of
this world, and earthly judgments. We
always need a light from on high to
illuminate our steps, living water that
can quench the thirst of the deserts
of the soul, consolation that does not
disappoint.
In the midst of the confusion and
vanity of human words there is need
for the word of God, the only true
compass for our journey, which alone
is capable of leading us back to the
true meaning of life amid so much
woundedness and confusion.
The first task of the disciple is not
to clothe ourselves with an outwardly
perfect religiosity, do extraordinary
things, or engage in grandiose undertakings.
No, the first step is to know
how to listen to the only word that
saves, the word of Jesus.
When Jesus challenges Peter to
“put out into the deep water and let
down your nets for a catch” (v. 4), he
asks us to change our gaze and allow
our hearts to be transformed into the
image of Christ’s heart.
The Lord, with the burning power of
his word, also asks us to put out to sea,
break away from the stagnant shores of
bad habits, fears, and mediocrity and
dare to live a new life. The devil likes
mediocrity, because it enters within us
and destroys us.
Of course, there are always obstacles
and excuses for saying no to this call.
Peter had come to shore after a difficult
night of not catching anything.
He was angry, tired, and disappointed,
but he says, “Master, we have worked
all night long but have caught nothing.
Yet, on your word, I will let down
the nets” (v. 5). Then, something
unheard of happens, the miracle of a
boat filling up with fish until it almost
sinks (cf. v. 7).
We sometimes feel the weight of
our commitment and dedication that
does not always bear fruit, or of our
mistakes that seem to impede the
journey we are on. Please, let us not
remain prisoners of our failures. Do
not look at your empty nets, look at
Jesus! He will make you walk, he will
help you, trust in Jesus! Even when
we have passed through the night of
failure and times of disappointment
when we have caught nothing, we can
always risk going out to sea and cast
our nets again.
Papal Prayer Intention for September: We pray that each one
of us will hear and take to heart the cry of the Earth and of
victims of natural disasters and climactic change, and that all
will undertake to personally care for the world in which we
live.
2 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
One mother, many peoples
On Sept. 7, Archbishop Gomez celebrated
the annual “One Mother, Many
Peoples Mass” at the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels. The following is
adapted from his homily.
Today we rejoice as the family
of God, the Church. We are
many peoples and we have one
mother, who is the mother of God,
the mother of Jesus, and the mother
of all of us who believe in his holy
name.
We also remember today the
founding of this great city of Los
Angeles in our mother’s name, as the
City of Our Lady of the Angels.
So, we praise the Lord today for his
many blessings, and we thank him
for the witness of St. Junípero Serra
and the Franciscan missionaries who
brought Jesus Christ and his Gospel
to this New World.
It was a brave and devoted band of
settlers, missionaries, and natives who
processed from the San Gabriel Mission
to what is now the first church
in La Placita to establish this city 234
years ago this week, on Sept. 4, 1781.
The first families of Los Angeles, as
we know, included Native Americans,
Africans, Europeans, and Asians from
the Pacific Islands.
The beautiful diversity of those
founding families is reflected in your
families gathered here today.
The family of God in Los Angeles is
an encounter of cultures and peoples,
fulfilling the promise of the early
Church in Jerusalem, the Church of
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came
down upon men and women gathered
from every nation under heaven.
That’s what the word “Catholic”
means; it means universal, it means
international, it means one family
drawn from every race and language
and tribe and people to the ends of
the earth. This is God’s dream for
his people. We are God’s dream for
humanity.
Today in Los Angeles and throughout
this great country, we need to
renew our commitment to this beautiful
dream of God, we need to uphold
and celebrate this amazing diversity of
peoples who call this land their home.
Every one of us is a brother or a
sister to everyone else. We are one
family, we are all in this together. We
are many peoples, and we have one
mother.
Our mother is the Queen of
Heaven, our father is God Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth! Our
brother and savior is Jesus Christ, who
rules the nations from the rising of
the sun to its setting, both now and
forever!
When the angel says to Mary today
in the Gospel, “Do not be afraid,” he
is also talking to you and me.
We live in troubled and uncertain
times. But nothing should frighten us
or disturb us because we are Mary’s
children. We are sons and daughters
of the most high God!
Jesus suffered, died, and rose from
the dead for every one of us! That’s
how precious you are to him. We can
never ever forget that!
This is who we are, this is our true
identity. No matter where we came
from, we are children of God! Jesus
loves us, and his mother loves us, with
a love that is beyond anything we
could ever imagine.
Our mother Mary said to the angel,
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the
Lord. May it be done to me according
to your word.”
These are the words of faith, words
of mission; they are a pledge to God.
Mary didn’t know exactly what her
promise was going to mean. All she
knew was that she wanted to do God’s
will, she wanted to follow his plan for
her life, not her own. Not my will, but
thy will be done.
Mary is our heavenly mother, and
like our earthly mothers, we must let
her be our teacher.
Our mother shows us the path to
walk, the way to live. Mary always
leads us to her Son, and to his word,
to his plan for our lives: “May it be
done to me according to your word.”
Like Mary, none of us knows what God might ask
of us. But we do know that if we walk with Jesus,
we have nothing to fear.
Jesus is the only path for us, the only
way to live.
Like Mary, none of us knows what
God might ask of us. But we do know
that if we walk with Jesus, we have
nothing to fear. Nothing will be impossible
for us, because we can do all
things with the strength he gives us!
So, let us ask our mother to keep us
always close to Jesus!
And let us ask her to commit us
more deeply to love our brothers and
sisters and to lead all the peoples of
the earth to know him and to love
him!
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
■ Christians killed in Burkina Faso massacre
More than 150 people, including 22 Christians, were killed Aug. 24 in one of
the deadliest attacks in the West African country of Burkina Faso’s history.
The village of Barsalogho was attacked by more than 100 Islamic jihadists
while villagers were attempting to construct defenses against potential terrorist
attacks. The attackers killed women, children, and the elderly in what Bishop
Théophile Nare of Kaya described as a “tragedy of unprecedented proportions.”
Nare declared Aug. 28 a day of mourning and called for three days of prayer for
reparation.
“May the maternal prayer and accompaniment of the holy Virgin Mary, Our
Lady of Kaya, Our Lady of Sorrows help us to overcome the scandal of the Barsalogho
massacre and continue to move forward in hope,” he said.
The country experienced two other attacks earlier in the month, causing many
to flee and more than 100 held captive.
■ Christmas bells are ringing in Venezuela
Christmas is coming early, according to the contested leader of Venezuela.
Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in the July 28 election to Edmundo González
Urrutia despite mounting evidence that he lost it. Now, he’s announced that the
Christmas season will begin on Oct. 1.
“For everyone, Christmas has arrived with peace, happiness, and security,”
Maduro said Sept. 2, hours after his justice department issued a warrant for
Urrutia’s arrest. The Christmas season in Venezuela often means extra bonuses
for public employees and more lavish gifts in government handouts.
The country’s bishops pushed back against the government’s attempt to “move
up” Christmas, pointing out that “the manner and time of its celebration are the
responsibility of the ecclesiastical authority.”
The announcement comes as Maduro cracks down against dissidents who
believe he stole the election. He has announced an early Christmas three times
before, in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
A sign of life — Upon opening the silver coffin containing the body of St. Teresa of Ávila in Alba de Tormes,
Spain, on Aug. 28, officials found the saint’s body remains “incorrupt” and in the same condition as when it was
last opened in 1914. The opening marked the beginning of a study of the 16th-century saint’s relics, which will
be carried out by Italian doctors and scientists with Vatican approval. | COURTESY ORDER OF CARMEL
The inside of the Church of the Immaculate Conception
after the Sept. 2 fire. | MAYOR FRANÇOIS
DECOSTER OF SAINT-OMER/FACEBOOK
■ Eucharist saved,
suspect arrested in
French church arson
A parish priest in northern France
was able to save the Blessed Sacrament
as his church burned from an
arson attack.
The Church of the Immaculate
Conception in Saint-Omer caught
fire the early morning of Sept. 2, with
the roof and bell tower collapsing in
flames before 120 firefighters contained
the blaze.
“With the authorization and under
the supervision of the firefighters, I
was able to enter the church when the
fire was under control to take what is
most important,” said Father Sébastien
Roussel according to Catholic
News Agency. “Namely the ciborium
in the tabernacle at first, then several
statues and elements of the liturgical
furniture,” he told Catholic News
Agency.
Police arrested Joël Vigoureux in
connection to the arson, whom police
said has a history of trying to burn
church buildings. There have been
nearly 40 church burnings in France
since 2023, according to the country’s
Observatory of Religious Patrimony.
4 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

