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!

Marathon

The postulants and pre-novices of the men and women all left this morning between 9:00 and 10:00. Then Joe Nguyen arrived from Watsonville to work on his MA project. I joined him in the library, and we worked steadily from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm, with only a brief break for dinner, which we had at Ristorante Raphael on Center Street.

The project is mainly finished. There are a lot of things that need fine-tuning, but if Joe can get hand it in before the end of next week, he stands a chance of having the work approved and of graduating in May.

Actually, I like what he's coming up with, complicated as it is… but I have to admit that I've been very close to the process, and I don't see the errors any more. I'm hoping that the other two professors will be constructive in that area. On the other hand, I've learned so much about the Vietnamese culture, especially the religious culture, by working with him through this. When he finishes I would like to see his work distributed among the Salesians of the province so that they can come to understand the reality that the Vietnamese immigrants and their children face in terms of their faith development.

But at this point there are still some hurdles to jump for Joe and his MA Project. I keep my fingers crossed for him.