Saltpond, Ghana - Accra, Ghana - Ndola, Zambia - Ibenga, Zambia - Rome

March 25, 2012

Peace and Good,

Sorry I missed a posting the last ten days, but as I mentioned - I have been in Africa preaching a few retreats.

The first two retreats where held in Ghana. Each was for one half of the friars there (so that they could spell each other in the apostolates).

The 17th, I flew from Accra to Johannesburg, South Africa, for whence I picked up a flight to Ndola, Zambia.

This was my first time in Zambia. It is a large country, about two and a half times the size of Italy. The population is small, however, only about 11 million people.

Our friars have a province there with about 95 friars, the vast majority of whom are Zambians.

The country has less of a tropical flavor than Ghana. It is quite a bit cooler and much less humid. The buildings have more of an English touch. The roads seem to be quite a bit better.

The two major industries are agriculture and copper mining. The Chinese have arrived in droves there (as they have all over Africa wherever they can pick up natural resources.

I preached a retreat from the 18th to the 22nd of March on the Gospel of John and how each of is called to be like the Beloved Disciple. I especially centered on the themes of matrimonial symbolism and the Eucharist.

On the last day of the retreat the friars all marched over to the cemetary to visit the tomb of Bishop Massieri, one of the friars who helped develop the diocese of Ndola. He is up for beatification. In fact, they have already declared the heroic nature of his faith, and they are now just waiting for a miracle.

On the morning of the 18th I also celebrated the English Mass for the parish in Ndola. There, if one preaches less than a half of an hour, they are disappointed. The whole Mass lasted about two hours, and they liked it.

The food there is good. The main dish is called Shima (sp?). It is a type of white corn porrage which has the consistency of mashed potato. (In fact, if you didn't know better, one would swear exactly that it was exactly that.) The one unusual food I ate this week was roasted caterpillar. It was tasty, but very chewy.

I left Zambia yesterday evening and arrived in Rome this morning.

There was one humorous episode. I asked the guardian at the mission if there was wifi in the house. He said that there was not. Then I asked if they had any internet access. He said it had been out for a bit. I told him that I would appreciate it if he would let me know if it came back during the week. He answered that he didn't think it would, given that it has been out for a year now. (Someone stole the lines that carried the internet from Ndola.)

Here are some of the books I have finished:

Biblical Wisdom Literature by Joseph Katerski
Katerski, a Jesuit professor, goes through the books of wisdom, explaining their background and their message. His scholarship is quite creditable. As a scripture student, there are things that I might describe in another way, but that does not mean that what he says is not worth listening to. He is proud of his Catholic faith and openly share insights that he believes could be shared with others. He closes his series with an examination of New Testament Wisdom material, e.g. the parables, the Sermon on the Mount, etc.

V for Vendetta by Steve Moore and the Machowski Brothers
This is an odd story of a comic book style hero in England who tries to hurt the fascist power that has taken over his beloved London after an unidentified war. V, the hero, takes under his charge a young woman who was present at a couple of his terrorist attacts, Evie. We find out that V became what he is because he was part of an experiment to develop a killer virus that was then unleased upon the population of England to frighten them into allowing a fascist government to control them. V’s goal is to lead them to freedom. There is a tinge of anarchism in the story, but overall is a good warning tale.

Daddy’s Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark

This book begins with the murder of a teenage girl and the episode in which her younger (7 years old) sister finds her body. Years later she investigates the man who was her sister’s boyfriend and who had been convicted of her murder. He is rich, and he is blaming a young, simple classmate of the girl who was killed. The young lady, who is an investigative crime reporter, decides to write a book to prove that Rob Westerfield, the rich man, is guilty. She sets up a web site to accuse him and find others who might have information on his past life. There are not a lot of twists and turns in the story. Rather, it is just an unfolding of the various pieces of evidence while the young lady slowly comes to reconcile with her estranged father.


Paris after the Liberation 1944-1949 by Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper

I have always like Beevor’s style. I have read his books on Stalingrad, the fall of Berlin, and the Spanish Civil War. This book is a little different in that it is not about a war period but rather the period right after the Second World War, and also it is written in collaboration with his wife who is also an author. It deals with the recovery of Paris from right after the liberation until the end of the decade. This was a tumultuous era in French politics. It seemed as if France would either have a communist revolution or be invaded by the Soviet Union. Its salvation turned out to the intervention of the Marshall Plan. In the meantime, there were twists and turns as the politicians struggle to find food and coal to feed and warm the pollution, as they tried to figure out how to treat the French who collaborated with the Nazi’s, as they sought a leader who would lead them from the wilderness. It is a good book which is very enlightening concerning the era.


The Secret History of the Court of Justinian by Procopius

This is a scandal sheet written during the reign of the emperor Justinian, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Constantinople. Procopius wrote an above ground history of the court for public consumption, but this was the hidden version that was share with trusted friends which is vicious in its attacks on the immorality of the emperor and empress Theodora. We do know for a fact that Theodora came from a rather sordid background (circus/acting/prostitution), but some of the accusations in Procopius’ work seem to be angry vengeance. Once in a while it is good to read things like this and to be able to say, “At least it isn’t that bad today.”

Have a good week.
Shalom
fr. Jude

Rome - Saltpond, Ghana

ObedMarch 13, 2012

Peace and Good,

This past Sunday I travelled from Rome to Saltpond in Ghana. I am here to preach two retreats to the friars of this custody. There are 24 friars here, about a third of them ex-patriots. They are getting an increasing number of vocations here. This year, alone, there are 8 novices. Three friars will also be taking solemn vows (their vows taken for the rest of the lives).

I am preaching on different aspects of the vow of obedience. In the old days, a provincial would simply tell friars where they were to go and what they were to do. Now there is a lot more discussion involved. If there were problems before because at times friars were sent to places simply to fill in the gaps in the program, now there might be too much individualism. Some friars have decided exactly what they want to do and where and when, and that goes against the spirit of our Franciscan calling.

As always, I am preaching the retreat by drawing lessons from the Bible. I am speaking about the obedience of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Amos and Hosea, Jeremiah, Jesus, Mary and Paul.

The weather here is always very humid (even more than 90%) and hot (over 90). Last week was not too bad. There were a lot of cloudy days, and it was bearable. This weeks seems to be getting hotter.

The Ghanaians are surprised that I am eating many of their local foods. There is one type of dough called Fu Fu. It is mashed plaintain and cassava. It is very dense, and is usually eaten with soup. I like it. I had it with snail soup yesterday. They also often serve it with peanut soup. The food tends to be spicy, but not as much as Korean food.

I will be heading out to my next assignment this coming Friday evening, to Ndola in Zambia. This will be the first time that I am down there. Then back to Rome from there.

My reading has been:

Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz

This was one of those books about which I have heard forever, but which I had never before read. It is the account of a Roman official who falls in love with a foreign Christian. It deals with the madness and strangeness of Nero’s court. Last year I had read a book by Henry Cardinal Newman called Callista. It was the story of a martyrdom at the end of the 3rd century AD. I found the book tedius, with long explanatory speeches that just did not sound very authentic. This book falls into the same category, but it is much better written. It is still a bit long winded, but one does get the feeling that one can know the characters and sympathize with them, which was not the case with Newman’s attempt. It is well worth a read.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

This is another of those Russian authors of the 19th century. What an incredibly fruitful era this was for Russian literature. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, etc.
The premise of this book is a journey made by a man who wants to buy serfs from land owners. Serfs were all but treated as slaves until they were liberated by the Czar around the same time as slaves were freed in the US. They could be bought and sold, at first as individuals, and then after a reform, along with one’s property. A census of male serfs was taken each ten years, and the property owner had to pay taxes on all his serfs, even if they had died in the meantime. This man goes around buying up dead serfs from landowners because, technically, they still count as one’s possessions. He is going to accrue a large number and then use them as collateral when he takes out a loan. On the journey, he meets all sorts of characters whom Gogol amusingly describes, poking fun at the higher levels of Russian society. Even though the book was written during a time of severe censorship in Russia, it was so funny that the Czar allowed it to be published. Of course, the book closes with a moral lesson that the renewal of Russia could only occur by a commitment of its people to honesty and industry.

The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst

I have become a big fan of this author. I have already read two other books written by him, and this one deals with a French spy in Poland just before the beginning of World War II. This is his favorite era, just before and during the war. The previous books I read dealt with a spy in Salonica, Greece, at the beginning of the war and a Dutch sea captain during that same era. He has a way of describing the scene that makes the characters and the times jump out at you. I really believe he is one of the better modern authors. Since we know the end of the story (the Nazi’s eventually lose), we can sometimes forget how confusing everything was for the people living through the events. Furst helps one bridge that gap.

Have a good week.

Shalom
Fr. Jude

Rome - Saltpond, Ghana

ObedMarch 13, 2012

Peace and Good,

This past Sunday I travelled from Rome to Saltpond in Ghana. I am here to preach two retreats to the friars of this custody. There are 24 friars here, about a third of them ex-patriots. They are getting an increasing number of vocations here. This year, alone, there are 8 novices. Three friars will also be taking solemn vows (their vows taken for the rest of the lives).

I am preaching on different aspects of the vow of obedience. In the old days, a provincial would simply tell friars where they were to go and what they were to do. Now there is a lot more discussion involved. If there were problems before because at times friars were sent to places simply to fill in the gaps in the program, now there might be too much individualism. Some friars have decided exactly what they want to do and where and when, and that goes against the spirit of our Franciscan calling.

As always, I am preaching the retreat by drawing lessons from the Bible. I am speaking about the obedience of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Amos and Hosea, Jeremiah, Jesus, Mary and Paul.

The weather here is always very humid (even more than 90%) and hot (over 90). Last week was not too bad. There were a lot of cloudy days, and it was bearable. This weeks seems to be getting hotter.

The Ghanaians are surprised that I am eating many of their local foods. There is one type of dough called Fu Fu. It is mashed plaintain and cassava. It is very dense, and is usually eaten with soup. I like it. I had it with snail soup yesterday. They also often serve it with peanut soup. The food tends to be spicy, but not as much as Korean food.

I will be heading out to my next assignment this coming Friday evening, to Ndola in Zambia. This will be the first time that I am down there. Then back to Rome from there.

My reading has been:

Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz

This was one of those books about which I have heard forever, but which I had never before read. It is the account of a Roman official who falls in love with a foreign Christian. It deals with the madness and strangeness of Nero’s court. Last year I had read a book by Henry Cardinal Newman called Callista. It was the story of a martyrdom at the end of the 3rd century AD. I found the book tedius, with long explanatory speeches that just did not sound very authentic. This book falls into the same category, but it is much better written. It is still a bit long winded, but one does get the feeling that one can know the characters and sympathize with them, which was not the case with Newman’s attempt. It is well worth a read.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

This is another of those Russian authors of the 19th century. What an incredibly fruitful era this was for Russian literature. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, etc.
The premise of this book is a journey made by a man who wants to buy serfs from land owners. Serfs were all but treated as slaves until they were liberated by the Czar around the same time as slaves were freed in the US. They could be bought and sold, at first as individuals, and then after a reform, along with one’s property. A census of male serfs was taken each ten years, and the property owner had to pay taxes on all his serfs, even if they had died in the meantime. This man goes around buying up dead serfs from landowners because, technically, they still count as one’s possessions. He is going to accrue a large number and then use them as collateral when he takes out a loan. On the journey, he meets all sorts of characters whom Gogol amusingly describes, poking fun at the higher levels of Russian society. Even though the book was written during a time of severe censorship in Russia, it was so funny that the Czar allowed it to be published. Of course, the book closes with a moral lesson that the renewal of Russia could only occur by a commitment of its people to honesty and industry.

The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst

I have become a big fan of this author. I have already read two other books written by him, and this one deals with a French spy in Poland just before the beginning of World War II. This is his favorite era, just before and during the war. The previous books I read dealt with a spy in Salonica, Greece, at the beginning of the war and a Dutch sea captain during that same era. He has a way of describing the scene that makes the characters and the times jump out at you. I really believe he is one of the better modern authors. Since we know the end of the story (the Nazi’s eventually lose), we can sometimes forget how confusing everything was for the people living through the events. Furst helps one bridge that gap.

Have a good week.

Shalom
Fr. Jude

Rome - Saltpond, Ghana

ObedMarch 13, 2012

Peace and Good,

This past Sunday I travelled from Rome to Saltpond in Ghana. I am here to preach two retreats to the friars of this custody. There are 24 friars here, about a third of them ex-patriots. They are getting an increasing number of vocations here. This year, alone, there are 8 novices. Three friars will also be taking solemn vows (their vows taken for the rest of the lives).

I am preaching on different aspects of the vow of obedience. In the old days, a provincial would simply tell friars where they were to go and what they were to do. Now there is a lot more discussion involved. If there were problems before because at times friars were sent to places simply to fill in the gaps in the program, now there might be too much individualism. Some friars have decided exactly what they want to do and where and when, and that goes against the spirit of our Franciscan calling.

As always, I am preaching the retreat by drawing lessons from the Bible. I am speaking about the obedience of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Amos and Hosea, Jeremiah, Jesus, Mary and Paul.

The weather here is always very humid (even more than 90%) and hot (over 90). Last week was not too bad. There were a lot of cloudy days, and it was bearable. This weeks seems to be getting hotter.

The Ghanaians are surprised that I am eating many of their local foods. There is one type of dough called Fu Fu. It is mashed plaintain and cassava. It is very dense, and is usually eaten with soup. I like it. I had it with snail soup yesterday. They also often serve it with peanut soup. The food tends to be spicy, but not as much as Korean food.

I will be heading out to my next assignment this coming Friday evening, to Ndola in Zambia. This will be the first time that I am down there. Then back to Rome from there.

My reading has been:

Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz

This was one of those books about which I have heard forever, but which I had never before read. It is the account of a Roman official who falls in love with a foreign Christian. It deals with the madness and strangeness of Nero’s court. Last year I had read a book by Henry Cardinal Newman called Callista. It was the story of a martyrdom at the end of the 3rd century AD. I found the book tedius, with long explanatory speeches that just did not sound very authentic. This book falls into the same category, but it is much better written. It is still a bit long winded, but one does get the feeling that one can know the characters and sympathize with them, which was not the case with Newman’s attempt. It is well worth a read.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

This is another of those Russian authors of the 19th century. What an incredibly fruitful era this was for Russian literature. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, etc.
The premise of this book is a journey made by a man who wants to buy serfs from land owners. Serfs were all but treated as slaves until they were liberated by the Czar around the same time as slaves were freed in the US. They could be bought and sold, at first as individuals, and then after a reform, along with one’s property. A census of male serfs was taken each ten years, and the property owner had to pay taxes on all his serfs, even if they had died in the meantime. This man goes around buying up dead serfs from landowners because, technically, they still count as one’s possessions. He is going to accrue a large number and then use them as collateral when he takes out a loan. On the journey, he meets all sorts of characters whom Gogol amusingly describes, poking fun at the higher levels of Russian society. Even though the book was written during a time of severe censorship in Russia, it was so funny that the Czar allowed it to be published. Of course, the book closes with a moral lesson that the renewal of Russia could only occur by a commitment of its people to honesty and industry.

The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst

I have become a big fan of this author. I have already read two other books written by him, and this one deals with a French spy in Poland just before the beginning of World War II. This is his favorite era, just before and during the war. The previous books I read dealt with a spy in Salonica, Greece, at the beginning of the war and a Dutch sea captain during that same era. He has a way of describing the scene that makes the characters and the times jump out at you. I really believe he is one of the better modern authors. Since we know the end of the story (the Nazi’s eventually lose), we can sometimes forget how confusing everything was for the people living through the events. Furst helps one bridge that gap.

Have a good week.

Shalom
Fr. Jude

Rome

March 4, 2012

Peace and Good,

I have been in Rome for this week for a series of meetings. We have had our General Definitory. We talked about the situation in so many parts of the world, from Australia to Ireland, the US to Argentina, from Zambia to Italy to India. There was an incredible variety of topics.

Tomorrow I had off to Africa to do a series of retreats: two in Ghana and one in Zambia. I do not know how the internet connections will be, so I decided to do this blog just a bit early.

Early in the week, I found out that I needed a visa to get into Ghana. I had thought that one could get it at the airport. One of our brothers here, Br. Bruno, took care of the details for it for me while I was in our meetings. Bruno is incredible for his service to the community. You just have to think of what you might need, and he is already thinking of a way to arrange it.

I also was asked to represent the minister general at a meeting of major superiors of religious orders present in Canada when I get back from Africa. It is really interesting to make contacts this way with good women and men from all over the world.

I finished a few books:

The Hunters by Web Griffin

This is one of many books that Griffin has written on the defense of our country and those who work behind the scenes to do that. This one involves a secret agency that the president has set up to do what the FBI and CIA and NSA cannot do. The hero is an army officer named Castillo who gathers together a team to investigate the murder of one of our diplomats by unknown assassins. It involves corruption concerning the oil for food program that was running in Iraq before the war and the consequences of all that money that was being spread around as bribes and cheating on sales limits. Griffin explains the action and background well enough that it is easy to follow. His characters are not quite fleshed out, but there is a lot of action. All in all, not a bad read but not exactly serious literature.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

This is an incredible book that was, at times, painful to read. It involves a KGB agent at the end of the reign of Stalin who gets in trouble because he wants to be honest and because he loves his wife (or at least he thinks that he does). He goes through a series of humiliating and dangerous episodes along with his wife whom he eventually truly does learn to love (as she does he). If you ever wanted to know how bad things can become in a totalitarian regime, this is a book that you should read. The actual plot is the attempt to find a mass murderer of children, which in the Soviet Union was all but impossible because the official line of the government was that they did not have crimes like the decadent west. Therefore, the death of these children was never fully investigated, and the police only sought a scapegoat to blame and to cover up the investigation before it became too embarrassing. If you have the stomach for it, this is a must read.

Manituana by Wu Ming

There is a saying that history is written by the victors. This book is an exception. It tells the story of the battle of the Iroquois federation in New York State during the Revolutionary War. They fought on the side of the British, largely because they believed they had a better chance of holding on to their land given the promises the British had made to them. This book gives one an insight into native American life at the end of the 18th century.
The book was actually written by a committee. There is a group of authors living in Italy who write historical novels. You would never guess that this is more than one author. It is well written, and the translation from the original Italian is remarkable. Definitely a must read if you like historical novels.

Hope you have a good week.

Shalom
fr. Jude