Salesian Family Day

The Salesian Family Marian Day has taken place in October for several years now. This year I was asked to speak. Since St Dominic Savio had so many events since August, St John Bosco High School hosted the Salesian Family… but there were four other events going on, including a football game this same morning. This is homecoming weekend at St John Bosco, after all, and a busier weekend could not have been chosen.

Today's presentation was set to be in keeping with the theme for 2012-2013 in the run up the 200th birthday of St John Bosco in 2015: Don Bosco Educator. I was asked to bring out some ideas on the educative charism of Don Bosco. For a long time I did not know how to put this together, but I finally settled on Don Bosco and His Young People. This is a theme that I have been exploring in the course that I teach in Rome on the social-religious-political-cultural context of Don Bosco's century. After I have worked on this theme, I realized that Fr Lenti has put a lot of this forward in the second volume of his study on Don Bosco. However, I also realize that Fr Lenti has said everything on Don Bosco already, so I decided not to worry about bringing out anything new.

In attendance were members of many different branches of the Salesian Family, and I already knew most of them, except for the 20 students from Bosco Tech that were brought along. Poor kids! This was not designed for young people, and nobody told me that they would be present until this morning. I had not directed my talk to them, and I consider it an injustice to constrain kids to hear speeches designed for adults. Nobody ever consulted me on this aspect… but that is another story.

Reflections on Annecy 2012

Basilica of the Visitation, Annecy

Spending July and August in Annecy, for some Salesian days with Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal and my Salesian sisters… well this was something that I had looked forward to for months, and when we were arrived in old Annecy, I found the experience exhilarating.

This has not been my first visit to Annecy. The first time I had gone I had been in my 20s, and went with my theology classmates from Torino. I had since returned three other times, for days of reflections, or on pilgrimage, or on retreat. This Summer 2012 pilgrimage, then, has been my fifth time visiting the places of Francis de Sales, but this has seems so much richer after 18 years of teaching courses on the life and spirit of the saint.

Sr Anne-Marie Baud plays with the door knocker at Chateau de Sales, Thorens

It was exciting to me to have one of my former students, Sr Anne-Marie Baud do so much of the footwork and bring our group to visit the Holy Source of the Visitation, and many of the places where Francis and Jane lived and worked. I have been to these places with scholars who knew of them through meticulous study, but Anne-Marie is a native of Savoy. As she told me the first time I met her, “My family was converted by Saint François de Sales!” To travel with her to these wonderful places was to have an insider’s view. This made all the difference, as far as I was concerned, for she gave a sense of joy, adventure, intimacy and enthusiasm to every corner of Annecy.

It was also a great treat for me to spend 12 days with the Sisters of the GBR province, for many of the sisters I have known in different places over the years (Torino, Bollington, Chertsey, Battersea, London, Berkeley, Melbourne), so it was fantastic for me to renew our friendship and to do so in the company of Francis and Jane – the saints of Christian friendship. The prayer moments, prepared by the sisters each morning and evening, were fresh and always seemed to hit the mark for my own spirit in these days, and the sisters made each day’s liturgy prayerful and profound. The companionship at table was another treat, enjoying the wonderful meals, the beautiful sunshine, hearing of the sisters’ work and apostolic experiences – all of this fed my heart and soul. How privileged I felt to participate in the renewal of vows of the junior professed, and the golden jubilee of three sisters who came from the same parish so many years ago and who have worked in very different places but who could gave the whole pilgrimage/retreat a wonderful, youthful tone.

Any help that I might have provided in the way of the conferences and the homilies was amply repaid by the great warmth of family spirit that I experienced in return. I cannot thank you enough – collectively and individually – for these wonderful days of prayer and refreshment, of spirituality and family spirit too.

Abundant blessings on all!

Birthday party in Sacramento

If I had been thinking straight, I would have taken a lot of photos… i only got two of my Aunt Rose as she opened gifts. Today in Sacramento her sons Louie and Johnny celebrated her 80th birthday and invited all her friends and their friends, as well as the Boenzi crew.

So, Dominic and Barbara, Gary and his friend, Mario and Diane, and I made it to Sacramento. The others arrived last night; I drove in this afternoon, and then drove back to Berkeley. That's not to bright. The others are all staying in a motel not far from the Mauro home, and so making a whole weekend of it, but I was just lucky to get out of the house.

Both Dom and Diane had the same idea: they put together albums of Boenzi photos and family trees, and Rose recognized the photos and began to tell her grandchildren all about the family lore.

