Ring Mass

All the Catholic high schools in California that I know (and perhaps in the USA for that matter), celebrate "ring mass" - the day when the juniors (grade 11) get their class rings. Usually there is a mass and a blessing in the Catholic schools…

So the Vatican holds its own "ring mass" on the day after the consistory: when the pope blesses the golden rings of the new cardinals, and then gives the ring to each of them. It is yet another encounter between the pope and the new cardinals -- a moment of reassurances and of shared joy.

It began raining -- strike that: POURING this morning by 9.00, and so I decided that I would not use my ticket to go to the Piazza for that celebration. However, I did follow it in the media… and and it was another festive/solemn happy-kind-of-day.

There is nothing in the USA websites about our Cardinal Farina, except for some lamenting about there being still some curial cardinals by some American commentators who want to insist that the new cardinals are not representative enough of the people… (cf. John Allen of NCR). However, I did manage to find some enthusiastic reports from the newspaper of Benevento. It seems that a huge delegation from don Raffaele's hometown of Buonalbergo came to Rome to attend the two-days of consistory and celebration, and that their wild, noisey, affectionate endorsement of their hometown boy more than make up for the silence of the world press.

Representative of the people of God? Hmmm … the American critics may be sour on it, but the people of Buonalbergo are very happy that Raffaele Farina, Salesian and their own priest, is now cardinal. They have loved him and have always found him to be approachable and simple -- one of them. Sounds like a good representation to me!

At St Peter's Square for the new cardinals

This morning I went down to St Peter's to assist at the public consistory for the creation of 23 new cardinals. Among the new cardinals is the Salesian Raffaele Farina, whom I can claim as a personal friend from my student days at the UPS (1990-1994), but also from several years earlier when he spent his sabbatical year (1984) in California and was a guest for a day at De Sales Hall. Of course, I already knew him in the sense that, as rector magnificus of the UPS, he had overseen my theology studies at the Crocetta and signed the diploma for my bachelor degree in theology. As a matter of fact, his signature is on all three of my degress from the UPS - Bachelor, Licentiate and Doctorate.

When the nominations came out a little over a month ago I was very happy to learn that (finalmente) Don Raffaele had been named to the cardinalate. So when tickets were offered, I immediately asked for one.

Tickets were to St Peter's Square, but the consistory took place inside the basilica. Those of us who were outside watched and heard all on giant screen televisions that were set up in the piazza. At first I was disappointed (of course) that I was not right there, but the sense of being seated in the crowd in the square and seeing all on the giant screens - things taking place a few hundred meters ahead of us -- well I was soon swept into it. There was a great feeling of participation by all in the piazza. We were really "there" after all.

Before the ceremony began, the big screens displayed a steady camera shot on the nave of the basilica. As the bells of St Peter's began to sound at 10.15, there was a zoom and a fade, and I recognized the camera techniques of RAI, and realized we would see what was being broadcast through Italy. The tremendous camera work made it all so close for us in the piazza, as we joined also in the responsory singing with the Sistine Choir (what a tremenous sound from that choir today! real improvement over how they sounded at the start of the 1990s!!!). And then I had a real surprise - a very pleasant one. The camera focused on don Pascual Chavez at least 5 times during the ceremony, including for an extended time during Pope Benedict's homily. I noted that there were no other shots on individuals in the church other than cardinals. Even though a Jesuit and a Franciscan were also receiving the red hat, there were not closeups on the Jesuit Superior General nor on the Franciscan Minister General. Just the Salesian rector major.

And there was a big enough Salesian contingent in the crowd too - for every time Don Chavez was seen and every time Cardinal Farina was named, there was a cheer. Big cheers also went for the former bishop of Loreto, Giovanni Lajolo, for the archbishop of Monterrey, Francisco Robles Ortega, and for the archbishop of Houston, Daniel di Nardo. There were drum beats and enthusiastic cheers for the archbishop of Dakar (Senegal) Theodore Adrien Sarr, and for the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon (Bagdad) Emmanuel III Delly. These seem to figure in the news releases of the world press (or at least the USA press), but the television spotted Farina and Chavez. How cool is that?!

The exit from the basilica was solemn and festive at the same time, but I left and hurried to the metro to get home for dinner. I was starving. As I traveled home I noticed that it started to rain, and was caught in a downpour when I left the 80 express bus to make my way up Piazza dell'Ateneo Salesiano… I missed the soup, but made it for the main course… And there were chestnuts and barolo wine!!! Another treat on a very happy Roman day!

Tomorrow the cardinals will receive their cardinal's ring from Pope Benedict… that takes place at a mass, again in St Peter's. I have tickets for that too, but am not sure I will be able to go (and again, my tickets are for the square, not for the basilica).

Welcome News for Don Bosco Hall

The good news from Berkeley is that Jorge Santiago from Puerto Rico, who came for one semester, will now stay for two years!! At the same time, a letter came to Tom Prendiville from the Stanley Foundation with a 25,000. check for scholarships for Salesians from mission territories. It is a repeat of last year when with the help of Katie Calvert from the development office of the Western Dominican Province, helped us (ISS and DSPT) to apply for a grant. That work began way back in the Summer of 2005, and Katie succeeded in getting a grant for our students in 2006, and now again in 2007.

It seems that Katie is no longer working for the Western Dominicans. However, Tom Prendiville tells me that he will invite Gael Sullivan, as new director of the ISS, to speak with Michael Sweeney (DSPT president) and contact Katie to let her know that all her efforts have yielded good results.

And the timing is perfect: Jorge was refused a place in Chile but is accepted to DSPT: the grant can offset his tuition and living expenses so that his province is not going to lose and we get to keep him on board. Ah, if only DBH could hire Katie to do some grant writing proposals for our international students! This would take the edge out of things, economically … and that is a big part of our problem in bringing in Salesians for our programs.

Well, it is not the time to worry about this. It is time to rejoice with Jorge, with the DBH community, and to thank Katie and the Dominicans for all their efforts to help us to flourish. All this fits with my comments from yesterday. How important it is that we get the word out (PR, advertise, whatever…) about the ISS and our Salesian programs.

Continuing the series

The satisfaction on the face of Aldo Giraudo (pictured above) speaks volumes, don't you think? Oh … well, I think so.

Today Aldo presented me with a copy of volume 2 of Arthur Lenti's series, Don Bosco, Life and Spirit. He is sending 24 copies of the book to Arthur in Berkeley. The project continues, then, at a good pace.

The volume was delivered to the LAS last Wednesday, 14 November, thanks largely to the efforts of Aldo and of the Centro Studi Don Bosco here at the University. However, it was only yesterday that the LAS put Arthur’s second volume out for sale. Both Aldo and I have already communicated with Arthur via e-mail. I have not heard back from him, but Aldo tells me that he received an enthusiastic reply.

Arthur Lenti offers an extraordinary resource in this series… and I am hearing from a number of quarters how much his work is appreciated. Aldo tells me that there is already a move to translate the series into Spanish. Aldo Giraudo, by the way, remains the most enthusiastic supporter of Arthur Lenti's efforts and of the work of the ISS. Others in Rome seem to think that our Berkeley initiative has run its course. We need more "good PR" and less aggravation, I feel… but that is another story. For now, we bask in the sunshine-joy of Arthur's series.

For my part (hey! that's me in the photo!), I am most pleased to see Arthur's work come to print. He has been the mainstay of the ISS in Berkeley since the onset, and now he is making an important contribution to the entire Salesian World. Yesterday in my class on Salesian Spirituality (TA2232) I presented a number of books to the students, and showed them Arthur's first volume. Now I will show them the two volumes together, and encourage them to delve into them.

