Santa Cruz, California - Rome

October 26, 2022 Peace and Good We had a very good meeting of the federation of English speaking friars at Maria del Mar retreat house in Santa Cruz. It was right along the ocean, and during our stay I saw some seals and dolphins swimming just offshore. The food was great, as was the hospitality. There were many new members to the leadership of the federation, and this meeting allowed them to get to know each other better. They seem to work very well together. We elected the leadership of the federation, with fr. Michael Heine, the provincial of OLA province, being named the president. They have also nominated a replacement for me which will be voted upon later this week. The weather here in Rome is nice - fall weather. I just got in on Monday evening, so I am in the midst of jet lag. I swear it get worse and worse. I can't wait until I have finished with these transatlantic trips. I finished some reading: Celtic Mythology by Bernard Hayes This is a short overview of the mythology of the Celtic people, both those in Great Britain and those in Asia Minor, France, Spain, etc. It also deals the question of those whom one would consider to be Celtic. Their extension is much more extensive than one would expect. America’s Weirdest Riots by Charles River Editors This is an account of some of the stranger riots that have occurred in the United Stats in the past couple of hundred years. There was, for example, the eggnog riot at West Point Academy. There was also the grave robber riots in which people attacked medical schools because it was thought that they were robbing bodies from the cemeteries for anatomy lessons. The Chicago Outfit by Charles River Editors This is a short history of the crime network that developed in Chicago (in fact, different gangs in the different parts of the city). It deals extensively with the career of Al Capone, but also deals with what one could call the Mafia mob and the Irish mob. The Life and the Writings of John Milton by Dr. Seth Leher This is an overview of the literature of John Milton, the most famous of whose writings was Paradise Lost. The professor is able to point out the literary patterns and allusions throughout the text of the various writings. He uses a bit of psychology to show why Milton shows a certain response whenever he deals with a father figure (based on his own difficulty to his own father). The treatment is too reverential, and it cannot truly be called objective. Images of St. Francis by Wayne Hellman This is an excellent course on the way that St. Francis has been imaged throughout the centuries, including seeing him as a prophet, a saint, a founder of a religious movement, etc. Wayne is one of our friars, the current provincial of OLC province, and he taught at St. Louis University for many years. Prisoner of Guantanamo by Dan Fesperman This is a novel which speaks about an Arabic interrogator working at the prison in Guantanamo for Arab prisoners after 9/11. There are a whole series of surprising developments. The author gives a good mystery/thriller. Many of those whom one would expect to be on the good side and seen to be less virtuous than one would have thought. The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner This is a very good treatment of the growing movement toward emancipation of the slaves during the Civil War. Foner traces the growth in Abraham Lincoln and his ability to do what he really wanted to do from the start (but did not yet have the political ability to do so). Lincoln is seen as opposed to slavery, but unsure how to respond to it due to his need to placate the border states that had not yet left the union, the opinions of many of the white people in the north who were not all that favorable toward blacks, and his own opinion that the solution to this problem would be creating colonies in foreign countries to expel blacks from this nation. Martin Luther by Hourly History This is a short biography of Martin Luther, one of the founders of the Protestant reformation. It deals with his theological background and reasonings, but also with his psychological motivations (including some of the negative factors of his personality). Although it is short, the study is well done. Gastronomy in Mesoamerica by Charles River Editors This is a short description of the normal diet of the people in Mesoamerica before the arrival of Columbus. It also deals with the crops that were exported to Europe and Asia and Africa, and those were imported from those continents in what was called the Columbian exchange. The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China by David Sibley This story of the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the 19th century which was a movement to destroy the influence of foreign powers and religions in China. It deals with the rebellion largely from the point of view of the Western powers which eventually crushed the rebellion. The author does recognize the imperialistic intentions of the various power who all claimed to be totally charitable in their intentions. I will actually be in Rome for a few weeks now, until I head to Australia in mid-November. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Los Angeles - Chicago

