Assisi - Rome - Ellicott City

June 10, 2013 Peace and Good, This has been a week of meetings. The General Definitory travelled up to Assisi for a week of meetings with the Presidents of the various conferences of friars throughout the world. The order is divided into provinces, and each geographic area (e.g. North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean) are organized into conferences. Each of these has a president who works together with the Assistant General of that area to organize activities and projects. Once a year, they come to Rome for a week long meeting with the General Definitory to plan for the year. This year we decided to have the meeting in Assisi to remind us of what we are all about. The meetings went very well, and it was good to see the men again. We had just finished our General Chapter at the end of February, and this meeting helped us to plan how to put into effect all of the decisions we made during the Chapter. We got to visit a couple of the local friaries as well. One of them is called Rivotorto (which literally means the meandering or crooked stream). This was the site of Francis and his followers' first dwelling, a hut in which animals were often kept. That hut, or a reproduction of it, is now kept inside of a parish church which we run. We travelled back to Rome on Saturday morning, and I flew out yesterday. The scene at the airport of Rome was chaotic. I think that they must be having work slow downs, because the last time I came into Rome there was a long, long, long line at customs control, and this time there was an even longer line at security. Fortunately, I always arrive very, very early so I can relaz at the airport before the flight. I will be in the States for a couple of week, here, in Pittsburgh and Chicago. Then it is off to Canterbury for a week. I will not be back in Rome until August 2nd. I finished a few books: The Greater Journey by David McCullough The author of this book is a famous historian who has written masterpieces upon Truman, the Panama Canal, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, etc. I have read a number of his books and have always been satisfied. This book covers an unusual topic: the travel of Americans to Paris during the 19th century. Almost from the beginning of our nation, Americans have been fascinated by Paris and many, many have gone there to live, to study, to produce art, etc. Some of the first Americans who went there were medical students for there was hardly any organized form of medical education in the States (one was mentored by someone who claimed to be a doctor) while Paris had a highly organized form of medicine. Then there were the authors (e.g. James Fennimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William James, etc.). There were also the artists who came to Paris to learn and perfect their trade, including John Singer Sargent, Augustus St. Gaudens, James Whistler, Mary Cassatt, etc. One of the most endearing portraits he presents is that of our ambassador to France during the Franco Prussian War: Elihu Washburne. He saved any number of lives of his own citizens as well as Frenchmen and Germans who had been working in Paris when the war began. The book is really a series of vignettes which give a wonderful sense of what Americans found and loved in this city of lights. Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941 by William Shirer This is a fascinating book written by William Shirer while he was a correspondent for a radio network in Berlin at the beginning of World War II. He is there until December of 1940, and he described what he knows of what is going on in the totalitarian state that Hitler created. He describes the lives of the Germans around him and how they believe the great lie dished out by the state. He is the author of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The book is well done, and reads as an adventure which happens to be a true story. The Camel Club by David Baldacci The Camel Club is an organization in Washington D.C. which is composed of what society would consider to be a group of losers, but who nevertheless are able to ferret out the truth about a conspiracy against the government by some members of the administration. This includes Muslim terrorists as well as North Korean operatives. The book is well written and an enjoyable read. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Assisi

June 2, 2013 Peace and Good, I have been in Rome all week for one of our General Definitory meetings. We are still trying to find friars for some of the responsibilities that need to be designated for the next six years. We also had a ton of reports because we had not met for the past ten weeks. We have established a new way of meeting. We had a morning of recollection to being our meeting, and then we had a spiritual discussion on exercising authority as a Franciscan. We have always invited the other friars to pray more, but sometimes we were so busy that we couldn't find to do it ourselves. The intuition to do this has come from our new Holy Father. His simple gestures of love and kindness have amazed and encouraged people all over the world. In a way, Pope Francis seems to be more Franciscan that we are. We want to follow his example of returning back to our true values. This week we will be in Assisi at a meeting of the presidents of the seven conferences of friars throughout the world. We will be