Angelus News | May 15, 2026 | Vol. 11 No. 10

ANGELUS
May 15, 2026 Vol. 11 No. 10

May 15, 2026
Vol. 11 • No. 10
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ANGELUS
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ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
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ON THE COVER
CNS/LOLA GOMEZ
Pope Leo XIV smiles during a meeting with Algerian
Catholics at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers
on April 13. One year into Leo’s pontificate, what does
it mean for U.S. Catholics to have an American pope?
On Page 10, Nic Rowan reflects on that question and
a recent trip with his young family to see Leo. On Page
14, Editor-in-Chief Pablo Kay caught up with four local
women whose “girls trip” to Italy last year was interrupted
by fate.
THIS PAGE
PETER LOBATO
Father Justin Oh, center, drives to the basket with
seminarian Jose Pacheco, left, Father Francis Kim,
second from left, seminarian George Gomez,
second from right, and seminarian Thomas An
Luu during the annual Priests vs. Seminarians
basketball game on May 1 in front of about
2,500 at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission
Hills. The seminarians won the game, 44-37, and
Pacheco was named the MVP.

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
16
18
22
24
26
28
30
100 years later, Cristero martyrs remembered during LA relic visit
Remembering Anderson Shaw, a tireless advocate for Black Catholics
Photos: LA parishes celebrate Abuse Prevention Month Masses
Elise Ureneck sticks up for Mother’s Day blessings at Mass
Robert Brennan on the spiritual fruits of the Artemis launch
Should Catholics engage with the rising class of conspiracy theorists?
Heather King: The saint who isn’t a saint (but should be)
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 1

POPE WATCH
Dear new priests…
The following is adapted from the Holy
Father’s homily at the Mass of Ordination
of new priests for the Diocese of
Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica on April 26.
Dear ordinands, the deeper your
bond with Christ, the more
radical your belonging to all
of humanity. There is no opposition,
nor competition, between heaven and
earth; in Jesus they are united forever.
This living and dynamic mystery binds
the heart to an indissoluble love: it
binds and fills it. Certainly, like the love
of spouses, the love that inspires celibacy
for the kingdom of God must also
be guarded and constantly renewed,
for every true affection matures and
becomes fruitful over time.
In the Gospel on the Good Shepherd
that was proclaimed today (John
10:1–10), Jesus’ words evoke not only
forms of physical aggression, but above
all of spiritual aggression. This does not,
however, deter him from giving up his
life. Denunciation does not become
renunciation; danger does not lead to
flight. This is another secret for the life
of the priest: we must not be frightened
by reality. It is the Lord of life who calls
us.
Today the need for security makes
people aggressive, causes communities
to close in on themselves and
leads people to seek out enemies and
scapegoats. May your security not lie
in the role you hold, but in the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus as well
as in your participation, along with your
people, in the story of salvation. This
salvation is already at work in the many
good deeds that are quietly carried out
by people of goodwill in the parishes
and settings where you will join them
as fellow travelers. What you proclaim
and celebrate will protect you, even in
difficult times.
In the communities where you will be
sent, the risen One is already present,
and many have already followed him
commendably. You will recognize his
wounds and distinguish his voice. You
will encounter people who will direct
you toward him. These communities
will also help you to become saints!
For your part, help them to walk
together, following Jesus, the Good
Shepherd, so that they may become
places — gardens — of life that rise
anew and share themselves with others.
People are often lacking a place where
they can understand that it is better
and beautiful to be together, and that
it is possible to get along. Facilitating
encounters, helping to bring together
those who would otherwise never meet,
and conciliating division is one and the
same as celebrating the Eucharist and
reconciliation. Coming together always
means planting the Church anew.
Today more than ever, especially
when statistics seem to indicate a divide
between people and the Church, keep
the door open! Let people in, and be
prepared to go out. This is another
secret for your life: you are a channel,
not a filter. Many believe they already
know what lies beyond the threshold.
They carry memories with them, perhaps
from a distant past. Often, there is
something within them that is alive and
has not died out; this draws them in.
Other times, however, there is something
else within them that still bleeds
and repels them. The Lord knows, and
he waits. Be a reflection of his patience
and tenderness. You belong to everyone
and are for everyone!
Papal Prayer Intention for May: Let us pray that everyone,
from large producers to small consumers, be committed to
avoid wasting food, and to ensure that everyone has access
to quality food.
2 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Our world needs us to pray the rosary
I
was disturbed by the latest act of
political violence in our country,
the attack targeting the president
that took place this weekend in
Washington, D.C. We thank God this
attack was stopped by security and law
enforcement.
It is sad to think that in this Jubilee
Year for our country, the 250th
anniversary of America’s Declaration
of Independence, our nation is more
divided and polarized than I’ve ever
seen it in my lifetime.
I find myself thinking a lot these days
about a line from St. Augustine that
I have quoted often over the years:
“Bad times! Troublesome times! This
is what people are saying. Let our lives
be good, and the times will be good.
We make our times. Such as we are,
such are the times.”
This is good for us to remember. Our
lives matter. We may not be powerful
or influential in worldly terms, but
we each have a role to play in God’s
plan. How we live, the example we set,
what we say and do, our priorities —
they make a difference.
In our liturgical readings during the
Easter season, we follow the growth of
the early Church as St. Luke records it
in the Acts of the Apostles.
The apostles are the leading characters,
but the ordinary members of the
Church are never far away; their work
is to live their faith and pray for God’s
purposes to be accomplished.
The first Christians devoted themselves
to prayer, the apostles’ teaching,
and following Jesus’ command to
celebrate the breaking of the bread.
They believed in the power of prayer,
and in the Acts of the Apostles we see
their prayer shaking buildings and
bringing down the Spirit in tongues
of fire.
A striking example is when St. Peter
gets arrested. Acts tells us simply: “Peter
thus was being kept in prison, but
prayer by the Church was fervently
being made to God on his behalf.”
Prayer is the work of the Church.
Then and now. By our prayer we
“make our times,” as St. Augustine
says.
Now, as it was in those early days of
the Church, we devote ourselves to
prayer in the company of Mary the
Mother of Jesus.
May is Mary’s month and the rosary
is Mary’s prayer.
We need this prayer again now, we
need to renew our faith in its power to
change our hearts, in this moment of
tense divisions in our society,
The rosary is a school of the heart, a
pilgrim’s prayer. It gives us the rhythm
for life’s journey, the beads marking
steps along the path we walk in faith,
drawing us ever deeper into the mystery
of our life in Jesus Christ.
Each decade starts with the prayer
that Jesus taught us, the prayer that
opens our hearts to our Father’s loving
will for our lives. The mysteries that
pass before us are all scenes that Mary
herself witnessed in the life of her Son.
With her, we follow the Child born
from her womb through the joys of
family life, through his mission of
bringing the light of God’s love into
the world, through the sorrows of his
passion and death, and the glory of his
resurrection and promise of new life.
As we ponder the mysteries of
Christ’s life, often our mind wanders
to the concerns of our own lives —
our cares become prayers for our
families and friends, our work and our
world — and then we drift back again
to considering the Gospel scenes.
The repetition of the Hail Marys in
the rosary is like a litany of love. “I
love you” isn’t something we say only
once to the ones we love. So every
Hail Mary we repeat in the rosary is
like an “I love you” that we are saying
to Jesus and to Mary.
As we contemplate the mysteries of
Jesus’ life through his mother’s eyes,
day by day, we are being changed
more and more into his likeness.
And like the prayer that Jesus taught
us, the rosary opens our eyes to see
the world as our Father sees it and it
opens our eyes to our responsibility for
his plan of redemption.
Praying the rosary as children of
God, we grow to see that life is not
Prayer is our mission in the Church, and
prayer is what the world urgently needs in
these troubled times.
about us, but about doing our Father’s
will and serving our brothers and
sisters.
Prayer is our mission in the Church,
and prayer is what the world urgently
needs in these troubled times. So let
us renew our devotion to Mary and
her prayer this month.
Pray for me and I will pray for you.
And let us ask our Blessed Mother to
help us as we strive every day to make
our lives good and to do our part so
that our times may be good.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 3

WORLD
■ London Marathon
winner is serious
Catholic
Before Sabastian Sawe, 31,
left his native Kenya to run the
April 26 London Marathon in a
record 1 hour, 59 minutes, and
30 seconds, he went to Mass.
“He never misses Mass,” said
Julius Kemei, chairperson of
Holy Family Catholic Church
in the Diocese of Eldoret, where
Sawe attends. “He comes with
his entire family to Church.
Whenever he is not around, his
wife and children come.”
More than just a regular
Mass-goer, Sawe is noted for his
leadership within the parish,
often sharing from his race winnings,
either in the form of cash
or livestock, including a large
flock of sheep.
Sabastian Sawe in 2025. | WIKIME-
DIA COMMONS/LEONHARD LENZ
“There are times he offers to complete projects by himself, saying that God has
already blessed him so much,” Kemei said.
This latest record-breaking win likely will result in finishing construction of
Holy Family Church, with media reports claiming that Sawe has promised to
cover the project following the marathon.
■ Ukraine: Orthodox,
Catholics spar over Easter
‘blasphemy’
The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church called the reported seizure of
a Ukrainian Catholic church by Russian
Orthodox clergy on Easter Sunday “blasphemy.”
The controversy erupted when clergy
from the Russian Orthodox church held
a liturgy in the south-central Ukrainian
Church of Sts. Peter and Paul April 12,
the Eastern Christian observation of
Easter.
“With cynical deliberation, our church
was seized on Easter; our faithful were
expelled — people who, even without
the opportunity to participate in services
because they have no priest of their own,
had cared for, cleaned, and visited this
church,” said Ukraine’s senior Catholic
bishop, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav
Shevchuk, April 19.
The Russian government has claimed to
uphold religious freedom in its occupied
territories. Russian media have claimed
the church was abandoned, and that Russian
Orthodox use of it was “providential.”
■ More Catholics
leaving than entering
internationally, Pew finds
More adults are leaving the Catholic
Church than entering across 24
countries, according to an April 23
Pew Research report.
Based on surveys conducted in
spring 2024, the report finds that
adults switching from Catholicism to
Protestant denominations has led to
the significant losses among Catholic
adults in 21 countries. Despite the
losses, Catholics still make up the
majority of the population in eight
nations, including Poland (92%), the
Philippines (80%), Italy (69%) and
Mexico (67%).
While switching to a Protestant
denomination was the most common,
in Europe and certain parts of Latin
America, like Chile, disaffiliation
from religion is a more significant
portion of the population.
An ecumenical novelty — Pope Leo XIV receives a gift from Sarah Mullally, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury,
during their meeting at the Vatican April 27. Mullally is the Church of England’s first female to lead the
Anglicans. During the meeting, Leo said that while much progress has been made on “historically divisive issues,
new problems have arisen in recent decades” which have made the “ecumenical journey” more challenging. |
OSV NEWS/SIMONE RISOLUTI, VATICAN MEDIA
4 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