July 15, 2013 The Feast of St. Bonaventure Peace and Good, This has been a good summer week in which the only major thing that I had to do was to travel from LA to Chicago. I am staying with the friars at their house of studies on Kenmore Avenue, a few blocks from Loyolla University. I have been catching up with my daily reflections and am a month ahead, which is great because for the past few months I have been lucky to be a week early. I am giving a talk to some of our friars who are here this week for a period of continuing education. This are friars who have recently finished their formation (from very recently up to five years ago). We have found that these early years after formation are critical as the friars adjust from formation houses to normal houses in the friaries. There are about twenty friars here this week from the various provinces in the States. Next week I will attend a couple of celebrations in a friary near here. Otherwise, I now have a chance to slow down a bit and catch up on some writing projects. I finished a few books. Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald This is a series of short stories that take place during the 20’s. There is the story of a young man who is known as a “jelly bean,” a gad about town who doesn’t get all that involved in life. There is the story of a costume party in which a man and a woman who were engaged but broke it off during a fight end up getting married by mistake. There is a story of a party at the end of the war told from the perspective of a series of different people involved in the action. There is the story of Benjamin Button which was made into a film not all that long ago. There is a sad story about two couples whose lives fall apart, one when a wife cannot accept the limitations of her life and the other when a young man is struck down by a stoke and his wife lovingly cares for him until he dies. They are generally good stories, but one gets the impression in many of them that the characters are looking for something in life which they just cannot find. Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephan Talty This is the story of a double agent whom the British used to make Hitler and the Nazi High Command believe that the D-Day invasion was going to occur at Calais and not Normandy. Thus, even many days after the initial invasion, Hitler held back his Panzer forces awaiting what he thought would be the main invasion, and this gave the allies the time to consolidate their beachhead. Garbo was a Spanish national who offered to be a spy for the Germans in Madrid. He eventually made his way to England and worked for MI5, the British spy agency. He made the Germans believe that he had set up a spy network with 27 operatives, all of whom were fictional. He was highly trusted by the Germans, so much so that a couple days after D-Day, when he sent a message that this was not yet the main invasion, Hitler changed his orders concerning troop deployment. This probably saved thousands of allied lives and insured the success of the invasion. This is a good book which shows the human element in the story. The Lighter Side of Darkness: Nine Flash Stories by Joshua Scribner This is a series of very short horror stories. I have read a number of his other works. He mixes horror with comedy and irony. These are very short stories, none more than three pages long. Yet he has the gift of giving enough information to set up a punch line. I enjoy his writings, even if some of them are a bit bizarre. I hope you have a good 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

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 - Chicago

September 17, 2012 Peace and Good, I have been in Rome all throughout this past week for a workshop for the new provincials and new secretaries of the various jurisdictions of our order. This is always a great event because we get to see how international our order is. There were representatives from Italy, Romania, Argentina, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, India, Korea, Japan and Indonesia. These are all first term provincials, and the workshop was instituted to help them fulfill their responsibilities. I have already had contacts with some of them and I was able to get together with a few of them to deal with situations in their provinces. One of the nice elements of this was that we had supper at our house in the Vatican. Our friars are the confessors on one side of the Basilica of St. Peter’s and they live just inside the gate on the left side of the Basilica, just beyond the Swiss guard are standing. We ate supper out on the terrazzo overlooking the gardens of the Vatican. When we friars pass through the gates, we are actually saluted by the Swiss guard. On Friday I flew out to Chicago for our meetings the next couple of weeks. I was lucky to make my connection in London because there was only about 2 ¼ hour turnover, and the plane was 1 ½ hour late leaving Rome. Fortunately, there were no problems in getting through security (which there sometimes are). The rest of the general curia arrived yesterday in Chicago. I had come a couple of days early to get the arrangements ready for the rest of them. This morning we began a series of meetings that will continue all through this week and into next week. I have finished a few books: Forever Odd by Dean Koontz This has to be one of my favorite characters: Odd Thomas. This is his actual name, either because of a mistake made by a clerk when he was born or the malicious intent of a deeply disturbed mother. Odd is a fast fry cook in a diner who also sees ghosts and becomes involved in their travails. One of these ghosts, by the way, is Elvis. In this volume he seeks to save Danny, a young man subject to brittle bone disease, who has been kidnapped by a maniac. Odd is different, but incredibly respectful to elders, humble, gentle, and kind. Toward the end of the book he reflects upon why there is so much pain and evil in the universe and how this all can be healed. I heartily recommend the whole series. Bonnie Prince Charlie: a Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden by G.A. Henty This is another of Henty’s historical novels that are intended to show heroism for the young men of Britain during the period in which they were written. This one takes place in Scotland during the last moments of the Scottish independence movement during the 18th century and in France where many of the exiled Scots fought in the army of the king of France. There are the usual twists and turns. The author manages to show the heroism of the Stuart backers without rejecting one’s duty to be faithful to the Hanoverian (George I, II and III) dynasty. He also brings across the tragedy of Scotland’s attachment to a lost cause and the consequences of such horrendous decisions. The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution by Thomas Slaughter During the presidency of George Washington, there was a bit of a rebellion of westerners (which at that time meant western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc.) against the federal government. The cause was an excise tax imposed upon whiskey. It was difficult to transport grain over the mountains to the east, and life on the western frontier was rough. Therefore, farmers would make whiskey out of their excess grain. When the federal government imposed a tax upon that whiskey, many farmers in western Pennsylvania rose in arms. This book explains why there were already tensions between the eastern establishment and western settlers. The westerners were barely surviving. They felt that the government was not helping them establish a transport system (e.g. open passage on the Mississippi). Now, it was taking what little currency they had (for much of the business of the frontier was done with barter). Furthermore, there was agitation by the Spanish and English in the hope of cutting off a bit of the land between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi. The rebellion itself was crushed quickly. Washington assigned control of a militia army to Richard Henry Lee (of the Robert E Lee family), and by the time that the army arrived in Western Pennsylvania, it was all over. Many farmers and agitators were arrested, but very few were charged. Only two of those charged were convicted, and they were pardoned by Washington. The tensions between the big eastern establishment and the small farmers and businessmen continued to fester, coming to the fore with the election of Jefferson, and even more Jackson. I hope you have a good week. Shalom Fr. Jude