following the same patterns of spending more time in prayer and reflection. These friars are so busy with their responsibilities as provincials that we figured that this was one of the greatest gifts we could give them: time to pray. Sometime very good seems to be happening. Please keep us in your prayers that we can continue to respond to God's call in our lives. I finished a few books: Catherine the Great by John T. Alexander This is a very thoroughly documented and investigated biography of the great Russian empress of the 18th century. She is a complicated character. Actually German by birth, she became more Russian than the Russians. She overthrew her husband and allowed his murder by a group of conspirators. She led to the expansion of Russia’s borders. She was fascinated with the new learning from the French academic world, but then was disgusted when the French overthrew and killed their monarchs. She engineered the dismemberment of Poland in the three partitions which ended its independent existence until after the First World War. It is difficult to say whether she did more good or bad, but it is clear that her title, Catherine the Great, is richly deserved. The Garden of Beasts by Jeffrey Deever This is a really fine book of espionage and mob murderers taking place during the Berlin Olympics just before World War II. Paul Schumann, a mob hit man, is recruited to murder the man responsible for the rearming of Germany as a war of putting off the coming war. There are double crosses all the way through the book. The title of the book comes from the large park in the middle of Berlin called the Tiergarten, literally, the Garden of Beasts. It is the Nazis who turn out to be the real beasts in the story. It is well written and suspenseful all the way through. The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber This is a nice, feel good book. It begins with a woman opening up a knitting store. She has been the victim of two cancerous brain tumors, and she is trying to find meaning in her life. She opens a class for those who wish to learn to knit. The first three participants are an unlikely collection. One is the rich wife of a construction contractor. One is a goth who is a revel without a cause. One is a highly successful businesswoman who quits her job to try to get pregnant, but she cannot carry a child to term. They grow to like and trust one another, and their lives change through the course of the book. Nothing earth shattering, but a nice read all the same. Have a good week. I will be keeping you in my prayers before of tomb of St. Francis. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Assisi - Rome

March 26, 2013 Peace and Good, I have been in Rome all this past week with the exception of yesterday when I took a day trip up to Assisi. This week has been a good week to catch up on daily reflections. Once in a while I wonder whether anyone is listening to them, but every time that I am about to give up on them, two or three people come to me out of the blue and tell me that they often listen to them. I take that as a sign of the Holy Spirit that I should continue working on this project. The weather in Rome has been quite cold, but there are signs of Spring in the air. Many of the Spring flowering trees are already in bloom. I hope we have a nice, warm Easter Sunday. The Pope continues to be a hit. He does not have to do great things. He only has to be himself, and everyone falls in love with him and his style. Yesterday I was at Assisi for a small celebration for the Custos who finished his four year mandate and for the new Custos. This is an assignment made by the General Definitory. We thought about this one for a long time. The previous Custos was doing a good job, but he was better at continuing what was rather than trying something new. We just felt that it was time for a new leader there to guide the friars to continue to examine their lives and try to do a better job at what they are doing. This week I will be in Rome, and then Easter Monday I will be on the road again, this time for a month. I have finished a few books: Rebel by Bernard Cornwell This is a book about a young man who runs away from his family to have a fling with a loose woman. He ends up on the wrong side of the border just as the civil war is beginning. He signs up to fight for the south, even though his father is a famous abolitionist preacher. The leader of the regiment is a rich landlord who organizes the regiment for his own glory. The young man, Nate, come to learn who he is and what he wants though a series of adventures. Some unlikely figures turn out to be much more heroic than those who touted their courage before the battle. The book goes up to the first battle of Bull Run. Overall, I was a little disappointed in this book. It thought it would be a more realistic portrait of the story. Rather, it was in the style of literature of Henty, a 19th century author who wrote books for the edification of young Englishmen to teach them how to act as virtuous conquerors of the world. It had the same feel, especially in certain scenes dealing with the violence of war. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky And this is exactly what this book is all about. Kurlansky has written a series of book like this that cover one produce and how it is produced and used. I previously read his book on cod. He is a good author who piles on facts both interesting and not so. He speak about the history of salt production and how the presence or absence of salt influenced the history of certain areas. A good example of this is how the northern armies during the Civil War consistently tried to destroy the salt works in the south as one way of forcing them to surrender. One of those area attacked was Avery Island in Louisiana. This place is important because right after the war its owner decided to grow peppers from Central America and to make a sauce from them which we today call Tobasco sauce. He speak of how salt was used to produce long lasting foods when there were few other ways of preserving it, e.g. anchovies, sauerkraut, hams, etc. He speaks of how its use it either considered to be healthy or unhealthy. It is a good book, filled with trivia (which I like). One example is ketchup was originally the name given to a fish sauce, and only gradually came to be applied to the tomato sauce that we know as ketchup today. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory This is a very interesting book. It is the story of Mary, Queen of the Scots and her imprisonment in England before her death. The story is told in three voices: Mary, Lord Talbot who is her “host”, and Talbot’s wife Bess. Mary is sweet and beautiful and one of the most manipulative people who ever lived. (She learned much of her deviousness in France where she grew up at the French court, becoming the Queen of France for a short time (for her husband died a year after taking the throne). Talbot is a man of honor, faithful to whatever monarch rules in England, but a bit of a fool. Bess is his businesswoman wife. She thinks only of her possessions and especially of her property. She was poor as a child, and she strives never to fall back into poverty again. This is the kind of book that it is good to know a little of the background material, the historic background to be able to follow the story better. The three characters are not exactly likeable, but they are very, very real. Gregory has done a good job with the story. I hope you have a good Holy Week. Shalom fr. Jude

Assisi - Rome

February 18, 2013 Peace and Good, Well, our General Chapter has come to an end. We had the closing Mass yesterday and travelled back to Rome. Today we have a definitory meeting to try to set up the full team for the next six years. Then tomorrow I head off to Baltimore. I will be there and in California for a few weeks. In Baltimore, I will be taking care of annual check ups with various doctors. Furthermore, I must visit the doctor for a problem with my rotator cuff. In California, I will be visiting a minister provincial who was ill and could not attend the General Chapter. I will be coming back to Rome on the 7th of March, so I should be back in town when the conclave begins, unless they move it forward. The first two weeks of the General Chapter involved an evaluation of where the order is now and what we have done the past six years. Then we had the elections for the Minister General and his definitory. After that, we began to look at proposals for the next six year mandate. There are not a lot of changes. Some provinces are joining together such as five provinces in central Italy and two provinces on the east coast of the US. There is a new province: Mexico. There is an old province that will be downgraded: Holland. The liturgical celebrations in Assisi were magnificent, but it will also be good to get a few celebrations in these days that are not huge musical presentations. The basicila choir was incredible. They must have practiced for months and months. Here are some books I have finished: He Who Hesitates by Ed McBain This is another of the detective novels written by Evan Hunter under the pseudonym Ed McBain. It is quite different from the other volumes that I have read so far. While those center on the action of a group of detectives in a police station in a big city, this volume deals with one individual and the people he meets. He feels that he should report something which he did (probably a crime), but he continues to hesitate all throughout the story. It is well done, leaving one wondering exactly what happened right up to the very end. Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman This is another of Hillerman’s books on two Navaho policeman, Lt. Joseph Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and their investigations on and near their reservation. The title comes from a native American custom to have a group of clowns perform during sacred ceremonies. These clowns mimic certain activities and serve as a kind of examination of conscience for the tribe as to whether they are maintaining or abandoning tribal customs. There is a major theme in this book about the difficulty of understanding other’s cultures. This is applied both to a question of tribal laws concerning marriage and how Chee’s girlfriend who is half Navaho but was raised off reservation cannot fully understand Chee’s difficulties, and also how one tribe finds it difficult to understand all the nuances of certain activities within another tribe. The whole series is well done. The characters are well developed, and they provide a good insight to another world of thought and custom. Devil and the White City by Erik Larson This is actually a double story. On the one side, it is the story of a mass murderer who killed many, many people in Chicago at the end of the 19th century. Chicago