NATION
From immigrant to apostle — On May 1, Pope Leo XIV named Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of
Washington as bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia. Menjivar, 55, came to the U.S. as an undocumented
immigrant from El Salvador in 1990, living and working in Los Angeles for a time before discerning his
vocation to the priesthood. Leo also named two D.C. priests, Gary R. Studniewski and Robert P. Boxie, III, as
auxiliary bishops for Washington; and appointed Father John Jairo Gomez of Tyler, Texas, as the next bishop of
Laredo, Texas. | OSV NEWS/COURTESY ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON
■ Florida: A community of
micro-homes for the elderly poor
A Florida diocese will open a village of micro-homes for at-risk seniors.
Ground first broke on “Trinity Village” in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in
September of 2024, producing several 300-square-foot homes for elderly that are at
risk for homelessness. Each of the tiny homes is expected to rent for $500, including
utilities. Homes feature a sleeping area, kitchen, living room, dining room,
bathroom, and on-site laundry.
“This is what we do as a Church,” Pensacola-Tallahassee Bishop William Wack
said. “We don't just come together to pray, though that is an important part of what
we do. We come together [also] to build up the kingdom, to serve our brothers and
sisters.”
■ Texts show federal
lawyers discussed targeting
pro-Trump nuns
Biden-era federal prosecutors discussed
targeting Catholic nuns who’d
appeared at a pro-Trump “Stop the
Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, according
to messages released by the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
The two lawyers, Molly Gaston and
Joseph Cooney, were career officials at
the Department of Justice (DOJ) rather
than political appointees. Both were
fired shortly after President Trump
returned to the White House in 2025.
“I would like to take a special assignment
of finding and prosecuting them,”
texted Gaston to Cooney, referencing
media images of nuns wearing habits
and veils, as well as pro-Trump attire.
“I’m with you,” replied Cooney, adding
that he would “like to prosecute any
nun who still wears the head habit.”
According to EWTN News, the women
referenced were likely “associated
with a convent that is not in communion
with the Roman Catholic Church
and does not have canonical standing
with the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan,
where they are located.”
The same week that the messages
were released, the DOJ published
a report listing a series of examples
of allegedly “anti-Christian” bias in
the federal government under President
Biden, including restrictions on
religious liberty and the targeting of
pro-life protesters.
The Diocese of Bridgeport’s virtual fundraising
officer “Maria.” | DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT
■ Meet ‘Maria’: Connecticut diocese
rolls out AI fundraising tool
The Diocese of Bridgeport is testing out an AI “virtual engagement officer” named
“Maria” to help its fundraising efforts.
The diocese worked with Boston-based firm Givzey to create the fundraising tool, which
will operate within a pool of up to 1,000 volunteer participants, sending generated text
and email engagements. Maria, they claim, will enhance human fundraising staff, which
studies indicate can only personally interact with around 3% of the diocese’s donor base.
“Maria will help us learn how digital tools can deepen our listening and foster more personal
responses, while always keeping human relationships at the heart of the Church’s
mission,” said Bridgeport Bishop Frank Caggiano in a statement.
“Organizations could never have a fundraiser for every donor,” said Emily Groccia, vice
president of customer success at Givzey. The Catholic University of America announced
a similar tool last year.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 5

LOCAL
A century (and more) of saints — St. Anthony High School in Long Beach celebrated its
105th anniversary by inducting six new members into its Hall of Fame during a gala on April 25.
Father Al Scott, second from right, a former teacher at St. Anthony, was one of those inducted,
as he poses with Tim McBride, left, Hall of Fame committee chair, Moon Cordero, second from
left, St. Anthony’s director of campus ministry, and St. Anthony President Christine Tucker.
The other honorees were Nicholas Andrade (Class of 1963), former St. Anthony High School
President Gina Rushing Maguire (Class of 1967), Tom and Christine “Kiki” Miller (Class of 1966),
former teacher Joseph Banfield, and the Rudy J. and Daphne A. Munzer Foundation. | GRACE
HARAMBASIC
■ South Pasadena church earns
‘green’ certification
Holy Family Church in South Pasadena became
the first house of worship to receive American
Green Zone Alliance’s (AGZA) “Green Zone”
certification for efforts to reduce environmental
impact.
Working with its landscape maintenance company,
Go Green Landscape & Design, Holy Family
swapped out its older gas-powered lawnmowers
and tools for commercial-grade electric equipment,
helping reduce emissions, noise, and fuel
consumption. The city of South Pasadena earned
AGZA certification in 2015.
Father Ricky Viveros, pastor at Holy Family, said
he has asthma that was often triggered by growing
up near industrial areas in the LA Harbor area,
so he understands the importance of a healthier
environment.
“As disciples of Christ, we have a moral obligation
to be good stewards of God’s creation,”
Viveros said. “Many parishioners are very passionate
and persuasive, so I have to really credit them
for their passion on this topic. We need to protect
the environment for all of God’s people.”
■ Bishop Conaty-Loretto
wins national music
award
Bishop Conaty-Our Lady of Loretto
High School near downtown Los
Angeles has been named by the
National Association of Music Merchants
(NAMM) Foundation as one
of its “Best Communities for Music
Education” for the third straight
year.
The award honors schools and districts
based on categories such as instructional
time, participation rates,
facilities, and community support.
Bishop Conaty’s music academy
allows students to learn about music,
receive mentorship from industry
professionals, and prepare for a
potential career as a performer or
behind-the-scenes artist.
“We are proud to recognize their
leadership and unwavering dedication
to ensuring every student has
the opportunity to engage in music,”
said John Mlynczak, NAMM president
and CEO.
■ St. John’s announces awardees for annual gala
From left to right: Msgr. Francis Hicks, Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Albert
Bahhuth, Margaret Graf, Father Steven Sallot, and Father Vaughn Winters. |
ST. JOHN’S SEMINARY
The honorees were
announced for the annual
St. John’s Seminary
Gala fundraiser, this year
held on Sept. 19 at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Angels.
The gala celebrates the
seminary’s distinguished
alumni and other Catholic
leaders, while raising
funds for St. John’s
Seminary in Camarillo
and its mission to support
future priests.
The Distinguished
Alumni Awards will go
to Los Angeles Auxiliary
Bishop Albert Bahhuth,
Msgr. Francis Hicks, pastor
at St. Basil’s Church in Los Angeles, Father Vaughn Winters, pastor at St. Kateri
Tekakwitha Church in Santa Clarita, and Father Steven Sallot, retired pastor of Our
Lady Queen of Angels Church in Newport Beach.
Margaret Graf, the general counsel for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, will be
honored with the “Evangelii Gaudium” (“Joy of the Gospel”) Award.
LA Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff will emcee the event.
To buy tickets or sponsorships, visit stjohnsem.edu/gala.
6 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

V
IN OTHER WORDS...
Letters to the Editor
Single women, look to this saint
For women who feel “Ghosted by St. Joseph” (April 17 issue of Angelus),
they may wish to pray to St. Emilina of Boulancourt, the patron saint
of single women. She lived in 12th-century France and never married, nor did she
join a religious order. She lived a solitary life of prayer and fasting near the Cistercian
Abbey in Boulancourt. Many pilgrims came to her for spiritual guidance and
her prophetic gifts. For single women who are in the world working, St. Emilina
can serve as a model of devotion to God.
— Sally Carpenter, Moorpark
Correction
Anderson Shaw of the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization
died at the age of 87. His age was listed incorrectly on Page 6 of the May 1 issue of
Angelus.
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.
“Pope Leo XIV is a White
Sox fan, which means he
knows what it means to
suffer.”
~ Robert Mixa, in a May 1 OSV News commentary,
on hope that with Pope Leo there will be a renewal
of the faith throughout Chicago.
“Faith, at its best, doesn't
speak louder than the
client. It listens more
deeply.”
~ Wiljar Schanck, a counselor, in an April 28
National Catholic Reporter article on how Catholic
therapists are using spirituality to meet their
patients’ needs.
Habemus
papam!
One year ago, four friends
from Southern California
were visiting St. Peter’s
Basilica when murmurs of
excitement began spreading
through the crowd:
white smoke was pouring
from the Sistine Chapel,
signifying a new pope
had been elected. Read
the story on Page 14 and
watch the video online. |
YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT
“Her life reminds us that
medicine is not only
science but also love in
action.”
~ Dr. Anthony Leachon, a physician in the
Philippines, in an April 28 EWTN News article on
the death of the “Healing Nun,” Sister Eva Fidela
Maamo, who died at 85.
“My muscles are helping
put patients at ease.”
~ Hokuto Tatsumi, a bodybuilder, in an April 25
New York Times article on young athletes being
recruited to plug a staff shortage in Japan’s nursing
homes.
To view this video
and others, visit
AngelusNews.com/photos-videos
Do you have photos or a story from your parish that you’d
like to share? Please send to editorial@angelusnews.com.
“Neither side really wants to
hear what I say.”
~ Gregg Frazer, a history professor at The Master’s
University in Santa Clarita, on the debate over the
role of religion in the founding of the U.S. in a May
3 Associated Press article.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 7

