Angelus News | October 31, 2025 | Vol. 10, No. 22

ANGELUS
A NEW FIGHT FOR FREEDOM
Is it too late to reclaim kids from their phones?
October 31, 2025 Vol. 10 No. 22

October 31, 2025
Vol. 10 • No. 22
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ON THE COVER
JACOB POPCAK
Between convenience, social pressure, and changing norms, smartphone
dependence for children seems like an inevitable fact of life, even
if it leads to addiction and mental illness. Is there another way? On Page
10, Elise Ureneck reviews the latest book by psychologist and screen
time expert Jean Twenge described as a handbook for “getting our kids
back” and helping find the freedom that screens often rob them of.
THIS PAGE
JOHN RUEDA
The pilgrim images of Our Lady of
Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego made a
stop on Oct. 13 at Sacred Heart Church
in Altadena, which nearly burned in the
Eaton Fire in January. The event included
traditional Aztec dancers and a Mass.
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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
22
24
26
28
30
Prior to the March Madness spotlight, Sister Jean shined in LA
Pope’s Augustinian colleague headlines LA Red Mass
For two of LA’s top catechists, Pope Leo offers ‘the fire to evangelize’
What to know about Pope Leo’s thoughts on poverty in ‘Dilexi Te’
In November, how to pray for the souls in purgatory — and our own
Greg Erlandson on why the U.S. feels like an ‘occupied’ country
Joseph Joyce: Films that take death more seriously than Halloween
Heather King: The 1986 film that predicted the ‘reproductive revolution’
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
God’s justice: Forgiveness
The following is adapted from the Holy
Father’s homily at the Oct. 19 canonization
Mass of seven new saints in St.
Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
When we consider the great
material, cultural, scientific,
and artistic treasures, faith
shines not because these goods are to
be undervalued, but because without
faith they lose their meaning. Our
relationship with God is of the utmost
importance because at the beginning of
time he created all things out of nothing
and, at the end of time, he will save
mortal beings from nothingness.
A world without faith, then, would be
populated by children living without
a Father, that is, by creatures without
salvation.
If faith disappeared from the world,
what would happen? Heaven and earth
would remain as before, but there
would no longer be hope in our hearts;
everyone’s freedom would be defeated
by death; our desire for life would fade
into nothingness. Without faith in God,
we cannot hope for salvation.
This is precisely why Christ speaks to
his disciples of the “need to pray always,
and not to lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Just
as we never grow weary of breathing, so
let us never grow weary of praying! Just
as breathing sustains the life of the body,
so prayer sustains the life of the soul.
Jesus shows us this connection with
a parable: a judge remains deaf to the
pressing requests of a widow, whose
perseverance finally leads him to act. At
a glance, such tenacity becomes for us
a beautiful example of hope, especially
in times of trial and tribulation. This
parable sets the stage for a provocative
question from Jesus: Will not God, the
good Father, “grant justice to his chosen
ones who cry to him day and night”
(Luke 18:7)?
The Lord is asking us whether we believe
that God is a just judge toward all.
In this regard, two temptations test our
faith: the first draws strength from the
scandal of evil, leading us to think that
God does not hear the cries of the oppressed
and has no pity for the innocent
who suffer. The second temptation is
the claim that God must act as we want
him to.
When we cry out to the Lord, “Where
are you?”, let us transform this invocation
into a prayer, and then we will
recognize that God is present where
the innocent suffer. The cross of Christ
reveals God’s justice, and God’s justice
is forgiveness. He sees evil and redeems
it by taking it upon himself. When we
are “crucified” by pain and violence, by
hatred and war, Christ is already there,
on the cross for us and with us. There is
no cry that God does not console; there
is no tear that is far from his heart. The
Lord listens to us, embraces us as we
are, and transforms us as he is.
These faithful friends of Christ are
martyrs for their faith, like Bishop Ignazio
Choukrallah Maloyan and catechist
Peter To Rot; they are evangelizers and
missionaries, like Sister Maria Troncatti;
they are charismatic founders, like
Sister Vincenza Maria Poloni and Sister
Maria del Monte Carmelo Rendiles
Martínez; with their hearts burning
with devotion, they are benefactors of
humanity, like Bartolo Longo and José
Gregorio Hernández Cisneros.
As we journey toward their goal of
holiness, let us pray without ceasing,
and continue in what we have learned
and firmly believe (cf. 2 Timothy 3:14).
Faith on earth thus sustains the hope
for heaven.
Papal Prayer Intention for October: Let us pray that believers
in different religious traditions might work together to
defend and promote peace, justice, and human fraternity.
2 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Seeking Jesus in the poor
On Oct. 9-10, leaders from Catholic
social justice, health care, and charitable
ministries gathered at Christ Cathedral
in Garden Grove, California,
for the statewide conference “Pilgrims
of Hope: Serving the Vulnerable.” The
following is adapted from Archbishop
Gomez’s homily.
This is an important gathering
for our Church and society.
The Church’s social doctrine,
grounded in God’s love and the
dignity of every person, offers wisdom
and hope that the people of our times
urgently need.
First, let us remember our friend and
co-worker, Father Christopher Ponnet,
who passed away earlier this week. His
sudden death is a great loss and he will
be deeply missed.
For more than 30 years, Father Chris
worked for social justice and health
care for the poor and most vulnerable.
Father Chris lived the Gospel we
heard today, seeking the face of Jesus
in the poor, the prisoner, those on death
row, the immigrant. As we reflect
on our mission of service to the poor
and vulnerable, let us keep him close
in our prayers.
On Oct. 9, Pope Leo XIV issued a powerful
new reflection on love for the
poor, titled “I Have Loved You.” This
thoughtful, prayerful document traces
the Church’s love for the poor from
the preaching of Jesus to the present.
The Holy Father helps us to remember
that before Jesus came into the
world, before the Church, there were
no social services, no organized health
care, no ethic of responsibility for
those in need.
The early Christians ministered to
their neighbors during outbreaks of
the plague, they cared for the sick and
dying, they founded the first hospitals
and the first charities. In your work
as Catholic social ministers, you
continue in this ancient and noble
tradition.
Early Christians understood that in
the poor we encounter a “revelation”
of the living God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that
he remains with us in the hungry and
thirsty, in the naked and sick, in the
immigrant and refugee, in the prisoner.
The love we show to the poor and
vulnerable, we show to him: “Amen,
I say to you, whatever you did for one
of these least brothers of mine, you did
for me.”
Jesus is not only commanding us to
be kind, he is calling us to seek him
and serve him in the guise of the poor.
Leo explains that in every age, in
every place, the saints and the Church
have always sought the Lord in the
faces of the suffering and the needy.
“For Christians,” he writes, “the poor
are not a sociological category, but the
very ‘flesh’ of Christ.”
The pope invites us to go deeper into
the mystery of God’s incarnation. Not
only did God become flesh, he chose
to take on “a flesh that hungers and
thirsts, and experiences infirmity and
imprisonment.”
As Leo writes, “Contact with those
who are lowly and powerless is a
fundamental way of encountering the
Lord of history. In the poor, he continues
to speak to us.”
Love for the poor and love for the
Lord are one and the same. Jesus
promised to be with us always. He also
told us that we will always have the
poor with us.
As followers of Jesus, we always have
the duty to love and serve the poor.
That duty calls for charity and work for
justice. We must defend the rights of
the poor and work for a society where
there is no more poverty, where every
person has what it takes to live with
the dignity that God intends for all his
children.
Jesus is not only commanding us to be kind, he is
calling us to seek him and serve him in the guise
of the poor.
This has been God’s desire from the
beginning. As we heard in today’s first
reading, God commanded Moses to
build a society that has special care
for the weak and the vulnerable, for
immigrants and refugees, widows and
orphans.
“No Christian can regard the poor
simply as a societal problem,” Leo reminds
us, “they are part of our ‘family.’
They are ‘one of us.’ ”
The Lord hears the cries of the poor,
and he answers those cries through us.
For all of us, the path to heaven passes
by way of the poor and vulnerable.
As we meet Jesus today in his body
and blood, given in the bread and
wine of this holy Eucharist, let us ask
him to renew in us our commitment
to encounter him in the flesh of the
poor and vulnerable.
May holy Mary, our Blessed Mother,
lead us to seek her Son, so that the
poor — and all of us — might know
the truth of his promise: “I have loved
you.”
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
■ St. Francis’ relics
to be displayed for
first time
The relics of St. Francis
of Assisi will be publicly
displayed for the first time
since the saint’s death.
The relics will be exhibited
in the lower church of the
Basilica of St. Francis in
Assisi from Feb. 22 to March
22, marking the 800th anniversary
of the saint’s death.
Francis’ body was immediately
hidden following his
death in 1226 to prevent
theft, and then recovered
in 1818. Next year’s public
exposition will be the first in
history.
The announcement was
made on Francis’ feast day
Oct. 4, the same day that the
Italian Parliament declared
it a national holiday.
■ Italy: St. Acutis’
home parish
destroyed in fire
The 17th-century Italian
monastery where St. Carlo
Acutis received his first
Communion was destroyed
in a fire Oct. 11.
The Bernaga Monastery in
La Valletta Brianza housed
22 nuns of the Ambrosian-rite,
a Catholic liturgical
rite particular to Milan.
No sisters were killed in the
fire.
The primarily wooden
structure likely caught
fire due to a short circuit,
mayor Marco Panzeri told
Rai News. An investigation
was ongoing to confirm the
cause.
Firefighters managed to
save several relics from the
fire, including a reliquary
housing the hair of Acutis.
A banner year for holiness — Images of the Catholic Church’s seven newest saints were hung on the facade of St. Peter’s
Basilica Oct. 19 during their canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square. The new saints, from left:
Venezuelans Jose Gregorio Hernandez and Sister María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez; Peter To Rot, a martyred lay catechist
from Papua New Guinea; Armenian martyr Bishop Ignatius Maloyan; Italian nuns Vincenza Maria Poloni and Maria Troncatti;
and former satanist turned “apostle of the rosary” Bartolo Longo. | LOLA GOMEZ/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
■ Cardinal says Gaza
ceasefire has brought
‘a new atmosphere’
to Holy Land
Catholic leaders in the Holy
Land offered cautious praise for
the “fragile” ceasefire agreement
between Israel and Hamas
after two years of war in Gaza.
Brokered by a peace summit
involving President Donald
Trump and the Qatari government,
the ceasefire began with
the return of the final 20 living
People react at “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 3, the day Hamas
released the first hostages as part of the new ceasefire deal. | OSV NEWS/SHIR
TOREM, REUTERS
hostages that have been held by Hamas and Israel’s release of 1,700 detained Palestinians.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, praised the deal but said “the
end of the war is not the beginning of peace, nor is it the end of the conflict,” but rather a
“first step.”
“People are returning, but they are returning to the ruins,” he told Vatican News Oct. 15.
“Hospitals are not functioning; schools do not exist … however, despite all this, there is a new
atmosphere — still fragile, but we hope it will become more stable.”
Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Gaza’s only Catholic church, compared the destruction
of entire neighborhoods to a “tsunami.”
“There’s fear that there will be … other waves … that war will return, there’s the fear that
the parties won’t respect them, even those who have made commitments,” said Romanelli in
remarks shared on social media.
“May there be peace in everything ... that we can enjoy a long period of peace between Palestine
and Israel is not impossible,” he said. But, the priest added, “It will take a long time.”
4 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