NATION
■ Chicago unveils new ‘natural’ burial plots
The Archdiocese of Chicago announced a new section of one of its cemeteries has
been set aside for “natural burial,” as the practice becomes more popular across the
country.
Sometimes called green burials, these services use fewer resources than standard
burial practices, including steel-free caskets buried directly into the earth rather than
in a concrete vault.
The “Meadows of St. Kateri” section of the St. Michael Cemetery in Palatine,
Illinois, will be set aside exclusively for these types of burials and will also include
“winding walking trails, native plants, and a mixture of meadow and forest terrain,”
according to the archdiocese.
“This initiative reflects our commitment to providing choices that honor the dignity
of life, the needs of our community, and the values of our faith,” said Ted Ratajczyk,
executive director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Asking for answers — Young people hold hands as they attend a vigil at Jug Tavern Park in Winder, Georgia, Sept.
4, following a shooting that day at Apalachee High School in Winder. A 14-year-old student opened fire at the
school, killing at least two teachers and two students, authorities said. | OSV NEWS/ELIJAH NOUVELAGE, REUTERS
■ Company behind
‘Bible in a Year’ named a
Fortune top company
Ascension, the publishing company
behind the popular “Bible in a Year”
podcast series with Father Mike
Schmitz, became the first Catholic
company to crack the Fortune Best
Small Workplaces List top 10.
Based on surveys from analytics
firm Great Place to Work, 99% of
Ascension employees reported high
satisfaction, leading the company
to place eighth on the list of best
workplaces with 10 to 99 employees
and 64th of best workplaces for
millennials.
Jonathan Strate, the company’s
chief executive officer, credited
efforts to improve company culture,
including an expansion of paid family
leave policies last year, increasing
maternity leave from one paid week
to 12 and paternity leave from one
week to six. Parents who experience
pregnancy loss are also eligible for
the same amount of paid leave.
“To be really intentional about
the employee experience is the first
place to start,” Strate told Catholic
News Agency.
“And if you communicate a commitment
to wanting to do that … the
employees pay it back to you in the
form of dedication, in the form of
sticking around.”
■ Spanish Masses available in
a quarter US churches
Twenty-eight percent of all U.S. parishes now offer
Mass in Spanish, according to a new survey conducted
by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The bishops estimate this equals an increase of 10%
since 2014, when a partial survey was last conducted.
Additionally, 2,760 parishes that do not offer a Spanish-language
Mass have some kind of Hispanic ministry
presence.
The increased number of Spanish Masses — which
are concentrated most heavily in areas like Southern
California, Texas, and Florida — follows the growth
of the Latino Catholic population. According to the
Pew Research Center, a third of all U.S. Catholics are
Latino.
Parishioners at St. Marcellinus Church in Commerce pray during a Spanish Mass in March
2024. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
■ Hannon Foundation
distributes new grants for
Catholic education
Cathedral High School, Dolores
Mission School, and Mount St.
Mary’s University are among the
LA-area Catholic school recipients of
new grants awarded by the William
H. Hannon Foundation.
The Santa Monica-based foundation
announced new grants for 22
educational institutions, including
several Catholic schools in the
archdiocese. The grants were given
for schools to provide scholarships,
tuition assistance, program funding,
and more.
Other receiving organizations in the
archdiocese include the California
Missions Foundation, Mary Star of
the Sea elementary and high schools,
Notre Dame Academy, St. Raphael
and St. Timothy schools, and the
University Catholic Center at UCLA.
This year’s grant to Cathedral High,
the foundation said, will support its
new robotics program and Robotics
Club activities.
“Programs like the robotics classes
at Cathedral High School are critical
to ensuring that our young people
are energized and interested in the
sciences so that they can succeed
in this constantly evolving world,”
said foundation president Kathleen
Hannon Aikenhead.
For a full list of grant recipients, visit
HannonFoundation.org.
Back to school blessing — Father Michael Rocha, pastor at St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks, blesses
more than 100 students during a “Blessing of the Backpacks” Mass on Aug. 25. The students also received a
blessed metal cross to hang from their backpacks. | ST. PASCHAL BAYLON CHURCH
■ Thomas Aquinas College ranks
No. 1 in ‘conservative’ students
The Princeton Review ranked Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula as having
the most conservative students in the U.S.
Based on student responses to surveys, the college ranked No. 1 in “most conservative
students.” For the “most conservative” ranking, the Princeton Review asked
students to answer if they were politically “far-left, Democrat, nonpartisan, Republican,
or far-right.”
But students’ conservative values are closely tied to religiosity at the college, said
Christopher Weinkopf, executive director of college relations at Thomas Aquinas
College.
“Because TAC students are serious about their faith, they care deeply about the
unborn and hold countercultural views on a number of social issues that qualify
as conservative in contemporary political parlance,” Weinkopf told Catholic News
Agency.
Thomas Aquinas College also has distinctly happy students, according to the
Princeton Review: It ranked No. 5 in “happiest students” and ranked No. 13 in
“friendliest students.”
Y
A St. Junípero Serra statue in San Francisco that was vandalized
on June 19, 2020. | OSV NEWS/DAVID ZANDMAN VIA REUTERS
■ Could San Francisco take down Catholic statues?
A handful of Catholic-related statues are part of an audit of city-controlled
monuments by San Francisco to determine whether any should be removed,
relocated, or recontextualized.
Nearly 100 statues are included in the audit, including one of St. Junípero
Serra, one of Father William D. McKinnon — who volunteered to be chaplain
in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War — and several of St.
Francis of Assisi.
The audit comes after several statues, including one of Serra, were vandalized
during citywide protests in 2020.
Public workshops are scheduled for October, with a final report expected
to be delivered in January 2025. Following the report, the San Francisco Arts
Commission will recommend next steps, along with input from Mayor London
Breed and the Board of Supervisors.
6 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
What do we mean by defending ‘life’?
When it comes to the Sept. 6 issue Letter to the Editor in response to
John Allen’s piece “More than a swing vote,” I’m always surprised that so
many Catholics see “life” only in terms of abortion.
The Catholic teaching on life is that we defend and value human life from conception
to natural death. That covers death from abortion, disease, gun violence,
euthanasia, extreme poverty, war, etc.
Gun violence is now the No. 1 cause of death of children. When voting, each
Catholic must follow his own conscience: Which leader advocates policies that
are likely to save the most lives?
— Linda Johnson, Long Beach
Another perspective on guns
The column by Greg Erlandson in the Sept. 20 issue (“The monsters in our own
nightmare”) picks incidents that are not the norm in order to call for gun control.
What he fails to mention are how many times a year guns are used in self-defense
(2 million, according to one statistic) where no one is shot. But I guess those
potential victims are better than the thug dying or being shot in the process.
More people die as a result of gun control policies than are saved.
— Scott Welsh, Lewistown, Montana
Y
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Mary, our mother
“This might make one
laugh, but there are some
families that seem to prefer
to have a cat or dog, but
this … doesn’t work.”
~ Pope Francis, praising the country’s high birth
rate, in a Sept. 4 meeting with leaders in Indonesia
as part of his historic journey through Asia and
Oceania.
“I went back home, and I
helped to build a shed for
the chickens.”
~ Archdiocese of Washington Auxiliary Bishop
Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, in a Sept. 3 OSV News article
on how his experiences back home in El Salvador
help his ministry.
“Our reward will be better
than any gold medal, and it
won’t be decided by a tenth
of a second.”
~ Washington, D.C. priest Msgr. John Enzler, in a
Sept. 3 Catholic Standard commentary about how
we can become spiritual Olympians.
“We stopped answering
our phone, because I don’t
want to listen to another
person cry.”
~ Bethany Sasaki, president of the California
chapter of the American Association of Birth
Centers, in an Aug. 26 CalMatters article on the
state’s birth centers going out of business.
Local Nigerian Catholics with the Statue of Our Lady of the Angels featured at the 20th anniversary “One Mother,
Many Peoples” Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Sept. 7. The multilingual event celebrates the many
ethnic and cultural groups in the archdiocese. | 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.
“Why, in 2024, does
our nation still spew out
pennies like a two-liter in
eternal agitation, gushing
undrinkable fizz?”
~ Journalist Caity Weaver, in a Sept. 1 New York
Times Magazine commentary on America freeing
itself from the tyranny of the penny.
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronrolheiser.com
Leaving slavery and pharaoh behind
One of the great religious stories
in history is the biblical story of
the Exodus, the story of a people
being set free from slavery, passing
miraculously through the Red Sea, and
finding themselves standing in freedom,
on a new shore.
Most of us are familiar with this story.
A nation of people, Israel, was living
under the burden of slavery in Egypt for
many years. During all those years, they
prayed for liberation, but for more than
400 years none came.
Then God acted. God sent a man,
Moses, to confront the pharaoh who
was enslaving the Israelites and when
the pharaoh resisted, God sent a series
of plagues, which eventually forced
the pharaoh to release the people from
slavery and allow them to leave.
Moses began to lead the Israelites out
of Egypt, but as they were leaving, the
pharaoh changed his mind and with his
armies began to pursue them, catching
them just as they found themselves
trapped on the shore of the Red Sea,
unable to go forward.
It is then that God performs the great
miracle upon which the Jewish faith is
grounded. He miraculously parts the
water and lets the people walk through
the sea on dry ground. Then, as the
Egyptian armies pursue them, the
waters flow back and drown the entire
army, so that those fleeing slavery now
stand free of their oppressors, on a new
shore.
Both Christians and Jews believe that
this miracle actually happened historically
and is one of the two great foundational
miracles God has worked in
history. For Christians, the other great
foundational miracle is the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead. The Jewish faith
depends on the truth of the miracle
at the Red Sea and the Christian faith
depends on the truth of the resurrection
of Jesus.
Moreover, both Judaism and Christianity
say these great miracles (which
happened historically only once, in one
time and place) are intended for all
time and all places and can be participated
in through ritual (in a way that is
real, albeit outside of history).
In Judaism, the algebra runs this way:
In parting the Red Sea and letting
the Israelites escape, God performs
a miracle, physically altering reality.
However, even though historically
only one generation of people actually
walked through the Red Sea, this is a
miracle that goes beyond time, place,
history, and normal metaphysics. It is
timeless and can be participated in by
subsequent generations.
How? Through ritual, through ritually
commemorating that original miracle
through the Passover supper.
When religious Jews celebrate the
Passover supper, they believe that they
aren’t just remembering something that
happened once when God parted the
waters of the Red Sea; they believe that
each of them, all these centuries later, is
actually walking through the Red Sea.
They aren’t just remembering a historical
event; they are actively participating
in that event.
How can this be explained? How
can we explain how an event can exist
outside of time and space? We can’t.
Miracles, by definition, don’t have an
explicable phenomenology. That’s
why they are called miracles. Hence,
we can’t explain either the historical
parting of the waters, nor the availability
of that event outside of time.
Christians believe the same thing
about Jesus’ exodus through death
to resurrection. We believe that this
happened once historically, for real,
in an event that miraculously altered
the earth’s normal physics. And, like
our Jewish sisters and brothers, we
also believe that this onetime event,
Jesus’ death and resurrection, can be
participated in, for real, through ritual,
namely, by the ritual commemorating
of it through the Scriptures and especially
through the celebration of the
Eucharist.
For Christians, this is the specific
function of the Eucharistic prayer at a
Eucharistic celebration. The Eucharistic
prayer (the Canon) is not just a
prayer to make Christ present in the
bread and the wine; it is also a prayer to
make the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection
present for us to participate in.
Just as Judaism believes that at a Passover
supper those present are actually
walking through a miraculous passage
God created for them to walk through
en route to a new freedom, so too as
Christians we believe that at the Eucharist
we also are really (actually) walking
through the miraculous passage from
death to life that Jesus created through
his journey from death to resurrection.
And, in this there’s an invitation to
all who participate in the Eucharist: as
the Eucharistic prayer is being prayed,
ask yourself: What forces are enslaving
me? What pharaoh is keeping me in
bondage? A bad self-image? Paranoia?
Fear? A certain wound? Trauma? An
addiction? Can I journey with Christ to
a new place that’s free of this slavery?
The miracle of Jesus’ resurrection, like
the Exodus, happened once historically,
but it is also outside of time and place
and available to us as a way to leave
behind the pharaohs that enslave us, so
as to arrive in freedom, on a new shore.
8 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