Computer woes

The old adage says that "no news is good news", but I have come to realize that "no news is just no news"..

My laptop computer has been brought to the Apple people at Flaminia Computer to be fixed, but it is really not working right at all. It overheats quickly even with a chill pad, and the batter drains within 10 minutes of being unplugged. If I am on the internet it likes to crash the machine and I've been blocked in the middle of my powerpoint presentations too by a sudden, no-reason, shutdown of the whole machine.

So I went and purchased a computer for my working - a desktop, iMac - again from Flaminia Computer. The Theology Faculty here promised to pay, but there were all sorts of delays (which I will explain in a moment), so I used my credit card.

Flaminia Computer advertising WiFi

The total of the computer, with the three year guarantee and taxes, came to (gulp) € 1,611.00. The faculty (school of theology) assured me that they would reimburse me by check so that I could send this to you. However, things have developed differently. For one thing, since September, there have been the deaths of two brothers who worked in the financial offices of the UPS. Three days after I got  here, the head financial administrator of the UPS was rushed to hospital; after 2 weeks there, he came home and was well for a couple of days… and hten fell ill again. He is now in his native Poland for the last two weeks undergoing testing…

This would be a sad report of curiosities for you do not know these people. However, the impact is this: the new person working the finances at UPS does not have signature on all the accounts.

So, the long and the short of this is that the Faculty could not secure a check from the UPS, nor could they do a wire transfer. But yesterday the prefect of the Theology Dept came to me in my office and gave me € 1,611 in cash.

The final piece of bad news is that my laptop is still not functioning. As I said, it is crashing now all the time, which is not good for a Macintosh. I am trying to stabilize it, and hope to succeed, but I am also recuperating all my preferences and other data at this time (when I am free to do t his because my class schedule is 8 hours of class in the first three days of the week). When I return to Berkeley, I will need to get me a good desktop mac - because (already the technicians at Cal's computer place told me this :) I am using the laptop more than what it was designed for. A laptop is for travel an occasions that call for brief work, not 9 hours a day of work. It is the third time this computer has broken down, and I burned through two other laptops in the five years previous to buying this one.

So, it is not in my budget, but this is one of those necessities. I need to get a desktop computer when I get back to teach the second semester and carry on all the assignments that province, house and faculty put on me.

Whoa, that wasn’t so hard to say, now, was it?

The ever-crashing mac powerbook

It is hard to tell whether I have been busy or just worn and torn. On Friday last I went down to the Mac Store in via Flaminia, beyond the center of Rome but in an area that has been commercial since Julius Caesar was a teenager. They could not get the laptop to function and since I had a guarantee, they took it to work on. I went with a student and another professor, both of whom were interested in purchasing a mac for their office/rooms. At that point I took the plunge and purchased an iMac, having taken two weeks to get a type of a yes from the dean. It is an excpetional machine and I am working on it now, however I still missed my own little Apple Powerbook G4.

On Monday night, then, I got a call from the Flaminia Computer that my machine would be ready the next day. Accompanied by Marco Bay (who spent the summer of 2000 at Don Bosco Hall), I picked up the machine. I was very happy to see him, and the technician, Alessio, told me that the hard drive was damaged. They installed a new one and recovered my data…

But…

The data is there without the programs that were mine. Alessio installed the usual mac programs, many of which I never use, but my own particular ones are missing… I've got the original application disks at home and will install them…

And yet…

The computer really is not functioning. It crashes now frequently… but when do Macintoshes ever crash? So something is really WRONG here.

Well, I have just to get it operating so that I can use it for class presentations. My classes at the UPS are going well (from the student feedback), so that has got to be the priority of the moment. I will try to understand what is missing that is causing the crashes. And I will make sure to back up everything so that if I need to return to via Flaminia, I'll not worry about losing data.

Amusing, really. Not only am I attached to my Powerbook, but I depend on it for almost everything these days… Thank God it does not make coffee too, or I really be in bad shape!

Cielo aperto, poco nuvoloso

Thursday and no classes to teach all day, so I took it easy during the morning and did some laundry and other little tasks. The sky opened very blue this morning, and the air is fresh and sweet. How I love the scent of Rome when the wind is blowing and the ground is wet. My laundry likes it too, because it can dry in the November sunshine that is sweet and not too harsh.

At dinner today, I entered into a discussion with my table companions about the growing clericalism that we detect in the church. Is this a swing of the pendulum? Or is it a symptom of something deeper taking place, particularly among the younger generation? Whatever it is, it is happening in Eastern and Western Europe, as well as in North America, as a new strident crowd becomes more indignant within the Church, and as Society as a whole moves away from any notion of organized religion and all its trappings outside the inner circle of Western churches.

Heavy discussion, on top of pasta with a bacon and egg sauce. We switched themes and spoke of ecumenism when it was time for the second plate of chicken, potatoes and spinach. More than 2 hours later I still feel heavy!!!

It is time to prepare next weeks classes, but the first three days leave me rather exhausted and I lose my ambition. No matter. It is time to act. Still, if I do not succeed in meeting any academic deadlines, I am consoled that the afternoon sun is drying my laundry. At least I will have accomplished one deed today that has something of value.

Taking stock

So yes, it is now two weeks that I am back in Italy. The courses are going fine… what will happen for the future for me, of that I am less sure. At the end of the day it is a question of where I can offer a better contribution, I suppose. I have not yet figured out all the details of what that is supposed to look like.

After the rain

Well, life in Rome has become, I suppose, very normal for me. I really cannot account for this feeling that I have about being in Rome and in Italy, but I must admit that I breathe a lot easier once I am here.

This morning has been glorious. After several days of rain, the sky is open, the breezes are fresh and cool, the sun is a kiss of warmth on the skin and a dazzle for the eyes. Oh, but I am supposed to be here to teach!!!! Okay, that too: I am working on my class preparation as I look out my office to the Alban hills.

Roma, quanta sei bella!

All Souls Day

All Souls Day and the holidays continue. We are having a nice few days of rest and just spending some time together. After this it will be non-stop until Christmas.

This morning I took advantage to sleep a little longer. I am still not over my jetlag. But when I went to find some breakfast at 8.30, there were some other professors there as well.

During the breakfast conversation I actually fielded many questions from the UPS professors about the viability of ISS and our continuation of the Salesian Spirituality and Studies program at Berkeley. I think that our ISS needs to organize a PR tour. The up-coming General Chapter would be the perfect time for it, but would our San Francisco representatives, David and Mel, agree to become proactively vocal? Something is needed to recapture the immagination and the good will of the Congregation, not only of the few who speak English.

Festive but quiet day

Today is the feast of All Saints. I joined the Don Rua Community for early morning mass at 7.30, and then for breakfast. After doing a load of laundry, I spent some time preparing classes, e-mailing friends, and, yes, taking a nap.

Am doing all the work on my classes on the borrowed laptop provided by Marco Bay. Next week I will have a chance to bring my Macintosh down to Center Rome to have it looked at by the Mac people. I have a full, 3-year guarantee so I should have luck for the machine. I just hope that I can get all of my data out of it. I recently put in a lot of photos, and I neglected to make a backup disk with them. I also bought some music off iTunes and did not have time to back them up (or felt too pressed to take the time). Well, that is my own fault. I have backed up my document files regularly (Word and PowerPoint), however, so I can present my work for my courses without fear.