IN EXILE
FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER, OMI
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father
Ronald Rolheiser is a spiritual
writer; ronrolheiser.com
A soul friend
One of the saints who speaks
to me is Thérèse of Lisieux,
commonly known as the
Little Flower. This wasn’t love at first
sight. For years I was put off and left
cold and uninterested by how her
person and her image have become
encrusted in an overly saccharine piety.
She was too sweet, too pious. Not
a saint for me! That changed, thanks
to a friend who told me, “Don’t read
books about her — read her!” I read
her and found in her a soul friend.
Who is Thérèse of Lisieux? She
was a Carmelite nun who died from
tuberculosis in 1897. She was only 24
years old when she died, and as a Carmelite
nun hidden away in a convent
in rural France, she died in anonymity,
probably known by fewer than 100
people. However, during the last two
years of her life, as she lay dying from
tuberculosis, she kept several diaries.
After her death, her Carmelite sisters
sent her unpublished diaries to a few
other convents, intending to let a
small circle of religious women know
of her death and a little about her life.
The rest is history. The manuscripts
were leaked to a wider public and in
less than 10 years, printing presses
were literally having trouble meeting
the demand for her autobiography.
Her little convent in Lisieux was
receiving more than 500 letters a day,
and people from all over the world
were beginning to come to Lisieux
on pilgrimage. A hundred and thirty
years later, little has changed. She
remains extraordinarily popular.
Why? Why this perennial intrigue
about Thérèse? Because there is
something about her that touches the
soul in a particularly empathic way.
How so?
Thérèse had an anomalous background
that produced an extraordinary
character. Her life as a child was
in many ways tragic. Her mother got
sick at the time of Thérèse’s birth and
was unable to care for her during the
crucial first year of her life. She was
cared for by a nurse and an aunt. As
a 1-year-old she was returned to her
mother, but her mother was already
terminally ill and when Thérèse was
four, her mother died. Thérèse then
chose her older sister, Pauline, to
be her new mother. Five years later,
Pauline entered the convent and
as a 9-year-old Thérèse again lost a
mother.
Shortly after this she took ill and
almost died. This was triggered by
a visit to Pauline who was then a
Carmelite nun. Together with her
three other sisters and her father,
she had gone to visit Pauline in her
convent. After Pauline had spent
some time focused on her little sister,
she naturally became preoccupied in
adult conversation. Left out, in sheer
frustration, little Thérèse stood right
in front of her big sister and, shaking
her dress, began to cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked Pauline.
“You didn’t notice!” cried Thérèse,
“I’m wearing the dress you made
me!”
She then became disconsolate and
on returning home took to bed and
for some weeks; despite the best efforts
of various doctors and every kind
of cajoling by her family, hovered
between life and death. Eventually
she recovered. Such was the tragedy
and oversensitivity of her childhood.
Yet, and this is the great anomaly,
as a child, Thérèse was doted on and
loved in a way that few children ever
are. Her father, her sisters, and her
extended family considered her their
little queen, and she was cherished
and made to feel extraordinarily precious
and unique. Her sister Celine
photographed her every move. Few
children ever grow up as nurtured in
love and affirmation as did Thérèse.
And her personality bore out the effects
of both the tragedy and the love.
On the one side, she could be heavy,
dark, withdrawn, and otherworldly.
She made easy friends with mortality,
was a mystic of darkness, the austere
adult, the little girl-woman, who,
wounded early, grew up fast. But, on
the other side, she always remained
the magical child, Cinderella, who,
because she was so loved and graced,
developed a very robust self-esteem, a
confidence and a capacity to love as
few others ever have.
So loved as a child, a part of her remained
ever the little girl, the puella,
the incarnation of childlikeness, innocence,
and gaiety. Only a Thérèse of
Lisieux could end all her letters with
the phrase: I kiss you with my whole
heart!
In a soul so formed lies her mystique,
that is, her unique combination
of depth, insight, and other worldliness,
even as she desperately clings to
the tiniest gifts from her family and
every small token of earthly affection.
Only a soul so formed could, at age
22, have the complexity and wisdom
to write a mystical and theological
treatise that rivals that of great theological
doctors, and only a soul so
formed could be both a study in hyper-sensitivity
and human resilience.
A saint so pathologically complex
can be a soul friend to our own complex
souls.
8 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

10 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026
ALL IMAGES VIA OSV NEWS

Pope Leo XIV delivers his urbi et orbi (to the city and the world) message from the main balcony of St.
Peter’s Basilica on Easter at the Vatican April 5. | OSV NEWS/VATICAN MEDIA, HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Pope Leo XIV didn’t introduce himself as an American
on May 8, 2025. One year later, I understand why.
BY NIC ROWAN
The day after Pope Francis died,
my wife and I bought plane tickets
to Rome. We weren’t interested
in being there for the conclave. Like
professional football, that extravaganza
is best enjoyed on television. But we
did want to be in Rome the following
year for the new pope’s first Easter as
Supreme Pontiff.
We had no idea who he would be
— no one did at that time — but we
already felt a loyalty to the guy, an
instinctive desire to cheer him on when
he led the Church through its most
important celebration of the year.
Imagine our reaction when we
learned that the pope was one of our
own, an American. My family was gathered
around my laptop in our living
room watching the EWTN livestream.
When the announcement was made,
my two children, too young really to
understand what they were watching,
began bouncing up and down on the
couch.
My wife and I, by this point well
conditioned to disappointment in
the Vatican, were more circumspect.
An American pope: What could this
mean? We were excited while his identity
was unknown and when the future
of the Church was a blank slate. But
now that we knew a few things about
him, we were ready to be disillusioned.
All my doubt vanished as soon as Pope
Leo XIV stepped out onto the balcony
of St. Peter’s Basilica. It wasn’t anything
he said, or even the fact that he wore
the traditional mozzetta, a contrast to
his predecessor that was much remarked
on at the time. It was just his
smile. We make most of our judgments
about people based on body language,
and in Leo’s face I saw something
familiar. He has a Midwestern grin —
modest, self-effacing, almost as if he
is trying to hide his teeth. I liked him
immediately.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter,
strictly speaking, whether or not Catholics
like the pope. But it certainly helps.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 11

For the next few weeks, every time I
called one of my siblings on the phone
— there are seven of us — we referred
in jokey terms to “Pope American” or
“Pope Chicago” or the “Midwestern
Pontiff.” We hung pictures of Leo
in our houses. I drove my wife crazy
adapting his name to the opening lines
of famous American novels. That bit
started with Saul Bellow’s “Adventures
of Augie March” (“I am an American,
Chicago born”), but soon ran further
afield.
Leo became the hero of Don DeLillo’s
baseball novel “Underworld” (“He
speaks in your voice, American, and
there’s a shine in his eye that’s halfway
hopeful”) and the subject of that inane
refrain in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five”
(“Listen: Pope Leo has
come unstuck in time”). Perhaps we
could have been more pious in our
expressions, but I like to think we were
only bringing Leo into the family. My
whole life, the appellation “Holy Father”
was a somewhat abstract concept.
Now that I have a pope who could
actually be my father, it feels more
immediate, real.
A year on, I still catch myself repeating
The author with his daughter in St.
Peter’s Square on Easter morning last
month. | COURTESY NIC ROWAN
Pope Leo XIV wears a Chicago
White Sox baseball cap during
his weekly general audience in
St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican
June 11, 2025. | OSV NEWS/
REMO CASILLI, REUTERS
the phrase — an American pope. It’s
only natural to be proud of the fact. But
I suspect that as the years go by, that
sentiment will develop into something
more mature. Leo may be the American
pope, but he is pope for everyone
else, too.
Perhaps that is why he refrained from
speaking his native tongue when he
first stepped out onto that balcony. He
is also relatively young and could very
well be pope for 20 years. That’s a long
time, and no one knows what the future
may bring. I may come to disagree with
him, even dislike him. But I am not
overly concerned about that. I have
loved even the more unpopular popes
of recent memory. After all, the Church
makes certain claims — to universality,
to longevity — that elevate Her above
our likes and dislikes.
In any case, my family did make it
over to Rome for Leo’s first Easter. With
two children under 5, there was no
chance that we would attend the vigil
in St. Peter’s. But on Easter morning,
we tramped down to St. Peter’s Square
along with everyone else in the city to
receive the urbi et orbi blessing. It was
a beautiful, temperate day, not a cloud
in the sky.
We arrived rather late, and found
ourselves trapped at the back of the
crowd, far enough down the Via della
Conciliazione that we were jostling
with the street salesmen. I put my older
daughter on my shoulders so that she
could see over the mass of people.
Other fathers did the same with their
children. We moved through the crowd
like giraffes wading in deep water.
Around noon, the scarlet curtain of
the balcony was pulled aside and Leo
stepped out to deliver the blessing.
Everyone erupted into applause and
a hundred thousand cellphones were
raised to capture the moment. None of
us could see him clearly, let alone hear
what he was saying. Later, we would
read the text or find snippets of it on
social media.
“Let those who have weapons lay
them down!” Leo said, in what was interpreted
as a criticism of United States
foreign policy.
In the following weeks, the pope
would be dragged into a distasteful argument
with the Trump administration
over the merits of the president’s war
in Iran. The episode would only end
after Trump had heaped insult after
insult on Leo and, for many, broken the
charm of an American in the Vatican.
But for those of us standing in St.
Peter’s Square this Easter, none of
that mattered. We were there because
Christ is risen and his visible representative
on Earth was leading us in
celebrating his victory over death.
From where I was standing, Leo was an
indistinct blur, a figure I could hardly
discern speaking on a balcony I could
barely see. It was so unlike the day the
white smoke billowed out of the Sistine
Chapel. Then, I was excited because
we have an American. Now, I am excited
because we have a pope.
Nic Rowan is managing editor of The
Lamp.
12 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

