Good Friday reflections

This afternoon I walked to the Newman Center to participate there in the Living Stations of the Cross and the Reconciliation Service. As usual there was a good turn out and I found the enviorment helpful for reflection, self-examination, prayer.

On the walk home I decided to stop for a haircut and then to buy some Easter cards. As soon as I find the top of my desk, I will write them out.

Five days after the earthquake in L'Aquila, the rescue operations are at an end, and the bodies all recovered. Today, Good Friday, was the day of the funeral. By radio, podcasts and internet I am doing all that I can to continue to follow the news. It shocked me that the only thing that I was able to find on the New York Times was an article about damaged art works. 289 people have died, and the New York Times is concerned about the art works.

This reminds me of the words of Luigi Barzini in reaction to the may British who used to holiday in Italy after World War II. Barzini said that these upper-class visitors were never interested in the people, but only in the monuments. "The only Italians that they care about are the dead ones," observed Barzini, meaning Cicero, Caesar and Virgil. Well, it looks to me like the New York Times is not even interested in the dead Italians.

REUTERS PHOTO 10 April 2009/Giampiero Sposito (ITALY DISASTER)

But today the funeral was celebrated in L'Aquila - a state funeral with President Napolitano, Prime Minister Berlusconi, the armed forces, and presided by the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Numerous bishops concelebrated with our Salesian cardinal in what has to be one of the saddest Good Fridays. I have followed these events as best I could, still struck by the terror and tragedy of this disaster.

So I end this Good Friday afternoon, praying for the victims in L'Aquila, as well as the victims of human wrath in our cities and in the wars that continue to rage… and pray too for those who are trying to rebuild the lives of so many hurting people, again in our cities but especially at L'Aquila and all the surrounding towns.

DSPT in a good position by default

Crisis at the GTU! The schools that were most solid two years ago (PSR, SFTS) are now in peril. These are the schools that are the best endowed, but the endowments have diminished by 46%. The Presbyterian School (SFTS) has 19 fulltime professors, and they must immediate reduce the full-time faculty to 13 by next Fall. The Jesuit School (JSTB) will have the gradual retirement of three Full Professors with no plan to replace them.

All of this came out during our faculty meeting this afternoon. Fr Michael Sweeney reported to us the needs of the school in terms of advertising and increasing our donor base, but then he spoke frankly of the general difficulties being faced by the GTU and the other member schools. The situation is dire.

Michael Sweeney, OP, President of DSPT, speaks during an all-school meeting

DSPT has always struggled for finances, but in the struggling has not lost the money of investments and endowments that it never had. Suddenly we find our struggling school in a better position than most of the others of the GTU. It is not that our fortunes have reversed. What has happened is that the wealthy cannot attract the foundation dollars that they once did and their stock portfolios are a fraction of their former value. DSPT has never had any of this, so in maintaining its usual struggling fiancial position, the school actually comes out ahead. So much so that we are talking about making a hire (possibly two) for the new academic year.

If nothing else can be said, we can at least affirm that this is an interesting turn of events.

Earthquake

This morning I awoke to the radio news of an earthquake in Italy. The epicenter was l'Aquila. At 5.30 this morning I heard that there were 9 dead… by 6.00 the news was 30 confirmed dead… by 7.30 there were 72, and the death toll rising. I was able to download news from the internet and the photos from Reuters and Associated Press. These I pasted on my laptop for a slideshow when my students came in for the 8.10 class. None of them had heard yet of the earthquake. We offered our start-up prayer for the victims, and I have to say that the thought of this disaster has been with me all day.

Checking with family and friends in Rome, where they felt the shake intensely, all the people that I know are safe. Thanks be to God, the five Salesians and the 100 university students who lodge with them in the student hostel that is Istituto S. Giovanni Bosco at L'Aquila are all safe. As soon as the first shock hit, the entire community rushed out into the inner courtyard of the Institute, and they remained there until morning light. Only then did they chance to go back into the building. The building sustained grave damage, but not one of the educators or university students were the least injured. By afternoon, all the students had left to return to their homes.