Mysteries of Michael
He has 12 feasts, 12 monasteries in a row,
and he’s everywhere between the lines of the Bible.
BY MIKE AQUILINA
Catholics today know St. Michael
the Archangel primarily
from one short prayer, which
some parishes recite at the end of
Mass.
For our spiritual ancestors, however,
Michael loomed larger. The rabbis of
ancient Judaism, the Copts of ancient
Egypt, the popes of ancient Rome,
and the great martyrs of the early
Church all held Michael — whose
feast day Roman Catholics celebrate
Sept. 29 — in special esteem. A
heavenly prince, he stood, for the
ancients, at the center of many earthly
mysteries.
Michael is everywhere in the Bible
The Jewish folklorist Louis Ginzburg
documented the ancient traditions
regarding Michael. In the Hebrew
Bible, Michael is mentioned by name
only three times, all in the Book of
the Prophet Daniel (10:13, 10:21, and
12:1). But for the rabbis of early Judaism
he lurked in many books, working
anonymously or hiding between the
lines.
He was there from the first moment
of creation, say the rabbis, proving
himself faithful when the angels underwent
their test. Shown the figure of
Adam as the “image of God” (Genesis
1:26–27), Michael bowed down in
worship, while Satan refused and
rebelled.
And Michael did not abandon the
first man at the time of the original
sin. Rather, he stayed and taught
Adam the skills of agriculture and
blacksmithing. In time he also taught
A Russian icon of St. Michael the Archangel surrounded
by “scenes from his life.” | WIKIMEDIA
COMMONS
10 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

Cain the methods of farming, so that
the exiled man could support his
family.
Afterward he remained active in the
lives of those who were chosen by
God. Certainly he was always with
Abraham. It was Michael, we’re told,
who informed Sarah that she would
bear a son.
It was Michael who rescued Lot at
the destruction of Sodom.
And it was Michael who stayed
the hand of Abraham when he was
about to sacrifice his son Isaac. It was
Michael who produced a ram to take
Isaac’s place.
According to the rabbis, it was
Michael who wrestled with Jacob
and then blessed him — and the only
reason the angel ended the wrestling
match was because he had to hustle
back to heaven for morning prayers.
The story goes on as Israel was taken
captive in Egypt. Michael, we learn,
was the fire that flamed from the
burning bush as Moses approached it.
Michael was the pillar of fire that
led Israel by night — and he was the
pillar of cloud that directed them by
day.
And it was Michael, once again, who
instructed Moses on Mount Sinai —
Michael who filled the tabernacle and
temple with the glory cloud, which
was the sign of God’s presence.
The rabbis tell us also that Michael
destroyed the Assyrian army and prevented
them from entering Jerusalem.
He would have protected Israel
from Nebuchadnezzar as well, but by
then the sins of Israel were too great.
The rabbinic accounts have Michael
bargaining with God the way Abraham
had made a plea for the people
of Sodom. But God would not relent.
And so the people were taken away as
captives.
Still, even while the Jews were in
captivity, Michael continued to press
Inside the Church of the Archangel Michael, a
Greek Orthodox church in Pedoulas, Cyprus. |
SHUTTERSTOCK
his case. He was active, we’re told,
during the persecution in the time
of Esther, and “the more Haman
accused Israel on earth, the more
Michael defended Israel in heaven.”
Michael was always there for the
Chosen People. He is mentioned 10
times in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The
sect that produced the scrolls were
expecting a great war, and they knew
During Roman persecutions, Christians cultivated
the habit of invoking Michael in times of
danger. This was especially true of the Coptic
believers in Egypt, who established a feast in his
honor for every month.
that Michael would appear as their
deliverer. In their War Scroll they
pray, “Today is [God’s] appointed time
to subdue and humiliate the prince
of the realm of wickedness. God will
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 11

send eternal support to the company
of his redeemed by the power of the
majestic angel … Michael.”
According to the Jews in the time of
Jesus, Michael was everywhere he was
needed.
Michael delivers the martyrs
The early Christians had the same
strong sense of Michael’s ubiquity and
power. As he had been the guardian
of Israel, he was now guardian of the
Church.
Through brutal persecutions during
the reigns of the Roman emperors
Decius and Diocletian, Christians cultivated
the habit of invoking Michael
in times of danger. This was especially
true of the Coptic believers in Egypt.
In the accounts of the martyrs we
sometimes see Michael delivering
them from torture — and other times
delivering their souls to heaven.
The Copts were (and remain) so devoted
to Michael that they established
12 feasts in his honor, one per month,
to be observed every year. The feasts
commemorate the great events in the
archangel’s life, from his first appearance
to Abraham to his deliverance of
a Christian emperor in battle.
The monuments line up
In the West, Michael was similarly
honored. When plague ravaged Rome
at the end of the sixth century, St.
Gregory the Great reportedly had a
vision of Michael atop an ancient
building, and the angel was sheathing
his sword, and the pandemic came to
an end at that moment.
And even today the building where
he appeared bears testimony. It’s called
Castel Sant’Angelo, the Castle of the
Holy Angel.
Devotion to Michael continued into
the Middle Ages, as many of the great
monasteries in Europe were named
for him. In modern times, geographers
have noted that 12 major shrines to
Michael appear on the world map
— and they compose a straight line
stretching from Ireland to Israel. (Is
there an echo here of the 12 feasts of
Michael on the Coptic calendar?)
Among those shrines is the beautiful
Mont St. Michel in Normandy,
France.
There is no way medieval monks
could have plotted that linear course
over hundreds of years and thousands
of miles.
A modern revival?
In times of trial, the ancients knew
the archangel to be a patron, protector,
and guide. Toward the end of the 19th
century, Pope Leo XIII wrote three
prayers to Michael, one long, one medium-sized,
and one short. Catholics
everywhere took up the short one and
recite it still today.
What mysteries is the archangel
working out even now in our history,
our calendars, and our maps?
Mike Aquilina is contributing editor
of Angelus and author of many books,
including “Angels of God: The Bible,
the Church, and the Heavenly Hosts”
(Servant, $17.99).
A mosaic of the Archangel Michael in the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Spyridon in Trieste, Italy. | SHUTTERSTOCK
12 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 13

Auxiliary Bishop Brian
Nunes visits with Daisy Del
Rosario (center) and other
patients during a visit to
Emanate Health Queen of
the Valley Hospital in West
Covina Aug. 28.
BODY AND SOUL
Bishop Brian Nunes’ special visit to Queen of the Valley Hospital
emphasized the ties between physical and spiritual health.
STORY BY NATALIE ROMANO / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR ALEMÁN
Norma Gonzalez was recovering from surgery at Emanate
Health Queen of the Valley Hospital in West
Covina when she got an unexpected visitor, one that
made her feel like her suffering was over.
She sensed it the moment Archdiocese of Los Angeles Auxiliary
Bishop Brian Nunes walked in wearing his luminous
pectoral cross and even brighter smile.
“To see the bishop and get his blessing makes me feel
like I’m not alone and I’m going to be OK,” said Gonzalez
through tears. “I feel overwhelmed because I know God was
present.”
Bishop Nunes visited with patients and staff at the Catholic
hospital on Aug. 28 as part of an event where he also toured
the facility, blessed its future emergency department under
construction, and celebrated Mass with Queen of the Valley
chaplain Father Daniel Malaver.
While blessing the construction site, Nunes blessed the
work in progress and called upon future employees to be “extensions”
of God’s compassion. He went on to describe how
Catholic hospitals can mend people’s souls as well as bodies.
“Hospitals are one of those special ways that we can touch
people’s lives as Church,” Nunes said. “When we tend to
people’s health, it is really a very powerful way of showing
our care, and that comes from what we believe as disciples of
Jesus.”
Nunes then spent several hours touring the various units
and greeting patients, about half of whom were Catholic.
Among the most eager was Daisy Del Rosario, who clutched
multiple rosaries and her blanket bearing Our Lady of Guadalupe.
She said the bishop’s visit was the boost she needed
after suffering a stroke.
“I missed being with my family and my blood pressure was
low, but the nurse told me the bishop was here,” said Del
Rosario, a parishioner at St. Frances of Rome Church in
Azusa. “I wanted to see him, I wanted to participate in Mass.
When you have the body of Christ in you, you feel more
blessed.”
In the neonatal intensive care unit, Nunes enjoyed seeing
photos of patients who thrived after their hospitalizations. He
thanked staff for saving the most “vulnerable and precious.”
14 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

