Chicago - Los Angeles

July 23, 2021 Peace and Good, I spent about five days in Chicago visiting the friars and also participating in a friars' day (for the celebration of the patronal saint of the province, St. Bonaventure) and the simple profession of one of the friars. On Saturday I flew out to Los Angeles. I am staying in our parish in Hermosa Beach, about a half of a mile from the sea. It is a beautiful area, and the weather has been very nice. From Monday til yesterday I was with the friars of the province for their extraordinary chapter in Malibu. We staying at the retreat house run by the OFM Franciscan Friars. It has a beautiful view of the ocean, and is right next door to the home of Dick Van Dyke. The meeting went extremely well. There was a great spirit among the friars. The most important thing approved was the raising of the mission in Vietnam from the category of a delegation to that of a custody. It is now just below the level of a province. The mission has been going for about 18 years, and they have made incredible progress. We are very happy that they are now in this higher category which gives them quite a bit more autonomy. The only down side of my visit here is that LA county has reinstituted the requirement for masks when indoors. The covid rate is rising rapidly here. I will be here until Tuesday when I fly out to Baltimore for a couple more celebrations. Then a week from today I will heading over to London for a couple of weeks. I have finished some reading: Coney Island by Charles River Editors This is the story of the resort island which served the people of New York for so many decades. It deals with its low life origin, and then its transformation into a center of hotels and amusement parks. It was there that the hot dog was invented and named. This was also the location of the first Nathan’s red hots. The island suffered in the era in which travel became so much easier with the family car (and therefore freedom from the trains that would carry people to Coney Island. Washington’s Immortals: the Untold Story of an Elite Regiment that Changed the Course of the Revolution by Patrick O’Donnell This is the story of an elite group of soldiers from Maryland who accompanied the revolutionary forces from the early days of the revolution to the end of the war. They arrived in time for the battles in the New York area. They were always dependable forces for Washington throughout the war. The history is well done. LBJ in 1968 by Kyle Longley This is an account of the last hellish year for the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Among the difficulties he faced were the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the capture of the ship Pueblo by North Korea, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets and their allies, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy, etc. The book presents the story in a sympathetic but not fawning manner. The author admits Johnson’s flaws, e.g. this stubbornness and refusal to admit having made mistakes, but he also presents him as a good leader who was most of all dedicated to the poor and downtrodden of society. A Different Drummer by Michael Deaver This is a fawning account of Ronald Reagan and his political career. Deaver was an advisor to Reagan beginning with his time as governor of California. There were ups and downs in the relationship. After Deaver’s last resignation, he formed a lobbying group that got him into trouble with the law. But his overall view of the Reagans, both Ronald and Nancy, is highly favorable. How Winston Churchill Changed the World by Michael Shelden This is a series of twelve lectures on the career of Winston Churchill from his early days in the military and politics up to his death at a very advanced age. The professor presenting these lectures sees Churchill as the right man at the right time. He recognizes his shortfalls, but also sees him as a prophetic figure in his ability to foresee the danger of the rise of the Nazis in Germany. The presentation is very favorable to Churchill. The Mahdist War by Hourly History This is the story of an Islamist rebellion in the Sudan that was fought against the forces of Egypt (and behind them Great Britain) and which was also a reform movement to purify the practices of Islam. The leader of the movement called himself a Mahdi, a messianic figure in Islam. When he died, much of what he did fell apart. Geronimo by Charles River Editors This is a short biography of the famous Native American chief from the US Southwest (as well as Mexico). It especially deals with his capture and the way he was treated after that. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Ellicott City - Albuquerque

January 3, 2016 Peace and Good, I missed a week on the blog. I was in Ellicott City for the past week for some meetings and dentist appointments. The weather was incredibly warm when I first arrived, but cooled off by the time I left yesterday. I am down in Albuquerque to give a retreat to a group of Friars Minor at our retreat house in Mesilla Park, New Mexico, which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. The weather in Europe has been quite cold these past weeks. Normally, at this time of year, there is a day or so of cold weather, and then it warms up a bit. That has not been the case this year. It must be one of the effects of El Nino. I will be down here in New Mexico until the end of the week, and then head back to Rome for some more meetings. I have been very relieved that there were no terrorist acts in Europe in these days. I expected the worst from all that I had been hearing. I finished some books: For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond by Ben Macintyre I was first interested in this book because of its author. Ben Macintyre has written a number of good books about spies, especially during World War II. I liked his writing style. In this book he treats the author of so many spy novels about James Bond. It turns out that Bond is what Fleming was and what he would like to be. Macintyre credits the success of his books to the fact that Bond is what English men wish they could be but know that they never could. Fleming actually did work in a spy agency during World War II, and he took those experiences and extensive research into account as he wrote his books. This is a good overview of an author and a project and how they intersected and succeeded. A Warning in Red by Victor Whitechurch A man who consistenly pays his bills once a quarter with cash is found murdered by the side of a train track. The money has been taken. The detective is able to figure out that the man was not actually murdered at that site, but rather when he got off the train at his destined stop. The station manager and an accomplice then arrange to have his body carried down the track so that there might not be any connection between the man’s death and that particular site and the people working there. Meet you in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America by Les Standiford Andrew Carnegie founded and owned Carnegie Steel, which became the foundation of US Steel. Carnegie is famous for his philanthropy by building libraries all over the world. Frick was the manager of the company for Carnegie, and is equally famous for his collection of art which became the Frick Museum. Both of these men, however, were robber barons who exploited the workers who actually built their fortunes. This is especially seen in what they did to crush a strike at the Homestead Works in Pittsburgh. They eventually turned on each other, and hated each other the rest of their lives. When Carnegie, dying, invited a reconciliation with Frick, his response was that they could meet in Hell. Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, D.C. by J.D. Dickey Even though the nation’s capital was established early in its history, for the first 70 years or so it remained a backwater town with incredible hygene and crime and violence. The streets were unpaved. There were vast sections that were open field or, worse, covered in refuse. Animals were raised and butched throughout the city. Marshes bred malarial mosquitoes. It was only after the Civil War that something was done about the mess. Yet, at the same time this was happening, the inhabitants of the city lost the right to elect their own city officials. (It appears that this was at least partly due to the fact that Blacks made up a large portion of the population and Southern whites wanted to disenfrancise them.) The district was governed by the federal government for the next century. This is a good overview of the city from its founding to the time when it was finally well run (even though those running it also were thieves who enriched themselves on the projects they built). The Absence of Mr. Glass by Gilbert Chesterton This is a Fr. Brown mystery. He goes to a scientist to help him with a small problem, but while he is there, it appears that the subject of his concern has been attacked by a mysterious Mr. Glass. When they investigate, the scientist makes brilliant deductions, but Fr. Brown, in his simplicity, is able to solve the great mystery, which turns out not to be as great as everyone had first suspected. Darkfall by Dean Koontz This is a story that Koontz tells that reverts to his horror genre. A group of Mafia drug lords are suddenly and horribly murdered. The detectives investigating this crime discover a connection with a Jamaican voodoo cult. The practitioner of black voodoo has opened the doors of hell to release a series of demons who attack his enemies. The detectives and a practitioner of good voodoo must fight against him and his plans, especially since he intends to murder the children of one of the detectives. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude