It's me again!

I'm standing at my makeshift computer desk here in Langley, the window open just enough for some fresh (autumn!) air, birdsong and the sounds of planes heading for or from Heathrow Airport.

After almost three weeks in Italy, I am still on Italian auto-pilot, about to respond to things in that language, stumbling though my efforts will be. (I am really good at translating from Italian into English, but the other way around leaves the Italians misty-eyed with compassion. Or maybe it's just confusion.)  On arriving back in the London area, I really had to hit the ground running: we Daughters of St Paul are having a weekend gathering of all the sisters in the UK, and I am providing the first morning's session, getting everyone on the same pages in terms of awareness of social media trends and how the Daughters of St Paul fit into this new media culture.

Sorry, but I can see your kind in
abundance in the British Museum!

Still, after all that time in Italy, there's a lot I want to share, but I think I'll start, for now, toward the end...on our second-to-last outing, which definitely had a more cultural flavor: a morning at the Vatican Museums. Because audio guides are available in the different languages I was officially off duty as a translator; in fact, the directors of the Pauline spirituality program left me free to visit the Museums at my own pace, while the group attempted more or less to stick together. I was grateful for the opportunity to spend extra time in the areas that most interested me, many of them having been restored since the last time I was able to visit (whether that was 30 or 15 years ago!). An added perk is that photography is allowed (no flash, but you knew that), so I can share some highlights with you for years to come.

Ceiling scene of heaven!

Pinturicchio Annunication from the Borgia Apartments.
Don't let the infamy of Pope Alexander VI blind you to
his artistic sensibilities. 

But first, a bit of advice: when you go to the Vatican Museums, start at the Pinacoteca (the art gallery). Many of the other museums in the complex have exhibits of the sort you can find in any well-maintained museums or art or history: Egyptian sarcophagi (and one unwrapped mummy whom I couldn't help but pity), Etruscan vases, cuneiform tablets--that sort of thing. The Pinacoteca has one of a kind stunners like Raphael's immense Transfiguration and Caravaggio's "Deposition of Christ." I regret that I left the Pinacoteca for last, when I was falling prey to sensory overload (not to mention hunger); I didn't have the energy to really enjoy those paintings and altarpieces that deserve to be seen in person and not just in reproduction.

Another hint: bring a mirror. There's an incredible amount of loveliness on the ceiling, and you don't want to get a crick in your neck from trying to take it all in.

Detail: Attila the Hun being run off (by the Apostles Peter and
Paul in the skies over Rome) at his meeting with Pope Leo. 

I made a remark about being "force fed"
through the Contemporary Art section, and
then came across this.

There was always someone pausing before
the Caravaggio Deposition.

You've seen the Raphael Madonna before,
but the attention always seems to go to
the little putti (boy angels) at her feet.
Here's a different detail, featuring one
of my favorite saints (on the feast day
of his martyrdom).

Raphael's depiction of Peter's release from Herod's prison is
right over a window. I kept a hand under the lens to keep some
of the glare out. 

Peter looks pretty tired from his perch between
a doorway and the ceiling. To see him, you
have to turn completely around when you
enter the hall.

Shepherd at the Crib; detail from a
tapestry.

The sarcophagus of St Helena, of all people. With the military
scenes carved in bas relief all over it, it was probably designed
for the Emperor.

Pinturicchio Visitation--from the Borgia Apartments. Again, you
do not want to miss them, even though you have to weave
your way through lots of contemporary art to get there. (Why,
no, I am not a big fan of contemporary art; how did you guess?)

This is one of those places where you really
need a mirror. I think they said the hall was
40 (or 400?) meters long.

Coming next (or eventually, anyway): Assisi! Nettuno (home of St Maria Goretti)! Orvieto! And the great Pauline centenary celebrations in our congregation's hometown, the home of Nutella and white truffles, Alba!

Hard at work...in Rome!

Arrived in Rome on Saturday evening and got to work Sunday afternoon, translating conference talks

for a group of sisters taking a course in our congregation's spirituality. The program is being held in a conference building on the grounds of our world headquarters (Generalate). I have been here several times before, but this is the first time I have even seen the downstairs conference hall with its four booths for simultaneous translation. There are sisters here from India, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Venezuela, but only the English-speaking sisters need a translator, so I am alone in the back section, working hard at keeping up with the presenter. For the most part this is fairly easy for me and entertaining as well; I am really getting a lot out of the conference material, which I am following attentively even as I translate it. Once in a while, the speaker gets really impassioned about the topic, and that point I do all I can to capture her attention and ask her to slow down. Yesterday, that involved me standing up and waving my arms wildly until the speaker noticed.

Since I had had a few free hours on Sunday, I was able to go to Saint Peter Square for the Angelus

with Pope Francis. I brought my voice recorder with me, and got some of the ambient sound, the youth groups singing and chanting and roaring their exclamations of encouragement; I interviewed people from England, New Jersey, Verona... I recorded the Holy Father's entire talk as well, where he spoke of the horrors unfolding in Iraq and the necessity of a political solution that would restore the rule of law. It is just as the reports said: you could hear a pin drop in that crowd of thousands.