“God, we ask that you continue to watch
over [staff], guide them, guide their judgment,
guide their hands, give them hearts
of love as they continue to serve you and
the moms and the dads and the babies,”
he said.
The Catholic roots run deep at Queen of
the Valley. In the late 1950s, the Sisters of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary saw a need
for local health care. Starting with only
$25 in seed money — and a lot of work
and prayer — they opened a four-story hospital
in 1962. An outdoor mural featuring
one of the founding sisters and a doctor
shaking hands epitomizes the hospital’s
focus on treating both body and soul.
Malaver sees that firsthand every day
as the hospital’s chaplain. Whether he’s
offering bedside prayers, the Eucharist, or
performing the anointing of the sick, he
contends the therapeutic connection between the spiritual
and physical is clear. “The [patient’s] face lights up with the
word and the sacrament,” Malaver said. “You can really see
that something happens, a person in pain becomes peaceful.
… I do believe when our souls get better, our physical bodies
tend to get better.”
Malaver has been a priest for more than two decades, serving
in parishes until five years ago when he became chaplain.
It’s a ministry he has come to “love dearly” even during
times of crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s always the fear of being infected but the mission of
bringing Christ to that person is greater,” Malaver said. “And
when someone’s health or spirits improve, it is confirmation
of the faith.”
Of course, not every patient gets better. When someone
dies, Malaver turns his focus to the devastated family left
behind. After tending to their needs, he then takes care of his
own, walking the hospital grounds and praying the rosary.
Taking that personal time is so important, said Ann Sanders,
a registered nurse who works as the archdiocese’s Office
of Life, Justice, and Peace liaison for
Healthcare Ministry. Her role is to
“care for the caregivers” by coordinating
spiritual retreats, reading groups,
and helping organize the annual White
Mass for health care professionals.
Bishop Nunes blesses
the construction site of
Queen of the Valley’s new
emergency department.
“When you are doing the healing ministry, you’re giving,
you’re giving, you’re giving,” Sanders said. “You need to be
fed as well. You need to talk to others that are experiencing
the same situation. I’m the one facilitating but they’re really
ministering to each other. It’s great.”
In addition to chaplain services, Queen of the Valley also
has a “Spiritual Care Team” that serves patients. The interfaith
group of staff and volunteers say they’re uplifted by the
daily presence of Malaver and the special visit by Nunes.
“[Malaver] has been described by all of us as a penny from
heaven,” said Ana Haffner, director of spiritual care. “He’s
an amazing, kind, approachable gentleman. “And to have
the bishop here too, it’s such an honor. It gives my heart
warmth.”
The bishop and the chaplain capped
the day by celebrating Mass in the hospital
chapel. The well-attended service
was open to staff, patients, and their
families. All received a rosary and angel
pin to mark the occasion.
Nunes delivered a final blessing.
“With a medical emergency, it’s
something we need in the moment and
that’s such a parallel to how we pray,
‘God I need help,’ ” he said. “With
that understanding, we’re asking for a
blessing for all those who come to this
place and need help now.”
Bishop Nunes ended
his visit celebrating
Mass with chaplain
Father Daniel Malaver
and hospital staff.
Natalie Romano is a freelance writer
for Angelus and the Inland Catholic
Byte, the news website of the Diocese of
San Bernardino.
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 15

Sister Judy Vaughan shows visiting sisters
around Alexandria House, the shelter for
homeless women and children in Koreatown
she founded in 1996. | KAYLEEN SULLIVAN/
CONRAD N. HILTON FOUNDATION
A NETWORK OF
SISTER ACTS
An A-list panel of women religious visited
LA to offer a ‘complete picture’ of what
one foundation is accomplishing in some
of the world’s toughest places.
BY PABLO KAY
Before his death in 1979, hotel
magnate Conrad Hilton left
behind two key instructions for
the future of his charitable foundation:
that aid be given to Catholic sisters,
and that it be given with no “territorial
restrictions.”
Forty-five years later, that mandate
still guided discussions at an Aug. 25-29
gathering in Los Angeles with leading
religious sisters convened by the Catholic
Sisters Initiative, where board members
and staff were updated on its work
supporting Catholic sisters ministering
to the poor around the world.
During the meetings, four visiting
sisters from Kenya, India, the Vatican,
and Texas offered a “complete picture”
of what the initiative, which gives away
nearly $50 million in grants a year, is
accomplishing.
But just as valuable, the sisters found,
were the opportunities to simply talk to
one another.
“What surprised me is that although
we come from different parts of the
world, we’re facing the same challenges,”
said Sister Alessandra Smerilli, an
Italian who serves as the number two
official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting
Integral Human Development.
For example, Smerilli and her fellow
panelists heard about how the initiative
is helping efforts to care for LA’s aging
population of sisters. Smerilli and fellow
panelist Sister Nirmala Nazareth, who
oversees more than 130,000 sisters in
her role as president of India’s Conference
of Religious Women, shared how
they are facing a similar crisis in their
own countries.
“As the population of sisters becomes
more elderly, they need more assistance,
and you need to be prepared
from a financial point of view, too,” said
Smerilli, an economist who is also a
professor at a university in Rome.
From behind her desk at the Vatican,
Smerilli sees daily evidence of how the
foundation has emerged as a lifeline
for work overseen by women religious
in some of the world’s most unstable
and impoverished places, including
anti-human trafficking efforts, providing
health care for migrants from war-torn
areas, and helping young people learn
job skills.
During a visit to Alexandria House, a
transitional group home in LA’s Koreatown
for homeless women and children
founded by Sister Judy Vaughan in
1996, Smerilli was surprised to learn
that it relies on donations, rather than
public money, to help the poor in a
place like Los Angeles.
“I had a perception that since in
16 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

From left: Sister Alessandra Smerilli from Italy, Sister
Nirmala Nazareth from India, Sister Josephine
Kangogo from Kenya, and Sister Norma Pimentel
from Texas during a meeting at the Hilton Foundation’s
Westlake Village headquarters. | KAYLEEN
SULLIVAN/CONRAD N. HILTON FOUNDATION
the U.S. everything is so well organized,
someone has to take care of the
poorest,” said Smerilli, one of three
religious sisters appointed to high-ranking
Vatican positions by Pope Francis in
recent years.
The other two panelists who traveled
to LA for the meetings were Sister Josephine
Kangogo, chair of the Association
of Sisterhoods of Kenya, and Sister
Norma Pimentel, known for her work
with migrants as executive director of
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande
Valley.
According to Sabrina Wong, senior
program officer for the Catholic Sisters
Initiative, Pimentel “brought down
the house” during a presentation on
the work of Catholic sisters along the
U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas.
“There was not a dry eye in the room”
as Pimentel was speaking, said Wong,
who helped organize the sisters’ visit to
Los Angeles.
The initiative has awarded grants to
the Sisters Border Network, which helps
agencies like Pimentel’s share resources
and coordinate efforts to receive migrant
families on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico
border. In Los Angeles, three years
ago the initiative announced a grant
of nearly $200,000 toward a landscape
study of religious life in the archdiocese,
which includes an updated database of
local sisters.
The delegation of sisters was also
given a presentation by Sister Mary
Sean Hodges about the Partnership for
Re-entry Program (PREP), which she
founded in Los Angeles more than two
decades ago to provide inmates serving
life sentences with mentoring and
personal growth courses. Like Alexandria
House, PREP has received grants
from the Hilton Foundation to expand
its “comprehensive services,” including
job training and mentoring for former
inmates looking for a new start.
The Hilton Foundation was started
in 1944 by Conrad Hilton with the
intention to “relieve the suffering, the
distressed, and the destitute.” A devout
Catholic with a special affinity for the
work of Catholic sisters, the fortune
Hilton left behind led the foundation in
1986 to start the Hilton Fund for Sisters,
which supports the work of women
religious with underserved populations
around the world.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Sisters Initiative,
started in 2013, supports sisters’
education, leadership and care, and
networks of sisters that work together
to help those underserved populations
achieve self-sufficiency.
The initiative’s support is even being
felt in the Vatican, where Smerilli
worked with the foundation to develop
a network of more than 500 sisters
working with migrants around the
world, providing training while connecting
them to one another and national
bishops’ conferences. During a recent
trip to Zambia, Smerilli discovered that
the country’s bishops had put one of
those sisters in charge of pastoral care
for migrants.
“We’re trying to build those networks
because we feel that the work of the sisters
is so precious,” said Smerilli. “They
need to be better recognized in order to
better serve the poor.”
For Wong, watching the visiting nuns
interact with one another and with the
people they met in LA was “like a master
class in how to be a better human
being.”
It was especially important, she believes,
for newer Hilton Foundation staff
to see the people they support up close.
“It shows a true picture of who they
are,” said Wong. “Not just sweet women
who pray, but people who are at the
forefront of sustainable human development,
leading others on a global
scale. It’s really important for them to be
acknowledged.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
Archbishop José H. Gomez chats with sisters
before a lunch at his residence at the Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels Aug. 29. | JOHN RUEDA
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 17

