Halloween and importing cultural signs

Amazing! Even Italy is in the act now for Halloween. Of course, there is a lot of speculation as to the meaning of all this. Is it about the dead? about the ghosts? a children's holiday? At breakfast this morning there was a big philosophical discussion about this new import. And in the end I believe that the Italians and the rest of Europe has just picked up from American media: movies, television, Second Life… all the contact with the USA.

Of course I think of Halloween as a fun time in the family -- it was in my family when we were children. And I just got photos from my friend Rick Glass whose little daughter is aware of Halloween for the first time as she helped him pick out a pumpkin to bring home. Huge pumpkins carved, bright costumes and face paint and masks, spicy apple punch and pumpkin or pecan pie, and candy… lots of candy: these are all the elements of a child's Halloween in the USA.

Of course lately there are other elements that come to the fore. Instead of just the costumes, there are the horror tales. It seemed to me that the witches and black cats were things to make fun of during my childhood… but now there are such intense horror stories and films that the holiday takes on a frightening side… or a naughty side… or a disruptive side.

On the other hand, when I used to talk about Halloween with my friends in Canada, they always remembered it as a day of mischief. It could be that my parents tried to celebrate the day in a different way from all of that. After all, I do remember stories of how when I was a toddler I had been terrified by the monsters that came to the door -- monsters who were 10 year-olds in costume. I coined my first word that Halloween: I called them "gungs". The sound expressed my horror and the ugliness of them all. I also used to call the characters in the Sunday comics "gungs", or so I am told. I don't think the word made it into the lexicon.

Now Europe and Italy itself is taking on the celebration of Halloween. It all makes me wonder. What is the point of this celebration in Italy? There is no Celtic Culture to hark back to… and I doubt really that Halloween has such profound, mystical roots. I have heard too many stories from Washington Irving to think that its roots are beyond the sassy yankee colonies… But even if it is, how does this fit in with Italy's culture? There is already a very strong tradition of the day of the dead, of All Saints. Ghosts and goblins are not part of the tradition, and who has ever seen a pumpkin here? Zucchini, fine, but pumpkins? Unfortunately, you cannot carve out a zucchini and put a candle inside it, and even if you did, it would not look all that ghostly.

And what would you call a zucchini lantern? "Zaccaria Zucchinetti"? Hmm! That sound good!

No, it is a commercial day, a reason for nighttime parties, a good time on a Friday night. It will probably remain at this level.

What it does show is that Italy is changing and taking on more foreign customs without much hesitation. Well, I think it has been like this in Italy forever (with perhaps the exception of the Fascist era). So many English words have become Italianized and made part of the language. Take the word "blog", for instance.

One other element that is much stronger now is Recycling! WOOOOO! About time! I have been so encouraged to see it! Along every corridor of the university there are recycle bins for paper. When I was here on sabbatical there were bins on the street, but it took a lot of effort to bag the paper and walk out on to the avenue… a couple of blocks walk actually. Even so, I did that back in 2005. In 1990 there was no such service. But now, there is recycling within the university itself, with friendly little bins that invite participation. Alleluia! This is a great improvement.

So it is a happy, recycling Halloween that I celebrate this year under the Roman rain!

Rain, rain… not going away

Last night (and the night before) Rome was celebrated by the heavens with a light and sound show of thunder and lightning! Incredibly close lightning strikes prompted me to unplug my computer and the power strips on both nights really.

This morning I found out that three trees were toppled during the night. Two were in the little park behind the provincial offices and professors residence, and one was in the short road leading up to the main square of the university. One of the park trees that fell, crashed into the professors residence… but was kind enough to avoid hitting any of the bedrooms or offices. It fell right into a balcony that lead from what had been a reading room but which for several years now has been an empty space.

Yes, gently: the phrase was what I heard from one of the elder Salesians. He told me that he heard the boom last night and went to see what happened. The tree did not break any of the double-pained windows, but was pressing against them… so he opened them lest the stress cause damage later. "The tree was certainly very polite," he said. "He did not cause any damage except that he took a bit of the stone facing off the balcony… but he fell carefully and gently between the most populated area of the house."

I was amused that he called the tree polite, and asked him if the tree was a Christian?

"No, I don't think so," he replied, "because not many Christians are so polite these days. But if the tree were a Christian yesterday, he has become a fallen-away Christian today."