was growing rapidly, and any number of young women travelled there from their small villages to find a new life. They were often lonely and naive. This murderer played upon this and murdered them, at times even using their bones to form medical skeletons. He was not caught until much later when he was convicted for insurance fraud for murdering his partner and then collecting his insurance policy. The other part of the book is the story of the 1892 world’s fair in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Christopher Columbus. It was called the “white city.” It was a magnificent presentation that marked the moment when Chicago, then the second largest city in the country, came to central stage. The architect and landscape designer, famous even in those days, created a masterpiece. The architect was Daniel Burnham who designed some of the most famous buildings in Chicago. The landscape designer was Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park. This was where a number of new inventions were first presented: cracker jacks, cream of wheat, juicy fruit gum, Pabst Blue Ribbon, shredded wheat, Quaker Oats, and electricity with alternating current, etc. There was a tremendous challenge to be more beautiful, larger, etc. than the Paris exposition. The Ferris, in fact, was the attempt to make something more grand than the Eiffel Tower. The book is very good. The only critique is that the author has the tendency to tell one what people were thinking when he in fact has no way of knowing it. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Assisi - Vatican City - Assisi

February 10, 2013 Peace and Good, I am sorry that I did not write a blog this past week, but the General Chapter had me hopping. In these past two weeks, we have had meeting after meeting. There are the general sessions at which all are present, there are the discussions in language groups, and then there are all the other meetings that I have because I am an Assistant General (I am on one of the committees that works on documents for the chapter, we have had a few General Definitory meetings to get some things ready for the next few years, and I have had a whole series of meetings with provincials alone and then with provincials and the General). The big event last week was the elections of the Minister General and his Definitory. The General was re-elected, which was a very good thing. We have had two Ministers General in a row who had only one term, and that leads to instability. The term is six years long, so fr. Marco is the Minister General now until 2019. I was re-elected to be the Assistant General for the English speaking part of the Order. I had a bit of a scare because my name had been mentioned as being a possible candidate for Vicar of the Order, the number two spot. I didn't really think I had the talents necessary for that job. It is an administrative position, and my gifts are more charismatic - preaching, giving retreats, etc. Fortunately, enough friars recognized that, and I was saved from it. The spirit of the Chapter is quite good. The friars are honestly trying to shape the future to be more faithful to what we say we are and what we truly want to be. It is not always easy, because we always fall back on what is familiar and comfortable, but as fr. Marco says, it is time to take a risk. On Wednesday we went down to Rome to be part of an audience with the Holy Father. He looks good, but he is getting very old. (I think he is 85 right now.) We were part of a general audience, so there were thousands of people, but we were given a place right up front. I was probably not more than 50 feet from the Pope. I sat next to one of our former Ministers General, fr. Lanfranco Serini. He is 89 years old, and not in the best of health, but he is making the effort to be present at all of the meetings. We so appreciate his heroic effort. I am starting to calendar my year right now. I can foresee trips to the US, Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Then there will be all the other things that get put into the schedule. I am trying to give myself a little more leeway on each of the trips so that the travel will not be quite so grueling. We have one more week here in Assisi. Then, the 19th I head back to the States. I am going to visit one of the provincials who is in California who is ill, and I am going to take care of some visits to various doctors (a 50,000 mile check up). I have finished some books: The Battle for Leyte Gulf by C. Vann Woodward This is an account of the greatest naval battle between American and Japanese forces during the Second World War. The Japanese realized that if America conquered back the Philippines, then they would be cut off from their supply of oil which they obtained in Indonesia. They would be forces to surrender. They therefore gathered all their naval forces in three groups and attacked the American ships. The Americans, on the other hand, had enormous forces. Far from the days after Pearl Harbor, they had dozens of aircraft carriers (some of them full size and many abbreviated versions). The Americans successfully countered two of the attacks, destroying most of the Japanese ships. But one of those attacks was actually a decoy to draw most of the American forces north so that another group of ships could attack the forces left and then bombard the landing ships of the invading troops. They perfectly read the personality of