Rosa Boenzi Mauro at age 1, in 1933,  Chicago

All the way home I kept thinking what a milestone this is. Rose is the youngest of my father's siblings, and the only one still alive. Even when I was a child I knew the stories, as my father used to talk about his favorite sister and her childhood in Chicago. Actually, she was his only sister. Rose was born when my father was 10, and he was always protective of her. Actually, all four of her brothers were protective of Rose, but to hear my father, he considered her the apple of his eye. I think she always knew it too, for "Johnny", as she calls him, was always there for her in her childhood and youth.

As the youngest, Rose was more removed from the trauma of immigration than her brothers. Whereas my father was fluent in Neapolitan and carried on all the traditions of the family as brought to America from the old country, Rose only understood the dialect. She responded to her parents in English rather than Neapolitan. Of course, Dominic and Rudy married American girls, and so they eventually had few people with whom to speak the language (only Rose and my father married Italians), but for Rose it was not a matter of losing the contact. By the time she was growing up, America was at War, and all the immigrants were staunchly proving their loyalty to the USA. She grew up more conscious of America than of her Italian roots.

Rose Boenzi and Carmen Mauro on their wedding day, 28 November 1953

Having said that, I know that Rose was my father's pride and joy. She was only 16, but she was part of the bridal party when my parents married. My father was the last of his brothers to wed, and that was in 1948. Rose married in 1953, at the age of 21. She married a baseball player, Carmen Mauro, whom she met when he was playing on the Chicago Cubs. She and Carmen would be godparents to my youngest brother Mario, and role models for him.

Rose and Carmen on their 40th Anniversary, 1993

So, even though Rose is 17 years older than I am, I recall those stories and think of her as the young one.

Funny how that works.

Have a happy 80th birthday, Aunt Rose, and a great 81st year!

Francis de Sales for the novices

Today I end a week with the novices of the two American provinces. I was invited to Rosemead to give a mini-course on Saint Francis de Sales. We began on Monday morning and ended yesterday afternoon, and we spent an average of 2.5  hours in the mornings and 1 hour in the afternoons.

Well it seemed to have gone well. I had asked them to read the Introduction of the Devout Life ahead of time, and during the week I presented some of the main points of the teachings of the saint each morning. Each afternoon we had a discussion on one part of the Introduction to the Devout Life (as there are five parts). The five young men seemed to participate well in the discussions.

One of the things that I pointed out to the novices, as I do, now, with most Salesian groups is that we Salesians have lost touch with the teachings of St Francis de Sales. In the first decades of the Salesian Society, the life and teachings of this saint were much discussed and absorbed, so to speak. However, once Don Bosco was beatified (1929), we let Francis de Sales slip into the background as we stressed Don Bosco's life and teachings more. That was natural, I suppose. It was important to come to know the new contributions of the new saint. But if we want to go back to the sources (as Vatican II called religious to do), then it is important to gain a deeper understanding of Don Bosco's model for the evangelization and education of the young, St Francis de Sales.

That is a tall order, but at least five more young Salesians have a better insight into who Francis was and why he appealed to Don Bosco.

Manuscript almost ready

Lambert International Airport, St Louis. As I wait for my return flight to San Francisco, I write down a bit of a report of my trip to the city of St Louis.

Entrance to the Visitation Monastery, St Louis

At this point I am almost ready to submit the final draft of my manuscript for the book on Francis de Sales. All during this week I have been staying at the Visitation Monastery in St Louis and working on the text. With the help of Sr Mary Grace McCormack, who proof read it, I have re-edited my work and rewritten passages that were unclear. Sr Grace critiqued every chapter and sub-chapter. This was very helpful. Her encouragement and the excitement of the other sisters over my efforts gave me some courage that this project might even be worth while.

Adventures on St Joseph's Day

Today is the feast of Saint Joseph. In English he is called "the foster father of Jesus", but in Italian he is called "the supposed father of Jesus -- il padre putativo". I do like the Italian term better.

Images of St Joseph and other saints on sale at CVS pharmacy in Bellflower

We had a work day here at Berkeley, of course. In addition, this was the last day of the provincial visitation that began on 9 March, so it was busy and a little stressful. I was main celebrant at the 6.45 morning mass that turned out to be very solemn and festive despite the fact that God was not awake yet. In the evening we celebrated with some guests as well and our main meal and afterwards. So it turned out to be a great day…

… except for the fact that I fell down the stairs coming out of the dining room and gashed my head, twisted my ankle, went to the doctor for treatment and must meet a surgeon for reconstructive surgery on my face because the gash is so drastic. My ankle is wrapped too. Other than that, no big damage was done. I still have a load to teach this week, and at the end of the week I am (still) planning on going to St Louis to complete work on the manuscript of my book on the life and spirit of St Francis de Sales.