There is a lesson somewhere in all this, but I am not ready to face that lesson right now.

International Mix at Salesian Pontifical University

Today is the feast of Bl. Michele Rua. There were specialties at dinner and a little reception in the dinning room lobby after dinner, but I was not able to take part due to the fact that I had to run to teach my class on Salesian Spirituality to those of the First Cycle (Bachelor's level). After a couple of little technical difficulties, we were able to get that class off to decent start, finally. Not great, but decent.


Of 37 students enrolled in that course, on 5 are Italians, and maybe 5 others are Europeans. The vast majority are Africans and Asians. This is very different from when I studied theology at the "UPS Sezione Torino" 30 years ago. At that time, I was the only non-Italian among 60 theology students. When I returned to Italy in 1990 to do advanced studies in spiritual theology, there were a good number of Latin Americans who matched the number of Europeans, with a few Indians and fewer East Asians. It was less than a year from the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and during my first year, the Soviet Union collapsed totally when Gorbachev was kidnapped by radicals (all events that I watched on Italian television). We has a good number of Polish students and a few Eastern Europeans who were the first to have the opportunity for studies in the West in nearly two generations. At that time I belonged to the student community of "Don Rua" and I have wonderful memories of those days, as I do of my "first cycle" days at Torino. I saw the Salesian congregation as youthful and ethusisastic, thanks to those attributes that I could identify in my peers.

Now, as I say, the Latin Americans are as scarce as the Europeans; the Poles have more professors than students, but the Eastern European student population has risen.

Our university population is increasingly international, with students from 115 nations... There are many eastern Europeans, Latin Americans, Indians, Africans, East Asians, and even a little colony of Filipino students. Most of the Italian students here are enrolled in the faculties of education, psychology, catechetics and social communications. The vast majority of these students are local, actually citizens of Rome itself.

And from the USA? there is only one student, Peter by name, whom I came to know two years ago. He is from California -- from Fresno to be exact. He has come here to study Latin and Greek. The UPS is off the beaten track for people from the USA who want to have a Roman experience, I suppose. Many would expect to be close to the Vatican or to the historic center of the ancient capital, caput mundi. Instead, we are on the northern rim of the expanding metropolis, in a very blue-collar district. But that is a very cool place to be, when you think of the Salesian mission.


All these are thoughts that come to mind on the feast of Michele Rua, who pushed to spread the Salesian Family to become operative on all Five Continents. Thanks, Don Rua! I hope you are happy with what you see at this Salesian Pontifical University in 2007.

Outing

Today the community of Gesù Maestro went on an outing to Subiaco. I did not tell anyone it was my birthday, but I enjoyed all the activites as such.

A card from my mom reads:

May you always have people to laugh with and be close to,
things to dream about and work hard for,
places you can go to rest and reflect
on all that is good in the world,
and especially in you …
and may you always know
how much you're loved.

These are wonderful words. I will have to remember them as a blessing.

Computer burnout!

My little powerbook MAC laptop has gone through a major crash. It happened on Wednesday after I taught my first class.

Luckily, I had made a backup disk of my documents when I arrived in Rome but I had not made a backup of my photos and music files. I attempted to go to the Mac labs yesterday, but the rain became intense. My friend, Marco Bay, lent me his extra laptop, ant that is what I am using now. After downloading my work files, I have had to scramble to find everything. My applications are for Mac, however, and do not work on the PC so a lot of material (bibliographies, bible referencing, music files, aol) is in cold storage.

Amid these trials and tribulations on Wednesday, I began teaching my courses. My 3-unit course on Francis de Sales has 25 in the class at masters level. I also have two other courses, one on foundations of Salesian spirituality for BA level, and one of leading themes of Salesian spirituality.

It is a very full program for me, and I have had little time to do other things since my arrival in the Eternal City. I have spent most of today working on getting the class notes in order to have them printed for the students in Italian and in English. I am doing all this on a borrowed PC with a keyboard that differs from what I normally use. Ai ai ai!

Arrival and re-entry

Made it to Rome this morning with some delays due to the extra security measures at Dulles airport in Washington DC. We were 45 minutes late, and it took an hour for the luggage to arrive at the pickup point, but processing through immigration went very smoothly.

Two students, Wim Collin and Fabiano Gheller, met me at the exit of customs and drove me back to the university.


This time I have been given a room in what is called the rettorato -- the wing where the provinical offices are located. My room is a guest room and rather small with no bookshelves. However, it is a quiet area and there is a laundry room, which makes things easier for me. After a quick clean-up, I went to pay my respects to directors and provincials, department chairs and deans and made it to pranzo at 13.10 in good shape.

Giorgio Zevini, dean of the Theology School, and Jesùs Manuel Garcia, director of the Insitute of Spiritual Theology, have decided to give me an office on the first floor of the theology building. This will make it easier for me with a workspace of my own. Last year I only could work out of my bedroom and had limited telephone and internet access. By tomorrow I should be given a key and will be able to move in with all my books and such.

Once the problem of an office was solved, I fought off sleep for the rest of the afternoon. This I did by dedicating my time to preparing my classes for tomorrow (three are scheduled). I have a PowerPoint and syllabus ready for my class on Francis de Sales, which takes place at second period tomorrow. My plan is to complete the syllabus for the second course tomorrow morning, as I'm to those taking the monograph on Salesian Spirituality in the afternoon between 15.00 and 16.35. Nearly the same people are taking both courses.

So I am hitting the road running, as it were.

Returning to the Eternal City

Left Berkeley this morning. Gael Sullivan brought me to SFO by 7:00, and I cleared Security by 7:50 only to find that my 8:50 flight on United Airlines has been delayed by two hours. This gives me a moment to register some thought or other while in the United Red Carpet lounge before take off.

The last few months have gone by quickly -- so quickly that I feel that I am further behind on things than when I started. Now I start another semester at UPS before finishing the semester at DSPT. This may all be too hectic for me now... but I'll pick up my musings in the blog again and try to uncover my feelings for myself and for you.

Before any of this happens, I have the weekend with my mom in beautiful Bellflower, California!

Double birthday celebration

Sunday - and we celebrated two birthdays today, with a wonderful inhouse celebration. Marylou Cordoba did the cooking, and the brothers with Duoc Le decorated the house. And who were the "festeggiati"?

Marc Rougeau (5 October 1947)

John Rasor (7 October 1944)

It was a very wonderful celebration. For Marc, it is great because he his so enjoying being part of this community of Don Bosco Hall in Berkeley. For John, because his bout with cancer has been frightening for all of us, but it seems that he is responding well to the treatments and is regaining strength, appetite, and endurance.

Happy Birthday, my brothers!

Weary

It has been non-stop for me since June of 2006 and the word "weary" sort of says it - or maybe burnout… Got back Monday night from Minneapolis - St Paul, and the whole trip back I just listened to music or chatted and did not even try to read - and then we just had meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Just got out of the last meeting 15 minutes ago… but happily we covered everything and there is no need to meet tomorrow - nothing until August 23rd…

So that sounds like an invitation to do sweet nothing for a few days and just allow myself to regroup. I am cheering and jumping for joy!

Meetings, meetings and more meetings

Summer has not finished (and I have been so busy that it seems like it has not started) but we are already having meetings for the new academic year. Our team met this morning at 9.00 and stayed hard at it until past noon.