A KISS
OF PEACE
BY ELISE ANN ALLEN
Pope Francis kisses the hand of
Nasaruddin Umar, grand imam of the
Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia,
at the end of an interreligious meeting
Sept. 5. | CNS/LOLA GOMEZ
Francis’ approach to Islam was embodied by a surprise gesture in
Indonesia, where police foiled a terrorist plot.
JAKARTA — Perhaps the moment
that best embodied the intention
behind Pope Francis’ whirlwind
three-day trip to Indonesia came
during a Sept. 5 interreligious encounter
at Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, when
Francis kissed the hand of the mosque’s
Grand Imam, who in response gently
kissed the pontiff on the head.
That moment seemed to capture the
spirit of the pope’s visit to the Muslim-majority
country, and the message
of tolerance and unity he sought to
convey. Dialogue with Islam has been
a cornerstone of Francis’ 11-year pontificate,
with 11 visits to majority-Muslim
nations during that time.
Here in Indonesia, roughly 87% of the
population (around 275 million people)
is Muslim, while just 3%, or eight
million people, identify as Catholic.
Throughout his pontificate, Francis
has been careful to strike a delicate balance
between condemnation of Islamic
fundamentalism and calling for an end
to violent extremism, while engaging
Islamic leaders as brothers and offering
assurances that not all Muslims are
violent.
The relevance of that message was
underscored by news a day later that
Indonesian police had detained seven
suspected Islamic militants planning to
attack Francis during the visit.
It was unclear whether the suspects
were plotting together or even knew
one another. According to local news
reports, the threat was reported to
police based on social media posts.
One anonymous source told local
newspaper The Straits Times that the
terrorists were angry about the pope’s
visit to Istiqlal Mosque and the government’s
appeal to television stations
to refrain from the usual broadcasting
of the Islamic call to prayer while the
live broadcast of Francis’ visit was in
session.
Francis has consistently argued that
extremism is an abuse of religion, not
an expression of it, and has worked to
get prominent Muslim leaders to join
him in making public declarations to
that effect.
This was one of the main sentiments
of the Document on Human Fraternity
that Francis signed with Grand Imam
18 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb
during his February 2019 visit to Abu
Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
That document, which condemned
the instrumentalization of religion for
terrorism and violence and called for
religions to work together on issues of
common interest, such as care of the
environment, was widely hailed as a
major advancement in the Catholic
Church’s relationship with the Muslim
world.
Since then, Francis has encouraged
other Islamic leaders and representatives
of other religious traditions to
add their signatures to the document,
effectively making a joint pact for
interfaith tolerance. He has repeatedly
met with al-Tayeb, including at an interfaith
meeting during a 2022 visit to
Kazakhstan, and in 2021 when he met
with the revered Shia cleric, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
While in Indonesia, Pope Francis
drove home his appeal for tolerance
and for an end to extremism in his
public meeting, praising the country’s
record of religious tolerance as the
“indispensable and unifying fabric that
makes Indonesians a united and proud
people.”
Interreligious dialogue, he said, is necessary
to counter “extremism and intolerance,
which through the distortion of
religion attempt to impose their views
by using deception and violence.”
His main event in Jakarta was his
Sept. 5 interreligious meeting at Istiqlal
Mosque, which sits directly across the
street from the Catholic Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Assumption.
The two structures are connected
by an underground tunnel called the
“Tunnel of Friendship,” built in 2021.
During the meeting, the pope visited
the entrance to the Tunnel of Friendship
and extended his blessing to all
those who pass through it.
Nasaruddin Umar, the Grand Imam
of Istiqlal, called Francis’ presence
both “a joy” and “an honor,” saying
it is their goal to “promote religious
tolerance and moderation.”
The pair also signed a joint declaration
condemning “dehumanization”
and climate change and pledging to
work together to promote human dignity
and care for the environment.
At the meeting’s end, Francis — no
stranger to symbolic gestures — firmly
grasped Umar’s hand while pausing
for a photo and kissed the back of it,
prompting Umar to bend and give the
pontiff a small kiss on the head in a
mutual gesture.
Muslims themselves welcomed the
pope’s visit, with the Central Board
of Muhammadiyah, one of the main
Islamic groups in Indonesia, issuing a
statement referring to the pope’s visit as
“an honor and respect for the Indonesian
people.”
Given his simplicity and his message
of peace, the pope, they said, is an
inspiration for leaders “at the national
and global levels.”
Many Muslims also lined the streets
to see the pontiff arrive at his events,
and to wave or film as he passed by,
particularly those at Istiqlal Mosque
and the cathedral, as they are located
in a Muslim sector.
Continuing his Sept. 2-13 tour of Asia
and Oceania, Francis was set to touch
on issues like poverty, climate change,
and the need for peace and reconciliation
in a world at war, while offering
encouragement to Catholic populations
in majority-Christian nations
such as Papua New Guinea and East
Timor.
But his decision to kick off his longest
international trip by engaging the
Islamic world illustrates just how much
of a priority dialogue with Muslims
is for Francis, and it also cements his
role as the “goodwill ambassador” for
interreligious dialogue.
Elise Ann Allen is a senior correspondent
for Crux in Rome, covering the
Vatican and the global Church.
Francis and Umar pose
for a photo with Muslim,
Christian, Hindu, Buddhist,
and representatives
of other religions outside
the Istiqlal Mosque in
Jakarta. | CNS/LOLA
GOMEZ
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 19

Frozen human embryos in
an IVF lab storage tank. |
SHUTTERSTOCK
The IVF danger we don’t see
A prime example of
‘throwaway culture,’
the procedure is
becoming a political
football and could
change how future
generations treat kids.
BY CHARLIE CAMOSY
In vitro fertilization (IVF) — the
combining of ova and sperm in a lab
directed toward producing human
embryos — has become an increasingly
common way to reproduce in
the United States, with about 100,000
children born in the U.S. via the
practice each year. Especially because
of the pain of infertility, and a general
sense (still) among many that having
children is a good thing, a whopping
9 in 10 U.S. Americans think it should
be a legal option for women.
It is perhaps with such overwhelming
support in mind that Donald Trump
has come out in favor, not only of legal
IVF, but of federal government support
of IVF and/or mandates that health
insurance companies cover the very
expensive procedure.
But as an essay in Angelus earlier this
year explained, there are a host of serious
moral and ethical problems with
IVF. Perhaps the most damning one
— particularly in the American IFV
model — is that millions of “excess”
human embryos produced are either
discarded, used in deadly experiments,
or contained indefinitely in what is
essentially a frozen prison.
The procedure epitomizes what
Pope Francis frequently condemns as
“throwaway culture”: a world where
getting what we want — especially in
the context of a consumerist marketplace
— is the top priority, regardless
of who or what gets used and discarded
in the process.
Logically, that involves dehumanizing
people and turning them into
things that can be more easily discarded.
Sometimes the full humanity of
especially the most vulnerable human
beings can be inconvenient for us and
our consumerist objectives.
This is certainly true of the human
beings discarded, killed, and indefinitely
imprisoned via IVF. Indeed,
ignoring the truth we learned from
Dr. Seuss that “a person is a person no
matter how small,” we will go so far
as to deny the science that these are
fellow (if tiny) members of the species
Homo sapiens.
Disturbingly, the children produced
by IVF are subject to the quality controls
typical of the broader consumerist
marketplace. Catholic writer Leah
Libresco Sargeant recently pointed
out the implications of the ability of
American parents to choose certain
embryos, and discard or indefinitely
freeze others, based on the fact that
one wants a boy (true of a number of
immigrant communities), one wants
a girl (often because of the perception
20 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

that life is harder for males in modern
culture), or one wants to avoid having a
child who is likely to be disabled.
These turn even the chosen children
into things — products — chosen because
they meet the desires of parents.
This is also sometimes facilitated by
choosing donor sperm and ova based
on the traits of the biological parents.
Ova, for instance, can be more expensive
to purchase on the open market
depending on things like SAT scores,
attractiveness of the photo, proof of a
varsity letter, and more.
In short, when the connection
between sex and procreation is severed
— and replaced with re-production
(seeing life as a product to be acquired
in a consumerist marketplace) — gone
is the idea that human beings are
persons with an inherent and equal
dignity regardless of their traits or
market value.
This concern is at the very heart of
Humanae Vitae (“On Human Life”)
and the Church’s beautiful teaching
on the need for procreation to never
lose its connection to marital sexual intimacy.
This understanding insists that
children are free gifts from God, not
something that we are owed and have
a right to. And when children are understood
as gifts, this bypasses the logic
of the marketplace and is instead ruled
by the logic of love, encounter, and
hospitality. In other words, antidotes to
throwaway culture.
There is certainly a need today for
Catholics to help fellow believers who
struggle to understand the Church’s
teaching on IVF. And relatedly, we
often don’t do enough to address the
pain of infertility being experienced by
so many today.
But when it comes to IFV, there are
issues of justice here which should be
reflected in law. Despite our culture’s
slouch toward unfettered autonomous
reproductive choice (at least as it
exists in a coercive marketplace), Pope
Francis has insisted that there should
be laws restricting such choices. For
instance, he recently called for a global
ban on a “deplorable” practice often
paired with IVF: surrogacy.
There is no right to reproduce
however one wishes and Catholics are
not the only ones to think like this.
Indeed, the increasingly popular group
“Secular Pro-Life” has a detailed set
of explainers and arguments as to why
even the very earliest human embryos
count the same as other human beings
and why this matters for how to think
about the morality of IVF. Protestants
like Katy Faust (of “Them Before Us”)
understands IVF to be part of a “child
victimizing industry.”
Given the overwhelming support for
legal IVF in our culture right now,
there is virtually zero chance of banning
the practice, Pope Francis-style.
But there are still important and more
realistic options for resisting the ways
IVF contributes to the throwaway
culture. For instance, like most of
our peer countries, we could ban sex
selective IVF. We could go the way of
Italy and limit the number of embryos
that can be created and require that all
be implanted. We also could work with
disability rights groups to ban discarding
embryos based on disability.
And of course we could (and should)
reject Donald Trump’s idea to force
people to pay for IVF with their tax
dollars and/or as benefits to their
employees (something that would
almost certainly result in another
legal challenge from the Little Sisters
of the Poor). We should instead use
such funds to help equip (especially
vulnerable) families to welcome the
gift of children by making traditional
birth free.
If we do not, and continue to instead
promote IVF and the throwaway
culture it supports, there is a very good
chance it will become the default
way we reproduce. The convenience
and quality control will be too much
to pass up in a culture that demands
both. And if this happens, then the
idea that children are gifts from God
— rather than products we purchase
on the open market — may in fact
be something Western culture simply
loses altogether.
Charlie Camosy is professor of medical
humanities at the Creighton University
School of Medicine. In addition, he
holds the Monsignor Curran Fellowship
in Moral Theology at St. Joseph Seminary
in New York.
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 21