From left: Patricia Sota, Maria
Lafarga, Martha Torres, and
Gladys Heraldez in Lake
Como during their May
2025 trip through Italy that
coincided with the conclave
that elected Pope Leo XIV. |
MARIA LAFARGA
The story of four
Southern California
friends who stumbled
into the election of a
new pope.
BY PABLO KAY
As far as theatrics go, there’s not
much that can match what I got
to witness in St. Peter’s Square on
Thursday, May 8, 2025.
The black smoke in the morning, then
the white smoke in the evening. The
sounds of those enormous bells and the
jovial marching bands echoing through
the square. The Habemus Papam! and
the astonished stares among journalists
when we heard Cardinal Robert
Prevost’s name. The roar of the crowd
and the sight of the first American pope
introducing himself to the world in
Italian and Spanish.
As Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New
York told journalists the next day: “Nobody
does drama like the holy Roman
Catholic Church.”
On the anniversary of that day, I
find myself thinking less about papal
politics and intrigue, and more about
four women from the LA area that I
met that day — seemingly by chance
— and their accidental front-row seat
to history.
When the drama was done and the
square began to empty, I walked down
the stairs from the designated press area
atop Bernini’s famous columns. I needed
witnesses to interview. At the top of
my wish list: anyone from Southern
California.
As I came out of the stairwell, waiting
for me between the columns were four
middle-aged women. One of them was
singing to herself in Spanish: “We have
a pope, Leo XIV. We love Leo!”
I soon learned I’d run into a group of
four friends — all from Southern California
— on a “girls trip” to Italy.
The women had quite a story to tell.
Months earlier, they had planned a
getaway to Italy to celebrate one of their
birthdays that included a weekly audience
with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s
Square. His death on April 21 changed
those plans.
They had gone to Rome hoping to see
one pope, but wound up witnessing the
election of another one.
After nearly 40 years of friendship,
something like this was bound to
happen. Two of them, Maria Lafarga
and Patricia Soto, were friends since
childhood in Mexico. Maria met the
other two, Gladys Heraldez and Martha
Torres, working as designers in the
garment industry after immigrating to
Southern California in the 1980s. The
four raised their kids together, with
plenty of baptisms, first Communions,
and graduations in between. They took
regular vacations to Mexico. One even
helped introduce another to her future
husband.
All these years later, the women found
themselves among the thousands
packed into St. Peter’s Square on May
7 waiting for hours into the evening
before the first smoke signal from the
14 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

Sistine Chapel after 9 p.m.
“It was black, but we were like, ‘OK,
we got to see black smoke,’ ” said Torres,
who lives in San Bernardino.
The next day, they woke up early to
visit the Colosseum. Then they returned
to St. Peter’s Square, where they
learned there had been more black
smoke in the morning. It was their
last day in Rome before heading to
Florence, and having no idea when the
conclave might finish, they decided to
get in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica.
Inside, the friends prayed in front of
the tomb of St. Pope John Paul II. They
visited the tombs of other popes in the
basilica’s crypt. Upstairs, they stopped
to pray as a Mass was being celebrated
behind Bernini’s baldachino.
Then they heard a “big noise.”
“We were just hearing people screaming,”
said Maria Lafarga, a parishioner
of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in
Chino, California.
Lafarga started recording with her
cellphone as the crowd inside began
walking — then running — toward the
entrance of the basilica. Murmurs of
“Papa!” and “Oh my God!” could be
heard.
They came out from under the immense
columns that form the façade of
St. Peter’s and looked up. White smoke.
“It was just magical,” said Lafarga a
few hours later. “People were screaming
that we have a new pope, and we see all
the faces. People were so happy!”
Another one of the friends, Gladys
Heraldez, said that when Pope Francis
had gotten seriously ill earlier that year,
she’d been praying that they’d still get
to see him on their trip. But once in
Rome, she had a different prayer.
“I’m not gonna lie, I was praying, I
was praying real hard that we’d get to
see a new pope,” Heraldez, who attends
St. Paul the Apostle Church in Chino
Hills, told me.
The women moved into St. Peter’s
Square, by then teeming with nervous
excitement. When Cardinal Dominique
Mamberti stepped onto the balcony
for the “Habemus Papam!” announcement,
Lafarga watched the face of
an American priest next to her turn
“bright” as Mamberti pronounced the
words “Robertus Franciscus” and the
name the new pope had taken. “Who’s
Leo? Who’s Leo?” the women frantically
asked.
“He’s an American, and he’s from
Chicago, and he’s the first American
White smoke billows from the chimney of
the Vatican's Sistine Chapel May 8, 2025. |
OSV NEWS/DYLAN MARTINEZ, REUTERS
pope!” a man nearby responded in
English.
Not only an American, but like them,
an American who spoke Spanish. They
got the chills as they listened to the new
pope address the world from the balcony
in both Italian and Spanish.
One year later, Lafarga describes the
experience as downright “mystical.”
“There is no way I could ever experience
something like that, ever,” Lafarga
told me in a phone interview (while on
another vacation with Soto, of course).
What does Lafarga think of Leo after
a year on the job? At a time when the
United States — and the Church —
seems as divided as ever, she sees signs
the College of Cardinals “elected the
right person.”
“As an American, he knows what we’re
going through,” said Lafarga. “I feel
confident that he’s guiding the Catholic
Church the right way, and he’s giving
the right message to people.”
I asked Lafarga if she ever wonders
how — or why — they were in the
right place at the right time to witness
history.
“It’s funny, because I am very spiritual,
but I have friends and family members
who are far more religious than me,”
said Lafarga. “So I don’t know what I
did to deserve that. I think God has his
ways to put us in the right place.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
The four friends in St. Peter’s Square
moments before Pope Leo XIV greeted the
world for the first time. | MARIA LAFARGA
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 15

A VISIT FROM THE MARTYRS
100 years after
the Cristero
War, its heroes
are still stirring
hope among local
Mexican Catholics.
STORY BY KIMMY CHACÓN /
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN RUEDA
The 36 relics of martyrs
from Mexico’s Cristero
War on display included
St. Toribio Romo, St. José
Sánchez del Río, and St. José
María Robles Hurtado.
For some of the people in the pews
at the Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Angels on April 18, the visit
of 36 relics belonging to martyrs from
Mexico’s Cristero War was about more
than history.
“My great-grandpa was there during
the Cristiada [war],” said Kathleen Orosco
from St. Mary of the Assumption
Church in Whittier.
Orosco’s grandfather, then a child, was
carried on horseback as federal soldiers
hunted Cristero fighters as a wave of
extreme anti-clericalism swept through
Mexico.
At one point, she said, his great-grandfather
set the boy [her grandpa] down
by a river to ride ahead and warn others
of approaching troops, helping them
escape.
The family has since visited their
hometown of Colotlán, Jalisco, where
reminders of the conflict remain. Orosco
recalled seeing bullet marks and
sites where martyrs were executed.
“It makes me emotional, knowing people
gave their lives for Christ,” she said.
Orosco and her family were among
the hundreds who turned out for a
one-day congress marking 100 years
since the beginning of the Cristero War
(1926-1929), in which thousands of
Catholics — many priests among them
— were executed during a popular
uprising against anti-clerical laws in
Mexico at the time.
The Saturday event featured talks by
expert historians on the war, a Mass celebrated
by Archbishop José H. Gomez,
and an afternoon panel discussion with
questions from participants.
For some, the day was a unique
opportunity to help their children see
Catholicism from another angle.
Maria, originally from Guadalajara,
said she grew up hearing stories of the
Cristeros from her grandmother.
“They were simple ranchers who
didn’t have much education, but they
had strong faith — and they died for it,”
she said. “I’ve always found that very
beautiful.”
Now attending St. Basil Church in
Koreatown, she said she hopes to pass
that faith on to her two sons, who were
there with her on Saturday.
“Even if they’re not always eager, I
want them to keep learning about our
faith, because I didn’t grow up knowing
much about mine,” she said.
The martyrs, she added, encourage
Catholics to have the courage to live
that faith openly.
“It’s about not being afraid to say, ‘This
is my religion, and to defend it,’ ” she
said. “It’s what has carried us through
every stage of life. If God hasn’t abandoned
me, then I shouldn’t stay silent
when it’s time to speak up.”
16 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

Perhaps the person at the cathedral
with the deepest connection to the martyrs
was local Catholic Jorge Cardenas
Magallanes.
“[St.] Cristóbal Magallanes was my
great-great-uncle, though I didn’t learn
that until I was older and became more
involved in my faith,” he said. “After
doing some research, I realized I’m his
great-great-grandnephew.”
His ancestor, he noted, stood apart
from many others during the conflict.
“He was one of the few who didn’t
want to take up arms,” Cardenas said.
“He believed the Church didn’t grow
through violence, and he urged people
to find a way to live in peace.”
Rather than supporting armed resistance,
he said, Magallanes encouraged
dialogue and reconciliation. At the end
of his life, Cardenas added, the Jesuit
priest was fleeing government forces
who were pursuing him and was killed.
Cardenas said the legacy of his ancestor
shapes how he lives today.
“I’m not fighting a war against the government,”
he said, “but I am fighting
to keep the morals and values of my
family as the head of my household.”
Cardenas said homeschooling his kids
has been one way his family lives out
those values, allowing him to teach his
kids “why we believe what we believe
— by going back to history and learning
the facts.”
During their talks, both visiting historians
spoke of the many hidden acts of
bravery by Mexican Catholics during
Jean Meyer, a leading expert on
Mexico’s Cristero War, was one of
the guest speakers during the oneday
congress at the LA cathedral.
the war — and the long path toward
popular awareness of the Cristero War.
Jean Meyer, M.Sc., an 84-year-old
French-Mexican historian considered
one of the world’s top experts on the
Cristero War period, recalled that a
tacit agreement between the Church
and the Mexican state meant that for
decades after the war, few Mexicans
knew the truth about the conflict.
“It was about religious peace,” Meyer
said. “There was an agreement that ‘we
don’t need to talk about it, silence and
mouths shut.’ ”
Meyer recalled how as a young
researcher in 1965, the archbishop
of Mexico City denied his request to
access the archdiocese’s archives for
research.
“I was scandalized at the time,” said
Meyer. “Now I would say: ‘prudence.’
The conflict was too recent, they didn’t
want to fan the coals and provoke
another conflict.”
“All these years later, it’s easy to
criticize bishops, those who took up
arms, those who didn’t take up arms,”
said Meyer. “But the truth is they lived
through a very difficult situation, an
enormous tragedy, in which everyone
tried to respond as best they could.”
Father Gustavo Castillo, pastor of St.
Joseph’s Church in Hawthorne, worked
with the Knights of Columbus and
fellow Mexican priest Father Miguel
Ángel Ruiz to organize the event. He
did so in large part because of that gap
in historical memory he grew up with.
“It wasn’t something we were taught,”
A woman prays in front of the 36
relics of the Mexican martyrs during
an event commemorating 100 years
since the Cristero War.
he said. “The government didn’t
include it, and many of us didn’t learn
about it until the martyrs were beatified
in 1992.”
“That’s when the stories from our
grandparents and great-grandparents
started to come out. That’s how we
began to learn more.”
One of the martyrs, St. José María Robles,
was the pastor at Castillo’s home
parish in Tecolotlán, Jalisco, for seven
years before he was martyred. Castillo
believes the history of his country’s
martyrs is relevant today, especially
given ongoing tensions over religious
freedom.
“We are having these conflicts right
now where they want to silence the
Church, where they want to silence the
pope from proclaiming the Gospel —
to have the freedom that the Church
needs to carry out its ministry and its
mission,” said Castillo.
But apart from social problems, Orosco
said the stories of the martyrs serve a
simpler purpose.
“It’s very inspiring and makes us want
to serve God and give our lives to him,”
she said. “It calls us to be saints and to
be more Christ-like.”
Kimmy Chacón is a freelance journalist
and graduate of the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism.
She lives in Los Angeles and works
in education.
Editor-in-Chief Pablo Kay contributed
to this story.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 17