Perhaps I have not blogged it, but there is a great novelty at Don Bosco Hall (DBH) and the Institute of Salesian Spirituality (ISS) at Berkeley: a new director and new team for Hall and Institute!

Gael Sullivan is director; Marc Rougeau takes finances and plant manager; John Roche is on the teaching team. The great thing is that all three of them are enthusiastic about joining the community at Berkeley. This is certainly encouraging to Mary Greenan, John Rasor, Arthur Lenti and me, who remain from the old and ancient DBH team.

This is not to say that we do not face some real issues of viability for the ISS, for theology in Berkeley for Salesians, and for the work of ongoing formation for the province. The challenges are tremendous.There will be very few doing the ISS this year, and Thien Nguyen will be our only theology student after Tho Bui leaves following his ordination on 29 December.

New approaches need to be developed for DBH. Gael, Marc and John have good ideas and much enthusiasm, so it is a hope-filled time for those at 1831 Arch Street.

John Roche defends his thesis

This afternoon John Roche successfully defended his thesis. The theme he chose was Spiritual Accompaniment. The Salesian Pontifical University has awarded John with the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) and is now qualified to teach theology. He will join the teaching team at the Institute of Salesian Studies at Don Bosco Hall in Berkeley.

Accompaniment? Is that about music? What is spiritual accompaniment?

Ah… you will have to read John’s thesis to find out! (j/k). It is a way of considering spiritual direction in the style and spirit of St Francis de Sales and the praxis of St John Bosco. Instead of sitting impartial in the role of spiritual guru, the Salesian guides those seeking spiritual direction by walking with them, journeying alongside them… and in the process, experiences everything of the same journey.

John entitled his thesis: The Salesian Youth Spirituality of Accompaniment: Fr. Juan Vecchi’s Vision of Youth Spirituality for a New Moment. However, in the course of the writing, John opened up three areas of investigation. I thought that he could have reduced all this to one, because he has the topics of three different theses really. Throughout the writing and correcting, he attempted to narrow it down, narrow it down… but in the end he wanted to be comprehensive in all this.

Well the defense went well, as I said. John had a huge group following the exchange, so much so that we had to move the examination to a bigger room. John was very articulate as well, and did extremely well on the oral examination. My own thought is that he will have a lot of material from this thesis that he can develop into courses for the ISS when he gets there for the Autumn Term.

Great work, John! Congratulations.

Tropical fruits and Roman scholarship

My lecturing is finished - it is just a question now of continuing the examinations (all oral) and correcting the theme papers submitted by the students. I've also completed two of the four exams of Licentiate theses last week. New Monday and next Tuesday I will have the last two of these thesis examinations, as well as other exams… Then I'll submit all my grades and return to California…

Today I have not commitments, so I've sat for a few hours in a lounge chair in the sunshine, reading through the fourth thesis… it is very pleasant, not for the reading but for the fact that the sunscreen that I've applied to my skin is scented like mango… all of which is disposing me very kindly toward this final thesis!!!

Pietro Stella died today

This morning I had to leave the UPS at about 8.45, and don Stella was still alive at that point. I returned at noon and found that he had died during the morning. The funeral will be held at the University Church on Monday, 4 June.

At this point there is one poster in the community dining room areas; I expect more information will be posted soon.

Here is the official announcement from the UPS of the death of Pietro Stella. It was sent out this afternoon at about 13.00 hours.

È morto don Pietro Stella
Il cordoglio della comunità accademica dell’UPS

(UPS – Roma, 1 giugno 2007) – È deceduto questa mattina venerdì 1 giugno 2007 il Rev. Prof. don Pietro Stella, insigne studioso e professore dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana.

Il Rettore don Mario Toso a nome di tutta la comunità universitaria ha scritto un messaggio di cordoglio che riportiamo di seguito.

In memoriam

L’intera comunità accademica dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana (UPS) si unisce al dolore della Comunità “Gesù Maestro” della Visitatoria per la scomparsa dell’illustre Professore don Pietro Stella.

Docente ordinario di Teologia morale nella Facoltà di Teologia dell’UPS sino al 15 ottobre 1979, il Prof. Stella è stato, tra l’altro, ordinario di Storia Moderna presso la Facoltà di Magistero dell’Università di Perugia dal 1977 e, nel 1981, fu chiamato a coprire la cattedra di Storia della Chiesa nella Facoltà di Magistero dell’Università degli Studi di Roma.

Incaricato per anni del Centro Studi D. Bosco dell’UPS, il Prof. don Pietro Stella si è affermato come un grande studioso non solo dell’opera e dell’attività educativa e pastorale di Don Bosco nella storia della Religiosità cattolica, ma anche del Giansenismo in Italia.

L’Università Pontificia Salesiana è riconoscente a don Stella per il suo insigne impegno culturale. Con il suo servizio, contrassegnato da circa cinquanta anni di ricerche, ha altamente onorato la nostra Comunità accademica e salesiana, con la quale ha sempre coltivato un legame profondo.


Prof. don
Mario Toso
Rettore

I funerali avranno luogo lunedì 4 giugno alle ore 11.00 presso la chiesa dell’Università Salesiana

Prayers for the dying

This morning at 5.00 don Stella's condition changed suddenly, and he went into a slow decline. His blood pressure began to go down in gradual increments and his body temperature as well. He is breathing, but just. At 7.00 we had our community mass in the infirmry chapel, praying the mass for the dying. Afterwards a number of us went in to see him. He is surrounded by his brothers and don Nicolussi is with him, as is don Strus'. The sisters of the Sacred Hearts (don Variara's group) continue to assist as well. So I was able to spend a few minutes at his bedside with the others.

At the mass we prayed for the Lord's assistance to don Pietro in these moments. It is now 8.10 -- I just grabbed a coffee after seeing him and came to make this blog post using one of the university computers.

Pietro Stella near death - Macintosh out of commission

Yesterday Pietro Stella could not speak, although he seemed to understand enerything said. Doctors visited hiò also to try to ease pain, while more family members came to be with him during the day.

Last night, then, for the first time a number of confreres stayed by his bedside throughout the night, helping to move him from bed to chair from time to time, since it is easier for him to breathe from the chair. Tonight another group will stay with him to assist. Mood in the Gesù Maestro community is very somber these days, as it is in the Domenico Savio community (both are communities of professors). I don't know the reaction in the other communities.

For myself there has been a setback. The cord to my laptop burned this morning in what must have been an electrical surge (in spite of the fact that I was using surge protectors). The computer does not seem to be damaged, but the battery evidently was not charging and recharging, perhaps the cord and transformer have been damaged for a few days. All my data and materials are there. My backup disks, however, are safe in my desk. Tomorrow I will go to the Apple Store by Sta Maria Maggiore in hopes of getting a new cord etc.

This never happened last year, when I actually used the computer more than now -- but it makes me realize too that laptops are not made for extended use. I'll need to get a desktop mac for my use in DBH, and a desktop here next year when I come. The are cheaper but hardier and should be able to take the wear and tear better.

Pietro Stella -update

Today don Pietro Stella had a very difficult time breathing and his heartbeat was labored. For most of the morning he seemed in a coma, but became conscious in the afternoon. However, he remains in a very weakened state.

His doctor came by in the afternoon and told the sisters at the UPS infirmary that he could go at any time now.

