Buona fine e buon principio

It is New Year's Eve, and the kids of the neighborhood have been setting off firecrackers since 3:00 in the afternoon … If anyone hesitates in celebrating at midnight, they will not be able to sleep anyway for all the explosions.

Today I had lunch with Peter, who is a Californian from Fresno and a student of Latin and Greek at our University. He shares an apartment with a young man named Pietro, who is from Verona and who studies Communications. Peter cooked pasta and turkey, and did a nice job. The visit was fun… and it makes me think that there are many opportunities for other students from California at the UPS. The university has to do a little bit of advertising in the right places…

But these are thoughts for next year (I mean 2006). Right now it is time to close down 2005!

Thomas Beckett

Feast of St Thomas Becket and I presided at Eucharist in the Don Rua community this morning. Yesterday it rained all day again, and this morning we had flurries. No matter. I spent a good deal of time in the University library trying to trace some group that are mentioned in the biographies of Francis de Sales and John Bosco. I was successful, but only after several hours. I was like pulling wires, gently trying to find the source without ripping out the one I had in my hand.

Now how will any of this fit in the book I'm preparing? Maybe I'll be able to add a footnote.

In any case, I continue with the reading and research today as I tune into Vatican Radio, which is playing a wonderful selection of Christmas carols. That's what's nice about Catholic tradition. Christmas goes until the 6th of January.

The other nice things about the Tradition is that it is not afraid to integrate new expressions as it reflects on Gospel. Handing on (traditio) goes in both directions, after all. And so this morning Vatican Radio broadcast a reflection on Thomas Becket and then ended with a meditative prayer. While the radio announce read the prayer, the station played soft music in the background. Nothing strange, except as the prayer spoke to God of "Your great mercy and love," the background melody was "White Christmas".

I suppose to Italian ears the melody conjured images of gratitude to God. I could have thought of it as a conflict of sacred and profane… and yet? I guess White Christmas is as prayerful as any other melody if one's heart is centered on God. And doesn't the Incarnation mean that God takes on our flesh? Can anything human really be automatically profane any more?

As the prayer moment was ready to sign off, the music switched to an instrumental of "Let it Snow…" And so those prayers were answered too: it is snowing lightly.

On the via Nomentana

This morning I had mass again with the Augustinian Sisters at their general headquarters on the Via Nomentana. It was the eleventh and last day of my substitution there as chaplain. It has only been 50 minutes every morning: Eucharist and a little homily for the Christmas Octave and then the feast -- sort of like a little morning retreat. What's amazing is that, in so short a time, we had become quite friendly. I hated to say goodbye, but their real chaplain returns this evening.

Well, it comes just in time. Once I returned from the convent, it started raining and it has been pouring all day. The forecast is for more and heavier rain in the rest of the week. I'll avoid all that and stay at the university. Besides, I have enough work to do in terms of my research…

Still, I'm going to miss the Sisters of St Augustine…

On the feast of Stephen…

Well, it isn't snowing in Rome, but it feels almost cold enough to start, and it is raining. The city was sleeping-in today. I was waiting for the 90 Express Bus at 7:14 … but of course, it did not arrive because (as I found out) today the city is observing the orario festivo (Sunday/Holiday Schedule) means the buses come only every 30 minutes.

While I was waiting at Piazza Vimercati, which leads off Piazza dell'Ateneo Salesiano, I saw a man crossing the street with two empty soft-drink bottles. He went to the little fountain at the edge of the two piazzas and filled them both. Yes, that fountain has been giving good drinking water and has flowed continuously for decades … and before the neighborhood was developed in the 1960s, I'm told that there was a fountain in the same spot. So, let's be conservative and say that people have been coming to this fountain for a century. When I was a grad student, I used to stop for a drink there on hot afternoons when I'd get off the bus to return to university and the water was always refreshing and good. So why was I surpised this morning to see this man filling up his bottles of drinking water and bringing them back to his car? Maybe I've been conditioned to think that "bottled water" is something you have to buy.

And I thought: how wonderful that the water is still fresh and healthy in Rome in the middle of the winter, and the people, after centuries and millennia, can still fill their jugs and bottles for free. There is no reason to worry about commercialization as long as the water is accessible and free.

It was such a happy realization on this feast of Stephen, and I was humming "Good King Wenceslaus" when the 90 Express Bus finally arrived.

Christmas universal

Christmas in Rome: many of the student priests went down to St Peter's last night and this morning, and are helping with communion at the pope's masses. I have preferred to stay home at our community house on campus at the UPS. Actually, I'm getting out my Christmas greetings, and it takes me a long time because every card (real or virtual) brings up memories of friends and loved ones.

On campus there is a Buddhist Monk from Japan and he is celebrating Christmas with us. I was a little surprised to see him every night at the novena services, and asked what this meant for him.

"All these other feasts of light are national or ethnic celebrations," he told me in his halting Italian. "Christmas instead is about the Divinity become small and entering our world as a defenseless child among the outcast and the poor, far from the powerful and the controllers of the world. It is to be light in the depth of darkness, to be compassion in the midst of our poverty that Jesus comes. So Christmas has meaning for us in a way that no other feast does."

Maybe my Japanese Buddhist friend was being kind to me as an Italian Catholic… but it makes me think that Christmas is more than a religious observance. If this young Buddhist monk is correct, Christmas is universal and it belongs to everyone on the planet. Well, I know that Christ belongs to everyone, whether they know it or not, but so does Christmas.

So, without feeling un-PC, I can say "Happy Christmas" to everyone. "Buon Natale a tutti!"

Christmas Eve

This morning I had to walk down through Piazza dell'Ateneo -- and I saw a huge crowd of people in front of one of the shops as I made my way down the hill. While still 20 meters away from them I began to smell the attraction: fresh fish!

Ah yes. It is the Christmas Eve (la vigilia di Natale) and the tradition in Southern Italy is for a completely meatless supper. In fact, twelve plates of vegetables and seafood. This is why the Fruit Vendor's shop was also crowded.

The elders were discussing in animated fashion, and the children were on the curb talking excitedly that there would be all kinds of cousins at their houses tonight for Christmas Eve. And it sounded like my house when I was growing up. The language was different, but the tradition was the same. Cousins seem to make Christmas important and wonderful for little kids. Even Jesus' first Christmas had a Cousin close by: John the Baptist, who has figured in the Gospel stories of these days. Come to think of it, his diet was rather meatless too.

So why are people so worried about materialistic Christmases? With strong family traditions like this, the meaning will come through.

Ah… but when there is no family, then the problem arises.

The eve of Christmas Eve

This morning there were only a few people on the bus (looks like a lot of folks have left town for the holidays) and the traffic was minimal, so that the bus arrived at Piazza Sempione ten minutes early. I didn't want to ring the bell at the Sisters' convent too early, so I walked up and down the Via Nomentana for ten minutes.

It was a good thing for me: early morning exercise in zero-degree weather. I noticed the shops have a little bit more Christmas decorations than they did at the start of the week. There is a small coffee shop that I pass every morning, and I saw that the propriator and his wife were both wearing Santa Claus hats as they prepared coffees and put the baked goods in the glass counter. They are both in their 70s, I would guess.

Now, I thought, this is a scene that you'd never have seen 30 years ago. At that time the Italians never had "Babbo Natale" (Father Christmas - Santa Claus), and no one had a Christmas tree. Even 15 years ago nobody knew anything about the Advent Wreath: I used one for a prayer service in Advent 1990 at the University and had to write an explanation of the symbol and the custom because it was so foreign to the Italians. Instead, in December 2005, most parishes have the Advent Wreath, you see Christmas trees everywhere (even if they are tiny). And even the oldtimers sport Santa hats.

As I walked I thought about all the folks complaining about the "consumer-oriented" Christmas. This is something that the Vatican is decrying nearly every day during Advent… but then I thought, it is the Vatican itself that brought this on. John Paul II brought the Christmas Tree to Italy from Poland. Yes, wonderful symbol, but foreign. To the Italians who had only see Christmas Trees in American movies, what did this say about Christmas? Maybe, unwittingly, it was the Vatican with a non-Italian pope which introduced these non-Italian symbols into Catholic Italy…

But as I thought this, I was starting to get numb in the zero-degree darkness. I checked my watch, it was 6:34… good enough. I rushed to the convent door and pressed the door bell. "Buon Giorno!" Five minutes later I was vested and we started the liturgy, but I made no comments about commercialized Christmas.

Longest night and shortest day

Last night was the longest night of the year. When I left the university this morning at 6:00 to go to the Augustinian Sisters for mass, it seemed like the middle of the night. It was also the coldest day yet, for there was frost on everything, and some of the roads were iced over. When I finished mass and made my way back to the bus stop at 7:10, it was still dark. By the time the bus arrived at 7:15, there was a beautiful sunrise starting to break through. I watched the sky from the bus window as we traveled back to the UPS.

It never seemed to warm up all day, but the university communities are emptying out as the student priests go to parishes to help with the sacraments. There is a lot of excitement in the air: it is good to see their youthful enthusiasm.

Christmas break starting

Today is the last day of lessons at the Salesian Pontifical University before Christmas. Oh, did I neglect to say that I have been busy here in Rome?

Yes, my motive for coming was that I had qualified for a Research Sabbatical after 12 full semesters at DSPT in Berkeley. I'd made up my proposal, and so came to the UPS as a Visiting Scholar. Instead of "scholar", however, the Theology School here understood "professor". So, here I am as a Visiting Professor, teaching a double course this semseter, and conducting a seminar course in the Spring Semester.

This isn't how I planned it, but because I'm teaching, the UPS pays my living expenses and my health insurance. What a deal! It would have cost me upward of €30 a day (well, not me: the Salesians in California). Instead, they are making money off me (because my salary from DSPT goes to the Salesian province).

The teaching is a lot of fun -- in Italian with students from all over the world. The course is entitled "Francesco di Sales: Storia e Spirito" [Francis de Sales: Story and Spirit]. It is the same material that I've taught at DSPT and GTU in Berkely for ten years, but putting the course together in another language makes it a bit exciting. The big job is translating my class-handouts from English to Italian. It takes me all week to produce 24 pages in clean-copy Italian. But the students are Advanced Level on their post-graduate specializations (according to the new European academic system); they are very interested and I'm enjoying the interaction. Interaction with the other teachers is very good as well.

And the research? Well I should be nervous about that, but just going back to sources in French and Italian to prepare the course in another language has given me a lot of material, so that I think I can complete my first book proposal (on Francis de Sales) during the month of January when teaching yields to exams.

Best part: I've got a great title for the book: "Francis de Sales: Story and Spirit". Okay, I'll cite the UPS in my acknowledgements page.

So anyway… today the lessons come to a halt. The students are heading off today and tomorrow and quiet will descend upon the UPS. A researcher's delight (I guess).

... ...

Commercialized Christmas

In the lead-up to my first Christmas in Italy, 30 years ago (mamma mia!), I was confused at hearing people rant against the commercialism of the holidays. Of course, coming from California, I came from a culture that had commercialized everything, so I wasn't even aware of just how consumer oriented my own surroundings had been.

Now, Advent 2005, I'm hearing the same complaints from many Italian friends. Even the pope has been talking about being careful to search the real meaning of Christmas.

But as a Californian, I find there is much less commercialism here, even if the Italians are becoming very vocal in their opposition. True, the stores are decorated now (whereas in the 1970s the stores did not decorate until after the 24th). Yet, the decore is modest really, and nearly every store also has a nativity scene in the window or in a prominent place in the shop. What is interesting to me is to see the kids looking in the shop windows. They are not looking at the merchandise, but at the stable and nativity scene figures (il presepio).

In most places the baby Jesus is not yet been set in the crib. I remember that when I was 12 I had set up the nativity scene at our house by the tree. My grandparents came over early on the 24th to oversee the preparation of the traditional Neopolitan Christmas eve supper. When my grandfather saw the baby Jesus in the stable, he pulled me aside and told me that I needed to hide the baby until midnight! So I did. Then, at midnight, my grandfather had me get the figure and slip in into the manger scene. The little cousins thought it was a miracle, since they hadn't seen me retrieve the figure. At 12 I was proud to do this little act of faith and keep the Christmas spirit alive for my family. It was really a magic moment, when I think of it now.

Well, commercialized or not, the Roman shopkeeprs seem to know the same tradition that my grandfather taught me. And while I know they are eager to make their sales during this month, they still affirm the faith of all the people who stop to look in at the nativity display in their store windows. And I see the children's eyes are bright, expentant, and even pious as they await the child. Not a few of them make the sign of the cross when then leave the window.

