Retreat coming to an end

Our annual retreat comes to an end today. Every morning has been dedicated to a conference and reflection time; every afternoon we visited the different places of the life of Francis de Sales, and had little explanations in the places. Five of my students are on this retreat, and so they know a lot of the details, but they are very happy to see the actual places. However I realize that the vast majority of the Salesians participating in this week have no idea about Francis de Sales. So, between the talks of Fr Morand Wirth and Fr Jozef Strus', I fill in some background for some of the Indians (like, what is the Introduction to the Devout Life, and what are the Calvinists). We are talking some very basic information, because they are really clueless about Francis de Sales (and pretty clueless about Don Bosco too, as I found out in the four short hours that we were in Valdocco). So, I've told them they should come and do the ISS course (yeah, as if!).

Well, I'll be back in Rome overnight: tomorrow I will leave for Slovenia for a week of conferences and such.

Annecy retreat - Thorens and La Roche

Today on the retreat, Fr Morand Wirth led us through the first day according to Part Five of the Devout Life in his morning conference. In the afternoon, we took a tour of the birthplace of St Francis de Sales (Thorens) and the town of La Roche, where he had his early schooling.

Birthplace of St Francis de Sales

Thorens - Salesianum: the first stop in the talking tour or retreat pilgrimage was the birthplace of St Francis de Sales. Nothing remains of the original chateau, burned during the 30 years war. Over the site of the place where the master bedroom stood is now a chapel to commemorate the birth of our saint. It is a bit of a disappointment for us, but the best we can have now, 400 years later. It brings home the undrstanding that these placid hills were outraged by generations of wars. So if we could not visit the actual home of the child Francis, at least we can stand on the same spot.

Saint Maurice, Thorens

Church of Saint Maurice, parish church of Thorens. It is here that Francis de Sales was baptized on 28 August 1567. He chose to be ordained bishop in this same church. This took place on 8 December 1602.

Thorens: Monument to St Francis de Sales

Just beside the parish church is a simple monument to St Francis de Sales. It serves as a welcome sign to the town and divides the town's principal street. Among the monuments to Francis de Sales, it is quite simple and, for this reason, also quite lovely.

The De Sales Family Castle

Salesianum: this is the name of the home of the De Sales Family. It is also known as Chateau De Sales, and it is a real castle. This terrain and structure predates the arrival of the De Sales Family to Thorens. It was orginally a fortress, built to defend the valley from the onslaught of the French. Francis' father and uncle were responsible for this line of defense in the years after Savoy regained its independence in 1559. Francis' younger brother Louis de Sales, also a military man, secured this castle as the family home. After the birthplace of Francis and his brothers and sisters was destroyed by fire during the Thirty-Years War, this became the main residence for the de Sales family, and remained so until just a year ago when the last descendent of Louis de Sales died. His widow has closed it to the public in the past year.

La Roche-sur-Furon

La Roche is a town of medieval origins, rich in history and significance for Savoy. It is today the tenth city in size and influence in Haute Savoie. It is also the town where Francis de Sales and his three cousins received their primary schooling. The parish church has an onion dome. This is a sign that the townspeople fought with Napoleon in the campaign against Russia. Napoleon lost the war and many in his empire lost their lives, but the onion-dome belltowers still proclaim the heroism of the townspeople. It is, I suppose, a consolation prize.

Easter journey and retreat preparation

Last night (Easter Sunday night) a group of us left Rome for Torino. The group included students and staff from the UPS, from Testaccio, as well as various Salesians from the Roman province. Our destination is Annecy, for the annual retreat. We will be led through the retreat by Morand Wirth through the places of St Francis de Sales.

I am making this my annual retreat, and while I have been to Annecy three times already, I have never spent more than two days there. Needless to say, I am looking forward to this.

Okay, we got to Torino at 6:30, and reached the mother house at Valdocco at 7:15. Waiting for us was John Roche, who is from my own province of course. John is also taking part in this retreat, as are several others from the Don Bosco community of the UPS. He did not come with us on the bus last night because he traveled to Torino directly from Treviso, where he has been helping with Holy Week confessions. He has now had the experience of the Cure of Ars, for from the Saturday before Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday, he was hearing confessions for seven hours every day. And because there were a lot of people for the masses too, he was needed to preach. He said he learned more Italian in the confessional than in the Italian classes he took last September!

After morning prayers in the church of St Francis de Sales, and breakfast in the pilgrim lunch room, there was free time until 11:00 mass in the basilica. I saw a friend of mine from the 1970s, Franco Lotto. We visited for about an hour, but then I noticed that our Roman group was wandering around aimlessly. That's when it dawned on me. It is Easter Monday, which is a holiday in Italy. All the shops are closed today! So what are these guys going to do for the next two hours before Mass?