Keeping vigil with Pietro Stella

This is an update on the condition of Fr Pietro Stella. On the feast of Mary Help (24 May) he received the Sacrament of the Sick. Since that time he has not been able to celebrate mass. On Saturday he told Jozef Strus', the rector, that he his not afraid of daying and is ready. Then he said "It is time that I pass on the torch to another". When don Strus' asked him what he meant, don Stella said he was speaking of his place in the area of Salesian research. Stella named a confrere, but Strus' did not reveal this (however, I already know that Stella means to "pass the torch" to Aldo Giraudo, for he has been very matter of fact on this score with Aldo ever since he first became sick in November).

On Sunday Pietro Stella was visibly weakening. He could no longer stand unassisted. Today, Monday, he spoke very little. Relatives of his are starting to arrive to see him; his sister spent the entire day. Of course, Prospero Stella, who is older and much more reserved than Pietro, has been with him all during these days.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Pietro Stella's ordination. He made the remark on the day that we celebrated (Ascension) all the anniversaries: "Please thank the Lord with me that he has allowed me to meet Don Bosco, and then that he allowed me to love Don Bosco, and finally that he has helped me remain faithful to the Founder until the last."

Whatever develops next, the community here keeps him tight in prayer.

Difficult news

During the lunch for the feast of Mary Help of Christians we got news that Jacques Schepens, one of the leading Salesian scholars for the Flemish, French and German contexts, has been struck by a mysterious disease that has left him incapacitated mentally. It is devastating news, not only for what regards Jacques (whom many of us know and love sincerely), but also for the field of Salesian studies and spirituality. Where this leaves the few of us still active in the field is anyone's guess.

Celebration of nations and of Mary Help

May at the UPS always ends with the celebrations of the nations. Every cultural block prepares musical numbers or dances in the morning break as the semester winds down to a conclusion. These celebrations all lead to the feast of Mary Help of Christians, which is truly the highlight of the Spring season at the University.

Here are some shots of this year's "celebration of the nations".

An ethnic celebration of heart: Eastern European countries joined together for a series of interpretive dances that spoke of the Gospel appealing to the heart of the young. 

Everyone dresses casual, and many africans dress in colors from their countries. The time at the morning break only lasts 20 minutes, so one group could present each day, but as the week wore on, the mixing became more pronounced. 

Young Congolese women lead entrance procession with yellow umbrellas, symbol of the Rector Major's program for the year which called for faith and optimism that can transform the hearts of the peoples.

Planning summer course

In preparing for the summer sessions at DSPT, I have been asked to teach my usual course in ecclesiology: In Search of the Church.

As a textbook, I am working on my own classnotes and putting them into book-form for the course. My intent is to have copies ready for the class, and hope to have them printed while in Rome. I will make them available to the students at cost. I'm not sure what that will come to, but it should be around €12 or $15 US.

As for book reports (which I put in the course description as a requirement) my hope has been to have the students read different books and let them make reports. Now I am thinking that there is little time in two weeks to find books, read them and report on them. Also, a number of students are going to be auditing, as I understand from Teresa Olson, the DSPT registrar. My thought, then, is to have the students locate journal articles on ecclesiology themes and report on them. On the first day of class we'll have a chance to look at options here. Given that we only have two weeks and given that the class sessions are long over those days, I don't think it is reasonable to expect students to read piles of books.

That said, I will make available a bibliography for those who, in future, would want to delve more deeply.

New movie of Don Bosco in English - update!

In January I discovered that the DVD version of "Don Bosco" was soon to be released coming in English. I had seen the made-for-TV film in Italian. It aired as a mini-series in September 2004. The Italian version is absolutely excellent. I have the copy in Italian which I purchased last year while living in Rome, and have brought that copy with me, but I had been waiting to hear if the film would come out in English (since it was actually filmed in English). Today I received the English version from Ignatius Press and watched it immediately.

Well, I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed. The English-version lacks the quality of the original. The dubbing is well done, but there are some major errors in pronunciation. For instance, even though everyone knows this saint as "Don Bosco", the English version calls him "Father Bosco". That is strange, especially since all the names of the characters remain in Italian (Giovanni, Michele, Domenico, etc.). But, fine, it is a minor irritation and I could live with that. What really is strange, however, is that the voices in the English soundtrack consistently mispronounce the name of the religious movement and congregation that he founded, the Salesians. Who worked with English-speaking actors? The Salesians are the second largest order in the Catholic Church: you think that someone from sound stage might have been able to find a Salesian to consult so that they could get the names and terminology correct!

All right, that's the bad news. As for the movie itself, it is very good news. Happily, there is both an English and an Italian track, and so you can view the film in either language, and you can activate the subtitles in English or Spanish. It is funny that the translation of the text of the English subtitles is very different from the English soundtrack… but that is fine. This written text is actually closer to the Italian, as are the Spanish subtitles. I've decided that when I show the film to friends, if I can convince them that the sound of Italian may be more interesting, I'll encourage them to watch the film with Italian sound and English subtitles. If they don't want to do that the first time, then maybe the second time we watch it.

Or maybe I'm just dreaming!

As I said in this blog back in January, the Italian version is excellent, excellent. Flavio Insinna is a most convincing Don Bosco, and is far better in the role than was Ben Gazara in the 1988 RAI television production. Even what I would call a disappointing English soundtrack does not seem to diminish the story or the action. But then, I'll have to see what non-Italian speakers think of it. For myself, I'll keep watching the film in Italian.

We home

The jet from Munich touched down at 18.40 hours at San Francisco (SFO). The trip through immigration was quick, although the agent kept turning over my card and thumbing through my passport looking at all the stamps of arrivals and departures. Funny, the agent in Munich did the same thing. This must be the day for checking all the past trips. In the end the immigration agent asked me: "How long have you been away?"

"Three weeks," say I.

"And where you in Italy the whole time?" he asks.

"Yes," say I, "I was in Rome the whole time."

Then he smiles and says. "It must have been beautiful," and he gives me my passport.

Tired as I am from this long and cramped flight, I laugh and say, "Oh yes, Italy is always beautiful!"

It took another 40 minutes before I could get my luggage, and when I came out of immigration and customs, John Rasor was there to meet me and to bring me back to Berkeley. I came straight up to my room, took a quick shower, and checked my messages. There were only two, and the latest was from my brother Sal, who phoned this morning to say "Welcome home!" Nice gesture. I just made a quick phone call to my mom in Bellflower… and now, I'm crazily adding this memory as my body is telling me: "get some sleep".

Okay, so I will. Another portion of my Roman adventures seem to be closing, but there is more to come: and that's the truth.

A morning at the Policlinico Umberto I°

After early mass, as I was grabbing a coffee in the refectory, Jesús Manuel García asked me to accompany him and bring Don Pietro Stella to the hospital. It seems that his condition has worsened this week, and his doctor, a Prof. Giuseppe Naso, wants him to receive a blood transfusion immediately.

Well, immediately is only a figure of speech. After breakfast Jesús Manuel and I brought Don Stella to the Emergency at famous Roman "Policlinico" Umberto Primo. The attendant at the desk seemed bored and diffident when we brought him in, but when he looked at the doctor's analysis, his comment was a surprised "Urca!" He directed us to bring Pietro Stella immediately into an inner waiting room, and then sent the two of us out of the area, down the hall and around the block to another series of waiting rooms for visitors. This is how we spent the whole morning.

After three-and-a-half hours we were told that it would be another hour before they could test his blood, and another two hours after that before they could make a decision. Since we were not even allowed to say with him through any of this, we decided to come home. Around 3:00 we'll make a call and see what is happening, but things are serious and it seems they want to keep him there over the weekend.

