Louisville, KY - Albuquerque, NM - Angola, IN - Carey, OH - Louisville, KY

March 23, 2022 Peace and Good, I have been travelling in these days to finish off the visitation to Our Lady of Consolation Province in the Midwest. One of the trips in these days was to visit fr. Charles McCarthy who works at Laguna Pueblo, a native American reservation, in New Mexico. He takes care of a number of small churches in the immediate area. I was very impressed with his ability to know the local culture without becoming obsessed with knowing everything. At times, knowing what the boundaries are and respecting them is a very important part of dealing with others. We, fr. Wayne and myself, visited the National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio. It is a parish church with a statue of Our Lady of Consolation which draws people from all around, especially during the summer. I will be heading off to Baltimore this coming Saturday for a re-dedication of Carrollton Manor, a house built by Charles Carroll of Carrollton as a wedding present for his niece. Carroll was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his cousin was the first bishop in the country. The building has been refurbished to bring it back to some of its original beauty, and it will serve as a museum, meeting hall, etc. I have finished some reading: The First World War by Peter Simkins, Geoffrey Jukes and Michael Hickey This is an account of the war from the beginning to the end. It is written by British authors, so it is heavily bent in their favor. It does a good job on the Western front, a little less so on the Eastern front, but a disastrous job on the war around the world (e.g. the Pacific, Africa). The British Bulldog and the French Poodle in Africa by Charles River Editors In spite of the title of this short book, it is a quite good account of the grab for colonies in Africa, especially during the 19th century. Both colonial powers were looking for a continuous line of colonies from one side of Africa to the other (the British from north to south, the French from east to west). Obviously, only one of them would win. The final breaking point was the encounter between the French and British in an out of the way place named Fashoda. The account also deals with the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon. Raphael: Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey This is an entertaining historical fiction account of the artist Raphael (along with his rival Michelangelo). The author is playful in the presentation of dialog and of the artists quirks (as well as those who surrounded the papal court). When I first started the book, I was worried that it might be too colloquial, but it is the type of book that deals with important issues without allowing itself to be bogged down with facts and details). The author has written other books about the era which I now intend to read. The Eternal City by Ferdinand Addis This is a very fine book that covers the city of Rome from ancient times up to the present day. It deals with some topics of which I had heard but had never received much information about. The tone of the book is respectful, even when dealing with issues such of the papacy during the very bad years in the Middle Ages and even the Renaissance. I would recommend this book. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White This is a well written, comprehensive biography of General/President Grant. It deals with his successes and his failures. It shows Grant to be a humble, simple man with his flaws like anyone else. He was often underestimated by those around him, which was a big mistake. The author does not cover up the disastrous corruption during his presidential administration, nor his bankruptcy in the following years. I especially enjoyed the author’s treatment of the period in which Grant wrote his memoirs (which were then published by Mark Twain). The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr by Noel Gerson This is a biography of a man who was both a hero and a villain. He was incredibly ambitious, but not always cognizant of the folly of his outlandish plans (e.g. to conquer Mexico and make it his own personal empire). He was the Vice-President under Jefferson, but even that he handled so poorly that there was a permanent enmity between the two men. He was the model for the short story, “The Man Without a Country,” for after he was tried for treason, he fled to England (followed by Sweden, then Germany, then France, then back to England). He borrowed money wherever he went, rarely paying it back. He was certainly a man who moved to his own drummer, a drummer who was often out of beat of the rest of society. Edgar Allen Poe: Master of Horror by Mark Canada This is a production of the Teaching Company in collaboration with Audible Books. It is the product of a professor of literature who has studied Edgar Allen Poe extensively. I found a couple of his theories strange, but overall the course gives a good insight into this strange man and author. His greatest fame for his poetry, mystery novels and even detective novels came after his death. He is seen to have been a terribly tortured man who man self-destructive choices (and not only with his use of drink and drugs). The Hubble Space Telescope by Charles River Editors This is one of the productions of Charles River Editors who produce short but thorough presentations on particular topics. In this case, the book is about the Hubble Space Telescope. Besides the history of the telescope itself, there is a mind-numbing catalog of its discoveries and of various astronomical theories. I really can’t say that I would recommend this book except to someone who is desperately interested in the topic. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - London - Canterbury - London - Dublin - Wexford