A MAN WITH A VISION
Shy and unassuming,
Anderson Shaw
worked tirelessly to
build community
among LA’s Black
Catholics.
Anderson Shaw speaks at
the Black Ancestral Mass at
St. Odilia Church in South
LA Nov. 11, 2023. Shaw died
April 3, 2026, at the age 87,
less than three weeks after
a brain cancer diagnosis. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
BY PABLO KAY
When Anderson F. Shaw was
baptized in his early 20s at
Holy Name of Jesus Church
in the 1960s, Los Angeles was experiencing
something of a Black Catholic
boom.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, thousands
of Black and Creole families from
the South — especially from traditionally
Catholic pockets of Louisiana
— migrated to Southern California in
search of better lives. Bringing their
faith with them, they worshipped and
raised their families in parishes across
Greater Los Angeles.
But as demographics shifted again
over the following decades, the number
of majority African American parishes
in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles
shrank to a small handful, which today
include Holy Name Church in Jefferson
Park and nearby Transfiguration
Church in Leimert Park.
During changing times, no one did
as much to keep LA’s Black Catholics
together as Anderson Shaw.
“He was a stabilizing force,” said Deacon
Mark Race, who worked with Shaw
for decades. “He wasn’t a complainer.
He was just the type of person who
would get in there and say, ‘Look, this is
what we need to do.’ ”
Shaw, who since 2004 was the director
of the LA Archdiocese’s African American
Catholic Center for Evangelization
(AACCFE), died on April 3, Good
Friday, at the age of 87, less than three
weeks after being diagnosed with a rare,
aggressive form of brain cancer known
as glioblastoma.
Since his passing, friends and colleagues
have described Shaw as a
visionary who avoided the limelight.
But his efforts to build community
among African American Catholics
in the archdiocese, it seems, earned
him the trust and respect of just about
everybody.
The oldest of six siblings born to
a working-class family in rural
Mississippi in 1939, Shaw grew
up facing the poverty and racism typical
of the Jim Crow South. He didn’t grow
up Catholic — his father had been a
Southern Baptist minister — but his
mother made sure he was taught by
nuns at the nearby parochial school.
As a teenager, he excelled as a
drummer in his high school’s traveling
marching band, and was a standout in
18 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

its theater program. After graduating
from Woodbury College in Mississippi,
he followed his younger sister and
came to LA, where he took a job at the
UCLA Medical Center morgue, which
helped him enroll in a few more college
classes. He became an accountant,
the start of a path that led to a successful
30-year career at aerospace firm
TRW, where he quickly rose through
the ranks to become assistant controller.
At one point, he was the highest-ranking
African American in the company.
Shaw had “always wanted to be Catholic”
since being taught by those nuns,
his wife, Audrey, said. He started going
to Mass at Holy Name of Jesus, where
he met Msgr. Jerome “Jerry” Schmit.
The priest guided his conversion and
welcomed him into the Catholic
Church.
“It fitted my belief, my concept of
what I think God wanted us to do,” said
Shaw of his conversion in an interview
with Angelus in 2017. “The Catholic
Church had been around for over
1,000 years, while Southern Baptists
were here for only decades. So this has
to be where you need to be.”
Shaw and Audrey got involved in
parish life at Holy Name and later, St.
Bernadette Church. He served as a
youth minister. He studied liturgy. He
sent their kids to parochial school.
He may not have realized it at the
time, but those experiences were
preparing him for the day in 2004
when Cardinal Roger Mahony called
him to his office to ask if he’d take over
as director of the African American
Catholic Center for Evangelization.
“The center wasn’t well known back
then,” said
Race, who
accompanied
Shaw
downtown
for the fateful
meeting. “But
Andy’s mind
was always
next level.
There were
things he
wanted to do
where others
would say,
‘They’re never
Deacon Mark Race,
a longtime friend of
Shaw’s, holds up the
Book of the Gospels
during Mass at
the 2023 Black
Ancestral Mass at
St. Odilia. Knights of
Peter Claver stand
in the foreground. |
JOHN MCCOY
Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated Shaw’s
April 24 funeral Mass at St. Bernadette Church
in Baldwin Hills. More than a dozen priests
concelebrated. | PABLO KAY
going to let us do that.’ ”
But Shaw did them. He organized
events like the annual Martin Luther
King Prayer Breakfast, and worked with
groups like the Knights and Dames
of St. Peter Claver to put on Masses
celebrating November’s Black Catholic
History Month, including at the Cathedral
of Our Lady of the Angels.
“When Andy took over the [AAC-
CFE], the vision was there, but it was
being worked out,” said Race, who
served for years at Transfiguration and
now helps at St. Joseph Church in
Hawthorne. “But to be really honest,
Andy expanded it beyond just the
parish, and took those events to the
cathedral.”
Shaw also drew on his experience in
business management and musical
background to start the Sister Thea
Bowman Academy for young musicians,
and was instrumental in launching
Loyola Marymount University’s
Contemporary Black Catholic Spirituality
program.
“He was always asking: ‘What is the
plan? What are we going to do next?’ ”
said Race.
The tributes to Shaw at his
funeral, held April 24 at St.
Bernadette Church in Baldwin
Hills, described a man whose faith and
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 19

Father Gregory Chisholm,
SJ, former pastor of Holy
Name of Jesus Church in
Jefferson Park, preaches
at Shaw’s funeral Mass. |
PABLO KAY
unassuming personality made him hard
to dislike.
Arthur C. McFarland, the past
supreme knight and chief executive
officer of the Knights of Peter Claver,
the Black Catholic fraternal order to
which Shaw also belonged, recalled
a time when Shaw convinced him to
help with a fundraising mission that
he’d already declined.
“How can you say no to a person who
so positively impacted all of us?” said
McFarland. “Andy at his core was a
godly man.”
In his homily, close friend Father
Gregory Chisholm, SJ, compared
Shaw to a character from the Gospels:
Nathanael, the man in whom Jesus
Christ saw “a man with no guile.”
“A person without guile isn’t trying
to present themselves in a way tailored
for you to respect or expect,” said
Chisolm, who first met Anderson
and Audrey when he was assigned to
Holy Name Church in the late 1990s.
“Anderson was entirely comfortable
being the person he is. Being with
Andy, getting to know him, working
with him, was … an encouragement
for my soul.”
Besides the Knights of Peter Claver,
both Anderson and Audrey also
belonged to the Equestrian Order of
the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. A
decade ago, there were no Black members
from LA in the order. But as soon
as the Shaws joined, other knights said,
several more soon followed.
“His hands were just in
everything, but he did it
in a humble way,” said
Margie Romano, who
leads the order’s Western
Lieutenancy.
Greg and Sharon
Warner, who were close
to Shaw at St. Bernadette’s
and through the Knights
of Peter Claver, said Shaw
was a shy man but an
excellent speaker, despite
his reluctance.
“He never wanted to
speak [at events],” said
Greg. “He was just very
smart and would get up
there with no notes.”
Audrey said that one of
the proudest moments for
Shaw was a pilgrimage in 2018 to the
Holy Land and Italy that they organized
through the AACCFE. The couple
had expected a few dozen Black
Catholics from the archdiocese to
sign up. Instead, 60 came. During the
Rome portion of the trip, the pilgrims
even got the attention of Pope Francis
when they started singing Gospel
music in St. Peter’s Square.
“[That pilgrimage] was one of the
most exciting experiences of our lives,”
said Chisholm, who was the group’s
chaplain. “It was one of the most
ambitious and remarkable expressions
of Anderson’s purpose.”
Much of Shaw’s work over
the years was focused on
spreading awareness about
the contributions of Black Catholics.
Black Catholic pilgrims from LA in Jerusalem during a 2018 trip to the Holy Land
and Italy led by Anderson Shaw and his wife, Audrey. | AUDREY SHAW
In 2020, for example, he told Angelus
that he believed Black Catholic History
Month should be celebrated in all
parishes, not just ones where there are
Black people.
“The Catholic Church is still
struggling with its past, when most of
the [racial or ethnic] churches were
‘national’ churches like the Polish
Church here in Los Angeles that still
draws Poles from all over the archdiocese,”
Shaw told Angelus in 2017.
“And so I think that still exists in the
minds of some people about us Black
Catholics.”
Audrey said that in the years before
Shaw’s death, he was becoming
increasingly concerned about ways
the archdiocese could help unite all
Black Catholics of African descent in
the archdiocese — whether from the
Caribbean, South America, or Africa
— to overcome historical and cultural
divisions.
To that end, Shaw had organized two
appreciation events, gathering more
than 50 African priests serving across
the archdiocese in recent years.
“He had plans to do a lot more on
that project,” said Audrey. “He was passionate
about it.”
Whoever succeeds him at the AAC-
CFE, Race believes, will find that
Shaw did more than anyone realized.
“Andy left things in a situation where
you just could step right in, and you
don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” said
Race. “The calendar is set, the vision
is there.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
20 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