Well, that doesn't happen in California, does it? I tend not to worry that Christmas will be too commercial for these hopeful little ones.

Not really a tourist

By accident, almost, I've seen Pope Benedict XVI twice already -- at a distance. The first time I needed to take care of some immigration details at the Questura (police department), and when I came out, I walked a block to St Peter's to buy stamps, actually. I'd forgotten that it was Wednesday, and the pope gives his weekly general audience that day. I would have expected him to be in Aula Paolo VI (the audience hall) inside Vatican City, since this took place on 16 November, but there were so many pilgrims still arriving in Rome that Benedict was continuing to address huge crowds (about 100,000 people) in Piazza San Pietro.

The sound system is fabulous, and there are big screens now in the square so you can see the closeups -- but I could see him in the distance across the square as well. It helps that he wears white because he stands out in the crowd of darker autumn colors!

His talk was quite simple in content and encouraging in tone. He was commenting on Psalm 136 and the Exodus, which has that great refrain: "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, and his mercy endures forever."

The pope spoke about how God become humble because he is merciful and compassionate. This is why, he said, we need to trust God and dwell on the good things that can transform our lives. Then he said something that really struck me: "Our danger is that the memory of evil, of those evils suffered, may often be stronger than the memory of good … The psalms tells us to wake up to the memory of Good, and especially of all the good that the Lord has done and is doing for us."

E' vero -- the pope concluded. "It's true, then: God's mercy is forever, and is present day after day" -- giorno per giorno.

Consoling and powerful words from pope Ratzinger - Benedict XVI.

Mouth of Truth or what?

Time is passing quickly! It is nearly three months since I came to Rome, and I've been very busy with teaching the course on Francis de Sales. Now we are into the Christmas break (and I am so grateful). Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on some things and prepare notes for the last three weeks of instruction.

And today we are in the Octave before Christmas, with the "O Antiphons" and the special prayers. I love this part of Advent for the liturgy.

Many of the student priests have begun to leave for Christmas ministry in the parishes. Since I am staying here, I've been asked to substitute a Latin American confrere who is chaplain to the Augustinian Sisters near Piazza Sempione, on the Via Nomentana. I went there to the convent of the Madonna di Buon Consiglio this morning, early, and recognized the group. They are mainly Maltese Sisters, and I came to do some chaplaincy here in the summer of 1994, again substituting a Latin American confrere. I'll spend the week before Christmas and some days afterwards doing the morning liturgy there. It will be nice to be allied to a community, really.

30 years ago - my first trip to Rome

My first visit to Rome took place 30 years ago today, when I was 26. I arrived with a group of friends and other young people who attached themselves to us as in our 2nd class train cabin from Torino Porta Nuova to Roma Termini. It rained most of the way, and the streets were wet when we got into the eternal city. I barely remember how we got from the train station to the UPS, but I know that Carmine Vairo and Louie Liberati met us at the station. It was dark, and we got into dark little rooms in the university: scratchy white sheets and heavy army blankets and the smell of moth balls. But we were in Rome!

I'd heard stories of this city since childhood, and to go there -- well, it made me feel like a little kid on a big adventure. The chance of a lifetime! We had come to celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception with our Salesian friends, and to my delight, Carmine had arranged for us to go to St Peter's in the morning to participate in "a special mass for seminarians with the pope." Well he got it wrong. The mass was with students and personnel of the pontifical universities… and the most prominent among these were the sisters. Altro che seminaristi!!! Paul VI came in on the sedia gestatoria, and it was so exciting.

The mass was celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the 10th anniversary of the closing of Vatican II. The pope invited us to imitate Mary most Holy in meditating the Word of God and living that Word. This was the path to holiness; it was the fitting way, the pope told us, to commemorate the great event of Vatican II.

Oh, yes! Chance of a life-time: to go to Rome. But then, I later returned many times, alone or with friends and family. Then I actually took up residence in Rome for nearly 5 years. Now, after a six-year lag, I'm back again. Certainly, the "Eternal City" strikes me differently today. This is why I am recording my observations in this blog.

Robberies

Is someone breaking into the Don Rua Community?

