Standards

Being in Rome has been good, but it is by no means a vacation: I expect that my return to Berkeley will be the vacation. I'm a visiting professor here at the UPS, and have classes to teach and seminars to conduct. In the faculty meetings I'm discovering that the "tightening up of standards" is not just a U.S.A. thing. All of Europe is moving toward higher, uniform standards, thanks to the so-called Bologna Accords. So, just like at DSPT, I'm sitting in on curriculum revisions, evaluations, and all that. The consoling fact is that we are not alone in Berkeley -- the whole Western World is moving in this direction, with the goal of finally mutually recognizing degrees among all the countries of the West and with Latin America, and the ecclesiatical degrees as well.

My area here at the UPS has been that of Salesian Spirituality. Part of the problem is that the new curriculum of "Spiritual Theology: Salesian Route" was just put into place this year, and the dean and director of the institute are still trying to work out all the kinks. Fr Francesco Cereda, councilor general for formation of the Salesian Society, wanted the Salesian spirituality curriculum to constitute a full program, but the teachers in the material are fewer than when I did my licentiate fifteen years ago. Of the profs that I had in 1990, two are dead, one has become a contemplative at Big Sur, five are over the age of 75 and therefore are not allowed to teach. This means that the few professors that there are have double loads, and juggle the courses into time slots as best they can.