NATION
■ Police
arrest man
with bombs
targeting DC
Red Mass
The Supreme
Court’s Catholic
justices canceled
plans to attend the
annual Red Mass
at the Cathedral
of St. Matthew in
Washington, D.C.,
after police thwarted
a would-be bomber.
Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy gives the homily at the Red Mass at the
Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., Oct. 5. | OSV NEWS/
CHRISTOPHER MEWKUMET, JOHN CARROLL SOCIETY
Louis Geri was arrested as officers cleared the block around the cathedral
ahead of the Oct. 5 Mass, which honors the start of the judicial term. Geri
reportedly had more than 200 handmade explosive devices and a notebook
containing writings against the Catholic Church, the Supreme Court, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Jewish faith.
“Do you want me to throw one out, I’ll test one out on the streets? I have a
hundred-plus of them,” Gerri told a police sergeant to court records. “If you just
step back, I’ll take out that tree. No one will get hurt, there will just be a hole
where that tree used to be.”
Gerri faces eight charges, including manufacture or possession of a weapon of
mass destruction in furtherance of a hate crime. Following his arrest, the Red
Mass continued as scheduled, though no Supreme Court justices attended.
■ Washington state
drops fight against
seal of confession
State and local governments in Washington
will not enforce the part of an
abuse reporting law that would require
priests to violate the seal of confession.
The state attorney general’s office
said that clergy will remain mandatory
reporters under state law, but that
prosecutors will not “enforce reporting
requirements for information clergy
learn solely through confession or its
equivalent in other faiths.”
The state legislature had passed
revised mandatory reporting statutes
earlier this year that did not include an
exception for information that clergy
received from confession.
“In every other setting other than the
confessional, the Church has long supported
— and continues to support —
mandatory reporting,” read a statement
from the state’s conference of Catholic
bishops. “We’re grateful Washington
ultimately recognized it can prevent
abuse without forcing priests to violate
their sacred vows.”
■ Publishers announced
for new Divine Office
translation
Two prominent Catholic publishers
were tasked with printing the second
edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, the
U.S. bishops announced.
Ascension, which produces the
popular “Bible in a Year” podcast, and
Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire Publishing
will both publish copies of the
Liturgy of the Hours books once it gets
final approval from the Vatican.
Also known as the Divine Office, the
Liturgy of the Hours is a set of prayers
and readings built around the psalms.
It is required for clergy and religious to
pray in its entirety. Since the Second
Vatican Council, laypeople have been
encouraged to pray it.
A revised translation of the prayer
books began in November 2012, following
the 2011 changes to the English
translation of the Mass.
Jesus talking to Jesus? — Actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the television series “The Chosen,”
gazes upward during Benediction at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City Oct. 14. The service followed the
fifth annual Napa Institute-sponsored Eucharistic procession through Midtown Manhattan. | OSV NEWS/
GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
A higher calling — Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Marc V. Trudeau accepts the Religious
Award at the 13th annual Catholic Association for Latino Leadership (CALL) Angel Awards
on Oct. 18. Pictured with him is Archbishop José H. Gomez, left, and Michael Molina, CALL’s
board chairman. | EMILY PHALLY
■ Bishops, laypeople discuss efforts
to serve the poor at OC conference
Bishops and faith leaders gathered at Christ Cathedral
in Orange County Oct. 9-10 to find ways to better
serve the state’s poor amid challenges involving
immigration, food distribution, homelessness, and
health care.
Many attendees of the “Pilgrims of Hope: Serving
the Vulnerable” event were part of social and healthcare
ministries across the state, with many representing
their local Catholic Charities organization.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez presided
over the second day’s Mass, while San Jose Bishop
Oscar Cantú led the first day’s.
Additionally, several of California’s bishops led
other liturgies and prayer sessions, including Orange
County Bishop Kevin Vann, Fresno Bishop Joseph
Brennan, and Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto,
among others. Other local leaders, such as Msgr.
Greg Cox, executive director of Catholic Charities
of Los Angeles, and David Garcia, executive director
of St. Vincent de Paul Los Angeles, appeared on
panels.
■ Father Chris Ponnet,
revered chaplain and
advocate, dies at 68
Longtime Los Angeles hospital chaplain
and social justice advocate Father Chris
Ponnet died Oct. 7. He was 68.
Ponnet had been pastor of the St. Camillus
Center for Spiritual Care near downtown
Los Angeles for the last 30 years. During
that time, he also served as director of the
nearby LA County + USC Medical Center’s
Department of Spiritual Care, leading an
interfaith team of chaplains ministering at
one of California’s largest hospitals.
Ponnet’s social ministry included leading
the grassroots abolition group Catholics
Against the Death Penalty Southern California,
as well as serving as chaplain of LA’s
Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay
Persons and as a member of the Pax Christi
Southern California Leadership Team.
One of eight children, Ponnet was born
in 1957 and grew up at St. Luke Church in
Temple City. He was ordained in 1983.
St. Camillus and Pax Christi hosted a
memorial Mass for Ponnet on Oct. 12, while
organizers of Catholic Cemeteries and
Mortuaries’ Dia de los Muertos celebrations
planned to create an altar in his memory.
■ Caltrans removes
Bay Area St. Junípero
Serra statue
The statue of Serra
overlooking I-280
near Hillsborough was
removed in August. |
SHUTTERSTOCK
A 26-foot statue of St. Junípero
Serra that stood for nearly
five decades along California’s
Interstate 280 between San
Francisco and San Jose has
been quietly removed by the
state Department of Transportation.
Caltrans confirmed the
August removal, saying the
artwork “did not meet current
Transportation Art Program
requirements and had been a
frequent target of graffiti and
vandalism.”
Installed in 1976 near Hillsborough,
the privately funded
statue by artist Louis DuBois once served as a familiar landmark along the
Junípero Serra Freeway.
Caltrans said it consulted local Ohlone tribes and arts groups before
taking it down, though the Archdiocese of San Francisco said it was not
informed.
“I learned about the removal … after it happened,” Archbishop Salvatore
Cordileone said, calling the lack of consultation an example of “prejudice
and marginalization.” The agency has not disclosed the statue’s current
location.
6 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
Don’t put too much hope in a dating app
I was impressed by the interview with the founders of the new “Sacred-
Spark” dating app in the Oct. 17 issue, and the success stories of helping
youth Catholics “match” with future spouses.
But I am not convinced that these kinds of apps, however well-intentioned, are
the kind of solution Catholic leaders should be betting on to fix our modern marriage
crisis.
The Church has to be a place that prioritizes in-person encounters. We seem slow
to learn the lessons of COVID-19: isolation hurts us, and the image we project of
ourselves online is often divorced from reality.
It’s beautiful when people fall in love and want to form a family together. But we
should not be leaving that task to the internet.
— Tony Perez, Miami, Florida
Who’s responsible for ICE raids?
The Oct. 17 Angelus cover showing the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
said the image tour is bringing “hope to shaken LA immigrant community.”
And why is LA’s immigrant community shaken? Because of the Immigrant &
Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on this community. And who authorized these
ICE raids? President Trump. And who voted for President Trump in November
2024? Fifty-five percent of all Catholics, according to the Pew Research Center.
Think about that the next time you attend Mass.
— Donald Bentley, La Puente
Y
Continue the conversation! To submit a letter to the editor, visit AngelusNews.com/Letters-To-The-Editor
and use our online form or send an email to editorial@angelusnews.com. Please limit to 300 words. Letters
may be edited for style, brevity, and clarity.
Multitude of Masses
View more photos
from this gallery at
AngelusNews.com/photos-videos
The Cathedral of
Our Lady of the
Angels hosted
several Masses
the week of Oct.
12, including the
Red Mass for Legal
Professionals
on Oct. 14, top
left, the Mass for
Healthcare Professionals
on Oct.
12, top right, and
the Missionary
Childhood Association
Mass on
Oct. 15, bottom.
| PETER LOBATO,
LIZZIE FRIEDRICH,
ISABEL CACHO
Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d
like to share? Please send to editorial@angelusnews.com.
“Death never has the last
word.”
~ Pope Leo XIV, in a letter responding to a father of
four who had written to the Holy Father about the
death of his 12-year-old son.
“The first mistake is the last
one.”
~ Mofida Majzoub, in an Oct. 13 NPR article
on going from being a wedding photographer to
removing landmines in Syria.
“Stop arguing, stop being
mad, stop shooting
everybody, just get along.”
~ James Moran, a Kansas City firefighter, in a KMBC
9 news video on thousands getting together to
support a terminally ill 3-year-old.
“We are not designed to be
sedentary, screen-staring,
meaning-devoid creatures.”
~ Andrew Laubacher, a former seminarian and
executive director of Humanality, in an Oct. 18
Pillar article on evangelization through tech detox.
“A group of human beings
helping one another, it is
nice to know that it is still
like that.”
~ Terry De Crescenzo, in an Oct. 9 9News
Sacramento article on bystanders rushing to help
after a medical helicopter’s crash.
“I was gonna quit
Halloween.”
~ Cam Bullock, in an Oct. 15 Good Good Good
article on creating a charity haunted house in honor
of his brother, who died on Halloween.
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronrolheiser.com
Celibacy and marriage need each other
did early Christianity
alight on the ideal of
“Why
virginity, when an intelligent
or even just a suspicious Roman
could see that its adoption would
undermine the very fabric of ancient
society?” That’s a comment from historian
Kate Cooper, and it poses some
questions worth examining.
Does the single state, celibacy
(vowed or otherwise), undermine
something inside the fabric of society?
Is it somehow a statement against marriage?
Does it go against something
within nature itself where there is an
innate imperative to “increase and
multiply”?
The latter question is easier to
answer. The human race has now
exceeded 8 billion. There is much less
need to ensure that there are enough
people in the world to guarantee our
biological survival. In former times,
indeed in biblical times, there was a
strong, quasi-sacred imperative that
people marry and have children.
Remaining unmarried was looked
upon negatively, as an abnormality.
Nature is not being honored or
fulfilled here. Why is this person
not doing his or her duty in terms of
having children? That’s one of the
reasons why Jesus’ choice of celibacy
stands out as something abnormal in
his world.
Next, does single life, celibacy, somehow
speak against marriage? Does
it, simply by definition, undermine
the fabric of society? Doesn’t God,
at the creation of the human race,
pronounce that it is not good for the
human person to be alone?
That question deserves more than a
hurried answer. God did say this, and
God meant it. We are meant to live
inside family, in community, and not
live alone. Thus, the single life has its
dangers. Thomas Merton was once
asked by a journalist what it was like to
live as a celibate. His answer: “It’s hell.
You live in a loneliness that God Himself
condemned.” But then he quickly
added that this was a loneliness that
could be very fruitful.
Still, the question remains: Is the
single life, celibacy, somehow a
statement against marriage? It can
be. Choosing not to be married can
be a statement that marriage isn’t the
best way to live, that it is a container
(a prison), which unhealthily restricts
human freedom and human maturity.
Single life in that instance (which is
then often far from celibate) is a statement
against marriage.
A healthy marriage and a healthy
single life, in fact, support each other.
There’s an axiom that says: If you are
here faithfully, you bring us health and
support. If you are here unfaithfully,
you bring us restlessness and chaos.
Fidelity in either marriage or in celibacy
is a marathon with temptations of
every kind along the way. It demands
the capacity to sweat blood at times
to remain faithful to what you have
promised and to what is best in you.
But it needs the support and witness
of others. In neither vocation are you
meant to go it alone, to be the lonely,
stoic, ascetic hero. You are meant instead
to be buoyed up and held by the
support and faithful witness of others.
Thus, when a celibate sees fidelity
being lived out inside a marriage,
it becomes easier for him or her to
remain faithful inside celibacy. Conversely,
when a celibate sees infidelity
inside of a marriage, he or she feels
more isolated and alone inside celibacy
and lacks a certain grace (which
comes through witness) to sweat blood
in terms of being faithful inside of
celibacy.
The same dynamic holds true for
a married person. If he or she sees
a celibate faithfully and fruitfully
living inside the single life, he or
she is graced through that witness to
find both some insight and strength
to be true to his or her commitment.
Conversely, if a married person sees a
celibate living unfaithfully, he or she
will lack a special grace that comes
from witnessing fidelity, which can
help him or her sweat the blood that is
sometimes required in order to remain
faithful in a commitment.
As curious as this may sound, marriage
and celibacy need each other. We
need each other’s witness. We need to
see and feed off each other’s fidelity.
And that’s true beyond just seeing
each other being faithful. There’s a
deeper reality undergirding this, a
mystical one. As Christians, we believe
that we are all part of one body, the
Body of Christ, and that our unity
there is not simply a corporate one
(one team). Rather, we are an organic
unity, all part of one living organism.
Hence, what one part does affects all
the parts. If we are faithful, we are a
healthy part of the immune system
inside the Body of Christ. If we are unfaithful,
in either marriage or celibacy,
we are an unhealthy virus, a cancer
cell, inside the body.
For Christians, there is no such
thing as a private act. We are either a
healthy enzyme or an unhealthy virus
inside a single body, where our fidelity
or infidelity affects everyone else.
And so, we need each other’s fidelity
— in marriage and in celibacy.
8 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