Saying goodbye to Franco, I went and found John Roche and a couple of Indian classmates of his (both of whom are named Sebastian) and offered to show them some of the historical places in the vicinity. They were pleased with this, and so I took them on a brisk walk to see some of the places within walking distance: the Rifugio, the little Hospital of St Filomena, the mother house of the Sister of St Anne (all founded by the Marchesa Barolo), the Cottolengo, the Insane Asylum (where they tried to cart off Don Bosco, but he slammed the carriage door on the monsignori, and they ended up there instead), the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, the main street of 19th Century Torino (Grosso Dora) and the path that Dominic Savio and John Cagliero used to take to get to school, the school where Savio, Rua, Cagliero, and classmates did their Middle School, the church of St Francis of Assisi, the City Hall, the church of the Dominicans where Don Bosco and the Oratory Boys ministered to the Cholera Victims in 1854…

Monument to St Joseph Cottolengo at the famous hospital that he founded

As I say, I brought them to these places really quickly, just touching the surface, since we only had about 90 minutes. But John and the two Sebastians were very happy, since they had heard of these places, but never even seen a photo of any of them. If there had been time, I would have taken them to the Cathedral to see the Shroud (encased, not on display), but there was no time really.

After mass and a quick lunch, we left Torino for the four hour bus ride to Annecy. Annecy is the home town of Francis de Sales. There were 57 of us on the bus (a bus which was designed for 40, but which has squeezed in more seats. It is not exactly American Airlines for leg room!) Then this evening, we started the retreat formally.

Good Friday

My thought had been to go to the Vatican today for the celebrations, but Fr Giuseppe Nicolussi asked me to preside at the Good Friday liturgy. The celebration was held in the "Gesù Maestro" community chapel. It was simple but complete. I think this was the second time that I have ever presided at Good Friday services. I also presided once at St Dominic Savio Parish when I was director of De Sales Hall, in my last year there (1990).

On the working front, today I completed the translation of all my Power Point presentations for the Francis de Sales course into Italian. Once that was done, I burned CD-Roms for all 21 students. The CD-roms contain copies of the 13 PowerPoint Presentations that I made during the semester, copies of their own Term Papers, a copy of the Group Discussions, which I had posted week-by-week on a blog for the class called "La Filotea e Noi", and finally some art work of Francis de Sales as culled from the sdb.org resource page.

With that, I've finished all my obligations to that batch of students. I just need to prepare two more classes for this semester's seminar on "Storytelling, John Bosco and Harry Potter". The big work is, of course, to complete my draft of my proposed book on "Francis de Sales: Story and Spirit".

Will I be able to do that? Not much time left.

Holy Thursday

Joined Albino Ronco and Christian Dubot for mass at the headquarters of the Sister Handmaids of the Sacred Heart. The community of Sisters has its origins in Peru, and they have been in Rome since 1910. They are located in a residential district that was built between 1918 and 1926. At one time they ran a school in their house; now they run an elder-care center, with about 50 elderly women. Many of these people, and many folks coming from the neighborhood came to this afternoon's service. The church was packed with the elderly, the sick, and a whole contingent of down children.

Visitandines in Rome

With the Salesians Morand Wirth and Francis Desramaut, both Salesian scholars (Morand at Rome, Francis in Lyons), I went to the Visitation monastery this morning, in via Galla Placidia. It was the first time I've gone there.

The sisters welcomed us very warmly; it seems that Salesians visit often, ever since Don Bosco paid his visit to the Roman Visitandines in the 1860s. We met five different sisters, as they came in the little parlor to chat, but since it is Wednesday and spring cleaning, they
were moving in and out. I only managed to take a photo of two of the sisters: the superior with the convent historian.

The reason for the visit is that Morand wanted to give the sisters a copy of his new book, "Francis de Slaes and Education". The book appeared originally in French last September; the
Italian translation came out last week. He gave them the Italian version, with a signed dedication. The sisters looked through the table of contents right away, and a whole string of associations and stories came out. Wonderful conversation!

Then Morand asked the Sisters to show me two of the convent's prized relics. One is Francis de Sales watch; the second was the Ostensorium with a fiber of his heart that was presented to Pius IX in 1877 on the occasion of the declaration of Francis as Doctor of the Church. They
were happy to do so, but immediately said that there is a new treasure: an Ostensorium with blood and plasma from the heart of Francis de Sales. There is an amazing story behind this, but I'll save this for another time.

Both Morand and Francis know the Visitation communities in France, and Morand has been in Italy 10 years now, so know the community in Treviso and in Moncalieri as well. There are some things that I didn't understand -- juridical elements about structures etc, but the sisters told me that the bishops in Europe are not too interested in contemplative orders, and for some time there has been a priest who acts as an advocate for the communites with the bishops. I didn't catch the name of this office, but until now the priest has always been a Jesuit. Now that priest became ill one year ago, and has stepped aside. The Visitandines here in Italy have asked the Holy See that the next person be a Salesian. They have submittted three names (all of SDBs) and are hoping for a favorable reply soon.

Archival dust 2

Yesterday I finally got to examine some material in the archives of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints. I was able to examine the hand-written documentation taken from the notes of the original "process" for the beatification of Francis de Sales in 1627. Amazing! I suspect that it is a second copy because, while the questions of the panel are writtten in Latin, as I would have suspected, the testimony in these pages is recorded in Italian rather than French. For the last hundred years at least, testimony is always recorded in the language of the person giving it. But Francis de Sales is the first saint to go through the process of beatification… it could be that the canon lawyers and bishops on the commission were trying hard to make the process work. The fact is that they were all Savoiards, and the official language of the Duchy was Italian, as was the spoken language of Rome. Perhaps this is the reason. Anyway, I was totally excited, because it means that I can understand the testimony much more easily. The archivist only gave me two hours with the documents, and I was not allowed to make photocopies, because the documents are very fragile. She did tell me that I could take digital photos, however. I'll do that next time. Today I'll try to transcribe my notes to text, and go buy a digital camera. But seeing this material written five years after Francis de Sales' death, and being able to work with it, has made the whole trip to Rome very much worth it all the effort!

First time this year

Went to the Vatican this morning, after mass with a small community near Porta Pia… I had an appointment at the archives of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints at 10.00. When I got to St Peter's Square at 9.10, I found that the line to get into St Peter's was moving very quickly, so I joined the line, and made it into St Peter's at 9.25. This was the first time I got inside St Peter's this year. The lines have been long and slow all year, and I would give up after a few moments.

Most of the people are lining up to see John Paul II's tomb, so once you get through the metal detectors, you can move quickly to the basilica, if you dodge the tourists…

And going through St Peter's today I realized that few of these people are pilgrims. They are bona fide tourists. I had to wonder if this is a good thing.

One of my purposes was to see the tomb of John XXIII. His urn is not in the basilica proper, just around the pillar from the statue of St Peter and the potrait of Pius IX. There was a small group of pilgrims there (and I say pilgrims, because they were not snapping photos but praying).

After seeing John XXIII, I wandered around for a few moments, reflecting on what I'd show my brother and nephew when they come to Rome. I will need to contemplate how to get them to see the Vatican and the Vatican museums without putting them through the torture of the long lines. Yes, I'm going to have to plan this whole thing very carefully!

Palm Sunday

Today I did get over to the local Salesian parish (Santa Maria della Speranza - Our Lady of Hope) and help out for a couple of masses with confessions. The church has been filled to beyond capacity all during Lent, and today there was a definite element of festivity with Palm Sunday.

Okay, they call it Palm Sunday, but in Rome people do not carry palm branches but olive branches in the procession. In fact, I noticed that everyone held their olive branches throughout the entire reading of the Gospel, which of course was that of Mark's Passion of the Christ. As the masses ended, everyone greeted friends and neighbors -- a lot of kissing on both cheeks -- before leaving the church. As a couple of people told me: "Palm Sunday is a very special day, a day to pray for and work for peace. This is why we carry these olive branches to our homes".

With all the stress in today's families, the longing for peace is more acute than ever. I pray these Romans may find some peace this week.

Busy week

These days have been busy. I spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for class… On Wednesday a group of students came to my office to speak to me about one thing or another, mainly looking for help figuring out their workload… and today I met Fr Luke Buckles from DSPT but who is now teaching at the Angelicum here in Rome. I brought him over to UPS. He was amazed and happy to see this different style of Rome than what he's used to. The Dominicans have their university in a facility built in the 1500s, within sight of the Presidential Palace (the Quirinale), the Roman Forum, the Jesuits' Gregorian University, the Altare della Patria, and all the major tourist sites. This was Luke's first time in a residential, working-class neighborhood. And he met a lot of the SDBs and a lot of students too. It was a good day…

One more day of school and then the Spring Break for Holy Week and Easter Week. I've been going down to the Vatican to the Archives, and hope that the school break will give me a chance to wrap up some research there (the process of beatification of Francis de Sales). Then it will be May… then it will be June…

Rome crowded for anniversary of John Paul II

Tomorrow will mark one year since the death of Pope John Paul II. Twice this week I have had to go down to the Vatican, including this morning. There are tens of thousands of pilgrims; the area is completely crowded, and the line-up to get into the basilica of St Peter's, or rather, to the grotto to visit the tombs of the popes is very long. In fact, I have not gone into St Peter's yet this year, because I haven't had the time to wait in line for two hours.

Of the statistics that I have heard: the normal amount of visitors to the tombs of the popes has been between 150 and 300 persons a day. Since the burial of John Paul II, the number on weekdays has averaged 15,000 people, while on weekends it has gone up to as many as 20,000 people. In fact, today there were many Italians in the lines. It seems that Italians are also making St Peter's the goal of pilgrimage again: to remember the "papa polacco", who won their affection, and to see "Papa Ratzinger", who speaks simply and seems to have won their respect as well. And that is a more interesting feat, since many Italians have still not gotten over the sufferings of the Second World War at the hands of the German Nazis after the fall of Mussolini's Fascist government.

So, it will be an interesting week ahead for the amount of pilgrims and visitors. To all appearances, the flood of pilgrims will continue through the Spring. In short, there have been as many visitors to St Peter's during this year since John Paul's death and Benedict's election as during the Great Jubilee of 2000.