Duty to pray for the dead - visit to Genzano

Even though I have four courses to teach this semester, and these take a lion's share of my time, I've decided that I'm going to do what I can and then relax. Today I went with a group of professors to visit the "holy ground" (campo santo - cemetery) in the hill town of Genzano outside Rome. Over 30 deceased members from our university community are buried. My schoolmate from theology, Mario Toso, recently named archbishop for the Pontifical Commission of Peace and Justice, presided at the Eucharist and gave the homily (Italian cemeteries usually have a chapel on the grounds, and it is very common that people gather there for masses on the anniversary of the death of their loved ones, and in particular during the month of November). The liturgy was simple and heartfelt and quite moving really.

Following the mass, we went to the actual mausoleum where the Salesians are buried. There we were led in a prayer for our brothers and a blessing of their resting place. We then spent some time visiting tombs of some of the family members of Salesians. A group of townspeople joined us, as with 40 priests in albs and purple stoles, we could not be missed.

From the campo santo, we went down the road and into the heart of the town where we stopped on via Fratelli Cervi 33, at Ristorante Pizzeria Bernoni, owned by a Salesian past pupil from Genzano. There we gathered for a meal together and to enjoy the company of one another. The organizers of the day called this a merenda (a light snack), but it had all the makings of a dinner of appetizers, with prosciutto, salami, roasted zucchini and egg plant, mortadella, chestnuts (traditional for All Souls Day and commemorations in November) and two incredible wines from the Roman hills.

Professors and University Staff enjoy All Souls Day Merenda

Another banquet feature were the words of welcome at the beginning from the organizers and the restaurant owner, who told of his boyhood days with the Salesians in Genzano and how he and his school mates used to celebrate All Souls Day with a hike to the cemetery and a meal of cold cuts and chestnuts. At the end there were words of thanks by the provinical superior and the applause of allthe participants. In fact, we were gathered from five different communities of professors and student-priests and normally we do not have a lot of community time together. So this was a great moment of fellowship.

Rains begin on All Souls Day

They told me that there was rain before my arrival last week, but since I set foot in Rome, the skies have been a limpid blue, the air very fresh and at times icy, the sun bright. Today, however, there was a big change in the weather. The skies remained dark all morning, and by early afternoon we were treated to a storm. The rain continued to pour for the rest of the day, until well after nightfall.

This is All Souls Day. The day is observed with great seriousness each year, and at the University all the communities came together to pray for the dead in the evening at 19.15.

The prayer service consisted in a reading from Sacred Scripture and from the Constitutions of the Salesian Society, followed by a decade of the rosary with the Glorious Mysteries. A powerpoint gave the words for a hymn, and then with each Ave Maria, there was a slide with a photograph of a Salesian of the university who had died, beginning with don Ugo Gallizia, who died on 5 September 1963 while preparing to defend his doctoral thesis. He was to head up the Latin School at the UPS, but died before the university buildings were completed. After don Ugo, the names were presented one at a time, moving forward in time. This was repeated for each decade: Scripture, Constitutions, Hymn, decade of the rosary with the photographs of the deceased.

The first one that I knew was Signor Francesco Milani (†10 September 1991). His name came with the second Ave of the third decade. The Salesian from the first Ave of that decade — Bernardus Van Hagens — died on 25 September 1990 and was buried the day that I arrived as a graduate student in Rome, 27 September 1990.

When I was young, these All Souls Day prayer services, even back in my parish at Savio in Bellflower, were poignant, but more a curiousity for me. Now that I know 34 Salesians of this university who have died and whose photos I saw presented as we prayed… well, it takes on a more personal tone. And of course I thought of the Salesians of my own province, all of whom I know either from personal contact since I was 4 years old, or from the stories told to me by my teachers and pastors during my boyhood years. I pictured them as well as my deceased family members and friends in my mind as the university community prayed and sang tonight.

Sigh. But if we have all of November to remember those who have died, tonight's service was a beatiful motivator to do just that.

Don Bosco coming to California in 2010

The committee for the pilgrimage of Don Bosco's relics to California is now up and running… well, maybe not running. Today I met with Frank Lavin and Al Baccari at Capurro's Restaurant at Fisherman's Warf. It was a dinner meeting, and quite productive. We have now a general outline of what can take place in California. We need a similar committee in Los Angeles, and we will get one going.

Details of what arrival and departure dates are about all we have at this point. The relics will be delivered to us on Saturday, 11 September 2010; we must make sure that they are delivered to the New Rochelle province on Sunday, 19 September 2010. At this point there would be a lot to say, but I just put down in point-form what we discussed today at noon.

A view of the kitchen of the Bosco family home at the Becchi (Castelnuovo Don Bosco) dressed up as it would have appeared during Don Bosco's boyhood (Photo by Teresio Chiesa, Elledici, Leumann-Torino)

Goals:

1. Evangelization, Catholic faith: gospel, family, justice, especially for God’s “little people.”
2. Acquaint all Christians with Don Bosco
3. Celebrate the last 150 yrs.; look towards the next 150 yrs.
4. Vocations

• extend an invitation to all SF Arch pastors
• invite religious congregations
• invite other Christians, and non-Christians
• invite local civic officials
• promote education
• story-telling- the Salesian story
• build a festival around it
• SSPP ground zero
• vocations
• selling Catholicism
• sports, arts, academia, history to be celebrated
• Kevin Starr
• demonstrate the Salesian movement within the church, especially as it applies towards families and young people
• we need an extraordinary writing team
• educators
• Salesian speakers
• civilian (laity) committee as well as Salesian religious committee needs to be formed
• same structure for LA
• make it a civic event
• relic as a rallying point
• answer- “How did he become a saint,” What was his relationship w/the Lord nad how did it get manifested in his life?”
• evangelization and education
• university radio: life of DB; Arthur Lenti interview
• Catholic SF paper, Italian Hour Radio and secular press
• what is a relic and why do we venerate it?
• church bulletins- DB Story as a Man of Action
• adoration before arrival; tied to the Eucharist.
• Blessed Mother sodalities- rosaries prayed
• Joe Lockwood, SDB, will be LA point man

Guwahati

Arrived in Guwahati today with the provincial Fr Joe Almeida and the provincial secretary and the director of the new Don Bosco University. The trip took four hours from Shillong.

Guwahati is very different from Shillong. I am told it is an ancient city and the gateway to Northeast India, but its downtown has a contemporary business feel. The racial makeup is decidedly more mixed than Shillong, with more people from south India and Bangladesh than what I saw in Shillong. Then again, Guwahati has a population of 1.5 million and hosts the capital of the newer state of Assam, which is more industrialized than the state of Meghalaya.

It is also much warmer and more humid.

I visited three Salesian centers today in addition to the provincial house: the Tepesia Tea Gardens that are the site of the new Don Bosco University at Guwahati; Snehalaya (a recovering project and home for street children) with the founder and director Fr Lukose Cheruvalei; Don Bosco Institute, on the banks of the mighty and majesty Brahmaputra River where I met the director Fr V. M. Thomas and my own community companion from Don Rua Rome 1990, Fr Francis Fernandez.

Some of the boys of Snehalaya

Each of these works is radically forward looking and prophetic. I am deeply impressed by the initiative of the Salesians and the spirit among the young people that I met in the various centers… but then that has been my feeling in every place of this province that I have visited.