‘OUR CHURCH IS
A SAFER PLACE’
Churches across the LA Archdiocese
held Masses in honor of April’s
Abuse Prevention Month.
Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau offers the homily
during a Mass for Abuse Prevention Month at Our
Lady of Refuge Church in Long Beach on April 22.
STORY BY ANGELUS STAFF /
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARCHDIO-
CESE OF LOS ANGELES
Abuse Prevention Month resources sit
out at St. Bernadette Church in Baldwin
Hills during a healing Mass on April 22.
Parishes throughout the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles — including the five
with healing gardens dedicated to
those harmed by sexual abuse — hosted
Masses in April to commemorate Child
Abuse Prevention Month.
The healing gardens are located in each
of the archdiocese’s five pastoral regions:
St. Bernadette Church in Baldwin Hills
(Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region),
Our Lady of the Assumption Church in
Ventura (Santa Barbara Pastoral Region),
St. Francis de Sales Church in Sherman
Oaks (San Fernando Pastoral Region),
Our Lady of Refuge Church in Long
Beach (San Pedro Pastoral Region), and
St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care in
East LA (San Gabriel Pastoral Region).
In addition to local observances, Abuse
Prevention Month was recognized nationally
as well, with a national healing garden
inspired by the ones in LA planned to
open in Washington, D.C., in 2027.
The national garden’s opening would
correspond with the 25th anniversary of
the “Charter for the Protection of Children
and Young People” established by
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
in 2002.
“I want to thank each and every one of
you who have been fingerprinted and
background checked, who take your VIR-
TUS classes, maybe you do your monthly
bulletins like I do,” Heather Banis,
coordinator for the archdiocese’s Victims
Assistance Ministry, told parishioners at
St. Francis de Sales’ Mass on April 19. “I
want to thank you because that natural
expression of faith is making a difference.
“Our Church is a safer place because of
you.”
22 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026
Father Daniel Vega, associate pastor at Our Lady of
the Assumption Church in Ventura, prays with parishioners
at the parish’s healing garden on April 21.
Heather Banis,
coordinator for
the Archdiocese
of Los Angeles’
Victims Assistance
Ministry,
speaks during St.
Francis de Sales’
Mass on April 19.
Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes is interviewed
by media at the St. Camillus
Center for Pastoral Care’s healing
garden near East LA on April 28.

In defense of the
Mother’s Day blessing
BY ELISE URENECK
A group of women pose
outside the Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels in Los
Angeles following the annual
Mother’s Day Mass in 2025. |
VICTOR ALEMÁN
In what has become a hallmark of
the millennial experience, things
that were not controversial in our
childhood are now considered contentious
as we raise our own children: pronouns,
gifted and talented programs,
and first-place trophies, to name a few.
But in what would have been a surprise
to my own mother, Mother’s Day
has also become controversial.
For the past several years, it’s become
typical of major corporations to issue
their patrons warnings ahead of their
annual Mother’s Day marketing campaigns,
informing them through email
or social media that it is understandable
if they pause notifications or subscriptions
due to the “triggering” nature of
the promotions and discounts.
Whether it’s virtue signaling or
sincerely motivated, these companies
work overtime in this season to avoid
giving offense to women who desire to
be mothers but who are not, those who
do not wish to be mothers, and those
who do not have a relationship with
their mothers for a variety of reasons.
The Catholic world is not immune to
the trend. For millennial and Gen Z
women, it is now considered controversial
to give mothers blessings on
Mother’s Day.
I’d like to argue that it shouldn’t be.
Mother’s Day is annually celebrated
on the second Sunday of May in the
United States. For Catholics, it’s also a
day on which we are obligated to go to
church.
Typically, at the conclusion of that
particular Sunday Mass, the priest will
ask mothers in attendance to stand and
receive a special blessing, which asks
God to strengthen them, honor their
sacrifices, and thank them for the gift of
life and love. The prayer includes the
living and the dead.
In recent years, there has been a
movement, largely online, to ask priests
to limit or stop offering the blessing (or
at least the applause for moms) and, in
its stead, inform their congregations of
24 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

how painful it is for some women in
attendance to have to withstand it.
This movement is born out of a good
and holy desire to offer compassion
and solidarity to women who have an
unfulfilled desire for motherhood, such
as those experiencing infertility or who
are single but desire marriage.
The trouble, at least to me, is that it is
now often seen as the only acceptable
— nay, right and just — way to share in
their cross.
I empathize with the instinct. I have
written in these pages about the pain of
infertility and have tried to shed light
on the stories of women who silently
suffer the often unseen or unacknowledged
agony of being single longer
than they want to be. The populations
of both are growing at an exponential
rate.
As a woman who did not get married
until I was 34, I still remember sitting
in the pew each year while my peers
stood up for that blessing. The ache in
my heart was so strong that I experienced
physical pangs. And in the years
in which I attended Mass on Mother’s
Day with my terminally ill mom, my
suffering on that day only intensified.
These experiences are real, and
Catholics need to be attentive to them.
Statistically speaking, the average
Catholic parish will also have several
post-abortive women in Mass on
Mother’s Day, for whom that blessing
might induce sorrow or regret. It is
good for all of these women to know
that they are seen and unconditionally
loved, and Catholic churches should
make use of parishioners’ creativity and
charisms to address them in earnest.
But we still need to bless mothers on
Mother’s Day. We do not need a new
kind of mom guilt — one that insinuates
that a woman should feel shame
for being a mother, that her vocation is
tainted because not all share it.
I can’t help but wonder if the controversy
could be cleared up by explaining
what kind of blessing this is and what
it does.
The blessing does not signal that
mothers are more valuable than other
women. After all, it is not through
any merit of their own that they have
become mothers. It is only due to
God’s providence that any of us exist,
including our children.
A woman holds a young child and a
candle during the LA Archdiocese’s
Requiem Mass for the Unborn in
2025. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
Nor does the blessing confer some
special or sacred character on mothers.
Drawn from the Church’s “Book of
Blessings,” it is considered an invocative
blessing, simply asking God to
bring some temporal or spiritual good
to a mother. The Church has plenty of
these available to all men, women, and
children.
But mothers do need these kinds of
prayers. I can tell you from firsthand
experience.
Less than two months ago, I was
lying on an emergency room bed,
blood-soaked and hemorrhaging from
postpartum complications, the cause
of which was unclear. While radiologists
and surgeons debated what kind
of surgical intervention I needed, my
nurses kept coming into my room to
say that while they had never seen this
volume of blood loss, I was not yet at a
life-threatening stage because my body
was mysteriously producing sufficient
blood to replace it.
As I looked at my husband and infant
across the room, it wasn’t a mystery as
to why I was not yet in critical condition.
I knew I had people praying for
me.
And it was grace — perhaps from
Mother’s Day blessings of years past
— that gave me Christ’s peace and
the assurance that if I didn’t make it,
he would be with my husband and
children.
During this year’s Mother’s Day blessing,
I will be praying for mothers whose
husbands or sons are on naval ships or
military bases, who need this grace.
I will be praying for mothers in the
NICU or the emergency room, managing
the uncertainty of postpartum life,
who need this grace.
I will be praying for a friend who lost
her husband and two children in a car
accident this year, who needs this grace
to stay strong for her surviving child.
I will be praying for my deceased
mother and grandmothers who are in
need of grace for their heavenly arrival.
I will be praying for first-time mothers,
who do not know if they will ever sleep
again, for mothers who have experienced
divorce, for single mothers who
are managing the work of two adults,
for mothers who cannot feed, clothe,
or shelter their children — all of whom
need grace for timely help, as St. Paul
says.
And I will also be praying during Mass
on Mother’s Day for women who desire
children. I know that cross, even in
part.
But it will not be because I have
been shamed into it. Instead, I will
pray for them because if God made
any creatures capable of solidarity, it is
women. Whether we are mothers or
not, we have all been designed with the
capacity to make room for the other.
And that is, one might say, a real blessing
for us all.
Elise Ureneck is a regular Angelus
contributor writing from Rhode Island.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 25

AD REM
ROBERT BRENNAN
Spiritually spaced out
NASA astronaut and Artemis II commander Reid
Wiseman peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s
main cabin windows April 2, looking back at Earth
as the crew travels toward the Moon. | OSV NEWS/
NASA HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
We have gone back to the
moon.
To be more exact, we went
back and circled the moon. But in
the process, the crew of the Artemis
II spacecraft became the first humans
to ever travel this far away from Earth.
This dry run for future lunar missions
had a glitch or two — a broken toilet
and a mysterious smell like burning
wires — but all was well. With its
successful splashdown off the coast of
San Diego, we entered a new phase of
lunar exploration.
I was a little disappointed that this
achievement did not inspire as much
enthusiasm among the general public
as it did in me. There was news coverage,
but not so much that it interfered
with whatever TMZ was presenting.
I am just a product of my era, when
we used to get up in the morning,
gather around our big black-and-white
TV, and watch rockets blast off in the
Mercury and Gemini programs.
By the time the Apollo program
came around, we had a color TV,
but the thrill and sense of being part
of something momentous were the
same. Those launches were events
and kids like me, who were hooked on
the romance of the thing and ignorant
of the inherent risk, could rattle
off the names of the astronaut crews
of every mission in numerical order.
They were like sports stars to us.
26 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

Robert Brennan writes from Los Angeles, where
he has worked in the entertainment industry,
Catholic journalism, and the nonprofit sector.
But there was then, and apparently
continues to be, more to space travel
than just firing up the imaginations
of children and instilling a sense of
nostalgia in those who have grown
up and become more jaded about
everything above and below the stratosphere.
During the Apollo 8 mission, which
was the first time human beings
had flown over the moon, astronaut
Frank Borman read from the Book of
Genesis. I remember it ruffled some
feathers and people were outraged
that a government employee on government
time had “inserted” religion
into what some considered a strictly
secular activity.
But what the Apollo program suggested,
and what the Artemis program
seems to confirm, is that there is a
deep spiritual component to space
travel. It ignites something deep down
in the soul, looking through a tiny
space capsule window at their home
planet more than 200,000 miles away.
The commander of the Artemis II
mission, Reid Wiseman, is a self-identified
“non-religious” man. But upon
returning to Earth, he requested to see
a Navy chaplain. By Wiseman’s own
account, when the chaplain entered
his room where he was undergoing
post-flight medical checkups, he saw
the cross and broke down in tears.
The pilot of the Artemis II spacecraft
was Victor Glover, a self-identified religious
person who afterward said he,
too, was deeply touched by being in
the emptiness of space but not feeling
alone or desolate.
“When I read the Bible and I look
at all of the amazing things that were
done for us who were created, we’re
in a spaceship really far from Earth,
but you’re on a spaceship called Earth
that was created to give us a place to
live in the universe, in the cosmos,”
said Glover in a post-flight interview.
The three men and one woman crew
of Artemis II were not sent up into
low moon orbit to be missionaries.
Yet, just like their predecessors in the
Apollo program, hurtling through
the emptiness of space that is punctuated
by the sun’s light shining on
their home planet and shining on that
planet’s satellite that keeps its tides in
order and modulates the rotation of
the Earth in a manner that makes life
possible, they are touched in ways no
science textbook could ever prepare
them for.
This new era of exploration, just like
the eras of exploration that preceded
it, reinforces our faith through science
rather than despite it. And the awe
and wonder of the astronauts is not
like pagan predecessors who, seeing
the sun and the moon in the sky, ascribed
superstitious and non-scientific
powers to these celestial bodies. The
spiritual depths modern space travel
seems to plumb from these same
marvels is a blend of scientific knowledge
and inquiry coupled with man’s
longing for meaning and finding.
The Artemis II flight will be followed
by Artemis III next year, which will
“test drive” the lunar lander that will
make it possible for the first human
feet on the moon since the early
1970s. Then, if all goes as planned,
Artemis IV will make that landing.
And no doubt, when those humans
standing on the lunar surface look up
and see the Earth over 200,000 miles
away, they will not be thinking of orbit
trajectories and fuel consumption
calculations — they will be thinking
what a glorious universe God has
created.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 27