St Joseph carries the Child Jesus into Egypt (Holy Family Church, Artesia)

Hmmmmm. I promise not to moan too much for the pain. At the same time, I have to say that we have celebrated a very happy feast of St Joseph here in Berkeley with the Salesian community and a number of close friends.

Leadership meeting

My provincial superior, Fr Tim Ploch, wants me to go to Detroit during Easter Week for an important meeting of groups promoting the pastoral style and spirituality of Francis de Sales in the USA. It is a meeting of provincials and community leaders from the Oblates of St Francis de Sales, the Daughters of St Francis de Sales, the Oblate Sisters of St Francis de Sales, the Visitation Sisters of Holy Mary of the First Federation (cloistered) and the Second Federation (semi-cloistered). Invitations were advanced to the provincials of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Cooperator Salesians.

Tim Ploch at Don Bosco Hall

Ideas for this meeting surfaced last August after the National Conference on Salesian Spirituality. Fr John Graden and Fr Michael Murray of OSFS centers in the Western and Eastern Provinces were asking how the Salesians could better collaborate in projects to promote the spirit and teaching of Francis de Sales along with them. Eunan McDonnell and I were at that post-conference session and we both said that unless the Salesian provincials were involved at the organizing level, not much would happen for us. Indeed, Salesians are very centralized in terms of our governing structures and mentality. Based on that conversation, John Graden and Joanne Kinney began to plan for such a leadership summit.

John Graden, Joanne Kinney and Eunan McDonnell in Wilmington last August

As it turns out, our province has an important gathering of all the communities during Easter Week, continuing with pastors and directors. This means that Tim Ploch cannot attend the leadership summit proposed by the Oblates of St Francis de Sales. So he is sending me to the Detroit meeting.

In my mind, this defeats the purpose. I suggested to Tim that we ask DeSales Resources to schedule the meeting for another time, but he responded. "No. It doesn't make sense that they postpone the meeting just for me. You can represent me." Besides, he added, Tom Dunne, provincial of the New Rochelle Province, will be attending. Evidently he and Tom have been discussing all this.

This does not convince me really. I know how our centralized mentality will function. Yet, Tim knows that for the last 11 years I have been working on a national committee to promote Salesian studies with other congregations and orders. This is why he is sending me. 

Visiting Visitations at Vatican

This afternoon I headed down to the Vatican for the conference with the Visitation Sisters of the Mater Ecclesiae Cloister. It took an 75 minutes to get to the Vatican from the University, by bus and subway, and then 15 minutes to to get the necessary visitor passes through passport control… and another 15 minutes to walk up the hill to the monastery. When I got to the monastery, the sisters were at Vespers (I could hear them chanting as I walked up to the building), so I needed to wait 40 minutes before ringing the bell? After meeting with the superior in the parlor through the grate, i did the last preparations for the conference. Then we began.

Since today is the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I presented some experiences of Francis as missionary in the Chablais, and of his dealings with the Calvinists of Savoy and Geneva. All of the sisters come from countries where Catholics are the majority (Spain, Colombia, Equitorial Guinea, Italy), so they have not had direct contact with people of other faiths. We had a good little give-and-take at the end along those lines.

On the right, the superior, Sor María Bogogna

Then I gave them greetings from the Visitandines in the USA, for some knew of my invitation to give this conference. I went on to tell the Vatican sisters more about the USA foundations, particularly about the community in North Minneapolis. They were both fascinated and very delighted by what they heard.

The monastery of cloistered nuns in the Vatican was the idea of Pope John Paul II. His idea was that the monastery would be entrusted to an order of nuns for five years, after which a different order with a different charism would take over. He had designated a period of five years, but Pope Benedict has shorted the term to three years, which is more a measurement used in religious communities. The first group of nuns were Poor Clares; the second group were Benedictines. The Visitandines are the third group and the first to be limited to a three-year term, and they are already in their third year. Their time in this community will come to an end in October 2012. The Good Mother told me that the time is passing too quickly, but that all the sisters who are participating are grateful for the experience for forming an ad-hoc community in the Vatican. They feel that they are a support to the Holy Father and the Church Universal in a very tangible way. I found them all very gracious, bright, down-to-earth, with a sense of humor that makes you feel at home among them.

Dawn at 7.05; Daybreak at 7.35

There was a giant full-moon this morning when I went to the university chapel at 6.30 for prayers. Usually I like to walk outside for the few steps that go from the ground-floor of the theology building to the entrance of the chapel, on the lower level. If nothing else, it reminds me not to stay indoors all day.

