Robberies

Is someone breaking into the Don Rua Community?

Every week there seems to be a break-in. This all started during the month of September when the only ones here were the students of Italian. It seems that the first robbery relieved the community of the television. Following that incident, everyone was urged to lock doors, and to check the doors leading into the common areas.

Once that was done, there were break-ins with the Don Bosco community, which shares the other half of our building on via Cocco Ortu. Now the gates are locked at night with a chain, and everyone in both student communities is conscious of locking doors and windows.

But, as if on a regular schedule, there is a break-in… and this week the target was the room of one of the students on the ground floor. It was André from the Congo. He had left the window open, but closed the roll-shutters. The robber managed to wedge open the roll-shutters and to climb into André's room. There seemed to be no mystery involved, for the only thing that was disturbed was André's money folder, which he kept in the drawer of his night stand. The robber relieved the money folder of €1000.

What was André doing with so much money in his room?

He was saving up for a computer.

Yes, but why did he not hand in the money to the community financial administrator who could have banked it or put it in a safe?

He did not think that he would hold on to it that long, he said. In fact, the robber made sure that André did not hold on to it. Strangely, the robber knew exactly where to go (which leads to speculation that the thief was someone who frequented the Italian language course and therefore stayed in the Don Rua community during those 6 weeks. Certainly, he had been in André's room before and knew exactly where to look. He also knew to wear gloves. The carabbinieri dusted for fingerpints, but there were none but André's…… oh wait! there were fingerprints from a dozen members of the community on the chairs, on the door, on the coffee cups. André invites many to his room for coffee.

Oh well!

Kiss that money goodbye!

But a number of folks in the community suggested that we all pitch in and help Andé recuperate the money. If everyone could give €uros 40, then enough money could be collected so that he could purchase that laptop computer that he needs for studies. So this is what we are doing: everyone who can is giving the director a donation.

And this is strange. In the USA we don't keep more than a little spending money on our persons as Salesians, and we do not make money. Here the student priests receive donations for their masses and services. Makes you pause to think what they mean to do with a "vow of poverty".

The most advanced nations have monarchs!

At breakfast today one of the professors quoted Thomas Aquinas as we were discussing the riots in Paris and the demonstrations in Madrid (this fits the 8th point on the evaluation, that of "contemporary issues"). This young professor, freshly minted PhD in Philosophy who teaches Ethics, made the comment, "According to Thomas, the most efficient form of government is the Dictatorship".

Shrieks of horror from the students around me (I confess, I was busy reaching for the cream cheese, and was more concerned with not knocking over the coffee).

But the rebuttal came from the community director, also a Philosopher who in fact teaches Anthropology. "Yes, the dictatorship is most effective according to Thomas, but if you look at the world inductively, you will realize that 8 of the top 10 among the most developed economies in the world are Monarchies".

I found this very entertaining.

In these days I have been receiving e-mails from my colleagues at DSPT, and there is much concern about the accreditation of the theology school by the ATS (Association of Theological Schools). It seems that they continue to send many directives to our school, many of which are not so applicable. In the world scheme of things, where does ATS fit in? Dictators or Monarchs? No, they are too efficient for Monarchs. Viva il Re!