This was the morning I was going to dedicate to packing for my return trip to San Francisco tomorrow… but there is little to worry about there. I've got almost everything ready by now, and a number of items I will be keeping in my office here for my May teaching tour.

More rain and rain again

The class went well, but the time dedicated to classes here is too short… not to mention that it takes ten minutes for the students to trail into the room. That means that, out of 45 minutes of class time, you have basically 30 minutes of instruction time. Still, I managed to do a couple of things to get them thinking, including showing part of a video clip of Joan of Arcadia, the television show that aired in the USA for two seasons: 2003-2005. I had to show them the piece in English, but I put subtitles. Half the group understood everything, laughed at the jokes… they all seemed to get the message in spite of the language barrier. Of course, that's what I spent the first 20 minutes trying to prepare them to understand.

After lunch I met with the dean, Giorgio Zevini, regarding my future status at the UPS. We came to an agreement (which I will outline later). Then I had to see my student Virgilio Da Silva to go over his thesis draft, after which I met with José Luis Moral to straighten out the books, Marco Bay to find some method to get my North American Area 1 DVDs to play on Area 2 European computers (and vice versa, so as to continue to use these video presentations in the classes), Tarcisio Simonelli and the delegation from Tuscany (to try out some cured salami and Tuscan wines), Gregorio Wieczorek at the library (to go over the procedures to put my Youth Spirituality books on a reserve shelf), and Aldo Giraudo (who leaves tomorrow for Torino for a series of lectures).

And through all of this we have had the heaviest rains I have seen all this month. The water has been coming down in sheets, and the thunder and lightning has continued since this morning. It goes hard and heavy for a half hour, then we have ten minutes of sunshine, then more rain and thunder and lightning for the next half hour. Amazing, this Nature, but it means that we have to concentrate on what we have to do.

Classes, theses and pizza

It is Tuesday morning and I am getting ready for my 12th lecture, which is later this morning. Then I spend the next three days correcting drafts of theses. I haven't been out of the area, but I have had a chance to visit and do pizzas with some friends, and so to spend "some time in the fun zone", as my friend Kathleen Hadfield would put it.

From that perspective, I now have one more lesson, five more theses and one more pizza party to do before getting back to Berkeley.

Spring forward into the winter rain

This has been the day to change the clocks in Europe. The USA now does the changing (as of this year) two weeks early, so now my computer if not by body is caught up for both time zones. I awoke at 6:30 (Central European Daylight Time), thinking the mass at the Don Rua community would have the mass at 7:30, as it usually does on Sundays. When I got there, I found a sign saying "La messa alle 8.30: Nuovo Orario". So, in the hour that I waited I did some laundry and went back to preparing my presentation for tomorrow's lectures. I also discovered that it was raining again!

Because I am so busy during these weeks trying to get my classes prepared and then correcting drafts of theses of my students, the best time for me to interact with folks is during the meals, and in the period right after dinner. Today I had a chance to touch base with John Roche (but mainly about his thesis) and with Marco Bay. I also met a young man from the Central American province whose name is Raymond, and who is enrolled in a four month course for formators. He will work with the Brothers Professional Formation Group, now moving from Salvador to Guatemala, come June when he returns to his province. He told me of how the Interamerican region is restructuring some of the interprovincial formation projects. I wonder that I never heard of this, being on the formation commission of the San Francisco province. I suppose these details are not thought to be significant for us. Instead, they color what we do in Berkeley. How do we keep on marketing ourselves to these provinces if we don't know that the criteria for formative courses and itineraries (as they love to call them) are shifting.

Oh well… what can you do? I suppose it is impossible to keep up with every trend… but as I was speaking with the young Raymond, the rain stopped and the sky opened slightly. The thunderheads are still imposing, but not delivering any action at the moment.

The gum of the bridge

Today I got news from my cousin Dominic who just returned with his wife Barbara from a week-long winter vacation to the Grand Canyon. He said that his trip sounds meager compared to my being in Rome, but this is absolutely not true. The Grand Canyon is impressive against any measurement, and from the sounds of it, Dom and Barb had a wonderful trip

In Italy there is a lot of notoriety to certain American landmarks, and I remember when I lived here in the 1970s that there was a television ad for "Brooklyn Gum" -- it is a chewing gum brand that is Italian, but of course no respectable Italian would chew gum, so by giving it an American name, it suddenly became stylish for young people to do so.

That ad on TV started with a boy offering a girl a stick of gum, and as both of them put the gum in their mouths (all smiles, of course), they were instantly transported to the Brooklyn Bridge, which they crossed to enter into the Grand Canyon, and as they turned, chewing and smiling, they fell into an embrace and a long kiss in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Geographically, the advert presented some logistical problems, but what really made me wonder as a 25-year old was why two people would want to kiss their lover with gum in their mouths. One of my friends saw the question mark on my face as we watched TV, and promptly told me that this is how American couples like to kiss.

I don't know if that is true or not, but the fact remains that the Brooklyn Bride, the Grand Canyon and the Golden Gate Bridge are the dream places that every, gum-chewing Italian longs to visit.

More rain

The forecast has been for rain and nobody wanted to believe it. Yesterday while I was teaching in the afternoon we had a tremendous storm… and I'd put some things out to dry earlier. I had to wash them again (by hand) and dry them on the radiator in my bedroom.

Today the wind has been blowing hard all morning, and it has begun to rain and to hale. On the horizon there is sunshine, but here, right over the University, the rain is very heavy at the moment. It is a mighty show for the last day of winter, and just what I need as I prepare for my late-morning class.

Feast of St Joseph - la festa di san Giuseppe

An Irish friend sent me an e-mail today commiserating with me that St Joseph has been overshadowed by St Patrick. As if!

The funny thing is, St Patrick passed altogether unnoticed here in Rome last Saturday. On that day our community celebrated the feast of St Zbigniew. St Patrick got not even an honorable mention! I guess this is what happens after nearly three decades of having a Polish pope. Yet, I saved the day because I did wear green that day. I think I was the only one in the whole university to do so.

Instead, for the feast of St Joseph, we started the day with a sung liturgy, and at mid-day we were treated to a five course dinner. I had to be careful, since I teach three classes in the afternoon, so I kept it very light. A group of Slovak students came in to serenade while we ate, singing Slovak, Bohemian and Moravian folks songs, accompanied by students playing traditional instruments including a young woman who worked wonders on a violin. Incredible! And at dessert there were St Joseph Cakes, a specialty of southern Italy where it is called le zeppole (I'm told that in Rome the cake is called bigné di san Giuseppe). In the evening, a very festive Vespertine prayer service, again with a lot of singing and supper with stories and new wine. Not bad for a working day, and not bad for a day when the heavens broke open and we've endured heavy rain all day. But it has been a fun day.

So, what can I say except that nothing overshadowed the feast, and had the Romans celebrated St Patrick instead of St Zbigniew, I'm sure he would have only added to feast, since he too was ceratinly a devotee of St Joseph.

Maltese cross (on the catechism)

This evening I attended the defense of a doctoral dissertation by Carl Mario Sultana. Carl Mario is a young priest from the Archiocese of Malta, and he has done his studies in youth ministry and catechetics here at the Salesian Pontifical University. We became friends last year when I was a member of the Don Rua community

Carl Mario did his research and wrote his dissertation on a Maltese figure, Gorg Preca, who brought catechesis to a strong level, advanced biblical studies and worked for bringing laity into active and important posts of apostolate in the Church.