In any case, the moon shone round and bright — this is the night of the full moon. The sky was very black and the air very cold. I wanted to grab my camera, but I remembered the words of one of my instructors in the summer of 1965 when I took a course in photography at Bonny Dune. That instructor was Mike Perry, and he noted that the moon is always moving, but we only notice when we try to photograph it. If we use a shutter speed of less than 1/30th of a second, it will be blurry because of that movement. Of course, my camera is a simple little kodak digital, with no f-stops, no changeable lenses, and not much else. I really cannot take photos in low-light because my hands are not steady enough. Oh no, this is not a condition of aging. Its part of my story since I was at least 12 years old… but that’s for another time.

With this knowledge, I knew I could not photography the moon. All I could do was to gaze up at the moon and marvel at its incredible brightness this morning in the still-night sky.

It was still dark when we began the mass at 7.00, and still dark when we left the church at 7.30. I saw the sunrise while I sipped a caffè-latte for breakfast. I was thinking of all the deadlines that I have to meet this week, and how next week is the last week of instruction. No time for hesitation.

Roman sunrise at the UPS

On Sunday night I sent in my syllabi to DSPT for the Spring Term, which begins in Berkeley on 30 January. My departure from Rome is set for 28 January… I will have a day to regroup my strength, if there is any left. Meanwhile, I have 11 more class sessions here in Rome before the exams. I had better start packing soon. 

Epiphany and the proclamation of Easter

Today in the parish church of Our Lady of the Annunciation (L’Annunciata) in Acerra, Don Mimmì, the parish priest, read the announcement of Easter. I was concelebrating with him and the Bishop Emeritus of Acerra, Don Antonio Riboldi.

The Easter proclamation, quite traditional, goes like this:

Dearest brothers and sisters:
   The glory of the Lord  has shown and will always shine in your midst until He comes again. In the rhythm and events of time, we recall and we live the mysteries of salvation.
   Central to the entire liturgical year is the Triduum of the Lord, crucified, buried and risen, that will culminate with the Sunday of the Passover, Easter Sunday, on 8 April. 
   On every Sunday, the Paschal feast each week, the Holy Church commemorates this great event in which Christ has overcome sin and death. From Easter all the other holy days are determined: 
   Ash Wednesday, beginning of the Lenten Season, on 22 February.
   The Ascension of the Lord, 20 May.
   Pentecost, 27 May. 
   The first Sunday of Advent, 2 December.
   In the feasts of the Holy Mother of God, of the Apostles, of the saints and the commemoration of the faithful departed, the pilgrim Church on earth proclaims the Paschal Mystery of her Lord.
   To Christ who was, who is and who is to come, Lord of time and of history, be unending praise for ever and ever.
   Amen

Christmas Eve

All the teachings and all the mystic experiences of Christianity are wound into the feast of Christmas, and this gets translated into Family celebrations too. Each generation holds on to what they have grown up with and share these with new members of the family -- the children, the in-laws -- even as they make new traditions that work in new times and places.

So to with the Boenzi family, transplanted from Acerra to Cerritos, via Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Bellflower.

There are many traditions, but let me just note a few.

In centuries past, Christmas Eve was a day of fast and abstinence from all meat products. This was typical on the day before every major feast. Thus, during the day of Christmas Eve, people ate very little and no meat. Then in the evening there was a supper -- a huge supper as a matter of fact. Now, how could you justify a huge meal on a fast day? The reason is that before the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar (1582), the new day was always reckoned to begin with sunset, not with midnight (who had clocks in those days besides the very wealthy?). In the Church this tradition continues on feast days when «First Vespers» marks the beginning of the new day liturgically. Well, the Neapolitan custom of the big supper goes back centuries, and so once it is dark on Christmas Eve, the fasting is finished because it is a new day.

Yet, if the meal is big, it is still meatless. There is the tradition of seven fishes or of twelve plates. Seven fishes for the seven days of creation, and twelve dishes for the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. Of the twelve dishes, then, seven would be seafood. Usually there are three salt-water fish and three fresh-water fish, and one serving of eel. Each has a symbolic value that would recall the mysteries of faith and traditions of Christian practice.

The opening dish is a seafood pasta, and for us, it is always linguine with clams. Clams are thrown into the sauce after it is brought to a boil.

