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.