Ellicott City - Rome - London

September 4, 2022 Peace and Good, I finished my time in Ellicott City. The doctors are concerned about a weakness in my legs, but they do not yet know what is causing it. I did not yet get the results of my last tests. I flew back to Rome. It is still quite warm there. There are tons of tourists. We had a few days of meetings there, and then I flew to London to get ready for a meeting starting tomorrow morning. These past few days I have been attending the definitory meeting with zoom. One of the topics at this definitory was a request for me to resign as Assistant General. All the travel has really worn me out, and now with my leg problems, it makes travel all the more difficult. The definitory accepted the request, so I will leave the job on January 1st. I don't yet know where I will be heading. That is to be worked out over the next couple of months. The weather here in London is typical weather. Overcast, a bit of rain, in the low 70's, but really not all that bad. The friary is near the river (right around where you see the Eye, the big ferris wheel). I love walking along the river. I finished some books: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad I read this classic many years ago, and I fully enjoyed reading it again. It is about a man who travels to Africa where he will serve as a boat captain. He hears of a mysterious agent upriver who has obtained more ivory than any other agent. He end up finding an almost mythic, almost divine figure who is terribly ill and is dying. Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record and Our Place in Nature by Brian Switek This is a history of some fossil discoveries and their treatment of them by scholars. It especially deals with the evolution of birds, the whale, the horse and humans, using these cases as examples of evolution in a particular line of descent. It is a bit technical, and therefore would not be enjoyable by all readers. Dynasty by Tom Holland This is an excellent treatment of the Caesar family, beginning with Augustus (actually Julius), and ending with Nero. He deals with the emperor, society at that time, the Senate’s role, etc. I would highly recommend Holland’s book given how well told this book is. St. Thomas of Aquinas by Hourly History This is a short account of the life of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great pre-renaissance theologian of the Dominicans. The author is quite respectful, speaking of extraordinary events with a critical yet not cynical approach. This is almost an extended Wikipedia article. The Great Revolutions of Modern History by Lynne Ann Hartnett This is a Teaching Company course of 24 episodes which deal with some of the most important revolutions since the 17th century. Some of them are to be expected (American, French, Russian) while some of them interpret the word revolution in a more expansive manner (Civil Rights, anti-colonialism, the influence of TV). The professor is well prepared, and the lectures are good. I could easily recommend this course. Star Spangle Men: America’s Ten Worst Presidents by Nathan Miller This is a historians account of the careers of whom he considers to be the ten worst presidents. He includes many of those one would expect (Buchanan, Taft, Harrison) but also a few who are a bit of a surprise (Grant, Carter, etc.). He is honest and not polemic in his approach. The book is really rather good and I would recommend it. The Roman Forum by Charles River Editors This is a short account of the Roman Forum which was a mix of a governmental center, religious site and market place. It give the chronology of the various important sites located there. The account is not all that well written and thus not all that informative. Agrippa Hull by Charles River Editors This is a biography of an African American from Massachusetts (Sturbridge) who fought in the American army during the Revolutionary War and who was an esteemed and financially successful member of his community. Antiogonus the One-Eyed by Jeff Champion This is an account of the life and career of one of the Generals of Alexander the Great who became one of the powers that fought for supremacy after the death of their leader. The author, unfortunately, cites a myriad of combatants and battles, making this more of a scientific study than a book which one could read at a leisure pace. The Chernobyl Disaster by Hourly History This is a short account of the Chernobyl disaster, the explosion of a nuclear reactor that released radioactivity into the atmosphere which was carried by prevailing winds to neighboring countries. The author speaks of the clumsy attempts of the dying Soviet government to deal with the crisis and its press coverage. Having read other account, I found this one somewhat superficial, but this series of studies is not intended to be much more than that. The Lady in the Tower: the Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir This is a good account of the fall and death of Ann Boleyn. I thought that this was going to be a historical novel, but it turned out to be a thoughtful true history of what happened. Weir goes through the various theories about who brought her fall about, how likely she was to have been guilty of the thing of which she was accused, the role of King Henry in all of this, etc. The book is very well done. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

