August 18, 2019 (Feast of the Assumption)

    Ai have to go now for supper. I will be back after supper and the news and will try to update you on my happenings and thoughts then. See you soon.

I am getting lazier and lazier or lethargic. Not like me but before I needed some outside activity (cutting grass, trimming trees or bushes, washing the car, some kind of physical activity. But, with this stupid problem with spasms I am not sure about my balance unless I have something to lean on.

    Let’s start like this. Sr. Eugenia helped to persuade me to start Mass again at the hospital so I have been going on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mass at 6am. Which means I am up at 4am, take a shower, bang my bionic knee with hot hot water to loosen it up, do my exercises, get dressed and make the bed and check for emails or WhatsApps, and leave the house about 20 past 5 to fetch Sr. Eugenia at 5:30 from the convent and take her to the hospital where she organizes the altar and we have Mass. Usually there are two or three who come pretty regularly, rarely more, sometimes less. It doesn’t hurt to ask God to bless all those involved in the healing ministry (one way or the other, including maintenance people, kitchen, administration, etc.) as well as those who hope to get healed. The world offer plenty of other topics and situations to pray about.

On the 6^th and the 8^th of August I had Mass for grade 9 kids from a Catholic school called Holy Family School. Ha. Out of maybe 60 kids, 7 or 8 might be Catholic. So I have to adjust the service  a bit and explain a bit too. I don’t want them to feel as though we are jamming Catholicism down their throats. But we always find common ground when w reflect on the Scripture readings and question how we can apply our beliefs and values to the situations we find ourselves in.

Yes we remembered Women’s day on the 9^th of August.

On the 11^th I had a funeral, the father (99 yrs. Old) of one of the choir leaders at Savannah Park where I go on Sundays. It was supposed to start at 11am , but this is Africa, so no surprise when the body wasn’t around yet, an there was no program. But I was prepared for all eventualities. We had pretty much finished everything when the program finally came and then came the speeches (these are an essential part of a funeral here in Africa---the obituary, exactly how the person came to dying, his work life, his home life, hic church life, etc. …some if not all of these. But he was so old that it was only a few members of the family who had anything to say because there was no one old enough to know the rest. ( we had already had our usual Sunday Mass at 8am, but it is so difficult to find place to bury someone or have them cremated, that often it has to be done on Sunday. Lots of people die here.

My legs are twitching from the spasm stuff and it is getting towards my bedtime so I will leave it here for now and try to get back at it tomorrow. Good luck. I may slip into one of my lazy moods. Goodnight.

Mev Puleo was a journalist who specialized in affairs in Central America. She had more or less lost her faith (she was a Catholic) but rediscovered it when she saw the dedication and willingness to put their lives on the line of the Sisters  and priests working with the poor in Central America. She died of cancer around 1996 or so. Young, maybe 45 or so. She also studied ad JSTB in Berkeley (Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley) where I did my sabbatical in 1995. She was an inspiration to us all.

Ms. Puleo wrote: “When I was in my early teens, a thought took hold of me. Jesus didn’t die to save us from suffering — he died to teach us how to suffer, to be with us in our every anguish and agony, to give meaning to our pain. . . . Sometimes I actually mean it. I’d rather die young, having lived a life crammed with meaning than to die old, even in security, but without meaning.”  Mev Puleo