Every week there seems to be a break-in. This all started during the month of September when the only ones here were the students of Italian. It seems that the first robbery relieved the community of the television. Following that incident, everyone was urged to lock doors, and to check the doors leading into the common areas.

Once that was done, there were break-ins with the Don Bosco community, which shares the other half of our building on via Cocco Ortu. Now the gates are locked at night with a chain, and everyone in both student communities is conscious of locking doors and windows.

But, as if on a regular schedule, there is a break-in… and this week the target was the room of one of the students on the ground floor. It was André from the Congo. He had left the window open, but closed the roll-shutters. The robber managed to wedge open the roll-shutters and to climb into André's room. There seemed to be no mystery involved, for the only thing that was disturbed was André's money folder, which he kept in the drawer of his night stand. The robber relieved the money folder of €1000.

What was André doing with so much money in his room?

He was saving up for a computer.

Yes, but why did he not hand in the money to the community financial administrator who could have banked it or put it in a safe?

He did not think that he would hold on to it that long, he said. In fact, the robber made sure that André did not hold on to it. Strangely, the robber knew exactly where to go (which leads to speculation that the thief was someone who frequented the Italian language course and therefore stayed in the Don Rua community during those 6 weeks. Certainly, he had been in André's room before and knew exactly where to look. He also knew to wear gloves. The carabbinieri dusted for fingerpints, but there were none but André's…… oh wait! there were fingerprints from a dozen members of the community on the chairs, on the door, on the coffee cups. André invites many to his room for coffee.

Oh well!

Kiss that money goodbye!

But a number of folks in the community suggested that we all pitch in and help Andé recuperate the money. If everyone could give €uros 40, then enough money could be collected so that he could purchase that laptop computer that he needs for studies. So this is what we are doing: everyone who can is giving the director a donation.

And this is strange. In the USA we don't keep more than a little spending money on our persons as Salesians, and we do not make money. Here the student priests receive donations for their masses and services. Makes you pause to think what they mean to do with a "vow of poverty".

The most advanced nations have monarchs!

At breakfast today one of the professors quoted Thomas Aquinas as we were discussing the riots in Paris and the demonstrations in Madrid (this fits the 8th point on the evaluation, that of "contemporary issues"). This young professor, freshly minted PhD in Philosophy who teaches Ethics, made the comment, "According to Thomas, the most efficient form of government is the Dictatorship".

Shrieks of horror from the students around me (I confess, I was busy reaching for the cream cheese, and was more concerned with not knocking over the coffee).

But the rebuttal came from the community director, also a Philosopher who in fact teaches Anthropology. "Yes, the dictatorship is most effective according to Thomas, but if you look at the world inductively, you will realize that 8 of the top 10 among the most developed economies in the world are Monarchies".

I found this very entertaining.

In these days I have been receiving e-mails from my colleagues at DSPT, and there is much concern about the accreditation of the theology school by the ATS (Association of Theological Schools). It seems that they continue to send many directives to our school, many of which are not so applicable. In the world scheme of things, where does ATS fit in? Dictators or Monarchs? No, they are too efficient for Monarchs. Viva il Re!

Why on sabbatical

Jesús Manuel Garcia has asked me to write a little synopsis of my experience for a bit of a blurb to present next week to the students. I put together a few lines, in Italian, where I note that after 11 years working full time in the Institute of Salesian Studies at Berkeley, and 6 years as a full-time professor at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (Berkeley), the faculty of that school invited me to take advantage of the regulation and make a request to devote a year of sabbatical to research.

My objective: to refine studies that I have been trying to bring forward in recent years on the spirit of Francis de Sales. A second study that I began concerns the apostolic and spiritual meaning of Dominic Savio's living out of Don Bosco's motto "da mihi animas."

The fact that I will be teaching a course on St Francis de Sales for the faculty of theology  here at the UPS will help me refine and develop the first theme on the Story and spirit of St Francis de Sales.

With my student Joseph Nguyen (and his student) on the day of his perpetual profession, 15 August 2000

Sunday timetable and fighting jet-lag

Well, I must be catching up with the timezone. Today was the first morning that I did not wake up at 4.00. Trouble is, I woke up late for the Sunday liturgy, and I did not understand the details of the timetable, because I missed two other liturgies on campus. With that, I just walked down the street from the university to the parish church -- Madonna della Speranza (Our Lady of Hope). Even here I got the time wrong, and waked in 40 minutes late, but since the priest was barely at the start of his sermon, I stayed for the remaining 45 minutes of the liturgy.