Rome - Chicago - Rome

May 20, 2012 Peace and Good, This past week I had a quick trip to Chicago and back. We had an extraordinary chapter of St. Bonaventure Province in Chicago. Every four years we have an ordinary chapter. That is a gathering of the friars to elect the new provincial and his team for the four year period. In between these chapters, we can also have an extraordinary chapter for matters of importance. In this case, the province in Chicago was being asked to take responsibility for the jurisdiction in Australia. There are 15 friars there, and they were directly under the authority of the Minister General in Rome. The difficulty was that the general and his staff (including myself) did not have the time to properly accompany those friars. We have found that provinces do a much better job of being there to help these smaller jurisdictions to get their act together. For the past year, we have been talking about this transfer of responsibility, and this past Tuesday the friars in Chicago voted overwhelmingly to take upon themselves this call. There are only two small steps remaining in this transfer, and it should be done by the middle of June. I came back to Rome on Thursday, and the past couple days have been slow, trying to get over the jet lag. Today, my sister-in-law Mary is arriving in Rome with a few of her friends, and I will be hosting them a bit as they see Rome. This is one of the few opportunities that I have to explore this city – when I have guests come in from out of town. The earthquake you heard about in Italy did not really affect Rome. It was much farther north. I have finished a few books: Kidnapped by Robert Lewis Stevenson This is one of those books which I know I should have read long before this, but now is my chance to catch up on some of those “must reads.” I remember there was even a Walt Disney version of this story, but I never got to see it. The book is quite good, blending adventure with self-discovery. There is, of course, a happy ending, but there are so many twists and turns in arriving at it that it comes across as not being too serendipity. The story is one of a young man who is cheated out of an inheritance and kidnapped out to sea, but who finds an unusual friend among a highland Scott and who travels with him to come home again. The Gospel of Mark, The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture by Mary Healy This is part of a new set of commentaries on Sacred Scripture. At this point, I only found two of the Gospels, this and Matthew which I read last year. Healy has some very good insights upon the Gospel. The commentary is solid, and there were some discoveries that I have been wondering about for quite some time. I was pleased reading this commentary, and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to know more about the Gospel of Mark. Victory by Joseph Conrad Conrad is a remarkable author. This not my favorite of his stories, but it was still a far shot better than many other authors. It takes place in the south Pacific, with a band of strange and even dangerous characters. There is a taciturn Swede, a devoted poor English woman whom the Swede rescues from the advances for a lecherous German, two Englishmen who are card sharks among other felonious conduct, and an ape like Columbian. The victory is not anything of which one would expect. The speeches are a bit too long and tedious, but the story is still strong and surprising. Have a good week. Shalom Fr. Jude

Bacau - Rome - Chicago

May 14, 2012 Peace and Good, I finished off the second of the two retreats that I was giving in Romania. This was a different type of a group with its own dynamic. Not bad, just different. The province of Romania is quite large (over 250 friars) and quite young, and you can sense that when you talk with the friars. It will take time for them to mature as a group, and that only comes slowly. On Saturday I flew back to Rome. It was a good flight. I was in the middle of a group of men who were very loud. I thought that they might be from Naples in southern Italy. The people from Naples know how to have a good time. The city is not organized, but no one really cares all that much. The friars who were on the same flight told me that they were not even Italians, they were gypsies. They travel to Italy to plan in the gypsy bands that visit the restaurants. That explained everyting. Yesterday I flew from Rome to Chicago for an extraordinary chapter of our province out here. That will be held tomorrow, and then back to Rome on Wednesday evening. I finished some reading: Underneath by Kealan Patrick Burke This is a twisted short story of high school years. There are bullies, the girl everyone makes fun of, the boy who is beaten up and eventually takes his revenge, cutting, etc. But that is only the start of the strangeness. I didn’t realize til later that the author writes mainly ghost stories, so now the strangeness makes sense. I wouldn’t say it was a pleasant read, but it was at least interesting if at the same time troubling. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris This is a book that I have avoided reading (and I haven’t seen the film either) because it just seemed too gory. It is, in fact, messy to an extreme, but it was well written. This was the abridged version that I have read, but it was very, very good. It is about two mass murderers and an FBI agent. One is in a criminal psychiatric institute and is a cannibal but also a psychiatrist, so he is incredibly astute. The other kills woman to form a “woman” suit because he was refused a sex change operation and wants to become a woman whatever way he can. Reaper by Rachel Vincent This is a short story about a teen age male banshee who dies in an accident (offering his life in place of his brother’s). He is brought back to life to be given the job of reaper, one who helps the soul of a dying person leave the body and head on to the next stage. This is another of those books written for young people which speak about the afterlife and what expects one. There are vampire stories, wolf men, etc. It is almost as if young people are not finding the answers for their mystical search in traditional ways and so they are looking into other sources. I think we should see this trend as a symptom and not as a problem. What does it suggest for the way we present our faith? What are we missing? I hope you have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude