Visitation of Holy Mary

Today is the feast of the Visitation of Holy Mary, and the final day for the community at Don Bosco Hall this year.

It is also the ordination day for four young Dominican friars of the Western province, two of whom have been my students. Dismas Sayre and Dominic DeMaio have been my students; the other two I know as well: James Moor and Augustine Hilander. They were ordained at St Dominic Church on Bush Street in the City by the bishop of Oakland, Allen Vigneron. Thien Nguyen attended the ordination and represented our community at the mass.

Since the Dominicans spend between 6 and 8 years at DSPT, and since now I am teaching core subjects in theology each semester, I am getting to know more and more of them. Dominic I have known for a few years, because I had dealings with him as he planned his pastoral formation itinerary. Last Fall he enrolled in my Church History course. He did a brilliant job of it, really. His pastoral sense has increased after spending one year in Mexico. Besides learning Spanish, he began to see other aspects of Church, or culture, of justice issues. His growth has been something wonderful to see.

Dismas too I have seen over the years, as he has taken several courses from me. While Dominic was born in an Italian-Catholic (Brooklyn) family, Dismas was not raised Catholic. He discovered Catholicism while a University student. He participated in some religious activities then and then went through the RCIA process. He knows the Church from his own experience and doctrinally, but he is not familiar with all the customs and the unspoken aspects of the Catholic culture. His time at DSPT has opened some of these aspects to him. He has had to decide what he would embrace and what he would let slide. Again, the process has been both interesting and growthful for me to witness.

James Junipero Moore is from California's central valley. His mother's family is Portuguese, and his parents grew up in Artesia. He has an aunt at Dominic Savio Parish, and his grandfather is a past pupil of the Salesians in Portugal. He tells me that his grandfather and the whole family have been staunchly anticlerical and that they did not approve of his entering the Dominicans. On the other hand, they love Don Bosco and the Salesians. I have met his mother, an educator, and have had a wonderful conversation with her about learning skills, adolescents, and all that school talk. She also told me that the family loves the Salesians, and that they were happy to hear that the Dominicans in Berkeley have made opportunities for us to participate in GTU. Sadly, James and his father were in a car accident last summer; his father died, but James walked away. It was a terrible shock to him, naturally. The support of the Dominicans and of the school community was a great consolation to him.

Augustine Hilander is a philosophy student, and quite brilliant. I have never taught him, but we have had numerous conversations over the years. He seems to be one of those who will go on for higher studies to teach at the university or graduate level… perhaps even at DSPT.

So, on this their ordination day, I have sentiments of joy and wishes for many blessings for these young Dominicans -- for their province, their order and for their families too.

The student members of our community are preparing to leave for their holidays or for the return to their provinces. Things will become busy for the summer seminars very soon. So we prepare for a change of occupation.

Feast of Mary Help of Christians

24 May is always the big day for Salesians: feast of Mary under the title of Auxilium Christianorum. Popularly in Italian the name is Maria Ausiliatrice (Mary the Helper), but in English we have used the formal translation of the Latin: Mary, Help of Christians.

The feast was rather low-key at Don Bosco Hall this year. We had the mass at 8:00 followed by a festive breakfast (it was a little too early for brunch, after all). I was asked to preside at the liturgy, and Fr Arthur Lenti presided at the cooking of the breakfast.

As it happened, I presided at the mass on 15 May, first day of the novena of Mary Help. There has been a special intention for this feast set by the rector major, Pascual Chávez: the Church in China. Throughout the nine days of preparation for the feast, every Salesian community and gathering prayed for the people of this great country. In the rector major's words, we were to be like the apostolic community, gathered around the Mother of Jesus in prayer. "That is how I like the think of the Salesian Family," he said, "made up of apostles gathered around Mary, skilled in the Spirit, who teaches us how to wait for Him, welcome Him, and allow ourselves to be guided by Him."

Each day we had a particular group to remember and for whom to pray, and today it all came together in an entrustment of ourselves to the Virgin in praying for the Chinese. Using the prayer composed by Fr Chávez, we called on God through Mary to "fill all [the Chinese people and ourselves] with the desire to know the Father’s loving plan, the courage to accept Christ’s Gospel, the willingness to grow in the Holy Spirit."

For the rest, the Eucharist was simple. We sang a few more of hymns as well as the parts of the mass. At the end there was a solemn blessing.