Tonight the Gesù Maestro community will receive the findings of the Superior of the Vice Province of the UPS, Fr Joachim de Souza. He has been visiting the community in his official capacity for the past 10 days. He will give the community his observations and open the floor to discussion. After that there will be a little "festa" in the dining room. I'll participate in both parts of this event, also to find out what the priorities are in this community that hosts me during these months.

In the meantime, a very heavy rain is hitting against my office window again. I suppose we can look forward to more lightning and thunder tonight again. That will help to celebrate the official visit of Fr De Souza, certainly.

So you started teaching yesterday?

This is what everyone is asking me… but it is more like I "continued" teaching yesterday, only that I am doing it on a different continent and in a different language.

33 are signed up for my course in "spiritualità giovanile" (youth spirituality) but over 40 showed up for the class. Whoa…

Instead, the seminar on storytelling has 6 signed up and only 4 arrived. We met yesterday afternoon and had a good discussion and ride through the opening points of the seminar.

So, the chronology is like this I arrived on Monday and started teaching on yesterday (5 hours) and will continue this morning (1 more hour)… So far so good -- but I have much to prepare. I have also met with Giorgio Zevini (the dean of the theology faculty) and Jesús Manuel Garcia (director of the institute of spiritual theology), as well as meeting don Francesco Cereda (director of formation) in passing from the library to the classroom yesterday. Some decisions have to be made this year as to whether the commuting continues or whether I join the UPS on a more permanent basis. The need seems to be greater here, if I am honest.

Of course, if we can get 1000 people to come to the ISS in Berkeley next year, I think I will be able to stay in California.

Travel day

A long layover at Washington DC has given me some time to catch up on email and to even watch some television in the airport. It is all election coverage, when it is not football.

Actually, I left Niagara Falls this morning at 7.45. John Graden brough Wendy Wright, Sr Grace MacCormack and myself to the Buffalo Airport. We spoke about the Salesian Scholars Seminar, and everyone of us seem to be pleased with the outcome. We are all worried for Grace, who goes back a bit early because of the illness of the superior of the monastery in St Louis. Said goodbye to John at the curb, and goodbye to Wendy and Grace after getting my luggage sent ahead and clearing security.

Seems strange not to be going home after this week. No, I'm going on to Rome. Well, it was the only way that made sense. I need to be in Rome and a trip back home after these days in Niagara Falls would have just added to the cost and lost more time.

Buffalo Airport: I was surprised that there were very few passengers, but then it is Sunday. Most flight fill up only in the evening, at the end of the day on Sundays. The trip on a tight little prop plane went well enough. I knew what to expect and have a good book, so I arrived in good spirits at Washington's Dulles Airport after a pleasant, no-frills flight.

My layover in Washington is nearly 5 hours, which has given me time to get a good lunch and then sit in the United Airlines lounge. In about an hour I will move to the boarding area and get ready for my flight from Washington to Rome.

These trips are more routine now than ever, yet I find myself less prepared to do this sort of thing. I'd been trying for two weeks to wrap up things at home, but did not quite manage. Happily, the week in Niagara has given me some distance.

And what do I do this time in Rome? There are two courses that I will be teaching: Youth Spirituality and a Seminar on Salesian storytelling. Ask me if I feel prepared… What's that? Do I feel prepared? Hmmm. I cannot lie about it. I do not feel in the least prepared. I was prepared 18 months ago when I taught this material, but not at all now.

But I have all the materials I need. I'll try to move ahead with logic rather than feeling.

Hmmm - time is passing in this Red Carpet United Lounge. I better finish my glass of pineapple juice, pack up this computer, find my passport and my ticket, and move toward the departure gate. I'm slated to arrive tomorrow morning at 6.45. Maybe I should also think about sleeping (I think to myself and smile).

Salesian Scholars Seminar

The 2008 Salesian Scholars Seminar began today with the theme "Propagating the Salesian Spirit". Ten papers are being presented this year. The procedure is that each scholar presents the paper of another scholar. Then the group gives feedback, asks questions, and carries forward the discussion.

The DeSales Resources and Ministries Center has hosted this scholarly event from its inception. In fact, this began as the initiative of Fr Joseph F. Power, OSFS, who studied Francis de Sales as his own passion… He succeeded in gathering scholars from universities and from religious communities. From the informal if studious gathering organized by Joe Power, the group gained its own identity. After Joe's death in 2002, the group decided that the effort needed to be strengthened and continued.