Summary
"If I were to choose a single book by means of which to introduce North Americans to the real meaning of liberation theology, it would be this book." -- From the Foreword, Robert McAfee Brown "More than any other book I know, Mev Puleo's The Struggle is One, brings alive the world of liberation theology in contemporary Brazil for the North American reader. We meet the men and women from both the educated elites and the desperately poor favelas and rural areas whose burning faith and committed lives are expressed in the continued re-creation of a Christian vision and praxis of prophetic struggle." -- Rosemary Radford Ruether "While other books on liberation theology help us to understand its significance in terms of doctrine, Mev Puleo's The Struggle is One, a book full of 'living human documents,' leads us right to the heart of its spirituality." -- Henri Nouwen "In a way that is difficult to find in other forms, Mev Puleo's book, The Struggle is One, presents first hand information by asking incisive questions in a gentle and gracious manner. Members of Christian communities as well as bishops are given a voice. But perhaps what speaks more powerfully are the photographic images. Mev Puleo is an artist who vividly portrays the life and faith of a people." -- Gustavo Gutierrez "An excellent contribution to liberation theology in Latin America. I strongly recommend it." -- James Cone "This book puts real faces and vibrant content into liberation theology." -- Harvey Cox Mev Puleo is a freelance photojournalist whose work appears primarily in the religious and alternative press. She is currently an advanced degree student in Theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. In addition to having worked as a high school theology teacher and campus minister, she has done volunteer work and has initiated documentary photography projects in Haiti, Brazil, Mexico, and El Salvador. She is a co-author of Faces of Poverty: Faces of Christ.

In Italy, views of Church from the papers and the pews seem very different

·         Elise Harris

Aug 18, 2019

SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

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(Credit: Pixabay.)

COURMAYEUR, Italy - In Italy, the days surrounding the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary, which coincides with a major national holiday, are typically a time of national relaxation kicked off by pious celebration.

Visitors who stumbled across a Catholic church on the Aug. 15 Feast of the Assumption likely would conclude that the faith here, despite it all, remains alive and well. Parishes are typically packed, including whole families who still see going to Mass that day as part of the traditional mid-August ferragosto holiday.

Overall among European Union members, according to Gallup data, only Poland and Ireland have higher weekly church attendance rates than Italy, which clocks in at a robust 37 percent nationally - compared to 13 percent in Germany, for instance, and 11 percent in both France and Belgium.

Yet that’s not quite the story about Catholicism one would have gleaned from the Italian media during this year’s ferragosto period. Seen from the papers rather than the pews, the Catholic story in the pope’s backyard this year has been one of silence, decline, and vulnerability.

In northern Italy, the former Saint Francis elementary school in the city of Cigliano, which used to be run by nuns, has long been abandoned and is falling into ruin. According to Italian paper Nuova Periferia, locals believe the chapel attached to the school has been robbed, because it’s now “completely empty” with none of the adornments it previously contained.

City authorities are reportedly hoping to restore or repurpose the property, which some say has become “a toilet for cats.”

Not far away, in the northern town of Carbonara, thieves broke into the cathedral Aug. 16, the day after the Assumption, stealing vestments, gold-plated patens used during the distribution of communion and the copper cover of the cathedral’s baptismal font.

The incident made headlines in Italian paper La Voce di Rovigo, which reported that on the same day, a hailstorm also damaged a precious stained-glass window, leaving it in pieces.

Separately, in the city of Modena the church of San Damaso was also hit by thieves who stole money given in the offertory Aug. 14. Italian paper Il Resto del Carlino reported that the money was later found by police in a parking lot and returned to the parish, however, the incident has left parishioners surprised and anxious.

Another article published in the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano on the eve of the Assumption, focused less on the celebratory and devotional nature of the coming feast, and more on the Church’s political footprint in Italy.

Author Francesco Grana, a longtime Vatican reporter, was critical of Italian bishops for what he said is an “unusual and deafening silence” in response to the country’s increasingly complex and dizzying political situation.

Grana argued that the bishops seem “stunned” by the apparent demise of Italy’s populist coalition government, yet a “Catholic proposal” is “almost absent” as the nation gears up for elections after Deputy Prime Minister Matto Salvini last week declared he was pulling out of the coalition.

Salvini took office in 2018 as part of an accord between his far-right League party and the left-wing Five Star movement.

Grana noted that many practicing Catholics in Italy voted for Salvini in both his 2018 election as deputy prime minister and in the European parliamentary elections in May, despite the fact that the firebrand minister is at odds with Pope Francis on hot-button issues such as immigration. He has been criticized by several Italian bishops for using religious symbols such as the rosary during political rallies.