San Antonio - Chicago - Rockford - Milwaukee - Detroit - Peoria

January 17, 2022 Peace and Good, These have been busy days as I travel from friary to friary to conduct a canonical visitation. We have two friars in Milwaukee at our basilica, two at a parish in Rockford from which the province is retiring, three in the friary in the cemetary in Dearborn Heights (Detroit) and a number in our parish in Chicago and our house of studies there. The weather has cooperated so far. My flight from San Antonio to Chicago was unusual for Southwest changed my flight, giving me one an hour earlier, during the night. Thank God I checked my email first thing in the morning. I had a pleasant surprise when I received an apology and a $100 voucher. I really like Southwest. I attended an ordination to the diaconate this past Saturday in Peoria. It went well, but the bishop tested positive for covid that evening, so I am doing some quaranteening. I have been negative with the covid tests up to now. Let's hope all goes well. I have finished some reading: The Battle of Issus by Charles River Editors This was one of the critical battles of Alexander the Great and the Macedonian army against the forces of Persia. This short book (as all of the books are by this publisher) also gives a good amount of information before and after the battle. Chernobyl by Andrew Leatherbarrow This is a book on the nuclear disaster that occurred in the Ukraine at the end of the Soviet Union. The coverage of the disaster is well done, but the book is also a travel log of the author’s trip to the reactor and city sites. That part of the book is a bit tedious. I found Midnight at Chernobyl much better written and more informative. The Life and Operas of Verdi by Robert Greenberg This is a 32 lecture Teaching Company course on the life and writings of Giuseppe Verdi. The presenter is a music scholar with a great sense of humor. I listened to this course to try to better understand opera. While I get the sense behind operas, I really cannot say that I appreciate it. Greenberg is good at explaining the movements in both the action and the music. Rise and Fall of the Borgias by William London This is a short Great Courses presentation on the Borgia family (the Pope, Cesare Borgia and Lucrecia Borgia in particular. The professor finds the middle road in his presentation. While he admits that the various family members, especially Cesare, did terrible things, he also argues that some of the worst things with which they are accused were really fabrications made up by their enemies. Top Secret Tales of World War II by William Breuer This is an interesting, amusing, and fascinating account of various events during World War II, especially associated with spy craft. It is a light read, but once in a while that is exactly what one sometimes needs. Modern Latvia by Charles River Editors This is an account of the Baltic state of Latvia which lies between Lithuania and Estonia. So much of its history was controlled by the local powers, including Russia, Poland, Sweden and Germany. While Latvia won independence after World War I, it was lost during the Second World War. It regained its independence with the fall of the Soviet Empire. The Great Famine by Hourly History This is the story of the great potato famine in Ireland in the 1840’s. The potato blight caused the failure of the crop upon which most of the Irish population depended. The British government did the minimum to help the starving population, leading to the death of at least one million people and the emigration of at least twice that number. 1941 by Andrew Nagorski This is an account of what Nagorski calls the year in which the Nazi plan to conquer the world was damaged by Hitler to the point that the rest of the war was simply the consequences of the disasters that Hitler had caused (e.g. the invasion of Russia, the failure to aim at Moscow with his most powerful forces, the declaration of war on the United States, etc.). I have read other books by Nagorski (e.g. the battle of Moscow). He was an editor at Newsweek magazine. His accounts are filled with information presented in a very pleasing manner. Keep safe. fr. Jude

Rome

December 14, 2020 Well, we are already in the third week of Advent. I have been in Rome for these weeks, and last Wednesday we began our general definitory meeting (which in December is always longer than normal). We go through the end of this week. The weather is cool, but not really super cold. Last week there was quite a bit of rain, which is normal for this time of year. There are a lot of covid regulations given the situation in the country, which is not as bad as the States but nevertheless not all that good. Restaurants, for example, must close at 6 PM, which is very odd for in Italy most people don't eat their evening meal til around 8 PM. We have had some interesting news in these weeks. The custos of Assisi was named a cardinal, and a friar in Turkey was named the archbishop of Izmir in Turkey (Smyrna in the Bible). Both of these men are really fine people. I have been writing a series of six articles for one of our magazines in Kenya. I should finish the project today. Then I have two or three shorter projects to complete. I have finished some reading: City of Light, City of Poison by Holly Tucker This is an account of a series of poisoning murders that occurred during the reign of King Louis XIV. It is possible that his own concubines were involved in some of the plots, including even the possibility of a plot against the king himself. This book also outlines the beginning of an investigative police force in the City of Light. It is quite interesting, but at times seems to devolve to scandal mongering (although given the morality of the time, this does not necessarily mean that what it presents is inaccurate). Midnight at Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham This is a thorough account of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. It deals with the Communist system and how the inefficiencies of that centrally run economic system led to design errors which largely caused the disaster. It deals with the individuals who set off the disaster through their mistakes or their own inefficiencies. It deals with the aftermath of the disaster in terms of the effect on the public and the government response. The book offers a number of personal portraits which makes its reading quite satisfying. The author does not spare the horror of it all, but presents everything calmly and fairly. Jomiini by Charles River Editors This is a short biography of a Swiss expert on warfare who first fought with the forces of Napoleon and then allowed his services to be bought by the court of the Czar in Russia. He was a contemporary of Clausewitz and while some of their theories correspond, others seem to have purposely been proposed in contrast to those of the other. Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul Offit This is a study of some of the proposals made by scientists that have proved to be most damaging. One of the most obvious was the tendency to perform lobotomies on people in the hope to make them more manageable. The author attacks Rachel Carson’s presentation of the dangers of DDT, saying that its banning produced many, many more deaths through Malaria. Interestingly, he says that the proposal that vaping is dangerous is inaccurate, which theory itself has proved to be inaccurate in these past couple of years. The author is not really anti-science, but he is anti-sensationalism. His bottom line theory is that we have to follow the data. Imperial Twilight: the Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age by Stephen Platt This is a very good account of China in the period leading up to and during the two Opium Wars, wars that Britain fought for free trade (but also largely to permit British traders to import opium into China). What I truly appreciated about the book was that it did not get bogged down on war details, but rather painted an extensive picture of the society both of China and of the British traders. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the era. Before Darkness by Michael Dean This is the story of how the industrialist Walther Rathenau succeeded in business, then as an organizer of material that Germany needed during the First World War, and finally in government after that war as a minister in the Weimar Republic. He was often attacked for the fact that he was a Jew and he was gay. He was eventually assassinated by the far right which saw his actions as a betrayal of Germany at the end of the war (the famous stab in the back theory). May the rest of your Advent be peaceful. Shalom fr. Jude