“Cross in the Mountains
(Tetschen Altar),” by
Caspar David Friedrich,
1774–1840, German. |
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
CROWNED BY NATURE
Tainted by its
association with
Hitler, the deeply
spiritual work of
Lutheran painter
Caspar David
Friedrich is getting
its vindication.
BY ELIZABETH LEV
How to respond to a world
racked by war, in an age of
lies, intrigues, and fading faith?
The answer may lie in the art of a man
named Caspar David Friedrich, born
250 years ago this month.
This German painter, who captured
the sublime beauty of God through
nature, might have a lesson or two for
today’s turbulent world. Son of a soap
boiler and candlemaker, Friedrich
was born into a world facing a critical
juncture: Earth-shattering revolutions
were brewing in the fledgling United
States and in France, while his hometown
of Greifswald on the Baltic coast
would pass from Sweden to France to
Denmark and finally Prussia during his
lifetime.
Death took its toll both far and near:
While still a child, he lost his mother,
two sisters, and brothers, and as a young
man several of his friends were killed
resisting Napoleon’s invasions. France’s
Reign of Terror violently excised religion,
and the lame Jacobin substitute,
the Cult of Reason, could not fill the
void left by the eradicated faith.
Friedrich was no warrior, accustomed
to wielding a pencil rather than a
sword. At age 16, he went to study with
Johann Gottfried Quistorp, learning to
22 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

draw from models, but was much more
interested in the outdoors. At this time,
he met theologian Ludwig Gotthard
Kosegarten, who taught that nature
was a form of divine revelation, which
would deeply affect the art of the young
painter.
Friedrich was raised Lutheran in an
era when religion was falling out of
style. Suffering, however, was omnipresent.
The Napoleonic wars cost
3-6 million lives between civilians and
soldiers, and the accompanying poverty
and disease claimed even more. But in
1808, as Denmark declared war on his
homeland of Sweden and Napoleon
invaded the papal states, Friedrich
produced a work for King Gustav IV
Adolph of Sweden, which, in its quiet
grandeur, would revolutionize art and
offer hope in the darkest hour.
“Cross in the Mountains,” the first
work to bring the 34-year-old Friedrich
renown, was painted to encourage
the deepening faith of the Swedish
monarch. Both painter and prince were
influenced by the Moravian Brethren,
a spirituality of interior devotion
— a “theology of the heart.” Gustav,
however, abdicated a year later and the
work went to Tetschen castle, home of
the Catholic Count Thun-Hohenstein,
where it served as an altarpiece.
The work features a gipfelkreuz, or
summit cross, a type of landmark erected
in the 13th century along mountain
passes of the Alps. The cross appears as
a slender reed among the more densely
clad fir trees below. The corpus turns
away from the viewer, unthinkable in
medieval art, rare in Renaissance art,
but increasingly employed during the
Baroque era. The viewer gazes from
behind as if standing by the lone tree
on the dark rocky slope.
Below the rugged cliffside one would
expect to find pastures and villages,
which, approaching the plain, become
cities that then grow into nations.
Those nations, in 1808, were relentlessly,
brutally, at war.
From the turbulent darkness, the
eye is drawn to Christ, who repels the
shadows. Jesus’ radiance not only commands
attention but instills a longing to
be in the line of his gaze and within the
embrace of his outstretched arms. He
mediates between this dark and light, a
meeting between the search for clarity
and the mystery that is man’s final
destiny. He is the invisible made visible.
Serene skies hint at a hope for peace
while the mountain, at first an obstacle,
slowly becomes the anchor of the work,
the embodiment of steadfast faith.
Later, Friedrich would write of this
work: “Jesus Christ, nailed to the tree, is
turned here towards the setting sun, the
image of the eternal life-giving Father
… The cross stands high on a rock,
firm and unshakable like our faith in
Christ.”
Friedrich’s innovative approach to
landscape dwarfed his figures with
the overwhelming power of nature,
upending traditional imagery where
man had always dominated nature. The
move garnered scorn from many of his
contemporaries, yet his depiction of the
sublime, awe-inspiring yet frightening,
seems to resonate
with anyone
who feels
overwhelmed by
events beyond
our control.
Friedrich
followed “Cross
in the Mountains”
with
“Monk by the
Sea,” sweeping
the viewer from
a mountaintop
to a deserted
beach where
fog and wave
and shore all
seem to become
one. A lone
figure dressed
in a cassock and
identified as a
monk (perhaps
a portrait of the
artist) stands on
“The Painter Caspar David
Friedrich,” by Gerhard von
Kügelgen, 1772–1820, German.
| WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
a narrow strip of
sand. The rules
of perspective
seem to have
been washed
away like so
much flotsam by
the wall of mist rising above the figure.
The inky sea rises to a charcoal haze,
through which menacing masses seem
to loom.
The slight figure of the monk contemplates
the vastness of nature before
him, his erect posture conveying no
fear. A few pearlescent gulls lead the
eye from the impending storm toward
the luminous sky above. Friedrich’s
scene suggests that prayerful solitude
before the terrifying abyss of existence
allows one to perceive the light of hope
through despair. Friedrich reprised this
idea in what would become his most
popular work, “Wanderer above the Sea
of Fog” (1818), where the man gazing
into the abyss becomes everyman (or
woman for that matter) facing the great
unknown.
Friedrich intended “Monk by the Sea”
to be paired with his “Abbey in the
Oakwood,” painted a year later. Here,
the artist leads the viewer into a snowy
valley amid a tangle of dead trees, their
knotty branches evoking either menacing
claws or gesticulating mourners.
Through the mist, a splendid stone
arch holds court among the trees. The
high lancet window with its traces of
fine carving recalls the beauty created
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 23

eligious history painting, Friedrich’s
artistic voice remained unique, and, in
a certain sense more ecumenical, as it
used the majesty and mystery of nature
to reveal the divine.
Friedrich endured criticism for allowing
landscape painting “to sneak” into
sacred spaces, a criticism that allowed
these masterpieces to fade into obscurity.
Once rediscovered, Adolf Hitler
championed their depiction of Germany’s
distinct topography, earning them
guilt by association and relegating them
to another historical oubliette. These
“The Monk by the Sea,” by
Caspar David Friedrich,
1774–1840, German. |
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
by man when directed to God, instead
of the destruction caused when man
follows his basest nature.
The attentive observer will note
a group of monks carrying a coffin
through the ancient graveyard. A seemingly
random cross on the right leans
toward an open grave yawning between
the viewer and the doorway, a rustic
memento mori. Life begins, flourishes,
and ends, such is the cycle of existence.
Though the mood is melancholy, the
light on the horizon recalls Pandora’s
box, after all the evils have been released
to devastate the world, and only
one thing remains, hope. Light in the
art of Friedrich evokes hope not only in
troubled times, but also in lonely souls.
Though he evoked faith through
images of crucifixes, monks, and
dilapidated abbeys, Friedrich remained
Lutheran throughout his life. While
several of his fellow German Romantic
painters, Philipp Veit, Johann Friedrich
Overbeck, and Wilhelm von
Schadow converted to Catholicism and
founded the Nazarene movement of
misguided attempts to categorize his
work stalled his success, dimming how
Friedrich, during an age of animosity
toward religion, successfully returned
faith to the public square through
nature.
Eighteenth-century industry relied on
timber and forests to be felled in the
name of progress; Germans pioneered
forest management, coining the term
Nachhaltigkeit, or “sustainability.”
Seen in this light, the poignant trees
and desolate seascapes of Friedrich’s
oeuvre appear as a Romantic version
of Laudato Si (“Praise Be to You”).
That Hitler, dealer of death extraordinaire,
collected his works, reveals the
Führer’s deep ignorance of this artist
who endeavored to be an instrument
of peace.
Whether mountaintops, sea mists,
or snowscapes, Friedrich drew natural
barriers intended to block out the
noise of media and machinations, and
to evoke the silence of prayer. At last,
from Feb. 8 to May 11, 2025, Americans
too will be able to enjoy the brilliance
of this underappreciated master
when the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York will host an exhibit
entitled “Caspar David Friedrich: The
Soul of Nature.”
Friedrich’s anniversary offers a wonderful
opportunity to rediscover this
beautiful art: a beacon of peace and
hope rendered through the universal
language of God’s creation.
Elizabeth Lev is an American-born art
historian who lives and works in Rome.
24 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

WITH GRACE
DR. GRAZIE POZO CHRISTIE
When Election Day comes for my family
SHUTTERSTOCK
Something dreadful this way
comes. Can you feel it? Election
Day (Nov. 5) is lumbering toward
us, and you can just see its head and
shoulders rising up against the horizon.
Look for an amping up of dramatic
hysteria in the lead up to that day; then,
a dreadful letdown for one-half of the
country and gleeful schadenfreude
for the other. And through it all, fury,
recrimination, frustration, exasperation,
misunderstandings, hard words, and
hurt feelings — occurring not only
between broad categories of Americans,
but between relatives of flesh and
blood.
The sad fact is that the fault line that
runs quite evenly through American
society also runs through many families,
with the same awful effects. It runs
through ours, I’m sorry to say.
Already we are experiencing strangely
stilted Sunday dinners in which no one
is bringing up any topics outside of the
weather, and how chubby the newest
baby in the family has gotten. There
are one or two at the table who are just
one poke or jab from becoming entirely
unhinged, and every one of us wants
to avoid that worst of irate questions:
“Are you seriously considering voting
for X?”
Reason and logic won’t convince
the other side that one set of policies
is superior and will better effect the
common good. Or that the other party
is pulling the wool over voters’ eyes,
promising sensible moderation but
showing every sign of governing from
the extreme fringe if elected. Charges
of ignorance or willful blindness quickly
devolve, we’ve found, into accusations
of being unfeeling, uncharitable,
careless of the poor, and vulnerable.
These hurt. A lot.
I remember a time when it was
different, when the stakes did not seem
so existential, and when the disagreements
were more political and less
foundational. Perhaps things always
look better in the rearview mirror, but
I’m pretty sure that everyone used to
agree on broad basics — that there was
a kind of overarching narrative that we
all accepted and that united us.
It went something like this: Families
were the bedrock of society, children
were a blessing, inviolate, and the
future; America made mistakes but
it was the greatest country on earth;
worshiping God was not only good for
each individual, but indispensable to a
virtuous citizenship.
The legacy media employed real journalists
who reported the facts instead
of working to influence our thinking.
26 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five
who practices radiology in the Miami area.
The schools, whether public or private,
taught only the three Rs (reading,
writing, and arithmetic), plus history,
and pride of country. Free speech, like
free association and religious freedom,
were understood by all to be the
indispensable ingredients of American
flourishing.
It seems these previously unifying
ideas are no longer held in common by
both parties (or maybe we don’t share
a common language when talking
about them). My “free speech” is my
relative’s “misinformation” and his idea
of “family” looks more like dysfunction
and irresponsibility to me than that safe
haven for babies and other vulnerable
people that I call “family.”
One angry relative tells me my unease
about diversity, equity, and inclusion
policies makes me a racist (gulp), and
I say that my children come in every
color and race, and what I want for
them is a color-blind society — Martin
Luther King’s great dream. Our greatest
fracture line may be over the issue of
abortion, which to me is the direct killing
of the most defenseless human, and
to my contenders a morally neutral act
that ensures the flourishing of women.
I think you can see why we stick to the
weather and the chubbiness of babies.
A few days ago I called one of these
people that I love and don’t see eyeto-eye
with. I reminded him that God
gives us only a handful of years to enjoy
each other’s company. Soon I will be
gone, and he will be gone. And I told
him that I thought the personal should
be kept free and clean from the political,
because the personal is what makes
our lives worth living.
His smile at the sight of my face is
something I am loathe to lose over an
election which, in the end, decides
temporalities which mean so little
against the great panorama of the eternal.
That is the vista that matters, and
the one that we are not meant to mar
by harsh words and harsher judgments.
He took it well, in the spirit in which
it was intended. He told me that
my smile was important to him too,
and that he wouldn’t give that up for
anything. We agreed to disagree, and to
love each other through this election,
and the next, as family does.