SAFELY UNPLUGGING
JACOB POPCAK
The evidence is hard to avoid: We’re
losing teens to their smartphones.
Can a psychologist’s new roadmap for
parents help get them back?
Although I have only been a
mother for six years, I can’t count
the number of times I thought to
myself, “I wish there was a manual for
this.” The brutal reality is that raising
children is more art than science, and
many of us feel our way through each
situation for each individual child.
And yet, my prayers for a manual have
been answered, at least when it comes
to helping my children navigate the
complex world of digital technology
and internet use.
Jean Twenge, a psychologist at San
Diego State University, is known for
research that has led to the widespread
acceptance that the tween and teen
mental health decline was linked to
smartphone use. She’s given a TED
Talk, has testified on Capitol Hill, been
profiled by The New York Times, and
praised by Catholicism’s social media
superstar, Bishop Robert Barron.
Now, she has a handbook to help
parents “get our kids back.”
“Ten Rules for Raising Kids in a
High-Tech World” (Simon & Schuster,
$12.99) is a must-read for anyone concerned
with how screen time is robbing
their children of important developmental
milestones and the freedom
that childhood provides.
Drawn from her research and personal
experience, Twenge has given her
contemporaries a path to correct course
if they gave their kids too much tech
BY ELISE URENECK
10 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

too soon. At the same time, she has
handed those of us who have yet to face
these challenges a roadmap for setting
boundaries, having hard conversations,
and challenging the status quo.
While Twenge says that it would be
nice to have laws and social norms that
reflect a communal investment in children’s
safety, such as age restrictions for
driving or alcohol use, she knows that
“parents are the first and sometimes
the only line of defense against devices
taking over their children’s lives.”
Absent any oversight, tech companies
not only do not enforce their own age
restrictions but have documented how
their algorithms feed inappropriate and
dangerous content to young people
and put them in contact with nefarious
adults. Such problematic content
ranges from pornography to pro-suicide
posts to “how-to’s” on maintaining an
eating disorder.
Twenge’s first rule is vital: “You’re in
Charge.” Parental decisions about technology
have a lot to do with parenting
styles, she believes. Research shows that
the optimal parenting style for flourishing
children, including with devices,
is characterized as “authoritative,”
marked by high affection and clear
boundaries.
It is important for children to know
they are loved and their feelings are validated,
all while being given guardrails.
If children experience this dynamic,
they are more likely to be receptive
to their parents’ reasons for delaying
smartphone use and setting up safeguards
on other devices.
“Having concrete rules that are reasonably
strict is usually the way to go,”
Twenge recently told The New York
Times. “When stuff has gone wrong,
it’s often because I’m like, ‘OK, just this
one time.’ And then it blows up in my
face.”
She encourages parents to talk to their
kids about the fact that every social media
post or text message is either already
public or can be with the snap of a
screenshot. Parents should underscore
how time is a precious resource and
model that philosophy by putting their
own phones away.
Twenge’s other rules are imminently
practical and informed by both her
research and experience as a mother.
They include: “No Electronic Devices
Twenge advocates for no electronic devices in
the bedroom overnight, and recommends an
old-fashioned alarm clock for everyone in the
family.
in the Bedroom Overnight,” “No Social
Media Until 16 — Or Later,” and
“Advocate for No Phones During the
School Day.”
Some takeaways are worth highlighting.
It is clear that electronic devices negatively
affect sleep. Blue light, notifications,
and endless scroll options keep
users up late or wake them overnight.
Diminished sleep correlates with poor
mental health.
She flags the very real pressure teens,
particularly girls, face to “fall into the
role of 24/7 unpaid therapist for their
San Diego State psychology
professor Jean Twenge
testifies on Capitol Hill at the
“Screentime in Schools” hearing
before the U.S. House
committee on education &
workforce. Twenge is the
author of several books on
generational differences and
technology use. | YOUTUBE/
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION & WORKFORCE
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 11

friends,” and encourages adult intervention.
Twenge provides several options
for communal storage and device
charging, and recommends an old-fashioned
alarm clock for everyone in the
family.
She also presents the data to date
on social media’s singularly negative
effect on tweens and young teenagers,
ranging from negative body image to
sextortion to waning attention spans.
While she and her husband allow their
children to get a few approved social
media accounts at age 16 (based on a
UK study tracking hours spent on social
media and teen satisfaction), parents
could easily justify waiting until 18
based on that same study.
The feedback from teens themselves
is shocking. Six out of 10 Gen Zers
“said they would prefer to live in a
world without Instagram.” Young users
reviewing TikTok warned their peers,
“Do not download this app unless
you’re able to spend at least two hours a
day on it.” The pressure imposed by social
media “streaks,” or sustained backand-forth
sharing with peers, interferes
with relationships and responsibilities.
While Twenge largely focuses on what
parents can control within their own
homes, she also empowers them to
advocate for their children while they
are at school. The research documenting
the effects of bell-to-bell bans on
phones in schools is all positive:
kids are more focused in class,
academic performance goes up,
students socialize more during
lunch, cyberbullying goes down,
and disciplinary action plummets.
Notably, schools with cellphone
bans retain their teachers.
“If you Google ‘teacher quit
because of phones,’ you’ll find
story after story of teachers who
could no longer deal with the
constant battles over phones
in the classroom.” Seventy-two
percent of high school teachers
report it’s a problem.
Twenge generously includes a
sample letter to send to school
administrators including the
latest data supporting the effectiveness
of bans.
While the author mainly
focuses on limit-setting, her
eighth rule, “Give Your Kids
Real-World Freedom,” is a positive
counterbalance that encourages
children’s real-world development.
Twenge’s 2017 book “iGen” (Atria
Books, $20) examined how digital
devices were interfering with children’s
maturation and creating parents who
tracked or accompanied their child’s
every move.
She encourages parents to let their
Students at San Miguel
Catholic School in Watts do
classwork in a March 2024
photo. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
SIMON & SCHUSTER
kids develop independence through
everyday solo activities, like walking to
school, running errands, and taking responsibilities
for jobs around the house.
“Kids need a wide swath of time
when they are calling the shots, not
adults. That’s how they develop social
skills, creativity, and problem-solving
ability.” She recounts one of the most
helpful pieces of advice she received as
a mother of young children: “Remember,
you’re not raising children. You’re
raising adults.”
I’m grateful that my husband and I
have this resource on our shelves. Even
if technology changes by the time our
kids are teens — perhaps more addictive
social media apps will be developed
and AI chatbots will become a substantial
problem — it is filled with helpful
language for starting conversations
about tough topics, and provides the
facts and figures to back up what might
be unpopular decisions.
In the end, it’s a book about how to
help kids enter adulthood with the right
tools — self-confidence, independence,
and a strong moral sense — which they
will only stand a chance at gaining if
they delay their use of digital ones.
Elise Ureneck is a communications
consultant writing from Rhode Island.
12 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