RISE OF THE
GRIFTERS
As influencers bring
conspiracy theories into
the mainstream, should we
engage or ignore them?
BY MAGGIE PHILLIPS
Candace Owens speaks at
CPAC in Washington, D.C., in
2023. | SHUTTERSTOCK
There is a phrase that people on
X (formerly Twitter) use with
each other: “Twitter is not real
life.” They use it to remind one another
that controversies on the site do not
preoccupy the vast majority of people,
who are not on X.
My gut tells me this applies to other
online platforms. As a test: Do these recent
internet controversies ring a bell?
Hasan Piker saying it’s OK to shoplift
sometimes as a treat; Candace Owens
thinking there’s something nefarious
going on with Erika Kirk; Conservative
commentator Brett Cooper saying
Nick Fuentes and “Sneako” have aura,
but “Clavicular” does not.
Nearly every person mentioned above
has been the subject of lengthy media
profiles and think pieces. Many of
them were critical, with much being
made among media types about the
way popular online personalities sow
moral confusion.
As people take more interest in Christianity
online, especially Catholicism,
there is rising concern about influencers
who cash in with religious content
that is either untrue or is simply bait
designed to drive engagement. The
fact that conspiratorial thinking has
begun entering the mainstream should
also concern Catholics, because until
relatively recently in American history,
they were a favorite subject of paranoid
theorizing.
When the stakes are this high, how
are people of goodwill supposed to
uphold truth and clarity? At risk of
sounding too Pollyannish, I think when
it comes to influencers, we might be
caught in a bit of a feedback loop verging
on moral panic. The best defense
may be politely changing the subject.
Look at Candace Owens’ YouTube
show, with nearly 6 million subscribers.
By some measures, her show averages
3 million downloads and views
a month. Owens peddles celebrity
gossip about everyone from French
First Lady Brigitte Macron to actress
Blake Lively. More seriously and most
troublingly, she has spun labyrinthine
theories about Charlie Kirk’s murder
that implicate not only Kirk’s own
wife, but 17th-century Jewish mystics
and defunct heretical sects, referring
to them collectively as “the Church of
Satan.”
Similar language often crops up
among online antisemites, the alleged
arsonist of a Mississippi synagogue
being a recent high-profile example.
Owens’ obsession with painting the
Talmud and Judaism in a sinister light
is part of a trend of rising antisemitism
in the United States and online.
But to get out in front of conspiratorial
claims, you have to first familiarize
non-podcast “normies” with them
while a) holding their attention and b)
not sounding insane (good luck).
28 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

And there are a lot of normies. In
a nation of 330 million, only about
70 million of us listen to podcasts or
watch them on YouTube. That’s just
over 20% of Americans. Realistically,
how many are closely engaging with
the content they consume? If ninjas
broke into my house right now and
asked me to summarize the top five
points of the last podcast episode I
listened to, I could not. I suspect I’m
not alone in this.
Some Catholics may know Owens
from her stint on The Daily Wire,
and they may have heard about her
high-profile conversion to Catholicism.
She has made common cause
with another public Catholic convert,
Carrie Prejean Boller, who was recently
removed from President Trump’s
Religious Liberty Commission for
“hijacking” a televised commission
panel. Boller, who has been Catholic
for about five minutes, mischaracterized
Catholic teachings about Zionism
and has publicly beseeched prominent
bishops to defend her.
These women’s public witness can
and should invite scrutiny, but critics
who find their views alarming should
also recognize that controversy is their
brand. To try to beat them at their own
game is to have already lost. British
journalist Mary Harrington recently
argued in UnHerd that influencers
who traffic in conspiracy theory and
“perpetual critique” are not actually
interested in truth. They want engagement.
“Victory is not the goal,” Harring-
ton writes, “Nor is building anything
that follows from it. Resolution holds
little appeal; the process of searching
sustains the audience.”
Discourse around leftist Twitch
streamer Hasan Piker (approximately
3 million followers) has dominated my
X feed for what feels like weeks. Like
Owens, he has also made incendiary
comments about Israel and Jews and
he has been the subject of both positive
and negative media profiles for at
least the past year.
But I’m not sure either Piker or Owens
merit the full extent of the sturm
und drang. A recent poll found that
60% of registered voters haven’t even
heard of Piker. Twenty-seven percent
of verified voters said they had never
heard of Owens — and among those
who do know who she is, almost twice
as many have an unfavorable versus a
favorable view of her.
Speaking out against lies and hateful
speech can be a moral imperative,
but in the attention economy, public
handwringing about a controversial
streamer or YouTuber only raises their
profile and incentivizes more outrageous
behavior and rhetoric on their
part. Attention from serious people
risks legitimizing provocateurs as it
reinforces their brand image as bold
truth-tellers who freak out the Establishment.
Keeping quiet doesn’t necessarily
equal moral cowardice: Steadfast
refusal to engage with objectionable
Hasan Piker speaks to the crowd at the 2022 March
For Our Lives rally in Los Angeles. | SHUTTERSTOCK
ideas can also signal social unacceptability.
Since engagement only provides
more grist for their prolific content
mills, what would happen if we let
the online enfants terribles simply
tire themselves out? It may be more
productive than attempting to win an
argument with someone whose profit
model is provocation-as-entertainment.
We’ve all heard that the only thing
necessary for evil to prevail is for good
men to do nothing. But in this case, a
little benign neglect might not be such
a bad thing. The mental energy we
spend worrying about insidious grifters
corrupting the young might be better
spent figuring out how to make youth
sports more accessible, or reversing
Americans’ declining volunteerism.
It could work: Dallas banned cellphones
during the school day and kids
started checking out library books. The
influencersphere only hurts us if we let
it. So don’t let it.
Maggie Phillips writes about religion
and culture. She’s a contributor at Tablet,
Arc Magazine, and Word on Fire.

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
Still a saint to me
For a dozen years, I’ve written a monthly essay for
Magnificat Magazine called “Credible Witnesses.”
The subjects are notable Catholics who have died and
whose cause may have been opened, but who have not yet
been — and may never be — declared a saint.
That’s how, in 2014, I came across Father Walter Ciszek,
SJ (1904-1984). Born to a large Polish Catholic family in the
mining town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, as a youth he
headed up a street gang and proved so incorrigible that his
father once went to the police and asked them to put him in
reform school.
Instead, young Ciszek developed a private, secret desire to
become a Jesuit priest. He studied in Rome, was ordained
in 1937 and, despite the dangers, felt a passionate call to go
to Russia. After working in a lumber camp for a year, he was
arrested on trumped-up charges of being a Vatican spy and
sent to the notorious Lubianka Prison.
He spent five years there, mostly in solitary confinement.
In “He Leadeth Me” (Image, $18), a spiritual classic, he
wrote of praying that the Holy Spirit would provide a clever
retort to put his interrogators smartly in their place. Instead,
in one particularly grueling session, he finally signed a false
confession.
Back in his cell, he was devastated. He, who had prided
himself on his strength, had been broken. For all his prayer
and self-discipline, he saw he had still been relying largely
on himself. The episode was a “purgatory” that left him
“cleansed to the bone” and marked a turning point after
which he abandoned himself completely to God’s will.
He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor at a Siberian
work camp and from the start, was determined to do the best
job he could, every day, every minute.
He was also overjoyed to find that bread and wine for Mass
were smuggled in by friendly priests, nurses, and friends.
The barracks were lousy with snitches, so he and his fellow
believers secretly celebrated the holy sacrifice at the work
site on break.
“[T]hese men would actually fast all day long and do exhausting
physical labor without a bite to eat since dinner the
evening before, just to be able to receive the Holy Eucharist
— that was how much the Sacrament meant to them in this
otherwise God-forsaken place.”
“We said Mass in drafty storage shacks, or huddled in mud
and slush in the corner of a building site foundation … there
were no altars, candles, bells, flowers, music, snow-white
linens, stained glass, or the warmth that even the simplest
Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek, a Pennsylvania-born missionary to the Soviet
Union who died in 1984, in an undated file photo. | OSV NEWS/A.D. TIMES
parish church could offer. Yet in these primitive conditions,
the Mass brought you closer to God than anyone might
conceivably imagine.”
Released from Siberia in 1955, he worked in Russia as an
auto mechanic and served as village priest. In 1963 he was
exchanged for two Soviet spies and, after 23 years, Ciszek
came home. The twinkle in his blue eyes was intact, but the
years had taken their toll. “In many ways,” he noted, “I am
almost a stranger.”
Father Ciszek’s story moved me more than I can say, and
30 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