May 20, 2013 Peace and Good, I hope you are all well. I have been getting ready for and participating in a series of assemblies for the friars of Great Britain and Ireland these past days. We had our first meeting in Canterbury. We have a study institute uphill from the main part of the town. The meeting went all day long, and we had some very good discussions about the future of the jurisdiction here. In years past, this had been a province but then vocations fell off and they were in a bit of trouble. They were downgraded to being a delegation which means that all the important decisions are made by the province under whose protection they are placed. They are now ready to be upgraded to the next step which is to be a custody. What is going right? For one, they have been getting a steady slow stream of new vocations. They now have nine men in formation, which is quite good considering that they had not had anyone for some twenty years. There is a real sense of hope in the jurisdiction. They still have a long way to go, but they are on their way. The delegation now has three segments. There are the older native friars, some of whom have gotten very old. There is a middle group of foreign friars who came here to help out (from the US, Canada, Malta, India, Poland and Romania). Then, there is the younger group of friars. So far, all of these groups get along quite well. We have to keep working at that so that they can work in harmony. I got to visit my favorite book shop in London: Foyles. It is the only bookshop which I can enter and find five books on every topic I ever thought of. Then, I went to Chinatown to get a bowl of my favorite soup: Tripe noodle. I flew to Ireland for the next meeting on Saturday. I then took a train down to Wexford (on the southeast coast of Ireland) for our meeting tomorrow. On the way, I have been able to fill friars in on what is happening in the order throughout the world and listen to what is going on in their lives. I have finished a few books: Union 1812: The Americans who Fought the Second War of Independence by A.J. Langguth. This is a history of the War of 1812 with a good amount of information on the periods that preceded and followed the war. It is a well written history book, not dry in any way. It gives enough information to get to know the characters involved in the various decisions. My favorite presentations were on Dolly Madison and Rachel Jackson (the wife of Andrew Jackson). On China by Hery Kissinger This book oulines the history of China throughout the centuries and especially deals wth the history of China since its opening to the est during the Mao and Nixon era (in which the author played a major role). I was worried that it might just be an apologia by Kissiner for whatever he did toward China, but it was not that. It is very valuable to understand why the Chinese and Americans see reality so differently. Kissinger speaks of American policy during some of the crisis moments since the early days of rapprochement (such as after the Tian a Min massacre). If nothing lse, Kissinger is highly pragmatic, and possibly at times amoral. I found this book to be a good read and very, very informative, well worth reading for anyone who wans to know about this new world power that will have so much to do with us over the next century. Hide by Lisa Gardner The beginning of the book pivots around two axis: a father wh continuallymoves his family and has them change identities at every change, and the horrific discovery of sx mummified bodies of young girls upon the grounds of a closed mental health facility. The police investigate these murders, and the two stries become one as the young woman (once the girl who was moved from place to place by her father) comes into a police station to report that she is not one of the girls whose body was found (but that it is her best girlfriend). The rest of the book is a search to see who killed the girls, why the family moved so often and so stealthily, and how the young woman can be protected from a man who still wans to kill her many, many years later. It is a good "who done it," worth reading. I hope you have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome

November 20, 2012 Peace and Good, This week has been glorious. I have been home, sleeping in the same bed for more than a few days. It is great to get back to a routine and not have to improvise every day depending on where one is and what one is expected to do. This past week I have working up to catch up on some projects and get ahead. Next week I will be given an extensive number of pages to translate from Italian to English for the General Chapter. I will be doing this translation because I was present at the meeting in which this material was developed so I know the nuances of the phrases used. I think it will be around 150 pages in all. Most of it is rather straight forward, but it is still a lot of work to do. So I have been writing my articles for the Messenger of St. Anthony in Padua. I am up to date up to the August edition. I finished some articles for the Crusader Magazine in England. I sent them the articles up to the February edition. Today I finished off the daily reflections up to Christmas eve. We have had some visitors from my province as well. One of the friars came in from England to refresh his Italian for a month, and another came in to attend a workshop here in Rome. It is good to have them around. Our provincial, fr. James, is arriving this evening. We’ll have a good sized group for Thanksgiving. We have been having fall weather. Some days are quite nice, while others are quite rainy. It is cool, not yet cold. The Tiber River has been very, very high due to rains they received in the north of Italy. Hope you have a good holiday. I have finished these books: A World on Fire by Amanda Forman This is a history of the relationship between the United States (northern and southern states) during the civil war and Great Britain. It was not an easy relationship. Great Britain had its reasons to be angry at the US after the way that it had treated Great Britain during various wars of its own (e.g. a rebellion in Canada, the Crimean War, etc.). Ironically, some of the things about which the north complained most bitterly were exactly things that the US had done to Great Britain. Shortly after the beginning of the rebellion, Great Britain declared its neutrality and more or less stuck to this commitment throughout the war. One of the things that truly complicated this relationship was the fact that Seward was our secretary of state. He was a very political man, and he used the opposition card to rally support for his and Lincoln’s policies. He would rail against Great Britain, even threatening to go to war against it in order to avoid having to respond to problems that the administration did not want to face. There were also a large number of volunteers and also men who were drafted (legally and illegally) into the armies of the north and the south during the war. The book tells the stories of many of them. The book is really an excellent, honest portrayal of a complicated issue. The Secret Agent: a Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad I love Conrad’s writing. The other books that I have read of his had to do with far off places (Africa, the South Seas). This one takes place in England. An agent of an imperial power is told to place a bomb in Greenwich in order to shake the confidence of the English people. The agent gives the bomb to his brother in law who is mentally slow, and it blows up. The investigation demonstrates the pettiness of the British police force. The spy himself is a pitiful character living a pitiful life. There is none of the heroics and action of a Bourne episode. It sounds a lot more like a group of moderately talented people pretending to be something they clearly are not. There is deception by people who claim to be working for the betterment of humanity (the agent who treats his wife with little or no regard, even after he is responsible for the death of her brother, the revolutionary who steals the wife’s money and sends her off to her suicide, etc.) One is left with a sense of sadness at how people act and live. Chopin: the Man and his Music by James Huneker This was one of the free books that I received from Kindle. It gives a short biography of Chopin, and then goes on at length considering the various aspects of his music. For me, the biography was the most important point, although if someone was really into music, I am sure the second part of the book would be more interesting. The biography, unfortunately, was less informative than I would have liked. This Polish musician lived a short but interesting life, dying in what he considered to be exile in Paris. God bless and Shalom Fr. Jude