A LIFE WELL COACHED
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt in 1953 (left)
and in 2013. | MARY JO KINNEY
Years before
becoming a March
Madness legend,
Sister Jean Dolores
Schmidt helped
shape future leaders
in LA classrooms.
BY TOM HOFFARTH
Millions of Americans were
introduced to Sister Jean Dolores
Schmidt for the first time
as the TV-friendly team chaplain for
the Loyola University of Chicago men’s
basketball team during its improbable
2018 run to the NCAA Final Four.
But since her passing at age 106 on
Oct. 9, those who knew her as their
classroom teacher during her LA days
are convinced that Jean’s life lessons
will live on.
In a reflection published on Angelus-
News.com, former student Cardinal
Roger M. Mahony credited her with
“the grace that encouraged me to enter
the seminary.” The archbishop emeritus
of Los Angeles was one of Jean’s first
eighth-grade students in a classroom
of nearly 80 at St. Charles Borromeo
School in North Hollywood back in the
1940s.
“I am still amazed with the way she
motivated all of us to learn that we had
no discipline problems in the classroom,”
wrote Cardinal Mahony. “Any
little whisper, she was at your desk with
that look — and you never spoke out of
turn again.”
Father Thomas P. Rausch, SJ, emeritus
professor of theology at Loyola
Marymount University and a member
of St. Charles School’s Class of 1955,
told Angelus that “I think she saw the
good in me that I wasn’t able to see for
myself,” leading to his religious life,
starting with her altar-server training.
“She was always glad to see you,
14 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

encouraging, supportive. I would visit
her on Sheridan Road during my few
visits to Chicago, and she was always
the same. Like so many religious sisters,
she played an important role in shaping
so many of us.”
Another St. Charles grad from 1955,
Tom Von Der Ahe, remembered Jean
as “a disciplinarian, but very fair. He
didn’t realize until later in life just how
much influence she had despite her
physical size.
“When I visited her in Chicago a
couple of years ago, she still had an
incredible smile and her mind was as
sharp as a tack, but I had this vision
from eighth grade of a towering nun
that had our undivided respect,” said
Von Der Ahe. “And I was 5-foot-7 at
the time, so I wasn’t little even though
I remember having to look up to her.
When I visited her, as she rose from her
desk, I was surprised to see that she, at
100 years old, was now no more than
5-feet tall. My immediate reaction was,
‘Where did she go?’ ”
Jean went a lot of places.
Dolores Schmidt, born in San Francisco
in 1919, took the name Sister Jean
when she entered the Sisters of Charity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) in
1938 in Dubuque, Iowa.
By 1941, she was starting her teaching
career in Los Angeles at St. Bernard
Catholic School in Glassell Park, as
the school was under construction and
classes were taught in the church hall.
The school officially opened the day
before Pearl Harbor was attacked in
1941, and Jean recalled gathering food
and blankets in case students couldn’t
leave the facility. She would later describe
it as an experience that brought
her and the students closer to each
other and to God.
In 1946, after returning to Iowa to
profess her final vows, Jean moved to
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School
and was assigned to the eighth-grade
class at a school with some 900 children
enrolled, the largest elementary
school west of the Rockies.
At that point, she talked the pastor into
letting her start a girls basketball team,
a sport she played and enjoyed growing
up.
Jean was teaching seventh and eighth
grade as well as serving as principal at
St. Brendan School in Hancock Park in
1961 when her community gave her a
surprising new assignment: to teach at
Mundelein College near Chicago.
In 1991, Mundelein merged with Loyola
of Chicago and, three years later,
rather than retire, she was invited to
work with both the men’s and women’s
basketball teams as their chaplain and
scholastic adviser.
Wearing a maroon and gold scarf, she
was the 98-year-old good luck charm
rooting from her near-courtside wheelchair
as Loyola’s Ramblers defied the
odds and became the Cinderella team
of the 2018 tournament.
“A number of our players are not
Catholic, but we pray together anyway,”
she told Angelus in 2018. “We’re
blessed to be able to do what we do,
and each person on the team is faithful
in his own particular way. And even if
they don’t actively practice their faith,
I know that at some point they’ll come
back to it because they realize they
need God in their lives. I’m not worried
about them; they are good young men.”
She officially announced her retirement
as the team chaplain on Sept. 24,
just two weeks before her death.
Ken Martinet, also from St. Charles’
Class of 1955, said he, too, considered
the priesthood because of her influence.
She helped guide him to Loyola
High School. He ended up as president
and CEO of Big Brothers and Big
Sisters of Los Angeles County.
A parishioner at St. Bede the Venerable
Church in La Cañada Flintridge,
Martinet wrote in a Facebook post
that when Jean’s 2023 book came out,
“Wake Up With Purpose! What I’ve
Learned in My First Hundred Years”
(HarperCollinsFocus, $22.99), he and
his wife listened to the audio version of
it as they were finishing a vacation.
“It was like hearing her all over again
in school,” Martinet said.
Tom Hoffarth is an award-winning
journalist based in Los Angeles.
Loyola Ramblers fans hold up a poster
of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, longtime
chaplain of the men's basketball team, in
2018. | OSV NEWS/DALE ZANINE-USA
TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS

LAWS OF
THE HEART
California’s top Augustinian
made some predictions
about Pope Leo XIV at the
annual LA Red Mass.
BY PABLO KAY
Father Barnaby Johns, OSA,
preaches at the LA Red Mass at
the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels Oct. 14. | PETER LOBATO
Five months after the election
of Pope Leo XIV, a fellow
Augustinian told attendees at
this year’s Los Angeles Red Mass
he expects the pope will be a “great
bridge-builder” for a divided world.
“What you see on the outside with
Leo is what you get on the inside,”
said the homilist at the Oct. 14 Mass,
Father Barnaby Johns, OSA, prior
provincial for the Augustinian Order’s
California province. “Jesus enters in,
and grace pours out.”
Drawing on the Gospel reading
(Luke 11: 37–41) at the Mass, in
which Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for
favoring exterior fulfillment of the
law over inner conversion, Johns said
that the greatest danger for anyone —
including the pope, a priest, or any
lawyer — is to have a hardened heart.
But this pope, Johns said, is “a doctor
of the law who loves the law, and who
has allowed God’s love to melt any
stoniness of heart” — a reference to
the former Cardinal Robert Prevost’s
training as a canon lawyer.
Mass celebrant Archbishop José
H. Gomez was joined by Auxiliary
Bishop Matthew Elshoff and a dozen
priests for the Tuesday evening liturgy,
which drew more than 300 people
to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels.
Organized by the local chapter of
the St. Thomas More Society, the Red
Mass is an ecumenical, civic celebration
that honors judges, lawyers,
legislators, and legal professionals
usually held around the time the U.S.
Supreme Court begins its new year.
The interreligious delegation at
LA’s 43rd Annual Red Mass included
leaders from local Mormon, Buddhist,
Muslim, and Orthodox Christian
congregations. Representatives from
the consulates general of Ireland,
Mexico, and Korea were also present
at the Mass.
This year’s event was held under
tightened security following the Oct.
5 arrest of a man who police believe
planned to target Catholics and Supreme
Court justices at the Washington,
D.C. Red Mass. LAPD officers
were stationed inside and outside the
cathedral during the Mass.
In his homily, Johns mentioned his
last two encounters with Leo: one be-
16 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

Father Barnaby Johns, OSA, presents a signed birthday
card and baseball cap from students at Villanova
Preparatory School in Ojai to Pope Leo XIV during the
Augustinians’ General Chapter meeting in Rome in
September 2025. | FATHER BARNABY JOHNS, OSA
fore his election as pope, the other last
month during a gathering in Rome
of Augustinian superiors from around
the world.
“My goodness, that’s Bob!” Johns
recalled thinking when he heard the
words “Robertum Franciscum” on
TV during the “Habemus Papam!”
announcement in St. Peter’s Square.
Johns, who joked that he was still
waiting for an invitation to play tennis
at his residence in Castel Gandolfo,
Italy, predicted that Leo’s pontificate
will be a “pilgrimage of paces to listen
in humility and to draw each of us
into unity.”
“His heart-driven leadership will
encourage us all, push us all, to have
the certainty of the legal profession
on the outside and to have the melted
messiness of a loving heart on the
inside, totally dependent on the God
who loves us,” said Johns.
“In a world shredded by war, political
polarization, wealth income
disparity, Pope Leo will be, I believe,
a great bridge-builder. For he is, as
[St.] Paul writes, not ashamed of the
power of the Gospel for the salvation
of everyone who comes to believe.”
Adding to the night’s Augustinian
flavor was the
choice of altar
servers for the
Mass, students
from Villanova
Preparatory
School, which
is operated by
the religious
order. During
his years as prior
provincial of the
Augustinians,
then-Father
Prevost would
regularly visit the
boys high school
in Ojai.
The event’s
From left: California
Appeals Court Judge
Gonzalo C. Martinez,
St. Thomas More
Society chapter president
Michele Friend, and Justice
Martin J. Jenkins pose
for a picture after the
LA Red Mass. | PETER
LOBATO
organizers also paid tribute to Lynne
Hook, a former secretary of the local
St. Thomas More Society chapter
who died suddenly in May while
on vacation with her family in Italy.
A parishioner of American Martyrs
Church in Manhattan Beach, Hook
was a quiet benefactor of local Catholic
charitable causes, including St.
Francis Xavier Cabrini Church and
School in South LA.
The closing speaker at the Mass was
Martin J. Jenkins, a Catholic who advised
Gov. Gavin Newsom on judicial
appointments before being appointed
a California Supreme Court Justice
in 2020. In his remarks, Jenkins told
fellow lawyers that St. Thomas More’s
example of courage should serve as
a model for taking on “unpopular”
causes — such as solidarity with immigrants
— because “that’s what God
calls us to do.”
“Thomas More did not seek martyrdom,
but when forced to seek
between conscience and compromise,
he chose courage grounded in faith,
knowing full well the cost.”
“In today’s polarized society, courage
may take many different forms,”
added the judge, who retires from the
court at the end of October. “Courage
may not bring physical peril as it did
for More, but it can demand professional
sacrifice and reputational risk.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 17