Angela prepares to stir the tomato and clam sauce

For the last couple of years now, my niece Angela has prepared the sauce. She has become quite expert in this, having learned the recipe from her mother Diane, who learned it from her mother-in-law (my mother) Connie (Maria Concetta Nuzzo), who learned it from her mother Maria Zito. The sauce is a tricky one since the herbs must be just right. In the old country the clam shells are cleaned and the clams then sorted, and then they are thrown into the sauce living. The pasta will be served with the clams and shells and all. We instead buy the clams already par-boiled, and therefore there are no shells (and the cook does not feel herself to be cruel).

The pasta is the last thing to be cooked, but then you know that. Ten minutes before the guests are ready to sit down, Angela throws the pasta in the pot.

Pour a little hot water in the bowl to heat it up, empty it, and then line the bottom with sauce. Take the pasta from the colander, put it into the sauce in the bowel, as you see my brother Mario doing in these photos.  Our father taught us this trick. The reason, he used to explain, is to keep the pasta from sticking and to allow the red sauce to spread evenly on all the pasta… but one must work fast.

After filling the bowl, add more sauce, stir the pasta together. Now you are ready to serve. My brother Mario, as head of the family in southern California, does the honors of serving up the linguine.

Mario fills each plate with the first course: linguine with clams

Mario follows the tradition that he learned from my father. He asks that all the plates be brought to his place, and fills each bowl with the linguine, then hand the bowl to the first person, who then passes them on to the one whose name Mario has called. Each person may add more sauce as she or he prefers. Cheese should never be added to a pasta dish if there is seafood… this is traditional, also because in old time abstinence from meat on a fast day included abstinence from dairy products. Very few people know this today. However, the clam sauce is so favor-full that there is no need to add cheese (good job, Angela!!).

There is plenty of pasta, but be careful. Do not fill up on this. As my uncle Rudy used to quote the old proverb, “taste everything but eat nothing” (assaggia tutto; mangia niente). Why? there will be more to come, of course. This is the first of twelve dishes… but I’ll shut up for the moment, so you can enjoy the pasta.

The meal ends with a dessert which we call gli strufoli. This Christmas dessert is typical only of Naples and the towns of the old Kingdom of Napoli. It is virtually unknown in the rest of Italy, but because of the strong emigration from southern Italy to the USA, more people in America know this tradition than perhaps in Italy today.

The small, golden brown orbs of a deep-fried pasta are covered in honey and dried fruit or confetti candies… the candies represent the sparkle, and the pile of pastry orbs represent gold. Yes, of course, the gold brought by the Magi to the Christ Child. The «strufoli» are served on a platter as if they were a pile of gold, and each member of the family spoons a small portion on to his or her own plate. It is a royal treasure shared. As with all the dishes of the Neapolitan Christmas Eve supper (cena), this dish has catechetical value. Christ is the King of Heaven come to us: Come let us adore him.

Gli strufoli e le generazioni - la nonna e le nipoti

Fervent greetings for a Happy Christmas to all.

Remembering my grandfather

Yes, I have been thinking about my father’s father a lot today, but this is nothing new. I actually think about him every day… of all my grandparents, actually.

There are many incidents that I could recall about him, incidents in my own life and those that have been told to me by family members. Perhaps some day I will put all these down in writing, but today I just wanted to note a few facts.

He was born on 25 November 1893 in Acerra, the first-born of Domenico Boenzi and Rosa Cantore. He was named for his father’s father: Giuseppe Boenzi. This grandfather of his was called an industrialist, but what kind of industry could he have promoted in Acerra during the decades following the fall of the Bourbon monarchy and the unification of Italy? There were no industries as we have come to think of them, with mass production of heavy goods, not in this area of Italy at that time. There were, however, cottage industries. This was what could properly be called manufacturing, that is, hand-made goods. What goods? Anything from clothing to shoes to hats, to small furnishings… but we do not know. The fact is, our Giuseppe was cut off from the Boenzi family almost immediately, for his own father Domenico died on 4 July 1894, leaving Peppino orphaned of his father before his first birthday. Thus, he was raised by his mother’s family, and came to be known as Giuseppe Cantore, rather than Boenzi.

There are many details to tell, but I will fast-forward to 1951 when my grandfather came to California from Illinois to spend some time with us. My impressions are more visual and sensory than logical: I remember his white hair, similar in cut to my father’s black hair; his cigar; his deep voice and punctuated comments; his habit of kissing us on both cheeks or tricking us into a kiss when we were giving a hug.

Grandfather holds me and my mother holds my brother Sal 1951

The following summer my father took us to Chicago. I was not yet three-years old then, and again my memory centers more on highlights than on substance. I remember the long drive and various stops before we finally arrived in the city of my parents’ birth. We visited a whole collection of relatives on both sides of the family, but very memorable were the days we spent at the Boenzi home in Berwyn, Illinois. It is memorable because it was the first time that I ever had seen stairs… and I fell down those stairs at least four times.