So the Salesians at the epicenter are all safe. I wonder at this point how my friends in Rome are doing. L'Aquila is only about 80 km from Rome. The quake was strongly felt there too, but I have not heard if there has been damage. I am anxious to hear.

Now we pray and we wait. Rescue workers have been busy since the first quake, and they continue now to extract the injured. Italians are ready to volunteer but the rescue is very much under control. All that has been asked now is that people donate blood to the Red Cross.


In the meantime, I heard from my geologist cousin Salvatore, who writes today:

ENNESIMO LUTTO IN ITALIA. SONO VICINO ALLE FAMIGLIE TERREMOTATE. MA PERCHE' IN ITALIA NON C'E' PREVENZIONE? PERCHE' NOI GEOLOGI NON SIAMO INTERPELLATI? NON MI RIFERISCO ALLA POLEMICA DIVAMPATA RIGUARDANTE IL DOTT. GIULIANI, LA SUA TEORIA NON E' ANCORA RICONOSCIUTA DALLA COMUNITA' SCIENTIFICA INTERNAZIONALE. I TERREMOTI CON LE NOSTRE CONOSCENZE SCIENTIFICHE NON SI POSSONO PREVEDERE. MI RIFERISCO AL CONTROLLO PUNTUALE DEL TERRITORIO. I SOLDI CHE SONO STANZIATI PER L'EMERGENZA PERCHE' NON SONO STANZIATI PER LA PREVENZIONE? NOI GEOLOGI GRIDIAMO TUTTO' CIO' DA ANNI MA SIAMO IGNORATI, LA NOSTRA E' UNA CATEGORIA DI PROFESSIONISTI CHE PER INTERVENIRE FA' SPENDERE SOLDI PER PREVENIRE LE CATASTROFI E QUESTO I POLITICI NON LO AMMETTONO. PER LORO E' TEMPO E DENARO SPRECATO.

What can I say? I agree with him.

75th and 25th Anniversary

Today is the 75th anniversary of the canonization of St John Bosco. Yes, that's right! 75 years ago today, on Easter Sunday, 1 April 1934, Pope Pius XI ended the Jubilee of the Resurrection with the solemn rite of canonization of St John Bosco. It was the only time in history that a canonization was held on Easter, but then, Pius XI wanted as big a gathering of bishops and dignitaries as possible for the day that he raised his own friend Don Bosco to the honors of the altar.

Don Bosco's beatification, on 2 June 1929, had been the first to take place after the reconciliation between Italy and the Holy See (Lateran Pacts: 11 February 1929). Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti) was celebrating his golden jubilee of priesthood that year, and opened the celebration on 2 June with the beatification of the man who had saved his own vocation when, as a young priest, he was filled with fervor and doubt. As pope, Pius XI Ratti presented his friend Don Bosco as the icon of the priest who was active in promoting good citizenship, but who remained loyal to the pope and to the church.

The apostle of youth was to become a symbol for a new style of Catholic Action for young and old, for laity and the ordained, and so Pius XI timed his canonization for the conclusion of the special Jubilee Year of the Redemption (from Ash Wednesday 1933 to Easter Sunday 1934). A priest like Don Bosco, who was the father and teacher of young people… who was a son of the common people that rose to leadership in the Church and Society… offered the Church a strong example of the meaning of truth and freedom against the claims of the totalitarian regimes then gaining power. The Jubilee Year, in fact, concluded with Don Bosco's canonization: he was held up as the icon to seminarians and priests, for a new, apostolic style of priesthood.

That was Rome, 1 April 1934. But we are in Berkeley on 1 April 2009. We are not in the public eye, even though life here is not less complicated.

At Don Bosco Hall we proceed one step at a time, but it dawned on me during mass this morning that Autumn 2009 will be the 25th anniversary of the ISS. During breakfast I told Gael and Marc that we need to think about having a celebration. No, I don't mean a party. I mean a relaunch, an outreach, a fundraiser… in short, all those things that are part of such celebrations. And the fact of the matter is that we are expecting some very big changes as John Roche and Gael Sullivan and Marc Rougeau work as the new team and develop new programs, courses, concepts.

Yes, a 25th anniversary will be important.