TEACHERS AND WITNESSES
For two of LA’s top catechists, a private meeting with Pope Leo XIV
was only one highlight of the pilgrimage of a lifetime.
BY GREG HARDESTY
Pope Leo XIV gives his blessing
to members of a pilgrimage
organized by the U.S. bishops’
Committee for Evangelization
and Catechesis for the Jubilee
of Catechists at the Vatican on
Sept. 27. Sister Rosalía Meza is
above the pope’s left shoulder.
| CNS/VATICAN MEDIA
As a member of the Verbum Dei
Missionary Fraternity, Sister
Rosalía Meza has been to Rome
several times.
A highlight of her visits, always, she
said, has been meeting the pope.
In 2022, Meza, senior director of the
Office of Religious Education for the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was fortunate
to be part of a group that had a
30-minute audience with Pope Francis.
And last month, she was back at the
Vatican to meet Pope Leo XIV — this
time as one of 27 members of a pilgrimage
from the United States organized
by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee for Evangelization
and Catechesis.
The occasion was the Jubilee of Catechists,
a Sept. 26-28 gathering of 20,000
faithful from more than 115 countries
held to coincide with the 2025 Jubilee
Year, which Pope Francis proclaimed
as a time for prayer, pilgrimage, and
pardon.
“It was a beautiful experience,” said
Meza, the only member of a religious
community in the group, led by Indianapolis
Archbishop Charles C. Thompson.
Their fellow pilgrims were lay
catechists leading evangelization and
catechesis efforts for adults, youth, and
children in dioceses across the U.S.
“[Pope Leo is] very humble, like Pope
Francis,” Meza said. “He was very present
with each of us. It was very moving
that he took the time to be with and
learn about us.”
Another member of Meza’s group
18 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

Nancy Nazarian-Medina, left, and Sister
Rosalía Meza pose at the Jubilee of
Catechists Mass at the Vatican on Sept.
28. | NANCY NAZARIAN-MEDINA
from LA was Nancy Nazarian-Medina,
the San Gabriel regional coordinator
for the Office of Religious Education.
She brought her mother, Lucy Nazarian,
a devoted catechist who has served
at St. Clare of Assisi Church in Canyon
Country and is now involved in family
faith formation at St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Church in Santa Clarita.
Nancy recalled feeling like a kid on
Christmas morning as the group waited
to meet the pope.
“I was filled with both excitement and
anxiety,” said Nazarian-Medina, who
started as a volunteer catechist at St.
Clare of Assisi and served as its director
of religious education before taking up
her current position.
“During my daily drives from the
Santa Clarita Valley to the San Gabriel
Valley,” Nazarian-Medina said, “I often
reflect on the early disciples of Christ
who traveled to spread the good news
of his love for humanity. Embarking on
this pilgrimage was a natural progression
to deepen my commitment to
evangelizing catechesis.”
Meza described the role of her ministry
as “keeping the memory of God
alive.”
“It’s an ongoing process — a faith
journey. To continue to transmit faith to
our children, youth, and adults is a very
important and relevant ministry. And it
doesn’t just involve the people teaching
catechism, but also parents, grandparents
— anyone who has influence over
forming the mind of a person in the
Catholic faith.”
When Meza met the pope, she introduced
herself and told him about her
role in the archdiocese.
“He knew about the work I am doing,”
she said, “and he gave a blessing for our
ministry.”
The pope
told the
assembled:
“I want to
thank you
for your
service to
the Church.
The Church
is not the
bishops,
the Church
is not the
priests, but
we are the
Church.
Sister Rosalía
Meza meets Pope
Leo XIV during a
private audience
with the pontiff on
Sept. 27. | SISTER
ROSALÍA MEZA
“It’s so beautiful that all of us together
are searching for Christ, are walking
with Christ, and we become the
presence of Christ in our world today,
which is so important. Thank you for
all that you do.”
Nazarian-Medina recalled the pope
greeting everyone warmly and listening
intently as the pilgrims shared their
stories.
“He expressed deep gratitude for
the laity’s commitment to serving
and spreading the Gospel message of
Christ, emphasizing that we are agents
of his love,” she said.
Pope Leo then invited the group to
gather in a circle and led the pilgrims
in reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
“This simple yet powerful act reminded
me of the many times I had
prayed with catechists and families at
the parish,” Nazarian-Medina said.
“It reinforced the sense of community
within the Church, a place where we
accompany one another and seek God’s
grace.”
In addition to her audience with the
pope, Meza said a highlight of the
trip was meeting Antonia Salzano, the
mother of St. Carlo Acutis, the young
Italian Catholic who was canonized
as a saint a week before her delegation
arrived in Rome.
Salzano has written a book about her
son, and both she and her husband, Andrea
Acutis, continue to speak publicly
about his life and legacy.
But just as edifying as meeting the
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 19

pope, Nazarian-Medina said, was the
fellowship with the other pilgrims.
“We all face similar challenges in
ministerial work, such as fewer volunteers,
limited budgets, and declining
parish staff,” she said. “Nonetheless,
the fire to evangelize and catechize
remains strong. Being in community
with thousands of other pilgrims
who serve as catechists in their home
parishes reinforces the belief that God
is taking care of his Church.”
Meza, who is from Guadalajara,
Mexico, has taught theology at her
community’s institute, the Archdiocese
of San Francisco, and Loyola
Marymount University. In 2017, she
earned a doctorate in sacred theology
from the Jesuit School of Theology at
Berkeley.
She noted that the archdiocese commissioned
more than 350 catechism
leaders at a ceremony in September
— a number comparable to pre-COV-
ID-19 levels. It takes three years to
become certified in catechetical,
pastoral leadership, or Bible studies —
the three areas Meza oversees.
When Nazarian-Medina met Leo,
she recalled introducing herself by
saying she was “simply a catechist.”
The pope’s response?
“There’s no such thing as ‘simply’ a
catechist,” he told her.
Greg Hardesty was a journalist for the
Orange County Register for 17 years,
and is a longtime contributing writer to
the Orange County Catholic newspaper.
Rosa Bonilla, right, and her husband, Carlos,
meet Pope Leo XIV during a private audience
with the National Catholic Council for
Hispanic Ministry. | VATICAN MEDIA
Dolores Mission couple
meets Pope Leo XIV
When Rosa Bonilla shook Pope
Leo XIV’s hand, she was left
almost speechless — in both
English and Spanish.
“When I held his hand,” Bonilla said,
“my heart was beating hard. It was so
emotional.”
Bonilla, a pastoral assistant at Dolores
Mission Church in Boyle Heights, was
in Rome to participate in a pilgrimage
for the Jubilee of Migrants Oct. 1-8.
An immigrant from El Salvador who
came to the United States in 2001,
Bonilla and her husband, Carlos, were
part of a 100-person delegation of U.S.
dioceses organized by the National
Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry
that came to the Vatican in support
and prayer for migrants, especially ones
facing fear and deportation back home.
When she finally caught her voice
to speak, she thanked the pope for his
support of migrants and offered prayers
from her parish.
“I told him, ‘Holy Father, my little
church from Dolores Mission in Los
Angeles, California, are praying for
you. Thank you for being with us, for
walking with us immigrant families and
communities.’ ”
The delegation representing nearly 60
dioceses across the United States was
surprised to receive a private audience
with Leo, who asked the group what
language they wanted to hear. They all
said Spanish.
In his remarks, Leo applauded the
group for the work they do accompanying
migrant families in their faith
and supporting them in their times of
suffering.
“You, in the service you offer in your
ministry, are clearly that testimony that
is so important, perhaps especially in
the United States, but throughout the
whole world — a world that suffers so
much from war, from violence, and
from hatred,” the pope said.
“Thank you for all that you do.”
When Bonilla came to the U.S. with
her husband and three children, she
struggled like many immigrants who
come to a new country: She left her
mother, father, and siblings behind, she
contended with a new language, and
she tried to work while trying to raise
her kids.
Living a few blocks from Dolores
Mission, she began volunteering as a
catechist, then working there part-time.
Through the years, she has become
a part of the parish community and
surrounding areas. Because of her own
experience, plus the pilgrimage and
meeting with Pope Leo, she believes
she can have a positive impact on
helping immigrants in their current
environment.
“I think I have more hope,” Bonilla
said. “I want to continue working with
the community. Telling them that we
are not alone. They are not alone.
“We are a Church who are praying
together, and working together for a
better future, for a better life in our
communities and our families.”
— Mike Cisneros
20 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

LOVE MADE POOR
What Pope Leo XIV’s first official document
reveals about the future of his pontificate.
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN
A woman burns wood
on the street to cook a
meal for her husband
and their daughter
outside their home in
São Paulo in 2022. |
OSV NEWS/AMANDA
PEROBELLI, REUTERS
The apostolic exhortation “Dilexi
Te” (“I Have Loved You”) is
the first official document from
Pope Leo XIV. Signed on the feast
of St. Francis of Assisi, it was actually
begun by Pope Francis.
By choosing to finish a text that his
predecessor had begun writing, Leo
has signaled continuity with Francis,
affirming a vision of the Church’s mission
with the poor rooted in Scripture,
tempered by realism, and for Leo,
informed by a lifetime of missionary
experience.
The document opens and closes
with the same words: “I have loved
you.” The symmetry feels deliberate, a
reminder that the Gospel itself begins
and ends in love — love that descends
into human poverty and returns to God
through the love of neighbor. Between
those two words unfolds a meditation
on how Christians can believe in the
God who became poor for our sake.
“Dilexi Te” is not a social manifesto,
though it touches on social questions.
It is a theological reflection —
Christ-centered, missionary, rooted in
tradition with large portions dedicated
to what saints have said on the issue,
and contemplative. It asks Catholics
to see poverty not merely as a problem
to be solved, but also as a place where
God is revealed.
How the document came to be
For those who know Leo’s biography,
this perspective is not surprising.
Long before his election to the papacy,
Robert Prevost spent years living
among the poor in Peru, accompanying
small communities that measured
wealth not in possessions but in faith,
dignity, and resilience. That experience
— of a Church both fragile and alive
— permanently shaped his understanding
of poverty.
We must “let ourselves be evangelized
22 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

