Notes delivered today

Classes going well. I've given my students on Francis de Sales two versions of the class notes: one in Italian and one in English. The English version is considerably less than the book: only 16 units. I need to improve the Italian version, but I had to rush to get this to the students, since I arrived only 2 days before classes began. As it is, with the printing etc, they only got the notes today. 

My other two courses got the notes a week ago, but the material is much less in those courses than in Francis de Sales.

Meanwhile, I've decided to design a different FdS course for Berkeley, beginning next year. It will allow me to explore his writings more thoroughly, I hope. My book can be a study to read, but won't be the course outline as it has been up until now.

Dangerous pines

For two weeks now we have been told to stay away from the side road beside the provincial headquarters in the UPS. A number of the tall pines there have shown signs of decay and are in risk of falling. Before the bad weather comes, therefore, the grounds committee here arranged that a number of those pines should be cut down.

Other trees at the entrance of the university itself have been thinned of low-hanging branches, so as not to create more hazards for pedestrians. Some people are concerned that the branches can fall on parked cars. Yes, I'm sure that they can, and the lawsuits would come from the car owners. However, it is more risking for the pedestrians, because when caught in a sudden downpour (as happens during Rome's autumn), people take refuge under trees. Four years ago a couple of teenagers were killed by falling branches in downtown Rome during a sudden storm. The danger is real.

Today is the memorial of Pope John Paul II -- blessed for now, but soon to be canonized. The 22nd of October is the day on which he was installed as Bishop of Rome (1979), after his election on 16 October. Thus, in Rome and in Poland his feast is kept on this day. We remembered him in all the masses on campus today.

As for my own academic load at the UPS, I am teaching three courses this semester. These are all courses in the theology faculty and are entitled Foundations in Don Bosco's Spirituality (3 units); The social, political, cultural and religious context of Don Bosco's environment in Nineteenth Century Italy (2 units); St Francis de Sales: Life and Spirituality (3 units). I've been working on the class notes for my students, such as I can prepare in Italian and English. I have almost completed an Italian version of my book on Francis de Sales, which is now in its second printing at Stella Niagara. That's been exciting.

Catholic bookshops

Earlier today I got in a conversation about Catholic bookshops and religious good stores. This is an interesting topic, I feel, and one of concern since many such shops are struggling to survive at a time when most people can buy what they are looking for online.

Now, I have to say that I am fortunate enough that there is a fantastic bookstore right on the campus of the Salesian Pontifical University where I teach in Rome. That shop is part of a family-run chain that goes back to the days of Leo XIII. But the Leoniana is struggling too, even though the store is usually filled with clients: students, professors, neighbors, leaders from nearby parishes. I go there principally for the books, but there are also religious goods there, and stationery. What has been said about "location, location, location" is certainly at work here, and also quite vital since our campus is quite far from the city center.

At least once a month I travel to the old center of the city to shops run by the Daughters of St Paul or the Salesians to look for and pick up books (catechetics, spirituality, pastoral care); at other times I travel to Borgo Pio to shop at Soprani or Comandini for religious goods (usually when I am looking for gifts). I need to take at least two buses to reach these places, and so I am intentional about these trips.

As others have mentioned, there were more Catholic bookstores and religious goods shops in the past. When I grew up in the 1960s, there were two within the radius of 3 miles of where we lived in southern California, and our parish had a "religious goods and Catholic book shop" open on Sundays in the parish hall from 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM. I suspect the two local shops made that possible for our parish. Nowadays there is a gentleman who sets up a stall and sells religious goods and catechetical books (all in Spanish) just in the passage way between the church and the hall in that same home-town parish where I grew up. Whenever I am in town I notice that that stall is surrounded by people coming out of mass. This seems to me to be more of a service and an apostolate than a business, but it also shows me that parishioners make use of this service. 

A full day

Raining in Rome -- thunder storms and downpours, which are odd this time of year.

The first semester for the 2013-2014 academic year began today with 3 hours for the new students (9:00 to 12:00). In the afternoon I was the second reader for a thesis at an exam for the license in theology, and later at a 70 minute meeting of all the professors (350 of us) of the university. A full day. Tomorrow, the classes start.