Certainly, the breakfast will have been more memorable. It was a little too early for brunch, so Arthur prepared a champagne breakfast, with mimosa, French-roast coffee, six styles of eggs (quiche Lorraine, seafood quiche, omelette, fried, poached in a tomato sauce) and all manner of auxiliary dishes (bacon, salmon, muffins and scones). We spent a long time at table, visiting with one another, hearing plans for the coming months, and beginning to say our goodbyes.

And now?

The community will begin to disperse. Most of the work of the semester is complete, except for a few final papers and the registering of grades. Will there be a farewell party? Or did yesterday's celebration serve that function? It is hard to tell really.

Graduations and conclusions

The school year has come to a flying halt, with today the last day of the Spring 2008 semester at GTU, and graduation at DSPT. The mass was held at St Mary Magdalene's parish, which is about 6 blocks from the school, and a 25 minute walk from Don Bosco Hall. Instead, the graduation was held at the school itself, staged in the main lobby.

Besides the graduation of the students, Fr Michael Sweeney, president of DSPT, installed four Fellows to the school, conferring on each a Doctorate Honoris Causa. The four are Richard P. Gallagher (MD, Canadian, who has made important breakthroughs in cancer treatment), Peer M. Portner (cardiac surgeon and artificial heart pioneer), Prof. Velma B. Richmond (professor emerita of literature at Holy Names University, Oakland, and well-known for her studies on Shakespeare) and Dana Gioia (Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts). All four are goggleable; Dana Gioia (pictured here) gave the commencement address: Truth and Beauty.

Graduate Lawrence J. King delivered the student address: Amateur Teaching as a Profession.

Two from our community received the certification in theology: Fr Jorge Santiago and Bro Joselito de la Cruz. Afterwards we were joined at Don Bosco Hall by Salesians from San Francisco and Richmond, and the family members of Bro Joselito, for a farewell dinner that doubled as a birthday party. A quiet but happy conclusion to the academic year.

Opportunities for Salesian studies at Berkeley

With Gael Sullivan, Michael Sweeney and Al Vu, I met with the provincial council during their meetings at Richmond. Gael and Michael wanted to present some ideas to enhance the relationship between the ISS and DSPT, in line also with the expansion of programs that may well connect us with the Angelicum and the UPS in Rome. Key to this is the proposal for an aggregation of DSPT with UPS at the level of schools (faculties) of theology. This would not only mean that our degree programs would be recognized: they could actually integrate.

For the ISS/DSPT, students could frequent courses in Rome or Berkeley and these could work toward degrees in either faculty. The same would apply to UPS students.

Added, we could contemplate an exchange of professors for specific courses to be held during specific times. Thus, besides myself, other professors might be able to offer courses in both faculties. Much of this could take place during January or Summer Sessions; eventually, this could take place also through online courses and distance learning.

In the last month the Team at ISS, together with Michael Sweeney, has also gone through the courses of the the Department of Youth Pastoral of the UPS to ascertain what the requirements are for degrees in Youth Pastoral/Catechetics. We saw that many of the courses on offer there have similar courses on offer at DSPT and GTU. What needs to be added is the youth pastoral courses, which we believe that we can must Salesians to offer, either during the regular scholl year, or during the down season as a summer intensive.

We are at the preliminary stages of discussion, but Fr Michael Sweeney is very interested in launching a collaborative effort to bring a moral pastoral element into the school. We at the ISS are interested because this may make our own Salesian offerings more viable for the Salesian family members who may attend ISS, and who could use the experience as a way of launching graduate studies and ministry formation in the pastoral area so close to every Salesian's heart. The UPS shows itself to be interested, at least among the members of the Institute of Spiritual Theology and on the council of the Theology faculty. Preliminary stages, but in an area that offers great promise.

The provincial council listened to the presentation, took the materials, asked clarifying questions, and showed themselves favorable to the project.

Now for the next step.

Dedicated students

My last class was today. The evaluations for the courses have already been consigned to the dean's office, and I attempted (without much luck) to clean up all my working space.

The semester proved very full for me as well, with two lecture courses and one special reading course at DSPT to expedite. But it was fun, I must say. The students in each of my classes were dedicated and enthusiastic: this made it an easy semester for me. So, why am I exhausted?

Bookshelves and vote of confidence

The afternoon of Trinity Sunday!

Bro. Michael Touchstone spent the day here at Don Bosco Hall because he goes through the accounts… He is enjoying the low-key but cordial sense in the community.

