Sydney - Manila - Tagaytay

Peace and Good, This past Monday I finished my trip to Australia and headed off to the Philippines. We have an international novitiate here, and this is my second time offering to give workshops on Sacred Scripture to the novices. There are three Philippino novices and two Vietnamese. This is a way for our General Curia in Rome to show its support for this project. The topic of the workshop ono Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings was figures of faith in the Bible (given that this is the year of Faith). We had the five of our novices and a good 30 or so postulants and novices from communities in the area. There are over 60 houses of formation in the area. We are located on the side of an active vulcano (yes, I wrote active and not dormant, but it has not erupted in 150 years). In the afternoons I had another set of conferences on the Letters of St. Paul. Tomorrow I will have a class on the Book of Revelation with our novices. Then Tuesday will be a day of recollection. Wednesday I head down to Manila to fly out Thursday morning for England. It has been hot here (and we are not as bad as down in Manila). It approaches 100. The friars have been very solicitous to meet my needs. Yet, it is a little primitive at times. The area is really only one step away from jungle. There is a constant file of ants passing through my room. I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. We have water 4 hours a day, so most of our needs are met with barrels in each room. It really isn't too bad, and it certainly helps me appreciate what I have been gifted with. I have been doing a little editing work for my publisher in the off time, but it has been difficult to concentrate with the heat and humidity. I finished a few books: Crazy Horse and Custer: the Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen E. Ambrose Stephen Ambrose has written mostly books about World War II. His is a very good history author. He takes on the question of the battle between white American and native Americans during the 1860’s and the 1870’s. He is remarkably balanced in his approach to the question. While one can see that he admires many of the virtues of the Sioux, he nevertheless sees their limitations. Furthermore, he asks a very politically incorrect question that must be asked: could America really cede the development of such large tracts of land that provide much of our grain and meat for the sake of what amounted to some tens of thousands of aboriginal inhabitants. Yet, he also point out the double dealing of the government in Washington (making treaty after treaty, all of which they broke without just cause). He also deals with the fact that no matter how many treaties were signed, the Sioux had no intention of ceasing their raiding upon wagon trains and forts. He also gives good biographies of both Custer and Crazy Horse. This, as is true of all of Ambrose’s books, is well worth reading. Finland’s War of Choice: The Untidy Coalition of a Democracy and a Dictatorship in World War II by Henrik Lunde During World War II, the country of Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany in an attack upon the Soviet Union. That was odd, for Finland was a vibrant democracy and Germany was a totalitarian regime (as was the Soviet Union). This book addresses the question of why Finland would have allied itself to such an evil entity. Finland had been attacked and defeated by the Soviet Union the year before. They had initially been able to defeat the soviet invasion (which was astounding given that the total population of Finland was only 4 million). Yet, eventually the weight of the soviet army overcame their opposition. The Soviet Union stole a large amount of territory from Finland (admittedly, to be better able to defend itself if it were attacked). The Finns attacked the Soviets to regain their lost territory. The Germans were attacking to defeat the Soviet Union and exterminate communism. These different goals eventually led to misunderstandings and difficulties throughout the war. Lunde has written that type of history book that includes way too much detail. One easily becomes lost in the names and numbers of various divisions, in the references to small villages spread all throughout the Arctic, in the movements here and there, etc. Furthermore, while the book is supposed to answer the why of the war, it spends much, much more time in chronicling what happened during the war. I would not recommend this book unless one really, really, really wanted to read about Finland and World War II. The Borgias and Their Enemies 1431-1519 by Christopher Hibbert This is a book that speaks about the Borgia family that produced two popes: Sixtus IV and Alexander VI, as well as a brood of powerful, grasping, and often decadent young people, including Caesare Borgia and Lucrezia Borgia. They were from a Spanish background. Sixtus IV gave rise to the dynasty by making his young nephew a cardinal. That man was eventually elected to be pope. He was a very bad man, living a life of grasping sensuality. He had several children by his courtesan lover. He and his son Caesare were accused of having committed incest with his daughter Lucrezia. He made his son a duke and allowed him to conquer much of what was then the papal states. Caesare was known for his cunning and cruelty (in fact, he was Machiavelli’s model in his famous book, The Prince). Alexander VI was so evil that even Catholics spoke of him being the anti-Christ, an accusation that was readily picked up by early Protestants and later applied to all popes. Of the whole family, Lucrezia turns out to be the best of the brood (although even she had various lovers while she was married to her last husband). She was a loving, caring mother to her children and seems to have gradually converted to a more and more religious life style. Hibbert is a good historian and a good author. The book is very interesting, filled with detail, without being overwhelming. 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