Thanks to Sr Anne Collins, I did pay a visit to Caherdavin on Thursday, in fact, although it was a very quick one. I was able to meet Sr Finola, whom I met 11 years ago. Sr Anne told me that Sr Finola had a painting of St Francis de Sales that was absolutely lovely… and so when we got to the house, Sr Anne asked Sr Finola to bring out the painting, and she did. Instead of a painting, it is a charcoal sketch - but beautiful. It is of a smiling Francis de Sales, to be sure.As I say, the visit was rushed. There was only a short break in the afternoon and I needed to be back at Milford house to prepare the next retreat talk presentation. I was using PowerPoint, and that presentation on was totally new. In short, I did not have the leisure for a long visit. But I did have tea with the sisters of the community, and we chatted for 40 pleasant minutes. I remembered all these women from the retreats that I had preached 11 years ago for the Salesian Sisters. All of these women were active in their communities then; now they are all in the extended care community. Still, they are all alert and doing their part. I was most impressed and very happy to see old friends again.
That was Thursday. Today all my visiting took place among the Salesians, and a good deal of it in transit. Yes, another drive coast to coast, from Milford to Celbridge - well, it is three hours driving time. Pat Egan drove me across the land so that I could get to Dublin airport tomorrow morning for my trip to Italy and the UPS.
More on the UPS later… For now, let me say something about this day in Ireland.
Pat Egan wanted to get an early start, so he asked if I could meet him at 7.30 (half seven). We grabbed a bit of breakfast with Fr Robbie, who is assigned to the Milford house on the parish team. Then we got our start, at about 8.30. This did not sound at all early to my ears, but in fact, the town was still sleeping as we drove out of the parish grounds and made our way to the main road.
It was a great opportunity -- this trip, I mean. I have known Pat Egan since the 1980s, and worked together with him in the early 1990s when he was in charge of social communications at the Salesian headquarters in Rome (via della Pisana) and I was studying at the UPS. Yes, I used to resource and do some translation work both for the dicastery of Youth Pastoral and for Social Communications. Now Pat continues on the path of Social Communications as he edits the Irish Salesian Bulletin, works in the area of web communications and so forth.
Well, the coast-to-coast drive afforded us time to catch up on each other's lives since the mid-1990s. Halfway across we stopped for coffee, and Pat told me how Fr Juan Vecchi had asked him to take up a formation course in Ethiopia around 1999, but that with his heart condition, his doctors had counseled against it. The concern already at that point was that, as the Salesian Society in Africa grows rapidly, there be people who can work with the young people in initial formation to instill a sense of Don Bosco's spirit and tradition. During my last experience in Rome I discovered how much is needed in this sector right now. We have grown in Africa, East-Asian, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific Islands, but it has been difficult to transmit the Salesian spirit in these contexts. Youth work, yes; Francis de Sales and Don Bosco's apostolic spirit? well, that has been very difficult. Many young Salesians in these continents consider Don Bosco a European priest from the remote past with little to do with their own lives.
This has been my experience of the young Salesians from new territories, and Pat Egan has experienced much of the same with young Salesians from Eastern Europe who come to help with the schools apostolate in Ireland during their practical training. We have no solutions to this crisis, but it made for a stimulating conversation during the second half of our journey. Or maybe it was the coffee.
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