by the poor,” he writes, for they reveal
the face of “the Son of Man [who]
has nowhere to lay his head.” In these
words, taken directly from the Gospels
of Luke and Matthew, Leo captures
what missionary life taught him: evangelization
is not a one-way movement
from abundance to need but a mutual
exchange in which the poor become
teachers of the Gospel’s essential truths
— dependence, gratitude, and hope.
That said, the pope does not idealize
poverty in “Dilexi Te.” He speaks of its
brutality — of hunger, displacement,
violence, and humiliation — in stark
terms. To love the poor, he insists, is
to work so that none may remain poor
either due to injustice, indifference, or
by design. Poverty may reveal Christ,
but it is never acceptable as a permanent
human condition.
Here lies one of “Dilexi Te’s” central
insights: the tension between poverty
as a problem and poverty as revelation.
The Church must fight the causes of
poverty even as she listens to what God
teaches through those who suffer it.
What “Dilexi Te” Says
The heart of the exhortation lies in its
claim that poverty, rightly understood,
unveils God’s presence in unexpected
places. In the “cry of the poor,” Leo
writes, we hear the echo of God’s first
word to humanity: “I have observed the
misery of my people.” To encounter
the poor, then, is to be drawn back into
salvation history, to the moment when
God’s compassion became action.
“In hearing the cry of the poor,” he
writes, “we are asked to enter into the
heart of God, who is always concerned
for the needs of his children, especially
those in greatest need. If we remain unresponsive
to that cry, the poor might
well cry out to the Lord against us, and
we would incur guilt (cf. Deuteronomy
15:9) and turn away from the very heart
of God.”
Leo’s document articulates a theology
of poverty, not an ideology. He neither
glorifies material want, nor reduces
faith to activism.
“On the wounded faces of the poor,
we see the suffering of the innocent
and, therefore, the suffering of Christ
himself,” he argues. In that revelation,
the Christian discovers both the depth
of divine mercy and the demand of
discipleship.
For Leo, this is not abstract theology
but incarnate reality. “The poor,” he
writes, “are not a sociological category,
but the very ‘flesh’ of Christ. It is not
enough to profess the doctrine of God’s
incarnation in general terms. To enter
truly into this great mystery, we need to
understand clearly that the Lord took
on a flesh that hungers and thirsts, and
experiences infirmity and imprisonment.”
Why “Dilexi Te” Matters
For Leo, love for the poor is a necessary
part of holiness. That’s why, midway
through the document, he invokes
St. Gregory the Great, St. Francis of Assisi,
St. Vincent de Paul, St. Pope John
Paul II, and St. Mother Teresa — who
saw in the poor the clearest mirror of
Christ. Love for the poor, he suggests,
is not the invention of one pontificate
or one theology. It is the perennial sign
of authenticity for anyone who claims
to follow Christ.
Yet Leo also broadens the meaning of
poverty, describing it as a “multifaceted”
phenomenon.
“The Lord says, ‘I have loved you,’ ”
he writes throughout the document, to
the hungry and to the refugee, to the
woman stripped of her dignity, and to
the child robbed of innocence, to the
drug addict, to those who mourn, to
those without medical care, to those
who cannot speak freely, to those who
are tired of being afraid. Poverty, in this
sense, is not only economic but moral,
emotional, spiritual, and relational
— a web of suffering that cries out for
redemption.
As someone who has witnessed
poverty in both developing nations and
urban centers of the United States, Leo
knows that material aid alone cannot
heal that which wounds the human
spirit.
“The poor are not projects,” he warns
elsewhere, “but persons through whom
Christ continues to say: ‘I have loved
you.’ ”
If you want to know what Pope Leo
XIV’s pontificate will hold for the
future, “Dilexi Te” is key to understanding
his pastoral vision: pragmatic, missionary,
and convinced faith must be
lived in proximity to human suffering.
The exhortation ends where it began
— “I have loved you.” The repetition is
more than literary; it is theological. We
love because we have been loved first.
In those four words, Leo sketches the
horizon of his pontificate: a Church
that does not idealize poverty but finds
in it the face of Christ, and a love that
becomes action — not sentiment, but
service.
Inés San Martín is an Argentinian
journalist and Rome bureau chief for
Crux. She is a frequent contributor to
Angelus.
The future Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Robert Prevost, blesses
oxygen tanks donated during the COVID-19 pandemic as
part of the “Oxygen of Hope” initiative to help patients. |
VATICAN NEWS/DIOCESE OF CHICLAYO

A couple prays before a
prayer altar set up for Dia
de los Muertos at Calvary
Cemetery in East Los Angeles
in an undated photo. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
THE NOVEMBER ADVANTAGE
For a few days every
year, Catholics praying
for departed loved
ones have a special
favor to turn to.
BY MIKE AQUILINA
In his Oct. 4 apostolic exhortation
“Dilexi Te” (“I Have Loved You”),
Pope Leo XIV turned the Church’s
attention to the poor of this world.
Now, in November, the Church’s
calendar directs us to the “poor” in the
next.
November begins with two feasts dedicated
to faithful people whose earthly
lives have ended.
All Saints’ Day, on Nov. 1, celebrates
those already in heaven. All Souls’ Day,
on Nov. 2, reminds us to pray for those
still undergoing refinement in purgatory.
Its official title is “The Commemoration
of All the Faithful Departed.”
This year we can approach the month
of November in the spirit of Leo’s
letter. In Catholic tradition, the souls
in purgatory are called “poor souls” because
they are helpless in their current
state and depend on the living to assist
them.
The souls in purgatory are destined
for heaven, but must first be purified of
the effects of their sins, because “nothing
unclean will ever enter” God’s presence
(Revelation 21:27). Their waiting
is suffering because they are separated
from God, who is their desire and their
goal.
Those in purgatory can no longer
earn merit or do anything to lessen
their own suffering or hasten their entry
into heaven. Their time for earning
spiritual rewards ended at death. So
they are dependent on us, the living.
Their purification and release from
purgatory can be aided only by the
prayers and good works of the faithful
on earth.
And the Church has arranged November
for that purpose.
In November, Catholics can gain
several special “plenary indulgences.”
These are graces from the Church,
granted through the merits of Jesus and
the saints, and they can be applied to
oneself or to the souls of the deceased
in purgatory. A plenary indulgence
grants a full remission of all temporal
punishment due to sin.
Catholics can obtain these in several
ways during the opening days of November.
The Church grants a plenary indulgence
just for visiting a cemetery dur-
24 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

ing Nov. 1-8 and praying for the dead.
All we need to do is show up and pray.
An appropriate text for that purpose is
the prayer known as the “Requiem”
(which is its opening word in Latin).
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon
them.
May the souls of all the faithful
departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in
peace.
Another plenary indulgence is available
on Nov. 2 (or the following Sunday)
by visiting a church and reciting
an Our Father and the Apostle’s Creed.
A plenary indulgence is a tremendous
grace, and it’s a powerful way to bring
closure to the unfinished business that’s
left in any relationship at death.
Still, a plenary indulgence isn’t a
magic formula. It’s about our own
conversion as much as fulfillment
for our beloved dead. So we must
fulfill certain preconditions if we’re to
gain the grace. To receive a plenary
indulgence, individuals must be completely
detached from sin, must make
a sacramental confession and holy
Communion within 10 days before or
after the indulgenced act, and pray for
the pope’s intentions.
We can, of course, do more during
November if we wish. We can decorate
the graves of our loved ones. We can
have Masses said for them. If our parish
has a Book of Remembrance, we can
inscribe their names there. Or we can
create a personal Book of Remembrance,
making a list of our departed in
a notebook and taking it out regularly
for prayer.
Priests can exercise a special privilege
on the feast of All Souls. Any priest
in good standing can celebrate three
Masses that day, a privilege that is not
typically allowed on other weekdays.
November is a time of mercy for all
of us. It brings relief to “the poor” in
purgatory — and comfort to us in our
grieving.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor
to Angelus and author of many books,
including “History’s Queen: Exploring
Mary’s Pivotal Role from Age to Age”
(Ave Maria Press, $16.95).
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 25

INTERSECTIONS
GREG ERLANDSON
Actor Henrik Mestad as
Norwegian prime minister
Jesper Berg in the show
“Occupied.” | IMDB
Divided we fall
was a gripping
Norwegian TV series
“Occupied”
about the rise of a Green
prime minister who decides to shut off
Norway’s oil and gas production for the
sake of the environment. Faced with
the loss of Norwegian fuel, the European
Union invites Russia to take over
Norway’s off-shore oil platforms to keep
the pipelines flowing south.
The fox having been invited into the
hen house, Norway slowly becomes
occupied by Russia as its apparatchiks
establish their authority. The show
explores the moral and political compromises
that follow, asking who is a
patriot and who is a collaborator?
As I listen to folks on both sides of the
political divide in our own country, I
am increasingly concerned that in our
reactions, Americans of all stripes feel
as if they are in an occupied land. For
the red, the occupation is manifested
in the universities and late-night television
shows, the entertainment industry
and the news media, the immigrants
and guest workers.
For the blue, the occupation includes
masked ICE agents, a Justice Department
going after ideological enemies,
and a government that seems increasingly
beholden not to the Constitution
but to a person, willing to use its might
to impose its will on those citizens it
deems “not on board.”
Pouring gasoline on all of this is social
media, with algorithms intentionally
designed to fuel rage and to reinforce
our own biases.
This sense of occupation has been
heightened by the growing political
rhetoric of war and resistance. The
language heightens the sense that one
is a stranger in one’s own land. The use
of military troops in relatively peaceful
cities also heightens this tension, as
does the idea of masked men seizing
people off the street.
At the same time, viewed with another
lens, the nightly network news and
the increasingly scathing late-night
comic commentaries suggest a hostile
media landscape that allows for no
dissenting views.
This division carries over to the
courts, where there seems a growing
chasm with every decision being
judged as “red” or “blue,” less a matter
of interpreting the law and more as a
reflection of ideological prejudices.
A new Times/Siena survey confirms
the sense of a majority of voters that
the country is too politically divided
to solve its problems (64%), versus the
minority who feel it still can (33%).
This sense that we are broken and
26 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

Greg Erlandson is the former president and
editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service.
unfixable is predictable, for both sides
feel they are not heard or understood,
or that they are excluded. The other
side becomes the hostile occupier —
of the culture, of the political system,
of the economy.
This occupation mentality comes out
in our pronouns. Politicians are dividing
our world into “us” and “them.”
“We” signifies the half of the country
that agrees with us. In an occupied
land, those with us are patriots. Those
against us are collaborators, even traitors.
It is also evidenced by our silence.
Americans increasingly feel that they
can’t express their true feelings, afraid
that they will be shunned by colleagues
or worse. Not toeing someone’s party
line is seen as dangerous.
What has already started is a ratcheting
up of violent rhetoric. How one resists
an occupation varies, but too often
violent resistance attracts more attention
than nonviolent. And the people
most likely to act — young men with
weapons and a sense of hopelessness
— are the prey of this rhetoric. The
killings of Charlie Kirk or the Minnesota
Democratic state representative
Melissa Hortman and her husband are
only the most recent examples, and
each side uses the deaths to create a
sense of oppression and menace.
With both sides living in a country
they believe is under “foreign occupation,”
we are a parched land at risk of
bursting into flame.
Perhaps the churches can play the
role of fire warden.
In an Oct. 2 address, Pope Leo XIV
had a suggestion. Overcoming the
widespread sense that no one can
make a difference “requires patience,
a willingness to listen, the ability to
identify with the pain of others and
the recognition that we have the same
dreams and the same hopes,” the pope
said.
Recognizing our own contribution to
the divisions in this country is a requisite
first step. When we see those with
whom we disagree as implacable foes,
we make any sort of mutual understanding
nearly impossible.
But where churches can play an indispensable
role is in helping to break
down the estrangement in their own
communities. As the pope advises, this
can only come with patience, a willingness
to listen, an ability to identify with
the pains and fears of others.
Such reconciliation may happen
last in the halls of government. In our
parish halls and churches, however,
and with the guidance of organizations
like Braver Angels, known for its red/
blue workshops, perhaps the solution
to our profound distrust of one another
can begin from the bottom up.