Well, Carl Mario did brilliantly: summa cum laude. However, it was an easy defense: both his thesis director and the second reader were so enthusiastic with the written presentation of his dissertation that they did not ask him questions but enthused over his work. I couldn't help smiling as Prof don Mario Cimosa went over every detail with such excitement that I began to believe that I was at a book presentation rather than a defense! However, I realized that I was not sitting at Barnes and Noble but in Sala Marolla at the UPS -- so that was my reality check.

Still, I kept thinking throughout the presentation that it would be good to connect the church in Malta with the church in Guam: both islands of Catholicism in a sea of modernism, isolated and different from their distant neighbors and the continent/mainland. As an interested outsider who has visited both islands and who has had the opportunity to works with priests and laity in those local churches, I find some interesting simularities, and I am guessing that there would be a benefit in connecting.

My action-step will be to contact my past pupil, Fred Tenorio Rodriguez, in Guam, and let him know of this dissertation defense as I suggest that he have the archdiocese invite Carl Mario to Guam for some resourcing to the catechists and parishes. At least, that's what I'm thinking I need to do. I do love when things connect!

Francis de Sales conversations

After lunch, or rather dinner (pranzo) today, I took a stroll in the upper courtyard of the university with Fr Morand Wirth, who is one of our experts on Francis de Sales. Last year during my stay here we met quite often, since he was writing a book on the saint's educational approach and I was teaching the course that he normally taught on the main traits of the spirituality of St Francis de Sales.

I was thrilled to hear of his research. He is tracing references to the biblical phrase "Give me souls, take away the rest" from Genesis -- a saying that Don Bosco attributed to Francis de Sales and adopted as his personal motto and the motto of the congregation. I too have written a sketchy article on this, and in fact the whole Salesian Society is gathering around this phrase as we prepare for the General Chapter slated for 2008. «Da mihi animas, cetera tolle» will be the theme, in fact, of that chapter.

Well, back to don Morand. He tells me that the Fathers of the Church used to use this phrase to point to the influence of evil in the world. In fact, in Genesis, it is the King of Sodom who tells Abraham, after the freeing of Lot and others who had been enslaved, to simply give him back his own people that had been held hostage and keep the booty for himself. Abraham refuses to do this, being the man of Faith that he is, and give back everything, as well as a 10th of all his own recovered goods to the priest-king of Salem. Now since it is the King of Sodom who makes the request, the Fathers, particularly those of the Alexandrian School, read into this in light of the later skirmish between the sons of light and the citizens of Sodom. They see the request as Satanic.

John Chrysostom knows the Alexandrian interpretation but he does not agree, and proposes that we simply understand the passage in the literal and not the allegorical sense. His voice, however, is not strong enough to drown out the opinion presented by the Alexandrians.

Oh well… but that's not really the point. The first time that the da mihi animas is taken in a pastoral sense, says Morand, seems to be in the Spirit of Blessed Francis de Sales written by Jean Pierre Camus. Within a generation of the publication of that book, many pastoral and spiritual writers, particularly among those of the French School, cite the phrase in the way attributed to Francis de Sales. And while Don Bosco also can cite the literal sense in his book of Salvation History, when he applies the words to the work of the Oratory, he uses the pastoral sense as found in Camus.

Is Don Bosco right in ascribing the phrase in its pastoral meaning to Francis de Sales? Morand Writh says that his research is bringing him to this conclusion. I look forward to seeing his article published on this theme. It is exciting, really.

Okay -- it is exciting for us professor types, I suppose. For others a good gelato would be more exiting still. However, it is still winter and Lent, therefore I will forgo the gelato.

After all that intellectual and mystical excitement, I changed clothes and took a power walk around the area for 40 minutes, finally sweating out all the stuff of the last few days.

Two down, seven to go

After almost two full days of prep, I taught the first two periods of class this afternoon. We had to iron out the time table, since there are students from three different programs. And I got them though a PowerPoint. I am not confident that I was able to convey anything to them. Really, this is not my material.

While I had expected to teach again for two hours on Thursday, I will, instead, teach for one period tomorrow. As it is, we went for nearly three periods today, and tomorrow will make four. I think that this is enough. The students also want to avoid too many afternoon classes. It looks like they have class three afternoons each week. If we can avoid Thursday afternoons, they won't have to make it four.

So, I need to get my act together tomorrow… and I need to start talking to my licentiate students: John, Virgilio and Sebastian. I've got a lot to do, it looks like.

With all this content, printed up the class notes that Jacques Schepens had e-mailed me. I had to do a lot of formatting, so that took a good deal of time both last week and through the weekend. As fate would have it, all three photocopy machines broke down over the weekend, so my students won't have the bound copies until Thursday (which is the day that I thought I'd meet them next). This makes tomorrow's class a bit iffy, as I was counting on two more days for preparation.

Beyond this little problem, I did my negotiating for library usage and was also able to settle on a better classroom. Jarek, the registrar of the university, generously gave me one of the newly equipped smart classrooms. It looks like things will work out better for my AV presentations and such in Classroom 4, because the project is built into the room and you can darken the windows. That's good news. None of this is possible in Classroom 9, which is the normal room for doing spirituality.

Well, we'll se how it works out tomorrow.

Adjusting and readjusting

When I woke up this morning, I really didn't know where I was for the first few moments. Amazing, since this trip back to Italy has been nearly the only thing on my mind for the last three months. Of course, I'm staying in a different part of the university and so, in that respect, my surroundings are new and different. My room is in the Philosophy Building, with a window overlooking the inner courtyard of the university.

I did not have any trouble sleeping through the night, which is also a difference. Jet-lag usually has me waking five times and always earlier. Come to think of it, I've been waking five time every night at home in Berkeley… Which may mean that my body is still used to the Italian time frame and I live in perpetual jet-lag when I'm in California. Now that is a scary thought!

As I mentioned yesterday, I am to be a member of the community of Gesù Maestro, which is one of the communities of professors. Jozef Strus' is the director, and it was he who was my director 17 years ago when I came to the UPS for the first time to begin studies on my licentiate. Of course, Tom Prendiville was my provincial superior at that time and now he is my director in Berkeley. It seems that no matter what the theatre, I'm playing with the same cast of actors.

For the bulk of the day I have been working on notes for the classes that I begin to teach tomorrow. I don't feel prepared, but at least I can give them a fist full of notes.

Tornando a Roma (Returning to Rome)

The title says it all. I arrived in Rome at Fiumicino Airport at about 17.30… Of course, it took forever to get the luggage, but there was no problem going through immigration and once outside the customs area, Aldo Giraudo was there to meet me. He briefed me on many elements of life at the UPS as we first stopped for something to drink and then took the road back to the university. The trip was almost uneventful, except that on the offramp from Rome's Ring Road into the neighborhood of Fidene, we got rear-ended as we were caught in the gridlock. Luckily, there was no mark on either car. It must have been because we were stopped and the other driver was going at only a crawl. Thank God for that. All we would have needed is to fill out an insurance claim.

Back at the UPS, I have a room in the professors' residence. I will be part of the "Gesù Maestro" Community during my stay here. Giorgio Zevini gave me the key to my new office, which is on the second floor of the Theology Building, one of only five offices there. I'll go through all my material tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have seen a lot of folks already: Jozef Struz', director of Gesù Maestro and once my director when I was a student in the Don Rua community in 1990-1992. Of course I met Giorgio Zevini on the stairs as I went to the dining room. I also saw Renato Mion, Cosimo Semeraro, Gianfranco Venturelli, Christian Debuts, Jesús Manuel García, Jose Luis Moral, Mario Midali, Giuseppe Nicolussi (provinical superior), Donato Valentini, Ottorino Pasquato, Josef Kutarna (who spent last year in Berkeley), Giuseppe Bertorello, and Antonio Escudero.