NOW PLAYING UNSUNG HERO
A FAITH-BASED SURPRISE
Defying expectations, ‘Unsung Hero’ delivers a profound
depiction of when faith meets financial hardship.
The Smallbone family
in the film “Unsung
Hero.” | IMDB
BY ROBERT BRENNAN
I
have never been a big fan of “faithbased”
movies. The ones I have
sampled either leave me cringing
at the sledgehammer approach to the
Christian faith with cardboard heroes
and villains, or distract me with lowbudget
production quality. As far as
acting goes, too many rely on performers
who seem to be more at home in
dinner theater productions of “Showboat.”
The “name” actors in these
movies are usually from the ranks
of those who used to have a higher
celebrity profile, but now just enough
cache to help with the financing and
marketing of this genre of movie.
My aversion to this kind of film may
also be explained by my growing up in
the Catholic bubble I did. The compound
adjective “faith-based” fires up
my Catholic radar, which then scans
content for decidedly American brands
of Protestantism. And even though I
do not expect or demand all films I
watch come with magisterial-informed
biblical exegesis, I don’t like being
hit over the head with content that
portends to be Christian, but in the
depths of my Catholic heart and brain
I believe to be either incorrect or not
the fullness of the faith.
So, you may think I have come to
bury the faith-based movie. But it’s
actually time to praise one.
I watched “Unsung Hero” — which
appeared in theaters last April — because
Archangel Radio asked me to
comment on a faith-based movie of
my choice.
Thanks to new media, everything
is local these days. The small Catholic
radio station, based in Alabama,
became aware of me via my Angelus
columns published online. And for
almost a year now, I have been invited
on their airwaves to periodically share
thoughts and commentary on films
and television. So, I guess you can say
28 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

I’m very “big” in Alabama.
As the deadline for my appearance
drew closer and my anxiety peaked,
I faced a dilemma: What faith-based
movie was I going to talk about? This
meant that I would have to watch one
from beginning to end.
I steadied myself with words of wisdom
from my mother, who always told
us that when we were having a bad day
or suffering from something, to offer
it up for the “poor souls in purgatory.”
As I read one online synopsis after
another I began to fear I was going to
be emptying purgatory altogether until
finally alighting on “Unsung Hero.” I
hit my remote, ordered the film on my
streaming service, and if purgatory was
going to be vacated, so be it.
“Unsung Hero” is based on a true
story, but a true story with a “Hollywood”
ending. If it were fiction, the
resolution would be dismissed by critics
as contrived, but sometimes God
does his best work through impossible
situations.
For the Smallbone family, it was an
impossible situation on stilts. When
we first meet the patriarch of the
family the movie hinges on, he is a
prosperous music promoter in Australia
with a big house, a big family,
and plenty of prestige. But a series of
financial disasters take everything away
— everything but the family. Soon he
is jobless and broke, with six children,
and one on the way.
With his financial desperation forcing
their hand, father and mother — with
their six kids in tow — leave home and
travel to Nashville, Tennessee, where a
possible job is in the offing. When that
offer is rescinded, the dad and mom
are not only financially strapped, but
they are also thousands of miles from
home.
It is a story of true perseverance and
faith. It says profound things about
what a man, even a man of faith, goes
through when being the breadwinner
is stripped away from him. The movie
is most real when the father struggles
with his dire circumstances and shows
in refreshingly stark and visceral ways
that a faith journey is just that, a journey
where many times one finds road
closures in one’s path.
For the Smallbone family, it means
having to clean houses and mow
lawns to put food on the table. It
means accepting charity, something
the father has an increasingly difficult
time doing.
Music is a major character in this
film and is the vehicle by which
the Hollywood ending is rendered.
If it wasn’t true, it would be hard to
believe. The film was a passion project
by two of those seven Smallbone children,
brothers who, like their oldest
sister, became popular performers
in the Nashville music scene before
becoming nationally known names in
Christian music. Joel Smallbone cowrote,
co-directed, and stars as his dad.
“Unsung Hero” is a performance
worth watching. The brothers consider
this film an ode to their father and
mother and to their faith. For me, this
film has restored my faith in this genre
of filmmaking.
“Unsung Hero” is available on
multiple streaming services, including
Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and
YouTube.
Robert Brennan writes from Los
Angeles, where he has worked in the
entertainment industry, Catholic journalism,
and the nonprofit sector.
Luke Smallbone and Joel
Smallbone on the set of
“Unsung Hero.” | IMDB
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
How I discovered true leisure
Two women read on Blackrock Beach in
Salthill, Galway, Ireland. | SHUTTERSTOCK
Last summer I stayed for two
months in an Irish village.
People often pleasantly inquired,
“Are you on holiday?” or “So you’re
vacationing?”
“No!” I’d practically shout in reply. “I
am not on vacation. I am working.”
“Oh. Okay,” I could almost hear them
thinking, “Because we see you peering
into shop windows, eating pastries from
the fancy greengrocer, browsing the
used bookstore, yakking on your phone,
ambling down the Bog Road taking
pictures of sheep, incessantly ducking
into church … I’m sorry. We thought
that signified a holiday.”
To be fair, as a writer, in a way, you
are always working. Pondering, making
mental connections, observing, mining
reality, composing sentences, paragraphs,
and stories in your head.
In another way, let’s face it — writing
is hardly digging ditches, driving a cab,
or raising children.
The point, though, isn’t to split hairs
over which kind of work demands
more. The point may be a question
raised by philosopher Zena Hitz in a
recent “Plough” essay: “What Is Time
For?”
Specifically, Hitz asks, “What is leisure,
and why is it necessary for human
beings? The leisure that I am interested
in is not the first thing you may
imagine: binging Netflix on the couch,
lounging at the beach, attending a
festive party with friends, or launching
yourself from the largest human catapult
for the thrill of it. The leisure that
is necessary for human beings is not
just a break from real life, a place where
we rest and restore ourselves in order to
go back to work. What we are after is a
state that looks like the culmination of
a life.”
Sixteen-hundred years ago, Hitz points
out, Augustine (now St.) and his mentor,
Bishop (now St.) Ambrose were
both busy, busy, busy: students to teach,
letters to answer, news to catch up on,
religious duties.
In his few moments of snatched time,
Ambrose would sit, even in the midst of
a boisterous crowd, envelop himself in
a kind of invisible cloister, and silently
read.
Boy, could I relate. From my earliest
30 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

Heather King is an award-winning
author, speaker, and workshop leader.
memories, my fondest wish has been
to be left alone so I can go off in a
corner, or under a tree, or find a bench
at the farthest end of the train, bus, or
orchard, and open a book.
I’m not the first to notice that the
parable of Martha and Mary represents
our own split psyche. One part just
wants to read or look at the birds or
sit at the feet of Jesus and drink in his
every word. The other part is scolding,
“Wash the bathroom floor!” and “You
need to make a dentist appointment!”
and “What about your taxes!”
Jesus had administrative duties, too.
He seems not to have sweated them
(nor ever to have worried that there
wouldn’t be enough money).
As Psalm 127 runs:
“In vain is your earlier rising,
your going later to rest,
you who toil for the bread you eat:
When he pours gifts for his beloved
while they slumber.”
On the other hand, we all want to be
able to say, like St. Paul, “I have stayed
the course; I have finished the race.” Jesus
himself clearly stretched himself to
the limit of his physical, emotional, and
spiritual strength as he walked through
the countryside healing and casting out
demons.
But the issue isn’t so much work
versus workaholism as how we choose
to use our “free” time.
As Hitz points out, “Ambrose has more
work than anybody, but he knows how
to use his breaks.
“His leisure shows us what he cares
about most; it shows both why his work
matters and why it doesn’t matter.”
Part of the reason I’m so attached to
being seen as a hard worker is that I
forever toil in the psychic shadow of my
working-class parents.
But after reading Hitz’s piece, I see I’m
also fiercely protective, as I should be,
of my “leisure.”
We flee leisure because we flee our
own emptiness, Hitz observes. Leisure
is in fact an interior discipline that
requires significant sacrifice: of money
possibly, of stature recognition, a robust
social life. So to pursue it, to insist upon
it, is a pearl of great price.
What is our highest good? Hitz invites
us to ask. What does contemplative
leisure look like in real life?
She gives several examples: loving relationships,
study, intellectual reading;
prisoners under totalitarian regimes
who wrote poems on cigarette papers or
scratched into bars of soap and passed
them on to their neighbors. Prayerful
solitude.
Activities, in other words, that don’t
reduce us to units of efficiency, that
can’t be co-opted for someone else’s
production quotas.
“Let’s pause and ask ourselves,” she
continues: “What parts of our lives
seem to be the culminating parts, the
days or hours or minutes where we are
living life most fully? When do you stop
counting the time and become entirely
present to what you are doing? What
sorts of activities are you engaged in
when this takes place?”
Well, let’s see. Wandering down the
Bog Road taking pictures of sheep.
Eating an almond croissant, with gratitude
for every bite. Chatting with dear
friends. Buying (more) books to read.
Ducking into church to pray.
“Are you on holiday?” Yes. All the
time. Absolutely.
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 31