On the Road to Shillong

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise…

Oh, you know that little proverb popularized by Benjamin Frankin and Poor Richard, do you? Yes, well I don't know about wealth or wisdom, but I severely doubt that getting up so early helps ones health. Here we are at the eastern edge of the Indian time zone and so the sun rises at 4.10 am. We were up before then. Anthony Valluran decided last night that we should celebrate mass at 5.00 am and get an early start. I could barely believe it, but everyone got up. The young people from the girls boarding and the boys boarding joined the Salesians for prayers and Eucharist, as they did yesterday. But it was all an hour earlier. Yesterday I merely concelebrated; today I was main celebrant. How do you preach at 5.00 in the morning? What is astounding to me is that all the young people prayed with us and knew all the responses for the mass, even though more than half are Hindus and Moslems.

"There is no hesitation to join in prayer here", Anthony pointed out to me. "India's tribal people are all very religious. The conflict between Hindus and Catholics, or between Moslems and Christians -- or even among the different Christian churches is something dreamed up by the politicians. The people overwhelmingly accept one another".

By 7:00 we had said goodbye to all the young people and to the Salesian staff of Don Bosco Conference Centre. We were on the road north to Shillong.

Don Bosco Centre in Silchar - a decade of efforts for the poor.

Now in Silchar, I need to say something about this center.

Anthony Valluran is the founder of this school and center. It is amazing really to see all he has done. I will post some photos and try to describe the work with them. This will make it easier.

In the year 2000 this area was nothing but swamp and field. The Salesians were interested in developing a presence for youth here for several reasons. One is that they had become aware that Silchar and the villages surround it were beginning to grow, thanks to an influx of immigrants from Bangladesh. Secondly, the province of Guwahati had outposts with missions in Misoram state and in Tripura and in the hills of Meghalaya, but these were very distant from one another. Silchar was between them. Having centers there could help the communication and travel between the mission stations and Salesian schools.

For this reason, Anthony Valluran, who had been instrumental in developing the Salesian works in Misoram, was asked to set up some new presence in the area of Silchar.

The work that Anthony developed is quite complex, as I hinted yesterday: a center for training teachers that can also serve as a retreat and conference center; a trade-training center for young men and for young women, specializing in the kinds of trades that are both needed and marketable; a school for local children that begins with elementary and continues into secondary; a boarding or youth hostel for young men (ages 17 to 22); a boarding or youth hostel for young women (ages 18 to 22). Both hostels cater to youth who come to learn trades, or English, or both. There are plans to transform the main building of the center to include accommodations for young teachers in the very near future.

Don Bosco School

Don Bosco School

Don Bosco School (or St John's School) begins with the primary grades and continue until grade 10, which is the last year of mandatory schooling according to Indian law. In the near future the Salesians plan to expand to include grades 11 and 12, which are a pre-university type of structure and, in many places, can stand alone. Years 11 and 12 do not receive the full government funding that years 1-10 do, and until now, very few in the area of Silchar ever dreamt of university education for their children. Don Bosco School is changing all that.

Inner patio of Don Bosco School, where the younger children play; older children play in the field behind the school building.

As soon as years 11-12 are functioning, the school will add a kindergarten and pre-K program. As it is now, the school functions in levels. The primary and elementary grades operate on the ground level; the middle and superior grades operate on the upper levels. A library is being developed that will serve all levels of the school, as well as a computer learning lab for the older children.

Don Bosco Technical Training Centre

Don Bosco Technical Training Centre

Don Bosco Technical Training Centre is more than a trade school: DBTTC includes a youth hostel for boys, shops for carpentry and welding, training in building contracting, language laboratory for English, a kitchen and dining facility for day students and hostel youth. The young men staying there showed us around the facility, beginning with their dormitory, where their bunks are clustered together in an airy upper storey room. They proudly explained their programs and told us of their hopes of future job opportunities, speaking to us in English as best they could. Some have only begun to learn English in the last two months, and we were impressed by their progress.

Don Bosco School and Training Centre seen side by side

There is a long pond between the school and the training center. This is not by design, but because one of the landowners refused to sell the parcel. He is not developing it. Everyone thinks that he sees the opportunity to let his land increase in value to sell it later to the Salesians… Little does he realize what a hand-to-mouth operation Don Bosco really is.