Some of these had been my professors; some had been my classmates in years gone by… but that's a lot of people to greet in one evening as I fought off sleep. Which reminds me! What am I still doing up? I'm going to try to catch some sleep. There's a lot to prepare for Monday's class, and I'll have to get on that tomorrow!

Buona notte!

Lay over

So here I am in Frankfurt… the layover between flights is almost five hours, but luckily I have been able to go into the Lufthansa lounge (with my United Airlines Red Carpet Club membership). Makes it nice.

European lounges are very different from American ones. They are bright, open, airy… There is a lot of interaction of people, as opposed to the American airline clubs that seem to be wood-paneled and dark, intimate, quiet. This lounge for Lufthansa reminds me of an internet cafe and lunch counter combined. Anyway, I am enjoying making use of it. The food is constant and good.

Of course, I have been up for how many hours now? My brain is feeling a bit fuzzy. I am anxious to get to Rome and to the UPS. At the same time, I'm nervous about how I'm going to get that course together. That is probably why I'm eager to get to the UPS. Once I see who is participating in the class, I'll be in a better position to see how to present the material (or at least I'll know what I'm worrying about).

Ready to fly

Here I am in the Red Carpet Club of United Airlines at San Francisco International. My flight to Rome via Frankfurt departs in about an 90 minutes, so I'm just going through the last stages of disorganization here and preparing for the long flight.

Of course, I'm wondering what I've forgotten. Do I have my other pair of glasses? Are the books I am bringing enough of the right stuff? How am I ever going to pull of this class in youth spirituality (not my material, is it?)???

Too late to worry about all this (but then don't I always tie myself up in knots worrying about details?). I've got three weeks in Rome now, during the month of March, and then another five weeks in May-June. This should give me enough time to carry out the teaching of a course in youth spirituality, at least according to the plan that has been on the books plan since September. We'll just have to see how it all works out. It is one thing to plan and quite another to put the plan into action.

Still, I propose to be truthful as I blog my next edition of Roma experiences. This is, after all, the bocca della verità!

Syllabi, commitments, deadlines

Last night I found a series of e-mails regarding the theology courses to be taught at DSPT in Summer 2007.

Yes, I did say that I could be available after Michael Sweeney asked me several times. And yes, I did clear it with the team at Don Bosco Hall (although I brought it up at the end of one of our lengthy meetings and they were perhaps all comatose when they said "yes" to me on this issue.

Now, the other professors (all non-Dominicans) who will be teaching are speaking of class-session time, expectations, duration. It is going to be serious business rather than a summer enrichment type of thing.

As I prepare my syllabus, I am beginning to think that it will be useful to run copies by the other two professors (John Berkman and Marianne Farina). It might be helpful if we help each other check our materials in terms of realistic expectations.

The course that I will be teaching this summer on Ecclesiology is something that I have been teaching at DSPT since the year 2000, but I have always taught it over the course of a whole semester. How to repackage it for two intense weeks may be tricky. From what John and Marianne are saying in their e-mails last night and this morning, I may need to reconsider the whole approach. No, let me reword that. I MUST reconsider my whole approach. The thought of three-and-a-half hours of this stuff every day is exhausting to me. I can imagine what it would be like for the poverini who would be enrolled!

Okay… in two days I depart for Rome. I'm not ready for that either, but I've got my ticket and my toothbrush!

Getting ready to travel

When I left Rome last June, I traveled by train to Fiumicino… Jesus Manuel García brought me to the train station in Nuovo Salario, but it was a pain to carry the luggage. Since then I have done my usual fair amount of traveling, using taking BART to the airport, and picking up the metro or public transit on the other side. Since here I travel with a backpack, this has not been problematic. However, as I'm getting ready to go back to Rome, I decided that I need a larger piece that has wheels.

Anyway, this has been on my mind since I stood on that train from Nuovo Salario to Fiumicino, and this morning I finally acted on it. As soon as my class was finished with the ISS people, I hiked into downtown Berkeley, to the luggage store. I found a nice piece by Samsonite -- one that they call the "hardside spinner". It was a bit pricey, I thought, but then I haven't purchased luggage since 1992, and so I decided that this was not the time to be worried about the economy. $275 later, I was rolling my way through downtown Berkeley and back up the hill to Don Bosco Hall.

Ah! What a difference. I think this is going to work. Anyway, I quickly packed and that part of my trip is ready. Now I've got to finish my class prep for this week, and clean my office. What a mess… but that's another story.

Tonight we have a couple of birthdays: Sr Anne Collins (who is from Ireland and doing the ISS course) and Fr George Allengadan (who is from Bangalore and now works for the diocese of Oakland). They are both great folks, and I'm looking forward to the celebration.

Raining down the blossoms

When I left for school early this morning there was a bit of a drizzle… I had my umbrella, but didn't need it. Once I got to my office the heavens opened, and the downpour continued furious and cold right through the morning. When I went to teach my course on ecclesial movements at 11:00, it was still pouring.

Rain is good for the earth, good for the California water table, and good for my capacity to study. I get more done on a rainy day than when the sun is shining… and so it is today. Since class, I've been able to sort through a number of projects and put things in order. But when I came out of the class and back to my office, I noticed that the sidewalks were littered with blossoms that had been rained off the trees. I wonder what this will do for Spring when if finally comes.

That's okay. Right not California needs the rain!

Umbrella run

Thursday we had rain and I went to DSPT prepared that morning, with my umbrella. By the time I finished class at 12.30, it had stopped raining and the sun was shining. It was still cold and breezy, but the sunshine made me feel great. I was a bit confused, thinking that I had a Salesian meeting, so I rushed home to Don Bosco Hall… instead, that meeting that I was sure I needed to attend, I found out, is scheduled for next Thursday.

It was just as well. It started raining again, and rained all day Friday and all day Saturday… and when I thought of going out, I remembered that I had forgot… my umbrella, of course.

This morning we had more rain, but by noon it had cleared. The sky was still dark, but I made a quick dash over to the school and picked up my umbrella from my office. I then checked and found that my mailbox was full of papers from students: theses and proposals and things of that nature. This week, in fact, is when the faculty meets to approval thesis proposals. Well, I should be prepared for that. If not, at least I'm prepared for more rain, as long as I don't forget my umbrella again.

Year of the "Pick"

As the Vietnamese and they will tell you that we are starting the "Year of the Pick", but this is only because they cannot pronounce the final "g". Ask the Chinese and they will tell you that we are starting the "Year of the Boar". Well, it all started today in our house… and this evening we had a celebration of the Lunar New Year according to the Vietnamese tradition. It was also the birthday of Fr Eugene Sweeney, from the Archdiocese of Armagh. Eugene had Irish guests from GTU; Sr Anne Collins had a couple of guests; Tho Bui and Thien Nguyen invited members of the youth group from St Ambrose; Fr Tom Prendiville invited members of the provincial house. The celebration was as big as Christmas, but with less organization and more rice.

Well, there is much to say about all this, but I'll do so later. In the meantime, there is nothing left to say except Chuc Mung Nam Moi, unless perhaps it might be Gung Hay Fat Choy. Prosperity, Health and Fecundity, and Long Life!