The new director of DeSales Ministries, Fr John Graden, has been supportive of sponsoring the event every two years. Joseph Chorpenning and Wendy Wright have been co-charing the event since 2002. There is a lot of energy around all this, considering also that Salesian Spirituality is seen as a backwater tradition in the Church.

The presenters and papers that were presented today are as follow:

Joseph Chorpenning, “Francis de Sales’s Emblematic Interpretation of the Death of St. Joseph”

Paula McCarthy, “The Shroud of Turin and St. Francis de Sales”

Alexander Pocetto, “The Sternness of the Gentle Francis de Sales [1567-1622]”

Daniel Wisniewski, “Chains of Love: The Eternity of Friendship in Salesian Spirituality”

Christian Krokus, “Spiritual Friendship in the Salesian Tradition Read in Light of Lonergan’s Understanding of Vertical Finality”

Tomorrow's papers and presenters will be:

Wendy Wright, “The Transmission of the ‘Salesian Spirit’ in the 19th-Century Année sainte”

Patricia Siegel, “Caroline Carré and the Founding of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales”

Thomas Dailey, “The Spiritual Directory as a Privileged Means of Propagating the Salesian Spirit”

Joseph Boenzi, “Salesian Spirit, Lay Movements and Consecrated Life in the Church”

Kathy Brown, “St. Francis de Sales and a Theology of Vocation”

Planning sessions

It's snowing. No, not in California: it is snowing at Stella Niagara… Okay, not even! But there are flurries! 

I'm at the table at a planning session for the annual National Salesian Conference at the De Sales Resources and Ministries work room. John Graden OSFS and Joanne Kinney are guiding the meeting. On the national committee are Oblates Michael Newman, Michael Vanicola, Visitandines Paul MacCarthy, Grace MacCormack, Educator Anne Williams, Daughter Maryanne Pearson, and me. 

The conference is being planned for next August (6-9) at De Sales University (Allentown, Pennsylvania). The thought is to center the conference on Francis de Sales' best-know book, the Introduction to the Devout Life. 2009 will mark the 400th anniversary of the first publication of this book. 

The hope is to make the Introduction to the Devout Life (IDL) more understandable in our contemporary context -- at a time of great fear, war, economic failure, political polarization, church scandal, violence and addiction… well, hmmmm, sounds like a list of woes here. And the IDL seems so bucolic that it would have little to offer. Hmmmmm. Okay, but this is the reason for the title for the conference: Devotion in the Commotion. 

We worked all day yesterday and the more we advanced, the less clear we became. That's typical really.

Meetings continue through the day. 

Los Angeles to Buffalo

Left the Boenzi home this morning at 3.35. Was nice to spend the weekend with my mom again, but of course the two days went fast -- too fast. I have wanted to do this since I'll be away in Rome for three months… It has been over two months since I have been in Bellflower, but of course it seems more dramatic to go across the ocean. So this has been on my plans for travel ever since I knew I would be returning to Rome this autumn.

Made it to National Car Rental to return the vehicle by 4.10, and cleared security by 4.52… and then waited outside the Red Carpet Club at United Airlines for a few moments until it opened at 5.00. Breakfast in the club, a little television to see what Obama and McCain are up to… and then boarding at gate 75a for the flight to Washington.

The trip seemed to go quickly because I had a lot to read: the papers to be presented in the Scholars Seminar later this week. Arriving at Washington Dulles (IAD), I bought a salad at Wendy's, then waited for my flight to Buffalo. That departed from gate 22, and went without a hitch. Arrived at BUF at 6.00 - collected the luggage, waited for Sr Mary Grace MacCormack who arrived on a Southwest flight at 6.45… by 8.00 we were at the De Sales Resource center, courtesy of Bill Kinney who gave us a lift from the airport.

Was good to see everyone -- although the poor crowd started eating without us: pizza and Buffalo wings. But there was plenty for us, and it was fun to catch up with this little crowd of conference planners.

The week will include three events: the planning for the 2009 National Salesian Conference (Tuesday & Wednesday), the Fall Board Meeting of the DeSales Resources and Ministry Center (Thursday), and the Salesian Scholars Seminar (Thursday to Saturday). I leave for Rome on Sunday.

So a full week, but a change of occupation. That's really what I can use at this point.