Ricky Gervais stars as a dentist who
can see ghosts in a scene from the
2008 movie “Ghost Town.” | IMDB
DYING TO GO
TO THE MOVIES
Three film works dealing with death and the
afterlife that don’t fall into the Halloween trap.
BY JOSEPH JOYCE
My father has an anecdote he likes to break out this
time of year.
He was at a party with an old high school friend
and his wife, both Protestant at the time but later destined
to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy (we Catholics count this
as an apostolic moral victory). My dad asked if they had any
plans for Halloween and the wife, very sweetly and kindly
replied: “Oh, we don’t celebrate the devil’s holiday.”
It has become my own minor crusade to reclaim Halloween
as a proper Catholic holiday, to not let the weekend
warrior satanists bask in stolen valor.
The name itself comes from All Hallows’ Eve, and from
the Gaelic tendency to slur their sentences together into a
consistent porridge. There is nothing wrong with being a
bit morbid this time of year. All Saints’ Day and All Souls’
Day are sharp reminders of what the dead owe to us and
what we owe the dead, from prayers to the inevitable union
dues.
So in the spirit of the season, I’m offering a brief syllabus
of films that help keep death and the afterlife in mind — in
a healthy way.
“Ghost Town” (2008)
Imagine if you had the Sixth Sense, but it was a sense of
annoyance. This is the plight of the unfortunately named
Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais). Pincus is a misanthropic
dentist, which is in some ways an improvement for someone
in his field. Rather than inflicting pain, you sense that
he got into the profession because it’s one of the few where
customers can’t speak to you.
So imagine Pincus’ woe when a near-death experience
gives him the ability to commune with the dead. He already
isn’t a fan of the living, and now he’s getting pestered
with requests from ghosts to help resolve their unfinished
business so they can pass on. Pincus isn’t interested, but
ghosts don’t respect office hours.
Pincus starts to help the spirits just to get rid of them. In
doing so, he discovers that charity, regardless of motive, has
a habit of remodeling the soul. His new clients might be
dead, but his existence before was scarcely a life.
In a unique spin on the purgatorial state, he discovers that
it is not the dead’s unresolved problems that keep them
tethered to this realm, but the living’s. Or more accurately
28 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

put, the agony of their loved ones
is the unfinished business. “Ghost
Town” is one of the few movies to
recognize that death doesn’t sever
our relationships and obligations to
one another; if anything, we’re more
entwined than ever.
“Over the Garden Wall” (2014)
This is a miniseries, but I’m going
to break my own rules and include it
here, as its 10 episodes are all under
10 minutes long.
The show follows the brothers Wirt
and Greg, who find themselves in a
dark forest, the straightforward pathway
lost. Sound familiar? This is the
Unknown, a mysterious land where
every hamlet they come across is
from some earlier era of Americana, either real or imagined.
They struggle to find their way out of the forest and
home with the help of a talking bluebird named Beatrice.
Again, sound familiar?
Half Dante and half “Pilgrim’s Progress,” the trio stumble
across a purgatorial landscape where the timestream seems
to pool and collect: there are colonial farming villages,
medieval taverns, bluestocking school marms, Gilded Age
mansions, and the like. It’s only the vanity of the living that
separates the past into neat little eras. Boundaries tend to
blur when you all arrive at the same destination.
“Over the Garden Wall” is surprisingly death-haunted for
children’s animation. To its credit, the show isn’t fretful of
death, but offers its memento mori with shrug and merry
jig. The only real threat in the Unknown is the mysterious
Beast, a creature that can only harm by convincing you to
give up hope. To paraphrase Thomas Merton, despair is
the one sin God can’t forgive because our pride won’t allow
him. This series reminds us that there are worse things
to fear than the reaper, namely fear itself.
Brothers Wirt and Greg travel
through a forest in a scene from
the 2014 animated miniseries
“Over the Garden Wall.” | IMDB
A scene from the 2025
film “28 Years Later,” the
third in the “28 Days Later”
movie series. | IMDB
“28 Years Later” (2025)
The most recent addition to the mortality canon, “28
Years Later,” is also the most explicit in both its message
and the number of arrows you see pass through eye sockets.
Proving it’s not just a clever name, the film takes place 28
years after a zombie outbreak, with continental Europe
beating the plague back and quarantining its origin at the
British Isles. Survivors are left to fend for themselves as
NATO boats patrol around, preventing any escape.
Taking a cue from the past, a survivor community sprouts
up on Lindisfarne, the so-called Holy Isle for its connection
to St. Cuthbert. The survivors find it holy for its long
causeway, which connects it to the mainland at low tide,
washing away any zombie intruders that approach.
The story follows young Spike, who while surrounded by
the living dead, is more concerned with the living dying:
His mother is wasting away from an unknown disease,
with fellow villagers unable or unwilling to assist (which
are often the same thing). Spike must venture out with his
mother across the causeway and through undead territory
to seek out the rumor of a doctor living on the
mainland.
Decades of zombie films have ingrained
certain expectations in us, which “28 Years
Later” delights in thumbing its nose at. While
not without its thrills, the movie finds its groove
when it’s at its most contemplative: Spike wandering
through an ossuary of skulls and realizing
the only difference between his and theirs is the
accident of years.
In acknowledging death, he also gains a greater
respect for life, even the life that is trying to eat
his brains. Our conflicts seem petty in the face
of eternity, relentlessly jockeying for position in
the same line to the same destination. Our time
shouldn’t be wasted on relinquishing our place
in line.
Joseph Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance critic
based in Sherman Oaks.
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 29

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
The place no human should go
Jeff Goldblum
in the 1986 film
“The Fly.” | IMDB
As Halloween approaches, I’ve
been haunted by a piece by Elise
Ureneck that recently appeared
in these pages: Will Catholics take a
stand against Silicon Valley’s reproductive
revolution?
The column features Noor Siddiqui,
founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley
fertility startup called Orchid Health.
After reading about its major thrust —
the polygenic screening of embryos — I
wanted to lie down and pull the covers
over my head.
Luckily, I drink too much coffee for
that. But seriously — what have we
come to that such spawn-of-Satan ideas
are poised to reign supreme?
IVF for everyone! Screen frozen
embryos for defects! Stockpile your own
personal stash of prospective kids, thaw
and test for perfection when convenient,
then toss the ones that don’t make
the cut — human embryos with immortal
souls — onto the garbage heap.
I keep thinking of that Gospel passage,
Luke 12:53, where Jesus says, “The
father shall be divided against the son,
and the son against the father; the
mother against the daughter, and the
daughter against the mother,” and so
on.
And again at Luke 17:34–35: “I tell
you, in that night there will be two in
one bed. One will be taken and the
other left. There will be two women
grinding together. One will be taken
and the other left.”
The divide will perhaps come down
to this: What is a human being? Is it a
beautiful, unique individual created by
God with his or her own unique and
gorgeous stamp? Or is a human being
a blank-slate blob for us to design, engineer,
program, own, buy, sell, groom,
and/or randomly discard/destroy for our
own personal pleasure and purposes?
Do we kneel before a Power greater
than ourselves, or do we commandeer
a monstrously destructive power to
ourselves?
The thought of engineering defects
and disorders out of human beings
makes my blood run cold. I have only
to think of my family, my friends, and
most of all, myself.
The Lord knows this little group has
its share of whack jobs, and I wouldn’t
have it any other way. Our disorders
include alcoholism, OCD, love
addiction, heroin addiction, hoarding,
co-dependence, Oppositional Defiance
Disorder, bankruptcies, foreclosures,
overspending, underspending, depression,
major anxiety, secrets, feuds, estrangements,
and any number of other
behaviors on “the spectrum.”
30 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