Admiral Halsey who was impetuous and very aggressive. Somehow the few forces left to defend the beaches were able to hold off the enemy until, for some reason which to this day remains a bit mysterious, the Japanese pulled back, not pursuing their advantage. The book is well written, giving a good perspective of what each of the groups was attempting to do and what they actually accomplished. Short Stories by Joshua Scribner This is another set of short stories by Scribner. He is what could be called a science fiction/horror writer. Among the stories I read were Hell and Back about a man who is given the opportunity to see his punishment in hell if he joins a criminal organization as an enforcer. There was Within, a story about a woman who is haunted by an evil spirit contained in a doll which causes her to murder. There was the Safest Place, a story about a man who is fleeing others who want to kill him and how he must choose the abilities of a particular ocean animal to save him. Oklahoma Dust and Nothing Happened tell of ghosts, one of which entices someone to join it and the other seeks revenge for a perceived wrong. All of the stories are well written and are filled with suspense, even if they are a bit strange at times. Xerses by Jacob Abbott This is the story of the Persian emperor who tried to invade Greece with millions of his slave troops. He even has his engineers build a massive pontoon bridge over the Hellespont (the waterway that divides Asia from Europe). He then has the engineers dig a canal through a peninsula to aid the transport of this huge fleet. The army is first slowed at the pass of Thermopile by the famous Spartan 300. The fleet is then defeated at Salamis. The totally unexpected occurs: the Greeks are able to defeat the Persians and chase them back into Asia. The story ends with Xerses assassinated by a member of his own family, a deserved fate considering all the pain and suffering he brought to the Greeks and even the members of his own army and navy. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Assisi - Rome

December 24, 2012 Peace and Good, This past week we had our second last definitory for the term. We will have one more in January to take care of last minute details before the General Chapter which begins on January 19th. You can see the fatigue in the faces of all of the definitors. This has been a long haul, and we are reaching the end of the journey. I am always fascinated how we can discuss the situation of the friars in so many different lands. This time, from what I can remember, we discussed Chile, Columbia, Brazil, US, Poland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, China, Philippines, Japan, Zambia and Ghana. That is from what I can remember. On Friday I took a train up to Assisi to visit a couple of friends and get some prayer time in before our chapter begins. Once it begins, there will be an awful lot of business to take care of. Assisi is quite a bit bolder than Rome and it has less sunlight because of a winter fog that covers it for days on end. I had an interesting incident while I was there. I was praying in the Basilica of St. Clare before the San Damiano Cross, the cross which spoke to St. Francis telling him to rebuild the church. When I finished, I walked out into the main body of the church and realized that the sisters had locked me in during the lunch break. Fortunately there were still a couple of sisters in the church to let me out. I came back to Rome yesterday evening, and I will be here for the Christmas celebrations. Then the day after Christmas I will fly out to Toronto to visit family and friends. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I have finished these books: Horror and C..p: 11 Short Stories by Joshua Scribner Joshua Scribner is a very creative science fiction, horror author. This is a series of eleven very short stories, each not more than a couple of pages long. Some of the themes covered are when a group of goblins torments a couple in their new home. A neighbor comes over and explains that the goblins are only hungry and since the toilet is blocked, they are starving for their usual fare (fill in the blank). In another, a man has a switch given to him by his psychiatrist to turn on and off his impulse to smoke. Little does he know that the switch is also connected to his wife’s impulse to murder him. One very short selection has a couple arguing whether they should tell others about a tsunami that is approaching. It turns out the couple are cats, and they abandon their family for higher ground. Each of the stories comes across as a short “Outer Limits” selection. His writing is always entertaining, if not a bit strange. Tudor Rose: The Story of the Queen who United a Kingdom and Birthed a Dynasty by Margaret Campbell Barnes This is the story of Elizabeth of York, the daughter of King Edward who dies early after a dissipated life. She is the niece of King Richard III who kills her two young brothers and then seems to want to marry her after his son and his own wife die. She eventually marries Henry VII who conquers the kingdom with a very poor claim for the monarchy other than conquest. Henry is the founder of the Tudor dynasty. He is not the warmest of men, more like a calculating machine. Yet Elizabeth remains a faithful wife. She is the mother of Arthur who died before he reigned and of Henry VIII. This is a fictional historical account which is quite