This is when I met my grandmother, but of course my grandfather was a known quantity. I can remember his gruff voice but and his kind eyes behind those wire-rim glasses. When he spoke to me, it was in Neapolitan, and although I thought that I never learned the language, whenever he spoke to me, I understood… not just that summer, but into my teens.

One year later, in 1953, he drove out to Los Angeles and spent a few weeks with us. He looked for a home and bought one on Denker Street. Then my grandmother came from Chicago and they moved in. For the rest of her life she would speak of Chicago, but he seemed to like Los Angeles just fine. He was turning 60 and got a job in the garment district, working as a tailor for another 15 years.

Giuseppina & Giuseppe Boenzi in L.A. 1954

These are all facts that underline the memories. I was not thinking of my grandfather in these terms, however. I was remembering him as the hard worker that he always was -- as the family man, the professional tailor, the artist. I was thinking of the Sunday dinners with all the grandparents and how he, more than others, were interested in the news, the politics, the church, the sermons (even if he did not go to church on Sunday, he wanted to hear what the sermon had been about), the trade unions and international affairs. He would usually begin speaking in English and then switch into Neapolitan until he realized that the non-Italian spouses of my aunts and uncles were trying to keep up with the conversation. Then he would blush, and immediately switch back to English.

It was a struggle. Often I heard him say at the end of a statement: “I don’t know if I made myself understood?” My grandfather Boenzi was very self-conscious that he did not have a command of the English language even after 50 years of living in the United States. “I wish that I could express myself,” he would often repeat, with a bit of desperation sounding in his voice.

At the time I thought that he was doing just fine. It was not until I moved to Italy at age 25 that I realized how much I myself wanted to say but was incapable of doing so because I lacked the words, or the proper grammar that would zing my points into the perspective that I wanted to present. Of course, now I am here in Italy for many years -- a reverse of my grandparents’ experience, but perhaps more similar than not. During these weeks as I teach courses or attend meetings of the faculty, or engage in similar experiences such as the symposium on this weekend: yes! I get my point across, but how I wish I could say it better, or in a way that people would not be distracted by the California cadence of my diction.

This is what brings Peppe Cantore to mind. He died in Bellflower on 18 April 1978, but I am still reliving many of his experiences, and wondering at the world the way it seemed to me that he did -- now from behind my wire-rim glasses. He actually understood more than he could articulate, although perhaps I am the opposite and articulate more than what I understand. Sill, I see his eyes and hear his voice play back certain phrases in my head. I can still hear his Neapolitan cadenced English exclaim: “I weesh dat I cuud espressa myself!” And I think, yeah, you and me, papa: you and me! 

Spiritual theology and its challenges

Symposium of Spiritual Theology began this afternoon at the UPS. The symposium has been planned for months to bring together theologians from a number of the pontifical and Catholic faculties in Rome, Naples, Bologna, Milano, Torino. The director of our Institute of Spiritual Theology, Jesús Manuel Garcia has been the prime organizer.

Professore Don Jesús Manuel Garcia

It was last July that I received the first notification of this symposium, but I did not receive any follow-up emails… I presume because don Garcia has a mixup of my email address in his address book. In any case, I have been able to participate, and while many of the talks are striking, I want to just put down some raw ideas that I have picked up.

The symposium is held in Sala Viganò, in the University Library

Padre Luigi Borriello, a Carmelite and professor of Spiritual Theology at the Teresianum, stressed that one of the difficulties of Spiritual Theology is that there is not one measure for speaking of spirituality. There is not one term that the Church uses, or that Christians use. There are so many models of holiness that to speak systematically of only one way will diminish everyone.

Father Borriello

In this way, Spiritual Theology is not like dogmatic theology or moral theology. These follow singular methods. It is the same with biblical, liturgical and pastoral theology. Here, instead, we are talking of lived-experience and praxis. Better, it is lived-experience in charity (I was hungry, I was thirsty…).

So there is a gap between theology and holiness. The theologian that attempted to fill the gap was Urs Von Balthassar. He speaks of mystical hagiography. You cannot talk about a saint as one who is holy before birth. It is the lived-experience, heroic effort to live the Gospel. It cannot be quietism. Every saint has a mission in the world, to people, to let them learn that God meets them where they are. There is One who is Holy, but there are many ways to respond to God in the lives of each one.