Two families were baptizing their babies today -- a bit of hope for a mainly graying crowd. In fact, a lot of folks have been complaining that there are few young people in church, but there were babies crying throughout the congregation, so Our Lady of Hope must have used this to encourage the many gray heads in the packed congregation. Yes, packed. I was not the only one who stood through the mass. There were over 50 of us standing around the perimeter of the circular worship space. After mass I spoke with a few parishioners. There are five Sunday masses, and this is the most "unpacked" of them all. They too commented that it is sad that not many people go to church nowadays. As I walked back to the unviversity and to my community, I mused that it is a good thing that people aren't coming to church. With these big crowds, there would be a need to build five more churches in the neighborhood.

Dinner was good: excellent pasta all'uovo with a light marinara sauce. The fruit is perfectly sweet!

Checking prices - not very touristy …

The first time I came to Rome was 30 years ago, almost. At that time I was so excited that I couldn't wait to get into city center and see all the sites, historical and religious. I arrived with a group of friends from Turin on 7 December in 1975, that very first time. Even though it was dark and raining when we got off the train, that did not stop us from taking in a tourist site or two before I called Fr. Louie Liberati, then on sabbatical at the Salesian University. Louie had been my chemistry teacher in high school, and after I became a Salesian myself, he was my spiritual guide and mentor during my first three years teaching special ed in Edmonton (but that's a whole different story). On that rainy night in December, Louie told me what bus to take from and said he'd meet us when the bus got to the end of the line. Even that trip, with all the tugs and turns of the night bus was total excitement in my young heart.

Well, I guess I had flashbacks of that today. No, I'm made no effort to go into city center, but I did walk to the nearby grocery store. How things have changed! As I was pricing items, I checked the aisle where wines are sold, and today there is a BIG SALE (Saldi!!!) on "Vino da California" -- California wines! But it wasn't Mondavi or Beringer, but good old "Ernest and Giulio Gallo" from Sonoma. I had to smile.

Homecoming … of sorts

After one week in southern California with family, my young friend Juan Carlos got me to LAX. Actually, he was held up at the doctor's office (I mean, I expected that, didn't I) but he knows the shortcuts and we qualified for the "car-pool lane", so we got there quickly enough.

My route to Rome was by way of London Heathrow, departing Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon, and arriving in Rome on Thursday night, close to midnight. Two old friends of mine and fellow scholars, Jesus Manuel and José Luis, met me as I came out of Immigration and Customs. We spoke a mixture of Italian and Spanish all the way back to the Salesian Pontifical University (which is on the north side of the city).

On Friday morning I spent some time getting around the university, meeting up with old friends from my previous stays in Rome and Turin, and coming to know the newer group of folks that have come on the scene in the last decade. In fact, it has been a nice homecoming. But now the jetlag is weighing in. I could use a siesta! But first, I need to send an e-mail to my brother Sal: today is his birthday.

Happy Birthday, Sal!

Arrival note

After a long, long trip, I arrived at Roma Fiumicino tonight (21.30 hours). Jesús Manuel García and José Luis Moral met me as I came out of immigration and customs. It was late, but the Italian arrival went without a hitch. I am grateful to God for this after such a long trip.

The drive to the Salesian Pontifical University was long as well, since construction is taking place on Rome's circle road… and then there was no one to open the gate for us at the Comunità Don Rua, where I will be a community member this year… but that's another story. At this point I just want to make a quick entry so this blog gets itself launched.

The good news is that I'm back in Rome!!! My first visit here took place when I was 25. I'd heard stories of "the Eternal City" since childhood, and to go there -- well, it made me feel like a little kid on a big adventure. The chance of a lifetime! But then, I later returned many times, alone or with friends and family. Then I actually took up residence in Rome for nearly 5 years. Now, after a six-year lag, I'm back again.

What will Rome be like for me now? What will I see? What will be the same and what will be different in this place?

Well, we are about to see. I will add little thoughts as they come, basically to say: Here's how the "Eternal City" strikes me today.

Thanks for joining me, but if you will excuse me, I need to get some sleep.

Ciao!