good. The Eagle has Landed (Liam Devlin) by Jack Higgins I have come to like this author. He tells a very good tale. This is a story that takes place during the Second World War. Hitler has challenged the army intelligence to be as creative in their efforts as his special forces were when they rescued Mussolini from a mountain top prison. A plot is launched to capture or kill Churchill when he visits a small town in northern England along the coast. One of Germany’s few spies, an elderly Boer woman who is still angry at England for conquering her people in South Africa, is spying for the Nazis. An IRA agent is sent in to help her in the plans. The commandos arrive and all heck breaks out. The book is written with more sympathy, at times, for the Germans and the IRA agent than for the allies. It reminds us that not all Germans were Nazi monsters (although it makes clear that some were). Likewise, it reminds us that not all of the allied troops were knights in shining armor. It is a very good book. I have to apologize that this is late. I had written it on Christmas Eve, but I forgot to post it until today. Yesterday a couple of friends pointed out that there had been no posting since December 17th. I was so confused because I remember writing this. It was only last night that I put two and two together. Have a great New Years. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome

December 17, 2012 Peace and Good, I hope that all is well with you. This has been a quiet week at home working over a laptop. I had about 130 pages (single spaced, for the most part) of documents to translate from Italian for our General Chapter. The work went better than I had expected. It is all done, and another friar, Peter Damian, our guardian, had the job of putting all the material in the right format. That has all been done as well. So now it looks as we are ready for the Chapter, at least in terms of documents. This week we will be meeting in our usual Definitory. We will certainly take care of last minute details for our meeting in mid-January in Assisi. There are some other details to take care of for various provinces, but not all that much on the agenda. However, all week has been scheduled, and it remarkable that material tends to expand to fill in the time available. I will be here in Rome for Christmas Day and then am flying back to Toronto on Boxing Day (December 26th). It is called boxing day because in Victorian Britain, the servants had to take care of the needs of their Lords on Christmas Day. They were given the next day, the 26th off, to open their Christmas boxes. I will spend the next week or so in Buffalo (with a quick two day trip down to Baltimore to visit friends and take care of some business). I am shocked and hurt like all of us over what happened in Connecticut. We just have to something about out gun laws. I understand hunting and even some weapons for defense, but our laws are way too lax. You don’t need an assault rifle to shoot a deer. I feel so bad for the families affected. Let’s keep them all in our prayers. I finished a few books: Typee by Herman Melville The story begins with the escape of two sailors from their whaling vessel while on a visit to the Marchese Islands. Their captain had been a tyrant, and they were not willing to continue to serve under him. The difficulty is that the Marchese chain was not entirely civilized. It had only recently been claimed by the French, who in the style of most colonizing groups proved almost if not more savage than the natives. Furthermore, there was a group of natives on the island who were famed as cannibals. The author finds himself among the Typee, that cannibal group, along with a companion who runs away with him, but then also abandons him in the Typee village. One hears about their customs (e.g. making of cloth from the fiber in plants, the making of their foods, etc.) One hears an honest account of their daily life and their religion. One has to remember that this is being written in the early 19th century, and it probably served as a travel adventure for readers of that time. He is quite negative to the way that some missionaries had destroyed the cultures of certain islands, especially attacking the hypocrisy of some of the missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands. He finally escapes his captors who turn out truly to have been cannibals. It is quite entertaining. Ultimate Punishment by Scott Turrow Scott Turrow, in addition to being an author, is also a lawyer. He served both as a federal assistant attorney and a defense attorney. In the 1990’s, he was asked to serve on a commission formed by Governor Ryan of Illinois to make sure that the death penalty of that state was more accurate and fair. In recent years, 17 of those who had been convicted and sentenced to the death penalty were later found to be innocent. By this, I do not mean that their sentences were reduced or there was some doubt. They were irrevocably found innocent because someone else was found guilty of the same crime. How could someone be put to death when there was the possibility that he or she was innocent? Turrow was not against the death penalty when he entered into the dialog. He recognizes the arguments for and against. Could the process be fine-tuned so that the death penalty could be fairer? He asks whether it is a deterrent (studies show that it is not). Is it cheaper than holding someone for life