For a while afterwards, I stood in the security line to go into St. Peter's Basilica, but realized that I would not have time to enter the Basilica and still get back for my translating assignment, so I walked through some of the familiar streets of Rome (and got a gelato while I was at it) before getting on the bus. While I was finishing my gelato a gypsy woman pleaded with me for a donation. I really did not have anything on me (and I was supremely irritated my her refusal to accept that fact); in the end, and only to get rid of her, I gave her the sandwich I had bought for my lunch. Later, I reflected: part of what irritated me was that she approached me as a stereotype: the tender – hearted sister who would surely have a heart for a poor, penniless woman pleading for a bit of bread (sorry to say, that is not me at all!) And I reacted to her as to a stereotype: the whining, importunate Gypsy (I am aware that gypsy is considered a derogatory term now – it is a stereotype, and this is the net in which I found myself trapped). Pope Francis challenges us to treat people in these circumstances like unique persons, not as examples of negative stereotype; to address them as individuals, and present myself as an individual as well. I actually hope I will not have another opportunity for this, but if it comes about, I pray that I will respond better.

On Monday, the group (and I with them!) visited the Coloseum, the Lateran Basilica, the "Holy Stairs" (transported from the Roman praetorium in Jerusalem by St Helena), the catacombs, the Church "of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem" (so called for its relics of the True Cross--including a chunk of worm-eaten wood with an inscription in Hebrew, Greek and Latin "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" that, incredibly enough, bears an interesting hallmark of authenticity) and St. Mary Major. I am ashamed to admit that I took selfies in several of these locales--mostly for my family (but also to share with you).

While the sisters got out of the bus on our final stop, I ran over to my favorite spot in Rome, just yards from St Mary Major: I knew I only had fifiteen minutes before Basilica of St Praxedes would close for a four-hour siesta. One of my last Euros went into the slot to light up the St Zeno chapel, a jewel of Byzantine mosaic. It was as much a service to the other visitors as it was an act of self-indulgence: unless the lights were on, they would have no idea how much beauty they were walking by.

In the afternoon, it was back into the booth with me, and that is where I spent most of the week. But tomorrow, we're in for a big treat: the group is headed to Assisi for a day trip! And on Assumption Day, Italy's official summer holiday (good luck finding a single business open), our group and the sisters of the Generalate plan to go to Mass at St Peter's, climb the cupola (for the able-bodied!) and visit the Vatican Museum. Once we get home from that outing, it's time to pack: the Pauline Family centenary is August 20, and we will be on location in the far north of Italy for the festivities. I was even asked to cantor the Responsorial Psalm for the Mass (in Spanish!) in the great Church of St Paul in Alba, a church constructed with bricks formed and baked by our own Pauline brothers and sisters.

Sorry for the haphazard graphic design in this post; I am doing this on an uncooperative iPad app... (It was really hard for me to leave the computer in England, but I decided to follow the Lord's advice about packing  light!)

New book for apologetics without apologies

Patrick Madrid is well known as a Catholic apologist--that is, one who presents the reasonableness of the faith, especially in response to challenges. Every adult Catholic, I am sure, has heard the usual challenges: our faith is not biblical; we worship Mary or statues; we "multiply prayers" in outright contradiction to the command of the Gospel "do not multiply your words when praying. Now, of course, we are hearing new challenges, some of them quite absurd: Catholicism is "anti-intellectual"; Catholic moral teachings do not take practical realities into account; Catholicism is incompatible with the findings of science... 

Assumptions like these can be common currency in our day (especially the newer ones can be almost taken for granted, even by Catholics!). This makes a book like "Why Be Catholic?" helpful not only for the sincere seeker, but for the earnest, but uncertain Catholic who doesn't really "have an answer to those who ask the reason for your hope" (cf 1 Pet 3:15)--and hopes that an answer is out there. 

"Why Be Catholic?" is eminently readable. Madrid is not just an apologist, he is a storyteller (the best kind of apologist!). In responding to the typical Protestant objections or challenges to Catholicism, he hearkens back to his teen years when the object of his affections was from so fundamentalist a background, her Dad had those ridiculous "Chick" pamphlets ready at hand. (Madrid got an early start responding to misconstrues of the faith!) 

Madrid looks at ten basic areas, starting with the most difficult of them all: the sin that is so manifestly present and active among us, most horribly in the clergy sex abuse scandals. Looking through the Old and New Testaments, and especially the Gospel parable of the weeds among the wheat, Madrid points out that "Scandals are part of the life of the Church not because of its teachings and customs, but because individual Catholics choose to reject and ignore those teachings."  He doesn't leave it there, though, on the purely intellectual level of cause and effect. Madrid challenges the reader to face his or her own temptations to lukewarmness and compromise. He affirms the role of conscience, and the deep connection between freedom and truth. He will continue to do this through the next nine chapters: offering a solid, intellectually and historically grounded presentation of some little-understood dimension of Catholic teaching or practice, and then inviting the reader to conform his or her life to the values that teaching reveals.

"Why Be Catholic?" looks at sin and at history, at the sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Confession, which each get a chapter), at the Papacy, Mary and the Saints, about "good works" (especially care for the poor and the fostering of education), and the connection of faith, reason and happiness. 

It was the final chapter that I found the weakest. I believe that Madrid here attempted to do too much, or just didn't have the heart to edit out some favorite phrases or appeals. A distinct and focused chapter on faith, reason and virtue would have been fine, with an epilogue delivering the final exhortation. Instead, it was all kind of loosely lumped together. When I turned the page and realized that there was no "summation" or final punch, I felt let down.

On the whole, however, "Why Be Catholic?" is a helpful book--and not only for the non-Catholic who is "tempted" to test the waters of Catholicism. The wavering Catholic who is willing to reflect with Madrid will also find a great deal of support, perhaps filling in the blanks of an inadequate religious education (or one that stopped at Confirmation!).