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

Rome - Geneva - Rome

April 23, 2012 Peace and Good, This has been a week for meetings. From Monday to Wednesday, we had a meeting of the General Definitory in Rome. Actually, it continued on through Friday evening, but I had to miss the last couple of days to fly up to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend another meeting, this one of Franciscans International. A couple of months ago I was named to the International Board of Directors of this group. It is jointly sponsored by all the Franciscan families. Its purpose is to be a voice for those who are poor and oppressed at the United Nations. Every four year, every nation in the United Nations must produce a report on human rights in their country. As an NGO (non-governmental organization) which is fully accredited by the United Nations, Franciscans International can make comments and suggestions to these reports. We must often work through friendly ambassadors of other countries, but at times we can make these comments ourselves in a series of meetings. We produce our comments by checking with the Franciscans who live in those particular countries. Remember, we have the male Franciscans religious, the female Franciscan religious, and all of the secular (lay) Franciscans. I have seen figures that, if you take all of them into account, you arrive at between a quarter and a half of a million people all throughout the world. That is a loud voice for justice. We have seen some success stories from out lobbying, but often you don't succeed in an open manner. (Countries are like people, no one likes to admit that they are doing something wrong.) But, by lobbying this year, they might take something said into account in the future, if only to avoid criticism. Furthermore, much of the work being done by FI (Franciscans International) is not done with a spirit of "let's work together on this," rather than in a more adversarial manner. So Thursday through Saturday we had our semi-annual meeting in Geneva. FI has three offices: New York, Geneva and Bangkok. While New York is the official center of the UN, most of the important preliminary work is done in Geneva. I got to meet the staff there and see the office. (Believe me, it is not extravagant - 16 people working in a space that most of us say would be a work place for 5 or 6). But the people are very dedicated to the cause. Sunday I flew back to Rome and I have a few meetings this week here. For example, this afternoon there is a meeting with the exxecutive committee of the conference of men's and women's religious superiors. Then Saturday it is off to Romania for another couple of retreats. Here is a bit of my reading: Mary, Queen of the Scots by Jacob Abbott This is a short biography of Mary, a Catholic monarch of Scotland, during the days of Queen Elizabeth. She became caught up in forces beyond her ability to handle (religion, factions among the nobles, love affairs). Some of it was her fault, some that of others, and some just the difficult times in which she lived. She ended up being executed for having plotted for the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth (for she was next in line for the throne). This is one of Abbott’s biographies, not very deep but nevertheless informative. Eleven O’Clock Fright: A Novel by Joshua Scribner This is an odd novella which involves a professor of mathematics and his dabbling into profound meditation which leaves him able to transport out of his body. There is a love affair with a science fiction writer, a ghost, ghouls, etc. I have read a few short stories by this same author, and he is a good writer who helps one enter into the minds of the characters involved, even when those minds or the situations in which they find themselves are definitely twisted. Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville This is a strange little story about a scrivener (a copyist for legal documents during the 19th century) who comes to work at a legal office. Unlike the other scriveners, he sets certain limits and refuses to do certain tasks, which infuriate his boss. His response is “I would prefer not to…” Yet, there is a gentleness and efficiency to him, so that for quite some time the boss lets things go on as they are. Eventually, he lets him go, but Bartleby refuses to move, even when the office is moved to another site. He is arrested and dies because he simply prefers not to move from the site where he had found his peace. Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac It is only a short story, but I have never seen so much action and emotion packed into a short space. It deals with a blind clarinet player who turns out to be a disgraced Venetian gentleman of noble heritage who experiences lust, heroics, foolishness, good fortune, imprisonment, exile, etc. The man listening to the story of his life and travails is at first skeptical, then turns into a believer. Yet, it does him no good, for his dreams for wealth vanish before his eyes. Balzac is really a masterful story teller. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude