Van Mon (near Hanoi) - Rome - Holyoke, MA - Rome

February 14, 2018 Peace and Good, This past couple of weeks took an unexpected turn. I was at the leprosy village outside of Hanoi when I heard of the passing of fr. Donald Kos. The General and I had accompanies him home to the States on December 9th after having spent 59 years in Italy. He had served both the Order and the Church in a number of responsibilities. When he arrived in the States, his health was already in decline, but we did not realize how much until a week before his death when we were told that they had discovered widely metastasized cancer. It is remarkable that they had not discovered this in his many visits to the hospital in his last months here in Italy. He was placed on hospice care and died a week later. fr. Donald was a man of incredible dedication. He was a canon lawyer, and at times they can be legalistic. That was not fr. Donald. He was always a humble servant. The General wrote me in Vietnam saying that it would be a good idea for me to accompany him to the funeral which was to be held in Holyoke. Last Thursday I flew from Hanoi to Rome, and then Friday from there to Boston. The funeral was the next day, and then we made our return trip to Rome on Sunday night. This is an itinerary I would not recommend. I worked out yesterday that in the past month I have flown around 35,000 km. This week we have a meeting of our definitory. I have three presentations to make, but all three had been completed before I started this long trip so I am ready with the paperwork. We end on Saturday. I have finished some books: Pope Francis’ Little Book of Wisdom by Andrew Kirk Assaf This is a nice collection of the sayings of Pope Francis. It is arranged thematically, and is not all that profound, but a nice meditation nevertheless. I think that many of the thoughts come from his daily tweets and his daily homilies. A Certain Justice by PD James This is the second time that I have read this book, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it both times. The first third of the book sets up the figure of the person who was to be murdered. She was a driven lawyer in London who has a daughter who hates her, a lover who wants to break it off, a younger colegue who she wants to expose for bribery, etc. The inspector is Adam Daglish, a somewhat eccentric investigator who works well with his staff. PD James is an excellent author. The Amish: The History of America’s Oldest and Most Unique Communities by Charles River Editors This is one of the short studies produced by Charles River Editors. It gives a history of the community, an outline of their theology, and especially a description of their practices. It is sympathetic without being fauning. It found it a good read. The Ark of the Covenant by Charles River Editors This study of the Ark of the Covenant is a bit strange and not one of the better studies produced by Charles River Editors. The author begins with some strange theories about what the Ark meants, suggests that there were many arks over the years (without any credible evidence), and then tries to describe the disappearance of the ark. I can’t say that I learned anything valuable from this study. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King Thw widow of a famous writer must confront a madman who claims that he wants her to donate some of her husbands archives to a particular university, but whose real purpose is to hurt her as much as he can. She must resort to seeking a strange and wonderful (sometimes) world which her husband had used as a refuge from his abusive father and insane brother and from which he drew much inspiration for his stories and books. As always, King is a wonderful storyteller, and this book is no exception. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) - Van Mon (near Hanoi) - Rome

February 9, 2018 Peace and Good, I have been in Vietnam this past week. I have really fallen in love with Vietnam. I find the people good and kind and hospitable. The food is wonderful - very much like Italian food. Simple ingrediants prepared simply. I especially like the Pho, the soup with some meat, vegetables and plenty of noodles. These past couple of days I have been visiting our house in Van Mon. This is a leper village, and our friars help them and some of the handicapped children. Our friars live a very simple and good life. This is very much in the countryside. The last night in Hanoi we stayed at a hotel run by a Vietnamese family. It was only 30 euro, and it was palatial. Yesterday I travelled with fr. Benedict back to Rome. It was a long but good trip. Today I head out to Boston to attend the funeral of one of our friars, fr. Donald Kos. He served the Order and the Church for 59 years here in Rome. For the past several years, I have sat next to him at meals. He was a very good, simple man. We took him back to the States in December because he was not doing that well. They found out that he had terrible cancer, and only lasted a week once they put him in hospice care. I have finished some reading: Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman This is the account of Antonina, the wife of Jan, the zookeeper of the Warsaw Zoo, and their experiences before and during World War II. It is based on a diary kept by Antonina and presents a beautiful story of their harrowing effort to save the animals which they were charged to care for and as many refugees as possible. Doing this put them and their small children in danger, but they responded to the dangers with creativity and good cheer. I would highly recommend this book. I have not yet seen the film which is based upon the book. Village of Secrets by Caroline Moorehead This tells the story of a series of villages on the high plateau of France where the people, mostly Protestants, cared for countless Jews during the war. They created a great network to save as many as possible, especially the children. A number of them were caught and sent to the camps where most died. The people involved are seen as very human with all of the flaws that we all have, but also as willing to risk everything to do what they knew was their religious duty to those who were suffering. Off Diamond Head by William Finnegan This is a short story of a young boy whose family resettles in Hawaii and his devotion to surfing, his difficulties fitting in as an Haole, a white, in a society where the majority were either Hawaiian, or Philipino, or Japanese. Mysticism by William Harmless I came across this book by accident, and I have to saw that it is one of the best studies of mysticism that I have ever read. The first part of the book is a study of a series of mystics throughout the centuries, in the Christian, Muslim and Buddhist tradition. Rather than accepting the platitude that all mystics see the same thing, the author clearly shows that their experiences are closely tied to their cultural and religious backgrounds. I highly recommend this study to anyone interested in the topic. Blue Labyrinth by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child I have now read a whole series of Preston’s and Child’s books. This one is in the Agent Pendergast series, a New Orleans detective who must fight mysterious forces of evil in society and his own life. He is a bit of a bon vivant, and lives with his “ward”, a woman who is mysteriously over 100 years old but appears to be in her early 20’s. This volume deals with a plot to poison Pendergast with a potion that was invented by his great grandfather and which turned out to be a highly dangerous substance, responsible for the death of many. Have a good week Shalom fr. Jude

Manila - Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

January 31, 2018 Peace and Good, I finished off the week in Manila for the custodial chapter. I had given the opening afternoon of recollection, and I had also been asked to preach at all the Masses. That went very well. It is remarkable how a five minute homily can set the tone for a day. The days were also spent doing some editing on a text for one of the friars concerning the history of the break between the Conventual Franciscans and the Friars of the Immaculate. You might remember that I am the liason for those friars who are seeking to enter our Order from that group. On Sunday fr. Benedict and I travelled from Manila to Ho Chi Minh. The trip was only two hours, and the passport control was very easy (I had gotten an e visa). The trafic in the city is every bit as chaotic as I remember. There are still thousands of motor bikes, but I noticed a lot more cars as well. I had last been here in October of 2014, and I noticed quite a few changes in the area around the airport with many new stores and nice restaurants. Vietnam is doing quite well economically due to the movement of factories from China to here in quest of a land with lower wages. I and fr. Benedict are here to have a canonical visitation. This delegation was founded around 13 years ago, and it is growing nicely. We see some growing pains, and also we see that we are arriving at a transition period in which the energy must be refocused on reaching outside of the community. Up to now most of the work has been in the formation of young friars, but now a number of them are finishing their formation program and we have to find apostolates for them to do. There is a wonderful spirit among the friars. I am very impressed with them, and I hope they keep this spirit of collaboration as they grow. I see this as a real gem in the future. fr. Benedict and I will be travelling up to the Hanoi area on Sunday to visit some friars up there. Then on Thursday we will be returning to Rome. I have finished some reading: Elizabeth Kolbert The Siege of Miami This is a study of the effects of global warming based on the rising of the water level in Miami Beach. This is alredy happening, and it is creating a situation in which every time there is a high tide, streets are being flooded. This is due to the melting of the glaciers in Greenland and Antartica. No matter how one argues the cause of the global warming, the evidence that it is happening is no longer debatable. The Actual Hollister by Dave Eggers We have seen people wearing clothes that have the name Hollister on it all over the place. This author visits the actual Hollister, CA. Interestingly, they don’t sell clothing in that city that has the name on it because the store that markets the brand does not have a store there. What makes the story a bit more interesting is that the man visiting Hollister is a descendant of the founder of the city. Rasputin’s Revenge by John Lescroat This is a mix of the story of the last years of the Romanov Dynasty, the machinations of Rasputin, the mad monk, and, believe it or not, a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes story. While that seems to be a daunting combination, the story is really not all that bad. It is narrated by a French diplomat who has come to Russia to try to keep them in the war on the side of the allies. I would say that, if you want an easy and entertaining read, this fits the bill. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton I had seen the movie many years ago, but this was on sale so I bought it on Kindle and decided to read it. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. This is the first book I read in which the protagonist is not the people in the book but rather the scientific process used in trying to identify and respond to a micro organism which had landed on the earth and seems to have a devastating lethality. Give me Back my Legions by Harry Turtledove This is the fictional account of the battle between the German leader Herman (Armonius) and the Roman legate Varus. It ends with the massacre of three Roman legions in the Teutenborg Forest, a loss of about 15% of the entire Roman forces in the world at that point. It is the tension between accepting an invading force that seems umbeatable and gathering a disperate disunified force of combatants to defend the traditional ways. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Manila