Grana said the “quiescence” of the Italian bishops is a source of great concern, claiming the only Catholic entity in the country attempting to fill the void left by the bishops is the Democrazia Solidale party, nicknamed “Demos,” which is linked to the progressive Sant’Egidio community, generally viewed as adopting a liberal ecclesial agenda and which is a favorite of Francis.

The Sant’Egidio community, widely known for its advocacy on behalf of migrants and refugees, was established by Italian politician and historian Andrea Riccardi, who for a short stint in 2011 served as Italy’s Minister for International Cooperation.

Established 10 months ago, Demos is the brainchild of former Deputy Italian Foreign Minister Mario Giro and the Lazio Regional Counselor Paolo Ciani. It’s designed as a means of bridging social gaps and giving a voice to the poor and economically disadvantaged.

With a mandate to “reform” political life in Italy, the organization, according to its website, says it wants to offer a contribution based on three primary principles which they say are at the heart of their identity: a political commitment inspired by “democratic Catholicism”; a communitarian and “non-individualistic” idea of democracy; and a model of responsible autonomy and solidarity, which they say are pillars of “a united but plural Italy.”

Yet perhaps the real standing of the Catholic Church in Italy during ferragosto 2019 was glimpsed in the city of Brescia in Italy, where Nadia Toffa, a popular television personality and host of the long-running show Le Iene (“The Hyenas”) was laid to rest on Friday. Everyone of note in the country, from celebrities to politicians and financiers to fashion designers, either were physically present or offered public condolences.

Most of those “influencers,” in all likelihood, are not regular church-goers and don’t take their cues on much of anything from the bishops. Yet the funeral took place in Brescia’s cathedral before a packed house, and the most-quoted figure in the media was the priest who presided: Father Maurizio Patriciello, a pastor from Naples and a personal friend of Toffa, selected by her prior to her Aug. 13 death to lead her funeral Mass.

Patriciello is considered a hero to people in his impoverished Naples neighborhood, known as the “Land of Fire,” both for his stands against dumping industrial waste in the area, which he holds responsible for elevated cancer rates, and his anti-mafia activism.

In other words, a quintessentially secular figure wanted a celebrated Catholic priest to be the one to deliver her last message to the world, and she wanted it done in a Catholic church. That pretty much says it all in a country where the Church may be perennially in crisis and decline, but where it also still has a hold on hearts and minds that’s proven stubbornly resilient.

A few items of bed time reading, to stimulate your thinking.

On the 12^th of Aug. I went to see the neurologist only to let him know that there was no change in the pattern of spasms. And on the  13^th I went to the travel agent to fetch my  visa for Zambia. It is a piece of paper that says I paid and submitted the necessary documents and pictures and all he has to do is just stamp the visa in my passport. The time is approaching rapidly.

    I got a haircut on the 14^th (there is still a small, thinning forest on top of my head, believe it or not). On the 15^th my computer guru explained why my computer is so slooooooow. It is full, like my brain, and needs more time to dig through years and years of files. He explained that the memory (RAM) was only 4gb and they were totally used up so it was using my hard drive to get some space but the hard drive is 100 times slower than the RAM, if that makes sense to you.

   On the15 I blelssed a friend’s house / home. Asking the Lord to make it a place of peace and joy to be experienced by all who live there and come for a visit and to spend some time there.

On Sunday the 18^th, I was the main celebrant and my friend who concelebrated gave the homily. However, at the offertory, I had to sit down. The spasm hit my left leg and was squeezing it tight so that I counldn’t concentrate on the Mass so my friend took over. I keep thinking of Jesus who said, when he was scared topas death in the Garden of Gethsemane, “please, Father, let this chalice pass from me…” and then, after thinking about it for while, he added, “ but let your will, not mine be done.” I guess that that is where I am at at the moment.

Someone told the story of the man who jumped off a thirty story building and was heard, as he passed the 20^th story on the way down, “ so far, so good.”   Remember, Murphy was an optimist.   Lots of love. Cas.