imprisonment (because of the court costs in a death penalty case, it is not). Does it help society to recognize the horrific nature of murder (it does as long as everyone executed is fully guilty). The commission eventually developed a whole series of recommendations but the legislature was afraid the enact them. Eventually Governor Ryan put a moratorium upon capital punishment in the state, pardoned a few prisoners who were clearly innocent, and commuted the rest of the capital cases to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The book is a good reflection on the subject. Turrow doesn’t argue one side or another. He just outlines the problems and some possible (but often politically impossible) solutions. Thirteen Diamonds (Lillian Morgan) by Alan Cook This is the second of the Lillian Morgan books that I have read. She is a retired math professor living in a complex for the elderly in North Carolina. One of the people with whom she is playing bridge drops dead after getting a perfect hand, thirteen diamonds. She investigates the death with the idea that she believes that it was a murder. The man who died was allergic to shell fish, and it was someone included in a tuna casserole that was served just before that hand was dealt. The dialog is good and the action is both believable and funny. I am not sure that the author has the thoughts and actions of older folk down perfectly, but he does a creditable job. This was just a fun read. I hope your last week before Christmas is peaceful. Shalom Fr. Jude

Chicago - Assisi - Rome - Ellicott City

October 7, 2012 Peace and Good, It has been another busy week since I last posted the blog. We finished out meetings in Chicago on Wednesday the 27th of September, and then on the 28th we took a field trip to Milwaukee. The friars have a beautiful basicila there: St. Josaphat. We received it at the beginning of the 20th century. The previous pastor had run up a huge debt and the church was going to go bankrupt. The friars were able to pool all the funds at their disposition and pay off the debt in a couple of years. The church is a magnificent example of a certain type of architecture and decoration. It is often used for symphanies because it is so beautiful. The next day most of us flew out. A good number headed back to Rome, while others travelled in the States. One of the assistants headed down to Mexico on his way to Chile. I flew to Rome and took the train right up to Assisi. I was there until the afternoon of the 4th attending a series of long and difficult meetings. One day the board I am on met with the Ministers General of all of the branches of the Franciscan Order. They are a very nice group of men and women. I was quite impressed at their spirit. On the 4th, I concelebrated at the solemn Mass in the upper basilica of St. Francis for the feast of St. Francis. Each year a different section of Italy brings the olive oil that will be used to light the lamp at the tomb of St. Francis, and this time it was a province from the northeast of Italy, Venezia Julia and Fruili. That afternoon I headed back to Rome to catch a flight back to the States on Friday. I am at Ellicott City until tomorrow morning when I head out to a retreat house in upper New York State to preach a retreat to the friars. Here is the reading I finished this week: Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie This is the story of a doctor in the Roman Empire who has been assigned to service in Britain at the end of the beginning of the reign of Hadrian. He is suffering from economic difficulties (paying the debts of his father). He ends up with a young woman who he buys as a slave to rescue her from her brutal owner. Without wanting to, he also ends up being an amateur investigator of the murder of two women who work in one of the local brothels. There are a number of twists and turns. One gets a good sense of how the Roman occupying army would act in a conquered country. One also gets a sense of how slaves were treated. The book deals with serious topics, but is also very funny. The Final Storm by Jeff Shaara The Shaara’s, father and son, have made a bit of a cottage industry of writing fictional historical works on warfare. The father wrote a famous book on the Civil War, The Killer Angels. This book is part of a series written by the son on the Second World War. Most of the series is about the war in Europe. This book is an exception for it speaks about the end of the Second World War, especially the invasion of Okinowa. The normal pattern is to write chapters from different points of view, going from the ground soldier to the general to the leaders of the countries. This particular volume is a little bit weak in this format because it is mostly the story of one soldier told in all of its blood and gore. When Okinawa is finally captured, the book shifts to the story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It is almost as if it is two separate books. This book is not for everyone, and probably not the best product of the Shaara’a. The Demon of Walker’s Woods by Dan Dillard This is an odd little story about a group of kids who are frightened by a strange old woman who lives in their neighborhood. It is not at all clear until the end whether their imagination is running wild or whether they have intuited something that is real. It is quite good, if a bit strange. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Assisi - Rome - Ellicott City - Buffalo