January 23, 2018 Peace and Good, This past week I have been in Rome for the meeting of the General Definitory with the new provincials and custodes from throughout the world. There were just over twenty of them, and we like to bring them to Rome for a week to describe the parts of their job that have to do with us and the Vatican. Part of the trip was visiting the various other General Houses in Rome, which includes our international seminary (the Seraphicum), the center of our office for secretaries of various topics (Casa Kolbe), the friary where doctoral students live (La Vigna) and the friary which houses our confessors at the Vatican (the Penitenzeria). I was asked to preach at the morning Mass each day, a short homily but one that tried to bring out the spiritual dimension of the work these men are doing. On Saturday, fr. Benedict Baek, the Asian Assistant General and I traveled from Rome to the Philippines. We are here for the second part of their custodial chapter, and I preached a spritual introduction to it yesterday and in these following days I will preach at their Masses. Part of my presence is to back up fr. Benedict, and part to see what is going on to get a different perspective. The Philippines has had some difficulties in the past, but now they have a very good custos who is bring things together. I finished some reading: Dressed for Death by Donna Leon A man dressed as a woman is found outside a slaughter house in Mestre, the industrial city adjacent to Venice. Commissario Brunetti investigates the crime which is especially brutal. He finds connections to a much larger plot which involves political corruption and other illegal activities. Donna Leon, who is Spanish, has a feel for Italy, and if one has lived there, one can pick up the hidden jokes and jibes all throughout the story. She write a great book, and I intend to read as many of her books as possible. Daniel Webster: The Life and Legacy of One of America’s Most Famous Senators and Orators by Charles River Editors This is one of those extended essays on the life and activities of Daniel Webster, the famous lawyer, politician and stateman. He is known as one of the great politicians of the period before the Civil War (along with Clay and Calhoun). He fought for the preservation of the Union, and was accused of having sold his beliefs and his soul in defening attempts of the Southern States to enforces the fugitive slave laws. Poison by Ed McBain This is the story of a woman with a number of gentlemen friends who are being murdered. One of the policement investigating the crimes falls in love with her and moves in with her, complicating the investigation. These stories (which are numerous) are the pattern that was eventually used on the NYPD Blue TV program. This one is well written, clever. Dark Night by Suzanne Brockmann This is a very poorly written spy novel. It involves company called Troubleshooters Incorporated. They are mostly retired CIA agents who contract with the agency to perform various jobs which include killing enemies of the county. The author only lightly outlines what they do, and she centers on the fact that some CIA agents are trying to kill some of the members of Troubleshooters because of what they know about certain hidden activities. The author throws a lot a sex (written in an incredibly adolescent manner) and pop/new age psychology in. At least I know that I would never buy a book by this author again. What’s Left Behind by Kea Krause This is the story of a polluted lake of waste water in Butte, Montana. Butte was the site of a massive open air copper mine which was abandoned. When it was no longer mined, the company which owned it ceased pumping ground water from the region. The water reacted with some of the pyrite rock that had been left, producing a very dangerous acidic reservoir. The essay spoke of some attempts to remedy the situation, and some attempts to bring a bit of beauty and industry to the Butte area. Hope you have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Ellicott City - Rome

January 8, 2018 Happy New Year. I travelled back to the States on December 30th for a series of doctors' visits this past week. This is routine stuff, and all went well. I have the green light for the next 50,000 miles (which unfortunately come rather quickly in my life). I was able to be with a number of the friars last Friday night when we held a celebration at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore. Every year at the Feast of the Epiphany we pick a patron saint and a religious saying to guide us throughout the coming year. I received St. Francis for this year, which is great. It will remind me to work at being more like out founder. The trip back and forth was uneventful. The weather is much, much warmer here in Rome than it was in Baltimore. I am here for meetings over the next two weeks, and then off to the Philippines and Vietnam. I finished some reading: The Case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg by Charles River Editors This is the story of the life, trial and execution of two of the most notorious spies in America during the 20th century. They were accused of spying for the Soviets, stealing nuclear secrets and thus shortening the process for the Soviets to obtain atomic technology. They always claimed to be innocent, but there are indications even from the Soviet archives that at least Julius, the husband, was guilty. Long Knife: The Story of a great American hero, George Rogers Clark by James Alexander Thom This is a ficional history of George Rogers Clark. He is a little known figure of the War of Independence, but he is responsible for conquering much of the western part of the then united colonies. That would mean the territory from the Appalacian Mountains to the Mississippi. He did this by taking a militia of Virginia hundreds of miles and conquering a couple of important British outposts from which Indian attacks on settlers were organized. He was never as fully recognized by his state officials or by federal officals as he should have been. Enemies at the Gate by William Craig This is a very well written, very well documented history of the siege of Stalingrad, both the German siege to conquer the city and the Soviet siege to surround and decimate the German armies holding most of the city. There is incredible cruelty in this story: for the way the citizens were treated, for the way that the soldiers of each army treated each other, and even for the way that each army treated its own soldiers. No one comes out of this looking good. The whole battle was not even intended in the beginning. Yet, once the prestige of either conquering or defending the city that bore the name of the Soviet dictator got in the way, there was no turning back. Blood Memory by Greg Iles This is a story that takes place in the south, New Orleans and Natchez. It is of a dental forensic expert who is investigating a mass murderer. The story takes a horrific twist when the crimes are tied to child abuse, and the investigator realizes that she, herself, had been abused as a child. It is difficult to view the characters in the story with any warmth or compassion because they are all deeply flawed, either by their own choices or by the wounds that life had dealt them. The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester This is the story of a very eccentric Cambridge scholar, Joseph Needham, who fell in love with China and everything that it represented. He was sent to China during the Second World War to bring assistance to the suffering academic world there. While he was there, he made countless discoveries of how many things which Europeans assumed were their own inventions were actually found in China many years and at times centuries before the West every received them. He eventually began a huge project of documenting the Science and Culture of China which was published by Cambridge University Press. Needham was not necessarily an easy person to work with. He made some serious political mistakes over the years, especially by uncritically backing Mao after the Communists took over, but his contribution to the knowledge of China is inestimable. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Melbourne, Australia - Rome, Italy

December 30, 2017 Peace and Good, I returned from Australia the evening of the 23rd, arriving around noon on the 24th. The trip was unending. There was a 16 hour flight from Melbourne to Doha in the Gulf States, a three hour layover, and another 6 and one-half flight to Rome. The jet lag from Melbourne to Rome is 10 hours, which means that these past few days have meant laying low and trying to get over the jet lag. The weather here is Rome is a bit unusual. It has cooled off quite a bit, but the first couple of days back were rainy with thunder storms (which don't happen all that often in Rome). This is good because we had a very dry summer, and the winter crops need the moisture. I am heading to the States this morning for a week. I have a number of doctors' visits this coming week - normal stuff for a man of my age. Then back to Rome for a couple of weeks of meetings. The first week will be our definitory, and then the second week will be a school for the new provincials in the Order. We do this every year or so for the provincials and custodes who have been elected in the meantime. I have finished some reading: The Seminole by Charles River Editors This is a short account of the history and culture of the Native Americans who grouped together with run away slaves in the southern US, and eventually in Florida and Oklahoma, to become the Seminole people. They were not treated all that well by the US government. Many of them were forced to leave their homelands under Andrew Jackson and travel the trail of tears, the ethnic cleansing of the lands each of the Mississippi by the government of whatever native Americans were resident there. The Fugue by Arna Hemenway This is a very odd story of a man nicknamed Wild Turkey (more after an episode in which he obtained a number of wild turkies for a Thanksgiving meal for his band of soldiers rather than after the drink). It travels from here to there as his memory, which is suffering from post tramatic stress syndrome after a particularly horrific episode while on patrol in Iraq, seeks to find its footing. The messiness of the telling of the story well matches the messiness of the ex-soldier’s messed up mind. The Bed-Rest Hoax by Aleandra Kleeman This is a scientific essay in which the author takes to bed for a number of days to experience what women who are running a high risk pregnancy are told to do by many doctors. She uses her own experience and especially scientific studies to show that complete bed rest is actually more harmful to these women than a regiment of limited activity. How Can We Find More People Like You by Sara Borbett This is a travel essay on the attempt of some agents of AIRBNB to find more people in Japan who would host travelers. They find that the ones who would be most likely to allow strangers into their homes are those who already march to a different drummer. That is a little difficult to find in Japan where there is an intense sense of privacy in addition to the need to conform. Salvador Dali by Charles River Editors This is a short version of the life story of the great surrealist artist Salvador Dali. The author of this account is honest in the appraisal and Dali was both a great artist and an even greater promoter of his own talents. This account gives a very fine study of some of the most important pieces of art produced by Dali. I am glad I went through it. Black Cross by Greg Iles This is a fictional story of a secret British plot to infiltrate two specially chosen commandoes (one an American scientist and the other a German Jew from Palestine) into Germany to set off a set of bombs with neurotoxins to prove to Hitler that the allies possessed the poisons and would use them if the Germans attacked the invading troops in Normandy with their supply of poison gasses. It is set in the spy mode, and the author pushes credibility a bit (which is common in this genre), but it is a good book. Happy New Year Shalom fr. Jude