To put it another way, there is each believer must find his or her own way to live the gift of faith received. No one is a replica of someone else (this is the path to abstraction and not responsibility) but each struggles with the realities, the setbacks, the victories, the opposition to call God inside his or her life, and then to respond.

God’s action and the response of human nature; a welcoming of the divine and human effort to receive that presence. It is always subjective because they all live in different contexts, in different histories, with different personalities, weaknesses, talents, relationships, histories. Sanctity is theology lived, not theology theorized. This is the sense of Thomas who affirms, «All these words are straw». One thing is necessary, Union with God.  So we can ask, are all mystics saints? Are all saints mystics?

Interesting! Great talk. Of course, the moral theologian at the symposium did not agree because he seem to see spiritual theology as a duplication of moral theology and specifically of virtue ethics.

Fr Borriello’s response: what did John Paul II and Benedict XVI do in Assisi at a stretch of 25 years distance? They did not call dogmatic or moral theologians. They prayed with the representatives of many different faiths and religions and non-religions. They prayed together.

Someone in theology needs to offer to all those in theology an incentive to continually receive the Word, and challenge all to understand the Word better because it is lived.

Don Pier Lugi Boracco, professor of theology at the Facolta Teologica di Italia Settentrionale (FTIS), offered an interesting image of the work of Spiritual Theology. It is like a musical composition played by different orchestras and sounding very different. The musical score is legible; the sound is very different according to the abilities, tastes and so much more of each different orchestra. Still, the music is alive, also for this -- and the pleasure is that we can hear the same music interpreted in many different ways. And spirituality or holiness can be understood in this sense.

Well, my reflections, as I have said, are very raw. Do not worry: the official acts of this symposium will be published, and everyone can see the clarity of these theologians points in that final text. All that I am saying is that it is interesting to sit with these problems and thoughts and insights. 

Family feast day of Mary Immaculate

The feast of the Immaculate Conception, besides being a solemnity in the Church, is a day of remembrance for the Salesian Family, for it was on 8 December 1841 that Saint John Bosco began his work with the youth of Torino. According to his own account, this took place quite unexpectedly when a bricklayer’s apprentice wandered into the sacristy of the church of San Francesco d’Assisi that snowy morning. Don Bosco’s description is interesting. He says:

A humourous incident opened the way to put into action my project for the boys who roamed the streets of the city, especially those released from prison.

This apprentice had lost both parents and had experienced hardship and abuse. Don Bosco worked with him gently, and then reflected that if young people, even those who had been in trouble with the law …

…could find someone to befriend them, to look after them, to assist them on [Sundays and holidays], to help them get work with good employers, to visit them occasionally during the week, these young people soon forgot the past and began to mend their ways. They became good Christians and honest citizens.

Sacristy of S. Francesco d'Assisi church (Photo by Teresio Chiesa)

Well, the full story is contained in Don Bosco’s little volume, The Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales (New Rochelle: Don Bosco Media, 1989). Suffice it to say that, to this day, Salesians retell the story.

There is another important incident that took place on 8 December -- one that is equally formative for the Salesian story, I believe. On this day Francis de Sales was consecrated Bishop of Geneva. In speaking of the day of his ordination, the sainted bishop reflected:

When I was anointed bishop God took me to himself and away from my own self, and then he gave me back to my people, that is to say, he changed me from being something in my own right to being something that existed only for their sake. And so may we all be taken away from self and changed into him by the sovereign perfection of his holy love. [S. Francis de Sales, as quoted by S. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Saint Francis de Sales: a Testimony by St. Chantal, newly edited in translation with an introduction by Elisabeth Stopp (London: Faber, 1967), 55].

S. Maurizio, Thorens, where Francis was consecrated Bishop in 1602

So we remember all these vocational stories on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The day becomes a favorite day for Salesians, full of family stories. We heard a few of these stories repeated curing the liturgy today. Don Francesco Cereda, councilor for formation, celebrated with our university community, sharing teaching and spirit. The mass was joyful and festive.

Francesco Cereda presides at today's liturgy

After the mass, a reception that included the Salesians and young Cooperator Salesians… and then the banquet. In the early afternoon, as I was returning to the faculty quarters, I ran into three friends of mine  -- Polish Salesians Darek, Gabriel and Jan -- who were taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the free hours to take a trip up into the Alban Hills. Both Gabriel and Jan are here in Rome for the first time, and rightly enjoying a bit of tourism. I thought that this is also a very family way to celebrate the day of the Immaculate Conception.

Darek drives Jan and Gabriel to the mountains outside Rome

Celebrating a birthday

Today is my 62nd birthday. I never thought I would reach 50, but here I am to celebrate my 62nd birthday in Italy, the land of my ancestors… and mine too, after so many years.