Doctor's visit

Well, it was not really the doctor's visit: more like my visit to the doctor. I arrived at Albany at my doctor's office at 7.45 after a trip on the BART and a seven-minute brisk walk along the footpath under the train tracks that border the El Cerrito Center. Doctor Kun Huang had the results of my blood tests from a week ago… blood sugar is down, as are the triglycerides and bad cholesterol. That was good news. The good cholesterol, however, is also down. It has been 6 weeks that I have been on medication, with no carbs, no wine, and daily brisk walking of about 20 minutes. I'll need to get the walking up to about 40 minutes, however, if I am going to build up the system a bit more.

There have been some side effects however, which have left me very tired and physically drawn. So the dosage of the medication is reduced from two capsules each day at meals, to one capsule each day at breakfast. This is the provision for the next 3 months… Dr Huang will see me in February.

Yes: brisk walks, brisk walks, brisk walks. And watch my diet… yes, yes. But I have a question. How will I keep off of carbs and wine when I'm in Italy?

Hmmm which reminds me: I leave this coming Saturday. I need to pack.

John J. Boenzi remembered

Seven years today was the death of my father, John. He was always vibrant, active, industrious, community-oriented, a natural educator, gregarious, athletic, patriotic, supportive of neighbors, ready to take the first step with people, planner, lover of music, veteran of World War II, Bronze Star recipient, singer and performer, dancer, chef, tailor, builder, engineer, baseball coach, union man, community organizer, Cooperator Salesian, loving husband and devoted son and brave father. His biggest concern was always FAMILY.

Sometime, somewhere, I should start to write a little biography of the man, not just to recount the story for myself, but especially to tell his grandchildren and their children what manner of man John Boenzi was. I cannot do this right now. After all, blogs are about the present and not about the past… and so I add just the impressions and memories of him that are strongest for me now, seven years after his death.

Thursday, 11 October 2001 was such a painful day in my experience… when I heard the news through a phone message from my brother Mario, I went into a daze that lasted four months. That year had struck our family hard: my uncle Charles Kasal had died in February, and my uncle Dominic Boenzi (dad's older brother) died in July. In the case of my father, my brothers and I knew it was a matter of time since his conditions were deteriorating rapidly.

The last 10 years of his life he was stricken with Alzheimer disease, and as of August 1999 had been in an care facility. Gradually he changed in those last ten years. He had become cautious and fearful. He lost his building skills, he lost his memory, he lost his ability to sing and then to speak… but he did keep some words. A word he never lost was FAMILY.

Seven years ago, Dad. Miss you a lot. I know you are doing well now, but I still miss you a whole lot, as does Mom, as do your sons and your nieces and nephews, and so very many friends. But as you enjoy the Light, please get the Good Lord to send some of it our way, to lighten our hearts and comfort us and strengthen us along the path.

Papa Pacelli remembered

Fifty years ago today -- I remember it clearly -- my father called my brother and I into the kitchen after dinner and told us to watch the news with him. The news was this: Pope Pius XII was dead.

My father and grandfathers had always proposed this pope as a model for me: "He has the same name as you do," they told me.

That was confusing for me at age 6. "What do you mean? His name is Pius; my name is Joey… we don't have the same name."

"No," my father explained. "His name before he became pope was Eugenio Pacelli. And that's your middle name: Eugenio!"

Because of the pope I found out that I had a middle name… And so I became very affectionate in my feeling for him. There were television shows about the pope on Christmas and I remember pulling away from the playing with my cousins on those evenings and watching the pope's story on the TV. At the church there was a pictorial book of the pope and the Vatican, and I would borrow the book every Sunday and "read" all the photographs. Now I stood in front of the television, watching the new service, and trying to grasp what it all meant. At age 8, I knew that he was the pope of peace. I wondered how the Church would find another or if anyone could take the place of Papa Pacelli, as my grandfathers called him.

Funny. Every year on 9 October I think back to that evening when I stood in our kitchen and watched the news with my dad. I think of the figure of Pius XII. I think of how much he did for humanity (as I would learn only later) and I think of the attacks made against him by former Nazis and Soviets after his death that most people all-to-willingly believed. These malicious attacks have been proven baseless now. Hopefully the new researchers, Jewish and Catholic, will soon publish their findings to clear his name and allow his legacy to have its rightful impact again, for the peace of the nations and the strengthening of all who trust and love God.

Pius XII, born in Rome on 2 March 1876, elected to the Chair of Peter on 2 March 1939, and died in Castelgandolfo on 9 October 1958. May God be good to him!