What kind of good news can I tell you? Alphonse Vu, youth ministry delegate for the California province, returned on Friday from Brazil. He arrived here yesterday for a series of meetings that take place early in the next week. He is very excited by the experience of a world meeting, and begins to see how there are new and different ways of doing Salesian work. May his enthusiasm become contagious.

Gael Sullivan received a donation for upgrading elements of the house. The top floor in the Leconte building has been recarpeted, and new tables and chairs have been purchased. Yesterday, a whole crew of people worked in Arthur Lenti's bedroom, installing new and more robust bookshelves. What Arthur has had to date were inexpensive shelves, but they were bowing under the weight of his many large tomes. Not only was there limited space for his collection, but there have been safety issues as well.

The new shelves arrived on Friday morning morning. No sooner had Gael Sullivan signed for them with the shippers than John Roche and Lito de la Cruz and his cousin mounted the stairs to Arthur's room to begin the transformation. The three ripped out the old shelves, cleared the built-in cabinets in the kitchen, cleared, mounted, installed, safety-bolted, and re-stocked the new shelves in Arthur's room. They worked late into the night on Friday and all of Saturday as well…

And now?

The room is now furnished well. He has room to work and he can access all his books. It is quite lovely really, and a vote of appreciation for the man who continues to do so much for Salesian scholarship.

Cathedral tour in Oakland

Saturday of the 7th week of Easter. Tomorrow is Pentecost. I can say all things are going well for the small Salesian community of Don Bosco Hall in Berkeley, but them I am fairly dazed most of the time these days, so what do I know?

Today the chancellor of the diocese of Oakland is taking all the ISS people and most of the community around to see Oakland's new Christ Our Light Cathedral under construction. That is a fairly positive gesture on the part of the diocese. Salesians in California are going through some tribulation in other parts of the state at the moment. This too will pass.

But on to the cathedral project: this is the first cathedral to be built in the 21st century, according to local claims. Some other cathedrals in the USA, notably Los Angeles' Queen of Angels cathedral, were completed after the year 2000 but begun earlier… and I am not confident that no other cathedral has been built anywhere in the world. I'm sure wikipedia could tell us. Still, I'll let Oakland bask in the achievement.

The previous cathedral, St Francis de Sales, crumbled in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and the diocese as been without a center for 19 years now. The project met numerous setbacks, and the first approved design had to be discarded when the arrangements for land use could not accommodate it. The diocese turned to a local architect, Craig W. Hartman, and ground-breaking took place on 25 May 2005 (I did not attend as I was in Rome at that moment).

There have been a lot of negative comments about the design and the cost, but then I remember that there were a lot of negative comments about the design and cost of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and St Mary's in San Francisco. Come to think of it, Martin Luther complained about the cost of St Peter's when it was under construction (or was he just complaining about the capital campaign? or maybe just about the Dominicans? I forget which!). Yes, the cathedral is not gothic (which is newly fashionable in the last decades, at least in youth fashion) or romanesque. It is post-modern. And if it looks like an airport terminal, that is because Hartman's last project was the new international terminal at San Francisco International Airport. My feeling is that a cathedral built at the start of the 3rd millennium responds to the needs and the culture of the people of this time. Yes, I love St Peter's, but since no one in Oakland knows how to make gelato correctly according to the Roman norm, why should I wait for them to make a cathedral according to the European norm?

The new cathedral is long overdue. Construction, I am told, is ahead of schedule, and Bishop Allen Vigneron is slated to dedicate the new church on 25 September 2008. This new cathedral center will do much to help the local church to focus its energies and hone its ministries. Well done, Oakland!

When plans were discussed, all the priests working in the diocese were consulted, and that is when I heard that St Francis de Sales was being dumped as patron. The reason was that the liturgy committee of the diocese wanted to avoid sexist and non-inclusive names for churches. I thought then (and think now) that line of logic is absurd. How many churches are called St Mary's? Does that offend? Does it offend parishioners at St Francis of Assisi parish that the patron was a man? But I knew all the people on the committee, and they all tended toward creating uproars. I wrote a formal letter to the bishop and the committee at the time in favor of keeping St Francis de Sales as patron… I never received a reply. Did I expect one?

Aside for this element, I remain happy for the local church. I am sure our Salesian crowd, touring around in hard-hats at this very moment, will enjoy this visit.

Oh? Why didn't I go too?

Well somebody has to blog!