Don Bosco Conference Centre

The main building of the campus is Don Bosco Conference Centre. The Salesians live here in this building, although I am told that this is a temporary arrangement. On the ground floor there are dining rooms and a central kitchen, a library/resource center and a computer lab. Upstairs there is another dining room for the Salesians, a community chapel, a meeting room, laundry and residents for the Salesians. The plan is to amplify this facility so that it can house visiting teachers. The Salesians will be housed in a different structure.

Don Bosco Conference Centre (soon to expand to Teacher Training Centre)

Immediately adjacent to Don Bosco Conference Centre is what is now called the Girls Boarding. This residence can accomodate young women who sleep four or six to a room, and is similar to the boys' boarding across the campus. Since many of the primary teachers are women, the hope is that, as the Conference Centre develops, this facility may serve as housing for women who will frequent the short courses that will be put on offer. For the time being, however, the Girls Boarding welcomes young women (teens and early twenties) who enroll in computer, music and courses in Spoken English.

Don Bosco Girls Boarding, with girls participating in English-language courses this summer. Fr Anthony Valluran poses with the group.

View of the Girls Boarding as seen from the Teacher Training Centre

All in all, Don Bosco Silchar center is both complex and totally amazing.

Traveling eastward

Salesian Provincial Headquarters on Choudhury Road in Kolkata

It is Sunday and my time in Calcutta has come to an end. After joining the provincial community for mass this morning at 7:00 am (evidently sleeping in on a Sunday is not a tradition here), I repacked my things and spent some time visiting with the Salesians of the house.

The Salesian Provincial Headquarters are interesting. Besides a large residence for the Salesians and administrative offices, the compound hosts a huge center with services for Youth Counseling. Immediately adjacent to the Salesian compound is a school run by the Loretto Sisters. This is the group of religious to which Mother Teresa of Calcutta belonged when she first first arrived in India, and it was by working with the girls of this same school that she became aware of the horrendous poverty of the area — the realization that prompted her to leave Loretto and form a new community: the Missionaries of Charity. The Salesians bought the property for their Calcutta provincial center from the Loretto Sisters. In fact, this is the first of the Salesian provinces in India and goes back to 1926 (the same year that the San Francisco province was formed). The Salesian moved their headquarters to the present site in 1973.

I quickly understood that Salesian action in this quarter is extensive, but I did not have much time to explore. After an early lunch, Thomas and his driver took Anthony, George and me to the airport. We had to catch a 1:05 pm flight on Indian Air to Silchar.

The 60-minute flight took us over Bangladesh to land us in India’s northeast region. Anthony explained to me that the name Silchar means "field of rocks" and the city is nestled among the rocky hills in the southern part of the state of Assam. Until recently Silchar was not much more than a village. Recent development is due to the town's central location so that it has become a trading center for agriculture and light industries.

The Salesians have only been in Shilchar a few short years. Anthony Valluran is the founder of the work here. He arrived alone in the year 2000. In 2003 the first phase of the complex opened and two other Salesians moved in with Anthony. In 2005 Don Bosco at Ramnagar became a canonical community, with an elementary school, non-formal trade school, teacher training center and hostels for young women and young men who arrive for professional training and language study.

Extensive ponds and rice paddies: view from the Salesians' dining room at Don Bosco Shilchar

On the drive over from the airport, Bro. Regy Cherukunnel explained to me that the Don Bosco center has really been a boon to the area. In fact, what was only swamp a decade ago is now becoming populated as people establish their homes and shops close to the Salesian complex. What is more, interest in the Catholic faith is growing, thanks to the presence of the Salesians here. There is talk of creating a diocese soon for this region.

Anthony Valluran, famous for planting roses in Berkeley, poses in the flower garden that he planted at the boys hostel at Don Bosco Shilchar.

It got dark fairly soon after we took afternoon tea. I was able to see the boys' hostel and trade school. Anthony promises to show me more tomorrow.