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
Perpetual students
As I write this column, all the flyers in the mail and all
the banners in the stores proclaim the same message:
“Back to School!”
Kids groan, because it seems that they’re losing their freedom.
But, if they approach their studies the right way, they
come to realize that they’re storing up the knowledge they’ll
need for an adulthood of maximal freedom.
I’m still trying to store it up, and I hope you are too. I want
to be a perpetual student, immersing myself more deeply
every season, every year, in the mysteries of Jesus Christ.
On college campuses there’s a species of undergraduate
called “perpetual students.” They spend far more than four
years at the task, and they never seem to draw closer to graduation.
They change their major often. They seem to thrive
on campus life and classroom lectures, and they never want
to leave. Since they’re usually drawing down money from
somewhere (parents, grandparents, loans), they’re often on
the receiving end of a negative judgment.
While I understand the judgment, I also understand the
hunger to learn without ceasing.
You and I should want to be perpetual students in the
School of Jesus, where class is always in session and there
are no semester
breaks. Another
word for that
kind of perpetual
student is disciple.
This is key to
our vocation.
The Fathers
of the Church
knew it. In the
second century,
the African
teacher Tertullian
reminded his contemporaries
that
they are students
in “the school
“St. Pope Leo the
Great,” by Francisco
Herrera the Younger,
1627-1685, Spanish. |
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
of heaven.” A generation
later, the
Scripture scholar
Origen noted that
at baptism we are
enrolled in “the
school of Jesus
Christ.” St. Augustine
referred
to Christian life
as “the school
of your heavenly
teacher.”
St. Pope Leo
the Great called
Catholicism
“the school of
truth,” and St.
Pope Gregory
the Great
named it “the
school of the
heart.”
Whatever
you choose to
call it, you can
find joy in your
studies there.
You have the
best teachers —
“St. Pope Gregory
the Great,” by
Francisco de
Goya, 1746-
1828, Spanish.
| WIKIMEDIA
COMMONS
the apostles and martyrs and all the saints. You have the most
motley classmates, many of them struggling the same ways
you are, and others struggling in ways you cannot know. But
we’re all learning together, and we can help one another to
go forward.
School’s always in session, and we never graduate.
I want to propose a few modest, practical approaches you
might find helpful in your studies.
First. Declare your major now, and let it be the Mysteries
of Jesus Christ — not current events, not churchy gossip, not
ecclesiastical speculation, not critical studies of the minutiae
of bishops. Those are blind alleys. They’re distractions. Major
in Jesus.
Second. Lean into the liturgy. Go to Mass more often. If
you’re already going daily, then listen more attentively, be
alert to the Holy Spirit, recognize that God is urgently speaking
to you through the Scriptures proclaimed every day.
Third. Think about joining a Catholic Bible study or starting
one.
Fourth, and most importantly. Pray. Pray that your own
conversion will be ongoing — and true to your school.
32 • ANGELUS • September 20, 2024

■ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
Rosary Crusade. Morgan Park, 4100 Baldwin Park Blvd.,
Baldwin Park, 6:30 p.m. Monthly meeting to pray the rosary.
■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
United Together: Homeless Ministry Resource Fair.
Our Mother of Good Counsel Church, 2060 N. Vermont
Ave., Los Angeles, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Panel discussion, Q&A,
networking, and resources. Call Esmeralda Sosa at 213-637-
7477 or email esosa@la-archdiocese.org.
Autumn Silent Saturday Centering Prayer. Holy Spirit
Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. With
Marilyn Nobori and the contemplative outreach team. Visit
hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.
Jazz on the Green Fundraiser. St. Agatha Church, 2646 S.
Mansfield Ave., Los Angeles, 3-7 p.m. Sponsored by the
St. Agatha Black Historian Committee. New Orleans Style:
wear white and bring your lawn chair. Includes entertainment,
various southern cuisine and drinks for sale. Cost:
$20/person. Call 323-251-2888 or 323-935-8127.
■ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
LA Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Cathedral of Our Lady
of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 6:30 a.m.
Celebrant: Archbishop José H. Gomez. Speaker: Father
Michael Schmitz. Cost: $45/person, $400/table of 10. Visit
lacatholicprayerbreakfast.org/.
■ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Record Clearing Virtual Clinic for Veterans. 2:30-5:30 p.m.
Legal team will help with traffic tickets, quality of life citations,
and expungement of criminal convictions. Free clinic
is open to all Southern California veterans who have eligible
cases in a California State Superior Court. Participants can
call in or join online via Zoom. Registration required. Call
213-896-6537 or email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org. For
more information, visit lacba.org/veterans.
Grief and Self Care: Free Zoom Presentation. Zoom,
7-8:30 p.m. Sponsored by Office of Marriage & Family Life,
presented by Joe Sikorra, LMFT. Workshop explores Godly
and psychologically sound principles for taking those steps
toward healing. Email Julie Auzenne at jmonell@la-archdiocese.org
or call 213-637-7249.
“The Word of God” weekly series. St. Dorothy Church,
241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays
through May 7, 2025. Deepen your understanding of
the Catholic faith through dynamic DVD presentations by
Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Edward Sri, Dr. Brant Pitre, and
Dr. Scott Hahn. Free events. No reservation required. Call
626-335-2811 or visit the Adult Faith Development ministry
page at www.stdorothy.org for more information.
■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
San Fernando Regional Congress. Bishop Alemany High
School, 11111 N. Alemany Dr., Mission Hills. Theme:
“Come Follow Me! Answering the Call.” Visit lacatholics.org/
regional-congress.
Rumi, Sufi Poet & Mystic, and the Religion of Love. Holy
Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 9:30 a.m.-3:30
p.m. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.
Our Help and Healing is from the Lord: Mini Retreat.
St. Dorothy Church, 241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora,
11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. With Father Michael Barry, Deacon
Phil Luevanos, and Dominic Berardino. Includes prayers for
healing, sharing on St. Padre Pio, and veneration of Pio’s stigmatic
glove relic. Cost: $15/pre register, $20/door. Register
at events.scrc.org, spirit@scrc.org, or 818-771-1361.
■ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Virgen de los Remedios Canonical Coronation Anniversary
Mass. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple
St., Los Angeles, 3 p.m. pre-liturgy procession. Presider:
Rev. Clarence Silva, Diocese of Honolulu and chairman of
USCCB sub-committee on Asian and Pacific Islands Affairs.
Autumnal Equinox Labyrinth Walk. Holy Spirit Retreat
Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 7 p.m. Visit hsrcenter.com
or call 818-815-4480.
■ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
St. Padre Pio Feast Day Mass and Healing Prayers. St.
Dorothy Church, 241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 6
p.m. Celebrant: Father Michael Barry; concelebrant: Father
Ron Clark. Special blessings with St. Padre Pio’s glove, a
first-class relic.
■ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
Music, Movement, and Meditation. Holy Spirit Retreat
Center, 4316 Lanai Rd., Encino, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. With Bola
Shasanmi. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-815-4480.
■ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
Veterans Legal Services Project Housing Rights Workshop.
Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, 1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles,
12-1:30 p.m. Housing rights workshop for LA County
veterans to learn about evictions, disability rights, etc. RSVP
to 213-896-6536 or email inquiries-veterans@lacba.org.
■ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
Open House Celebration of St. Michael the Archangel
& Presentation of Bishop David O’Connell Memorial
Scholarship. St. Michael Catholic School, 1027 W. 87th St.,
Los Angeles, 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. All are welcome. Call or text
310-367-7626 or email cconsola@stmichaelguardians.org
for more information.
Begin with the Heart: Weekend Healing Retreat. Mary
& Joseph Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Rd., Rancho Palos
Verdes, 6 p.m.- Sunday, Sept. 29, 1:30 p.m. Retreat is an
opportunity to be touched through the power of God’s healing
love, with time for quiet reflection and prayer, personal
ministry, and daily celebration of the Eucharist. Reconciliation
available. With Father Pat Crowley, SSCC. Cost: $365/
person shared, $450/person single, $195/person commuter.
Visit maryjoseph.org.
■ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
Rescue Live! Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W.
Temple St., Los Angeles, 9 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Rescue Live! is an
opportunity to be overwhelmed by the power of the Gospel
and to surrender our lives to Jesus in faith. Doors open at
8 a.m. with continental breakfast, free lunch provided. For
more information, visit lacatholics/org/rescue-live/.
Bereavement Retreat. St. Mary of the Assumption Church,
7215 Newlin Ave., Whittier, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Contact Cathy
Narvaez at bereavement.ministry@yahoo.com for more
information and to register. RSVP by Sept. 16.
How to Pray When We Suffer: Retreat and Mass. Pauline
Books & Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 10
a.m.-3 p.m. Presenter: Father Taban Patrick Cosantino, SJ.
Donation: $30, includes lunch. RSVP by calling 310-397-
8676 or email culvercity@paulinemedia.com.
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.
September 20, 2024 • ANGELUS • 33