Heather King (heather-king.com) writes memoirs, leads workshops,
and posts on Substack at “Desire Lines: Books, Culture, Art.”
I was thrilled to learn that his cause for canonization had
been formally opened in March 2012, granting him the title
“Servant of God.”
I’d learned over the years of the near-fanatic fervor of those
who are promoting a particular cause. I’d snickered a bit at
such people. Now I totally understood.
I bought a sheaf of Father Ciszek prayer cards.
I prayed for his intercession daily.
I told anyone who would listen about “He Leadeth Me.”
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I chanced upon a headline
and my heart stopped. “Father Walter Ciszek’s cause for
canonization terminated.”
Terminated! Give me a break! If Father Ciszek wasn’t a
saint, who was?
The Vatican had given no reason — apparently, they don’t
have to. Instead, the Servant of God title would drop. Father
Ciszek would go back to being Father Ciszek.
It was as if there’d been a death in the family.
Part of my morning routine is praying the Litany of Humility,
a practice often tinged by bitter laughter.
“O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
deliver me from the desire to be loved,
esteemed, extolled, preferred, exalted…”
Right. That’ll be the day. Nevertheless,
something to shoot for, I figure.
Still smarting over Father Ciszek’s
“termination,” the next morning I read,
“Deliver me from the fear of not being
consulted,” and thought, “Exactly!”
Why had no one consulted ME, one of
1.4 billion living Catholics? Why had
no one sought MY vote?
The second part of the Litany of Humility
runs: “That others may be loved
more than I.” “That, in the opinion of
the world, others may increase and I
may decrease.” “That others may be
chosen and I set aside.”
For no good reason, my heart suddenly
softened. No one, I realized, would
have prayed the Litany more fervently
than Father Ciszek.
Maybe, it came to me, he had voluntarily
stayed behind to accompany
those of us who also long to be saints
but will probably never quite make it.
“That others may become holier than
I, provided that I may become as holy
as I should.”
A copy of “He Leadeth Me” by
Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek. |
OSV NEWS/MEGAN MARLEY
“Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.”
It will all be made clear, and right, one day in heaven.
In the meantime, know this, dear Father Ciszek. You are a
saint to me.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 31

LETTER AND SPIRIT
SCOTT HAHN
Scott Hahn is founder of the
St. Paul Center for Biblical
Theology; stpaulcenter.com.
Pentecost as transformation
Most Christians instinctively
treat Easter as the climax of
the liturgical year. It is the
feast of feasts, the celebration of Christ’s
victory over death. But the Scriptures
themselves suggest that Easter is not an
endpoint so much as a beginning —
an opening toward something still to
come.
To see this, we have to recover a
more ancient, more biblical sense of
the relationship between Passover and
Pentecost.
In the Old Testament, Passover marks
Israel’s liberation from Egypt. It is the
night of deliverance, when the blood
of the lamb preserves the people from
destruction and sets them on the road
to freedom. But the story does not end
at the Red Sea. Liberation is not the
goal in itself. Israel is freed for something
greater: the covenant at Sinai.
Fifty days after Passover, at Pentecost,
the people receive the Law.
Their freedom is given form,
direction, and purpose. They
are not merely released from
bondage; they are constituted
as a people.
The New Testament
follows the same pattern, but
with a startling deepening.
Christ is our Passover. By
his death and resurrection,
he delivers us from sin and
death. The early Christians
knew this so well that, in
most languages, the word
for Easter is simply the word
for Passover: Pascha. The
connection is not poetic;
it’s structural. The cross and
Resurrection are the new
Exodus.
But again, the story does
not end there.
In the Gospel of John, especially in
the Farewell Discourse, Jesus speaks
insistently of what comes next. He tells
his disciples that it is “better” for them
that he go away, because only then will
the Advocate come. This is a puzzling
claim if we think of Easter as the
culmination of everything. How could
anything be better than the visible
presence of the risen Christ?
The answer lies in Pentecost.
Fifty days after the Resurrection, the
Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples.
What Sinai was to Israel, Pentecost is to
the Church. The Law is no longer written
on tablets of stone but on human
hearts. The disciples, once fearful and
uncertain, are transformed into bold
witnesses. They are not simply forgiven;
they are recreated. They become, in a
real sense, the Body of Christ, animated
by his own Spirit.
Seen in this way, the liturgical season
from Easter to Pentecost takes on a
new urgency. It’s not a gradual winding
down after the high point of Easter
Sunday. It’s a time of expectation. The
Church, in its ancient practice of mystagogy,
understood this well. The newly
baptized were instructed more deeply
in the mysteries they had received, as if
retracing the steps of the apostles during
those 40 days when the risen Christ
spoke to them of the kingdom.
We are invited to do the same. Easter
has happened. The victory is won. But
the gift is not yet complete — not until
it is fully realized in us.
If Passover is liberation, Pentecost
is transformation. And the Christian
life unfolds in the tension — and the
promise — between the two.
“Pentecost,” Italian (Florentine) School, Walker Art
Gallery collection. | WIKMEDIA COMMONS
32 • ANGELUS • May 15, 2026

■ FRIDAY, MAY 8
Noah’s Flood, presented by LaOpera Connects. Cathedral
of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles,
7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 9, 3:30 p.m. Tickets required. Visit
olacathedral.org.
■ SATURDAY, MAY 9
Spring Silent Saturday. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai
Rd., Encino, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. With Sister Chris Machado,
SSS, and the Silent Saturday CP Team. Visit hsrcenter.com
or call 818-784-4515.
Mother’s Day Rosary Prayer Service. All Catholic Cemeteries
& Mortuaries locations, 2 p.m. Also available online at
catholiccm.org or facebook.com/lacatholics.
■ TUESDAY, MAY 12
Memorial Mass. San Fernando Mission, 15151 San Fernando
Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 11 a.m. Mass is open to the
public. Limited seating. RSVP to outreach@catholiccm.org
or call 213-637-7810. Livestream available at CathoicCM.
org or Facebook.com/lacatholics.
■ WEDNESDAY, MAY 13
Organ Concert Series: Gary Desmond. Cathedral of Our
Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 1 p.m.
Visit olacathedral.org.
■ THURSDAY, MAY 14
St. Padre Pio Mass. St. Anne Church, 340 10th St., Seal
Beach, 1 p.m. Celebrant: Father Al Baca. For more information,
call 562-537-4526.
■ SATURDAY, MAY 16
Methodology: Adult Learning — Multiples Intelligences
— Learning Styles. San Fernando Pastoral Region, 15101
San Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Breaks and lunch time included. Prof. Kay Harter. Cost: $50/
person. Visit lacatholics.org/ongoing-formation-opportunities.
Santacruzan Marian Celebration. Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 9 a.m. pre-procession,
10 a.m. Mass. Call 818-437-1406.
■ SATURDAY, MAY 23
"Scripture, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Christian
Life": Catholic Bible Institute Talk Series. Zoom, 7-8:30
p.m. Presenter: Anathea Portier-Young, Ph.D., associate
professor of Old Testament at Duke University. She explores
the USCCB’s Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching.
Visit lacatholics.org/events.
Pentecost Vigil. St. John the Baptist Church, 3883 Baldwin
Park Blvd., Baldwin Park, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Inspired
teachings, healing prayer, and vigil Mass with Father Ismael
Robles. Free event. Visit events.scrc.org.
■ MONDAY, MAY 25
Memorial Day Mass. All Catholic Cemeteries & Mortuaries
locations, 10 a.m. Also available online at catholiccm.org or
facebook.com/lacatholics. Archbishop José H. Gomez will
preside at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills.
Cultural Diversity in the Church — Intercultural Competencies
Online — Asynchronous. The online course
runs weekly from May 25 to June 22. Participants will be
exposed to the “recognition of cultural diversity” that points
to the profound demographic transformation taking place in
the U.S. and in the Church. Cost: $50/person. Visit lacatholics.org/events.
■ FRIDAY, MAY 29
Notre Dame School Centennial Mass and Gala. Our Lady
of Sorrows Church, 21 E. Sola St., Santa Barbara, 5 p.m.
Celebrant: Bishop Slawomir Szkredka. The gala will be held
at Notre Dame Auditorium, 33 E. Micheltorena St., Santa
Barbara, 6:30 p.m. Dinner, dancing, auctions, dignitaries,
and guest presenters. The gala will honor Mr. and Mrs.
Nick Weber. Early bird tickets open March 1. RSVP at
notredamesb.org.
■ SATURDAY, MAY 30
Unplug, Pause, Reset: A Women’s Wellness Retreat Day
Fundraiser for HSRC. Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316
Lanai Rd., Encino, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Coordinated by Luella
Wagner. Visit hsrcenter.com or call 818-784-4515.
■ SUNDAY, MAY 31
Circle of Hope: HFS Adoption and Foster Care Annual
Fundraiser. Shakespeare Club, 171 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena,
4-10 p.m. Evening includes reception, dinner, program,
and live auction. Visit hfs.org for more information.
■ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3
Organ Concert Series: Dr. Michael Szostak. Cathedral of
Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, 1
p.m. Visit olacathedral.org.
Solemn Vespers. Our Mother of Good Counsel Church,
2060 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, 7 p.m. OMGC will
hold Solemn Vespers and Benediction services with choir
and organ, chants, hymns, psalms, and canticles, on the
first Wednesday of each month. Call 323-664-2111 or visit
omgcla.org.
■ THURSDAY, JUNE 4
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 Kay Raylon at 818-621-7514
or email kayrd1031@gmail.com.
■ SATURDAY, JUNE 6
Marriage Preparation Session. St. Maximilian Kolbe
Church, 5801 Kanan Rd., Westlake Village, 8:45 a.m.-5 p.m.
Engaged couples and those already in a civil union are welcome
to attend. All sessions require in-person attendance
of both bride and groom for the full eight-hour session.
Cost: $150/couple. Visit familylife.lacatholics.org.
Bereavement Summit. St. Bruno Church, 15740 Citrustree
Rd., Whittier, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Open to bereavement ministers,
those interested in accompanying or who work with the
grieving. Topics include: Catholic Church teachings on
death and burial, mandated reporting and VIRTUS training,
funeral liturgical rites, end-of-life issues, pre-planning,
mortuary and cemetery, Spanish-speaking track, and more.
Cost: $75/person, includes all materials, supplies, resources,
continental breakfast, snacks, and lunch. Register to
bereavement.ministry@yahoo.com with name and phone
number by May 19. Payment made through Zelle to 562-
631-8844.
Free Citizenship Workshop for Permanent Residents.
Our Lady of Grace Church, 5011 White Oak Ave., Encino,
9 a.m.-1 p.m. Includes free application preparation and
form completion, and free citizenship classes. Call Our
Lady of Grace Church at 818-342-3686 or email BeACitizenNow@gmail.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.
May 15, 2026 • ANGELUS • 33