Heather King (heather-king.com) writes memoirs, leads workshops,
and posts on Substack at “Desire Lines: Books, Culture, Art.”
“Neurodivergent”: give me a break.
Who isn’t?
That is what keeps life interesting.
The suffering and joys attendant on our
wounds, limitations, and gifts are what
it means to be alive.
The other night I rewatched arguably
the ultimate body-horror movie: David
Cronenberg’s “The Fly” (1986) with
Jeff Goldblum (Seth Brundle) and
Geena Davis (Ronnie).
Seth invents the telepod, an instrument
meant instantaneously to transport
people and things from one place
to another, then he falls in love with
a female journalist. Ronnie’s hair and
outfits are dated but other than that,
the film’s pretty fresh. A cynic might say
the whole 96 minutes are a vehicle for
the utterly over-the-top special effects,
which have a gross-out factor of 10-plus.
But no doubt about it, the film stays
with you.
And not just because it’s mesmerizing
to watch Seth/Goldblum losing his
nails, teeth, hair, and possibly penis;
impregnate Ronnie through questionable
means; and projectile vomit
flesh-corroding insect slobber.
No, good as all that stuff is, there’s also
the surprisingly tender and realistic love
story between the two. There’s Seth’s
moving desire to leave a child: “The
baby might be all that’s left of the real
me.” There’s his plaintive “Help me to
be human” when he’s already long past
being human, with no way back.
There’s the horror at his changing,
deteriorating body; the realization that
in achieving his dream, he stands to
destroy the person he loves; and his
essential loneliness: emotions known in
one form or another to all of us.
But mostly there’s his knowledge that
in his innocent desire to break new
scientific ground, he’s overstepped all
permissible limits; he’s gone where no
human should go.
Which is why “The Fly” made me
think of that Silicon Valley startup.
As Ureneck notes:
“For Siddiqui, the moral problem at
hand is not the possibility of a world in
which a majority of people conceived
and born through IVF have optimal
genes and a low probability of genetic
disease, while a minority conceived
through sexual intercourse have comparatively
greater odds of disability and
propensity for gene-linked illnesses.”
“Her moral qualm is that all parents
have a ‘fundamental right’ to reproduce
this way. The injustice lies in the financial
barrier to entry.”
Since for now only the rich are going
to be able to afford this kind of “selection”
(does that word ring a bell?),
what happens when only the rich have
“designer babies?”
What happens when breeding out
imperfections leads, over time, to the
slightest blemish, say a mole, becoming
gruesomely repulsive?
What happens when just getting married
and conceiving a baby and letting
the chips fall where they may — as the
good Lord ordained — is a practice
that’s ridiculed or ostracized or even
outlawed?
Orchid. What a nice, anodyne name
for an idea that is every bit as horrifying
as Seth’s final transformation, when
a gore-dripping insect snout pushes
through what remains of his human
skin and the slimy raw-meat creature
who emerges begs to be killed.
In the film’s most iconic tagline: “Be
afraid. Be very afraid.”
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 31

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
All saints, all glory
Catholics, from their earliest lessons in Vacation Bible
School, are taught to prize holiness — to admire it in
others and to strive for it in their own lives.
But we’re never quite told what holiness is. We hear and
read the biographies of the saints, and we’re told that holiness
is the common element in their lives, and then we’re left to
draw our own conclusions.
It’s interesting to note that the glossary of the Catechism of
the Catholic Church has no entry for the word “holiness”
— even though the word appears in five definitions of other
words!
So we don’t have definitions. We have impressions. We
see that holy people do good things and avoid doing bad
things. They feed the poor and house the homeless. They
are sometimes martyred because they refuse to comply with
unjust laws.
We conclude, then, that holiness is the same thing as
goodness, or the same thing as courage, or the same thing as
philanthropy.
But then we grow older and we learn about saints like the
irascible Jerome, or the scheming Cyril, or the intolerant
Epiphanius, or Mark Ji Tianxiang, who was addicted to opium.
Their behavior shatters our stereotypes of sainthood. We
find that our preconceptions were misconceptions.
We may well wonder whether we have ever understood
holiness.
The great seismic event in the Church in the last century
was the Second Vatican Council. Many people argue about
its effects, but the pope at the time, St. Pope Paul VI, made
clear its meaning and central message. The council was all
about “the universal call to holiness.” In the Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church, “Lumen Gentium” (“Light of the
Nations”), we find the summons: “all the faithful of Christ
are invited to strive for the holiness and perfection of their
own proper state. Indeed they have an obligation to so strive.”
“The classes and duties of life are many,” the document
tells us, “but holiness is one.”
Holiness is something that’s obviously important to our
lives, and yet not even the council ventured a definition!
The theme of holiness has been with God’s people from the
beginning of recorded history, and it calls us to deep study in
modern times. I wrote such a study myself in my book “Holy
Is His Name” (Emmaus Road Publishing, $24.95).
In article 2809, the Catechism does hint at what we’ll find
along the way.
“Christ in Majesty; Initial A: A Man Lifting His Soul to God,” Master of the
Brussels Initials (Italian, active about 1389-1410) — illuminator (Italian). |
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his
eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history,
Scripture calls ‘glory,’ the radiance of his majesty [Cf. Ps
8; Isa 6:3]. In making man in his image and likeness, God
‘crowned him with glory and honor,’ but by sinning, man fell
‘short of the glory of God’ [Ps 8:5; Rom 3:23; cf. Gen 1:26].
From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by
revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the
image of his Creator [Ps 8:5; Rom 3:23; cf. Gen 1:26].”
Within that paragraph is the meaning of the feasts we celebrate
Nov. 1-2, All Saints and All Souls. We are created and
called to be saints, to be glory.
32 • ANGELUS • October 31, 2025

■ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25
Santa Barbara Regional Congress. St. Bonaventure High
School, 3167 Telegraph Rd., Ventura. Theme: “Journeying
Together in Hope.” Visit lacatholics.org/events.
Día de los Muertos Mass and Celebration, Calvary
Cemetery. Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles,
12-5 p.m. Mass, procession, blessings of the altars,
and cultural celebration with music, children’s activities,
and dancers. Visit lacatholics.org/events.
■ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26
Mass for the “Laudato Si’ ” Movement on Care for Our
Common Home. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555
W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 10 a.m. Special opportunity
to pray together for the cry of the earth and the cry of the
poor. Free parking at the cathedral. Sign up to volunteer or
attend at archla.org/laudatosimass.
■ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28
Christian Service 4 Life: Be a Lifeguard. Become a Saint.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St.,
Los Angeles, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Speakers: Auxiliary Bishop
Matthew Elshoff, Lila Rose, and David Henrie. Benediction,
games, confession, and more. Visit lifesocal.org/christian-service-4-life.
Talking About the Unthinkable: Suicide, with Father Jim
Clarke. Padre Serra Church, 5205 Upland Rd., Camarillo,
7 p.m. Father Jim will share basic principles that can assist
in moving toward healing and integration, while embracing
human pain and suffering. Visit padreserra.org/jim-clarke.
html.
■ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29
Virtual Family Law Clinic. Zoom, 2 p.m. Legal issues
covered: divorce, spousal and child support, custody/visitation,
military pension, marital property. Consultations
by appointment. Call 213-896-6450 or email veterans@
counselforjustice.org.
“Is Your Faith Alive?” Weekly Series. St. Dorothy Church,
241 S. Valley Center Ave., Glendora, 7-8:30 p.m. Runs
Wednesdays through May 13, 2026. Deepen your understanding
of the Faith through dynamic DVD presentations
by Dr. Brant Pitre, Chris Stefanik, the Augustine Institute,
and Matthew Leonard. Free events, no RSVP required.
Call 626-335-2811 or visit the Adult Faith Development
ministry page at stdorothy.org.
■ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Journeying Through Grief Bereavement Retreat. St.
Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree Rd., Whittier, 9 a.m.-5:15
p.m., Mass 5:30 p.m. Retreat will help participants work
through grief on a healthy path toward healing. Cost: $75/
person, includes all supplies and food. RSVP by Oct. 26 to
Cathy Narvaez at bereavement.ministry@yahoo.com. Pay
through Zelle to 562-631-8844.
Made in God’s Image: Growing in the Likeness of Christ.
American Martyrs Church, 700 15th St., Manhattan
Beach, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ACTheals retreat directed by Father
Jim Clarke is a special opportunity for health care professionals,
pastoral caregivers, and all those who are called to
healing prayer. Love offering: $45/person. Visit ACTheals.
org.
United in Jesus’ Love With All His Saints. St. John the
Baptist Church, 3883 Baldwin Park Blvd., Baldwin Park,
10 a.m.-4 p.m. With Father Michael Barry, SSCC, Father
Ismael Robles, and Dominic Berardino. Topics include
Astonishing Accounts of God’s Graces, Protection, and
Deliverance Through His Saints, and Healing Prayer Power
of Heaven’s Saints. Personal prayer blessing with healing oil
from St. Charbel Makhlouf’s tomb. Email spirit@scrc.org.
Día de los Muertos Mass and Celebration, Santa Clara
Cemetery. Santa Clara Cemetery and Mortuary, 2370 N.
H St., Oxnard, 12-5 p.m. Mass, procession, blessings of the
altars, and cultural celebration with music, children’s activities,
and dancers. Visit lacatholics.org/events.
Día de los Muertos Mass and Celebration, San Fernando.
San Fernando Mission Cemetery, 11160 Stranwood
Ave., Mission Hills, 12-6 p.m. Mass with Archbishop José
H. Gomez, procession, blessings of the altars, and cultural
celebration with music, children’s activities, and dancers.
Visit lacatholics.org/events.
Catholic Education Foundation Impact Report Launch
Party. Jonathan Club, 545 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 6
p.m. Cocktails, dinner, music. Enjoy an immersive experience
of art and storytelling from our students. Call Giselle
Gutierrez at 213-637-7523 or email giselleg@cefdn.org.
■ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3
"Nostra Aetate": Commemorating 60 Years of Enduring
Catholic and Jewish Friendship. Downtown Los Angeles.
Hosted by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Jewish Federation
Los Angeles, and AJC Los Angeles. The event features
thoughtful reflections and music to celebrate 60 years of
progress in Catholic-Jewish relations. Register at form.
jotform.com/CEJFED/Nostra_Aetate.
■ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Organ Concert Series: Emma Whitter. Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 1 p.m.
Visit olacathedral.org.
■ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6
San Fernando Mission Guides Meeting. San Fernando
Mission Cantwell Hall, 15151 Mission Blvd., Mission Hills,
1 p.m. Meetings on the first Thursday of each month, open
to new prospective docents, performing tours mainly for
California fourth-graders. Call John Panico at 661-877-
7528 or email jdpanico@gmail.com.
■ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Carlos Colon Requiem. Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 7 p.m. Under the
direction of Dr. Adan Fernandez. Tickets required. Visit
olacathedral.org.
■ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Divine Mercy Congress. Christ the King Church, 624 N.
Rossmore Ave., Los Angeles, Nov. 8-9. Spanish and English
congress will feature daily Mass and adoration, powerful
talks, confessions, testimonies, workshops, and more. For
more information, email ctklaoffice@gmail.com, call 323-
465-7605, or visit ctkla.org.
Lead Like Christ: The Catholic Man’s Mission. St. Kateri
Church, 22508 Copper Hill Dr., Santa Clarita, 7 a.m.-4
p.m. Speakers: Father Dave Heney, Tim Staples, and Steve
Thomas. The day includes Mass, adoration, and confession.
Cost: $55/person, includes breakfast and lunch, $155
VIP package, includes seating, speaker book, and lunch
with speakers. Visit saintkaterimensconference.com or
email info@saintkaterimensgroup.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.
October 31, 2025 • ANGELUS • 33