Boston - San Jose, Costa Rica - San Francisco - Sydney, Australia - Melbourne, Australia

December 21, 2017 Peace and Good, It has been a very busy couple of weeks, both in terms of travel and in terms of cultural background. After the Minister General and I dropped fr. Donald off into the care of fr. James, the provincial, we continued on to Costa Rica for the inaugural chapter of a new custody. This custody was formed by the merger of a delegation in Costa Rica and a custody in Honduras. We have been working on this union for seven years, and it is a joy that we finally saw it occur. We had the official union on December 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The day after that celebration, I flew up to San Francisco. This was just a stopping off point, for I was then flying out to Australia. It took me eight hours of flight to get to San Francisco, so I decided to stay the night in a hotel and then fly out the next day rather than trying to fly the whole way that same night. This was a good choice, for the flight from San Francisco to Australia was 14 hours in itself. I visited the friars in Kellyville and Warrawong which are near Sydney, and yesterday I flew south (only about an hour flight) to visit our friars in the Melbourne area (Springvale and Dingley). We have about 15 friars here, including two from the States, one from the Philippines, and one from India. This is a delegation of the Chicago Province (St. Bonaventure), and the visit is a preparation for the provincial chapter in Chicago which will take place right after Easter. I will be heading back to Rome on the evening of the 23rd, arriving in Rome around noon on the 24th. I have finished some reading: The Book of Jubilees by R.H Charles I have often heard about the Book of Jubilees, but I had never read it. This is a book that did not make it into the Bible, but which had a considerable influence in its days (just before the birth of Jesus). It is a type of rewriting of the Book of Genesis with the elements of the story favored by the intellectual background of the author’s school of thought emphasized. It is longer than I expected, but well worth going through at least once. William Wallace by Charles River Editors This is a short life story of the famous Scottsman who was portraayed by Mel Gibson in the film Braveheart. It is a sad story of rebellions, betrayals (often by his own Scotts), the relentless pressure exerted by King Edward I (known as Edward Longshanks). It was a brutal time, and both side used war techniques that would be considered cruel and outragerous today. How the Dog became the Dog: From Wolves to our Best Friends by Mark Derr This is a book that speaks about how dogs evolved from wolves (and possibly with a bit of jackal and/or fox). One can see in the book that the author is head over heals in love with dogs, and sometimes his retoric becomes a bit overly canine centered. He talks about how packs of wolves probably travelled along with packs of the first humans and that somehow they began to interact (maybe even learning hunting techniques from each other). He bemoans the limited breeding of dogs today because it forces attributes on dogs and lead to genectic abnormalities. It is not a bad bood, but not a great one either. Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt and the Supreme Court by Jeff Shesol This is the account of how FDR had a running battle with the Supreme Court which outlawed a number of his New Deal laws and organizations. The court was rather old, and five of the justices were quite conservative. FDR came up with the proposal to add members to the court, up to fifteen. This took various forms, either adding a member for each justice over 70 (and later over 75) or just adding members, etc. The Congress which was overwhelmingly Democratic after the 1936 election nevertheless turned down his proposal. In spite of this, the proposal seems to have frightened some members of the court who then changed their stance on a number of controversial cases to be in favor of FDR’s position. In a sense, he lost the battle but won the war. Thirty Million Gallons Under the Sea by Antonia Juhasz This is the account of a dive near the oil well platform that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago and what the scientists found on the bottom of the gulf. The oil that had been dumped there was largely still there. The micro-organisms which ate the oil at first seem to have eaten only parts of it, leaving some of the most toxic elements still there. Furthermore, those elements are entering the food chain which could cause serious health problems in the future. The Night of the Long Knives by Charles River Editors Shortly after Hitler took power in Germany, he turned on the SA led by a brutal thug named Ernst Rohm. The industrialists who financed the Nazis and the leaders of the army demanded that Hitler do something about the SA who were street thugs and who were causing chaos in the land. Hitler along with Goering and Himmler led a purge against the SA in what has long been called the night of the long knives in which many of the SA leaders (along with other enemies of Hitler) were killed. I hope you have a good week as you prepare for Christmas. Shalom fr. Jude