August 12, 2012 Peace and Good, Well, this week I finished off my days in Rome catching up on many of the projects that had been put on the back burner for far too long. I was able to finish everything that absolutely had to be done, so I was able to head off on my vacation feeling pretty good about things. On Monday one of our friars from my province arrived in Rome, fr. Michael Lasky. He is the regional head of Franciscans International at the New York office. We spent quite some time comparing notes on the organization and brain-storming about how we could best serve its needs. On Tuesday we headed up to Assisi. I had to go there to give a talk and be celebrant and preacher at a Mass for a large group of young people who were making a pilgrimage to Assisi. This program is called giovani verso Assisi, young people to Assisi, and it is a week of prayer and discussion and fun for young people. There were over 200 of them from Italy, Spain, Germany, the States, Canada, Uzbechistan, Russia, Poland, Croatia, Turkey, etc. It was fascinating giving a talk to them and hearing it be translated into so many different languages. I was pleased the way the talk went. Thursday I headed over to the States. We had a little excitement on the flight from London. One person had a medical emergency, and another person was arrested for being drunk and abusive during the flight. Saturday morning I flew up to Buffalo to visit some family and spend some days off. Tuesday I’ll be flying back to Baltimore. Dillinger’s Wild Ride: The Year that Made America’s Public Enemy Number One by Elliot Gorn It can be very interesting to see how situations and individuals can interact to produce much more than they would appear to be on the surface. John Dillinger was a bank robber in the mid-west during the Great Depression. He was quite successful at his occupation. Some of those who surrounded him were very violent (such as Baby Face Nelson), but he was not all that violent compared to them. He gained a certain fame and appeal because he was robbing banks, and this was the depression. Most people felt that the owners of banks had robbed them (for many of them failed and closed in these years). He became the nemesis of the founder of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, and was named by Hoover as the first public enemy number one. He was eventually killed coming out of a movie theater in Chicago, betrayed by one of the women whom he was accompanying. His father always blamed his life of crime upon the fact that after his first crime he received an unusually long sentence in a prison where he learned to be a true criminal. There were hints even before that, however, that he just didn’t fit into a normal definition of life on the farm. The book was well written, well documented, and an easy read. The Nuremberg Trial by Ann Tusa and John Tusa This trial of the surviving leaders of the Nazi government at the end of World War II established the principal of human rights and crimes against humanity. How was it decided to have a trial? Who was involved? What were the major elements of the trial? This highly documented book speaks about the decision to hold the trial and those who were instrumental first in setting up the mechanism and then those who actually ran the trial. We get to know the judges, the prosecuting attorneys from the US, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France. We hear about each of the defendants and their defense lawyers. The trial itself went over six months. The documentation to the crimes was mind-numbing, most of it being the documents produced by the defendants themselves. Most of them were condemned to death, but a few received lighter sentences and three were actually acquitted. As one reads the book, one realizes that it was not just about the people being tried, it was also an attempt to establish some crucial principles in international law (the illegality of an offensive war, of genocide and other crimes against humanity, etc.). People had to know that there would be a reckoning. The greatest criticism against the trial is that the allies, and especially the Soviet Union, did many of the same things. Most the time, however, if they did these things, it was as an exception and not as a policy. No first attempt could be perfect, but the trial did serve the world well. Memoirs of a Revolutionist by Peter Kropotkin This is the story of a Russian from a military, middle class family in the days of Alexander II, the czar who freed the serfs (on the positive side) but who also proved to be a reactionary leader, especially crushing a rebellion in Poland with mass killings and exiles to Siberia. The author tells his story from his youth, and how the reactionary climate in Russia led him to believe in socialism (especially after he visited Siberia and Finland during his geologic and geographic investigations). He is eventually arrested by the authorities and put in prison for two years. He is able to escape from prison and takes refuge in Western Europe where he comes into contact with the socialist movement, especially with those who desire no government but rather a true government of the people. His presentation of the people involved in this movement makes them sound like saints, but we know that they had their flaws, some of them murderously obvious (for members of the anarchist movement often became assassins).