It has been an interesting day. Many people at the University came to share their good wishes, including students who stopped by my office, fellow professors, community members, close friends and those with whom I rarely interact because of different faculties and schedules.

Birthday cakes are a rarity in Italy, although like many other Americanisms, like corn flakes and Halloween, you can get a cake and candles in this day and age. The custom here is that the one who is celebrated buys the treats.

In line with this custom, I bought two bottles of spirits: one rugged and one sweet; one from the north and one from the south; a grappa from Veneto and Strega from Benevento. My purpose was to celebrate the 150 years of Italian unification that I procured the two different bottles… also because I know that some like the serious northern grappa while others appreciate the crafty southern strega. It all went over very well, and I have to say I was surprised by the way everyone responded, even those who abstained from the drink. Only the moral theology professor did not respond to me (was that a sign, or a message?).

In the evening I celebrated Eucharist for the San Tommaso community, which is a newly reorganized community on campus for student priests who are newly ordained. The community has 24 members, and my long-time friend Giorgio Zevini is the director. I shared with them thoughts on what it means when a priest returns to his province of origin after having studied in Rome: people's expectations; the fact that you may represent the Church universal even without realizing it. As usual, the student priests were cordial and welcoming, and I tried not to be tedious. After the mass they invited me to join them for supper and there, with good wines, liqueurs, and ice-cream cake, they celebrated my birthday -- guitar and song and all.

On the way back to my room in the faculty quarters, I found a Fedex envelope from Berkeley, with a birthday card signed by all the members of Don Bosco Hall community. What a surprise! With all this attention (not to mention the facebook greetings and emails), I have felt very honored and blessed. It has been one of the more memorable birthdays, and a good way to start my 63rd year.

Oh yes: I usually remember Theodore Roosevelt, who was born on this day in 1858 and who was the twenty-sixth president of the United States, and the youngest man ever to serve the USA in that office. He died at age 63… so it is a poignant birthday for me, but I honor him too: rough-rider, governor, author, innovator, populist, conservationist, trust-buster, negotiator, nobel laureate and Bull Moose. Happy birthday, Teddy! 

Class discussions blogged

La Filotea, a cura di Ruggero Balboni

As I have done in previous years, I plan to begin a blog for the courses that I am teaching. Besides my lectures, I invite the students to break into groups to share their insights from reading the assigned texts. In one course here at the UPS on the History and Spirit of Francis de Sales (course number TA2262), the students will concentrate on the saint’s most popular book, the Introduction to the Devout Life (La Filotea), written by Saint Francis de Sales between 1603 and 1608, and first published in 1609.


The Italian text that I recommend is the translation by Ruggero Balboni, a priest of the Oblates of St Francis de Sales. His edition (published by the Paoline) has gone through a number of reprints, the latest being in 2010. For those who want to read the book in English, I recommend the edition by Msgr. John K. Ryan (Doubleday: 1954; numerous reprints).

Introduction to the Devout Life, translated by John K. Ryan

If the students find other editions in their own languages, they are welcome to use them. In the course this year, there is two French-speaking students from Africa. The rest are all proficient either in Italian or English.

The idea of blogging the group discussions came to me six years ago when I first starting teaching in Rome. Ordinarily the class period here lasts 45 minutes (as opposed to 80 minutes at the GTU in Berkeley). Even keeping the groups to a size of three or four persons, 45 minutes is too short to do the group sharing and then for all the groups to report back. However, I have each group choose a secretary each week and this person sends the reflections to me by email, and then I post them on a class blog. By doing this, everyone can speak in the group, and then every group can effectively share.

Groups can send me the text of their group summary in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese or Italian. From the looks of it, this year the groups will use either Italian, English or Polish in their discussions. We will see what develops when they send in their discussion summaries, which will be posted on a blog that I have created called Filotea 2012 (Filotea is the popular title for the Introduction to the Devout Life in Italian… and this is the school term of 2011-2012).  

First discussion in small groups for the course TA2262

Here is the list for the readings of the various Parts and Chapters of the Introduction as spread out during this semester.

Part I, 1-8, for Monday 17th October 

Part 1, 9-24, for Monday 24th October

Part II, 1-11, for Monday 7th November
Part II, 12-31, for Monday 14th November

Part III, 1-15, for Monday 21st November

Part III, 16-29, for Monday 28th November

Part III, 30-41, for Monday 5th December

Part IV (all) for Monday 12th December

Part V  (all) for Monday 9th January

Stained-glass image of Francis de Sales, OSFS, Wilmington